Web Page No 2550

26th January 2019

1st Picture. Conker Tournament

 2nd Picture. Toy Train

3rd Picture. Shopping with Mother

4th Picture. Prefab

More Reflections on Childhood

I remember the cheese of my Childhood                                                    And the bread that we cut with a knife                                                              When the children helped with the Housework                                                and the men went to work and not the wife

The cheese never needed a fridge                                                                      and the bread was so crusty and hot                                                                  the children were seldom unhappy                                                                     and the wife was content with her lot

I remember the milk from the bottle                                                                with yummy cream on the top   our dinner came hot from the oven                                                                       

and not from a freezer or shop

The kids were a lot more contented 

 they didn’t need money for kicks                                                                     just a game with their friends in the road                                                   and sometimes the Saturday flicks

I remember the shop on the corner,                                                                Where biscuits for pennies were sold                                                                Do you think I’m a bit too nostalgic?                                                                Or is it….I’m just getting old?

Bathing was done in a wash tub,                                                                      With plenty of rich foamy suds                                                                        But the ironing seemed never ending                                                               As Mum pressed everyone’s ‘duds’.

I remember the ‘loo’ was the lav,                                                               And the boogy man came in the night,                                                            It wasn’t the least bit funny                                                                            Going ‘out back’ with no light.

The interesting items we perused,                                                                    From the newspapers cut into squares,                                                              And hung on a peg in the loo,                                                                                   

It took little to keep us amused.

I remember the slap on my backside                                                            and the taste of soap if I swore                                                                   Anorexia and diets were unheard of and we hadn’t much choice what we wore

Do you think that bruised our ego?                                                                  Or our initiative was destroyed                                                                     we ate what was put on the table                                                                       and I think life was better enjoyed

Looking back these were the days when parents named their children after a friend or relative and didn’t invent unusual names for their kids like Kiora, Blade, Ridge  and Vanilla.

Only girls had pierced ears and you could buy Easter eggs and hot cross buns only at Easter time and fireworks in October and November. We were given air guns and catapults for our tenth birthdays, we rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or just yelled for them. Not everyone made the school football, cricket or netball teams. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment.
Our teachers hit us with canes, gym shoes and threw the blackboard rubber at us if they thought we weren’t concentrating.
Our parents would tell us to ask a stranger to help us cross the road if we were unsure. Imagine that today!

The important thing was that we had the freedom, the freedom to fail or succeed and we learnt responsibility and in doing so we learned how to deal with it all. 

Having read this, you might well want to share it with others who grew up in an era before the lawyers and the government started to regulate and order our lives and while you are at it, forward it to your children, so they will know how brave their parents were.

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On this day 26^th  January 1960-1965.

On 26/01/1960 the number one single was Why - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was not listed and the box office smash was North by Northwest. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 26/01/1961 the number one single was Are you Lonesome Tonight? - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Tottenham Hotspur. The top rated TV show was The Russ Conway Show (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £not very interesting and 13.25 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada).

On 26/01/1962 the number one single was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 26/01/1963 the number one single was Dance On - The Shadows and the number one album was Out of the Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 26/01/1964 the number one single was Glad All Over - Dave Clark Five and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Labour Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 26/01/1965 the number one single was Yeh Yeh - Georgie Fame and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

Web Page No 2548

19th January 2019

1st Picture. Leo Franklin, Larry Noble and Brian Rix

2nd Picture. Poster for Simple Spymen

3rd Picture. Lord and Lady Rix (Elspeth Grey)

4th Picture. Scene from Reluctant Heroes

Whitehall Farces

When we were teenagers no Bank Holiday on TV passed by without a Whitehall Farce being broadcast, very often live. These days the term Whitehall farce suggests headlines of bungling bureaucracy or some government blunder. It's largely forgotten that the term then referred  to the theatre at the far end of that famous thoroughfare. From 1950, the Whitehall Theatre housed five long-running comic plays and in so doing made its name synonymous with this form of comedy.

A farce usually starts with the slightest of problems: there's a small lie and a need to keep up appearances. This then triggers an uproarious series of mishaps, misunderstandings and mistaken identities. And the original problem then escalates until it's an intractable, trouser-dropping frenzy. There is often no real exit despite the number of doors that swing open and shut as characters burst on and off the stage.

