Before the Fringe
Before the Fringe was a BBC television series which ran for two series on BBC2 in 1967.
The first series ran for eight episodes between 30 January and 20 March 1967. The second series of six episodes ran between 18 September and 23 October 1967.
Alan Melville was the guiding light behind this series which attempted to showcase on television some of the best aspects of pre-Before the Fringe revue. Before the 1960s Cambridge Footlights graduates took it by storm, the medium had been a much more gentler, broader affair.
These two series of sketches were made up by performers who had been veterans of such shows. They included:
- Alan Melville
- Joan Sims
- Ronnie Barker
- Dora Bryan
- Beryl Reid
- Douglas Byng
- Hermione Baddeley
- Hugh Paddick
- Dilys Laye
- Hermione Gingold
- Cicely Courtneidge
- Betty Marsden
- Eunice Gayson