THE UK’s TOP NOSTALGIA MONTHLY

Yesterday
Remembered

16 PAGES
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REAL LIFE
STORIES REMEMBERING
BERNARD CRIBBINS

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SAINT
SIXTY YEARS OF
TEMPLAR ON TV
LICENSED TO GRILL
How to eat like James Bond
COMEDY CENTRAL
A century of BBC comedy
UP ‘N’ UNDER
Britain’s Rugby League
triumphs
POP STAR TO
OPERA STAR
Singer David Hughes

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A tribute to Ringing the changes

Olivia Newton-John with Buzby
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A MUSICAL JOURNEY BACK IN TIME

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A SLIGHT CHANGE
T
here are certain people in
public life who you thought
would go on forever. Sir
Roger Moore who appears
on our front cover was one
of those, while Bernard Cribbins – a man
for whom the phrase “national treasure”
could have been coined and is also
celebrated this issue – was another.
And then there is Her late Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II, a figure who had
long been part of our lives. Despite her
advancing years and declining health,
it still feels slightly surreal that the
Queen is no longer here. That she was
overseeing a change of prime minister
just two days before her death shows
how seriously the Queen took her oath,
made on her 21st birthday “that my
whole life whether it be long or short
shall be devoted to your service and
the service of our great imperial family
to which we all belong.”
Whether you are a devoted
ALWAYS WITH US
Ian McCann recalls how an ordinary day shocked us all
I
t was an ordinary Thursday. I
went to a nursery, and decided
an Indian bean tree was too big
for the car. Heading home, the
car told me the front passenger
side tyre was deflated, so I rolled it into
a garage, peering across the bonnet
through rain-lashed glasses, trying in
vain to read the air pump’s pressure
gauge. Then I went to Tesco. It was
heaving. They’ve swapped the aisles and
it took twice as long as it should to find
everything on my soggy shopping list.
As my damp clothes steamed up the
car, Radio 4 made it clear something
was happening. Having unpacked the
shopping, dusted my home office, and
cooked dinner, one ear cocked to the
radio, I put the TV on just in time for
the horrible news to break.
I am glad it came through BBC One;
it seemed the right thing to receive it
through the official channel, as it were,
thanks to Huw Edwards, a reassuring,
trusted voice, black tie ready. We let it
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
EDITORIAL
monarchist or not, the Queen’s death
marks the end of an era for all of us.
For anyone aged 70 and under, there
had been no other monarch, and
while it may take a few moments to
remember that he is no longer “simply”
Prince Charles, I am sure that King
sink in, then rang elderly relatives so
they could share their shock.
What do I remember? The Queen
visiting Aberfan, her humanity bared
to all. The curiously girlish image on
vintage stamps, a gold silhouette with
ribbons loose behind her hair. The 60s
she presided over; a time of excitement
for the boyish me, of hovercraft, electric
trains, innovative telecommunications
as much as any of the swinging stuff the
decade is known for. The Queen didn’t
even hint that she might have been
responsible for any of it, but
somehow, she made progress seem
possible through her presence: she
was not interfering nor judgemental,
whatever her private thoughts.
Queen Elizabeth II gave the
impression that, despite the endless
protocol, she was down to earth,
and the passing show around her
was not something to be fretful
about: she was still here, whatever
tomfoolery the politicians might
FIRST WORD
Charles III will continue to maintain
the protocols and principles upheld by
his late mother.
Despite a change at the top of “the
firm” and a few titles and patronages
moved around the royal family, I
suspect it will be business as usual;
with the greatest upheaval being the
introduction of the new royal cypher
on uniforms, cap badges and pillar
boxes, and the minting of new coins
and the printing of banknotes and
postage stamps.
And on the subject of stamps, why
not put pen to paper and write in, to
our new address (see page 4), to share
with us any memories that you may
have of the Queen?
get up to or whatever tragedies we might
face. She was witty, and willing to play
herself in short films to open the 2012
Olympics and celebrate her platinum
jubilee with a computer-generated
bear. Some might have thought it
unbecoming, but she had dignity to
spare, and her humanity was what
Britain loved most. You don’t need me
to tell you the Queen is missed. You
are already missing her, thanks to an
ordinary rainy day that unexpectedly
turned out to be especially sad.
3
 40
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06 Postbag 30 Yesterday
Your letters and photographs.
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12 The Retro TV Times
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Classic television on Freeview,
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38 Window On The Past
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DESIGN & PRODUCTION 14 Britain Now
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16 Question Time Portsmouth
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44 Hopelessly Devoted
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22 Food & Drink A look back on the life and career
Take a tour of James Bond’s kitchen. of actor David Warner.

FIND US ON 24 Treasures In The Attic 48 From Pop To Opera

www.twitter.com/bestofbritishuk Can you guess how much it's worth? Remembering the pop star turned
www.facebook.com/Bestbritishmag operatic tenor David Hughes.
If you would like to subscribe to the
‘Best of British Newsletter’ visit
26 Forties Post
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk/sign-up The late Bernard Cribbins’ National
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
Service memories.
transmitted in any form without prior permission in writing from the
publisher. While we take every care, we cannot accept responsibility 61 & 71 READER OFFERS
for errors in articles and advertisements, nor for loss or damage to
manuscripts, discs, photographs or illustrations. We take every care to try
28 Round The Auction
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own the copyright on a picture, please contact the Editor.
Houses THE UK’s

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4 Best of British – October 2022

 48

26 18

50 Making Everyone 60 Puzzle Page and

Happy Cryptic Crossword
Celebrating Buzby, one of the UK’s Teatime teasers.
most successful marketing campaigns.
64 Bookshelf
52 Templar On TV This month's good reads.
Sixty years of The Saint.
66 Out & About
54 The Gold Coast Things to see and do
Examining the connection between in October.
James Bond and south-east Kent.
73 Out Of The Box
56 World Beaters
A look back on Great Britain’s Rugby
League World Cup triumphs.
Building Airfix's Supermarine
Spitfire MK Ia. 50
74 Back In Time
58 On The Armstrong Trail Doctor Who star
A visit to Gilnockie Tower in the former Colin Baker remembers.
Debatable Lands.

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 Postbag
The Editor welcomes letters for this section. Pictures
are appreciated. Letters may be edited so that we can
include as many as possible

A Momentous the button to open the sluice

gates; after that, she went to
Life the power station, to start the
first turbine, setting the hydro-
Dear Simon, electric scheme in action.
The engineers had closed the
What a momentous few days gates some hours before, and
these have been – less than a of course the River Nile began
week ago, on 6 September, we building up behind the dam, as
saw the Queen welcoming Liz the water was slowly draining
Truss at Balmoral; and then, 48 away below it – and I remember
hours later on 8 September, she sitting and watching this with
was gone, leaving a huge gap in dread: what would happen if the
all our lives. Queen was delayed, and ALL the
My family is feeling the loss of water drained away downstream
the Queen very personally; my in the meantime?
late husband was a commander I was so relieved when her
engineer in the Royal Navy, and motorcade hove into view, and
we enjoyed many happy times this petite figure was welcomed
at various naval events and all with all the joy and excitement
the official engagements we the new queen generated.
attended. Our daughter, Wendy, She made a short speech and
was a young child, and as her then pressed the button – and,
dad was senior naval officer, she to my great relief, the sluice
was often chosen to present a gates opened as planned, and
bouquet to a member of the the water poured through in
royal family attending a special magnificent cascades, droplets
function; Wendy was never flying everywhere, with
at a loss for words and always miniature rainbows forming in

Photograph: Royal Collection Trust/Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2022

enjoyed these occasions. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, pictured in 1954, in the
I was a little girl myself in Turbine Room of the Uganda Electricity Board’s Owen Falls Dam.
1952, when King George VI
died. We were in Kampala, and
I remember hearing the news on short
wave radio with all the attendant static and
interference, followed by sombre music that
was played all day.
We lived near a hill called Gun Cannon
Hill; there was a huge cannon at the top, and
I used to run up and down this hill, and climb
all over the gun – it was such fun.
However, the day after the King died,
my grandma and I were having our usual
afternoon kip during the heat of the day,
when suddenly there was this terrific
“BANG!!” Even my grandma, who was stone
deaf, heard it, and it gave her such a fright,
she nearly fell out of her bed. I’m sure you’ve
guessed that the cannon was actually an
operational piece of ordnance, and it was
being tested in readiness for the 52-gun
salute, one for each year of the King’s life.
We don’t like bangs, so when the time
came for the cannon to be fired, my mum
made us a picnic, and we drove to Jinja,
about 45 miles from Kampala, where we
stayed until that part of the ceremony was
over. There was no TV, of course, so we saw
the funeral on the newsreel in the cinema.
In 1953, my mum worked for Sir Charles
Westlake; he was an English engineer and
chairman of the Uganda Electricity Board,
and he was instrumental in the creation of
the Owen Falls Dam hydro-electric scheme
at Jinja. In April 1954, the Queen and Prince am certain he will also be strengthened and
Philip came out to Uganda, and one of her
engagements was to officially open the dam,
and set the turbines in operation.
We were invited to be present, and
took our seats a couple of hours before the
Queen arrived in her car from Entebbe; she
was going to be driven across the top of
the dam to the dais, where she would press
the spray. That’s one sight I’ll
never forget.
As our longest-serving
monarch, her remarkable
service and devotion to duty for more than
70 years, not only to our country, but also
to the Commonwealth nations and others
across the world, ensured the Queen huge
affection and respect for her unique wisdom
and leadership. The Queen will be sorely
missed by all her subjects; she will never be
forgotten, but live on in our hearts and minds
for ever. We pray for God’s blessing upon her,
and that she may rest in eternal peace.
We also pray for our new king, Charles III; I
supported by this same love and respect from
all his people.
We are so proud and happy to be British.
With warmest wishes to you all at Best of
British magazine.
Alexandra Wilde
Rainham, Essex

6 Best of British –October 2022

Buggy Marvellous
Dear Simon,
responsible for the demise of so many Volkswagen Beetles in
The anonymous kit (Out of the Box, September) being built is the period, beach buggies are rarely seen on the road today.
actually a pretty accurate representation of the British-made However, by chance I came across this one (a long wheelbase
Bugle beach buggy. During the relatively brief UK buggy craze it GP?) parked in the Wye Valley last month.
is said that some 850 examples of this short wheelbase version
were manufactured up to 1972, although the design sporadically All the best,
reappeared for more than 20 years after this in various hands. Martin Broadribb
It was probably one of the best designed and professionally By email
promoted domestic
buggies.
The glazing within
the roll bar that is
mentioned in the build
process was one of
the most distinctive
features of the design
and can be seen in this
1970 advertisement. It
allowed the weather
equipment to be
attached more neatly
than it was in many
other makes.
Despite being

In a Pickle incendiaries rained down. Dad went down to help Mom’s family
Dear Simon, get out on to the neighbouring canal side.
Dad’s mate stayed to try to put out the incendiaries.
Like most British expats, I searched the media for coverage of He never made it out. Dad went off to war in 1943, and he
the jubilee events on TV in June. I have wondered why we are and Mom married in 1944. It’s ironic that the demolition of
all so fixated on the country we left, in my case 45 years ago. the back-to-backs which led to greatly improved housing
Perhaps it’s guilt at leaving family behind and not being there conditions also separated neighbours that had grown up
to share their joys and woes over the years. together for generations.
I was born in a back-to-back house in Great Brook Street in
the Aston district of Birmingham in February 1953, just a few David Hockley
months before the coronation. Kendallville, Indiana, US
Mom and Dad always told me that as they were the first
in the neighbourhood to get a television, our house was
crowded with neighbours watching the coronation. The back-
to-backs in Birmingham dated from the mid-1800s and were
notoriously unhealthy. The Luftwaffe had removed the house
behind us, exposing what should have been an inside wall to
the rain, making our house even damper.
As a result, both my older sister and I got pneumonia in
1953, and Mom decided this was not the home fit for heroes
that Dad and Grandad had fought a world war each for. So, she
pestered the council for one of the new council houses in the
suburbs and by Christmas 1953 we were rehoused.
Incidentally, the Birmingham blitz that removed the house
behind us also provided one of our family’s most cherished
stories. Around the corner from our street was Holbrook’s
pickling factory. During the bombing, Mom’s family sheltered in
the factory basement.
Dad (he was 18 at the time) and his mate were in the Home Great Brook Street, Aston where David and his family lived.
Guard and were on fire-watching duty on the roof when the

www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk 7
 POSTBAG

Looking Up to Tommy Steele

Dear Simon,

Many years ago, when I worked for a man

who did footings, main drains and oversites,
we were working on a plot of land at
Teddington, across the River Thames from
Kingston. The site was on the riverside with a
narrow lane sloping down to it.
This trench we were digging out was quite
deep as you got near the top to join the main
road. One day we were working away and
suddenly a figure appeared at the top – it was
Tommy Steele. He was dressed in an army
uniform as I think he was making a film at the
time. He looked down at us and said: “Rather
you than me, mate.”
Apparently, he lived in the house next
door at that time and I believe he was offered
this plot of land but didn’t want it.

Best regards
Bobby Knottley
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire

Meeting the Jet-set Ship to Sore

Dear Simon,
I am retired now, having spent my working
life at the now defunct AEC Southall – who
built London’s buses – and for the likes of
Securicor and Chubb.
While working at Heathrow airport,
when Securicor had the contract to search
boarding passengers, I had the opportunity
to meet some famous people, including
the very charming Julie Andrews. Marty
Feldman was another face I recall, who just
like his screen self, larked about, trying to
search one of my male colleagues. That was
during the long hot summer of 1976.
When I transferred to Securicor’s alarms
division, I had further opportunity to meet
other celebrities. One Friday evening, I
was given a job for the following Monday
morning, that of a pre-booked twice-annual
service visit, a Mr Powell.
the home of Barry Humphries.
Other famous clients included Sting,
and Lynsey de Paul – a beautiful lady who
was sadly taken from us too early. Around
about the turn of the millennium, I had
a call out to Hadley Wood one Friday
evening, and the front door was opened by
footballer Emmanuel Petit. He was a perfect
gentleman who admitted to triggering his
alarm accidentally and gave me a £20 note
as a tip, for which I was very grateful.
My only wish now, was that I could have
filled my old autograph book with those
noble people’s signings.
Sincerely
David Luck, Walthamstow, London
Dear Simon,
Good to see veteran DJ Keith Skues
featured in the September edition
(Yesterday Remembered: One for the
Record Books).
He mentioned his time on the
pirate stations. I recently attended
an exhibition on them at Felixstowe;
clearly, life offshore could be
unpleasant and dangerous.
There was the risk of
electrocution from electricity
seeping from the aerial mast. It
could light a fluorescent tube and
power a battery-less transistor radio.
Getting on and off was especially
hazardous. Those based on wartime
forts had to use rickety ladders,
while DJs on boats had to cope with
a strong swell.
Photograph: Creative Commons/Avro

I didn’t think much of it, until on the
Monday morning, I arrived at the front
door. My jaw dropped out of awe to see
Robert Powell, that marvellous actor who
played Jesus of Nazareth.
On another occasion, I was working in
the porch of a house where I recall the hat
stand had an old, tattered but much-loved
wide-brimmed hat where the clue was some
corks hanging from the brim.
I didn’t actually get to meet the occupant
that day, but a colleague informed me it was
Whether in a TV studio or an
airport, Marty Feldman loved to
entertain his audience.
One DJ misjudged his jump
from the tender and had to cling
on to the ship’s rails. When finally
hauled aboard, both of his shoes
had been pulled off when his legs
were trapped between the tender
and the boat.
Derek Lamb
Potters Bar,
Hertfordshire

8 Best of British – October 2022

Fore Plane
Dear Simon,

The reference to John Stringfellow in September’s Postcard from

Can you help?
Somerset rang a bell. A couple of years ago, I tracked Stringfellow
down to Chard and went exploring. In Fore Street, ss you can see Requests for information on any subject, as
from the enclosed photograph, there is brass scale model of the well as friends and family searches and reunion
“plane” he was instrumental in developing. He’s buried in Chard
cemetery in a family grave.
announcements, can be included here free of charge

Regards I am researching my family who lived in Southall, both in

Barry Stone history and am looking for any
Newbury, Berkshire information on Southampton
Way, Lambeth in London
between 1900 and now. Any
postcards, photos, and articles
in newspapers and magazines
would be greatly appreciated.
Mrs Marian Betts (née
Smoker), 520 Old Bedford
Road, Luton, Bedfordshire
LE2 7BY
Does anyone have any stories
about the famous Dixon
family of Cockfield and Old
Raby, Co Durham to share
with me? Also, can anyone
tell me anything about the
Sambourne War memorial in
Warwickshire, which was built
by William Bramwell Cox?
Hornet Hunting Lee Gibson, 124 Cantley
Manor Avenue, Cantley,
Dear Simon, Doncaster DN4 6TN Email:
engishhistoryman124@
I found the article Cool Cats in the September issue very outlook.com
interesting.
In 1955, I bought my first car for £15. It was a 1931 six-cylinder The Dowty Group were
Wolseley Hornet (Sprite). I sold it to a chap in the RAF for £25 one of the nation’s premier
about a year later. engineering concerns
I lived in my parents’ house in Reresmount Place, Broughty supplying for example the
Ferry, Dundee, at the time where this photo was taken (I am undercarriages for famous
pictured standing on the left). I wonder if this car or the chap who World War Two aircraft such
bought it is still around. as the Lancaster. An employee
Keep up the good work. reunion has been arranged
in October at the former
Richard Sturrock, By email headquarters in Cheltenham
and details can be obtained by
emailing me.
Martin Robins, Email:
martinrobins@btinternet.
com
Seeking information with
regard to Tony Feast who lived
in Carshalton, and Paul Sage
the early 1960s.
Chas Atkins, 12, Hillcrest
Road, Chatham ME4 6EG
Email: ritaatkins7@icloud.
com
Does anyone have any
old reports, photographs,
documents, letters or player
information (photocopies are
fine) on my local football team,
Barkingside FC? However big
or small the information is, it
will be greatly appreciated as
we celebrate the club’s 125th
anniversary in 2023.
Rob Meyers), 123 Ashurst
Drive, Ilford, Essex IG6 1HA
I would like to hear from
readers who worked for, or
more likely had a relative who
worked for, British companies
producing model soldiers prior
to 1980. Concerns like Britains,
John Hill, Cherilea, Crescent,
Timpo or similar.
Stephen Dance (Archivist,
British Model Soldier
Society), 1 Flora Grove,
St Albans, Hertfordshire
AL1 5EW Email:
stephendanceslcn@
btinternet.com
Looking for people who knew
me or want to be pen pals from
Turriff, Scotland (my birthplace)
and Kesgrave/Woodbridge in
Suffolk, where I used to live in
1984-1988.
Pastor Joseph Culp, PO Box
202, Pickerington, OHIO
43147-0202 US Email: joseph.
captainscotland.culp@gmail.
com

Requests for information, friends and family searches and reunion

announcements can be included here free of charge. Send any
requests, written as concisely as possible, to Can You Help?
Best Of British, 2nd Floor, Saunders House, 52-53 The Mall,
Ealing, London W5 3TA or by email to info@bestofbritishmag.co.uk
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk 9
 POSTBAG

Simply Wizard
Dear Simon,
I was interested to read that a former
working men’s club in my home town
of Nuneaton now contains a working
collection of pinball machines (Pinball
Wizards, September).
It just goes to show you can live in a
town like Nuneaton and not know what is
in the back streets.
Thank you Best of British for informing
us of the unique places that we would
never know were on our doorsteps. I look
forward to it every month.

David Locke
By email

“Beer by the Pound”

Dear Simon,

Postcard from Berkshire (May) and the picture of the Bell Inn at
Waltham St Lawrence took me back to 1959 when my late husband
and I stayed in a cottage there
The room we were given had a sloping floor. You went in the door
and had to stop yourself flying to the window.
The village was advertised as “where beer is sold by the pound”
which intrigued my husband. We were taken by our hosts to see
Ascot racecourse and by another guest to the River Thames. Of
course, beer wasn’t sold by the pound, but by “The Pound”, a green
where cattle used to be gathered.
Another part of Berkshire where I stayed, when I was younger The cottage in Waltham St Lawrence, Berkshire where Maisie
during the war after our family home was bombed, was Arborfield and her late husband stayed in 1959.
where my eldest sister was based in the barrack in the Naafi. I also
enjoyed a day out on the Kennet and Avon Canal. I wonder if the
horse shown on the Postcard from Berkshire is the same one which and I walked to the Valley of the Rocks and up the Lyn River. A lovely
pulled our boat? Great memories. holiday and lovely memories.
In that same issue was a feature on the Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff
Railway (An Uplifting Experience). I also had a holiday in Lynton and Thank you for reminding me.
Lynmouth and went up and down on the cliff railway. My friend Maisie Dance, Purley, Surrey

Yakety Sax
Dear Simon,

Lyndon Parker (The Collector, August) makes a strong case for the
lasting fame of Tintin cartoons by Herge and mentions the famous
Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Both were characters of fiction.
In fact, the most famous real Belgian was Adolphe Sax, the
inventor of the saxophone and, quite rightly, he is celebrated with a
statue in his home town of Dinant.

Yours sincerely
David Dearle
Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

10 Best of British – October 2022

A Quick Butchers
Dear Simon,
Bob Barton’s mention of Beverley in his Postcard from East Yorkshire
in the August issue reminded me of the laugh we had when we
visted the town back in 1987.
My husband Peter had started researching his family history
and learned that his maternal grandfather, Thomas Dobson, once
owned a butcher’s shop close to the Market Cross and there was a
plaque on the building bearing his name. Together with our two
children we went by train to spend a few days in Yorkshire and
visited Beverley.
We discovered that the building was now a restaurant called
Butterdings but we couldn’t find a plaque outside so went in and
spoke to the manager. He grinned and opened a little door on the
wall behind the counter, revealing a plaque inscribed: “Laid by T.
Dobson 1884”. He said that the waitresses had objected to standing
in front of that wording as it caused too many ribald remarks.
All good wishes,
Brenda Mathews
Burgess Hill, West Sussex
Brenda with her children, Stephen and Carolyn, outside the
Butterdings restaurant in Beverley, East Yorkshire.
Dance the Polka
Dear Simon,
I found the letter Exhibition Choice (August) very interesting
indeed.
I’d like to mention that the theme music for this BBC Light
Programme was a piece titled Polka for Strings recorded by the
Van Lynn Orchestra from the LP One Night of Madness on the
Brunswick label (LAT 8125).
Thanks as always,
John R Forster
Bournemouth, Dorset
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
The Collector
One of my close friends,
John, has always been
a keen coin collector.
Among his friends with
the same interests was
one who liked to go
round and dig holes here
and there.
This friend was turning
the turf over near the
graveyard at Shalford
in Surrey when he
uncovered a piece of rag,
which on examination
turned out to be a grubby
old purse that contained
a few coins.
Most of these were old
francs of no value but there was one coin that was quite a puzzle
– it was clearly a token or suchlike from the Industrial Revolution
which he brought home and cleaned up before adding it to his
collection. In later years, he sold it to my friend John for a nominal
price. John added it to his bits and pieces section of his collection
and thought no more about it until recently when John was
invited to an examination and assessment session by the famous
London dealers Spink & Son who were visiting a local venue at
Farnham in Surrey.
One of the valuers told John that the coin was a Spanish dollar
piece from the late 18th century that a certain Dowager Countess
of Ormonde (pictured above) was using as a currency for her
workers at the colliery that was owned by her family. It was her
practice to stamp “Castle Comer Colliery” and its new value, 5s
5d, on the soft Spanish coin and the workers there used it to pay
for coal or other goods. How such a coin/token came to be lost
in a Surrey churchyard is anybody’s guess and a mystery that will
never be resolved.
The valuer thought it worth offering to one of Spink & Co’s
forthcoming auctions of old coins, which was arranged for a
saleroom in New York. John was told he could go online and
watch the auction in his own home, which he did. From here
on, things went quite crazy and John was overwhelmed with
emotion as the bidding began at $1,000. It went on and it was
finally sold at $15,000.
Spink & Co concluded the transaction, took its commission and
presented John with a cheque for £10,000 – which just goes to show
that you should keep an eye out when walking near churchyards.
Do you have a collection that you would like to share in the pages
of Best of British? If so, send us a photograph of you and the
object, along with a description, how you came to have it and what
you like about it.
11
 The RetroTV Times
Classic television on Freeview, Satellite, Cable and Online

Talking Pictures TV
talkingpicturestv.co.uk

SKY 328 | FREEVIEW 82

FREESAT 306 | VIRGIN 445

Brannigan (1975)
(Saturday 1 October, 9.05pm)
Crime. Director: Douglas Hickox. Starring: John Wayne, Richard
Attenborough, Judy Geeson, Mel Ferrer, John Vernon and Daniel
Pilon. Jim Brannigan is sent to London to escort a mobster to the
US, but a group of hitmen disrupt the plan.

Doctor in Trouble (1970)

(Sunday 2 October, 12.15pm)
Comedy. Director: Ralph Thomas. Starring: Leslie Phillips, Harry
Secombe and Angela Scoular. A British doctor stows away on a
cruise liner in pursuit of the woman he plans to propose to.

Pit of Darkness (1961) Murder in Reverse (1945)

(Thursday 6 October, 12.10pm)
Crime. Director: Lance Comfort. Starring: William Franklyn, Moira
Redmond, Bruno Barnabe and Leonard Sachs. A partner of a
safe-making firm is found unconscious on a bomb site with no
recollection of the past three weeks.
An Inspector Calls (1954)
(Saturday 8 October, 9.05pm)
Crime. Director: Guy Hamilton. Starring: Alastair Sim, Olga Lindo,
Eileen Moore, Brian Worth, Bryan Forbes and George Woodbridge.
The Birling family are rich and complacent. It is 1912 and the
impending war has yet to fall across their lives.
(Saturday 8 October, 6.25pm)
Crime. Director: Montgomery Tully. Starring: William Hartnell,
Jimmy Hanley, Chili Bouchier and Dinah Sheridan. A dockhand is
wrongfully sent to prison for murder, after his wife’s lover fakes his
own death. On release, he is convinced the man is still alive and sets
out to avenge his time behind bars.
The Green Man (1956)
(Sunday 9 October, 3.10pm)
Comedy. Starring: Alastair Sim, Raymond Huntley, George Cole and
Terry-Thomas. A watchmaker turns out to be an assassin whose
target is a leading politician but his plans are stalled.

FREEVIEW 41, SKY 148,

FREESAT 137, VIRGIN 149

Sweeney! (1977) This independently made British black-and-white cult classic was
(Saturday 15 October, 9pm) directed by Arthur Crabtree and stars Marshall Thompson, Kynaston
When one of his informants is murdered, Detective Inspector Jack Reeves, Michael Balfour and Kim Parker.
Regan (John Thaw) is drawn into a deadly political
game. He is soon a marked man and, after being framed,
is suspended from duty. This doesn’t stop him and
Photograph: (The Bill) FreemantleMedia

Detective Sergeant George Carter (Dennis Waterman)

searching for the truth. This gritty British police drama is
inspired by the ITV series The Sweeney.

Fiend Without a Face (1958)

(Sunday 23 October, 9pm)
A scientist’s thoughts materialise as an army of
invisible brain-shaped monsters who terrorise an
American military base in this nightmarish chiller.

12 Best of British – October 2022

 Steptoe & Son
Film version of the TV sitcom. Harold
spends his life trying to escape his
father, Albert. Disaster looms when
Harold decides to get married – against
his father’s wishes.

The Saint
Roger Moore stars as the globetrotting adventurer Simon Templar,
the all-action hero who never misses an opportunity to fight the
bad guys and help those in distress.

The Day of the Triffids

The BBC’s 1981 adaptation of John Wyndham’s vivid and thrilling
tale of ecological apocalypse. What happens when the whole
human race is rendered blind, and flesh-eating plants stalk the
survivors?
The Young Ones
Four deluded, grubby, bored students stumble through their
surreal world. The iconic 1980s sitcom that changed comedy,
starring Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Nigel Planer, Christopher Ryan
and Alexei Sayle.
The Lenny Henry Show
Classic sitcom with legendary comedian Lenny Henry starring as
pirate DJ Delbert Wilkins.
The Likely Lads
Film spin-off of the hit BBC comedy. Bob and Terry head off on a
caravan holiday with their respective other halves, only for it to
descend into chaos.
BritBox is a digital video subscription service created by the
BBC and ITV. The service brings the very best in past, present
and future British programming and award-winning content
to viewers all in one place for £5.99 per month in HD. British TV
boxsets from All 4 and British films from Film 4 are also available.

