Monday, March 18, 2024

The Corncrake and the Croft: A 1977 film about North Uist

I loved the Outer Hebrides. When I was there in the summer of 2008, the colours of the sea and sand rivalled the Caribbean and the drowned landscape made it feel like, in the words of the Runrig song, the end of the world.

While I was there, I read Finlay J. Macdonald's three books about his boyhood on Harris in the 1930s. I remembered these from the 1980s, when his readings of them had been popular with Radio 4 listeners.

MacDonald is the narrator of this leisurely film from 1977 about crofting on the neighbouring island of North Uist. I could listen to him all day.

It seems incredible now, but the cry of the corncrake was the sound of the English summer too, less than a century ago. I believe it is now threatened with extinction even on the Outer Hebrides.

And the peewit or lapwing was so common in Shropshire that when the children in Malcolm Saville's first book Mystery at Witchend formed a secret society, they found it natural to adopt the bird's call as their secret signal to one another. I have never seen one there.

MacDonald died in 1987, but when I reached the visitor centre at Culloden later on that holiday, it was still his voice narrating its film about the battle.

The Joy of Six 1213

Closing the educational achievement gap should be a priority for the next government, argues Kevin Latham: "This includes ... making a long-term commitment to funding a national in-school tutoring programme, like that set up during the pandemic. It includes reversing real terms cuts to key educational budgets targeting disadvantaged pupils in schools through the Pupil Premium, and reversing changes made to school funding in 2018 that disproportionately benefited schools in less deprived areas."

Caspar Hughes became a human bollard to enforce a bus gate when the authorities wouldn't: "We don’t need one LTN in Exeter, we need every residential neighbourhood turned into an LTN, protected cycle lanes on all main roads, and regular, cheap, and reliable public transport. At the same time, we need to acknowledge that people have become so accustomed to the privilege of driving, it feels like it is a right. For them, equality must feel like oppression."

Joshi Herriman took his worries about the declining quality of local newspapers to a House of Lords select committee.

The Victorian way of financing new railways was better than the one we use today, say Padraig McKee and Chris Colvin.

Claire Meadows celebrates Roman Polanski's Macbeth (1971): "I’m glad that the film has enjoyed a critical appraisal. Because I think it is a minor masterpiece. The casting - with Jon Finch and Francesca Annis playing against the historical norm as a younger and beautiful couple - is inspired. It feels new, yet acutely traditional.

"In typical Pym fashion, a series of amusing encounters ensues, comprising dinner parties, church bazaars and chance meetings, all of which show Rupert to be a slightly pompous, tactless man lacking in self-awareness. For an academic who studies human behaviour for a living, Rupert seems to have precious little understanding of how to apply this knowledge to his relationships with women!" JacquiWine enjoys Barbara Pym's An Unsuitable Attachment.

Saxon sculpture: Meet the Church Langton Chappie

He lives high on the wall of the passage that leads from the chancel to the vestry at St Peter's Church Langton. You have to turn a light on to take his photo - and they ask you to remember to turn it off afterwards.

The guidebook say he dates from the 10th century and likens his style to the Saxon carvings at Breedon on the Hill. Could he be a relic of an earlier church on this site?

The fact that he is wielding a hammer may mean he represents St Dunstan, who is the patron saint of blacksmiths.

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Charles Spencer, Maidwell Hall and Nevill Holt


The publicity surrounding Earl Spencer's early memoir A Very Private School, which details his abuse at Maidwell Hall, reminds me of one of the most important posts on this blog, though it's not important because of anything I wrote.

If Maidwell Hall was the most prestigious prep school around here in the Seventies, then Nevill Holt was its closest rival.

And on that post I have dozens of comments detailing the abuse that took place there.

Someone in the field has told me that when professionals talk about child abuse scandals that were not sufficiently investigated, Nevill Holt comes high on the list.

