TV portrayal of Hughie was odious

1:41am Saturday 12th April 2008

I feel I must spring to the defence of Hughie Green after watching the BBC4 TV dramatisation of his career, Hughie Green Most Sincerely, last week.

During the 1970s I ran a theatrical agency that specialised in providing "celebrities" to open shops, appear at bingo halls and galas etc, and I was proud to work with many of the biggest TV and theatrical names, My most-requested top three attractions were Morecambe and Wise, Peter Wyngarde and Hughie Green.

While I compliment Trevor Eve for his performance as Hughie and Mark Benton for his Jess Yates, I do take to task the disgusting manner in which the programme tried to show Hughie as having a seedier side.

For more than ten years I worked closely with Hughie, and if I wasn't at his London flat, we were on the road appearing for the Woolworth group at their "refurbishments".

I know for certain that Hughie was the complete professional and to suggest that he "eyed-up" the lady contestants on Opportunity Knocks is quite disgraceful.

Yes, we all knew in the business that he and Jess Yates hated each other, but that was entirely Yates's fault. He was very difficult to work with and before working on The Sky's The Limit, Yates had made a name for himself producing and presenting Stars On Sunday - a programme which cost little to put on, but made Yorkshire TV a fine profit.

I was sitting in Yates's office the day he told me he'd got Bing Crosby for the show, and he was off to Rome to talk the Pope into reading extracts from the Bible. At that moment I began to realise he'd lost it.

I do not believe for one minute that Hughie was a womaniser. I'd love to know how the producers got the story that Hughie had slept with 1,200 women. He most certainly had a loving relationship with June Laverick -who was mentioned just once in the TV production.

Hughie was his own man and liked to do things his way. When he worked for me he did things my way because he knew I organised the appearances correctly.

One final comment. I was never a member of the Opportunity Knocks audition team. However, I was with Hughie when we saw P J Proby at a venue in Brighouse and Hughie offered him a chance to restart his career.

He appeared as the "Masked Singer" and because P J's lady friend got him some alcohol, when he recorded the show he was very groggy and came last.

The press were soon informed and sadly that was the beginning of the end for Hughie at Thames. Now wouldn't that have been a better story to tell? At least it was true.

I would like to think that one day there could be a programme telling the correct story of the man who gave hundreds of hopefuls an opportunity to appear on national television, many of them becoming huge star names.

Yours most sincerely, friends...

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