What memories do you have of wrestlers appearing on tv programmes? I know recently there was Giant Haystacks and Johnny Wilson appearing on Runaround. I think wrestlers occasionally turned up on game shows and things like the Generation Game. I remember seeing Brian Maxine in a seventies comedy called THE FENN STREET GANG he did not have a speaking part was just one of a gang of heavies belonging to superb actor the late George Baker. I also remember Adrian Street appearing in a wrestling play in 1973 the BBC they did a series of six plays on sporting subjects Cricket, Football, and one was wrestling. My dad insisted on watching the bloody news and when it finished I quickly turned to BBC2 to see the last two minutes GRRR..... Perhaps most famous is the AVENGERS featuring Jackie Pallo this is still repeated on itv3 or 4? Anyway he does speak and there is a fight scene at the end I think in a graveyard involving Pallo and Honor Blackman. The newspapers made a big thing of it, claimed she had knocked him out! LOL! Possibly he did get injured in rehearsals I have no idea but it became one of those urban myths. Put it this way....to my knowledge neother Jackie Pallo or Honor ever confirmed or denied it, no doubt it was great publicity for the show
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I think I have another clipping related to this incident but haven't been able to find it:
Just popped up on the Talking Pictures TV site (which is free but you have to register): Runaround, kids TV show hosted by Mike Read, with a Haystacks vs Wilson match in the studio: https://t.co/Vc2hQitvFE
episode of Hazell called Hazell and the greasy gunners written and featuring Brian Glover it should be on the tptv encore site.
Farmer Johnny Allan was in Last of the Summer Wine. It's often been said that Bobo Matu played darts in the Rovers Return but I never spotted him.
Mick and Jackie on the Eamonn Andrews show, and so was Sheik Michael Taylor; he pushed knitting needles through his cheeks and had someone standing on his stomach as he lay on a bed of glass or nails.
Wayne Bridges and Lee Bronson were on the Generation Game.The Game was to point to various body parts
And Chic Purvey on the same Coronation Street bill.
Ian Campbell v Ogden the Terrible,
but yes Pallo was knocked out because the timing went wrong.
Yeah, this must be the fifth or sixth time we've started out on this list.
But always fun if you're doing it for the first time.
We all think we know the most famous one -but all ideas are different!
I'll say Paul Luty in Love Thy Neighbour.
Actually, just found the info below, I still think the end of the fight was supposed to be him landing in an open grave.
"...Once knocked unconscious for 7 minutes by Honor Blackman on the set of "Mandrake", an episode of The Avengers (1961), when the prearranged stunt was accidentally mistimed. Blackman was highly impressed that he completed the fight despite her having hit him in the face with a shovel...."
If I remember correctly, it was something like she was fighting Pallo in a Grave Yard and she flipped him overhead in to an open grave. It went wrong somehow and he banged his head when landing and knocked himself out.
I am sure someone on here would remember the correct details if not.
But are you saying Honor knocked Pallo out? I always thought it must have been some sort of stunt training accident. Mind you she next went on to grappling with Sean Connery as Pussy Galore in the Bond franchaise
For Tv Fame Pat Roach would take some beating.
I remember the Jackie Pallo knockout in the avengers and apparently it was real.
It was big at the time as Jackie had really arrived as Mr TV and in those days we only had two channels so the audience was massive. It would have been in Black and White as well.
Big Bruno Elrington was in both "The Avengers" and "The New Avengers", he was also a wrestler in an episode of "The Kenny Everett Video Cassette" with Brian Maxine.
I think there is an old thread on Wrestlers appearing in TV and films somewhere.
Big Daddy and Haystacks appeared on Tiswas and Haystacks was in The Paul Squires Show.
Kendo Nagasaki popped up on a few shows, in character of course.