Great stuff! Took me back as a kid watching this on a Fri night with all the Family on our black & white TV with hot cocoa & digestives! Wonderful days. Although life was tough at times in the '70's (remember tepid baths by candlelight in '73 during the power-cuts!), it was simpler and people were more of a community than the crap we have to endure today. Having seen and lived various decades I would go back to this time in a heart-beat. Thank you for posting.

Colin Crompton, seconds before a death-defying knife throwing act: "There's still some pies left!" Brilliant!

I know two of the Cossack Brotherhood dance troupe the singer is Roman Kalyta and one of the dancers is Roman Pich originally from Oldham and Huddersfield. I used to rehearse with them in London calling themselves The Black sea Cossacks during the 1980s my brother a accordion player and my self a mandolin player. As with show business it only takes one bad apple through greed of one manager to spoil the whole lot . Roman Kalyta later on founded Mazeppa Cossacks while he was still performing from one agent and litigation followed so Kalyta had to pay compensation to leave contract. His new group lasted over 20 years but a bent solicitor who was a dancer was prosecuted for fraud and stealing money from clients shame about it .

I never knew Bernard Manning could sing. Pretty good too. Who would’ve thought it?

I remember watching this when I was 11yrs old.I’ve not laughed so much in ages, Colin Crompton’s a gem!!..

A shame we can’t have programmes like this today. We don’t have the celebrities or talent anymore.

Yes we used to watch this of a friday night when I was 7 years old. Enjoyed it very much then and still now. Quality.

Bernard Manning was so well-behaved on these. I discovered this series at the same time as discovering Bernard Manning comedy.

What a beautiful band, and such great arrangements they played. First class club combo whoever they were. ten out of ten.

Amazing to think that working-class culture once had its own prime time Saturday night show.

When comedy was funny , we greatly miss programs like this

Wonderful stuff from the days when television was entertaining! If you’ve ever tried the Cossack dancing you’ll know it takes amazing strength, agility and stamina to dance like that. They were sensational!

Most of those blokes in the audience probably fought in the 1 st and 2nd world wars!

Bernard Manning had a decent voice! I'm quite surprised!

People could never believe this wasn't filmed in a real club - viewers wrote in asking where the show was filmed and were shocked when the reply was Granada Television Studios in Manchester. I think Studio 12 was the one they used. Amazing, as it looks so much like an outside broadcast from a real club.

Bernard knocking out a tune at the start there 👍

Absolute classic remember this as a child

Decent set of pipes old Bernard!

Freddie Garrity was brilliant! What a great voice he had.

Great stuff for a Saturday Night

Loved this show first time round. Fun entertaining TV the likes of which sadly we do not see now. Happier times than the hell we are living in now. Thank you for this. 😊😊

Thanks so much for sharing this, it's so bad that it's fantastic! My ribs are sore from laughing, my God.

wonderful funny acts not like the shite we have now days

The guy from Freddy and the Dreamers, it's just nuts

Excellent post Julie, I loved this show as a kid in the 70s x

I have to say a lot of these acts went onto great stardom xxx

I'll better watch these quickly as they might get taken off here as mine did

The inimitable Colin "Give order!" Crompton: Frank Skinner's dad, perhaps?! 😊

Brilliant….Freddie after the dreamers had ended…..fascinating. A genuine variety show.

Memories of my childhood amazing it was Sunday dinner and bullseye vibe , aunty down the club on a Sunday 🤗

I gasped at the knife throwing.

Bloody hell the cossacks were superb! Wonder if they were from the Ukraine or Barnsley ....

Thanks for uploading. Classic stuff 😀

Thank you variety at its best 😊

I bet the nearest that the Kosack Brotherhood got to the Ukraine was Uttoxeter!

Breakdancing was invented in Manchester in 1974!

That was proper entertainment this show. I used to watch it as a kid. Unfortunately we won’t have this sort of entertainment Thank you 🙏🏻 for this video ma’am

Thank you. x

The drunk dad from rita sue & bob too

Didn't realise what a good singer Bernard was!

Bingo £3 jackpot awesome

Impressive Cossack dancing!

Iconic series and us Southerners really thought that Lancashire was like that!

Excellent knife throwing act at the 17:59 mark!

Barbara Law... my mum!! 💌

I'm surprised that no one's mentioned "Phoenix Nights" yet ! P.S. I only am watching this because I wasn't allowed to 'back in the day' and I had assumed that it was because of the 'Strippers' in the show. (I hope it was worth the wait !)

Why are people saying that these shows represented happiness and better times. My father told me it was the shits except for the music. Being piss poor and unemployed should not be looked back on fondly and nor should it be seen as aspirational.

The past is another country. They do things differently there.

He appeared at the La Scala Milan my arse ! The La Scala Skegness more like !!

The Italian (Pontefract) mate with the tray + specs is in Rita, Sue and Bob too... GRT film it's Rita's dad he has a fight with Bob GRT British cinema...

Peter Kay nicked this for Phoenix Nights for sure!

My family were blue collar working class but this show was considered vulgar in my house.

This was actually filmed in a studio at Granada TV In Manchester

Freddie makes me smile

The Ukrainian Cossack brotherhood all the way from Ramsbottom Lancashire.

The days when men with long hair weren’t pretending to be women! 😁

Is that Willie Ross who was in Rita Bob and Sue

Wonderful days when we could just go out and enjoy ourselves!!

Chicken in a basket for the same price that would only get you a pot of BBQ sauce now.

Was that Bernard Manning singing at the beginning?

Had a good singing voice did "our bernard"

23:00 Freddy on fire!

3 QUID bingo jackpot, you could buy a house near the club now

Ukranian dancers ?? Nice culture. Thoughts and prayers. March 2022.

The Ukrainian Kossak Brotherhood. I wonder if they are still going?

The two dancers may well have been Cossacks, but the farthest east the singer ever got was Bridlington!

Straight from the Ukraine with a Yorkshire accent !!! How's that done ?

On the buses would have been on earlier. This is a studio and not a real club of course.

This is so Ethel Cain coded.I'd loved to have seen Nicole Dollenhanger do her Ena Sharples impression and Grimes...? I'd like to think of doing a damn good comedy skit with Colin Crompton (Lord of the green ringular dingle clqnger): Grimes would be standing at the front of the stage crying , with her head down , pointing at Colin saying 'that man's whole act is worse than the man who sexually assaulted me in the song Oblivion. And his jokes are worse than the bitter, mebbe he should clean his pipes out! Colin would then take a sup from his foaming pint and roll his clanger on on his prominence, and declaim " Order!Order! There has been an announcement from the Committee, that Wheeltappers will agree to provide funding to support the release of Book2.

Hey, old Bernard could sing a bit couldn't he?

Eurovision winners 2023

Lamberto Rossinni? More like Lambert & Butler :)

Didn't Lamberto Rossini play in midfield for Inter Milan ??? This is grand old light entertainment 👍👍👍

I only put this on hoping to see Noel Gallagher and his high flying birds.

23:00 freddie

COMMITTEE

All I can say is entertainment in the 70s looked horrific if this was the standard.

.

Ukrainian b boy breakdance moves 1974..

The quality of these acts varies enormously. Colin Crampton(?) is genius. The knife-thrower was impressive. The 'Cossack Brotherhood' were OK. Lambert & Ross were just awful. And Bernard Manning might be able to sing, but watching him paw the women is 🤮

Some seriously cringe worthy stuff here.

Love Colin Crompton but Bernard Manning.. no thanks.

Peter Lambert & Willie Ross, after the duo split, Willie took up acting, his most famous role was the drunk dad in the film, Rita, Sue & Bob Too