Britain is no country for old men

Is Britain no country for a controversial old historian called David Starkey ?

2012-03-03T10:07:00.000-08:00

David Starkey is a 67 year historian and specialist in Tudor History whose appearance on the tv programme, 'Question Time' last night, provoked an article in the 'Daily Mail' entitled :

"We should never have liberated France": David Starkey courts yet more controversy by claiming nations should be left to free themselves from oppression

It made the following points, that he :

* has become as well known for his acid-tongued outbursts as for his historical insights and faced calls to be dropped as a BBC panellist after his latest outrageous appearance on 'Question Time'.

* said that France resented Britain and the U.S.A. for liberating it from Nazi occupation, adding: "People don’t like being freed."

* prompted a backlash from viewers, who branded his performance ‘rude’, ‘intolerant’ and ‘offensive’.

* has previously been accused of racism after describing Scotland, Wales and Ireland as "feeble little countries" on the BBC1 panel programme and blaming ‘black culture’ for the riots that swept the country last August.

His argument was that :

The West should not intervene in Syria because nations should free themselves from oppression. "Humanitarian intervention is almost always disastrous. Let me give you an example, it’s called France. You will remember Britain and America liberated France. What thanks did we get from them? The French have spent the last 40 years trying to obliterate the shame by doing everything they can to damage Britain and America. People don’t like being freed, they mistake liberators for conquerors."

This provoked his shocked host, David Dimbleby, to ask if he was suggesting Britain and the Allies should not have acted to save France in 1944 ?
"No, I’m not David. We didn’t go into France to liberate France, we went into France to destroy Nazi Germany."

Judge for yourself :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jLGTX_C488

Britain is still a country for and says "Good Luck" to a very old crooner called Arnold Dorsey aka Engelbert Humperdinck

2012-03-02T09:21:00.002-08:00

An article in 'The Gaurdian' today was entitled :

Engelbert Humperdinck rides to Britain's rescue at Eurovision

Apparently, it is 15 years since Britain won the 'Eurovision Song Contest' and the BBC will turn the clock back in its bid to break the embarrassingly long losing streak at this year's song contest by putting the 75 year old Engelbert forward as the country's contestant in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku.

Englebert who divides his time between Los Angeles and Leicester, said :

That it was an "absolute honour" to have been chosen to represent his country. "I'm excited and raring to go and want the nation to get behind me."

Katie Taylor, the BBC's 'Head of Entertainment and Events', said:
"Not since the 70's have we had such an established international musical legend represent the nation. Engelbert's experience leaves us in no doubt that he will be able to deliver a standout performance in front of 120 million viewers worldwide."

His song will be produced by Grammy award-winning Martin Terefe and co-written with Sacha Sharbek, who co-wrote James Blunt's 'You're Beautiful'

What you possibly didn't know about Englebert, that he :

* was named Arnold, one of ten children born in Madras, India, the son of British Army officer Mervyn Dorsey and his Indian wife who moved to Leicester in England, when he was 10.

* had an interest in music and learnt the saxophone, played in nightclubs in the 1950's, tried singing when he was 17 and his impression of Jerry Lewis prompted friends to begin calling him 'Gerry Dorsey,' a name he worked under for almost a decade.

* did his 'national service' in the British Army during the mid 1950's and after discharge, got his first chance to record a song with Decca in 1958 called "I'll Never Fall in Love Again," which was not a hit.

* worked the nightclubs until 1961, was stricken with tuberculosis, recovered and in 1965, teamed up with his former roommate, Gordon Mills , the manager of singer Tom Jones, changed his name to Engelbert Humperdinck, after the 19th century opera composer.

* in 1967, saw his version of 'Release Me' reach 'number one' in Britain, keeping The Beatles 'Strawberry Fields / Penny Lane' from the top slot and spent 56 weeks in the Top 50 in the year Sandie Shaw won Eurovision for Britain with 'Puppet on a String.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCZO9xeYA8g

* earned a large following of female fans, including the young Princess Anne, who called themselves 'Humperdickers' and had success with the ballads, There Goes My Everything' and 'The Last Waltz' and gained the reputation as a 'crooner'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBiepqrfsS0

* sold more than 150 million albums, received 4 Grammy nomionations, a Golden Globe and 63 gold and 24 platinum records and after his 60's heyday played as many as 250 gigs around the world.

So Britain's old men say : " Good luck Arnold ! We'll be rooting for you !"

Britain is still a country where old men called Bishops of the Church of England make the laws of the land

2012-03-01T13:18:00.001-08:00

Britain is one of the world's most secular societies, where only 7% ever go to church in a year, only 1.9% on any Sunday yet 26 bishops of the Church of England, all men and mostly old, sit in the 'House of Lords', are Christian by religion and represent a 'part' of the christian spectrum in Britain.
Most of them are post Second World War baby boomers and in their 60's with 5 of them below 60 and the youngest at 56.
Known as the 'Lords Spiritual', they read Christian prayers at the start of each daily meeting and play an active role in making the laws which govern all citizens. Other Christians like Catholics and Methodist along with Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Buddhists have no overt voice.

They have been there for a long time. Christian leaders have had a hand in law making since before the formation of the Church of England when, prior to the 11th century along with feudal landlords, they were regularly consulted by Saxon kings.

Their defenders today would argue that their presence in the Lords is an extension of their general vocation as bishops to preach God's word and to lead people in prayer. They provide an important independent voice and spiritual insight to the work of the House of Lords and, while they make no claims to direct representation, they seek to be a voice for all people of faith, not just Christians.

An image of King Edward I presiding over his parliament c.1300 with assembled Lords Spiritual on the left (Bishops in red with Abbots and Priors in black), Lords Temporal and members of the Commons on the right

An article appeared in the Gaurdian in 2010 entitled :

Goodbye to the bishops

The Lords is for people of all faiths and none: there is no space for reserved benches for the clergy

'Bishops in the Lords hold great sway over matters of life and death, most recently in organising to prevent right-to-die reform – against the will of 82% of voters. They helped engineer an exemption in the equalities bill to allow religious employers to discriminate against gays and others, though they run a third of all schools and increasing numbers of state-financed services, from hospices to care homes and day centres'.

The Bishop of Lichfield's maiden speech. Is this an old man in touch with Modern Britain and in particular the urban young ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJy0QrNo5zQ

Britain is no country for old men in hospital expecting to be treated with dignity and compassion

2012-02-29T09:29:00.002-08:00

An article in the 'Daily Mail' today was entitled :

You must not call an elderly patient 'dear': Doctors and nurses are urged to treat patients with more respect

When Sir Keith Pearson, the co-chair of the 'Commission on Improving Dignity in Care', says in its new report that : 'compassion' should be at the centre of hospital treatment', we can assume that this is not the case at the moment.

It observes what old men in Britain already knew that : an 'unthinking disregard' for the needs and aspirations of older people permeates British life, from the transport system and housing to the National Health Service.

By pointing out what hospital staff should refrain from when dealing with old men and women in their care, the Commission holds up a mirror to what is going on at present and that old men in hospital can expect to be :

* asked "how are we today dear?" and be referred to as a "bedblocker" if they are better but have no arrangements in place made for care their after hospital.

* referred by staff as, for example : ‘that stroke over there’ or ‘the fractured femur in that bay’.

* treated by doctors ‘acting like vets’ if they are suffering from dementia with one consultant admitting that 'you perhaps may not be treating them in the same way as someone else that you can talk to.’

* treated by a lack of kindness, compassion, dignity and respect since Care Service Minister, Paul Burstow has said: "Kindness and compassion, dignity and respect must be central to care, whoever provides it and wherever it is provided. "

* hand-fed when they are perfectly capable of feeding themselves and be denied a choice in what clothes they wear.

So, Old Men of Britain who have to stay in hospital after the Report's recommendations are put into practise you can expect to :

* be treated by hospital staff whose 'values' have been considered alongside their academic qualifications and have been given compulsory personality tests before being given their jobs to ensure they will treat you with care with respect.

* have your life stories at the ends of your beds alongside your medical notes to encourage staff to think of you as 'people', not 'bodies' on the ward.

* have your families come in at meal times to help feed you and assist with washing and taking you to the toilet.

The Golden Age of hospital care for old men in Britain is at hand !

Britain is no country for old airline passengers like David Jones who make quips to security staff at Gatwick Airport

2012-02-28T08:44:00.000-08:00

As ex-fireman and former member of the Household Cavalry, 67 year old David Jones,
passed through Gatwick Airport last sunday, en route to Portugal with his two daughters, he said he experienced an "Orwellian nightmare" when he :

* approached security after a Muslim passenger ahead of him, who had her face almost completely covered by a hijab, had passed through without showing her face.

* was asked to remove the scarf he was wearing round his neck and after placing it and other belongings into a tray to pass through the X-ray scanner, said to an official :
"If I was wearing this scarf over my face, I wonder what would happen ?"

* was, to his astonishment, stopped by a member of the security staff on the other side of the checkpoint who was joined by another who was a Muslim who was "deeply distressed" by his comment and was asked how he would feel if labelled a 'drunken old duffer' ?
* denied his remark had been racist and was then joined by a British Airways duty manager who sided with the security staff.

* asked for a police officer and when he arrived, demanded that he should be arrested if there was a case against him and was told : "that we now live in a different time and some things are not to be said".

* had the matter eventually resolved when he agreed his remarks ‘could’ have been regarded as offensive.

* later said :
"What I said had nothing to do with the woman’s religion. It was the fact that her face was covered and she seemed to have passed through that part of the security process without showing it".

" I was adamant I was not going to apologise because I had done nothing wrong."

"Something like George Orwell’s 1984 now seems to have arrived in Gatwick airport. I feel my rights as an individual have been violated. What I underwent amounts to intimidation and detention. I am not opposed to having this level of security but it must be equal for all."

P.S. Department for Transport rules do not prevent people covering their faces at airports for religious reasons, although all passengers must show their faces to UK Border officials at passport control.

P.P.S.
David created the character for children, 'Fireman Sam' with a fellow fireman when they worked at Clerkenwell Fire Station in London.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqegkP92xcI

Britain's old men say to David, who lives in and runs a restaurant in Portugal :
" Stay in the Algarve Dave. Britain is no country for old men like you and your old fashioned gibes, once construed as having an 'ironic sense of humour'."

Britain is a country where old men learn from an old Canadian Oscar Winner called Christopher Plummer that 'everything comes to those who wait'.

2012-02-27T09:23:00.000-08:00

The old Canadian screen and stage actor, Christopher Plummer is 82 and has just become the oldest actor to win an Oscar, his first, for his supporting role in the movie, 'Beginners.'

Gracious in his acceptance speech he said :
"You're only two years older than me darling, where have you been all my life? I have a confession to make. When I first emerged from my mother's womb, I was already rehearsing my Academy thank-you speech, but it was so long ago, mercifully for you I've forgotten it, but I haven't forgotten who to thank."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljviv4Bobeg

Things you probably didn't know about Christopher that he :

* was born Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer in Toronto, Canada, where his father was secretary to the Dean of Sciences at McGill University.

* had a maternal great-grandfather who was the Canadian Prime Minister Sir John Abbott.

* studied to be a concert pianist, developed a love for the theatre at an early age, began acting in high school 'moved' after seeing Laurence Olivier's film 'Henry V' in 1944 and doubtless : "We few. We happy few. We band of brothers."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9fa3HFR02E

* started his screen career in 1958 when Sidney Lumet cast him as a young writer in 'Stage Struck'.

* remains best known for his 1965 portrayal of Captain Von Trapp, in 'The Sound of Music', a role he reportedly disliked but appeared for the 45th anniversary, with the full cast on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2010.
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/For-the-First-Time-in-45-Years-The-Sound-of-Music-Cast-Reunites_1

* in 'Triple Cross', put his Canadian background to good use with his spoken French.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-mvaz8aGN0

* in 2010 received his first 'Academy Award Nomination' for his portrayal of author Leo Tolstoy in 'The Last Station' and when interviewed said : "Well, I said it's about time! I mean, I'm 80 years old, for God's sake. Have mercy."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu4eD9_mZ5s

Parnassus.

Britain is a country where old men wallow in a nostalgic vision of a past which didn't exist

2012-02-26T09:34:00.002-08:00

Old men in Britain might have received a viral e-mail entitled :

'Congratulations to all my friends and family who were born in the 1940's, 50's, 60's and 70's
! ' http://old.tenerifeforum.com/showthread.php?t=27936&page=1
It goes on to marvel that they survived, despite having :

* mothers who smoked and/or drank.

* houses made of asbestos...

* taken aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, canned tuna.

* baby cots covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.
* no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets.

* ridden bikes with no helmets or shoes and risked hitchhiking.
* rode in cars without seat belts or air bags.

* drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.

* no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Nandos.

* were unable to be reached all day and were O.K.

It goes on to fold in : shops which closed at 6.00pm and weekends; playing outside all day long; go-carts made from old prams; tree houses, air guns and catapults on 10th birthdays; teachers who hit with canes and gym shoes; bullies who ruled the playground at school ; no Playstations, Nintendo Wii, X-boxes, video games , 999 channels on SKY, video/dvd films, mobile phones, personal computers, Internet or Internet chat rooms.

And the punchline :

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

The e mail elicited a response from Catherine Bennett in the 'Observer' today entitled :

Nostalgic for the 50s? Let me give you a history lesson

The anonymous author of the viral email eulogising the good old days seems to have a very bad memory

I found myself agreeing with Catheirine Bennett the 54 year old author when she said :

'Only someone very unsettled by the present could look back, in longing, on upbringings in the 40s, 50s or 60s that featured, for huge numbers, cold, illness, dirt, outside lavatories, pain, shameless bullying, bigotry, unending domestic drudgery, coal fires, hand-washing, hideous food, unending trudges to and from school, the 11+, abject secondaries, snobbery, corporal punishment, teachers who might be any or all of sadistic, lecherous, useless and idle, sexual ignorance, disapproval of difference, fear of pregnancy, illegal abortions and, to a degree that is today unimaginable, crushing boredom, occasionally relieved towards the end by Carry On! films or – with similarly lubricious commentary – Miss World'.

Britain is still a country for and says "Happy Birthday" to an old actor called Tom Courtenay who, when young, once won and then lost a long distance race

2012-02-25T07:55:00.002-08:00

Tom Courtenay is 75 today. I remember seeing him on black and white tv in 1963 in a play called 'The Lads'. I was 16 and Tom was 26 when he sang Trevor Peacock's title song : 'Mrs Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter' ( lyrics at the bottom of the page ).
Here he sings the song against a backdrop of clips from the film 'Billy Liar' which he made with the beautiful Julie Christie in the same year :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsaXnZSipBA

Things you possibly didn't know about Tom, that he :

* was born in Hull where his father was a boat painter, left school and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, made his stage début in Edinburgh in 1960 and took over from Albert Finney in the title role of 'Billy Liar' at the Cambridge Theatre in 1961 saying : "We both have the same problem, overcoming the flat harsh speech of the North."

