Britain is a country whose old men taste the food they had as boys and discover " it ain't the same".

I've just spent a pleasant morning doing Christmas shopping in the ancient city of Canterbury. We stopped for coffee in a small restaurant called 'Tiny Tim's' and I ordered 'cinnamon on toast', because I'd remembered having and enjoying it as a boy over 50 years ago.



Cinnamon on toast in 1950 : The toast then consisted of a slice of white bread held with a brass toasting fork over either a coal fire or a coke one after the 1956'Clean Air Act'. Once the toast was done it was spread with a mixture of butter, cinnamon powder and white sugar and the result was magic.

Cinnamon on toast 2010 : The toast today consisted of a slice of white bread made in an electric toaster, spread with butter and sprinkled with cinnamon powder over both bread and plate for effect.

This recipe is closer to the original :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTOzC8Tvmdw

Britain says "Happy Birthday" to an old Canadian actor called Christopher Plummer

I watched a sunday afternoon movie on tv yesterday. It was made in 1966 and starred Christopher Plummer and was set in France in the Second World War and involved him 'wheeling and dealing' with the Germans, the British and the French Wartime 'Underground'. It was called 'Triple Cross',he spoke good french and today I found out the reason : he was born in Canada 81 years ago today and is bi-lingual.

Here he is with Yul Brynner :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-mvaz8aGN0
Things you probably didn't know about him, 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.

* was an only child whose parents were divorced shortly after he was born.

* studied to be a concert pianist, but developed a love for the theatre at an early age, began acting in high school and was moved after seeing Laurence Olivier's film Henry V in 1944.

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

* has appeared in many films but it was not until January 2010 that he received his first 'Academy Award Nomination' for his portrayal of author Leo Tolstoy in 'The Last Station' and when interviewed in March he replied : "Well, I said it's about time! I mean, I'm 80 years old, for God's sake. Have mercy."




* remains best known for his 1965 portrayal of Captain Von Trapp, in 'The Sound of Music' in a role he reportedly disliked but appeared for the 45th anniversary, with the full cast on The Oprah Winfrey Show in October 2010.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJyFxLxnAMw&NR=1&feature=fvwp

50 years in film in still photos :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKZpCFEiWXM




































Parnassus.

Britain says "Happy Birthday" to Bill Nighy

Bill Nighy the actor is 61 today.












Three samples of his acting :

as Billy Mack with 'Christmas is All Around' from the film 'Love Actually' :
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8261_christmasisallaround_music
He has twice played burned-out rock stars: Ray Simms in 'Still Crazy' and Billy Mack in 'Love Actually.'

The Banker :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYtNwmXKIvM

as Davy Jones in 'Pirates of the Caribbean' :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3rOZwgOZeY

Some things you probably didn't know about him, that he :

* was born in Surrey where his mother was a psychiatric nurse who was born in Glasgow and his father, managed a car garage after working in the family chimney sweep.

* left his Catholic grammar school with two exams and then took a job with a local paper as a messenger boy.

* had a 27-year-relationship with English actress Diana Quick, with whom he has a daughter, actress Mary Nighy.

* is a supporter of Crystal Palace Football Club and and is the Patron of its 'Disabled Children's Club', and a Patron of the London children's charity 'Scene & Heard.'

Britain is a country where old men need a sense of humour to survive and the good news from Canada is that they will not lose it

I've just discovered that researchers in Canada have found that a person's sense of humour remains intact when they grow old, but only if the joke is obvious.




The ability to understand more complex jokes can deteriorate with age.

Writing in the 'Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society', researchers suggest ageing of the brain is the cause.

They carried out tests on 20 older adults, with an average age of 73 and 17 younger adults, with an average age of 28. They were all asked to complete three separate humour tests.

In the first test, they were presented with 28 statements and asked to identify the humorous ones. Three out of four were humorous. They included :


Sign in a tailor shop: "Please have a fit upstairs"
Sign in a hotel : "Please take advantage of the chambermaid"

In a second test, they were asked to select the correct punchline from four options for 16 incomplete jokes.
For instance, the first part of one joke read :

The neighbour approached Mr Smith at noon on Sunday and inquired, "Say Smith, are you using your lawnmower this afternoon?"
"Yes, I am", Smith replied warily.