Farces were a particularly integral part of London's theatre scene between the wars. During that period, the Aldwych Theatre leant its name to a series of Ben Travers' plays including Thark, A Cuckoo In The Nest and Rookery Nook. Playing for over 10-and-a-half years these Aldwych Farces set a new standard and the company’s ambitions became a model for others to emulate.

Fast forward a few years and the Whitehall Theatre was struggling to find a programme that could capture the public’s attention. It had been home to Phyllis Dixey, London's first ever theatre stripper but Phyllis and her Whitehall Follies left in 1947. The cancellation of a failed play a little while later then created an opening for young actor Brian Rix to step in, leasing the venue for his new production company. Seeking a lively play that captured a ready audience, Brian Rix found Reluctant Heroes. It was a new farce by Colin Morris about an army drill sergeant struggling to control his troops. It proved a canny choice and, like Dad's Army on TV later on, the play’s sense of shared wartime experience suggested it could speak to millions. The play ran at the Whitehall for more than 1,600 performances until 1954.

Brian Rix then had a brainwave and welcomed TV cameras into Whitehall. It was seen as a risky strategy and against the wisdom of the time, but far from driving audiences away from the theatre, the broadcast gave Reluctant Heroes a major box office boost some three years into its run. Over the next 17 years, the BBC's Brian Rix Presents… broadcast 80 specials and one-off productions. Often shown on public holidays, the laughter from the Whitehall Theatre began to spread into the nation's living rooms.

Despite their popularity, Whitehall's farces had to shrug-off regular drubbings from the critics. Take the second of the theatre’s long running hits — John Chapman's Dry Rot (1954-58). This story of dodgy bookies switching racehorses was dismissed as "fit for donkeys" at the time. And it’s a view still echoed today. After a rare revival two years ago in Keswick, The Guardian wrote: "If this play were a horse they'd shoot it."

But the public did not share the critics' ideas and turned up by the coach-load. During the run of the third Whitehall Farce, Simple Spymen (1958-61) the team broke the record for being the longest-running farcers in the West End, beating the actors at the Aldwych. On the night in 1961 when they broke the record, Brian Rix offered a glass of champagne to everyone in the audience.

In the latter five years of Whitehall’s heyday the writer Ray Cooney appeared. A prolific farce writer, he is known in France as the English Feydeau (whose farces are considered the prototype for the modern form). It's a peculiar twist of fate that critics quick to celebrate his French counterpart, overlook Ray Cooney. ‘One For The Pot’ is about an inheritance attracting many "sole-surviving relatives" and ran from 1961-64, while the final Whitehall Farce, Chase Me, Comrade offers a riot of comedy as a Russian ballet dancer defects to Britain. This ran until 1966, bringing the Rix team's time at the theatre to an impressive total of 16 years.

Following that, he was unable to secure the lease at the Whitehall and was forced to move his productions to the Garrick and Cambridge Theatres. He had some success with other farce writers and later joined Ray Cooney's production company. His theatre company stayed with him for many years Leo Franklin (the father of William Franklin the Shhhh! Schweppes man) was a regular as was the diminutive Larry Noble. A long time supporter and member of the team was Brian Rix’s wife Elspeth Gray.

Brian Rix is also known as Baron Rix of Whitehall (where else?) and sat in the House of Lords. And his achievements as president of Mencap eclipse even those he made with the Whitehall farces. But that is another story.

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On this day 19^th January 1960-1965.

On 19/01/1960 the number one single was Why - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was not listed and the box office smash was North by Northwest. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was US screenwriters plan pay strike.

On 19/01/1961 the number one single was Poetry in Motion - Johnny Tillotson and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions

On 19/01/1962 the number one single was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 19/01/1963 the number one single was The Next Time/Bachelor Boy - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. The top-rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 19/01/1964 the number one single was Glad All Over - Dave Clark Five and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Steptoe & Son (BBC) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 19/01/1965 the number one single was Yeh Yeh - Georgie Fame and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

Web Page No 2546

12th January 2019

Radio Caroline

1st Picture. The Ship

 2nd Picture. The Studio

3rd Picture. Sorting the fan mail

4th Picture. The Dining Room aboard

5^th Picture. Caroline being towed away to Holland.   

The Radio Caroline Story

Radio Caroline was launched by a musical entrepreneur by the name of Ronan O'Rahilly. His father was a well to do Irish Businessman. Ronan began his musical career managing the Rolling Stones in the early 60's. After which he began his own recording label - to promote his newest client -- Georgie Fame.