FREEVIEW/YOUVIEW/ Dad’s Army: Sgt Wilson’s Little Secret

BT/TALKTALK 20, Sergeant Wilson’s commitment to Home Guard
SKY 143, VIRGIN 130, activities wavers while he has a little problem of his
FREESAT 158 own to contend with.

The Bill: Happy and Glorious FREEVIEW/YOUVIEW/BT/

(Part One) TALKTALK 27,
(Wednesday 12 October, 12pm) SKY 155, VIRGIN 129, FREESAT
The Bill: Happy and Glorious 159
(Part Two)
(Thursday 13 October, 12pm) Bangers and Cash
With the section house closing, Reg (Tuesday 11 October, 1pm)
Hollis is looking for a new home and Derek collects a Ford Thames 400E that once
a more “regal” position. Meanwhile, belonged to the pop band Edison Lighthouse. Plus,
though, he uncovers a plot to rob Dave heads to York to collect an Astra GTE convertible.
a jeweller’s shop and becomes
the prime suspect in a murder Secrets of the London Underground:
investigation. Brompton Road
(Friday 14 October, 12pm)
SKY 110, Tim Dunn and Siddy Holloway walk the Piccadilly
VIRGIN 124, line at night to explore the hidden World War Two
TALKTALK 310, remains of Brompton Road.
NOW TV
The Fosters
(Weekdays at 7.55am, from 3 October) Watch Dave, Really, Yesterday and Drama
Classic British sitcom from 1976 that became famous for shows on demand with UKTV Play (uktvplay.
being the first TV series to feature an entirely black cast. Stars uktv.co.uk) and catch up on your favourite
Norman Beaton, Isabelle Lucas and Carmen Munroe. programmes.

Channels may be unavailable in certain regions. If you are having trouble viewing channels, go to freeview.co.uk/
freeview-channel-checker or call the Freeview Advice Line on 03456 50 50 50 (Mondays to Fridays, 9am-5pm).

www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk 13
 NEWS FROM AROUND THE UK

BRITAIN NOW TOPICAL SNIPPETS FROM AROUND OUR NATION

Bluebird Takes Flight

A tramcar, currently under restoration, has moved under its own power for the
first time in 65 years. The art deco styled LCC 1 Bluebird has been undergoing
major restoration work in the workshop of the National Tramway Museum at
Crich, Derbyshire since 2014. Built for London County Council in 1932, Bluebird’s
design aimed to give more luxurious comfort to passengers. In 1933, London
County Council Tramways was merged into London Transport, and Bluebird
remained a non-standard prototype for a fleet that was never built. Sold to
Leeds Corporation Tramways in 1951, LCC 1 remained in service until 1957.
Donated to the Museum of British Transport in Clapham, south-west London,
Bluebird was displayed there until 1972, when it was acquired by the Tramway
Museum Society at Crich. Following the completion of the £500,000 restoration
project, it is hoped that Bluebird will be running again in 2023.

Prototype tramcar LCC 1 Bluebird is undergoing a £500,000 restoration at the National Tramway Museum at Crich, where it has been
on static display since 1972. It is hoped the tramcar will run again next year once the refurbishment work is completed.

Phoenix from the Ferns Better Late…

A “Garden in the Ruins”, created within the remains of a stately home A much-missed clock
that was lost in a catastrophic fire in 1947, has been unveiled by the has returned home
National Trust. The flamboyant garden at Nymans in West Sussex after an absence of
reflects the plantsmanship and artistry of the Messel family, who 15 years. Edinburgh’s

Photograph: (Nymans) National Trust/Gary Cosham, (Not So Square) Rob Greig/Ben Broomfield
bought the estate in the 1890s and began creating one of the UK’s London Road clock
most exquisite gardens. Home to plant collections of international was removed in 2007
significance, Ludwig Messel and his son Leonard sponsored plant prior to construction
hunting expeditions and worked with gardeners James and Harold of the Edinburgh
Comber to introduce many plant hybrids that remain popular today. tram system.
Nick Delves, who researched and designed the new garden, said: Following extensive
“The Great Hall hadn’t been accessible for 75 years, but the enclosed restoration by Smith
space left behind by the fire provided an exciting opportunity to of Derby, the clock
design a new garden. We wanted people to be able to see inside was returned to Elm
for the first time, but we also wanted to showcase Nymans’ plant Row, close to the
collection and its huge importance.” former roundabout
where it had stood
since 1955. The clock,
which began life
on Waverley Bridge
in 1857 before being moved to the West End in 1896, returns to
the area as Trams to Newhaven – a project connecting Leith and
Newhaven to the Edinburgh tramway – nears completion.
“I’m sure the return of the London Road clock will be welcome
news to many,” said Councillor Scott Arthur, transport and
environment convener, “and thanks to its full restoration it will
add a striking finishing touch to the area’s transformation. It has a
rich history, and I’m sure the clock has witnessed many amazing
scenes in Edinburgh.”

The London Road clock has been returned to an Edinburgh

Dicksonia antarctica is one of a number of ferns bringing lush street following a thorough restoration.
texture to the new garden at Nymans in West Sussex.

14 Best of British – October 2022

 Not So Square
A spectacular free event will transform
the City of London’s streets with a huge
programme of theatre, games, and
performance on Saturday 15 October.
Featuring more than 100 performers,
family-friendly highlights include a mass
treasure hunt, a maze of adventures,
carnival-inspired fairs, and creative
street theatre. It is the first major
event planned by the City of London
Corporation under its new flagship
Destination City programme. Backed by
a £2.5 million annual investment from
the City Corporation, Destination City
aims to create a leading destination for
UK and international visitors, workers,
and residents to enjoy.
A line-up of landmark Square Mile Attractions at the Destination City street festival in the City of London on Saturday
public spaces and iconic sites will 15 October include carnival-inspired fairs and creative street theatre.
feature in the programme, such as
Guildhall and the Museum of London,
alongside secret hideaways, and storytelling to large-scale games and participatory dance,
subterranean adventures in the historic heart of the capital. the event will run from dawn until dusk, and culminate with a
Inspired by the mythologies and hidden tales of the Square Mile, spectacular finale.
audiences will be guided through the City’s streets on an array Policy chairman of the City of London Corporation, Chris
of magical experiences, by a host of historical and fantastical Hayward, said: “This must-see event is set to become one of the
characters conjured up from the past and future. capital’s cultural highlights of the year, drawing a huge audience
Produced by Bafta award-winning arts and heritage charity from across London and beyond. Join us for large-scale street
CONEY, alongside some of the UK’s best creative companies, performances, carnivals, games, and more. Together we are
the event will draw on all forms of performance and theatre putting the City of London on the map as a globally-renowned
to bring the City to life. From circus performers, puppetry and destination which is exciting, diverse, creative, and inclusive.”

Enjoying her working relationship

Josephine Tewson with Barker, Tewson also appeared
with him in shows such as The Two
The actress Josephine Tewson, perhaps best- Ronnies, Hark at Barker, His Lordship
known for her role in the sitcom Keeping Up Entertains and Clarence – Barker’s
Appearances, has died. She was 91. final sitcom, which saw the pair
Born in Hampstead, north London, Tewson reprise the roles they first played in
displayed an aptitude for acting from an early the Six Dates With Barker episode
age. Following a suggestion by her English The Removals Person.
master that she either study English at university Other comedy work included The
or try for drama school, Tewson successfully Dick Emery Show, The Charlie Drake
auditioned for Rada. Show and Shelley, while stage
After graduation in 1952, she joined the roles included Habeas Corpus, The
Easdale Theatre Company, a repertory company Cherry Orchard, Noises Off and The
in Darlington, followed by stints in Cleethorpes, Killing of Sister George.
Mansfield and Morecambe. In December As long-suffering neighbour
1956, while playing Robin Hood in Salisbury Liz Warden in the sitcom Keeping
Playhouse’s production of Babes in the Wood, Up Appearances, Tewson was the
she met co-star Leonard Rossiter. The two would perfect foil to Patricia Routledge’s
marry in 1958, divorcing three years later. Hyacinth Bucket. The show’s writer
Having already appeared on television in Roy Clark also put her into Last
shows such as the crime dramas Charlesworth of the Summer Wine as librarian
and No Hiding Place, as well as Emergency Ward Lucinda Davenport.
10, Tewson made her West End debut in 1968 in Tom Stoppard’s In later years, Tewson made guest appearances in episodes
The Real Inspector Hound. Among the cast was Ronnie Barker of Heartbeat, Doctors and Midsomer Murders, and between
who, recognising her talent for comedy, recommended Tewson to 2012 and 2019 toured a one-woman show, Still Keeping Up
David Frost for sketches on Frost on Sunday. Appearances.

www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk 15
 ASK AN EXPERT
Question time
Send us your questions and we’ll track down the answers
Variations of the poem have been said in school playgrounds since Victorian times.
Cat Call
Q Remembering a poem from my
childhood, I can only recall a few lines
(“Not last night but the night before, three
tom cats came knocking at my door…”)
and would be grateful if you could find out
who wrote it and possibly the date and the
complete poem.
lan Wojak, Sheldon, Birmingham
Best of British says: This poem, or
variations of it, have been popular with
schoolchildren since the early 19th century.
Lewis Carroll alluded to it in a letter to
Agnes Hughes, daughter of his friend the
Pre-Raphaelite painter Arthur Hughes, while
the Rev Sabine Baring-Gould claimed that
it was sung to the tune of One Night at Ten
O’clock, a folk song that he “collected” from
Dartmoor miner Sam Fone in 1892.
The 9 December 1931 edition of The
Sketch features this four-line version of the
poem:
I dreamt last night and the night before
That three tom-cats came knocking at the door;
I went downstairs to let them in
And they knocked me down with a rolling-pin!
More common though is the six-line version,
which can be found in books such as The
ASK US! If you’ve got a question, the Best of British staff will do its best to find the answer. Occasionally we get stuck
and look to our readers for assistance. Whether you’ve got something to ask, can provide an answer, or want to add to the
information provided, please email or write to us at the address on page 4.
16
Glass-and-a-Half
Measures
Q According to the adverts: “There is a
glass and a half of full-cream milk in
every half-pound block of Cadbury’s Dairy
Milk Chocolate.” But, I wonder, what is the
size of the glass?
Edward Beckett, Marylebone, London
Best of British says: The glass and a half
slogan was introduced by Cadbury in 1928
and, since 1993, bars of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk
have featured an image of a glass and a half
of milk on the wrapper. In 2010, Cadbury
dropped the slogan from its bars with a
spokesman saying: “The phrase didn’t make
sense if the pack stated the bar weighs 49g
or 230g.” However, variations of the slogan
continue to be used for marketing purposes,
such as the current
Children’s Book of Nursery Rhymes,
compiled by Christopher Logue (BT
Batsford Ltd, 1986), and The Lore and
“There’s a glass and
a half in everyone”
campaign.
Language of Schoolchildren by Iona and Today, you will find
Peter Opie (Oxford University Press, 1959). the words: “The
The version in that latter book is said to equivalent of 426ml
have been heard in Portsmouth in 1953, of fresh liquid milk
and while there is no record of who wrote in every 227g of
it, the Opies state that there are “very milk chocolate,”
similar versions from Bath, Betws-y-Coed, on the back of
Farnham, and Swansea”: the bars, which
is approximately
Not last night but the night before, three-quarters
Two tom cats came knocking at my door; of a pint and 8oz
I went downstairs to let them in, respectively;
They knocked me down with a rolling pin. making the size
The rolling pin was made of brass, of the glass half a
They turned me up and smacked my arse. pint.
Photograph: (Playground) The National Library of Wales
Can Any Reader Help?
Q I have a faint memory of a children’s drama shown on BBC TV in the late 50s or
early 60s that started with a young lad proudly viewing his collection of soldiers
laid out on baize. Later, you saw him trudging along a country lane carrying his figures
in a sack fashioned from said baize. I think he had left home for some reason but can’t
recall anything more. Does this strike a chord with anyone? What was the drama called?
Stephen Dance, St Albans, Hertfordshire
Best of British – October 2022
 2023
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 COMEDY CENTRAL
In the second of a two-part series,
Robert Ross looks back on 100
years of BBC Comedy, concluding
with 1972-22

The League of Gentlemen’s Steve

Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith.

ifty golden years of the BBC and one in the present. Graeme Garden Broadcast in the April of 1972, it is a

F were marked in various

ways by the corporation. In
terms of comic salute, April
1972’s The Last Goon Show
of All got the band back together for the
first official time since 1960. In truth,
Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Spike
turned scripted radio into improvised
silliness for I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue.
Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer, Willie
Rushton, and the cream of comedy, were
given silly things to do by chairmen
Humphrey Lyttelton and, latterly, Jack
Dee, into infinity.
watermark of situation comedy.
The Likely Lads weren’t far behind
in returning, in full colour too, with
Whatever Happened to the Likely
Lads? reintroducing the canny couple
of charmers in real time: Bob is
successful and married. Terry, fresh out
Photographs: BBC

Milligan had been in and out of each
other’s projects ever since.
Still, even without the excuse of
an anniversary, BBC Comedy always
seemed to have one foot in the past
Steptoe and Son had already enjoyed
two years of a colour revival when
Leonard Rossiter steamrolled into their
Oil Drum Lane home as a sarcastic
escaped convict in The Desperate Hours.
of the army, is broke and embittered. If
anything, the scripts were even sharper
and funnier than before.
The Liver Birds, a breakthrough
series for writer Carla Lane, told the

18 Best of British – October 2022


same sort of tale from the other side of
the genre gap. The maternal influence
here was played by a worrisome Mollie
Sugden. Producer David Croft had
promised Mollie that he had the perfect
comic character up his sleeve, written
especially for her. Sure enough, in a
September 1972 Comedy Playhouse
presentation of Are You Being Served?,
Mrs Slocombe appeared fully-formed.
John Inman, as Mr Humphries, would
mince and flounce his way through the
entire series, as would Frank Thornton
as the belligerent Captain Peacock,
and Wendy Richard as the hard-to-get
Miss Brahms. Life at Grace Brothers’
department store was one long smut
festival for all the family. A belated
revival, Grace & Favour, saw our
favourites up to their necks in muck in
the countryside.
Three foolish chaps, in deepest
Yorkshire, also sprung from the loins of
Comedy Playhouse. Last of the Summer
Wine would become the longest-running
situation comedy ever. Hi-de-Hi! would
take 1980s viewers back to the late
50s joy of a British holiday camp; and
the futuristic life aboard the mining
spaceship Red Dwarf would be rather
chaotic too. Eternally.
However, The Two Ronnies had to say
their very, very last: “It’s goodnight from
me, and it’s goodnight from him!” Both
had enjoyed huge success with their own
situation comedies. In Ronnie Barker’s
case, at least two copper-bottomed
classics: almost-unrecognisably as
habitual criminal Norman Stanley
Fletcher, at Her Majesty’s Pleasure, in
Porridge; and as severely stuttering
shopkeeper Arkwright in Open All
Hours. Ronnie Corbett was sheepish
mummy’s boy Timothy Lumsden in
Sorry! – a show that gave William
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
Barry Cryer with Omid Djalili, Jan Ravens, Tony Hawks and Jack Dee in the studio for
BBC Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. Left: Comic Relief was initially fronted by Griff
Rhys Jones, Lenny Henry and Jonathan Ross. Below: All four of the long-standing
principals of sketch show Not the Nine O’Clock News team went on to great things.
Moore, as his father and in real-life Mr
Mollie Sugden, an indelible catchphrase:
“Language, Timothy!”
Barker’s comedic punchbag in Open
All Hours was Hungarian waif and stray
Granville, played by the chameleon-
like David Jason, who had long been
Ronnie’s protege. He may have missed
out on a role in Dad’s Army and a place
in Monty Python, but David Jason would
eventually land the role of a lifetime,
Derek “Del Boy” Trotter in Only Fools
and Horses, now long-established as the
nation’s favourite-ever sitcom. Crashing
chandeliers and blow-up sex dolls loom
large in his legend.
Twelve half-hours
of sheer perfection
earned Fawlty Towers
a firm place at
sitcom’s top table.
Nipping at its heels in the public’s
affection and voted the greatest
television show of all time by a panel of
experts at the British Film Institute in
1999 is Fawlty Towers.
Twelve half-hours of sheer perfection
in mayhem, from writers and stars
John Cleese and Connie Booth. By
the second series, the couple were
divorced, but the rich terrain of that
anarchic accommodation in Torquay
was enough to earn Baftas and a firm
place at sitcom’s top table. The episodes
bristle with farce-friendly, knockabout
plotlines, and a clientele of eccentrics.
Although industrial unrest at the
Beeb and necessary rescheduling would
make it, in the end, irrelevant, Cleese
was happy to sarcastically hand the
comedic baton over to a cheap and
cheerful sketch show. Despite opting
out of any actual appearances in the
final series of Monty Python, it was
as an in character Basil Fawlty that
Cleese introduced the first Not the Nine
O’Clock News.
BBC Two was still the place to be
for radical, cutting-edge comedy, and
all four of the long-standing principals
of the team went on to great things:
Pamela Stephenson got straight to the
heart of Billy Connolly. Mel Smith and
Griff Rhys Jones became a seemingly
old-fashioned double-act, complete with
front-cloth audience chatter, but with
material wickedly dipped into vitriol, for
Alas Smith and Jones. Rowan Atkinson,
meanwhile, went back to the middle
ages to be The Black Adder. Peter Cook
was on hand to be executed in episode
one, while Ben Elton joined the writing
team for Blackadder II and fashioned
this historical romp for undergraduates
into a three-set traditional sitcom,
historical romp for undergraduates.
Tony Robinson’s Baldrick now became
as stupid as a very stupid thing, ripe
19
The Young Ones – aka Christopher Ryan, Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson and Nigel Planer – helped introduce the alternative comedy
movement to the masses. One half of double act French and Saunders, Dawn French went it alone as the star of The Vicar of Dibley.
for conflict with the sharp-witted but
always defeated Blackadder. Cambridge
Footlighters Stephen Fry and Hugh
Laurie also joined the repertory company
of Blackadder, while their sketch series A
Bit of Fry and Laurie perfectly balanced
the twin delights of intellect and insanity.
Ben Elton had already revolutionised
situation comedy with The Young Ones,
the flatmate domestic slapstick riot that
fully galvanised the alternative comedy
movement for the masses.
Nigel Planer, Rik Mayall and Adrian
Edmondson would go on to be Ben
Elton’s Filthy Rich & Catflap; while
Rik and Ade would take their cartoon
violence to unsurmountable levels with
the delirious depravity of Bottom. Both
would guest in the Blackadder epics too,
with Rik creating a recurring legacy as
Lord Flashheart that remains a towering
comic creation. “Woof!”
Traditional domestic sitcoms had been
thriving too, not least the self-sufficient
utopia in suburbia of The Good Life.
Ostensibly a vehicle for Richard Briers,
the next-door neighbour relationship
between the Goods and the Leadbetters
made this an instant, ensemble classic.
Too saccharine for The Young Ones, for
sure, with Ade’s Vyvyan literally ripping
through that well-worn opening credits
a mere five years after The Good Life had
come to an end.
Still, it hit the zeitgeist for millions of
viewers and made comedy stars of the
20
other three leads: Felicity Kendal would
go on to star in Carla Lane’s Solo, Paul
Eddington would tap into political madness
in Yes Minister and, subsequently, land
the top job in Yes, Prime Minister, while
Penelope Keith was To the Manor Born
as a poverty-stricken aristocrat forced to
sell her family seat to that suave devil Peter
Bowles. The will-they-won’t-they element
created a ratings smash. In the end, they
did. And the viewing figures were mind-
blowing. So much so that 26 years on, the
stars reunited for a Christmas special wrap-
up episode.
Victoria Wood,
ruled the sketch show
roost at the BBC
during the 1980s.
Terry and June gave Terry Scott and
June Whitfield years of top-rated domestic
sitcom. A by-product of Happy Ever After,
in which Terry and June had played the
Fletchers, the reboot of Terry and June
saw the couple now playing the Medfords.
Little else had changed. Terry’s petulant
schoolboy in middle age was always
at the butt of the joke; the pain of the
pratfall. June usually had to do some quick
explaining and sort out the mess: often
with a weary but loving shake of the head.
Terry’s sketch show Scott On… had
poked fun at all and sundry, but it was
Victoria Wood, with Victoria Wood As
Seen On TV, who ruled the sketch show
roost at the BBC during the 1980s.
Planting her tongue very firmly in
cheek, Wood and her sparkling team of
strolling players, notably Julie Walters and
Celia Imrie, sent-up everything from soap
operas to sports days. Susie Blake, as the
deadpan continuity announcer, exposed
the source of inspiration as firmly from
television itself. Victoria Wood’s sharp
ear for deliciously sayable dialogue and a
ripping turn of phrase was impeccable and
second-to-none. When she channelled
it into a situation comedy, the result was
Dinnerladies, a deceptively simple idea
that gets better upon every viewing.
Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders
took musical parody and cinema
pastiche to renewed heights in their
series, French and Saunders, while both
enjoyed sitcom smashes, with Jennifer
dropping “Sweetie”-bombs everywhere in
Absolutely Fabulous, and Dawn donning
the cloth for The Vicar of Dibley.
Sketch show graduates Terry Jones and
Michael Palin had already focused their
historically minded comic vision into
Ripping Yarns, a collection of just nine
half hours, only one of which saw Jones
on screen. The jet-black humour of The
Curse of the Claw struck deep at the heart
of many a comedy/horror fan, none more
so than Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton,
Reece Shearsmith, and Jeremy Dyson,
who, having absorbed everything from
Best of British – October 2022
Having ruled the sketch show roost during the 1980s, Victoria Wood found sitcom success with Dinnerladies. Living The Good Life were
Richard Briers (Tom Good), Felicity Kendal (Barbara Good), Paul Eddington (Jerry Leadbetter) and Penelope Keith (Margo Leadbetter).
The Wicker Man to Carry On Screaming!,
presented The League of Gentlemen,
first on stage, then radio and then on
television. Pemberton and Shearsmith
continue to take the comic horrors
further, in their award-winning anthology
series Inside No 9.
One of the finest episodes, Bernie
Clifton’s Dressing Room, showed an
innate love for variety comedians and, in
particular, the double-act. Without any
spoilers at all, the routines and schtick of
Cheese and Crackers are rooted in the
variety shows of 1970s and 80s.
What this particular episode of Inside
No 9 does is suggest that certain jokes
just can’t be cracked out of context.
Spike Milligan’s Pakistani Daleks, for
starters. Or the cultural appropriation and
homophobia of Jimmy Perry and David
Croft’s wartime concert party sitcom It
Ain’t Half Hot Mum. Funny in context but
unrepeatable. Even sketch shows from this
century are proving problematic.
Matt Lucas and David Walliams
created an unforgettable gallery of
outrageous characters for Little Britain,
first on radio and then on television.
Today both performers have severe doubts
whether a lot of these characters would
get off the drawing board but, in the early
years of the 21st century, they did. And
they struck home across the nation.
So much so that catchphrases like:
“Yeah but, no but…”, “I want that one” and
“Computer says ‘No’,” were heard in every
playground in the land.
The blanket mass marketing of these
characters, even including talking dolls of
fan favourites, was relentlessly ridiculed
by Ricky Gervais in Extras, a series that
saw the star go from background artist
to sitcom favourite, albeit via playing a
one-dimensional stereotype, which would
be humiliated by David Bowie and even
bawled out by Richard Briers. This was
where situation comedy devoured itself.
Gervais had achieved national
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
adoration as the manager from Hell,
well Slough actually, David Brent in The
Office, a comedy of embarrassment
that may have taken its fly-on-the-wall
documentary approach from Chris
Langham’s People Like Us, but effortlessly
usurped it to become the milestone
sitcom of the noughties.
BBC comedy
is still at its best
when mocking the
corporation from
within.
Only Fools and Horses would return
for a trilogy of Christmas specials
between 2001 and 2003, having already
made a brief one-off reappearance within
the laudably charity-based environs
of Comic Relief. The brainchild of
Blackadder co-writer Richard Curtis, the
Red Nose Day telethons were initially
fronted by Griff Rhys Jones, Jonathan
Ross and the main man Lenny Henry.
The 1997 Only Fools and Horses
segment allowed David Jason to lovingly
mock his ITV crime caper A Touch
of Frost, while Nicholas Lyndhurst, as
plonker brother Rodney, could wryly
reference his own BBC situation comedy
Goodnight Sweetheart which cast him
as Gary Sparrow, skipping between
relationships in contemporary London
and World War Two.
The Trotter brothers would make one
final television appearance in the 2017
Sport Relief sketch, Beckham in Peckham,
which featured a guest appearance from
Golden Balls himself.
The writers of Goodnight Sweetheart
were Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran
who also wrote Birds of a Feather for
real-life school chums Linda Robson and
Pauline Quirke. With spouses inside,
these sisters were doing it for themselves.
With a little help from their nouveau riche,
man-hungry neighbour Dorien (Lesley
Joseph). Eventually these birds flew away
to the other side, in other words ITV, while
Nicholas Lyndhurst’s brief resurrection of
Goodnight Sweetheart, now in the 21st
century, failed to get a series commission.
BBC Four was launched in 2002 and
with it a veritable feast of fresh sketch
shows and sitcoms. BBC iPlayer arrived in
2007, allowing audiences with no patience
to often binge an entire series, weeks before
it completes its run on terrestrial television.
Matt Berry, taking his obnoxious actor
Stephen Toast from Channel 4 to the Beeb,
this time for Toast of Tinseltown, was a
case in point; while Diane Morgan, familiar
as the painfully misinformed cultural
historian Philomena Cunk, wrote, directed
and starred in her own series, Mandy, an
irresistible assortment box of awkward
moments and facial tics, served up in tasty
15-minute chunks.
The Mind of Herbert Clunkerdunk,
from the fevered mind of Spencer Jones,
is another short and sweet comic cut. A
comedy star was born in Daisy May Cooper
for This Country, just this year teaming up
with Tim Key for the medieval madness of
The Witchfinder.
Key is a familiar asset for the many
varied outlets for Alan Partridge, the
north Norfolk broadcasting legend and
one-man cringe merchant as created by
Steve Coogan. Bursting from the hard-
hitting satirical show The Day Today,
Partridge has most recently fronted the
magazine programme This Time With Alan
Partridge – a vibrantly accurate swipe at
The One Show, and proof positive that BBC
comedy is still at its best when mocking the
corporation from within.
Here’s to the next 100 years.
All TV programmes pictured here are
available to stream on BritBox.
Visit the website of Robert Ross, Britain’s
comedy historian, at robertross.co.uk
21
 FINE BRITISH FARE

FOOD & DRINK

TASTES GONE BY AND THE FLAVOURS OF TODAY

Licensed to Grill
Edward Biddulph offers you a tour of James Bond’s kitchen

W
e all have our secrets,”
James Bond (Daniel
Craig) tells Madeleine
Swann (Léa Seydoux)
in No Time to Die
(2021), and my new book, Double-O
Dining: A James Bond Cookbook, reveals a
few of its own.
The first secret has been hiding in plain
sight since the first film, Dr No, in 1962:
food is as much a part of the film series
as the vodka martinis, the globe-trotting
locations, the gadgets, and fast cars.
You don’t believe me? Well, what does
James Bond (Sean Connery) sing as Honey
Ryder (Ursula Andress) emerges from the
sea on to the beach in Dr No? “Underneath
the Mango Tree,” which in its lyrics also
lists banana, tangerine, sugar, ackee and
cocoa beans.

