Tommy Cooper - 40 Years On

[George 1978]

I was absolutely delighted to see Kyren win on Monday - he comes across as a brilliant and generous sort of chap. I feasted out on a McDonald's takeaway ordered online in the afternoon and evening, watching the final on BBC Two. Best way to spend a May Day Bank Holiday Monday.

Indeed, I...

[George 1978]

First semi-finals on Tuesday, in a nutshell:

Australia - out
Lithuania - in

I think that this is the first year since their first year in 2015 (?) that Australia has not made it to the finals. Had they done so, and won, one assumes that the show the following year would...

[George 1978]

I think that it was because society swept obscure things under the carpet back then - look at how things were seen in which these days we would tackle head on. I am not saying that you are lying, Arran, but I do feel that the 1970s was way too early for a documentary about Asperger Syndrome being shown...

[George 1978]

The sad irony is that Australia are not in the final on Saturday. However, I thought that Livvy was closer to being a New Zealander rather than an Australian.

[George 1978]

It's just occoured to me that as the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Sweden, it reminded me that it marks 50 years since Dame Olivia represented the UK - I wonder whether there will be some sort of tribute?

[George 1978]

It's amazing because Hans Asperger put his name to the condition back in the 1940s, and so why it didn't feature prominently until the early 1990s is anyone's guess....

[George 1978]

It probably doesn't count but Thames became an independent producer, they were most likely to have a website and email address, but by then they were part of Pearson Television International.

TVS Television was reused as a company name by a former employee and it exists on the internet...

[George 1978]

Tesco still has familiar tunes belting out just as you are about to put the Kellogg's Corn Flakes in your trolley... Hearing ELO on the tannoy makes me want to take my time around the store - one assumes that is the general idea when in a supermarket, so that one notices other items for sale in order...

[George 1978]

Now that is a song title that Graham Norton would easily relate to!...

[George 1978]

I would have thought that 1992 would have been a bit early for email addresses unless it was in the United States or insiders who would secretly use such technology within their own workplaces....

[George 1978]

I was the one who used to ask my mother for a sicknote, excusing me from PE, and so I preferred to watch sports on the TV. I believe that the majority of those interested in car headlights probably work for Kwik-Fit or somewhere similar.




Again, it was a bit before my...

[George 1978]

I suppose it is - the irony is that that and having 100 lines in detention can give someone pain in their hands as well. Thankfully, it never happened to me (no capital punisment as I had left several decades after it was abolished), but it makes me think how can someone hold a pen or pencil to write...

[George 1978]

You Bet! was a great show especially when Bruce Forsyth presented it. There were some challenges on there which could be seen as "eccentric" such as the headlights one - I used to enjoy those challenges rather than the gymnasts appearing on most shows, trying to do 100 somersaults in three...

[George 1978]

I left school in March 1994 (unofficially a couple months short of the offical date), and I had not heard of the Internet until early 1995 when website addresses started to appear in TV adverts - the Guinness advert where that man did that strange dance to that late 1950s style music was the first time...

[George 1978]

5000 Posts for 5000 Volts! (See what I did there?) A fanatic once again...

Can anyone tell me if Tina Charles is still performing these days? I believe that she must be around the age of 70 - a sobering thought indeed.

[George 1978]

It's a pity that there aren't any charactrtistic horses like Red Rum and Desert Orchid in the races these days - this year's Grand National won't be much to write home about uinlike the 1970s heyday....

[George 1978]

Was it the FA that published the albums in the first place? I actually thought that they were tied in with ITV Sport or something, but that's was where we heard the sports results on Saturday afternoon anyway.

[George 1978]

The fortieth anniversary of Tommy Cooper's death reminded me of that great Sunday evening entertainment show from London Weekend Television which was a direct desendent of the Trinder / Forsyth / Vaughan show from 20 years previously from the London Palladium. One of those "why not forget that...

[George 1978]

It does seem that the media are focusing more on the fact that he was known for reasons other than the fact that he killed someone. The problem is that the international media has tarnished all this and made him a celebrity again, hence the Richard and Judy appearance - I believe that it was controversial...

[George 1978]

Yes, it does make me think that one was wasting money getting repetitions of various stickers in order to complete an album - I bet that it would have cost more than twice the cost of the album itself. I wonder when Watchdog did that? - probably pre-Anne Robinson era.

I didn't know that...