Jane Kennaway: IOU

From the LTM Recordings website:

January 1981: hotly tipped for top, Jane Kennaway tapes an all-important Top of the Pops appearance for her debut single IOU, a deserving indie hit now reissued on a major label, and poised at #65 on the national chart. 

Jane's lucky break owes much to the misfortune of teenager Honey Bane, who has charted a few places higher with Turn Me On, Turn Me Off, but is stuck at an airport and unlikely to reach BBC Television Centre in time to perform. None of that matters. IOU is a brilliant, witty song by an artist with talent to burn, whose hooks and looks suggest that mainstream success is a foregone conclusion. 

Alas, disaster strikes at the eleventh hour. Honey Bane arrives in time after all, and Jane is bumped from the show. Despite a string of classy singles produced by Andy Duncan, Thomas Dolby and Steve Lillywhite, further chart success proves elusive, and Jane Kennaway never gets to finish her album, despite a personal intervention by Bowie producer Tony Visconti.

It's a shit business.

I like IOU and it's easy to imagine Jane Kennaway as a successful early Eighties artist. The single was billed as being simply by her, but at the time she generally appeared as Jane Kennaway and Strange Behaviour - and the band sounds good here too.

A rabbit hole led me to her. She is the daughter of James Kennaway, who wrote both the screenplay for the film Tunes of Glory and the novel on which it was based. He died when he was only 40 and Jane was a young teenager.

Saturday, March 16, 2024

A memorial to Covid victims in the churchyard at Church Langton


I went to The Langtons this afternoon. I wanted to try the reopened Bell at East Langton, believed by many to be an inspiration for the Bonkers' Arms, and to pay my respects at the grave of this blog's hero J.W. Logan at Church Langton.

This tree, planted as a memorial for the people from Church Langton who died from Covid, or at least during the Covid pandemic, is also in the churchyard at St Peter's, Church Langton.

The Joy of Six 1212

Helen Salisbury says it’s time to push back against the destruction of general practice in the NHS: "The down-skilling of general practice is often euphemistically referred to as a 'diversification of the workforce', but it’s hard not to see it as a deliberate attempt to deprive patients of expert medical care. The motives may relate to cost, despite it being well documented that high quality general practice with built-in continuity saves money in the long run (as well as lives). Or perhaps it’s about control, as GPs are notoriously independent and averse to obeying orders."

"Far from seeming out of place at the CPAC exhibition hall last month, Truss appeared at home in the company of America’s Trump-inspired populist right." Sam Blewett follows Liz Truss's journey from Downing Street to 'deep state' conspiracy theorist.

"The deliberate displacement of an entire people much surely amount to ethnic cleansing and arguably also constitutes either a war crime or a crime against humanity. What I know is that so much human suffering has been caused in the last year while the rest of the world has been largely silent." Andrew Page asks if anyone cares about Nagorno-Karabakh.

Jo Johnson argues that tomorrow's classical music audience is out there and doesn't want gimmicks: "Most first-timers would not be encouraged to attend by changes to the auditorium experience. Ideas such as using phones and social media during the performance, allowing people to take photos and video, and the freedom to talk and move around, would actually make many people less likely to attend."

Rachel Pronger on the paradoxes of Powell and Pressburger’s women: "The idea that a human might find themselves humbled by an encounter with something greater than themselves, with magic, faith, love or nature, is arguably the defining motif of the filmmakers’ work."

"The chairman of the Nuneaton and District Trades Council denounced ice cream van jingles as ‘death chimes’ because of the number of children apparently killed when running behind the vans. He had also received the usual complaints from nightshift workers." Owen Davies investigates the folklore of ice cream vans.

Friday, March 15, 2024

Another great impersonation of Terry Wogan by Peter Serafinowicz and another misbegotten script

After I posted that brilliant Peter Serafinowicz impersonation of Terry Wogan, a reader sent me another example.

Though it takes us into the realms of fantasy, this one is spot on too.

