There is need for a bit of glamour and more humour around this place ... hence our two pictures this time out, both kindly supplied by Derek Black. Photographer John Harrison liked to snap funny moments as well as the business he was attending. This time he was caught himself along with Stephanie Bell and Sue Corbett at a fancy dress ball in the Calgorm Manor some years ago. The second picture sees Derek managing to avoid a knock-out punch from Henry Cooper at the National Training Awards at the City Hall in Belfast.
Daily Mail devotes full half page (page lead and only story on page) to death of Mail boss Lord Rothermere's auntie.
"Yes, m'lud" - editor.
Posted by: Graham | June 10, 2011 at 01:31 PM
The editor of the i Simon Kelner devotes his entire Letter from the Editor to apologising for the paper carrying a photograph of the funeral of the father of the young Olympic diver, Tom Daley. "The funeral of a national figure is a news event in its own right, but this was not that ..." he writes. Wish more newspapers had a Page 3 article each day from the editor explaining actions and answering readers questions and complaints.
Posted by: Blogmaster | June 10, 2011 at 02:18 PM
There is far too much apologising going on. I was reading today about some red-headed boy who claims he's been traumatised because some counter assistant wrote "ginger kid" on his order to make sure it went to the right customer. When did we start producing a generation of such delicate flowers writing to head office demanding compensation for what appears to have been an accurate description. Its like that cop who charged a female protester with assault a while back for squeezing his bum. Perhaps old John Wayne had it right when he drawled "Never apologise mister. Its a sign of weakness." Anyway, what I really started to say was to offer a welcome back to Clive James who has returned to writing a television column after what must be 30 years of chasing TV fame and poetry prizes. James wrote a column that you could enjoy even if you'd never watched any of the programmes he was writing about. The same could be said for his contemporary TV critic on the Belfast Telegraph, author and broadcaster, Keith Baker. Just as I used to enjoy the late Bernard Levin's theatre reviews although I never saw - or would see - any of the West End plays he was pontificating on. There is not nearly enough of that kind of criticism around any more. But Clive is welcome back. Saturday's in the Daily Telegraph's review section.
Posted by: Chairman | June 10, 2011 at 08:38 PM
I used to buy the Guardian to read Clive James' column which was always funny and astute ... back then the Guardian had a several writers who were worth taking time to read. There was Geoffrey Cannon who wrote on popular music and left the paper to become editor of Radio Times and I've forgotten the name of the man who wrote an entertaining column on ales and homegrown beers. Also, a man I always imagined to be elderly who wrote stories on the Eastern bloc and Russia in particular. Can't remember his name either. Pity.
Posted by: JC | June 11, 2011 at 09:03 AM
James was pretty good in the Observer too. I still have paperback "The Crystal Bucket : Television Criticism from the "Observer", 1976-79" and I find his columns as funny as ever. He used three words to describe an amazing, revealing and uplifting gold lame outfit worn by a pneumatic American star of Jewish descent: "It was a Bra Mitzvah".
Posted by: Michael | June 11, 2011 at 01:20 PM
Spotted a cadre of retired 'hidden persuaders' from the Stormont Information Services settling into a long lunch at the Dirty Duck yesterday afternoon. Looked jollier than at anytime I've ever seen them. The bliss of retirement obviously.
Posted by: Chris Ryder | June 11, 2011 at 02:03 PM
COULD IT HAVE BEEN SEEN COMING?
Disastrous mix of editorial and advertising in today's "Daily Mirror"
click here:http://twitpic.com/59jlw5
Posted by: Graham | June 11, 2011 at 04:24 PM
Oops! Comments beneath the page says it's not today, but from 2008. Another says it is a hoax.
Posted by: Graham | June 11, 2011 at 04:28 PM
The Belfast Telegraph is previewing on its webpage its new iPad app ... think that may be for people with super mobile phones and Kindle ... Here is link to see what's on offer. When launched, it will cost you ...
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/business-news/the-belfast-telegraphs-new-ipad-app-take-a-sneak-peek-16009414.html
Posted by: Blogmaster | June 11, 2011 at 06:53 PM
Guardian Media today has the latest news about circulations of the national newspapers ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jun/10/times-may-abcs
Times is biggest year-on-year faller
Most daily national newspapers suffered a hangover in May from the general election in the same month last year, as circulation fell year on year compared with a strong month in May 2010.
