television

Who remembers Graham Kerr The Galloping Gourmet?

by

Nick Prince… Yes, he ended up in very poor health from eating far too many of his own recipes…. didn’t he cook everything in butter or brandy? Lol

Chris Jolly… Floyd as well! Let’s have a little splash of wine, haha…

Nick Prince… Floyd just died of drink. It made great television though.

Jan Warren… He liked a drink!!

Heidi Snape… Oh wow! That has just taken me right back to my childhood! Loved watching it! X

Andre Martin… I was told that he served with the British Army at one time in The Army Catering Corps [ACC] and then later he moved to Canada. Those were the days when you did not wall to wall cooking programmes in the schedule and he was always a very flambount character.

Andy James Long… ‘a quick slurp’ was his catch phrase as I recall!

Will Cornell… He pronounced his name “Care”, right? Deborah pronounced it “Car”, and everyone else I know with the name, it’s “Cur”. Go figure.

Chris van Rock… Yes …. he promoted vegetarian health back when it was virtually unheard of , turning his back on his style of cooking on his tv program full of fats and creams and dairy…his beliefs were laughed at even by his producer wife who suffered from ill health in later life …. he was groundbreaking in healthy eating and veganism

Jonathan Mendenhall… I remember him on TV very well…I was only very young even then thought he was a bit too smarmy..use to grab someone out of the audience and he almost “oiled” every time he took a taste of his completed dish…one of those 1970 TV “gems..”

Carol Ann Bolton… He was SO annoying.

Gerry Fortsch… He liked a drink so he can’t have been all bad.

Tara Reddy… I used to watch this with my grandma and wish I was in the audience and that I would get picked to taste the food!! X

Kev Carleonis… Yep. I was a kid then.

Nick Webb… I have one of his books lol

Jenny Morgan… I remember him drinking a glass of wine and picking a woman from the audience to share his meal- what a flirt!! Great though..

ITT Consumers Products shut down Ponswood Industrial Estate, St Leonards 1979

by


supplied by Haydn Betchley

Steve Glover… My dad Dennis Glover worked there from when it started in 1962 until it closed, he had the option to relocate to a new site but decided to take early retirement. If I remember right, in the early 70’s he together with some of his charge hands help set up assembly lines at new locations like Rhyl. It seems ITT would think nothing of relocating if business rates and labour rates were lower else where. At its peak in Hastings, and including the night shift it employed about a 1,000 staff, big blow to the town when it closed.

Chris Greet… It actually moved to an empty STC factory in Basildon in Essex. They moved because of the poor transport route up the A21. The road was mainly single carriageway in the 70s and not ideal for articulated Lorrie’s.  Sadly. ITTs business manufacturing televisions didn’t last very long after the move. The Japanese completion was too strong and the Basildon site closed for television manufacture in the late 80s.

Ken Hatch… Probably around the start of the rot setting in to Hastings manufacturers and major employers. Many followed suit over the next 10-15 years, I guess business rates were an issue as even Computing Devices (a relatively young company then) opened an extension in Eastbourne rather than Hastings at some point.

Jude Montague… thank you for the articles

 

 

 

John Logie Baird remembered

by

supplied by Jim Breeds https://www.facebook.com/HAPP1066

Hastings and Area Past and Present… On 14th August 1888, television pioneer John Logie Baird was born in Dumbartonshire. He died on this day, 14th June 1946 in Bexhill aged just 57. In early 1923, and in poor health, Baird moved to 21 Linton Crescent, Hastings, on the south coast of England and later rented a workshop in the Queen’s Arcade in the town. Baird built what was to become the world’s first working television set using items including an old hatbox and a pair of scissors, some darning needles, a few bicycle light lenses, a used tea chest, sealing wax and glue that he had purchased.

Alan Esdaile… He should be celebrated more locally and have a dedicated major attraction to him.

Fiona Evans… Yes, we should make more of our local history & culture. Most famous date in history, birthplace of TV, May bank holiday celebrations, pirates, Alan Turin etc. Could we not impress upon the council to do more/encourage entrepreneurs to make more of Hastings?

