Sidney James was born Solomon Joel Cohen in South Africa on 8 May 1913. He later changed his name to Sidney Joel Cohen and then Sidney James. Sid trained and worked as a hairdresser in Johannesburg before joining the Johannesburg…
1 9 6 4 (UK) 6 x 30 minute episodes The British seem to have a soft spot for smuggling and a sneaking admiration for the feat of outwitting the excise men. One such secret and somewhat improbable sympathiser was John…
A woman is killed in Soho in London’s West End, and Robert Pitt (an overacting André Morell), a prominent member of the Civil Service, is arrested for her murder. He is duly tried, found guilty and sentenced to death. It…
How is it possible to misplace a destroyer? That’s the question Lieutenant John Paul Steckler VII (Jerry Lewis) has to answer when he is hauled before an official committee after World War II. But Steckler doesn’t know where the destroyer…
1 9 6 4 (UK) 6 x 25 minute episodes Premiering on Saturday 11 April 1964, Stanley Baxter starred in this fortnightly BBC series (alternating with Jimmy Edwards’s Bold As Brass) to show that he was the master of six subjects:…
1 9 7 3 (UK) 6 x 50 minute episodes This six-part BBC drama series was based on short stories written by Thomas Hardy. The stories were selected by producer Irene Shubik and took place in the period from the end…
1 9 7 7 (UK) 4 x 55 minute episodes Premiering on 16 October 1977, this four-part BBC1 Sunday teatime series – set in the 18th century and based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson – starred Ashley Knight (who…
One of the most successful songwriting teams in history, Mann and Weil created a body of work so significant it has often been described as “a soundtrack to our lives.” Together, this husband and wife team wrote songs like You’ve…
1 9 6 4 – 1 9 6 5 (UK) 7 x 45 minute episodes 1 9 6 9 – 1 9 7 0 (UK) 13 x 45 minute episodes Much-loved British entertainer, multi-instrumentalist and television presenter Roy Castle was given his…
1 9 5 6 – 1 9 6 1 (UK) Dave King (pictured above), one of the most popular comedians in Britain, was a regular celebrity in Val Parnell’s Saturday Spectacular, which usually focussed on a single star per broadcast.…
1 9 6 5 – 1 9 6 7 (UK) 1 9 6 9 (UK) 1 9 7 3 (UK) Brucie appeared in pride of place on ITV on Saturday nights with choreography by Lionel Blair and music by Jack Parnell and his…
1 9 7 5 (UK) 13 x 30 minute episodes Not to be confused with the series of compilations from the Carry On films that is still oft-repeated today, the episodes of this 1975 series were 13 brand new offerings made for…
1 9 6 0 – 1 9 6 2 (UK) 32 x 25 minute episodes This BBC comedy series was a superb vehicle for Sid James – Essentially a spin-off from the character played by James in Hancock’s Half Hour. When…
1 9 7 1 – 1 9 7 6 (UK) 65 x 30 minute episodes A traditional British domestic sitcom dealing with ‘the generation gap™’ (which was also the title of the premier episode) and ‘the battle of the sexes™’. Cheery,…
1 9 7 4 (UK) Grange Calveley was working in an advertising agency when he began sketching a cartoon dog, based on the antics of his own dog, a Welsh Border collie who ‘watered the rhubarb’ when he first arrived at…
1 9 6 3 – 1 9 6 4 (UK) 12 x 50 minute episodes Fresh from his success in Hancock’s Half Hour and Citizen James, Sid James played a London cabbie who gets involved in the day to day problems…
1 9 6 8 – 1 9 7 5 (UK) 68 x 50 minute episodes Cilla Black got a surprise when she set out to film street interviews for her 1968 BBC TV show Cilla. Most people didn’t recognise her. The idea was…
Lulu was born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, the first child of a Glasgow butcher, on 3 November 1948. In 1964, at the tender age of fifteen – but with the voice of a middle-aged woman with a heavy smoking habit…
Cilla Black was born Priscilla Maria Veronica White on 27 May 1943. Dropping out of school at 15 she went to work pounding a typewriter in a Liverpool office which she detested. She also used to have a part-time job…
British band Silverhead arrived on the scene in the early 1970s with an attitude of “we’ve already made it” which endeared them to a small clique of dedicated fans and righteously pissed off the critics. Covered in eye shadow and…
Singer/songwriter Jack Lee formed The Nerves with fellow San Francisco street musicians Peter Case and Paul Collins. He had moved to LA but the Sunset Strip was now a shadow of its former self, and the band were something of…
