Wednesday 27 March 1963
The Battle at the Commons: Mounted Police Stop Invasion. Five hundred police fought a bitter battle yesterday with 3,000 protesters who tried to invade the House of Commons. Men and women chanted, “We want work! Tories out! Mounted police were sent in and the protesters engaged in a sit-down. Eventually, a delegation was allowed in to meet ministers.
Britain is changing fast. Tomorrow, Beeching will announce his blueprint for the revolution of the railways. Attitudes towards intimate relationships are changing. And the BBC has awoken from its long slumber and is knocking hell out of the Establishment. Now, a radical thought: the playing of God Save the Queen should be abandoned at the end of public meetings and entertainments. Instead, the anthem should only be played when the Queen is present.
Purple Heart tablets, a stimulant drug, are eaten like sweets in some East End cafes, a detective said yesterday. Purple Hearts are habit forming and the medical dose should never exceed one taken three times a day. Carmelo Brincat, 22, of Islington was fined £5 for unlawfully possessing 90 tablets.
In a few weeks time, tens of thousands of Easter motorists will be battling with frost damaged roads, and potholes, for Britain’s roads have still not recovered from the Big Freeze. Reduced speeds, down to 10mph, are now common on many trunk roads. Some of these roads were built hundreds of years ago. They are relics of the past that were never meant to take today’s heavy traffic.
British Railways laid on a train yesterday for one man. He turned up at Rochdale to catch the 5.44 am to Manchester. But he missed it. The train was not announced and the platform indicators were not working, so a diesel was put on to take him the ten miles to Manchester.
Television highlights: Your Life in Their Hands – slipped discs and sciatica. Let’s Dance. Tubby Hayes Plays.
Radio highlights: Round Britain Quiz. Duane Eddy.
Weather: sunshine and showers. Outlook – similar. 10c, 50f.
Thursday 28 March 1963
Beeching’s Blockbuster. The Railway Revolution. 2,228 Stations to Go. Dr Beeching proposes to close half of the country’s railway stations and rip up 5,000 miles of track. London fares will go up 2s in the pound and some season tickets will be stopped. One of the stations to close is the Welsh station of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
Britain’s new £52,000,000 atomic power station at Bradwell, Essex has made certain that hundreds of thousands of gourmets will be able to enjoy oysters later this year. Warm water pumped out of the station protected the Blackwater Estuary’s oyster beds during the winter. Many oysters elsewhere were killed by the cold.
Twelve US Treasury Bonds worth $3,000,000 are feared stolen. If true, this would be the single biggest theft in American history. A spokesman in Washington said, “This looks like an inside job.”
In the average household, £23 worth of food gets thrown away every year because it has gone bad. Only three homes in Britain have a fridge, so why don’t more people buy one? Housewives reply: “There’s not enough room in the kitchen.” “Cool larders are good enough.” “Too expensive.” Manufacturers should listen to women and discover what they want out of a refrigerator.
Football: Gordon Banks, the Leicester goalkeeper, will win his first cap against Scotland. The rest of the team – Armfield (captain), Byrne, Moore, Norman, Flowers, Douglas, Greaves, R.Smith, Melia, Charlton. Reserve – Milne.
Television highlights: Amateur Boxing – Midland and Western Counties v Wales. Road Works Report. Robin Hood.
Radio highlights: Use Your Italian. Smash Hits.
Weather: showers, some heavy. Outlook – similar. 9c, 48f.
Friday 29 March 1963
Anyone who tries to escape from a new skyscraper prison in Stuttgart, West Germany will be seen on television. For a tv escape detector is one of the startling innovations at the jail. The whole of the inner-prison wall is covered by a photo-electric cell ray, which, once broken, lights the area, switches on the television screen and spotlights the departing jailbird for the warders.
The Swiss TV service has protested to the BBC over the result of Saturday’s Eurovision Song Contest. They say that there was a muddle over the voting and that the result should be declared a draw. Denmark won by two points. The BBC said this was a matter for the European Broadcasting Union to resolve.
Mungo David Malcolm Murray, seventh Earl of Mansfield, believes that prisons should bring back the treadmill. “I totally disagree with the modern theory that punishment should be of a reforming nature,” he said. However, the Earl believes that reintroducing the cat-o-nine-tails would be too brutal.
Independent Television has got into a terrible rut with its seven – nine evening shows, complained Mr Donald Chapman, MP. “I don’t want to be thought a spoilsport, but for years we have had these awful Emergency Ward 10, Double Your Money, and Bootsie and Snudge programmes,” he said.