Marcus de Mowbray… Hastings: Home of TV, Home of lousy TV reception!

Kate Recknell-Page… I remember coming home from Guides with Heather one night to find mum & dad sitting in darkness watching TV in black/white on a 14” John Logie Baird – our very first TV !!! Wow

Mike Waghorne… Baird House was by Bexhill station it has been knocked down and replaced by a block of flats aptly named Baird House !

Andy Qunta… What we would have missed without his invention!

Colin Bell… Andy, Why does Charlie’s Angels come to mind?!..

John Beeching… His invention was a bit of a flop. (There was nothing on worth watching.)

Kate Recknell-Page… Our first TV as a kid was a 14” black/white JLB my sis & I came back from Guides one night to find the house in darkness & our mum & dad watching the tv (which we knew nothing about till then) such great memories- happy days

John Logie Baird and Stooky Bill

by

post shared from : Steve Rolfe.  Original source: Orrin Dunlap, Jr.

British inventor John Logie Baird and his first publicly demonstrated television system, with which he transmitted moving pictures March 25, 1925 at the London department store Selfridges. This was one of the first demonstrations of television technology. The selenium photoelectric tubes he used had such low sensitivity that human faces could not be televised due to their low contrast. So Baird used the two articulated ventriloquist’s dummies shown, “James” and “Stooky Bill” (right), whose painted faces had higher contrast, and televised them speaking and moving. The banks of bright light bulbs were required to illuminate the faces enough to produce an image. His mechanical televisor system had a large spinning disk with 30 lenses mounted in it. As each lens passed across the subject it generated a scan line of the image. At the receiver a similar spinning disk with holes recreated the image. The image thus had a resolution of 30 scan lines, just enough to recognize a face. By the next year Baird was televising real human faces. The two ventriloquist’s dolls, James and Bill – “the first television stars” – are held by Baird in front of the microphone and the mechanical eye that sees and hears everything that goes on in front of it.

Marcus de Mowbray… There’s a Baird exhibition in St Leonards which I hope to visit.

Linda Gowans… Didn’t he do some work in a room over the arcade next to Wellington Place?

Alan Esdaile… Linda, Queens Arcade.

Eric Harmer… yes Queens Arcade. A great inventor ,but no mention of his mate Boo Boo ?? Or picnic baskets ??

Kev Towner… Eric, smarter than the average inventor

Chris Jolly… Well to think I spent 40 years working in broadcast television and it was all his fault… haha!

David Kent… I read somewhere that he tried using a human eye in the apparatus – presumably a prototype.

A chance to get BBC2 in Hastings – launched on 20th April 1964

by

advert 1964 and 1965. Can you remember watching it, when it was first broadcast?

Paul Crimin… We could never get BBC2 on our tele. I think it checked out bank accounts before it would allow people to watch it. It was too posh for us anyway. lol.

Mike Waghorne… Redifusion Tv had it I think ?

Mike Cope… Television, Television? Eee thy were Lucky Lad! We only had’t Puddle end ‘ot’ Garden…

Jane Hartley… We didn’t have it til much later.

Barry French… My Dad bought a space age looking indoor Ariel (All loops & angles) that was guaranteed by the TV shop salesman to pick up BBC2. Well it did to a point, but every show looked like it was filmed during an Antarctic blizzard (Massive white dots flying around the screen) My dad moved the Ariel all over the room to try & get a decent picture but to no avail. In the end he said something like ” Sod this for a game of soldiers” and chucked it in the bin.

Rent or Buy Rediffusion TV from Abraham or Bryant 1966

by

Dennis Torrance… I rented in 73 from rediffusion a Doric the largest one when they put in my basement flat they struggled to get it down the steps so heavy

Mark Praid… Don’t forget the colour plastic that you could put on your screen for colour TV. Blue at the top, Orange in the middle and Green at the bottom……Total crap but The Clangers looked good.

