H-H-Happy Birthday Hancock's Half Hour

Today marks 60 years since the first ever episode of my very favourite comedy show, Hancock's Half Hour, was broadcast.  I first heard Hancock on a tape belonging to my parents and became hooked once BBC 7, now BBC Radio 4 Extra, started.  Hancock even featured on the opening night of BBC 7 and I remember sitting beside my Dad's new digital radio laughing and laughing.

Tony Hancock

The show starred Tony Hancock, playing a version of himself, living first in a shared flat and then later at "23 Railway Cuttings, East Cheam", with a group of friends who over the years included Bill Kerr, Sid James, Andre Melly and Hattie Jacques.  Kenneth Williams was also a regular, playing a wide range of characters and making full use of his vocal talents.  Hancock is a character whose ideas of himself do not always live up to reality and who shares traits with Mr Pooter and Captain Mainwaring; although he is less pompous he is still full of pretensions.

Despite all the radio episodes being recorded in the 1950s the show remains fresh and funny; the only clues to its age being some of the topical references and prices.  The clearest demonstration of this freshness is that in the re-recorded lost episodes that Radio 4 have just made they only had to change half a line in five episodes.  Writers Alan Galton and Ray Simpson picked up on trends in the contemporary theatre, producing an episode in which Hancock is starring in a play called Look Back in Hunger, a reference to John Osbourne's Look Back in Anger and the famous Sunday Afternoon episode makes reference to Beckett's Waiting for Godot.  The only thing that spoilt the show was Hancock's increasing jealousy of his co-stars, which meant that by the time the last television episodes were made none of his original co-stars were left in the show, a true loss.  The early episodes where his co-stars are allowed more laughs are much funnier for it.

L-R Kenneth Williams, Tony Hancock, Bill Kerr and Sid James

I have listened to an episode of Hancock every week for years and have missed it lately while it has been off the air on Radio 4 Extra.  However, to mark the anniversary (and help with my withdrawal symptoms!) the BBC have, as I mentioned earlier, re-recorded five lost episodes, the first of which went out on Friday - you can hear them here.  It was truly brilliant and they "got" most of the voices perfectly.  Then in addition three hours of Hancock related programming went out on Radio 4 Extra yesterday - which you can hear here.

Get listening, you won't regret it!  Anyone else into vintage radio comedy out there?

P.S. For vintage comedy geeks there is an amazing episode of The Men From The Ministry available here, in which the cast of Much Binding in the Marsh, the show in which Richard Murdoch, the co-star, really made his name in the 1940s, appear.  It's truly delightful, very funny and according to my Dad (a retired civil servant) an accurate picture of civil service life.

P.P.S. There's a six part series on the history of radio comedy 1975-2005 on Radio 4 started on Saturday.  It's entertaining but I do wish they had started earlier.

Radio Recommendations

I listen to the radio a lot, a great deal more than I watch television and it is great to listen to while knitting.  My two staple radio choices are BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra.  I was practically raised on Radio 4 and I have listened to Radio 4 Extra, or BBC 7 as it then was, since its first night of broadcasting.  Even now I can remember sitting on a chair in the dining room sitting right by my dad's then very new digital radio, listening intently and rediscovering Hancock's Half Hour.  Therefore I thought it might be good to recommend a couple of the things I've enjoyed lately on the radio, as you can listen to the BBC radio player anywhere in the world, for free, what luxury!

Having said all that about Radios 4 and 4 Extra, I shall now make my first recommendation from Radio 3 (the BBC's classical music station): The John Wilson Orchestra Prom, Kiss Me Kate.  This orchestra specialises in mid 20th century musicals and associated music and their annual prom has become my favourite.  Although it may not be "high brow" music, it is full of joy, fun and done to an extraordinary standard, Kiss Me Kate swept me through a Sunday afternoon while I knitted the foot of a sock.  You have another three weeks or so to listen, then the filmed version will be on television at Christmas - I went and checked!

Next we definitely are going high brow, with T S Eliot's poem The Wasteland.  I recently bought a copy of his poems as part of an effort to get to know more poetry and I cannot say I understood it, indeed I still would not say I fully understood it, but listening to it has helped a bit.  In particular having two voices, Jeremy Irons and Dame Eileen Atkins, reading the poem helped to underline that it is not supposed to have a meaning as a whole.  By which I mean, it does not begin at point A and end at point B having been on a descriptive or narrative journey along the way, but that it creates its whole out of a series of impressions.  I found the best way to think of the poem was as a series of thoughts wandering through the poet's mind as he tried to make sense of the world after the First World War.  The reading is a delight in itself and I am pleased to see that it is still there for another three weeks so that I can have another crack at it, though I live in hope of a CD or download becoming available of this and Jeremy Irons' reading of Eliot's Four Quartets.