* had his film debut in 1962 with 'Private Potter', directed by Finnish-born Caspar Wrede and starred in 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner', directed by Tony Richardson and played 'Billy' in 1963 and encapsulated the freedom of running in the countryside while at reform school
: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXMS5ZXKvYA
and the triumph of deliberately losing the race the Governor had pinned his heart on winning for the school, seen here by fast forwarding to the end of the movie :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-e-rmEAoIw

* starred in John Schlesinger's film version of 'Billy Liar' in 1963
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFdJ-Pr15S4

* was, for his role as the revolutionary leader Pasha Antipov in 'Doctor Zhivago' in 1965, nominated for an Academy Award for 'Best Supporting Actor'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6raF7kcJJs

* played opposite Dirk Bogard in 'King & Country' directed by Joseph Losey
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/413663/King-And-Country-Movie-Clip-They-Can-t-Shoot-Me.html
and had parts in the War films : 'Operation Crossbow' and 'The Night of the Generals'.

* from the mid-1960s concentrated more on stage work and at the 'Royal Exchange' and played a variety of roles, including in 1999 the lead in 'King Lear' and in 2001, 'Uncle Vanya'.

* had his memoir 'Dear Tom: Letters From Home', comprising those exchanged between him and his mother, interspersed with his own recollections of life as a young student actor in London in the early 1960s, published to critical accalaim in 2000.

P.S.
My post on Julie Christie's 71st birthday :
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=605625879464789847#editor/target=post;postID=512748658410238330

Mrs. Brown you've got a lovely daughter.
Girls as sharp as her are somethin' rare',
But it's sad, she doesn't love me now,
She's made it clear enough it ain't no good to pine .

She wants to return those things I bought her.
Tell her she can keep them just the same.
Things have changed, she doesn't love me now,
She's made it clear enough it ain't no good to pine.

Walkin' about, even in a crowd, well,
You'll pick her out, makes a bloke feel so proud.

If she finds that I've been round to see you,
Tell her that I'm well and feelin' fine.
Don't let on, don't say she's broke my heart,
I'd go down on my knees but it's no good to pine.

Walkin' about, even in a crowd, well,
You'll pick her out, makes a bloke feel so proud.

If she finds that I've been round to see you,
Tell her that I'm well and feelin' fine.
Don't let on, don't say she's broke my heart,
I'd go down on my knees but it's no good to pine.

Mrs. Brown you've got a lovely daughter.

Britain is a country where more and more old men have to live under the same roof as their children and grandchildren

2012-02-24T08:57:00.000-08:00

An article in the 'Daily Mail' today was entitled :

Austere times force return to Victorian trend of three generations living under one roof

It was based on a study called 'Changing Times' by Ancestry.co.uk and made the following points, that :

* the crippling cost of living means that 517,000 households have grandparents, parents and children living under the same roof, a rise of 7% in the past 5 years reaching levels last seen in Victorian times.

* By 2030 this figure is likely to have surpassed the peak of 608,000 in the mid 1850's.

* the increase has been largely driven by a shortage of affordable housing, leading to multiple generations being forced to move back in with each other.

* Miriam Silverman, of Ancestry.co.uk, said:
‘The report tells us how the boom that came with the Industrial Revolution led to some quite severe overcrowding – just as we are experiencing today.
It’s interesting to see how a property boom driven by economic growth can price millions out of the market, whether in industrial Manchester in the 1800s, or the suburbs of London today.’

Britain is no longer a country for and says "Goodbye" an old hero from the Second World War, 'Mr Resistance' MRD Foot

2012-02-23T08:09:00.000-08:00

Historian of the Second World War 'Special Operations Executive' and the French Resistance, MRD Foot has died at the age of 92.

His obituary in the ~~'Guardian'~~ described him as :
'a strikingly handsome man with intense intellectual energy and a remarkable fund of anecdotes and arcane information – imparted in a clipped, precise and almost lapidary style. He abhorred dullness and prolixity and following his father's advice he vowed never to retire and remained active, in research, writing and attending academic meetings until the final weeks of his life'.

Things you possibly didn't know about Michael, that he :

* was the son of a career soldier, educated at Winchester College and was at Oxford University and joined the British Army on the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 breaking off his studies at 19 to enlist in the Army.

* wanted to see action, joined the Special Air Service as an intelligence officer and was parachuted into France in 1944 after D-Day with the special mission to track down a notorious German interrogator called Bonner who had tortured some of the French SAS after capture.

* was ambushed with his men by German paratroopers, resisted interrogation without breaking and escaping from a holding camp for the third time sought refuge in an unsympathetic Breton farmhouse where the farmer's sons gave him a savage beating and after recapture by the Germans was returned to Britain in a prisoner exchange 'unfit for active service'.

* when he was given the task of 'estimating the number of military casualties' in the event of a full-scale invasion of Japan, suggested a figure of 1·5 million and so influenced the American decision to drop the atom bombs on Japanese cities which brought the War in the Pacific to an end.
* for his service with the French Resistance was awarded the 'Croix de Guerre' and ended the war with the rank of 'major'.

* after the War, returned to Oxford University , where, like so many others, he recalled being enchanted by the young writer, Iris Murdoch, who he found "absolutely captivating: she had personality and that wonderful Irish voice. Practically everyone who was up with Iris fell for her”.

* after graduating, taught History at Oxford, before becoming Professor of Modern History at Manchester University and as 'Official Historian of Special Operations Executive' wrote an accounts of its Wartime work which led to his becoming known as 'Mr Resistance'.

* in preparation for his book on the S.O.E, had his research 'authorised by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, was interviewed and grilled in the Foreign Office and given the go ahead to write on condition that :
- he told no one what he was doing, not even his wife
- wrote on the assumption that the secret 'MI6 did not exist'
- proceeded 'without the knowledge or co-operation of the men and women involved'.

* saw his book :
- provoke controversy and two libel suits for its portrayals of some SOE operatives.
- receive praise for the skill with which he linked the experience of agents on the ground with the organisational and geographical handicaps of controllers back in London.
- help to restore French self-respect by its support of the Wartime Resistance Movement.

* enjoyed the rare distinction of being the only person to be referred to by his real name in a John le Carré spy novel when George Smiley was asked :

“Are you MRD Foot?,” while he was posing as the Secret Service’s official historian as a cover while hunting for Karla’s 'mole'.

* resigned his University the post in 1973, explaining that he found the process of supervising students too like being a “parking meter attendant” and turned to full time writing and in his book 'Resistance' in 1976, described the active opposition to Nazism across the spectrum, from de Gaulle to the inmates of Auschwitz who contrived to infect their captors with lice carrying typhus and in 'Six Faces of Courage' in 1978, explored the qualities of character which made ordinary men and women choose the perils of resistance work.

* in 2001, published 'SOE in the Low Countries' when most of the participants were dead and revealed how, through incompetence and amateurism, more than 40 Dutch agents trained by SOE were parachuted, one by one, into the arms of the Germans, who then created an imaginary resistance network, calling for more money, agents and supplies to be dropped.

So " Goodbye MRD ". Britain shall not see your like again.

Fascinating video explaining SOE operations at about 6 minutes in and the Dutch agents at 16 minutes :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1ixDVQYoBk

Britain is no country for old men who still write letters to family and friends

2012-02-21T07:18:00.000-08:00

An article in 'The Telegraph' today was entitled :

Stamp price hike will have 'disastrous' effect on elderly and vulnerable

It centred on the fact that the Royal Mail wants to increase the cap on the cost of second class stamps from 36p to 55p from April.

So that means it will cost another 19p to send a letter by the cheapest post.

Members of Parliament on the 'Business, Innovation and Skills Committee' have announced an inquiry into the move and are today taking evidence from postal regulator Ofcom as well as Consumer Focus, the watchdog.

Adrian Bailey, Chairman of the committee, said :
"I think that certainly we will be questioning whether a potential 53% increase in the second class stamp and an uncapped increase in the first class stamp will have anything other than a disastrous impact on traffic.The people who will be hit will be the elderly, the vulnerable, and those on low incomes, but also small businesses as well."

It is true that the number of 'silver surfers' has increased rapidly in recent years and millions of old men now communicate through e-mails, but it is equally true that millions do not and still depend on letters to communicate with family, friends and business and left out and marginalised, Britain in increasingly no country for them.

Britain says "Happy Birthday" to an old film director called Mike Leigh who once camped with Keith and partied with Beverly

2012-02-20T12:30:00.000-08:00

Mike Leigh, writer and director of film and theatre is 69 today and old men remember, when he and they were young men and he made them laugh and wince in the 1970's.

I saw his 'Nuts in May' when it was broadcast on tv in 1976. It centres on a couple, childlike Candice Marie and eccentric Keith, who arrive at a campsite and pitch their tent in a quiet spot, suitable for 'appreciating nature's wonders', while keeping other human beings safely at arm's length. They have their routine rudely interrupted by Ray, a lone student, who camps down nearby and switches on his radio, which is treated by the couple as an unforgivable crime and they force him to turn it off.

Ray, patronised by Keith and Candice Marie and is forced to participate in a song at Keith's behest :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daEocG2dKCU

A 'Brummie' couple, Finger and Honky arrive on their motorbike, equipped with an army tent, football and a fondness for late-night drinking and when Finger's plans to light a fire to cook sausages, Keith objects as it contravenes the 'rules of the site' and resorts to violence in order to stop it :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCzKOYUvD3E

The following year Mike made 'Abigail's Party in which Beverly Moss invites her new neighbours, Angela and Tony over for drink and also neighbour Susan, divorced for three years, whose fifteen-year-old daughter Abigail is holding a party. She serves more drinks, the alcohol takes effect, flirts more and more overtly with Tony :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-hXUehyRlE&feature=related

Husband Laurence sits impotently by and after a tirade about art, suffers a fatal heart attack.

P.S. Beverly was played by Alison Steadman who was Mike's wife at the time.

Britain will be no country for sick old men in London during the Olympic Games

2012-02-19T09:46:00.000-08:00

An article on the front page of the 'Observer' today was entitled :

Olympic VIPs take fast lane leaving patients at risk

Games organisers accused of risking health of Londoners by banning ambulances without blue lights on from 'Games lanes'

It made the following points, that during the Olympic Games in London this summer :

* the Olympic stadium will be accessed by VIPs in 30 miles of 'Games lanes' to ensure that 'Olympic Family'- athletes, officials and sponsors, including Coca-Cola and McDonald's can travel quickly to events.

* ambulances will be allowed to use the lanes in emergencies when they have their blue lights on, but critics say there are many urgent journeys that cannot justify the use of blue lights.

* the lanes will worsen traffic congestion and leave sick and vulnerable patients stranded in ambulances in traffic jams and the decision to reject a request for access from National Health Service London, the capital's strategic health authority, has led to a storm of anger.

* Leah Bevington, Head of Communication at 'Medical Services', which transports patients for the NHS said :

"This means that sick people, often elderly and frail, urgent blood supplies, oxygen, will all be made to wait in traffic with the rest of us. Congestion can be bad enough around London on a regular day so you can imagine that we are concerned that patients will be on a vehicle for much longer periods of time."

Confirmed once more that : Britain is no country for sick old men.

Britain is a country with more and more fat, sick old men

2012-02-18T09:18:00.000-08:00

Figures revealed by the 'National Health Service Information Centre' show that :
* the number of old men and women admitted to hospital because they are 'dangerously fat' has soared almost ten-fold in five years and 1,102 between the age of 60 and 74 ended up in a hospital bed in 2009/10 as a direct result of their excessive weight, an increase of 834% from 2004/05.

* this is likely to be the tip of the iceberg because they only include those admitted with a primary diagnosis of obesity while tthousands more 'grossly overweight' old men and women will have entered hospital with heart disease, strokes, diabetes and some cancers brought on by their size.

* these fat old people are not alone and health experts say the increase on junk food diets and a lack of exercise helps to explain why nearly a 25% of adults and 20% of ten-year-olds in Britain are classified as 'clinically obese'.

* the number of diabetes sufferers in Britain has risen by 50% in five years, fuelled by these soaring levels of obesity and three million adults and children now have the condition and the charity, 'Diabetes UK' warns that the National Health Service is now spending £9billion every year treating patients, which is almost 10% of its budget.

Britain is no longer a country for and says "Goodbye" to a great old scientist called Philip Lawley

2012-02-17T09:26:00.000-08:00

Philip Lawley the scientist who, with the help of his fellow researcher Peter Brookes, provided the first convincing evidence that DNA is the key target for chemicals which cause cancer, an insight which laid the foundation for the now universally accepted idea that cancer is a genetic disease, died at the end of last year at the age of 84.

What you possible didn't know about Philip, that he :

* was born in Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire, to parents who were teachers and after grammar school, obtained a degree in chemistry at University College, Oxford in 1949 and a doctorate at Nottingham University in 1953.

* was described in his obituary in 'The Gaurdian' as having beneath his shy exterior : 'a piercing intellect, prodigious memory, wry humour, deep scholarship, liberal views and iron-clad integrity'.

* was happiest working at the bench, he wrote concisely and elegantly, in longhand, standing at tables piled with papers, moving from table to table until his manuscript was completed.

* took great pleasure in conversation, jazz, dogs and old trams.

* in 1964 made the crucial discovery that carcinogenic potency, in tobacco smoke for example, was positively correlated with DNA binding, but not protein or RNA. and overturned the prevailing view that proteins were the 'critical cellular targets' for carcinogens and arguably changed the course of cancer research.

* in 1983, became Professor of Chemical Carcinogenesis at the University of London, retired in 1992 and continued to work for many years in the Institute of Cancer Research's laboratories in Surrey.

* had his achievements honoured along with Brooks in 2003 when the Institute of Cancer Research named a £21million laboratory after them and saw it devoted to research on the genetic nature of cancer and seen here with Princess Anne.

"Goodbye" Philip, the world is a better place for you having been here and having done the things you did at your bench and over the years.

Britain is no country for very old men who wish to return to the rivers where they poached for salmon when they were young men

2012-02-16T07:36:00.003-08:00

This is a 78 year old Grandfather, Stanley Murray and the River Don in Scotland with Grandhome House in the background where, when he was a young man, he had been a salmon poacher and banned by law from going near the river.

The strange facts of Stanley's case are that he :

* after finding the 44 year old ban was still in place, decided to challenge it, could not afford legal costs to fight his case and turned up at Grandhome House waving a placard, intending to plead his cause before David Paton, son of John Paton, the landowner whose fish he had stolen in 1968.

* after the authorities had been called, was summoned to appear at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, where, after refusing to give up his campaign, was given a three month prison sentence.

* said before the ruling : "My poaching days are long past and I’m determined to get this ban lifted. I just want to be able to enjoy the river with my grandkids and I won’t back down till I get justice."

* served 8 days of his sentence and was told by the Court of Session in Edinburgh that he would be treated ‘without sympathy’ and could even be jailed for two years if he breached the 1968 court order again.

Lord Clarke said of Stanley :
"Whatever grievance he may have, which may go back a long time, that can never form the basis for refusing to obtemper a valid order of the court."

Needless to say David Paton, 76, stood by the court ban, saying that Stanley was a "serious annoyance".

So Stanley, Britain's Rich Old Men say : " behave yourself, know your place and no more non obtempering for you!"

P.S.
Dictionary definition of obtemper :
* To obey a judgment or decree.
* A seldom used base verb from the following inflections: obtempering, obtempered, obtempers, obtemperer, obtemperers, obtemperingly and obtemperedly.

Britain is not quite the worst country in Europe for old men, but only just....

2012-02-15T08:28:00.001-08:00

A report, at the end of last year, in the 'Daily Mail' was entitled :

No place to grow old: Britain ranks among Europe's worst countries for ageism

It was based on the 'European Social Survey' carried out across 28 countries and involving 55,000 people, it made the following points, that in Britain :

* 36% think old men and women over 70 are a 'burden on health services' and 41% thought that they 'contributed little to the economy'.

