The Spy Who Loved Me - Lotus Espirit

I remember being at school back in 1977 and the Lotus Espirit from the Bond classic, "The Spy Who Loved Me" being all the rage and the only thing spoken about on the playground. Christmas morning that year and, surprise, surprise, in my stocking was this Corgi edition of that famous Lotus!

Emmerdale Calendar (2008)

There were 12 pages of Emmerdale pictures from the scenes of Emmerdale's most memorable storylines in this official Emmerdale calendar from 2008.

Billboard Hot 100 (1964)

1964, February 7th the place is New York - JFK Airport, some 5000 fans are all gathered to witness the arrival of the Beatles and the beginning of the British invasion. Their first album "Please Please Me" had stayed at No1 in the U.K. for 30 consecutive weeks but the record company because of licensing problems had not released it in the U.S. Instead they released the single "I Want To Hold Your Hand" which sold 2.6 million copies in the two weeks preceding their arrival. During the course of the year they would subsequently capture nine spots on the Top 100 charts with five of them in the No1 slot (see chart below for titles).

Groups from the U.K. weren't the only thing charting however, The Supreme's had their first hit with Motown Records, "Where Did Our Love Go" which was quickly followed by "Baby Love" and "Come See About Me" all three climbed to No1 on the charts. The only other multiple top spot performer was actually a early 1960's favorite, Bobby Vinton who had "There! I've Said It Again" and "Mr. Lonely" both hit No1. Another perennial favorite Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons had three huge hits with "Rag Doll", "Stay" and "Ronnie"

SONG	ARTIST	No OF WEEKS	DATE
There! I've Said It Again	Bobby Vinton	4	1/04
I Want To Hold Your Hand	The Beatles	7	2/01
She Loves You	The Bealtes	2	3/21
Can't Buy Me Love	The Beatles	5	4/04
Hello, Dolly!	Louis Armstrong	1	5/09
My Guy	Mary Wells	2	5/16
Love Me Do	The Beatles	1	5/30
Chapel Of Love	The Dixie Cups	3	6/06
A World Without Love	Peter & Gordon	1	6/27
I Get Around	The Beach Boys	2	7/04
Rag Doll	The Four Seasons	2	7/18
A Hard Day's Night	The Beatles	2	8/01
Everybody Loves Somebody	Dean Martin	1	8/15
Where Did Our Love Go	Supremes	2	8/22
The House Of The Rising Sun	Animals	3	9/5
Oh, Pretty Woman	Roy Orbison	3	9/26
Do Wah Diddy Diddy	Manfred Mann	2	10/17
Baby Love	Supremes	4	10/31
Leader Of The Pack	The Shangri-las	1	11/28
Ringo	Lorne Greene	1	12/05
Mr. Lonely	Bobby Vinton	1	12/12
Come See About Me	Supremes	2	12/19
I Feel Fine	The Beatles	3	12/26

Club Sandwich - Christmas 1978

Paul McCartney and Wings Fanzine "Club Sandwich" No12 and was the Christmas edition for December/January 1978-79. Inside there featured a colour poster centrefold and numerous other festive treats.

It's A Knockout and the Radio Times (1966)

Radio Times - the BBC's television and radio listings magazine - was a stoic supporter of It's A Knockout. From 1972, it awarded The Radio Times Trophy to the overall winning team at the end of each domestic series. In addition, it gave over space for features, illustrative material and even front covers to the series. .The material below is from various editions of the Radio Times dating back in 1966.

(Above) Radio Times, 6th - 12th August 1966

(Above) Radio Times, 3rd - 9th September 1966

(Above) Radio Times, 17th - 23rd September 1966

Nice to see ya! (1972)

The year is 1972 and Bruce Forsyth finds himself gracing the front cover of the Radio Times for the Generation Game.

Pool of London (1950)

Basil Dearden's paean to London docklands in the 1950s is as enchanting and as murky as the river: a noir-ish heist tale, liberally suffused with a fable of forbidden love and unrestrained passion. The heist element of Pool of London (1951) is well crafted and suspenseful, but the most striking aspect is Dearden's tentative venture into racial politics, with the first interracial relationship in a British film.

