On February 17th 2007, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a Half-hour programme remembering “Six-Five Special” It went out fifty years after its debut on
Saturday February 16th 1947. Here are some reminiscences by Jack Good.
"THAT was also my debut in the television business. I was twenty six years old and I think I was quite terrified. What saved me perhaps, was that until that point I had always wanted to be an actor. Thanks to encouragement from Miss Ellen Munday, my teacher at Trinity and from that splendid and daunting Headmaster, Dr Emrys E Jones (Dokker) I cut my eye teeth as producer, director and actor with Twelfth night (1948) and then again with “Othello” in 1950.
Mr Gwilyn Morris also played a great part in teaching me not to make too much of a fool of myself and at least to look as though I knew what I was doing. I have also to thank our French Master, Mr Dean for giving us sixth formers (and especially my dear old friend and fellow Thespian, Victor Hext,) an enthusiasm for French drama and especially to Cyrano de Bergerac .
To that play I owe the development of “mon panache”. Victor and I and other Trinity friends had seen Ralph Richardson give a marvellous account of Cyrano at the Old Vic. As a result, I practiced looking confident and enthusiastic even when, for instance, Oliver Gaggs was cursing in the background having burnt his fingers trying to unscrew a hot lamp.
Victor and I were avid fans of the Old Vic Company and we went to great lengths to be in the front of the queue for the gallery seats (1/6). I believe that the Old Vic Company led by Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson together with a host of wonderful performers (Alec Guinness among them) was the greatest ever and that there is nothing comparable today.
From that Company we learnt the importance, among other things, of pace and excitement. I used to write ZOOM ! in Red greasepaint across dressing-room mirrors—just to keep the adrenalin pumping (which reminds me as I write this, I almost forgot to take my Beta-blocker pills. I think my heart has put up with too much excitement in its 75 years)
So really, it was my years at Trinity that prepared me for my life in show business. I tell no lie when I say that at Trinity I had the best fun ever. How come? Simple - we made our own entertainment.
Of course, I am grateful and amazed that the BBC decided to celebrate 6.5 Special, fifty years on—who would have thought it ?
Some people seem to think that I must have had a whale of a time hob-nobbing with celebrities in Hollywood in the Sixties. Not so. I was very, very busy indeed. No time for parties or wild shenanigans. I never took drugs nor danced with wild women! I had a wife and three kids and they were my life. We had our own fun at home especially at Christmas and the holidays. I am now the proud grandfather of ten wonderful teenagers, but I am afraid that they will never have such creature fun as our gang at Trinity.
