Hope and Keen – Nostalgia Central

1 9 6 5 – 1 9 6 6 (UK)
9 x 30 minute episodes

Cousins Mike Hope and Albie Keen were a second-generation comedy team  – their fathers flourished in Midland music halls as Syd and Max Harrison – and they learnt their trade touring the country and watching their fathers work.

In this series of nine ATV comedy shows (their first series of their own), they starred each week in a (usually exotic) situation. Among the places they visited were Casablanca, Greece, the Congo and Old Pekin, where Mike Hope found himself employment in a Chinese laundry. Another episode found them afloat on a raft with a wind-up gramophone for company,

In the first episode (‘Gold Nugget Creek’), they played a pair of entertainers working the local saloon and having to compete with the noise of a trigger-happy gunman.

The duo were joined in production numbers on each show by vocal quartet The Square Pegs and the Malcolm Clare Dancers, with music provided by the Jack Parnell Orchestra. Scripts were by Sid Green and Dick Hills.

Mike and Albie’s guests included John Junkin, Ivor Salter, Anita Harris, Carol Cleveland and Graham Stark.

Episodes

Gold Nugget Creek | Old Pekin | Casablanca | Tropicsville | Zieto Tierro | Greece | Moonaboola | S.S. Bounty | Ballyduro