Yet whoever wrote the script didn't know much about Wogan. His radio show depended on letters from women listeners. He and they kept running jokes going and visited all sorts of unexpected places.

I know this because I used Radio 2 as a calming background when I was writing university essays.

Misbegotten satire of this kind is about making your viewers feel superior rather than about its target, and risks toppling into snobbery.

Zuffar Haq to fight Leicester East for the Lib Dems

Britain's wackiest seat is probably Leicester East. It's represented by Claudia Webbe, who was parachuted in by the Corbynite high command in time for the 2019 election and then thrown out of the party after being convicted of harassment.

It's rumoured that both she and another dosgraced former Labour MP for the seat, Keith Vaz, will stand here at the next election.

Labour will be counting on retaking Leicester East, yet its constituency party was suspended last year and it has started losing council by-elections to the Conservatives here.

At least Leicester East now has one credible candidate. Zuffar Haq, who has stood here in Harborough four times, has been adopted by the Liberal Democrats. He won one of the seats in the Evington ward, which is in Leicester East, from Labour at the last council elections.

Talking to the Leicester Mercury, Zuffar said:
"For as long as I’ve lived in Leicester, we’ve been a community that works together and stands together. I, like many of us, have friends and colleagues of different faiths and backgrounds. I want to bring our communities back together again.

"We’ve been taken for granted for too long. Both Labour in the Town Hall and the Conservatives in Westminster have failed Leicester time and time again. Whether it’s supporting the local NHS or dealing with the cost-of-living crisis, I want to offer Leicester residents a chance of real change."

Why the general election may well be on 28 January 2025

I now believe it's likely that Rishi Sunak will put off the general election until the last possible moment, which is 28 January 2025.

It's only human for him to hold on to office in the hope that "something will turn up", though it's hard now to imagine anything that could turn the polls round enough for the Conservatives to win. Victory over an invading force of Martian spaceships might just do it, I suppose.

But there may be another human reason for his delay.

In the autumn of 1978 it was widely thought that Jim Callaghan was about to call an election. Instead, in his speech to the TUC Congress, he mocked journalists who were speculating about it by singing the old music hall song Waiting at the Church.

Yes, really.

He soldiered on, but loss control of the unions and then lost of a vote of confidence. There was no guarantee he would have won in 1978, but things only got worse for him after he declined to call an election then.

It was I think James Fenton - now a distinguished poet, then the political sketchwriter for the New Statesman - who pointed out that "Prime Minister 1976-9" would look much better against Callaghan's name in the history books than "Prime Minister 1976-8".

So maybe Sunak wants to be remembered as "Prime Minister 2022-5" rather than "Prime Minister 2022-4".

Sadly, I can't find a video of Jim Callaghan singing Waiting at the Church to embed, so we'll have to make do with Miss Piggy.

You what?

George Dobell on the state of English cricket - and me on the state of British cinema

George Dobell is my favourite cricket journalist. He is fair, loves the game and is not afraid to be critical of its authorities.

His daily videos during the test series in India were enjoyable, and this one recorded after the dust had settled is outstanding.

Dobell's point about how much better England would be if the game here wasn't dominated by one social class reminds me of British films today.

When I watched See How They Run last year, my overwhelming impression was not so much that it wasn't very good as that it wasn't half as good as those involved thought it was.

Bernard Lee has referred to its cast "almost waiting for laughter that isn’t deserved, loud sighs coming instead".

He made that observation in a one-star review of Wicked Little Letters, a film whose trailer convinced me that it was another that was too pleased with itself and therefore not worth seeing. 

If charged with this, I suspect those involved would reply with the cinema's equivalent of "that's the way I play," which is a certain kind of English cricketer's response to every criticism.

Braunston Historic Narrowboat Rally, June 2023

Here's some canal goodness: last summer's Braunston Historic Narrowboat Rally.

I was at Braunston the day before the rally took place and chatted to the people on board Raymond, who must be the people who made this video.

