CameronL Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 18 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said: Agreed! In our household the preferred viewing list was Morecambe and Wise The Two Ronnies The Good Life I would add Dave Allen to that list. 4 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIK Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 Jokes only on this thread - it shouldn't be hard to understand. Jokes have a mental twist, difficult to write comments instead and have a mental twist without losing the point. I'm sitting doing some bird watching on a beach at present but if I'm forced to send some more puns to discipline offenders I will leave no Tern Un-stoned. 3 1 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pH Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 4 hours ago, kevinlms said: A friend told me that he started work for an Australian bank, on the day decimal currency became the standard - 5 years before the UK.One of his duties as the junior, was to take funds, presumably cheques and currency as required to other branches in Melbourne CBD. At the age of 17, I worked for a short time as a junior porter on Paisley St James station. One of my duties was to take the previous day’s takings in a sealed leather cash bag to a bank branch near Gilmour Street station. I was locked into an empty compartment on a Glasgow-bound train. I then had to unlock the door in Gilmour Street (I never worked out who might get in between the stations) and walk through the station and a short distance on the street to get to the bank, carrying in my hand this unobtrusive(!!) leather bag with brass fittings. 3 hours ago, Jinty3f said: … my mentor and I were bundled to the front entrance, by the accountant, out into the street, each issued with a truncheon and a sort of flimsy tin helmet so large that it covered my eyes, and instructed to defend the bank’s money / personnel / customers against any attempts at robbery. The next year, I worked a summer as a bus conductor. Each afternoon, the previous day’s taking for the garage were taken to the bank. That were transported in heavy metal chests, with carrying handles on each end. When loaded, they took two people to carry each one, and with some difficulty. An inspector would round up some spare drivers and conductors from the canteen (never conductresses, though quite a few of them would have been pretty capable!) and the chests would be loaded on a back-door bus with platform doors and everyone would ride off to the bank. The bus would be stopped with the doors directly opposite the bank’s door, two lines would be formed across the pavement (sidewalk) and the chests carried between the lines into the bank. No extra defensive weapons issued - the usual Setright ticket machines on lengthened leather straps (grab the strap and swing the machine as necessary) being deemed sufficient. 8 hours ago, PhilJ W said: Back then there was a lot of Victorian and Edwardian coins around. Some of them had a letter or letters alongside the year and if not too badly worn were sought after by collectors. So we separated them out and a coin dealer used to come round every few weeks to buy what we had found, paying double the face value or more. My best find was a George III halfpenny which although quite worn bagged me 2/-. Unusual coins were a problem in bus fares. You got pretty good at picking out and handing back a Jersey/South African/other foreign coin out of a handful of coins given to you. If you tried to hand one in to the cash office at the end of a shift, they would do their own check and ding you for it. The only exception I remember was a conductress finding a ‘cartwheel’ penny which she kept, had polished and lacquered and mounted in a pendant. 8 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post JZ Posted October 11, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted October 11, 2023 2 22 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted October 11, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 11, 2023 Speaking of large quantities of coins. My father was car parks manager for The London Borough of Havering during the 1970's. Most tickets were issued by coin slot machines which were able to distinguish any foreign coins* which were diverted to a box in the bottom of the machine and not returned to the person trying to use them. The banks didn't like changing coins and the council wasn't interested so if any member of staff was going abroad for a holiday if he or she was lucky they had a bit of extra spending money for their holiday. *At the time British coins were the only ones that did not contain ferrous metal (iron) so it only needed a magnet to divert any foreign coins placed in the slot. My dad brought home a bag full of Deutschmarks just before we went on a trip to Germany. They were the same size as the then 10p coin but worth about six times as much. 5 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hroth Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 3 minutes ago, PhilJ W said: Speaking of large quantities of coins. My father was car parks manager for The London Borough of Havering during the 1970's. Most tickets were issued by coin slot machines which were able to distinguish any foreign coins* which were diverted to a box in the bottom of the machine and not returned to the person trying to use them. The banks didn't like changing coins and the council wasn't interested so if any member of staff was going abroad for a holiday if he or she was lucky they had a bit of extra spending money for their holiday. *At the time British coins were the only ones that did not contain ferrous metal (iron) so it only needed a magnet to divert any foreign coins placed in the slot. My dad brought home a bag full of Deutschmarks just before we went on a trip to Germany. They were the same size as the then 10p coin but worth about six times as much. On the other hand, around the time of decimalisation, people I knew found that an old halfpenny worked as well as a 2p in a coin slot machine... 3 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pH Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 8 minutes ago, PhilJ W said: My dad brought home a bag full of Deutschmarks just before we went on a trip to Germany. They were the same size as the then 10p coin but worth about six times as much. It would have been more profitable to take a bag full of 10p pieces to Germany, would it not? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JZ Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Hroth said: On the other hand, around the time of decimalisation, people I knew found that an old halfpenny worked as well as a 2p in a coin slot machine... Remember the Wrigley's machines that gave you an extra packet every fourth time? Bargain at an old ha'penny. Edited October 11, 2023 by JZ 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JZ Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 2 minutes ago, pH said: It would have been more profitable to take a bag full of 10p pieces to Germany, would it not? Used many 10 pence pieces in beer machines at service stations to and from Hockenheim. