Moment 2

This next ‘moment’ happened over 50 years ago whilst I was waiting to take up my place the Royal Academy of Music. I was living at home in West Malling and teaching in my old prep school in Maidstone. One of West Malling's local policeman at that time was a man we all knew as John, a tall imposing figure but very friendly. I met John in the High Street one day and he told me that he had an audition for Hughie Green’s ‘Opportunity Knocks. The show had asked him to sing a duet and suggested the old parlour favourite ‘Tenor and Baritone’. So knowing that I sang a bit he asked me if I would join him for the audition – he being a tenor and I a baritone. We rehearsed feverously at the home of the only pianist we knew well enough and were at least musically ready when we arrived at an old theatre in Shepherds Bush converted into an ITV Studio where the show was recorded. The rehearsal went well and we were asked to wait for an hour or so – this was encouraging we thought as all the other acts had disappeared. At about 7pm we were ushered into the studio proper to shake hands with Mr Green who told us to stand on our spots and wait for the red light on the single camera and then the pianist would start the introduction. No time for nerves, even though Hughie Green himself was dashing about and organising everyone. The light came on – the pianist played and we sang the duet, reasonably, we thought, but when we finished there was silence – except for the cameraman who was muttering and gesticulating. It transpired that for a technical reasons we were not now to be in the show as John who was 6ft 6 inches tall and I a good six inches shorter could not both fit into the frame of the camera which at this time had rudimentary lenses it seemed. So after another handshake from Mr Green who with his trademark wry smile said “sorry folks that’s show business”, John and I left to travel back to West Malling. Our chance of fame on hold for another time perhaps. To remember this missed ‘musical moment’ my dear friend Stephen Hill has agreed to join me in this old Victorian parlour duet – ‘Tenor and Baritone'.