James Bond (Roger Moore) and his Pavoni coffee maker in Live and Let Die.
Photographs: 1962-2022 Danjaq, LLC and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved
In From Russia with Love (1963), Bond
spies a wrong ’un when Grant (Robert
Shaw) orders red wine with fish. Food
is essential to Blofeld’s (Telly Savalas)
diabolical scheme to spread a deadly
virus and wage biological warfare in On
Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969). In
Diamonds Are Forever (1971), villain Mr
Wint (Bruce Glover) literally gets his just
deserts when Bond thrusts an explosive
bombe surprise between his legs and
hoicks him over the side of the ocean liner.
Villains throw oysters down their
throats and wrestle with cooked lobsters.
Then there’s the fruit. Every film has
a big bowl of fruit somewhere in the
proceedings. Bananas, oranges, grapes,
mangoes, pineapples; they’re all there,
typically in hotel rooms and restaurants.
What’s more, we get a view of people’s
kitchens in the Bond films as often as
we see inside public conveniences and
bathrooms (which is quite a lot). In Roger
Moore's 007 debut, Live and Let Die (1973),
we’re privileged to have a peek inside
Bond’s kitchen.
What does the kitchen in that film tell
us about the spy who lives there? The
focus of the kitchen scene is, of course, the

22 Best of British – October 2022


space-age coffee machine.
Today, espresso machines
can be found in many
homes, but in 1973, such
machines were a rare
luxury. That doesn’t stop
Bond from being rather
sloppy with M’s drink,
mind; Bond hands M a Bond leads M (Bernard Lee) into his kitchen in Live and Let Die.
cup with a pool of coffee
in the saucer.
On the side, next to some bottles of
wine and champagne, there’s another
gadget that, at the time, would have been
state-of-the-art. I would love to say that
it’s a toasted sandwich maker, but it’s more a small dining table set for two, complete
likely to be a waffle maker. Along the
back wall we can see a fridge-freezer and
what looks like jars of biscuits or sugar or
something like that on top.
Next to the fridge on the worktop
is a collection of rather nice copper
kitchenware: a serving plate or tray, a food machine and what looks like wooden boxes
warmer, a coffee pot, and that mainstay of next to the copperware that may contain
1970s dinner parties, a fondue set.
The copper theme continues opposite
Heart of Glasse
Dear Simon,
I was delighted to read the Question
Time article about Hannah Glasse in
the August edition of BoB. I have a copy
of her book The Art of Cookery Made
Plain and Easy and it is one of my prized
possessions.
Printed in 1803, all the Ss are Fs,
which makes deciphering the recipes a
bit tricky. A lot of the food would have
been cooked over an open fire and I
love to imagine what the kitchens were
like, with none of the modern gadgets
we take for granted nowadays.
There is a recipe for sauce that lasts
for 20 years, especially made for long
sea voyages, and another (for black
pudding) which begins: “Before you kill
your hog…” I feel
I ought to try to
make something
from this book
one day – but
maybe not black
pudding.
Maggy Winship,
Hertfordshire
If you know of a regional delicacy that has all but died out or would like to share your food and drink memories, then let
us know via info@bestofbritishmag.co.uk or at the address given on page 4.
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
with the extractor fan (or range hood)
above the hob and oven, and we can just
about see a large copper saucepan. On the
other side of the coffee machine, there is
with two sets of glasses and salt and pepper
pots. What appears to be missing is food,
but it’s not entirely absent.
There is a pineapple and some bananas
– a foreshadowing of Bond’s Caribbean
adventure, perhaps – next to the coffee
eggs or vegetables, and presumably the
fridge contains something of sustenance.
This is a spacious, shiny, underused
kitchen that would be the pride of any
kitchen showroom. It’s a kitchen designed
for intimate evenings with beautiful
Italian agents and small, sophisticated
gatherings where Bond can show off his
latest gadgets. It’s certainly not a place for
serious, everyday cooking. Apart from
waffles and fondue (hardly staple items), the
best that Bond might be able to manage is
scrambled eggs cooked in the copper pan,
and I wouldn’t be surprised if the fridge
contained some cold cuts of meat or other
items that wouldn’t take much preparation.
The kitchen is built for someone who
doesn’t spend a lot of time in it, but
nevertheless desires the best equipment
going. It is, in short, the perfect kitchen for
spies like James Bond.
Double-O Dining:
A James Bond
Cookbook
Part cookery book, part guide to the Bond
books and films, Double-O Dining by Edward
Biddulph contains more than 100 easy-to-follow,
meticulously researched recipes that draw on
vintage cookbooks, old newspaper food columns
and other historical sources. Published by
BearManor Media, it is available from Amazon,
priced £27.80 (hardback) and £19.84 (paperback).
They’ve Got
Great Taste
More than 130 UK artisan food producers
have received the highest rating at
this year’s Great Taste awards, the
world’s most coveted food and drink
awards. Three-star winners from the UK
include Hadley’s Blackberry Ice Cream,
Pembrokeshire Sea Salt Co’s Sea Salt with
Saffron, and Highland Charcuterie and
Smoke House’s Wild Highland Venison
Salami with Juniper, which is made using
foraged and wild ingredients in order to
give it a strong local identity.
Organised by the Guild of Fine Food,
Great Taste is recognised as a stamp of
excellence and actively sought out by
food lovers and retailers alike. Valuing
taste above all else, every product in the
line-up for judging is blind-tasted by a
team of more than 500 judges, including
head buyers from Selfridges, Fortnum &
Mason, and Waitrose, food writers, and
MasterChef and Great British Bake Off
contestants.
Of the 14,205 products entered in
2022, 4,078 were awarded a Great Taste
1-star, 1,237 were awarded a Great Taste
2-star, and 241 – of
which 138 were
from the UK – were
awarded a Great
Taste 3-star. The
full list winners and
where to buy them
can be found at
greattasteawards.
co.uk
Made with blackberries that are slowly
cooked before being added to a custard
base, Hadley’s Blackberry Ice Cream is
one of the 3-star recipients at this year’s
Great Taste awards.
23
TREASURES
In the ATTIC
Brian Howes unearths some nostalgic collectables that might be
discarded as worthless junk but actually have a value to today’s collectors.
Can you estimate what each object might be worth and pick out which
one is the big money item? The values are printed on page 70.

1 Little mixer
This Horlicks mixing jar, complete with its
original metal stirrer, was issued as part of a
promotional offer in the late 1950s and still
has its original box. This sweet malted hot
drink powder was developed by brothers
James and William Horlick in 1873 in
Chicago, Illinois.
3 Pocket treasures
These attractive and handy little pocket mirrors
were given away as advertising novelties by
hundreds of different companies up until World War
Two. This example, advertising Robin Starch, dates
back to the 1920s when starch was an essential
commodity every washday.

4 Pulling power
These enamel lapel badges were
issued to staff at Scammell Lorries
Limited in the 1930s when Britain
produced some of the finest
commercial vehicles in the world.
Scammell was based in Watford,
Hertfordshire. The badges were
made by William Miller of Branston
Street, Birmingham.

5 Plastic perfection
Part of the Airfix Military Series, this boxed
British Infantry Support Group set contained 17
1:32 scale figures and 58 pieces of equipment.
Airfix was founded in 1939 by Hungarian
businessman Nicholas Cove
and initially made rubber
toys until 1947 when it began
making injection moulded
plastic combs.

2 Toffee time
Standing 11ins tall, this attractive tin of Walters’ “Palm”
Toffee was designed to stand on a shop counter and
contained several pounds of wrapped toffees. Walters’ Palm
Works confectionery factory was located on Westfields Road
in Acton, London.

24 Best of British – October 2022

 9 Speed kings
Published by William
Collins, Sons with a cover
price of six shillings, this
splendid Boys’ Annual
dates back to the 1950s.
The front cover artwork
is a super piece of
illustration by TE North
showing a battle of speed
6 Jammy find between two racing
This old enamel sign was discovered by chance when a
bikes… splendid stuff.
former corner shop was converted into flats a few years
ago. It was tucked behind a pine cupboard where it had
lain undiscovered for many decades. Robertson’s Golden
Shred first appeared in shops way back in 1874.

10 Track and field

Whatever the terrain, the trusty
Field Marshall was a popular choice
for thousands of farmers in the early
postwar years. It also proved to be a
hugely popular Dinky Toy following
its release in 1953. Millions of
models were sold until production
finally ended in 1966.

7 Cap gun crazy
Crescent Toys became famous for its splendid range
of toy cap guns throughout the 1950s and 60s. The
cap gun craze was fuelled by many of the popular
cowboy films and television series of the day. This
gun dates from the early 1960s.
11 Tasty granules
Luxona Gravy Granules were made by
FW Hampshire & Co Ltd which was based
in Derby. Just one teaspoon of these
granules added flavour and nutriment
to gravies, stews, hashes and soups. This
lovely tin dates from the 1930s and has
survived in wonderful condition.

8 Meccano nuts
Meccano was patented by Frank Hornby in 1901 and was
first known as Mechanics Made Easy. The name changed
to Meccano in 1907 and the first sets were produced at
Hornby’s factory in Duke Street, Liverpool. This small tin
held nuts and bolts.

12 Super toys
Hollow cast with great
precision and outstanding
detail, this pillar box was
made by Barrett & Sons in
the late 1940s. The company
was formed in 1920 as Taylor
and Barrett and was based
in Holloway, north London.
Having an opening door is
a measure of the quality of
Barrett & Sons’s fine toys.

www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk 25
 FORTIES
POST
“ONCE A PARA,
ALWAYS A PARA”
Simon Stabler revisits Bernard Cribbins’ National Service memories
ike most men of
L his age, the late
Bernard Cribbins
was called up for
National Service
at the age of 18. Hailing from
Oldham, Lancashire, where he
had already spent four years
as a professional actor with
Oldham Rep, Bernard was
ordered to report to Dunham
Park, Altrincham – the then
home of the Manchester
Regiment.
Towards the end of his
basic training, Bernard and his
fellow conscripts were visited
by “a very pretty young man in
Parachute Regiment uniform”
looking for volunteers and,
attracted by the idea of
jumping out of aeroplanes,
Bernard decided to put his
name down.
“But the clincher”, he once Private Bernard Cribbins (back row, centre), pictured in 1947.
told me, “was that you got paid
an extra half-crown a day once
you’d done your jumps, so if you’re getting place called Upper Heyford, and did our
25 bob, another 17s 6d was good money.”
Out of six volunteers, Bernard was the those, which is all I did actually.”
only one to meet the entry requirements
and, between 19 July and 13 August
1947, attended parachute training course
number 221B.
“I went off to Aldershot and did our
primary training of weapons and an
awful lot of physical stuff and then, later
in 1947, we went up to Oxfordshire, to a
34
26
A Salute to the ’40s
training jumps to qualify. We did eight of sergeant of the guard came round. He’s
Despite now being a qualified
paratrooper, Bernard only ever jumped
(“We did two drops from a balloon and
then six aircraft jumps”) during his
training.
“The reason being, we came back to
Aldershot, and there was an awful lot
going on with heath fires and goodness
knows what. It was a very hot
summer, 1947, and we were out
fighting fires for weeks on end, all
around Cobham and the heathland
around Surrey.
“And then, we were shipped
off to Palestine. We went out to
Egypt on the Empire Windrush.
We anchored in Valletta Harbour
in Malta around the time of the
Queen’s wedding. We sat there
for two days, rocking and rolling
because it was a round bottomed
ship, and we were all very poorly.
We crossed the Suez Canal and we
got on the train, and we finished up
in Haifa and that’s where I stayed
until April the following year, the
end of the occupation there.”
During his five months in
Mandatory Palestine with the
3rd Parachute Brigade, 19136842
Private Cribbins was fired at on a
couple of occasions, but was still
able to see the funny side of things.
“Standing on sentry go one
night, on a Bren gun position, it’s
about two in the morning and our
Photographs: Crown Copyright
got a fag cupped in his hand and he said:
‘We’ve just had an order come through,
you’re not to return fire unless you’re hit.’
“And at that very moment, I swear to
God, the timing, Barry Cryer would have
been proud of this, somebody had a pop
and the bullet smacked into the parapet
between us, about two foot down, smack.
We both dropped down behind the wall
Best of
Best of British
British –– January
October 2013
2022

Sergeant Jim Kilbride, of 4th Battalion the Parachute Regiment, shows Bernard Cribbins
around Merville Barrack’s Dakota gate guardian, an aircraft he would have jumped from.
Below: Inside a hangar, a paratrooper learns to land correctly using a special harness.
and he just looked at me and he said:
‘Don’t forget, not unless you’re hit,’ and
he crawled away. I mean it’s an Ealing
Comedy, I’ll never forget that in my life.
I think for the rest of my guard, I stayed
down behind the wall, it was much more
sensible.”
Even back in the UK, away from gun-
toting insurgents, Bernard occasionally
came to grief.
“There was a guard of honour mounted
for Monty at Aldershot and we were all
given new rifles and our uniforms were
jazzed up and we were very smart. And
the rifle we had was a little carbine, which
was built for the jungle warfare. It was a
little bit shorter than the Lee Enfield and
had a fighting knife bayonet.
“We’re all standing there in close order,
which means you’re very tight together.
We got the order to fix bayonets, you get
‘fix’ and you hold the bayonet in your
scabbard on the left and push your right
arm forward and on ‘bayonets’ you
bring the bayonet round and clip it on
to the front of the rifle, which is sticking
out in front of you.
“Well, the guy next to me, instead
of having his blade resting up his arm
as it were, had it sticking out at right
angles and stuck it straight in my hand
which was holding my rifle and I said
something very rude and Anglo-Saxon,
and he said: ‘Sorry’ and that was it.
“Montgomery arrived, we presented
arms, he went up and down first rank,
middle rank. I was in the rear rank,
he got behind me and said: ‘This man
seems to have stabbed himself with his
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
bayonet,’ and I wanted to say: ‘It wasn’t
me, it was this pillock next to me.’
“I was told to fall out and I traipsed off
and got the wound dressed. It was really
very fortunate, it was the palm of my
hand by the little finger, it wasn’t, thank
God, in the artery two inches away. Yes,
that was it, that was my meeting with
Montgomery, I’m sure he remembers it as
well as I did.”
For the rest of
my guard, I stayed
down behind the wall,
it was much more
sensible.
During our conversation in May 2018,
which forms the basis of this article,
Bernard told me that he was still in touch
with someone he served with.
“There’s a guy up in Hull, we
correspond now and then, and ring
each other and have a chat. I’ve only
met three people I knew, and one
of them was a very odd thing, I was
working in Christchurch in New
Zealand doing one of Ray Cooney’s
plays. It was Saturday afternoon and
we’d done the matinee and I was
sitting down, my wife was with us,
and I was having my rock oysters
and chips for my meal and the stage
door man came round and said: ‘Er,
Bernard, there’s a guy at the stage
door wants to say hello, says he was
in the army with you and his name is
Essex.’
“I said: ‘Fred’ immediately, and
Fred Essex was in the same eight that
was in my jumping stick, he was a
buddy. He was in New Zealand Air
Force Regiment uniform, obviously
he’d been a career soldier. He’d done
his boy soldiering, I think, then he
joined the Paras and was in the same
barrack room as me when we did our
jumps, and then split after we got to
Palestine or somewhere, and there he
is, he’s turned up again. Wonderful,
cheery as ever, just the same little
man just much, much older.”
After leaving Palestine, Bernard
returned to the UK, spending a
couple of months at barracks near
Cirencester, before sending the
remainder of his National Service in
Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Despite
being demobbed in 1949, Bernard
continued to support members of
his former regiment through various
charitable endeavours. In 2016, he
visited Colchester’s Merville Barracks
to present the Parachute Regiment’s
official charity, Support Our Paras,
with a cheque for £17,500 raised
through a fly-fishing event.
Given a tour of the barracks’
Douglas Dakota gate guardian, and
introduced to the soldiers, weapons
and equipment of the present day 3
PARA, Bernard spoke about his days
in the Parachute Regiment.
“Once a paratrooper always a
paratrooper. It is something that you
chose to do and that means you have
made a choice to become something
special. I had been acting in
repertory theatre before I joined the
army and that gave me discipline, but
the Paras really cemented it in me.
The discipline to make sure you play
the part that other people are relying
on you to do is the same in the Paras
and acting.”
27
 Round the
AUCTION HOUSES
Every week at auction houses up and down the country, a varied host of collectables are
put up for sale at general and specialist events, offering everything from top-end treasures
to more modest items. David Brown picks a selection of recent gems that have found
new homes, and looks ahead to forthcoming sales.

LOT 142 Vectis – James Bond collectible classic. The following lot, a collection of J40 parts,
60th Anniversary Collection, offered more of a challenge to the DIY fan. The penultimate Toy
9 August (vectis.co.uk) & Models sale this year will be held on 28 October.
The Vectis James Bond 60th SOLD FOR £3,100
Anniversary Collection auction
featured a large selection of COMING UP
items related to the super spy
Cheffins – Cambridge Vintage
including boxed and unboxed
Sale, 21-22 October (cheffins.
Corgi Junior models and gift
co.uk)
sets, Corgi Aston Martin and
Lotus Esprit variations and other vehicles associated with As part of the vintage sale
the films. The accompanying photograph shows just a small to be held at the Cambridge
number of the featured lots. A model that took off to achieve a Machinery Saleground, near Ely, Cambridgeshire are some fine
four-figure realisation was a plastic battery-operated AHI 8052 engineering models from the collection of the late Ronald H
James Bond 007 Lotus Esprit (underwater version) with white Clark, valued in total at around £30,000. The collection had been
body, blue windows and black trim in generally excellent built up by his father Harry Clark and, following the latter’s death,
condition in a good window box with pictorial header. This Ronald looked after and extended the archive. Many of the
hard-to-find issue was given a pre-sale estimate of £300- models were sold following Ronald’s death in 1999, but some –
£400. Overall, the sale realised an amazing £93,000 including including the lots included here – were on short-term loan and
buyer’s premium. have been displayed at the Forncett Industrial Steam Museum
near Norwich. One of the highlights is an Atkinson single-cylinder
SOLD FOR £2,400
three-deck table engine with plank-lagged cylinder, estimated at
LOT 104 Anglia Car Auctions – £5,000-£6,000.
Classic Car Sale, 20-21 August Charterhouse Auctioneers
(angliacarauctions.co.uk) – The Hammond Collection
There is a strong market for of Microcars, 27 October
original glass petrol globes among (charterhouse-auction.com)
automobilia collectors and some of the The contents of the Hammond
more unusual examples from lesser- Collection Museum of
known fuel suppliers are sought and Microcars based in Kent is
fought over. There were two examples being sold by Dorset-based
of the Cawood glass petrol globes in the August sale from ACA Charterhouse Auctioneers.
of King’s Lynn, featuring the striking design. As ever, condition Edwin and Jean Hammond
decided the better price for the illustrated lot, which had just a bought their first microcar in 1976, a 1958 Heinkel named Kermit,
few of the usual nibbles around the fragile neck. Meanwhile, on when their son Andrew was threatening to buy a motorcycle.
the following Friday at Lacy Scott & Knight, an equally artistic blue Their collection grew to 40 microcars, spare parts and automobilia
Super Shell glass globe raced away to £880. that filled their home and, later, a purpose-built museum. One of
SOLD FOR £374 the highlights of the dispersal sale is the 1958 Opperman Stirling
(illustrated), a sporty-looking coupe of a microcar – the only
LOT 2021 Lacy Scott & survivor of two made. Stirling Moss thought they were taking
Knight – Toys & Models sale, advantage of his name and took out legal proceedings to stop it.
26 August (lsk.co.uk) Viewing is at the Hammond Collection Museum, Hawkenbury,
Kent on Wednesday 26 October, with the online sale being held
Among the 2,000 lots in the the next day.
latest collectors’ sale from
LSK, Bury St Edmunds, was
When you are placing your bid(s) please be sure about what
an original Austin J40 pedal
you are bidding for. Remember to take into account that
car complete with chrome fixtures and fittings, engine interior,
on top of the hammer price, you will have to pay a buyer’s
headlights, spark plugs, steering wheel, dashboard dial and
premium (usually with VAT payable on the premium). Also,
black leather seat with registration number inside the boot.
allow for post and packing with remote bidding.
The bodywork needs restoration to make a fine example of a

28 Best of British – October 2022

Chesterfield
1940s market
Thursday 27 October
10am to 4pm
Browse the stalls at one of
the largest flea markets in the
country with traders in 1940s
dress, entertainment includes
live music, exhibits and
displays from the wartime era.

01246 345777
www.visitchesterfield.info/40s

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II – 1926 – 2022

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 Yesterday Remembered
We welcome your memories of around 800 words
and pay £20 for each story published. Don't forget
to include pictures with your submission.

A Real Scream
Carol Edwards of
Southend-on-Sea,
Essex remembers:
When local history
became very popular
some years ago, I
began writing and
publishing books on
my local area here at Southend-
on-Sea. There are, of course, many avenues
for research on any given subject, but when I
came to write a book about the seafront and
the Golden Mile, I wished I had paid more
attention to my surroundings as I grew up.
I came to the town as a child in 1947. The
beach and swimming in the Thames were a
must during school holidays. In later years,
when pocket money allowed, I would go to
the swimming baths on Western Esplanade.
The luxury of having a changing room
meant not having to struggle to hold on to
The former Peter Pan Playground on Southend-on-Sea’s Western Esplanade, which is now
known as Adventure Island, was a favourite haunt for Carol Edwards in the early 1950s.
your dignity as you tried to dress with one
hand and hold a towel in the other.
Construction on these baths started in
1914, replacing the primitive floating bath
moored near the pier, owned by the Absalom
family, who had started out with bathing
machines. The new swimming pool put the
family out of business. Apart from my love
of swimming, visiting what was then called
Peter Pan Playground – now Adventure
Island – was another favourite haunt.
In the 1950s, it was still part gardens with
some paid rides. There was, however, a small
area that had free swings, a roundabout and
a small slide. Here I used to spend a morning
having adventures in my head.
Stopping at lunchtime, I would go to the
nearest beach to eat my jam sandwiches
and drink my Tizer. From this vantage point I
could see the town’s famous pier, one I would
walk many times when young and later as
an adult.
When I became a teenager, the lure of
the Golden Mile on Marine Parade – with its
ice-cream, fish and chips, and arcades with
their slot machines – became the place to
be. Somehow I managed to make my money
last a long time but never did I manage to
beat the machines and go home penny rich.
My favourite arcade was the Olympia at
the bottom of Pier Hill. Now called Sunspot
Amusements, the original sign is still visible.
Just being part of this area of entertainment
was something I never grew tired off. Each
year I would go down with my mum and
brother to watch the carnival procession in
August. There would be crowds of people
both sides of the parade. One year my
school entered a float and, taking part, I
was able to view the event from a different
angle. The youngster in me never imagined
that decades later I would actually help to
organise a procession.
My last happy childhood experience
centres around the Kursaal. In those days the
park was full of exciting rides and stalls and
the ballroom played host to the likes of Cleo
Laine. My favourite ride was the rollercoaster
not too far away from the water shoot. I
swear my screams as we went down the first
big drop could be heard miles away. I had
just as much fun walking around watching
and hearing others enjoying themselves.
At no time did I wonder who managed
the various rides or give a thought to
teenagers like me who worked there at
weekends to earn extra money. That was
until 2018. Having decided to write about
my favourite places, I appealed in the local
paper for those whose families had been
involved in keeping the various businesses
on the Parade or managed the rides in the
Kursaal. Their response was to take me back
to my childhood as they talked or showed me
photographs of an era gone by.

