Web Page No 814

Top Picture: Home Sweet Home in the early 1960’s. Remember those coffee tables???






Bottom Picture: A Corporation dust cart






THE DUSTBIN MEN AND THE WINTER.


When we were kids the old refuse or bin wagons would visit every single week. This was well before the days of wheelie bins and different collections on alternate weeks. The dustbin men would lift the metal bins by their handles, made heavy with the daily ashes from the grates of all the coal fires, onto their leather clad shoulders, carry them from inside the back garden down to the lorry and then empty them into the wagon through a hatch which had a sliding top. I also remember that we had a separate bin outside the back door for pigswill, I do not remember who collected it or when it stopped. Those were the days when the dustman would take anything providing it could be broken up and put into the lorry, mind you it would probably cost you a couple of bob orso!

On snowy or icy days the householders would scatter the ashes onto the paths, drives and pavements to give a good foothold, After a period of snow which had turned to ice on the pavements, council workmen would then come along and break up the ice with shovels and throw it into lorries to be taken away and dumped into the sea, normally on the shores of Portsmouth Harbour.

Us kids would often make snowmen with lumps of coal for eyes and mouth and create giant snowballs by rolling an ordinary size snowball downhill or across the lawn in the snow until it got bigger and bigger. Once the snowball was big enough the tricky part of hollowing it out and making an igloo began. Snowball fights were common, especially in the mornings while waiting for school to start, and when the overnight fall was still fresh. Sledging took place and lying face down on the sledge and steering with your feet was known as going belly-flappers. With all the dirt of industry, smoky chimneys, steam locomotives etc. the snow did not stay pure and white for very long, it soon turned a soggy grey colour. But one of the best things was to make ice slides along the pavement or in the school playground. These were far from popular with the teaching staff and they would instruct the caretaker to go out before school and after playtime to sprinkle, ashes, salt or sand around so as to ruin the slides we had so painstakingly made.

These are all memories from the 1950’s and early 1960’s so moving on something else that we do not see very often these days is a street cleaner. When we were kids there always seemed to be a guy with a two wheeled bin trolley and a selection of brooms and shovels keeping the gutters clean and free from litter and leaves and the pavements clear of papers and dog mess. In fact all these cleaners seemed to have a regular route for which they were responsible. Today all we see is a large, left handed driven mechanical vehicle that sprays a minimal amount of water around and slowly moves down our streets with fast rotating round brushes on the front and a vacuum tube behind. These might be modern but they do not sweep under parked cars or other obstacles like the old road sweeper used to and so today we tend to get only partly swept streets. Another thing that seems to have disappeared from the road scene completely is the vacuum tanker lorry with the long snorkel attached that was used to suck the muck up out of drains. Long gone but I suppose that is why we see so many blocked drains in the autumn now!

All these things are now things of the past as are police cars, ambulances and fire engines with bells not sirens and bull horns, fire engines with extension ladders with large wheels attached not Fire and Rescue Support Units, rag and bone men ringing their bells (we actually still get one of these come round occasionally), police boxes and the weekly visit by the Corona man and the Pink Paraffin or Esso Blue man. Policemen on point duty, silence in Public Library’s, rattling sash windows, shrimps for tea on Sunday and home made ginger beer.

Ah !!!!!!!!!!!!!I really must be getting old !!!!!!


Take Care and keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.com


You Write:

Bob Writes:-

Great blog and I learnt something new. I knew that the reclaimed land for IBM was made by expanding the chalk pit, but always assumed it was carried there in fleets of chalk lorries. I never realised that they carried it by a conveyor across the houses and Allaway Ave, and the A 27. Must have been some conveyor, of course I was away in the RAF at that time, if I did come home to Purbrook I probably didn't go down that end of Portsmouth. After the war, when Dad returned from India, we lived for a time in Paulsgrove, and I played in and around the chalk pit, and down on Farlington Marshes, and yes I can remember the old u-boat moored outside John Pounds


News and Views:

Pernell Roberts dies.

Pernell Roberts was the last of the original stars from Bonanza. It was one of the most successful television series ever, it originally ran from 1959 to 1973 in the US, opened in the UK on ITV in 1960.

Pernell Roberts played Adam Cartwright, the eldest son of a rancher, Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene). Ben had been married and widowed three times, which explained why he had produced three such different sons. But Roberts grew dissatisfied with the series. and quit in 1965, but failed to build on the success of Bonanza before effectively re-emerging as the star of the MASH spin-off Trapper John MD (1979-86).



On this day 27th February 1960-1965 (Heavens I’ll be 64 tomorrow!)

On 27/02/1960 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 BBC asks for second TV channel.

27/02/1961 the number one single was Sailor - Petula Clark and the number one album was Tottenham Hotspur. 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 £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 27/02/1962 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.

On 27/02/1963 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 27/02/1964 the number one single was Anyone Who Had a Heart -Cilla Black 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 27/02/1965 the number one single was I'll Never Find Another You - Seekers 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 812

Top Picture: I never remember seeing a Hillman convertible like this one. Must have been built in the mid 1960’s I saw it in Glasgow last year.








Bottom Picture: The Classics





I came across this article in the March 1964 edition of the Hampshire Magazine. It deals with a Gosport R&B group I have mentioned before ‘The Classics’ and it talks of a gig at the Green Man in Whitchurch but it could well apply to any local group appearing in any local church or school hall. The article was written by Trvor Fishlock and really bears being read again 45 years later.

The Classics come to Whitchurch.

They were standing around the jukebox when we got into the Green Man at Winchester; four young men with very long hair whose fingers twitched excitedly as the machine coarsely spat six strident pennyworth of Rhythm-and-blues from its chrome encrusted iron lung.

They held a furrowed bow conference when I suggested drinks. Three of them decided on light ales; one accepted a cigarette. The Classics drink very little and only one smokes. The previously constructed image of a wild tearaway bunch of fast living young beat-men began to crumble.

The Classics are, dedicated being the word, to carrying the message of the Hippyhippyskake, with plaintive Texan and Oklahoman overtones, into the far corners of darkest Hampshire. To this end they lead an almost monkish existence, tolerate hundreds of miles of wearisome travelling every week, get to bed very late, rise very early and spend hours dreaming of the last square meal and the next.

Tonight, bound for Whitchurch church hall we clambered into The Classics 1959 green Morris van. The groups 23 year old leader, black bearded Tony Ransley, was behind the wheel; Paul Spooner, a side-burned milkman, sat beside him. Crouched in the rear wedged in the clefts between guitars, drums and amplifiers, were thin faced Tony O’Flaherty, an apprentice electrical fitter in Portsmouth Dockyard and lanky Ian Grant, a fitters apprentice, Peter, Paul and Ian are all 19. Like Tony who is at present looking for a job, they all live in Gosport.

This evening The Classics would finish at 11 o’clock and be in bed by 1.00am. For Peter, Paul and Ian that would mean five hours sleep before rising for work. Paul said “we get pretty short of sleep and regular meals. We get home from work, wash, change and then buzz off in the van, it is four or five nights on the trot, honestly we do not have time for things like girl friends. When we are not doing a show we rehearse at home. Without the amplifiers that is fairly quiet and we don’t get boots thrown at us. It’s hard work but we wouldn’t change things. We are good pals and keep each other in good order. While we are still paying for our equipment we don’t make a penny on our shows. We do it for fun; we enjoy making a big beaty noise and watching the kids get with it. We put everything into our playing and we are told that our standard of Rhythm-and-Blues is very high”.

