Let's Have a Party! The Piano Genius of Mrs Mills BBC4, 23 Sep 9pm - 10pm
Repeat: BBC4, Thu 27 Sep 11:45pm
Gladys Mills was the stalwart musical act of every TV variety show of the 1960s and 70s. She was a stout, Crimplene-clad, piano-playing powerhouse who looked like the friendliest dinner lady, with her helmet perm and her omnipresent beaming smile.
Mrs Mills shared the same label as the Beatles, EMI, and made scores of albums, most of them with “party”in the title, packed with cheery, gorblimey honky-tonk tunes, perfect for every possible kind of knees-up.
Admirers Rick Wakeman and Bobby Crush talk glowingly of her immaculate technique in this cheery documentary and everyone deconstructs her terrible, delightfully kitsch LP covers.
Julian Rhind-Tutt narrates the story of Gladys Mills, the secretary-turned-pianist who shared a manager with the Rolling Stones and shot to fame in the 1960s alongside her Abbey Road studio-mates the Beatles. With contributions by Rick Wakeman, Rowland Rivron, Pete Murray, Chas Hodges and Bobby Crush.
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