Little Big Time (partially found ITV series; 1968-1973)

Album cover that features soundtrack of the show, by Freddie Garrity.

Status: Partially Found

Little Big Time is a British children's television series that starred Freddie Garrity and Pete Birrell, both of whom were members of the 1960s pop band, Freddie and the Dreamers, serving as the groups lead singer and bass guitarist respectively. Little Big Time aired on Wednesday nights from the 30th of October, 1968, to the 3rd of October, 1973.

Premise

A 13-episode series was commissioned after the successful pilot show in March 1968, recorded at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton to an audience of 500.

The show was filmed in front of an audience mainly consisting of children. The first two seasons of Little Big Time doesn't seem to have much of a stable plot time, as according to IMDb: "It was a very madcap kids entertainment series featuring a mixture of music, variety acts and sketches." Freddie Garrity, who played the character Freddie, is said to have entered a world where he is the only human amongst the other civilians. The third series, however, was largely based around a more surreal plotline, with it being based in a land called "The Overworld". In the Overworld features Freddie befriending a faulty-memory grandfather clock called Oliver, played by Pete Birrell.

The show was produced and aired in black and white from October 1968 to February 1970, and in color from then onwards. Since the show starred Freddie Garrity, a pop singer who was known for his eccentric and humorous dancing around on stage, as well as the "Freddie" dance, he released a comedic pop album consisting of songs that were used in the show.

Cast

The show starred Freddie and the Dreamers frontman Freddie Garrity, and also co-starred the bands bass guitarist Pete Birrell. The three additional members of the Dreamers; Derek Quinn (guitar), Roy Crewdson (guitar), and Bernie Dwyer (drums), also played minor roles in the show, although they didn't have as much of a significant impact to the show as Garrity and Birrell did.

• Freddie Garrity as Freddie. The main character of both the original multi-variety two seasons and the Overworld series.
• Pete Birrell as Oliver. A grandfather clock who helps Freddie along his adventures. Birrell is also known for having portrayed "Stupid Nana", in which he wore a large Banana suit.
• Graham Haberfield as The Undercog. A cog machine who also accompanies Freddie. It is said that the Undercog was once a "mean" machine.

Availability

The show aired for fifty-two episodes from October 1968 to October 1973. Due to the wiping policies of the BBC and ITV at the time, no full episodes have ever resurfaced, as well as home recordings that could have been made by fans. It is thought that only ten minutes of colour footage is known to survive, although all ten minutes haven't been publicly released as of 2023. The pieces of footage that are available are so because they were featured in an interview with Garrity talking about his career (the interview being used partially in the video). It is unknown when the interview took place, however looking at Garrity's aged appearance, it looks as though it took place in the 1990s, meaning at one point there was still a decent amount of the show's tapes.

Videos

Available footage from the show.