* 40% say they have been shown a lack of respect, ignored or patronised because of their age and only in Russia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are the figures worse.

* more than 50% do not have a single 'friend' over the age of 70 whereas 66% of people in Portugal, Switzerland and Germany have one or more.

* 64% thought age discrimination is a 'very serious or quite serious problem' and only in France, where the figure is 68%, did more people express concern.

In addition, Britons thought old age started at 59, whereas in Greece they thought it started at around 68 and youth ends at 35 and 52 in Greece.

The most apposite response provoked by this article was from a reader in Nottingham who said :

'No place to grow old - not much of a place to be young either, or middle-aged if you're working. No place to be ill, no place to feel safe out of the house and sometimes not even in it. No place to voice your concerns (unless they're PC ones and you're on the 'right' side, no place to exercise choice over how/among whom you live, what you eat and drink, no access to justice, and in many cases no justice - what has happened to this country?'

What a good question.

LIST OF COUNTRIES IN EUROPE WITH THE PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE WHO THOUGHT THEY HAD BEEN SHOWN A LACK OF RESEPCT BECAUSE OF THEIR AGE. FROM PORTUGAL WITH THE LEAST, TO THE CZECH REPUBLIC WITH THE MOST :

Portugal
Cyprus
Denmark
Netherlands
Croatia
Latvia
Spain
Poland
Norway
Slovenia
Switzerland
Turkey
Estonia
Sweden
Belgium
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Finland
France
Bulgaria
BRITAIN
Ukraine
Roumania
Russia
Slovakia
Czech Republic

Britain says "Happy Birthday" to an old film director with London working class roots called Alan Parker

2012-02-14T09:01:00.004-08:00

Alan Parker, film director in British and American cinema, is 68 today.

What you possible didn't know about Alan, that he :

* was born into a working class family in Islington, North London, the son of Elsie, a dressmaker and William, a house painter.

* left school in 1962 and worked as a copywriter for advertising agencies and in the 70's and directed the award winning Cinzano Vermouth advertisements with Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PirMZGL-0mQ

* in 1970, saw his screenplay for a schoolboy romance, 'S.W.A.L.K. ('sealed with a loving kiss'), produced by David Puttnam and released as 'Melody' : a tale of Mark Lester, a shy boy who meets and makes friends with Jack Wild and falls out when Jack falls in love with Tracy Hyde,'Melody'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb7QKVbxKZI

* had success with the tv play, 'The Evacuees' in 1975, about the experiences of two Jewish boys evacuated from London during the Blitz, winning the BAFTA television award for Best Director.

* found the transition to feature films difficult and failed to attract financing for screenplays he described as "about things that were very close to me... very English, very London, very angry working class" but which were considered 'too parochial'.

* as a purely pragmatic exercise, wrote 'Bugsy Malone' in 1976, a children's musical set in 1920's Chicago, as a pastiche of the conventions of the American gangster movie, which although chosen with the aim of attracting American finance, was mainly funded by the National Film Finance Corporation and Rank.

* collaborated in 1979 with Puttmam in a Heineken Beer tv commercial, ground breaking in its cast of a hundred and use of an elaborate film set.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g--qAt5Ibc

* in 1982 directed 'Pink Floyd: The Wall', which received critical approval and a big audience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAyRps-SQ3U

* saw his 1991, 'The Commitments', an adaption of Roddy Doyle's story earn him 'Best Director' BAFTA award.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_aO9pv0Y7I

* with 'Angela's Ashes' in 1999, returned to Irish soil to direct an adaptation of Frank McCourt's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel starring Emily Watson and Robert Carlyle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zLpf1XDNko
Screenonline have defined Alan as :

'a deeply paradoxical figure: a film-maker committed to popular, mainstream, narrative cinema, yet whose work is often challenging in theme and distinctive in look; a persistent critic of the British film establishment, yet a man who chaired two of the establishment's major institutions; a working class 'turnip-head' who was awarded the CBE in 1995 and a knighthood in 2002. Nevertheless, he has consistently pursued his own particular vision of film and film-making, and has always been prepared to put his reputation on the line, never taking refuge in whinging from the sidelines. A profile in The Face acutely defined him as 'an outsider with a superiority complex''.
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/467545/

Quotes from Alan :

"I was once described by one of my critics as an aesthetic fascist."

"I'm always afraid someone's going to tap me on the shoulder one day and say, "Back to North London"."

"Every time I've been to Cannes, I've made up my mind never to return. Every time my vanity wins over."

Britain is a country where men say "Goodbye youth" at 41 and "Hello old age" at 59

2012-02-12T07:37:00.000-08:00

A recent Government Survey entitled 'Attitudes to age in Britain 2010/11' has revealed that :

* On average, respondents thought 'youth' ended at 41 and 'old age' began at 59.

However, the upside for old men is that :

* perceptions towards those aged over 70 are more positive than towards those in their 20s, unless they are in senior roles.

* older people are viewed as being more friendly, having higher moral standards and as being more competent than their younger counterparts.

So, born in 1953 and 59 years old this year, Britain's old men welcome to their fold screen actors :

* Keith Allen
* Pierce Brosnan
* David Threlfall

and across the Atlantic :

* John Malkovich

Interesting to note that all of these 'soon-to-be old men' already have their grey beards in place.

Britain is still a country for and says "Happy Birthday" to an old Member of Parliament and 'The Beast from Bolsover' called Dennis Skinner

2012-02-11T08:40:00.000-08:00

Dennis Skinner who has been Member of Parliament for Bolsover for the last 41 years and is 80 years old today is totally fearless and a wonderful example of what 'democracy' is all about :

Dennis questioning Prime Minister Cameron in May last year :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ER3R0Jg4do

July last year, when he asked of the Prime Minister : "There is a raging inferno around the Government's head. When is dodgy Dave going to do the decent thing and resign?"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z0P8GB5Lxc&feature=related

What you possibly didn't know about Denis, that he :

* was born in Derbyshire, the third of nine children, the son of the coal miner and was educated at grammar school then worked as a miner himself from the age of 17 to 38 and joining the Labour Party in 1956 at the age of 24.

* was leader of the Derbyshire area of the National Union of Mineworkers between 1966and 1970 and studied at Ruskin College Oxford in 1967 before becoming an M.P. in 1970
and has held the seat ever since.

* has taken a liberal stance regarding social issues, voted in favour of adoption rights for same-sex couples and outlawing discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, taken a strongly 'pro-choice' stance on abortion.

* in 2003, voted against the Iraq War and later against his Government's policy to allow terror suspects to be detained without trial for 90 days and in 2007, voted against Government policy to renew the Trident Nuclear Missile System.

* usually sits on the first seat of the front bench below the gangway in the Commons, the 'Awkward Squad Bench' where rebel Labour Party MPs have traditionally sat, wearing in a distinctive tweed jacket, whilst most MPs wear suits and signature red tie.

* gained the sobriquet, 'the Beast of Bolsover' for falling foul of the procedures of Parliament, many of which are, in his view archaic and contemptible. In addition he refuses to :

* miss any sitting in the House of Commons, saying that "if you missed a shift at the pit, you would get the sack".

* adopt the pairing system to agree a 'mutual abstention' with a Conservative MP, saying he won't cover for them whilst they "go swanning off to Ascot or to their boardrooms".

* claim excessive expenses or take trips or holidays 'paid for' by others.

* eat alongside colleagues in the Commons dining room or drink in the bar.

Denis traditionally cracks jokes when 'The Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod' summons the Members of the House of Commons to join the Monarch in the House of Lords to hear the 'Queen's Speech' outlining proposed Government legislation :

1987 : said, about the Queen and with reference to the 'tightening of belts' in the Britain : "Tell her to sell up!".

1991 : on arrival of Black Rod quipped, in reference to a lager beer advertising campaign : "I bet he drinks Carling Black Label".

1992 : said to Black Rod, referring to the Queen and referring to controversy over the monarchy exemption from taxation : "Tell her to pay her taxes".

1997 : shouted, in reference to Labour's election campaign slogan 'New Labour, New Britain' : "New Labour, New Black Rod".

2000 : shouted out, in reference to the Guardian newspaper campaign to repeal laws relating to the monarchy : "Tell her to read the Guardian!"

2001 : said to new Black Rod, Michael Willcocks : "You're nowt but a midget!!"

2006 : said, in reference to the portrayal by Helen Mirren of Elizabeth II in the film, 'The Queen' : "Have you got Helen Mirren on standby?"

Denis been suspended from Parliament on at least ten occasions, usually for 'unparliamentary language' when attacking opponents. His 'infractions' have included, in :

1992 : referring to the Minister of Agriculture John Gummer as "slimy" and a "wart".

1995 : accusing the Government of a "crooked deal" to sell off Britain's coal mines.

2005 : referring to the economic record of the Conservatives in the 1980's, making the remark : "The only thing that was growing then were the lines of coke in front of boy George and the rest of the Tories" : a reference to allegations of cocaine use by the Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne.

2006 : accusing the Deputy Speaker of leniency towards remarks made by opposition frontbencher Theresa May : "because she's a Tory".

Denis' views about Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher and Myrl Streep as the 'Iron Lady' :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-16110230

Britain is no longer a country for an old stand-up comedian called Billy Connolly

2012-02-10T06:37:00.000-08:00

An article article in the 'Daily Mail' last week read :

Heckled off stage, is Connolly loosing his edge ?

Apparently, the 69 year old Billy had left the stage prematurely at his show in Blackpool, Lancashire and the same thing a week earlier in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

A member of the audience, said that Billy was getting increasingly frustrated at the number of people leaving and re-entering the auditorium during his two-hour show :

"At first Billy tried to make a joke of it, encouraging the audience to sing when a group of lads returned from the bar during the show. But this seemed to just encourage more people to get up".

Becoming increasingly frustrated, Billy said :

"I’ll tell you one more story", when someone shouted out, Billy then said:
"Well actually, no, that’s it, I’ll finish now".

I think by that point he had just had enough. He took a bow and that was it. He’s an old guy, he’s not young anymore. He was losing his thread as he was telling his stories and getting more and more frustrated. He didn’t show his anger but you could see he was getting frustrated."

Another member of the audience,said :

"He was telling a joke about strokes, explaining that members of his family had suffered from them, when someone in the audience shouted “you’re shite”. He then finished the story and walked off. You would have expected him to come back on and it was a really strange situation because everyone was talking about it afterwards and there was disappointment."

So what happened to the Billy, who :

* in his teens, joined the part-time Territorial Army Reserve Parachute Regiment and later recalled his experiences in the 'Weekend Soldier'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmioXLfTl6w

* as a folk singer in his 20's worked with Gerry Rafferty :
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/01/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-sad.html

* at the age of 33 and an accomplished comedian, appeared on the 'Parkinson Show' :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slw08b3bHFE

* at the age of 38, in 1980, made Angie Dickinson convulse with laughter :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DcDzJmW6Qg

* at the age of 54, as John Brown in the 1996 film 'Mrs Brown' with Judi Dench as Queen Victoria :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyB3Unj9j_Q&feature=related

Britain is no country for old men looking forward to the beautiful, young Mary-Ann Ochota on a television series called 'Time Team'

2012-02-09T06:35:00.001-08:00

In my posting yesterday I related how the 65 year old archaeologist, Mick Aston, had quit the 'Time Team' programme after 19 years, when producers hired 30 year old Cambridge graduate and former model, Mary-Ann Ochota, as a new co-presenter.

Britain is no longer a country for an old Professor of Archaeology called Mick Aston and a television series called 'Time Team'
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2012/02/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-old.html

I went on to say that, like many old men, if it came to a choice, I preferred young Mary-Ann to old Mick.

Oh dear ! What do I read in 'The Daily Mail' today ? :
Day after TV Time Team boffin quits over ‘dumbing down’, former model presenter who sparked row throws in the trowel

Apparently, Mary-Ann has told 'Time Team' fans like me that she will not be in the next series after all, saying :

"I always loved 'Time Team' and was very excited to be working with Mick. He wasn’t so keen. The series didn’t work out quite how I wanted it to either. Needless to say, I’m not coming back for the next series either."

Mary-Ann, who holds a master’s degree in 'archaeology and anthropology' from Cambridge University, mounted a robust defence of her position on the Time Team Facebook page saying that :

‘I was brought in to be a co-presenter, not an archaeologist, so I could ask the questions viewers might be asking.’

Within minutes, the site was abuzz with comments and one said:

'You really have to establish your archaeological credentials first on the show or it looks like the programme producers have employed you purely for the 'totty factor' despite having the appropriate academic qualifications.’

Old Men of Britain say : "Ignore that Mary-Ann. Please reconsider. We need you. Time Team Needs you. Your presence would have been a dose of fresh air after that old professor in a funny jumper."

P.S. Dictionary definition of 'totty' :
(noun] a girl or woman, especially one regarded as sexually desirable.

Britain is no longer a country for an old Professor of Archaeology called Mick Aston and a television series called 'Time Team'

2012-02-08T07:43:00.000-08:00

An article in The Daily Mail today was entitled :
'What's she got that I haven't?' Veteran quits as Cambridge beauty joins TV's Time Team

It reported that the 65 year old archaeologist, Mick Aston, had quit the programme after 19 years, when producers had hired 30 year old Cambridge graduate and former model, Mary-Ann Ochota, as a new co-presenter.

Mick :

* is a white haired professor and former academic at Bristol and Oxford Universities who wears a loud jumper and as 'site director', chose where the 'digs' were to take place.

* has said that changes to the programme which led to the introduction of Mary-Ann Ochota and the dropping of some archaeologists had left him "really angry" and compared them to the reshuffle at the BBC’s 'Countryfile' programme, which introduced younger presenters and, said, reduced it to "cliché-ridden pap".

Mary-Ann, on the other hand :

* holds a master’s degree in 'archaeology and anthropology' from Cambridge University and after graduation, did some modelling, including shoots for Kellogs 'Special K'.

* was the anthropologist on the BBC’s 'Castaway Exposed' and has presented a number of other programmes using her 'expertise'.

Executive Producer Philip Clarke said : " We were very sorry to see Mick go, and he leaves an extraordinary legacy. Not everyone takes change happily."

So who would I rather have on the programme ? Mick talking about 'test pits'?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux_kEyWCSbc&feature=related

Or Mary-Anne who gives us a taste of things to come on her 'Show Reel' :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrdtcaSmal8

Well, I'm sorry Mick, I know who I would prefer to see on 'Time Team'.

P.S.
Here is one of Mick's old colleagues on the programme, Phil Harding talking about his lifelong friend, his shovel. Wonderfully and unintentionally very funny :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5f0iQVajLA&feature=related

P.P.S.
Is this the lovely Mary-Ann advertising Kellog's Special K ?

Britain, a country which says "Happy Birthday" to an old novelist called Charles Dickens, remains one he would still recognise today

2012-02-07T06:03:00.000-08:00

Charles Dickens, Britain's great Victorian novelist was born 200 years ago today and if he returned to the London he once knew today, he :

* would notice at once that the 'great black bulging dome of St Paul's', as he described it, is no longer black.

* see that the fog, the mud and the filthiest slums have gone.

* be pleased by the absence of workhouses, the small number of street children and the lack of blatant prostitution in the Haymarket.

* would have approved of David Lean's 1948 film version of 'Oliver Twist' :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77krUcFYGzU

* see the same gulf between the rich, at ease enjoying their money and power and the poor, relying on out-of-date food thrown out by supermarkets and food parcels from charities and fearing for their jobs.