The Times and Guardian saw sales decline significantly in May compared with 12 months earlier, with Rupert Murdoch's daily posting the worst performance among the quality press. Its circulation fell 13.33% to 446,684. The Guardian's circulation fell 12.49% to 262,937.
Richard Desmond's Daily Star was the biggest year-on-year faller, dropping 14.69% to 702,044.
The Sun recorded the biggest month-on-month circulation rise of any paper, increasing sales by 2.29% to 2,846,905, although that figure still represents a 3.04% year-on-year fall.
The circulation of the Daily Telegraph fell by 8.95% year on year to 635,967.
The Independent recorded a 7.78% year-on-year fall to 179,371, while its spin-off title i, continued to close the gap on its parent title, recording a 3.67% increase in sales from the previous month to 167,067. When bulks are stripped out, it is comfortably outselling its sister paper – with the i on 159,297 and the Independent on 81,843.
i had experienced the biggest month-on-month circulation decline among national daily titles in April, however, slumping 6% to 161,151.
Total circulation of all newspapers rose slightly – by 0.1% – month on month in May, however, to 9,864,039, despite the fact that the royal wedding at the end of April boosted overall sales in the previous month.
*To read the panel on daily circulation figures click the link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/table/2011/jun/10/abcs-national-newspapers
Posted by: Bogmaster | June 12, 2011 at 11:33 AM
PARAPROSDOKIANS...
(copied and pasted
from above. I'm not
typing thon!)
Something is pointed out to you and then it seems to be all over the place.
Having had a chortle at the piece on (presses paste key) PARAPROSDOKIANS, I moved on to yesterday's Guardian.
The Steve Appleby cartoon on page two of the Family section ends with the words: "Be an individual. Copy me."
That would be one of them thingies, wouldn't it?
Posted by: C Harbinson | June 12, 2011 at 05:15 PM
About these parapros things...
Does this qualify? I credit myself with saying it.
"If all the people who drank in McGlades were laid end to end...I wouldn't be surprised"
Posted by: Graham | June 12, 2011 at 08:25 PM
We know sometimes it takes a while to get a job done satisfactorily, but 90 years ... that seems a long time to produce a dictionary ... this link explains why ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13715296
Posted by: Blogmaster | June 14, 2011 at 09:11 AM
If this lady gets stopped by a policeman and is asked her name, I wonder what his reaction might be:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/laurel-ann-hardie/15/600/b4a
Posted by: Graham | June 14, 2011 at 10:20 AM
One of the attractions inside the launch edition of the new compact Co. Down Spectator was an almost full page feature plus picture of our good friend, the world cycling John Hicks, ex Daily Mirror. John sends us a link for others to enjoy his escapades around the world, so get on your easy chair bike and click on the link for a wonderful, photographic tour ...
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=RrzKj&page_id=175150&v=4p
Ps ... John's companion is an American called Jerry ...
Posted by: Blogmaster | June 14, 2011 at 11:47 AM
"Grieving families should appoint media officers"
I expect there will be some debate about this:
http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2011/news/grieving-families-should-appoint-media-officers/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
Posted by: Graham | June 14, 2011 at 02:48 PM
Any other ancient subs remember the scrape and the bash, skills lost with the advent of web offset printing?
To avoid a complete replate, a literal could sometimes be remedied or at least made less blatant by a careful scrape of the metal printing cylinder on the press. So a t could be turned into something resembling an l, or an e,p or d to an o, or m to n.
If the scrape did not suit, then the sub ordered a bash to obliterate the whole letter. The best example I can remember was a BT feature in which "the Army burned down the Shite House in the civil war". The S was bashed before the Fourth even finished printing.
Posted by: Michael | June 14, 2011 at 08:33 PM
A pedant writes: Actually it was the War of 1812. The British burned the presidential mansion, which had to be painted white to cover the scorching, so it became the White House.
Posted by: A pedant writes | June 15, 2011 at 04:22 AM
In the Northern Constitution we had scrape and bash, also known as subbing with a chisel, pretty well every week. A printer would crawl between the plates and do the dirty. It didn't end, even though one night the presses restarted too soon and the printer lost his arm. First time we had red on the front page.
Posted by: Smyth | June 15, 2011 at 04:27 AM
Shocked to read that there are now three times as many PR people spinning the news in America as there are reporting it. Apparently reporting news is less attractive and certainly less well paid so most of the graduates in journalism are leaving college and going stright into PR and advertising. I fear unspun news is becoming a collector's item.
Posted by: Chairman | June 15, 2011 at 10:21 AM
IS THIS THE OLDEST
CAR, WE ASK ...?
