Britain is no longer a country for and says "Goodbye" to an old chimp called Louis who, when young, played a secret agent called Brooke Bond

Louis has died at the age of 37 at his home in Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire where the curator, Dr Charlotte Macdonald said: "Louis was a very gentle and laid-back chimp, a favourite with everyone.
Born at Twycross, he was one of the original PG Tips chimps. Although gone, Louis will never be forgotten."

His passing takes old men back to the tv adverts they watched in the 1970's and 80's when they were young men, because Louis was one of the original 'Brook Bond PG Tips' chimps advertising the tea brand.

They remember him dressed as James Bond, a secret agent just as debonair as Sean Connery’s 007 and with even more chest hair. With his catchphrase "The name’s Bond. Brooke Bond", he was voiced by the suave actor Michael Jayston and became an instant hit when he first appeared in 1981.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VSTjo0i_EE

Moreover, they didn’t have to get used to a series of different faces playing Bond. It was always Louis. Yet the fame never went to his head. Dr Charlotte said : "He was quiet and calm, which is quite unusual for male chimps. He was sociable and popular with the keepers."

Six years ago, the PG Tips chimp adverts, which ran from 1956 to 2001, were voted the 'most memorable in TV history', narrowly ahead of the aliens advertising Cadbury’s Smash instant mashed potato, who laughed so rudely at earth people peeling potatoes with our metal knives, boiling them for 20 of our minutes and then smashing them all to bits. My old friend KM who worked for Cadburys at the time, acquired one of the aliens which he took home, sadly, it too was smashed to bits - by his kids.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQFV5iuJ_6Y

But just as the chimps’ tea  parties once held at London Zoo fell prey to growing sensibilities about the perceived exploitation of animals, so too did the PG Tips commercials. In 2001, following complaints by animal rights activists, the axe fell. The decision reflected the political correctness of the times, but it was still widely lamented.

The Seventies, were TV advertising’s golden age with :

* Cinzano ads starring Joan Collins and Leonard Rossiter, which celebrated cack-handedness and was conceived by Alan Parker, who later directed the movies 'Midnight Express' and 'Mississippi Burning'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PirMZGL-0mQ

* a young lad pushing a bike loaded with loaves of Hovis up a steep cobbled street to Dvorak’s 'New World Symphony' directed by young Ridley Scott. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Mq59ykPnAE


P.S.
Louis' 43-year-old partner, Choppers, is bearing up well, Dr Charlotte added : "They were together a very long time, and chimps can pine just like humans, but she’s eating well, which is good."

Britain once a country where old men had less help to dress and eat, take heart, for they have a champion in Saint Norman Lamb, Minister for their Care and Support

Back in May  I posted :

Britain is no country for old men who need help with dressing and eating

Tucked away in the 'Guardian' last week was a small article which spelt big implications for thousands of old men and women in Britain :
Warning over care of the elderly and disabled after £2.7 billion cut
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/britain-is-no-country-for-old-men-who.html

Now, in July help is at hand. Norman Lamb, Government 'Minister for Care and Support' has a cunning plan to provide help to wash and feed old men and women as well as provide companionship and here's the clever bit :
it won't cost a single penny !

Norman has come up with a number of astonishing insights and useful proposals, that :

* Britain’s attitude to the elderly was “uncivilised” and the public must acknowledge that pensioners living nearby need their help.

* the 173,000 existing neighbourhood watch groups, covering 8 million homes, could apply for 'care status'. 

* emphasised that he did not want to devalue the role of skilled and trained carers and neighbourhood watch groups would not be a replacement for professionals.

*  professional carers could give neighbourhood watch groups training and “We could do an awful lot through the internet … guidance and support through that route could easily be a good collaboration between a local caring service and the neighbours on that street.”

* care services were being put under increasing strain because of the growing elderly population and his scheme would help to reduce the number of pensioners forced into care homes.

* “The truth is that many people in this day and age live miserable lives. If someone lives on their own and has substantial care needs, and the extent of their life is getting out of bed, getting washed, sitting in a chair and going back to bed, with no one to see during the day, that is a miserable life."

* “We have a national movement that looks out for whether our houses are being burgled, so should we not be thinking — all of us stepping up to the plate — about whether there are people on our streets who have care needs, or who might just be very lonely and could do with a bit of companionship?”

Norman has quite rightly denied that his plans represent  the “state abdicating its responsibility” and said the measures would be about “recognising that there needs to be a collaboration between communities and the statutory authorities and services”.

Paul Green, from 'Saga': “Anything that goes to show that Britain is a caring society and one which promotes good neighbourliness can only be a good thing and neighbourhood watch is a good place to start. But when it comes to providing more intimate, personal care there is probably a greater element of screening and training that may be necessary.”

