Web Page No 2780 1st May 2021 1st Picture: Max in his early days

2nd Picture: With Tommy Cooper and Arthur Askey

3rd Picture: With his wife Connie

4th Picture: Educating Archie: Max, Hattie Jacques, Archie Andrews, Peter Brough and Harry Secombe

Max Bygraves, It seems to me that throughout my younger years, in the entertainment world there was always Max Bygraves through Educating Archie, the Tooth Brush Song, Singalongwithmax and the rather uncomfortable couple of series of game shows. He always kept the persona of a cheerful cockney stevedore but good-natured, with a sort of innocence that would not upset anyone. This was suited to his voice and stage personna. He was born Walter William Bygraves in Rotherhithe to Henry Bygraves, a prize fighter who became a docker, and his wife, Lilian. The family lived in a two-room flat and money could be scarce. His father tended to fend off his young son's questions about life and sex with jokes. When, in early adolescence, the boy asked him why hair was beginning to grow on his body, his father told him it was God's punishment for his misdeeds: "You're turning into a coconut." Max attended St Joseph's school, Rotherhithe, and sang with his school choir at Westminster Cathedral. When his father dressed him up in an old army cap, gave him a broom for a rifle and got him to sing a popular song in front of an audience of dockers, the collection for him was large enough to encourage the thought of a career in show business. After leaving school at the age of 14, he went into an advertising agency as a messenger boy, ferrying copy to newspapers and stopping at the Holborn Empire to see variety acts whenever he could afford it. When the advertising industry slumped at the beginning of the second world war, he got a job as a carpenter's apprentice and built air-raid shelters. After being blown off a roof he was repairing during an air raid, he decided to volunteer for the RAF in 1940 and served as an airframe fitter for five years. He met a sergeant in the WAAF, Blossom Murray, and they married in 1942. Together, they had three children, Christine, Anthony and Maxine. Stationed near Kew, Max started entertaining the troops and performed in pubs, doing impressions of Frank Sinatra, the Inkspots and Max Miller (earning him the nickname Max, which he kept). By the time the war ended, he decided to turn professional. At the Grand theatre, Clapham, he was spotted by the agent Gordon Norval, who got him six weeks' work. Further engagements followed but the going was tough. Despite their love of Britain, he and Blossom had decided to emigrate to Australia when a letter arrived from the BBC asking him to repeat the audition act he had recently given. This earned him an appearance in the radio series They're Out, which featured other demobbed entertainers such as Spike Milligan, Jimmy Edwards, Frankie Howerd, Harry Secombe and Benny Hill. In 1946 he did a touring revue, For the Fun of It, with Frankie Howerd. He then made his first films, Bless 'em All and Skimpy in the Navy (both in 1949), and had another radio hit in the 1950s, performing in Educating Archie. He also made a handful of films in that decade in the 1950’s Meanwhile, the London Palladium had become something like his professional home. He made his debut there in 1950, after he was seen at the Finsbury Park Empire and was asked to stand in for Ted Ray at the Palladium. He appeared in 14 shows there over a period of 10 years and eventually starred in 19 Royal Variety Performances. After the first of these, in 1950, Judy Garland asked him to appear with her at the Palace theatre in New York where, wrongly, he did not expect his cockney humour to register. He was naturally laidback and worked on perfecting the art of unforced pace on stage and his delivery was always apparently casual. He regarded his catchphrases as better value than a press agent, and lines such as "A good idea, son" and "I wanna tell you a story" became very popular. His company Lakeview Music bought the rights to Lionel Bart's musical Oliver! for £350 and later sold them on for £250,000. In 1960, he released his version of one of the musical's numbers, Consider Yourself. In the 50s, he had reached the Top 5 with the singles Meet Me on the Corner, You Need Hands/Tulips from Amsterdam and Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be. Often nostalgic or comedic in tone (such as You're a Pink Toothbrush), he also released in a series of "singalong" albums. He picked up 31 gold discs in total and was appointed OBE in 1983. In 1977 he published a novel, The Milkman's on His Way and his autobiography, I Wanna Tell You a Story, appeared the previous year, and further memoirs followed, including After Thoughts (1989), Max Bygraves: In His Own Words (1997) and Stars in My Eyes: A Life in Show Business (2002). In his later years he settled into a routine of overseas shows, especially in South Africa, which he had often visited before the end of apartheid. He was generous to family, friends and old associates and worked for theatre charities. He relocated to Australia from Poole in later life. Blossom died in 2011 and he died 31 August 2012 was survived by his children and several grandchildren. He died aged 89 after suffering from Alzheimer's disease he was an all-round entertainer singer, a television host and a reluctant gameshow compere (his two years with Family Fortunes between 1983 and 85 convinced him it was not for him). he died from complications of this illness at his daughter's home in Australia on the evening of 31st August 2012. His place of burial is unknown. But who can forget Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen-By-The-Sea? Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com

