Friday 11 January 1963
Police are hunting a gang of thieves who broke into a former jail, blew a safe and escaped with £1,200 of prison officers’ wages. One police theory is that an old lag helped to plan the raid.
The men’s beauty business has never really got off the ground in Britain. This is why: most men don’t like scents and colognes because it’s just not natural for men to play about with their masculine odour. Eighty percent of men’s scents and colognes are bought by women for men at Christmastime.
Nine percent of the babies born in Birmingham in 1961 were illegitimate, a rise of 2% on 1960.
Television highlights: Choice – consumer programme. Dr Kildare. BBC 1 – 10.50 pm News, Weather, Closedown.
Radio highlights: Smooth ‘n’ Swinging, Go Man Go.
Chalk-up “Summer Holiday” as yet another success in the remarkable story of young Harry Webb who as Cliff Richard has become Britain’s standout challenger to Elvis Presley.
Soccer is heading for another Saturday “whiteout” with only five games still on, at Swindon, West Bromwich, Barnsley, Brighton and Bristol Rovers.
Weather: very cold with scattered snow showers and sunny periods. Outlook – remaining cold with severe frost and snow. 0c, 32f.
Saturday 12 January 1963
The lights of Britain dimmed last night as voltage cuts hit the entire country. The cuts are due to a work-to-rule by power station workers over pay. The workers want an extra 3d an hour, but electricity chiefs are resisting.
Today is the worst Saturday for soccer since the Football League began seventy-five years ago. Only five of forty-six scheduled matches have a chance of going ahead. For the third Saturday running the football pools have been cancelled. Most horse racing meetings and rugby matches have also been called off. Snowed-up and struggling clubs were offered a £500 loan by the Football Association.
Fresh Food. Prices are still high – potatoes 6d a lb, leeks 1s 3d, swedes 8d, parsnips 10d, mushrooms 1s 3d a quarter.
TV viewers awards: Best Actor – Elvis Presley. Best Actress – Hayley Mills. Best Film – The Young Ones.
Top television shows this week: 1. Coronation Street 2. Hancock 3. Take Your Pick.
Television highlights: Stereophony – no pictures, sound only, Juke Box Jury with Sian Phillips, Pete Murray and Una Stubbs, The Rag Trade.
Radio highlights: Dancing, From Our Own Correspondent.
Weather: snow, continuous frost, colder. Maximum temperature -4c, 25f.
Sunday 13 January 1963
A ten-foot iceberg floated in the Thames near Greenwich yesterday – the eighteenth day of the Big Freeze. Along the French Channel coast the sea froze to depths up to two feet. Coldest spot in Britain – Ross-on-Wye -17c, 2f. All roads in all fifty-three counties were affected by hard-packed snow, or fresh snow and ice.
Electric scissors will be on sale soon. You simply press a button and guide them – £4 15s. Dehydrated hamburgers are now on sale in America. For fast meals simply cook in water and they fatten out.
The semi-detached mums of Britain’s new young middle class in private housing estates tend to feel lonely, insecure and maybe guilty, so says Miss Sonia Preece, a Health Visitor, in Nursing Times. By contrast, her counterparts in council flats are more easy-going and relaxed.
New demands for the raising of the school leaving age from fifteen to sixteen will be made when parliament returns next week. This would help to ease the problem of the “Leanagers” – the youngsters who cannot find jobs, but will not stay on at school.
Pat Moss, “The Greatest Woman Driver in the World” reckons that a breaking reaction time of 0.16 of a second is ideal. Any slower, and you are day-dreaming. Any faster, and you are mind-reading.
Sylvia Lamond’s beauty advice: feet – have a wardrobe of shoes of varying heel heights. Change frequently each day from elegant stilettos into medium heels, flatties and slippers. Spray ‘Foot Fresh’, 7s 9d, through your stockings.
Television highlights: Billy Cotton Band Show with Acker Bilk and the Springfields. The Avengers. Football – Ipswich Town Reserves v Nottingham Forest Reserves.
Radio highlights: Naturalist, Juke Box.
Weather: fog patches, then clearer spells. Very cold.
Monday 14 January 1963
Put off Monday wash day until later in the week, said a spokesman for the Electricity Board. The appeal followed a day of power cuts due to the Big Freeze and the power workers’ go-slow. Complete blackouts may be more widespread at morning and evening peak periods.
It was so cold in Ice-Box Britain yesterday that even the sea froze. At Herne Bay, Kent, a mile-long sheet of ice stretched 100 yards out from the beach. At Torquay, Devon, waves froze as they crashed on to the promenade. The RAC said ice or snow was affecting every mile of Britain’s roads. Nearly 100,000 miles of roads have disappeared under the snow.
Shirley Bassey has a problem – what to wear when she sings for President Kennedy. She’s debating between a pale-blue slinky gown, a champagne dress with a long train, and a yellow dress with a fishtail back. “I might buy a new one in New York and wear that,” Shirley said.
Eight weeks into its run, That Was The Week That Was is still receiving complaints. Anglican Canon John Duffield suggested that people should, “Storm the BBC and make them drop this horrible programme.”
Television highlights: Come Dancing, Their Kind of Music, Panorama.
Radio highlights: Hit Parade, Folk Songs of New Zealand.
International Rugby Union: France 6 Scotland 11. Groundsmen set fire to the pitch two hours before kickoff. They sprinkled petrol over the straw then ignited it until the pitch became a giant smoking crepe suzette.
Weather: below freezing in most areas. Outlook – little change. Maximum temperature -1c, 31f.
Tuesday 15 January 1963
The famous lights of Piccadilly Circus and other West End bright spots went out last night for the first time since the war. The lights were switched off voluntarily in response to Sunday’s appeal by the electricity board to relieve pressure on supplies during the freeze-up and the power men’s go-slow.
A High Court judge, Mr Justice Winn, said that people have a greater chance of meeting a better type of partner waltzing or doing the slow foxtrot than by doing the twist. However, dance maestro Victor Silvester said, “Socially, the twist is an ideal dance. In fact, if a person doesn’t dance the twist, he is a real square.”
The Flying Scotsman moved out of London’s King’s Cross station yesterday for its last official run. However, the Flying Scotsman service between King’s Cross, London and Edinburgh will continue to run – pulled by diesel locomotives.
From 1 March, manual workers in Britain will be able to have their wages paid by cheque, if they wish.
A recent theory suggests that the person who posed for the Mona Lisa was a man.
Television highlights: International Concert Hall, Father of the Bride, Song Album.
Radio highlights: Pop Inn, Woman’s Hour.
Weather: temperatures above freezing point. Outlook – less cold, but frost at night. Maximum temperature 3c, 37f.
Coming soon, Songbird, my novel set in the winter of 1962-63
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