30 Best of British – October 2022


Drop the Pilot
Steve Richards of
Shirley, Solihull
remembers:
We were off to a
garage in Kings
Heath, Birmingham
to view a car. At the
time, I was aged 10
and had always taken a keen interest in cars,
having many Dinky, Corgi and Matchbox
toys. I was, however, a bit nonplussed to be
told the car we were going to see was a type
with which I was not familiar – a Singer SM.
Bradbury’s Garage had a large hangar-like
shed with a couple of rows of secondhand
cars for sale. The Singer was, I think, marked
up at £65 but it was an ugly thing. I was
relieved the secondhand car salesman
didn’t press Dad about this one but showed
him another car alongside, a Ford V8 Pilot
(another one I’d not heard of). Evidently, the
Ford, like the Singer, was a late 1940s model.
The former was more elegant and decidedly
more powerful (3.6 litre compared to the
Singer’s 1.5-litre engine). It was a bit more
expensive but my parents and I, together
with the salesman, were soon inside the
roomy saloon and taking it for a short drive.
Sixty years on, I don’t remember much
about that drive but two things stick in my
memory. It was pointed out that the car had
43,000 miles on the clock and the second
was the salesman doing his pitch: “The car’s
previous owner was a lady who only used it
for going to church on Sundays.”
Dad said he’d have it, the price being
agreed at £70 plus another £15 for the
insurance. I clearly recall us using the car from
that point in June 1962. An upmarket feature
of this Pilot was that it had a radio installed,
not a standard fit, although provision for a
radio was incorporated into the walnut-like
Bakelite dashboard on all Pilots. Mom had
to go to the post office to buy a car radio
licence. The sound quality was very good.
There were many happy Sunday
afternoons driving to and from my
grandparents' listening to the Top 10 records
on Pick of the Pops: Brian Hyland’s Sealed
with a Kiss, Joe Brown’s A Picture of You, Mike
Sarne’s novelty record Come Outside, and my
favourite of those first few months of Pilot
motoring, Telstar by the Tornados.
This was Dad’s first proper car. He had
been loaned his boss’s Austin 10 for going
on holiday and on two notable occasions
hired cars: firstly, a Ford Zephyr and then
a Ford Prefect. I say Dad’s first “proper” car
because he had paid a tenner to my uncle
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
YESTERDAY REMEMBERED
Ron for a nearly derelict Morris. Somehow
he got it going and brush-painted it in black.
The inaugural run took us about 400 yards
when we started to smell burning rubber,
then smoke began to seep from under
the dashboard. Mom was scared. It was an
electrical fault and I don’t think we ever used
that car again.
Our black Ford Pilot was certainly fuel
thirsty. The powerful V8 was hard-pressed
to give 20 miles to the gallon. Petrol at that
time was 4s 8d per gallon and Dad seemed
to have a preference for Regent petrol. For
three consecutive years, 1963-1965, we took
our annual holiday at Mundesley (south of
Cromer in Norfolk) which, in those days, was
about 185 road miles from our home. The
car’s capacious 12.5-gallon petrol tank would
just have got us there without having to stop
for fuel, even allowing for the predictable
traffic jams as we navigated across the Great
North Road near Peterborough.
Those happy holidays had the soundtrack
of the Merseyside groups playing on the car
radio: Bad to Me by Billy J Kramer, Needles
and Pins from the Searchers, together with
the Fourmost, Freddie and the Dreamers,
and the Beatles.
Mom was a back-seat driver in the
most literal sense. Despite the car having
a front bench seat (a perk of having a
column gear shift lever), which could have
accommodated the three of us, she chose to
sit in the back on the nearside; I too sat in the
back. We used to joke that all Dad needed
was a peaked cap.
Each of the four doors had a thick, twisted
Steve, aged about 12, standing on the bumper of the Ford V8 Pilot.
cord with which to pull the door shut. There
was a pull-down armrest in the centre of the
back seat, a cloth blind for the back window
which was connected to a cord for the driver
to pull into position when required and there
were ashtrays all round (yes, both parents
were smokers). The front windscreen could be
opened but Dad wouldn’t allow this.
By the time the radio was playing songs
from the Beatles’ second film, Help!, the car
was beginning to show signs of its own need
of help. We noticed that when we travelled
up any inclines, the twin exhaust pipes were
leaving a trail of blue-coloured smoke. Soon
after that, the car was more often confined to
the garage and we were frequently using a
Ford Thames minibus, which Dad now had the
use of with his job as a builder.
At this time, the MOT test got more
stringent and the Pilot failed on something
called a kingpin. Dad was told the part wasn’t
easy to get and so the car remained off the
road. In those days, I was midway through
secondary school and the possibility of being
able to drive in a few years prompted me to
ask if we could keep the car, try getting it fixed
later and then I could use it once I’d passed my
driving test.
The idea wasn’t dismissed by my parents,
which I took to be an affirmation. I was
somewhat distressed when I later learned they
had paid £10 to have it scrapped.
I always wanted a Pilot but, owing to
deficient eyesight, I was never able to learn to
drive. Now, 60 years on, I do have a rather nice
1:43 scale Dinky/Matchbox model of the Ford
V8 Pilot – in black, of course.
31
 YESTERDAY REMEMBERED
Putting on the Ritz
Bob Cooper of
Macclesfield,
Cheshire
remembers:
When I was 40
years old, many
moons ago, I was
treated to the
most amazing
four days in London by family and friends.
An itinerary was drawn up and I only got
to know just before each event what I was
doing. Before that happened, my office
staff at Arrowsmith Holidays arranged a
surprise for me.
They hired a buxom lady in a tutu with
a wand, who rather reminded me of the
famous Rita Webb. Remember her? Her
companion was a tall guy in a morning suit
and a top hat who presented me with a
bottle of champagne which I shared with all
my immediate staff. Very memorable indeed
but I can’t find the photos taken on that day.
Journeying by train to Euston from
Stockport, no one would drop any hints
as to what they had planned so I gave
up asking. I was just told to take enough
clothes for a few nights, including
something smart. I could never have
dreamt that first on the agenda was the
Ritz Hotel for one night. Checking in there
was an unbelievable surprise. Afternoon
tea with Parma ham, egg mayonnaise,
salmon and cucumber sandwiches, an
array of fancy cakes and scones against
a musical backdrop of a string quartet
performing was amazing.
The evening meal was something
Part of Bob’s 40th birthday trip to London was taking in the Abbacadabra musical. Although Elaine Page was listed in the cast for
Abbacadabra, her place was taken on the night by up-and-coming young actress Finola Hughes. Bob aged 40, when his family and friends
treated him to a luxury four-day stay in London as part of his celebrations for a special birthday to remember.
32
else. I was torn between joining Princess
Margaret or Joanna Lumley at their
respective tables. Given the opportunity,
I would have chosen Joanna, though, as
I had been a fan since she was Purdey in
The New Avengers. I don’t think Princess
Margaret and a scouser would have been
a good combination, although stranger
things have happened.
After a sumptuous breakfast the next
morning, we moved to the Grosvenor Hotel
near Park Lane for three nights. Before
that we called in to Fortnum & Mason just
yards away from The Ritz for lunchtime
coffee and cake. That evening a booking
had been made to see Abbacadabra, a
musical created long before Mamma Mia!
was brought kicking and screaming into
London’s theatre world.
Afternoon tea
against the backdrop
of a string quartet was
amazing.
The only problem was the main star
Elaine Paige pulled out because the IRA
was bombing sites in London and the
West End was in fear. Her role was taken by
Finola Hughes, an up-and-coming young
actress. We had to watch her instead and
it obviously wasn’t the same. Interestingly
a seven-inch single was released at that
time called Time by Frida Lyngstad with
BA Robertson, a song written especially for
the show by Frida’s Abba colleagues Benny
Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus.
The next evening, we saw the Noël
Coward play Hay Fever at the Queen's
Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, featuring
Penelope Keith in an almost empty theatre.
Many of the other venues had closed
temporarily in the wake of this IRA threat
so we were very fortunate that this was not
cancelled as well.
On the third day we spent a leisurely
morning enjoying the spa and all of its
health facilities, helped along with some
champagne. We had booked an afternoon
tea table at Harrods for 4pm. As we were
running late, we decided we would have to
cancel it and rebook the next day. Luckily
for us that was the perfect decision. Two
hours later, we heard that a bomb had
exploded on the fourth floor of Harrods,
half an hour after we would have arrived
there. A very narrow escape indeed. We
never did get there after all.
In view of the uncertain situation around
the capital, we decided to play it safe and
socialise in the evening within our own
hotel. Plans for going to cosy bars around
Leicester Square went out of the window as
it was too risky. Because of that, our night in
became very expensive but at least we felt
more secure.
On our last day in London, we were
apprehensive about doing any Christmas
shopping, especially around Oxford Street,
so we reluctantly decided to catch an earlier
train home. In many different ways it was
certainly a special birthday to remember
and I lived to tell the tale. Thankfully, only
one planned event had to be cancelled but,
several years later, I eventually paid a visit to
Harrods and it was definitely worthwhile.
Programme courtesy of Cameron Mackintosh Ltd
Best
Best
of British
of British
– October
– May 2016
2022
 Songs of War
Betty Kellar of
Stokesley, North
Yorkshire remembers:
It occurred to me
the other day how
frequently people sang
together during World
War Two. Not face-
to-face though, we
were discouraged from gathering in large
groups because of the devastation which
could have been caused by a single bomb
dropping on us. We gathered around
our firesides and joined in with the BBC’s
Workers’ Playtime which they transmitted
on the wireless regularly from shipyards
and factories all over Britain.
Some of our songs were unashamedly
patriotic. “There’ll always be an England,”
we sang, “While there’s a country lane,
Wherever there’s a cottage small, Beside a
field of grain.” “There’ll be bluebirds over
the white cliffs of Dover,” was another.
In fact, people had already started
leaving the country lanes for a more
affluent life in the towns and cities,
and no one ever really expected to see
bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover,
only seagulls. But the songs reminded us
of how dear our country was to us and
reinforced our determination that no one
was going to take it away from us.
We sang, too, of our pride in our armed
forces. “There’s a ship coming home on
the lovely Atlantic, May the fair
winds be with her as she rolls
along,” was one. I Threw a Kiss
in the Ocean was a rather over-
sentimental one. Coming in
on a Wing & a Prayer told of an
RAF plane limping home after
a night raid on Germany.
Most of our songs were
more light-hearted and ideal
for singing together in the air
raid shelters now being built
by the government. A favourite
was The Quartermaster’s Store,
its main advantage being
that it was never-ending with
people always ready with extra
Photograph: Crown Copyright
verse was followed by the chorus of “My
eyes are dim, I cannot see, I have not
brought my specs with me”. It was never-
ending, with this one able to last our most
of the air riad.
We had other favourites too. “She’ll be
coming round the mountain when she
comes,” was one. The song went on to
what she was wearing as she came round
the mountain, ranging from silk pyjamas,
camiknickers, silken stockings, black
suspenders and so on.
“There were 10 green bottles hanging
on the wall, and if one green bottle should
accidentally fall, there’ll be nine green
bottles hanging on the wall” – and so on
until “there was nothing but the smell,
hanging on the wall.” An ideal shelter song.
We pinched one of our songs from the
Germans, much to my grandmother’s
disgust. “Underneath the lantern, By the
barrack gate, Darling I remember, The way
you used to wait,” went their marching song
Lili Marlene. We shouldn’t be singing about a
German girl, Grandmother would snort. So,
“We’re going to hang out the washing on the
Siegfried Line, Have you any dirty washing,
Mother dear,” was more to her taste.
In 1941, after the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor, the United States joined us in
declaring war on both Germany and Japan.
American soldiers came to England in their
thousands to prepare for the invasion of
Europe. They were a very welcome ally, very
confident – or “full of themselves” thought
some of the more reticent English. They
brought with them many of their own
songs. “Over there,” they sang, “We’ll be
over, we’re coming over, And we won't
come back 'til it's over over there.”
We pinched a song
from the Germans,
much to Grandmother’s
disgust.
Another of their songs was: “My British
Buddy, we’re as different as can be, You
think you’re winning the war and I think
it’s me!” But it went on to promise: “When
the day is done and the war is won, we’ll
be clasping hands across the sea.”
One of the best American songs was
aimed at their own army. “This is the army,
Mr Jones,” it went. “No private rooms or
telephones. You had your breakfast in
bed before, but you won’t get it there
anymore. This is the army Mr Green, we
like our barracks nice and clean, you had a
housemaid to do your floor, but she won’t
help you out anymore.”
The favourite song in our family was,
“Run, rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run. Don’t
let the farmer have all the fun. He’ll get by
without his rabbit pie, so run, rabbit, run
rabbit, run, run, run.”
There was an extra line to this song,
though: “But not too fast!”

verses to add to it. “There were

rats, rats bigger than cats, in
the Quartermaster’s Store,” we
sang, and “There were eggs,
eggs walking round on legs” or
“There was spam, spam mixed Singer Gracie Fields stands on a grand piano as she sings to a huge crowd of munitions workers
up in the jam” and “Bread, during a performance at an ordnance factory "somewhere" in Britain during World War Two.
bread heavier than lead”. Every Performances such as these were transmitted on the BBC’s Workers’ Playtime.

www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk 33
 YESTERDAY REMEMBERED
Earning an Honest Penny
Brenda Mathews of
Burgess Hill, West
Sussex remembers:
Though I didn’t
have to earn my
pocket money
when growing up
in Hoddesdon,
Hertfordshire in the
late 1940s, my mum always encouraged me
to save a few coins in my moneybox before
our visit to Wards, the local sweetshop. Here
I’d choose maybe 2oz of dolly mixture or a
sherbet dip. Later on, I remember taking a
shiny 6d piece to infants’ school each Monday
to get another stamp to stick in my National
Savings book.
My first paid employment was during the
school summer holidays when I cycled to
Fropax Frozen Foods in Ware to top, tail and
slice runner beans. It was piecework so a cut
finger meant quickly applying a plaster before
carrying on slicing. On Fridays, if strawberries
were delivered too late to be frozen we’d
be given some. I’d pop them in the wicker
bike basket to ride home before going to
buy a block of ice-cream that I’d wrap up in
newspaper to save it from melting.
After leaving school, I learned shorthand
typing at a railway training school; ideal as we
were paid a small salary while there, and then
my friend Ann and I transferred to an office
in Bishopsgate. We were given our cash each
week in a little brown envelope. That summer
we stayed in Kent with her grandmother for a
fortnight and went pea picking – piecework
rates again. Having increased my shorthand
speed at evening classes, I gained promotion
to a typing pool at Liverpool Street station
in 1963 on a wage of almost £4 a week. One
Left: Brenda’s National Savings Stamp Book from when she was at infants’ school, and two leather items painted and varnished from her
days when she worked from home. Right: The typing pool at Liverpool Street Station in 1965. Brenda is in the back right-hand corner.
34
34
of my bosses there was a Mr Mathews: I
know him as Peter these days, having been
married to him for more than 50 years.
I loved staying at home with our young
son and daughter and for a time became
a factory outworker. A van would deliver
a crate of leather key fobs or watch straps
together with jars of paint and varnish. It
was fiddly, messy work and after getting one
batch rejected and realising I was earning
about 25p an hour, I gave that up.
My next jobs were taking daytime phone
calls for small traders. This was before
answerphones, so I would ring them through
in the evening and was paid about 20p for
each message. One was for a chap selling
antiques, another dealt in old books and the
third put up TV aerials.
A favourite venture was helping to run
a playgroup. I worked 9am-noon three
mornings a week for £3 a session. I also
started delivering a free weekly newspaper:
273 papers at 80p per 100, with occasional
leaflets for which I was paid 10p per 100.
My typing came in useful again when one
Christmas I addressed envelopes for a local
charity. I was delighted to get £10 for every
thousand typed and £7 for each thousand
letters inserted.
In 1984, having saved up £129, I began
a writing course by correspondence. It
comprised various informative books and
20 assignments. There was no time limit
for them and I set aside a Tuesday morning
each week. I would post the completed
assignment to my tutor, Jean, who would
return it with helpful comments and the
next assignment. I did get several pieces
published but the guarantee had said if I
didn’t recoup the cost of the course it would
be refunded, which it was.
Our hosting a French student for a
fortnight caused a few problems but lots of
laughs too. We were paid £55 and Pascale
was the smallest girl, with the largest
suitcase, to exit the coach. As it was late
evening I suggested she stay in bed next
morning while I walked our two to school.
As I returned next day, I was flabbergasted
to see her bedroom window flung open and
all the bedding hanging out.
Her bedroom window
was flung open with the
bedding hanging out.
Leading up to Christmas 1987, I started
on the 9am-3pm mums’ shift as a part-
time assembler at a cosmetic and perfume
factory. It was a real eye-opener when we
had to each don a blue nylon overall and
beige mob cap, be shown how to clock
in, then pick up a chair and follow our line
leaders to a conveyor belt to commence our
day’s toil.
The £2.44 an hour was very welcome,
though, as were the excellent perks.
Even more daunting was becoming a
part-time funeral director’s receptionist in
1989. I gradually overcame my initial worries
and the stress of dealing with the many
forms while being suitably compassionate
yet confident with our clients – all for the
same pay as my conveyor belt job. My
colleagues were caring and thoughtful and
I came to appreciate and enjoy the privilege
of helping people in their time of need. In
fact, when I retired after 10 years there, I
realised this had been the most satisfying of
all my ways of earning that honest penny.
Best of of
Best British – October
British 2022
– May 2016
 Legends of Major Oak
Brian Conduit of
Clitheroe, Lancashire
remembers:
When I was about 10 or
11, someone gave me
as a Christmas present
a book called Robin
Hood and the Men of the
Greenwood by Henry Gilbert, a
Victorian writer. I read and reread that book
many times over and since then I have been
completely hooked on anything to do with
Robin Hood – books, films, television series,
the lot. I can’t get enough of them.
As I got older and my parents acquired
their first car in the early 1950s, I naturally
became interested in visiting places
associated with the Nottinghamshire outlaw,
especially Sherwood Forest and specifically
the fabled Major Oak. So off we went in
my father’s pre-war Ford Anglia, skirted
Nottingham and continued northwards
to what remains of the once extensive
Sherwood. It was not that easy to find.
Eventually, after asking several local
people, we parked at Edwinstowe, the main
tourist centre for the forest both then and
now. The difference between then and
now was that there was virtually no tourist
infrastructure then. The forest was not widely
publicised and it still suffered from the
intrusive presence of the coalfields.
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www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
Despite these problems and the
virtual lack of any tourist amenities, we
managed to make our way – it’s only a
short walk – to the mighty Major Oak,
and what a magnificent sight. In those
days the tree was not fenced off like it
is now and you could walk right up to it
and even get inside the massive trunk.
The trouble was that the constant traffic
of feet was compressing its roots and
starving them of moisture and as a result the
tree was fenced off in the 1970s.
This enabled a green sward to grow
around it and this increased its health and
has prolonged its life. Now the Major Oak
gets more visitors then ever but like an old
and frail person it has to have assistance to
keep going and is supported and propped up
by chains and posts. Its exact age is difficult
to determine. If it existed in the time of the
Robin Hood legends it might only have been
a young sapling but generations of children
have been fed on stories that this is where
Robin hid from the Sheriff of Nottingham and
it all adds to the fun.
Surprisingly, perhaps, the tree gets its
name not from its huge size but from a Major
Rooke who first described it in a book in
1799. It was previously known as the Queen
Oak and at one time as the Cock Pen Tree
on account of it being used as a venue for
cockfighting. In the 19th century it became
a popular tourist attraction, particularly after
the coming of the railway to Edwinstowe.
Victorian visitors would alight from the train
and make the journey from the station to
the tree in horse-drawn carriages and picnic
under its branches.
The coal mines have now gone and
nowadays everything is much more tourist
orientated. There is a bright and new visitor
centre just north of Edwinstowe village
with all the usual amenities, including
refreshments, shop, exhibition and
waymarked walking routes in the forest. It
is recommended visitors make use of these
facilities and the Major Oak can serve as the
focal point of a highly enjoyable short walk
through the finest remaining portions of the
greenwood of Robin Hood.
I still look at it in
awe, overwhelmed by
its sheer majesty.
Recently the Major Oak came top of the
list in a survey carried out by the Woodland
Trust to find Britain’s most popular trees.
I was not surprised. Despite many visits
over the years, I still look at it in awe,
overwhelmed by its age, size and sheer
majesty. But nothing quite surpasses that
initial youthful excitement when I paid my
first visit there in the 1950s.
Left: The Major Oak was fenced off in the
1970s and now needs assistance to keep
going so is supported and propped up by
chains and posts.
Above: Brian pictured aged 20, sitting on
the banks of the River Trent, Nottingham
not far from Sherwood Forest.
35
35
 YESTERDAY REMEMBERED
On a Roll in the Swiss Alps
Bob Newberry of
Maidstone, Kent
remembers:
We had always
holidayed as a family
of four, but in 1970
Mum needed to
stay with a poorly
relative and my
elder brother had just acquired a Honda
50 moped (it was only 49cc so couldn’t go
on the motorways), which he hoped would
prove to be a big attraction to the opposite
sex, so for the first time he didn’t come on
holiday with us. I’ve always been close to
my father so just the two of us going away
was not a problem for me.
Dad always sourced his holiday
accommodation through the Exchange
and Mart magazine, which many of you
will doubtless remember as a stone
age eBay where you could just about
find anything you wanted. The item's
description would normally consist of 1½
lines followed by a phone number. This is
where Dad found a Swiss chalet for hire.
Weeks before leaving, we had to order
the foreign currency through the bank.
When collecting the money, you had to
take your passport and the foreign currency
would be entered on one of the pages. The
ordered money always seemed to come
in banknotes of very large denominations.
This was later to prove a near disaster on
our holiday.
The French can rightly be proud of their
modern road system. Unfortunately, that
wasn’t the case in 1970. There were virtually
Bob Newberry on a chairlift in the Swiss Alps. Right: Bob’s father at the wheel of his "underpowered" Ford Anglia 105E estate.
36
36
no motorways, if any, so obviously it was
all on old roads. About a mile out of each
town the pot-holed tarmac would end and
the ancient cobblestones began. It was
really a case then of “shake, rattle and roll”.
The road signs were primitive and mainly
consisted of “toutes directions” which would
invariably take you into the centre of town
where a huge roundabout would appear.
Because of the poor roads, it was not
possible to drive to Switzerland in a day,
so we had to spend a couple of nights
under canvas. We pulled into one camp site
near Besançon and attempted to pay the
fee with one of the large bank notes. The
warden gave us a long hard stare and we
cringed in embarrassment, being unable to
explain why we had nothing smaller.
Finally, he gave us our change which was
all in coins, which we took at the time to be
that he was peeved. Thereafter, whenever
we attempted to spend this money, all we
got was shaking of heads and “non”.
It was only when we got home we
found out that the French government
had changed the currency. Overnight, the
old Francs were to be used as centimes
(the ones we had been given) and the
old centimes being withdrawn, new-style
Francs coins having been issued. Although
we had a couple of hundred Francs, they
were in fact virtually worthless centimes.
The warden had robbed us rotten.
Reaching the Swiss border, the whole
picture changed instantly.
Gone were the pot-holed roads and the
paint-peeling buildings. What we now had
were glorious chocolate-box cover chalets,
roads with a smooth, silk-like surface, and
scenery I had only ever seen in films.
Finally we got into Switzerland, the sun
came out and we reached the shores of
Lake Lausanne at about lunchtime. We sat
on the lovely lakeside and had an ice-cream;
the holiday had begun. Our chalet was only
about 30 miles from Lausanne and we had
all afternoon, so it didn’t seem a problem.
Leaving town, the road started going up
and the gradient became ever steeper.
We were able to
lie in bed and hold the
huge frying pan over
the twin gas ring.
Dad’s car was a Ford Anglia 105E estate
in a lovely glacier blue. Many of Dad’s early
cars always seemed to be underpowered
and this one was no exception. It wasn’t
long before we watched in trepidation as
the temperature gauge began to climb into
the red. We had to make frequent stops to
let the engine cool down and find water. We
spent the entire drive gloomily watching
the gauge climbing ever upwards before
coming to another enforced halt.
What was especially annoying were the
frail-looking little 2CV cars zipping past us
all the time. We were shattered by the time
we reached our chalet.
From the outside, it looked like a picture
on a chocolate box. Inside, we found we
shared the house with the aged owners
and we had the use of one room. They
didn’t speak a word of English and the only
German I knew was “hande hoche” (“hands
Best of British – October 2022
up”) which I’d learned from reading 6d
war comics when I was a boy. Strangely,
I never found a use for the phrase during
the holiday.
A huge double bed filled the room.
I think it may have been a super king
size. It was also my introduction to the
continental quilt. I was deeply puzzled that
there were no sheets or blankets. It also
had the unique feature of being able to lie
in bed and hold the huge frying pan over
the twin gas ring.
Everything in Interlaken was pristine and
the place clearly oozed money. We weren’t
quite in the same league and had travelled
to Switzerland being as self-sufficient as
we could be. This included taking out a
load of half-baked bread rolls which were
finished off by placing in the oven. We
didn’t have an oven in our chalet, just two
rings for boiling. We therefore dumped a
load of these rolls, still in their sealed, clear
plastic bags in a rubbish bin on the lake
shore. A few minutes later, a well-dressed
gentleman walked past, peered into
the bin and carried on walking. Almost
immediately he stopped, turned around
and went back to the bin and took out all
the bags of rolls and carried on walking.
Close by was another pretty little town
called Thun, which in our impeccable
German we called “thun” as in “thunder”.
In the tourist office was a lovely young
blonde woman who spoke good English.
We got to know her quite well (I’d have liked
to have got to know her a lot better but I
was too shy) and told her many times how
lovely Thun was. At the end of the holiday
we went to say goodbye and she asked us
where this place Thun was that we liked so
much. We were a bit puzzled and said: “Well,
here?” She then had a fit of the giggles and
said: “No, it’s pronounced Toon!”
Bob Newberry at Thun, pronounced
Toon, during the 1970 Swiss holiday.
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
In Love With the Beatles
Les McCallum emerged the labourer ready to sweep the
of Isleworth, floor. “That’s fantastic,” he shouted.
Middlesex “Yes, amazing sound, it’s a group called
remembers: the Beatles,” I hollered back.
“No, not that rubbish on the radio, your
"Where were cabinet!”
you...?" is a Well, I was hooked on the Beatles and
question many of bought the 45rpm record at the weekend.
our generation I was now a Beatles fan until the Rolling
are often asked. Stones appeared some time later at the
"Can you remember where you nearby at Richmond Station Hotel. From
were when you heard that JFK had been then on the whole UK music scene seemed
shot?" Yes, I can. It was on the steps of to change for our generation – no more
the Goldhawk Club, Goldhawk Road in Eddie Calvert, Perry Como or Winifred Atwell.
Shepherd’s Bush/Chiswick on 22 November Rhythm and blues had hit Richmond.
1963. I was in the queue waiting to go
inside and listen to the band that was due
to play that night when the news came
through. We were stunned; a very popular
and young American president assassinated
in an event that shook the world.
On a lighter note, a book I’ve read by Len
Goodman mentions being a mod in those
days. He had gone with a friend to a pub in
Brighton called the Skylark. This is when he
first heard the record being played on the
jukebox – Love Me Do by the Beatles. This
brought back my memory of when I first
heard the Beatles and Love Me Do.
I was an apprentice carpenter in the
Co-op workshop at Parsons Green. I was
alone in the workshop making a cabinet for
home during the lunch break, all the others
having gone for a meal in the canteen.
On a shelf above the foreman’s office
door sat a very large radio covered in
sawdust which was
permanently tuned into
the BBC Light Programme.
The usual type of records
were being played on
Music While You Work
– David Whitfield, Alma
Cogan, Mantovani. I think
you’ve got the message:
not the sort of music that
a 16-year-old wants to
listen to.
Then out of the blue
came this completely
different sound, a wailing
harmonica and distinctive
drumbeat. Love Me Do
by the Beatles, their first
record release in 1962. I
stopped work and stood
there mesmerised as the
record played.
Then from the small Les was in the Co-op workshop when he first heard the
door in the roller shutters Beatles and their debut single, Love Me Do, on the radio.
37
37
 WINDOW ON THE PAST

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Halloween memories from The Francis Frith Collection

Market Square,
Aylesham, Kent
(Photograph taken
around 1955)
The teachers Miss Fox and Mrs
Shaw used to hold Halloween
parties for schoolchildren in
the nearby village of Adisham.
We had “blood” soup (tomato),
apple bobbing, scary stories and
really enjoyed ourselves. They
also took some of us up into the
woods very early in the morning
to hear the dawn chorus, which
I will never forget, and also the
village pond where we were told
a witch was once drowned.
Carol Wilson

Bodmin Gaol,
Bodmin,
Cornwall
(Photograph taken
around 1955)
In 2007, some friends and
I wanted to do something
different for our Halloween
night, so where better to do
it than at the old Bodmin
prison? It was a great evening.
We spent some hours in the
darkest depths of the prison
and we are convinced we did
see a ghost of a man in the
Naval Wing. This is not the
place to visit if you are shocked
easily, as it has an odd smell to
it and you hear a lot of strange
noises and see a number of
shadows that are not there
when you turn around. But it
would be worth a visit if you
are interested in ghost hunting.
Trisha May

38 Best of British – October 2022

 The Gorsedd
Circle, Mountain
Ash, Mid
Glamorgan
(Photograph taken
around 1955)
Halloween was not spent trick or
treating and knocking on doors
for money but spent burning
your fingers with candles shoved
down swedes – if you were rich –
or empty tins of peas with faces
cut out of them with sharp edges
which could slice appendages
off. No makeup on the faces – just
the dirt that was always there and
added soot from the firelighters
we pinched when our candles
had long gone.
Clive Francis

The Village,
Ellington,
Northumberland
(Photograph taken
around 1955)
My sister Roberta and I used to
walk from Ellington Colliery to
the school at Ellington Village. In
autumn there was a turnip field
along the road and we would
watch the women and kids picking
vegetables and then they would
carry them to the horse and cart.
The farmer would sometimes let
us ride the cart limmers to the top
of the road. We would take a big
turnip home at Halloween to scoop
out for a lantern and put a small
candle inside. In winter we were
given a miniature spirit bottle full
of ginger wine to warm us up. I get
a warm feeling thinking about it.
Gerald Lamb

The Francis Frith Collection

Over 150 years ago, pioneering Victorian photographer Francis Frith set up his company with the grand plan of photographing all the cities,
towns and villages of Britain. His two sons, and later his grandson, continued Frith’s massive task, and The Francis Frith Collection now contains
more than 360,000 images taken between 1860 and 1970. Over 250,000 images are available to view online. Prints of the Frith photographs, as
well as a wide range of other products and local history books, featuring these vintage images, are available from the website francisfrith.com

Share Your Memories

The Francis Frith Collection invites you to visit the website and add memories to the places featured in the photographs, or comment on others
already added. Seeing a place from your past can rekindle forgotten or long-held memories. Why not add your story for others to read and
enjoy – making your memories and stories part of this growing chronicle of British life?

www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk 39
 PORTSMOUTH

POSTCARD FROM
PORTSMOUTH
Bob Barton discovers there’s more to the Hampshire city than ships
and the Royal Navy as he dreams of a train journey with Sherlock Holmes

Photographs: Bob Barton, (HMS Victory) MOD/OGL, (Conan Doyle plaque) Creative Commons/rw_norris2000
S
herlock Holmes didn’t say lived in Elm Grove, Southsea. A curator and the kiss-me-quick fun of Southsea.
“Elementary, my dear Watson” said the house, 1 Bush Villas, had been The High Street has a pleasing jumble
in any of Sir Arthur Conan flattened in wartime bombing. “Pompey” of architectural styles. Its focal point
Doyle’s books. Something was such an important target for the is the cathedral (023 9282 3300,
I gleaned while visiting Luftwaffe that I’m surprised any historic portsmouthcathedral.org.uk), which is
a gallery devoted to the author at structures survived. 900 years old although greatly enlarged
Portsmouth Museum (023 9282 7261, I felt the gallery was worth the trip in the 20th century.
portsmouthmuseum.co.uk). There on its own and is exemplary of the fact Something you don’t find in many
have been so many films and television that there’s so much more to Portsmouth main streets these days is a diminutive
programmes starring the detective, it’s than Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory, the shoemaker’s workshop in a memorial
sometimes hard to believe he wasn’t a Tudor time capsule Mary Rose and the garden. The part weatherboarded
real person. The museum’s collection – iron-clad HMS Warrior. shop, complete with costumed
which must be among the world’s finest These icons, dotted around the figures, is a reconstruction of a local
on Conan Doyle – includes comics, harbour, are “must sees” but this time hero’s workplace.
games, jigsaw puzzles, posters and I wanted to explore Old Portsmouth, John Pounds was a tradesman with
reminders of the many actors that have
played him.
I’d snoozed on the train to the south
coast port and dreamt that Holmes
was sitting opposite me. He looked
immaculate in his deerstalker, while
puffing on the trademark mahogany
pipe. I woke with a jolt, ready to warn
him that smoking was no longer allowed
on board.
Portsmouth was where the sleuth’s
peripatetic travels began. At least they
did in the mind of a hard-up, 23-year-
old Dr Conan Doyle, who set up surgery
there. His first Sherlock Holmes stories Top: Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory, the world’s oldest naval ship still in
were penned in between seeing patients, commission, at Portsmouth harbour. Above: The pub in Southsea Model Village is a model
in an attempt to make ends meet. He of one of Bob’s favourites – the 600-year-old George Inn at Norton St Philip, Somerset.

