Basingstoke history: In the days of the TV All Stars

The visits saw hundreds of spectators turn out to see the stars of television playing football on the Camrose and Whiteditch grounds.

Personalities such as Jess Conrad, Bernard Bresslaw and Roy Castle helped to attract the crowds who gave money for both local and national charities.

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As well as the All Stars sporting team, another group called the Roy Marshall Hampshire Cricket Team visited Oakley twice in 1961.

The first visit saw Cliff Michelmore, of the BBC television programme Tonight, take part in June that year. Then, in September, Roy Castle played with other stars against the local Oakley XV team.

Cliff Michelmore

The Football XI, who were established as the result of an idea by Les Wise, the manager, in 1958, travelled all over England and, on occasion, flew to Scotland, the Channel Islands and Ireland.

Although some of the stars had no previous experience of playing a football match in front of crowds, they were very conscientious and gave up most of their spare time to train at Highbury Stadium, the former home ground of Arsenal football team.

By 1960, a list of stars who were willing to help included Bernie Winters, who was the captain, Maurice Kaufmann, vice-captain, Larry Taylor, Pete Murray, Ronnie Corbett, Hugh Elton and Bernie Winter’s brother Mike.

The team varied from place to place, the players at Basingstoke being selected from 17 personalities.

The visits to Basingstoke began in 1959, when Tommy Steele, Bernie Winters and Jess Conrad were among the stars who played against the local football team at the Camrose ground. This was so successful that further events were planned.

In 1961, the All Stars came to Basingstoke and played a football match against a local team, called “Pember’s Pensioners”, at the Whiteditch ground, off Sherborne Road.

Organised by the Basingstoke carnival committee, the game was enjoyed by several hundred people, including the carnival queen and attendants, even though it rained throughout the event.

The manager of the football team, Les Wise, acted as a commentator at many of the matches, and occasionally got changed to have a game whenever required. He was also assisted in many of his duties by trainer Jimmy McHenry, who attended to the lads’ bruises and saw that the team were smartly turned out.

The captain of the team, Bernie Winters, known as the comic half of the “Mike and Bernie Winters”’ act, made several films with Anthony Newley; while Maurice Kaufmann, the vice-captain, was a regular actor on television and had appeared in stage shows in London.

Of the stars who were most popular at that time, Roy Castle was the girls’ attraction. He had been in showbusiness since he was 15 years old. As an all-round sportsman he played cricket, football, table tennis and badminton for the Royal Air Force, then, later on, he took up golf. He was best known as an allround entertainer, playing various musical instruments and being on television and in stage productions. He died in 1994.

Roy Castle pictured with some local girls who came to see him play in a charity cricket.

Roy Castle

Bernard Bresslaw, a giant of a man, was an actor of long-standing who became a big name overnight through the television programme The Army Game. He even made a record called Mad Passionate Love. He died in 1993.

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Another of the team who was more popular on the radio than on television was Pete Murray, who was a disc jockey for many years.

Another star who attracted the local girls with his appearance at the Camrose and Whiteditch grounds was Jess Conrad, who had previously been voted England’s number one teenage singing star by the ITV programme Wham.

At the Camrose ground, Tommy Steele made the girls’ hearts “flutter”. He was best known for his rendering of the song Singing the Blues, and his musical career was in its infancy when he made a film about his life at the age of 22.

Tommy Steele and Bernie Winters leave the Camrose football ground after a charity match.

Those days of the “Swinging Sixties” saw many popular stars of television, film and stage arrive in Basingstoke.

This feature was first published in September.