What did the neighbour answer? :

A. "Fine, you won't be wanting your golf clubs, I'll just borrow them"
B. "Oops!" as the rake he walked on barely missed his face
C. "Oh well, can I borrow it when you're done then?"
D. "The birds are always eating my grass seed."

In the third test, participants looked at 10 different cartoon drawings. Each cartoon consisted of a series of four similar drawings only one of which had a funny detail. Participants were asked to select the correct one.

The researchers found that old people performed just as well as younger adults in the first test. However, they made significantly more errors in the other two.

The researchers also tested the older adults' cognitive abilities, such as their memory and abstract reasoning.

They found that people who scored low in these tests were also most likely to do badly in the humour tests.

"The good news is that ageing does not affect emotional responses to humour," said Dr Shammi. "We will still enjoy a good laugh when we get the joke."
He said the discovery that a person can keep their sense of humour when they grow older is important.

"It is integral to social interaction and it has long been postulated that humour may enhance quality of life, assist in stress management, and help us cope with the stresses of ageing."

Britain is a country where old men can speak and write 'good' English, whereas young men working at The Department for Education cannot

Would-be teachers in England and Wales are required to pass a test in literacy and numeracy and apparently, almost 25% of them cannot do simple sums and a 20% have problems with spelling, grammar and punctuation. The pass mark is set at 60%, so they can get 4 out of 10 things wrong and still pass. In addition, they can have an unlimited number of 'attempts' to pass and one is reported to have taken the tests 27 times before achieving the pass rate.

The 45-minute literacy test is in four parts – spelling, grammar, punctuation and comprehension.
This is how the tests were presented in the 'Daily Mail' newspaper and oh dear, the heading :
QUESTIONS THAT CAUGHT THEM OUT should read :

QUESTIONS WHICH CAUGHT THEM OUT
We might excuse this by saying the grammatical error was made by the journalist and not the Government, however, closer inspection of Q1 and Q2 in the 'LITERACY' test reveal such errors.

Q1 reads : As with television and video parents carers and teachers should preview material or provide supervision.
The word 'either' is missing before the word 'preview'.

Q2 reads : Select the passage that is most appropriate :
The word 'that' should be 'which'.

I published a post on Ocober 19th entitled :
Britain is a Country whose old men thank their ability to speak 'good English' to Ronald Ridout.
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html

Britain says "Happy Birthday" to an old B.B.C. broadcaster called Cliff Michelmore

Cliff Michelmore is 91 today and was born exactly 13 months after the end of The First World War in 1919. He was a squadron leader in the Royal Airforce in The Second World War.

He is fixed in the minds of those old men who remember him for those black and white pre- colour days of television and is best known for the BBC television programme 'Tonight', which he presented from 1957 to 1965.

Here he interviews the 17 year old David Bowie who argues the case for long hair :
http://mayomo.com/14167

He also hosted the television coverage of :

the 1966 General Election with Bob Mckenzie and the 'Swingometer':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfTHdlHlJcg

as well as the 1966 Aberfan disaster and the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales in 1969.

the 1970 Apollo 13 moon landing rentry :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A82Ol8J1g_I

He returned to the BBC at the age of 88 in 2007 to introduce a programme on BBC Parliament recalling the 1967 devaluation of the pound.

Britain is a country where a young actor called Derek Jacobi once played the old Emperor Claudius and now that old actor plays an old King called Lear

Derek Jacobi’s 'King Lear' has been getting extraordinary reviews from seasoned Shakespeare watchers for the play which is regarded as his greatest tragedy.

Who is this sprightly 72 year old who plays Lear ? Well, apparently he :

* was an only child, born in Leytonstone, London, the son of Daisy Gertrude, a secretary who worked in a drapery store and Alfred George Jacobi, who ran a sweet shop and was a tobacconist.

* was born in 1938 and was a 'Second World War baby' who had a happy childhood and in his teens, went to the County High School where he joined the drama club and starred in a production of Hamlet, which was taken to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and was well-regarded.

* at 18, won a scholarship to the University of Cambridge, where he read history and on stage played many parts including Hamlet, which was taken on tour in Switzerland where he met Richard Burton.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-elDeJaPWGg

* was, as a result of his performance of Edward II at Cambridge, invited to become a member of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1960.

