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Glen Michael
The set of Glen Michael's Cartoon Cavalcade in 1967
Born
Cecil Edward Buckland

(1926-05-16)16 May 1926
Devon, England
Died9 July 2025(2025-07-09) (aged 99)
Maidens, Scotland
Occupation
  • Presenter
  • entertainer
Known forGlen Michael's Cartoon Cavalcade
Spouse
Beryl Ratcliffe
​
​
(m. 1947; died 2015)​

Cecil Edward Buckland (16 May 1926 – 9 July 2025), known professionally as Glen Michael, was a British children's television presenter and entertainer. He hosted the popular children's television show Glen Michael's Cartoon Cavalcade, which ran for 26 years on Scottish Television from 1966. He also acted on stage across Scotland supporting comic Jack Milroy as a feed, later working with Rikki Fulton too. He appeared in the three series of The Adventures of Francie and Josie and in other television shows. He was a radio presenter for several years between 1974 and 2009.

Early life

[edit]

Michael was born Cecil Edward Buckland on 16 May 1926 in Paignton, Devon.[1]: 5 [2] His father, Arthur, was then a car salesman but always restless and the family moved to Lyme Regis where they ran a boarding house. He had a happy childhood there but then the family had a series of misfortunes. His elder brother died of measles and his father broke his leg. The boarding house failed and so his parents started a new career in service as a butler and cook. They started working for the chairman of a cheese company and were successful initially but his father fell out with the nanny and they moved on. They worked for a succession of other illustrious households including Highclere Castle but his father's volatility made their life unstable and so Michael got a chaotic education.[1]: 5–56 

He left home in his late teens to pursue work as an entertainer. He joined Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) and worked entertaining troops in many shows with roles that encompassed his talent for comedy, in particular, impersonations.[3] His stage name, Glen Michael, was arrived at in stages. He first became known as Glenn Buckland when the MC for his first ENSA appearance forgot his first name and substituted the name of the band leader Glenn Miller. Later, in the 1950s, William Henshall, who produced revues in which his wife appeared, thought that Buckland was too long and suggested Michaels instead. Some inadvertent contractions then resulted in Glen Michael which was the form of the name which stuck.[1]: 78,140 

Stage career

[edit]

In November 1952 he travelled to Scotland for five weeks' work at the Victoria theatre in Paisley with comedian Jack Milroy.[4] He supported Milroy in several seasons of the Popplewell's Gaiety Whirl shows at the Gaiety Theatre, Ayr.[5][6] In 1963 and 1964, Michael was in the Half Past Seven Show at the King's Theatre, Glasgow, supporting Milroy and Fulton with their Francie and Josie comedy act.[7][8] By the end of 1964 he had appeared in most of the Howard and Wyndham's Half Past Seven and Five Past Eight shows in Glasgow and Edinburgh.[9][10][11][12][13] In one show, Michael played ten different characters.[14] In 1965 he was on stage at the Pavilion Theatre in Carry on Cranky as a villainous banker with Milroy playing the lead role.[15] Glen had enjoyed success in theatre but had not felt ready to headline a show on stage himself; then, in 1966, Milroy left to pursue work in England.[16]

In 1968, now a couple of years into presenting the Cartoon Cavalcade television show, he was aware how his image projected there was at odds with the stage roles he took where he was often cast as the villain.[17] Later that year he appeared at a fundraising event at the Alhambra theatre in Glasgow which STV filmed to air on television the following month.[18] In 1971, he appeared in High Living in Majorca, the stage adaption of High Living, the first British soap opera to be produced in Scotland.[19]

Television and film

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Michael made an uncredited appearance in the Ealing Studios police drama The Blue Lamp in 1950;[20] his character "Larry" and his date witnessed the shooting of Jack Warner (Dixon of Dock Green) as they entered a cinema.[21]

After much work on stage, Michael eventually became involved with television work, starring in many Scottish Television productions and dramas. After signing an exclusive one-year contract with STV he was involved in the Would You Believe It?, a children's programme with a focus on interesting aspects of the natural world which was broadcast across the network, with the first episode airing in July 1968.[22][23][24] He appeared in documentary programmes including Living With Computers, a report on computers in the mid 1960s,[25] Past and Present (1969),[26] and from the schools programme Think Clearly (1969)[27] and Look and see No 8 (early 70s).[28]

