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30-562: The Good Companions is a novel by the English author J. B. Priestley . Written in 1929, it follows the fortunes of a concert party on a tour of England. It is Priestley's most famous novel and established him as a national figure. It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was adapted twice into film. The novel is written in picaresque style and opens with the middle-aged, discontented Jess Oakroyd in

60-620: A musical adaptation , directed by Braham Murray with a libretto by Ronald Harwood , music by André Previn and lyrics by Johnny Mercer (in his last show) opened at Her Majesty's Theatre in London – the same venue as the stage play more than forty years earlier (having had its world premiere at the Palace Theatre in Manchester). The cast included John Mills as Oakroyd, Judi Dench as Miss Trant and Marti Webb as Susie Dean. It

90-796: A new stage musical version for the New Vic Theatre , Newcastle Under Lyme. It was directed by Bob Eaton. It has since been performed at the Theatre by the Lake , Keswick, in 2002, directed by Ian Forrest, the New Wolsey Theatre , Ipswich, in 2003 directed by Peter Rowe and in 1998 it was the 40th Anniversary production at the Belgrade Theatre , Coventry, where Bob Eaton was Artistic Director (1996 to 2003). The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School produced an all-new musical version at

120-401: Is a teacher at a down-at-heel private school. All three ultimately encounter one another when a failing concert troupe ('The Dinky Doos') are disbanding as a result of their manager's running off with the takings. The independently wealthy Miss Trant, against the advice of her relatives, decides to refloat the troupe, now known as The Good Companions. Inigo plays piano and writes songs, Oakroyd is

150-514: Is satirized as Quin Savory, author of The Great Gay Round , the Cockney genius who usually remembered to drop his aitches. Priestley collaborated with Edward Knoblock on a stage version of his novel, which opened at His Majesty's Theatre , London, on 14 May 1931. It ran for nine months, with Edward Chapman , Edith Sharpe and John Gielgud in the cast. The first film version appeared hard on

180-638: The London Philharmonic Orchestra . It was followed by Conquistadors (1971), a 25 minute piece for brass, organ and percussion with narrator, based on the Spanish repression of the Aztecs . Its highly unusual scoring includes ten trumpets, ten French horns, ten trombones, two tubas, eight percussionists and organ. The suite for military band To the Few was composed in 1989 to commemorate

210-672: The Royal College of Music , where his tutors included Herbert Howells and Ralph Vaughan Williams . He spent four years in the Coldstream Guards (playing French horn) before moving to the entertainment industry in the 1950s, arranging for Ted Heath , Jack Parnell and others. One of his first major projects was as composer and music director in a musical adaptation of Henry Fielding 's Rape Upon Rape , entitled Lock Up Your Daughters (1959). The score, with lyrics by Lionel Bart , won an Ivor Novello Award . It opened

240-677: The Two Cities Suite (1966), which was licensed to Pye Records . His library music has been used more recently in a number of animation series, including SpongeBob SquarePants and Ren And Stimpy . In 1961, Johnson entered the UK Singles Chart with "Sucu Sucu", the theme music from the UK television series Top Secret . It was in this area of television scoring that he was to be most prolific, and in 1965 he left KPM to work directly for various television companies. From

270-694: The UK Singles Chart at number 36 in May 1997. In the 1990s, several of Johnson's early recordings were re-issued on the Unicorn-Kanchana label. These included his own compositions The Royal Tour , The Wind in the Willows and Symphony: Synthesis for a large ensemble comprising a jazz orchestra and symphony orchestra. Originally released by EMI Records in 1969, Symphony featured several famous jazz names including Tubby Hayes , Don Lusher , Joe Harriott , Kenny Wheeler and Stan Tracey , as well as

300-643: The West Country in 2015. The property is a Grade II listed building and was offered for sale at £4.6 million. Johnson retired from composition work in the early 1990s. He published an autobiography, Noises in the Head , in 2000. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to music. He died on 16 January 2024 after a short illness, at

330-545: The 1960s to the 1980s he composed over fifty themes and scores, including the theme used on This Is Your Life (entitled "Gala Performance"), The Avengers (from 1965), Animal Magic (entitled "Las Vegas"), Jason King , The New Avengers and The Professionals . He was one of the founders, with Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens , of Mark One Productions, the television production company responsible for The New Avengers and The Professionals . Later in his career Johnson provided DVD commentaries on several of

