Web Page  No 2296

12th September 2016

Top Picture: Typical picture of ‘The Lad Himself’

Second Picture: The Famous Record Cover

Third Picture: Poster for The Rebel

 Forth Picture: Sid James

The Lad Himself

I do not know how I have managed to write every week without mentioning ‘The Lad Himself’.

Anthony John "Tony" Hancock was born on 12th May 1924 and died on 25th June 1968.

The period of his major success was during the 1950s and early 1960s his BBC series Hancock's Half Hour, first on radio from 1954, then on television from 1956, in which he soon formed a strong professional and personal bond with Sid James. Although Hancock's decision to cease working with Sid when it became known in early 1960 disappointed many at the time, his last BBC series in 1961 contains some of his best remembered work ie "The Blood Donor". After breaking with scriptwriters Ray Galton and Alan Simpson later that year, his career took a downward course because of his continued alcoholism.

He was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire but from the age of three was brought up in Bournemouth where his father, John Hancock, ran the Railway Hotel in Holdenhurst Road and  worked as a part time comedian and entertainer.

After his father's death in 1934, Hancock and his brothers lived with their mother and stepfather Robert Gordon Walker in a small hotel called Durlston Court in Bournemouth. He attended Durlston Court Preparatory School, a boarding school at Durlston in Swanage (which name his parents adopted for their hotel) and Bradfield College in Reading but left school at the age of fifteen.

In 1942, during the Second World War, he joined the RAF Regiment. Following a failed audition for ENSA, he ended up on the Ralph Reader Gang Show. After the war, he returned to the stage and eventually worked as resident comedian at the Windmill Theatre and took part in radio shows such as Workers' Playtime and Variety Bandbox.

Over 1951–52, for just one series, he was a cast member of Educating Archie in which he played the tutor. His appearance in this show brought him national recognition, and a catchphrase he used frequently in the show, "Flippin' kids!", became popular. The same year, he made regular appearances on BBC Television's light entertainment show Kaleidoscope, and almost starred in his own series to be written by Larry Stephens who had been his best man at his first wedding. In 1954, he was given his own BBC radio show, Hancock's Half Hour.

Working with scripts from Galton and Simpson, Hancock's Half Hour lasted for seven years and over a hundred episodes in its radio form, and from 1956 ran concurrently with the BBC television series with the same name. The show starred Hancock as Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock living in 23 Railway Cuttings, East Cheam. Most episodes portrayed his everyday life as a struggling comedian with aspirations toward straight acting. Some episodes, however, changed this to show him as being a successful actor and/or comedian, or occasionally as having a different career completely such as a struggling, incompetent barrister.

Sid James featured heavily in both the radio and TV versions, while the radio version also included the regulars Bill Kerr, Kenneth Williams and over the years Moira Lister, Andrée Melly and Hattie Jacques. The series highlighted the situation comedy, with the humour coming from the characters and the circumstances in which they found themselves. Owing to a contractual wrangle with producer Jack Hylton, Hancock had an ITV series, The Tony Hancock Show, during this period, which ran in 1956 and 1957 either side of the first BBC television series.

During the run of his BBC radio and television series, Hancock became an enormous star in Britain.

As an actor with considerable experience in film, Sid became more important to the show when the television version began. The regular cast was reduced to just the two men. Sid's character was the realist of the two, puncturing Hancock's dreams. He was dishonest and exploited Hancock's gullibility during the radio series, but in the television version there appeared to be a more genuine friendship.

Hancock's highly strung personality made the demands of live broadcasts a worry, with the result that, starting from the autumn 1959 series, all episodes of the series were recorded before transmission. Up until then British television comedy shows had been performed live owing to the limitations of the time. He was also the first performer to receive a £1,000 fee for a half-hour show.

He became anxious that his work with Sid was turning them into a double act, and he told close associates in 1959, just after the fifth television series had been recorded, that he would end his association with Sid after a final series. Strangely he left others to tell Sid. His last BBC series in 1961, retitled Hancock, was without James. Two episodes are among his best-remembered. "The Blood Donor" and "The Radio Ham”. Both were re-recorded later for an LP.