* with his obsessive interest in prisons, might be daunted by the huge increase in the number of prisons and number of prisoners.

* by glancing at the newspapers, see that his crooked financier, Mr Merdle, has many successors and that Lord Decimus Tite Barnacle and his Etonian friends and relations are still running things.

* note that the present Prime Minister, David Cameron, in the back row and the present Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, in the front row, were both members of exclusive 'The Bullingdon Club' when they were students at Oxford University in the 1980's.

* would have read in the Gaurdian Newspaper :
Sharp rise in demand for food handouts from poverty-stricken families
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/01/sharp-rise-demand-food-handouts

P.S.
An earlier posting :
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Britain is still a country which sends very old men to prison at the end of their days to punish them for their crimes
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2012/01/britain-is-country-which-sends-very-old.html

Britain is still a country for and says "Happy Birthday" to an old laughter maker and 'King of the Clipboards' called Denis Norden

2012-02-06T08:49:00.001-08:00

The radio and tv comedy writer and presenter, Denis Norden is 90 years old today.

What you possibly didn't know about Denis, that he :

* was born in Hackney, East London, educated at the 'City of London School' at the same time as the writer Kingsley Amis, was 'considered to have a fine academic brain' and was well regarded by his peers.

* left school, worked as a stagehand then moved into cinema management and, by the age of 17, had organised variety shows, then joined the Royal Air Force in the Second World War and began writing comedy for shows for the personnel.

* after the War, co-wrote the radio show 'Take It From Here' with Frank Muir from 1948 to '59 and went on to write many successful radio and television scripts, including 'Whack-O!' and 'Faces of Jim' as vehicles for Jimmy Edwards.

* co-wrote the satirical sketch 'Balham, Gateway to the South' for the BBC Third Programme in 1958 using the voice of Peter Sellers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RTWk9QIKS0

* first broadcast 'It'll be Alright on the Night' in 1977, with out-takes from film and tv linked with his witty comments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2w4u_ivJKA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye4z35ymylY&feature=related

* narrated his 'Laughter File', in the 1990's, with spoof and real adverts, practical jokes, live television mistakes and oddities which he said, "tickled our fancies, just when they needed tickling".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdPS9-zbqJc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr1rEFF1-IY

* suffers from macular degeneration and in 2009, joined Peter Sallis and Eric Sykes as a patron of the Macular Disease Society.

Britain is no country for the cold, old men who will die this week

2012-02-05T09:43:00.000-08:00

I juxtapose this photo I took in my garden in Kent this morning with an article which appeared in 'The Guardian' in October last year, entitled :

Cold homes will kill up to 200 older people a day, warns Age UK.
Rising energy bills will put millions at risk from 'fuel poverty gap'

Well, the weather this winter so far has been mild, however, it is now February 2012 and the cold weather from Eastern Europe has arrived with a vengeance and I expect that the predictions made back then will be confirmed this week. They were that :

* 200 people, most of them old, will die in Britain of cold-related diseases every day and more than 90% of them will be over 65, because they are more vulnerable and less able to cope with winter and heart and circulatory diseases will be the two biggest causes of their deaths.

* their deaths will follows sharp price hikes by energy companies, credited with driving inflation to its highest level in 20 years and creating a deepening 'fuel poverty gap' with 'fuel poverty', defined as 'spending more than 10% of income on heat and light'.

In 2012 Britain, the fifth wealthiest country in the world, is still no country for poor old men in winter.

Britain is still a country where very old men called judges hold onto their jobs and don't want to pay for their pensions

2012-02-02T09:53:00.001-08:00

These were the 11 judges who sat in Britain's Supreme Court in 2010 and their ages were left to right: 61, 66, 62, 71, 72, 68 and 66 and front row : 71, 65, 71 and 73.

They had a collective age of 746 years.

Most of the other groups of judges in Britain follow their example of being old men with few women :

There are :
30 Lord Justices of Appeal with 4 women
17 in the High Court of Chancery with 1 woman
18 in the High Court Family Division with 6 women
74 in the High Court Queen's Bench with 9 women

These old men have been in the news. A headline in the Daily Mail yesterday read :
Judges may sue to save their 'free' pensions after threatening court action unless Government backs down

It made the following points, that they :

* are the only public servants who do not contribute to their pensions and
making them pay would save taxpayers £4million a year.

* are rebelling against an attempt to make them contribute and have threatened to launch an unprecedented court action against the Crown unless the Government backs down.

* say they are a 'special case' because the constitutional need to protect their 'independence' from Government means politicians should never cut their pay.

* have paid into a fighting fund to finance a court case and have suggested they could take their argument to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

P.S.

Their annual salaries range from £103,000 for district judges to £173,000 for High Court judges and £240,000 for the Lord Chief Justice and at present, all they have to pay is between 1.8% and 2.4% of salary towards the pension their spouse will receive following their death.

This compares with contributions as a percentage of salary of :
6% for nurses and teachers
10% for police and firemen
11% for Memebers of Parliament
around 8% for private-sector workers

Britain, a country where many cold, old men die in winter has the antidote in the Met Office 'Cold Weather Plan'

2012-02-01T05:57:00.001-08:00

Britain is cold country at the moment with an anticyclone bringing cold air in from Eastern Europe, but 'Old Men of Britain', have no fear :
The Meteorological Office will be issuing 'Cold Weather Alerts' as part of the 'Cold Weather Plan' developed by the Department of Health, the Health Protection Agency and Age UK to help reduce the impact of cold weather on people's health in general this winter and your in particular.

Michelle Mitchell, Charity Director at 'Age UK' said:

"It may have been relatively mild so far this year but the winter can be a dangerous time for older people. Low temperatures raise blood pressure which puts people at a greater risk of heart attacks and strokes and well as increasing the likelihood and severity of flu and other respiratory problems.
We want older people to be able to enjoy the winter and, most importantly of all, stay well. That is why we have linked up with the Met Office to get advance information to ensure that forewarned is forearmed when it comes to winter weather."

Patrick Sachon, Health Business Manager at the Met Office said:

"With the first real cold snap of the winter, 'Age UK' demonstrates just how valuable the Cold Weather Alert Service is to the more vulnerable sectors of the community.
These alerts put everyone in a better position to respond to forecasts of severe weather, inform those who are most at risk from winter weather and what they can do to keep well."

All of this is very laudable, however, news headlines from previous winters throw into question whether the warnings address the real problems of many old men and women in winter in Britain :

Nine pensioners died from cold EVERY HOUR last winter as bill prices soar
24th November 2010

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1332343/Nine-pensioners-died-cold-hour-winter-prices-soar.html

Cold homes will kill up to 200 older people a day, warns Age UK. Rising energy bills will put millions at risk from 'fuel poverty gap'
Saturday 22 October 2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/22/older-people-cold-energy-bills

Fuel poverty and cold weather: the deaths that shame Britain
November 23rd, 2011

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ianmcowie/100013377/fuel-poverty-and-cold-weather-the-deaths-that-shame-britain/

So old men of Britain, here is today's 'Alert' and those of you who are already cold, this will be of particular use to you :

Current alert level: Level 3
Cold Weather Action in one or more regions of England.
There is a 100% probability of severe cold weather between 10.00 on Wednesday and 10.00 on Saturday in all parts of England.
This weather could increase the health risks to vulnerable patients and disrupt the delivery of services.
Please refer to the national Cold Weather Plan and your Trust's Emergency Plan for appropriate preventive action.

Britain is a country where old men return to the English seaside holidays of their youth

2012-01-31T04:05:00.000-08:00

Bad news for old men in Britain over the age of 65 who wish to travel abroad :
Insurers have doubled the cost of your premiums in the last year and experts fear the hike in cost will leave many of you exposed to holiday disasters as the cost deters them from taking cover.

Britain’s biggest insurer, Aviva, has increased the cost of cover for you and your partner going on a cruise by 26 % cent while Direct Line’s rise is 19 %.

Michelle Mitchell, Charity Director of 'Age UK' said:
"These figures confirm our worst fears that older people will be forced to risk travelling without protection or forgo holidays abroad altogether because they can’t afford insurance."

James Daley, editor of 'Which? Money' said :
"Insurers cannot say it is because of older people’s deteriorating health, as many people are much healthier than they were before, so these increases are hard to justify."

The report of the increases in the 'Daily Mail' provoked 'Tom' to write in :
'How long will it be before there's an increase because your ALIVE ?'

While Hector Macduff from Auchtermuchty in Scotland wrote :
'I have been looking for an excuse to avoid airport terminals; airport security, being squashed in seats on aircraft and generally being treated like a pleb. We can also save more £££s by not having passports or travel insurance. Margate here we come!!'

So, Old Men of Britain say :
"'Goodbye' Costa del Sol in Spain and 'Hello again' Margate in England!"

P.S.
The American writer, Bill Bryson, extolling the virtues of the English Seaside :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BrqzRrMSCk

Britain is still a country for an old soldier, magician and Second World War survivor from the Burma Railway called Fergus Anchorn

2012-01-30T08:32:00.000-08:00

Few old soldiers who fought for Britain in The Second World War are still alive and one group in particular have almost gone : those who fought in the Pacific and were captured by the Japanese. One of them is 93 year old, Fergus Anchorn, whose story, has now been told Peter Fyans.

What you probably didn't know about Fergus, was that he :

* as a boy, grew up carefree, in a close-knit family in Kent, endlessly practised conjuring tricks until, at 18, was elected the youngest member of the 'Magic Circle' and is its oldest practising member today.

* married his sweetheart, Lucille, during The Second World War in 1941 and shortly afterwards, embarked with his Army regiment on a troopship for South East Asia, landed in Singapore, was dive-bombed by the Japanese, jumped into the water and emerged to find five of his companions blown to pieces.

* later, back on shore, was ordered to pick up a live jammed shell, which exploded when a bomb landed 3 metres away and when in hospital, dipping in and out of consciousness, pleaded for his hand to be saved from amputation and got help from a medical orderly who recognised him as the conjuror he had seen in England.

* was still in the Alexandra Military Hospital when Japanese soldiers overran the building, shooting and bayoneting patients and doctors and already covered in blood, buried, his head under his pillow, muttered to himself, "Poor Mum" and waited to die
but was spared by soldiers who thought he was dead.

* next survived in Changi prison-camp where his smashed right arm was saved by having maggots devour the gangrene and had another prisoner, a cartoonist called Ronald Searle, make drawings for him. *(See below the link for my posting marking the death of Ronald)

* in 1942, became one of thousands of British prisoners working on the infamous 'Burma Railroad', built to create a supply route between Burma and Thailand with a track which ran through dense jungle, over mountains and rivers, in monsoon conditions and was fed a starvation diet in conditions where fellow soldiers died like flies, plagued by malaria, tropical ulcers, cholera and dysentery.

* grew weaker and when ordered to carry scalding creosote up a viaduct, found he couldn’t move, even when the shrieking guard emptied the creosote over his back, expected a death sentence but was taken to a hospital camp because the Japanese, who scorned weakness, accepted that physical injuries like his burns needed to be repaired.

* when his wounds began to heal and strength renewed, was able him to do some simple magic tricks : making handkerchiefs and playing cards vanish and reappear and found that the Camp Commandant Osato, a ruthless bully who ordered beatings for fun,
turned out to have an insatiable appetite for magic, demanding over and over again to see how his tricks worked.

* was able to get more food and longer rest-breaks for his friends by distracting the guards, in whose eyes, he became almost a human and with the backing of officers, put on ‘concert parties’, with comedians, singers and musicians with a double bass made out of two tea chests and strings from the innards of a cow.

* saw the railroad completed, at the expense of thousands of lives and was transported, deep into Thailand and then Hiroshima and recalled : "I almost couldn’t take the strain of it. I had taught myself never to think of tomorrow.”

* at the age of 27, returned to Britain and, like his fellow soldiers, set about rebuilding his life in a country which had little time for heroes and wanted to forget the 'disaster' of Singapore.

* became a lecturer at West Kent College, where he often pepped up his lessons with anecdotes about his extraordinary Wartime survival.

* speaking about the book said : "It was a stroke of luck meeting Peter. I always knew I wanted someone to tell my story, for the sake of my great-grandchildren and their great-grandchildren after I've gone."

Fergus talking about his time as a Japanese POW : Part 1 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB8Lin5dE50

Part 2 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh9wAMFHa3I&feature=related

Part 3 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkPuUrjZV0Y

Part 4 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkPuUrjZV0Y&feature=related

The Burma Railway :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4LbEKBMAi4&feature=related

* My posting on Ronald Searle who died earlier this month :
Tuesday, 3 January 2012
Britain is no longer a country for and says "Goodbye" to its greatest cartoonist called Ronald Searle :
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2012/01/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-and.html

Britain is no longer a country for and says "Goodbye" to an old Scottish actor with a rasping voice called Nicol Williamson

2012-01-29T06:42:00.000-08:00

Nicol Williamson, once described by playwright John Osborne as : "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando", has died at the age of 73.

What you possibly didn't know about Nicol, that he :

* was born in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, the son of a factory owner who moved his family to England, went to school in Birmingham and left at 16 to work in his father's factory.

* attended the 'Birmingham School of Speech & Drama', which he described as "nothing more than a finishing school for the daughters of local businessmen" and his time there as "a disaster", then served his 'National Service' as a gunner in the Airborne Division.

* in 1960, at the age of 25, made his professional stage debut with the Dundee Rep and London debut in 1963 and as 'Flute' the 'bellow's mender' in Tony Richardson's production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' at the Royal Court Theatre.

* had his first major success came in 1964 with John Osborne's 'Inadmissible Evidence', won a Tony award when it transferred to Broadway in 1965 and in 1968, starred in the film version.

* played Hamlet for Tony Richardson at the Roundhouse which later transferred to New York and was made into a film, with Marianne Faithfull in the cast with whom, according to her, he had an affair while filming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvCuNjcUI0M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu_ZzTLwQyo

* played a suicidal Irish soldier in the 1968 film 'The Bofors Gun'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpUNtue1h0s

* after a number of films, appeared in 1981 in 'Excalibur', where director John Boorman cast him as Merlin opposite Helen Mirren as Morgana over the protests of both actors who had appeared together in Macbeth, with disastrous results, disliked each other intensely and he hoped that their animosity would generate more tension between them on screen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJkE97L2mOk

On 25 January 2012, Nicol's son, Luke, announced on his father's website that Nicol had died on 16 December 2011, after a two-year struggle with oesophageal cancer.

'He gave it all he had: never gave up, never complained, maintained his wicked sense of humour to the end. His last words were 'I love you'. I was with him, he was not alone, he was not in pain.'

Nicol, interviewed some years before by David Frost, reading a Samuel Beckett poem and giving his views about death :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvE-kML1kbA&feature=related

Britain's old men say "Happy Birthday" to Katherine Ross whose beauty beguiled them when they were young men

2012-01-28T07:40:00.001-08:00

Katherine, the American actress is 70 today, but for many old men in Britain, she is frozen in aspic in two films :

'The Graduate' : as Elaine Robinson which I saw when I was 20 in 1967 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuTKPmHSGEc&feature=fvwrel

and 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' : as Etta Place which I saw at 22 in 1969 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_5l6rIUu4A

A tribute :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfEXHopKWV8&feature=related

Britain is no longer a country for and said goodbye to an old pop artist called Gerald Laing

2012-01-26T07:55:00.000-08:00

Gerald Laing, 1960'S pop artist, died at the age of 75 at the end of last year.