40 Best of British – October 2022

Langstone is the gateway to Hayling Island. Its waterside pub, the Royal Oak, with wind and tide mills nearby, combine in a “chocolate
box” scene. Inset: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the first two Sherlock Holmes books while practising as a physician at 1 Bush Villas which
was flattened in wartime bombing. His first stories were penned in between seeing patients, in an attempt to make ends meet.

a difference – he helped feed and pickings on Spice Island. The most The only surviving stretch of the
educate hundreds of poor children unruly behaviour was from a young lad Long Curtain Battery – mighty ramparts
and is credited as originator of the throwing a tantrum because he wanted and a moat that once enclosed the
ragged school movement. An adjacent to go to the funfair “NOW!” town – are followed by Clarence Pier
gravestone informed me that he died Energised by my little wander, I (clarencepier.co.uk) and its funfair.
suddenly on New Year’s Day, 1839. turned around at the Point to follow Lines of ice-cream queues resembled
Further along, mighty fortifications the Millennium Promenade (023 9282 ranks of soldiers. People playing crazy
line Broad Street. I was told it has the 6722, bit.ly/3oLtXpd), a trail hugging golf and sailing swan-shaped pedaloes
city’s longest surviving stretch of wall. In the historic waterfront for more than were interspersed with variously a motor
today’s more peaceful climate, the brick two miles. Walking to Southsea, I patrol boat, the D-day Story museum
arches now house independent artists’ found it amusing the way traditional (023 9288 2555, theddaystory.com),
studios and cafes (Hotwalls). A rooftop seaside attractions sit cheek by jowl with ruined forts and Henry VIII’s Southsea
walkway, once used only by soldiers, military fortifications. Castle (023 9284 1625, southseacastle.
now provides panoramic harbour views
for all. It led me to Henry VIII’s Round
Tower, which once anchored the end of
a huge chain hung across the harbour
from Gosport. It was installed after
the French had invaded no less than
six times. Highly embarrassing for the
Royal Navy.
This street, with its cobbles and
tram tracks still in place, comes to an
abrupt, watery end at the Point. The
locality was known as Spice Island
(despite not being an island nor being
particularly spicy). Once though, it was
an insalubrious area, beyond reach of
the town’s jurisdiction. Off-duty sailors
would spend their shore leave in rowdy
pubs and houses of ill-repute that lined
the thoroughfare. I found it a haven of
tranquillity.
Two pubs at the Point were doing
brisk business but it was sedate and,
as far as I could see, legal. No sign of
the press gangs that once found rich Relaxing on Southsea's shingle beach which stretches from Old Portsmouth to Eastney.

www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk 41
 PORTSMOUTH
The diminutive shoemaker’s workshop in the memorial garden to the rear of John Pounds Church in Old Portsmouth is a reconstruction of
the local hero’s workplace. John Pounds was a tradesman with a difference – who helped feed and educate hundreds of poor children.
co.uk). In fact, the esplanade might have
been laid out by a schizophrenic giant
who couldn’t decide whether to play war
games or happy families.
These two diverse activities
are combined at a wonderful little
attraction. Southsea Model Village (023
9275 1443, southseamodelvillage.biz)
has delighted children and adults alike
since its opening in 1956. It’s situated
within the remains of Lumps Fort, built
a century earlier. Surprisingly, visitors
can descend into a section of it called
Rifleman’s Tunnel. This cavity is more
Spice Island was once an insalubrious area full of rowdy pubs and houses of ill-repute,
frequented by off-duty sailors on shore leave, but is now a haven of tranquillity.
42
than 100ft long, with firing slots at
the subterranean end. Soldiers could
aim their rifles at any French invaders
coming up the beach. The tunnel was
filled in when the Lilliputian village was
built in the 1950 but was unearthed by
volunteers some years ago.
This miniature town has its own little
castle. Plus, a magnificent waterfall not
unlike the Reichenbach Falls, where
Holmes met his end in 1893. The pub
is a model of one of my favourites. The
600-year-old George Inn at Norton St
Philip, Somerset. No thimblefuls of
Wadworth beer on sale, though.
Over a pint at the Barley Mow – a
hostelry of varnished woodwork, selling
fresh eggs as well as ale – I heard about
another celebrity. “Bet you didn’t know
that Peter Sellers was born here in
Castle Road?” said a chatty customer.
No, I didn’t, and a plaque on the Mayfair
Chinese restaurant confirmed it. The
actor and comedian entered the world
in the flat above. His parents were
professional entertainers. Sellers’ first
“performance” was at the tender age of
two days, when he was carried on stage
at the Kings Theatre (023 9282 8282,
kingsportsmouth.co.uk) that is still
in business. “He attended a school of
dancing while here,” added my informant.
Langstone Harbour (023 9246 3419,
langstoneharbour.org.uk), though just a
few miles away, was like another world.
Still waters and a cloudless sky, both
of deep blue. White-sailed yachts were
darting like butterflies. Langstone is the
gateway to Hayling Island. Its waterside
pub, the Royal Oak, with wind and tide
mills nearby, combine in a “chocolate
box” scene. Early in World War Two,
the mill was home to novelist Nevil
Shute. An aeronautical engineer, he was
working on plans for a radio-controlled
gliding torpedo. A customer reminisced
about the Hayling Billy, a little steam
train that used to cross the water here
on a trestle bridge.
A decade ago, I cycled the route of
this holidaymakers’ line, which closed
Best of British – October 2022
Above left: Mighty fortifications line Broad Street, which has the city’s longest surviving stretch of wall. Right: A vintage handbill
displayed on the site of Hayling Island station. Nothing remains, save for a goods shed that has been turned into a theatre.

60 years ago. Now called the Hayling
Billy Trail (visit-hampshire.co.uk), it
ends at the site of the island’s station.
Nothing remains, save for a goods shed
that has been turned into a theatre.
There’s another link with acting. My
notebook reminds me that the 1977
film, Confessions from a Holiday Camp
with Robin Askwith, Antony Booth and
Bill Maynard, was shot in one of the
island’s holiday camps.
On the train home from Portsmouth,
I dozed again and the bizarre image
of Arthur Conan Doyle sitting beside
The Barley Mow, Southsea is a hostelry of varnished
woodwork, selling fresh eggs as well as ale.
Charles Dickens came to mind. (What a
scoop that would be for Best of British.)
Charles was born in Portsmouth and his
parents’ terraced house is furnished as
it would have been when the Dickens
family lived there (023 9282 1879,
charlesdickensbirthplace.co.uk). The
two authors never met as far as I know.
Sadly, there wasn’t any conversation
between them in my daydream. Not
necessarily a bad thing. As Holmes once
remarked to Dr Watson: “You have a
grand gift for silence. It makes you quite
invaluable as a companion.”
REFRESHMENTS
Auckland Arms, Netley Road,
Southsea PO5 3NB (07798 737368)
Traditional pub with a quirky layout
and ceramic Long’s Brewery frontage.
Barley Mow, 39 Castle Road,
Southsea PO5 3DE (023 9282 3492)
Community pub with patio garden
and good real ale selection (see text).
Royal Oak, 19 Langstone High
Street, Havant PO9 1RY (023 9248
3125)
Photogenic pub at the entrance to
Hayling Island.

www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk 43
 Hopelessly Devoted
Chris Hallam pays tribute to actress, singer and activist Olivia Newton-John
t would turn out to be the defining
I role of her career. Having cast the
then little-known John Travolta as
Danny Zuko in the forthcoming
film version of the stage musical
Grease, producers now wanted a more
famous name to play the female lead,
Sandra “Sandy” Dee. They had considered
Deborah Raffin, Cheryl Ladd from TV’s
Charlie’s Angels and even young Carrie
Fisher from the as yet unreleased Star
Wars. But the one they really wanted was
Olivia Newton-John.
Olivia herself remained curiously
hesitant, however. For one thing, she would
be 29 by the time Randal Kleiser’s film
came out in 1978. Surely she
was far too old to get away
with playing a teenage high-
school student? She was also a
famous and successful singer,
not an actress. She had never
had any formal acting training
and her main film experience
so far had been in the
disastrous and little-seen sci-fi
musical Toomorrow (1970)
nearly a decade before.
She was particularly
concerned about her character’s
late transformation from the
wide-eyed and virginal “Sandy
One” into the leather jacketed,
cigarette-smoking “Sandy
44
Two”. Could she get away with it? In
the end, after extensive discussion with
her younger co-star Travolta (who has
admitted to a long-standing crush on the
singer), Olivia agreed to star in what has
since become probably the most famous
film musical in the world.
Grease in general and Olivia Newton-
John’s portrayal of both versions of Sandy
quickly proved to be hugely and massively
successful. Olivia’s age proved irrelevant
in a film in which many of the supposed
“teenage” cast were actually in their 30s
and it’s impossible for most people now
to ever imagine anyone else ever having
played the role of Sandy.
Photographs: (Police) Keystone Press Agency Ltd/Hulton/Getty Images, (Bruce Welch) Bill Cross/ANL/Shutterstock
Indeed, when many people first heard
the news of the death of Olivia at the age
of 73 in August, many people would have
been immediately transported back to
memories of her appearance in her most
famous film from 45 years before.
Olivia’s own high school days in the
1960s had been rather different from the
fictional Sandy’s in the 1950s. But there
were definite similarities too.
“I know what it feels like to be an
outsider,” she reflected later, “the only
one with a funny accent. So, all I had to
do really was to think back to when I was
suddenly plonked into a strange country
not knowing many people and just
beginning to really discover boys.”
Born in Cambridge in
1948, Olivia had been teased
about her English accent
when her family had moved
to Australia when she was
five. But by the time she got a
chance to return to Britain, she
Olivia Newton-John starred
with John Travolta in the 1978
film Grease. She had never had
any formal acting training and
her main film experience before
Grease had been in the disastrous
and little-seen sci-fi musical
Toomorrow.
Best of British – October 2022
Left: Olivia Newton-John
represented the United Kingdom
at Brighton in the 1974 Eurovision
Song Contest with the song Long
Live Love. Coming a tied fourth,
the contest was won by Abba with
Waterloo. Right: Newton-John
with fiance and Shadows guitarist
Bruce Welch in 1971. He was
devastated when she suddenly
broke off their engagement in
March 1972.
sounded Australian. Her family
was talented. Her father Brin
was a Welshman who (among
other things) had worked as a
codebreaker at Bletchley Park
and who had trained to be an
opera singer. Her mother Irene
was German and the daughter of
a Nobel Prize-winning physicist.
Five years after they moved to
Melbourne to enable her father to take up
a prestigious university job, the marriage
ended. “My parents’ divorce made me
feel insecure,” Olivia remembered later.
“I tried to blank out what was going on
and I was always the happy child trying
to keep everyone else happy.” Olivia was
left cautious about marriage, although
eventually married twice. She grew up to
be a sometimes lonely, shy and beautiful
young woman with a sweet singing voice.
By the time she was a teenager, she
was singing regularly on Australian TV.
At 17, she was touring round the UK as
part of a female double act with her old
Australian friend Pat Carroll. It was an
exciting time. Soon, Olivia had become
romantically involved with Bruce Welch of
the Shadows. Olivia didn’t even recognise
the famous guitarist when she first met
him, but the relationship greatly expanded
her social horizons.
She became friends with Sir Cliff
Richard and met the Beatles. She also
became involved in the disastrous plan
to launch a manufactured band called
Toomorrow around this time, to coincide
with the release of the film of the same
name. But by the early 1970s, she was
clearly on the verge of true stardom. Bruce
was devastated when Olivia suddenly broke
off their engagement in March 1972.
In 1974, Olivia represented the UK in
the Eurovision Song Contest. She was not
keen on her song, Long Live Love, but
performed well, tying for fourth place with
Luxembourg and Monaco, as Sweden’s
Abba won with Waterloo.
At this point, Olivia, who had previously
usually been more popular in the UK
than the US, scored a major hit in the US
with the song If You Love Me (Let Me
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
which seemed out of date by the time it
was released. But despite being critically
panned as “truly stupendously bad” and a
“rollerskating lightbulb”, like many so-called
flops it actually did better at the box office
than is generally remembered and spawned
a number of hit singles.
Xanadu was also the means by which
she met the dancer and actor, Matt
Lattanzi, 10 years her junior who became
her first husband in 1984 and the father of
the couple’s daughter, Chloe, now a singer
and actress herself, in 1986. The couple
divorced in 1995. Later, Olivia’s long-term
partner Patrick McDermott disappeared in
mysterious circumstances during a fishing
trip in 2005. Olivia married John Easterling
in 2008. They were still together at the time
of her death.
The years ahead saw mixed fortunes
for Olivia. In 1981, she enjoyed a huge
pop hit with the song Physical. The song,
Know) and she decided to move there. accompanied by a video showing Olivia
It was a shrewd move. In the mid-1970s and a variety of men working out in a gym,
she enjoyed two No 1 singles in the US courted controversy in the US for what
and consistently great album sales. The at the time seemed like heavily sexually
success of Grease pushed her up to a new charged content.
level. In London, 5,000 fans converged But it was a big success and remains one
on Leicester Square where she and John of her best-known songs.
Travolta were greeted with scenes of mass In contrast, her second movie outing
hysteria reminiscent of the worst excesses with John Travolta, Two of a Kind (1983),
of Beatlemania. was another major turkey. On the plus side,
“It was the scariest mob situation I’ve both actors were wise enough to steer well
ever been in,” said Olivia of a situation clear of the much-derided Grease 2 (1982).
where fans surrounded their car and Olivia Newton-John continued
started jumping on the roof. producing music to the end of her
Unlike Travolta, who would become life. A lifelong animal-lover, she was
famous for his role in Saturday Night a long-standing backer of animal and
Fever before Grease was released, Olivia humanitarian causes. Having been
Newton-John would never star in a hit appointed OBE in the 1979 new year
film again. The film Xanadu (1980), in honours list, she was made a dame
which she played a mythical muse sent in the 2020 new year honours list for
down from Mount Olympus to inspire two “services to charity, cancer research and
men on Earth, was an expensive fantasy entertainment.”
Peter Robertson spoke to some of
Olivia Newton-John’s friends and colleagues:
Lyricist Don Black: “She was a wonderful, wonderful singer. The song I wrote
for her, Sam, is one of my favourite records. Her vocal on it is just stunning. My
first memory of her was years ago in Australia, she did a tour with Matt Monro
who I managed and wrote songs for. When Matt died, Olivia phoned me and was
crying her eyes out, she could not talk. She just loved Matt Monro. That’s just a
little snapshot of how emotional and caring she was.”
New Seekers’ lead singer Eve Graham: “We became very good friends during
the Cliff Richard series and beyond. We had a couple of sleepovers, and behaved
like two teenagers. Went to the pictures and ate popcorn in the street, laughed
at all the same things. We met again a few years later in LA and it was like I’d seen
her only the day before. We got on so well.”
Former BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show DJ and Saturday Superstore host Mike
Read: “Olivia was a very lovely, and very caring person. And a lot of fun. That’s
something that people don’t often see, the silly side of them, and Olivia was very
like that – she was fun, just like a young girl.”
45
GOOD
NIGHT,
SWEET
PRINCE
Chris Hallam looks back
on the life and career of
David Warner, an actor
who seemed set to

Photograph: (Portrait) Creative Commons/Rory Lewis Photographer, (Hamlet) Reg Wilson/RSC, (Doctor Who) Big Finish Productions
be a stage star before
embarking on a prolific
film and television career

n 2018, David Warner played the

I Admiral in the Disney film Mary

Poppins Returns. As with many of
the characters Warner had played
during his long career, the Admiral
was clearly very eccentric – in this case, a
retired sea dog who had transformed his
London town house into a replica of one
of his old ships.
Sadly, it was to be Warner’s final
screen role. In July 2022, he died just five
days before what would have his 81st
birthday. Warner had no connection to
the original Mary Poppins (1964) although
by coincidence, his own film career had
started at about the same time. In the
period in between, Warner notched up
well over 200 screen credits including
memorable performances in many
landmark films such as Tom Jones, Straw
Dogs, The Omen, The French Lieutenant’s
Woman, Time Bandits, Tron, The
Company of Wolves and Titanic. He was
also an accomplished theatre actor.
His childhood had been miserable.
Born in Manchester in 1941, Warner’s
parents were unmarried and unhappy. He
spent some time in care and was moved
through a succession of boarding schools.
His mother ceased to be a part of his life
at all after his teenage years. An inspiring
teacher pushed him towards a career
Lisa Bowerman (Bernice Summerfield) and David Warner (The Doctor) appeared together
in Doctor Who audio stories for Big Finish Productions with “Sam Kisgart” (The Master).
on the stage. Warner feared he might
otherwise have ended up as a juvenile
delinquent.
After working briefly as a bookseller
and newspaper vendor, he enrolled at
Rada, studying alongside the likes of Ian
McShane and John Hurt.
In 1964, he impressed critics with
his characterisation of King Henry VI
in two RSC productions. “I have seldom
witnessed such a finished performance by
an actor who has barely started,” wrote the
influential Kenneth Tynan.
But it was Warner’s Hamlet in 1965
which both divided audiences and
transformed him into the brightest young
star of the mid-1960s British theatre scene.
With his long hair, Midlands accent and
studenty scarf, Warner’s interpretation of
the great Dane was not for everyone. But
for many, it seemed to fit the mood of the
times. “A tortured student, in his long
orange scarf, David seemed the epitome
of 1960s youth, and caught the radical
spirit of a turbulent age,” said RSC director,
Gregory Doran. Peter Hall, who directed
Warner alongside Glenda Jackson in
Hamlet, considered him to be “potentially
one of the greatest stage actors”. His
was certainly one of the most acclaimed
Hamlets of his generation.
But to Hall’s disappointment, Warner
was not destined for a long stage career.
“He just disappeared from view,” Hall
recalled, “and the next thing we knew, he
was in Hollywood, doing bits in movies.”
There was an explanation. In 1973, Warner
developed chronic stage fright brought on
by the skin condition psoriasis during a
disastrous production of I, Claudius.
Though he would return to the
stage in the early 21st century, the great

46 Best of British – October 2022

David Warner pictured in 2013, five
years before playing the Admiral in
the Disney film Mary Poppins Returns
in what was to be his final screen role.
Far right: Warner’s portrayal of Hamlet,
pictured contemplating Yorick’s skull in
the Peter Hall production of 1965, both
divided audiences and transformed
him into the brightest young star of the
mid-1960s British theatre scene.
young British theatre sensation of the
mid-1960s would instead become
best known as an extremely prolific
character actor on screen.
In truth, Warner had already been
drifting in that direction anyway. His
screen debut was in Tony Richardson’s
Oscar-winning Tom Jones (1963), playing
the villainous Blifil. In 1966, he played
Morgan Delt opposite Vanessa Redgrave
in the off-the-wall comedy film Morgan:
A Suitable Case for Treatment, a role
first taken by Ian Hendry in the television
version of the story. Although not a full-
blown villain like many of the characters
Warner would play, Morgan was an
unstable fantasist, a young man clearly
prepared to go to extraordinary and
bizarre lengths to win his girlfriend back.
Already it was becoming clear that Warner
was never going to be a conventional
leading man.
As he moved into his 30s, Warner
was boosted by being handpicked by the
acclaimed US director Sam Peckinpah for
roles in three films: The Ballad of Cable
Hogue (1970), the controversial Straw
Dogs (1971) and Cross of Iron (1977). He
David Warner (left) with Gregory Peck in a scene from The Omen. As investigative reporter
Jennings, Warner’s character was famously beheaded by a falling sheet of glass.
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
also experienced one of the
most well known screen deaths
ever made around this time. As
investigative reporter Jennings
in the classic horror film,
The Omen (1976), Warner’s
character was famously
beheaded by a falling sheet of
glass. In later life, he was asked if he still
had the decapitated head. “I lost it in the
divorce,” he joked.
Warner was now entering the heyday
of his career with many of his most
famous roles dating from around this
time. Although he avoided typecasting,
he became established as a regular screen
villain. In Time After Time (1979), he
played Jack the Ripper on the loose in 20th
In a film full of
memorable characters,
Warner’s performance
stood out.
century San Francisco with only Malcolm
McDowell’s time-travelling HG Wells able
to stop him.
He managed to be both very funny
and very menacing in another time travel
themed movie, Terry Gilliam’s fantasy
Time Bandits (1981), playing a demonic
all-powerful character referred to only as
“Evil” in the film’s script. The character’s
speciality was his tendency to unexpectedly
blast any one of his assorted minions to
smithereens if they ever said anything he
deemed insolent. Occasionally, he seemed
a bit overzealous about this, politely
apologising after dispatching one such
lackey in this way, apparently by accident.
In a film overflowing with memorable
characters – John Cleese’s patronising
Robin Hood, Ian Holm’s childish Napoleon,
Peter Vaughan’s afflicted ogre – Warner’s
performance stood out.
The year 1982 brought Tron, Disney’s
famous computer-game themed flop in
which Warner played Dillinger, a villainous
programmer transported into a computer
game to do battle with rival programmer
and hacker Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges). In
the same year he also won an Emmy for his
portrayal of Senator Pomponius Falco in
the historical mini-series The Antagonists.
In 1984, he was very nearly cast as Freddy
Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street
but was unable to take the role due to
scheduling conflicts.
In 1987, Warner moved to Los
Angeles, staying there for 15 years. He
later confessed to mixed feelings about
the move. “Going there felt like a bit of a
defeat,” he admitted. “I mean, why should
I leave my country to work? But there was
far more television and film in America
then.” In the 1990s, he became extremely
prolific, often notching up 10 screen credits
a year. “I am a letterbox actor,” he said.
47
 “If the script comes through the
letterbox, I’ll do it. It’s all fun, and you get
something out of it.”
He leant his distinctive voice to many
cartoons and played three different roles
in the Star Trek franchise notably the
Shakespeare-obsessed Klingon Chancellor
Gorkon in 1991’s Star Trek VI: The
Undiscovered Country (the subtitle was
itself a Shakespeare quote). He appeared
in the cult TV classic Twin Peaks and, in
1997, he played the malicious enforcer
Spicer Lovejoy in James Cameron’s Titanic,
the most commercially successful of any of
the films he was in.

I am a letterbox
actor. If the script
comes through the
letterbox, I’ll do it.
He remained busy well into old age,
playing Sir Kenneth Branagh’s elderly father
in the English language version of the
Scandinavian detective series Wallander
and cropping up in offbeat series such

Photograph: (Glyndebourne) Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, (Tape recorder) Keystone Press/Alamy Stock Photo
as Penny Dreadful and Inside No 9. He
married twice and had a son from his
second marriage, which ended in divorce
after 26 years in 2005. After that, he
enjoyed a long relationship with the actress
Lisa Bowerman.
The two appeared together in a
series of audio adventures for Big Finish
Productions (bigfinish.com), most recently
Doctor Who: The New Adventures of
Bernice Summerfield – Blood and Steel; a FROM POP
to Opera
box set of stories that finds the Cybermen
in 1930s Berlin. Here, Bowerman is the
27th century archaeology professor Bernice
Summerfield, a role she has played on
audio since 1998, while Warner plays an
alternative version of the Third Doctor, a John Purser reflects on the singing career of tenor
part he first performed in 2003’s Doctor
Who – Unbound: Sympathy for the Devil. David Hughes who died 50 years ago aged just 47
Speaking just after recording the box
set, Warner said: “It’s great to be back in hen I was young, my power, beautiful in quality and splendidly
the studio and playing the Doctor. It’s such
a good part. Lots of people have said to me
over the years that I should play the Doctor
– and here I am. I’m delighted.”
Although never exactly a household
name, it is difficult to think of another actor
who has enjoyed a more breathtaking range
W late mother told me
that her best friend,
Ruth, had lived
next door to David
Hughes’s family when David was young.
A few years later I was able to see him
perform in concert.
schooled.” And from Musical Opinion:
“True intonation, voice and breath
control, artistic phasing, clear diction,
varied vocal colours.”
David was born on 11 October
1925 at 48 Alton Road in Bournbrook,
Birmingham as Geoffrey Paddison. He
of interesting roles. “I don’t think I have any Sadly, David is now rather forgotten was the son of David Hughes Paddison
great major disappointments in my career,” although he was possibly the first cross- from whom he took his stage name.
he reflected. over singer of modern times. Instead of David’s family had moved from Swansea
“I’m very lucky to have had a career. opera to popular, as now, he took the to Birmingham to find work. His father
Because I was never a very ambitious actor. alternative route of pop to opera, via was a tram driver and he encouraged the
I just wanted to do it because I couldn’t do musical theatre, from the 1950s to 70s. young David to sing and gave him his
anything else. And it amazes me each time To quote from the National early singing tuition.
when the phone rings and somebody asks Association of Teachers of Singing David was a regular choir singer and
me to be in something. I go: ‘Oh, fantastic! magazine, US: “Gifted by nature with even had four years of violin teaching. A
It’s not quite all over!’” a superb tenor voice in range, ample in Birmingham singing teacher, E St Clair

