Obituary: Hughie Green

Tall, talented, handsome yet homespun; confident, creative, comical and corny; defiant, determined, beloved and even brave - this was Hughie Green, "and I mean that most sincerely, folks, I really do!"

I borrow without blushing one of his many catch-phrases coined down the years. Remember "It's make-your-mind-up-time!" . . . "Let's take a look at the Clapometer!" . . . "This is your show, folks, and I do mean you!" . . . "And for little Miss Bonnie Langford, Opportunity Knocks!" To get full value from the latter, you need to shout in your broadest transatlantic accent, "Arp-er-toon-itty Narks-er!" And that was, unusually for those days, not entirely faked. For, with Hughie Green, there was always a strong Canadian connection.

Green, the first home-grown host of that breed of broadcast series known as audience participation shows, and father of the countless talentless teenagers who infest our daytime and late-night cables today, had fishy beginnings: his father was known as Canada's Fishmonger General. Hugh Green, a staunch Scotsman, emigrated to Canada in 1907, but returned to London in 1917, where Hugh Jnr was born in 1920.

Showbiz surrounded the boy from as early as he could remember. Every weekend, his father invited round the top stars from the local theatres, and impromptu sing-songs ensued, starring Evelyn Laye, perhaps, or Jack Buchanan who might throw in a bit of a tap dance.

One of these regulars would have a great effect on the life of the young Hughie. This was the eccentric comedian Harry Tate, who would twiddle his false walrus moustache at the boy as he shouted his trade-mark, "Goodbye- eee!" Tate became the boy's godfather and took him on a stage for the first time in his life when he was seven years old. Not that the audience at the London Coliseum were any the wiser. Inside Tate's comedy aeroplane lay young Green, cranking the propeller. Thus were born, in one fell swoop, Hughie Green's twin loves, which would last his lifetime: the stage and flying.

In 1927 came the first contact with Canada. The family took a holiday trip and Hughie sang a song in the ship's concert wearing a kilt provided by his father. Unfortunately the elastic top was a trifle loose. The song was called "The Old Lady in the Market Street Car"; what happened to the kilt is not recorded.

Home again in Golders Green, Hughie, now 11, did a turn at the local cinema's talent competition, and then with some chums took his first step towards destiny. He put on his own show. Seeing that the Royal National Hospital was appealing for pounds 50,000, he hired the Hoop Lane Hall for five shillings and with a gang of Golders Green pals, including one billed as "Baby Sunshine", they staged two hours of variety, at the end of which he was proud to present the hospital with a cheque for pounds 4.3s. Inspired by this success, Green did it all again at the slightly more upmarket St Albans Church Hall (hiring charge 1 guinea), and turned in a total of pounds 12.6s.2d.

The Harry Tate influence came again in 1931, when the 11-year-old Green made his professional debut at the Garrick Theatre. It was in an old-time music hall bill chaired by the veteran comedian Charles Austin. Sticking on a spare Harry Tate moustache which he always carried, Green sang "Gilbert The Filbert" as Tate, concluding with the classic "Goodbye-eee!".

Meanwhile the all-kid shows continued in local halls, finally coming to the attention of the BBC. Bryan Michie, the fat talent-spotter for Saturday night's top programme, In Town Tonight , came secretly to see the show and recommended that Green's Gang be given a go on the radio.

It was 1933, Green was 13, and his signature tune was "The Wearing O' The Green". Three minutes on Saturday night radio and by Monday he was a star. Eric Maschwitz, head of variety, and John Watt, chief producer, came up with a contract and the young impresario and his equally young cast were wireless stars - for three 15-minute programmes. Not too many of these talented gangsters made it to the top like their boy boss, but mention may be made of Lauri Lupino Lane, who certainly did, as did young Connie Wood, once she had changed her name to Kathy Kay and met Billy Cotton and his band.

In 1934, the newish field of cine-variety gave the Gang a chance and they toured the Paramount Cinema circuit starting off at the Brixton Astoria and finishing at the Alhambra, Leicester Square. Between shows, good old Harry Tate came to the rescue and cast Hughie as his cheeky office boy in a stage sketch which was put on film by the Pathetone Weekly. A screen test made for Little Lord Fauntleroy failed, but Gaumont-British cast him in support of their new child star, Nova Pilbeam, in their film of Little Friend (1934).

Never quite making his mark as a film star, Green still did better than many. He topped the billing in Midshipman Easy (1935), directed by the beginner Carol Reed at Ealing Studios, from the famous boys' adventure novel by Captain Marryat. Jack Easy was Hughie Green, of course, and the Spanish maiden he saves from bandits was the young Margaret Lockwood. In the role of Mr Biggs, the merry old mate, was none other than Harry Tate.

Green did a guest star spot in Radio Pirates (1935) along with Teddy Brown, the overweight xylophonist. This somewhat premature account of a pirate radio station set up to oppose the BBC, showed Green in his solo act as an impressionist. He would repeat this in the 1939 film Music Hall Parade, when his repertoire, always fast and vast, included Lionel Barrymore, Nellie Wallace, Jack Buchanan, Claude Dampier, Charles Laughton, Robertson Hare, Vic Oliver and, yes, Harry Tate.

