Archive for the ‘Entertainment’ Category

While the start of the Christian period of Lent is celebrated around the world with elaborate carnivals and Mardi Gras celebrations, the British are more prosaic, with ‘pancake day’ or ‘Shrove Tuesday’.

The origins of pancake day are the same as Mardi Gras (or ‘Fat Tuesday’) in using up extravagant ingredients such as eggs prior to the Lenten period of denial. The British cook pancakes, which is basically a batter mix cooked in a frying pan and tossed (flipped in the air to cook the previously uncooked side). Pancakes are usually about twelve inches in diameter and wafer thin, served with sugar and lemon juice.

Of course, there are some British eccentricities – pancake races.

The most famous of these takes place in the village of Olney, about fifty miles northwest of London.

The Olney Pancake Race, was first ran in 1445, supposedly to commemorate that the year before a housewife, while cooking pancakes, had heard the church bells calling the residents to the ‘Shriving Service’ and hurried to the church still holding her pan.

Today the race is more formal, and takes place just before mid-day, ladies of the town (wearing a skirt, apron and headscarf) are required to run a 415 yard course carrying a frying pan and pancake. After crossing the finishing line the winner is required to toss the before being greeted by the verger of the church with a kiss of peace.

Other towns and villages hold pancake races, including one held at the old Trueman Brewery in Spitalfields, London. Teams race to win an engraved frying pan.

Robert (or Rabbie) Burns is generally accepted to be Scotland’s finest poet. He was born in the village of Alloway on 25 January 1759 and died on 21 July 1796.

His best known works include the lyrics to ‘Auld Lang Syne’, ‘ A Red, Red Rose’, ‘A Man’s A Man for A’ That’, ‘To a Louse’, ‘To a Mouse’, ‘The Battle of Sherramuir’ and ‘Tam o’ Shanter’.

In 1801 a group of Burns’ friends got together on or about his birthday (bizarrely to commemorate the 5th anniversary of his death) with a special supper.

The tradition of ‘Burns Night’ on or around January 25th continues to this day amongst Scots – particularly expat Scots.

The main features of a ‘Burns Night’ supper are Scotch Whisky and Haggis, served with Turnips and Potatoes – or as they’re known colloquially ‘Neeps and Tatties’.

Traditionally a ‘Burns Night’ supper will start with the ‘Selkirk Grace’ – a traditional Scottish grace that Burns is said to have modified :

Some hae meat and canna eat;
And some wad eat that want it:
But we hae meat and we can eat
And sae the Lord be thankit.

The main course of the meal will comprise the aforementioned Haggis, usually ‘piped in’ – that is, brought in to the room ceremonially, led by a piper playing the bagpipes. Once the haggis has circled the room, it is ‘addressed’ with some ceremony and the words to Burns’ poem ‘Address to a Haggis’:

Address to a Haggis

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin’ race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang’s my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o need,
While thro your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An cut you up wi ready slight, (it is at this point that the Haggis is sliced open)
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm – reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an strive:
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
The auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
‘Bethankit’ hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi perfect sconner,
Looks down wi sneering, scornfu view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither’d rash,
His spindle shank a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit:
Thro bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his walie nieve a blade.
He’ll make it whissle;
An legs an arms, an heads will sned,
Like taps o thrissle.

Ye Pow`rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies:
But, If ye wish her gratefu prayer,
Gie her a Haggis!

A toast to the Haggis is then drunk, with Scotch Whisky.

There are plenty of translations of the address around the Internet, but the original lowland Scottish, delivered with gusto is quite an impressive spectacle.

The Haggis is then served with the aforementioned Turnips and Potatoes, and plenty of Scotch Whisky.

Robert Burns was a well known freemason, and many Masonic lodges incorporate a Burns Night supper into their calendars.

Tony Hart – who died in January 2009 was, in his own small way, one of the most influential artists in the United Kingdom in the late 20th century.

He first came to public attention in 1959 with a number of appearances on the BBC Children’s programme ‘Blue Peter’ – for which he also designed the programme’s distinctive ’ship’ emblem. After his appearances on Blue Peter Hart went on to present the BBC TV programme ‘Vision On’ which ran from 1964 until 1976with Pat Keysell. ‘Vision On’ was primarily aimed at deaf children, and featured madcap film sequences (including some by Sylvester McCoy – who was the seventh actor to play Doctor Who). But it was Tony Hart’s relaxed and inspired approach towards art that inspired a generation of schoolchildren – he would demonstrate how to make ink stamps using halved potatoes, construct mosaics using dried pasta or sketch a massive cartoon on a car-park using a line roller.

A key feature of Vision On (and subsequent Tony Hart TV programmes) was ‘The Gallery’ which featured artwork sent in by young viewers – always followed by an invitation to send more artwork in, with an apology that the artwork could not be returned. Maybe there’s a BBC warehouse somewhere stacked with artwork by juvenile Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin… the place would be worth a fortune! But knowing the BBC they simply junked them.

After ‘Vision On’ Tony Hart was offered his own series ‘Take Hart’ which ran from 1977 to 1983 and then ‘Hartbeat’ which ran from 1984 to 1993. These series introduced the animated character ‘Morph’  – made from ‘Plasticine’ using a technique now known as ‘claymation’. The producers of the ‘Morph’ segments were Aardman Animations who went on to produce the award winning ‘Wallace and Grommit’ series of films.