Returning home with his wife from recording "The Bowmans", an episode based around The Archers, Hancock was involved in a car accident and was thrown through the windscreen. He was not badly hurt, but suffered concussion and was unable to learn his lines for "The Blood Donor", the next show due to be recorded. The result was that Hancock had to perform by reading his lines and could be seen looking away when speaking. From this time onwards, he came to rely on idiot boards instead of learning scripts whenever he had career difficulties.

In early 1960, Hancock appeared on the BBC's Face to Face, interview programme with John Freeman who asked him many searching questions about his life and work. Hancock often appeared uncomfortable with the questions, but answered them frankly and honestly. According to Roger, his brother, "It was the biggest mistake he ever made. I think it all started from that really. ...Self-analysis - that was his killer."

The usual argument is that Hancock’s mixture of egotism and self-doubt led to a spiral of self-destructiveness. His reasoning was that, to refine his craft, he had to ditch catch-phrases and become realistic. He argued that whenever an ad-hoc character was needed it would be played by someone like Kenneth Williams and he believed the comedy suffered because people did not believe in the policeman, knowing it was just Kenneth Williams doing a funny voice.

He starred in the 1960 film The Rebel, where he plays an office worker-turned-artist who finds himself successful after a move to Paris, but only as the result of mistaken identity. Although a success in Britain, the film was not well received in the US.

His break with Galton and Simpson took place at a meeting in October 1961, where he also broke with his long-term agent Beryl Vertue. During the previous six months, the writers had three scripts for Hancock's second film. Worried that the projects were wrong for him, the first two had been abandoned incomplete; the third was written at the writers' insistence, only for Hancock to reject it unread. The result was that they developed a Comedy Playhouse series for the BBC, one of which, "The Offer", emerged as the pilot for Steptoe and Son. But there was another film, “The Punch and Judy Man” and Hancock hired Philip Oakes, who moved in with him to co-write the screenplay. In the 1962 film, Hancock plays a struggling seaside entertainer who dreams of a better life and owes much to his memories of his childhood in Bournemouth.

He moved to ATV in 1962 with different writers, though Philip Oakes was retained as an advisor but they disagreed over script ideas and they severed their professional (but not personal) relationship. The transmission clashed with the second series of Steptoe and Son.

In 1965 he made a series of 11 TV adverts for the Egg Marketing Board with Patricia Hayes as Mrs Cravatte in an attempt to revive the Galton and Simpson style of scripts. Slightly earlier, in 1963, he featured in a spoof Hancock Report – hired by Lord Beeching to promote his railway plan in advertisements. Hancock reportedly wanted to be paid what Beeching was paid annually – £34,000; he was offered half that amount.

He continued to make regular appearances on television until 1967, but by then alcoholism had affected his performances. After hosting two unsuccessful variety series for ABC Television, He was contracted to make a 13-part series called Hancock Down Under for the Seven Network of Australian television. This was to be his first and only television series filmed in colour; however, after arriving in Australia in March 1968 he only completed three programmes, which remained unaired for several years.

Hancock committed suicide, by taking an overdose, in Sydney, on 25^th June 1968. He was found dead in his Bellevue Hill flat with an empty vodka bottle and a scattering of tablets. In one of his suicide notes he wrote: "Things just seemed to go too wrong too many times". His ashes were brought back to the UK by Willie Rushton and were buried in St. Dunstan's Church in Cranford, West London.

There is a sculpture by Bruce Williams  in his honour in Old Square, Corporation Street, Birmingham, a plaque on the house where he was born in Hall Green, Birmingham, and a plaque on the wall of the hotel in Bournemouth where he spent some of his early life. There is also a plaque, placed by the Dead Comics Society, at 10 Grey Close, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, where he lived in 1947 and 1948. In 2014 a Blue Plaque was placed to commemorate Hancock at 20 Queen's Gate Place in South Kensington, London, where he lived between 1952 and 1958.

