Juke Box Jury is a music panel show which originally ran on the BBC Television Service from 1 June 1959 until 27 December 1967. The programme was based on the American show Jukebox Jury, itself an offshoot of a long-running radio series. Throughout its run the series featured celebrity showbusiness guests on a rotating weekly panel judging the hit potential of recent releases. By 1962 the programme attracted 12 million viewers weekly on Saturday nights. The concept was later revived by the BBC for one series in 1979 and a further two series in 1989/1990.
Links To Peel[]
Juke Box Jury (1960s) UK BBC
Peel made an appearance on the show in 1967 sitting next to Katie Boyle, an Italian-born British actress who was a regular guest on the programme and a familiar face to TV viewers of the 1960s for her appearances in soap commercials and quiz shows. (She was also a presenter of the Eurovision Song Contest[1], where her language skills came in useful, as in those days most Eurovision entries were in languages other than English. [1]). On the 14 July 1979 (BFBS) show, Peel made a comment on his participation on the programme:
"Formerly Johnny Rotten or John Lyndon as he's now reverted to being, was recently on the revived Juke Box Jury in this country which is an extremely tedious programme in the old days. I know that because I was on the penultimate one before they took it off the air, rightly so, many years they should have taken it off I think."
Peel wasn't the only one who thought so; an article in the Melody Maker of 2 December 1967, reporting that the show is about to come off, is headlined "JBJ - Show That Died Of Boredom". According to Radio Times listings, the penultimate episode of Juke Box Jury in the 60's was broadcast on 27th December 1967. Because of the BBC's policy of wiping tapes of its programmes in the 1960s, and the practice of not recording live programmes, it seems unlikely that Peel's appearance on the show has survived with only two episodes from the 1960s available in the archives, one featuring the novelty music group “Children Of The Night” and composer Tony Hatch.
References[]
- ↑ Katie Boyle appears in the opening section of the documentary Nul Points: A Brief History Of The Eurovision Song Contest, introducing the 1960 song contest, and then intercut with Peel as he gives his own views of the Eurovision event.