One of the last commercial cargoes to be carried on the Grand Union Canal was coal from Atherstone to the Kearley & Tonge jam factory at Southall in Middlesex. I was told at Braunston that this run ended in 1969, though the Friends of Raymond website dates the end to 1970.

Whichever is correct, I have a clear memory of Raymond coming through Boxmoor and, in particular, of the important thump thump thump of the diesel engine of Nutfield, the boat that towed her. On a misty day you would hear it long before you saw the boats coming.

Below is a still showing Nutfield and Raymond from the 1967 children's television series Flower of Gloster.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Alstom will run trains from Euston to Shrewsbury and Wrexham


The French rolling stock manufacturer Alstom has been revealed as the company behind the planned open access railway between Euston, Shrewsbury and Wrexham.

An announcement on the company's website says:

The proposal envisages a service of five trains per day in each direction Monday to Saturday, with four travelling both ways on Sundays. 

Trains will stop at Gobowen, Shrewsbury, Telford Central, Wolverhampton, Darlaston, Walsall, Coleshill Parkway, Nuneaton and Milton Keynes on their journey between Wrexham General and London Euston.

It also says that the service, which will be known as the Wrexham, Shropshire and Midlands Railway, could be begin as early as next year, though it's not clear whether the scheme has yet been formally approved.

And, most importantly, I will be able to change at Nuneaton for a direct train to Shrewsbury.

As I speculated in an earlier post, these trains will use the freight-only line through Sutton Park to get from Coleshill to Walsall.

Here is a photo of Sutton Park station in Sutton Coldfield, taken in 1982 when it was still standing and in use as a Post Office depot. The photo above, as it will tell you if you hover your cursor over it, shows Shrewsbury station.

Party like it's 2005: Ed Davey announces new decapitation strategy

Embed from Getty Images

Liberal Democrat leader targets senior Tory seats at UK general election

runs the headline on the Financial Times interview with Ed Davey today.

Older Lib Dems will immediately be put in mind of the 2005 general election, when the party boasted of its 'decapitation strategy'. The seats held by a number of leading Conservatives had been chosen as targets and we expected to deal a mortal blow to the Her Majesty's Opposition on the night.

In the event, David Davis, Oliver Letwin, Theresa May and the rest survived. It was our Labour targets (Cambridge, Hornsey and Wood Green, Manchester Withington) that fell to us at that election.

Our only leading Tory scalp in 2005 was a long-forgotten figure called Tim Collins. It was he who had briefed the press back in 1993 that John Major's 'Back to Basics' speech was about personal morality. and thus done much to ensure that the Tories became figures of ridicule for the rest of Major's time in power as one juicy scandal followed another.

Collins lost to another Tim: Tim Farron.

As to Ed Davey's interview, the big news is that he is happy to discuss Europe:
He said his party would be pushing for a new trade deal with the EU to replace the “appalling” one signed by Johnson when he was prime minister. He added his party’s long-term policy was to rejoin the single market. 

“If you don’t put a better trading relationship with Europe in as part of that mix, you’re not going to get the economy sparking again,” he said, though he noted his EU counterparts had been clear that for now “the single market ain’t on the table”.
And, something that is hard to reconcile with his bullish talk of Lib Dem prospects earlier in the interview, he thinks there is a good chance of a hung parliament.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

The Willow Brook to be rewilded through Leicester


There's a story on BBC News about the Trent Rivers Trust receiving a £834,000 grant from the Environment Agency to protect homes and businesses in the eastern side of the city.

Proposed natural flood defences the trust will install include creating new ponds, wetlands and tree planting.

Dr Jon Lewis from the trust says:

"We know that flooding can have a major impact on homes and businesses.

"We work to create natural features such as ponds upstream of where problems can occur - this is called natural flood management.

"The natural features we create can temporarily store water upstream of properties at flood risk."

What really caught my eye was the final sentence in the report which says the project will focus on the Willow Brook, which flows into the River Soar, and the Bushby, Thurnby and Evington brooks.

