Spinners TV Series

[Kinvig]

I have just learned of the sad death of Cliff Hall of the Spinners Folk group. He passed away yesterday in Australia where he had been living for several years. At one time their programmes were a regular feature of British televison but they have not been shown for many years.



Does anyone have any copies they would be willing to share?

[HIPPIEDAVE]

I used to watch that many moons ago, depends whether these were junked or not which would be a shame.

[Kinvig]

The Spinners were television regulars from the 1960's through to the mid 1980's. They made a huge number of series and specials much of which still exists in the archives of the BBC and ITV.



The BBC have recently transferred a number of Spinners shows to digital format but we are unlikely to see them anytime soon. The main obstacle lies with the thirtysomething" PC brigade who currently control the airwaves and dislike anything that could be labelled "light entertainment".



Odd really, because the Spinners were a multi racial group who were performing folk music from all corners of the globe at a time when the term "World Music" was unheard of.

[Norma Wisdom]

name='Kinvig']I have just learned of the sad death of Cliff Hall of the Spinners Folk group. He passed away yesterday in Australia where he had been living for several years. At one time their programmes were a regular feature of British televison but they have not been shown for many years.



Does anyone have any copies they would be willing to share?

I am gutted to hear this. Rest in Peace Cliff.

When I was a teenager I adored their show (despite being thought a complete oddball at school!) I used to make reel-to reel sound recordings of the broadcasts which my brothers would try and ruin - but I'm afraid the tapes were thrown away ( along with my massive collection of comics) by 'someone' who thought I no longer wanted them.

I would also be very interested if anyone out there does have recordings!

[cornershop15]

I enjoyed watching The Spinners when I was a child and still have surprisingly vivid memories of them. All I've got though are a photograph in the book Who's Who in Popular Music and their version of The Twelve Days of Christmas on a various artists CD. There's always YouTube, but search results are dominated by the American group The (Detroit) Spinners, whose hits I know better than their faces. With our subjects it's the other way round.

The Spinners are just as poorly represented at the Internet Movie Database, with only two credits at the moment (as guests of Dusty Springfield and Morecambe and Wise). Earlier on, I found a preview for one of their 1971 shows, featuring Sandy Denny. Out of curiosity, I wanted to know who the other guests were in this series and gathered the following details from the Daily Mirror archives:

Episode 1 (transmitted 7th June) - Lulu; 2 - Esther Ofarim; 3 - Françoise Hardy;
4 - Sandie Shaw; 5 - Judith Durham; 6 - Sandy Denny; 7 - Flanders and Swann.

Tragically, LostShows reports that five episodes are missing, with the first and third the lucky ones.

All being well, my submissions to the IMDb will be accepted. Then I can do the same with the following series and other TV appearances.

[Nimuae]

I had the pleasure of meeting The Spinners on three occasions when they came to York. They were a very talented group of singers/musicians and delightful to meet. They once did a programme of sea shanties from on board the 'Tall Ships' at sea - I wish that could be released on DVD as it was brilliant !

[crunchie]

Loved watching them on my "Basil Brush Show" DVD (they performed on the 30/12/72 show). Great fun too seeing Derek Fowlds some 20 years before he played Oscar Blaketon on Heartbeat :)