48 Best of British – October 2022


Opposite: David Hughes trying out the Grundig Reporter tape machine at the Factory
Equipment Exhibition in March 1953. Above: The singer, real name Geoffrey Paddison, at
the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, East Sussex in May 1965 where he was performing in
Strauss’s opera Der Rosenkavalier. Inset: As a pop star, nicknamed “Mr Heart Throb”,
David recorded By the Fountains of Rome on Philips Records in 1956.
Barfield, was very impressed by his voice
and gave him lessons in late 1943.
David’s first job was as a clerk with the
railways but he was also an usher at the
town hall in Birmingham which enabled
him to see the concerts until he was called
up for service in the RAF. The squadron
he was with formed a choir at St Andrew’s
Church in Kowloon and David made his
first broadcast on ZBW Radio at Christmas
in 1945. Sadly David’s father died in 1946,
aged just 53, from the effects of a recent
heart attack before he knew that his son
would become a famous singer.
In 1947, David was demobbed and
began studying at London’s Wigmore Hall
with the help of a government grant. He
also trained at the London Academy of
Music and Dramatic Art. His first theatre
appearance was in the musical Belinda
Fair in 1949 at the Saville Theatre which
was followed by Half Past Eight, a review
at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow. It was
during this time that David made his
first British radio broadcast in Sales Talk
with comedian Freddie Sales. Following
that he was in Welsh Rabbit and then 14
appearances on Henry Hall’s Guest Night
in 1951, which began when he was a last-
minute substitute for Ivor Novello who had
died suddenly.
The exposure on radio led to recording
contracts and, before long, David had
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
become a pop star with thousands of
young fans who nicknamed him “Mr
Heart Throb”. Among the many songs he
recorded were With These Hands in 1951
and Here in My Heart which was a big
hit in 1952. David was voted the second
most popular personality in a radio and
television readers’ poll in 1953.
As a pop star, David
had thousands of young
fans who nicknamed
him ‘Mr Heart Throb.’
David was busy making appearances
at major theatres in Great Britain
and television programmes. He spent
Christmas 1954 in Australia on a
six-month tour. During this time he
telephoned his girlfriend, Ann Sullivan,
who was a dancer, and proposed to her.
She flew out to Australia and married
him on Valentine’s Day. After returning to
England there was another variety tour.
Musical theatre came calling and David
was cast as the male lead in Summer Song
with Sally Ann Howes at the Prince’s
Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, London.
After this, more radio, television, recording
and tours. Then a new home in Elstree, the
arrival of baby son Shaun and pantomime,
too. A television series Make Mine Music
– still fondly remembered by some people
– started in 1959. In 1960 David was in
the Eurovision Song Contest British Final
singing Mi Amor which came second.
By the summer of 1961, David and
Ann’s family now included a daughter, Katy,
with a baby girl, Maria, due to be born in
September. He was rehearsing for summer
season in Paignton when he suffered a
heart attack. This meant a long time resting
to recover and it was at this time David
decided to return to singing lessons and
then perform the operatic songs that he had
always loved. When recuperated he was
offered a part in the musical Scapa with Pete
Murray and Edward Woodward but sadly
the run of the show only lasted a few weeks.
In 1964, David made his operatic debut
with the Scottish Opera company as
Cassio in Otello and then in July he was
The High Priest of Neptune in Idomeneo
at Glyndebourne, along with another
newcomer, Luciano Pavarotti. This was
followed by the role of Macduff in Macbeth
there in 1965. Then in the same year with
the Welsh National Opera as Alfredo in La
Traviata, followed by other operatic roles:
Sadler’s Wells Opera in 1968 as Ferrando
in Così Fan Tutte, Pinkerton in Madame
Butterfly and Don José in Carmen – more
than 100 times – for which his performance
was highly praised. David had his debut at
the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in
1969 as Laertes in Hamlet.
By 1970, David was firmly established in
the opera world and he regularly sang for Sir
John Barbirolli. He returned to Birmingham
for a concert with the City of Birmingham
Symphony Orchestra on 2 October 1972
but no one was to know that it would be his
last concert in his home city.
Opera singing is physically demanding
on the body and David had suffered further
heart attacks. David was singing the role
of Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly at the
London Coliseum on 18 October 1972
when he felt unwell but continued to finish
the first act. Ann was in the audience that
night and a doctor was called to the theatre.
The doctor confirmed a heart attack
but David wanted to complete the third
act so he went back on stage and according
to the reports sang wonderfully. After the
curtain fell, David was unable to get up and
an ambulance was waiting to take him to
hospital. It was reported that: “He looked
into Ann’s eyes and said, ‘I didn’t let them
down did I?’”
David died in hospital the next day, 19
October 1972, aged just 47. A memorial
service was held at St Paul’s, Covent Garden.
He was a wonderful singer taken much too
young. Listening to him singing I’ll Walk
With God will still, for many people, bring a
tear to their eyes.
49
 Making Everyone Happy
Nigel Linge remembers an orange and yellow cartoon bird, used in marketing
campaigns to promote the telephone, which was voiced by Bernard Cribbins
ecent news of the death
R of Bernard Cribbins has
brought many tributes
flooding in for his acting,
storytelling and singing
abilities across film, television and theatre.
In among this extensive portfolio, he
was also the mainstay of one of the most
successful British marketing campaigns
for promoting the telephone. Bernard
Cribbins was the voice of an orange and
yellow cartoon bird called Buzby who
normally could be found perched atop
telephone wires encouraging us to pick up
the phone and “make someone happy”.
Buzby was hatched in May 1976 in the days
of the near monopolistic telephone service
provider and at a time when Post Office
Telecommunications had raised tariffs twice
in quick succession and concern was being
expressed about the impact this could have
in deterring existing customers from making
50
calls and recruiting new
subscribers. Something
had to be done and that
warranted a new and
innovative marketing
campaign.
Since the objective
was to humanise and
personalise the Post
Office’s image, a decision
was taken to create a
friendly, slightly comedic,
cartoon character that could be equally at
home on our television screens and in print
but, most importantly, would appeal to both
the young and old as well as commercial and
residential customers alike. Other industries
had already proved that this could be a
winning formula with the likes of Mr Therm
who promoted gas, Fred the flour grader from
Homepride, and oil-drop man used by Esso.
The hope was that Buzby would do the same
for the telephone.
As Buzby fluttered on to our
television screens during 1976 in
the first of a series of animated
adverts, he encouraged us to “make
someone happy with a cheap-rate
phone call” but this soon changed
to the catchier, “make someone
happy”. What is interesting, though,
about these adverts is while they did
indeed focus on the cost of making
a phone call, they also stressed the
social benefits of simply keeping in touch.
For example, Buzby was often seen
chatting to his mother who, by the way, was
voiced by comedy actress Irene Handl. Others
showed him listening, entranced, to children
wishing their grandma a happy birthday, doing
a daring high-wire act riding a 10p coin along
the telephone wires, imitating showbusiness
star Max Bygraves, and becoming “Bird Brain
of Britain” by correctly knowing the cost of
Best of British – October 2022

Opposite: Buzby themed household items included key rings and memo pads as well
as children’s toys. Opposite, below: The author wearing a Buzby pullover knitted by his
mother, from a pattern he bought from eBay. Above: The welcome pack to the Buzby
Club – which attracted 50,000 members at its peak – and a selection of Buzby posters.
Below: Other Buzby themed household items included mugs, coasters and a metal tray.
a cheap-rate phone call after
having struggled to answer
simpler questions.
Very rapidly, Buzby could
be seen virtually everywhere
not only on our television
screens but on a whole host
of merchandise and even an
illuminated sign in Piccadilly
Circus, London. He was
huge and even today there’s
seemingly a never-ending
supply of Buzby memorabilia.
Badges are probably the
most common items and
come in various shapes and sizes which include
some in the outline of Buzby himself but with
the majority being round metal ones carrying
slogans such as “Make someone happy”, “Hung
up on you”, “Be my early morning Buz”, “Just
ringing in the rain”, and “Ring around the
clock”. There was even one promoting local
libraries and the Dial-a-Disc service.
Given the popularity of Buzby, several
unofficial badges also emerged that parodied
him, often in the context of wider protest
against the privatisation of British Telecom.
The official Buzby Club attracted 50,000
members at its peak. An annual fee of £1 gave
you a welcome letter, membership card, badge,
and three issues per year of a 12-page magazine
that included cartoon strips, adventure stories,
articles about telephone technology, readers’
letters and competitions. You could even buy
the T-shirt.
Also, for children, there were wind-up,
speaking, and soft toys, money boxes, a glove
puppet, illustrated story books with titles
such as Buzby’s Girlfriend and Buzby Goes
Saketboarding, jigsaw puzzles, and the Buzby
Annual. Buzby also featured regularly in the
children’s magazine TV Comic.
Posters came in all shapes and sizes
including a Christmas themed one in which
Buzby says: “Give them the gift of the gab”, a love
themed one which proclaims: “Absence makes
the voice grow fonder”, and one in Welsh in
which Buzby’s mother is answering the phone
and saying: “Buzby who?”
For the home, you could buy Buzby mugs,
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
paper plates, coasters, a metal
tray, key rings, memo pads,
carrying bags, cushions,
plastic aprons, rug-making
kits, and even a bar of soap.
Budding and accomplished
knitters had the pleasure of
creating a rather lovely Buzby
jumper; something I acquired
courtesy of my mother only
a few years ago following
the purchase of the knitting
pattern from a well-known
online auction site.
In the 1970s, the Post
Office had the largest transport fleet in the
country, generated vast quantities of literature,
and delivered about 50 million account
envelopes to customers each year. So, it’s
not surprising that Buzby became part of
Post Office Telecommunications’ corporate
branding, appearing on bills, envelopes, new
telephone number cards for sending to family
and friends, and of course, the sides of vehicles.
Given Bernard Cribbins’ singing talents, a
45rpm Buzby single inevitably followed from
Pye Records (number 7N.46140) and while
not quite matching the success of Hole in the
Ground or Right Said Fred, it’s a fun little ditty
delivered in Bernard’s inimitable style.
Sadly, Buzby finally flew the nest in April
1985, but it wasn’t the end of memorable
adverts from BT. Who can forget Maureen
Lipman’s Beattie and the “ology”, Bob
Hoskins with “It’s good to talk”, and ET who
encouraged us to “Stay in touch”? None of
these matched the sheer scale of the Buzby
campaign and as a little footnote to the story,
you may have spotted Buzby at the London
2012 Paralympic Games where he made a
fleeting appearance. Maybe he will visit us
again one day?
Nigel Linge is professor of
telecommunications at the University of
Salford and an avid collector of Buzby
and other telecommunications-related
artefacts. If you want to share your
telephone stories, please contact him at
telecomheritage@salford.ac.uk
MAKE SOMEONE HAPPY
EVERY DAY
[Telephone ringing]
Hello, Buzby residence,
Buzby speaking . . .
[Chorus]
Make someone happy every day
There’s always something nice to say
Friends to talk to, friends to hear
Never, ever, shed a tear
Make someone happy every day
Make someone happy every day.
He’s a fluffy little fella on the
telephone line
When you see him, he makes you
smile every time
He’s a friend to everyone
He’s the one who makes it fun.
It’s Buzby . . .
[Chorus]
Make someone happy every day
There’s always something nice to say
Friends to talk to, friends to hear
Never, ever, shed a tear
Make someone happy every day
Make someone happy every day.
Always there, time to spare, for making
it easy
Comes along with a song, he’s got to be
cheeky
He’s a friend to everyone
He’s the one who makes it fun.
It’s Buzby . . .
[Chorus]
Make someone happy every day
There’s always something nice to say
Friends to talk to, friends to hear
Never, ever, shed a tear
Make someone happy every day
Make someone happy every day.
Hello, it’s me again, come on it’s your
turn to make someone happy now
Ready?
Off you go . . .
[Chorus]
Make someone happy every day
There’s always something nice to say
Friends to talk to, friends to hear
Never, ever, shed a tear
Make someone happy every day
Make someone happy every day.
51
 TEMPLAR ON TV
This month sees the 60th anniversary of the first television broadcast of
The Saint starring Sir Roger Moore. Angeline Wilcox draws a stick man
S
ixty years ago, on 4 October
1962, a haloed hero made his
debut on British television.
The Saint starred Roger
Moore as the wealthy and
debonair Simon Templar who had an
international reputation for protecting
people from injustice and solving crimes.
Described as a “Robin Hood figure” with
a buccaneering spirit, he was a resolutely
British hero who played by his own rules
that often conflicted with the law. His
saintly nickname, which derived from
his initials, was cleverly depicted on his
calling card – and in the show’s opening
sequence – as a stick man with a halo.
Although The Saint was a series
that seemed to epitomise the 1960s,
the character was created in 1928 by
the author Leslie Charteris (1907-1993)
in the novel Meet the Tiger. Charteris
went on to write numerous novels and
short stories featuring Templar, many
of which were adapted for radio, film
52
and comic strips. In 1962, the television
rights were acquired by producers
Robert S Baker and Monty Berman who
secured the enthusiastic backing of
Incorporated Television Company (ITC)
boss Lew Grade.
The handsome and
suave Roger Moore
brought style, wit and
action to the role.
The series was given a generous
budget and Sir Roger Moore was cast
following the decision by Patrick
McGoohan, who was then starring
in Danger Man, to turn it down. The
handsome and suave Moore – who met
with the approval of Leslie Charteris –
was the perfect choice. He brought style,
wit and action to the role, in which he
was pitted against villains and criminals
involved in theft, murder, espionage,
fraud and kidnapping.
Templar encountered characters
ranging from the sophisticated to the
dubious played by actors who later
became familiar names, including Julie
Christie, Oliver Reed, Nyree Dawn
Porter, Honor Blackman, Ronnie Barker,
Jane Asher, Nigel Davenport and Tony
Photograph: (Roger Moore) ITV, (P1800S) Volvo Cars
Britton. Inspector Claud Eustace Teal
was a regular character, with actors
Campbell Singer, Wensley Pithey,
Norman Pitt and Ivor Dean successively
playing the irascible Scotland Yard
detective.
Just as Simon Templar was identified
by the haloed stick man, another
trademark was his car: a white Volvo
P1800 with the number plate ST 1.
Apparently, the producers approached
several vehicle manufacturers, including
Jaguar – with their sights set on an
E-Type – without success before Volvo
agreed to loan the show its recently
Best of British – October 2022
Opposite: Roger Moore starred as The Saint from 1962 to 1969, also directing several episodes and working as co-producer. Above:
Val Kilmer starred in the 1997 film The Saint. From 1978 to 1979, Ian Ogilvy reprised the role in Return of the Saint. The 1941 film The
Saint Meets the Tiger is based on the debut novel of author Leslie Charteris and starred Hugh Sinclair as Simon Templar. The two-part
Vendetta for the Saint (1969) was also edited together and released theatrically. Below: Sir Roger used his own Volvo P1800S, which
in real life was registered as NUV 648E, making its debut in the 1967 episode A Double in Diamonds. It’s now owned by Volvo Cars.
Restored to near-original condition, it still has details from the filming of The Saint including a fan used to cool the actors down.

launched model. In later series, Moore series of the decade. It’s worth noting before the titles in which The Saint would
used his own Volvo P1800S, which in that popularity of The Saint wasn’t just be referred to and an animated halo
real life was registered as NUV 648E. limited to Britain as it was sold to 60 would appear above Roger Moore’s head.
Making its debut in the 1967 episode A other countries, including the US. Other effective dramatic devices that
Double in Diamonds, Moore later sold Plots of the early episodes were were used throughout included Moore
the car to actor Martin Benson who adapted from Leslie Charteris’s stories, breaking the fourth wall and speaking to
played Goldfinger’s Mr Solo. but as they were exhausted by 1965 new the audience, or narrating episodes.
Several owners followed and, in the scripts were written. Inevitably, some of Having begun its seven-year run
early 2000s, the car was restored to these ventured into different genres such with an episode entitled The Talented
near-original condition, and in addition as science-fiction and fantasy. Another Husband, the show came to an end
to its Hella fog lamps and a Volvo behind-the-scenes aspect of the show with The World Beaters broadcast on 4
wooden steering wheel, the pearl white that changed over the years was the February 1969. Roger Moore then went
car still has details from the filming of involvement of Moore. In addition to on to star in The Persuaders! (1971-72)
The Saint including a thermometer on playing the leading role he also directed before landing the coveted role of James
the dashboard and an interior fan used several episodes and, when Berman left Bond in the 1973 film Live and Let Die.
to cool the actors during filming. the series, he worked as co-producer. Coincidentally, his time as 007 would
Now owned by Volvo Cars, the car The use of the stick man in the reunite him with some co-stars from his
took pride of place on the Volvo Cars opening titles was accompanied by years in The Saint, including Lois Maxwell,
Heritage stand at Techno-Classica composer Edwin Astley’s distinctive Julian Glover and Walter Gotell.
Essen, Germany in March 2018. theme tune. There was often a scene The combination of Leslie Charteris’s
“The Saint with Roger Moore was
my favourite TV show in the 60s,” says
Håkan Samuelsson, president and CEO
of Volvo Cars, “and since then I always
wanted a P1800. It is the most legendary
Volvo model of all time and a great
example of Scandinavian design.”
Many of the hour-long episodes were
set in glamorous worldwide locations,
although most of the filming took place
at Elstree Studios, Hertfordshire. Filmed
over a period of 10 days, each episode
was shot on 35mm film and cost £25,000.
However, ITC’s investment paid off and
six series (118 episodes in total) were
made between 1962 and 1969.
The show made the transition from
black and white to colour in 1966. Along
with The Avengers it became one of
the most successful and long-running

www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk 53
creation and the talent of all those
involved in bringing The Saint to
television made for a firm favourite with
viewers then and – thanks to repeats
and DVD releases – now. It was a classic
programme; one that so memorably
defined a character and a decade.
Not surprisingly, audience reaction to
the original series did prompt revivals.
From 1978 to 1979, Ian Ogilvy reprised
the role in one series of Return of the
Saint, and Simon Dutton appeared in
several feature-length episodes in 1989.
Simon Templar also returned to the big
screen, after the earlier RKO adaptations
of the 1930s and 1940s. Val Kilmer
starred in the 1997 Hollywood film The
Saint which, although deviating from
Charteris’s books and the television
version, did include the voice of Moore as

The Gold Coast

a radio announcer.
Twenty years later, another American
film of the same title was released with
Adam Rayner in the eponymous role. A
nice touch in this production was the
appearance of both Sir Roger Moore,
who was also executive producer, and Ian
Ogilvy. Sadly, Sir Roger died on 23 May
Gregory Holyoake examines the connection between
2017 two months before the film’s release James Bond and south-east Kent
and it was dedicated to his memory.
Looking back, it’s clear the appeal of
the 1960s television series with Moore’s he 25th entry in a film apparently, had encouraged Ian’s
superb portrayal of Simon Templar
remains everlasting. Even all these years
later, the halo is still in place and has
lost none of its shine.

Episodes of The Saint are available to

stream on BritBox
T franchise that began 60
years ago this month,
2021’s No Time to Die
stars Daniel Craig in his
fifth and final portrayal of secret agent
James Bond 007.
With a budget of more than $250m,
the film features scenes shot in Italy,
Jamaica, Norway and the Faroe
Islands, locations almost a world away
from the south-east Kent settings of
Ian Fleming’s early novels.
Two breathtaking car chases in
the novels are tracked from London
across the county: one in the 4½-litre
supercharged Bentley in Moonraker
(1955); the other in the Aston Martin
romance to Ann, recently divorced from
Lord Rothermere, and, when the pair
married in 1952, he lent his Jamaican
home, Blue Harbour, for their wedding
breakfast. The main meal consisted of a
turtle that Fleming had caught himself,
the taste of which Noël, one of only two
invited guests, described as like “chewing
an old Dunlop tyre”.
Fleming lived in their seaside home
for more than a decade with his new wife
and the couple were at first enchanted
by the views over the Dover Strait. The
coast of France might frequently be
viewed, lying a mere 21 miles across this
narrowest part of the English Channel.
Fleming installed a telescope on the
Photograph: (White Cliffs) Creative Commons/Ian Taylor

DB III in Goldfinger (1959). Both terrace through which he could observe

converge between Dover and Deal.
Bond’s creator, former naval
intelligence officer Ian Lancaster
Fleming, acquired a holiday home as a
weekend retreat from his close friend
Noël Coward at St Margaret’s Bay near
Dover in 1951. White Cliffs, hidden
behind a cluster of Art Deco houses,
is readily identified by its profusion of
brightly painted shutters and sweeping
red-tiled roof at the north end of the
Adam Rayner appeared as Simon
beach, precariously perched under
Templar in the 2017 film The Saint, in
soaring chalk cliffs.
which both Sir Roger Moore and Ian
Fleming had formerly been a
Ogilvy appeared. Sadly, Sir Roger died
frequent visitor to Coward’s residence
two months before the film’s release and
on the stormy Kent coast. Noël,
it was dedicated to his memory.
the constant traverse of shipping.
Fleming’s move to St Margaret’s
Bay coincided with the publication of
his first novel featuring Commander
Bond, Casino Royale (1953). He had
frequented a corner cafe in Dover
owned by a Swiss-Italian family, Royale
Cafe, and this may have given him the
inspiration for the novel’s title. The
family run cafe (since demolished)
gains a mention in Moonraker where
Bond orders scrambled eggs, bacon and
plenty of coffee to be prepared while
he makes a call to Scotland Yard at the
police station. But there is no truth in
the notion that Fleming took his secret

54 Best of British – October 2022

Opposite: White Cliffs, hidden behind a cluster of Art Deco houses, is readily identified by its profusion of brightly painted shutters
and sweeping red-tiled roof at the north end of St Margaret’s Bay beach. Above: A Jaguar Mk 1 being loaded on to a Bristol
Superfreighter operated by Silver City Airways. In the seventh James Bond novel, Goldfinger, 007 follows Auric Goldfinger as he
flies his gold-laden Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost to France via a Silver City Airways flight from Lydd Airport. The plot of the third book,
Moonraker, concerns the smooth, millionaire tycoon Hugo Drax who has built an atomic research station on Kingsdown Cliffs.
agent’s number, 007, from the National
Express Deal-London coach since that
made its appearance five years after the
first Bond book was published.
Two of the early Bond novels have
strong local settings. The plot of the
third book, Moonraker, concerns the
smooth, millionaire tycoon Hugo Drax
who has built an atomic research station
on exposed Kingsdown Cliffs, near Deal.
Bond is invited to inspect the station
which, ostensibly, will form part of
Britain’s nuclear defences. The villainous
Drax, a dedicated Nazi, has a more
sinister purpose for his prototype rocket.
It is aimed at London.
Early in the novel, Bond has a
romantic encounter on the clifftops
with a plucky, auburn-haired heroine
Gala Brand. There is a lyrical passage:
“It was low tide and the Goodwins were
golden and tender in the sparkling blue
of the Straits with only the smattering
of masts and spars that stretched along
their length to tell the true story. The
white lettering on the South Goodwins
Lightship was easy to read and even
the name of her sister ship to the north
showed white against the red of her hull.”
The novel culminates in the firing
of the rocket, Moonraker, carrying an
armed nuclear warhead. Bond intercepts
it so that it lands harmlessly in the Dover
Strait. Fortunately, little damage occurs
– the Goodwins lightvessels part from
their moorings and a British submarine,
manned by a skeleton crew, is sunk.
Ian Fleming relished his time at
White Cliffs. He tended to view it as his
sanctuary when he became increasingly
unwell. Ann, though, did not share his
enthusiasm and she complained bitterly
of “seaweed in the sitting room and
boulders of white chalk at the head.”
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
Fleming and his wife eventually moved
from their windswept seafront home
to the Old Palace at Bekesbourne, near
Canterbury. This pretentious 18th
century mansion boasted military style
battlements and a serried row of tall
chimneys, resembling sentries.
Here the author penned his seventh
spy novel, Goldfinger, in which Bond
is charged with investigating the cruel,
cunning businessman Auric Goldfinger,
whose company, Thanet Alloy Research,
is located on the remote Reculver
marshes. The Bank of England has
become suspicious about his activities
that, in fact, conceal a conspiracy to seize
gold bullion from Fort Knox.
Ian Fleming relished
his time at White
Cliffs, viewing it as his
sanctuary.
Goldfinger is illegally importing gold
from Switzerland through Ramsgate
Harbour. At his factory, he moulds the
precious metal into door panels of his
Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. Dramatically,
a Brixham fishing trawler employed
for his smuggling activities founders
on Goodwin Sands. (Bond later follows
Goldfinger as he flies his gold-laden Rolls
to France via a Silver City Airways flight
from Lydd Airport.)
In the novel, Fleming includes a classic
description of a deadly game of golf
played out between Bond and Goldfinger
(who cheats) at Royal St Mark’s. Kent
readers will recognise this as the thinly
disguised links, Royal St George’s, at
Sandwich. The author hugely enjoyed
writing about his favourite pastime. The
thrilling game between Bond and the
arch villain is meticulously described –
stroke by stroke, hole by hole – in two
long, tense chapters.
Fleming moved home one final time in
1960. He stayed at either the impressive
Guildford Hotel (since demolished) or
rented temporarily one of the flats in the
stylish Whitehall building overlooking
Sandwich Bay. His purpose was to be
nearer to his beloved Royal St George’s.
This he hailed as: “The best seaside golf
course in the world.”
He was warmly welcomed into
the golf club where the members
elected him as chairman of their sub-
committee. He was further honoured
by being nominated their club captain.
Unfortunately, he died of a heart attack
in Canterbury Hospital on 12 August
1964 before he could take up the
position. The club’s flag flew at half-mast.
Details of Bond’s fictional childhood
– which find relevance in the 2015 film
Spectre – are first revealed in the novel
You Only Live Twice (1964). After his
parents were killed in a skiing accident,
the orphaned James was raised by his
paternal aunt, Charmian Bond. She
lived, according to the novel, in a period
cottage adjacent to The Duck Inn at
Pett Bottom, near Canterbury. This
characterful pub was a popular haunt of
the author who would often stop by for
lunch after an exhilarating round of golf
at nearby Sandwich.
The Pines Garden Tea Room &
Museum at St Margaret’s Bay, near
Dover, includes information boards
relating to Noël Coward and Ian
Fleming’s connection with south-east
Kent (01304 853173, baytrust.org.uk/
the-pines-garden-tea-room).
55

