Alan Dell - The Dance Band Days

Dell's most celebrated programme, The Dance Band Days, ran from 1969 (initially - and perhaps ironically - on Radio 1, the BBC's "pop" channel, launched in 1967 as a replacement for the offshore pirate stations) until 1995 and, in later years, did so in a sequence on Monday evenings with Dell's "other side", The Big Band Sound. The former included recordings by the likes of Jack Hylton, Ambrose, Henry Hall, Geraldo and other dance bandleaders. The main elements of these programmes were retained for a number of years after Dell's death, in a Sunday night programme introduced on Radio 2 by Malcolm Laycock. (Dance band recordings were sometimes played also on the digital channel PrimeTime Radio 2000-6.)

However, in November 2008 Laycock's Sunday night programme changed format to a more swing orientated playlist. Laycock resigned suddenly in July 2009 which took everyone, including his bosses, by surprise, citing difficulties on agreeing a new contract.