We get offers and requests and this one combined both: it came from Mitchell Smyth and was two photographs of which he is very proud because it shows his cherished Austin 7. With the pix came an explanation ...
"A while ago, Peter McMullan sparked some debate over cars, with his mention of his Triumph roadster. I wonder if I had the oldest car of any Copyboy. I've sent the Blogmaster pictures of my 1932 Austin Seven, side-valve, crash gearbox, advance-and-retard ignition. Bought it for twelve pounds in a Ballycastle pub one night; next day towed it from a farmer's barn after chasing out the chickens that were roosting in it. My buddy and I fixed it up and we ran it all summer. It created a stir when I arrived at Ballycastle Petty Sessions in it, and the RM, Gerry Lynn, asked to take a ride in it. (I have a lot of memories of Gerry Lynn, one of the most colourful rural magistrates). At the same time I had a 1957 Vauxhall Victor, which Mr McQueen is familiar with (with the back seat, anyway). I've had good and bad cars ever since, but the Austin Seven gave me the most fun of any car."
*Said pictures of the Austin 7 are now ready for viewing in the Pictures album.
Posted by: Blogmaster | June 15, 2011 at 03:44 PM
Mitchell might be interested to know that his Austin 7 Tourer is still insured and therefore still on the road. Of course, maybe he still owns it!.
(You can check any car by Googling "Ask MID")
Posted by: sm | June 15, 2011 at 05:11 PM
Yes, stewart, I am ideed interested. Shocked, even. Perhaps my buddy and I can take some credit for the fact that it's still around, for if I hadn't bought it that night in Bob Hunter's pub in Ballyvoy (funny how some things stick in the memory) it would likely have rotted away in that farmer's barn. It was in bad shape, but we pretty well took it apart, got some welding done, gave it a paint job, patched the seats etc. There was no self starter, as I recall, and it did become a grind cranking it (where possible I parked on a hill to give it a running start). Somebody must have lovingly looked after it for the past fifty years. Wish I'd kept it.
Posted by: Smyth | June 15, 2011 at 11:52 PM
We received an email which we are pleased to be able to publish in the hope that it might be of help ...
I have been for many years researching the life of a lady called Lilian Bland, the first woman in the world to design, build and fly her own aircraft in 1910.
My Grandfather was her helper and friend. Lilian started a rifle club (small bore .22) in 1909 called The East Antrim Rifle Club. My Grandfather won the first club championship, the cup was called - The Belfast Evening Telegraph Challenge Cup - it was presented by the club's vice-president Captain William Baird. By 1914 the club held its last championship and didn't start up again after the war ended.
I have been trying to find out what happened to the cup and wondered if it went back to Captain Baird after the club folded and so have been trying to find some members of the Baird family. I know Bobby Baird had a son but that is all I know...
The email came from Brian Russell who can be contacted at brianrussellmayfly@yahoo.co.uk
Posted by: Blogmaster | June 16, 2011 at 10:15 AM
Sorry I cannot help you with query. The Baird family - Sir Robert and Sir William - handed out trophies like sweets. Many organisations folded and the trophies were never handed back. Can I suggest that you put Brian in touch with Eddie McIlwaine, give him the facts and ask him to write a piece on where the trophy has gone? I don’t know if the East Antrim Club still exists. Tracing these queries back almost 100 years is a nightmare as so many people and organisations just don’t keep record -and I know from personal experience. I never came across this rifle club when researching the history of the BT.
Posted by: Malcolm Brodie (via email) | June 16, 2011 at 03:18 PM
Big digital changes on the way at the Guardian and the Observer where 33m cash losses have been announced. No redundancies planned, which is the best news.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jun/16/guardian-observer-digital-first-strategy
Posted by: Blogmaster | June 16, 2011 at 07:40 PM
Another vintage car to gaze longingly at ... this time from Ian in Australia who writes:"We never actually own a car like this, we are just temporary custodians. Our only job is to look after it while it is in our possession and then make sure the next custodian does the same." How true, how true... The sun-denched picture of the Austin Healey Sprite is in the Pictures album.
Posted by: Ian Sanderson | June 17, 2011 at 09:08 AM
A second email from Australia ... this time from Jackie Sinnerton, an excellent ex-Belfast Telegraph sub editor, who has sent us a link to an article she has written for The Australian newspaper on Belfast 'rising from the ashes'. Here's the link:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/world/another-belfast-rises-as-irish-city-transforms/story-fn30267p-1226075041131
The main picture on the feature of the Titanic building taking shape at Belfast Harbour is copied and is in the Pictures album.