WORLD
BEATERS
As England prepares to host the tournament this
month, Colin Allan looks back on Great Britain’s
three Rugby League World Cup triumphs
t’s two minutes from half time
I in the 1972 Rugby League World
Cup Final at the Stade Gerland in
Lyon, France. Australia lead Great
Britain by five points to two. The
Kangaroos are attacking. Another try for
them now just before the interval could
be decisive. But the Aussie full-back
Graeme Langlands loses possession and
the ball is picked up by Clive Sullivan,
Britain’s captain, on his 25-yard line.
Neatly he side-steps John Grant and
makes a dash right down the field. He has
a full 90 yards to run, but hugging the
touchline, he sprints away. Commentator
Eddie Waring is caught up in the
excitement: “Everybody’s saying go, go,
go and he goes. What a tremendous try!”
Sullivan has placed the ball over the try
line in the right corner. Britain are level
at 5-5 (just three points for a try in those
56
days). They now have every chance of
lifting the trophy for the third time.
The Rugby League World Cup
tournament was the brainchild of Paul
Barrière, president of the French Rugby
League, so the first competition was
staged in France during the autumn of
1954. It was staged in six major cities.
Great Britain were given little hope of
success. Many players originally selected
chose not to go including seven who had
toured down under in the summer when
Australia gained the Ashes.
France also had a very strong team
in those days and with home advantage
were expected to do well. A home victory
would give a huge boost to the game in
France. It would be even more welcome
as the game had been banned by the
Vichy government during World War
Two. New Zealand, the fourth competing
nation, were no mugs either and could
provide tough opposition.
Thus the British squad of 18 players
was written off by the pundits before a
ball was kicked. However, Great Britain
skipper, Scotsman David Valentine,
proved to be an inspirational leader and
there was a keenness about the players
who did travel as they wanted to show
they could succeed without “big names”.
Britain’s opening match against
Australia in Lyon set the pattern for
their tournament as they defeated the
Aussies 28-13 in Lyon on 31 October.
Britain’s second match was against the
host nation at Toulouse on 7 November.
The French had already beaten New
Zealand, 22-13. The game was watched
by 37,471 spectators, the biggest ever
crowd for a rugby league match in
France. Gerry Helme was Britain’s star
player. He scored a late try by tricking
the French defenders with a dummy and
going over for the try of the match. Yet
just when victory looked assured, the
French came back with slick passing for
Raymond Contrastin to score. Had Puig
Albert converted with his kick, France
would have won but he missed and the
game ended in a 13-13 draw.
Great Britain’s third game was against
the Kiwis at Bordeaux on 11 November.
After a slow start and falling behind,
Britain increased the pace and reached
half time 11-6 up, thanks to tries from
Gordon Brown and Dave Rose. Further
tries in the second half by Phil Jackson,
Frank Kitchen and Jim Ledgard gave
Britain a convincing 26-6 victory.
Photographs: The Rugby Football League Ltd, (Sullivan) PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo
As France had beaten Australia 15-5,
both the hosts and Britain had finished
their three games on five points. By the
rules of the tournament, they would have
to play off in a final match for the trophy.
The game was played at Le Parc des
Princes in Paris and was transmitted by
the BBC courtesy of Eurovision.
A crowd of 30,368 turned up on 13
November, expecting a French victory.
With beautiful sunny weather gracing
the occasion, a great game of rugby
league was in prospect. And it didn’t
disappoint as it was an enthralling
match from start to finish. France took
the lead courtesy of an Albert penalty
kick but Britain scored the first try
when Rose touched down in the corner.
A further try by Jackson, with Ledgard
adding the goal points, and another
French penalty success meant the half-
time score was 8-4 in Britain’s favour.
At the start of the second half,
France went ahead with a converted try
but Britain rallied under the sterling
leadership of Valentine. Helme side-
Best of British – October 2022
Opposite: Clive Sullivan, pictured here with the Challenge Cup in May 1982 after his Hull FC side defeated Widnes in the replayed final,
captained Great Britain’s winning 1972 Rugby League World Cup team. Above left: Great Britain’s players celebrate the 16-12 victory
against hosts France which won them the 1954 World Cup. Above right: Great Britain’s squad for the 1960 World Cup, held in the north
of England, from which they emerged victorious. Below: The official souvenir booklet of the inaugural 1954 tournament.
stepped his way over the
French line and Ledgard
converted (13-9). Brown
scored his second try in
the corner and, although
Contrastin scored for
France, Britain retained
their lead to win 16-12.
Valentine received the
massive trophy and was held
aloft by his elated team-
mates. As Eddie Waring
wrote: “Victory under the circumstances
which had surrounded this World
Cup was a fine achievement for all
concerned. Great Britain were the world
rugby league champions – worthy holders
of the World Cup for the first time of
asking. Bravo Britain.”
Australia won the World Cup in 1957
and were favourites to retain the four-
team trophy in 1960 when Britain hosted
the tournament in the north of England.
New Zealand were considered dark
horses. France had declined since their
great days of the early 1950s and Britain
were not fancied, despite being at home.
On the first day of the tournament,
Australia struggled to beat France, finally
winning 13-12 at Wigan. At Bradford’s
Odsal, Britain had a much easier game
as they defeated the Kiwis 23-8. Britain’s
star was scrum-half Alex Murphy. Britain
then played France at Swinton and ran
out easy winners, 33-7. This victory
installed Britain as favourites before their
crunch match against Australia.
Bad weather reduced the crowd at
Odsal for the trophy decider (there was
no final) to 33,023. The pitch became
something of a mudbath as Britain
prevailed 10-3. Mick Sullivan and Billy
Boston scored the two tries and Austin
Rhodes kicked two goals. Britain’s
superior teamwork had won the day and
the trophy.
Now in 1972, could it be the turn of
Clive Sullivan, the first black captain of
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
a British national team, to
lift the World Cup trophy?
Two minutes after the
break, Australia took the
lead again. A try under the
posts by Arthur Beetson
was converted by Ray
Branighan and the men in
green and gold led 10-5.
With just seven minutes
left, it was Welshman
Sullivan who was again
responsible for getting Britain back into
the game. Running hard at the Australian
defence, he cut inside and sent out an
accurate pass to Brian Lockwood. Hooker
Mike Stephenson was on hand to take an
inside pass and went over the try line. It
was up to Terry Clawson to convert a far-
from-easy kick. This he did to even the
scores at 10-10. Soon afterwards, extra
time of 10 minutes each way ensued.
If the score stayed level after extra
time, Britain would win having a superior
points difference over Australia from
their earlier matches. Clawson could have
made sure of victory with a long-range
penalty but the ball fell wide. However,
Britain had won the World Cup for the
third time. It was a deserved success as
they had already beaten Australia (27-21),
France (13-4) and New Zealand (53-19)
in the preliminary round. Clive Sullivan
duly received the trophy and was hoisted
on to his team-mates’ shoulders just as
David Valentine had been 18 years earlier.
It was the last time Great Britain won
the World Cup but, playing as England,
they came mighty close in 2017, losing
6-0 to Australia in the final. The World
Cup tournament returns to England from
15 October to 19 November after being
held over from last year. England, Wales,
Scotland and a combined Ireland team
are among 16 nations taking part and –
for the first time – the men’s contest will
be run in parity with the women’s and
wheelchair tournaments.
The RLWC2021 tournament ball – the
“Sully Ball” – will honour Clive Sullivan.
ON THE BALL
The official tournament ball of
RLWC2021 will honour rugby league
pioneer Clive Sullivan. The “Sully
Ball” will be used in all 61 matches
across the men’s, women’s and
wheelchair tournaments. It was
designed in collaboration with
the Sullivan family and match ball
supplier Steeden to represent the
core values of the tournament, the
history of international rugby league
and recognise the significant impact
Sullivan had on the sport.
Sullivan, a proud Welshman, made
his Great Britain debut in 1967 and
was awarded the captaincy five years
later, leading the Great Britain side
to World Cup victory in 1972. As well
as being the first black sportsman
to captain a British national team,
Sullivan scored a 60-metre try in the
final against Australia, cementing his
place as a British sporting icon.
Sullivan’s son Anthony Sullivan,
a former Wales and Great Britain
international, said: “My father would
be both honoured and humbled to
see his achievements recognised in
this manner. He would, I am sure, take
this opportunity to pay tribute to his
teammates and the staff involved in
that inspirational World Cup victory.
For all the family it will be very special
to see him appreciated in this way
and for his name to positively impact
future generations within the sport.”
57
 On the
Armstrong Trail
Armstrong descendant Claire Saul takes particular interest in Gilnockie Tower,
a centuries old fortification on the north side of the Anglo-Scottish border
riving along the winding,
D scenic A7 route from
Carlisle to Edinburgh, it’s
hard not to be impressed
by the peacefulness of
the sheep-dotted rolling green hills and
moorland flanking the road. And harder
still to reflect that this western Anglo-
Scottish border area was for centuries
known as the “Debatable Lands” – did
they belong to Scotland, or England?
Neither side were prepared – or able
– to take control of it. One of Britain’s
most lawless and bloodiest regions,
land and livestock would be raided, or
“reived”, during the long nights from
autumn to spring. Scots and English
would fight, and families living within in
the area would feud, too.
One of the most feared of the Border
Reivers were the Armstrong family and
their supporters. For the protection of
their chief and his family, a fortified
58
tower house of limestone and sandstone
was built in around 1520, near Canonbie,
Dumfries and Galloway. It featured thick
walls to resist attack, narrow windows
for the firing of shots and a fire basket on
the roof for the lighting of beacons, to
alert other towers across the Borderlands
of approaching danger.
Most of these towers were demolished
under the orders of James VI of Scotland
(and James I of England), following the
Union of the Crowns in 1603. Gilnockie
Tower survived the cull. In recent years
it has been restored and re-presented,
and today is a charming four-star
visitor attraction. From the barrel-
vaulted undercroft, which once kept
vital stores and animals, a narrow spiral
staircase leads firstly to the Great Hall,
once the hub of family life during the
reiving years, and then upwards to the
Bedchamber. A precautionary trip step
in the doorway there is a reminder that
protection from uninvited guests was
Photographs: Claire Saul, (Neil Armstrong by permission of Gilnockie Tower)
paramount in Gilnockie’s past.
The third floor contains a
dedicated exhibition space, containing
information about famous Armstrongs.
And perhaps the most famous
Armstrong of all, the “Moon Man” as
he is affectionally known locally, who
visited the tower 50 years ago.
“Astronaut Neil Alden Armstrong
had family ties in the immediate area
and the town council at Langholm,
just four miles from here, invited him
and his wife Janet to visit Langholm,
to give him the freedom of the town,”
explains Ian Martin, Gilnockie Tower’s
project manager.
“He accepted the invitation, which
surprised them.The date was arranged
for 11 March 1972. I was there that day.
When he came up from the Town Hall
towards Langholm Parish Church for
the ceremony, it was a sight to behold.
Best of British – October 2022
Opposite: Claire stands in the same spot as her “very distant cousin of sorts” Neil Armstrong. Above, left: Gilnockie survived the
towers cull after the Union of the Crowns in 1603 and is now a charming four-star visitor attraction. Above, right: Looking down on to
the River Esk from the rooftop. Below, left: “Lunar tartan” in recognition of the most famous Armstrong of all, Neil Armstrong, who is
known by locals as the “Moon Man”. Bottom, right: Neil Armstrong standing on the roof of Gilnockie Tower during his visit in 1972.

The memory still gives me goosepimples
up my back.
“Neil was also invited to pay a visit to
his historical home, Gilnockie Tower. At
that time, it was really just four walls and
two gable ends, it didn’t even have a roof.
So repairs were made to the staircase and
scaffolding was built on the top of the
tower so that he could stand safely and
view his homeland, to the north.”
It was just four
walls and two gable
ends – no roof.
Notable among the many Gilnockie
Tower exhibits are an impression of
Neil Armstrong’s moonboot made by
Nasa and a sample of the celebratory
“Lunar tartan” created by a local mill and
presented to him in 1972.
Today’s visitors can stand in the
very same spot on the roof where Neil
surveyed his ancestral homeland.
Nearby, another historic photo is
evidence to another extraordinary
occasion almost three decades earlier,
when a local bullock somehow managed
to pick its way up the winding staircase
all the way to the top of the tower, where
it remained stuck for two hours. Let’s
just say that, sadly, despite the efforts of
the farmer, its descent only took seconds.
It’s just one of the many surprising
and varied stories that Gilnockie has
to share from past centuries. Another
memorable anecdote is that ball games
were a favoured Armstrong leisure
pursuit, and in one particular football
match with a rival border family, the
final score was two dead: 30 taken
prisoner.
Daily, among the modern drop-
in visitors and booked group tours,
one of the millions of Armstrong
descendants from across the world
declares themselves as such. They’ll
be interested to know that Gilnockie
Tower now houses a large Armstrong
family archive which is being digitised
ready for online research. It’s just one of
three big projects under way, along with
a historical dig which is being planned
around the tower to learn more about
14th-16th century life there, and the
expansion of the Border Reiver Trail 60,
a 60-mile tour taking in the historic sites
of the Anglo-Scots border families.
Today, in these formerly anarchic
lands, you can let your guard down.
You are assured of a warm welcome at
Gilnockie Tower, Armstrong or no.
gilnockietower.co.uk
JAMES AND JOHNNIE
In 1530, the young King James V
of Scotland sent the wealthy and
powerful – and greatly feared – clan
leader Johnnie Armstrong of Gilnockie,
a “loving letter”, inviting him to
meet at Carlenrig, 20 miles north of
Gilnockie Tower. Flattered, and having
been assured safe conduct, Johnnie
rode out accompanied by 40 of his
followers, dressed in their finery and
unarmed, believing that they would
be well received.
But James had been under pressure
from Henry VIII to end the lawlessness
in the area which threatened the
tentative peace between the two kings
and, instead, Armstrong and his men
were captured and hanged. Johnnie’s
final words were purportedly: “I am
but a fool to seek grace at a graceless
face. But had I known, sir, that you
would have taken my life this day, I
should have lived on the Borders in
spite of King Harry and you both, for I
know King Harry would down-weigh
my best horse with gold to know that I
were condemned to die this day.”
The story is told in the famous
Ballad of Johnnie Armstrong.

www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk 59

puzzle page
Twenty Questions
How well do you know
Britain – Past & Present?
Test your knowledge with
our October quiz
1. Who played PC “Fancy” Smith in the
BBC television series Z-Cars?
2. Who played Mick Shipman in the
sitcom Gavin & Stacey, and EastEnders’
Archie Mitchell?
3. Which early-morning BBC Radio 4
news and current-affairs programme
was first broadcast on the BBC Home
Service on 28 October 1957?
4. Which female ice dancer won a gold
medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics in
Sarajevo?
5. Who directed Dr No, which received
its UK premiere on 5 October 1962?
6. Who hosted the sports quiz They
Think It’s All Over and was the original
presenter of Room 101?
7. Which Long Lost Family co-host was
the original presenter of Big Brother?
8. Who was appointed Poet Laureate
on 10 October 1972?
9. Which architect and designer is
best known for designing the City of
Westminster’s iconic street signs?
10. Which Doctor Who star played
Prince Philip in the Netflix series The
Crown?
And I quote...
The recovery of which “fascinating and rare Tudor artefact” was,
according to archaeologist Margaret Rule, the culmination of a “dream
that had gripped the imagination of the world?”
Dialect Detective
Britain has many wonderful regional dialects. Can you
spot the correct definition for each of these examples?
1. Steert (Somerset)
a) A loud noise
b) A point
c) A hawk
2. Deal-Tree (Norfolk/Suffolk)
a) The fir-tree
b) The nearest way
c) The mouth
The solutions to all of this month’s puzzles are on page 70
60
Cryptic Crossword
Compiled by CADOC
1 2 3 4
5 6 7
8 9
10
11 12
11. Which cellist was the youngest-
ever recipient of the Royal College of 13
Music’s Queen’s Prize?
12. Who played Dr Marcus Brody in 14 15 16 17
Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade? 18
13. Which jet car became the first land
vehicle to officially break the sound 19 20
barrier on 15 October 1997?
14. Which Gainsborough Pictures
star of films such as The Man in Grey
21 22
and Fanny by Gaslight, was the title
character of the Yorkshire Television
agony aunt drama Kate?
15. Who resigned as leader of the
Liberal Democrats on 15 October
2007?
Across Down
16. Who composed the theme tunes 5. Children’s books position me 1. Attempt about a
for Yes Minister, Are You Being Served? north circling Royal Marines hundred for Spencer (5)
and Last of the Summer Wine? (2,3) 2. Miss Clark – when
17. Who was the first male voice of the 6. Awfully sad bang for wartime National Trust is abolished,
speaking clock? protection (7) she becomes petulant (6)
18. Who was the male presenter on the 8. Young person in uniform who 3. Hello, a new
final transmission of TV-am? may reveal a lot of talent (5) arrangement for All
19. Which coin, that entered circulation Hallows? (9)
9. Was Attlee a fair-weather
in 1983, ceased to be legal tender on politician? (7) 4. Making Do and Mending
15 October 2017? 11. Was this type of boy pushy is a modest oath in
20. Who, opposite Phill Jupitus, was an
around Covent Garden? (6) Gateshead (7)
original team captain on the quiz show
12 and 17 Down. Cry sobbing in 7. Take out of service old
Never Mind the Buzzcocks, and played
disarray? But his singing didn’t society girl hugging Miss
Mod Lewis in the drama series The Last
leave us so! (4,6) Connolly (5)
Detective?
14. Love found in Fairclough 10. Battle that is looked
returning for Christmas (4) upon as square in London
16. Type of cricket for Saunders’ (9)
mate? (6)
19. Clumsily let’s hit the
13. Oh yob, do be silly –
during this? (7)
Scottish emblem (7) 15. Franz sounds like
20. Suddenly appear with something I took shopping
lemonade at university (3,2) at the Co-op! (5)
21. Initially plenty of stuff to 17. See 12 Across
be aired gladly in Best of 18. Holly has potential
British! (7)
22. It is always with me at start
of hymn (5)
flower before unfilled
day (5)
3. Lashy (Norfolk)
a) Very cold
b) An open space
c) The leftovers
What is it?
Wood wind make it
4. Shooler (East Sussex)
a) A shed clean as a whistle?
b) A noise
c) An idle, lazy fellow
Best of British – October 2022
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 GOOD READS
Bookshelf
David Brown checks out the latest releases
Eric and Dave:
A Lifetime of
Football and
Friendship
By Spencer Vignes,
Pitch Publishing Ltd,
hardback, £18.99
You often hear football commentators
referring to a match as being “very
physical”, but when you look back to an
earlier period of the game then that term
takes on a different meaning.
This is the story of Eric Gill and Dave
Hollins, two goalkeepers who could have
The South West
Coast Path
By Stephen Neale,
Conway, paperback, £20
Some people like to walk
the 630-mile South West
Coast Path – or large
chunks of it – as quickly as possible. This is
not a book for them as, in their haste, they
will miss so much.
Subtitled 1,000 Mini Adventures Along
Britain’s Longest Waymarked Path, our
guide takes us from Minehead in Somerset
to Poole Harbour in Dorset, pointing out
the magic of the route, places to pause at
and enjoy, plus locations that will enable
us to satisfy our senses and soothe our
souls in this hectic world.
The recommended daily walk is
6.3 miles, so allow plenty of time as a
slow guide or concentrate on different
stretches while mixing the familiar with
the undiscovered. In between the two
extremes you can explore north and south
Devon and Cornwall and each region offers
its own special places to explore.
There have been a number of television
programmes featuring this popular long-
distance path, though the cynic in me
wonders exactly how much the presenter
and crew burdened with equipment
64
BOOK OF THE MONTH
been bitter rivals as they competed for
the same team role but who became big
friends, a friendship that continues to
thrive to this day.
Their sporting careers dip back to the
1950s and 1960s, when Eric seemed an
immovable force between the goalposts
with Brighton & Hove Albion, where
Dave waited impatiently in the wings,
happy to play when he got the chance
away from the main team and even do
chores to keep himself busy.
These were the times when players
were happy to earn £20 a week – a few
pounds less out of season. Players did
not get the chance to spend Christmas
actually walks? Perhaps they could learn
something from this book that has plenty
of fabulous ideas for those who are happy
to park up at a suitable space and then walk
a reasonable distance to find a spectacular
view or accessible piece of coastline.
Hopefully there’s still time to get a few trips
in this year before planning further outings
ready for future adventures. I will meet you at
the Angry Anchovy, Port Isaac for a pizza.
Trans-Africa
Land Rover
By Martin Port, Porter
Press International,
hardback, £30
Philip Kohler set his sights on the UK in
1955, specifically London, as an Australian
bitten by the travel bug.
When he arrived, he took some
atmospheric photographs showing the
character of the city at that time and also
travelled to the West Country in a Ford
Prefect 100E.
He then had visions of travelling to
Africa, or rather reviving plans to visit
the continent after his earlier attempt in
1954 had failed to work out. This time, in
1957, he would not be simply a tourist
but working for the Crown Agency as an
agricultural supervisor, a three-year post.
with their family as there were matches
to be played and that was what they
were there to do.
Eric equalled the record of fellow
goalkeeper Ted Ditchburn of making
247 consecutive appearances and would
have gone on to beat it had it not been
for illness – laid low, not by a kick to the
head received in the line of duty, but a
bout of influenza.
One man’s bad news is another’s
opportunity and Dave got his chance
at last to join the first team. The ups
and downs of their careers makes for a
fabulous read, whether you are a football
fan or not.
Job done, in 1960 he set off for an overland
journey with no planned itinerary other
than hoping eventually to reach London in
his 1959 Land Rover Series II.
Without assistance – financial or
mechanical – he set off across a continent
that was undergoing great change at the
time with parts of it being very unstable
and some of it downright dangerous.
Taking a solo trip across the Sahara Desert
was not for the faint-hearted, but he did it.
Not only is this the true story of a real
adventurer but his colour photographs of
that period are also outstanding. There is
a second thread as the author has owned
Kohler’s 1959 Land Rover since 2016 and
put it back to use. Kohler died in 2015, but
his Series II lives on. Epic stuff.
The Welsh
Hercules:
Snapshots of a
Strongman’s Life
By S Blockley & D J
Thacker, Amazon Books,
paperback, £10.99
As career paths go, subsidising your work
on Swansea docks with fighting in an
unofficial wrestling match on the street
was not a recommended course for success.
Best of British – October 2022
 However, Jack Lamnea was no ordinary
man and throughout his life he was to
visualise and realise an unorthodox way to
get on using both his physical fitness and
equally sharp mind.
At the heart of this story is his family
– the long-term disapproval of what he
did by his father and his need to provide
the best for his wife and children. His wife
had to contend with his work taking him
around the country and the fact that two
of their daughters could acquit themselves
well in the boxing ring, better than one of
his sons.
Graduating from street fights, Jack
moved to performing displays of his
strength at music halls. He was known by
some as Jack Lemm but loved by most as
The Welsh Hercules. His talents grew as a
boxing coach and a popular attraction at
fairground booths where he knew exactly
when to take on hopeful contestants.
As a stoker on board HMS Lion, he learned
of the horrors of fighting in World War One
at the Battle of Jutland. He would go on to
survive the Swansea blitz in World War Two.
This gripping story blends known facts with
fiction and is stylishly presented by Jack’s
grandson Steven in conjunction with DJ
Thacker, an established author and theatre
professional.
LNER 4-6-0
Locomotives:
Their Design,
Operation and
Performance
By David Maidment,
Pen & Sword, hardback, £35
THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
Eurotrash
DVD, Network, 7956204
Originally broadcast
between 1993 and
2004 on Channel 4,
the lads’ mag-style
programme was
an acquired taste
for those looking for cheeky thrills, but
established a large audience share among
late-night viewers.
Presented by enfants terrible Jean Paul
Gaultier and Antoine de Caunes, they did
their best to see what they could get away
with in terms of cheeky content, language
and nudity. Later, De Caunes would be
sole frontman assisted by guests such as
Melinda Messenger, Graham Norton and
Eddie Izzard.
There were also roving reporters such
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
While the A Class Pacific locomotives of the
London & North Eastern Railway stole most
of the limelight, the B Class 4-6-0s provided
strong support for mixed traffic duties.
The LNER inherited many 4-6-0
locomotives from its constituent companies
such as the Great Central, Great Eastern and
North Eastern railways and used them wisely
before introducing its own “modern” class –
the B1s from 1942 onwards.
Before the introduction of the BR Britannia
Standard Pacifics, main line passenger
services to and from London Liverpool Street
on former GE lines were usually to be found
hauled by 4-6-0 classes including the Sir
Nigel Gresley-designed B17 Sandringhams
and Footballers.
Another venerable class of 4-6-0s found
on Great Eastern lines were Holden’s B12s,
originally S69, which were rebuilt with a
number of sub-classes. They saw quite
widespread use, including a daily Great
Yarmouth to the Midlands cross-country train
via former Midland & Great Northern Joint
Railway metals, and on East Coast Main Line
local stopping services. Some 25 examples
even went north between 1934 and 1942
to work on former Great North of Scotland
Railway routes.
Many will be familiar with the B12 Class
due to the Tri-ang model of No 8572 (BR
61572), the sole surviving class member
that is based at the North Norfolk Railway. A
couple of B1s are also preserved, No 61264
and No 61306, while newbuild B17 No 61673
Spirit of Sandringham is under construction.
This well-illustrated, weighty volume is
another useful addition to the informative
Locomotive Portfolios series.
as a man dressed as a penguin and another
representing a cycling nun.
Regulars were Lolo Ferrari, famous for
being a Guinness World Record-holder for
the number of breast enlargements she
undertook, and Belgian singer Eddy Wally
and his dazzling wardrobe. Latterly the
content was watered down with slabs of
cheesy Euro pop music.
Diary of a
Publican
By Kieran Lyons,
SNB Publishing Ltd,
paperback
Inspired by Shaun
Bythell’s critically
acclaimed The Diary of a Bookseller, this
memoir covers a year in the life of Kieran
Lyons, co-owner of Leicester freehouse
The Blue Boar. Having grown up in pubs
(his father, Martin, had the nearby Town
Arms) and then worked in them his entire
life, Kieran had thought that he had pretty
much seen everything.
However, 2020 was going to be a little
different and while the year starts off
normally enough, by early March, Kieran
reports of a “potentially deadly repository
disease that has spread from China, and
which seems likely to reach us soon.” Cue
Kieran and his business partner looking
at ways of keeping their business afloat,
running a takeaway beer service from
the Blue Boar and sister pub the Ale
Stone, Aylestone in the face of increasing
(and often petty) bureaucracy. With the
occasional missed delivery or broken
bottle along the way, we discover more
about this truly British of institutions and
the people involved.
Littered with plenty of anecdotes, we
are introduced to a whole host of regulars
with colourful nicknames, discover the
author’s thoughts and frustrations about
the pub trade and the drinks industry, and
are reminded of just how important pubs
are to the communities that they serve.
One of the funniest aspects was the
British dialogue overdubbed by Kate
Robbins and Johnny Daukes that cut
through the arty pretensions of some of
the seemingly serious participants.
All 16 series are now available as a 20-
disc DVD set from Network – that’s 3,240
minutes in total.
Today some of the antics seem tame
compared to what you can watch on
mainstream TV, let alone on the internet,
to the point where it has a nostalgic charm
about it.
Who’d have thought it?
Unless otherwise stated, these
books & DVDs can be ordered from
bookshops and online booksellers
by quoting the title and author.
65
 EVENTS IN OCTOBER

OUT&ABOUT
Places to go, people to see
Objects of Desire:
Surrealism and Design
1924 – Today
An exhibition exploring design from the birth of surrealism in 1924
to the current day opens at The Design Museum, London later this
month. Opening on 14 October, Objects of Desire: Surrealism and
Design 1924 – Today is an exhibition filled with playful, curious
and poetic objects that uncover the rich history of Surrealism and
its fascinating influence on design. Running until 19 February,
the exhibition will bring together the best in Surrealist design,
from furniture, interior design, fashion, photography and world-
renowned artworks from Surrealist pioneers such as Salvador Dalí,
Dora Maar, Man Ray, Leonora Carrington and Lee Miller, through to
contemporary artists and designers, such as Dior and Björk.
From Brideshead to
020 3862 5900, designmuseum.org Bridgerton
An exhibition exploring Castle Howard’s remarkable cinematic
heritage continues at the North Yorkshire property until 30
October. From Brideshead to Bridgerton spans more than half
a century of classic film and television including its first major
production, 1965’s Lady L, Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, and
the hugely popular Brideshead Revisited. As well as being able
to get up close to original props, visitors will be able to further
explore the house and grounds, following in the footsteps of
actors Jeremy Irons and Ben Whishaw.

01653 648333, castlehoward.co.uk

The exhibition celebrates the productions filmed at Castle

Salvador Dalí’s Lobster Telephone, 1938 is one of the Surrealist Howard including 1965’s Lady L, starring Sophia Loren and
design classics on display in the new exhibition. David Niven.

Photographs: (Lobster) Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala, DACS 2022

Gerrumonside!
An exhibition celebrating the passion of rugby league past,
present and future has opened at the Museum of Wigan Life.
Running until 19 November, Gerrumonside! looks at how
Wigan, Leigh and Tyldesley broke away from the Rugby Football
Union in 1895 to form the Northern Union, and celebrates the
rise of women in the sport, disability rugby, grassroots rugby,
the international game and the all-important fans. Celebrating
local teams’ trophy-filled histories, the exhibition features
original memorabilia along with more unusual items including
the original turnstile from Wigan's Central Park. In addition,
photographer Frank Orrell will be talking about his time spent
photographing rugby league in a lunchtime talk (booking
essential) on 12 November.

01942 828128, wigan.gov.uk/Resident/Museums-archives/ Among the memorabilia on show, is a display celebrating the
Museum-of-Wigan-Life fans of rugby league.

