Web Page  No 2420

6^th November 2017

First Picture: The Appleyard Family

 Second Picture: The Opening Screen to the TV show

 Third Picture: Poor picture of a scene from the only surviving episode

Forth Picture; Christmas with the Appleyards. Note the jumper!!!

The Appleyards

The Appleyards was a British television soap opera aimed especially for children. It was made and transmitted fortnightly by BBC Television from October 1952 to April 1957, from their Lime Grove Studios. It was produced and directed by Naomi Capon.

Transmitted live on a Thursday afternoon from 4:30 to 5 p.m. with a Sunday repeat (which was not usually a recorded repeat of the first show but the same cast repeating a live performance). Each episode was about 20 minutes in length. The programme told the story of the Home Counties family Mr and Mrs Appleyard and their three children: John, Margaret, and Tommy. They were usually accompanied by their neighbour and best friend Ronnie Grant.

In the show's first year (1952) the episodes were aired live and never recorded, thus no episodes from the 1952 season exist. From 1953, the episodes were tele-recorded, but the BBC ended up wiping most of them. Only one episode (entitled "Family Treat" and originally aired on December 29th, 1956) of the entire run of 68 exists in television archives as of 2017, and can be found on YouTube. In the early days the theme music was piped into the studio from a 78 rpm recording.

Its tales of serial ordinariness made it the junior version of the BBC’s own The Grove Family, which ran for the same period. Unlike later soaps, which continue in real time, as the younger Appleyard child actors grew, they were replaced, so in this little corner of suburban England time appeared to stand still.

The title was not to the liking of the BBC Controller of Programmes, at the time, Cecil McGivern, who famously suggested that it sounded more like ‘a suet pudding with a mixture of cement’.

The last episode finished with Mrs. Appleyard and Tommy sitting on a porter's trolley at the end of a railway platform, when she announced that as most of the family were now grown up it was time to end the series.

It was of its time but also a ground-breaking family sitcom, popular with both adults and children alike but particularly the latter who saw it as embodiment of their own family. The catchy light music was called "Looking Around" by Colin Smith and recorded by conductor Robert Farnon.

As the series developed a new character, an eccentric elderly male neighbour who was always getting into the family’s activities. He was always cadging meals and was not popular with the rest of the family but Mrs Appleyard took pity on him.

Towards the end of the series the eldest son was getting married with the younger son as best man, they arrived late at the church because they could not find a bow tie for the groom and the younger son provided him with a fancy revolving one! During the wait at the church the neighbour started to sing “There I was Waiting at the Church” making himself less than popular.

A reunion programme, "Christmas with the Appleyards", went out at on Christmas Eve 1960 and was sandwiched between   The Lone Ranger at 5.00pm in an episode called “An Eye for an Eye” with
“Christmas with the Appleyards” at 5.25pm billed as a special Christmas reunion featuring the original members of the former serial  and The News at 5.50pm. This was followed by The Sports Programme and then between 6.00pm and 6.28pm by Juke Box Jury

The programme was not the starting place for many future TV actors as “The Grove Family” was with Ruth Dunning and Christopher Beany.

The cast list for “The Appleyards” did vary a bit.

Constance Fraser was Mrs. Appleyard for 76 episodes, 1952-1960

Douglas Muir as Mr. Appleyard for 64 episodes, 1953-1960

Derek Rowe as Tommy Appleyard (75 episodes, 1952-1960)

David Edwards as John Appleyard (58 episodes, 1952-1960)

Robert Dickens as Ronnie Grant (44 episodes, 1952-1960)

Pat Fryer as Margaret Appleyard (37 episodes, 1953-1960)

Also Carol Olver as Margaret Appleyard (32 episodes, 1954-1957)

All a far cry from the soap Opera of today!!!!

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Yours

Peter

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News and Views:

On this day 6^th November 1960-1965

On 06/11/1960 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 Bootsie & Snudge (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 06/11/1961 the number one single was Walkin' Back to Happiness - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was Twenty One Today - Cliff Richard. 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 week was severe flooding in SE England

On 06/11/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes and the number one album was Out of the Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was The Royal Variety Performance (BBC) 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 06/11/1963 the number one single was You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was The Royal Variety Performance (ATV) 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. The big news story of the week was Beatles perform at Royal Variety Show.