* had his talent recognised by Laurence Olivier, who invited him to become one of the founding members of the new National Theatre where he played Laertes in Hamlet opposite Peter O'Toole in 1963.

* had his big breakthrough in 1976 when he played the title role in the BBC's series 'I, Claudius' and cemented his reputation with his performance as the stammering, twitching Emperor. He was 38, playing the 51 year old Claudius and I was 29.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQe28wNe6SU&feature=related

* in 1979, took Hamlet on a theatrical world tour through England, Egypt, Greece, Sweden, Australia, Japan and China with himself as the Prince and was invited to perform the role once more at Kronborg Castle, better known as Elsinore Castle.

* in 1986, at 48, made his West End debut in 'Breaking the Code' with the role of Alan Turing which was written with him specifically in mind. The play was taken to Broadway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV67Sj2jkVg

* in 1988, alternated in West End the title roles of Shakespeare's Richard II and Richard III in repertoire.

* on tv, played Hitler in 'Inside the Third Reich' in 1982.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjh0Ukuzc3o
* made his directing debut as Branagh's director for the 1988 Renaissance Theatre Company's touring production of Hamlet.

* has done many things in the last 20 years, come a long way from that state high school in London and now graces the London stage as, possibly, one of the greatest ofk ng Lears.

P.S. Henry V - Prologue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5dI65LvbrE

P.P.S. On a Quiz Show :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcmLxQIih1s

Britain is a country whose old men, when young, protested on the streets of London against a War and now their grandsons protest against student debt

More than 200 people have been arrested after thousands of demonstrators clashed in a protest in London. The St John Ambulance Brigade said it treated 86 people for injuries. Fifty were taken to hospital including up to 25 police officers.

The trouble followed a big rally in Trafalgar Square with an estimated 10,000 demonstrators. The mood at the rally was described as good humoured.

9th December 2010 ?
No. It was 28th March 1968. On that day :

* Violence broke out when the protesters marched to the US embassy in Grosvenor Square which was surrounded by hundreds of police who stood shoulder to shoulder to cordon off the part of the Square closest to the Embassy.

* Tensions rose as the crowd refused to back off and mounted officers rode at the demonstrators.

* Protesters broke through the police ranks onto the lawn of the Embassy, tearing up the plastic fence and uprooting parts of a hedge and during a protracted battle, stones, earth, firecrackers and smoke bombs were thrown.

* One officer was treated for a reported serious spinal injury, another for a neck injury and another had his hat knocked off and was struck continuously on the back of the head with a stick from a banner as he clung, head down, to his horse's neck.



* Earlier the actress Vanessa Redgrave, who had been one of the speakers at the rally, was allowed to enter the Embassy with three supporters to deliver a protest.

* Labour MP Peter Jackson told 'The Times' newspaper : "I was particularly outraged by the violent use of police horses, who charged into the crowd even after they had cleared the street in front of the Embassy."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcCzQA_0MHM

Fast forward to 9th December 2010 :

* Police arrested 153 people during clashes in London on the third day of protests against plans to raise student tuition fees.

* The day ended with a stand-off with police in Trafalgar Square.

* Students are campaigning against plans to raise tuition fees in England to up to £9,000 per year, with a vote expected in the House of Commons before Christmas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdK38ux9tHs

Britain is a country whose hospital wards are no places for old men

The Daily Mail newspaper is running a campaign called 'Dignity for the Elderly' by asking readers to 'end the scandalous mistreatment of the elderly on NHS wards.'
I shall repeat what the paper cites as facts rather than opinions :

* elderly patients are being crammed into some of the most overcrowded wards in Europe, putting them at risk of infection and neglect.

* pensioners are suffering the indignity of being shunted in and out of beds more often than almost anywhere in the world.

* hundreds of thousands are sent home every year much earlier than is healthy for them.

* the occupancy rate of beds of 83% is far higher than the OECD average of 75% and the 63% in the Netherlands and the former Communist state of Slovakia manages a rate of 67%.

* the shortage of beds has led to shocking neglect, such as elderly people being left in store rooms and mop cupboards and frail patients not being helped to eat their meals because nurses are overstretched.