Staying with the First World War, the last recommendation for now is Home Front, an epic project Radio 4 have started this week, a drama with an episode set on this day one hundred years before.  The first two episodes have been very well produced, although they possibly need to watch their idiom, one or two expressions did not sit quite with the period and I already feel that I have learnt something more of the home front experience.

What are your favourites?

52 Weeks of Happy - week 11 (finally)

After a week stuck at home with a boring and unpleasant cold, looking for some good points in the week seems even more important.

1. Daffodils and sunshine - always a cheerful combination, the warmth of the sun seemed to bring the scent out.


2. I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again - celebrated their 50th birthday this last week and I spent a good time listening to the three hour special.  It's always a good laugh and gloriously silly, although I would have to agree with the rest of the cast that John Cleese's silly walk does not work brilliantly on radio.

3. Persephone Books - I received a voucher for three books for my birthday and this week I decided it was a good time to spend it.  It took me quite a while to decide, one day I aim to own all their books, although this would need to involve ongoing purchases as they are continuing to publish books.  This last week they have published Elisabeth du Waal's novel The Exiles Return, about a number of Jewish refugees returning to Vienna after the war, which has never before been published.  My grandfather left Vienna as a Jewish refugee in early 1939 so this book has resonance for my family's story.  I recently finished reading her grandson Edmund du Waal's book The Hare with the Amber Eyes, part family biography, part history, both of art and of events.  It is a book written with infinite care and no sentimentality or nostalgia for a lost age, I would highly recommend the second book and am greatly looking forward to reading the first.  I am also very grateful to Persephone for publishing the book and giving a voice to what happened.

4. Relaxing simple crochet - a straightforward, slightly wobbly, crocheted dish cloth, for immediate kitchen use.  It kept me occupied and relaxed for an afternoon and is already in service.  Made from half a ball of Drops Paris I had hanging around in my stash.



Hopefully I will be prompter in posting this week, hopefully.

52 Weeks of Happy - Week 7

Another week has somehow rolled by, rather fast too and yet I do not feel that I have done anything definite with it.  This continues to be a good exercise, to find things to be positive about.

1. Classic Comedy - this week's Hancock's Half Hour episode on BBC Radio 4 Extra was a true classic, the first ever of the series, with Bill Kerr and Moira Lister in particular being given more of the jokes.  In this episode they often act as a double act and a faster foil to Hancock's slower style, it is a great pity that his jealousy and insecurity later got in the way of this.  Already various hallmarks of the show are in place, from the stutter at the beginning, through the incredible music, ending with Sid James being at the root of most of the trouble as ever!  A must-listen.



2. Blue skies and sunshine - it was properly warm for the first time this year today, only two days after being so cold it made my fingers cold.  I could tell it must be warm when I looked out of my window this morning and saw next door's cat sitting in the sun!  Spring is unmistakeably beginning, as I was walking home today I was stopped dead in my tracks by the first of the blossom on the trees in the street.  I will try to keep taking photos of it as it opens because it is always beautiful when the street is full of blossom.



3. Smooshy alpaca - I have resurrected a cardigan I began last year and have been putting in lots of work on it this week.  Despite the hours there has been only a small amount of growth as being in sport weight there are rather a lot of stitches involved.  But I have loved Drops Alpaca for a while now and this colour in particular (7240m since you ask, no I did not have to look that up, yes I do need to get out more), so I am thoroughly looking forward to wrapping myself up in soft clouds of alpaca.



4. A charity shop bargain - a 1970s Patons book of bazaar makes, there are all the classics in here including the tea cosy that looks like a gypsy caravan.  There are quite a few things that are actually makeable too, so it is not just amusing, though I am quite taken by the parrot.

52 Weeks of Happy - week 6

Six weeks into this 52 weeks of happy, goodness me, never thought I'd last this far.  It has not been a bad week, not too bad anyhow, although I have been struggling to relax and sleep.  I keep meaning to write other blog posts and they keep not happening.  Today I do not feel especially positive, so coming up with four things to be positive about is a good exercise, hopefully it will help my head see that there are positive things going on, help me not to miss them.

1. A kind thought and a great quotation - a kind friend sent me a lovely cotton bag she had got on a weekend away in Sheffield, with the following quotation on it "It is impossible to be angry when looking at a penguin", from of all people, John Ruskin.  I would love to know what the origin is of this statement, I had always associated Mr Ruskin with serious matters, not penguins.  The bag has two rather gorgeous penguins following in one another's footsteps and it put a big smile on my face.  Naturally it already has some knitting in it.



