Friday, September 22, 2023

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Have a Go with Thérèse Coffey

Have a Go was a radio quiz hosted by Wilfred Pickles that attracted 20 million listeners a week. I don't remember it, but I was surprised to find that I might have done, as it ran from 1946 to 1967. What I do remember is Round the Horne making fun of it - or at least I read that sketch in a book of scripts I was given for Christmas round about 1973. As I have said before, the problem with this column is not that Lord Bonkers is getting too old but that I am getting too old.

Gove Island, I understand, is a television programme enjoyed by the young people.

Wednesday

It's time someone did something about the Gibb brothers. First there was Robbie Gibb, a bigwig at the BBC who has been using his role there to further Conservative interests at every turn. It is he who is responsible for the replacement of Gary Lineker as host of Match of the Day by Jacob Rees-Mogg and for such programmes as Have a Go with Thérèse Coffey and Gove Island. 

Now another Gibb has surfaced: Nick Gibb, who it appears has been building schools out of an inferior sort of concrete. It won’t affect us here, as I had the village school built with best Hornsey featherstone, but it’s causing no end of a problem up and down the country, with taller pupils having to take it in turns to hold up the roof. 

The only thing I will say in defence of the Gibb brothers is that their music for Saturday Night Fever was very good. Perhaps you know it? ‘Night fever rumtpy-tum Night fever’ – that’s how it goes.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10

Earlier this week....

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3 comments:

  1. Ian Patterson22 September, 2023 14:50

    How Lord Bonkers is staying alive in his 3rd century is a mystery to us all. The elixirs of Rockingham Forest must be particularly efficacious.

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  2. David R.22 September, 2023 17:36

    It may be of some small interest to Lord Bonkers to hear that Jim Pickles (nephew of Wilfred & Mabel Pickles) contested the Brighouse & Spenborough constituency in the Liberal interest back in 1964. Jim helped to re-establish the Liberal Party in that part of West Yorkshire (which had previously been extinguished by the defection of Sir John Simon and his 'National Liberal Party'.

    Jim was better known as Mr Justice James Pickles, though he was a mere barrister back in 1964. Jim's daughter Carolyn went on to have a successful career as an actress on TV.

    As Wilfred would always say in his catchphrase, "Give him the money, Barney".

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  3. Jonathan Calder23 September, 2023 10:03

    Ian: Lord B also bathes every year in the Spring of Eternal Life that bursts from the hillside above the former headquarters of the Association of Liberal Councillors in Hebden Bridge. I sometimes wonder if the Elves of Rockingham Forest are all they pretend to be.

    David: It was of great interest, thank you.

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