In a 2002 BBC radio listeners voted Hancock their favourite British comedian. In a 2005 poll to find the Comedians' Comedian Hancock was voted the twelfth greatest comedian by fellow comics and 'comedy insiders'.

The BBC has issued CDs of the surviving seventy-four radio episodes in six box sets, with the sixth box containing several out-of-series specials. There have also been VHS video releases of the BBC TV series.

Some of the lost episodes were unavailable until they surfaced in 2007.

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Peter

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On this day 12^th September 1960-1965

On 12/09/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was Down Drury Lane to Memory Lane - A Hundred and One Strings. 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 12/09/1961 the number one single was Johnny Remember Me - John Leyton and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. 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 First Mothercare shop opens in Surrey.

On 12/09/1962 the number one single was She's Not You - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Pot Luck - 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 Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 12/09/1963 the number one single was She Loves You - The Beatles 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 12/09/1964 the number one single was You Really Got Me - Kinks 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 12/09/1965 the number one single was (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - Rolling Stones 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.

Web Page  No 2294

5th September 2016

Top Picture: A typical sand tray except that we did not have coloured sand!

Second Picture: Nitty Norah, the bug explorer

Third Picture: Typical school uniform

Infant School

We all have strong memories of our first few days at primary school, although nowadays most children tend to go to pre-school, so it is not such a shock to the system for them as it was for the children of the 1950s!

At that time there were no state pre-schools or nurseries, so for most children just turning 5 years old, their first day at school was the first time they had been on their own, away from home. Most of our  mothers did not work outside the home, so for many children this was also the first time they had been apart from mummy. Consequently the first day of school was, for some, a very tearful event for both child and parent!

On my first day at school I formed a friendship with someone that has lasted, with a few breaks, over 65 years. That friendship is with Keith Conlon and despite all odds we both remember going off to Solent Road Infants School which was housed in the Methodist Church Hall in Station Road, on our trikes, which our mothers had to haul to and from the school twice a day as we both came home to lunch.

Having got over the first pangs of separation, school life soon fell into a predictable routine. School milk was part of this routine, uniformly detested by all, especially in the summer when it was warm. In Post War Britain school milk, a third of a pint per child, was introduced in schools to supplement the child’s diet. In 1971 school milk for the over-sevens was withdrawn  by Margaret Thatcher, then Secretary of State for Education – for this she was dubbed 'Thatcher, Thatcher, Milk Snatcher' in the press.

During the harsh winter of 1962-3, or the big freeze of 1963 as it became known, it was a common sight to see the small crates of milk outside the school gates with the shiny bottle tops standing proud above the bottles on a column of frozen milk. Of course the only way to defrost the school milk was to place it by the radiator, and then we were forced to consume watery, lukewarm milk as – “milk is good for you child, you WILL drink it all up!”

The School Broadcasting Council for the United Kingdom had been set up in 1947 and as far as I remember the wireless played no part in our education then or throughout the whole of our school life.

There was no ‘gym kit’ in primary schools so the children just removed their outer clothes and did P.E. in their vests, knickers or underpants and bare feet or plimsoles (usually purchased from Woolworths).

Visits from the school nurse would break up the daily routine. The nit nurse used to make regular visits to check for headlice and all the children in each class would line up to be examined in turn, their hair being combed carefully with a nit comb to see if there was any infestation. There were also routine eye and hearing tests, and visits from the school dentist. There was also the polio vaccine, given at school to every child on a sugar lump. Measles, German Measles and Mumps were not vaccinated against; most children contracted these diseases in childhood. German Measles, can affect unborn babies in the womb if contracted in pregnancy and so if a girl in the class caught German Measles, it was not uncommon for her mother to throw a tea party for the rest of the girls so they could all also catch the disease.

Class sizes large normally between 35 and 40 children per class. There were no classroom assistants, just the class teacher and so discipline was strict. It was quite common for a disruptive child to be rapped over the knuckles, on the buttocks or on the palm of the hand with a ruler. 