2. Cabin Pressure - the radio 4 show, which each week keeps me in stitches, laughing so hard the whole house can hear, if not next door as well.  John Finnemore is a brilliant writer, mixing wordplay, situation and plain silliness into a superb and closely packed half hour.  Go and listen on iplayer while you can - the last in the series is next Wednesday at 6.30.  I realise now that I should have mentioned this sooner, before the series was nearly over, however, you can catch up with the previous series on audible most reasonably.

3. Continuing promise of spring - the buds on our wild cherry twigs are breaking and gorgeous green leaves emerging, hopefully there will soon be flowers.  They are rather hard to photograph though.



4. Prayer - I would not have made it through the week without prayer, both mine and other people's.  Sometimes it is talking things over, sometimes sitting in peace, with some liturgy in between.  Prayer helps me to keep my stress and anxiety levels manageable, my mood more stable, and helps me and others in so many ways.  I am so grateful to God for this gift and that He cares about us and our daily lives, that He is interested and wants to hear from us, no matter how small or big the problem.  Through prayer God is teaching me to rely on Him and how infinitely gracious He is.  For example, if I cannot find something I try to remember to pray, before tearing the house apart looking, as I find searching for things so tiring and they do generally appear after I have prayed, sometimes almost at once, sometimes a little while later, but they do.  Through watching Him answer prayers on a small scale I find I can learn to trust Him more for the big things.

Prayer also helps me to feel less useless within the church - I may not be able to do much else for my church and for the wider church, but I can pray.  It is so good to have others pray for me too, sometimes it is easier to pray for someone else than it is for yourself and in the past a good friend and I have arranged to pray for one another that day rather than struggle with prayer for ourselves.  I love how God equips us to help one another and love one another.

Time to try to relax and get some sleep now I suppose.

52 Weeks of happy - an attempt - week 1

This morning I came across Little Tin Bird's post about Little Birdie's idea of having a weekly post through this year called 52 Weeks of Happy.  The idea is that once a week you post four things that have made you happy that week.  As someone who can be somewhat happiness challenged this seems like an excellent idea and should serve the twin purpose of making me blog more regularly and more importantly examine the things that make me happy and hopefully see the happy things in my life and not let them get drowned out.

Both the bloggers previously mentioned seem to be posting a photograph for each happy thing, I can't be sure I can keep that up, so I will endeavour to have some photographs at least.

So here goes, Week 1, in by a whisker:

1. Sparkly socks - sparkly Monkey socks, edging towards completion, glittering with every stitch!


2. A stack of reading material - thanks to the Oxfam online shop's sale.  I have started with The Vicarage Children by Lorna Hill and it is an utter delight.

(Sorry for the rubbish phone photo)

3. A plethora of brilliant radio, over the past couple of days I have enjoyed The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope, The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico and on a slightly different note My MS and Me by Jim Sweeney.  The latter I have just discovered is available from his website, which is brilliant because there are so many people I want to tell about it.  If you have any kind of disability or want to understand what life can be like having a disability or you are just a human being, have a listen.

4. Various bulbs in the garden starting to show shoots already, mainly due to the mild weather I suspect, but giving promise of spring and good things to come.

Radio silence

I haven't posted for a while because there hasn't been a lot to say. It's just more of the same, more feeling awful, more waiting for appointments, more impromptu trips to the doctors', more things I need to do piling up undone, more depression, more antibiotics, or antibirockets as a fellow raveller put it.

I feel truly pathetic for getting so down, other people have things far worse than I do and manage to live with far more grace, although I know depression doesn't help me to do this. Life is just so hard, unrelentingly so and I'm trying so hard to hope. Being so isolated doesn't help either, particularly spiritually, being an isolated Christian with depression isn't easy, I'm trying to believe, trying to keep communicating with Jesus, keep worshipping, but not succeeding very well.

At least I've got an appointment later in the week to see Father Andrew, a lovely retired vicar or priest (he wears a dog collar so he must be something like that?) who is wonderfully understanding and one of those people who is so Jesus-like. Crucially he is also easy to talk to; I find even when I do see people that it's really hard to open up. I guess you're never sure how people will react and it's rare that any one's got the time and inclination really to listen. And I don't know how to start or what to say and I don't really have the energy to socialise anyway. It's that catch-22 situation of being lonely but not well enough to see people.

