The Night Mail

[rockershovel]

2 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

 

I don't think so. He was one of the leads in Hello Dolly in 1969 but Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em didn't start until 1973.

 

Dave

I'd regard it as a venture into the expanding world of television. This didn't work out and he returned to the stage. 

 

In some ways you could regard it as a fore-runner to Mr Bean. 

[Tony_S]

43 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

couple of my great-uncles were in the Home Guard

My father was in the Home Guard. This was the Rover factory Home Guard. He wasn’t old enough to join the Army but did as soon as he was 18. 

[SM42]

Father was also Home Guard and spent many an hour firewatching from the roof of the local cinema. 

 

He didn't get called up till late 1944 ,I think , and saw out the war in Libya and Palestine in the REME. 

 

Not enough service to get his WW2 medal but was in Palestine when the King David hotel was bombed and was lucky not to be there that day.

 

 Andy

[Oldddudders]

21 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

 

I don't think so. He was one of the leads in Hello Dolly in 1969 but Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em didn't start until 1973.

 

Dave

I think he had already been involved with That Was The Week That Was, or possibly its successor, Not So Much A Programme, More A Way Of Life.

 

EDIT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_So_Much_a_Programme,_More_a_Way_of_Life

Edited May 3 by Oldddudders

[Steamport Southport]

Mention of Aussie comedy and no mention of Let The Blood Run Free?

 

One of the funniest programmes ever. Spoof of all those boring hospital dramas such as St Elsewhere, General Hospital and The Young Doctors, but with The Young Ones style comedy thrown in.

[Oldddudders]

9 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

I think he had already been involved with That Was The Week That Was, or possibly its successor, Not So Much A Programme, More A Way Of Life.

 

EDIT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_So_Much_a_Programme,_More_a_Way_of_Life

ISTR that in his Byron character MC did a piece which included the implausible line "Then this pussy rushes in, looking as if she'd just been raped".  This rather implied rape was a temporary inconvenience, rather like someone standing on your toe. I am sure that would never be broadcast today. 

[Steamport Southport]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

I think that Keeping up Appearances is being shown on Drama at present. It has often puzzled me as to why someone as talented as Michael Crawford, who could sing, dance and act with the best of them, allowed himself to be part of something as dire as Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, which must be in line for the award of the worst sitcom (allegedly) ever produced. Facile, ridiculous and quite unfunny would be reasonable descriptors I think. 

 

Dave

 

 

 

I liked it as a young kid. But when I looked back at it years later I realised it was just the stunts that I liked. Betty was particularly annoying.

 

 

Another one that doesn't stand up well at all is Happy Days.

[polybear]

6 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

Another one that doesn't stand up well at all is Happy Days.

 

Bear quite liked that at the time; apparently Henry W. was the first name in the frame to play the lead in "Grease" but turned it down.  Somehow I can't imagine The Fonz doing the songs though.....

[Northmoor]

10 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

The global merchant fleet today would stop overnight without Asian seafarers. It's a cliche but not that far off the mark that Indian officers with Filipino and Indonesian ratings keep the fleet moving.

A fellow student in Liverpool in the early 90s was ex-Merch and this was when the sinking of the Derbyshire was getting a lot of attention locally.  He commented with a slightly weary cynicism that bulk carriers like that were sinking at a rate of about once every six weeks (don't know if that was correct?), but it got no attention in Britain (or anywhere else in the Western world) because almost all the lost crew members were Philipino.

[Northmoor]

39 minutes ago, polybear said:

Bear quite liked that at the time; apparently Henry W. was the first name in the frame to play the lead in "Grease" but turned it down.  Somehow I can't imagine The Fonz doing the songs though.....

Henry Winkler is a very interesting man who as US entertainment stars go, is not too far behind Dolly Parton for what he has done for children's education, specifically for children with dyslexia which he has himself.  I think he has the MBE for supporting similar schemes in the UK.

[Dave Hunt]

1 hour ago, Steamport Southport said:

Another one that doesn't stand up well at all is Happy Days.

