Left to right - Coronation Street, Noele Gordon in Crossrods, Mr Pastry (Richard Hearne) and the scary Quatermass and the Pit
TV Heaven (And Hell) - Part 2
Anybody who grew up with a television in their family will have had their lives affected by it in some way or other.
Some programmes leave a lasting impression, long after the bulk of them have vanished into obscurity. The idea behind this section is to look at some of the programmes that made my TV heaven or TV hell. So here we go with part two and we start in soaps territory.
Coronation Street
December 9th, 1960. What a landmark date for television. I remember it vividly. I was eight years old and my parents had gone for an evening appointment at the doctors to have some jabs. My grandmother came round to look after me.
The first strains of that famous theme tune (sorry to go on about themes again) rang out and either my gran said to me or I said to her "what's this ?"
We had no idea what we were about to watch. There had, as I remember, been no great fanfares. That first episode is now implanted in my memory (mainly because I have seen it on a number of occasions and you can still watch it on You Tube).
The programme opens in the corner shop and then there's the snug at the Rovers and it's all in black and white and now looks terribly dated but a long way from the succession of serial killers that have inhabited the street over the past 10 years.
Simply put Corrie is my TV heaven. I rarely miss a show and if I'm out I tape it (sorry I hard drive it) to watch later. I was pretty much hooked from the start when the plans were only for an initial short run of 13 programmes. Almost 55 years on the programme seems to be as strong as ever with no fewer than five episodes a week. It started, I seem to remember, with two episodes each week (Mondays and Wednesdays at 7.30 p.m). January 2009 saw the programme clock up an astonishing 7,000 episodes and I must have watched a good proportion of those. I kind of grew up with Coronation Street so don't expect any of my usual sarcastic quips here. I am still in awe of the programme and what it has achieved. So much so that in 2015 we travelled to the Salford step for our own stroll down the cobbles.
I watched Eastenders for some time but then got totally fed up with it - same with Australian soaps like Home and Away and Neighbours and Yorkshire soap Emmerdale. They all seem to be limited and characters become watered down, Corrie never does. And that's because of the well drawn characters. Okay at times the dialogue can get trite and even downright silly and there are certain characters you could happily see murdered, but essentially Corrie has always kept its sense of humour. Even in the saddest moments there has always been pathos. That's something the other soaps have lacked. They have all tried to inject humour but most have failed miserably because at the end of the day we just see actors and actresses. In Corrie the actors are the characters. Actor Brian Capron for example will forever be seen as serial killer Richard Hillman.
I even got involved in one of the storylines. When Deidre Barlow was sent to prison for a crime she didn't commit there was a public outcry and the Media took up her case (yes that's how sad we really are in the UK). I was, at the time, working for the police and was contacted by the local Media to find out what the local Constabulary felt about this travesty of justice. I made some amusing comment but the whole thing was taken very seriously.
Over the years the characters have become almost legends - Hilda Ogden, Albert Tatlock, Minnie Caldwell, Annie and Jack Walker, Mavis Riley, Bette Lynch, Elsie Tanner - the list just goes on and on. If ever there was TV Heaven it is Coronation Street. But hey we can't stay serious all the time so let's take a visit to a well know King's Oak motel called ....
Crossroads
I would have to put Crossroads in the TV Heaven category simply because it was so entertaining. Sadly the entertainment came from the disasters and pratfalls rather than the plots.
Anybody who watched the first coming of the programme will remember the wooden acting and the equally wooden scenery that had the habit of moving or wobbling on set.
Then there was the fact that Mr Lovejoy the rather elderly chef was continually referred to in scripts long after the actor who played him had died.
The programme began in 1964 (probably at the same time as the scenery started wobbling). The Motel was built around the family characters of Meg Richardson (played by Noele Gordon) and her children Jill Harvey (played by the lovely Jane Rossington) and son Sandy played by Roger Tonge. Tonge always managed to look like a seven year old and ended up in a wheelchair after a car accident (in the soap) but sadly ended up in a wheelchair through cancer (in real life). Jane Rossington was married to a character by the name of Stan who had a rough Brummie accent and was continually turning up on other television shows after Crossroads.