Jan Warren… My Mum and Dad rented for years …………

Dixon Of Dock Green – the world seemed a lot safer in those days.

by

Brian Hepburn… Morning All

Stuart Moir… No internet to keep track of the Krays etc etc, I grew up in London and most people have no idea how bad it was then the gangland was more guns than knives and took no prisoners if you get my gist

Roger Collier… Why was he still a constable past retirement age?

Richard J Porter… I know officers that remained as a Constable for their entire career.

Mike Mitchell… Mind you, Jack Warner got shot in the end didn’t he?

Roger Collier… You must be thinking of the film, The Blue Angel.

Jim Hobbs… It was the Blue Lamp

Tim Anderson… He got shot in the film “The Blue Lamp”. He was brought back to life for the TV series Dixon of Dock Green!

Roger Simmonds… My mum loved him !

John Warner… Jack Warner, real name Jack Waters, brother of Elsie and Doris Waters, old time film and TV actresses.

Tony Ham… Evenin’ all.

Roland Clarke… You didn’t have 24 hour news telling you all the bad things that were going on not just here, but all over the world, plus with over double the number of people alive now, you would statistically expect crime to be twice as much!

Coco Pops… I think he was the first British Policeman shot on a British TV Show.

Rachael Cope… I remember PC Barry coming to school every month

Chris Jolly… Evening all…

Joe Bennett… “Ello ello ello”

Jonathan Mendenhall… How fabulous..I was 6 and remember Dixon followed Dr Who ..black and white tv..Dr Who William Hartnell. best Dr ever..x

Pauline Richards… The actor that played the sargent in it lives locally and I saw him today!!!! Don’t know his name but I think his wife is German. I would recognise him in a line up!

Tony Ham… Nicholas Donnelly? He was also in Grange Hill.

Lyn Humphrey… The Krays never dared set foot in Dock Green!

Peter Checksfield… Not bad for a character that was shot and killed in the ‘Blue Lamp’ (1950). That Dirk Bogarde’s a bad ‘un.

Gary Dixon… I was named after him a few times in the school playground

Jeanette Steve Jones… Evening all

Stewart Rockett… Beat me to it!

Angela Frances Gardner… Goodnight all!

Harry Norcliffe-hic… This was back in the day that they saluted you.

Harry Randall… And back in the day when they walked a beat and new everybody especially rogues in the area! They used to clip your ear if you bad mouthed them! Respect not like this day and age when they don’t know what No means

 

 

What’s your earliest memories of children’s television programmes and what ones did you like?

by

image source: http://gbstamp.co.uk/article/peppa-pig,-paddington-bear-and-andy-pandy-to-feature-on-tv-favourites-stamps-400.html

Yvonne Cleland… I like the Telegoons!

Andy Qunta… especially Bill & Ben! Flobalob!

Mark Praid… Bill and Ben every Wednesday at Nursery School with a Yoyo Mint Chocolate Biscuit and a glass of milk….Before the Pubs opened

Pauline Richards… Woodentops

Eric Harmer…  Does anyone remember FOUR FEATHER FALLS ?

John Sperni… Woodentops

Gaynor Lewry… Loved them all

Wendy Belton… Woodentops and Bill and Ben but also liked Tales of the Riverbank. Does anyone remember ones called Picture Book and Torchy the Battery Boy. Must have been very early 60s. My favourites were Camberwick Green and Trumpton. I particularly liked Windy Miller who lived in the windmill …Collies Mill I think it was called.

Mike Guy… My wife & I were chatting about Twizzle yesterday!

Jane Hartley… Tales from the riverbank

Read more

Who remembers Jack Hargreaves asks Eugene Hughes

by

photo © Simon Baddeley

Val Shoesmith… Out of Town. How.

Steve Cooke… I used to love Out Of Town – spring starts to spring, the cuckoo starts to sing…

Geoff Peckham… Our playground version was, “Say what you will, school dinners make you ill…”

Mark Asseenontv Scutchings-Stevens… ………….. the countryside is still.

Eugene Hughes… Say what you will, the countryside is still. The only place where I could settle down.