The Gants were formed in 1963 by Sid Herring (vocals, guitar), Johnny Sanders (guitar), Vince Montgomery (bass) and Don Wood (drums) in Greenwood, Mississippi. Named after a popular brand of button-down collar shirts, The Gants released their version of the…
His name was Prince, then it wasn’t, then it was again. One of the most fascinating artists of the Eighties, the pocket-sized legend was born Prince Rogers Nelson in Minneapolis on 7 June 1958. He was named after his father’s…
1 9 6 6 – 1 9 6 7 (USA) 28 x 25 minute episodes In an attempt to cash in on the popularity of The Beatles movies A Hard Day’s Night (1964) and Help! (1965) US producers Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson interviewed 437 applicants for a madcap…
Carry on Crook comedies! The Big Job was brought to the screen by producer Peter Rogers and director Gerald Thomas, the two architects of the highly successful Carry On series of films. George Brain (Sid James) and his gang – Booky Binns (Dick Emery),…
Or “Stop Beating About The Bush”, or “Show Me Your Water Hole and I’ll Show You Mine”. It is 1900 and a safari expedition through the African jungle in search of the legendary Oozulum bird finds more than expected. Lady…
Idle on Parade (also known as Idol on Parade) featured the adventures and misadventures of rock ‘n’ roll idol “Jeep” Jackson (Anthony Newley)who is drafted into the army for his National Service. His sergeant is played by American import William Bendix (as an…
Three young Cockneys – Johnny Howjego (pop star Joe Brown), Flora (the wonderful Una Stubbs) and Sammy (Dave Nelson) – take a day off work to meet beautiful Continental movie star Lisa Milan (Sophie Hardy) at Heathrow airport. She joins…
Sid Gibson (Sid James) is a soap powder salesman who decides what he really needs is some TV advertising. Unfortunately, he’s absolutely broke. Sid calls upon his friend Arthur Ashton (Arthur Askey) – a make-up man for the non-commercial National…
Director Carol Reed’s first colour film is a lively theatrical presentation all about working-class hopes and dreams. Released in 1955, A Kid For Two Farthings was filmed partially in and around London’s Petticoat Lane market together with studio footage – and yes,…
Lancashire publican Bill Ramsbottom (Arthur Askey) inherits a saloon and some land with uranium deposits from his grandfather, Wild Bill Ramsbottom, who lived the cowboy life in Canada. Bill packs up with wife Florrie (Betty Marsden), daughter Joan (Shani Wallis)…
The third highest-grossing film of 1956, Trapeze is set in Paris (France) at the Bouglione Circus (the film was shot on location at the Cirque d’Hiv, Paris’ famed one-ring circus) Young American acrobat Tino Orsini (Tony Curtis) persuades his father’s ex-trapeze…
“Watch out, there’s a Humphrey about” was a slogan which first hit British televisions in 1974. The Humphrey’s (a product of Unigate designed to make us drink more milk during the mid 70s) were invisible creatures who sucked milk from…
The main job of British movie dolly birds in the 60s and 70s was to be passive objects for the likes of Sid James or Robin Askwith to “phwooaar” all over or to scream helplessly and faint when Christopher Lee…
Barbara Ann Deeks was born in Shoreditch, London, in 1937 – the only child of John Deeks, a costermonger, and his wife, Rose, a dressmaker. She was evacuated to Blackpool during WWII, and after completing school, her mother paid for…
The liberated new man of the 1970s was not afraid of scents. A whole new arm of the perfume industry opened up especially to pamper him. Where his father’s options had pretty much been Old Spice or Aqua Velva (which…
The British Cheggers-fronted TV ads, with their vox pops from cab drivers and the like (“It’s nuts, nugget (sic), milk chocolate . . . in between meals it’s faaahntastic!”) and tempting animated “comes up peanuts – slice after slice” bar…
This healthy libation made of glucose and carbonated water – originally called “Glucozade” – originated in Newcastle where it was created by pharmacist William Walker Hunter in 1927. The drink was acquired by the British pharmaceutical company Beecham’s in 1938…
Angel Delight debuted in British supermarkets in 1967, promising the taste of strawberries and cream from colourful sachets of microdust. The luminous powder fell out of favour in the 1980s.
