The professional panel saw a second judging role appearance for David Bell, who was joined by Tony Hatch, Noel Edmonds and Lionel Blair. 

Derek Hobson was once again the host of the show, with the guest host role now firmly ditched by the producers.

The six returning winning acts from previous shows looking to secure a place on the Gala Final were;

• Pride (six-piece group) from Exeter- show 4.27
• Darren Stuart (vocalist) from Newcastle – show 4.24
• Whiskey Mac (four-piece group) from Southend – show 4.14
• The Rickard Brothers (vocal duo) from Coventry – show 4.26
• Scoby Smith (five-piece group) from London – show 4.23
• Frank Leyton (vocalist) from Manchester – show 4.28

The professional panel awarded London group Scoby Smith the highest score of the show and they booked their place in the Gala Final on 31 July 1976. They reprised their winning song from their first appearance, Safe Is The Fool.

The previous weeks winner, singer Frank Leyton, won the Viewers Panel vote and booked himself one more chance at making the Gala Final on the last winners show of the series on 24 July 1976. The song Frank performed on the show was The Queen Of The Mardi Gras, the song that Tony Christie finished third with in the BBC Song For Europe in February 1976.

The song was written by New Faces theme song writer Tony Macauley and Tony Hatch pointed out that you could easily sing ‘You’re a star, you’re a star’ across the chorus of this particular tune.

The four-piece group from Southend, Whiskey Mac, finally got to make their All Winners show appearance, which was delayed as after they won show 4.14 on 20 March 1976 they had a series of existing work commitments to fulfil. They performed their latest single, I Will Always Be Around, which was also the song they won with on their first appearance.

One interesting observation was that their drum skin bearing the name of the group was missing an ‘E’ from the Whiskey as was their name on the scoreboard, yet their single releases included the ‘E’.

The yellow suited Exeter group Pride opened the show with the Doobie Brothers song Long Train Running, which they performed complete with their own pride of lion cuddly toys. The judges placed them in the runners-up spot with a score of 350 points.

The second act saw vocalist Darren Stuart perform Sing A Song Country Boy in an unusual studio location. Instead of facing the audience, Darren performed his song on a small circular stage in front of the audience seating with his back to the studio audience. He did however, turn to take a bow to their applause as he finished his number.

Coventry duo The Rickard Brothers won a few weeks earlier with Red Red Wine, which they were about to record on Polydor Records. This time they performed the Everly Brothers hit Wake Up Little Susie. The judges were unimpressed with the performance and Tony Hatch and Noel Edmonds, who were judges on the show that the Rickard Brothers won, felt they were much better on the previous show.

Position	Act	Tony Hatch	Noel Edmonds	David Bell	Lionel Blair	Score
1	Scoby Smith	96	92	95	92	375
2	Pride	90	90	80	90	350
3	Frank Leyton	78	78	85	89	330
4	Darren Stuart	75	82	85	78	320
5	Whiskey Mac	83	75	75	80	313
6	The Rickard Brothers	70	80	80	65	295

As with other winners show the six acts were joined by a guest act, added to fill the broadcast TV slot.  This show saw the return of singer Joy Rose who had appeared on two earlier shows in the series back in January 1976.  She impressed on show 4.4 and appeared again on the first All Winners Show (show 4.7) where she lost out to ventriloquist act Roger de Courcey.

There was a small mystery about a ‘second’ special guest act on this show.  An advert in The Stage on the 8 July 1976 named Jodie Grey as a guest act on the show. The date quoted is incorrect as the show was broadcast on Saturday 3 July and the 4 July was in fact a Sunday. 

She was to change her name to Jodie Grey shortly after this appearance so this was one of the last ever performances for her as Joy Rose. While the judges deliberated their scores Joy performed the Kiki Dee hit I Got The Music In Me and the Barbara Streisand number People for the studio audience.

While Jodie is not recorded as appearing on New Faces, she did actually appear on two shows earlier in the series under her original name of Joy Rose. So it was just one special guest with two names rather than two guest acts. Jodie also appeared on the spin-off TV show Make ‘Em Laugh in 1977 with a large number of New Faces successes. 

Credits: Thanks to Patti Boulaye and Chris Perry (Kaleidoscope) for the additional information on this show

Archive: A copy is held by the BFI – Work – 569996