The Essay: Singing, Dancing and Having a Laugh: The Backbone of Variety

Amanda Dalton explores variety shows, revisiting some of the acts that made up this form of light entertainment, exploring how they connected with her own family's life and considering their personal and cultural meaning for her both as a child and as the writer she is today. Amanda begins by introducing listeners to the world of variety as it morphed from music hall and journeyed into televised entertainment, considering variety's backbone of song, dance and comedy through the lens of growing up in a rather unusual family.