Television highlights: Comedy Playhouse. Television Playhouse. Richard the Lionheart.
Radio highlights: Fats Domino. Pick of the Week.
Football: the Scotland team to face England: Brown, Hamilton, Caldow, Mackay, Ure, Baxter, Henderson, White, St John, Law, Wilson. Reserve: McNeil. Dave Mackay replaces Pat Crerand. The last time Mackay played for Scotland, on 15 April 1961, they lost 9-3 to England, but he is certain they will not lose by that margin this time.
Weather: sunshine and showers. Outlook – similar. 10c, 50f.
Saturday 30 March 1963
Detectives wearing grass skirts arrested a rock singer. The detectives, who were also carrying mouth organs, called on American rock singer and band leader Jimmy “Baby Face” Lewis. They were there for an interview, but instead charged Lewis with peddling drugs to other entertainers. A list of 100 customers, including prominent show people from Hollywood, was found.
The government has ordered a team of top scientists to produce, by autumn, plans for a series of robot post offices to be set up in space. Plan 1 calls for the launching of a dozen satellites about 8,000 miles above the Earth. Plan 2 calls for the launching of three or four satellites 23,000 miles above the Earth. Mr Roy Mason, Labour MP, warned that Britain should not be dependent on America for satellite links.
The special levy on the advertising of Independent Television companies may rise to £4 in every £10. Their first £1,250,000 a year gross advertising revenue will be free of any special levy. But on the next £8,000,000 22 1/2 percent will have to be paid, and above £9,250,000 the levy will rise to 40 percent.
The Goons are to appear on BBC television, in a series of 26 puppet shows lasting 15 minutes each. The BBC is believed to have bought the British rights for more than £150,000. The last radio Goon show was in 1959.
Grand National favourites: Springbok 10/1, Loving Record 12/1, Dagmar Gittell 14/1, Owen’s Sedge 16/1, Kilmore 16/1. Only four clear favourites have won this century.
Television highlights: Juke Box Jury with Hattie Jacques and Eric Sykes. Saturday Sport – the FA Cup and Grand National. The Third Man – new series of adventures.
Radio highlights: Shanty Time. Motoring.
Weather: rain, sunny intervals. Outlook – warmer. 6c, 43f.
Sunday 31 March 1963
Dr Beeching, the man who axed the railways this week, was stopped in Totnes and informed that his Road Fund Licence expired in February.
Craftmaster are producing oil painting by number sets featuring Adam Faith and Acker Bilk, amongst others. Cost : 30s. A pocket-sized Dictaphone is now available in Britain – it plays back at normal speaking volume. Stick-on shelves – you moisten the edge with water and they stick on to any surface. The shelves are of unbreakable white plastic.
In less than five seconds smash and grab raiders got away with diamond rings worth £10,000. A blue Ford Consul pulled up outside a jeweller’s in Regent Street, London. A lounge-suited raider leapt out of the car and swung a heavy car jack at the shop window. The three-quarters of an inch glass shattered, the man grabbed a tray of diamond rings and jumped into the Ford Consul, which roared away.
Slim – no dieting, no exercise, no drugs. A slim, trim figure can be yours. Simply wear a Slimwear slimming garment over the areas you wish to slim and the fat just disappears.
Pop Charts: This week’s top three – 1. Foot Tapper by The Shadows 2. Summer Holiday by Cliff Richard and The Shadows 3. Like I’ve Never Been Gone by Billy Fury.
Television highlights: Chess Masterpieces. Songs of Praise. Comedy Hour.
Radio highlights: Gardeners’ Question Time. Pick of the Pops.
Grand National: winner – Ayala 66-1, second – Carrickbeg, third – Hawa’s Song. One horse died – Avenue Neuilly.
FA Cup Sixth Round Results: Coventry 1 Manchester United 3; Liverpool 1 West Ham 0; Norwich 0 Leicester 2; Nottingham Forest 1 Southampton 1.
Weather: dull with drizzly showers. Brighter later.
Available for pre-order, Songbird, my novel set in the winter of 1962-63
https://books2read.com/u/bMqNPG
For Authors
#1 for value with 565,000 readers, The Fussy Librarian has helped my books to reach #1 on over thirty occasions.
A special offer from my publisher and the Fussy Librarian. https://authors.thefussylibrarian.com/?ref=goylake
Don’t forget to use the code goylake20 to claim your discount 🙂
Hannah Howe 