So Britain's old men say : "Thanks Norm. Good to know we've got a Minister like you watching out for us and getting others to 'step up to the plate' without costing the taxpayers any money."

Britain is still a country for, as long as he deems, and says "Happy Birthday" to a controversial and perfectly enunciated old art critic called Brian Sewell

Brian, who writes for the 'London Evening Standard', who is noted for artistic conservatism and his acerbic view of the Turner Prize and conceptual art and is no stranger to controversy, is 82 years old today.

<sup>What you possibly didn't know about Brian, that he :
* was born the illegitimate son of the composer Peter Warlock, who died seven months before he was born, was brought up in , Kensington, London and has said that he knew he was probably gay at the age of six, was educated at the independent Haberdasher Aske's Boy School, where. in his autobiography, states that he lost his virginity to a fellow pupil at the age of 15.

 *  left school and studied at the Courtauld Institute at the University of London in the 1950s where he was tutored by Anthony Blunt who had worked as a spy for Soviet Russia for 20 years and became his close friend.

* after graduating in 1957, worked at Christie's Auction House specialising in Old Master paintings and drawings., left and became an art dealer then undertook his National Service in the Royal Army Service Corps where he gained a commission.

* in 1984, became art critic for the London Evening Standard and went on to win press awards including 'Critic of the Year' in 1988, 'Arts Journalist of the Year' in 1994, the 'Hawthornden Prize for Art Criticism 'in 1995 and the 'Foreign Press Award' (Arts) in 2000 and in  2003, the 'George Orwell Prize' for his column in the Standard.

 * appeared on BBC Radio and tv in the 1990s and became known for his clipped 'received pronunciation' English diction and anti-populist sentiments and courted controversy by offending people in Gateshead by claiming an exhibition was too important to be held only at the town's Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and should be shown to "more sophisticated" audiences in London and by disparaging Liverpool as a cultural city.

* in 1994, was attacked by 35 art world signatories who wrote a letter to the Evening Standard attacking him for 'homphobia', 'misogyny', 'demagogy'. 'hypocricy' , 'artistic prejudice', 'formulaic insults and predictable scurrility'' and received, in turn ,a letter of support  from 20 other art world signatories who accused the writers of attempted censorship to promote 'a relentless programme of neo-conceptual art in all the main London venues'.

* in 2003, made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela  in a documentary called 'The Naked Pilrgim'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k96exTLtz6A followed by two more series : 'Brian Sewell's Phantoms & Shadows: 100 Years of Rolls-Royce' in 2004 and 'Brian Sewell's Grand Tour'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq9IInCfNrs visiting beautiful cities, museums, towns, churches, historic sights, meeting a local to discuss culture and art and reflected the 18th century, giving the perspective of what it would have been like as a 'Grand Tourist'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3G618-hxgA

* in his 2009 BBC documentary about the so-called' North-South Divide' in England, caused controversy by declaring that the solution to the divide was to send a pox or a plague upon the North so that the people there can all just die quietly.</sup>
 

 *  in  2010 in the tv show 'Facejacker', was satirically portrayed as a character called Brian Badonde (left), an inept art critic presenting a show called 'Voyage in to Art' with the fictional speech impediment 'Bourettes' which caused him to begin every word with a 'B', and referred to art as 'bart' and was loud, flamboyant and openly homosexual.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TesXkhPhG_o

* is a noted aficionado of classic automobiles, a fan of stock car racing, has written extensively about cars, classic and contemporary,  and in his tv series, on the pilgrimage to Santiago and the Grand Tour, drove his venerable Mercedes-Benz 560 SEC coupé.

<sup>* wrote in the 'Sunday Mail' yesterday about his plans to end his life :

- when  'the bone-rot will reach a point – not beyond endurance but beyond my willingness to endure it – when drugs prescribed to numb the pain so affect the functions of my brain that all the pleasures of music, art and books are dulled, and I merely exist.'

- would  write a note addressed ‘To whom it may concern’ explaining that I am committing suicide, that I am in sound mind, that no one else has been involved and, if I am discovered before my heart has stopped, I do not want to be resuscitated.'

- would go to a bench – 'foolishly installed by the local authority on a road so heavy with traffic that no one ever sits there – make myself comfortable and down as many pills as I can with a bottle of Bombay Gin, the only spirit that I like, to send them on their way.'
- has left his body to a teaching hospital 'for the use and abuse of medical students – and my sole misgiving is that, having filled it with poisons, I may have rendered it useless'.

