I was sad to hear of the death of Terry Venables, former footballer and England manager, with many strings to his bow.
Not least was that he became manager of Barcelona, whom he led to their first La Liga title in 11 years and to a first European Cup Final in 25 years. Soon nicknamed El Tel he had endeared himself to the fans just after his appointment by addressing them in Catalan.
His interests outside football were less inspiring, with question marks over his business affairs.
More to his credit though was that along with Gordon Williams he was the co-creator of Hazell, a fictional TV detective. The pair also wrote a football based book together They Used to Play on Grass as well as several other novels featuring Hazell.
It is for his footballing legacy that he will be remember longest though.
Terence Frederick Venables: 6/1/1943 – 25/11/2023. So it goes.
The episode was entitled An Unearthly Child and starred the wonderfully tetchy William Hartnell as the Doctor and Carole Ann Ford as his granddaughter Susan.
It wasn’t until four weeks later that the enemy who became synonymous with the series, the Daleks, entered the natons’ consciousness.
The title music was composed by Ron Grainer and its haunting, and at the time futuristic, nature was realised by Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Michael Parkinson, who died during the week, once bestrode the Saturday evening TV schedules (after the football highlights) as almost essential viewing.
He first came to my attention, though, hosting the Granada TV programme Cinema, as an enthusiast for the form a natural progression for him from his journalistic beginnings. I remember his relishing the description of the final scene of a Western (most likely Duel in the Sun) as “lust in the dust.”
He of course became most famous for his eponymous chat show, where his professional Yorkshireman attitudes occasionally ruffled feathers.
On one occasion I recall he asked Paul Simon how he went about writing a song. As if that process could be distilled into a short demonstration. Simon’s discomfort was evident.
He is said to have given Billy Connolly his big break. Perhaps in the wider UK, but Connolly was huge in Scotland well before his first appearance on Parky.
His interviews with Mohammad Ali and the one with Miss Piggy stick in the memory but the less said about him being attacked by a (large) glove puppet the better.
In later life, though, Parkinson became more notable for being the star (and later referrent) of life insurance adverts.
Michael Parkinson: 28/3/1935 – 16/8/2023. So it goes.
It’s not given to many musicians to change the course of popular music, but Kraftwerk certainly did. While not inventing electronic music (Delia Derbyshire and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop did that) they were the first to consider it as a new form of popular music. Sadly, founding member Florian Schneider died late last month.
I first heard of Kraftwerk in that famous Tomorrow’s World piece. At the time I thought their sound was a little soulless and wouldn’t catch on. It did.
Kraftwerk: Tour de France
Florian Schneider (Florian Schneider-Esleben:) 7/4/1947 – 21/3/2020. So it goes.
A name well-known to fans of Doctor Who, Terrance Dicks has died.
His asssociation with the programme began first as script editor (a position he held from from 1968-1974) and then as writer, starting with the last Patrick Troughton serial The War Games, which introduced the Time Lords, in 1969.
Away from the Doctor he wrote the all-but forgotten (some would say rightly) Sf series Moonbase 3.
Perhaps less commendably he contributed scripts for the ITV soap opera Crossroads, famous for its cardboard sets (and equally cardboard characterisation – none of which could be attributed to him.)
He also wrote many of the Doctor Who novelisations and original stories not derived from TV scripts.
Part of many people’s childhoods, his loss will sadden those who look back upon his work with affection.
Terrance William Dicks: 14/4/1935 – 29/8/2019. So it goes.
Last night I watched the first of the new Doctor Who series on BBC TV. It was okay as far as it went but I’m not sure it will have won over any of the easily disgruntled unreconstructed among us who thought the Doctor couldn’t be a woman. There’s no reason why the Doctor wouldn’t be able to change gender – after all the Master already has – but I didn’t think this episode was strong enough as an introduction to the new one.
Jodie Whittaker probably has the chops to make a good doctor but on this evidence I’ll be reserving judgement as to the story-lines.
A curious feature in this one was that there was no introductory theme music – not even after a few minutes in when the problem had been set up. Again I thought that was a mistake.
Then we had, “Half an hour ago I was a white-haired Scotsman.”
No. Half an hour ago you were an alien with two hearts from the planet Gallifrey. You still are. Half an hour ago you may have had a Scottish accent but you were never a Scotsman.
You also said, “I would of.”
You can reboot yourself right there. The correct phrase is “would have” or at a pinch “would’ve”. Don’t do it again.
The friends we were visiting in Lancashire last year took us to Blackpool. We went on a tram trip (all the way to Fleetwood) and on the way passed these daleks, and a TARDIS; part of the Illuminations. Photo is a bit blurred due to being taken through the tram window:-
Not by a time machine as such but in “a bubble of space-time geometry which carries its contents backward and forwards through space and time as it tours a large circular path.”
Ben Tippett from the University of British Columbia has created a formula that describes the method. Unfortunately that formula the does not figure in the post. The method also requires bending of space-time by exotic matter – which hasn’t been discovered yet/ Might as well be Science Fiction.
The bubble is described as a Traversable Acausal Retrograde Domain in Space-time. The acronym spells TARDIS. Ha very ha.
From the Politics of my young adulthood, asker of the West Lothian Question, hounder of Thatcher over the sinking of the General Belgrano, a real thorn in the side of the establishment, Tam Dalyell. His home The House of the Binns is now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland. The good lady and I visited there a few years ago now and saw Tam at a distance. He looked frail. We did, though, later strike up a conversation with his wife, Kathleen Wheatley, over armorial china of all things, and she seemed a very down to earth person.
Well-known actor, a memorable Caligula in I, Claudius, also The Naked Civil Servant, The Elephant Man and Doctor of sorts, John Hurt.
Mary Tyler Moore: 29/12/1939 – 25/1/2017. So it goes.
Thomas (Tam) Dalyell: 9/8/1932 – 26/1/2017. So it goes.
John Vincent Hurt: 22/1/1940 – 25/1/2017. So it goes.
