And the winner is...Academy Awards in the sixties

The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are the western cinema industry's big night out (I know, some of you are fans of European film but, let's face it, the Oscars are bigger than the Palme D'Or, the Golden Bear, the BAFTAs and all the rest put together).

Surprisingly - perhaps less so now Les Miserables has staked its claim - four of the awards for Best Picture in the sixties went to musicals. In 1961, it was West Side Story:

A modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet, with music by Leonard Bernstein, words by Stephen Sondheim and fabulous, hormone-driven choreography by Jerome Robbins, the stars of the film were Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood:

The good looking actors had their singing voices dubbed (by Jimmy Bryant and Marni Nixon, respectively). Marni was also the mother of Andrew Gold, by the way.

Three years on and the award for Best Picture went to My Fair Lady. Another adaptation from a stage play (this time George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion), Marni Nixon was once more the off-screen (though not exactly unsung) heroine, this time dubbing a singing voice for Audrey Hepburn.

Rex Harrison playing the irascible Professor Higgins to Hepburn's Eliza Dolittle, carried off the Oscar for Best Actor.

The very next year, 1965, saw The Sound of Music (yep, that's right) sweep up the Best Picture award.

We could be boring and bring you an ever so familiar clip from the movie, but we thought you might prefer this instead. (If you can watch without smiling, let us know!):

The final musical to run off with the Best Picture Oscar in the sixties was Lionel Bart's adaptation of a classic Charles Dickens story:

Starring, among others, that little known musical heavyweight, Oliver Reed (no relation to the eponymous hero), the musical also won Best Director award for Sir Carol Reed (with a name like that, bet he didn't go to the local Secondary Modern!) Reed also directed The Agony and the Ecstasy and The Third Man.

So, which one will you be singing in the shower tomorrow morning?

Post below and let us know.

Whatever happened to The Beatles?

Naturally, not a single one of you reading this is old enough to remember but, in the sixties, when the Beatles were at the very height of their worldwide fame and success, you would often hear the old timers say:

        "They play some nice tunes but be honest, in fifty years time
          nobody will remember who the Beatles were, let alone still 
          be listening to their music."

Lo and behold, we have reached (this month) the fiftieth anniversary of the recording of the first album - all laid down in a single twelve hour session at Abbey Road studios.

In a programme hosted by the largely admirable Stuart Maconie, BBC4 (along with BBC Radio 2) decided to mark the event with a collection of live cover versions of the original tracks performed by a range of artists (Stereophonic, Squeeze, Joss Stone). 

For my money, only Gabrielle Aplin and Beverley Knight managed to pay genuine homage (and one or two of the covers would have struggled to raise applause in the local pub).

Nevertheless, the programme raised some interesting facts - such as the sound engineers being warned not to get too close to these musicians 'because they had long hair' (fear of head lice?!).

What struck those involved in the recording was the professionalism shown by John, Paul, George and Ringo. When George Martin and the rest headed off for the traditional music-makers lunch break (ie down the local pub), the Beatles stayed behind and kept playing; rehearsing up to the last minute to ensure the best recordings they could.

Despite not being among the best of the Beatles' albums (or LPs as we knew them back then), Please, Please Me featured three classic singles - "Love Me Do" and "I Saw Her Standing There" as well as the title track. Not forgetting a Beatles gig favourite, "Twist and Shout".

01. I Saw Her Standing There

02. Misery

03. Anna (Go To Him)

04. Chains

05. Boys

06. Ask Me Why

07. Please, Please Me

08. Love Me Do.

09. P.S. I Love You

10. Baby It's You

11. Do You Want To Know A Secret

12. A Taste Of Honey

13. There's A Place

14. Twist And Shout

(Courtesy of The Telegraph online)

Of course, the Beatles weren't the only long-haired lads making loud music in the sixties. At least they wore nice suits and ties.

Four lads from Liverpool who made "instantly forgettable" music...