Trading stamps originated in the United States as far back as 1896 and were sold to retailers who then issued them to their customers. The stamps were stuck in savings books and exchanged for merchandise. Retailers built customer loyalty and…
January 02 – 22 die as hurricane winds rock Britain. 05 – The Khmer Rouge drafts a new constitution in Cambodia, renaming it Democratic Kampuchea. 05 – Former Beatles road manager Mal Evans is shot dead by Los Angeles police investigating a domestic…
January 01 – The Maldive Islands become a republic. 01 – Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris is knighted in the New Year Honours list. 01 – Hank Williams dies. 02 – The RAFs first supersonic fighters, 400 US-designed Sabres, arrive at RAF…
January 02 – A New York accountant finally claims his $3 million lottery jackpot, which he won 45 years earlier. He waited until the New Year to save about $15,000 in taxes. 04 – Karni Bheel, who boasted the longest moustache…
January 01 – Fidel Castro completes 30 years in power in Cuba. 02 – The US and Canada sign a comprehensive free trade agreement which eliminates tariffs and other barriers to trade and investment. 04 – Two US Navy jets…
January 05 – Winston Churchill arrives in Washington for talks with Truman. 07 – General Dwight D Eisenhower says he will run for US President. 12 – The prototype Vickers Valiant, Britain’s only long-range jet for carrying the atomic bomb, crashes. 13 – The Iranian government…
January 01 – Chinese and North Korean forces advance across the 38th Parallel and through UN lines. 01 – First episode of The Archers is broadcast nationally on the BBC Light Programme. 01 – Bill Byford (Saxon) born. 04 – Communist…
January 01 – Radio Beijing announces that Tibet will shortly be “liberated”. 03 – Wafd Party wins Egyptian elections. 04 – Britain asks the US for a stockpile of atomic bombs. 05 – President Truman rules out military aid to…
January 01 – Britain, Denmark and Ireland join the European Economic Community (the “Common Market”) bringing the total number of member states to nine. 01 – Baseball star Roberto Clemente is killed in a light plane crash off Puerto Rico.…
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Featured Blog Posts
As a new decade began, the Swinging Sixties became the Swapping Seventies. Well, that is if you believe everything you saw on the big screen. Britain’s film industry in the early 1970s consisted…
Look at Life was a regular series of short documentary films produced in Britain between 1959 and 1969 by the Special Features Division of the Rank Organisation for screening in…
Once upon a time in a country where children were served warm milk for free in the middle of the morning, the TV overlords surveyed the multitude of potential disasters…
In our fast-paced modern world, it’s important to have an escape to the gentler, more carefree world of our childhood and youth. Often, all it takes is a good song…
Fo your next retro-themed dinner party, here’s a collection of some of our favourite recipes from the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. Pigs in a Poke Fray Bentos Kebabs Pupton…
Australia. February 1980 They come into view just after midday, two Letz Commodores, heading out of Brisbane, travelling south on Pacific Highway, heading for Surfer’s Paradise on Queensland’s Gold Coast.…
Fisherman – Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) Commercial Photographer – Live A Little, Love A Little (1968) Water Skiing Instructor – Clambake (1967) Frogman – Easy Come, Easy Go (1967) Doctor – Change Of Habit (1969)…
What was the Seventies? A decade that had Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell’s psychotropic Performance, with its gender confusions and personality crises breaking down the walls of society at one end,…
Featured Aussie Posts
Joe the Gadget Man (real name, Joe Sandow) used to appear on Australian TV every Saturday morning after 11 am for Nock and Kirby: “and ladies, not only does it…
Six-piece Australian band The Cockroaches formed in 1979 while four members of the band were attending the same Sydney school (St Joseph’s College at Hunter’s Hill). They chose as their band name…
1 9 7 3 – 1 9 8 7 (Australia) 60 minute episodes Variety Italian Style was produced by ATV-0 (Channel 10) in Melbourne and was hosted by former top model Anne Luciano…
1 9 7 5 – 1 9 8 3 (Australia) 90 minute episodes The “Lanky Yank” was born Morton Donald Isaacson, but is known to millions of Australians as Don Lane,…
1 9 8 0 (Australia) 7 x 25 minute episodes Despite its racially themed name-calling and crude stereotyping, the British comedy series Love Thy Neighbour was a roaring success between…
Aussie band The Mixtures formed as a trio of Terry Dean, Rod De Clerk and Laurie Arthur in 1965. Their first single Koko Je came about by accident as the group was providing some…
Featured Canadian Posts
1 9 6 9 – 1 9 7 0 (Canada) 26 x 30 minute episodes George Salverson created this CBC series – which premiered on 23 September 1969 – revolved…
1 9 7 2 (Canada) 13 x 60 minute episodes This Canadian miniseries chronicling the lives of a family of southern Ontario aristocrats over 100 years set a record at the…
1 9 8 7 – 1 9 8 9 (Canada) 43 x 60 minute episodes Following the cancellation of their detective TV series Diamonds, its married stars, Mike (Nicholas Campbell) and…
1 9 8 6 – 1 9 9 0 (Canada/UK) 100 x 30 minute episodes In the early 1800s, widowed Doctor James Campbell (Malcolm Stoddard) is wrongfully accused of killing the…
1 9 8 3 – 1 9 9 1 (Canada) 85 x 30 minute episodes Deadly Nightmares – originally titled The Hitchhiker – was an adult anthology series of cautionary…
The bittersweet story of a Jewish boy from Montreal struggling up out of the ghetto, using any and every means he can lay his hands on. It is a riveting…
OUR LATEST FACEBOOK POSTS
Can't see this doll being reintroduced any time soon 😳
Sadistic and child abuse.
