Phew! What a Scorcher!

Monday. 6.45 a.m.Oh, dear! I think I've pinched a headline from some tabloid newspaper, possibly The Sun, for my latest blog post title. I could have chosen something better, but as it's so good and appropriate, it can stay as it is.

Watching Good Morning Britain, ITV's answer to BBC Breakfast. Richard Madeley has taken over from Piers Morgan, who walked out in disgust over some racist comment, but I'm not sure what happened exactly. I am rather sick of the BBC's 'we know best' style of journalism, which is why I have decided to watch this today.

What I find crazy is that the BBC sold off Television Centre in White City. Meanwhile, ITV closed their studio down on the Thames, formerly home of London Weekend Television, so that it could be upgraded, bought into the digital age, and ITV moved Good Morning Britain to Television Centre, which has been revamped, with offices and flats in part of the site, but some of the studio space which remains (not sure how many are left since the refurbishing.) is rented by the BBC, through their Studioworks subsidiary, and several independent television companies rent the space for their own productions, many for both BBC and ITV. A really crazy situation and I can't see what the point of all this is. ITV must have sold off quite a few of their studio space all around Britain when the various local companies that used to make up the federated ITV when they all merged to become ITV p.l.c. back in the early 2000s. Not only is it crazy that ITV moved to  Television centre, but BBC Breakfast decamped to Media City in Salford. When Granada used to produce 'This Morning', (yes, I know. This is getting confusing, because Richard Madeley used to present that show with Judy Finnigan as the original presenters.) it used to come from Victoria Docks in Liverpool and THEY moved the whole thing to the former LWT studios on the River Thames when it became the main centre for ITV plc. Confused? You will be after all this! What was the point of all this? Just to decentralise the BBC, make it less London-centric. As for ITV, it's just confused and lost it's heart  and soul,when it was made into one conglomeration of all the smaller companies which it was made up  of, since its inception in 1955.

I've produced a second batch of scones. I made a double quantity of the dough and cut it with a larger, fluted cutter. I set the oven temperature a bit higher than last time and baked them for fractionally longer than the first batch and they came out slightly more golden, but much better generally. I have to say, still well cooked, centre fluffy and the outside slightly crisp. Now stored in a tin. Unfortunately, because the kitchen is so warm, it's not an environment I can work in comfortably, even with the window open.

Tuesday. 6.25 a.m. Yet another bright and sunny morning. Again sitting here with Good Morning Britain on my television. 

Just read on the Daily Telegraph website about how the EU is threatening Britain over imports of sausages to Northern Ireland. It just sounds like something out of one of those brilliant Ealing Comedies, made in the 1950s. Or perhaps it reminds me of 'The Goodies' comedy series, with Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie and  Graham Garden, where they used to do very silly things. In one episode, where they sent up 'Northern' things, there was a scene where they played a game called 'Ekkey-Thump,' where they had to hit each other with black puddings. You probably wouldn't get away with it today, what with 'political correctness.' Probably the EU would put an end to it with some crazy directive. I don't think the EU bureaucrats would see the funny side. They have very little sense of humour,, or perhaps none. When did you ever see Angela Merkel laugh, or even break into a smile?

Later. 3.25 p.m. I've been out with Alfie. I was somewhat shocked by the amount of litter as we walked around Oldbrook Green. Going along the path on the Evans Gate side of the Green, there is a couple of picnic tables, and under and on the top, I see a certain amount of discarded packets of what look like crisps, burger boxes and drinks cans. A crow is walking around on the grass and it suddenly hops onto the table. It pecks around and then discovered some discarded snack, what look like Hoola Hoops. It manages to pick a couple up in its beak and flies off and lands on the grass nearby to eat the Hoola Hoops. It returns to the table for another couple of the aforementioned snack. It again flies to the grass, with the Hoola Hoops in its beak. I should say it's quite a difficult operation to pick them up and fly with them. A second crow comes along and must have discovered what the first crow was doing. It seems as if the second crow had learnt from the first crow, that it could get a free meal because some stupid human couldn't be bothered to put their rubbish in the litter bin which is close by. It's just fascinating watching all this going on, as I sat on a bench, but, unfortunately, Alfie isn't going to allow this. Sitting on a bench isn't interesting enough for him, so we leave the crows and walk on around the Green. Just fascinates me watching these highly intelligent birds. Alfie finds sniffing and stopping to have a wee far more entertaining!

Later. Just leant that Twitty and Unbalanced have said that lockdown restrictions being lifted should not happen until at least the beginning of July. I do hope we can just get out of this situation a good deal sooner rather than later. I for one have lost at least 18 months of my life. I haven't seen my grandchildren since Christmas 2019. I think by the time I get to see them they'll be starting university. I haven't seen the newest one at all, born on 10th May. People who don't have the vaccine are being irresponsible and selfish. They may not catch covid, but they are still likely to spread the virus without realising it. No excuses to not have it when offered.