I began following the Willow Brook across Leicester in 2022 - a project to finish this summer. And I also posted a video of the extraordinary tunnel that takes it under the railway in the city.

And the Willow Brook is formed by the confluence of two of the other little rivers mentioned: the Bushby Brook and the Evington Brook.

Matthew Green to fight South Shropshire for the Lib Dems?


There's news of a possible replacement candidate for the Liberal Democrats in the South Shropshire constituency.

Matthew Green, who was Lib Dem for the largely identical Ludlow seat between 2001 and 2005, has tweeted saying he is being asked to stand and asking what people think. The response so far seems enthusiastic.

The unexpected vacancy has been caused by Chris Naylor's decision to stand down from the role for health reasons.

Anyway, it's an excuse for me to post another of my many pictures of the constituency.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Abolish "flawed and feeble" water regulator Ofwat, say Lib Dems


This just in from the Shropshire Star:
Charities and private citizens should have the power to take polluting water companies to court because the Environment Agency cannot keep up with the industry’s rule-breaking, the Liberal Democrats have said. 
The party is calling for the creation of “citizen regulators” as part of efforts to combat sewage discharges into Britain’s rivers.
The Lib Dem proposals call for a radical overhaul of the water industry. The regulator Ofwat would be abolished and water firms turned into public benefit companies that put the environment before profit.

Tim Farron, the party's environmental spokesperson, is quoted in the story:
"It is time to put power in the hands of local campaigners to take these polluting firms to court. 
"The polluter must be forced to pay, but too often they are getting away with environmental destruction. The Environment Agency and regulator Ofwat have proved too flawed and feeble to take on profiteering water firms. 
"Conservative ministers have buried their heads in the sand for years, leaving wildlife to be poisoned and swimmers told to stay away from beaches and lakes. Conservative MPs have too often ignored the issue or, worse still, defended water companies."

Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire preserved lengths of the Great Central Railway to be reunited this weekend

Exciting news from the Great Central Railway:

Join us for this spectacular weekend as we reunify the Great Central Railway and the Great Central Railway Nottingham for a celebration of the 125th opening of the GCR London Extension. 
Our Rail Replacement Bus Service will reunify the two halves of our railway with a service between Quorn and Woodhouse Station and Ruddington Station to allow you to explore all of our attractions with one inclusive ticket that is valid for entry to all sites and includes train travel and the reunification bus service. Kids go for a Quid (aged 3-15 inclusive)

The weekend in question is 16-17 March, when the 125th anniversary of the Great Central will be celebrated.

The Great Central Railway was the last main line to be built, sending trains from Marylebone out to through Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield to Manchester.

Great Central Railway and Great Central Railway Nottingham are separated by a missing bridge and length of embankment at Loughborough. The video above gives you the latest news on the project to reunify the two lines.

Incidentally, the Great Central Railway Nottingham was originally constructed by the contractors Logan & Hemingway. That's Logan as in this blog's hero J.W. Logan, Liberal MP for Harborough 1891-1904 and 1910-1916.

The Joy of Six 1211

"The erosion of democracy in Hungary took time, and the political takeover came from within, in part, because the pushback by the political opposition was ineffective and at times apathetic. Recent protests in Hungary in support of LGBTQ+ rights are an indication that the Hungarian people are beginning to push back against Orban, but this effort must be expanded and sustained if it is to succeed. Much damage has been done already." Viktor Orban’s Hungary shows how democracy dies, argues William Danvers.

Andrea Coomber reminds us that there are twice as many women in prison as there were 30 years ago: "Nearly two-thirds of women in the criminal justice system have experienced domestic abuse; many have experienced childhood trauma, mental health problems or homelessness. And entering the criminal justice gateway invariably makes things worse, not better. It can mean women lose their jobs and their homes, making it harder to address the problems which brought them into contact with the police in the first place."

