Mitchell Magic: The Story of the George Mitchell Choirs

The Black and White Minstrel Show was one of the most successful shows the BBC ever produced, bringing them huge audience figures together with international plaudits and awards. Yet after running for an unprecedented twenty-one years on television, the BBC airbrushed it from history. However, the George Mitchell Choirs were far more than the Minstrels and their story spans half a century of light entertainment. Their founder George Mitchell - the most famous back in history - produced an entertainment phenomenon, one which deserves to reclaim its rightful place in the post-war history of show business.

'Of all the shows I have produced and directed (and that's nearly three hundred of them) the show that gave me the greatest pleasure, the greatest thrill that came from inside the BBC, was the Black and White Minstrels. It is the greatest show that ever got to the heart of the people in this country. George himself is a genius, there'll never be the likes of this man again.' Ernest Maxin

Choirmaster George Mitchell hated the limelight, yet was responsible for a worldwide show business phenomenon - the George Mitchell Choirs and ultimately the Black and White Minstrel Show, which won the first-ever Golden Rose of Montreux, becoming the world's Best Light Entertainment show. Sold to television companies worldwide, including many in Africa and the Caribbean, it was the first television show to invade and capture the live theatre, running on the London stage, the provinces, Australia and New Zealand from 1962 until 1987. George remains the only artiste simultaneously to hold 1st, 2nd and 4th places in the album charts. Yet, twenty years later, the BBC airbrushed the show from history. But deeply embedded in the world consciousness, it refused to die and is part of the world's collective consciousness, its 'racial' aspect now unthinkingly defining a show that was so much more, as indeed was George's career. Recent documentaries have retold the story, concentrating on the perceived racial aspect. None has told the full unbiased story, not just of the Minstrels but of George and his singers, at the top of the tree for fifteen years before the Minstrels. Now, thanks to unprecedented access to their archives and with the full co-operation of George's widow, the story of these singers' forgotten role in British light entertainment can be told, set against a backdrop of post-war Britain and rising racial tensions. Appealing to entertainment, history and biography lovers, the book reclaims George's rightful place in the history of entertainment.