I seem to remember the plots got ever sillier. The Motel burned down and Noele Gordon was last seen on a boat going somewhere or other (I think by this point I had lost interest). It all packed up in 1988, but was strangely re-born in 2001 with less shaky scenery and modern plots that just didn't work. It became just another soap and was consigned to the great soap graveyard in 2003 when the Motel closed its doors for the last time.
It did throw up some memorable characters in a kind of ridiculous way. Paul Henry played Benny Hawkins who continually wore a silly woollen hat much mimicked by real people (Benny Hats!!!). Poor old Benny was the butt of many jokes - not being the sharpest knife in the tool box. But he was good hearted and after Crossroads starred in panto at Norwich Theatre Royal where I interviewed him for the local paper and realised that he actually did have some hair and wasn't as thick as two short planks!
My other claim to fame is opening the door of a department store in Great Yarmouth to Ann George (who played Amy Turtle). I think I was with a friend at the time.
"Hey I've just opened the door to Amy Turtle."
"No did she say anything to you."
"Yep she said thanks... wow."
Ann must have been appearing in a summer show in the resort and this was quite obviously a high point of my entire life (thus proving what a sad existence I have had). I remember David Hunter the suave co-owner played by Ronald Allen who I believe might have been gay (in real life). Then there was new owner (at some point) Gabrielle Drake who I remember more for being tragic singer-songwriter Nick Drake's sister than for her part in the show.
Much of it is now a haze of the past of course. But we have no time to reminisce as we must move on to two more children's programmes (well one is actually a children's character) - both with a local association to myself.
Romper Room
Ah Romper Room - typically English, apart from one thing - it was imported from the USA where it ran from 1953 until 1994.
The British version started in the Anglia Region and was recorded in Anglia Television's Norwich studios. Basically it was a televised pre-school playgroup with children changing over every so often to give it a fresh feel.
Romper Room was led by Rosalyn Thompson who was known to the children as Miss Rosalyn. In the Anglia region, Miss Rosalyn led proceedings from 1964 to 1976 which posed the question - what was I as a teenager doing watching this programme? Perhaps it preceded children's TV and I tuned in early or perhaps at the time I wanted to be a teacher when "I grew up." It's a sobering thought that those taking part in the early days are now 50 years of age and some will be grandparents. Even those appearing in later editions will be approaching their 40th birthday.
I found a web site where those appearing on the programme reminisced about the games and activities. It truly could have scarred them for life, but they all seem to be "normal" people.
Miss Rosalyn led the children in games, activities and fun things and was an instrumental part of the programme - so much so that it collapsed just a year after she left.
I particularly remember the silly rhymes and Mr Doo Bee who taught the children right from wrong, but obviously not how to spell: The Doo Bee song went something like this:
"I always do what's right, I never do anything wrong, I'm a Romper Room Doo-Bee, a Doo-bee all day long".
The culmination of the show was the magic mirror. Yes Miss Rosalyn started with an ordinary hand held mirror which magically turned into a see through mirror through which she could see all the children. This part of the show kicked off with the immortal lines:
"Romper Bomper Stomper Boo
Tel me, tell me, tell me do,
Magic mirror tell me today
Have all my friends had fun at play."
She would then reel off all the names of children she could "see." Of course she couldn't really see any of them (sorry to shatter your illusions). I used to hide behind the settee as a joke so she couldn't see me. The names got more and more exotic, after all she couldn't see Michael every day to the exclusion of seeing Marie-Claude. She didn't see me all that much as, having a fairly common name, I was left alone. I could never work out how she could see me at all when I was hidden behind the sofa. Of course it was a magic mirror which would explain everything.
Actually I suspect the only thing Miss Rosalyn could see through the magic mirror was the cameraman and the autocue - of course I might be wrong! I would, however, like to meet the man or woman who obviously looked through a well thumbed book of names to find really obscure ones.
Sadly one day technology let Miss Rosalyn down. Instead of fading away at the crucial point, we saw Miss Rosalyn lay the first magic mirror down and take the see through one from her desk drawer. How cruel was growing up?
Mr Pastry
One of my earliest television memories was of Richard Hearne as Mr Pastry - which might not mean a lot to many reading this.
The fact was Mr Pastry was hilariously funny (well he was to a very young child anyway) - a slapstick clown in the real pantomime tradition who became nationally and internationally known.
