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| Mum and Dad in the early 1970's (at front) |
1. Morcombe and Wise. As I mentioned, my Mum was a bit of a prude. She hated vulgarity, but she loved intelligent wit. She always said that Morecombe and Wise were incredibly clever in their humour. Their show was always watched in our house.
2. Coronation Street. My Mum was raised in Oldham, Lancs, in a road just like Coronation St. When she wasn't putting on her posh accent, she'd sometimes lapse into her thick Lancashire brogue. You knew she was cross if this happened. She loved the Coronation Street of the era. I think she identified with a few of the characters. .I think she particularly identified with Betty Turpin, who she thought was sound and sensible, the actor who played her, Betty Driver had been a glamourous film star in the 1940's who'd morphed into the old, sensible barmaid. As they made it more edgy in the 1980's she fell a bit out of love with it. My Dad hated it. He'd have a bath when it was on!
3. Parkinson. This was another must watch. He had everyone on who was anyone, most notably Muhammed Ali. Perhaps the moment we all remember best was when Rod Hull and Emu were on. Mum and Dad always reckoned he was the best interviewer. Often the best guests were quite surprising. I recall Lord Soper, The Methodist minister being fascinating. It was a mark of his quality that even a 12 year old me recognised his brilliance.
4. News at Ten. This was my Dad's favourite programme. He always said ITV did news far better than BBC. We had to sit in total silence when this was on. I got a detention and my Mum got a telling off from the Nuns at St Vincents when I was nine, as I was whistling the theme tune to News at Ten and they heard me. The nuns felt all good children should be in bed by 10pm. I've never needed much sleep. Much to my sisters annoyance, they'd send her to bed and let me stay up. I was four years younger. My Dad reckoned I needed to know what was going on in the world as a boy. I sometimes wish he hadn't.
5. Live Cricket. Dad loved the John Player Sunday League Cricket. This was compulsory watching on a Sunday afternoon. Dad would give a running commentary. It rather put me off cricket, I got bored after an hour. I was quite fascinated though by South African Cricketer Mike Proctor, who played for Gloucestershire. Dad reckoned he was the best cricketer in the world, but due to the boycott of South African cricket, he never featured on the world stage. I recall a commentator saying that he could hit the ball so hard he might break the windows in Worcester Cathedral, when Gloucestershire played them. I didn't understand that this was a figure of speech at the time. I was glued to the telly!
6. The Naked Civil Servant. The life story of Quentin Crisp. This was probably the first programme on British TV that was sympathetic to an out gay man. My Mum was fascinated and insisted we all watch it. My Dad was an ex RAF veteran. He was a man with views of his time and I would not have expected him to watch it, let alone like it. However, he thought it was brilliant. A couple of weeks later, I asked my Dad why. He said "God made Quentin Crisp like that. It is a good thing that people get to see the struggles people have. People just want to be happy, whoever they are. If they are not hurting anyone, who are we to judge them". The prevailing mood at FCHS, where I was a pupil in 1975 was rabidly homophobic, so I kept very quiet about watching it and my parents liking it. I was quite shocked when I learned John Hurt was not gay. I asked my Mum, she said "He's an actor. That's his job and he's the best at it".
7. Tommy Cooper. My parents thought Cooper was the funniest man on the planet and last nights show reminded me why. Tommy Cooper was the only person I've ever seen who could simply stand still, say nothing and have people crying with laughter. My parents went to see him in a one man show. He did a sketch where he said "You know I can do magic tricks, properly, watch" He then did three tricks perfectly. He got a mild round of applause. He then said "That's why I always bugger them up, no one wants to see that. I'd be broke!" to rapturous applause.
8. Whickers World. Probably the first proper travel show on TV. Given that Dad had worked as a commercial pilot after the war and my parents had travelled widely, they loved it. My mum would watch it and made a list of places to visit, which they did once they retired. Fiji, Sri Lanka, etc. My mum said that every place they went that was a paradise, suffered a coup within a couple of years. My Dad told me he liked Whicker, because the shows were intelligent and weren't like a glossy travel brochure.
9. The Undersea world of Jacques Cousteau. There are so many nature series on TV, these days we think of David Attenborough as the man, but in the 1970's it was Jacques Cousteau. It sparked a lifelong fascination for me with the sea and marine life. I've snorkled twice off the Great Barrier Reef and once in Belize, the two best reefs in the world. I have my parents making me watch Jacques Cousteau for this. I can remember begging my Dad to take me snorkling and him reply "Son, it's bloody freezing swimming in Britain, but I promise that if I win the pools, I'll take you swimming on the Great Barrier Reef". He never won the pools!
10. The World at War. This was a huge series. 26 parts. The definitive series on the Second World War. As my Dad was ex RAF, we had no choice, we had to watch it. I lapped it up. Dad would explain to me why every episode was so important. We'd debate afterwards what had been shown and he'd put me right about some things I'd misunderstood. Dad said to me "One day, this will be shown to every child on the planet at school, so we learn why war is a terrible thing". I just wish he'd been right.
Writing this brought a tear to my eye. I can close my eyes and visualise the scene. Mum and Dad had comfy chairs, us kids sat on the sofa. The telly was a big 24" colour jobbie in a cabinet. I was the remote control "Roger, turn it to BBC 1". Mum and Dad had a marble table with a chess board on it, between them. There would be an ash tray. Mum would smoke John Player Special cigarettes. Dad would smoke unfiltered Capstan medium ciggies. They'd both have a glass of Guinness. The air would be full of smoke from Dad's relentless smoking. He'd do 60 a day. Mum would do five or six, only in the evening. In winter, we'd put the fire effect electric bar fire on to keep warm. The house would rattle as oil and coal trains rattled past on the Midland Mainline at the bottom of the Garden. Often, Dads best mate, Fr Bernard Traynor, a retired priest who lived up at St Jospehs College would come around. He'd always drink Johnny Walker Black Label Whisky. He'd been a priest in Kenya and was highly intelligent. The conversations were always electric. Both of my parents were also very bright. I'd just listen and lap it up. They'd watch the news and debate the world scene after. I can't help but wonder what on earth they'd have made of News at Ten last night?
And yes, I did choose the picture at the top deliberately. My Dad told me that the Rotary club was started in the USA with the specific aim of making the world a better place. God bless you Mum and Dad.
