Classier times...
Timeslip moment again, dear reader...
We've been deposited with a bump by a Trimaxion Drone Ship forty years ago in the distinctly alien world of 1986 - the year of Chernobyl, the controversial Diego Maradona "Hand of God" goal that won the World Cup for Argentina over England, the "tombstone" AIDS awareness campaign in the UK, Neighbours, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, Lady in Red by Chris de Burgh, the Westland affair, The Golden Girls, Abu Nidal, Andrew and Fergie's wedding, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, Suzy Lamplugh, "If you see Sid, tell him", Casualty, the kidnap of British journalist John McCarthy in Beirut, Gary Lineker, the "Zammo Maguire" heroin addiction storyline in Grange Hill and "Just Say No", Top Gun, the Iran-Contra Affair, Russ Abbott, Desmond Tutu, "Den and Angie" in Eastenders, the US bombing of Libya, "Get away from her, you bitch!", the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games, Jeremy Bamber, Crocodile Dundee, the Cameroon lake eruption that killed 2000 people and hundreds of animals, Colin Baker as Doctor Who, and the so-called "Big Bang" deregulation of the London Stock Exchange
It was the year Rafael Nadal, Jamie Bell, Lady Gaga, Richard Madden, Charlotte Church, Robert Pattinson, Usain Bolt, Kit Harington, Jenna Coleman, Ellie Goulding, Laura Carmichael, the M25 Motorway, the Mir space station, Comic Relief, the Fox Broadcasting Company, Pixar and Phantom of the Opera were all born; and James Cagney, Pat Phoenix, Wallis Simpson, Cary Grant, Elsa Lanchester, Phil Lynott, Hylda Baker, Christopher Isherwood, Anna Neagle, Robert Helpmann, Benny Goodman, Ray Milland, Lady Diana Cooper, Alan Jay Lerner, Harold MacMillan, Peter Pears and Hermione Baddeley all died, and the Greater London Council and the six Metropolitan County Councils were abolished.
In the news in February of that year? Britain was in the middle of a "big freeze", with heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures; after an absence of 76 years Halley's Comet returned - and was a bit of a "damp squib" [I remember spotting it in a break in the clouds, and it looked like a smudgy fingerprint on glass]; the Wapping strike over digitisation of newspapers became a near-riot; President "Baby Doc" Duvalier of Haiti and President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines were both deposed; Mikhail Gorbachev introduced his Glasnost and Perestroika [openness and transparency] policies; Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated; the UK signed the Single European Act aimed at creating a single market; and we bade a fond farewell to Dandy Nichols, famous as "Elsie", long-suffering wife of "Alf Garnett" in Till Death Us Do Part. In our cinemas: Muppets Take Manhattan; Rocky IV; Spies Like Us. On telly: Blackadder II; The Colbys; Catchphrase.
And what of the charts this week in '86? Billy Ocean held onto the top slot for a second week (and would stay there for another two) with When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going [helped a lot, no doubt, by it being the theme song for The Jewel of the Nile, and the presence of the film's stars Danny DeVito, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner as backing singers in the video]. Making up the rest of the Top Ten: Whitney-fucking-Houston, one-hit wonders Double (The Captain of Her Heart), A-Ha, The Damned, James Brown, Five Star, (ahem) Nana Mouskouri and (ahem, again) Su Pollard were all present and correct.
However, this song [only held off the top slot by the success of Billy and his chums] was at #2 - a re-release, no less. It's one of my favourite of Our Glorious Leader's choons!
FORTY-fucking-years? Where did they go?!
And to think we weren’t even born yet.
ReplyDeleteHa! As if... Jx
DeleteWhere did the years go? Propelled me ANOTHER-EFFING-FORTY.
ReplyDeleteYup. Time's a terrible thing. When you discover that the likes of Cher, Liza Minnelli, Joanna Lumley, Alison Steadman, Susan Sarandon, Timothy Dalton, Felicity Kendal, Chris Tarrant, Felicity Kendal, Tony Robinson and Barry Gibb all turn 80 this year, you realise that you're getting old... Jx
DeleteAll that post and I was just delighted by just seeing Stephnie Beachman and Emma Samms. (Who incidentally I met three separate times and is a complete sweetheart.)
ReplyDeleteStephanie Beacham is an incredibly classy, beautiful woman, and "Sable" was such a brilliant character - you can tell she enjoyed playing her! I know little about Emma Samms, apart from the fact that when she took over the role of "Fallon", she had to endure that bloody ridiculous "alien abduction" plotline. Good to hear that she's a lovely person in real life. Jx
DeleteHa, February 1986 - I vividly remember our town [just outside London] not getting any milk for a few days. The trains ground to a halt but my dad dragged me to the station each morning just in case one would turn up. Eventually a train arrived and I ended up going to work in my pyjamas beneath a big jumper. I remember the train windows were jammed open and it was freezing. Stayed in the office for a couple of hours and was then sent home.
ReplyDeleteSx
I can't imagine going to the office in pyjamas, to be honest! Nor can I imagine a milk shortage, either. I was living in Cardiff at the time, and I don't remember going short on anything. I can recall going to the local cruising ground in wellies, however (and scoring!), but that's a different story... 😈 Jx
DeleteTell!!
DeleteI know, I lived in an extremely well connected town, but the snow and ice made the roads impassable.
I so wasn't expecting that train to turn up, I thought I'd be going back to bed - imagine my horror when the damn thing showed up! I'd already had the previous 4 days off.
Sx
I may tell the whole sordid story of my past adventures one day. It would be a long read... Jx
DeletePS I choose Tom Holland to play me in the film.
There was a lot of stuff going on in the olden days !
ReplyDeleteI know. "I was there. Where were you?" 😍
Delete