Ian adds” Like most groups we don’t read music, we get our stuff from the radio, tape record it, then make our own arrangements playing by ear. We write our own stuff as well, it’s not bad and we are always trying to make it better. We also get some old records and rearrange some pre-war numbers.”

Every pop group need reliable transport. But that costs money. As the van chattered on through the mist Tony said “ We have been going 18 months and this old bus has taken us nearly 100,000 miles. It costs us a fiver a week for petrol when our diary is full. There is a lot of money to fork out for a group like this. Apart from the van there is more than £2000’s worth of gear – some of it still on the never-never. Look at what we have got, four amplifiers £925, Pete’s two guitars £170 and £140; Ian’s guitars £215 and £170 and my drum kits £350 and £250. Paul is the cheapest member his harmonicas, 16 of them are 11s 9d each. Some of our gear is pretty well paid for now and the monthly instalments are now down to £35.

The Classic’s instruments are on three year agreements and they work three nights out of five each show earning them between £15 and £25.

The band stayed together until 1966 when they split up, Ian Duck going to the Soul Agents and then Hookfoot and Peter O’Flaherty and Tony Ramseley, joining together with others from Portsmouth to form Simon Dupree and the Big Sound.

I remember seeing the Classics perform many times in the early 1960’s in the Oddfellows Hall, the Drayton institute, the Thorngate hall in Gosport and at many College Dances. Does anyone one else remember them?

Take Care and keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.com


You Write:

Sue Writes:

The only person I ever knew, who had pay TV, was the family I lived with, when I first started teaching in Oxted Surrey. The TV took 6d and lasted an hour I believe. It was hard for them to watch a film, as the money had to be put in on a regular basis, you could not put in more than one coin at a time. I did not watch with them but I heard the complaints when the money ran out at the exciting part and they missed it.

News and Views:

Cher auctioned off a home she built in the Four Seasons' Hualalai resort in Hawaii at the end of January for $8.7 million. The 8,800-square-foot home, built last year but never lived in, has 6 bedrooms and a pool with spa overlooking the resort's golf course.

On this day 20th February 1960-1965

On 20/02/1960 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 EMI's last coarse-groove 78 rpm record was issued

On 20/02/1961 the number one single was Are you Lonesome Tonight? - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) 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 20/02/1962 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. The big news story of the day was Unknown Sean Connery cast as 007 in Dr No

On 20/02/1963 the number one single was Diamonds - Jet Harris & Tony Meehan 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.The big news story of the day was Liz Taylor films Cleopatra


On 20/02/1964 the number one single was Diane - Bachelors 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 Malcolm X visits Cassius Clay's training camp

On 20/02/1965 the number one single was Tired of Waiting For You - The Kinks 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.

WEB PAGE NO 810

FIRST PICTURE: ELLIE GREENWICH.


SECOND PICTURE:
IT MIGHT BE A COUPLE OF DAYS EARLY BUT HERE IS A 1960’S VALENTINE CARD FROM ME TO YOU







ELLIE GREENWICH

I bet most of you will have never come across the name Ellie Greenwich! But I bet you know a lot of her music! Ellie Greenwich wrote some of the most memorable pop songs of all time. Songs such as ‘Be My Baby’, ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’ and ‘Leader of the Pack’ and in doing so she helped to define the emerging youth culture in the 1960s, the culture that was us!

At first hearing, her songs were little more than the catchy pop songs that we teenagers wanted to hear at the time but many of them have endured to become classics of their time. ‘And Then He Kissed Me’ describes the experience of a young woman being swept off her feet for the first time.(does that ring any bells out there?) ‘Leader of the Pack’, with its trademark revving motorcycle engine, tells of a sensible young girl who falls for a ne'er-do-well biker, until then neither of these subjects were regarded as being suitable for a pop song but once her songs were performed by the Ronnettes and Shangri-Las success soon followed.

Her song writing talent was recognised by Phil Spector who wanted emotional songs that could not easily be replicated. He found tunes such as ‘Be My Baby’, with its dramatic opening drumbeat, suited his Wall of Sound style of recording. He worked with her on many songs and he considered ‘River Deep Mountain High’, by Ike and Tina Turner, to be a masterpiece and called it "the rock 'n' roll symphony of all time".

Ellie Greenwich had a natural talent and she emerged as the creator of some of the generation's best-known hits after forming a partnership with Jeff Barry, whom she later married They set themselves up in what was then called the New York hit factory the Brill Building, along with Carole King, Gerry Coffin, Burt Bacharach and Neil Sedaka. She also formed a group called the Raindrops however her career as a performer did not match her writing talent.

She was born in New York in 1940 to a Catholic mother and Jewish father, both being of Russian origin and grew up in Brooklyn into a music-loving family. The young Ellie was a prolific collector of 45’s and she took lessons on the accordion. At high school she formed a singing group, the Jivettes, and at 17, calling herself Ellie Gaye she recorded and released her first single, ‘Silly Isn't It’/ ‘Cha-Cha Charming’. But it was as a songwriter that she began to flourish and ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’, was her first hit as a composer. This was followed up with a string of hits including ‘He's Got the Power’ and ‘(Today I Met) the Boy I'm gonna marry’.

She was still relatively unknown when in 1962 she arranged to meet one of the Brill Building composers. When he kept her waiting in an office she started to tinkle on the piano and sing. The producer Jerry Leiber was passing and poked his head in, thinking it was Carole King, and spotted her potential immediately.

Other of her compositions are ‘My Baby’, ‘Baby I Love You’ ‘Not Too Young To Get Married’ and ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home’ ‘Chapel of Love,’ ‘Out in the Streets’ and ‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy’ for Manfred Mann a song which which reached No 1 on both sides of the Atlantic.

She and Barry divorced but they continued to write together and the following year they discovered a young Jewish singer-songwriter called Neil Diamond. As the years passed Ellie started an alternative career writing jingles for TV and radio, which I am sure was a great loss to the pop music industry, and she never had a major hit again.

Ellie Greenwich, pop singer, songwriter, was born on October 23rd 1940 and died of a heart attack in August aged just 68.

And she was a name that we had never heard of!!!!!

Yours

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.com

You Write:
Had this sent to me:-
Ringo Starr has requested that all his fans honour him on his 70th birthday, July 7, by making the "peace sign" V-gesture at Noon that day, wherever they are. So don’t forget !!!!
News and Views:

The U.S. Social Security commission enlisted the aid of Chubby Checker to promote a new "twist" in the prescription assistance law that makes millions more senior citizens eligible.


On this day 13th February 1960-1965
On 13/02/1960 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 French test first atomic bomb in Sahara desert.

On 13/02/1961 the number one single was Are you Lonesome Tonight? - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) 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 13/02/1962 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 13/02/1963 the number one single was Diamonds - Jet Harris & Tony Meehan 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. The big news story of the day was Liz Taylor films Cleopatra.

On 13/02/1964 the number one single was Needles & Pins - Searchers 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 13/02/1965 the number one single was You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' - Righteous Brothers 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.

FIRST PICTURE: The Harbour Lights pub today





SECOND PICTURE: Motorway interchange where the A3 branches off from the A27









CHANGES




I think one the biggest changes to this whole area of Farlington, Cosham, Portchester and Paulsgrove over the year's must have been the building of the M27 which effectively cuts right through Farlington Marshes, alongside Portscreek, cutting off Hilsea Lido from its sea water intake, flying over the Paulsgrove housing estate and Portchester.

