Waterloo - 1974

Waterloo was first released in Sweden on March 4th, 1974. Recording sessions began in

September 1973 and continued until February 1974.

Sessions for what was to become the Waterloo Album were well under way when Bjorn,

Benny and Stig Anderson were invited to submit an entry to the 1974 Eurovision Song

Contest. The song that they came up with was of course, Waterloo.

This second ABBA album was the first to really show the group has a unified entity - indeed,

it was the first album to be released under the new group name. Apart from Waterloo the

album spawned a hit in, Honey, Honey.

Side A 1. Waterloo 2. Sitting in a Palmtree 3. King Kong song 4. Hasta Manana 5. My Mama Said 6. Dance (While the music still goes on) Side B 1. Honey Honey 2. Watch out 3. What about Livingstone 4. Gonna sing you my love song 5. Suzy-hang-around 6. Waterloo (English version)

Corrie at 50 - Radio Times Covers!

Last year the Radio Times celebrated Fifty Golden years of Corrie with 12 collectible Radio Times covers, each paying tribute to a well loved Corrie woman! Here are eight of my favourites.

Jean Alexander as Hilda Ogden: 1964 - 1987

Violet Carson as Ena Sharples: 1960 - 1980

Patricia Phoenix as Elsie Tanner: 1960 - 1984

Barbara Knox as Rita Sullivan: 1964 - Present

Anne Kirkbride as Deirdre Barlow: 1974 - Present

Helen Worth as Gail Mcintyre: 1974 - Present

Bet Lynch: 1966 - 2003

Betty Williams: 1969 - Present

The Carry On Legacy - Carry on Abroad: 1972

Carry On Abroad is the twenty-fourth Carry On Film released in 1972. The film features series regulars Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, Bernard Bresslaw, Barbara Windsor, Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth and Hattie Jacques. It was the 23rd and final appearance for Charles Hawtrey. June Whitfield returns after appearing in Carry On Nurse 13 years earlier. Jimmy Logan makes the first of two appearances in the series.

The film opens with pub landlord and frequent holidaymaker Vic Flange (Sid James) openly flirting with the much-married saucepot, Sadie Tompkins (Barbara Windsor) as his battleaxe wife, Cora (Joan Sims), looks on with disdain. Their twitching friend, Harry (Jack Douglas) arrives and lets slip that the package holiday Vic has booked to the Mediterranean island Els Bels (a pun on the slang expression "Hell's Bells") also includes Sadie, much to Cora's outrage. Cora, who avoids holidays because she hates flying, suddenly decides to accompany her boorish husband on the trip, to ensure he keeps away from Sadie.

The next day, the nasally Stuart Farquhar (Kenneth Williams), the representative of Wundatours, and his seductive assistant, Moira Plunkett (Gail Grainger), welcome the motley passengers. Among them the hen-pecked and love-starved Stanley Blunt (Kenneth Connor) and his prudish, overbearing wife, Evelyn (June Whitfield); a drunken, bowler-hatted mummy's boy, Eustace Tuttle (Charles Hawttrey); brash Scotsman, Bert Conway (Jimmy Logan); the young and beautiful Marge and Lily (Sally Geeson) and (Carol Hawkins); and Brother Bernard (Bernard Bresslaw), a young monk who has difficutly fitting into his new path of life.

Unfortunately, the hotel they are to stay in isn't finished as the builders have recently abandoned their jobs half-way through. Distraught manager Pepe (Peter Butterworth) desperately tries to run the place in a myriad of different guises and his shrewish wife, Floella (Hattie Jacques), struggles with the temperamental stove, whilst their Lothario son, Georgio, lazes about behind the bar.

The hotel also hides an assortment of tricks and Pepe is soon overrun with complaints, when Vic discovers Sadie naked in his shower, sand pours out of Moira's taps and the lavatory drenches Bert. Although agreeing to play leapfrog with Tuttle, Lily and Marge have their eyes on other things. Marge takes a shine to Brother Bernard, while Lily lures the dashing Nicholas (David Kernan) away from his jealous (implied) gay friend, Robin (John Clive). While most of the party go off to the village and get arrested for causing a scene at the establishment of Madame Fifi (Olga Lowe). Evelyn is left behind and seduced by Georgio, thus abandoning her frigid ways and resuming her sex life with Stanley. With the last-night bash swinging thanks to a local mixture that blesses the drinker with x-ray vision, the party goes with a bang as the hotel collapses. But all's well that ends well, when the holidaymakers reunite at Vic and Cora's pub.

The Army Game: 1957 - 1961

The Army Game was a British sitcom that aired on ITV from 1957 to 1961. Made in black and white, it is about National Service Conscription to the post-war British Army. It was created by Sid Colin. Many stars, like Charles Hawtrey, William Hartnell, Bernard Bresslaw, Alfie Bass and Dick Emery became household names, and appeared in the Carry On films, which began with Carry on Sergeant, virtually a spin-off. It was made for the ITV network by Granada Television.

The creator, Sid Colin, was inspired by a 1956 film, Private's Progress, that starred Ian Carmichael, Richard Attenborough, Terry Thomas and William Hartnell. Many of the cast had recently undertaken military service themselves.

Writers included Sid Colin, Larry Stephens, Maurice W iltshire, Lew Schwarz, John Jowett, John Antrobus, John Foley, Marty Feldman, Barry Took, David Climie, David Cumming, Derek Collyer, Brad Ashton, John Junkin, Talbot Rothwell, Sidney Nelson, Stan Mars, Bob Perkins and Alan Mckinnon. At least three episodes are uncredited.

The show centres on a group of conscripts assigned to the Surplus Ordnance Department at Nether Hopping, Staffordshire. Billeted in Hut 29, the men are determined to work little and have fun. The theme tune was sung by Michael Medwin, Bernard Bresslaw, Alfie Bass and Leslie Fyson. In June 1958, it reached number five in the UK singles chart. Bresslaw's song, Mad Passionate Love, sung in the style of Private Popplewell, also did well in the charts.

A film based on the series, I Only Arsked, appeared in 1958. The plot concentrated on Bresslaw's character and included Hawtrey, Alfie Bass, Rossington and Michael Medwin playing their characters. "I Only Arsked" became Bresslaw's catch-phrase. A paperback was produced, and Granada brought out a board game in 1959. Fraser and Bass's characters turned up in a spin-off, Bootsie and Snudge, between 1960 and 1963 and in 1974.