This show was the last of the 84 New Faces shows produced by Les Cocks. He would be succeeded by Albert Stevenson from the next show onwards.

The judging panel for this show were Tony Hatch, Jimmy Henney, Ted Ray and George Elrick and they watched three successful acts returning from series three and three Viewers panel choices from the early shows of series four.

• Sparrow (five-piece group) from London – Shows 3.38, 3.40 & 3.43
• Mr. Leslie Rae (mime act) from Lancashire- Show 3.42
• Steve Cockburn (vocal/guitar) from Southminster – Show 3.41
• Monopoly (five-piece group) from London – Show 4.3
• Eve Adam (vocalist) from London – Show 4.10
• Tony Stanley (impressionist) from Fulham – Show 4.2

As there were only six acts on this first Viewers Winner show instead of the usual seven, they were joined by a guest act. Returning from her appearance in the Grand Final of series one was the successful Scottish singer Elaine Simmons.

The show winners were five-piece group Sparrow who had previously been one of the successes of series three, appearing on three shows. They were winners on their first appearance on show 3.38, and after losing out to the group Toby in show 3.40 they were invited back to appear in show 3.43, losing to yet another group, Ofanchi.

Sparrow didn’t miss out this time as their show win booked them a record breaking fifth appearance in the Series four Grand Final on 31 July 1976.  The previous appearance record was shared by Les Dennis and Lenny Henry (both four). 

Sparrow members Brian Hudson (drums), Tom Marshall (lead guitar, keyboards), Tony Harding (rhythm guitar) had previously played together between 1968 and 1972 in the pop band Harmony Grass.  The groups bookings and appearances were handled by Neil Warnock who worked as a junior booker for NEMS Agency run by Brian Epstein. Harmony Grass split a couple of years later and Neil Warnock moved to the BRON agency and record company and inspired by his love of harmony bands he put the group Sparrow together.

Brian, Tom and Tony were joined by Stuart Calver (bass) and John Milton (lead vocals) in the original Sparrow line-up.  Sparrow played across the country and had a few singles released but with no success. Their second single, Celebration, written by Rod Argent (Argent, The Zombies) was released in January 1976. They also recorded twelve songs scheduled to be on an album, produced by Chris White of the Zombies, although it was never released.

Original members Tony Harding and Stuart Calver were later replaced by Dave Nevin and Steve Stroud, who played with the group in their Grand Final appearance.

Sparrow drummer Brian Hudson met Linda Nolan (The Nolans) in 1979 when was invited by managing director Neil Warnock to build up the cabaret/ MOR side of the BRON agency. Brian and Linda married in 1981 and were married for 26 years until Brian’s sad death from liver failure in 2007.

Chris White recently contacted Tom Marshall to say he had found a copy of the unreleased album, and thought it was great and that it should be heard.  It is scheduled for release June/July 2020 and the surviving members Tony Harding, John Milton and Tom Marshall hope to promote it.

Impressing the Viewers Panel, winning their vote again, was London based singer Eve Adam, who was making her second appearance on the show in as many weeks.  Eve’s vote from the Viewers panel booked her a place in the next Viewers Winners Show (4.25) on 5 June 1976.

The viewers winner from show 3.41, Steve Cockburn, finally got his chance to perform again having missed the Viewers Winners show 3.43 because he had gone to Italy with his wife and the show were unable to contact him.

Five-piece group Monopoly were making their second appearance under their own name but had made two other previous appearances as the backing band of singer Lee Harding, so they too equalled the appearance records of Sparrow, Les Dennis and Lenny Henry. They sang a version of the Carole King song Snow Queen.

With George Elrick starting the scoring he read the scores for Eve Adam and Monopoly in a different order to which they performed and with all the other judges following his lead the scores of George Elrick and Jimmy Henney got assigned to the wrong act. This simple mistake resulted in Derek Hobson announcing that Eve Adam was winning until Tony Hatch gave his scores when in fact it was Monopoly that were leading after the first two judges scores.

Only Ted Ray gave a full 100 points, awarding them to the young female vocalist Eve Adam. After three judges scores were announced, and with the final set of scores to come, the six acts were seperated by just twelve points, handing Tony Hatch the power to decide the winner of the show.

Pos	Act	George Elrick	Jimmy Henney	Ted Ray	Tony Hatch	Total
1	Sparrow	90	96	96	92	374
2	Monopoly	95	94	90	80	359
3	Eve Adam	85	93	100	78	356
4	Leslie Rae	85	95	95	77	352
5	Steve Cockburn	80	94	92	85	351
6	Tony Stanley	80	92	98	65	335

Credits: Special Thanks to Tom Marshall (Sparrow) for the additional information and background on the group.

Archive: A copy is held by the BFI – Work – 570080