He quickly found that the BBC would not play his label, they only played those of 'established' stars. So, how does a new talent become established? He asked. Next went to Radio Luxembourg and was shocked to discover that almost all of Luxembourg's airtime was already leased by the bigger record labels and the smaller independent labels did not have a chance at any airtime.

He decided that if no station would play his records, he would start his own station! The idea of offshore radio was not entirely new as his own grandfather had been involved in propaganda radio broadcasts during the Easter Rising in 1916. Ronan took these ideas and modernized them into a new format for radio. He greatly admired President Kennedy and he named his new radio station after Kennedy's daughter.

He bought the MV Frederica in Rotterdam for cash and took her to the Irish port of Greenore (which was owned by his father) to be fitted out as a radio ship. Alongside her lay the MV Mi Amigo, also being fitted out as a rival project (Radio Atlanta), which would ultimately become Radio Caroline South.

The Frederica was a 760 ton ferry built in 1930 in Denmark. As a Baltic Ferry she was very tough and built to withstand the ice of a Scandanavian winter. This made her a relatively stable and comfortable ship from which to work. After the  purchase she was renamed MV Caroline and registered in Panama. A 165 foot mast was attached to her and the hold was filled with 30 tons of concrete ballast and two 10,000 watt transmitters were fitted.

One ex DJ remembers that in the record library was a cage that contained the RF Combiner that allowed both of the 10KW transmitters to be run together to produce 20,000 watts of power. The transmitter room was on deck level below the studio where the two transmitters stood side by side along with an audio compressor/limiter. The transmitters each contained a series of safety features which would cause them to shut down in the event of a problem. In very rough weather it was not uncommon for them to switch off but the engineer would have to be on hand to push the reset button.

After being fitted out she set sail on Easter Morning of 1964 and began broadcasting off the Essex Coast. Shortly afterwards it's rival the MV Mi Amigo arrived off the coast as well and Radio Atlanta arrived. The two ships finally merged and became Radio Caroline North and Radio Caroline South.

Soon Ronan O'Rahilly was sitting on top of the pop radio empire and Caroline North and Caroline South had a combined weekly audience in the region of 22 Million Listeners!

Those living and working aboard the ship fell into three groups: The presenters; the radio engineers, and the ship's crew. Normal routine for the DJ's was to work for two weeks and then to have a week's shore leave. The shore leave was often hectic as the DJ's did stints in dance clubs and halls. The studio on the ship was built right in the middle, and way up on the top deck, so when there was a storm it wouldn't be at all unusual for the records fall all over the place or for the stylus to lift off the record as the ship suddenly lurched to an angle.

The MV Caroline had a mainly Dutch crew who prepared a motley selection of Indonesian dishes, something which did little to sooth those suffering from Sea Sickness! The DJs had excellent living quarters with a wash basin and electric heater in each cabin. Portholes with curtains and a wide staircase similar to that of a hotel leading to the main lounge and dining room.

In 1967 London the Labour government was opposed to pirate radio stations and stated that they were in contravention of international agreements, interfered with foreign radio transmissions by using their frequencies, and presented a hazard to shipping. However, there was a strong suspicion that this attitude was derived from snobbery because pirates played pop music. Television was still in its infancy and was not taken particularly seriously by many politicians. Radio, however, had been a very powerful instrument during the war and was still widely regarded as such.

Postmaster General Tony Benn announced the government's intention to introduce legislation to close down Radio Caroline and the Marine Offences Bill became law in 1967. After the passing of the Act in Parliament most of the British born DJ's left Radio Caroline. The Risk of prosecution was too great for them to continue. This act however, did not apply to the non-British radio personalities, most of whom carried on into 1968. They were joined by new hands, who were willing to risk the wrath of the law.

Radio Caroline’s land headquarters relocated to Amsterdam and fan mail took about six weeks to arrive. Listener's detected a lowering of morale among the DJs. Political and legal pressure was mounting  and DJ Mark Sloane was on shore leave in a pub in Bristol in 1968 when he was approached by a man in a dark suit who told him not to rejoin the ship ever again. He believed he had been warned off by MI5.

