Tuesday 1 January 1963
Welcome to 1963! The Daily Mirror’s Man of the Year – John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
The Helicopter Heroes of the White Death battled through raging blizzards on mercy missions yesterday. An airlift rescued seventy coach passengers stranded at a Dorset cafe. They rescued twenty elderly people and dropped fodder for thousands of trapped animals.
Thousands of milk bottles are buried under the snow leading to a milk bottle shortage and crisis. Roads and railways are blocked, and villages in the West Country are running out of food.
Hide your braces, Britain’s middle-aged men were told yesterday, and Britain will regain the respect of the world. Mr M K Reid, secretary of the Clothing Manufacturers’ Association, advised older men to ask their teenaged sons for hints on how to build up a wardrobe.
Television sets, radios, gramophones, discs, and cosmetics are about 2s in the pound cheaper this morning because of a cut in purchase tax. Television sets £64 down to £58, radios £15 down to £13 10s, long-player discs at £2 will drop by 4s, cosmetics – 6d off a 5s 6d lipstick and 2s off a 19s 6d bottle of perfume.
Television highlights: International Ski-Jumping from Bavaria, New Year’s Day Concert from Vienna, The 625 Show – talent show featuring The Belltones, The Sunrays, The Honeys and The Eagles.
Radio highlights: Chubby Checker Time, Mystery Playhouse.
Soccer: George Eastham, Arsenal’s £47,500 inside-forward said, “Wage freedom must stay if players are to have incentives to play at the top, even if it means creating a Super League.”
Weather: snow or sleet, strong winds reaching gale force. Outlook – very cold with frost and snow. Maximum temperature 2c, 36f.
Wednesday 2 January 1963
Worst For 82 Years. More Snow To Come. That was the grim picture in southern Britain last night as fresh blizzards swept in from the sea. “The snowfall on Boxing Day will be child’s play compared with this,” said a spokesman from the Meteorological Office.
Dozens of West Country villages cut-off by 20ft snowdrifts face new peril from the approaching blizzards. Roads are blocked and train services will be slashed today. Thousands of factory workers are idle, and there is a threat to the milk supply because of a milk bottle shortage.
The BBC last night claimed a sweeping victory over ITV for its Christmas Day television audiences. BBC statisticians estimate that Billy Smart’s Circus attracted an audience of 20,600,000 – the biggest of the day. The Queen was seen by 20,100,000 on the BBC and 5,400,000 on ITV. Another 9,000,000 heard her speech on sound radio.
Along with woolly tights, furry hats, woolly bloomers, Wellington boots, sleighs, sleds and toboggans, Britain’s shops are running out of woolly vests.
Television highlights: I’m Going To Be…careers advice. West End – variety show. Holidays 1963.
Radio highlights: Teen and Twenty Disc Club, Test Match Cricket from Melbourne.
Football: Birmingham are using a pitch-clearing machine in the hope that their Third Round FA Cup tie with Bury can proceed. The machine’s makers claim that in ten minutes it can clear an area of the pitch that would take twenty-five men four hours.
Weather: more snow in most places. Very cold with strong winds reaching gale force. Outlook – very cold, more snow.
Thursday 3 January 1963
It’s Grim! There’s still no sign of a thaw in shivering Britain. The icy grip will continue until the weekend, at least. Meanwhile, housewives face a food crisis as the Big Freeze hits supplies sending prices soaring. Vegetables are expected to double in price, and the weekend joint may be dearer too.
Cabbage is almost the only green vegetable in the shops. Spouts and cauliflowers have been hit by the snow and those that are available have doubled in price. Potatoes are expected to go up 1d to 5d a Ib.
Britain is having a boom in babies – and that’s official. The number of babies born in Britain has soared from 675,000 a year in the mid-fifties to 842,000 in 1962. Earlier marriages is one explanation for the boom.
Television highlights: Tubby Hayes Plays Standards, Moment for Melody, Gay Cavalier.
Radio highlights: Music While You Work, Use Your Italian.
The Tornados have now sold over 2,000,000 copies of their disc Telstar, and netted royalties of £20,000.
Cliff Richard starts the new year at number one with The Next Time/Bachelor Boy. Seven of the top ten are British artists. The top thirty includes the Beatles at number twenty-one with Love Me Do and the Springfields at number thirty with Island of Dreams.
Weather: more snow in most areas. Very cold. Strong winds. Outlook – similar.
Friday 4 January 1963
Telstar, the American TV satellite in space, is back in business again after a six -week “radiation sickness”. In the four months it sped around Earth, Telstar handled forty-seven Transatlantic telecasts – five of them in colour – and hundreds of phone calls.
Agony Aunt: Johnny writes, “My dad is about my size and for years he has borrowed my shirts, socks, ties and sports jackets. Now, he wants to borrow my best suede shoes. Your advice please.” Jane Adams’ reply, “Put a lock on your wardrobe and the key in your pocket.”
More problems: “I have proposed to my girlfriend 117 times in the past three years and I’m still waiting for a ‘yes’.” Jane’s reply, “Stop proposing for a while and then she may begin to get worried.”
Food: apart from English beef, which is very scarce and expensive, meat supplies are fairly good. Prices – leg of pork, 3s 6d, leg of lamb 3s 10d, chops 4s 6d, sirloin 5s 8d, stewing steak, 4s.
Television highlights: The Woodentops, Richard the Lionheart, Television Playhouse.
Radio highlights: The Night Sky, The Bands Play On.
Football: Alf Ramsey is England’s new manger. He will leave Ipswich Town and take over at the FA on May 1st.
A European conference will be held on the use of drugs in sport. It follows a lap of the Tour de France race, which ended with many cyclists too ill from the effects of “pep pills” to continue.
Temperatures should rise above freezing point today for the first time since Boxing Day. Meanwhile, in Oxfordshire nine-tenths of the roads are unusable, and Gatwick Airport is at a standstill.
Weather: snow, sleet or rain. Outlook – more snow. Maximum temperature 3c, 37f.
Saturday 5 January 1963
He’s amazing! Fabulous! The golden boy of British show business – Cliff Richard. He is Britain’s most popular star, in films and on discs. Now, he’s TV’s singer of the year, topping the Mirror readers’ national awards poll.
Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell returned to hospital yesterday. He was confined to hospital in mid-December. The exact nature of his condition has not been revealed.
There is now one betting shop for every 3,846 people in Britain. Top of the list: London, Cardiff, Warrington, Wigan, and York. Bottom of the list: Plymouth, Exeter and Lincoln.
A total of 21,356 East Germans asked for political asylum in West Berlin in 1962.
Television highlights: The Rag Trade, Weightlifting, Ghost Squad.
Most popular TV programmes this week: 1. Coronation Street 2. Take Your Pick 3. Emergency Ward 10.
Radio highlights: Saturday Club, Twenty Questions.
Today’s football pools have been cancelled, for the second week running. In all, twenty-seven third-round FA Cup ties have been postponed – an all-time record. All major Rugby Union and Rugby League games are off too.
Weather: cold but above freezing. Outlook – uncertain. Maximum temperature 2c, 35f.
Coming soon, Songbird, my novel set in the winter of 1962-63
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