Michael was in all three series of The Adventures of Francie and Josie which were recorded in Glasgow at the Theatre Royal with a live audience and aired 1962–1965.[29] Michael played many parts, including Josie's cousin when Jack Milroy was ill.[30] When Rikki Fulton got a slot on STV on Sunday evenings The Rikki Fulton Hour,[31] Michael was involved.[1] He appeared in the Jimmy Logan Theatre Hour televised play Friends and Neighbours which screened in two parts on STV on Sunday evenings in November 1965.[32] He was in Rikki Fulton's Grand Tour which aired on STV in January 1967.[1][33] In 1967–1968 he had a main part in Over to Una, a comedy show with Una McLean.[34] He also worked in a role as compere for Search for Beauty, a beauty pageant show that STV was involved with.[30] He had some minor involvement in the BBC comedies The Revenue Men and The World of Wooster.[1] He appeared on the STV's The One O'clock gang.[1]

Glen Michael's Cartoon Cavalcade

[edit]

Michael achieved his best-known success with Glen Michael's Cartoon Cavalcade,[35] which aired on Scottish Television for the first time on Wednesday 6 April 1966 as Cartoon Cavalcade.[36] However Glen never started to present the series until 31 August 1966.[citation needed] Michael's name was later added to the show title as the company realised that his contributions were appreciated by audiences.[37]

The show is remembered by viewers in Central Scotland as their first exposure to many famous cartoons[38][39] and for Michael's companions, Paladin the talking lamp, Totty the Robot and dogs Rudi and Rusti.[37][40][41] Children's birthday greetings sent in by viewers was a regular popular feature, with Michael's production team also sending birthday cards to those who could not have their greetings read on air.[42]

Although broadcast in the STV region, Cavalcade also aired periodically in the neighbouring Grampian Television region during the 1970s and 1980s.[43] In its early years, the show was also carried by Southern Television[44] and Westward Television[45][46]

Originally airing at around 5pm on weekdays, the show moved to a 25 minute Sunday afternoon slot in July 1967.[47] then back to Friday in September.[48] It moved to Saturday timeslot in 1972, before moving again to Sunday afternoons in January 1974. Attracting viewing figures of over one million, Cavalcade won "best ITV programme in Scotland" at the annual awards presented in 1976 by the Radio Industries Club of Scotland.[49] By 1984 there were more than 120 people involved in making the programme the programme and was using Chroma key technology to superimpose Michael over scenes.[50] The programme returned to a Saturday morning slot in September 1985,[51] only to return to its Sunday timeslot the following April. From January 1989, Cavalcade moved to an earlier half-hour slot at 10.45am on Sunday mornings.[52]

After over 26 years on air, Glen Michael's Cartoon Cavalcade was axed in December 1992.[53] Michael recounted that at a small leaving event held for him, STV controller Gus Macdonald estimated that he had played to more than two billion viewers across the duration that the show had aired.[54] STV then tried different approaches to their children's television programming. Wemyss Bay 902101 launched in 1993 and lasted for 15 months before being cancelled and replaced by Skoosh.[55][56]

A few months after its final broadcast, a special one-off edition was released on VHS, featuring a selection of cartoons from the Paramount library.[57][58]

Radio

[edit]

Michael was one of the first presenters on Radio Clyde which launched as Scotland's first commercial radio station in 1974. He had a slot on Thursday nights, playing music up until midnight.[59][60] He presented for six and a half years. Michael later presented a weekly show on Saga FM every Sunday from 2004 until 2007, playing songs from stage shows and classic records.[29]

After Cavalcade

[edit]

With the end of "Cavalcade", Michael continued working, taking a touring version of the show around Scotland to primary schools, assisted by his wife Beryl.[30][41] He appeared playing a ventriloquist in an episode of the long-running crime drama Taggart that aired in 1995.[61] Michael made a brief cameo in an episode of the BBC series VideoGaiden, playing himself in a speaking role. In the episode, Michael receives a coconut and some flowers in the mail (in an attempt to recreate the Nintendo game Animal Crossing) and sends a thankful letter in response.[62]

In 2008 Michael released an autobiography called Life's a Cavalcade, in which he tells how he worked his way to becoming a performer, his life in the army and how he ended up in Scotland.[63][1] Comic book writer Mark Millar cited that Cartoon Cavalcade inspired him to become a writer and none of his comic books would exist if it wasn't for Michael and his show. He invited Michael to the premiere of the film adaptation of his work Wanted.[64][38] Millar helped Michael to get a cameo role in the film version of the Kick-Ass comic-book series.[64] The footage with Michael, however, was cut from the final edit. Michael said, "I never expected to be in it at all. I think it was meant as a gesture. I think they were trying to make me feel like a real star. I had a trailer which was as big as a coach."[64]