Merchant seaman Johnny (Earl Cameron) is racially abused almost as soon as he sets foot on dry land by a doorman, who with unflinching disdain tells him to "hop it". Visibly shaken but without protest Johnny is about to leave when the ticket seller Pat (Susan Shaw), comes to his aid. She offers words of comfort, but only brash American Dan (Bonar Colleano) actually challenges the racist. The wonder here is why Johnny cannot defend himself. Later, Pat and Johnny go dancing, where Maisie (Moira Lister), Dan's girlfriend, refers to Johnny as 'dirty'. Again Johnny flees. Johnny's willingness to allow Dan to defend him is perhaps of his time, but a key aspect of racial politics is a rejection of the notion that a black man's justice can only be exacted through the patronage of conscientious white men. In reality, Johnny would not be able to avoid the issue forever.

Eventually Johnny arrives at the only standpoint where wholesale avoidance of confrontation through racism is tenable: he adopts the refuge of the outcast and the solace of the misunderstood. He speaks of not belonging and the question here perhaps is why this should be so.

Dearden works within the taboos. Johnny and Pat show all the signs of a couple falling in love, but physical contact is minimal and a romantic clinch would have been out of the question. Social mores of the day dictated that their passion should never be fulfilled.

Earl Cameron, in his first film role, demonstrates a remarkable range. From misunderstood outsider, to would be lover and drunken brawler. It is an extraordinarily affecting performance, arguably his finest. Nine years later Dearden revisited the issue of interracial relationships with the controversial and deeply disturbing Sapphire (1959), in which Cameron also starred.

THE

MONTHLY FILM BULLETIN

Published by

THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE

Volume 18, No.206, March 1951, page 229

POOL OF LONDON (1950)

The Dunbar docks in the Pool of London one Friday evening, and her crew prepare to go ashore. Among them are Dan (Bonar Colleano), who has been making some easy money by smuggling, and Johnny (Earl Cameron) a young Jamaican on his last voyage before going home. Dan visits a music hall to meet his smuggling friends, and agrees for a hundred pounds to carry a mysterious package with him to Amsterdam. Johnny, meanwhile, falls in with the music hall cashier, who is kind to him when the door-man tries to throw him out. On Sunday Dan receives the package-not knowing that it contains the proceeds of a jewel raid, in which the watchman has been killed. When he shows the money to his girl friend, she insists on opening the parcel, and persuades him to keep the diamonds for himself. As Dan is already in trouble with the customs, he gives the parcel to Johnny to take aboard ship for him. Johnny, meanwhile, is falling in love with the cashier, although realising that he means nothing to her. After saying goodbye to her he returns to the ship to find that sailing has been postponed, for the police are aboard, and Dan is being hunted for murder. Johnny goes back, sees Pat with her own friends, and spends the night getting drunk. Dan, on the run, is deserted by his girl friend, but consoled by another girl who promises to wait for him if he will give himself up. Instead, he falls in again with the gang, escapes from them and from the police, but finally changes his mind and comes back, to intercept Johnny, take back the diamonds, and surrender to the police.

Pool of London is closely modelled on Dearden's earlier picture, The Blue Lamp, telling the same sort of melodramatic crime story in a realistic setting-the river landmarks, the workings of customs officers and river police. A third element is provided by the abortive love of the coloured sailor for the London girl. The mixture has not fused into a whole. The central theme advances in a curiously jerky and disorganised manner; the excitement which the story does not sustain is occasionally whipped up by artificial means - such as the crime itself, and the capture of the crooks - but this tends to produce only the effect of a series of anti-climaxes resulting in a lack of co-ordination and of rhythm. Tension, too is dissipated in pleasant but meaning-less shots of the river scenery, and in ineffectual scenes between the Negro and the girl.

This, which distracts attention from the main story, is the film's least successful element. The relationship is treated as an interlude which can have no outcome, but is not handled with that feeling or sympathy which would justify its part in the film. This is due in part to the inadequacy of the players (Earl Cameron suggests a pleasant personality, but is clearly an inexperienced actor), but more to that of the director. Dearden handles the scenes of violence in a craftsmanlike if rather contrived and artificial manner, but tenderness and feeling escape him. Pool of London has the elements of an average melodrama, but they are never satisfactorily brought together, and the result is a diffuse film, lacking shape and control.

---

The Monthly Film Bulletin was published by the British Film Institute between 1934 and 1991. Initially aimed at distributors and exhibitors as well as filmgoers, it carried reviews and details of all UK film releases. In 1991, the Bulletin was absorbed by Sight and Sound magazine.