When the motorway/A27/A3 was built there was a tremendous outcry from the nature lobby re the destruction of the wet land environment at Langston and the effect that this would have on wildlife. However after 40 plus years things seemed to have settled down, the wildlife has returned, cattle are now grazing again on the meadowlands and one of the major problems is as a pedestrian where do I get access to the Marshes?

Another objector to the plan was St. John’s College who have their playing fields nearby as do the Council Recreation Services but after consultation and the building of a new approach road and car park this was all sorted out.
At the Paulsgrove end of the construction an enormous, noisy conveyor belt running from the slopes of Portsdown Hill, over the roads and houses of Paulsgrove being suspended over Allaway Ave, the railway line and Southampton Road was built. This conveyor belt finished at where the IBM main offices are now and carried the chalk that was dug out of the side of Portsdown hill which formed the motorway cutting above Portchester.

All of the seashore behind and to the left and right of the Harbour Lights Pub has been reclaimed. This used to be a lovely area to walk but now sadly has gone forever along with housing that was along that stretch of the Southampton Road. One of the residents was Commander Arthur Matthews who, with his elderly father, was very well known in the local Scouting movement. At the end of his garden, which backed onto the creek, was a large hut which was used by Sea Scouts and others and in fact I kept an ex- Government Whaler there for many years until the land reclamation and the building of the enormous Tesco Superstore.
A fair number of large factories that were along

the Southampton Rd have disappeared or have been redeveloped in another form. One of the largest was Johnson and Johnson, opposite the Harbour Lights, this was the baby products company. There is now a new office complex development on this site which is still waiting for someone to rent the office space. Another was C and A which had a factory further along next to Racecoarse Lane, in fact my uncle can still remember motorcycle races on the race course in the late 1920’s. One factory we all remember, if only for the smell, was the Smith's Crisps factory which was opposite the Transport Café, Bert’s and is now Mother Kelly's Fish Restaurant. I often wonder if, when the folks are digging their gardens in the houses that were built on the site, does a smell of cold fat drift up!!!!

A couple of Islands were also amongst our adventure outings. Trying to get onto Whale Island over the old scaffolding bridge or across the causeway a low tide was never an option as you were always seen but landing on the seaward side opposite Portchester Castle was always a possibility until you were thrown off by the MOD Police. Little did I know that in 40 years I would be driving over a new access bridge to go to work on the Island.

Horsea Island was also a challenge and was almost impossible to get onto. It was the school for Naval Fire-fighters, HMS Phoenix, and a diving school and torpedo testing station and was festooned with a vast array of radio aerials and impossible to get on to.

Whilst talking of things of the sea another challenge was to take a small dinghy and lose yourself in amongst the ships of the mothball fleet moored in Fareham Creek. This was always exciting, as you never knew if the Navy Patrol would spot your boat tied up to a mooring chain and realise you were aboard and come and throw you off. This happened only once and for the rest of the times we happily climbed all over these redundant Royal Navy ships.

Just one final thing about changes in the area, who remembers the beached submarine outside Harry Pounds yard in Portchester? I bet you all do!!!

Such memories
Yours

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.com

You Write:

Carl writes:-

I loved your thoughts on the washing line. We were a two line family at 71 Old Manor Way. Yeah, it was always the 7th cavalry wasn’t it & I fancied myself as The Lone Ranger. I think it looks like the Corporation Bus is at the junction of Milton Road & Highland Road just by the bus sheds & we are looking north in the photo. You’ve done a good job with the names I must say. There were loads I’d forgotten. Mind you quite a lot of the photos are understandably of you year & some the year younger than me. In the mixed photo the ‘ Fred ‘ was Fred Dyson, the ‘Carole’ in the front row was Carole Overton who used to teach with my wife on Hayling many years ago. In the same picture I can see Chris Goodyear (back row 3rd from right I think as I’m not looking at the photo. In the cricket photo, Pete Bridger is in the front row & I’m struggling to recall the name of the wicket keeper. I’m surprised I’m not in there as I also played for the school as I did hockey with Howard Bradshaw in goal, we also both played for Portsmouth Boys. Oh I could go on reminiscing all day. As always it’s a great job you are doing & I’m sure everybody appreciates it even if you don’t here it often said.

News and Views:

Composer and performer Burt Bacharach is recovering from back surgery December 31 in Los Angeles. The 81 year-old has rescheduled his concerts through March, as a result.

On this day 7th February 1960-1965

On 01/02/1960 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 Riot at Test match in Port of Spain.

On 01/02/1961 the number one single was Are you Lonesome Tonight? - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) 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 Recorded Delivery introduced.

On 01/02/1962 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 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 01/02/1963 the number one single was Diamonds - Jet Harris & Tony Meehan and the number one album was Out of the Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was The Prime Minister (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 01/02/1964 the number one single was Needles & Pins - Searchers 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 01/02/1965 the number one single was Go Now! - Moody Blues 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 806

FIRST PICTURE: The Buster Comic











SECOND PICTURE:

A Reunion Of The Portsdown Divisional Rover Crew At Scoutlands In Farlington. L To R: Davy Johns, Me, Dave Bartlett, Tom Holland, Muddy Clay, Roy Johns




















Firstly with thanks to Haley Storey take a look at this Youtube link, film of Portsmouth in the 50’s and 60’s. Let me know what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bimvoo2CrWQ&feature=youtu.be&a




And a new school friend has just joined us Sandra Churchyard.


THE GOOD OLD DAYS



Now this is really going to make you feel old! Did you realize that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the 60’s So I thought that I would take a look at what was happening in 1960 fifty years ago!

Lets start with TV. A new comedy series started ‘Sykes and...’
In August 1960 the cameras first entered 24 Sebastopol Terrace. Eric Sykes playing the a proud work-shy bachelor with childish tendencies and Hattie Jacques was his timid spinster sister Hattie! The series was actually called Sykes Versus TV but each week featured a subtitle which began with 'Sykes and ....'. It was written by Eric and Johnny Speight who created Alf Garnett. After 59 episodes the show ended in 1965, but in 1972 returned in colour for another 68 shows, but Eric and Hattie had moved two doors down to Number 28. The series ended in 1979 with a programme to celebrate twenty years of the series in 'The BBC Honours Sykes'.

Another newcomer to our screens was ‘Candid Camera.’ The concept of hidden camera television was born in the USA and Allen Funt set the ball rolling by secretly taping his army buddies complaints and broadcasting them on Armed Forces Radio. In 1948 'Candid Microphone' was born and five years later it moved to TV as 'Candid Camera'. In 1960 the show arrived in England and a young star Bob Monkhouse launched the series on an unsuspecting public.

The one programme we all remember is ‘Jukebox Jury’ but few people know that it actually began on US Television in 1948 starring DJ Peter Potter. It came to the UK in 1959, presented by David Jacobs, but only became a 'hit' itself in 1960. One of the highlights of the show was when The Beatles appeared on December 7th 1963. They rated songs by artists including Billy Fury, Elvis Presley and The Swinging Blue Jeans - all of which became hits. On the night, seven of the Beatles' predictions were right and three were wrong.

Now to the big screen. Firstly ‘Psycho’, famous for that scene in the shower. Criminal Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) stumbles across the motel with the least used guest book - The Bates Motel. At the front desk is Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) who seems to have an unnatural obsession with taxidermy and his mother. Of course crime doesn't pay and Marion meets a particularly sticky end - Hitchcock used gallons of chocolate syrup instead of blood, as Norman cuts up Marion with the carving knife, all to the sound of screeching violins. Psycho was badly remade by Gus Van Sant in 1998, but his opportunity to indulge in a vast chocolate-fest was scuppered by advances in film technology (i.e. it was in colour).

