Soho Bites 37: Beat Girl (1960)
02/05/23 • 49 min
1 Listener
Attention jiving scum! This is one is straight from the fridge dad.
It doesn't get more Soho than Beat Girl (1960) - coffee shops, beatniks, strip clubs, The 2 i's.... it's got the lot.
Gillian Hills leads the cast of Beat Girl, which also stars Adam Faith, Christopher Lee, Shirley Ann Field and, in a very small role, a young Oliver Reed.
We met novelist, Des Burkinshaw in the bar of the Soho Theatre to talk about Beat Girl which is the closest we could find to a bohemian coffee bar.
Des is a huge fan of John Barry, who wrote the music for Beat Girl and he recently concluded a two year stint as the presenter of the Museum of Soho Show on Soho Radio.
You can stream Beat Girl right now on TPTV Encore.
Also on TPTV Encore is this 2016 BFI interview with the star of Beat Girl, Gillian Hills, about the making of the film. It's well worth a watch.
Back in the day, Des actually met one of the stars of Beat Girl and grabbed this selfie.
Gillian Hills released a four part podcast about her life in December 2021.
Follow Gillian on Facebook.
Our other guest for this episode is Paris based journalist Hanna Steinkopf-Frank. Paris is some distance from Soho - the connection is that Gillian Hills became a Yé-yé singer and Hannah came on to talk about this genre.
What's Yé-yé? Find out in this article by Hannah.
Follow Hannah on Twitter and check out her website.
You can also follow Des on Twitter.
There' s a LOT of music in this episode. Here's a track list:
Attention jiving scum! This is one is straight from the fridge dad.
It doesn't get more Soho than Beat Girl (1960) - coffee shops, beatniks, strip clubs, The 2 i's.... it's got the lot.
Gillian Hills leads the cast of Beat Girl, which also stars Adam Faith, Christopher Lee, Shirley Ann Field and, in a very small role, a young Oliver Reed.
We met novelist, Des Burkinshaw in the bar of the Soho Theatre to talk about Beat Girl which is the closest we could find to a bohemian coffee bar.
Des is a huge fan of John Barry, who wrote the music for Beat Girl and he recently concluded a two year stint as the presenter of the Museum of Soho Show on Soho Radio.
You can stream Beat Girl right now on TPTV Encore.
Also on TPTV Encore is this 2016 BFI interview with the star of Beat Girl, Gillian Hills, about the making of the film. It's well worth a watch.
Back in the day, Des actually met one of the stars of Beat Girl and grabbed this selfie.
Gillian Hills released a four part podcast about her life in December 2021.
Follow Gillian on Facebook.
Our other guest for this episode is Paris based journalist Hanna Steinkopf-Frank. Paris is some distance from Soho - the connection is that Gillian Hills became a Yé-yé singer and Hannah came on to talk about this genre.
What's Yé-yé? Find out in this article by Hannah.
Follow Hannah on Twitter and check out her website.
You can also follow Des on Twitter.
There' s a LOT of music in this episode. Here's a track list:
Previous Episode
Dora Bryan competition winners & Kino Quickies preview
This is not really an episode I'm afraid - time just ran away from me.
However, I've recorded this mini-episode because there is some very important business to finish up which is to announce two things....
- The winners of last month's Dora Bryan competition
- Kino Quickies season 2
Two lucky lucky listeners were destined to win a copy of the new 4K DVD release of The Sandwich Man - all they had to do was answer a fiendishly tricky question.
Did you enter? Did you win? Listen to the episode to find out.
And the second half of this episode is the preview trailer of Kino Quickies season 2 - our season of live films screenings at the Kino Cinema in Bermondsey Square, London.
We'd love to see as many Soho Bites listeners as possible at the screenings. Tickets available here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/kinoquickies
Thank you for listening.
Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)
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Email us at [email protected]
We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.
And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.
Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels
In fact, see all relevant links HERE
Next Episode
Soho Bites 38: East of Piccadilly (1941)
Murder mystery? Rom-com? And, as an afterthought.... wartime boosterism?
East of Piccadilly (1941) was known as "The Strangler" in the US and was directed by Harold Huth. It stars Judy Campbell & Sebastian Shaw and was written by the then quite young J Lee Thompson. It tells the story of a murder investigation and is (extremely) loosely based on a real life case, that of the "The Soho Strangler".
1940s UK film expert, Mel Byron, comes all the way in from Talking Picture TV Podcast HQ to talk about the film. It's her third visit to the podcast - she wasn't that keen on Street of Shadows and her second visit was for Soho Conspiracy which is possibly the worst film ever made. Apologies to Mel. Will she like this one more?
The 1930s Soho Strangler case upon which the film is supposedly based, is largely forgotten now but not by our other guest, Michael J Buchanan Dunne. Mike is the creator of the Murder Mile podcast and at the time of publication has just released the third episode of a TEN PART series about the Soho Strangler.
At the time if writing this, East of Piccadilly is simply NOT AVAILABLE to stream (legally) anywhere online. It does sometime crop up on certain streaming serivces - if you fill in THIS FORM you will be notified when it appears (can't guarantee it will be free though!)
However, if you are based in London or are ever a visitor to our beautiful city, you can watch East of Piccadilly in the BFI Library. Grab yourself a terminal and ask one of the nice librarions for help. The reference number is N-626109.
Did the director of East of Piccadilly, Harold Huth cast himself in a small uncredited role as a Spiv in Joe's cafe? You decide.
The Spanish version of the film poster is ace!
A 1938 article in the Chicago Tribune about the Soho Strangler case.
Mel Byron is on Twitter and has a website.
You can also follow Talking Pictures and the podcast on Twitter.
Murder Mile Mike is on the Twitters too as his girlfriend. Catch up on the Murder Mile podast HERE.
If you want to keep up to date the efforts to bring the Kino Cinema back from the dead, follow Kino Quickies.
The originator of Soho Bites,
If you like this episode you’ll love
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