Holidays at home with ABC Television 

8 August 2023 tbs.pm/79334

10 August 1957

Did you come back to it all this week? Have you got that back to normal feeling? Maybe your friends, lucky people, still have their holiday to come, but you’ve had yours and it is a long time to the next one at Christmas, isn’t it? 180 days in fact. But you needn’t feel out of things. You have that priceless admission ticket to the greatest and most varied holiday entertainment in the world – your television set.

Each weekend on ABC Television you can see all that is best in the whole wide range of entertainment. Comedy, world events, drama, music, variety and first-feature films – see them all from the comfort of your favourite armchair, sheltered from the blazing sun, and far far away from the madding crowd.

This Saturday afternoon, for instance, you can witness on your Channel Eight screens, the National Sea Scouts Display taking place at the World Scout Jamboree. This Jamboree has aroused world-wide interest, and yet figuratively speaking, only a mere handful of the world population of over two thousand five hundred million people will be able to watch this once-in-a-lifetime spectacle. You will be one of those fortunate few, because ABC Television are right here in the Midlands to bring it to you.

The magic carpet of television brings the stars of the world right into your home. As you enjoy a leisurely cup of tea on Saturday afternoon, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz will be entertaining you with another of, their hilarious adventures in “I LOVE LUCY”, and “ROBIN HOOD”, “FURY” and “JUNGLE JIM” await their turn in a glittering parade of happy healthy family entertainment.

If your choice is Variety, then only ABC Television can offer you three hours of star-packed entertainment over the weekend. On Saturday at 9.30 p.m., a famous father and son, Dickie Henderson Senior and Junior, supported by Anthea Askey and Freddie Mills get together to bring you an hour of laughter, music and dancing. On Sunday evening at 9 p.m., you are invited to “Meet the Stars” in the centre of holiday entertainment, Blackpool. And over in Colwyn Bay on Saturday evening at 7 p.m. McDonald Hobley and Joan Edwards bring the salty seaside atmosphere into your home as they introduce happy holidaymakers, beach belles and handsome young sun-tanned athletes, competing for the titles of Television Bathing Beauty, Fashion Queen, and Adonis of Great Britain.

If you like a good play, then ABC Television gives you 2 hours of live drama. “HOUR OF MYSTERY” on Saturday at 10.35 p.m., tells a story of blackmail and murder in “SOUND ALIBI”, and on Sunday at 8 p.m., lively, lovable AVRIL ANGERS leads a star-packed cast in “BED, BOARD AND ROMANCE”, a romping comedy set in a boarding house at the height of the holiday season – the sort of place we’ve all stayed in at some time or another. Visiting the Television Theatre in Aston, will be WILLIAM SYLVESTER, VERA FUSEK, IRENE HANDL and a host of others to unfold the second episode of the new Saturday Serial, “THE SCHIRMER INHERITANCE”.

Films? Well, Peter West will be on hand on Saturday evening at 11.35 to bring you the latest news from the film world, and introduce excerpts from films coming your way. On Sunday at 10.30 p.m., you can recall again a historic and courageous campaign which ended with a “BURMA VICTORY”. Perhaps you helped win that great victory-then why not look in and pay a tribute to yourself and your gallant comrades?

Yes, you need never feel lonely at weekends. ABC Television’s transmitter will be working for fifteen hours on Saturday and Sunday, bringing the world and its players to your doorstep-to you our viewers, the most important people in the world.

At 8 p.m. on Saturday evening, we unfold another true story in “OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB – EXCLUSIVE”. This is not an imaginative story dreamed up by a novelist – it actually happened just nine years ago, and is only now told fully for the very first time.

GEORGE POLK Was a famous American newscaster. On 8th May, 1948 he was on his way to a secret meeting with General Marcos, a Greek Communist leader. But he never got there – he was murdered – shot in the back. When this murder was revealed, it very nearly caused untold damage to the whole foundation of international politics. It could easily have been the flashpoint to a third explosive and catastrophic world war – and so it was hushed up. But behind the iron curtain of secrecy and intrigue was conducted a ruthless murder hunt in which yet another War Correspondent of the Associated Press, a woman Helen Zotes, herself nearly became a second victim. On the international scene, truth is indeed stranger than fiction and much more dangerous. “THE GEORGE POLK CASE” proves it.