Radio and TV - Memories and Favourites

Channel 5 is going to show "Friends" from Series 1 Episode 1, commencing next Monday, 3 September, 4.00pm

I seem to recall that "you dirty rotten swine" was a saying of Spike Milligan's in the Goon Show. Post copied from topic Local dialects and language on 10th Sep 2018 8:59 pm

It was in the Goon Show, Tricia, but it was Peter Sellers as Bluebottle who said "You dirty rotten swine, you deaded me!" Every few Sundays we visited our ex lodgers in Tile Hill in the 1950's, we always had to listen to the radio, Forces Favourites, Sing Something Simple and comedies like the Navy Lark or the Goons. We couldn't wait until he turned it off so he would play his 78 records, including Ugly Duckling and Three Little Fishes. After he died we finished up with these records which we still have. Unfortunately my mum gave away his collection of George Formby!!

Now the Goon Show was one of Dad's favourites and 'he's fallen in the water' was a regular cry, usually about my brother.

"Can I do yer now, sir?" I used to think that was Kathleen Harrison. "Come back to the buildings,Jim" ? "I like it Eth" (or was it Eff) ? Instead of all the so called reality shows on TV, what about showing a few old "It ain't arf 'ot Mums". All good scripts now long gone. (Just my choice folks)

Dream, I believe "can I do you now sir?" was a catchphrase of Tommy Handley in ITMA.

Anne, correct. Peter Sellers said, on Parkinson, that he went for his first interview, and whilst waiting, an earlier candidate came out of the office, very pleased that he had got the job - or so he thought, erroneously. Sellers said that he quickly realised the man was not the full shilling, and his suspicion was confirmed when the man announced to all the prospective candidates "Eh heff jufft been interviewed, and the interviewer thinkth ayme a genius!". Being a human tape recorder, Sellers thought I can use that silly voice, so Bluebottle was born. Personally, I couldn't stand the Goons, and even in the junior school thought it was a load of puerile nonsense, made worse by supposedly grown men acting stupidly. One of my classmates thought they were hilarious.

I used to hate having to listen to Sing Something Simple every Sunday evening. It meant we were soon to have tea, which was always salad. I wanted a proper hot meal. But we was poor... Anyway, the Cliff Adams theme song: its droning dirge-like chromatic scale filled me with a feeling of despair - it meant I'd got to have a bath, go to bed early, then endure another week of school starting the following morning. It signalled the end of the weekend. Mum always said that "schooldays are the happiest days of your life". I never believed her then, and still disagree.

Oh my God! Down in the meadow in a little bitty pool and so on and they swam and they swam all over the dam - before the war, and we had lots of little bitty things - another old saying I haven't heard for such awhile. A 1932 classroom singing twice one are two twice two are four froggy would a woo'ing go kim-a-nary ki-row twice three are six twice four are eight whether his mother would let him or no kim-a-nary-ki-row.

Like Slim, I thought The Goon Show was utter nonsense and when one or two of the lads at Caludon would quote some of the dialogue I simply couldn't get it. I listen to the shows now on BBC Radio 4 extra and have a completely different opinion. Admittedly some scripts are hit and miss but when Spike Milligan was on form it is easy to understand that he was regarded by some as a comedic genius. The musicianship of Ray Ellington and his band was also superb even though I'm not a jazz fan.

Hi all My earliest radio memories are of Listen with Mother in the afternoon, and my father listening to football and cricket matches, singing along to Sing Something Simple - tv shows like Watch with Mother (teddy dancing in Andy Pandy was always a favourite) later it was the Lone Ranger and Robin Hood we watched as long as homework was done. As a family we watched The Billy Cotton Band Show and Black and White Minstrel Show, Sunday Night at the London Palladium, and of course The Morecambe and Wise Show. My father watched sport most Saturday afternoons, football, cricket and wrestling were his favourites. Mum loved Songs of Praise, especially with Harry Secombe singing - so many memories revived with this topic. Thank you.

I have a very old book of children's songs, some of them hundreds of years old. It has the words and the dots. I remember the title being something like A frog he would a-wooing go. And the refrain was something like "Hey ho says Anthony Rowley". I remember my father singing it occasionally. Must dig out the book and check.

Early monochrome TV had Bill and Ben and Andy Pandy. In addition to the Lone Ranger and Robin Hood there was the Range Rider, and Roger Moore in Ivanhoe, although I was too young to understand what the latter was all about. At school we had Music and Movement on the radio, and I remember we had to lie on our backs and pedal an imaginary bicycle.

covgirl, if I remember correctly Billy Cotton had been on the radio years before the people you mention, he was a long time great.

Another of the programmes we used to listen to was Jo 'Mr Piano' Henderson. When I was a bit older than my other post the couple we used to go and see (they were our lodgers until the early 1950's until they managed to get a maisonette in Tile Hill - we always called them Auntie Eileen and Uncle Jim as everyone was Auntie and Uncle then) worked at the Standard. Jo 'Mr Piano' Henderson came to do one of his shows there and they could not use their tickets so they gave me one. I went to the show which was broadcast from the factory but I was at work by then and was too embarrassed to tell anyone I had been.