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26 September 2017
Jack Good with The Beatles (John Lennon far right) Jack Good with The Beatles (John Lennon far right)

Jack Good dies

Just a few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend a screening of a "found" episode of Oh Boy!  Its charismatic producer, Jack Good, wasn't there -- to nobody's surprise -- since he has seldom appeared in public since ending his TV career several years ago.  However, despite his old age and occasional bouts of ill-health it still came as a shock to learn of his death following a fall.

The DJ and presenter, Pete Murray, did attend the Oh Boy! screening, and he described Jack as the best ever producer of TV pop music programmes. Pete didn't work with Jack on Oh Boy! but he certainly did on many episodes of the BBC's Six-Five Special, which Jack also produced, and it's hard to argue with his opinion.

I have only seen three episodes of Oh Boy! but that's enough to appreciate Jack's genius of capturing pop music as it was in that era. Many other TV pop shows have followed but none have matched the sheer excitement of singers and groups playing "live" on Oh Boy!, with the innovative camera work and lighting helping to create 25 minutes of non-stop action.

Jack worked on other pop music shows after the premature ending of Oh Boy!, such as Boy Meets Girls, Wham, and, for US TV, Shindig!. All of them were good shows but never quite reached the levels of Oh Boy!

He also produced stage musicals, such as Oh Boy!, Elvis the Musical and Catch My Soul (loosely based on Othello), with varying degrees of success.

In later years he appeared to lose interest in TV and after becoming a Roman Catholic, lived something of a reclusive life in New Mexico where he also painted.

More recently he returned to the UK and lived in Oxfordshire. He died at home on Sunday night, 24th September 2017.

Read 3969 times Last modified on Thursday, 28 September 2017 17:32
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Track listing

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