The ‘Magnificent Seven’ was an epic Western but was a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai just swap 17th Century Japan for 19th Century Mexico and pick cinema's most sinister baddie to lead some of the decade's top male leads and you've had a sure fire hit! Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, and Robert Vaughn were amongst the crew, led by Yul Brynner. The desperate villagers of a Mexican outpost, constantly under attack by bandits, hire the seven gunslingers to sort out the invaders once and for all. Mix the whole thing up with a Oscar Nominated soundtrack from Elmer Bernstein and you've got a classic movie.

‘Spartacus’ was a real epic saga in which rebellious slave Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) leads a revolt against the Roman Empire, and it has become one of the most famous and controversial action pictures of all time- strangely not because of the violence but because of fears that it had 'homosexual overtones'. The original version included a scene where Laurence Olivier attempts to seduce Tony Curtis. When the Production Code Administration and the Legion of Decency objected, the scene was cut. This scene was put back in for the 1991 restoration, but since the soundtrack had been lost and Olivier had died, Curtis and Anthony Hopkins had to dub in the dialogue. A couple of other interesting points of trivia are that the sound of the crowd cheering "Spartacus!" was recorded at a Spartans American Football game rather than in Rome, and that Stanley Kubrick spent a quarter of the entire Spartacus shoot directing a single battle sequence.
I will only take a quick look a one single artist of this period,Lonnie Donegan, the man who launched skiffle. He even released an album called 'Lonnie Donegan, King of Skiffle'. He is best remembered for his hits 'Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On The Bedpost Overnight)?' and 1960's 'My Old Man's a Dustman', although he clocked up more than thirty hits between 1958 and 1962. He was born Anthony but changed his name to Lonnie as a tribute to bluesman Lonnie Johnson. Among the many bands who cited the influence of Lonnie Donegan's music on theirs was The Beatles. John Lennon's 'The Quarrymen', which Paul McCartney joined, were a skiffle group. Lonnie Donegan died in November 2002, at the age of 71 whilst on tour.

Fashion is a funny thing who would have thought that ‘Doc Martens’ would become a fashion accessory? When German Dr Maertens injured his foot in a ski-ing holiday he could not have imagined that the orthopaedic shoe he designed for himself would still be going today, let alone become a boot of rebellion. In 1958, the Grigg family acquired rights to the air cushioned sole and started making boots at their factory in Wollaston. The first boot was produced on the 1st April 1960, and so was christened the 1460. The 1460, in black and later cherry red, was popular with postmen and policemen and then the 'mods' began to adopt them in the mid-60s. They became notorious when the steel-toe capped variety was used to inflict harm on football fans and rival gangs. There are 70,000 possible varieties of Doc Martens, starting at 3-eye and rising to a 20-eye boot. Elton John wore an enormous pair in the rock opera movie 'Tommy'.

The other side of the coin was the Beatnik: Quaintly described as a member of the Beat generation who was a nonconformist in dress and behaviour. One of the big hits of 1960 was the carry over of late 50's Beatnik fashion, which also influenced design later in the decade.
The Beatnik message was 'Be Cool, man!' The look was flat shoes for women, sandals for men and beret's became the must have fashion item for everyone. In 1960 Adam Faith starred in the cult film "Beat Girl", the story of a teenager who falls in with a beatnik crowd. It helped confirm the beatnik style as major fashion trend of the period.

And for the kids Etch-a-Sketch, basically it's was just big bag of dust with two magnets and some knobs to twiddle to move them with. It was easy to get rid of the drawing too - a quick shake and you've got a clean slate again. But where did it come from? In the late 1950s Arthur Granjean invented L'Ecran Magique - the magic screen and after several years of being ignored by businessmen L'Ecran Magique was bought by an American toy firm and renamed Etch-a-Sketch and the first sets were produced in July 1960. Most people think the Etch-a-Sketch is filled with iron filings, but the filings are actually aluminium and all the filings were made in the same metallic powder plant in the USA.

I cannot let the 60’s pass by without mentioning Lego, coming from the Danish words 'LEg GOdt' meaning play well, Lego seems to have been around for ever - but not in Britain. It was seen at the Brighton Toy Fair for the first time in 1960 - and took Britain by storm, massively outselling the Loopyloop (whatever that was) which the pundits had thought was going to be the hit of the year. Lego model kits weren't available until the mid-sixties, but the bricks sold by the bucket load, and it is still going today. The British Association of Toy Retailers has named Lego as the toy of the century. In fact my 5 year old grandson has just been given his first set which meant that we had to climb up into the loft to retrieve his dad’s old Lego collection. I am no sure who has most fun with it father, son or grandson.

Lastly a new comic for 1960 was ‘Buster’, it may not be as famous as The Beano or The Dandy, but Buster still has a place in the hearts of men of a certain age. The first issue came out in May 1960, cost 4d and came with a free balloon bleeper as well as great stories featuring the Terrors Of Tornado Street, Turtle Boy, and Phantom Force Five. The Buster of the title was originally billed as the 'Son Of Andy Capp', as he was based on the Daily Mirror strip and his adventure always occupied the front page. Buster was a great success for many years merging with rival Whizzer and Chips it provided a home for characters including Bonehead, Faceache, and Dinah Mite.

Reading all of this I must be getting old!!!!


Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.com

You Write:

Sue writes:

Having read your blog on all the things our mothers did wrong, by modern standards and all the things we did which children are no longer allowed to do made me think.

I went to Sydney and climbed the bridge on 21st December 2009.
We were told - with reluctance - that the bridge ends and the bases for the bridge were built by the Scots.

We were told - reluctantly - that the bridge itself was built by the men of Middlesbrough. The steel shipped over by sea.

We were asked how many men we thought had died during the construction of the bridge.

They had no harnesses - which the workmen now have.
They had no safety net - which the workmen now have.

They had no communication devices - which the workmen now have.

They had no hard hats - which the workmen now have to wear

They had no safety clothing - which they now have to wear.

They had no steel toed boots - which they now have to wear.

They had limited tools

They worked in gales

They worked in rain

They worked in heat

They finished ahead of time

14 died in the workshops below.

The only safety requirement was rubber soled boots

2 fell to their deaths.


News and Views:
Yoko Ono has announced that she is writing her memoirs, including her years with late-husband John Lennon. She expects to finish in the next five years.

On this day 30th January 1960-1965

On 30/01/1960 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 30/01/1961 the number one single was Are you Lonesome Tonight? - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) 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 Oral contraceptive made available in UK.

On 30/01/1962 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 30/01/1963 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 The Prime Minister (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. The big news story of the day was Composer Poulenc dies.

On 30/01/1964 the number one single was Needles & Pins - Searchers 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 30/01/1965 the number one single was Go Now! - Moody Blues 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. The big news story of the day was Churchill's funeral.

WEB PAGE NO 804

FIRST PICTURE: The service D to Farlington but where was it photographed ?










SECOND PICTURE: The original Southern Television logo.