Things you possibly didn't know about Gerald, that he :

* was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where, to escape "a rather unpleasant childhood" during which he seldom saw his soldier father, immersed himself in the medieval stories of King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table.

* left school at 16 and went to The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for Army Officer Training and in 1955 was commissioned into the 'family regiment', the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers.

* during a posting to Belfast in 1957, saw John Osborne's play,'Look Back In Anger', realised that he was a rebel and the Army was not the ideal setting for a rebellion and later wrote that: 'The play had a crucial effect on me, for the first time I realised that I was not alone in thinking as I did'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKk5gzEhphY

* left the Army in 1960, took up student life at St Martin's School of Art in London where the mass-produced newspaper photograph with its composition of small dots influenced his painting at about the time as Roy Lichtenstein took the same route in the USA.

* in 1963, spent the summer in New York, employed by Robert Indiana as a studio assistant and was introduced to a world of giant lofts, vast canvases and huge palettes of paint mixed on large sheets of glass where he noted that : 'even their paint tubes were bigger than ours.'

* painted images of skydivers, astronauts, drag racers and starlets and unable to afford to ship them home, left them in Indiana's loft and returned to London to finish his college course.

* a year later, received a telegram from the Chicago gallery owner, Richard Feigen, who had decided to open a showroom in New York which said : 'I've just seen your paintings at Bob Indiana's loft. They are great. How much are they? Will you exhibit at my gallery in New York?'

* now with a young family, returned to New York, at first painting in a rat-infested loft in the Bowery, then in 1968 produced a screenprint of 'Brigitte Bardot'
,European cinema's brightest star and another of Anna Karina, wife of the new-wave film director, Jean-Luc Godard, as a portrait as big as a billboard painted on nine joined canvases.

* began to prosper and enjoyed a bohemian lifestyle but by 1969, became disillusioned by the assassinations of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King and the Vietnam War and returned to Britain, then bought and restored Kirkell Castle in Scotland.

* in 1973, after an 'epiphany' at the Royal Artillery Memorial at Hyde Park Corner, bought some clay, devoted himself to working on the human figure, taught himself to cast in bronze, built his own foundry and produced his 'Galina Series', depicting his wife.

* with the publication of the Abu Ghraib prison torture photographs in 2003, returned to his colourful 1960's pop art style and when his paintings, exhibited in New York in 2005, did not impress the media, professed himself mildly embittered by the absence of critical esteem.

* was drawn to the celebrity of Amy Winehouse after seeing the media depiction of the troubled singer, his picture of her kissing her husband Blake was the first of a series and said : “My work is concerned with the myth, and portrays her as she appeared to us, the public, via the media. Now that the drama has ended, and all is quiet, I hope it will be seen as a tribute from one artist to another.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15255389

* also once said : "My work has been varied, and so has my life – full of ups and downs; on top of the world one minute, descending into alcoholism the next. But life is what you make of it, and when you have the confidence to go out and follow your dreams it can take you on an incredible journey."

Britain is no country for old men who live in large family homes

2012-01-25T09:38:00.000-08:00

This is the Government Housing Minister, Grant Shapps who has said there is a nationwide shortage of housing and pointed out that about 25 million bedrooms in England are empty, largely because old couples have not moved out of family homes into smaller properties.

Grant is clearly a man full of sympathy for and understanding of the old men and women in Britain :

'Older people who should be enjoying their homes have watched helplessly as their properties have become prisons, and many have been forced to sell their homes and move into residential care. Urgent change is needed to ensure the nation’s housing needs are met. Moving to more suitable accommodation can make a life-changing difference for some older people.'

On this basis, Grant wants local councils to help old men and women to move into that 'more suitable accommodation’ to allow their homes to be rented to young families and take responsibility for maintaining and renting the vacated properties at affordable prices, handing any profit back to the old owner.

He says the idea would help older people, many of whom want to downsize but find it hard to do so.

Opposition has, however, come from the over-50s group 'Saga', where Ros Altman described the idea as "outrageous social engineering" and said older people will be horrified that they should be pressured into moving out of family homes they have spent all their lives paying for. She said that any suggestion older generations were 'hoarding housing’ came across as "extremely offensive".

Neil Duncan-Jordan, of the 'National Pensioners’ Convention', said: "The shortage of affordable housing for younger families is not the fault of Britain’s pensioner population."

He said some frail elderly people did want to downsize, but said there was a shortage of sheltered accommodation for them to move to. He added: "If you’re in a three-bedroom house and you actually want to downsize, the market isn’t exactly brimming with retirement accommodation."

Michelle Mitchell, of Age UK, said:
"No one of any age should feel they have to move out of their own home unless it is what they want to do. Nor should older people be blamed for the scarcity of affordable housing or the economic conditions that make it difficult for younger people to get a mortgage."

To move or not to move for my wife and I from our large house ? Grant says "yes" and Ros, Michelle and Neil say "No. Unless you want to".

Britain is still a country for and says "Happy Birthday" to an old zooligist called Desmond Morris

2012-01-24T01:54:00.000-08:00

Desmond Morris, zoologist, ethologist, surrealist painter, television presenter and popular author is 84 today. Apparently, an ethologist studies the 'science of races'.

Desmond has crammed many things into those years. He :

* was born the son of an author of children's fiction and the great-grandson of William Morris, who was the founder of Britain's first penny paper, the 'Swindon Advertiser' and a keen amateur naturalist.

* as a boy, developed a strong interests in writing and in natural history and attended to an independent school in Wiltshire.

* did military service then studied zoology at the University of Birmingham and a doctorate at Oxford for his thesis on : 'The Reproductive Behaviour of the Ten-spined Stickleback'.

* came to public attention in the 1950's as a presenter of the ITV television programme 'Zoo Time' and worked as 'Curator of Mammals' at the London Zoo, until 1966

* achieved worldwide fame in 1967 with his book, 'The Naked Ape', focussing on humanity's animal-like qualities and similarities with apes explaining that human behaviour largely evolved to meet the challenges of prehistoric life as a hunter-gatherer and saw the book been translated into 23 languages and sell 10 million copies.

* published 'The Soccer Tribe' in 1981 which was partly based on research carried out during his directorship of 'Oxford United Football Club' and included analysis of the 'tribal' chanting of fans during matches.

* is a surrealist artist who has contributed to the 'British Surrealist Movement' and was the Executive Director of the 'Institute of Contemporary Arts' in London in the 1960's.

* oversaw the creation of the 'gestural and body language' for the Paleolithic human characters in the 1981 film 'Quest for Fire'.

* has written almost 50 books including 'The Amazing Baby' in 2008 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=793wC2OFMrg

Here he discusses the 'The Aquatic Ape' hypothesis :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFRYtPQfyCk

An excerpt from 'The Human Animal' 1994 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHOdJ0qlavQ

P.S.
Desmond extraordinary interview of the singer Kate Bush :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKjvekkYnaY

Britain is no country for old men and nor was the Renassiance City of Milan at the time of Leonardo da Vinci

2012-01-22T04:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I visited the 'Leonardo da Vinci Exhibition' at the National Gallery in London and observed at close range the 'Profile of an Old Man' drawn in pen and ink in 1500 and his 'Five Characters in a comic scene' drawn around 1490 with another interpretation being that the old man was being distracted and robbed by gypsies.

They date from the time when Leonardo was the painter at the Court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan and both of them reinforce my conclusion that : Renaissance Italy was No Country for Old Men.

P.S. This old man found that to be able to observe the assured pen stokes of his genius at close range, a humbling experience.

Leonardo's sketch of himself in his sixties before he died in France at the age of 67 in 1519.

In his notebooks he repeatedly wrote :
'Tell me if anything was ever done.' and on his death bed he apologized to
"God and Man for leaving so much undone."

Britain is still a country for and says "Happy Birthday" to an indefatigable and quintessentially old English actor/singer called Michael Crawford

2012-01-21T01:31:00.000-08:00

Michael Crawford, whose career covers radio, tv, film and stage in London's West End and on New York's Broadway, was 70 yeas old on Thursday.

What you possibly didn't know about Michael, that he :

* was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, as Michael Smith, taking his name from his Mother's husband who had died in 1940 in the Battle of Britain in 1940 and was Michael's biological father.

* spent his early days on an Army camp in Wiltshire in the War and the Isle of Sheppey off the Kent coast, where his mother had grown up, living with his Grandparents.
My earliet posts about Sheppey :
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2010/03/seawall-at-sheerness-on-isle-of-sheppey.html

http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/04/britain-is-country-with-county-called.html

* at the end of the War, moved to London with his mother and new Stepfather and under the name of Michael Ingram, was a church chorister and attended the Oakfield Preparatory School, Dulwich.

* had his mother die at age of 44 from acute pancreatitis after a short stormy and abusive second marriage and was taken under the wing by the famous theatrical 'Kendall Family' whose head was the music hall star, Marie Kendall.

* started his stage career as Sammy 'The Little Sweep' in his school production of Benjamin Britten's 'Let's Make an Opera' and got his professional break when hired by Britten to play in a production the Scala Theatre in London, alternating with another boy soprano called David Hemmings.

* had a name clash with another stage aspirant and changed his to 'Crawford' after seeing a lorry with the slogan 'Crawford's Biscuits Are Best' and after playing a number of parts on stage and on radio, at the age of 19, played an American, 'Junior Sailen', in the Steve McQueen film, 'The War Lover' in 1962.

* played the lead role in the 1963 film 'Two Left Feet' :
Watch out for a young David Hemmings :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IkfzHovPzs&feature=related

* was given by Richard Lester, the role of 'Colin' in 'The Knack …and How to Get It' in 1965.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVRJTFNYqzc

* was next cast in the film adaptation of the musical, 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum' with Zero Mostel.
http://movieclips.com/hS9P-a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-the-forum-movie-sleeping-potion/

* played in 'How I Won the War' with John Lennon
http://www.traileraddict.com/clip/how-i-won-the-war/green-green-green

and then starred in 'The Jokers' with Oliver Reed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDobBmcRHFc

* made his Broadway debut in 1967 in Peter Shaffer's 'Black Comedy' and began to demonstrate his aptitude and daring for extreme physical comedy, such as walking into walls and falling down staircases.

* was noticed by Gene Kelly and cast in 'Hello, Dolly!' alongside Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau and related that he got the part of Cornelius Hackl, and 'attractive idiot', because Kelly's wife thought he was 'attractive' and Kelly thought he was 'an idiot'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw5EuvGPsyI

* saw 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', in which he played the White Rabbit, enjoy moderate success in Britain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I22xkIxueuQ&feature=related

* next faced a brief period of unemployment, helped his wife stuff cushions for their upholstery business, took a job as an office clerk and saw his marriage fell apart and divorce follow.

* playing the hapless Frank in the tv series 'Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em', saw his career take off again and his extreme physical comedy came into its own.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFLpwRMS00g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f4YQoqTJ4o

* played in his first leading man role on the West End stage in the musical 'Billy' and improved his singing under the tutelage of vocal coach and spending perfected his dancing with a choreographer.
Interviewed at this time :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyGeFPHPCFk

* in 1981, starred in the London production of 'Barnum' after training at the Big Apple Circus School in New York City to prepare for the stunts, learning to walk the tight-rope, juggle and slide down a rope from the rafters of the theatre and became a 'British Amateur Gymnastics Association' qualified coach.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnZgjJIZ7aA&feature=related

* starred in Barnum for 655 performances and saw it becaome a favorite of Margaret Thatcher and the Queen Mother.

* started his performance in 'Phathom of the Opera' in London in 1981, and continued on Broadway and then Los Angeles winning a host of awards and sang 'The Music of the Night' at the Inaugural Gala for President George Bush in Washington, in 1989.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5dhyiqhR7Y

* at present is playing the role of the Wizard in the musical version of 'The Wizard of Oz'.

A tribute :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdEnBbOg2B8

Britain is a country where old men die in prison " at the last stop before Heaven or Hell"

2012-01-19T02:29:00.000-08:00

The film-maker Rex Bloomstein, pioneer of prison tv documentaries, presented his first radio documentary on the growing phenomenon of older prisoners,'Dying Inside', last weekend. It a powerful indictment of a penal system which locks up so many old men.

A taste of the programme :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2aqJLyh8J0

The full programme :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0194n0q/Dying_Inside/

What emerged was that :

* Britain has the largest prison population in Europe with around 88,000 inmates each costing the tax payer £45000 per year and the fastest growing group are older prisoners, mostly old men, who number over 8000.

* there are so many old men because sentences are becoming harsher and longer and because there is no national strategy to deal with them, prisons cope as best they can.

* inmates are classed as 'older prisoners' from the age of 50, when they are more likely to suffer with diabetes or coronary heart disease or have problems with their mobility.

* Rex visited three prisons at Maidstone, Whatton and he was given exclusive access to the 'Elderly Lifer Unit' at Norwich, where for the first time in its history anyone from media had been allowed in.

* Rex discovered that over 40% of older prisoners were convicted of sexual offences, with an increasing number who had committed their crimes many years ago and had been caught by advances in DNA techniques.

* at Maidstone prison the 'Head of Health care' said that in addition to illness the old men found life very difficult away because they were away from their families, had lost their liberty and were with strangers they knew to be potentially aggressive.

* in Maidstone, 25% of the prisoners were old men who had 9 disability scooters but still faced difficulties getting up stairs and to the toilet.

* Norfolk Prison the 'Elderly Lifer Unit' had old men suffering from chronic illness and one prison officer said that " a lot of the macho prisoners disappear because they see they are, perhaps, in God's waiting room".

'Tommy' was interviewed. He was 74 years old and had served 24 years of a life sentence for murder. He worked in the laundry and helped other prisoners.

" I like it here. Its peaceful and just like an ordinary prison except everybody here is very old and very ill. We all get on together. A lot of them kick the bucket and disappear. I think its the last stop before the gates of Heaven or Hell".

Rex asked would he * like to be in an ordinary prison ?"
" There are too many brash and harsh young men coming into prison now, drugs and the likes. They just slap you about and take your tobacco because you're an old man".

When someone dies "does that affect the unit ?"
" No everything goes on. Prison never gets affected. Its routine after routine after routine. Sometimes it makes you happy because you see people really suffering at the end".

"Do you think you'll die in this unit ?"
" Probably, yes. You sometimes pray when you go to bed, 'let me die tonight'. We're all too cowardly to cut our own throats. You just have to lie it."

"Do you you're in limbo?"
" Yes that's exactly it. Floating on air, waiting where the wind blows me one way or the other."

"Where will the wind blow you?"
"To Hell I suppose."

P.S.

As an antidote to this sadness, David Jason as a young man played the old prisoner, Blanco who had been imprisoned for killing his wife in the 1980's comedy series 'Porridge'. I suppose he reinforced the idea that old men in prison were lovable old rogues when the reality is that they are sad and forgotten old men.

Throughout his lengthy prison sentence Blanco continued to profess his innocence, and when parole was granted, he refused, preferring the prospect of dying in prison to that of admitting guilt :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikCc_nj7D-g

When he was finally granted a pardon, Fletch warned him not to seek revenge on the person who really killed his wife and his response is an oft-repeated comedy moment:

"No. I know 'im wot did it. It were the wife's lover. But don't worry, I shan't go round searching for him, 'e died years ago. That I do know. It were me that killed him!".

