Of Eric, Grace, Bonnie, Bobby and Alison

Morecambe & Wise and the tribute statue to Eric in his home town Morecambe, after which he took his stage name. [click any pic to embiggen]

It's another snippets post today, dear reader:

• National treasure news: It's the centenary today of one of Britain's most beloved comedians, Eric Morecambe, "the funny half" of the prime-time-TV staples Morecambe and Wise. He was a phenomenon, and their popularity led to an endless stream of top guests, including one soon-to-be-Dame:

Morecambe & Wise - Shirley Bassey:

• Where does time go? news: Over at the superb Bitterness Personified blog, Mr Graham Russell reminds us that we're all getting old - it is 45 years since Grace Jones' magnum opus the album Nightclubbing was released! Gulp.

Grace Jones - I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)

• It's a Heartache news: The legendary Bonnie Tyler is "seriously ill but stable" after undergoing emergency surgery in Portugal, where she has a home. Get well soon, darling!

Bonnie Tyler - Holding Out For a Hero

• Ol' Mackie news: It's ninety years since the great swinger Walden Robert Cassotto, better known as Bobby Darin was born!

Bobby Darin - Mack the Knife

• And finally: The utterly faboo Miss Alison Goldfrapp was 60 years old yesterday! Another gulp.

Goldfrapp - Strict Machine

And the weather? Up and down like a whore's drawers again, dear reader - one minute brilliant sunshine, the next black skies, rain and even thunder. Britain, Britain, Britain.

Of Batman, spies, censorship, earth-moving, god-botherers and a Dame

RIP, Val Kilmer, gorgeous star of "Top Gun" and "Batman Forever".

Another snippets post today, dear reader:

• Spy news: Compact spy cameras, microdots in a talcum powder tin, a briefcase abandoned by Soviet spy Guy Burgess as he fled the UK, and a desiccated 110-year-old lemon that played a pivotal role in WWI are all on show in a new exhibition MI5: Official Secrets at the National Archives, opening this weekend. I wonder if they have any of James Bond's gadgets on display?
• Philistines news: Paris may be scented by centuries of coffee and Gauloise aromas, but the Paris Metro has banned a poster advertising a new David Hockney exhibition because he happens to be holding a cigarette! "L'Etat nounou", vraiment! ["Nanny State", indeed! in English]

• Never complain about potholes again news: Britain's 'wonkiest road' that was so badly damaged by a landslip during "Storm Eunice" in 2022 it was being used as a makeshift skate park has finally reopened after £5million was spent on repairs.
• False miracles news: Zealots in a church in Indiana who thought red marks on a communion wafer were some kind of miracle have been told it was actually just bacteria from being handled by dirty hands. Hallelujah!
• And finally: Among a slew of birthdays that includes Sir Alec Guinness, Marvin Gaye, Emperor Charlemagne of the Franks, Michael Fassbender, Emmylou Harris, "Adrian Mole" creator Sue Townsend, Paul Gambaccini, Casanova, Buddy Ebsen, Hans Christian Andersen, Serge Gainsbourg, Émile Zola, Linford Christie (who is 65!), Keren Woodward of Bananarama, Pedro Pascal (50) and - erm - Dr. Demento...

  ...it is the 85th birthday today of darling Dame Penelope Keith, star of The Good Life, To the Manor Born, and so much more besides - including her guest appearances on the Morecambe and Wise Show! All hail...

And the weather? The glorious Spring sunshine continues (even if the wind's a little chilly at times)!

And here is the news

In his final years, Richard Baker moved to a retirement home. He was a little unsettled at first but soon found a way of integrating.

He would read all the newspapers and cut out the interesting headlines. Then, at Six O'clock, he would read them aloud to his fellow residents over supper.

And so, farewell then to another stalwart of British television (and of my childhood) - one of the BBC's longest-serving newsreaders, Richard Baker. In his 27-year tenure from 1955 to 1982, he covered everything from the Burgess-Philby-Maclean spy scandal, the Suez crisis, the start of the Vietnam War and the birth of rock'n'roll, to the rise of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, the wedding of Charles and Diana, the AIDS panic and the Falklands War.

A classical music aficionado, he also presented The Last Night of the Proms for many years, and Radio 2's Your Hundred Best Tunes light classics show (and much more besides), as well as lending his dulcets to narrating children's cartoon Mary, Mungo and Midge and the pre-school programme about the adventures of Teddy Edward.

Of course, the clip everyone of our era remembers most fondly was his participation in the remarkably imaginative There is Nothing Like a Dame sketch from the Morecambe & Wise Xmas show in 1977 (alongside fellow newsreaders Richard Whitmore and Peter Woods, as well as other BBC presenters Michael Aspel, Frank Bough, Philip Jenkinson, Barry Norman and Eddie Waring):



And here, with tributes from all his colleagues and crew popping up at the end, is the last ever news broadcast Mr Baker read:

Richard Baker's last news broadcast in 1982

RIP, Richard Douglas James Baker OBE RD (15th June 1925 – 17th November 2018)

Unashamed populist

85 years ago, a television legend was born.

Sir Bill Cotton (son of the famous bandleader Billy Cotton), as the BBC's Head of Light Entertainment in its 1970s heyday was always determined to promote British stars for British television, and during his time such transatlantic imports as Lucille Ball, Dick Van Dyke and Perry Como were replaced with the likes of Cilla Black, Des O'Connor, Russ Conway, Val Doonican and Bruce Forsyth.

He introduced and nurtured the production of many of the most famous of the BBC's light entertainment classic programmes - including Porridge, Dave Allen At Large, Dad’s Army, Morecambe and Wise, Till Death Do Us Part, Steptoe and Son, The Liver Birds, The Generation Game, Parkinson, The Two Ronnies, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Last of the Summer Wine, The Likely Lads and The Good Life.

"I am and always have been an unashamed populist," was his famous mantra.

Unsurprisingly his legacy has never been matched, and, in this era of reality/celebrity-dominated television, we mourn the demise of BBC light entertainment to this day.

A perfect excuse, methinks, to show a few reasons why...

Two Ronnies - Your Nuts, Milord

Dave Allen on Death

Monty Python - Spam

Dad's Army - Don't Tell Him, Pike

Morecambe & Wise - Shirley Bassey:

Sir William Frederick "Bill" Cotton CBE (23rd April 1928 – 11th August 2008)