A FEW MORE ODD MEMORIES

To start with that bus picture brought back some memories, I most certainly remember Portsmouth Corporation buses running to Farlington and turning at Forty Acres or Rectory Avenue, I cannot remember the number of the service but I am almost sure that it was not this particular service. I remember the 147 and 148 Dockyard Main gate to Leigh Park services passing through Drayton and Farlington but not the ‘D’ and of course I remember the Southdown 31 on the Brighton run, six hours from Portsmouth to Brighton – you really had to be dedicated to undertake that particular trip. What I found really interesting in the bus picture was the Rentaset advert on the bus side. This must date the picture to the mid 1950’s as this was the heyday of TV rentals. The other big name in this field was Radio Rentals. It seems strange now to be able to rent a radio, a washing machine or a TV set but I suppose for many people it was the added insurance of if one of these new fangled things broke down they were repaired for free. This was very noticeable when colour television was introduced and was very expensive to buy and to repair. We only ever rented a television set and this arrived in 1956, a magnificent piece of furniture with a 16” screen made by Sobell, but I have spoken of this before.

I also remember pay TV although I do not remember anyone I knew having it. This involved a television set with a pay meter on the side which acted rather like an electricity meter, ie the more you watched the more you paid. Other rental companies were Rediffusion and Granada and I am sure there were many other companies, Currys for example, who had a rental section for a while.

Whilst I was writing washing machines a couple of paragraph back I suddenly remembered that most households in the 1950’s boasted not one but two washing lines; one low one for clothes and pillowcases and one high one for sheets, blankets, towels and counterpanes. I think most of us in our own homes had washing lines attached to the back of our houses and a scaffold pole cemented into the ground at the garden end of the line. Both these lines were worked on the rope and pulley system but can you remember the consternation when the rope on the top line broke and wet sheets draped themselves all over the lawn and nearby bushes!!!! The other very valuable use that the high line came in for was as a flagpole especially during a game of pirates when your home made skull and cross bones could be hauled aloft to worn off all attackers. (the same went for the stars and stripes with the American 7th Cavalry, when the game was Cowboys and Indians!) Naturally these games were banned on washing days! Then, of course, on hot summers days we could drag an old sheet or tarpaulin over the line and peg it out as a tent for exploring the jungle or to be an Indian encampment.

And all this came to an end with the advent of the simple rotary or whirligig clothesline, which did away with washing lines completely; it just left a hole in the lawn. Shame!

Garden games were different after that we had to make dens and dig hole to make hidouts but that is yet another story.


DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.com

You Write:
Sue writes:-

Telling my friend, your story from Mrs Sinden, Joyce who seems to have known everyone famous -the Wedgewoods and all the pottery families etc - tells me she trained Donald`s sister to teach. She was a good actress too but other people were not fair to her and she gave up. Joyce now 87 has some wonderful tales to tell, including being one of the first to hear that WWII had ended. Part of the choir who recorded for the BBC during the war, they had just finished recording when the news came over an open microphone. They were locked in the room until 2am!

News and Views:
Ray Ennis, who has sung lead vocals for The Swinging Blue Jeans since they formed in the 1950’s has announced his retirement. The band, who were the first ever to play at The Cavern when it opened as a jazz club, and who gave The Beatles their first chance to appear there will make their final tour of the country early this year as part of the Solid Silver Sixties line-up, ending with what will be a concert in Liverpool on May 30th.

On this day 24th January 1960-1965
On 24/01/1960 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 First Rome Synod.

On 24/01/1961 the number one single was Poetry in Motion - Johnny Tillotson 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 24/01/1962 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. The big news story of the day was Film Jules et Jim premieres in Paris.

On 24/01/1963 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 24/01/1964 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 24/01/1965 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. The big news story of the day was Winston Churchill dies.

WEB PAGE NO 802

FIRST PICTURE: PETER HAIGH











SECOND PICTURE:

Shani Wallis s she appeared in Oliver








Firstly, with the able assistance of Steve and Philip I have been able to name all the boys in the picture entitled in the Woodwork Shop on the side bar.



Some names from the past you may well have forgotten!


Peter Haigh 1925 - 2001
Peter Haigh died aged 75 in 2001. He was a familiar and popular face on BBC television in the years after the War.He made his debut as an announcer in March 1952 when he stood in for McDonald Hobley. Before this he had been trying without luck for three years to get a post at the BBC, but his two-week trial at Alexandra Palace was an immediate success and he was asked to join the team of continuity announcers headed by McDonald Hobley, Sylvia Peters and Mary Malcolm. He was over six-foot tall and had a carefully trimmed moustache and beautifully modulated voice, he looked every inch the Guards officer that he had been before entering broadcasting. Newspapers columnists regularly referred to him as "Television's most eligible bachelor", a tag he forfeited when in 1957 he married Jill Adams, a Rank starlet.The previous year he had defected to ITV then the job as BBC’s chief staff announcer was offered him, but he had already started to make a good living as a freelance presenter and knew that if he accepted the BBC's offer he would not be able to continue with this additional work. He turned down the job and concentrated on activities such as compering Come Dancing, presenting television quizzes and introducing celebrity dinners at Guildhall in London. In 1956 he was voted best commentator of the year. He became perhaps most associated with Picture Parade, a weekly review of the film world which he co-presented with Derek Bond and which ran for many years.
With the coming of television he fitted perfectly into that persona of dinner jackets and clear enunciation. During the 1950s he earned and spent a great deal of money, but when the look of television began to change his career declined. His marriage broke up and he began drinking more than was good for him. In the mid-1960s he retired to Portugal, where he ran a harbour-side restaurant and bar. There he met his German-born second wife. In the 1980s they returned to Britain, where he hoped that he could resume his broadcasting career. But this did not happen. He made his final television appearance as the guest of Des Lynam on a short-lived series called It's My Pleasure, intended as a television equivalent of Desert Island Discs. Afterwards he worked occasionally for BBC Radio and did voice-overs for advertisements. He died in March 2001and was survived by his second wife, Inge, and by a daughter of his first marriage.
Elton Hayes. 1915 - 2001
Both his parents were actors and he made his first stage appearance aged nine. He wanted to be an actor, but he also learned the violin and the ukelele. In his teens, he won a scholarship to the Fay Compton School of Dramatic Arts. His first job was as assistant stage manager with the Old Stagers' Company at the Canterbury Theatre and he sang in his spare time at local social clubs.
He took up the guitar and the guitar would cause his later fame, accompanying himself while he sang old English folk songs and ballads he made an enviable reputation. Despite contracting rheumatic fever, which caused his fingers to stiffen, he continued playing. He joined the services during the war and a few days after returning to Britain from war service in India, he visited the BBC, still in uniform, to watch a broadcast of Children's Hour. He was recognised and was immediately taken on to write and perform a slot in the programme based on Edward Lear's Nonsense Rhymes. Soon after he was given a regular slot on "In Town Tonight". From then on he performed on radio and television frequently in Britain. On an eight week tour of North America, he made 113 appearances which he found very exhausting. But for most of us he was, and will always be, the singing minstral Alan-a-Dale in ‘The Tales of Robin Hood’. He was highly nervous before live performances and so retired from show business in the 1960s and, after studying at a agricultural college, became a farmer in Essex, breeding pedigree livestock. He took up carriage driving and became a member of the British Driving Society. After suffering a stroke in 1995, he had to give up his farm and moved to live with friends, who cared for him until his death. In 1942 he married Betty Inman, who died in 1982.
Shani Wallis
Shani Wallis was born in 1933 in Tottenham and made her name as an actress and singer, releasing several popular records in the 1950s. She made her first stage appearance at the age of four, and later studied at the RADA on a scholarship. Throughout he career she played many leading lady roles in the West End, but she is best known for the role of Nancy in the 1968 film production of Lionel Bart's musical Oliver! She is now a naturalized citizen of the United States, where she has lived for many years. She has appeared with Liberace, Jack Benny, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and has been married to agent Bernie Rich since 1965; they have one child, Rebecca, and two granddaughters. She is also the sister of jazz drummer Leon Roy and is the Life President of The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America.

