21-05-2011, 07:34 AM
Ah yes, I remember it well!
No central heating, no double glazing, those wonderful fern-like patterns of frost on the window panes that greeted us when we woke up each morning in winter. As to radio programmes, for those of us who were kids in the 1940s, the dramtically uttered words 'Dick Barton - Special Agent' will echo down the years.
The star of the BBC's first daily radio serial, private investigator and 'special agent' Dick Barton appeared in 711 episodes between 1946 and 1951 on the Light Programme beginning at 6.45 pm Mon, 7 Oct 1946. With his two best mates by his side, Jock Anderson and Snowey White, Dick managed to get into (and eventually out of) tight spots, much to the delight of thousands, not to mention the stern disapproval of various "educationalists and clergymen" despite the scriptwriters strict adherence to 13 codes of conduct, such as: no sex, no booze, no bad language and all violence must be limited to "clean socks on the jaw."
The radio show was a huge success, and the former Captain Richard Barton of the Commandos became a national hero, right up there with Churchill. At his peak, over 15 million listeners tuned in to his adventures, broadcast in the early evening, right after the news. The first series ended on 30 May 1947, but Dick was back on 6 Oct in a new serial. The third, 'The JB Case', started 20 September 1948. The serial beginning 26 September 1949 introduced a new Dick Barton, Duncan Carse, who was a real-life adventurer and oceanographer. The final episode was broadcast on 30 March 1951, by which time I guess it had run its distance.
Other radio programmes I recall are 'Paul Temple', 'Take it from Here', 'Wilfred Pickles', 'Down Your Way' and of course Dan Dare!
What fun we had as kids back then. I lived about two miles from a huge clay quarry which serviced a brickworks. There was an unmanned railway with little wooden trucks which returned empty from the brickworks to be re-filed at the other end. I ran not much faster than walking pace, so we used to jump in the trucks and have free rides. The claypits soon filled with water as they were excavated, and were abanadoned as the diggers moved on. In no time at all, newts and frogs appeared in the ponds, their eggs brought there on the legs of water birds who unwittingly carried them from pond to pond. We used to spend all day there and go home with our clothes covered in bright red clay.
Later, when I was about 12, there was a huge Ministry of War depot at Ruddington outside Nottingham. There were thousands of tanks and amphibious vehicles, the remnants of WW2 parked up in a 'tank graveyard' for future use if needed. The tanks had metal straps welded over the turrets to deny access but we soon made short work of those, got in the tanks and removed anything we could for souvenirs - Morse keys, periscopes - anything we could remove with hammers, chisels and screwdrivers. We could make the turret revolve, make the gun go up or down, and play 'soldiers'. Often we truanted from school, but with class sizes of 48, the teachers didn't seem to care - just a few less troublesome kids to have to try to keep in line. When I think of the list of criminal offences that if kids did this sort of thing today and got caught, they'd be considered out of control, but we never seemed to get any hassle. Cutting though the wire fence of War Department property, trespassing, criminal damage, theft, truanting from school - strewth, the sky would fall in on kids today. If someone had tried to convince us that we were doing anything other than 'having a lark' let alone criminal, it would have gone whoosh over our heads.
I wouldn't have swapped any of that for a Playstation or Wii. It wasn't 'virtual reality' - it was the real thing!
David
No central heating, no double glazing, those wonderful fern-like patterns of frost on the window panes that greeted us when we woke up each morning in winter. As to radio programmes, for those of us who were kids in the 1940s, the dramtically uttered words 'Dick Barton - Special Agent' will echo down the years.
The star of the BBC's first daily radio serial, private investigator and 'special agent' Dick Barton appeared in 711 episodes between 1946 and 1951 on the Light Programme beginning at 6.45 pm Mon, 7 Oct 1946. With his two best mates by his side, Jock Anderson and Snowey White, Dick managed to get into (and eventually out of) tight spots, much to the delight of thousands, not to mention the stern disapproval of various "educationalists and clergymen" despite the scriptwriters strict adherence to 13 codes of conduct, such as: no sex, no booze, no bad language and all violence must be limited to "clean socks on the jaw."
The radio show was a huge success, and the former Captain Richard Barton of the Commandos became a national hero, right up there with Churchill. At his peak, over 15 million listeners tuned in to his adventures, broadcast in the early evening, right after the news. The first series ended on 30 May 1947, but Dick was back on 6 Oct in a new serial. The third, 'The JB Case', started 20 September 1948. The serial beginning 26 September 1949 introduced a new Dick Barton, Duncan Carse, who was a real-life adventurer and oceanographer. The final episode was broadcast on 30 March 1951, by which time I guess it had run its distance.
Other radio programmes I recall are 'Paul Temple', 'Take it from Here', 'Wilfred Pickles', 'Down Your Way' and of course Dan Dare!
What fun we had as kids back then. I lived about two miles from a huge clay quarry which serviced a brickworks. There was an unmanned railway with little wooden trucks which returned empty from the brickworks to be re-filed at the other end. I ran not much faster than walking pace, so we used to jump in the trucks and have free rides. The claypits soon filled with water as they were excavated, and were abanadoned as the diggers moved on. In no time at all, newts and frogs appeared in the ponds, their eggs brought there on the legs of water birds who unwittingly carried them from pond to pond. We used to spend all day there and go home with our clothes covered in bright red clay.
Later, when I was about 12, there was a huge Ministry of War depot at Ruddington outside Nottingham. There were thousands of tanks and amphibious vehicles, the remnants of WW2 parked up in a 'tank graveyard' for future use if needed. The tanks had metal straps welded over the turrets to deny access but we soon made short work of those, got in the tanks and removed anything we could for souvenirs - Morse keys, periscopes - anything we could remove with hammers, chisels and screwdrivers. We could make the turret revolve, make the gun go up or down, and play 'soldiers'. Often we truanted from school, but with class sizes of 48, the teachers didn't seem to care - just a few less troublesome kids to have to try to keep in line. When I think of the list of criminal offences that if kids did this sort of thing today and got caught, they'd be considered out of control, but we never seemed to get any hassle. Cutting though the wire fence of War Department property, trespassing, criminal damage, theft, truanting from school - strewth, the sky would fall in on kids today. If someone had tried to convince us that we were doing anything other than 'having a lark' let alone criminal, it would have gone whoosh over our heads.
I wouldn't have swapped any of that for a Playstation or Wii. It wasn't 'virtual reality' - it was the real thing!
David