There was an even rougher looking gang of louts called, I think, the Rolling Stones. I wonder what became of them...?

Top TV of the sixties - (1) The Avengers

Few of you will be old enough (or nerdy enough) to remember two key facts about The Avengers.  Firstly, why it was called The Avengers and secondly (not unconnected) who played John Steed's first sidekick.

In the beginning...

...was police surgeon, Dr David Keel (played by Ian Hendry). When Dr Keel's wife is murdered, he enlists agent John Steed to help him avenge her death. Hence, The Avengers.

Given the premise and the fact that the show was a spin off of Police Surgeon, the original series tone was much grittier than later productions.

Mrs Gale

However, once Hendry departed (to build a career as a much respected actor in shows such as The Lotus Eaters), Honor Blackman arrived, as the leather-clad ju-jitsu specialist, Mrs Cathy Gale and a TV cult was born.

Incidentally, her attacker in this clip is the famous all-in wrestling "villain", Jackie Pallo, who allegedly came off much the worse in this encounter, when Honor accidentally kicked him in the face and knocked him out.

Soon though, Honor Blackman elected to pit her fighting skills (and the rest!) against James Bond in Goldfinger (complete with that name worthy of Carry On Spying- "Pussy Galore").

Mrs Peel

This cleared the way for John Steed to have a second glamorous married accomplice - everybody's favourite (well, mine, for sure!), Mrs Emma Peel, played by Diana Rigg.

By this time, the house-style had taken on a more light-hearted tone, except for the occasional episode. Anybody remember an episode called "The House That Jack Built" in which, with Steed otherwise occupied, Emma is lured to a deserted mansion by a demented ex-employee, who plans to torment and then drive her to commit suicide? 

Ah, Mrs Peel - just as adept in leather as her predecessor and (for some of us) rather more tempting...

Steed and Emma were the perfect TV couple...

...until her long lost husband was rescued from the jungle....

Tara..rah-boom-dee-ay!

Exit Mrs (and Mr) Peel. Enter (not Mrs) Tara King:

Played by Canadian actress, Linda Thorson, Tara was a more traditionally feminine partner-in-crime-fighting for Steed, but still capable off doing her share of kicking and flinging:

1969 saw the end of The Avengers with a final episode, appropriately titled "Bizarre" in which Steed and Tara are inadvertently sent into space...

Steed would, of course, return in 1976, with Purdy, her haircut..and some other bloke whose name escapes me...But that's a story for the 70s.

Sex symbols of the sixties - the Brit blokes.

The suave:

Male model, Roger Moore, Bond of the seventies, Saint of the sixties.

The debonair:

Patrick McNee - ever the gent. Many a lass wanted to be rescued by The Avengers' John Steed.

The licensed to kill:

You know who...

The rugged:

Remember Stanley Baker? 

The slightly manic...

Patrick McGoohan - two iconic TV roles: The Prisoner and Drake: John Drake,  in Danger Man.

The Uncoof yoof:

My name is...

One for the nice girls...

...and one for the naughty...

One who was prettier than most of the girls...

Peter O'Toole

And the Irish charmer...

Richard Harris

Female sex symbols of 60s - brunettes and red heads

Ann-Margret (Olsson) - she's a redhead, she's Swedish and Elvis kinda liked her...wonder why?

If you want sexy and you want brunette, nowadays you might look to Spain, but in the sixties, you need look no further than Italy.

Claudia Cardinale

Gina Lollobrigida

Perhaps, your tastes run more to gamine, elfin, charming and slender... Yes?  In that case, the Hollywood star Audrey Hepburn, star of Breakfast at Tiffany's might float you off down a Moon River:

or was your preference for the wilder, more sensuous charms of California Girl, Natalie Wood?

Meanwhile, those of us growing up in the sixties in the UK were having our hormones pumped and primed by a nubile, supple, leather-clad agent called Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) in The Avengers.