On 06/11/1964 the number one single was (There's) Always Something There to Remind Me - Sandy Shaw 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 06/11/1965 the number one single was Get Off Of My Cloud - Rolling Stones 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.

Web Page  No 2418

27^th   October 2017

First Picture: Joan Simms 1957

 Second Picture: In sexy mood

 Third Picture: In Carry On Nurse

Forth Picture; The dust jacket of her biography

Joan Simms

Irene Joan Marion Simms was that extremely rare commodity, a natural comedienne, who immersed herself in the bawdiness of the Carry On films. She brought to 24 of them - 20 in an unbroken sequence - a plump, high-spirited raucousness, that might have been offensive, but for her obvious good nature.

She never married, though in her youth she had two close relationships - with actor Tony Baird, and the stage manager John Walters - she claimed generally, men were put off by funny women and that sometimes she had had to steel herself to get through the filming of the Carry Ons - especially as the male cast were apt to play practical jokes on her. She was not in the first of the series, Carry On Sergeant, but, in November 1958, she was hired to play the student nurse in the second, Carry On Nurse, the biggest box office success of 1959. Playing the gym mistress in the next, Carry On Teacher (1959), she developed thrombophlebitis, and had her bad leg propped up on off-camera cushions before being hospitalised for 10 days. In Carry On Constable (1960), her role was that of a WPC called Gloria Passworthy.

Simultaneously, she was also appeared in that other highly successful, if slightly more genteel the Doctor series. By 1960, she had reached her third, Doctor In Love, followed by Doctor In Clover but the Doctor films satisfied her less than the Carry Ons, which she said gave her a unique comradeship and fun during shooting.

The producer Peter Rogers did, in fact, claim that he would do anything for his Carry On team - except pay them. The top men in the cast got a £5,000 fee and the women, including Joan Sims, £2,500 - well below the market rate. By the final one, Carry On Columbus (1992), she wrote that she was glad she was not in it.

Her motivation for acting was a child's desire to please. Her mother had been deeply in love with a man who, after a misunderstanding, took off, returning after a few weeks to discover that his beloved had married on the rebound. Divorce not being an option in those days, Sims's father and mother showed no affection towards one another - and little to their daughter who was born on 9^th May 1930. Joan compensated by dressing up and entertaining passengers at Laindon station where her father was station-master. A neighbour brought a gramophone to spice up the act, and Joan became adept at increasing her wardrobe by asking the passengers for cast-off clothes.

At Brentwood county school for girls, she became determined to find something at which she could excel. Acting seemed the most likely - she arranged entertainments in the school air-raid shelter, joined amateur groups, played old ladies and danced in Gilbert and Sullivan. But she failed her school certificate twice, and only got a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art on her third application, after her father persuaded the academy to give her a chance.

An agent, who also handled Ronnie Barker took her on and she progressed through repertory at Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Southend, Luton and Salisbury to being principal girl in the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre's production of the pantomime The Happy Ha'Penny. After that she showed her adaptability in the West End by appearing in two plays at once one at the Irving Theatre Club and the other in a revue called The Bells Of St Martin's.

In 1952, she got her first small role in a British film, Colonel March Investigates. The following year, she had a bigger part, with George Cole, in Will Any Gentleman? and appeared in the revue High Spirits, from which she took the title for her autobiography, High Spirits.

A string of stage revues, films and radio comedies followed. Her association with Kenneth Horne, the straight man of the BBC radio comedy, Round the Horne, began in 1968, but was cut short by Kenneth Horne’s death the following year. She was in the show's successor, Stop Messing About, starring her friend Kenneth Williams, but, with no straight man to play against it fell flat.

In her last years, she struggled against illness, heavy drinking and depression. but she successfully appeared in September 2001 with Judi Dench, in the award-winning BBC TV film, Last of the Blonde Bombshells. She died nine months later on 27^th June 2001.

