Jim’s Inn (ITV 1957-1963, Jimmy Hanley, Roma Cresswell)

Jim’s Inn was one of the notorious advertising magazines that proliferated in the 1950’s, the IBA outlawed the programmes in 1963.

In this show Jimmy Hanley was the landlord of a pub and each week chatted to his customers about the latest products on the market. Each 15 minute episode went out live, once a week, at 10:45pm.

Jim’s Inn was a sort of mini-soap, featuring Jimmy and Maggie Hanley, as a couple who ran a warm and friendly village pub in a place called Wembleham. Bob Kellet said of the show “It sounds paradoxical, but without the advertisements it would lose a lot of reality. People do talk, in a village pub, about things like household or gardening gadgets, and how much they paid for them”.

Roma Cresswell recalls: “We went out LIVE for the first few years, which was terrifying. There was a huge glass ashtray on the bar under which we sometimes put difficult to remember parts of our scripts! We had very little rehearsal, and if I remember correctly, only got the scripts at first run-through. Towards the end of our stint, we began to be recorded – in colour, and networked, too. Sadly there are no recordings of Jim’s Inn left at all.”

Apparently there is footage still in existance of an outside broadcast that took place at the Ideal Home Exhibition although we are not sure what year that is from.

production details
UK / ITV / 250+x15 minute episodes / Broadcast 1957-1963

Writers: Jimmy Hanley, Bob Kellett / Director: Pat Baker

cast
Jimmy Hanley as Jimmy
Maggie Hanley as Maggie
Roma Cresswell as Roma
John Sherlock as Ron
Jack Edwardes as Jack
Diane Watts as Peggy
Dennis Bowen as Dennis
Ken Haward as Fred
Victor Platt