"Flippin' kid..."

Grough.. I mean Brough.. must have been the luckiest man in showbusiness history. Despite a contemporary reputation as the UK's answer to Edgar Bergen, he was anything but and his tremendous 1950s fame says much about how desperate postwar British audiences were for entertainment. Peter Brough's radio series, Educating Archie, wasn't so much a showcase for his talents as it was an exercise in camouflaging his shortcomings.. even to the point of downplaying Brough's ventriloquism. Brough, as Brough, is largely absent from Educating Archie.. meaning, of course, that Educating Archie was essentially a radio series built around a man affecting a squeaky voice. Nevertheless, the series does have its moments, mostly thanks to a supporting cast that includes such notables as Sid James, Max Bygraves, Tony Hancock, Harry Secombe, and a very young Julie Andrews. The show's theme-song is nicely catchy, too.

These episodes of Educating Archie come courtesy of dummys.org. Please right-click on the titles and choose "save as" so as not to overtax their server.

Guy Fawkes Day (10/30/1950)
The Cinema (10/19/1951)
The Sharp Crease (12/11/1952)
The Red Ink (2/11/1954)
The New Bypass (10/3/1956)
Archie In Australia (9/18/1957)
Brough Gets Fit (10/15/1957)
Around Britain in Eight Days (3/1/1959)