Opportunity Knocks for an Angus singer who is set to roll back the years to perform for charity.
James Hutcheson appeared on the 13th show of the 1977 series with his band Deep End and finished in second place.
Deep End took to the stage in a boxing ring to perform the Simon and Garfunkel song The Boxer on the talent-spotting show, hosted by Hughie Green, which was watched by 24 million viewers at its peak.
Mr Hutcheson has now teamed up with three members of popular 1970s Arbroath folk band Spindrift to perform at this year’s Rotary Club Variety Show in the Webster Theatre.
“Together, we now sing under the amalgamated name of Deepdrift,” said Mr Hutcheson, who will perform with brothers Ian and Jim Ramsay, and Jim Robertson.
“Coincidentally, Ian Lamb who introduced us on Opportunity Knocks, was the Rotarian who started the show back in 2014.
“Ian helps to organise it, this year with fellow Rotarian Ian Ramsay, and the club’s fund-raising committee.”
Mr Hutcheson is producing the show which will also feature a wealth of upcoming talent from local schools.
The first show, in 2014, was staged to raise money to equip Arbroath and Friockheim with six defibrillators.
They have helped to save a number of lives in the community and the biennial concert has now raised thousands of pounds for charities since the inaugural one in 2014.
This year, proceeds will go to the Cafe Project for youth in the town and the cancer ward 32 at Ninewells Hospital.
A notable change in the line-up for the March 21 event is the accent on youth with acts from the High School, the Academy and Hayshead Primary school all taking to the stage.
“We have been genuinely impressed with the music and dance talent we have seen in the schools and we know the youngsters are going to really dazzle our audience with their talents and enthusiasm,” said Ian Ramsay.
“This year’s show is a fantastic mix of established and up and coming talent and includes music, song, dance and humour.
“We reckon it’s going to be our best one yet.”
Considerable costs are involved in staging a show like this and the Rotary Club is grateful to a number of local businesses who have helped to offset them by advertising in the show programme but particularly to Thornton’s Law who are the principal sponsors for the evening.
“We just couldn’t afford to stage a show on this scale without the help of Thornton’s and other businesses,” said Mr Lamb.
“They have all come together to make this a real ‘by the community for the community’ event.
“Everyone wins and it gives us a chance to showcase some tremendous local talent.”
Others taking part in the show include the Swizzle Sisters, Sianhan Smith and Evie Griffiths, Mo Morrison, Colette Dear, Eileen Christison, Violet Thomson, Bella Robb and Skirdechal fiddle group.
Tickets for the March 21 show are available from the Webster Theatre box office telephone 01241 435800.
The most successful talent-spotting show of all time
Opportunity Knocks was first launched on BBC radio in 1949 when it gave a lift up the ladder to the likes of Spike Milligan and Frankie Vaughan.
On television between 1956 and 1977, it produced acts of the calibre of Bonnie Langford, Lena Zavaroni, Les Dawson, Freddie Starr, Su Pollard, Frank Carson and Little and Large.
It was the most successful talent-spotting show ever and 10,000 acts were auditioned each year but just 175 got their chance to appear on the box.
Hughie Green hosted the television version on ITV until 1978 before the show was revived on the BBC in the late 1980s with Bob Monkhouse and Les Dawson.
The winning acts on Opportunity Knocks were decided by the viewing public.
In the ITV version this took the form of a postal vote, the winner of which was announced the following week.
The BBC revival was notable for being the first TV show to decide its winner using the now-standard method of a telephone vote.
