Monday 21 January 1963
Britain’s Biggest Ever Heli-Lift Rescue – 283 Flown From Fylingdales White Hell. Four RAF Whirlwinds flew again and again through an 80 mph gale, which at times whipped up a 50 foot curtain of snow, to rescue the men and women from the missile-spotting base on the Yorkshire moors.
The Electrical Trades Union last night called off their power men’s overtime ban. The unofficial go-slow also ended at midnight. But the electricity generating board warned that power cuts would not end immediately because of a “severe” backlog of work.
In a fantastic series of slips, slides and slithers more than fifty of the Monte Carlo car rally’s 298 competitors dropped out yesterday, beaten by Europe’s worst weather for nearly twenty years. Pat Moss, “the best woman driver in the world” remains in contention, driving a Ford Anglia Super.
Peter Ustinov’s play Photo Finish opens on Broadway on 12 February – the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated in his box while watching a play. Said Peter, “I have arranged that all the boxes in the theatre will be empty that night.”
Men are enthusiastic about such things as low-cut dresses and short skirts before they are married to the woman, but once they are married they feel their wives shouldn’t wear such things. Also, a wife is supposed to look pretty after five babies while men can get a paunch at thirty-five.
Television highlights: Dancing Club – learning the Bossa Nova, World in Action, Spin Along.
Radio highlights: Acker Bilk, Let’s Take a Spin.
Weather: mainly dry and very cold with persistent frost. High winds. Outlook – continuing very cold, some snow showers.
Tuesday 22 January 1963
Work is about to begin at the famous United States rocket base at Cape Canaveral, Florida, preparing Moonport One. From this new base US astronauts will blast-off for the Moon. The date of the first moon landing is not yet certain. It could be 1965, but a better guess is 1967.
Workers at the British Spinners Nylon Company are being offered bonuses to learn foreign languages, starting at £10 for one year rising to £75 for four years’ study.
London Airport yesterday had its first glimpse of the VC 10, the giant four-jets-in-the-tail airliner, which will be in operation with British Overseas Airways early next year.
Pat Moss, Britain’s top woman rally driver, dropped out of the Monte Carlo Rally yesterday because of mechanical trouble. She had been driving a Ford Anglia Super. Last night, more than ninety of the 296 starters were out of the rally.
Television highlights: Bookstand, Play of the Week, Background – on the dole.
Radio highlights: Listen to the Band, Moving to Music.
Weather: dry, sunny, very cold. Outlook – no change. Maximum temperature -3c, 27f.
Wednesday 23 January 1963
A spiteful wife put itching powder in her husband’s bed, emptied the bedroom of furniture, put sand, cement and bricks in the room, threw his washing in the mud, threw his dinner on the lawn and emptied his hot water bottle on the bed. She did this because her husband kept her short of money and was jealous. The judge granted the divorce.
Another strike at the trouble-plagued Ford car factory being built at Halewood, near Liverpool. Fifty-four electricians downed tools in protest over allegations of negligence about the mislaying of an electric drill.
Two raw eggs got British driver Peter Proctor to Monte Carlo yesterday in the final stages of the Monte Carlo rally. Proctor put the eggs in the radiator of his Sunbeam Rapier to seal a leak when the car blew a cylinder-head gasket.
A television college with tutors setting homework for viewers is urged by lecturers at Midland universities. The idea is to attract people who left school at fifteen and still want to learn.
Television highlights: I’m Going to Be…A Weather Forecaster, Bucknell’s House – how to decorate a bathroom, The Sky at Night.
Radio highlights: Come Into the Parlour, Teddy and Pearl.
Taunton rugby players, without a game for five weeks, are helping local farmers to bring in stranded sheep. Rescue tally to date – 300 sheep.
Weather: mainly sunny, very cold. Outlook – similar. Maximum temperature – 3c, 27f.
Thursday 24 January 1963
New Crisis – Gas Goes on Ration. Gas rationing brought new shivers to Britain yesterday. Supplies were cut over a wide area because of rising demand and dwindling coal stocks at the gasworks. On a brighter note, the Piccadilly Circus lights will be switched on again later today.
The TUC has decided to back proposals for Britain’s adoption of a decimal currency system.
Popland Goes British – eight of the top ten discs are British while fifteen of the top twenty are homemade.
Dr Blake Donaldson has arrived in Britain with advice for people who are overweight – walk for thirty minutes without stopping every morning, drink six tumblers of water a day and eat nothing but two lamb chops for 378 consecutive meals. Another doctor responded, “This diet could be dangerous.”
Watch the Beatles, a guitar-based instrumental quartet from Liverpool with a style of their own. Their first British disc, Love Me Do, hit the scene last October. It was a success and only this week made an exit from the charts. Now, here they come with their follow-up, Please Please Me – it should please you.
Television highlights: Perspective – is the day of the amateur over? Just Dennis. Roving Report.
Radio highlights: Railway Round-Up. As Time Goes By.
Weather: dry, very cold, fog patches. Outlook – dry and very cold. Temperature -6c, 21f.
Friday 25 January 1963
Business at the Three Magpies, a pub near London Airport, came to a halt for draught beer drinkers because the beer froze solid in the barrels. In 22 degrees of frost, lemonade and ginger beers also froze in the bottles.
Britain’s jobless total soared to a staggering 814,632 – a leap of nearly a quarter of a million since mid-December. The Big Freeze is partly to blame.
The East German Army yesterday put the Twist on its blacklist on the grounds that it is cheap, uncultured, unmilitary and in bad taste.
FIFA announced yesterday that South Africa’s soccer suspension has been lifted. The voting – 11 to 6. The suspension was imposed by FIFA in 1961 because of racial discrimination in South Africa.
Outright winner of the Monte Carlo Rally, for the second year running, is Swedish ace Eric Carlsson driving a Saab.
Television highlights: Gardening Club with Percy Thrower, Ashes and Diamonds – Polish feature film, True Adventure – Harpooning Giant Whales.
Radio highlights: They Are Foreign We Are English (discussion), Alan Freeman.
Weather: there will not be a general thaw until the last week of February, said long-range weather forecasters last night. Up until then they expect more snow and frost.
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