On 01/03/1960 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 Some Like It Hot. 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 First plain paper photocopier introduced.

On 01/03/1961 the number one single was Sailor - Petula Clark. The top rated TV show was The Army Game (Granada) 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 Bootsie & Snudge (Granada).

On 01/03/1962 the number one single was Rock-a-Hula Baby/Can't Help Falling In Love - Elvis Presley 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 day was 93 die in New York plane crash. 01/03/1963 the number one single was The Wayward Wind - Frank Ifield and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was Labour Party Political Broadcast (all channels) 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 01/03/1963 the number one single was The Wayward Wind - Frank Ifield and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was Labour Party Political Broadcast (all channels) 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. div class="separator" style="clear: both;">

Web Page No 2778 24th April 2021

Marmalade

1st Picture: Robertson's Jam Factory in Droylsden

2nd Picture: James Robertson founder of Golden Shred circa 1890

3rd Picture: Golly Badge

4th Picture: Golden Shred with Paddington

Golden Shred One of the staple items on the breakfast table since I was a child is Robertsons Marmalade, either Golden Shred or Silver Shred. was founded by James Robertson in 1864. The firm was run as a partnership until 1903, when it was incorporated as a limited company - James Robertson & Sons, Preserve Manufacturers, Limited. James Robertson of Paisley, was born on 16th January 1832 and started life working in the local thread mills at the age of eight. During a long down turn in the silk trade, in 1847 Robertson's parents decided to apprentice him to a local grocer, Gibson & Craig, wine spirit and tea merchants. This redefined James' future. Only at this late stage did he learn to read and write attending night classes.