But the end of Caroline was because of unpaid bills and NOT Government legislation. It happened on a Saturday evening. The station went off the air at ten o'clock and about two o'clock the Sunday morning there was a thump and men from a tug had come across and had taken over the ship. They had pirated it. They said they had their orders to cut the anchor chain and late Sunday afternoon the ship was towed away.

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On this day 12^th January 1960-1965.

On 10/01/1960 the number one single was Why - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was not listed and the box office smash was North by Northwest. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Aswan Dam foundation stone laid.

On 12/01/1961 the number one single was I Love You - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was Emergency Ward 10 (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV).

On 12/01/1962 the number one single was Moon River - Danny Williams and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the week was Avalanche buries 16 villages in Peru.

On 12/01/1963 the number one single was The Next Time/Bachelor Boy - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 12/01/1964 the number one single was I Want to Hold Your hand - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Steptoe & Son (BBC) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Anti-US demonstrations over Panama Canal.

On 12/01/1965 the number one single was I Feel Fine - The Beatles and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

Web Page No 2544

12^th January 2019

Criss Cross Quiz

1^st Picture. The playing board

  

2nd Picture. Criss Cross Quiz Board Game

 3^rd Picture. Barbara Kelly

4^th Picture. Michael Miles in Take Your Pick

Now here is a quiz programme that you probably have forgotten about. It combined the game noughts and crosses with general knowledge questions and was aired on the ITV network from 1957 to 1967 and was produced by Granada Television. At the time this programme was as popular as ‘Dotto’, ‘Double Your Money’ and Take Your Pick’.

The programme, which ran for 30 minutes including the adverts, was presented by Jeremy Hawk from 1957 to 1962 and Barbara Kelly, Bernard Braden’s wife, from 1963 to 1967. Jeremy Hawk had enjoyed a long career in music halls and on London’s West End stages. He also appeared on television as straight man to Benny Hill, Arthur Askey and Norman Wisdom. Incidentally Jeremy Hawk appeared in the famous “nuts, whole hazelnuts” TV commercial for Cadbury’s Whole Nut chocolate in the 1970s.

When he left the show in 1962 he was replaced first by Bill Grundy, and then by Canadian-born Barbara

The series was based on an American show entitled Tic Tac Dough which ran from 1956 to 1959 and was revived in 1978.

Additionally, a children's version of the show called Junior Criss Cross Quiz was produced starting in 1957 (the same year the adult version started). Kids played the game, but for prizes instead of money. This series ran from 13 November 1957 to 29 June 1967. Presenters on the children's version were: Jeremy Hawk, Chris Kelly, Bob Holness, Mike Sarne, Chris Howland, Gordon Luck, Peter Wheeler, Bill Grundy, Danny Blanchflower and Barbara Kelly.

The game was basically the same as the American Tic Tac Dough with a similar set. Two contestants played the game with the champion playing cross ("X"), and the challenger playing noughts ("O"). They faced a noughts & crosses (tic-tac-toe) game board of nine subjects. Each player took turns (starting with the champion) picking categories and answering questions in those categories.

Correct answers placed his/her symbol in the board and added money to the pot; centre box was worth £40 while the outer boxes were worth £20. First player to get three in row (across, up and down, or diagonally) won the game and became champion. A wrong answer put your opponent’s symbol in the square.

Questions were asked from categories as diverse as films, quotations, nicknames, Africa, the 1920’s, currency or potluck and if a game was drawn the prize money was doubled for the next game. Winners stayed on the show until they were beaten, although a rule capping the maximum amount a contestant could win was introduced after one lucky player walked away with £2,360. In total there were 324 editions of the programme aired.

The first ever winner on the show was William (Bill) Sykes of Sale who won £460, by 1960, each contestant could only win up to £1,000.

In 1959, the toy manufacturer Chad Valley brought out a board game based on the programme.

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On this day 12^th January 1960-1965.

On 12/01/1960 the number one single was Why - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific. The top rated TV show was not listed and the box office smash was North by Northwest. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the week was Aswan Dam foundation stone laid.

On 10/01/1962 the number one single was Moon River - Danny Williams and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the week was Avalanche buries 16 villages in Peru.

On 10/01/1963 the number one single was The Next Time/Bachelor Boy - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 10/01/1964 the number one single was I Want to Hold Your hand - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Steptoe & Son (BBC) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Anti-US demonstrations over Panama Canal.

On 10/01/1965 the number one single was I Feel Fine - The Beatles and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.