- believed that : 'there are those who damn the suicide for invading the prerogative of the Almighty. Many years, however, have passed since I abandoned the beliefs, observances and irrational prejudices of Christianity, and I have no moral or religious inhibitions against suicide.'</sup>  






 

Britain is no longer a country for and says "Goodbye" to a disarming and charming old, tv world travelling programme maker, called Alan Wicker

Alan, who is remembered as an interviewer for his thick spectacles, immaculate blue blazer, neat military moustache, and persistently unjudgmental and blandly phrased questions and had a career which outlasted those of many of his rivals, has died at the age of 87.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpQgSUCr4PM

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

* was born in Cairo in 1925, where his father was a captain in the Hussars and when he died three years later, was brought to Britain by his mother with his sister and settled in London, where from the age of 11 he went to the prestigious Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School where he excelled at cross-country running and while at school camp at Teignmouth, Devon began his love affair with travel by setting off on a bus along the coast road to see how far he could get to that mecca, Torquay.

* on the death of his sister, found his relationship with his mother grew more intense and he later claimed : "We adored one another," and that this was what made him appreciate women, one of the "great pleasures" of his life and he was later devastated by her death.

* left school at the age of 16 in 1941 during the Second World War and after joining the Army at the age of 18,  was commissioned as an officer in the Devonshire Regiment and then joined the Film and Photo Unit in Italy in 1943, where he filmed at Anzio in Italy and met the commander Field Marshal Montgomery.

*  revealed in his tv series 'Whicker's War' in 2004, that he was one of the first in the Allied forces to enter Milan and  took into custody an SS General and troopers who were looking after the SS vault of money and also shot footage of the body of the dead Benito Mussolini.

* after the War, he worked as a reporter for the 'Exchange Telegraph' news agency and was a correspondent during the Korean War and was doing odd jobs for BBC radio when Alasdair Milne, then working for its flagship current affairs programme 'Tonight', spotted his ability to ask 'impertinent' questions without giving offence and in 1957 became an international reporter for the programme.

*  created the series 'Whicker's World' in 1959 and followed with 'Whicker's South Seas,' 'Whicker Way Out West', 'Whicker Down Mexico Way', 'Whicker's Orient', 'Whicker's Miss World' , amaking sure that he did not appear too much in them, letting the interviewees be the stars.

* in 1963 interviewed American oil billionaire, John Paul Getty and was able to suggest that Getty's success in business was matched by his failure as a human being without being thrown out.

* interviewed hippies in San Francisco in 1967 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUkctpGlA0U

* in a 1969 tv documentary about Haiti, demonstrated his ability to ask the most piercing questions while giving those being questioned no personal provocation or excuse to break off the interview when he asked the notorious dictator 'Papa Doc' Duvalier, in kindly, innocently interested and rather baffled tones: "But Papa Doc, they say you torture people?"


* his singular style was parodied in 1972 in a Monty Python sketch with the whole team doing Wicker impressions on  Whicker Island.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn8Pua5rhj4

*  kept travelling the world for 60 years in search of exotic and humanly interesting material, often about the rich, flying  100,000 miles a year for British audiences of up to 15 million and seeing his programmes also sell well abroad.

* in 1978, he flew the 7,000 miles back to London from Singapore to receive a Bafta Richard Dimbleby award and immediately flew back again and won many other awards in his career, including the Screenwriters' Guild 'Best Documentary Script'.

* in the 1990s one of his younger colleagues, Peter Salmon commissioned 'Whicker's World' programmes on Hong Kong and Spain , despite feeling that his manner and interests were not those of a new generation because he felt that, as an interviewer, Alan was without peer, able to get more than anyone else out of a one-to-one interview.

* in 2009 at the age of 84, returned to some of the locations featured in 'Wicker's World' in the series 'Wicker's Journey of a Lifetime' and met with people he had interviewed decades earlier to see how their lives had progressed since the initial meeting.

Britain is no country for the old veterans who fought, in a now forgotten war in Korea, when they were young men

About 300 old men, Korean War veterans, marched through London this week to mark 60 years since the end of their 'Forgotten War' in 1953. After marching from Horse Guards Parade they attended a service in Westminster Abbey where a Service of Thanksgiving was held to mark the end of the War, which saw more than 1,000 British servicemen killed and 1,060 taken prisoner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B50YLO2Aw7g

 

What most people in Britain do not know is :

* after the surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the Second World War in September 1945,  the Korean Peninsula was divided along the 38th Parallel, with U.S. military forces occupying the southern half and Soviet Russia forces occupying the northern half.

* with the onset of the Cold War, the Parallel increasingly became a political border between the two Korean states and tension escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces invaded South Korea in 1950.

 

* British troops served on the Korean Peninsula as part of a United Nations force and where nearly the whole of the 1st Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment were killed or taken prisoner during the Battle of the River Imjin in April 1951.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBAvVBVGkSE
 

The old veterans assembling for the parade recalled living in trenches in desolate mountains where the weather would swing to extremes as the seasons changed and  also heavy fighting, often hand-to-hand, with North Korean and Chinese soldiers who frequently attacked in overwhelming numbers.