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted October 11, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 11, 2023 15 minutes ago, pH said: It would have been more profitable to take a bag full of 10p pieces to Germany, would it not? But these were freebees. 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steamport Southport Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 2 hours ago, CameronL said: I would add Dave Allen to that list. Good God no! Pun intended. Dave Allen was a comic genius. Apart from Mr Barker and Mr Corbett, the other two programmes were about as funny as root canal surgery. That's not to say I don't like the actors from The Good Life, just not in that awful programme. Even Richard Briers hated it! Morecambe and Wise were about as funny as Mike and Bernie Winters. Not at all. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 2 hours ago, Steamport Southport said: Good God no! Pun intended. Dave Allen was a comic genius. Apart from Mr Barker and Mr Corbett, the other two programmes were about as funny as root canal surgery. That's not to say I don't like the actors from The Good Life, just not in that awful programme. Even Richard Briers hated it! Morecambe and Wise were about as funny as Mike and Bernie Winters. Not at all. Yes, the two Ronnies were very good. I was recently watching some Morecambe and Wise clips, not very funny to me now although I daresay that they were hilarious in their time. Fenella Fielding helped. Now, for someone really funny, check out Peter Ustinov, he had me in stitches, particularly his Dutch art historian sketch. John 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted October 12, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 12, 2023 8 hours ago, brossard said: Yes, the two Ronnies were very good. When they were good, they were very very good, but when they were bad they were as toe-curlingly crass as anything of the time. 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold SHMD Posted October 12, 2023 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 12, 2023 Mr Andrew Preview... 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hroth Posted October 12, 2023 Share Posted October 12, 2023 8 minutes ago, SHMD said: Mr Andrew Preview... "I worked with Morcambe and Wise, and look what happened to me..." Ting-Ting!!! 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard Lamb Posted October 12, 2023 Share Posted October 12, 2023 Oh dear. 2 2 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hroth Posted October 12, 2023 Share Posted October 12, 2023 14 minutes ago, Bernard Lamb said: Oh dear. They never show that on police chase shows.... 1 2 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CameronL Posted October 12, 2023 Share Posted October 12, 2023 I was round at my daughter's house last night and I asked her if she had a newspaper. "Dad, you're so old fashioned," she replied. "Use my iPad instead." That spider didn't know what hit it. 1 1 1 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted October 12, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 12, 2023 47 minutes ago, Bernard Lamb said: Oh dear. Undercover police officer? 1 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Popular Post ian Posted October 12, 2023 RMweb Gold Popular Post Share Posted October 12, 2023 31 minutes ago, PhilJ W said: Undercover police officer? Special branch! 1 19 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steamport Southport Posted October 12, 2023 Share Posted October 12, 2023 3 hours ago, Compound2632 said: When they were good, they were very very good, but when they were bad they were as toe-curlingly crass as anything of the time. I think Ronnie Barker in particular didn't quite understand that they had become very dated by the 1980s. Those comedy variety shows were very much on the way out. There was a whole generation that really just saw this. Contains very mild innuendo. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve1 Posted October 12, 2023 Share Posted October 12, 2023 At least the Two Ronnies were funnier than Benny Hill and Charlie Drake. Mind you, that’s a pretty low bar to start with… steve 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steamport Southport Posted October 12, 2023 Share Posted October 12, 2023 Just now, steve1 said: At least the Two Ronnies were funnier than Benny Hill and Charlie Drake. Mind you, that’s a pretty low bar to start with… steve That's surely down to personal taste. Benny Hill was vastly funnier than The Two Ronnies IMO and I quite like the Ronnies. I notice they never broke America or anywhere else outside the UK (maybe Australia), Benny Hill did. How many number one hits did they have? Ernie was one of the biggest selling singles of all time. Benny Hill was worth £15 million when he died. Must have been doing something right! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted October 12, 2023 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 12, 2023 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said: That's surely down to personal taste. Benny Hill was vastly funnier than The Two Ronnies IMO and I quite like the Ronnies. I notice they never broke America or anywhere else outside the UK (maybe Australia), Benny Hill did. How many number one hits did they have? Ernie was one of the biggest selling singles of all time. Benny Hill was worth £15 million when he died. Must have been doing something right! i started watching one of his shows on the ‘That’s TV’ channel which has loads of 70s comedy playing and it was dire, had to turn it off, similarly they played some lesser known M+W and 2 ronnies series and they are hard going, even dare I say it Tommy Cooper doesn’t hold up any more, ok you have the brilliant classic sketches you see on the talking heads type documentaries but the day to day filler sketches are cringy, as they say ‘it was a different time’ people were obviously more easily amused by the likes of a rubber chicken prop back then! Edited October 12, 2023 by big jim 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steamport Southport Posted October 12, 2023 Share Posted October 12, 2023 Very much so. Unfortunately most of the modern comedians are woeful. I have noticed the ones I do like that are on the circuit have been around for quite a while. I'm afraid I want comedy that makes me laugh, even just inside. I don't want a two hour political rant! "Oh XYZ is an "expletive". Crowd cheers. That's not comedy, and certainly not funny. Most of us want to get away from all that as that's all we see in the papers, on TV and down the pub. 1 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now