Tony Hart retired from television in 2001 and died peacefully at his home in Surrey, having earlier suffered debilitating strokes that left him unable to paint or draw “the greatest cross I have to bear”, but to millions of children in the sixties and seventies, he was the inspiration for them to rick up a paintbrush, or crayon, or dried pasta for the first time.

Blue Peter is a typically British institution, it’s a children’s television programme that has been running continuously since October 1958.

The format has remained pretty consistent through its fifty year history, two or three respectable young presenters demonstrate how to make things, care for pets and learn about  the world.

The programme was first broadcast in October 1958, introduced by Christopher Trace and Leila Williams. Miss Williams (a former Miss Great Britain) left the programme in 1962 and was replaced by Valerie Singleton who stayed with the programme until 1975, although she ceased to be one of the regular presenters in 1972.

It was the sixties that are often considered to be Blue Peter’s golden years.

The team of Peter Purves, Valerie Singleton and John Noakes proved to be both popular and informative, and shook off competition from ITV’s unashamed Blue Peter clone ‘Magpie’ (1968 to 1980).

There have been 34 presenters of Blue Peter at the time of writing, and many have gone on to presenting more mainstream television.

Blue Peter Pets

It was also in the sixties that the ‘Blue Peter pets’ were first introduced, with the acquisition of a puppy and a competition to name it. ‘Petra’, as the puppy was named, became a surrogate pet for millions of children, and after her death a statue was made of her and placed in the ‘Blue Peter Garden’ in the grounds of the BBC’s Television Centre. I say a statue of Petra, actually some years after the dog’s death in 1977 it was revealed that the original puppy had died a couple of days after the first broadcast and had been replaced.

Other ‘Blue Peter pets’ include ‘Shep’ a mischievous and excitable Border Collie that accompanied John Noakes, Shep’s excitability leading John Noakes to coining a popular catch-phrase “Get Down Shep!”.

Over the years Blue Peter has had nine dogs, nine cats, five tortoises and two parrots.

Blue Peter Badges

One of the first features of Blue Peter were ‘Blue Peter Badges’ – given as reward for various activities and achievements. Various grades of badge were available, from a white shield featuring the Blue Peter logo (designed, incidentally by Tony Hart) up to a gold badge for an outstanding achievement – dragging a pensioner for a burning building or similar.

 One I made Earlier

The phrase “Here’s one I made earlier.” was attributed to the presenter ‘Christopher Trace, and for may of my generation evokes Blue Peter’s regular features of making interesting and useful’ articles from household rubbish, including yoghurt pots, coat hangers and toilet roll tubes, connected with ’sticky tape’ or ‘Sticky backed plastic’ – brand names are never mentioned on the BBC. 

Probably the best remembered of these were the ‘advent crown’ – first made in the early sixties from four wire coat hangers and lots of tinsel

and ‘Tracey Island’ a homemade version of the best selling ‘Thunderbirds’ tie-in.

 Scandals

The replacement of the puppy ‘Petra’ was the first of several ’scandals’ that Blue Peter has endured in its fifty year history. In 1998 the presenter ‘Richard Bacon’ resigned after being exposed by a tabloid newspaper taking cocaine; in 2007 the programme was involved in controversy regarding fake competition winners and the naming of the cat ‘Socks’ – which was supposed to have been by a phone poll, but the public vote was over-ruled by the Blue Peter production team.  

That Blue Peter has survived with so few scandals is probably tribute to Biddy Baxter who edited the programme from 1965 to 1988, it was she, more than anybody who ensured the direction, morality and ethics of the show.

In my article on Mayors and Lord Mayors  I briefly mentioned the Lord Mayors Show.

The show was first held in 1215, when King John grated the City of London permission to elect its own mayor, but also insisted that the Lord Mayor should travel to the City of Westminster to swear loyalty to the crown. This tradition has continued uninterrupted by the Black Death, the Great Fire of London and the Blitz, it has only been cancelled once – on the occasion of the death of the Duke of Wellington.

The Lord Mayors Show was the first event ever to be broadcast live on television, a tradition that continues to this day.  

The show takes place on the second Saturday in November each year; the date and route of the parade was fixed in the 1950’s as in the past the route would travel through the new Lord Mayor’s electoral ward, which meant that each year’s parade would take a different route, causing much confusion and disruption in the City.

The procession is preceded by a flypast by the Royal Air Force, then leaves the Lord Mayor’s official residence (the Mansion House) at 11 a.m.. The procession heads west along Cheapside towards St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Royal Courts of Justice (also known as the Old Bailey) then down to Victoria Embankment before heading back to Mansion House, the last floats arriving back at around 4 p.m.

Around half a million people pile into the City of London to watch the pomp and pageantry, and around 6,000 people will take part in the three mile long procession, alongside 140 floats, carriages – including the richly gilded State Coach – marching bands, floats and other vehicles.

The parade is then followed by a fair in Paternoster Square near St. Paul’s Cathedral and a firework display on the River Thames, starting at about 5pm.

And for the record, the Mansion House is almost opposite the Bank of England, at the heart of the City, close to ‘Bank’ underground station, several hundred yards away from the underground station that bears the name ‘Mansion House’.