Colin Thackery, 83 years old :
who served with the Royal Artillery, got frostbite in one leg and was also partially deafened by artillery fire during the War said : “My memory of it first of all is the extreme cold. I was up in the mountains and that’s where we really learnt the meaning of wind chill.”

Jim Wilkinson, 80 :
who lost the tips of several fingers and was sprayed with shrapnel when a member of his combat patrol stood on a mine. and served with the Royal Fusiliers, said: “You could drown in the monsoon, freeze to death in the winter and die of sunstroke in the winter.”

Why were they and the War forgotten ?
The veterans believe that the War was eclipsed by the Second World War and  subsequent conflicts elsewhere in the world. Jim said: “The only people who haven’t forgotten are the Koreans. They haven’t forgotten us. They are so grateful. We get invited to all sorts of functions.”

In a message to the veterans, Park Geun-hye, the South Korean President, said: “Your noble sacrifice laid the groundwork for the development of the Republic of Korea and has served as a foundation for mutual trust between Korea and the United Kingdom.”
An Armistice was signed on July 27, 1953, but the peninsula remains divided, with the North and South Korean armies glaring at each other across a strip of no man’s land.

Colin said: “It’s never finished has it? They are still at it, more’s the pity. I often wonder what it was all about.” 

 

Britain is still a country for, but only just, and says "Happy Birthday to an old blues guitarist called Wilko Johnson

Wilko, former rhythm and blues,'Dr Feelgood' guitarist and founding father of the English punk movement is 66 years old today. Showung fortitude in the face of death, he has spoken of the strange "euphoria" he has experienced since being diagnosed with terminal cancer and said the news made him feel "vividly alive" and had lifted the bouts of depression he had previously experienced. Last year he was given 9 or 10 months to live and refused chemotherapy when it was clear it might only add another two months to his life. Well, here we are in July and he is still with us.

"Every little thing you see, every cold breeze against your face, every brick in the road, you think 'I'm alive, I'm alive' - I hope I can hang onto that. I've had a fantastic life. When I think about the things that have happened to me and the things I've done, I think anybody who asks for more would just be being greedy. I don't wanna be greedy.This position I'm in is so strange, in that I do feel fit and yet I know death is upon me. I'm not hoping for a miracle cure or anything. I just hope it spares me long enough to do these gigs - then I'll be a happy man."

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

* was born in Canvey Island, Essex, which may explain his nostalgia for the sight of the River Thames which he shares with Jools Holland :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpBbjyfCB2o

*  went to Westcliff High School for Boy and played in several local groups, before going to the University of Newcastle to study English, including early Anglo-Saxon literature and ancient Icelandic sagas.

* after graduating, travelled overland to India, before returning to Essex to play with the 'Pigboy Charlie Band', which evolved into 'Dr Feelgood' where he developed his own style, coupling choppy playing with novel dress of  black suit and unfashionable pudding basin haircut and jerky movements on stage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPRP0gdS95A

* played riffs and solos at the same time on a vintage Fender Telecaster without using a pick which allowed him to move without fear of losing it..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEzKXW8q3Dw

* featured in the BBC4 three-part documentary series, 'Punk Britannia' in 2012, which stressed the importance of Dr Feelgood as 'pub rockers, a generation of bands sandwiched between 60s hippies and mid-70s punks who will help pave the way towards the short, sharp shock of punk'.

* reviewing his autobiography, 'Looking back at Me', Mark Blake of 'Q Magazine' said of Dr Feelgood : 'In the mid-70s the band's brutish R and B and their guitarists eye-popping thousand-yard stare inspired a young John Lydon, Paul Weller and Suggs from Madness.'

* left the band in 1977. joined the 'Solid Senders', then, in 1980, Ian Dury's band, 'The Blockheads' before forming the 'Wilko Johnson Band' and continued to pursue his musical career in the 1980s and 90s.


* in 2009, appeared in the documentary film 'Oil City Confidential' and was described by :
- reviewer, Philip French as : "a wild man, off stage and on, funny, eloquent and charismatic"
- director, Julien Temple  : "an extraordinary man – one of the great English eccentrics."
^-  Peter Bradshaw of the 'Guardian' as : 'the best rockumentary yet, the most likeable thing about this very likable film is the way it promotes Wilko Johnson as a 100-1 shot for the title of Greatest Living Englishman.'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CZMLs8Ke40

* made his acting debut, cast in the role of mute executioner 'Ilyn Payne', in the HBO fantasy series 'Game of Thrones' after the producers had seen him in 'Oil City Confidential'  and said :
"They said they wanted somebody really sinister who went around looking daggers at people before killing them. That made it easy. Looking daggers at people is what I do all the time, it's like second nature to me."