Personal life and death

[edit]

Michael married Beryl Ratcliffe in April 1947 and she died in 2015 aged 93.[3][65] Six years after Beryl's death, he backed a campaign by Age Scotland to tackle loneliness.[66] Michael died at his home after a short illness, in Maidens, Ayrshire on 9 July 2025, at the age of 99.[67][68][69][70]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Life's a Cavalcade. Birlinn Ltd. 18 September 2008. ISBN 978-1841587509.
  2. ^ "Obituary. Glen Michael, legend of Scottish TV, dies age 99". The Times. 10 July 2025. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
  3. ^ a b "Glen Michael: STV legend from television's golden age". STV News. 10 July 2025. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  4. ^ Howard, Ali (10 July 2025). "Glen Michael on Cartoon Cavalcade, regrets & what happened to Paladin". The Herald. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  5. ^ "Something for all". The Evening Times. 13 October 1959. p. 9. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  6. ^ Watson, James (26 June 1971). "Sleigh bells in summer". The Evening Times. p. 3. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  7. ^ "Glasgow Theatre: Speed, fun and action at The King's. 'Half past seven'". The Glasgow Herald. 14 August 1963. p. 10. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
  8. ^ "Glasgow Theatre: Francie and Josie Out of This World". The Glasgow Herald. 12 August 1964. p. 9. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  9. ^ Macdonald, Iain (10 December 1964). "Why has Glen never branched out?". The Evening Times. p. 8. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  10. ^ Webster, Jack (30 January 1982). "Whatever happened to Clem Ashby". The Glasgow Herald. p. 7. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  11. ^ House, Jack (16 August 1961). "At the theatre: Blind spots and brilliance". The Evening Times. p. 7. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  12. ^ Dent, George (11 September 1962). "Slickest yet". The Evening Times. p. 6. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  13. ^ Macdonald, Iain (21 September 1963). "Jack's all right". The Evening Times. p. 7. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  14. ^ Macdonald, Iain (8 May 1965). ""Five past Eight" Breathtaking spectacle – but weak on the comedy side". The Evening Times. p. 2. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  15. ^ Macdonald, Iain (3 December 1965). "Chrissie Cranky's best yet". The Evening Times. p. 15. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  16. ^ Macdonald, Iain (9 February 1967). "It's a dog's life for Glen". The Evening Times. p. 8. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  17. ^ Macdonald, Iain (11 January 1968). "Nice-guy Glen is a baddie". The Evening Times. p. 8. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
  18. ^ Macdonald, Iain (7 March 1968). "Top Scots stars for Macrae fund show". The Evening Times. p. 13. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  19. ^ ""Living" in the sun not so very bright". The Evening Times. 15 June 1971. p. 3. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  20. ^ "Work is Glen's secret of youth". The Glasgow Herald. 23 December 1980. p. 26. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  21. ^ Blue Lamp : Pc Dixon gets shot. 26 June 2021. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  22. ^ Phenix, Bill (2 July 1968). "Scotland's might on parade". The Evening Times. p. 6. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  23. ^ Phenix, Bill (3 September 1968). "Glen's got a big look-in". The Evening Times. p. 8. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  24. ^ "Future plans for STV". The Stage. 18 July 1968. p. 9. Retrieved 14 July 2025 – via www.facebook.com.
  25. ^ "LIVING WITH COMPUTERS". movingimage.nls.uk. National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  26. ^ "Past and Present (1969)". movingimage.nls.uk. National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  27. ^ "Think Clearly (1969)". movingimage.nls.uk. National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  28. ^ "Look and see. No. 8 (early 70s)". movingimage.nls.uk. National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  29. ^ a b Scottish Broadcast Heritage Collection. Interview Number 763 Interview Date 20 May 2017. historyproject.org.uk. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  30. ^ a b c My Life in Ten Pictures: Glen Michael looks back at his cherished memories. STV. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  31. ^ Millar, Bob (26 April 1965). "My view last night". The Evening Times. p. 8. Retrieved 13 July 2025.
  32. ^ Millar, Bob (22 November 1965). "My view". The Evening Times. p. 8. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
  33. ^ Kemp, Robert (6 January 1967). "The place of obituaries on the small screen". The Glasgow Herald. p. 7. Retrieved 13 July 2025.