"Good play can take many forms – physical, creative, logical, imaginative, sensory. A young child chases around a park pretending to be a dragon, a teenager hangs out with friends in a safe warm space, a child with disabilities uses something to interact with their senses in a new way; in all cases, the child perceives it as fun, uncertain, and non-directed by adults." Psychologist Jennifer Wills Lamacq talks about the importance of children's play.

Jennifer Yule explains the decline in supermarket sales of vegan products.

Fursan Sahawneh expresses concern at the use of telemedicine for diagnosing and treating ADHD in the US: "Telehealth’s expansion is particularly relevant to the behavioural health sector. Without definitive or prerequisite biological markers, psychiatric diagnoses, like ADHD, are especially vulnerable to inflation and exploitation by economic interests."

"Maybe it’s not a masterpiece but it still packs a punch, and the scene at the end, where the audience overhears some awful news just before Joe does, is very powerful." Peter Bradshaw on the 1958 British film Room at the Top

Monday, March 11, 2024

The genius of Peter Serafinowicz's Terry Wogan impersonation

Thanks to the latest number of The Why Don't YouTube Newsletter, here is a parody of Blankety Blank from the 2003 Comic Relief.

A skim of the comments on YouTube reveals that the panelists are:

  • Martin Freeman as Jonny Rotten
  • Matt Lucas as Sue Pollard
  • David Walliams as Ruth Maddox
  • Simon Pegg as Freddie Starr
  • Nick Frost as Willie Rushton
  • Sarah Alexander as Liza Goddard

The female contestant is played by Stirling Gallacher and the male by Kevin Eldon.

But what shines above them all is Peter Serafinowicz's Terry Wogan impersonation. It's uncannily accurate in a way that, deep down, few impressions are.

The only thing I would question is the script, because I don't think Wogan held the showbiz right-wing views he expresses here.

I remember instead his explanation of our travails in Eurovision: 

"We've invaded too many countries and everyone hates us."

Chris Naylor stands down as Lib Dem PPC for South Shropshire


There's disappointing news from Shropshire: Chris Naylor, the Lib Dem due to fight the South Shropshire constituency at the next election has stood down for health reasons.

The news comes in a blog post by Andy Boddington, and we wish Chris all the best for a full recovery.

Chris says:

"It’s a huge disappointment to have to step down as PPC due to health concerns, after nearly a year now as the South Shropshire Lib Dem Candidate. Sadly, my old cardiovascular problem has flared up again after nearly 10 years. However, having launched a new local Lib Dem branch in the Strettons, and delivered many thousands of leaflets, I’ll still be playing an active part – giving my all to win back South Shropshire.

"Meanwhile I’m delighted that since my news several strong new candidates have come forward and I understand the constituency party will be announcing our new PPC very soon. I’d like to take this opportunity to offer many thanks to colleagues for their kind support."

Sunday, March 10, 2024

The Pontcysyllte is the world's longest and highest canal aqueduct

The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct carries canal boats across the River Dee near Llangollen in North Wales. At 336 yards long and 126 feet high, it is the longest and highest navigable canal aqueduct in the world.

I've been across it in a boat, and the lack of any barrier on the side opposite the towpath makes the whole experience feel like sailing across an infinity pool.

This Trekking Exploration video shows us the Aqueduct drained for maintenance. We see the bolts that hold the structure together and the plug that was once pulled to drain the canal into the Dee below.

If you want to see a child actor riding his bike off the aqueduct towpath and into the canal, see my first post on The Flower of Gloster.

Paul Tyler is a direct descendant of Cornish hero Bishop Trelawny

I've seen it claimed and now I have confirmation from the Beast's horse's mouth. The Liberal Democrat peer and former MP Paul Tyler is a direct descendant of the Cornish hero Bishop Jonathan Trelawny.

To be precise, Paul tells me he is the bishop's great great great great great great great great grandson. That's eight greats.