The big thing for me was Mr Pastry came from Norwich and seemed to be on television all the time. Sadly I can't remember much about the programmes but I do remember his pin striped suit, bowler hat, walrus moustache and crazy demeanour, borne out of the fact that he came from a family of actors and circus acrobats.
It seemed strange that this man should come from the same City as myself. I always get this feeling of wonderment when this happens - after all famous people come from Manchester or Liverpool or London or Birmingham and not from good old Norwich. Well Richard Hearne did come from Norwich and he's still a local celebrity, despite the fact he's been dead for 30 years, He was the first television star in the accepted sense of the word and the first to have his own show which involved slapstick adventures.
He also became popular in America - appearing regularly in the top rated Ed Sullivan Show. According to the internet he was offered the part of Dr Who when Jon Pertwee left but wanted to play the time Lord as Mr Pastry - that would have been something custard pies and Daleks.
Richard, like all good Norwich people, was a tireless worker for charity and was awarded the OBE and sounds like an all round good chap and a good memory to have.
We end part two of my own personal TV Heaven (and Hell) with a show that scared me witless.
Quatermass and the Pit
One of those programmes that takes on great significance on a personal level. I should imagine that if I revisited this drama I would find it very tame indeed, but at the end of 1958 it was scary to an impressionable six year old.
All I remember about the programme was a pit, monsters and being scared. For many of my articles in this section of my web site I have re-visited the programmes through the wonders of the Internet. This one was too frightening to do that. It gave me nightmares and I have no wish to repeat them. It's probably safe enough after over 50 years - but I'm just not prepared to take that risk. So if you want to know more about this you'll have to do your own research. Just leave me alone to crawl back behind my frightened person stone.
It did lead me to think about the times in my early years when I was scared - times like every night when I went upstairs to bed and thought that Indians with bows and arrows were following me. Or worse were waiting for me in the bathroom. Or times like when I had to be taken out of Norwich Hippodrome because I was scared by entertainer Cyril Fletcher. It was apparently his strange piercing eyes that upset me, although it's difficult to know how I could get close enough to actually see them. But there it is, I started screaming and had to be taken out and it was years before I could watch Fletcher on television. As for the Hippodrome (in the words of Joni Mitchell) .... well they paved paradise and put up a parking lot (i.e they pulled it down and replaced it with a car park).
To Be Continued with more memories
Anybody who grew up with a television in their family will have had their lives affected by it in some way or other.
Some programmes leave a lasting impression, long after the bulk of them have vanished into obscurity. The idea behind this section is to look at some of the programmes that made my TV heaven or TV hell. So here we go with part two and we start in soaps territory.
Coronation Street
December 9th, 1960. What a landmark date for television. I remember it vividly. I was eight years old and my parents had gone for an evening appointment at the doctors to have some jabs. My grandmother came round to look after me.
The first strains of that famous theme tune (sorry to go on about themes again) rang out and either my gran said to me or I said to her "what's this ?"
We had no idea what we were about to watch. There had, as I remember, been no great fanfares. That first episode is now implanted in my memory (mainly because I have seen it on a number of occasions and you can still watch it on You Tube).
The programme opens in the corner shop and then there's the snug at the Rovers and it's all in black and white and now looks terribly dated but a long way from the succession of serial killers that have inhabited the street over the past 10 years.
Simply put Corrie is my TV heaven. I rarely miss a show and if I'm out I tape it (sorry I hard drive it) to watch later. I was pretty much hooked from the start when the plans were only for an initial short run of 13 programmes. Almost 55 years on the programme seems to be as strong as ever with no fewer than five episodes a week. It started, I seem to remember, with two episodes each week (Mondays and Wednesdays at 7.30 p.m). January 2009 saw the programme clock up an astonishing 7,000 episodes and I must have watched a good proportion of those. I kind of grew up with Coronation Street so don't expect any of my usual sarcastic quips here. I am still in awe of the programme and what it has achieved. So much so that in 2015 we travelled to the Salford step for our own stroll down the cobbles.
I watched Eastenders for some time but then got totally fed up with it - same with Australian soaps like Home and Away and Neighbours and Yorkshire soap Emmerdale. They all seem to be limited and characters become watered down, Corrie never does. And that's because of the well drawn characters. Okay at times the dialogue can get trite and even downright silly and there are certain characters you could happily see murdered, but essentially Corrie has always kept its sense of humour. Even in the saddest moments there has always been pathos. That's something the other soaps have lacked. They have all tried to inject humour but most have failed miserably because at the end of the day we just see actors and actresses. In Corrie the actors are the characters. Actor Brian Capron for example will forever be seen as serial killer Richard Hillman.