Britain is still a country which sends very old men to prison at the end of their days to punish them for their crimes

2012-01-17T06:33:00.000-08:00

This was Malcolm Beardon who is 79 and his wife Margaret who was 78. They were childhood sweethearts who were married for 58 years ago and were ‘devoted and loving.’

This is Malcolm today. He has just been sentenced to one year in prison for the of manslaughter of Margaret, whose dementia had become so severe that she no longer knew who he was.

What we learn is that Malcolm :

* cared for his wife on his own at their for more than ten years "without", as his family said, "ever complaining", insisting that he would look after her "in sickness and in health".

* found that, in the months before her death, Margaret became increasingly difficult to care for and he snapped when she turned on him when she accused him of stealing from her and strangled her, then phoned his daughter and told her: "I have killed your mother. I am so sorry. She was going on and on."

* at his trial, denied murdering his wife but admitted 'manslaughter due to loss of control' and witnessed his son beg the judge to free him, telling him: "I have lost my mother. I don’t want to lose my father too."

* listened to the Judge, admit he faced an "agonising sentencing exercise", that Malcolm was a man of "impeccable character" and the crime would "haunt him to the end of his days" and to have a partner affected by dementia was "both a heartrending spectacle and significant challenge".

* heard the the Judge add that it was not a "mercy killing or an assisted suicide" and that the Court must "recognise the principle of the sanctity of human life" and sentenced Malcolm to prison for 12 months.

Despite the fact that Malcolm is expected to serve six months of his sentence, the following questions are worth asking :
What kind of country is it that sends very old men to prison in these circumstances ? Is the point of the sentence :

- to make Malcolm an example to others ?
_ to make Malcolm a better man ?
_ to make Malcolm suffer for his crime ?

Malcolm's son John said:
"I cannot see any benefit to society in locking my Dad up. He is the most placid man imaginable. He was completely devoted to my mother. He cared for her for ten years and is devastated by what happened. I have no idea how he will manage in prison. He is nearly 80. Obviously we are hugely worried about how he will cope."

Speaking of his Mother he said that :
"Her whole personality changed. She thought my Dad was just some stranger looking after her. She had no idea who he was. It was absolutely heartbreaking. It must have been hellish for him, but he was very old-fashioned and thought it was his duty to look after her. He insisted he could manage."

Malcolm's defence lawyer said that the case was "a tragedy for all concerned. Mr Beardon has killed his best friend, his wife of 58 years at the home they shared for 50 years. Everybody says he was a genuinely loving husband who has lost his lifetime companion."

Malcolm has joined the 8,000 old men in Britain's prison population of 88,000.

What kind of cruel, compassionless country has Britain become, which locks old men in prison at the end of their days ?

.

Britain is still a country for and says "Happy Birthday" to an old wildlife painter called Keith Shackleton

2012-01-16T01:44:00.001-08:00

Keith Shackleton, painter of landscapes and animals and distant relative of the polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, is 84 years old today.

What you possibly didn't know about Keith, that he :

* began his travels as a boy when his family moved to Australia and returned after five years when he continued his education at the private Oundle School.

* during the Second World War served in the RAF in Europe and the Far East and painted war scenes with the Army and Naval Coastal Forces, then worked in the family aviation business as salesman and pilot for 15 years, painted in his spare time then full time.

* in the early 1950's had 2 books of paintings, drawings and essays published called 'Tidelines and Wake' , which were largely concerned with his other great interest, small boat sailing, in which he represented Britain and won in international dinghy events.

* was a friend Peter Scott, the son of Captain Scott of the fated 1912 Antartic Expedition who was a conservationist and fellow painter with whom he visited Antarctica.

* was a presenter on the BBC Children's tv programme 'Animal Magic' with Johnny Morris and of the ITV series, 'Animals in Action' :

In 1980 sketching the biggest tail in the world :
http://www.wildfilmhistory.org/film/292/clip/807/Sketching+the+biggest+tail+in+the+world.html

and other tails :
http://www.wildfilmhistory.org/film/292/clip/805/Animals+are+always+in+action.html

* produced his book, 'Ship in the Wilderness: Voyages of the MS Explorer through the Last Wild Places on Earth', recording his voyages through the Arctic, North-West Passage, the Galapagos Islands, South Atlantic, South Pacific and the Antarctic.

* has said :
"A good landscape painting is not just a demonstration of competent application of paint. It must offer a feeling of homage to the subject."

" Keep a record of every picture you paint, have them photographed and write down where they went. Some day, when one reaches a great age, there will be calls for a Retrospective Exhibition of a life's work."

" I would warn very sincerely against the pitfalls of copying photographs. A frozen, split-second bears little relationship to the continuing process of living reality. It is better to look, look again, and keep on looking."

.

Britain, no country for old men who suffer from 'silver inflation' fear not, your future is in the sympathetic hands of your politicians !

2012-01-15T05:59:00.000-08:00

An article in the Daily Mail yesterday was entitled :

Elderly hit by 20% rise in living costs: Pensioners suffering most as household bills soar. Pensioners have to find an extra £1,000 a year to maintain living standards

It made the following points, that old men and women :

* spend more on energy and food and are being hit hardest by price rises, with a ‘silver inflation’ rate which far outstrips that faced by the rest of the population.

* have seen the cost of living rise by nearly 20% since 2008, which means they are having to find an extra £1,000 each year to maintain the same living standards while married couples have seen their state pension increase by just 12.6 % , equating to an annual increase of around £950.

* over the age of 80 have seen a cut in the 'Winter Fuel Payment' from £400 to £300 this year, while other pensioners faced a £50 reduction to £200.

Ros Altmann, Director-general of Saga, said the rise in living costs were a life or death issue :
* ‘Older people remain worst hit by rising costs of living. We are deeply concerned about how these abnormally high levels of inflation are impacting on pensioners in particular.

* Last year, nine pensioners died every hour, due to the cold. With reduced Winter Fuel Payments this year and record high fuel costs, these 'excess winter deaths' could rise.

* Policy makers have not fully factored in the dangers of inflation for our nation. Low interest rates on savings and high inflation are robbing older generations of their spending and are hugely damaging to older people’s lives.’

Old men of Britain fear not! You have both 'sympathy' and 'empathy' from two men in high places in the shape of the Prime Minister, David Cameron in the back row and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson in the front row of 'The Bullingdon Club' when they were students at Oxford University in the 1980's.

This Club :

* was founded over 200 years ago as a 'hunting' and 'cricket' club but by the late 19th century, the present emphasis on 'dining' began to emerge and by 1876 'cricket there was secondary to the dinners and the men were chiefly of an expensive class'.

* was reported in 'The New York Times' in 1913 as representing 'the acme of exclusiveness at Oxford. It is the club of the sons of nobility, the sons of great wealth; its membership represents the 'young bloods' of the university'.

* has restricted membership and elections twice a year, when successful new members are expected to consume the contents of an entire tin of Colman's powdered English Mustard, followed by the room being 'trashed' as a symbol of their election.

* has a 'modus operandi' to book private dining rooms under an assumed name, as most restaurateurs are wary of the Club's reputation for causing considerable drunken damage during the course of dinner.

* has dress of traditional tailcoats in dark navy blue, with a matching velvet collar, offset with ivory silk lapel revers, brass monogrammed buttons, a mustard waistcoat, and a sky blue bow tie.In 2007 the full uniform cost around £3,500.

Old Men of Britain take heart. With your future in the hands of politicians with shared backgrounds like this, all shall be well !

'When Boris Met Dave' programme on the two men at Oxford on Channel 4 :
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/when-boris-met-dave/4od

P.S. My post in a similar vein to this :

Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Britain is a country where old men fear not, knowing their 'men of the people' Prime Minister and Mayor of London, shall make all well

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=605625879464789847&postID=4964732652694131692

Britain is a country whose old men say "Happy Birthday" to Faye Dunaway whose American beauty beguiled them when they were young men

2012-01-14T07:53:00.000-08:00

Faye is 70 years old today. I remember her in her role as 'Bonnie Parker' in the 1967 movie 'Bonnie and Clyde'. I saw it with my friend K.M. when we were students living in Brighton. We were both 20 and Faye was 26.

What I and possibly you, didn't know about Faye was that she :

* was born in Bascom, Florida, of Irish, Scottish and German descent and her father was a non-commissioned officer in the United States Army.

* attended the University of Florida, graduated in 'theatre' and 1962, joined the American National Theater and Academy.

* appeared on Broadway in 1962 as the daughter of Thomas More in 'A Man for All Seasons' and had her first screen role in 1967 in 'The Happening' which was followed by 'Hurry Sundown' and 'Bonnie and Clyde' which earned her an Oscar nomination.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnTqlxajQ5Q

* starred in 1968 with Steve McQueen in the caper film 'The Thomas Crown Affair':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzajlo4ZJ0I

* made 'The Arrangement' with Kirk Douglas and directed directed by Elia Kazan in 1969 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK8izXh4OIM&feature=related

* was busy in the 1970's, in 'Three Days of the Condor', 'Little Big Man', 'Chinatown', 'The Three/Four Musketeers', 'Eyes of Laura Mars', and 'Network' for which she won the 'Academy Award for Best Actress' as the scheming TV executive, Diana Christensen.

A Tribute with 'Nico' singing :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6s7LuDCRc4&feature=related

Britain, already no country for old men, is also an unhappy one for half a million children

2012-01-13T08:38:00.000-08:00

Almost one child in 10 over the age of eight are unhappy, according to a landmark survey by the 'Children's Society', which questioned more than 30,000
youngsters aged 8 to 16 in Britain and pinpoints family relationships and 'materialistic traps' behind their low well-being.

The Charity's researchers found that family had the biggest impact on children's happiness and relationships within a household rather than the family structure most affected the emotional wellbeing of young people.

The Society said that :
'at any one time, 1 in 11 or 9% of 8-15 year olds, had 'low levels of subjective well-being' and across the population, that equated to just over 500,000 having low levels of subjective well-being.'

The picture which emerges is that :

* the number of those saying they felt 'low' doubled from the age of 10 at 7%, to the age of 15 at 14%.

* material wealth does appear to affect a child's happiness and children as young as eight were aware of the financial issues their families face.

* children who do not have clothes to 'fit in' with peers are more than three times likely to have low well-being than those that do.

* school also brings many children down, with 1 in 10, unhappy about their 'relationships with teachers' and one in six are unhappy about the 'amount they feel they are being listened to at school'.

In a foreword to the Society's Report, the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, said :
'an analysis of the subjective well-being of children is not simply a question of how well our children are doing, but an acid test for our society.'

Elaine Hindal, Director of the Campaign for Childhood at the Children's Society, said:
'We are calling for a radical new approach to childhood, placing their wellbeing at the heart of everything we do. Our research has exposed that how children feel really matters. We know that, right now, half a million children are unhappy. We have discovered the key reasons for this unhappiness and what we can do to make it better. We want our country to be the best place for our children to grow up. Yet unless we act now we risk becoming one of the worst and creating a lost future generation.'

Lord Layard, the economist, said:
'This important research reveals the true picture of children's well being in the UK today. The Children's Society has used its extensive research and deep experience in this area to help us view childhood in a fresh and significant way. Everybody involved in shaping children's lives should sit up and take note of this report.'

The Archbishop said:
'The moral test for any society is how it treats its most vulnerable, including its children. The fact that at any one time half a million children who are unhappy with their lives should be a wake-up call to us all.'

What a sad country Britain has become.

P.S. My previous post about Lord Layard :
Thursday, 17 September 2009
Britain needs Lord Layard and Gareth Malone as a Ministers of Happiness

http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2009/09/britain-needs-lord-layard-and-gareth.html

Britain is a country where old men can revisit the world of their youth through British Pathé News

2012-01-12T09:16:00.000-08:00

I remember seeing Pathé News at the cinema when I was a boy. It was wedged between the 'B' film and the main feature. What I didn't know was that :

* the company was formed in the 1890's in Paris as the 'Société Pathé Frères' by Charles Pathé who pioneered the development of the moving image and adopted the cockerel, the national emblem of France as its trademark.

* British Pathé was set up London in 1902 and newsreels produced from 1910 until the 1970's and 40 years later in 2010, launched its archive of 90,000 reels free online.

So fellow post Second World Wa baby boomers : what was going on in the world when we were young ? :

1947 in the year we were born :
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=49273

1948 at the age of 1 :
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=27603

1949 at 2 :
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=33095

1950 at 3 :
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=59551

1951 at 4 :
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=34326

1952 at 5 :
http://backup.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=53929

1953 at 6 :
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=31509

1954 at 7 :
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=38931

1955 at 8 :
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=40035

1956 at 9 :
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=32548

1957 at 10 :
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=35008

1958 at 11 :
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=35560

1959 at 12 :
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=41816

1960 at 13 :
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=41776

1961 at 14 :
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=42895

1962 at 15 :
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=42867

1963 at 16 :
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=42868

1964 at 17 :
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=43822

Britain is a country whose old men said "Happy Birthday" to 'Rod the Mod' Stewart and looked back to the 60's when he and they were young

2012-01-11T06:41:00.000-08:00

Rod Stewart, who has sold over 100 million records worldwide and is one of the best selling artists of all time, was born in the last year of the Second World War and was 67 years old yesterday

Rod was born at home in Highgate, North London in 1945, half an hour after a German V-2 missile fell on the local police station, the youngest of five children and I was born in Lewisham Hospital and grew up in Deptford, South London in 1947, two years after the last bombs fell in that dockland area, the middle of three children.

In these two photos with Rod on the left we both seem to be wearing the same tie, shirt and pullover.

Rod and I both failed our 'eleven plus' exam , he then attended the William Grimshaw Secondary Modern School in Hornsey and I, Eltham Green Comprehensive. His main hobby was railway modelling and mine was collecting cigarette cards.

Rod was football mad, a strong supporter of Arsenal Football Club, became captain of the school football team and played for 'Middlesex Schoolboys', while I hated sport and was the Billy Casper figure in 'Kes' :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3cayRMnVb8

Rod had his introduction, when he was 11, to 'rock and roll' hearing Little Richard's 1956 "The Girl Can't Help It" and seeing Bill Haley & His Comets in concert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZQbe4PlnPg
His father bought him a guitar in 1959 and the first record he bought was Eddie Cochran's "C'mon Everybody" when he was 13 in 1958 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3xtqEv99eE
and mine was 'Apache' by 'The Shadows when I was 17 in 1964 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLocafpLMi0

Rod left school at the age of 15 in 1960, joined a skiffle group called the 'Kool Kats', playing Lonnie Donegan and Chas McDevitt hits, worked briefly as a silk screen printer and then joined on a football apprentice with Brentford Football Club but left after a couple of months saying later : "I had the skill but not the enthusiasm. Well, a musician's life is a lot easier and I can also get drunk and make music, and I can't do that and play football. I plumped for music."

Over the next few years Rod :
- began busking at Leicester Square and other London spots with folk singer Wizz Jones and took up playing the harmonica.
- with Wizz, took their act to Brighton and then to Paris, sleeping under bridges over the River Seine and then to Barcelona and was deported from Spain for vagrancy.
- in 1963, adopted the 'Mod' lifestyle, saw Otis Redding perform in concert, began listening to Sam Cooke records and he became fascinated by rhythm and blues and soul music.

