The Jo Stafford Show is a nine-episode British television programme which aired in the United Kingdom on a fortnightly basis starting 9 September 1961. It was presented by the singer Jo Stafford

Jo Stafford

Jo Elizabeth Stafford was an American singer of traditional pop music and jazz standards and occasional actress whose career ran from the late 1930s to the early 1960s...

, who was joined on stage by guests from the world of music and television; each episode was based on a particular theme. The show was broadcast in the United Kingdom, and was also aired internationally.

Overview

The Jo Stafford Show was produced as a series of one-hour specials. Stafford and her husband, Paul Weston

Paul Weston

Paul Weston was an American pianist, arranger, composer and conductor. Weston was born Paul Wetstein in Springfield, Massachusetts...

, spent the summer of 1961 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in order to record the show, and the series was produced by Associated TeleVision

Associated TeleVision

Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...

 at the Borehamwood Studios in Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

. The programme featured Stafford and guests from the world of music and television in both the United Kingdom and United States, with each episode having a different theme, such as love or travel. The first episode featured the singer Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

 and the actress Claire Bloom

Claire Bloom

Claire Bloom is an English film and stage actress.-Early life:Bloom was born in the North London suburb of Finchley, the daughter of Elizabeth and Edward Max Blume, who worked in sales...

 in a show whose theme was love. Stafford and Fitzgerald performed a musical medley while Bloom recited poetry.This edition also featured a sketch with Kathleen Harrison

Kathleen Harrison

Kathleen Harrison was a prolific English character actress best remembered for her role as Mrs. Huggett in a trio of British post-war comedies about a working class family's misadventures. To modern viewers she is better remembered as Mrs...

 and George Benson

George Benson

George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....

. The travel edition featured Kenneth More

Kenneth More

Kenneth Gilbert More CBE was a highly successful English film actor during the post-World War II era and starred in many feature films, often in the role of an archetypal carefree and happy-go-lucky middle-class gentleman.-Early life:Kenneth More was born in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the...

 and the vintage motor car from the film Genevieve

Genevieve (film)

Genevieve is a 1953 British comedy film produced and directed by Henry Cornelius and written by William Rose. It starred John Gregson, Dinah Sheridan, Kenneth More and Kay Kendall as two couples comedically involved in a vintage automobile rally...

.

The website Television Heaven cites a different edition as the series' opening episode, this one centered around the theme of the differences between British

British English

British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...

 and American English

American English

American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....

. Guests included Graham Stark

Graham Stark

Graham Stark is an English comedian, actor, writer and director.Stark was born in Wallasey on the Wirral in Cheshire, England. He first came to prominence on BBC Radio, making his debut in Happy Go Lucky and going on to Ray's A Laugh, Educating Archie and substitute on The Goon Show...

 and Peter Sellers

Peter Sellers

Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...

. At Stafford's personal request she was accompanied on stage for the series by the British vocal group, The Polka Dots.

Although the series was produced in the United Kingdom, it was intended for international distribution. The website Cherished Television has called The Jo Stafford Show "the first truly international television musical series". Television Heaven says the show was "billed as the most ambitious series ever launched by a British television production company".

Episode list

The Classic TV Archive mentions an edition of The Jo Stafford Show recorded in London in 1959, suggesting it may have been a pilot for the later series. It is also unclear whether the episode was aired as part of the siries when it aired in the United States. A list of episodes is shown below. Note that not all airdates are available.

#	Title	Original airdate