I even got involved in one of the storylines. When Deidre Barlow was sent to prison for a crime she didn't commit there was a public outcry and the Media took up her case (yes that's how sad we really are in the UK). I was, at the time, working for the police and was contacted by the local Media to find out what the local Constabulary felt about this travesty of justice. I made some amusing comment but the whole thing was taken very seriously.
Over the years the characters have become almost legends - Hilda Ogden, Albert Tatlock, Minnie Caldwell, Annie and Jack Walker, Mavis Riley, Bette Lynch, Elsie Tanner - the list just goes on and on. If ever there was TV Heaven it is Coronation Street. But hey we can't stay serious all the time so let's take a visit to a well know King's Oak motel called ....
Crossroads
I would have to put Crossroads in the TV Heaven category simply because it was so entertaining. Sadly the entertainment came from the disasters and pratfalls rather than the plots.
Anybody who watched the first coming of the programme will remember the wooden acting and the equally wooden scenery that had the habit of moving or wobbling on set.
Then there was the fact that Mr Lovejoy the rather elderly chef was continually referred to in scripts long after the actor who played him had died.
The programme began in 1964 (probably at the same time as the scenery started wobbling). The Motel was built around the family characters of Meg Richardson (played by Noele Gordon) and her children Jill Harvey (played by the lovely Jane Rossington) and son Sandy played by Roger Tonge. Tonge always managed to look like a seven year old and ended up in a wheelchair after a car accident (in the soap) but sadly ended up in a wheelchair through cancer (in real life). Jane Rossington was married to a character by the name of Stan who had a rough Brummie accent and was continually turning up on other television shows after Crossroads.
I seem to remember the plots got ever sillier. The Motel burned down and Noele Gordon was last seen on a boat going somewhere or other (I think by this point I had lost interest). It all packed up in 1988, but was strangely re-born in 2001 with less shaky scenery and modern plots that just didn't work. It became just another soap and was consigned to the great soap graveyard in 2003 when the Motel closed its doors for the last time.
It did throw up some memorable characters in a kind of ridiculous way. Paul Henry played Benny Hawkins who continually wore a silly woollen hat much mimicked by real people (Benny Hats!!!). Poor old Benny was the butt of many jokes - not being the sharpest knife in the tool box. But he was good hearted and after Crossroads starred in panto at Norwich Theatre Royal where I interviewed him for the local paper and realised that he actually did have some hair and wasn't as thick as two short planks!
My other claim to fame is opening the door of a department store in Great Yarmouth to Ann George (who played Amy Turtle). I think I was with a friend at the time.
"Hey I've just opened the door to Amy Turtle."
"No did she say anything to you."
"Yep she said thanks... wow."
Ann must have been appearing in a summer show in the resort and this was quite obviously a high point of my entire life (thus proving what a sad existence I have had). I remember David Hunter the suave co-owner played by Ronald Allen who I believe might have been gay (in real life). Then there was new owner (at some point) Gabrielle Drake who I remember more for being tragic singer-songwriter Nick Drake's sister than for her part in the show.
Much of it is now a haze of the past of course. But we have no time to reminisce as we must move on to two more children's programmes (well one is actually a children's character) - both with a local association to myself.
Romper Room
Ah Romper Room - typically English, apart from one thing - it was imported from the USA where it ran from 1953 until 1994.
The British version started in the Anglia Region and was recorded in Anglia Television's Norwich studios. Basically it was a televised pre-school playgroup with children changing over every so often to give it a fresh feel.
Romper Room was led by Rosalyn Thompson who was known to the children as Miss Rosalyn. In the Anglia region, Miss Rosalyn led proceedings from 1964 to 1976 which posed the question - what was I as a teenager doing watching this programme? Perhaps it preceded children's TV and I tuned in early or perhaps at the time I wanted to be a teacher when "I grew up." It's a sobering thought that those taking part in the early days are now 50 years of age and some will be grandparents. Even those appearing in later editions will be approaching their 40th birthday.