* last year, 500,000 patients returned to wards after apparently being discharged too early.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1334850/Neglect-shames-Britain-As-complaints-NHS-treatment-elderly-soar-Mail-calls-action.html

Berlin in winter is a safe city for old men and still a place for the hurdy gurdy man

We've been to Berlin for 4 days and these were the headlines we left behind.


On arrival, as I expected, the roads were clear of ice and the paths were gritted making it easy for German old drivers to avoid skidding and old walkers to avoid slipping.

What was unexpected was the warmth and attraction of the 'Christmas markets' which had stalls and small eating places for food drink and 'gluwein'.



And there he was : the 'Hurdy Gurdy' man winding his machine and raising money for charity and what was the unexpected bonus to his music was the 2 little kids who spontaneously fell into dance around him.






Suddenly, I understood the power of the 'Pied Piper of Hamlin' and remembered Donovan's 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' from 40 years ago :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgdOzDqIo4E&feature=related

P.S.
More on the 'hurdy gurdy' :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurdy_gurdy

Britain in the grip of severe winter weather is not just no country for old men but for anyone

Living in the County of Kent in the brown zone of the map, the key tells me to 'BE PREPARED' for more bad weather tommorow.




Sky News Online tells me :

* Heavy snow and ice have brought much of Britain to a halt with severe weather warnings in place again for some parts of the country. Planes, trains and the roads have all been severely hit while hundreds of schools have shut.

* Gatwick, Edinburgh and Dundee airports are closed, causing chaos for travellers, while large parts of the M25 hardly moved overnight.

* Hundreds of motorists were left stranded in Kent overnight as traffic on several main roads ground to a halt.

* And the M3 in Surrey was closed this morning following a suicide.

* Severe weather warnings are in place for the East of England.

* The South East, especially Kent, Surrey and south Essex, could see another 20cms of snow tonight with south-east and part of Greater London also at risk.

Britain is no country just for old men but for anyone.

Britain is a country whose old men would live longer if it had more doctors who were paid less

A report, by the 'Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development', which represents 30 of the World's most industrialised nations, has estimated that National Health Service spending on high salaries for its staff is contributing to knocking three and a half years off the average Briton's life.

It makes the following points, that Britain is a country with :

* fewer doctors per head of population than most countries in the Western World and has far less hi-tech equipment, like cancer scanners, because it cannot afford them.

* family doctors who receive an average of £106,000, almost double the amount paid to French doctors and if the money was spent instead on, for example, the scanners, fewer people would die prematurely.

* one of the highest rates of avoidable deaths, with 74 out of 100,000 being preventable every year, leaving only Portugal and Denmark having a worse record.

* avoidable deaths cutting three years off the average life, about two and a half years for women and three and a half years for men.

* people whose chance of seeing a doctor is smaller than almost anywhere else with them seeing one on average only five times a year compared to, for example, 14 in Japan.

* 25 doctors per 10,000 inhabitants which is lower than most of its competitors.

The conclusion :

Britain has a health system characterised by the 'high relative income level of health professionals and that efficiency could be improved if contracts were rewritten to give doctors less money'.

In other words : it would have far better healthcare if it paid its doctors less but employed more of them.

Britain is a country where 'The Guardian' newspaper pays tribute to Leslie Neilsen

The Guardian Newspaper's tribute to Leslie Neilsen is far better than anything I could achieve.

Leslie Nielsen, who spent 30 years forging a career as a serious actor, and then another 30 playing the same parts for laughs, has died aged 84. We look back over his life in clips :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2010/nov/29/leslie-nielsen-career-clips

Britain says "Goodbye" to an old Canadian actor called Leslie Neilson

Things you probably didn't know about Leslie, that :

* his mother, born in Wales, was an immigrant from Fulham, London, and his father was a Danish-born Constable in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police whose beatings of his wife and children, made Leslie want to escape.

* his older brother, Erik, was Deputy Prime Minister of Canada during the 1980s.

* at the age of 17, enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and was trained as an aerial gunner at the end of The Second World War.

* briefly worked as a disc jockey at a radio station in Alberta, before enrolling at the 'Lorne Greene Academy of Radio Arts' in Toronto.

* studied theater and music at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and later attended the Actors Studio before making his first tv appearance, in 1948, on an episode of 'Studio One', alongside Charlton Heston.