 

Mention of Happy Days led my thought process to Ron Howard who starred  in the 1973 film American Graffiti, which was basically about a bunch of ex-high school kids in Modesto, California, in 1962, much of the film consisting of kids in hot rods cruising up and down Main Street. One night in the late '80s I happened to drive down the main street of Modesto and was amazed to apparently be in a scene from the film, surrounded by kids in hot rods cruising up and down. 

 

Dave

[J. S. Bach]

Hmmm, I just can not seem to get away from Polar Bears:

Somehow it just followed me home.

 

Edited May 3 by J. S. Bach

[J. S. Bach]

Anyway, Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[br2975]

10 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

For an outsiders view of pommy shows, I'd rate ....................................

 

.

"Married at First Sight Australia" - the biggest load of TV tat of all time.

.

It heralds 'modelling time' at chez br2975 - so it  does have a place in my life, and can't be all bad.

[br2975]

4 hours ago, SM42 said:

Father was also Home Guard and spent many an hour firewatching from the roof of the local cinema. 

 

.

My grandfather was a Corporal rifle instructor in the Home Guard, or more correctly the LDV  - Local Defence Volunteers, or as my grandmother would say to him 'Look Duck & Vanish'

.

His greatest initial problem was the lack of a rifle with which to train his comrades, and when that arrived, the lack of any ammunition.

.

When 'Dad's Army' first aired my grandfather described it as more a documentary than a comedy, as he recognised most of the characters from his own platoon.

.

During the Luftwaffe raids on Cardiff in January 1941, my grandfather was working ( close to a certain Hippo's then family seat ) at the Cardiff Gas Light & Coke Co. Grangetown gas works and spent the nights on top of a gasometer extinguishing German incendiary bombs as they landed.

.

As an 8yr old I Ionce asked him  'what if the gas holder had exploded ?"

.

"Well I wouldnt have known anything about it !"  He chuckled.

.

Ironically, it wasn't the Germans that killed him, but the gas works did, he died horribly of asbestosis after lagging pipes with wet asbestos paste, applied with his bare hands.

.

Edited May 4 by br2975

[BR60103]

15 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I was thinking more along the lines of:

 

'Kill 'em Bear!'

Sorry, you'e not allowed to notice that he's a bear.

 

[monkeysarefun]

39 minutes ago, br2975 said:

.

"Married at First Sight Australia" - the biggest load of TV tat of all time.

.

It heralds 'modelling time' at chez br2975 - so it  does have a place in my life, and can't be all bad.

 

Tell me about it! Theres a woman at work who is addicted to it and makes us put it on the telly when its replayed during the day. Luckily its at 12pm so  it gives me an excuse to get outside and get some sun.

[BR60103]

Most of the shows mentioned I've not seen.  There were very few British shows that made it over here and I didn't watch that much TV anyway.

They are even less likely now because Canadian broadcasting has an anti-anglo bias (unless it's Coronation Street).  Most of the ones I have seen are from US stations and consist of Summer Wine and Being Served. 

 

[jjb1970]

8 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Not to mention their total monopoly of the hospitality staff on cruise ships, at least the Olsen ones we patronise. Generally smiley, desperate to please. And you learn that the attractive young woman brining your Cava has a child hardly out of nappies at home in the Philippines, being looked after by granny. Off round the UK next week, calling at Belfast, Stornoway and Lerwick. 

 

As well as working on cruise ships there is a huge market for domestic maids in Asia which relies on young ladies from countries like the Philippines, Indonesia and Myanmar. Some of them look like they should still be at school, others are a bit older and have children at home. Some are treated extremely well and looked after, but there is an underside of abusive and cruel behaviour in some households which is shameful. 

[jjb1970]

5 hours ago, Northmoor said:

A fellow student in Liverpool in the early 90s was ex-Merch and this was when the sinking of the Derbyshire was getting a lot of attention locally.  He commented with a slightly weary cynicism that bulk carriers like that were sinking at a rate of about once every six weeks (don't know if that was correct?), but it got no attention in Britain (or anywhere else in the Western world) because almost all the lost crew members were Philipino.

 

He was correct. Well, I don't know about the figure of a loss every six weeks but bulk carriers were the problem child of the fleet with an awful casualty rate and virtually nobody outside the industry in the developed world was aware of it precisely because the crews lost were overwhelmingly from countries most would struggle to find on a map (not that I want to sound cynical).