  34. ^ Law, Bill (17 November 1967). "My View". The Evening Times. p. 8. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  35. ^ "TV and theatre favourite Glen Michael recalls a life in showbiz". BBC News. 28 November 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  36. ^ "Television and Radio Programmes". The Glasgow Herald. 6 April 1966. p. 20. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  37. ^ a b "A close second to Santa Claus". The Evening Times. 26 October 1982. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  38. ^ a b Millar, Mark (12 October 2008). "Glen Michael my real life comic book hero". The Times. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  39. ^ Flockhart, Gary (10 July 2025). "Glen Michael: Beloved STV children's entertainer Glen Michael of Cartoon Cavalcade fame dies aged 99". The Scotsman. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
  40. ^ "Fifty years on, STV set for studio switch". The Scotsman. 3 February 2004. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  41. ^ a b "Glen Michael on Cartoon Cavalcade, regrets and what happened to Paladin". The Herald. Glasgow. 10 May 2014. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  42. ^ Holmes, Jeff (2009), This Is Scotland: The First Fifty Years of Scottish Television, Cadeel, pp. 100–112, ISBN 978-0-9553352-1-1
  43. ^ "Television and Radio. Grampian TV". The Glasgow Herald. 29 June 1970. p. 22. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
  44. ^ Popular with Scots children', The Stage and Television Today, 5 January 1967, P18.
  45. ^ "TV Listings. Westward". Daily Mirror. 3 December 1966. p. 15. Retrieved 16 July 2025 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  46. ^ "TV Listings. Westward". Daily Mirror. 13 October 1967. p. 18. Retrieved 16 July 2025 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  47. ^ "Television and radio programmes". The Evening Times. 1 July 1967. p. 7. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  48. ^ "Looking and listening to-night". The Evening Times. 1 July 1967. p. 8. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  49. ^ "Big Yin steps up for a glass". The Evening Times. 11 February 1976. p. 14. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  50. ^ "Behind the scenes". The Evening Times. 7 June 1984. p. 12. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  51. ^ "TV in the Times". The Evening Times. 20 September 1985. p. 30. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  52. ^ "Television. Sunday. STV". Evening Times. 7 January 1989. p. 17. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
  53. ^ "So sorry, but that's about all folks". The Herald. 19 December 1992. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  54. ^ Leadbetter, Russell (9 October 2008). "VIDEO: Glen looks back on a cavalcade of memories". The Evening Times. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  55. ^ Skoosh: Daily Record: Monday 21 March 1994 Page: 19 "presenters of new kids show Skoosh being launched on Easter Sunday STV is banking on Craig Elliot 25 and Lindsay Hill 26 winning them the Sunday lunchtime ratings"
  56. ^ Daily Record: Saturday 02 April 1994 | Page: 33 : SUNDAY MORNING listings 1230 SKOOSH
  57. ^ "Glen Michael's Cartoon Cavalcade Retail Video". YouTube. 30 December 2016.
  58. ^ Glen-Michaels-Cartoon-Cavalcade CW008 Distributed Cameron Williams 1993
  59. ^ "Radio Clyde's 50th anniversary: 'We were a family from the word go'". The Herald. 13 January 2024. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  60. ^ "World of Radio". The Evening Times. 25 August 1977. p. 2. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  61. ^ Much-loved STV children's entertainer Glen Michael dies aged 99. STV News. 10 July 2025. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  62. ^ Florence, Robert. "Robert Florence's post on X 11 July 2025". Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  63. ^ "Catchy title". The Herald. 13 October 2008. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  64. ^ a b c Fulton, Rick (22 March 2010). "Cartoon Cavalcade legend Glen Michael's cameo role is cut from new movie Kick-Ass". Daily Record. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  65. ^ "Beryl Michael". The Herald. 21 February 2015. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  66. ^ Scott, Louise; McKenzie, Lewis (30 July 2021). "Former STV star Glen Michael backs loneliness campaign". STV News. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  67. ^ "Cartoon Cavalcade presenter Glen Michael dies aged 99". BBC News. 10 July 2025. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  68. ^ "Much-loved STV children's entertainer Glen Michael dies aged 99". STV News. 10 July 2025. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  69. ^ "STV children's show presenter Glen Michael dies aged 99 at South Ayrshire home".
  70. ^ "Much-loved Scots children's entertainer Glen Michael dies aged 99".
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