Listening to Radio Four- Part 2

Not only is there all manner of drama productions on Radio Four, but an amazing array of comedy shows and panel games. I think the main advantage over television with radio is that you can be doing other things while it is on, such as having a bath, lying in bed or driving a car, doing the washing-up, ironing your clothes or eating your dinner. Television requires a certain amount of concentration to get the best out of it, although people do also surf the internet or use their mobiles whilst watching television, such as Tweeting or using Facebook, but generally, radio does have the advantage. I love shows such as 'Just A Minute' which has been running for around 50 years. It's such a simple idea (for those who don't know the show it involves panel members talking on a subject given by the chairman, Nicholas Parsons, and they have to speak for 60 seconds without hesitating, repetition or deviation and the others on the panel have to spot these mistakes. It must be quite difficult. Over the years the panelists have included Kenneth Williams, Derek Nimmo, Tim Rice, Julian Clary,  Shelia Hancock, Stephen Fry and a host of others. Sometimes the panelists get quite heated, but generally, the shows go smoothly. Nicholas Parsons, which is well over 90, has been the chairman for all those years. I don't actually think 'chairman' is the right chose of word for what he does, he has to keep the panelists in order. Not an easy job. I reckon I've been listening to it on and off since it began, but I can remember it starting sometime in the mid-1960's when I was living at home at Malting Farm. It's always entertaining and amusing.

Frank Muir and Denis Norden were contestants on a panel game called 'My Word.' It ran for years on Radio Four, and probably on the Home Service as it was before it was re-branded in the 1960's. This show was about words (well, the title was imaginative!) At the end of the programme both these contestants had to tell a story, using a well-know phrase or saying, which was given them by the compere. This saying had to be part of the 'punch-line' or closing sentence of the story. When it ended, the contestant who had the longest applause from the studio audience won. I just loved this show. I've always had a love of words, and these two men, who were major scriptwriters, working on BBC radio comedy shows such as 'Take It From Here' which starred Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley, and June Whitfield. It was a sketch show, best remembered for 'The Glums' section, with Dick Bentley as the dimwitted Ron Glum, June Whitfield as his ever-so-patient girlfriend Eth and Jimmy Edwards as Ron's father. Frank Muir became  Assistant Head of Light Entertainment at the BBC and then Head of Comedy at London Weekend Television and Denis Norden introduced the long-running television show 'It'll Be Alright On The Night' which consisted of clips of out-takes and bloopers from television shows and films. I think the best way to describe their comedy would be 'droll' and probably not appreciated by today's audiences as being somewhat tame. Perhaps so, but they had a wit and originality which is missing from today's entertainment, which seems dead-set on being quite offensive (don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with a lot of modern comedy, but so much is just out-and-out offensive and crude. A double entendre is one thing, but being crude is another. Using bad language to get is laugh is just cheap. We don't appear to have any boundaries today, anything goes, which is a shame. Muir and Norden then went on to be involved in 'My Music' which used the format of 'My Word' but using music as the theme. Steve Race was the compere of that show.

When I was at Mander College in Bedford in the late 1960's, a friend of mine on the course came to visit me at home and introduced me to 'The Goon Show.' His father had recorded the original broadcasts on to reel-to-reel tape (actually illegal, but never mind. I think everyone did this at one time or other.) and he had transferred these recordings onto the then newly-introduced format of tape cassette. I was able to listen to some of them and was immediately hooked. I just loved the surreal humour of those episodes, probably first broadcast in the 1950's. The characters, played by Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan (who also wrote most of the scripts, along with Eric Sykes.) really captivated me and I have been a fan ever since. I have been a fan of Spike Milligan ever since. He's been called 'The Grandfather of Alternative Comedy' and influenced the Monty Python style of comedy.

I got hooked on the crazy comedy of another radio show called 'I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again', which had John Cleese, Bill Oddie, Graham Garden, Jo Kendal and co in it. This ran from the early 1960's into the 1970's and some of the performers went on to write such shows as 'Fawlty Towers' and from 'The Goodies' on BBC television. They began their careers at Oxford and Cambridge Universities and performed in'The Footlights' revues. I recorded a lot of these shows onto audio cassette and replayed them endlessly until the tapes wore out. Cassettes might be the latest technology in the 1960's, but they weren't very reliable. The tape was extremely thin and often got twisted inside the horrible little plastic cases. The longer the running time, the thinner the tape and as a result, the more likely they were to cause problems. I had a Philips cassette player, which must have been one of the first cassette players on the market.

We've now got digital radio. I won a rather smart Roberts radio, courtesy of Classic FM. It was around 11-12 years ago. It sits near our bed. We listen to Radio 4 Extra on it. They broadcast what I can best call 'back catalogue' or 'archive' material on the channel. It was originally called Radio Seven. I'm not sure why it was re-branded as Radio 4 Extra. Perhaps because most of what it broadcasts originated on Radio 4. They have old episodes of such shows as 'Round The Horne', 'The Goons', 'The Navy Lark' as well as crime series such as 'Sherlock Holmes' (there are quite a few radio versions of the stories, going back several decades.) As well as the occasional documentary and play. It seems to run on a 12-hour cycle, which means it can run 24 hours a day. 'Desert Island Discs' is played on Sunday evenings at 9.15. As this is a series which has been going since around 1942 it could run almost indefinitely. Also, other comedy shows which are on earlier in the week on Radio 4, such as 'Just A Minute' and 'I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue.'