His partnership with Margaret Lockwood continued in Melody and Romance (1937), which climaxed excitingly with Green saving the swooning star from the Crystal Palace fire. All exciting stuff, but no more films came along until 1939 when a very small quota company built Down Our Alley around his personality, later reissuing the film under the title of Gang Show, much to the irritation of the Boy Scout showman-in-chief, Ralph Reader.

Green's flying career took off when he was 19. He flew solo at Doncaster just three months before the declaration of the Second World War. Volunteering immediately he was rejected by the RAF. He broke up his Gang and went to Canada with his father. He became an AC2 in the Royal Canadian Air Force, and soon rose to be Sergeant Instructor for the Link Trainers.

Given special leave to act on Broadway in the propaganda play Golden Wings, he opened on the day before Pearl Harbor. Returning immediately to Ontario, he joined Ferry Command and spent the rest of the war flying Catalinas from Carolina to Russia, a job made even more difficult by the Russians who insisted on tight formation-flying at all times.

After the war, a return to entertainment seemed difficult. He made a try in 1945 on Canadian Radio, but the best thing about the Hughie Green Comedy Show was an early encounter with a supporting cast consisting of the young Bernard Braden and Barbara Kelly. After a couple of small film roles, If Winter Comes (1947) in Hollywood and Paper Orchid in England (1948), he put up the idea for a new type of amateur talent show to BBC radio.

This was given a try by go-ahead young producer, Dennis Main Wilson, and from 18 February 1949 Opportunity Knocks was on the air, starring "Your Master of Opportunities, Hughie Green!" Assisted by a small part film actor, Pat McGrath, and introducing big-time film star Sheila Sim as the show's first star talent spotter, the series got off to a fine start by creating at least two stars-to-be, Jean Bayliss and Louise Traill. In time, would come forth such luminaries as Louise Gainsborough, The Kordites, The Gaunt Brothers, and a trumpet impersonator called Spike Milligan. Green was equally frank about his rejects, who included the singing star Alma Cogan, and Tony Hancock.

The difference between "Opnox" as it came to be called, and its pre-war rival, Carroll Levis's Discoveries, was that each new personality was introduced by his or her independent discoverer, someone who thought they were worth giving a chance. By the end of the first series, Green and his producer had travelled 20,000 miles, auditioned 4,000 acts, and broadcast 165 of them.

From 1950, the show transferred to Radio Luxembourg, sponsored by Horlicks. Tomorrow's stars were accompanied by Cyril Stapleton and his Orchestra and winners, voted for by listeners, were rewarded with a professional booking on A Date with Steve Race, sponsored perhaps unfortunately by Airwick Deodorant.

Green was given a new appellation, "Mirth Master", for a second series he devised for commercial radio. This was Double Your Money, which began on Luxembourg on 5 October 1954. The first winners were newlyweds, Mr and Mrs Smith, who worked their way through the six questions asked them until they hit the top cash money prize of no less than pounds 32. This time the sponsor was Lucozade.

The arrival of Independent Television was manna from heaven for Green, his intimate, confident style coming straight through the screen into your face in big, beaming, winking close-ups that still managed to embrace the invisible studio audience, who screamed with a delight not too many decibels down from the uproar we are treated to today. Double Your Money was first on the independent air on 26 September 1955. Prizes still started at pounds 1 and worked their way up to pounds 32, but the big addition was the Treasure Trail; this topped off at no less than pounds 1,024, an unheard of sum in British give-away shows. To compete, one had to return week by week, doubling up the money prize each time. Although many would win, the most famous did not. This was Plantagenet Somerset Fry whose chosen subject was history. He quit at pounds 512, much to the rage of the audience, not to mention his own when he discovered he could have answered the pounds 1,024 question correctly!

The following year Green brought Opportunity Knocks to ITV starting 13 June. This time there was a top cash prize of pounds 400 or a trip to New York. A visual "Clapometer" measured audience applause, but the winner was decided by a viewers' vote. Many national stars were born from this long-running series, including over the years Les Dawson, Russ Abbot, Freddie Starr, Frank Carson, Little and Large, Tom O'Connor and Bonnie Langford. The show was revived in 1964, and again in 1989. This time, the BBC bought the format and rechristened it Bob Says Opportunity Knocks, starring a certain Mr Monkhouse.

This was a half hearted "all is forgiven, but not quite" from Green's long-standing opposition. In 1950, Green, the man with as much of an ego as he had a right to, dared to take the great corporation to court. He was convinced that after the initial success of his Opportunity Knocks, corruption had prevented his contract from being renewed, in favour of Carroll Levis and his Discoveries. It took five years to get to court, but even with Lord Hailsham in his defence he lost. Green was bankrupted by the costs. He went back to flying and eventually, thanks to the independent radio and television companies, shot back to the top of the British entertainment tree.

But the loss of his bitter BBC battle was not a lesson. He remained a determined and independent man. In 1978, he started another big legal battle against certain overseas television companies swiping his Opportunity Knocks format without acknowledgement or payment of copyrights. It took eleven years, and he lost; not even his Clapometer was considered his own property. Tragic? Perhaps, but not to Hughie Green. To him it was just a part of his life. As he wrote at the end of his 1965 autobiography, Opportunity Knocked: "Just remember, I'm only an actor." I think he was much, much more - and I mean it most sincerely.

Hugh Green, actor and broadcaster: born London 2 February 1920; married Claire Wilson (one son, one daughter); died London 4 May 1997.