This is very sad news. Jack Lee was a great unsung hero of the power pop world, and The Nerves were a great band that also featured Peter Case (who went on to bigger things with The Plimsouls) and Paul Collins (who headed up his own successful power pop band, The Beat).
Jack Lee, Nerves Singer and Writer of Blondie Hit ‘Hanging on the Telephone,’ Dies at 71
variety.com
Jack Lee, who co-fronted the influential L.A. band the Nerves in the late 1970s and saw his songs turn into major hits for Blondie and Paul Young, died May 26 in Santa Monica, Calif. at age 71. His…
Vale Cynthia Weil. One of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century.
www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/songwriter-cynthia-weil-death-music-b2350742....
Happy 81st to Anita Harris 🫶Happy 81st Birthday to Anita Harris, born 3rd June 1942 in Somerset, England. She is an all round entertainer, singer/dancer/actress.
As a child she was a keen ice skater, and just before her 16th birthday she was talent spotted and invited to join a dance troupe and headed for Las Vegas, performing 3 shows a night. She stayed 6 months.
While she enjoyed dancing, singing was always her first love. Upon returning to England she joined the Cliff Adams Singers and was with them for 3 years. In 1961 she made her first recordings with the John Barry Seven. Possibly two of her best known recordings are 'Just Loving You' and 'We're Going on a Tuppenny Bus Ride'.
In the 1960's She appeared in a two 'Carry On' films. On TV in the 70's among other things she was on David Nixon's Magic Box for 8 years as his assistant. She continued working on stage and screen with entertainment legends – everyone from Bob Monkhouse and Tommy Cooper to Bruce Forsyth, Morecambe and Wise and Harry Secombe. In 1986 she made her debut in 'legitimate theatre' playing Grizabella in the West End production of Cats.
Today she continues to perform on stage and in cabaret with her band. You can hear her recordings on
serenade-radio.com the Best in Easy Listening.
I remember using whatever one was cherry-flavoured.
It was Dr Mopp for me.
www.raleigh.co.uk/gb/en/look-whos-back/
www.raleigh.co.uk
They will be available to buy online and at Raleigh Bikes Nottingham. The online sale will have a virtual queuing system in place and at Raleigh Bikes Nottingham there will be a queueing system outsid...
FIREBALL XL-5 begins this Saturday, 3rd June at 2:35pm on #TalkingPicturesTV So here's five fascinating facts about the Gerry Anderson's 'Supermarionation' programme!
1 - The series was inspired by the 'space race' between the USSR and the USA. 2 - 39 episodes were made in black and white. 3 - The series premiered on ATV London in October 1962. 4 - The voice of Steve Zodiac was provided by actor Paul Maxwell. 5 - The famous theme song was sung by Don Spencer.
www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/31/bruce-springsteen-review-murrayfield-stadium-edinburgh
That's why they call him "The Boss".
Bruce Springsteen review – after half a century, still having the time of his life
www.theguardian.com
Springsteen and the E Street Band feel like a bar band that can’t believe their luck to be playing a stadium – and the enthusiasm is infectious
Sad news. We wish her well 🤗
Dame Esther Rantzen says her lung cancer is in stage four
www.bbc.co.uk
The TV presenter and Childline founder says she is on a new form of medication for the disease.Oh no 😢 in my prayers Esther xxx
Didn’t she want to put the unvaccinated into camps during lockdown…
That’s not cool 😞
Another great voice has left us 😪
Tina Turner: Music legend dies at 83
www.bbc.co.uk
Her unmistakable voice on hits like The Best and What's Love Got to Do With It made her a superstar.I found out on tiktok before I saw it on any news channels..
Nostalgia Central covers the period 1950 to 1999 and contains some words and references which reflect the attitudes of those times and which may be considered culturally sensitive, offensive or inappropriate today.