* made his film debut in 1956 in 'The Vagabond King'and followed this with a part in the science fiction film 'Forbidden Planet' and said of the film it was :
"Supposedly a science fiction version of Shakespeare's The Tempest, it was all about the id, or something like that. Who knows? The Trekkies today regard it as the forerunner of Star Trek. I just had to wear a tight uniform and make eyes at Anne Francis. I was pretty thin back then."

* in 1957, got the lead role opposite Debbie Reynolds in the romantic comedy 'Tammy and the Bachelor.'

* auditioned for the role of Messala, given to Stephen Boyd, in the 1959 'Ben-Hur'.

* appeared on tv in 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents', 'The Virginian', and 'The Wild Wild West' and in 1969, had the leading role as a police officer in 'The Bold Ones: The Protectors'.

* appeared as the ship's captain in the 1972 film 'The Poseidon Adventure'.

* made his comedic breakthrough came with a supporting role in 1980's 'Airplane!' in which his deadpan delivery contrasted with the continual absurdity surrounding him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo7qoonzTCE&NR=1

* was cast in the lead role in the TV series, 'Police Squad!'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRsmLcsP38A

* in 'The Naked Gun' played his character, Drebin, like the doctor in 'Airplane!' : seemingly unaware of the absurdity even when unintentionally contributing toward it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJEmtLxkEoI&feature=related


* appeared in over 100 films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying over 220 characters and was always at his best when he made us laugh.

P.S. My favourite :
I'm a locksmith from 'Police Squad' :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRva7z8pvwc

Britain is a country which needs more and men like Christopher Irven who has that, now, rare quality of ' the Dunkirk Spirit' : a post script

I published this post about Chris Irven back in July :












I came across a newspaper article :

Isn't 75 a little too old for cliff-jumping? Thrill-seeking grandfather ends up in hospital after 'tombstoning' stunt

It made the following points about Chris he :

* climbed part of the way up a 100ft rock, leapt off and belly-flopped into the sea and ended up in hospital with groin and stomach injuries.

* attempted a swallow dive where the diver jumps off backwards and enters the water head first.

* went ahead even when his family had urged him not to and they watched from a packed beach.

* came to the surface and cried out in pain and his two sons ran into the water and dragged him out.

* was given oxygen on the beach before he was airlifted to hospital.

* was released after treatment.

* said : "I might be 75 years old but I am very fit for my age and fairly adventurous. I tend to do things that might be daunting to other people".

* and : "The dive was a bit of a cock-up and I hit the water at a bad angle, it was too shallow. My face, chest, tummy and legs took a battering. I started to swim back to shore but couldn't and my two sons came and got me out. I lay down and a bit of shock set in. I have got some bruising today but I am OK. If I do it again I will make sure I get it right next time."

P.S. Two months ago he completed a gruelling 2,000-mile cycle ride around Britain and raised more than £15,000 for the 'Help for Heroes' charity for wounded servicemen.

***********************************************************
I have since heard from Chris and in the name a clarity and the truth this is what he said :

A few points, if I may: the press didn't get it all correct. I wasn't badly hurt: shocked, yes. My family did not urge me not to do it; they were diving with me as we had done dozens of times from that point. My sons were trying to make my dive more stylish - vain hope - but a swallow dive is not backwards. I should have kept my own council. On my 2038-mile cycle for Help for Heroes I have now raised £23,000 - see wordpress for full story. I'm now considering my next charity - wife permitting. Isn't there one for families of soldiers who didn't come back? Advice welcome, preferably constructive. Chris Irven

Britain is still a country with some remarkable old men.

Britain is a country where its increasing number of old men who are the victims of crime have a protectress in The Crown Prosecution Service

Three years ago crimes against old people in the U.K. were highlighted when :

* the Crown Prosecution Service said that under new guidelines, criminals who attack elderly people should get harsher sentences and those attacks would be treated the same as race hate and anti-gay crimes.

* it was feared that up to 500,000 elderly people could be the victims of crime and that only a few of these come to court because many victims do not report them through fear or embarrassment.