Posted by: Jackie Sinnerton | June 17, 2011 at 09:29 AM
We must share this ... a wonderful moving and hilarious obiturary tribute in the i this morning in Simon Kelner's Letter from the Editor about Fleet Street legend Peter Batt:
http://www.independent.co.uk/i/editor/letter-from-the-editor-journalistic-misadventure-2298641.html
Posted by: Blogmaster | June 17, 2011 at 10:28 AM
Proof of the power of Copyboys ... Malcolm Brodie's swift reply to the Baird Cup inquiry, the posts from distant colleagues of long ago, and the ease of internet research today makes me wonder yet again at the changes in communications from my BT days.
Remember the town calls, made every hour to Fire Force Control in Lisburn, ambulance control, police hq, and was it the Portrush Coastguard? Calls beyond 20 miles or so had to made via the operator who was asked for ADC, or advise duration and charge. Did anyone actually do anything with the resulting little slips?
Hearing from Malcolm Brodie, master of reporting from far-off places, reminds me of happy Easters covering the Circuit of Ireland rally. In the 1960s it was a five-day event with a celebrated out-and-back day from Killarney before the hoteliers doubled their charges and killed their golden goose.
I enjoyed the challenge of finding a phone in the wilds of Cork and Kerry, a pub being the best bet although a doctor once helped out, booking a call for mid-afternoon, then locating the nearest special stage which could be 10 miles away, often over unmade roads for the Republic's Euro-bonanza was still far in the future. Stages were over closed roads so one parked as close as possible to the finish, copied the latest times, drove back to the pub and phoned the report over the pre-booked line.
Back in Belfast copytakers Bobby, Kathleen and Betty would overcome an often noisy line amid the clatter of many typewriters, then Malcolm, Jack, Sammy and co. would weave the many reports into the great Belfast institution known as the Pink. Between us we usually had the Circuit's mid-afternoon reports into the 6pm edition, often as the lead.
Today one parks at a mountain roadside, types into some electronic device, presses the send button, and the story goes straight into the page, or so it seems. But I'll always remember the thrill and the satisfaction of getting my story in on time. Mind you, even if I could master these wondrous gadgets, too many publications seem to find it easier and cheaper to use the handout.
Posted by: Michael | June 17, 2011 at 11:28 AM
We've been kept busy today, so here is another link to a good article in today's Irish Times celebrationg one of the country's best known and successful and very funny and accurate cartoonists, Martyn Turner. Read and enjoy ...
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/0611/1224298721149.html
Posted by: Blogmaster | June 17, 2011 at 01:51 PM
re Brian Russell's query about East Antrim Rifle Club. A sporting friend of mine tells me there still is an East Antrim Club. They have a sort of website with contact details at http://www.ballyclareportal.co.uk/directory/Default.aspx?module=info&directoryid=a18e1472-f6b8-4a18-ac6e-a8da847cda39
Hope this is of some help to Brian
Posted by: Derek Black | June 17, 2011 at 02:08 PM
I hadn't seen this blog from Derek but I did know about the Club in Ballyclare and have been in touch with them. They knew very little about their history so I was able to fill in some detail for them. It was a real shock for them to discover that Lilian Bland had started the club. I am actually going up there tomorrow as they are holding their Centenary over the next few weeks. We are putting on a little display of material connected with the early days of the club - that is one of the reasons why I was trying to find out about the cup.
I was also in contact with Eddie McIlwaine, thanks to you, and he is going to put something in the Telegraph in a few weeks about the club and the cup.
Thank you so much for your help, I would appreciate it if you could thank everyone on the blog for their help with this.
Posted by: Brian Russell | June 18, 2011 at 11:11 AM
The Daily Star's front-page splash FOR 12 DAYS RUNNING now has been about Ryan Giggs. Today's splash is:
"I dressed as French maid for sex with Giggs"
Is this journalism?
Posted by: Graham | June 18, 2011 at 02:35 PM
Sadly, maybe ... I think the answer is 'Yes' in some papers. Was reading today a review of Celia Walden's "Babysitting George" 'memoir' (that's how it was described) of 'babysitting' George Best for the Mail on Sunday ... in other words keeping him away from the opposition papers. What he might say, would sell papers. Unfortunately babysitting does not always work. John Roberts (author of "Sod This, I'm Off to Marbella") also had the task of babysitting Best for the Daily Express but let him out of his sight long enough to allow him to give the Daily Mirror a major exclusive splash ... "Best quits football". It sold a ton, apparently.