Reading, writing and arithmetic (the Three ‘R’s) were very important, as was learning by rote. Times tables were learnt by chanting aloud in class and poetry would also be learnt by heart, but this wa normally in the Junior School. Neat hand writing was seen as very important and practiced daily, it never worked my handwriting still looks the product of a demented spider!  Nature study was popular and often the only science taught with children being asked to bring in things such as leaves and seeds for the teacher to identify and to be put on the nature table.  

One of the things that I remember from infant school days involved a friend, Edward (Bungy) Wells. One day in the first week we were all sat down and we were each given a small sand tray and told to draw a picture in the sand with our fingers. We all set to with a will, all except Bungy who just sat their staring into space but made no design in his sand tray. When the teacher told him that he would have to draw something he reluctantly placed his finger in the sand and dragged it down leaving just one vertical line. When the teacher asked what it was a picture of he answered, “A walking stick!” In case you are wondering what happened to him in later life, he has just retired as a well-respected solicitor in the West Country.   

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Peter

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On this day 5^th September 1960-1965

On 05/09/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows 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 05/09/1961 the number one single was Johnny Remember Me - John Leyton and the number one album was Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Blackpool Tower Circus (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 05/09/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield 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. The big news story of the week was 20000 killed in Iran earthquake.

On 05/09/1963 the number one single was Bad to Me - Billy J Kramer 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 05/09/1964 the number one single was Have I the Right? - Honeycombs and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) 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 05/09/1965 the number one single was I Got You Babe - Sonny and Cher 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.

Web Page  No 2292

26^th August 2016

Top Picture: Sherbet Fountain

Second Picture: Sherbet Dabs

Third Picture: Sherbet Lemons

Sherbet

One of our favourite sweets when we were little was sherbet or, kali  in the north of England or keli in Scoland This fizzy powder was usually eaten by dipping a lollipop or liquorice, in it or by just licking it on a finger. 

The word "sherbet" is from Turkish "şerbet", which is from the Persian which in turn comes from "sharbat", Arabic "sharba" which was a drink,. Another route for the name "sorbet", comes from the French "sorbet", from Italian "sorbetto" and in turn from Turkish "şerbet". Historically it was a cool effervescent or iced fruit soft drink. The meaning, spelling and pronunciation have fractured between different countries. It is usually spelled "sherbet", but a common pronunciation changes this to "sherbert".

Beginning with the 19th century sherbet powder (soda powder) became popular in Germany where the art was "Put a spoonful of the powder in a cup of water, mix it and drink it as soon as possible, during the time of sparkling.

Sherbet in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries is a fizzy powder, containing sugar and flavouring, and an edible acid and base. The acid may be tartaric, citric or malic acid, and the base may be sodium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate, magnesium carbonate, or a mixture of these and/or other similar carbonates.  To this is added a large amount of sugar to mask the unappetising flavour of the reactive powders, icing sugar, and fruit or cream soda flavouring.

The acid-carbonate reaction occurs upon presence of moisture (juice/saliva). Sherbet used to be stirred into various beverages to make effervescing drinks, in a similar way to  making lemonade from lemonade powder, before tinned carbonated drinks became popular. Sherbet is now used to mean this powder sold as a sweet.  Sherbet can be sold by itself or used as a decorative agent on other sweets for example:-.

The Sherbet Lemon

The sherbet lemon is a popular sweet in the UK, and is included in many sweet shops. It is the main flavour of boiled sweets with powdered sherbet centres - such as sherbet fruits, where sherbet limes, strawberries, blackcurrants, raspberries and orange are popular flavours. The sherbet lemon has a citrus taste and is sour and also tangy. The sherbet in the middle explodes, making the sweet suddenly more sour.

Sherbet Fountain

Barratt's "Sherbet Fountain" consists of sherbet and a stick made from liquorice, sold since 1925. In 2009 a plastic tube with twist-off lid replaced the traditional paper packaging with the liquorice stick poking through the end, much to the fury of the traditionalist.  In the traditional paper packaging, the top of the stick was intended to be bitten off to form a straw and the sherbet sucked through it, where it fizzes and dissolves on the tongue. The "new" format only includes a solid liquorice stick, so the sherbet must be licked off that, or eaten directly. This method of consumption was also considered acceptable with the original packaging. This is now advertised on the packet as "Sherbet with a liquorice dip" A very different experience from the original paper-wrapped sweet.