I found a web site where those appearing on the programme reminisced about the games and activities. It truly could have scarred them for life, but they all seem to be "normal" people.
Miss Rosalyn led the children in games, activities and fun things and was an instrumental part of the programme - so much so that it collapsed just a year after she left.
I particularly remember the silly rhymes and Mr Doo Bee who taught the children right from wrong, but obviously not how to spell: The Doo Bee song went something like this:
"I always do what's right, I never do anything wrong, I'm a Romper Room Doo-Bee, a Doo-bee all day long".
The culmination of the show was the magic mirror. Yes Miss Rosalyn started with an ordinary hand held mirror which magically turned into a see through mirror through which she could see all the children. This part of the show kicked off with the immortal lines:
"Romper Bomper Stomper Boo
Tel me, tell me, tell me do,
Magic mirror tell me today
Have all my friends had fun at play."
She would then reel off all the names of children she could "see." Of course she couldn't really see any of them (sorry to shatter your illusions). I used to hide behind the settee as a joke so she couldn't see me. The names got more and more exotic, after all she couldn't see Michael every day to the exclusion of seeing Marie-Claude. She didn't see me all that much as, having a fairly common name, I was left alone. I could never work out how she could see me at all when I was hidden behind the sofa. Of course it was a magic mirror which would explain everything.
Actually I suspect the only thing Miss Rosalyn could see through the magic mirror was the cameraman and the autocue - of course I might be wrong! I would, however, like to meet the man or woman who obviously looked through a well thumbed book of names to find really obscure ones.
Sadly one day technology let Miss Rosalyn down. Instead of fading away at the crucial point, we saw Miss Rosalyn lay the first magic mirror down and take the see through one from her desk drawer. How cruel was growing up?
Mr Pastry
One of my earliest television memories was of Richard Hearne as Mr Pastry - which might not mean a lot to many reading this.
The fact was Mr Pastry was hilariously funny (well he was to a very young child anyway) - a slapstick clown in the real pantomime tradition who became nationally and internationally known.
The big thing for me was Mr Pastry came from Norwich and seemed to be on television all the time. Sadly I can't remember much about the programmes but I do remember his pin striped suit, bowler hat, walrus moustache and crazy demeanour, borne out of the fact that he came from a family of actors and circus acrobats.
It seemed strange that this man should come from the same City as myself. I always get this feeling of wonderment when this happens - after all famous people come from Manchester or Liverpool or London or Birmingham and not from good old Norwich. Well Richard Hearne did come from Norwich and he's still a local celebrity, despite the fact he's been dead for 30 years, He was the first television star in the accepted sense of the word and the first to have his own show which involved slapstick adventures.
He also became popular in America - appearing regularly in the top rated Ed Sullivan Show. According to the internet he was offered the part of Dr Who when Jon Pertwee left but wanted to play the time Lord as Mr Pastry - that would have been something custard pies and Daleks.
Richard, like all good Norwich people, was a tireless worker for charity and was awarded the OBE and sounds like an all round good chap and a good memory to have.
We end part two of my own personal TV Heaven (and Hell) with a show that scared me witless.
Quatermass and the Pit
One of those programmes that takes on great significance on a personal level. I should imagine that if I revisited this drama I would find it very tame indeed, but at the end of 1958 it was scary to an impressionable six year old.
All I remember about the programme was a pit, monsters and being scared. For many of my articles in this section of my web site I have re-visited the programmes through the wonders of the Internet. This one was too frightening to do that. It gave me nightmares and I have no wish to repeat them. It's probably safe enough after over 50 years - but I'm just not prepared to take that risk. So if you want to know more about this you'll have to do your own research. Just leave me alone to crawl back behind my frightened person stone.
It did lead me to think about the times in my early years when I was scared - times like every night when I went upstairs to bed and thought that Indians with bows and arrows were following me. Or worse were waiting for me in the bathroom. Or times like when I had to be taken out of Norwich Hippodrome because I was scared by entertainer Cyril Fletcher. It was apparently his strange piercing eyes that upset me, although it's difficult to know how I could get close enough to actually see them. But there it is, I started screaming and had to be taken out and it was years before I could watch Fletcher on television. As for the Hippodrome (in the words of Joni Mitchell) .... well they paved paradise and put up a parking lot (i.e they pulled it down and replaced it with a car park).
To Be Continued with more memories