In 1859 he started in business in his own right as an independent grocer in Paisley. In 1864 he bought a barrel of Seville oranges, which are known for their bitter taste. They did not sell well. Not wanting to see her husband waste money, Mrs Robertson made a sweet tasting marmalade, which they later perfected. They rented factory space and the resultant clear and tangy marmalade was branded as "Golden Shred"; it became a commercial success. In 1880 Robertson built a three storey, custom-made marmalade factory. The couple had developed a method to remove the bitterness of the orange, while retaining what Robertson called "the highly tonic value of the fruit". It is asserted that this same process is used in the present day to give Robertson's preserves a distinct flavour. So popular was the product, that in 1864 a separate company was formed to lease another factory to meet increased demand this time in England. Jam and mincemeat were soon added to the range. In 1891 the company built a second English-based factory to meet southern demand, at Droylsden, Manchester. 1900 a third factory was built in Catford. In 1914 a fourth factory was created at Brislington near Bristol. In 1903, James Robertson & Sons, Preserve Manufacturers, Limited was incorporated to run the business. The famous Robertson's Golliwog symbol (not seen as politically incorrect at the time) appeared in 1910 after a trip to the USA to set up a plant in Boston. His son John bought a golliwog doll there. For some reason this started to appear first on their price lists and was then adopted as their trade mark. In 1914 James Robertson died aged 83. He had been a member of the council, a magistrate, a school director, and the manager of a savings bank, as well as belonging to a variety of philanthropic societies. His eldest son John succeeded as company chairman, establishing the firm as a leader in the preserves industry. Robertson’s were awarded royal warrants of appointment by King George V in 1933, King George VI and also by the present Queen. The marmalade was sold in an opaque earthenware jar until the 1930s and only then was it placed in glass jars. The original factory in Paisley is now a housing estate, St. Andrew's Court, with the street itself named Robertson's Gait. In 2007, owner Premier Foods announced the closure of the factories in both Ledbury and Droylsden by the end of the year, with the group's UK jam production all concentrated on Hartley's plant at Histon. The Droylsden factory was demolished in 2010 and only the small building which housed the electricity mains transformer remains on an otherwise derelict site. In the 1920s a Robertson's factory was built in Water Lane, Brislington, Bristol. This was expanded and became the largest jam factory in Europe, and was served by its own branch railway line. The factory was eventually closed in 1981 with manufacturing transferred to Droylsden. The Paisley factory closed in 1979 and in 1981 the company was bought by Avana Foods. In December 2008, Premier Foods announced that it would discontinue jam in the UK under the Robertson brand in 2009. This removed the internal rivalry between two of their products: Hartley's jam and Robertson's jam. The Robertson's label was retained to focus on the marmalades: Golden Shred and Silver Shred. The Hartley's name was concentrated on the jam range. In 2012, Premier Foods sold its sweet spreads and jellies business to US multi-national Hain Celestial for £200 million. For the first time in its 150-year history Golden Shred is no longer a British brand. In 2013 James Robertson and Sons Ltd, first incorporated in 1903 was dissolved. In 2015, James Robertson and Sons Ltd was incorporated by James Robertson's great-great-grandson (also James Robertson). Just before World War I, John Robertson (son of James Robertson) was on a tour of the United States. Whilst on a visit to the backwoods he noticed many young children playing with little black rag dolls with white eyes, made from their mothers' discarded black skirts and white blouses. Intrigued by the popularity of the "Golly" (the name being the children's interpretation of doll), he thought it would make an ideal mascot and trade mark for the Robertson's range of products. Accepted by the company, Golly was first shown on Robertson literature in 1910, on items such as labels and price lists. In the mid-1920s, skilled enameller H. Miller from Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter approached the company with the idea of enamelled "mascots". Miller produced the first design, a Golly golfer in 1928. These brooches were given out to people posting in sufficient labels from jars of jam. Developed as a brooch-based collector series, by the early 1930s more sporting designs followed, including county cricketers and footballers with footballs in team colours. 1937 saw the Coronation Golly, complete with Union Jack on its chest. In 1939 the scheme was discontinued as the metal was needed for the war effort, but by 1946 the Golly was back again. The Golly pendant with chain was introduced by popular demand in 1956. In the 1970s, the design of all Gollies changed from the old Golly with "pop eyes" to a new Golly with eyes looking to the left. The words "Golden Shred" were removed from his waistcoat, his legs straightened and smile broadened. At about the same time a range of 11 footballer and 12 musician Golly figures were produced in plaster, standing about 2.5" high. There were Robertson Golly dolls, ceramic, Golly games for children, the 1979 illustrated storybook Here Comes Golly by Gyles Brandreth and even Golly clothing. At the start of the 1980s the hard enamelled badges were replaced with cheaper to produce acrylic badges, but this did not affect their popularity. When production stopped in 2001, over 20 million Gollies had been sent out.

Robertson's officially 'retired' Golly in 2002. The company had found that Golly was, on the whole, no longer popular with children, although the scheme was still successful and popular with adult collectors. Robertson's always insisted that they did not retire the Golly because of the pressure of political correctness in the 1990s, but simply for commercial reasons. In 2001, the Golly collectables were replaced by seven Roald Dahl-created characters, as illustrated by Quentin Blake. These included the Big Friendly Giant, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, and Willy Wonka. This collectables scheme ended in 2006.In 2014, Robertson's started a sponsorship deal tied-in to the Paddington movies, including a limited-edition version of Golden Shred. Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com

On this day 24th April 1960 – 1965 On 24/04/1960 the number one single was My Old Man's a Dustman - Lonnie Donegan and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Armchair Theatre (ABC) and the box office smash was Psycho. 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 24/04/1961 the number one single was Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) 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 24/04/1962 the number one single was Wonderful Land - 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 24/04/1963 the number one single was How Do You Do It? - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was Labour Party Political Broadcast (all channels) 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 24/04/1965 the number one single was Ticket to Ride - The Beatles and the number one album was Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. 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 2776 17th April 2021 1st Picture: Marbles used in a game of Solitaire

2nd Picture: Ball and Jacks

3rd Picture: Traditional Skipping Rope

4th Picture: Conkers

The Seasons of the year Not the Chronological seasons we experience every year but the seasons of play when we were kids. No one told us when it was the season for marbles or five stones or ball and jacks, toy cars or skipping ropes, ball games or card swaps! Some activities were regulated by the weather, for example it was no good trying to build and use a sledge in the summer months likewise it was no good building a go cart in January or February. However some things were regulated but nature. You could not play conkers before the conkers had fallen from the Horse Chestnut trees.

