Big Red Book

Celebrating television's This Is Your Life

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THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Bernard Stanley ‘Acker’ Bilk, clarinetist and jazz musician, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at a newly built centre for disabled youngsters in Slough.

Acker first played the clarinet while doing his National Service with the Royal Engineers, after which he trained as a blacksmith but continued playing on the Bristol jazz circuit. He took up music professionally, and formed his own band, the Bristol Paramount Jazz. They moved to London in 1951, where they developed their distinctive style and appearance, complete with striped-waistcoats and bowler hats.

The band became part of the boom in Trad jazz in the late 1950s, and achieved chart success with various recordings, including Summer Set in 1960, and the 1962 release, Stranger on the Shore, which would become the UK's biggest selling single of that year.

programme details...

• Edition No: 192
• Subject No: 193
• Broadcast live: Mon 16 Apr 1962
• Broadcast time: 8-8.30pm
• Venue: BBC Television Theatre
• Series: 7
• Edition: 29

on the guest list...

• George Lewis
• Ella Harris
• Holy Baber
• Zank Sawyer
• Sergeant Chisholm
• Gordon Hazel
• George 'Curly' Ireland
• Jean - wife
• Chew Valley Band
• Carl Lyrrman
• Stanley Unwin
• Peter - son
• Nora Ellerker
• Dave - brother
• Lilian - mother
Filmed tribute:
• Colston Mortimer

related appearances...

• Alvin Stardust - Mar 1985
• Elisabeth Welch - Nov 1985
• Cliff Michelmore and Jean Metcalfe - Dec 1986
• Bob Holness - Apr 1990
• Benny Green - Feb 1996

production team...

• Researchers: Alfred Draper, John Ralph
• Writer: Alfred Draper
• Story editor: John Sandilands
• Director: Yvonne Littlewood
• Producer: T Leslie Jackson

• names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

All that Jazz

covering all the notes

The Big Red Book

the programme's icon

Interviews

Acker Bilk recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in an exclusive interview recorded in January 2010

Photographs of Acker Bilk This Is Your Life - and Acker Bilk photographed at his home with his big red book in January 2010