Rod in 1963 and me three years later as a student in Brighton :

Rod's big break came when Long John Baldry invited him to sit in with the 'Hoochie Coochie Men' and offered him a job for £35 a week after securing the approval of Rod's mother.
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dhVPvgJnJF4/SaeTpFFcDlI/AAAAAAAADsA/SfI1RVOLTI0/s400/rod%2Bthe%2Bmod.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.themodgeneration.co.uk/2009/01/rod-stewart.html&usg=__Sl5qLVQNiOjOak-XXgXFt_5v0ts=&h=220&w=158&sz=8&hl=en&start=1&zoom=1&tbnid=gvCzOWDFmRTJGM:&tbnh=107&tbnw=77&ei=p7oNT8zkGIe98gPSquimBg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Drod%2Bstewart%2Bthe%2Bmod%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1

'Good Morning Little Schoolgirl' came when he was 19 in 1964 and his long 48 year career had begun :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAADWtAu41w

And Rod and I today :

Britain is no country for an old Second World War pilot called Eric Carter who wanted to sit in the cockpit of a spitfire

2012-01-10T07:39:00.000-08:00

Eric Carter is 91 years old and the last surviving member of 'Force Benedict', a secret 1940 Royal Air Force mission during the Second World War, to protect Murmansk, the port in Northern Russia which was a crucial lifeline to the Soviets in their war against Germany.

Eric wanted to reacquaint himself with the interior of the iconic Spitfire fighter plane he had flown over Russia when visiting the 'Potteries Museum and Art Gallery' in Stoke-on-Trent. However, this was not to be. 'Health and Safety Regulations', meant that worried officials refused to allow him to sit at the controls because it was "too risky".

"You couldn’t make it up." said Eric. " I used to fly those things every day fighting the Germans. Now that really was a health and safety concern, let me tell you! I had to laugh to think that I couldn’t sit in a stationary Spitfire in case I got hurt. I think they had their reasons, and they were probably just trying to be extra careful. I just wish the Luftwaffe had been so caring."

'Force Benedict' was a task force sent to keep the port of Murmansk open at any cost to protect crucial supply lines to Soviet Russia following the German invasion of 1941 and remained classified for decades because Stalin did not want to admit he had asked for help from Churchill.

Eric helped carry out 365 sorties during a four-month stay in Murmansk, shooting down 11 Messerschmitts and three Junkers bombers before helping to secure the port October 1941.

Although the actions of Force Benedict are little known in Britain due to the secrecy surrounding the mission, in Russia Eric :

* is a national hero in Russia and granted an annual budget to visit the country as thanks for his heroism.

* has met numerous Russian leaders, including Boris Yeltsin.

* was one of the 'guests of honour' when the Queen made her first State Visit to the country in 1994.

* is one of the only Westerners who has been allowed onto a Russian nuclear submarine.

Eric said that he had lied about his age so he could join the War effort :
"I was young and must have been mad, but perhaps we were just a tougher generation. The average lifespan in the air was just 15 minutes, but I was determined to volunteer after hearing about the atrocities the Germans had carried out on the Russians."

A spokesman for Stoke-on-Trent City Council said:
"The Spitfire cockpit had recently been painted with paint containing radium, which is radioactive, and there is no proper seat in the Spitfire itself at the moment. I am told the people on the day thought it best he did not sit in the plane for those reasons because of his age."

This clip of a 'dogfight' between two Spitfires and two ME110s over the White Cliffs of Dover and shot from one of the German planes gives some idea of the air battles our young and brave Eric took part in over Russia :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hG8BoXXOp4

P.S. Earlier postings about the Royal Airforce pilots in the War :

http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2010/08/britain-is-country-of-fewer-and-fewer_21.html

http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2010/09/battle-of-britain-pilots-last-of-few.html

Britain is no country for and says " Goodbye" to one old rock guitarist called Bob Weston and "Happy Birthday" to another called Jimmy Page

2012-01-09T07:05:00.000-08:00

Bob Weston, rock guitarist, born like me in 1947, has died at the age of 64.

What you possibly didn't know about Bob, that he :

* was born in Plymouth, began violin lessons at the age of 8, switched to the guitar at 12 and in his teens was swept up in the rhythm and blues boom of the early 1960's and was influenced by Muddy Waters as well as the jazz musician, Django Reinhardt.

* by the mid-1960s, was in London, looking for groups to join and had his first taste of success with 'The Kinetics, who worked mainly in France, made the album 'Live Your Life' in 1967.

* on his return to London, using his skill as a creative blues guitarist, worked with the singer, Aliki Ashman and the organist and singer Graham Bond and demonstrated the quality of his guitar work on Ashman Reynolds – 'Stop Off' in 1972 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2bHhlavflo

* in 1970, joined the backing group of blues singer, Long John Baldry and toured Europe and the USA as well as playing on Baldry's album, 'Everything Stops for Tea' in 1972.

* joined what remained of 'Fleetwood Mac' as the lead guitarist, after the departure of Peter Green and guitarists Spencer and Kirwan in 1972 and co-wrote songs on the 'Penquin' album on which he played slide guitar, harmonica and banjo
and worked on the 'Mystery to Me' album and thought he did not get the credit he deserved with 'Why' :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMZ332MRMMc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMQZnfRcQiE

* began an affair with Jenny Boyd, the wife of drummer Mick Fleetwood, which led to his being fired from the group during their American tour in 1973.

* played on Sandy Denny's final album, 'Rendezvous' in 1977, then worked with the actor Murray Head, star of 'Hair' and 'Jesus Christ Superstar' and featured on Head's album 'Say It Ain't So' in 1975 which was a big hit in France and Canada.

* recorded three solo albums, 'Nightlight' in 1980, 'Studio Picks' in 1981 and 'There's a Heaven' in 1999 and spent much of his last two decades writing or arranging music for films and television in France and Britain.

As an antidote to the sadness of his loss, Jimmy Page is still with us and is 68 years old today. So "Happy Birthday Jimmy !" :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv_mNtI9P3o

Britain is a country for and says "Happy Birthday" to an indomitable old cosmologist called Stephen Hawking

2012-01-08T07:47:00.000-08:00

Stephen Hawking, who is 70 years old today, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease when he was 21, shortly before his first marriage when doctors said he would not survive more than 'two or three years'. He gradually lost the use of his arms, legs, and voice and as of 2009, has been almost completely paralysed.

What you possibly didn't know about Stephen, that he :

* was born in Oxford during the Second World War because his father, a medical researcher in London, decided to go there, where it was safer away from German air raids.

* moved back to London after the War, then to St.Albans and in 1959, gained a scholarship place at Oxford University, specialised in physics, earned a First Class degree, then moved to Cambridge, where he began researching 'general relativity and cosmology'.

* in 1963, entered a hospital after noticing that his motor control accuracy was declining and diagnosed with 'Lou Gehrig's Disease', doctors predicted that he would not live long enough to earn his doctorate which he got in 1966.

* began his teaching career which led to in 1977 to being made Professor of Gravitational Physics and in 1979, was appointed 'Lucasian Professor of Mathematics', a Chair previously once held by Isaac Newton.

* in the 1970's discovered that :

-black holes could emit radiation
- theorized that the 'Big Bang' had produced objects that weighed 10^9 tons, yet were as small as protons
- put forward his 'no boundary proposal', which stated that time and space are finite in extent, but have no edge or boundary

* in 1985 suffering from pneumonia, doctors told his wife that it would be best to let him die, she refused, took him to a hospital in Cambridge, where a surgeon performed a tracheotomy which saved his life, but destroyed his ability to speak.

* overcame his new disability, with a machine which synthesized speech based on the vibrations in his trachea.

* in 1988, published 'A Brief History of Time', which remains one of the best selling science books in history and has sold 10 million copies worldwide.

* despite of his disability and confinement to a wheelchair, continues giving lectures and studying cosmology and had scientists assemble in his honour at Cambridge University on Thursday and Friday this week to raise a toast and take stock of the scientific fields to which he has applied his considerable brain power during his career.

* received the tributes of "bold", "provocative", "relentless", "witty" and "an inspiration" from his fellow scientists.

Discusses his stint on 'The Simpsons' :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei-pKsNiINk

In 'Star Trek' :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P18xc3W7Nbk

Stephen, who stated that he is "not religious in the normal sense" and believes that "the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws " meets the Pope :

Britain maybe no country for old men but is China still one ?

2012-01-08T06:26:00.000-08:00

China is a country with many old men and women with their number over the age of 60 standing at 178 million and that figure could reach 437 million, 33% of the population by 2050. 20% of Shanghai’s population is already over 60 and that figure is forecast to rise to 29% by 2030.

QUESTION : where are all these old men and women going to live ?

Previously, they had no choice but to live with one of their children because of the shortage of housing. The 'one child' policy in China, however, has meant that some single children are preparing to care for group of as many as six parents and grandparents.

ANSWER :

Property developers, insurance companies, foreign and domestic investors are poised to invest tens of billions of renminbi in housing old people in private retirement complexes known as 'silvertowns'.

QUESTION : What is happening to the Chinese tradition of 'filial piety' which long decreed that elderly parents should never live alone ?

ANSWER : Cultural change has eroded it to the point at which more than half of old people, with a far higher proportion in big cities, already live apart from their children and the Government recently introduced a law to 'compel' adult children to visit their elderly parents.

QUESTION : What do old men and women think about the change ?

ANSWER : Apparently, many of them welcome the change and according to one study, 26% of those surveyed saying they would agree to live in a retirement home.

“The silver industry is still in its infancy,” said Yoko Marikawa, who runs a speciality business consultancy on retirement complexes, and coined the term “silvertowns”.
She said that investors had previously shied away from the industry for cultural reasons: “People think oriental culture is very different from western culture, investors think that is a disadvantage.”

Now, that is changing, says Xi Zhiyong, Chairman of a elderly community called 'Cherish Yearn', Shanghai’s largest private old age community: “Social change means there is a big profit space in the market for ‘eldercare’ services.”

'Cherish Yearn' is relatively expensive but it offers perks such as a sports club and hospital and personal assistants to arrange the social life, health, shopping and entertainment of residents and Xi said 85 % of places have been sold and he nevertheless intends to open more 'Cherish Yearns'. “The richest people in China are the elderly,” he said.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQiGc922YIE

However, an article in 'Bloomberg News' entitled : China No Country for Old Men as ‘Demographic Tsunami’ Begins, presents quite a different picture .

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.bloomberg.com/image/idgx4UciDnqs.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-04/china-no-country-for-old-men-as-demographic-tsunami-begins.html&usg=__2CfYHCrD6VbOl64MpXiQgjneGAw=&h=499&w=329&sz=42&hl=en&start=8&zoom=1&tbnid=b8LP8qjCTc5EPM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=86&ei=eqQJT7eXLcTsOeTGjdEM&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcherish%2Byearn%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1

It focused on 90 year old Wang Fuchuan who :

* lay in bed wearing a quilted black jacket, with two comforters pulled up to his chin to keep out the chilly November air because the heating at Beijing Songtang Caring Hospice was broken and his nostrils were stuffed with toilet paper to stop them dripping.

* had cockroaches scurry across the floor of his room, which had no running water or toilet and his possessions, a few articles of clothing, in a plastic bag under his bed next to a pink wash bowl with a sliver of soap and his only entertainment from a transistor radio.

* counted himself lucky because while he had no family or savings, fought against the Japanese and Kuomintang in the 1940's, so the Government pays the clinic’s monthly fee of 2,000 yuan ($318) and his 200-yuan pension buys food.

* said : “A lot of people my age can’t afford to be here. The food isn’t too good, but I have nothing else to complain about.”

Apparently, China’s challenge is similar to that faced by Japan in the 1990s, with one essential difference: China will grow old before it gets rich.

Britain is no longer a country and says "Goodbye" to an old cockney actor called Harry Fowler

2012-01-07T06:45:00.000-08:00

Harry Fowler whose 'Cheeky Cockney' character actor graced British film and tv screens for more than 60 years has died at the age of 85.

What you possibly didn't know about Harry was that he :

* was born in 1926 in Lambeth, London and was a 'near illiterate newspaper boy' when invited to speak on BBC Radio to tell about life in Second World War London, was heard by film company executives looking for a Londoner to feature in a film about evacuees, was screentested and offered a monumental '£5 a day' to play in 'The Demi-Paradise' in 1943.

* although 'called up' to serve in the RAF, was given leave to appear in eight films, including Alberto Cavalcanti's anti-fascist 'Went the Day Well?' in 1942.

* played in 'Hue and Cry' in 1947, the leader of a gang of South London kids who discover that their favourite blood-and-thunder magazine is being used by crooks to send coded messages about future robberies and was given sage advice by co-star, Jack Warner who said : "Never turn anything down … stars come and go but as a character actor, you'll work until you're 90."

* had his career benefit from his role as a jaunty Sam Weller in 'The Pickwick Papers' in 1952.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIm-utqhnOo
and enjoyed the plum role 'I Believe in You' in 1952, as an under-privileged youngster, victimised by his stepfather, with a romantic interest in the very young Joan Collins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rgN7TFSmKM

* married Joan Dowling, who had featured in 'Hue and Cry' in 1951 and sadly took her own life in 1954 after her career faltered.

* had a prominent role in 'The Blue Peter' in 1954 :
Full movie : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrJyqOsVsfM

* featured in 'Lawrence of Arabia' in 1962 and as a paratooper in 'The Longest Day' :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV7gog2vDB8

* worked with the wonderful Irene Handl in 'Just For Fun' in 1963 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WDbUQty1Tw

* had his big tv break in 'The Army Game' from 1959-61 and as Harry Danvers in the heaven-sent 'Our Man at St Mark's' fom 1965-66 but still accepted cameo roles in films, recalling the advice that "each appearance was an advertisement for the next", playing the milkman delivering to a home tyrannised by Bette Davis in 'The Nanny' in 1965.

* had his familiar voice used for TV commercials and narrated Bob Godfrey film : 'Isambard Kingdom Brunel' in 1975, the first British cartoon to win an Academy Award.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whJvNNdQlTI

Britain is a country where men become old sooner than they think

2012-01-06T09:05:00.000-08:00

Brain cell activity

An article in the 'Gaurdian' yesterday was entitled :
How the brain starts going downhill at 45: Scientists find mental decline sets in much earlier than they had thought.

It made the following points, that :

* According to a study of 7,000 civil servants over 10 years, British men and women suffer the same 3.6% memory loss between the ages of 45-49, but older men aged 65-70 fare worse still, with a 9.6% drop in comparison with the 7.4% for their female counterparts.

* a deterioration in the memory and thinking powers of the oldest volunteers was expected, but the reasearch led by Archana Singh-Manoux found that the brains of even the youngest were already on the slide.
She said that "understanding cognitive ageing will be one of the challenges of this century", as the number of elderly people around the globe rises exponentially.

So old men of Britain, not much effect on you, the damage is done. Its for the 'old men of Britain to come' that this might be depressing. Try cheering youselves up with Tom Rush and his 'Remember Song' :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yN-6PbqAPM

Britain is no country for an old man called Neville Lawrence, father of Stephen who was murdered because he was black

2012-01-05T06:30:00.000-08:00

This is Stephen Lawrence who was murdered in a racist attack at the age of 19, sixteen years ago, on a road in Eltham South London. I know the road, since I went to school in the area 50 years ago.

This is Stephen's father, Neville, as he was 16 years ago and as he is today at the age of 69. Like his remarkable wife, Doreen, he has had to wait all this time to see two of his son's five murderers, tried and found guilty of the murder of their son.

