Memories of Childhood

(05-02-2019 20:27 )GreenMachine Wrote:  There were loads of home-grown cop and detective series weren't there. The Sweeney, Juliet Bravo, The Professionals, The Chinese Detective, an odd one Pulaski and The Bill of course. Television was more exciting because of the low-budgets they had to make them more true-to-life, filming in some run-down areas and at times being in places that looked depressed(as was the country at the beginning of the 1980's) but quite daring as at least some featured the obligatory meeting in some sleazy nightclub or strip joint-hello! strippers! quite an eye-opener to this callow youth.

Yes, The Sweeney was a real eye-opener for an adolescent like me. Boobs were on show almost every week - and the opening theme tune with the Ford Granada (I loved those cars), loved it! Not so keen on the slower closing theme tune though.

Do you remember a short-lived BBC equivalent called Target with Patrick Mower? Nowhere near as good.

Great series one episode had Benny from Crossroads(Paul ?) as a manic driver(Stoppo Driver I think it was). Brandi di Frank was a stripper in one episode. Yes I saw that with Patrick. I thought he was very good-had also been in Special Branch. Oddly enough Patrick & George Layton were Aussie con-artists in two episodes and Morecambe & Wise in episode 'Hearts and Minds' (they had Dennis and John in their show beforehand)

I remember the old Routemaster buses that you could hang off the end of, or if you missed it as it pulled off you could chase after and jump on-ah those were the days. As for omnibuses the late Flanders and Swann, double act at the piano - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flanders_and_Swann - once sang "...inside that monarch of the road, observer of the highway code, the big six-wheeler, scarlet-painted, London Transport, diesel-engined, ninety-seven horsepower Omnibus...hold very tight please!"

The most famous uses of the Routemaster were in the film 'Summer Holiday' with Cliff Richard in 1962 and some used in the On The Buses films(which were dire) In BBC comedy 'Some Mothers Do Ave Em,' Michael Crawford hangs onto the back of one whilst on roller skates in his stunt sequence. In a Morecambe & Wise special Andre Previn, the famous conductor in close up says "I worked with Morecambe and Wise and look what happened to me" and the camera pulls back to see him as a bus conductor on the back of a Routemaster waving his baton. An old Routemaster plummets over a cliff with the Young Ones cast Rick, Neil, Vyvyan and Mike in the very last episode of the series and lands at the bottom of a quarry. The last line of that was "Phew! That was close!" before it proceeds to blow up!

Here's something I am sure we ALL did and I think ALL children should do and probably adults too-splash about in puddles and mud. I cannot see any harm in allowing kids to splash about, get soaked and muddy-I think it builds character, the fact you can face different conditions and situations, besides it being tremendous fun. Something else too, collecting insects, as I am sure we all did at some point. I remember picking up crane flies or 'daddy-long-legs' and very carefully cupping them in my hand and scaring girls I wasn't one of these nasty creatures that would try to burn them or any other insect. I think one of the most beautiful, natural wonders of the animal world is a proper spun spider's web, glistening in the rain or sunshine of an early Spring morning. These are the sort of things children should experience and cherish as a memory of their childhood.

Back to kids television- Jackanory. Came from a rhyme "I'll tell you a stpry about Jackanory and now my story's begun...I'll tell you another about his brother and now my story's done"(or something like that) What a simple idea. Take a book popular with kids and give it to a famous face like Judi Dench, Colin Jeavons, Kenneth Williams and the best of the lot Bernard Cribbins and be memorised by a story for 20 minutes.

I remember they once had five presenters telling the story of The Hobbit, the late Willie Rushton doing all the voices for Winnie the Pooh and of course Kenneth Williams, one of the most prolific story tellers with Agaton Sax, Count Bakwerdz on the Carpet and many others. I think Cribbins did The Wind in the Willows.

(05-02-2019 23:12 )GreenMachine Wrote:  Great series one episode had Benny from Crossroads(Paul ?) as a manic driver(Stoppo Driver I think it was). Brandi di Frank was a stripper in one episode. Yes I saw that with Patrick. I thought he was very good-had also been in Special Branch. Oddly enough Patrick & George Layton were Aussie con-artists in two episodes and Morecambe & Wise in episode 'Hearts and Minds' (they had Dennis and John in their show beforehand)

Benny was played by Paul Henry.

Special Branch is currently being shown on forces tv, I haven't seen it before, it was a bit before my time (1969 -1974)

Ah that was it Paul Henry-cheers for that. Before mine too, only young then so chances are it might not have been Special Branch which was with George Sewell. Patrick Mower was also in Carry On England which wasn't the best film ever made.

Patrick Mower was always playing the hard man, in fact I wonder if he ever auditioned for James Bond. He certainly had the charm and was good in a fight.(His brother Lorne was a lousy criminal, he was too much of a grass! )*

I discovered something yesterday. When I was a kid one of my favourite cakes was Harlequin Gateau, a sponge cake with pink icing and hundreds & thousands on it(or sprinkles as our US cousins call them) and for years I was convinced it was by Kipling, and I even found a website and sent them an e-mail-however I found a picture of the box and it was actually made by McVities! (Picture my embarrassment after all these years!) no wonder I never got a reply from Kipling. I also discovered that it was a chocolate sponger and not a vanilla jam sponge as I thought. Darn my memory sometimes.
*he didn't have a brother called Lorne, it's a joke!*

(07-02-2019 17:18 )GreenMachine Wrote:  Patrick Mower was always playing the hard man, in fact I wonder if he ever auditioned for James Bond. He certainly had the charm and was good in a fight.(His brother Lorne was a lousy criminal, he was too much of a grass! )*

I discovered something yesterday. When I was a kid one of my favourite cakes was Harlequin Gateau, a sponge cake with pink icing and hundreds & thousands on it(or sprinkles as our US cousins call them) and for years I was convinced it was by Kipling, and I even found a website and sent them an e-mail-however I found a picture of the box and it was actually made by McVities! (Picture my embarrassment after all these years!) no wonder I never got a reply from Kipling. I also discovered that it was a chocolate sponger and not a vanilla jam sponge as I thought. Darn my memory sometimes.
*he didn't have a brother called Lorne, it's a joke!*

Patrick did have a brother who was a member of the local Rotary club.
He was a rotary Mower