As the glee club at Liberal Democrat conferences never seems to know the tune of Trelawny, here's the Holman-Climax Male Voice Choir to help us.

Minding your Ps and Qs, dyslexia and me

You couldn't imagine a less dyslexic child than me. When I was eight I had a reading age of twelve and a half, had few problems with spelling and was always starting to write stories - even if I didn't finish many of them.

But I had difficulty in remembering which way round the letter p and the figure 9 went.

This was not a problem in schoolwork once I was past infants school. If I knew I was in letters mode then I got the p right, just as I did every other letter. And if I knew I was in numbers mode then I was equally secure writing a 9.

But, even as an adult, I had problems if these two modes were combined. If I was writing a cheque that ended '29 pence' I would hesitate over which way round the 9 and then the p went and could even get it wrong.

I had a similar problem with musical notation at school: I could never remember which side of the note the upright stroke went.

These days, I suspect, my problem with p's and 9's would be more likely to be described as dysgraphia, except that label encompasses all sorts of problems that I did not experience. My handwriting, for instance, was perfectly legible.

So I wonder if I was unusual in having this p-and-9 problem or if many people have it and cope equally well.

My reason for blogging about this is that I recently came across the World Wide Words article on the expression Mind Your Ps and Qs:

Many explanations have been advanced down the decades to explain this puzzling expression. It is said to be advice to a child learning its letters to be careful not to mix up the handwritten lower-case letters p and q, or similar advice to a printer’s apprentice, for whom the backward-facing metal type letters would be especially confusing. One has to wonder why p and q were singled out, when similar problems occur with b and d. 

After trying various alternative explanations, it comes back to this one:

Investigations by the Oxford English Dictionary in 2007 when revising the entry turned up early examples of the use of Ps and Qs to mean learning the alphabet. The first is in a poem by Charles Churchill, published in 1763: “On all occasions next the chair / He stands for service of the Mayor, / And to instruct him how to use / His A’s and B’s, and P’s and Q’s.” The conclusion must be that this is the true origin.

So I suspect my problem is a reasonably common one.

The Jam: When You're Young

Something important happened at the end of the Seventies: singles began to matter again. For most of the decade it had been albums that mattered, while the singles chart was left first to Chinn and Chapman and then to novelty records.

The result of this renaissance of the single was that a really good song like When You're Young, which made the top 20 in early 1979, was not to be found on any Jam album until the superior greatest hits compilation Snap!

Weller has a lot to say, almost too much to fit the tune. But the lyrics contain one of best lines:

The world is your oyster but your future's a clam.

And the video? A tweet by Life in Kilburn reveals:

An interesting video filmed in Kilburn and Queen's Park. Shows the escalators in Kilburn Square that provided access to 1st floor retail units. Now a no man's land....

Saturday, March 09, 2024

Peter Butterworth was involved in the two most famous prison camp escapes of World War II

There's a well-known - and true - story about the Carry On actor Peter Butterworth. As a prisoner of war during the second world war, he was one of the vaulters who helped in the famous Wooden Horse escape.

When he heard in 1950 that a film was being made about the escape, he auditioned for a part. Only to be told that he "didn't look convincingly heroic or athletic enough". Which is why you won't see him in the trailer above.

Stalag Luft 3 was also the camp from which The Great Escape took place later in the war. In that, the man who was to play Farmer Fiddler, Brother Belcher and Citizen Bidet helped dispose of sand and with forging documents.

Butterworth's involvement in what are probably the two most famous escapes of the war may not have been a coincidence. While a prisoner he had been recruited into the secretive MI9, which existed to organise and encourage escapes by prisoners of war.

Another future Carry On actor involved in this line of work was Jon Pertwee. For a time he worked for Ian Fleming in Naval Intelligence, and one of the things he did was train Naval officers in escape techniques.

The office tea was made by a bright young Able Seaman who would later be Commissioned and write the Royal Navy's guide to the Japanese navy.

His name was Jim Callaghan.