*  played a farewell tour this summer, which was meant to end with two appearances in his Canvey Island home town which were cancelled after he fell ill following his tv appearance with 'Madness'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFSZzfAvVgI

* believed he'd never appear on stage again but then confirmed he'd play the 'Cornbury Festival', Oxfordshire, on July 7, the  'DV8 Festival' in Fibbers, York on July 14, the 'Cusworth Music Festival', Doncaster, on August 25 and the 'Great British R'n'B Festival', Lancashire, on August 26.

 So it's "Happy Birthday Wilko" for another summer, at least.
 

“I always had this idea that when I grew I old I would be sitting in an Oxford college room with the sun slanting through the mullioned windows, I would be reading medieval poetry and I would be wise. The nearer I got to being old, the more I realised the wisdom wasn’t coming. So I’m just as confused as ever. Now I won’t actually grow either old or wise.”
 

Britain is no country for two old princes, a tweeter called Andrew and black spider memo writer called Charles

Britain's unelected Prince Andrew, the 'oldish' Duke of York is 53 years old and his brother, Charles, is 64. Both these men from the House of Windsor have recently drawn unwanted criticism, Andrew for his decision to post himself on Twitter and Charles for the decision made, with his approval, not to publish his letters, in which he has expressed his personal views on various subjects to  Government Ministers. Andrew launched himself on Twitter last week with a tweet : 'Welcome to my Twitter account – AY' which produced :    * 'Has your account been hacked by Ali G?'series of jokes from fellow users who thought he was copying comedian Ali G’s catchphrase “Aiii”.    * 'Yo how’s Jeffrey Epstein?'  referring to the Duke’s relationship with a US billionaire who was jailed in 2008 for soliciting a minor for prostitution.   

* jokes about the Duke of York needing '10,000 men to march up the hill' in a reference to the nursery rhyme.

* 'Don’t suppose you could pass a message to the powers that be about having an elected head of state ?'

A spokesman for Andrew said:
 “The Duke has long been an early and enthusiastic adopter of new technology. He was the first member of the Royal Family to tweet on the British Monarchy (account). The logical next step was to tweet individually.” Asked about the derogatory tweets to Andrew, the spokesman added:
 “The Duke is a champion of free speech, for him it’s about telling people what he’s doing.”

Within hours the Duke had attracted more than 10,000 followers on the social network.
 

It is particularly interesting to note that most of those he had chosen to 'follow' were  organisations he had worked with before, but his personal interests were reflected, too, in his following of 'Hunstanton Golf Club' in Norfolk and the 'Royal Liverpool Golf Club'. Apparently, the Prince is a keen golfer with a low handicap and became patron of the Hunstanton links after his father, the Duke of Edinburgh, relinquished the role.
 

One Twitter account he has yet to follow was that of his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York, who tweets using the handle @SarahThe Duchess.  With 62,130 followers, she has a headstart on him in terms of follower numbers.

Andrew is no stranger to criticism which in the past has focused on :

* him using the royal train for golf trips.

* claims he told a valet to "f-off" for opening his bedroom curtains too early.

* Fergie apparently offering access to him for £500,000.

* press outrage that his foreign expenses cost £207,000 a year.

* his meetings with dodgy arms dealers.

 If Andrew was in the news last week it was the turn of brother Charles this week and his attempts, behind the scenes, to change Government policies and specifically his letters to Ministers known as 'black spider memos'.

Last autumn, a Freedom of Information tribunal of three judges ruled that they should be published for "transparency as to how and when Prince Charles seeks to influence government".  Even as he vetoed the judges' decision, the Attorney General, Dominic Grieve, admitted that the 'advocacy correspondence' showed the Prince disagreeing with government policy, however, to preserve the fiction that the future monarch is politically neutral,  he demanded the letters be kept secret. Government advisers have described in court how such royal memos went to the "top of the pile" and were "treated with great reverence".
 

The decision led to letters of criticism in the Guardian newspaper which has been an advocate of publication in the national interest :

*  'Regardless of whether it succeeds in securing their release, however, the key point is already clear. As the Attorney General himself admits, the heir to the throne has acted in a way that would be likely to undermine confidence in his political neutrality were he to become king. The only way Clarence House can now draw a line under the issue is to announce that the lobbying activities apparently revealed by the letters have ceased and will not be resumed. This would at least suggest the existence of a learning curve in the prince's preparations for the role of constitutional monarch.'
Professor Philip Murray, Director, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London

•  'It becomes clearer and clearer that our country is ruled as much by back-door influence as by the democratic process.....Charles is not the only wealthy pretender who influences this government, just the sorry public face of a sanctimonious, hypocritical and unelected old boys' network who believe they have the right to influence and dictate national policy without any accountability to ordinary people.'
Kay and Barrie, Ellesmere, Shropshire

'Our constitution rests on the key principle of monarchical neutrality, a position, it appears, he would find hard to maintain. The people – the other partner in the constitutional relationship – have the right to know this. The attorney general therefore surely has a duty not to block publication of the letters.'
Gillian, London.