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.com

You Write:
Mary Writes: I do so agree with the article. I feel sorry for children today, as we had such freedom. I spent hours on Farlington Marshes and developed a real love of wildlife, which has never left me. I loved to climb trees, chalkpits, and slide on the ice, all very "elf&safety" today. I used to climb trees while my brother stood at the base of the tree holding my coat. Later my brother joined the RM reserves and got his para wings! I actually do not like heights these days! Also we used to walk everywhere. I still remember how we used to walk from Cosham Odion on a Saturday, save the bus fare and buy a cake in the bakers in Drayton.

News and Views:
The U.S. Postal Service announced its commemorative stamps for 2010. Gene Autry and Roy Rogers will be honoured as part of an American Cowboy series.

On this day 17th January 1960-1965

On 17/01/1960 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 the price of large eggs cut to 3/- a dozen.

On 17/01/1961 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 17/01/1962 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.The big news story of the day was Van Doren guilty in US quiz show fix.

On 17/01/1963 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 17/01/1964 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 17/01/1965 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 800

FIRST PICTURE: MARILYN MUNRO EVERY TEENAGE BOYS FANTASY












SECOND PICTURE: A PLACE TO COOL OFF AFTER LOOKING AT THE FIRST PICTURE, HILSEA LIDO.


Firstly with the help of Steve and Tim I have now managed to name almost all of the pupils on the 27th picture down on the Blog Side Bar. Are you there?


CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940s AND 1950s!




I have seen many of these remember when articles but I think this is one of the best! So I have localised it a little.

First, we survived being born to mothers who sometimes smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of, or full of asbestos. They took aspirin (my mother took Rennie by the cwt when she was carrying so I was told), ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of fatty bacon and pork, processed meat, tuna from a can and never thought of getting tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were often second hand and repainted by Dad with bright coloured lead-based paints.

When we rode our bikes we rode on the road and not the pavement because we knew a policeman would tell us off if we did, we had no helmets or protective clothing. Later some of us took up hitchhiking without a thought of danger. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags and we often rode in the front seats on Mum’s lap.
Take away food was limited to fish and chips, (in our case from Fishy Francis in Drayton) there were no pizza shops, McDonalds , KFC or Subway but there were Wimpey Bars if you could find them.
Even though all the shops closed at 5.30pm and didn't open on Sundays, somehow we didn't starve to death and Dad still got his DIY done!
We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Gobstoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up the mud on Farlington Marshes with.
We ate sugar heavy cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with loads of sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because.......WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were still O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. Then come the winter we would build sledges to use on Portsdown Hill. We built tree houses and dens and played in the garden with Matchbox cars.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY or cable, no video/dvd films, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, grazed and scratched ourselves, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. Only girls had pierced ears! We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time...We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them! Mum didn't have to go to work to help Dad make ends meet!
RUGBY and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT.
Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes, threw blackboard rubbers or chalk and bully always ruled the playground at school. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
Our parents didn't invent stupid names for their kids like 'Kiora' and 'Blade' and 'Ridge' and 'Vanilla'
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL ! And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.
And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

PS –It might be an idea to foreword this to friends in big type because their eyes are not too good at their age.
Stay in touch and Take Care and how often did you say,’yes I remember that’?

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.com

YOU WRITE:
Someone told me the other day that back in the mid 1950’s when ‘Fish Figures’ were first put on the market the launch was delayed because it was decided to change the name of the product. I really do wonder just how long they would have lasted under the original name ‘Cod Pieces’ !!!!!

NEWS AND VIEWS:
Royal Mail will issue a series of stamps depicting legendary album covers. Among them are "Let It Bleed" from the Rolling Stones, Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells," David Bowie's "Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust" and the album known simply as "Led Zeppeliv IV."


ON THIS DAY 10th 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 10/01/1961 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 was 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 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 (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 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 (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. The big news story of the day was Sylvia Plath publishes her only novel The Bell Jar.


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 (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 798




HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE





FIRST PICTURE: A NEW YEAR DAY CARD FOR ALL OF YOU








SECOND PICTURE: HOME SWEET HOME OVER THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS






HOME ON SUNDAY

Hey! Do you remember Sundays and holidays at home when we were first at Manor Court. We were 11 years old or so that would make it 1957 or thereabouts; but Sundays then were a very different animal than they are today.
To start with as Sundays were special and were mainly reserved for the visits of, or visits to, some of the far flung members of the family I was never allowed to go out and play with my friends because ‘It is Sunday and it was for the family’ and when you are an only child with no brothers or sisters to contend with, that can make for a very boring day!! Especially if I was playing in the garden I was not to make too much noise ‘because it was Sunday’. Maybe in the afternoon we might go out for a walk if the weather was fine but even that was no relief as to go out, ‘because it was Sunday’, it meant being dressed in your Sunday best, not comfortable clothes, what a bore.

You could not even escape by running an errand to the shops as they were not open, no grocery store, no d-i-y store, no supermarket and definitely no off licence. The only shop that was open was the newsagent for the Sunday papers and their deliveries and by 11 or 12 o’clock they had usually closed ‘because it was Sunday’.

There was no professional sport on a Sunday but amateur sport was allowed so club football, rugby and cricket matches took place as did motor cycle scrambling and moto cross. There really was a queer mix of things that were allowed by the Lords Day Observance Society who had a lot of influence as to what could or could not happen on a Sunday.

The radio programmes weren’t bad and I know I have discussed them in depth on earlier pages But then there was Television. In the early days of us owning a TV, set a 14” Sobell, there was very little to watch apart from the Sunday Service in the morning, then there was a period when the station was off the air, ‘because it is Sunday’. It then re-opened with programmes specially aimed at children, programmes, which, as far as I can remember, children did not like, or want, programmes such as ‘All Your Own’ with Huw Weldon. I know that I never had the slightest interest in what other children could do or what they could play, to me and to many others it made for just a boring programme. Then came one of the highlights of the day, the Sunday afternoon serial, ‘Hornblower’, Children of the New Forest, ‘Kidnapped’, ‘the Black Narcissus’, Swiss Family Robinson, Treasure Island or some other exciting story usually dramatised for television by a man whose name always fascinated me by its strangeness, Dennis Constandures.

The of course there was ‘Songs of Praise’, ‘because it was Sunday’ the tv company’s had to fill the God Spot! Then we would all settle down with a cup of tea, a cold meat sandwich (meat left over from the Sunday Roast) and a slice of Victoria Sandwich ready for ‘Sunday Night at the London Palladium’, a real family favourite.

Once this had finished it was time to get your clothes and books ready for school so as not to have a rush in the morning, a bath ‘because it was Sunday’, then off to bed as I had to get up for school in the morning.

As far as I can remember this was the regular routine in our house every Sunday for years and years, maybe being interspersed sometimes with church on most Sunday mornings. And even when we went to stay with my Grandmother in London or my Godmother in Essex the routine hardly changed except for one very big thing, neither of them had a television set!

Well as I am sitting here writing this of an evening when all the rest of the family have gone on to bed I had better stop writing as time is marching on and out of guilt I will have to stop writing ‘because it will soon be Sunday’.