Geoff Peckham… Troubles there are _ so much rarer…

Eugene Hughes… Out of town.

Nick Prince… Enthralling television…. He had a great laid back style of presenting

Gary Sykes… I think James May, the re-asembler is a chip of old jacks programe with a modern twist.

Pete Prescott… Every Sunday we would watch him. Am I dreaming or did he say (as he was cutting cheese with cheese wire ) “the Japanese used to creep up on English sentries in the jungle and use this to kill them…bastards”. Anyone remember that. It seems unlikely thinking about it now. Sadly I still sing it in the car

Wendy Weaver… He probably did and they did .

Mark Asseenontv Scutchings-Stevens…. I though it was on Friday evenings, in the Gosport catchment area

Nick Prince… It was Friday evenings after Day By Day/Scene South East from Dover in Hastings area. Think it was followed by Mind Your Language/ Muppet Show and such like. Sunday’s toward end of Southerns days

Mark Praid… “Say what you will, school dinners make you ill, all the teachers died of Shepherd’s Pie.” I remember Olli Kite sometimes on as his fishing buddy. Jack was also a bigwig on the board of Southern Television. Shame they changed Max Bygraves to swirling Guitars and Harps when the Theme tune was changed. So slow…..I aways thought those Shire Horses wouldn’t make it to the end of the field!

Read more

Rediffusion colour television advert – August 1976

by

Judith Monk… Got my first colour tv from them as a result of this ad!

Roy Penfold… Fond memories (not) of working for them when they became Granada and removing all of the big 26″ valve sets for upgrade to the ‘new’ transistorised ones….

Tony Stevens… I DID WORK FOR REDIFFUSION REPAIRING TV BACK IN THE 70S

Ian Quinnell… Lots of memories from working there in the 70’s. Workshop was HOT in the summer (esp ’76!) and cold in winter when heating failed, but coffee topped up from a bottle of rum and scotch helped

Nigel Ford… I wonder if the (redundant?) cables are still underground all over the town? How many towns had Redifusion, was it a southern thing only?

Roy Penfold… Many of the cables are no-doubt still in-situ. I have noticed a couple of houses that still have the outside boxes, although painted over now.
There is a website at http://www.rediffusion.info that states they were global! Tony and Ian probably can remember my uncle (now deceased) – David Turner who worked as one of the techs. He was a bit of a strange one and disassociated himself from everyone in the family when his mother and father had passed on. I only found out that he was working in the same firm as me (on Ponswood) when I had left and had to collect his possessions from Brighton hospital once he had passed away. The house is still in my family – my parents, Mick & Gill (David’s sister) now live there. It was like a time-warp back to the 1960s when we first opened the house up to clear it out and sort things for probate etc.

Ian Quinnell… I was at Rediff from 1971 to 1977. I have a vague notion about a Dave Turner, seemed to be a bit of an odd character.but can’t be certain. However, I remember a Bill Penfold – was he related to you Roy?

Barry Newton… Good times working out of Ponswood. I think I did 7+ years with mainly a good crew. Worked Hastings, Rye, Eastbourne and Lewes, happy days. We liked to think of ourselves as erection speciatists, LOL it also had a good social side

Martin Richter… can you ask them to come and get their box – it’s still on the wall

Jacqueline Marsh… Do any of you remember Ron Kettle? he was a manager who came back from Hong Kong and ended up managing the Southern Region, based I believe in Ponswood. I seem to remember going there to collect him in the car when his was being serviced.

Josie Lawson… I rented a Rediffusion TV From a shop in Ore village…

Tim Moose Bruce… Used to work at Buss Foods opposite Rediffusion site at Ponswood. I remember an incident when the night shift were working at one part of the building while at another part,thieves were helping themselves to stuff! I think they tried to break in to the Buss food retail shop that night too, and some other places on ponswood got hit too.

Yvonne Cleland… We got our first tv from Rediffusion in Robertson Street! Used to have to go there every week for the payments. I remember when they first displayed colour tvs! They later had a shop in London Road, St. Leonards, as I remember.