For the first 10 years of my life we lived in a terraced
house in a long cul-de-sac in a part of Surrey which now seems to be called south
London. It was a quiet road where you could play on your scooter or your roller skates on the
pavement and nobody owned a car. Downstairs we had a Front Room, nicely
furnished for use at Christmas or occasional Saturdays when my grandparents
arrived in a taxi for tea.
At the end of the hall was the Living Room where we spent
most of our time. There was a coal fire with three comfy chairs, a utility
dining table with 4 chairs and a sideboard on which the very important Wireless
sat. That’s a radio if you are unsure.
My early memories include Listen with Mother where I
heard songs such as “One, two, three, four, five; Once I caught a fish alive” and
I could march up and down the hill with "The Grand Old Duke of York".
Rhymes like "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" growing neat rows of silver
bells and cockleshells and the King of Spain's Daughter with her "Little
Nut Tree" which only grew a silver nutmeg and a golden pear were also
shared. "Polly Put the Kettle On, We'll All Have Tea”, Seemed to end most
of the programmes!
On Saturday Children’s Favourites was presented by
Uncle Mac, playing such songs as, The happy Wanderer, Arthur Askey's Bee Song,
Nellie the Elephant, The Runaway Train and How much is that doggy in the window?
My real favourite was a song often played on the adult part of The Light
Programme. I called it My Scots Blue Bell, but apparently it was really called
“I Love a Lassie” by Harry Lauder. I also enjoyed hearing “I love to go a Wandering”
The only programme I can remember from Children’s Hour on weekday afternoons
was the wonderful Larry the Lamb who lived in Toytown.
Sometimes at lunchtime my mother and I would listen to Workers'
Playtime which was a variety programme started during World War II. It was
broadcast at lunchtime, three times a week, live from a factory canteen
"somewhere in Britain". It included singers and comedians like Ken
Dodd and Julie Andrews. Later my mother listened to Woman’s Hour which
apparently included items on, “keeping house, health, children, beauty care and
home furnishing and interviews with women of note such as Vera Lynn.”
There had to be a daily dose of The Archers, “an
every day story of country folk,” and I can still hear the voice of Mrs Dale from
Mrs Dale’s Diary telling us in her catchphrase, "I'm rather worried
about Jim..."
There were some great comedy programmes including The
Navy Lark including actors still well remembered today, Ronnie Barker, Jon
Pertwee and Leslie Phillips. My particular favourite was The Clitheroe Kid
because he was so naughty. But when Dad was at home he often tuned off the
Light programme onto the Home Service for the news and weather.
We also spent hours as a family playing Cribbage, Canasta, Snakes and Ladders or Monopoly but as I was an only child, I usually won.
And then the television arrived. In 1957 only two children in my class no longer had a TV at home, a boy called Paul and me! But my parents succumbed. Now I could watch the wonderful cartoon about Popeye the sailor man, his girlfriend Olive Oyl and the miraculous cans of spinach which made him strong. I also enjoyed westerns like Rawhide and Bonanza, but Bonanza went on till 9 o'clock and i was supposed to go to bed at 8.30. Luckily my mother started to go to an Evening class that night and Dad let me stay up to see the end of the programme! There was usually a children's serial on Sunday afternoon on BBC like The Silver Sword or Great Expectations but then I was told we had to turn the TV off to let it cool down before Sunday Night at the London Palladium with Bruce Forsythe so I wasn't allowed to see Adam Faith or Cliff Richard in the Oh Boy! programme.Those were the days!
