The Black and White Minstrel Show was first broadcasted on the BBC of 14 June 1958. It began as a one-off special in 1957 called The 1957 Television Minstrels featuring the male Mitchell Minstrels (after George Mitchell, the Musical Director) and the female Television Toppers dancers. It was popular and soon developed into a regular 45-minute show on Saturday evening prime time television, featuring a Sing-along format with both solo and minstrel pieces (often with extended segueing), some Country and Western and music derived from other foreign folk cultures. The show also included "comedy interludes" performed by Leslie Crowther, George Chisholm and Stan Stennett.
During the nine years that the show was broadcast in black-and-white, the black-face makeup was actually red as black did not film very well.
The Digital Gramophone Company has just released on all major download stores an archive collection of The Black and White Minstrel show from 1960 to 1962. The album consists of 26 minstrel medleys from their popular TV show on the BBC.
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