Neville came to Britain from Jamaica at the age of 18 over 50 years ago and found it racist and unwelcoming. He became a builder and decorator by trade and met his future wife, Doreen, when she was 17 and he was 26 and they married in 1972, lived in Woolwich, South East London and raised a family of three.

Outside the court yesterday, Neville said that the sentencing was "only one step in a long, long journey" and that the two convicted "were not the only ones responsible for the death of my son" :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16409010

The facts of Stephen's death, police investigation and subsequent court action are that :

* he was murdered in a knife attack in 1993, by a gang of at least 5 white youths, chanting racist slogans.

* all five suspects were arrested, questioned and released on police bail and two were charged with murder and appeared in court but the Crown Prosecution Service discontinued its case arguing that there was 'insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of a conviction.'

* in 1994 Neville and his wife brought a 'private prosecution' all five suspects and depite the fact that they used a 'fighting fund' to pay for the analysis of forensic evidence and the cost of tracing and re-interviewing witnesses, the case failed.

* a Public Inquiry held in 1999 examined the original Police investigation and concluded that :
- the Force was institutionally racist
- the investigation had been incompetent
- officers had committed fundamental errors, failing to :
- give first aid to Stephen when they reached the scene
- follow obvious leads during their investigation
- arrest suspects

* by 1999 Neville's marriage was beyond repair, his estrangement from his wife had been gradual, born of an inability for them to confide and seek comfort in each other and Doreen said that : "Separation was not an idea that was ever there before Stephen's death. People say it either brings you together or tears you apart. That is what it did. When Stephen died it was not just him, it was my marriage as well."

* in 2003 Neville was honoured by the Queen when he received an OBE for services to community relations and said : "It is such a pity that I had to get something like this for such a tragic thing in my life. I feel a little bit of sadness."

* in May 2011, following a cold case review, it was announced that two of the original suspects were to stand trial for the murder in the light of 'new and substantial evidence' becoming available and it was from this that the 'guilty' verdicts came forth.

After the verdict Neville said:

" My life was torn apart by the senseless murder of my son" and that he was "full of joy and relief that two of my son's killers had been convicted" . Nevertheless, knowing that three other murderers are still free said that that he didn't think he would "be able to rest until they are brought to justice".

Little wonder that Neville has returned to live in Jamaica where he was born.

*

Britain is no longer a country for and says "Goodbye" to its greatest cartoonist called Ronald Searle

2012-01-03T10:46:00.000-08:00

Ronald Searle, best known as the creator of 'St Trinian's School' and co-author of the 'Molesworth' series and Britain's best loved cartoonist, died today at the age of 91.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdyWYqjGtEo

What you probably didn't know about Ronald, that :

* his father was a porter at Cambridge Railway Station and he started drawing at and left school at the age of 15.

* trained at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology and in 1941, published the first St Trinian's cartoon and started work as a war artist in 1942 and was stationed in Singapore.

* when Singapore was taken by the Japanese, was captured and spent the rest of the War a prisoner in Changi Prison and then in the Kwai Jungle, working on the Siam-Burma 'Death Railway'.

* documented the brutal camp conditions in a series of drawings which he hid under the mattresses of prisoners dying of cholera.

* liberated in 1945, he returned to England where he published several of the surviving drawings in fellow prisoner Russell Braddon's 'The Naked Island'.

* about 300 of his War drawings are in the permanent collection of the Imperial War Museum, London.

* in the 1950's He compiled more St Trinian's books, which were based on his sister's and other girls' schools in Cambridge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjbWiTDmm4o

* in 1961 he moved to Paris, where he produced books, animated films and sculpture for commemorative medals for the French Mint and the British Art Medal Society.

* did a lot of designing for the cinema and in 1965, created the opening, intermission and closing credits for the popular comedy film 'Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.'

* in 1975 the full-length cartoon 'Dick Deadeye' his animations were considered by some to be his greatest achievement, although Searle himself detested the result.

* in 2010 he gave about 2,200 of his works as permanent loans to the 'Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst' in Germany.

* lives in Fraqnce and in 2007 he was decorated with France's highest award, the 'Légion d'honneur' and in 2009 he received the 'German Order of Merit.'

A Life in pictures from 'The Guardian' :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/mar/09/ronald-searle-life-in-pictures

Britain is no country for and says "Goodbye" to an old actor then film director called Peter Hammond

2012-01-03T02:50:00.000-08:00

I recognised his young face, but knew little about Peter Hammond, who died in October last year aged 87 and have learned that as a young man he moved from acting to become a prolific TV series director who helped to transform staid television productions with methods and techniques inspired by Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock.

What I and possibly you, didn't know about Peter, that he :

* was born Peter Hammond Hill in Victoria, London, where his father was an art restorer and water colourist and his mother, a nurse.

* attended Harrow School of Art, became a scenic artist, then turned to acting, under the name 'Peter Hammond' in the postwar Gainsborough Film Studio.

* with looks reminiscent of the young James Stewart, made his screen debut in 'Waterloo Road' in 1945 and went on to play boy-next-door types in films throughout the late 40's and early 50's, most notably as Harry Huggett in the 'Huggetts' series of popular light comedies.
Here he can be seen halfway through this clip sharing a room 25 with 'Jimmy Gardiner' and his Post Second World War 'chocolate ration' in 'Holiday Camp' made when he was 23 in the year I was born, 1947 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg8Epczwiy0

* featured as Lieutenant Beamish in 1956-57 tv series 'The Bucaneers' and as Captain Hofmanstahl in 'The Adventures of William Tell' 1958-59, before becoming a 'trainee producer' at the BBC in 1959.

* directed 'Ambrose' a half-hour drama which starring Donald Pleasance in 1965 under the 'Armchair Mystery Theatre' banner for which he received a 'Guild of Television Producers and Directors Award'.

* found tv camera techniques were rudimentary with actors lined up in a row, one camera per face, another in reserve for wide shots and carved a reputation for his fresh and unusual work with camera angles, including clever mirror and window shots adding to the drama by heightening atmosphere and tension, popular with viewers and influential in his profession.

* directed episodes of the tv series, 'The Avengers', in the 1960's, was instrumental in Honor Blackman being brought in and in a rare interview said : "I thought Pat Macnee was rather feminine, so I wanted Honor to be the more masculine one, hence the leather trouser suit."

* directed the mini series, 'The Three Musketeers' in 1966 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT0ZVAEl4_o

* in 1970 he made his directorial film debut with 'Spring and Port Wine' starring James Mason :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DvgE3DDMog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MwQKeNrt4I

* in 1976, his seven-part adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend starred Leo McKern, Jane Seymour, Jack Wild and Warren Clarke :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAXHsHlLTbU

* his 'Wuthering Heights' in 1978, paired Ken Hutchinson as Heathcliff with Kay Adshead as Cathy :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4QBUP-ishM

* at the age of 53 and at the height of his powers, directed the 'Sign of Four' episode in the 'Sherlock Holmes' series starring Jeremy Brett in 1987 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCE9A9uROqY

* made 'Dark Angel', a Gothic thriller based on Sheridan Le Fanu’s 'Uncle Silas', in which Peter O’Toole excelled as the creepy uncle in 1989 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkAVX-7X2l4

* with self deprecation, referred to himself as : "just a television hack" whereas his friend and collaborator, the composer Paul Lewis, said: "His work was always visually brilliant – he was a visual poet and his work was deeply sensitive and deeply personal. He was a private man, strangely contrary to the image of gregarious bonhomie he gave whilst working. He came alive when he worked."

List of his life time's work as director, producer and actor :
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0358759/

"Goodbye" Peter Hammond and thanks for all your pleasure-giving work,

Britain is a country which, in 2011, said "Goodbye" to 35 remarkable old men who had collectively lived for almost 3,000 years

2011-12-31T07:04:00.001-08:00

1. Cristopher Logue : Poet :......85
2. Ken Russell : Film Director :...... 84
3. David Langdon : Cartoonist : ......97
4. Paul Dickson : Film Director : ...... 91
5. Aidrian Cowell : Rainforest Champion : ...... 77
6. Colonel Peter Storie-Pugh : Colditz Prisoner : ...... 91
7. Bert Jansch : Musician :...... 67
8. Jimmy Saville : DJ and Charity Fundraiser :...... 84
9. David Croft : Comedy Writer :...... 89
10. Henry Metelmann : Peace Campaigner :...... 88
11. Richard Hamilton : Father of Pop Art : ..... 89
12. Herbert Lomas : Poet : ...... 87
13. N.F.Simpson : Lord of Language : .......92
14. David Measures : Painter : ...... 73
15. Iain Blair : Actor and Writer : ....... 69.
16. Sir Patrick Leigh Fermour : Survivor from Colditz : ...... 96
17. Don McPhee : Photo Journalist : ........ 61
18. Claude Choules : First World War Veteran : ...... 110
19. Michael Ward : Photographer :...... 82
20. Henry Cooper : Boxer : 76
21. तुल बहादुर पुन, Tul Bahadur Pun : Soldier : ....... 92
22. Ken Taylor : Screen Writer : ...... 88
23. John Sullivan : Comedy Writer : ..... 64
24. Terry Ball : Reconstruction Artist : ...... 79
25. Michael Gough : Actor : ....... 94
26. Jet Harris : Musician : 71
27. Reg Ward : Architect : ....... 83
28. Peter Phillips : Set Designer : ......85
29. John Herivel : Code Breaker : ....... 92
30. Geoff Egan : Archaeologist : ....... 59
31. Brian Jacques : Writer : ........ 71
32. Woolly Wolstenholme : Musician :...... 63
33. George Douglas : Photographer : ....... 88
34. Gerry Rafferty : Musician : ....... 63
35. Pete Postlethwaite : Actor :....... 64

1. Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Britain is no longer a country for and says "Goodbye" to an old poet called Christopher Logue
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/12/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-and.html

2. Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Britain is a country which says "Goodbye" to one old film director called Ken Russell and "Happy Birthday" to another called Ridley Scott
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/11/britain-is-acountry-which-says-goodbye.html

3. Thursday, 24 November 2011
Britain says "goodbye" to a quintessentially British cartoonist called David Langdon
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/11/britain-says-goodbye-to.html

4. Wednesday, 9 November 2011
Britain is no longer a country for and says "goodbye" to an old film director called Paul Dickson
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/11/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-and_09.html

5. Saturday, 5 November 2011
Britain is no longer a country for and says "Goodbye" to Adrian Cowell, champion of the Amazon rainforest and its indians
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/11/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-and.html

6. Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Britain is country which says "Goodbye" Colonel Peter Storie-Pugh, the once and last surviving prisoner of Colditz Castle
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/11/britain-is-country-which-says-goodbye.html

7. Saturday, 15 October 2011
Britain is no longer a country for and says "Goodbye" to an old folk musician and 'Pentangle' player called Bert Jansch
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/10/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-and_15.html

8. Saturday, 29 October 2011
Britain is no longer a country for an old DJ and tireless fundraiser for charity called Jimmy Saville
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/10/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-old-dj.html

9. Thursday, 29 September 2011
Britain is a country where old men say "Goodbye" to David Croft whose gentle comedy made them laugh when they were young men
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/09/britain-is-country-where-old-men-say_29.html

10. Friday, 23 September 2011
Britain is no longer a country for an old German called Henry Metelmann, peace campaigner and one time devotee of Adolph Hitler
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/09/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-old_23.html

11. Saturday, 17 September 2011
Britain is no longer a country for an old artist and the 'Father of Pop Art' called Richard Hamilton '
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/09/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-old_17.html

12. Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Britain says "Goodbye" to an old poet called Herbert Lomas who used the same Army slang as Michael Caine in 'Get Carter'
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/09/britain-says-goodbye-to-old-poet-called.html

13. Saturday, 3 September 2011
Britain is no longer a country for an old 'lord of language' who once made ' A Resounding Tinkle' called N.F.Simpson
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/09/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-old.html

14. Sunday, 14 August 2011
Britain is no longer a country for an old painter of 'butterflies on the wing' called David Measures
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/08/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-and.html

15. Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Britain is no longer a country for an old Scottish actor called Iain Blair and lady writer called Emma Blair
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/08/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-old_16.html

16. Monday, 20 June 2011
Britain is no longer a country for a remarkable old man called Sir Patrick Leigh Fermour
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/06/britain-is-no-longer-country-for.html

17. Saturday, 25 June 2011
Britain is no longer a country for an old photo journalist called Don McPhee
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/06/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-old_25.html

18. Thursday, 5 May 2011
Britain is a country which says "Goodbye" to Claude Choules the last remaining veteran warrior who fought for Britain in The First World War
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/05/britain-is-country-which-says-goodbye.html

19. Wednesday, 18 May 2011
Britain says "Goodbye" to an old news and portrait photographer called Michael Ward
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/05/britain-says-goodbye-to-old-news-and.html

20. Monday, 2 May 2011
Britain says "goodbye" to an old London heavyweight boxer and English gentleman called Henry Cooper
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/05/britain-says-goodbye-to-old-london.html

21. Sunday, 1 May 2011
Britain, a country which says "Goodbye" to, remembers it once 'closed its doors' to a fearless Gurkha soldier called तुल बहादुर पुन, Tul Bahadur Pun
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/05/britain-country-which-says-goodbye-to.html

22. Thursday, 28 April 2011
Britain says "Goodbye" to an old tv screen writer called Ken Taylor
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/04/britain-says-goodbye-to-old-tv-screen.html

23. Monday, 25 April 2011
Britons say "Goodbye" to John Sullivan and a comic light who brightened their lives
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/04/britons-say-goodbye-to-john-sullivan.html

24. Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Britain is no longer a country for an old 'reconstruction artist' called Terry Ball who brought its past to life
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/03/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-old.html

25. Monday, 21 March 2011
Britain says "Goodbye" to an old thespian called Michael Gough, aka Batman's butler, 'Alfred Pennyworth' and so much more
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/03/britain-says-goodbye-to-old-thespian.html

26. Saturday, 19 March 2011
Britain says "Goodbye" to an old rock guitarist called Jet Harris
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/03/britain-says-goodbye-to-old-rock.html

27. Thursday, 24 February 2011
Britain is a country which says "Goodbye" to Reg Ward who gave London its beautiful Canary Wharf skyline
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/02/britain-is-country-which-says-goodbye.html

28. Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Britain says "goodbye" to an old set designer famed for 'Brideshead Revisited' called Peter Phillips
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/02/britain-says-goodbye-to-old-set.html

29. Friday, 18 February 2011
Britain says "goodbye" to an old Second World War code breaker called John Herivel
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/02/britain-says-goodbye-to-old-second.html

30. Friday, 11 February 2011
Britain is no longer a country for an old 'mudlark' turned archaeologist called Geoff Egan
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/02/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-old_11.html

31. Thursday, 10 February 2011
Britain is no longer a country for an old Liverpudlian writer called Brian Jaques and his world called 'Redwall'
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/02/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-old.html

32. Friday, 28 January 2011
Britain is a country which says "Goodbye" to an old keybpoard player from Barclay James Harvest called Woolly Wolstenholme
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/01/britain-is-country-which-says-goodbye_28.html

33. Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Britain says "Goodbye" to an old photographer called George Douglas
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/01/britain-says-goodbye-to-old.html

34. Thursday, 6 January 2011
Britain is no longer a country for a sad old musician called Gerry Rafferty
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/01/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-sad.html

35. Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Britain is a country which says "Goodbye" to a fine old actor called Pete Postlethwaite
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2011/01/britain-is-country-which-says-goodbye.html