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Peter

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Mary Writes:

Hello, I moved out into the country that June which I loved. I did miss my old school and friends but was so busy settling into the new school, which was for girls only. Boys were treated like aliens and even on the school bus taking us home we were kept apart. My brother and I were so happy  running through the fields to a small wood, where we discovered a water bird had built a nest. There was a large wood opposite our house and we saw our first fox. It was so beautiful, a sight I`ve never forgotten. My brother made a new friend, Alan, and he took us into a cornfield where we met John, a farm labourer. He was having a meal break  and he and his family lived next door to Alan. Over the next few months we met all of Alan and Johns` families and we learned all about life in the countryside. My parents were very happy with our new house and we were occupied with our new lives. I think it was a very good year

News and Views:

On this day 27^th October 1960-1965

On 27/10/1960 the number one single was Only the Lonely - Roy Orbison and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (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 27/10/1961 the number one single was Walkin' Back to Happiness - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was The Shadows - Shadows. 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 27/10/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes and the number one album was Out of the Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was The Royal Variety Performance (BBC) 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 27/10/1963 the number one single was You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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 27/10/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd 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. The big news story of the day was 7 die in UK hurricane-force winds.

Web Page  No 2416

20^th   October 2017

First Picture: Harold McMillan

Second Picture: Laurence Olivier arriving at the Royal Court Theatre in 1957 shows there's little traffic on the roads of London in stark contrast to the city today 

Third Picture: A Polio Victim enjoys an evening out

1957 the Happiest Year!

Recently the Daily Mail declared that 1957 was the happiest year of the last century. Well it was the year I took my 11+ and the year I started at Court Lane. Now more from that year:-

Homes costing £2,000, a yo-yo for Christmas was a great present and there were no traffic jams!

One in five homes had a washing machine and only one in 20 had a fridge. Many homes had outdoor toilets and central heating was not very common either. The post war increase in happiness peaked in 1957 according to these researchers and levels of happiness in Britain have never returned to the levels seen in 1957 

When Prime Minister Harold Macmillan famously declared in 1957 that 'we have never had it so good', it turns out that maybe he was right.

The article claims that people were happier, even though they were struck down by illnesses such as polio. 

The researchers put their findings down to more realistic expectations about a happy life, despite a six-day working week and lack of foreign holidays. After living through two world wars, it is believed people had learned to count their blessings.

The analysis is taken from eight million books used to track contentment from 1776 to 2009, based on positive words such as 'peaceful', 'enjoyment' and 'happiness' compared to negative words such as 'stress' and 'unhappy'. It shows a rise in joy after 1945, peaking in 1957, a fall through the nationwide strikes and inflation of 1978's Winter of Discontent, and then a recovery, but never to the happiness levels of the 1950s.

One of the co-authors said that 'In 1957, memories of the Second World War and the period of austerity that followed were still fresh in the mind of the nation, perhaps helping people to appreciate what they had.

He added: 'It may be that people in the 1950s had a greater sense of realism about happiness.'

Rationing was over by 1957, and the modern age was being ushered in with the space race beginning, Elvis Presley on the radio and technology starting to make domestic life easier.

Men could expect to live to 66 on average, and women to 71, with paid holiday half what it is now, but Mr Macmillan still seemed to capture the mood of a nation when, in a speech at Bedford Town's football ground, he said: 'Let us be frank about it – most of our people have never had it so good.'

While there is much more individualism now, in the 1950s people were more likely to feel as if they had a common goal, so could for example leave their door open when they went out because they trusted their neighbours. Now we are more aware of what is happening in the world than people were then, but could this be making us unhappier as people now have to face pressures put upon them, such as work stress, which might have increased.'

 In 1957, the year of the Queen's first televised Christmas message, there were just two TV Channels.

Traffic jams barely existed, with only 4 million cars on the road compared to 37 million today.

Women made up a third of the workforce – that figure is now 46%.

A first home cost five times the average annual wage in the 1950s, with earnings typically at £7.50 a week and houses priced at £2,000. Now, getting on the property ladder costs about eight times your salary.

There were just 22,000 divorces – a number which had leapt to 111,000 by 2014 – and women got married at 25 on average, but now wait until they're 34.

The Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, a satellite the size of a beach ball – 15 years before astronaut Tim Peake was born.

The most popular gifts for children were yo-yos and I-Spy books.

Around the World in 80 Days, starring David Niven and Shirley MacLaine, won the Oscar for best film.