 

Part of it is cargo related, liquefaction is a serious issue and even though there are requirements to mitigate the risk some cargo owners ignore them and some shipowners play fast and loose. P&I Clubs put a lot of emphasis on checking cargo reports and hatch cover seals etc but losses from liquefaction still happen. Part of it is structural, an issue which did penetrate the general media (briefly) was use of high tensile steels to reduce plate thickness and hull stresses can be very high when loading which can lead to cracking and catastrophic failure. And some bulk carriers end up at the bottom of the food chain, old ships owned by companies who really couldn't care less about safety serving a market looking for minimum cost transport with few questions. There's a section of the industry which uses port state control as an alternative to technical management. Ships operate until detained, they do enough to get them released and run to the next detention. OK they get black listed from some countries but they still have enough of a market to operate at a profit.

 

Another part of it may be complacency or a focus on more happening thing stuff. A bulk carrier is a big steel box with an engine at the back. That's glib and obviously a gross simplification but bulk carriers are simple ships and dashing young naval architects and marine engineers are desperately trying to make their mark in the industry by designing a slightly more efficient handymax bulk carrier. When I worked at LR all of their rules development, research and product development work was for alternative fuels, cruise ships, gas carriers, dynamic positioning and other higher value and more complex ships despite the fact everyone knew the problem was bulk carriers.

[jjb1970]

An example of blindness to tragedy elsewhere is the Herald of Free Enterprise and Dona Paz tragedies.

 

The Herald of Free Enterprise is rightly remembered in Britain as a great tragedy, and it was a key part of work which would lead to strengthened ferry safety regulations and the ISM Code. At around the same time as that tragedy the Filipino ferry Dona Paz hit a tanker and as a result over 4000 people died. Despite being massively worse in terms of loss of life almost nobody outside the Philippines has heard of the incident. 

[polybear]

5 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

Tell me about it!  There's a woman at work who is addicted to it and makes us put it on the telly when its replayed during the day. Luckily its at 12pm so  it gives me an excuse to get outside and get some sun.

 

"Makes you??"

 

What are you - Chimpy or Mouse?

 

Incidentally, are such marriages actually genuine and legally enforceable - and can the "other arf" bvgger off after a few days/weeks/months and then want half of everything?

 

[jamie92208]

12 hours ago, Darlington_Shed said:

 

You are a hippo of impeccable taste and discernment 👍

 

Isn't that statement a  double oxymoron.... 

 

11 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Saga cruise ships are similarly virtually 100% Philippino in the hospitality department. Our cabin stewardess looked to be in her early 30s and had two children at home being looked after by her mother. Her contract was for 8 months with no days off then 4 months at home and apparently she and her colleagues were relatively well looked after, including help for their families if in trouble. She said that she was lucky to work for Saga as the jobs were much valued.

 

Dave

On Holland America ships the food service guys are Indonesian but the drinks staff were Filipinos, mainly to avoid Muslims handling alcohol. It was interesting that if you complained about the food staff, some sort of liquid recompense was duly delivered by the drink's staff. 

 

Jamie

[monkeysarefun]

48 minutes ago, polybear said:

Incidentally, are such marriages actually genuine and legally enforceable - and can the "other arf" bvgger off after a few days/weeks/months and then want half of everything?

 

 

 

If you are asking that due to you weighing up  whether to go on it, just be aware you need to have a liking for sheilas with novelty  eyebrows and lips like a Blue Groper.

Edited May 4 by monkeysarefun

[Oldddudders]

8 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Mention of Happy Days led my thought process to Ron Howard who starred  in the 1973 film American Graffiti, which was basically about a bunch of ex-high school kids in Modesto, California, in 1962, much of the film consisting of kids in hot rods cruising up and down Main Street. One night in the late '80s I happened to drive down the main street of Modesto and was amazed to apparently be in a scene from the film, surrounded by kids in hot rods cruising up and down. 

 

"There's only so much oil in the ground
Sooner or later there won't be much around
Tell that to your kids while you're driving round downtown
That there's only so much oil in the ground."

 

Tower of Power early '70s.