Posted by: JC | June 18, 2011 at 05:18 PM
What happened to Roberts?
Posted by: Graham | June 18, 2011 at 05:57 PM
No idea what eventually happened to Roberts, but Celia is doing well ... I hope AMcQ will tell us more about 'babysitting' newspaper stars ... I remember a picture of him with his arms wrapped round a 'property' and forcing his way through a crowd of baying Press types somewhere or other ...
Posted by: JC | June 18, 2011 at 06:04 PM
Yes, JC, that was outside the Old Bailey more years ago than I care to remember. The lady "in my arms" was a certain Vicki Hodge. A fair old punchup that one. But back to George Best: During one of his escapades he announced he was to marry some pneumatically-endowed American beauty queen. The Daily Mail bought it up. They took George to an hotel in Cheshire to await the arrived of his "intended." The bride-to-be flew into London and then boarded the Pullman to Manchester where a Mail team was waiting to escort her to George. Also waiting were myself and a photographer many of you will remember, a certain Chris "Hank The Yank" Paterson. We stayed out of sight as the Mail team escorted the bird along the platform, through a side entrance to their limo. Chris and I had parked his car there as well and we simply followed them all the way to the hotel without them knowing. We let them get into the hotel and then slipped into the lounge, ordered a couple of cups of tea, and "hid" behind a couple of newspapers watching the Mail team come and go as they made sure there was no opposition at the hotel. Then, the reporter who had done the reunion came downstairs, into a phone box and began to file. I sat outside and dutifully copied the quotes etc and waited for him to finish filing. Over to the newsdesk he went and said: "Copy's all over and, yes, it is exclusive." I tapped the phone box door, opened it, looked at him and said: "cheers, mate, thanks for the fill." He suddenly said: "Oh, f--k, the Mirror are here." The Mail team then turned quite nasty and instead of congratulating me on my initiative began harrassing the management to evict Chris and me into the rain. Three or four nights later I was in George's club in Manchester and was very surprised to see him there. He told me he'd had a great laugh at what I'd done and when I asked him where the girl was he said: "Gone. It was a bit of fun, but a mistake." I asked him if the Mail knew about the latest turn of events and he said they didn't. So I ruined one of their exclusives and got another on the same job. But I have to say I spent more hours, days and weeks on stories chasing George than I care to remember. One thing, however, will always stay with me and that was the courtesy shown to us by the late Sir Matt Busby, the legendary Manchester United manager. Often he could be found of an afternoon in The Midland Hotel with his great friend, his opposite number at Manchester City, Joe Mercer, a bottle of whisky, jug of water and two glasses on the table. He would always give you a one sentence or two sentence quote and often invite you to join them for a glass as long as George was no longer mentioned!
Posted by: A.McQ. | June 19, 2011 at 10:35 AM
Of course Graham is absolutely right. It isn’t journalism, just as what was served up in Dickensian workhouses wasn’t nourishing food. Yes, in both cases recipients would cry: “Please may i have some more”, but that suggests no great benefit to, on the one hand, the digestive system or, on the other, the mental faculties. There was a time (I remember it well) when the tabloids were the sharp, professional edge of journalism. The Express, for example, was virtually a daily winner on foreign files, as often were the Mirror and the Mail. The Daily Herald, before it was despoiled by a ruthless, lying predator, used to provoke thought and cerebral debate among its working class readers. Now what do we see? In the main, journalism has been routed by a series of disgusting freak shows in which (hotel) bedroom antics and other behaviour of no account are given cathedral status and worshipped accordingly. Should we old hands not feel utterly dismayed at the sight of several dozens of “reporters” and snappers charging down a street or alleyway for a glimpse/shot of an actress’s or pop singer’s décolletage? So-called journalists are apparently expected to take a degree in vulgarity, and all performers in their focus are expected to respond accordingly. Readers, for reasons of which I’m uncertain, more or less accept Fleet Street’s entreaty: “Let them eat ca-ca!” This vulgarisation has affected broadsheets too. In February, I wrote an obit of a great friend and wonderfully talented photographer, Michael Ward. At his wife’s request I sent it to the Sunday Times, a paper for which both Michael and I had worked in years gone by. Their headline? “The man who snapped the Beatles and slept with his mother”. That broke a lot of hearts, as I was to learn at the funeral. Finally, I would recommend a piece in the current British Journalism Review, by Bernard (Lord) Donoughue on the man who, almost single-handedly, has wrecked British and American journalism. Donoughhue reveals that a Civil Service colleague of his “from my days in Number 10 told me that Margaret Thatcher said to [then Secretary of State for Trade, John] Biffin: ‘Rupert supported me in the 1979 election and I must stand by him now’” - that is by not referring his Times and Sunday Times takeover to the Monopolies Commission. Murdoch then offered “guarantees” of editorial independence which he then blatently ignored. Donoughhue also quotes a Merdique cousin in Australia, Ranald MacDonald (chief executive of the Melbourne Age) thus: “You must not trust him,” relating how, when the two cousins played as children, “Rupert always cheated, even at hopscotch.”