 

Britain is still a country for and says "Happy birthday" to an old tv broadcaster called Brian Walden

What you possibly didn't know about Brian, who is 81 years old today and I remember for his forensic tv interviews when I was a I was a young man in the 1980s, that he :

* was born in West Bromwich, Staffordshire where his father was a glass-worker and while at West Bromwich Grammar School won an open scholarship to study history at Queen's College, Oxford University, then completed a postgraduate degree at Nuffield College before becoming a university lecturer.

* started his political career at the age of 32 in 1964 when he became a Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham All Saints in an election where race dominated the Birmingham campaign and to which he referred in his maiden speech :
 "One of the very best ways of making sure that we do not get tension between the races is to have the best possible liaison between them. Where we have trained social workers undertaking this kind of work, we get some excellent results from their work, but there is nothing like enough of them. I see that my right hon. Friend the Minister of Aviation is in the House. I am sure that he agrees that although good work has been done in Birmingham by social workers responsible for liaison, we desperately need many more of them."

*  was re-elected in the subsequent General Elections of  1966, 1970 and 1974 was a campaigner for the liberalisation of the cannabis and gambling laws and was named by some as 'the bookies' MP' when he was revealed to be receiving more from the National Association of Bookmakers than from his parliamentary salary.

* was described in 'The Spectator' as : 'one of the best parliamentary speakers– possibly even the best – of the entire post-war period. Certainly he would be placed in the same class as Churchill, Bevan, Macleod, Powell and Foot.'


* resigned as an M.P, in 1977 at the age of 45 to become a journalist and tv broadcaster for London Weekend Television and fronted 'Weekend World' in the 1980s and was considered one of the finest political interviewers in British broadcasting, tenacious and ruthless and well known for his one to one interviews of major politicians.

* was said to be Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's favourite interviewer, although he gave her a tough ride and in 1989, when her own Party was turning against her : "You come over as being someone who one of your backbenchers said is slightly off her trolley, authoritarian, domineering, refusing to listen to anybody else – why? Why cannot you publicly project what you have just told me is your private character?" To which she replied :  "Brian, if anyone’s coming over as domineering in this interview, it’s you."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu7kZdbI2sg

* gave a spoof interview of Rik Mayall ( right) playing Alan B'Stard in 'The New Statesman' in 1994 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDa505kpXO0

* delivered his analysis of Winston Churchill as a war leader in 1998 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpJcQDxISL0 and brought a rain of criticism down on his head by describing Nelson Mandela as 'feckless, arrogant and autocratic' in a the final part of his series 'Walden on Heroes' saying : "Mandela, perhaps the most generally admired figure of our age, falls short of the giants of the past. He is unable to inspire the spur to action and doing things right, while paying tribute to his humane presidency of a deeply divided country to which Ann Clwyd, MP said : "Brian Walden has lost his marbles."

* in 2005, began presenting a ten minute programme on BBC Radio 4  'A Point of View', in a spot formerly occupied by Alistair Cooke's  'Letter From America.'

* in 2010, was said by Conservative MP Rob Wilson, to have persuaded David Cameron and George Osborne to go for a Coalition Government, rather than tough it out with a minority government.

*  lives on the island of Guernsey and, as a footnote, is firmly against the ban on fox-hunting

Britain is no longer a country for and says "Goodbye" to a film animator who left it as a young man but returned as an old one called John David Wison

John David, who has died aged 93, launched his studio, 'Fine Arts Films' in 1955, after success with his animated adaptation of a Japanese folk tale, 'Tara the Stonecutter',  screened in the USA in 1953 with Teinosuke Kinugasa's Oscar-winning samurai drama 'Jigokumon' or 'Gate of Hell'. He left Britain when he was 30 in 1950 and returned when he was 75 in 1995. That's 45 years for the USA but 48 for Britain.

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

* was born in 1920 in Wimbledon, London, the second of three children of mother, Esther and father, Frederick, a civil servant working for the India Office and was educated at Watford Grammar School, where he was taught art by Sir Robin Darwin, later the rector of the Royal College of Art.

* left school and pursued his art studies at Harrow School of Art and for a year at the Royal College, leaving aged 18 in 1938 to take up a job as a commercial artist for Willings Press Service.