Stay in touch and Take Care

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.com

YOU WRITE:

Even more about Highbury
I was speaking to an elderly lady the other day who remembers moving into Highbury Grove when it was new and before the roads were made up. She tells me that opposite the Highbury Shops, where the bowling green is now there was a large builders sign advertising the houses. This sign consisted of a whole row of cut out houses and there were soon found by the local birds who very quickly moved in and made nests in them.


NEWS AND VIEWS:
A brand new "Ivor the Engine" story, the first in over 30 years, was unveiled on 7th December after a unique collaboration between Ivor's co-creator, Peter Firmin and Dan Postgate, son of the late Oliver Postgate who wrote the original Ivor stories. With brand new illustrations by Peter Firmin and words by Dan Postgate, "Bluebell's Christmas Mission" is set in a snow-bound Wales on Christmas Day, and will benefit the work of UK veterinary charity SPANA (Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad). SPANA provides free veterinary care to working animals like donkeys, mules and horses in some of the poorest countries of the world, and it's fitting that the new story sees a central role for Bluebell the donkey, who figured prominently in the original Ivor stories. The new story, entitled "Bluebell's Christmas Mission" is available as a download from the SPANA website at www.spana.org at a cost of £3. Hard copies can be ordered online for £3.50, or by sending a cheque to SPANA at 14 John Street, London. WC1N 2EB. All profits made will help SPANA's veterinary and education work overseas.
SPANA has had the story fully translated into the Welsh language, and this is available as a separate download from the same website or as a hard-copy by post
ON THIS DAY 3RD JANUARY 1960-1965
On 03/01/1960 the number one single was Starry Eyed - Michael Holliday 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 Boeing 707s to be tested by UK pilots.

On 03/01/1961 the number one single was I Love You - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. 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 £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 Millionth Morris Minor produced.

On 03/01/1962 the number one single was Moon River - Danny Williams and the number one album was Another Black & White Minstrell Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. 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 Pope ex-communicates Fidel Castro.

On 03/01/1963 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 03/01/1964 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 Coronation Street (Granada) 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 03/01/1965 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 796

FIRST PICTURE: MY CHRISTMAS CARD TO YOU ALL












SECOND PICTURE: CHRISTMAS AT HOME


THE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS QUIZ

Where is it?

1. Chernobyl was the site of a nuclear accident in 1986, in which country is it?
2. Casablanca is the title of a well known film starring Humphrey Bogart. In which country is Casablanca ?
3. Waterloo was the scene of a famous battle fought in 1815, in which country is it?
4. Guadalcanal was the site of fierce fighting during World War II. In which group of islands is it?
5. Herp Alpert was backed on several hits by the Tijuana Brass. Where is Tijuana?
6. In which country is Transylvania, home of the vampire legends?
7. “The girl from Ipanema” was a popular tune of the 1960s. In which country is Ipanema?
8. Timbuktu is always cited as a very distant and outlandish place, where is it?
9. Fez is an African city which gives its name to a type of hat. In which country is it?
10. The Crimea is a famous as the scene of a war in the middle of the last century which included the famous Charge of the Light Brigade. What country does it belong to?

Memories.

11. What book, written in the 1920s was the subject of an obscenity trial when finally published in 1960?
12. The largest liner was launched in 1960 what was its name?
13. How did spurs player John White die in 1963?
14. Which UK channel started broadcasting in 1964?
15. What city was Martin Luther King killed in?
16. Which London landmark was cleaned in 1968 for the first time since 1864?
17. What became Britain's tallest building in October 1965?
18. Who became Governor of California in 1966?
19. Who was 'Chi-Chi' off to meet in 1966?

Locations
20. In which Beijing Square were the 1989 protests crushed by tanks?
21. Which cathedral was badly damaged by lightning in July 1984?
22. What was abolished by France in 1981, The Netherlands in 1982, Australia in 1985 and New Zealand in 1989?
23. What sank in the Solent in 1545 and was raised in 1982?
24. What year did Britain suffer its worst storm since records began?
25 Which year did the SAS storm the Iranian Embassy in London?
26. In 1984, who was the WPC shot dead outside the Libyan Peoples Bureau in London?

1960’s Music
27. What did Dora Bryan want for Christmas in 1963?
28. In 1966 who were they 'coming to take me away, ha-haa' ?
29. How was the Belgian Soeur Sourire known in the UK?
30. What was The Shadows' first No. hit?
31. Where and at what time was Kenny Ball in the charts in 1961?
32. Who advised us to 'Walk, Don't Run'?
33. Which famous guitarist's real name is Brian Robson Rankin?
34. Who was the band leader of Manuel and his Music of the Mountains?
35. What was The Beatles' first top ten single?
36. 1966 Frank Sinatra had a No. hit in 13 countries with what song?

1960’s General
37. Who or what was 'The Shrimp'?
38. Who played the lead in the film 'El Cid'?
39. Which new cup was introduced to English Football in 1960?
40. What went up with a bang in Dublin in 1966?
41. What football team did TV's Alf Garnett support?
42. India was attacked by which country in 1962?
43 What was the occupation of Norman Parkinson?
44. Who was in charge of the 'Desilu' production company?
45. What year saw the Rolling Stones' first No.1 hit?

Good Luck and Take Care the answers are in the You Write section as usual.

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.com

YOU WRITE:
I WRITE THE QUIZ ANSWERS
1. Ukraine
2. Morocco
3. Belgium
4. Solomon islands
5. Mexico
6. Romania
7. Brazil
8. The Sahara Desert in Mali
9. Morocco
10. Ukraine
11. Lady Chatterley's Lover
12. SS France (Norway)
13. Struck by lightning
14. BBC2
15. Memphis
16. Nelson's Column
17. The Post Office Tower
18. Ronald Reagan
19. An-An
20 Tiananmen Square
21 York Minister
22 The Death Penalty
23 The Mary Rose
24.1987
25 1980
26 Yvonne Fletcher
27( All I Want For Christmas Is ) A Beatle

28 Napoleon XIV

29 The Singing Nun

30 Apache

31 Midnight In Moscow

32 The Ventures

33 Hank B. Marvin

34 Geoff Love

35 Please Please Me

36. Strangers In The Night

37 Fashion model Jean Shrimpton

38 Charlton Heston

39 The Football League Cup

40 Nelson's Column

41 West Ham United

42 China

43 Photographer

44 Lucille Ball

45 1964

NEWS AND VIEWS:
Monkee Micky Dolenz will start rehearsing in January to join the London cast of the stage musical "Hairspray." He will take over the part of Tracy Turnblad's dad, Wilbur on February 2nd.

ON THIS DAY 20TH DECEMBER 1960-1965
On 20/12/1960 the number one single was It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Knight Errant (Granada) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 20/12/1961 the number one single was Tower of Strength - Frankie Vaughan and the number one album was Another Black & White Minstrell Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 20/12/1962 the number one single was Return to Sender - Elvis Presley 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 Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 20/12/1963 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 Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 20/12/1964 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 Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 20/12/1965 the number one single was Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out - The Beatles and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

FIRST PICTURE: TRANSPORT FROM THE PAST BOAC BEDFORD VAN





SECOND PICTURE: SOUTH PARADE PIER IN ITS HEY DAY.





Web Page No 794

13th December 2009

COMEDY SIT COM.