Posted by: Cal McCrystal | June 19, 2011 at 12:12 PM
This is nothing to do with journalism at all. It's completly at a tangent. When I was a child I remember listening to Edmundo Ros (and his rumba band) on what was then called the wireless, broadcasting on the BBC Light Programme.
Today, listening to BBC Radio 4, I was astonished to hear that Edmundo is still around, living in Spain now, and in his 101st year.
Funny how I can't remember what was on the news but this fragment of information remains. What can this mean?
Posted by: Graham | June 19, 2011 at 02:00 PM
I remember Edmundo Ross. Wasn't he of the time of Dick Barton, Special Agent, Life with the Lyons, Family Favourites Billy Cotton and his Band, Workers Playtime, Arthur Askey, etc?
Posted by: Cal McCrystal | June 19, 2011 at 02:35 PM
That's right. But it was Ros with one "s". And you've forgotten about "Educating Archie".
I went to see Peter Brough and Archie Andrews at the Opera House. What a disappointment! Even from the cheap seats at the back where I was you could see Brough's lips move. When television came, they put him on there - and he was a complete disaster. [Note to younger readers - Archie Andrews was a ventriloquist's dummy]
Among the tutors of this rascal of a "schoolboy" were Julie Andrews, Max Bygraves, Tony Hancock and June Whitfield. All progressed from a vent's dummy's foil to greater things in showbiz.
Posted by: Graham | June 19, 2011 at 04:40 PM
And of course Round the Horne and The Navy Lark. 'The answer lies in the soil' and 'Left hand down a bit'. Great catch phrases. Oh the nostalgia of one's second childhood. I've got tapes of Horne which are still funny despite the passage of time.
Posted by: Chris Ryder | June 19, 2011 at 08:01 PM
"Round the Horne" is currently being repeated every Tuesday evening at 7pm on BBC Radio 4 Extra. As is "Yes Minister", "'Ancock's 'Alf-'our" and many others (Different nights, of course!")
Posted by: Julian and my friend Sandy | June 19, 2011 at 08:58 PM
Speaking of insignificant things you remember and big thing you forget, I remember a radio reviewer in the Daily Mirror nearly sixty years ago, writing about Educating Archie, which was one of the biggest radio shows of the early 1950s. He said that the best thing in the show was Tony Handcock as the tutor. He said they should call the show "Handcock's Half Hour." Curiously a couple of years later when Galton and Simpson wrote a show specifically for the great comic, they called it "Handcock's Half Hour." Why do I remember that and not the shock-horror story that must have been on the front page. I think we of the radio generation were lucky. Like books, radio is always a collaboration that involves the imagination of the writer and the listener. I'm sure the BBC could never have afforded the spectacular scenery listeners created for them. Certainly not for the Goon Show. Does anyone recall the episode where they floated one of HM Prisons across the channel and Seacombe lamented the drowning of one convict. "Poor blighter tried to tunnel his way out." Weird the things you remember when you chaps light the blue touch paper of nostalgia.
Posted by: Chairman | June 19, 2011 at 09:03 PM
Who said nostalgia was a thing of the past? I suppose after another couple of snorters from the decanter The Best Chairman We Ever Had will be telling us all about The McCooeys...
Posted by: A.McQ. | June 19, 2011 at 09:09 PM
The thing about The McCooeys is that legendary Ulster comic James Young got his first break there - in the role of Derek the Window Cleaner. That is well remembered. Folk are surprised when told that out of scores of episodes, he only ever appeared six times. His impact was akin to that of Hancock in Educating Archie.