* at the outbreak of the Second World War  in 1939, was called up and sent to fight in the African Campaign with the London Rifle Brigade and while driving a jeep, took a direct hit from a German bomber and as a result lost his left leg.

* hospitalised in Cairo, he mastered crutches within nine days and spent his time drawing caricatures for fellow patients and a Christmas card designed for the hospital found its way to a printer in Durban, South Africa, where, following his discharge from the Army, he was offered and accepted a job as a designer.

* working on some controversial anti-apartheid publications, he was 'required' to leave South Africa and, returning to London, worked for an art agency before joining the art department at Pinewood Studios, where he worked on 'The Thief of Bagdad' in 1940 and David Lean's 'Great Expectations' after the War in 1946.

* joined Gaumont British Animation at a studio aimed at challenging the supremacy of Disney, led by David Hand, animator of dozens of Disney short cartoons and supervising director of 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' in 1937 and 'Bambi' in 1942.

*  in 1950, with the closure of GB Animation, said "Goodbye" to Britain and went to Los Angeles and, with recommendations from Hand , was soon working at the Disney studio on 'Mickey Mouse', 'Donald Duck' and 'Goofy' cartoons and the features 'Peter Pan' in 1953 and 'Lady and the Tramp' in 1955 and assisted the leading animator, Les Clark with the film's famous spaghetti-eating sequence and said that the pasta, was : 'a challenge: though long and thin, it needed to be given weight to look convincing.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usexH7Z3hXg

* working with another Disney veteran, Ward Kimball, contributed to two 'specials' : the Academy Award-winning ' Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Bloom' in 1953 and in '54, the Oscar-nominated 'Pigs is Pigs' using the the more economic and highly stylised approach to animation established by United Productions of America.

* worked for UPA on their 'Mister Magoo' series and acclaimed animated shorts, 'Rooty Toot Toot' and 'The Tell-Tale Heart' and with 'Petroushka' in 1956, persuaded Stravinsky (left) to prepare a shortened score for the film and conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the soundtrack and saw it become the first animated film to be accepted by the Venice Film Festival.

* in 1963, while working for Hanna-Barbera on 'The Flintstones', was commissioned by Billy Wilder to create animated trailer for his Jack Lemmon - Shirley MacLaine film, 'Irma La Douce', hoping the cartoon would help sell the potentially risqué story of the prostitutes of the Rue Casanova and with its success, commented that he might just as well have dumped the film and simply played the trailer.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgrEynddh7I     

* contributed in the mid-60s to 'Exploring', NBC's award-winning educational tv show for children and created animated titles and weekly music videos a decade before MTV for the 70s CBS series 'The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U0HFYf-fOc

* in 1971, directed the animated musical feature 'Shinbone Alley', based on Don Marquis's stories about a poetic cockroach, 'Archy', who writes by jumping on the keys of a typewriter and 'Mehitabel', his feline muse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EB1CfqfBeQ and in 1978, created the animated title sequence of 'Grease' featuring caricatures of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John as a pastiche of Disney's 'Snow White' and 'Cinderella'  and set the 50s pop culture style for the film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtOmKaVbP_A

* created a half-hour Disneyesque film, 'Stanley, the Ugly Duckling' in 1982
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z94F45rcjSo&list=PL63266A64C5F0773A
and worked on many animated series including 'Madeline'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj2XOhC1YlM and provided concept art for 'FernGully: The Last Rainforest' in 1988.

* was an artist of note, who exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the Royal Watercolour Society.

* in 1987, at the age of 67, married the former actor, singer and dancer Fabian Craig, who later ran a gallery showcasing his animated art and in 1995 returned to Britain from the USA to live in the Cotswolds and, later, Lytham St Annes in Lancashire but did not see  his last project, an animated film of 'Peer Gynt', realised beyond storyboard sketches and designs, due to his failing health..

Britain is a country with an organisation called Relate which helps old men work on relationships before they become lonely 'silver separators'.

They are in the news again, the old 'silver splitters or separators'.  I posted this about them last year :

Friday, 21 December 2012

Britain is a country for more and more divorced old men, 'silver separators' with a lust for life http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/britain-is-county-for-more-and-more.html

This time, however, the relationship support organisation, 'Relate',  has produced a report in which it is less  optimistic and has called for the appointment of a new 'Minister for Ageing Society' as four million old men and women face the bleak prospect of a lonely old age.

 Relate's report, based on research conducted earlier this year with Ipsos MORI and entitled : 'Who will love me when I'm 64 ?' concludes that not enough is being done to support old people to strengthen their relationships and made the following points, that :

* old people born in the post Second World War bubble between 1946 and 1964 will be the first generation for whom living alone in old age may be the norm, with all the troubling related issues of caring, loneliness and financial security.

