This Is Your Life: Harry S Pepper

Harry S PEPPER (1891-1970)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE – Harry S Pepper, songwriter, composer, actor and BBC producer, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews as he arrived at the King's Theatre, Hammersmith.

Harry, who was born into a theatrical family in London, first began writing songs as a youngster for his father's seaside concert parties. He became a prolific songwriter - producing almost 200 throughout his career - and would later establish and run his own music publishing company.

He joined the BBC in 1931, and in addition to writing songs and theme tunes, he presented various shows and devised the first radio quiz show, Puzzle Corner. As a producer, he was responsible for the long-running magazine programme Monday Night at Eight and the popular variety show Band Waggon, which made stars of Arthur Askey and Richard Murdoch.

programme details...

Edition No: 20
Subject No: 20
Broadcast live: Mon 26 Nov 1956
Broadcast time: 8.15-8.45pm
Venue: King's Theatre, Hammersmith
Series: 2
Edition: 5

on the guest list...

Doris Arnold - wife
Leslie Bowker
Fred Benson
John Watt
Leslie Woodgate
Ike Hatch
Ronnie Waldman
Judy Shirley
Richard Murdoch
Arthur Askey
Charles Shadwell
Joan Winters
Jack Warner
John Peter Jones
Ben Lyon
Vic Oliver
Benno Moiseiwitsch
Stanley Holloway

production team...

Researchers: Peter Moore, Nigel Ward
Writer: Gale Pedrick
Director: unknown
Producer: T Leslie Jackson

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

Radio Times

tuning in the broadcasters

Stories behind This Is Your Life

a review of the second series

This is Leslie Jackson's Life

Interview with the first producer of This Is Your Life

Arthur Askey

Ben Lyon

Harry S Pepper recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in the end of series review programme, Stories behind This Is Your Life, broadcast in June 1957

Photographs of Harry S Pepper This Is Your Life

The Stage 29 November 1956

A GOOD 'LIFE'

Surveys of the lives of show people rank high in entertainment value on BBC-TV's This Is Your Life. The secret seems to stem from the fact that their friends and acquaintances are necessarily personalities already familiar to the viewer, that they are seldom afraid to show their delight at seeing those they warmly regard, and that being connected with show business they have lives which, to the general public at any rate, are surrounded by an air of glamour and magic.

Radio-producer Harry S Pepper, chosen to appear with his wife, Doris Arnold on Monday provided the subject for one of the most interesting programmes of the series. Introduced by that likeable television personality, Eamonn Andrews, Mr Pepper's life-story unfolded like a fairy tale before the bedazzled eye of many a stage-struck home viewer.

Brought up in a show business family, his father and mother both being in the entertainment world and his brother Dick a banjo-player, Mr Pepper had his early days brought back vividly to him with the description of how his mother used to make all the dresses and the family took their place in the entertainment world.

His early concerts at school, when every Friday he played the piano, and later, reminiscences of the shows he had been concerned with, all came clearly to mind when he recognised the voices of those who visited him in the programme.

Judy Shirley, his first woman singing compere, flew in from Cyprus specially to be with him on Monday, and Stanley Holloway, speaking from New York, reminded him of days together in the Co-optimists. Ike Hatch represented the Kentucky Minstrels, for whom Harry S Pepper especially composed "Carry Me Back to Green, Green Pastures"; Richard Murdoch and Arthur Askey brought to mind "Bandwagon" days; Charles Shadwell, Joan Winters and Jack Warner from the Garrison Theatre; Ben Lyon and Vic Oliver from "Hi, Gang", and John Watts, producer, Moiseiwitsch and Ronnie Waldman all contributed towards this most satisfying television fare.

Series 2 subjects