Posted by: Graham | June 19, 2011 at 09:26 PM
Didn't he have a show which ran for years and years in a little theatre next to the Ulster Hall? I remember going with Jimmy Kennedy to the Ulster Hall to cover a Paisley rally and as we stood and watched the stern-faced fundamentalists arrive there was a queue of "wee wimmin" waiting to go next door to see James Young. What was that theatre called? I think he also owned it.
Posted by: A.McQ. | June 19, 2011 at 09:41 PM
Best ventrilo I ever saw was Ray Alan and Lord Charles. Ray covered up the dummy's slightly blurred articulation by presenting Lord Charles as a chap who was slighty pissed - though if you watch this to the end you'll see how good Ray Alan really was:
clieck here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3Zn3M-WMzM
Posted by: Graham | June 19, 2011 at 09:47 PM
I was taken to see Peter Brough and Archie Andrews ... and joined the rest of the audience in singing "Happy Birthday" to Julie Andrews, who'd just turned 16 that day...
Actually, just a query... was it at the Opera House or the Royal Hippodrome??
Posted by: Ian Sanderson | June 20, 2011 at 01:40 AM
I didn't know Peter Brough was a poor ventrilo -- but in any case why was it necessary to have a ventriloquist on RADIO? Two more from the nostalgia chest: Jewell and Warris (I think their show was called Up The Pole), and Ray's A Laugh. And June Whitfield was in a great comedy with Professor Jimmy Edwards, featuring a couple of cretins called The Glums. Now I must log on to Radio Four Extra for Round The Horne. And there was ITMA, named after a Daily Express headline.
Posted by: Smyth | June 20, 2011 at 01:47 AM
In answer to AMcQ's question ... the little theatre beside the Ulster Hall was the Group Theatre ... Jimmy Young's other favourite place to perform was the British Legion Hall in Bangor where he had summer seasons and packed the place out.
Posted by: Blogmaster | June 20, 2011 at 09:39 AM
My father took me to see Roy Rogers and Trigger in the Grand Opera House ... I remember one of the highlights was Trigger counting to ten using his right leg.
Posted by: JC | June 20, 2011 at 09:41 AM
I'm no sports fan, but it seems from the coverage across the UK and elsewhere, that that young chap Rory McIlroy has brought some positive renown to our Province - not to mention the seaside town of Holywood.
Posted by: Cal McCrystal | June 20, 2011 at 11:29 AM
Trigger was stabled in a shed at the corner of Donegall Square and May Street (where Harry Ferguson's garage/showrooms used to be. The best ventriloquist I ever saw was a bloke who set his dummy on a stool and after a few minutes of chat, the vent walked off to the side of the stage to open another suitcase.
The dummy, of course, just sat there. Then its eyes moved, following the vent across the stage - the he (it) turned his head and watched. It raised its arm, pointed to the vent, and muttered something like "Smart Arse." There was no one near him.
Posted by: sm | June 20, 2011 at 11:34 AM
If you remember the Group Theatre you'll maybe remember the name of the BT librarian. It might have been Annie, and she may have been assisted by her sister.
A large silver-haired figure in a blue dustcoat, she presided for many years over shelf upon shelf of dusty brown folders which contained wads of yellowed clippings, often apparently unconnected.
Preparing some church-related story one day (a subject taken very seriously) I was given two very fat folders, one medium folder and one containing two A4 sheets and a few clippings.
The first related to the Methodist Church, the second to the Presbyterian, and the third to the Church of Rome. JES was a great editor but he did have his favourites.
Posted by: Michael | June 20, 2011 at 01:29 PM
For years James Young and his 'partner' Jack Hudson, I think, ran the Group theatre in what was an adjunct to the Ulster Hall. They specialised in Sam Cree domestic comedies about mixed marriages and characters from town and country clashing with their quaint wee ways. Once the troubles started and the audiences collapsed Young tried to keep going with cheap to stage one man shows but they too fizzled out and Belfast lost one of its few repertory theatres. The poor old Arts and Hibbie Wilmot went the same way. Only the Lyric struggled on and is now enjoying rebirth in a fabulous new purpose built theatre at Ridgeway Street by the Botanic Gardens. Not been yet but am told it is very impressive.
