Background Geoff wrote for this website. It isn’t in the book: Building the Iron picks up the story.
But why, when they took the bad men off to jail, did they always put them in custard? It would only make them sticky.
The house gave us shelter, food and sleep. It also gave us the wireless. My earliest mornings were Bow Bells, the time pips at the breakfast table, and the BBC Home Service telling you the news, good and bad, whether you liked it or not.
Then came the programmes. Mrs Dale’s Diary, the first post-war soap, from January 1948: Marie Goossens’ harp, and Dr Dale’s ever-earnest wife. Workers’ Playtime at lunchtime, a variety show touring the factories with comedians, harmonica players and impressionists who could do anything from birdsong to a steam engine. Uncle Mac and Children’s Hour with Larry the Lamb. Journey into Space, with its weird music; a sad day when that finished.
And Dick Barton, Special Agent. That galloping theme sent me under the dining room table every time. The sound effects were wonderfully primitive: every fight was “Take that! Oh no you don’t!”, and every man who fell, even onto gravel, landed on floorboards.
But why, when they took the bad men off to jail, did they always put them in custard? It would only make them sticky.