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360-549: The 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain . In 1997 Johnson began touring his own band, The London Big Band with Jack Parnell as conductor and soloists Don Lusher, Vince Hill , Kenny Baker and Tom Whittle . Three CDs of their performances were issued. Johnson married his wife Doris ('Dot') Morley in 1957. In 1962 the family moved into Priory House, Clamp Hill in Stanmore , North London, where they stayed until retiring to

390-750: The Bristol Old Vic Studio in November 2009. Directed by the school's Artistic Director, Sue Wilson, it featured a new script and score by Malcolm McKee, design by Sue Mayes and choreography by Gail Gordon. In 1994 BBC Radio 4 broadcast an adaptation featuring Bernard Cribbins as Jess Oakroyd and Hannah Gordon as Miss Trant. On 4, 11 and 18 August 2002 BBC Radio 4 broadcast a three-part dramatisation of Priestley's novel by Eric Pringle , with Helen Longworth as Suzie Dean, Philip Jackson as Jess Oakroyd, Jemma Churchill as Elizabeth Trant and Nicholas Boulton as Inigo Jolliphant. The production

420-818: The Second World War, the British Armed Forces' concert party became known as the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), later succeeded by the Combined Services Entertainment (CSE). As other forms of entertainment (particularly television ) replaced variety shows in general, concert parties largely died out during the 1950s. This form of entertainment has been described by Roy Hudd as long-gone and much lamented. The most famous fictitious concert party outside

450-508: The armed forces was The Good Companions in J. B. Priestley 's eponymous novel. In the novel Sylvia Scarlett , the main characters ( Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in the film version) form a concert party, The Pink Pierrots. A Pierrot troupe features strongly in Enid Blyton 's 1952 children's book, The Rubadub Mystery . Laurie Johnson Laurence Reginald Ward Johnson MBE (7 February 1927 – 16 January 2024)

480-501: The fictional Yorkshire town of Bruddersford. He opts to leave his family and seek adventure "on t'road". (Throughout the novel Priestley uses dialect for all non- RP speakers of English.) He heads south down the Great North Road . Intertwined with the story of Oakroyd's travels are those of Elizabeth Trant and Inigo Jollifant, two similarly malcontented individuals. Miss Trant is an upper-middle-class spinster and Jollifant

510-502: The heels of the play. Produced by Gaumont , it starred John Gielgud as Ingo Jollifant, Jessie Matthews as Susie Dean and Edmund Gwenn as Jess Oakroyd. A Technicolor remake was directed by J. Lee Thompson for Associated British Picture Corporation and starred Eric Portman as Oakroyd, Celia Johnson as Miss Trant, Joyce Grenfell as Lady Partlit, Janette Scott as Susie Dean, John Fraser as Inigo Jollifant and Rachel Roberts as Elsie and Effie Longstaff. This version updates

540-422: The narrative and music to the late 'fifties (with a score by Laurie Johnson ) when touring shows were in decline. It did not replicate the success of the book and signified the end of the novel's popular success. It came to be typified by the contemporaneous Angry Young Men of British stage and screen as the kind of unrealistic depiction of working-class Britain they were struggling to be free of. On 11 July 1974

570-773: The new Mermaid Theatre in 1959 and was later revived at the Mermaid in 1962, transferring to the West End in 1963. Johnson's other stage work included music for the Peter Cook revue , Pieces of Eight (1959), and The Four Musketeers (1967), starring Harry Secombe . Johnson began writing and recording for the KPM Music Library in 1960, holding orchestral sessions at the Friends House on Euston Road and at Denis Preston 's Lansdowne Studios , where he

600-602: The novel was written from a (rather old-fashioned) middle-class perspective, but also because it dealt with a phenomenon (a travelling music hall troupe ) that no longer existed. More recently there has been a reappraisal of this and other Priestley works: a new edition of The Good Companions appeared in October 2007 with a foreword by Dame Judi Dench , accompanying a reappraisal of the various versions by Ronald Harwood , André Previn and Alan Plater amongst others. In Graham Greene 's 1932 novel Stamboul Train , Priestley