Paul Anka's Diana was the best-selling single of 1957.

Ah well it is good to look back!!!!

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Yours

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

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On this day 20^th October 1960-1965

On 20/10/1960 the number one single was Tell Laura I Love Her - Ricky Valance and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) 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 20/10/1961 the number one single was Michael - The Highwaymen and the number one album was The Shadows - Shadows. 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 Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 20/10/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes and the number one album was Best of Ball Barber & Bilk. 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. The big news story of the day was Hyde Park Underpass opens.

On 20/10/1963 the number one single was Do You Love Me? - Brian Poole & the Tremoloes and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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. The big news story of the day was Macmillan resigns as Prime Minister.

On 20/10/1964 the number one single was Oh Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison 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. The big news story of the day was Brezhnev replaces Krushchev.

On 20/10/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd 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. The big news story of the day was Lesley Ann Downey's body found on Pennines.

Web Page  No 2414

13^th  October 2017

The last book in the Drayton Series is now available

First Picture: Smiths Crisp Packet

Second Picture: Camp Coffee Jar

Third Picture: Darning a sock

Forth Picture: Morris Minor 1,000,000 for a time this lived in Lealand Road.

Eating, Drinking, Clothing and Life in the 1950’s

More from the past!!!!!

Pasta had not been invented.

Curry was still a surname.

A takeaway was a mathematical problem.

A pizza was something to do with a leaning tower somewhere abroad.

Bananas, dates and oranges only appeared at Christmas time.

All crisps were plain; the only choice we had was whether to put the salt on or not.

A Chinese chippy was a foreign carpenter.

Rice was a milk pudding and never, ever part of our main course at dinner time.

A Big Mac was what we wore when it was raining.

Brown bread was something only poor people ate.

Oil was for lubricating locks and bicycles, fat was for cooking

Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves and was never green or in little bags.

Coffee was Camp - and came in a bottle with a master and servant on the label.

Cubed sugar was regarded as posh.

Only Heinz made beans.

Fish didn't have fingers in those days.

Eating raw fish was called poverty, not sushi.

None of us had ever heard of yoghurt.

Healthy food consisted of anything edible and normally starchy.

People who didn't peel potatoes were regarded as lazy.

Indian restaurants were only found in India.

Cooking outside was called camping.

“Camping” was something you did not talk about.

Seaweed was not a recognised food.

"Kebab" was not even a word never mind a food.

Sugar enjoyed a good press in those days and was regarded as being white gold.

Prunes were medicinal and taken once a week, if we needed it or not.

Surprisingly muesli was readily available, but then it was called cattle feed.

Pineapples came in chunks or slices in a tin; we had only ever seen a picture of a real one.

What was Rock Salmon anyway?

Water came out of the tap, if someone had suggested bottling it and charging more than petrol for it they would have become a laughing stock.

And the one thing that we never, ever had on our table in the fifties .. …was our elbows!

Coffee came mixed with chicory and never in little tablets that went into machines.

There were no such things as French Fries, we had Chips!

A torn pair of trousers were either thrown away, darned or put on a scarecrow or guy, not worn in the street as the new fashion.

Worn sheets were turned sides to middle, worn collars and cuffs on shirts were turned and leather patches sewn onto the worn elbows and cuffs of sports jackets.

Every week mother boiled lights for the cat.

We had no child proof tops on bottles.

We could not go shopping on a Sunday as the shops were closed.

If we were out on our own we were told to approach a stranger to help us across the road.

Children had real names not names such as Kiora, Blade, Ridge or Vanilla.

Only girls had pierced ears.

No cars had seat belts.

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Yours

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

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On this day 13^th October 1960-1965

On 13/10/1960 the number one single was Tell Laura I Love Her - Ricky Valance. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) and the box office smash was Psycho.  A pound of today's money was worth £13.68.  

On 13/10/1961 the number one single was Michael - The Highwaymen and the number one album was The Shadows - Shadows.  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 Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 13/10/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes and the number one album was Best of Ball Barber & Bilk. 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 13/10/1963 the number one single was Do You Love Me? - Brian Poole & the Tremoloes and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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 13/10/1964 the number one single was Oh Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison 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 13/10/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd and the number one album was Help - 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.