* the Director of Public Prosecutions, said : “If there is any evidence that there is an aggravating element to an offence based on a victim’s age, we will draw it to the attention of the court. Safety and security and the right to live free from the fear of crime, arising from mistreatment or abuse, are fundamental rights and go to the core of older people’s sense of well-being. Feeling and being unsafe, or 'at risk’, has a significant negative impact on older people’s health and sense of well-being and can leave them isolated and unable to participate socially and economically in their community.”

* the CPS said that it wanted to focus on several key crimes including abuse or neglect by family members in the home or by care workers and other crimes targeted include those where elderly people are picked on because they are vulnerable, such as muggings, doorstep theft or rogue traders, and crimes motivated by hostility or even hatred towards people because of their age and infirmity.

Some case studies

SHEFFIELD:
A support worker who stole more than £16,000 from a deaf pensioner in Sheffield was jailed for two and a half years in 2008 and also ordered to pay her victim £10,000 after admitting eight counts of theft. The victim sat in the well of the court in a wheelchair and heard, with the help of a listening device, the Judge describe the defendant as someone who was "truly base" and whose actions were "a dreadful betrayal of the trust deposed in you".

LINCOLNSHIRE:
A carer who stole more than £4,000 from an 88 year old man was jailed for six months in 2008. During the sentencing hearing the Judge said she wanted to stress how seriously the courts would deal with people who took advantage of elderly people in their care.

DERBYSHIRE:
A paramedic pleaded guilty to theft when he heard his elderly victim was prepared to give evidence via a live television link-up from his home allowing the 76-year-old victim to give evidence against the paramedic who stole cash at his house following a 999 call.

Have these new measures announced in 2007 led to a decrease in the number of crimes against old people ? I don't know, but suspect not. In fact, it would not surprise me if the number had actually increased since then.

Britain is a country where old men remember 'Countess Dracula' and say "Goodbye" to a remarkable woman called Ingrid Pitt

Ingrid Pitt died on Tuesday at the age of 73 and Britain's old men remember when they were young and saw her playing lusty vampires in 'Hammer' horror films in the late 1960's and early 70's.

Things those once young men probably didn't know about Ingrid, that she :

* was born Ingoushka Petrov in Poland in 1937 to a Jewish mother and a German father who was a scientist who refused to work on the Nazis' programme to develop rockets.

* was five when she and her mother were sent to the 'Stutthof Concentration Camp', where they remained for three years. "I think I first knew I wanted to act in the camp," she said. "I used to lie on the straw and try and believe I was somewhere else."

* was taken into a forest with her Mother to be shot, when they managed to escape, were rescued by partisans, spent the last year of the War living rough with them, before making their way to Berlin.

* said , "I was born into the biggest horror show of the century, the brutalities of the Nazi regime. I think it's very amazing that I do horror films when I had this awful childhood. But maybe that's why I'm good at it."

* after a brief spell as a medical student, became a member of Bertolt Brecht's 'Berliner Ensemble Theatre Company', got into trouble for criticising the communist authorities in East Berlin and made her escape to the West by diving into the River Spree.

* was helped in her escape by a US marine officer, Roland Pitt, who she married and then, after living for a period on a Colorado military base, got a divorce and returned to Europe with her daughter.

* worked in Spain, appearing 'uncredited' in several films and then in 1965, got work as an extra on David Lean's 'Doctor Zhivago' and Orson Welles's 'Chimes at Midnight.'

* played the part of a German double agent posing as a cafe waitress in the Second World War film, 'Where Eagles Dare' which had its interiors were shot in an English studio and it was at this point she began her love affair with England.

* later married the British former racing driver Tony Rudlin, settled in London and once said : It was "the longest Pitt-stop of his career."

* got her 'breakthrough' in the Hammer film 'The Vampire Lovers', where, wearing low-cut, transparent gowns, she played a 200-year-old lesbian vampire who seduced her female victims before sucking their blood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StTTfl8SU5k&feature=fvw


* played the title role of 'Countess Dracula', who remained youthful by bathing in the blood of virgins.

* before her death provided the narration on an animated short film about her War time experiences called 'Beyond the Forest'.

The film's producer, Jud Newborn of New York's Museum of Jewish Heritage said :

"She remained tortured by the horrors of her childhood Holocaust experiences until her sudden death. She never exploited or emphasised them in any of her work or public persona, only mentioning them in her memoir long after her film career had waned. Retelling her childhood pain for the film and its narration was an ordeal for her but as she aged, Ingrid Pitt felt it important that the public know about the millions of children who suffered during the Holocaust. She wanted to be part of a project that would remind the world of the 1.5 million children who died, as well as to protect children of all cultures today from the kind of oppression and abuse that she had endured."