Fruit flavoured with lollipop

Sherbet dips or Sherbet Dabs are also popular, such as the Dip Dab by Barratt. They consist of a small packet of sherbet, with a lollipop sealed into the bag. Once the lollipop has been licked, it can be dipped into the sherbet and then sucked clean, alternatively it can simply be used to shovel the sherbet into the mouth.

Another popular type of sherbet dip is the Double Dip by Swizzels Matlow, where the packet is divided into three sections; one contains an edible stick which can be licked and then dipped into the other sections, each of which contains a different flavour of sherbet (for example strawberry, orange, cola).

Sherbet straws[

Plastic straws filled purely with fruit-flavoured sherbet. The most common lengths are 10 cm and 50 cm. The price of these straws range from 5p to £2.00 in the UK depending on size, make and flavour. Normally found in newsagents.

Flying saucers[

We all remember the small dimpled discs made from rice paper, typically filled with white unflavoured sherbet. The first flying saucers were produced in the 1960s.

Other uses]

Sherbet is incorporated into other sweets. For example, it is used to give gum based sweets an interesting surface texture and zing (notably cola bottles, fruit strips).

Slang

Sherbet has been used in parts of both the UK and Australia as slang for an alcoholic drink, especially beer. This use is noted in a slang dictionary as early as 1890, and still appears in list of slang terms written today (especially lists of Australian slang). "We're heading to the pub for a few sherbets." And "Sherbet dab" is used as rhyming slang for a "taxi cab".

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Peter

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On this day 26^th August 1960-1965

On 26/08/1960 the number one single was Please Don't Tease - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) 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 26/08/1961 the number one single was You Don't Know - Helen Shapiro 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 One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 26/08/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield 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 26/08/1963 the number one single was Bad to Me - Billy J Kramer 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 26/08/1964 the number one single was Do Wah Diddy Diddy - Manfred Mann and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - 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 Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 26/08/1965 the number one single was Help - The Beatles 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. The big news story of the day was Yemen War to be ended.

Web Page  No 2290

19^th August 2016

New Drayton Book now available. £3.00 + £1.25 p&p

Next Meeting 6th October at noon in The George

Top Picture: The Juke Box Jury Days

Second Picture: With Ami Macdonald

Third Picture: Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman

David Jacobs

It was quite a shock to the establishment when David Jacobs was picked by the BBC to host the new radio programme ‘Pick of the Pops’.  The last thing that was expected was a suave, sophisticated, well-dressed man with a cut glass accent, but it seemed to work. And work it did until he took over ‘Juke Box Jury’ on the TV and Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman took over his radio show after his five year tenure.  

David Lewis Jacobs was born in May 1926 to a Jewish family, the youngest of three son of Jeanette and David Jacobs senior,^[in Streatham Hill, London,and educated at Belmont College and Strand School. In his early years the family was affluent, but his father, a Covent Garden fruit importer, was bankrupted in 1939 after suffering ill-health for a decade, and the family soon lost their home. This forced his youngest son to leave school at 14, and David took up various short-term jobs, before he served in the Royal Navy from 1944 to 1947 and whist in the service performed on the popular BBC General Forces Programme Navy Mixture in 1944.  He became an announcer with the British Forces Broadcasting Service and was chief announcer on Radio SEAC in Ceylon (1945–47) and later became assistant station director.

He became a BBC staff announcer in the early 1950s and his voice was heard in the titles for many of the 53 episodes of Journey Into Space, he also played 22 parts in the series. Another area of broadcasting was Radio Luxembourg. Between 1957 and 1966, he presented A Song for Europe and provided the UK commentary at Eurovision Song Contests.