Posted by: Chris Ryder | June 20, 2011 at 02:15 PM
Don't have Sky Sports channel but listened to the US Open on radio. And I couldn't help feeling how much it would have deighted the late great sports writers, Jack Magowan and Alec Toner, to be covering that story. I'll tell you one thing. The reports would have been livlier and have a lot more style than some of the stuff I've been reading. Jack Magowan was never short of a colourful line. On a good day his prose danced like Kelly. (Gene, not Jack)
Posted by: Chairman | June 20, 2011 at 08:21 PM
How wonderful to see The Best Chairman We Ever Had is still with us, sitting up and taking notice and actually acknowledging that sport exists. Bravo to the Old Gentleman. Next thing you'll find is that his North Antrim compatriot MS will be offering to buy some of us a drink!
Posted by: A.McQ. | June 20, 2011 at 10:50 PM
In North American newspapers, ``scalping'' means lifting a story, usually without attribution, from another paper. The radio stations (except the CBC) do it all the time. They have very few real reporters so they steal the news from the newspapers. Which brings me to Mr McQueen's anecdote about George Best. This is the first time I've heard of a story being scalped BEFORE it got into the paper. Or does it go on all the time? (There was a saying in Fleet Street incidentally: ``When McQueen's around, the drink flows like molasses.'')
Posted by: Smyth | June 21, 2011 at 12:07 AM
Mitch: Reporters are paid to get the best story they can. In the George Best example the Mail had shelled out quite a lot of money to get a good exclusive. The Mirror and the other "pops" of the day also wanted the story. When someone has a good story you set out to either better it, match it - or spoil it. And that's what I did. It was a very common practice and still is. Even the so-called "respectable" papers were up to it. The great rivalry between the Telegraph and The Times still, as far as I am aware, exists. And, of course, The Guardian is not above dipping its sandal-clad toe into these waters as well. As reporters our job is not just to beat the opposition but to bugger them up as well - or it was when I was still in The Street. It also happened in-house. We would go out of our way to snatch a story from under the noses of the Sunday Mirror or People who were also at each other's throats. The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday still compete with each other. It's the name of the game and why Sunday and daily papers have separate journalistic staffs. I've never had a problem with turning over the opposition and have accepted being turned over myself as part of the job. Nor do I have a problem with SOME but not all cheque-book journalism. I have to add, however, that most of the best stories I got were through working contacts I had built up over a long time or being lucky rather than buy-ups.
Posted by: A.McQ. | June 21, 2011 at 11:39 AM
Scrolling back a few posts...our Blogmaster will find that his father took him to see Roy Rogers and Trigger in the Hippodrome, not the Opera House, because my father took me as well and I remember it vividly because it was a three-day stagecoach ride from Enniskillen. I remember the place was full of six-year-olds firing their cap six-shooters. What I remember as well was that when I went home I told my mother that when I grew up I was going to be a cowboy. I became a journalist instead - which is near enough.
Posted by: KB | June 21, 2011 at 11:43 AM
Indeed, KB, indeed...Wonder if E McI ever interviewed Trigger?
Posted by: A.McQ. | June 21, 2011 at 12:04 PM
According to the Greenslade blog on Media Guardian 70 jobs are to go at RTE. It doesn't appear to say how many journalists are involved, but the NUJ organiser is quoted as saying he expects quite a few long serving members to head for the door as the redundo terms appear to be attractive.
Posted by: A.McQ. | June 21, 2011 at 01:29 PM
RYAN GIGGS OVERKILL SAGA
I mentioned on Saturday that the Daily Star had made Ryan Giggs its front page splash TWELVE days in a row. There's been no let-up. Today the paper has now led with Ryan Giggs FOURTEEN times.
To me this seems slightly insane. Or could you even call it harrassment?!
See all the front pages here:http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/gallery/2011/jun/21/daily-star-ryan-giggs?CMP=twt_fd#/?picture=375970346&index=0
Posted by: Graham | June 21, 2011 at 02:08 PM
RYAN GIGGS ADDICT SEEKS THERAPY: Giggs-crazed editor checks into rehab...
(Joke headline seen on internet)
Posted by: Graham | June 21, 2011 at 02:16 PM
Maybe she feels left out...
Posted by: A.McQ. | June 21, 2011 at 03:02 PM
A fit of the GIGGleS. Anybody know the cure?
Posted by: Chris Ryder | June 21, 2011 at 04:23 PM
``Reporters are paid to get a good story'' writes a correspondent. Is this news, on a journo site? Next we'll be told that photographers are paid to get good pictures.
Posted by: Arthur Christensen | June 22, 2011 at 12:27 AM
No, it ain't news on a journo site, but there are times, these days, when it needs to be said over and over again. Want evidence? Look at some of the offerings in today's newspapers.
Posted by: A.McQ. | June 22, 2011 at 09:23 AM