Pool of London
Directed by	Basil Dearden
Produced by	Michael Balcon Michael Relph (associate producer)
Written by	John Eldridge Jack Whittingham
Starring	Bonar Colleano Earl Cameron Susan Shaw
Music by	John Addison
Cinematography	Gordon Dines
Editing by	Peter Tanner
Release date(s)	1951
Running time	85 mins
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Paddington (1975) The Bear Facts

The BBC television series Paddington, produced by Michael Bond and London-based animation company Film Fair, was first broadcast in 1975. This series had an extremely distinctive appearance: Paddington was a stop-motion puppet moving in a three dimensional space in front of two-dimensional backgrounds (which were frequently sparse black-and-white line drawings), while all other characters were 2D drawings — in one scene, a character hands Paddington a jar of marmalade that becomes 3D when Paddington touches it. Animator Ivor Wood also worked on The Magic Roundabout and Postman Pat. The series was narrated by Michael Hordern. In the United States, episodes aired on PBS, on the syndicated series Romper Room, on Nickelodeon as a segment on the programme Pinwheel and on USA Network as a segment on the program Calliope in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as well as in between preschool programming on the Disney Channel throughout the 1990s. The series also aired on HBO in between features, usually when they were airing children's programmes. The series won a silver medal at the New York Film and Television Festival in 1979 — the first British animated series to do so.

A second television series, produced by Hanna - Barbera, debuted in 1989 as part of The funtastic world of Hanna - Barbera. This series was traditional two-dimensional animation and featured veteran voice actor Charlie Adler as Paddington and Tikm Curry as Mr. Curry. The character of an American boy named David, Jonathan and Judy Brown's cousin who arrived in London on the same day as Paddington, was added to the stories in the 1989 cartoon.

The most recent series, produced by Cinar Films, was first broadcast in 1997 and consisted of traditional two-dimensional colour animation. The show was called The Adventures of Paddington Bear.

Paddington Bear also appeared in The Official BBC Children In Need Medley with Peter Kay along with several other animated characters. In the video, Paddington makes a grand appearance by winking at the cameramen when they take photos of him; Kay tries to put a cloak on Paddington, but it keeps sliding off. He also joins the rest of the group for the final act. In the second season Christmas episode of Community Prof. Duncan talks about his tenth Christmas. He states that his mom always gave him Paddington books for Christmas.

Message in a Bottle (1979)

"Message in a Bottle" by The Police was from their second album, Reggatta De Blanc.

The song is ostensibly about a story of a castaway on an island, who sends out a Message in a Bottle to seek love. A year later, he has not received any sort of response, and despairs, thinking he is destined to be alone. The next day, he sees "a hundred billion bottles" on the shore, finding out that there are more people like him out there. The Police debuted the song on a live television show called "Rock N' Roll Goes to School", filmed at Hatfield Polytechnic School in Hertfordshire, England. The Police donated all money earned from the show to the school.

The single was The Police's first number one hit in the United Kingdom but only reached No74 in the United States. An alternate "Classic Rock" mix is available on Every Breath You Take: The Classics. This is Sting's favorite song as confessed to Jools Holland of BBC fame.

The Police performed at Live Earth, a 2007 charity concert to raise awareness of global warming and other environmental hazards and performed "Message in a Bottle" as the US finale, with John Mayer playing guitar with Andy Summers (who described the track as a personal favorite in his book One Train Later) and Wayne West performing a rap verse over the chorus of the song.

"Message in a Bottle"
Single by The Police
from the album Reggatta de Blanc
B-Side	Landlord
Released	September, 1979
Format	7" Single
Recorded	1979
Genre	Rock, New Wave
Length	3:50 (7" single edit) 4:50 (Full-length album version)
Label	A & M - AMS 7474
Writer (s)	Sting
Producer	Nigel Gray Stewart Copeland Sting Andy Summers
Certification	Gold (BPI)
The Police singles chronology
"So Lonely" (1978) "Message in a Bottle" (1979) "Walking on the Moon" (1979)

Joe 90 Top Secret (No 5)

This edition was published on 15th February 1969. Inside the features were, Quiz 90, Joe's Hobbies (The Story of X-15, Champions of Sport - David Hemery, World Intelligence Network (Information and Jokes) A competition to win 100 Corgi Ghia Mangustas and Top Ten Racing Cars No 5 - Ferrari.

Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) - Episode Fourteen: Who Killed Cock Robin?