66 Best of British – October 2022


Halloween Special
(22-31 October)
Board the Halloween express
and travel into the estate
woodland, where you will be
entertained by the coven of
witches and their friends.
Audley End Miniature
Railway, Audley End, Saffron
Walden, Essex
01799 510726, audley-end-
railway.co.uk
ATTRACTION OF THE MONTH
What to see: Enjoy a 45-minute
guided tour through the
magnificent underground
passages, rich in stalactite and
stalagmite formations, legend
and history. The visitor centre
includes the Cavern exhibition
with archaeology found in the
cave on display and a slideshow
demonstrating the unseen
parts of Poole’s Cavern.
A free leaflet and map of the
adjacent Buxton Country Park,
home to rare flowers, woodland
walks and wonderful wooden
sculptures, is available from the
visitor centre.
What to eat: Café @ the Cavern
serves a selection of hot and
cold meals and snacks including
cooked breakfasts, sandwiches,
jacket potatoes and cakes.
Disabled access: Wheelchair
users can access the main
chamber of the cave – which
is 300ft in length – unassisted.
There are a total of 28 steps
along the remaining cave path,
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
NOT TO BE MISSED
Scottish Nature
Photography Awards
Exhibition
(1 October-15 November)
See the stunning photographs
of Scotland’s coasts, wildlife
and nature in a fantastic display
of the finalists’ photographs.
Logan Botanic Garden,
Stranraer, Dumfries &
Galloway
01776 860231, rbge.org.uk/
whats-on
Visions of
Ancient
Egypt
(Until 1 January
2023)
More than 150
works drawn
from collections
in the UK and
14 up and 14 down. The longest
descent is 10 steps which leads
to the final chamber. There are
dedicated car parking bays
for blue badge holders and
level access through the visitor
centre. Toilet facilities are fully
accessible and assistance dogs
are welcome. Please let Cavern
staff know if you need any
assistance with your visit.
How to get there: Half a mile
internationally will examine
how ancient Egypt has shaped
our cultural imagination. The
exhibition examines how the
iconic motifs and visual styles
of Egypt have been reimagined
and reinvented over time.
Sainsbury Centre,
University of East Anglia,
Norwich
01603 593199,
sainsburycentre.ac.uk
Brought to Light:
The Remarkable
Bateman Collection
(Until 15 January 2023)
Thomas Bateman (1821-
1861) was fascinated by
the past and ahead of his
time. A pioneering Victorian
antiquarian, he founded a
museum at his Derbyshire
from Buxton town centre,
follow the brown signs at road
junctions on all approaches to
Buxton. Buxton railway station
is operated by Northern (0800
200 6060, northernrailway.
co.uk) and is served by regular
trains between Buxton and
Manchester.
Opening times and
admission: Open 10am-4pm,
November to February, and
home presenting artefacts and
specimens from across the
globe.
Weston Park Museum,
Sheffield, South Yorkshire
0114 278 2600, museums-
sheffield.org.uk
Turn It Up: The
Power of Music
(21 October-May 2023)
Prepare to get hands-on,
with your ears and hearts
open, exploring the science
of music’s mysterious hold
over us and how it drives us to
create, perform, feel and share.
Science and Industry
Museum, Liverpool Road,
Manchester
0330 058 0058,
scienceandindustrymuseum.
org.uk
9.30am-5pm, March to October.
Cavern tours must be booked
online, as entry cannot be
guaranteed for walk-up visitors.
Admission is £14.50 (adult),
£6.80 (child), £37.50 (family: two
adults and two children) and
£12 (students and seniors).
Poole’s Cavern Visitor
Centre, Green Lane, Buxton,
Derbyshire SK17 9DH (01298
26978, poolescavern.co.uk)
67
 EVENTS IN OCTOBER

DIARY DATES WEST OF ENGLAND

01-02 AUTUMN FEST (FROM 9.30AM)
The Michaelmas Market will welcome

GREAT BRITISH EVENTS independent traders from across the

county alongside food stalls that celebrate
the new “no-dig” regenerative farming plot
in the Walled Garden.
Blenheim Palace, Woodstock,
n SOUTH WEST OF ENGLAND n MIDLANDS Oxfordshire; 01993 810530,
Cornwall, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Wiltshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, blenheimpalace.com
Channel Islands Nottinghamshire, Rutland, Staffordshire,
Warwickshire 09 A WALK IN THE WOODS (10AM-12.30PM)
n SOUTH EAST OF ENGLAND AND Join Wyre Forest local group’s David
LONDON n NORTH OF ENGLAND Howell as he leads a woodland walk in
Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Cheshire, County Durham, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, this rare, semi-ancient woodland with
Hertfordshire, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex, Isle of Wight Lancashire, Merseyside, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, an opportunity to see fungi. Meet in the
Yorkshire, Isle of Man Woodland Trust car park.
n WEST OF ENGLAND Uffmoor Wood, Romsley, Bromsgrove,
Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Oxfordshire, n WALES Worcestershire; 01562 637556,
Shropshire, Worcestershire
n SCOTLAND worcswildlifetrust.co.uk/events
n EAST OF ENGLAND
Cambridgeshire, Essex, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk n NORTHERN IRELAND 29-30 AUTUMN MIXED TRACTION GALA
An autumn celebration featuring the
railway’s magnificent home fleet heritage
SOUTH EAST OF ENGLAND diesel and steam locomotives.
SOUTH WEST OF ENGLAND Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam
02 HAYNES BREAKFAST CLUB AND LONDON Railway, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
Bringing together like-minded motor 02 AUTUMN GATHERING (10AM-4.30PM) 01242 621405, gwsr.com
enthusiasts to meet and share their View more than 150 pre-1950s vehicles
automotive passion and enjoy breakfast. and engines. Chat, learn and reminisce 30 HALLOWEEN STEAM DAY (1-6PM)
Booking essential. with volunteers and vehicle owners. Plus, Enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of a
Haynes Motor Museum, Yeovil, Somerset ride on the vintage buses and a steam Victorian waterworks with all steam and
01963 440804, haynesmuseum.org train. Booking essential. other engines working. There’s plenty for
Amberley Museum, Near Arundel, all the family too with children’s activities.
12 UNSEEN ESTATE TOURS – DISCOVER THE West Sussex Waterworks Museum, Hereford,
HOUSE (10AM) 01798 831370, Herefordshire
Join one of these exclusive tours of the amberleymuseum.co.uk 01432 342192, waterworksmuseum.org.uk
house to see some of the lesser known and
behind-the-scenes areas of Kingston Lacy. 15-16 STEAMING WEEKEND EAST OF ENGLAND
Booking essential. The museum will be open and it is hoped
Kingston Lacy, Wimborne Minster, the Sir William Prescott Engine will be in 01-02 LONDON TRANSPORT WEEKEND
Dorset operation. Celebrating the railway’s links to London
01202 883402, nationaltrust.org.uk/ Kempton Steam Museum, Hanworth, Transport with GWR 4575 class locomotive
kingston-lacy Middlesex L150 in London Transport maroon
01932 765328, kemptonsteam.org livery, Class 20 diesel D8001 and visiting
19 FILM WALK (11AM-12.30PM) locomotives.
Lyme has been featured in 13 films 23 BLUE LIGHT DAY (10AM-5PM) Epping Ongar Railway, Ongar, Essex
between 1948 and the present day. Join an Get up close to the latest emergency 01277 365200, eorailway.co.uk
illustrated guided walk around the town services vehicles including fire engines,
and see where the scenes were filmed. ambulances, police, coastguard and RNLI 08 DUXFORD FLYING FINALE (10AM-6PM)
Booking recommended. vehicles. This special end-of-season flying event
Lyme Regis Museum, Lyme Regis, Dorset National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, brings together favourite acts, old and
01297 443370, lymeregismuseum.co.uk Hampshire new, for a thrilling day of aerial displays
01590 612345, beaulieu.co.uk over the historic airfield.
29-30 SPOOKY SPECIALS IWM Duxford, Duxford, Cambridgeshire
Make a spine-tingling journey by steam 27-30 HALLOWEEN SCREAM (EVENINGS) 020 7416 5000, iwm.org.uk/
to Mendip Vale and be prepared to Get ready to scream as you discover the visits/iwm-duxford
be spooked and scared in the ghostly darker side of Hever with a fright night you
carriage. Back at the station find your way won’t forget, full of immersive scare action 10-12 THOUGHT PRESS PROJECT
around the ghoulish trail. intended to frighten you. An exhibition of prints by a group of artists
East Somerset Railway, Shepton Hever Castle & Gardens, selling their work in support of two food-
Mallet, Somerset – 01749 880417, Edenbridge, Kent related charities, the Trussell Trust and
eastsomersetrailway.com 01732 865224, hevercastle.co.uk Edible Rotherhithe.

68 Best of British – October 2022

Peterborough Cathedral (New Building),
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
01733 355315,
peterborough-cathedral.org.uk
29 FAMILY GAMING NIGHT
An evening of spooky video gaming for
all the family with more video games,
consoles and computers out for you to
play than you can shake a broomstick at.
Ghostbusters? Of course.
The Centre for Computing History,
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
01223 214446, computinghistory.org.uk
MIDLANDS
01 ROBIN HOOD TOWN TOUR (2-4.30PM)
Meet Robin Hood, follow the trail of
historical facts and learn how simple
ballads more than 700 years old grew
into one of the greatest stories ever told.
Booking recommended.
The Cross Keys pub, Fletcher Gate,
Nottingham
07941 210986, ezekialbone.com/
robin-hood
02 TALK: LEICESTER IN THE 1950s
(2-3.30PM)
Join historian Virginia Wright for a nostalgic
look at the 1950s. Booking recommended.
Newarke Houses, Leicester,
Leicestershire
0116 225 4980, leicester.gov.uk
08-09 BRITISH NATIONAL PLOUGHING
CHAMPIONSHIPS & COUNTRY FESTIVAL
Two busy days packed with competitions
for many types of plough and styles of
ploughing, plus vintage tractors and craft
marquee with a wide variety of stalls.
Chatsworth Estate, near Glapwell, East
Derbyshire
01302 852469, ploughmen.co.uk
15-16 WIRKSWORTH MODEL RAILWAY
EXHIBITION
The Wirksworth Model Railway Exhibition
is back spread across multiple venues in
the town. Of course, the big trains will be
playing their part too.
Ecclesbourne Valley Railway,
Wirksworth, Derbyshire
01629 823076, e-v-r.com
NORTH OF ENGLAND
01 CLASSIC DRIVE & RIDE-IN DAY
(10AM-3PM)
Join the proud classic vehicle owners as
they bring their private vehicles to display
at the museum. The event is open to classic
cars, trucks, vans and motorcycles.
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
Lakeland Motor Museum, Ulverston,
Cumbria
015395 30400,
lakelandmotormuseum.co.uk
01-02 HARVEST FESTIVAL AND HARVEST
HOME
Come along and see displays at Pockerley
Old Hall, the 1940s farm, and the chapel in
the 1900s Pit Village to celebrate Harvest
Festival and Harvest Home.
Beamish Museum, Beamish, County
Durham
0191 370 4000, beamish.org.uk
18 AUTUMN DEER WALKS (4-6PM)
Join rangers for a guided walk of the
autumn parkland and witness the drama of
the rut. Booking essential.
Tatton Park, Knutsford, Cheshire
01625 374400, tattonpark.org.uk
21-31 ILLUMINATED ABBEY (6-9PM)
Cast light on a dark history this Halloween.
See Bram Stoker’s inspiration in a new light
as Whitby Abbey is bathed in dramatic
illuminations. Have your camera at the ready.
Whitby Abbey, Whitby, North Yorkshire
01947 603568, english-heritage.org.uk/
visit/places/whitby-abbey
WALES
15 BROTHER THOMAS THE CELLARER
(10AM-4PM)
Step back in time with Brother Thomas and
learn what life was like as a monk in Tintern
Abbey, including their monastic duties,
hygiene and eating habits.
Tintern Abbey, Chepstow,
Monmouthshire
0300 025 2239, cadw.gov.wales
15-16 MEET THE MARCHERS (11AM-4PM)
Have you ever wondered what day-to-day
life was like in the 17th century? Come
and ask the Marcher Stuarts, who will be in
residence to give appropriate advice on all
sorts of subjects.
Tretower Court and Castle, Crickhowell,
Powys
0300 025 2239, cadw.gov.wales
16 MORNING WALK (9.30AM)
Meet at Cwm Ivy car park. Warm
weatherproof clothing and boots may
be necessary. Parking/entry fees may be
payable. Please leave dogs at home.
Whitford, Holywell, Flintshire
rspb.org.uk/groups/westglamorgan
29 RED DRAGON ARCHERS/RED DRAGON
GARRISON (11AM-3PM)
Caernarfon Castle’s medieval re-enactors
invite you to join them at the castle for a
day filled with fun and entertainment as
well as a medieval Halloween experience.
Caernarfon Castle, Caernarfon,
Gwynedd
0300 025 2239, cadw.gov.wales
SCOTLAND
02 FUNGI FORAY (2-4PM)
Discover more about fungi with mycologist
Neville Kilkenny and explore the world’s
first cryptogamic sanctuary at Dawyck.
Dawyck Botanic Garden, Peebles,
Peeblesshire
01721 760254, rbge.org.uk/whats-on
07 FALCONRY (NOON-4PM)
Magnificent birds will be on display on the
lawns in front of the palace. An exciting and
awe-inspiring experience for the whole family.
Scone Palace, Perth, Tayside
01738 552300, scone-palace.co.uk
09 MILITARY VEHICLE EVENT
Go along to the museum for a fun day out
with friends and family. Entry is quicker if
you book in advance but is free for members
who show their membership card on arrival.
Dundee Museum of Transport,
Dundee, Tayside
01382 455196, dmoft.co.uk
14 APPLE PRESSING WORKSHOPS
(11AM OR 2PM)
Join head gardener Des Cotton for a tour
of the Walled Garden and do some apple
pressing before taking a goody bag home.
Booking recommended.
Glamis Castle, Forfar, Angus
01307 840393, glamis-castle.co.uk
NORTHERN IRELAND
08 & 22 CAUSEWAY SPECIALITY MARKET
(9AM-4PM)
A market that is full to the brim with produce
including artisan food, art, crafts and gifts.
Causeway Speciality Market, Coleraine,
Londonderry
visitcausewaycoastandglens.com
16 STREET ART WALKING TOUR (12PM)
A gentle, two-hour walk around the ever-
changing face of Belfast street art, leaving
from the red benches on Commercial Court
(beside the Duke of York).
The Black Box & Green Room Cafe,
Belfast
028 9024 4400, blackboxbelfast.com
• Details correct at time of going to press
– please confirm with event organisers
before travelling.
69
ADVERTISE IN BEST OF BRITISH CALL 020 8752 8172
“Just because you’re out of the way, doesn’t
mean you’re not in the middle of it!”
Boy Scout / Girl Guide
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The old village and the
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Wanted by Collector
plenty of characters and
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Peter Maryniak,
them, but country 27 Stowe Walk,
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By Dominique Allen
It’s the Summer of 1940, and with the news from Dunkirk a scrawny
14-year old errand-boy is spurred into action, inspiring a young gang
of Salvage Scamps to join him in ‘The Effort’. Equipped with bicycles,
wheelbarrows and buckets; Gertie, Walker and the rest of the Scamps
run errands and salvage scrap, paper, rags and rubber; managing to
enlist the vicar and the church warden, the village shop-keepers and
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This “authentic and evocative” tale tells the story of a
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This beautifully crafted hard-back book is available to buy NOW
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PUZZLE SOLUTIONS
Twenty Questions
1. Brian Blessed who was born on 9 October 1937.
T P H D
2. Larry Lamb who was born on 1 October 1947. M R M E N S A N D B A G
3. Today.
4. Jayne Torvill who was born on 7 October 1957. A T L E R
5. Terence Young.
6. Nick Hancock who was born on 25 October 1962. S C O U T C L E M E N T
7. Davina McCall who was born on 16 October 1967.
8. Sir John Betjeman. Y L T O O I
9. Sir Misha Black who died on 11 October 1977.
10. Matt Smith who was born on 28 October 1982. B A R R O W B I N G
11. Jacqueline du Pré who died on 19 October 1987.
12. Denholm Elliott who died on 6 October 1992. B A E G
13. Thrust SSC.
14. Phyllis Calvert who died on 8 October 2002.
N O E L F R E N C H
15. Sir Menzies Campbell.
16. Ronnie Hazlehurst who died on 1 October 2007. Y I A N R B
17. Brian Cobby who died on 31 October 2012.
18. Mike Morris who died on 22 October 2012.
T H I S T L E P O P U P
19. The round £1 coin.
20. Sean Hughes who died on 16 October 2017.
O Z G S D
P O S T B A G A B I D E
And I quote…
The Mary Rose, which was raised from the Solent on D R Y Y
11 October 1982.
Treasures in the Attic
What is it? 1. Horlicks mixer £15, 2. “Palm” Toffee tin £120, 3. Robin Starch pocket mirror
A flute mop for cleaning the woodwind instrument. £45, 4. Scammell badge £20, 5. Airfix figures £30, 6. STAR ITEM Golden Shred
sign £350, 7. Crescent cap gun £15, 8. Meccano tin £20, 9. Boys’ Annual £10,
Dialect Detective 10. Dinky Toy tractor £35, 11. Luxona tin £40, 12. Barrett & Sons pillar box
1b, 2a, 3a, 4c £20.

70 Best of British – October 2022

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to the 70s.
Lee. Still
Tigers on the Fifty years of the Picks His Wartime Bombers Reunited Eurovision Entries with “the son Britain's blood singer with us.
Isle of Wight “voice of football” Favourites of Andy Capp” donors

Cover.1.indd 1 9/15/2016 2:54:22 PM cover final final.indd 1 2/16/2012 3:06:26 PM

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POSTA salute to the ‘40s

FABULOUS 40s FEATURES
PLUS! EVENTS FOR YOUR DIARY

16 PAGES OF 14 PAGES OF
READERS’ COMPETITIONS
CHRISTMAS READERS’
REAL LIFE REAL LIFE WIN
EVENTS GREAT GOODNESS ME
STORIES REMEMBERING CROSSWORD STORIES 80 YEARS
LIFE WITH SIR CHARLIE CHAPLIN JOHN LENNON PRIZES OF SERVICE MEERA SYAL
4 AMAZING AT 60
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PAST AND PRESENT OFFER PAST AND PRESENT PAST AND PRESENT A SALUTE PAST AND PRESENT
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CHRISTMAS Hopping WRESTLING PLUS! EVENTS
THE RAILWAY WITH THE Life on “easy, FOR YOUR FREE
CHILDREN STARS
Down To Kent easy” street DIARY DELIVERY
A family favourite Working Holidays
at 50 Festive television in the Garden OFFER
THE BEST
comedy SEE PAGE 78
of England

DAYS OF THE GREAT BRITISH

YOUR
LIFE?
SEASIDE
Join Us For
WELCOME HOME FREE
HOME
a Trip Back
to School Sixty Years
of ITV ON THE RAILS
POST WAR FAMILY REUNIONS DELIVERY The Road to
STEAMING ALONG THE ROMNEY, HYTHE
VE DAY
SEE PAGE 70
Independence FISH & CHIPS
Carry On Celebrating a
EATON PLACE
CHRISTMAS AT Cruising takeaway favourite & DYMCHURCH RAILWAY
CHATSWORTH From Land’s End Cyril Fletcher
WEEKDAYS AT 9 TO MALIBU The Devonshires’ Delights A Life Beyond BILLY, DON’T
THE 75th ANNIVERSARY
to John O’Groats
Classic ITV drama Leslie-Anne Down That’s Life!
PAUL RITTER
BE A HERO
Don’t Forget Vivien Leigh
and other The actor remembered

“A BRIEF PERIOD OF REJOICING”

WHEN PILTON
WENT POP
THE COGS OF WAR
Inside the Royal A DIAMOND OF A SHOW the Hurricane
And Other Battle
of Britain Aircraft
At Home and in
Hollywood
one-hit wonders
REACH FOR
THE SKIES
SUPER
TROOPER
The first Glastonbury Ordnance Factories
Sixty years of Coronation Street British airships
The Empire
Windrush
SAFETY
DALEKS OF THE QUEEN’S CILLA FIRST
The Cycling RARE AT THEIR
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The Joy of Flying into the Thrills and spills Haddenham Back on the
Collection Stamps and Coins Bobby’s Girl
Celebrating
Exmoor ponies
PLEASURE
Thunderbirds Walking Adventures with Dressmaker
Knitting record books Are Go football Jet Morgan and co at the circus Handbell Ringers guest list Norman Hartnell

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209 1940s AND VINTAGE
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Remembered Remembered Remembered Remembered
M
17 PAGES 17 PAGES 16 PAGES 17 PAGES
OF READERS’ OF READERS’ OF READERS’
OF READERS’ REAL LIFE REAL LIFE
GALLANT
ANIMALS A GREAT REAL LIFE 16 PAGES
Seventy-five years of
the Dickin Medal
COMMUNICATOR
We talk to a wartime
wireless operator REAL LIFE BARRY CRYER STORIES UNCOVERING STORIES
WARTIME
COOKERY

STORIES OUR NEW STORIES OF READERS’ WHEN

THE REAL
Carrots with
everything

REMEMBERING COLUMNIST SITCOMS REAL LIFE SKIFFLE

ALBERT FINNEY SIX OF THE STORIES GEORGE MELLY
A SALUTE WAS KING
BEST
12/03/2019 12:33:23

40s cover 19.indd 39

TO THE 40s PAST AND PRESENT

209 EVENTS PAST AND PRESENT PAST AND PRESENT PAST AND PRESENT PAST AND PRESENT
FOR YOUR PAST AND PRESENT
DIARY

Co l l e cti n g
GOLDEN
SUMMER WIN A
GOALS
CELEBRATING
HOLIDAYS MID-WEEK
BREAK
IN HISTORIC
WORLD CUP 1966
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16 PAGES OF YOUR MEMORIES Largest 1940s Airliner

LIONEL BART
Songs, glorious songs
BACK TO SCHOOL
WORLD LAND SPEED
RECORD
SHOREHAM
AIR SHOW ANY OLD FIT FOR THE ROAD
CELEBRATING
THE MUCH-LOVED
IRON?
JAMAICA INN Britain’s Proud History Bygone Aircraft Memories of the MOT
Daphne du Maurier’s From Grammar Schools to
beloved Cornwall Grange Hill Rules (OK)
RE-UNION CANAL
AUTHOR’S
THE MIDLAND THE FAMOUS FOUR RAG-AND-BONE MEN
Reinventing Scotland’s CENTENARY
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The children who inspired
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Seaside to Rags The return of From Sailor Collecting

A life in the Raleigh Comedy
Postcards Again Old Bottles
Chopper Memories the milkman to Statesman
comics

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 COMPETITIONS
WIN A EUROTRASH WIN A BEATLES BOOK
BOX SET At the end of 1962, the Beatles were a
successful Liverpool band with one hit single
The outrageous late-night under their belts. Twelve months, five hit
television legend Eurotrash singles, two albums and the invention of
is back on DVD and Beatlemania later, by the end of 1963 they
digital (eurotrash.tv) from were on the cusp of musical world domination
Network. Let two delightful, in an unprecedented way. Featuring daily
devil-may-care Frenchmen entries covering pivotal events, Dafydd Rees
take you firmly by the hand draws on new eyewitness accounts and
and lead you into a surreal world of weird wonders, celebrity previously untold tales of forgotten gigs and
interviews, sexy supermodels – and more smut than you can shake unlikely meetings to tell the story of a band breaking new ground.
a stick at. Hosted by everyone’s favourite Gallic charmers, Antoine Meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated with previously
de Caunes and Jean Paul Gaultier, Eurotrash reigned supreme for unpublished photographs, this new book gives a definitive history
more than a decade and still sends a shiver down the spines of of one of the most momentous years in music history.
prudes and people of a nervous disposition to this day. To be in with the chance to win one of two hardback copies of The
To be in with a chance of winning a 20-disc DVD box set, Beatles 1963: A Year in the Life, courtesy of Omnibus Press, answer
courtesy of Network, answer the following question: the following question:
On which BBC Two music show did Antoine de Caunes make Released on 22 March 1963, what is the name of the Beatles’
his British television presenting debut? debut LP?

WIN BAE HARRIER WIN A GEORGE MARTIN

GR7A/GR9 MODEL KIT CD BOX SET
Capable of taking off and As head of Parlophone, George Martin sought
landing vertically, the Harrier artists of character; creating surrealistic,
was not tied to airfields sometimes free-form recordings with comic
with long concrete runways geniuses like Sellers, Milligan, Cribbins and
but, if necessary, could be Ustinov. These madcap sonic adventures, and
dispersed to sites in the field his fascination with studio experimentation,
close to the forward edge made George Martin uniquely able to provide
of the battle area. The last of the Harrier “jump jets” (operating with a particular objectivity and realise what an artist would ask of him.
the RAF from 1969-2011), the Harrier GR9 was a heavily updated Cherry Red’s 75-track, 4CD box set explores George Martin’s sound
development of the existing GR7, incorporating the ability to use a productions before the advent of the Beatles and includes his work
wide range of advanced precision weaponry, new communication with Beyond the Fringe, Matt Monro, Peter Sellers, Sophia Loren and
systems and airframe upgrades. the Temperance Seven as well as his classical and soundtrack works.
To be in with a chance of winning one of two 1:72 models, To be in with the chance of winning one of three copies of George
courtesy of Airfix from its new Harrier range, answer the following Martin: A Painter in Sound, courtesy of Cherry Red Records, answer
question: the following question:
Which aviation manufacturer developed the Harrier in the What was Bernard Cribbins’s first hit single, which he recorded
1960s? for George Martin in December 1961?

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AUGUST WINNERS
Searchers CD
Answer = The Drifters
Colin Grimmer, Lowestoft
Stephen Crosbie, Brockham
Alan Caudwell, Mansfield
Woodhouse
Andrew Hudson, Treeton
Richard Breakey, Peterborough
Hammer Horror Blu-ray
Answer = Terence Fisher
AS Harrar, Walsall
PM Ogden, Ashton-in-
Makerfield
Doctor Who Audiobook
Answer = The New
Statesman
Cheryl Thorne, Manchester
Mrs C Harrington, Felixstowe
David Andrew Good,
Bishop’s Stortford
Alex McCarthy, Kempshott
Airfix model
Answer = London Colney
Remi Smit, Peterborough
Mrs A Armstrong, Milton
Keynes

72 Best of British – October 2022


This month we build an aircraft which is
not only iconic, it’s also symbolic of the
Few, the Battle of Britain and British design:
the Supermarine Spitfire Mk Ia by Airfix in
1:48 scale.
The Supermarine Spitfire was, by 1940,
the interceptor of choice for RAF Fighter
Command. It was capable of speeds in
excess of 360mph and had exceptional
manoeuvrability.
This kit comes in the regular Airfix tray-
top type of box moulded in 149 pieces of
grey and clear plastic with a decal sheet
covering two aircraft, and a 62-step, 14-
page instruction booklet.
The build starts in the usual place –
that’s the cockpit – and what a beautifully
sculpted cockpit it is, too. Everything just
falls into place with no head scratching or
forcing of parts.
Getting the cockpit tub together takes
15 steps but they fly by and you soon
www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk
Supermarine Spitfire Mk Ia
Dave Eyles builds a symbol of the Few
have the cockpit sandwiched between
the fuselage halves and the wings on
before you know it. The under-carriage
attachment is very well designed for a
sturdy and positive feeling pair of legs for
our Spitfire.
All the usual air intakes and lumps and
bumps are attached with not even a hint
of filler; just a little smear around the top
engine cowling panel.
The propeller was made up and placed
on a cocktail stick ready for painting and
the cockpit glazing was masked with
Tamiya Masking Tape and attached with
Krystal Klear ready for a primer coat from an
aerosol can.
I then painted the undersides of the
tail plane and the belly of the fuselage in
Halfords aluminium from an aerosol. This
was then masked and the starboard wing
underside was sprayed matt white with an
aerosol, again from Halfords.
OUT OF THE BOX
When dry, that was masked and the port
wing underside was sprayed matt black
from a Halfords can.
The underside was then fully masked up
and the top of the model was sprayed in
Matt Dark Earth from a Humbrol aerosol.
When dry, Blu Tack was formed over the
portions of Dark Earth that I needed to
keep and Humbrol Matt Dark Green was
sprayed over to give the camouflage
pattern required.
The decals were added using Microset
and Micro Sol decal setting solutions and
when fully dried, after 24 hours, a wash
of Raw Umber oil paints was used to
highlight the panel lines. Along with some
rust and black-coloured pigments for the
exhaust stacks, exhaust stains and machine
gun muzzle stains, this completed the
weathering.
An easy and fun-to-build kit of a very
important aircraft from our history.
73
 EPILOGUE

BACK IN TIME WITH

COLIN BAKER
BoB’s very own Time Lord pays tribute to two greats of stage and screen, and –
instead of penning a postcard from Portsmouth – writes a love letter to the city

I
first met Bernard Cribbins in 1980
in Dangerous Davies: The Last
Detective, when I presented him
(on screen) with a pair of knickers
that had been hidden in my
character’s saddlebag by the murderer of
a young girl. It was an experience I greatly
enjoyed, particularly as my only scene
was with Bernard. Although I never
worked with him again, we met up
frequently in later years at various Doctor
Who-related events.
As he had been 40 years earlier, he
was warm and friendly and seemingly
blissfully unaware of the reverence in
which all his fellow actors held him. He
had what some describe as the perfect
career – never a huge star with all the
attendant pressures that seem to adversely
affect a few that reach those dizzy heights
– but bubbling nicely under boiling point
playing great roles.
His career was not dissimilar to that of
my fellow Doctor, Patrick Troughton, who Bernard Cribbins, Colin and a pair of knickers in a scene from the 1981 film Dangerous
gave innumerable stellar performances Davies: The Last Detective. It was the only time that the two worked together.
without actually becoming a big film star.
Who can forget his brilliant demise in The every single word spoken by a initial reaction to his performance back
Omen – a fate shared by another great Shakesperean actor on stage; and even then, which apparently was only really
actor, the subject of the next paragraph. if I didn’t completely know the import appreciated by the establishment when it
On many occasions, people have of every word, I knew what he meant, so transferred to London the following year.
been kind enough to tell me that I was groundbreaking was his performance, He seemed to be an actor without ego,
“their” Doctor, which usually means that which spoke directly to me and my which may be why, despite a career that
when they first watched Doctor Who, I generation. I and many others might envy, he never
was playing the part and they approved, After an age of great actors like achieved quite the worldwide status of
which is always nice to hear. There are not Olivier, Schofield, Richardson and Olivier and co. There are a handful of
many other roles, played by a succession Gielgud whose delivery style might today people whose achievements make me
of different actors, that attract that kind of be seen as stirring but declamatory, view them with awe and he was certainly
comparative reaction but Hamlet is one. Warner’s conversational style – one of them.
My Hamlet was David Warner. presenting to us a disgruntled student I have always had an affection for
In 1965, I was a theatre-obsessed law out of his depth yet struggling against Portsmouth. I have visited its theatres
student aged 22. He was a trail-blazing an authoritarian court – was a breath many times and filmed Doctor Who
actor aged 24. I saw the very first preview of fresh air and signalled a welcome there, when it doubled as the hideout of
at Stratford-upon-Avon of Peter Hall’s development in accessible drama. Davros, creator of the Daleks. But the
production and was blown away. On that When we were both in our 60s, I met main reason that I hold it in such high
night it ran for a few minutes under four him in a recording studio and blurted esteem is that it is the birthplace of my
hours and for this audience member it out my fanboy delight at meeting my wife Marion whom I married exactly 40
was all over far too quickly. acting hero. He was self-effacing and years ago this September. Thank you,
For the first time, I “understood” charming and freely reminisced about the Pompey.

74 Best of British – October 2022

Broadcasting
the best music
across the
decades from
1964 to the
present day

Tune in and listen now

• on 648AM in the South East
• on local DAB • on our app
worldwide at radiocaroline.co.uk
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