The mainstay of much of television in the early days was the comedy sit com. Most of us remember the famous ones from the 1950’s and 60’s, the Likely Lads, the Army Game, Bootsie and Snudge etc but here are a few from the period of time up until 1965 many of which I have never heard of before.
Abigail And Roger
This was 1950s sitcom about a young engaged couple who love to explore life in the city of London from their flats in bedsitter land. It was broadcast on BBC in 1956 and they only made one series of nine episodes. The programmewas written by Kevin Sheldon and starred Julie Webb, David Drummond, John Stone, Rosina Enright, Maud Long, Frank Williams, Grace Denbeigh-Russell

The Sky Larks
From 1958 this was probably the first Royal Navy based TV sit com and featured the adventures of a helicopter crew based on the fictional aircraft carrier, HMS Aerial (not to be confused with the former name of the air station HMS Daedalus at Lee on Solent in fact in real-life the ship was HMS Ark Royal). Again a BBC production and only ran for one series of 16 episodes.16 (1 series). Written by Trevor Peacock, Gavin Blakeney, John Warrington, it starred Anton Rodgers (who later found fame in many sit coms), A.E. Matthews (Matty), Robert Chetwyn, Roland Curram, John Southworth, William Mervyn (later to be cast as the Bishop in All Gas and Gaters), Frank Shelley

Educating Archie
This strange programme did actually transfer from the radio to TV the though of Archie Andrews, a ventriloquist's dummy, taking on a life of it's own as it talks and walks all over it's creator, Peter Brough was quite bizarre. The series was made by ITV between 1958 and 1959 and ran for two series of 27 episodes. Despite the programmes writers being a Who’s Who of British Comedy Marty Feldman, Ronald Chesney, Barry Pevan, Ronald Wolfeand starred the likes of Peter Brough, Dick Emery, Irene Handl, Freddie Sales, Ray Barrett the fact that Peter Brough was a good theatre ventriloquist ie from a distance, close up he was very poor probably helped to finish the series.

The Artful Dodger
There was only one series of 6 episodes and was made in 1959 by the BBC. It starred Dave Morris, Joe Gladwin (later to become Wally Batty in Last of the Summer Wine), Gretchen Franklin (who found fame in Coronation Street. The stories were about the swaggering, work-shy, know-all Artful Dodger.

The Adventures of Brigadier Wellington-Bull
This was a short lived BBC programme of 1959 only having 5 episodes. It was a sitcom following the barnstorming antics of retired Brigadier Wellington-Bull. The Brigadier in trying to come to terms with civilian life gets into all sorts of situations. 'Sooty' Pilkington, a young officer who had served under the Brigadier and the Brigadier's daughter Jane, also featured. It starred Alexander Gauge, Valerie Singleton (she of later Blue Peter fame), Donald Hewlett

Three Live Wires
Made by Associated Rediffusion this was a trio of TV repairmen who travelled around London repairing the TV sets of the rich and famous and trying to avoid the wrath of the shop manager. With a total of 26 episodes it is remarkable that it only lasted for one series: Starring: Michael Medwin (from the Army Game), Bernard Fox, George Roderick, Deryck Guyler(Sykes and Please Sir much later) , Derek

Colonel Trumper's Private War
Yet another Army based sit Com from the unpublished biography of an hitherto unknown war hero, Colonel Basil Trumper, comes the stories that changed the course of World War II. Made by ITV it lasted only five episodes and featured Dennis Price (Jeeves), Warren Mitchell (Alf Garnett 0 and George Tovey. Written by established writersBarry Took, Hugh Woodhouse, Bill Craig, Dick Vosburgh it was made by Granada Television.

The Walrus And The Carpenter
AKA:You're Only Old Once Carpenter
Two old men Gascoigne Quilt & Luther Flannery meet in a graveyard, theyhave little in common but Luther's sense of adventure leads them into scrapes. It was made in 1963 and there were only seven episodes Starring Hugh Griffith, Felix Aylmer(the Abbot in Oh! Brother) and Hazel Hughes, the stories were written by Marty Feldman, Barry Took for the BBC




Meet the Wife

This ran between 1963 - 1966 on the BBC for 40 episodes in 5 series. It starred Thora Hird, Freddie Frinton (known as the best drunk in the business but was in fact TT), Ronald Wolfe, Ronald Chesney
The stories revolved round a plumber Freddie Blacklock who lived with his wife Thora in the north of England. Freddie was a down-to-earth bloke who likes to take things easy whereas his wife had ambitions for the couple to improve their social standing. Snobbish Thora often put on a 'posh voice' in an attempt to impress those she was speaking to. A much loved sitcom at the time (the Beatles even mentioned it in one of their songs) and was based on a 1963 Comedy Playhouse production, "The Bed".

Best of Friends
A 1963 ITV single series of 13 episodes, it featrured Charles Hawtrey (of Carry on Fame), Hylda Baker (she knows ya know), Sheena Marshe and Brad Ashton. It was written Bob Block (who later wrote the childrens programme Rentaghost) and Gerry Maxin About a clerk in an insurance office situated next door to a café. The owner of the shop accompanied the clerk on insurance assignments and protected him from his Uncle Sidney who was always trying to find a way to dismiss his nephew

HMS Paradise
Another Royal Naval sit com this time by ITV in 1964 and ran for 26 episodes. HMS Paradise was supposedly an island off the Dorset coast an idyllic posting as nobody seemed to do any work... but not everyone is happy about the situation It featured Richard Caldicot, (from the radios Navy Lark, in fact one of the writers of this very long running series Lawrie Wyman was also a writer for HMS Paradise ) Frank Thornton, Robin Hunter, Ronald Radd, Angus Lennie, Priscilla Morgan, Ambrosine Phillpotts, Graham Crowden

The Big Noise
Events in the uneasy life of a top pop disc jockey, Bob Mason were broadcast by the BBC in 1964. Bob Monkhouse played the lead and with the team of writers of Frank Muir, Denis Norden, Denis Goodwin, it is amazing that it only lasted six episodes. It was to prove a crossroads in the career of Bob Monkhouse and he would never return to the world of sitcom again.

Stay in touch and Take Care

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.com

YOU WRITE:
Mike Writes about the Highbury estate:-
I like reading your postings, but I have to disagree when you said there was no school on the Highbury Estate in the early days. I'm a little older than you, and I attended an infants school which was located very close to where the junior school was later built, on Dovercourt Road. I remember the old infants school as a small building with either a parking area or playground of black cinders. They were not kind to knees if you fell over!

My younger sister went to the new Highbury Junior School, but I went to Court Lane, and after the 11+ to the Northern Grammar. Incidentally, I asked my older sister if she remembers the infants school that I attended, but she did not. It is possible she never went there, as it may have been before the family moved to Chatsworth Ave.
NEWS AND VIEWS:
Little Richard has just undergone a hip operation in the Medical Center in Nashville. He is currently undergoing physiotherapy and is preparing for a concert tour early next year.

ON THIS DAY 13TH DECEMBER 1960-1965

On 13/12/1960 the number one single was It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was The Army Game (Granada) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 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 13/12/1961 the number one single was Tower of Strength - Frankie Vaughan and the number one album was Another Black & White Minstrell Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Grandma Moses dies.
On 13/12/1962 the number one single was Return to Sender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was On Stage with the Black & White Minstrels - George Mitchell Minstrels. 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 Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 13/12/1963 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 Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.


On 13/12/1964 the number one single was I Feel Fine - The Beatles and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 13/12/1965 the number one single was The Carnival is Over - Seekers and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.