Who Killed Cock Robin? was the fourteenth episode of the classic ITC Television series, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) that starred Mike Pratt, Kenneth Cope and Annette Andre. The episode was first broadcast on December 21, 1969 on ITV.

In this murder mystery, Jeff Randall is hired by a large estate manager to investigate a series of bird shootings in the manor aviary. While keeping guard of the valuable birds. Each member of the family of the manor is killed off gradually narrowing down the suspects leaving Jeff with the surprising culprit. Randall is nearly killed in an intricate trap, but Marty Hopkirk once again saves the day — very interestingly this time by affecting a paranormal game of letters to spell a cryptic message to Jeannie Hopkirk at a party.

"Life on Mars" Calendar 2008

This excellent collectible official calendar from 2008 which has 12 fantastic pictures, 1 per month, of scenes and characters from the popular "Life on Mars" tv series.

Elvis 1956 - The Year In Gold

Elvis action figure -- titled 1956, the Year in Gold -- features the King of Rock 'n' Roll in a classic pose and the gold lamé outfit he wore during a New York City appearance in 1956.

Accurately capturing Elvis' essence, this impeccably detailed figure includes a custom marquee base and mic stand.

Bootsie and Snudge (1964)

Bootsie and Snudge was a television situation comedy series written, in the early days, by Barry Took and Marty Feldman, later writers were John Antrobus, Jack Rosenthal, ventriloquist Ray Alan and Harry Driver. The show featured Clive Dunn, more famous as Corporal Jones in Dad's Army, as well as Alfie Bass and Bill Fraser. Series 1-3, 5 centred around a Gentlemans club called the Imperial Club, whilst the fourth series broadcast as "Foreign Affairs" centred around a British Embassy in Bosnik. 112 half-hour episodes were made, being broadcast from 1960 to 1964 and in 1974.

The traditional Gentleman's club in Britain has long been used for comedic purposes in films, usually because of the eccentric characters with whom it can be populated, and the arcane rules. The rule of absolute silence in the reading room, notwithstanding several old men snoring under copies of The Times, is a common feature of such comedy. Memorable moments include Kenneth Connor in the film Carry On Regardless, being forced to mime "Your flies are open" to one of the members.

In the Imperial Club Bootsie and Snudge resumed their roles of snivelling skiver and bullying sergeant, with contributions from the ancient and always-bumbling dogsbody, Johnson (Clive Dunn), all under the tyrannical eye of the "Hon. Sec.", the club secretary played by Robert Dorning. The Hon. Sec.'s way of dealing with arguments was to drown out the opposition with repetitions of "Tup! Tup!", rising in volume until the other party stopped trying. Thus Bootsie's name for the character was "Ol' Tuptup".

In the early 1960s, the show was adapted into a successful strip cartoon in the British comic TV Comic.

The 1974 series sees the men reunited in a reversal of roles ten years later. Bootsie, now unemployed and living alone, has just won £1,000,000.27 on the football pools under the pseudonym 'Yilseb', devised to preserve his anonymity. Snudge is now a travelling representative of the football pools company who brings the lucky winner his cheque. As Bootsie has been using the name 'Yilseb' (Bisley spelled backwards), Snudge has no idea that the winner he is about to visit is his old friend, Bootsie. On discovering the truth, Snudge immediately gives up his job with the football pools company and appoints himself as Bootsie's pompous but subservient financial adviser.

Adam Faith - UK Tour (1960)

Back in February 1960 Pop Idol Adam Faith toured the UK along with, Emile Ford, John Barry Seven, The Avons, Mike Preston, Little Tony (Occasional dates) The Checkmates.

06 - Sheffield City Hall
07 - York (Rialto)
08 - Worksop (Regal)
09 - Doncaster (Gaumont)
11 - Halifax (Odeon)
12 - Leeds (Odeon)
13 - Bradford (St George's Hall)
14 - Hull (Cecil)
15 - Harrogate (Royal)

16 - Scunthorpe (Pavilion)
17 - Burnley (Palace)
18 - Newcastle (City Hall)
19 - Manchester (Free Trade Hall)
20 - Nottingham (Albert Hall)
21 - Kingston (Granada)
22 - Maidstone (Granada)
23 - Dartford (Granada)
24 - Bedford (Granada)
25 - Aylesbury (Granada)
26 - Kettering (Granada)
27 - Rugby (Granada)
28 - Harrow (Granada)