The Box is a major cultural and heritage attraction and archive, which opened in Plymouth’s city centre in September 2020. Its collection, formally the South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA), is the regional film archive for the South West of England, comprising the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and Television South West (TSW). It also includes a significant number of donated film collections dating back to the early 1890s.
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The Bevs
The delightful Beverley Sisters are interviewed on a visit to Newton Abbot.
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Overview
The Beverley Sisters Joy (Jocelyn), and twins Teddie (Hazel) and Babs (Babette) are interviewed by reporter Terry Fleet in their hotel and then pictured opening a show house for British Gas in Newton Abbot. The sisters came to fame after auditioning for an Ovaltine advert as The Bonnie Babes. They first used their own name of The Chinery Sisters and were compared to American trio The Andrews Sisters and had early associations with Glenn Miller, Eric Winstone and Danny Kaye.
Born in the 1920s the sisters all shared the same birthday of 5th May. They signed to the UK Columbia record label and for seven years had their own BBC show Those Beverley Sisters. Their parents were the music hall act Coram and Mills and they were related to the performing Lupino family, known for theatre and film. While watching their daughters Vicky, Babette and Sasha perform as The Foxes at Peter Stringfellow’s Hippodrome in 1985 they made a comeback appearance and started touring again and recorded an album entitled Sparkle. The eldest Beverley, Joy married footballer Billy Wright in Poole and they became a celebrity couple. In 2006 The Bevs were awarded an MBE for services to entertainment.
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