However, before this all gets too depressing for words, there have been a few other things going on. The loaf of bread I made overnight in the bread maker has come out very nicely, a light wholemeal loaf. But I have had to undo ten days' hard work on a cardigan I have been working on because of a simple mathematical error that means it was working out far too small. One of this afternoon's tasks will be to start the cardigan all over again. Such is knitting I suppose, one blessing is that the yarn doesn't seem overly bothered by being undone, some of it for the second time. It is a bit disheartening to see ten days' work reduced to a pathetic huddle of bundles of yarn.

I am going to go outside into the garden now, since the weather has changed once again, from November back to proper August weather.

Oh and while we're on the subject of the radio - Radio 4 has just started another of its modern production of lost Paul Temple serials, past ones have been superb, truly the BBC at its very best - you simply must listen!

Tum te tum te tum te tum...

This past couple of weeks I have been wallowing in Archers nostalgia following the 60th anniversary episode on the first Sunday of the year, in between incandescent fury at the content of that particular episode, the outcome of which must now be well known. Why Nigel? One of the nicest characters in the programme, I loved episodes with him in, you always knew that he would be up to some fresh plan, full of his latest enthusiasm, be it allotments, wine making or his shire horse. The ineptitude with which the episode was written has only added to the sense of outrage, it was third rate melodrama, or like a bad detective novel in which the average reader can surmise the entire plot within the first chapter. Nigel's death was as meaningless as Grace Archer's death more than fifty years earlier, only she was given the dignity of a decent send off. Having recently listened again to that episode, timed co-incidently for the night ITV started, it was a good, well written piece of drama that crucially rang true in a way that Nigel's accident did not.

Vanessa Whitburn (programme editor) et al have not shown themselves at their best through this entire incident, in the storyline, the writing, the way that actors and listeners have been treated or their feeble attempts to gain listeners through sensationalism. This is The Archers, not Eastenders: no one tunes into The Archers for sensational happenings and unending woe, it is the quiet everyday rhythm of life in the countryside that is so attractive. Phil and Jill competing in the cake baking at the village fete, lambing, harvest, Joe and Eddie Grundie attempting to make a dishonest buck, chat outside the village shop, even Lynda Snell interfering and posing, are the sorts of storylines we love. I am also mystified as to why a programme that attracts more than five million listeners feels a need to employ cheap tricks in an apparent bid to gain listeners. What about the existing listeners, or are we not important?

I'm now aware that I have gone on for a considerable period of time about a radio programme, however, I do feel incredibly strongly about this, not only have I listened since before I can remember, but my father has also listened since before he can remember. My grandparents listened, many of my friends listen; it is a part of my life. The Archers truly matters and "the powers that be" need to remember that they are not just running a radio programme but a national institution that plays an important part in many people's lives.

Peaceful weekends

This weekend has been lovely, peaceful, quiet, social, but not in an overwhelming way. Yesterday I spent the morning watching Time Team on More4 and knitting; they make a good combination and enable me to engage with history (my main academic love) in a way that my brain can cope with. I also like the programme's good humour, lightheartedness and the willingness of the archaeologists to enjoy a joke.

In the afternoon, after posting a birthday present to a dear friend, I went to knitting group in central Croydon. We meet on the first Saturday of the month in Cafe Nero in the Allders end of George St, near the George St tram stop and opposite 'The George' pub, from 2.30. Yesterday afternoon's meeting was lovely, sociable and relaxed and the combination of air conditioning and iced drinks made a welcome relief to the sheer heat of recent days. If anyone reading this lives in/near Croydon and feels like joining us you would be welcome, we also meet on the third Thursday of the month from 6pm, generally in Cafe Aroma in High St. Although we're called "Croydon knitting group" other portable crafts are very welcome, we have done knitting, crochet, spinning, tatting and cross stitch at meetings between us so far. Naturally some crafts are always going to be more difficult to do out and about - bit hard to heave a pottery wheel down to a coffee shop! If you want more information feel free to email croydonknittinggroup@googlemail.com

Today I haven't done anything in particular, listened to Gardener's Question Time on BBC Radio 4 and then to the Classic Serial - P.G. Wodehouse is perfect for a Sunday afternoon, particularly when it stars Martin Jarvis and Patricia Hodge. As ever with Wodehouse I struggled a little to keep up with who all everyone was, particularly among the younger set; I tend to find it works best simply to listen/read on and go with the flow of the story, it's just as enjoyable as understanding what exactly is going on and infinitely less mentally taxing! The only pity about Wodehouse dramatised is that one misses out on the sheer creativity and wit of his prose in his descriptions of people, places and what have you.

Alas despite all this I still haven't managed to finish knitting this blanket for SANDS, I'm not far off, just need to persist. I have garter stitch fatigue! So I'll get on with knitting it while hoping it starts to rain before plant watering time! (There are some promising clouds up there... anyone know a rain dance?!)