Five stones could be known as knucklebones, snobs, tali, dibs, snobs, astragalus or jackstones, among many other names, is ancient in origin and is found in various cultures worldwide. The name "knucklebones" is from the Ancient Greek version of the game which used a bone in the ankle of a sheep. However, different variants of the game from various cultures use other objects, including stones, seashells, seeds, and cubes. Modern knucklebones consist of six points, or knobs, projecting from a common base, and are usually made of metal or plastic. The winner is the first player to successfully complete a prescribed series of throws, which, though similar, differ widely in detail. The simplest throw consists in either tossing up one stone, the jack, or bouncing a ball, and picking up one or more stones from the table while it is in the air. This continues until all five stones have been picked up. Another throw consists of tossing up first one stone, then two, then three and so on, and catching them on the back of the hand. Different throws have received distinctive names, such as "riding the elephant", "peas in the pod", "horses in the stable",and "frogs in the well". A traditional marble is often made from glass, clay, steel, plastic, or agate and vary in size. Most commonly, they are about 13 mm (1⁄2 in) in diameter, but they may range from less than 1 mm (1⁄30 in) to over 8 cm (3 in). Marbles can be used for a variety of games called marbles. They are often collected, both for nostalgia and for their aesthetic colours. In the North of England the objects and the game are called "taws", with larger taws being called bottle washers after the use of a marble in Codd-neck bottles, which were often collected for play. They were commonly made of clay, stone or glass. Marbles arrived in Britain, imported from the Low Countries, during the medieval era.

In 1503 the town council of Nuremberg, Germany, limited the playing of marble games to a meadow outside the town. It is unknown where marbles were first manufactured. A German Glassblower invented marble scissors, a device for making marbles, in 1846. Ceramic marbles entered inexpensive mass production in the 1870s. The game has become popular throughout the US and other countries. The first mass-produced toy marbles (clay) made in the US were made in Akron, Ohio, by S. C. Dyke, in the early 1890s. Some of the first US-produced glass marbles were also made in Akron, by James Harvey Leighton. In 1903, Martin Frederick Christensen—also of Akron, Ohio—made the first machine-made glass marbles on his patented machine. His company, The M. F. Christensen & Son Co., manufactured millions of toy and industrial glass marbles until they ceased operations in 1917. The next US company to enter the glass marble market was Akro Agate. This company was started by Akronites in 1911, but located in Clarksburg, West Virginia. Today, there are only two American-based toy marble manufacturers: Jabo Vitro in Reno, Ohio, and Marble King, in Paden City, West Virginia.

Meanwhile here at home the British and World Marbles Championship has been held at Tinsley Green, West Sussex every year since 1932. (Marbles has been played in Tinsley Green and the surrounding area for many centuries in fact TIME magazine traces its origins to 1588. Traditionally, the marbles-playing season started on Ash Wednesday and lasted until midday on Good Friday: playing after that brought bad luck. More than 20 teams from around the world take part in the championship, each Good Friday; German teams have been successful several times since 2000, although local teams from Crawley, Copthorne and other Sussex and Surrey villages often take part as well. The first championship in 1932 was won by Ellen Geary, a young girl from London. Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com

News and Views:

You Write: On this day 17th April 1960 – 1965

On 17/04/1960 the number one single was My Old Man's a Dustman - Lonnie Donegan and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Armchair Theatre (ABC) and the box office smash was Psycho. 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 17/04/1961 the number one single was Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was The Budget (All Channels) 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 17/04/1962 the number one single was Wonderful Land - 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 17/04/1963 the number one single was How Do You Do It? - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the 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 17/04/1964 the number one single was Can't Buy Me Love - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was The Budget (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 17/04/1965 the number one single was The Minute You're Gone - Cliff Richard and the number one album was Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. 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 2774 10th April 2021 John Bull Printing Sets

1st Picture: John Bull outfit No6

2nd Picture: The Rubber Dye pieces

3rd Picture: Gift set

4th Picture: Multi printing set

The Story of Britain’s Most-Popular Printing Toy John Bull Printing Sets 1922 was a good year for budding printers. In Twickenham a young man called Donald Aspinall set up the Adana printing machine company, while a short distance in the City of London, three businessmen were laying the foundations of an equally famous printing-related company. The name of their small enterprise—The Charter Stamp Company—means very little today, but their most famous product—the John Bull Printing Outfits. John Bull Printing Sets are among Britain’s oldest and most popular toys. It was looked upon as the perfect ‘stocking filler’ by generations of parents and grandparents. Cheap and simple to use, they provided hours of fun for little fingers.

