As the series edged over the halfway mark in shows, Derek Hobson was joined on the panel by Tony Hatch, Ted Ray, Alan A. Freeman and Jack Parnell.

As always the show claimed to introduce seven ‘new to television’ acts who were all performing for a place in the next All Winners Final.

At least two of the acts had made previous television or movie appearances but this was overlooked and did therefore not prevent their appearance on the show.

The judges final scores for this heat were;

1. Son of a Gun (four-piece group) from Liverpool – 110 Points
2. Paul Shane (comedy impressionist) from Rotherham – 93 Points
3. Bruce Thompson (one-man band) from Manchester – 87 Points
4. Prism (vocal trio) from London – 86 Points
5. Lesley Roach (female vocalist) from London – 83 Points
6. Dust (four-piece pop group) from Wolverhampton – 81 Points
7. Lewis and Lord (comedy duo) from Derby – 60 Points

Heat winners Son of a Gun booked their place in the next All Winners Show of the series.  They also went on to make further TV appearances in 1975, appearing with Sally James on Saturday Scene in April and then in July they appeared on the Bay City Rollers pop show Shang A Lang, which also featured David Cassidy.

By September 1977 the group had renamed themselves Masquerade but were still the resident group at the Watford branch of Baileys.

Despite this show being classified as a ‘missing’ episode, the winning performance from Son of a Gun singing their own composition La Maison De L’Amour can be viewed on You Tube.

Unfortunately this is the only clip that has been uploaded so the rest of the performances are still classified as ‘missing.’

Paul Shane, the former coal miner from Rotherham, started his entertainment career as a singer, but soon discovered that his comedy renditions of hits such as Tom Jones’ Green Green Grass of Home got a much bigger reaction from the audience than his normal singing did.

Paul had some minor success in TV before his appearance on New Faces but his major TV role came around five years later when he was cast as Ted Bovis, the resident comic at Maplin’s Holiday Camp, in the Jimmy Perry and David Croft award winning sitcom Hi-de-Hi!

With just one act remaining on this show he was the leader on the scoreboard with an very respectable score of 93, but along came group Son of a Gun to snatch victory away from him.

Bruce Thompson may not have won the show the viewers at home loved his performance with four out of every five viewers votes being cast for his act. The public support received guaranteed him a return to the show for the next Viewers Winners Final later in the same year.

As of 2019 Bruce is still performing his one-man band show on the cabaret, cruise and holiday circuits where he continues to entertain with his unique musical talent and hilarious audience participation routines.

Lesley Roach, the 19 year-old singer from Acton, had attended the nearby Barbara Speake Stage School from the age of just six. At the age of fifteen Lesley won her first prize at the school, the annual White Memorial Cup for singing.

Lesley also appeared in a a number of West End shows, including a musical version of Tom Brown’s Schooldays alongside nine other pupils from the Barbara Speake Stage School, including fellow pupil, Keith Chegwin.

Lesley was no stranger to television work back as back in 1966, when she was only ten, she appeared in an episode of Dr. Finlay’s Casebook. She had also appeared on The Morecombe & Wise Show in 1968 and between then and her New Faces appearance had acting roles in a number of TV series including Jackanory, Dixon of Dock Green, Z Cars and The Adventures of Black Beauty.

On this show Lesley performed a song written especially for her called Don’t Turn Around, which she had also performed in the British Sex comedy movie The Secrets of a Door to Door Salesman.

Nottingham comedy duo Lewis and Lord would later appear in a charity show at Lime Tree Social Club, Coventry with another former New Faces act Jess and the Gingerbread, who made the first All Winners Final of this series. The proceeds of the show went to seven-year old Eileen Daly, whose parents were killed in a road crash in Scotland.

Wolverhampton group Dust were William Hickman (vocals), Alan Davies (bass and backing vocals), Jeremy Evans (drums and backing vocals) and Paul Jenkins (lead guitar).

It’s likely, although not confirmed, that they would have performed their 1975 single Rebound, written by their manager, Marco Uccellini, which was released on the Pye Records label in the same year at their appearance on the show.

Credit: Thanks to David Jenkins (son of Paul Jenkins – Dust) for his comment on the page confirming the line-up of the group.