Gordon Crier (1912 – 16 September 1984) was a Scottish radio and television producer and writer.

His early successes included Band Waggon, the first comedy show designed for radio, broadcast by the BBC from 1938 to 1940, co-produced by Crier and Harry S. Pepper.[1][2] After the first three shows had flopped, the scriptwriter was dismissed and a team of Crier, Vernon Harris, Arthur Askey, and Richard Murdoch was brought in. They made Band Waggon the most popular radio show of the 1930s.[3]

In 1950 Crier was a founding member of the Lord's Taverners, with John Snagge, Roy Plomley, Brian Johnston, and others, a group of actors and BBC men who enjoyed watching cricket from the Tavern pub at Lord's Cricket Ground.[4]

In January 1952, Crier was arrested in Germany by the Russians, while organizing a tour by Gracie Fields, but was soon released.[5]

By 1953, Crier was working for an advertising agency, but he remained a friend of Ronnie Waldman and continued to feed ideas for programmes to the BBC.[6]

Selected credits

  • Variety (television series, 1937) – producer
  • Band Waggon (radio series, 1938–1940) – co-producer and writer
  • Band Waggon (film, 1940) – writer
  • What Would You Do, Chums? (radio series, 1939) – writer
  • The Wind in the Willows (radio adaptation, 1941)[7]
  • Peter Pan (radio adaptation, 1941)[7]
  • Telecrime (TV series, 1946) (producer – 6 episodes)
  • Farewell to the Pegasus (TV movie, 1947) producer
  • Cinderella (TV movie, 1950) – scriptwriter

Notes

  1. ↑ Hay, Peter (1992). Canned Laughter: The Best Stories from Radio And Television. Diane Publishing Company. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-7567-8808-7.
  2. ↑ "The Bandwaggon Show Guide". www.britishcomedy.org.uk. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  3. ↑ Bathgate, Gordon (2012). Voices from the Ether: The History of Radio. Lulu.com. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-4716-2861-0.
  4. ↑ Breese, Charlotte (2012). Hutch. A&C Black. p. 152. ISBN 978-1-4088-3113-7.
  5. ↑ "Gordon Crier Returns To London After Arrest By Russians". British Pathé. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  6. ↑ Barfe, Louis (2013). Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light Entertainment. Atlantic Books. p. 61. ISBN 978-1-84887-757-3.
  7. 1 2 Edwards, Owen Dudley (2007). British Children's Fiction in the Second World War. Edinburgh University Press. p. 666. ISBN 978-0-7486-2872-8.
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