Early John Bull sets consisted of just upper-case characters and rubber illustration blocks were introduced into the sets by the late 1920s, but had also been sold separately for three decades or more. By the early 1930s a slab-serif typeface with upper and lower-case characters had been introduced and more expensive sets included printing blocks showing a clown, juggler, and Native American Chief and farm or zoo animals. Endless versions were issued from the company works in South Norwood. Sets were numbered anywhere from “1” to “250”. There were also “Special” sets the most commonly seen survivors are sets No. 4, 8, 18 and 12. Perhaps the strangest John Bull product is that which uses Monotype. These sets, with Monotype metal types, appeared soon after the WW2. The set contained 120 pieces of Monotype Gill Sans, although, rather curiously, the accompanying instruction leaflet was set almost entirely in Stephenson Blake’s rival sanserif, Granby. A special wooden type holder accommodated two lines of type, held in place with a thin wooden wedge and spaces were provided for use between words. A foam-rubber ink pad with non-toxic, water-based ink was supplied, so the results cannot have been very satisfactory. By 1950 this metal variant had been discontinued.

The company proclaimed the John Bull Printing Set to be 100% British made. This was true. Boxes were made on site, the rubber letters were moulded and vulcanised at the factory and even the non-toxic water-based ink was brewed up in large buckets. The product range expanded and by the early 1960s included a small rotary hand press which could accommodate several lines of rubber type in a grooved drum. By 1970 children could buy a John Bull farmyard set, backgammon, draughts and even a board game version of the BBC Mastermind quiz show. In the late 1970s costly plastic injection-moulding equipment was purchased for soft polymers, although the old vulcanised rubber system was retained for foreign language sets. The export market was important as a source of income, but the cost of producing new moulds for foreign territories was prohibitive. In the 1970s between 60,000 and 100,000 John Bull Printing Outfits were being made each year. Surplus manufacturing capacity allowed the production of components for another maker of educational rubber stamps. The John Bull trademark was sold to Dekkertoys of Peterborough in the late 1980s, but today the famous printing sets are no longer available. Second-hand sets occasionally appear on Ebay but new printing outfits are no longer manufactured.

Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com You Write: News and Views:

Mary Writes Hello, Hope you having a good Easter despite all. It`s a lovely sunny day here but tomorrow is meant to be like the winter of 1963, never to be forgotten. My Dad shot some pigeons for us to eat. We couldn`t see our veg plants in the garden but the pigeons came for them. In Denmead some birds were found frozen on top of sprout plants . Dad walked across the fields to where the rd was, & met a postman looking for the postbox. The rd between the hedges had filled up with snow, so Dad & the postman were walking on top of it. Most people seemed to stay indoors. I can`t remember being concerned, just got on with my revision, as my GCEs were that summer. It seemed a long time before we went back to school. 20 odd yrs later I was living in Scotland, where they know what heavy snow is! They are much better prepared for it, so cope with it. Life goes on much the same as always. Take care,

On this day 10th April 1960 – 1965 10/04/1960 the number one single was My Old Man's a Dustman - Lonnie Donegan and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Wagon Train (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. 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 10/04/1961 the number one single was Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Labour Party Political Broadcast (all channels) 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 10/04/1962 the number one single was Wonderful Land - The Shadows and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was The Budget (All Channels) 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 10/04/1963 the number one single was How Do You Do It? - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the 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 10/04/1964 the number one single was Can't Buy Me Love - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was The Budget (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. The big news story of the day was Two footballers suspended over match fixing allegations. On 10/04/1965 the number one single was Concrete & Clay - Unit 4 Plus 2 and the number one album was Rolling Stones Number 2 - The Rolling Stones. 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.