Britain is no longer a country for Brian Marsden who proved that the solar system was no longer a place for a 'planet' called Pluto

British astronomer, Brian, who died in August at the age of 73 is mostly remembered for winning his long campaign to demote Pluto from full planethood to minor planet status, this, however, was not the first time that his pursuit of truth among the stars had earned him, unusully for an astronomer, public notice.

In his life, he, :

* at the age of 5 in 1942, found his Mother sitting outside watching an eclipse and was most impressed by the fact that it had been 'predicted' in advance.

* at the age of 11, was developing basic methods for calculating the positions of the planets.

* at 16, joined the British Astronomical Association and, using the primitive method of seven-place logarithms, started calculating the gravitational effects of the planets on the dates and sky positions of the returns of some periodic comets.

* by the time he gained his degree in Mathematics in Oxford, had an international reputation for the computation of comet orbits.

* responded to an inquiry from the author Dorothy L Sayers, who, incensed by what she saw as grossly unfair literary criticism of the Roman writer Lucan, got Brian's help to support her view that Lucan's understanding of astronomy and geography was reasonably valid.

* earned his doctorate studying the motions of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter.

* in 1978, became 'Director of the Smithsonian's Minor Planet Centre' concerned with those minor planets which can come close to the earth.

* made, what was his proudest prediction of the return of the comet Swift-Tuttle, which remains the one with the longest orbital period of any whose return has been successfully predicted.

* caused a stir in 1998 by announcing that an object estimated to be 2km across, could smash into the earth sometime after 2028 and whose prediction, coming in advance of the Hollywood films 'Deep Impact' and 'Armageddon', was heavily covered by the media, with the New York Times calling him a 'cheery herald of fear'.

* went on to prove the asteroid would miss after previously unexamined photos from 1990 were unearthed and presented to him.

* was the first to suggest that three objects discovered in 1993, just beyond Neptune, were in orbits similar to that of Pluto which set him on the quest to 'demote' Pluto from planethood.

* needed to find similar 'transneptunian' objects comparable to Pluto in size and finally did so in 2005 with the discovery of the object which came to be known as 'Eris'.

* was at the International Astronomical Association meeting in 2006 which designated Pluto as a member of a new class of 'dwarf planet' and when he stood down as the Director of the Minor Planet Centre at the Smithsonian at the same meeting, was entertained by the thought that : both he and Pluto had been retired on the same day.

An interview with Brian :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA9GvDS_4U8

Britain is a country facing social and economic difficulties where ' a royal wedding' will be just the thing to provide a tonic for the nation

Britain is the only 'major' country in the world where the Government can decree that there shall be a national holiday on the 29th of April 2011, to allow its citizens to 'celebrate' when two people, who have no extraordinary gifts or talents are to get married in one of the most famous churches in the country called Westminster Abbey.

The wedding itself, which will cost a fortune, will be paid for by the families of the bride and groom. The cost of security and police to keep members of the public away from the wedding will be paid for by the taxes of the very same taxpaying citizens who are being kept at bay.

The two people in question are William Windsor, a 'prince', and Kate Middleton a 'middle class' young lady. Here we have one of the greatest of ironies : Britain, a country which sees itself as the bastion of democracy, is also one where the undemocratic, monarchic principle is still alive and well as is reflected in the wedding.

Our democratically elected Prime Minister has said :
“We want to mark the day as one of national celebration, a public holiday will ensure the most people possible will have a chance to celebrate on the day,”

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=royal+wedding+date+bbc&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=&redir_esc=&ei=oAjsTJvQE4qChQfmtYDMDA#q=royal+wedding+date+bbc&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&prmd=ivn&source=univ&tbs=nws:1&tbo=u&ei=oAjsTKbjIdSAhQfzi5XNDA&sa=X&oi=news_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQqAIwAA&fp=f0fe12c2c4258840

The Prince's Private Secretary, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, has revealed a number of interesting details by :

* saying that the couple chose the Abbey for its "staggering beauty, 1,000-year royal history and its feeling of intimacy despite its size".