In 1949 he married Patricia Bradlaw, with whom he had three daughters and a son, but their marriage collapsed in 1969, and the couple divorced in 1972. Their daughter is actress Emma Jacobs. His life was marked by several tragic events. Jeremy, his 19-year-old son, was killed in Israel during 1972 in a car accident while engaged in charity work. In 1975, he survived a car accident in Spain in which his second wife, Caroline, whom he had married earlier that year, and Caroline Marsh, wife of politician Richard Marsh, were killed. David’s wife was pregnant with their unborn child. In 1979 he married Lindsay Stuart-Hutcheson.

Most of us remember him Jacobs presenting  Juke Box Jury  between 1959 and 1967. Now who was in the audience in the Guildhall when it was broadcast from there twice? I was! First was 2nd December 1961 The week panel included: Jill Browne Harry Fowler Pete Murray June Thorburn and in the chair, David Jacobs and second 31st October 1964 and the Jury consisted of a very pregnant Marianne Faithful, Petula Clark, Stubby Kaye and Gene Pitney.  

1962 this programme attracted 12 million viewers weekly on Saturday nights. He was also one of the four original presenters of Top of the Pops when it began in 1964, but remained a presenter of the programme for only its first two years. "I became too square for the pop scene," he once commented.

In 1963 he published an autobiography, 'Jacobs' Ladder'.

Most of his career after the late 1960s was at Radio 2  and consisted of easy listening music and interviews with guests. From December 1967 until July 1984, he chaired the Radio 4 topical debate, Any Questions? 

In 1984, he received the Sony Gold Award for his outstanding contribution to radio over the years (and was subsequently admitted to the Sony Hall of Fame). He also achieved the Richard Martin Award for exceptional service in the cause of animal welfare. In the same year, he was appointed Representative Deputy Lieutenant for the Royal Borough of Kingston, a position he held over the following 17 years. On his retirement from this position he became High Steward of Kingston.

Between January 1985 and December 1991, he presented a daily lunchtime programme on Radio 2 of what he characterised as "our kind of music", and subsequently presented a weekly programme following a similar format, for a time on Saturday evening and later on Fridays, although the show finished airing in early 1999. He also presented Radio 2's long-running Sunday programme Melodies for You from 1974 to 1984.

By now one of the station's oldest presenters, he hosted a Sunday late-night easy listening show from 1998 until 2013. 

During the first half of 2012, while he was recovering from two major operations, he continued to be heard each Sunday on BBC Radio 2, which broadcast repeats of The David Jacobs Collection orininally presented  in 1998. He returned to his regular Sunday night slot with The David Jacobs Collection on 8 July 2012.

On 22 July 2013 he announced that he was stepping down as presenter of his Radio 2 show, citing ill health. His last show was broadcast on 4 August 2013. He said, "I will not stop collecting but my sadness will be that I cannot share them with all my loyal listeners. But rest assured, I will be back from time to time."

 He had been involved since its inception in Kingston's Rose Theatre, of which he was life president. He was vice-patron of the charity Advance Centre for the Scotson Technique, and patron of the Disabled Photographers' Society.he was also a lifelong friend of Dame Vera Lynn and was Vice President of her charity, The Dame Vera Lynn Trust for Children with Cerebral Palsy. He was also involved in the Celebrities Guild, "a kind of Jewish Variety Club", and regularly spoke at "ordinary suburban synagogues"

David Jacobs died at home at the age of 87 on 2nd September 2013, surrounded by his family. He had been suffering from Parkinson's disease and had also been treated for liver cancer since at least 2011.

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Peter

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On this day 19^th August 1960-1965

On this day 19^th August 1960-1965

The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) 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 11 new independent African states created.

On 19/08/1961 the number one single was You Don't Know - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Harpers West One (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 19/08/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield 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 19/08/1963 the number one single was Sweets For My Sweet - Searchers 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 19/08/1964 the number one single was Do Wah Diddy Diddy - Manfred Mann and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) 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 19/08/1965 the number one single 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. Watts race riots in US and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Riviera Police (AR)".