630-417: The odd-job man and the troupe has also been joined by Mr Morton Mitcham (a travelling banjo player and conjuror whom Inigo met earlier on his own odyssey). The other members of the troupe are comedian Jimmy Nunn, song-and-dance man Jerry Jerningham, singers Elsie Longstaff, Courtney (aka Joe) Brundit and Joe's wife (referred to as Mrs Joe) and singer-comedienne Susie Dean. The troupe have various adventures round

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660-571: The original Avengers team, including Patrick Macnee . Johnson released albums of his band playing music from The Avengers , The New Avengers and The Professionals , albums of his scores for The First Men in the Moon , Dr Strangelove and Captain Kronos , and two albums of him conducting compositions of others: the film music of Dmitri Tiomkin , and Bernard Herrmann 's suite for North by Northwest . Their "Theme From 'The Professionals'" peaked on

690-549: The piers of Brighton , Margate and Blackpool from the 1890s until the 1950s. The style of performance attracted artists from music hall and variety theatre. Some performers, such as Neville Kennard , were known as specialists in the field. Immensely popular in Great Britain from the 1920s to the 1940s, concert parties were also formed by several countries' armed forces during the First and Second World Wars . During

720-589: The seaside and opening with a Pierrot number. In 1891, the singer and banjoist Clifford Essex , inspired by Michel Carré fils ' pantomime L'enfant prodigue (1890), which he had seen at the Prince of Wales' Theatre (of the latter known as the Scala Theatre ) in London, resolved to create a troupe of English Pierrot entertainers. Thus began the tradition of seaside Pierrots in pointed hats and black or coloured costumes who sang, danced, juggled, and joked on

750-680: The series in which he was involved. For radio he provided the theme music to the BBC Radio 1 series Sounds of Jazz , introduced by Peter Clayton and broadcast on Sunday evenings from October 1973 onwards. Johnson's film scores included: The Good Companions , The Moonraker (1958), Tiger Bay , Dr. Strangelove , First Men in the Moon , You Must Be Joking! , And Soon the Darkness , Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter and Diagnosis: Murder (the 1975 Christopher Lee film). The 1970 television film Mister Jerico involved many of

780-525: The shires of middle England. After a sabotaged performance the troupe disband: Jerry marries Lady Partlit, a fan; Susie and Inigo become successful and famous in London; Miss Trant marries a long-lost sweetheart; Jess Oakroyd emigrates to Canada and the other performers carry on with their life on the road. The Good Companions was an instant hit on publication but was not particularly well regarded by critics. Nevertheless it remained popular for more than forty years. It then fell out of favour, not only because

810-488: Was aided by engineer Adrian Kerridge . At the sessions Johnson produced two styles of music: light orchestral and big band jazz. He was also house conductor for KPM in the 1960s. Some of the library music pieces were also issued as commercial recordings - The New Big Sound of the Laurie Johnson Orchestra (1963) and The Big New Sound Strikes Again (1965) on Denis Preston's Record Supervision label, and

840-571: Was an English composer and bandleader who wrote scores for dozens of film and television series, described as "one of the most highly regarded arrangers of big-band swing and pop music" in England. Much of Johnson's music was written for the KPM music library, for which he composed and conducted between 1960 and 1965. Johnson was born in Hampstead , London , England on 7 February 1927. He studied at

870-492: Was directed by Claire Grove and was rebroadcast on BBC Radio 7 from 25 to 27 May 2010. BBC Radio 4 broadcast a 90-minute adaptation by John Retallack on 24 February 2018, directed by David Hunter and featuring Ralph Ineson as Jess Oakroyd, Fenella Woolgar as Miss Trant, Roy Hudd as Jimmy Nunn, Oliver Gomm as Inigo Jollifant and Isabella Inchbald as Susie Dean. Concert Party (entertainment) Concert parties were travelling shows of songs and comedy, often put on at

900-947: Was revived in 2000 at the Eureka Theater in San Francisco. In October 2001 it was performed at the York Theatre in New York City as part of the York's ‘Musicals in Mufti’ reading series. A Yorkshire Television series appeared in 1980, adapted by Alan Plater . It starred Judy Cornwell as Elizabeth Trant and John Stratton as Jess Oakroyd. (Music composed by David Fanshawe . Executive Producer – David Cunliffe, Producer – Leonard Lewis, Directors – Leonard Lewis and Bill Hays.) Peter Cheeseman commissioned Bob Eaton (Book and Lyrics) and Sayan Kent (Book and Music) to write

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