* revealing that the couple were "calling the shots" on the wedding plans, but had a "rather large supporting cast" to help them.

* observing that : "We know that the world will be watching on April 29, and the couple are very, very keen indeed that the spectacle should be a classic example of what Britain does best."

* revealing that "Prince William and Catherine have made it very clear that they wish everybody to be able to enjoy the day with them. Consequently, the day will be a proper celebration for the nation and the realms."

Once again, old men can sleep in their beds, safe in the knowledge that they live in a country where nothing really changes and its citizens still 'know their places'.

Britain is a country where BBC Television is no longer a place for 'The Goodies'

'The Goodies' were a comedy trio consisting of the now, 69 year old Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor and 67 year old Graeme ­Garden, whose show ran on BBC TV from 1970 to 1982 and reached 15 million viewers at its peak.


Now, 28 years after the last episode, 'The Daily Mail' newspaper reported that the trio are 'baffled' by the BBC's refusal to re-run the series on the show's 40th Anniversary.
"We are cross," said Tim. "The ­programmes are still regularly aired in Australia and the show is still ­massive, over all ages, so we do know that it still appeals. That’s what’s frustrating. If they showed a few and people said “that’s rubbish”, we’d accept that. It’s the fact that it’s not given the chance."

Readers of the article in the paper emailed the following suggestions :

* The reason 'The Goodies' is rarely talked about is that it was very much of the era and, lets be honest here, not very good. It's dated badly.

* Although all three of them went on to make some really good stuff, 'The Goodies' itself was pretty weak with just the odd witty catchphrase and sketch.

* The Goodies are now only 'peeved' because they need income and some more time in the spotlight. This series was on when I was a kid. It was terrible then and appears outdated now. Please let it stay on the dusty filing shelf BBC, there are far better comedy series from the 1970's you could bring back.

* I'm 25 & I recently saw The Goodies for the first time...and really loved it! I can see why it polarises people, it's definitely a certain brand of humour, but it's imaginative, innovative, cartoonish and very, very silly. I'd be thrilled if the BBC showed a 'Best Of' compilation of all the seasons.

Judge for youself :

An introduction to the show :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raHNSIWOG4k

Bunfight at the O.K.Tea Room :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bu69cnv0iU&feature=related

The song they produced called 'Funky Gibbon' :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXq8rELhUkw&feature=related

P.S.
The three met as students at the University of Cambridge, where Tim was studying law, Graeme medicine and Bill English.

Britain is a country with a London borough called Lewisham where Jude Law and I both saw the first light of day

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Jude Law, the Hollywood actor and I have something in common : We were both born in Lewisham in South London, he in December 1972 and I, some 25 years before. Was he, like me, born in Lewisham Hospital ? I don't know. Like me, however, he grew up in Blackheath, although he went to a school in the Village and I to one in Charlton. Unlike me, his background was middle class. His father was a deputy head of a primary school and his mother taught English to refugee children. My father was a 'saw doctor' in a timber mill and my mother worked in a shop in Blackheath Village. Like me, at the age of 11 he went to a comprehensive secondary school. His was called 'Kidbrooke' and mine was 'Eltham Green', a couple of miles away. Unlike my school, his took many of its pupils from the notorious 'Ferrier Estate', one of the largest and most depressed council developments in London. Was it this experience which led him to say this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne3eFn2XBVg&feature=related Unlike me, he transferred to a private school,'The Alleyn’s' in Dulwich at the age of 15. What Jude and I also have in common is that Lewisham was the birthplace of many talented Brits like us. In the year : 1888 : Gladys Cooper : Actress, My Fair Lady. 1902 : Elsa Lanchester : Actress, Mary Poppins. 1907 : James Robertson Justice : Actor, The Guns of Navarone. 1939 : Ginger Baker : Drummer, Cream. 1936 : Bill Wyman : Guitarist ,Rolling Stones. Self, Gimme Shelter. Born 1936 1957 : Catherine Shipton : Actress, Spice World 1972 : Jessica Hynes : Actress, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. 1983 :Christopher Parker : Actor, EastEnders. I feel more comfortable rubbing shoulders with 'old boys' like Ginger and Bill.