* the number of over-60s getting divorced is rising each year, with a record 15,275 in 2011, this compares with 13,554 the year before and 10,273 a decade ago.

* there is even an acronym for the children of these break-ups : 'ACODS' or 'adult children of divorce' who can find the break-up of their parents' marriage a challenge with studies suggesting adult children give more support to a widowed parent than to a divorced one.

Relate’s Chief Executive, Ruth Sutherland said :

“What this report shows us is that there are three pillars to a good later life – health, financial security and good personal relationships and yet relationships are largely missing from the wider debate around our ageing society. We know from this report that good relationships have a direct impact on health and wellbeing and that loneliness and isolation have negative impacts on both our health and wider society more generally. With 1 in 5 older people lacking the confidence to form new friendships and relationships, we are looking at a future in which 4 million people could be facing loneliness and isolation. Without a Minister of State for Ageing Society, we will not see a coherent strategy which ensures that we don’t drift into an old age that we don’t want.”

Relate makes the case that happiness for this group hinges on the successful relationships and with the right support, they can play a key role in preventing many of the negative issues and realising some of the benefits which come with later life.
To this end it has launched an online relationship-checker to help old men and women assess the health of their relationships :

http://www.wheresyourhead.org/relationship-checker/

How do you and your other half enjoy each other's company?

A

We're interested in the same stuff and regularly have
fun together.

B

We don't share many interests but the ones we do are really important to us.

C

We lead pretty independent lives and I wish we could do more stuff together that we both enjoy.

D

We've been drifting apart for a while and I don't really feel like doing things together.Ö

How close are the two of you?

A

I'd describe my other half as my best mate. We're always
in touch and there's nothing I wouldn't or couldn't chat to
them about.

B

Most of the time we're close, but we do sometimes get distracted by everyday stresses and have to try hard to make time for each other.

C

We don't talk about personal or emotional stuff very often.
It's more of a practical relationship.

D

I don't feel very close to my other half. We don't really talk about anything other than the essentials. Ö

How would you describe
your sex life?

A

We both feel the same about sex and enjoy it.

B

Most of the time we enjoy sex, but we can sometimes fall out about it as our needs can be different.

C

We both think differently about sex and it often
causes arguments.

D

I don't enjoy sex with my other half. Ö

How do you go about
resolving arguments?

A

We hold our hands up and admit our faults, then focus on finding a compromise that suits us both.

B

We can get angry and upset when we disagree on something, but after a while we make up and find a solution.

C

When we disagree on something, one or both of us usually gets really upset or angry. Sometimes we give up trying to sort it and end up arguing again.

D

We don't bother disagreeing about anything anymore – it's just not worth it. Ö

 

Have you got plans for the
future together?

A

We have lots of shared plans for the future that we're both really looking forward to.

B

We have different plans for the future but we support each other in whatever we want to do.

C

Most of our plans are the same, but there are some things we disagree on that worry me a little bit.

D

We tend to take it one day at a time and don't talk about what we want in the future. Ö

 

For those old men who take the test and answer and answer 'D' to each question, Relate says :

 

So how did you do?

Congratulations! Your relationship is looking nice and healthy. Either you're still in the at-it-like-rabbits stage, or perhaps like many, you've discovered relationships take time, commitment and plenty of talking – and you're reaping the rewards.
Just the fact you've done this checker proves you don't take your relationship for granted and you want to keep improving things. If you fancy making it even better, have a look back at the questions, figure out where you didn't score top marks then go about fixing it.
Oh, and If you really want to impress, why not take a look at our workshop and courses section over at www.relate.org.uk

Good news! On the whole your relationship is in pretty good shape. You may have a few differences, but you're able to respect each other and work through them. If you don't already, it might be worth spending more time focusing on the good things you share together to make sure they outweigh any niggles.
We've got a wide range of books to help you enjoy a healthy, happy relationship. Visit our bookshop section at www.relate.org.uk

Ok, so you might be finding your relationship often feels like a struggle. There is still some good stuff, but there are a quite a few things that can cause arguments or distance between you both. You might find it helpful to go back through the earlier questions and highlight the areas you think are most important to work on – either on your on or with a Relate counsellor.
If you are finding things are difficult in your relationship, you can always get free online and immediate support from our LiveChat service at www.relate.org.uk

It looks as though your relationship is going through a pretty rough time at the moment. Perhaps it's just a blip because one or both of you is under pressure elsewhere in your life, or maybe it's been this way for a while now. Either way, you'll probably find it helpful to put some time aside, either alone, with your partner or with a Relate counsellor. It's important to think about the changes you'd like to make to improve your relationship.