Back across the Atlantic and big hair took on new appeal framing the athletic figure of Raquel Welch.

Away from the fashion world (where Twiggy took up the baton from Jean Shrimpton) curves, curves and more curves spelled out 'sex symbol' or, to put it another way, 'Sophia Loren'.

Female sex symbols of the sixties - blondes

Allegedly, there is a Franglais version of a famous song, in which the lyrics are adapted to say "I can't give you anything but love, Bébé." Bébé being, of course, BB - Brigitte Bardot.

Although her acting career began in the early 1950's and her fame rocketed in And God Created Woman (1956), Bardot the international sex symbol is very much a creature of the sixties.

 Simone de Beauvoir called Bardot a 'locomotive of women's history', identifying her as the most liberated woman of post-war France (which may say more about France than Bardot).

If you wanted French and you wanted blonde, the sixties saw the rise of an icon of cool beauty known as Catherine Deneuve:

Like Bardot, Deneuve was a protégée (and more) of Roger Vadim, with whom she had a child. Oh, and she was also married for a while to one David Bailey:

If you are one of those gentlemen (or ladies) who prefer blondes and like them European, you might be surprised to know that (Harry Lime notwithstanding) Switzerland has produced more than chocolate and the cuckoo clock:

Ursula Andress, the original Bond Girl, was born in Berne. The strikingly featured Andress was probably born to play She (who must be obeyed) in 1965.

Before we depart continental Europe, we should not forget the woman who will forever be associated with La Dolce Vita ('the sweet life', for all you determined monoglots):

Swedish beauty, Ekberg, might notoriously not have aged quite as well as Deneuve, but in 1960 she was Marcello Mastroianni's 'unattainable dream woman' in Fellini's masterpiece.

Since Britain was about to 'Swing', we couldn't be left out of the blonde sex symbol stakes, could we?  But, hey, we were British, we wanted stylish and intelligent as well as sexy.

Later to be described as 'the most poetic of all actresses' by Al Pacino (make a note of that for a chat up line!), Julie Christie was a bright, beautiful and very English addition to the sixties film firmament. 

Christie was the swish girlfriend Tom Courtenay's Billy Liar was never quite brave enough to follow to London (1963), Bathsheba Everdene adored by Alan Bates's Gabriel Oak, Terence Stamp's Frank Troy, and Peter Finch's William Boldwood, in Far from the Madding Crowd(1967), and of course, she played an unforgettable Lara Antipova opposite Omar Sharif in 1965's Doctor Zhivago. 

But Christie wasn't the only British actress of the period with brains and sex appeal...

Susannah York, appeared in some of the edgier British films of the 1960s such as The Killing of Sister George (1968), Freud (1962), Tom Jones (1963), Sands of the Kalahari (1965), They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969).

American women, as we all know, can do intelligent or sexy, but not both together...think again.

Dubbed 'Hanoi Jane' in the American press for her overt support for North Vietnam (more properly, her principled opposition to the US war in South East Asia), Fonda, as she proved in the title role of the silly sci-fi movie, Barbarella, could also do 'fun and sexy'.

Believe it or not, Fonda was yet another lover of that most hated Frenchman of the sixties (well, in my book, anyway!) Roger Vadim.

Long before the 21st century's obsession with surgically enhanced curves, America in the 1960's gave us blondes with...well, ample figures. One of whom was clearly Too Hot to Handle:

Pennsylvania born Jayne Mansfield never quite reached the heights of a certain other blonde bombshell, but clearly had what it took to fuel many a male fantasy.

What can Sophia Loren be thinking?!

Wouldn't it be worth all the trouble of getting to be President of the United States, just for this one moment?

So much, much too much, has been written about Marilyn Monroe, so let's just leave the pictures to say all that needs saying here.

Which one of these gets your vote for the Blonde Bombshell of the 1960s? Vote below, or nominate your favourite if we've missed her out.