Monday 1 April 1963
Sir Edmund Hillary has halted his latest Himalayan climbing expedition and ordered his whole team to help fight a smallpox epidemic that is sweeping through Sherpa villages. Doctors are already in the district and vaccines will be flown in.
“There’s too much pop music on the radio. Two hours are devoted to it every Saturday morning and an hour every Sunday morning followed by more in the afternoon. And in the mid-week we have programmes like Get With It and Go Man Go. I’m all for music, but not this stuff.” – (Mrs) F Hall, Folkestone, Kent.
Stanley Baker, now producing and starring in Zulu in Natal, South Africa is making sure his film crew do not get too homesick. “I have built a replica of a London pub,” he said. “It is called the Pig and Whistle – and it has darts and shove ha’penny to go with the beer.”
A £10,000 film about Dylan Thomas, made by TWW, has been rejected by the ITV network. Instead, it will be shown on the BBC. Richard Burton appears in the film and speaks the commentary. The film has been selected as Britain’s documentary entry for the Cannes Film Festival in May.
Traffic Wardens Wanted. Age range: 25 – 55. Pay: £658 – £731 a year. Training with pay. Uniform provided. Opportunities for permanent pensionable appointment. Send a postcard to Secretary, Room 565, New Scotland Yard.
Television highlights: World in Action – a report from Zermatt on the typhoid crisis. Blue Peter. What’s My Line?
Radio highlights: Memory, Dreams and Imagination. Talking About Music.
Weather: sunny, warmer. Outlook – mainly dry. 11c, 52f.
Tuesday 2 April 1963
Colour TV tests with a French system called SECAM will be started by the BBC this month. ABC television, who have been testing this method for two years, will give a demonstration in Birmingham next month.
Medical “identity cards” giving details of blood group, allergies and a short medical history may be issued to everyone in Britain to carry at all times. Already, 25,000 cards have been issued in Scotland as an experiment. A Heath Ministry spokesman said, “The results of the experiment are now being carefully studied.”
Office workers are pouring into London at the rate of 30,000 a year. Nearly one-third of the population of England and Wales now live in London and adjacent counties. A report says it is uncertain how long the mushrooming requirements of work, traffic and living can all continue to be met in central London.
A 100mph Mini has arrived. The Mini-Cooper S will top 100mph with ease and with further tuning it will go even faster. The S will be a real challenger to the Lotus Ford, which has a maximum speed of 115mph. However, production will be limited. Prices: £575 basic, £695 7s 1d with purchase tax.
South Vietnam has banned Twist music because it “stirs up base passions.”
Message flashed on a local cinema screen: will the owner of number 158 BRA please remove it.
Television highlights: Torchy. Professional Ballroom Dancing – England v Germany. The 625 Show – Artists of the Future: Gerry and the Pacemakers.
Radio highlights: Ballet Music. Family Favourites.
Celtic and Rangers could meet in the Scottish FA Cup Final for the first time since 1928. Semi-final draw: Celtic v Raith. Rangers or Dundee v Queen of the South or Dundee United.
Weather: sunny and rather warm. Outlook – mainly dry. 14c, 57f.
Wednesday 3 April 1963
Women who want to “spend a penny” in public conveniences will soon be freed from the tyranny of the turnstiles installed by many local councils. However, sixty-nine councils have so far refused to agree to the government’s suggestion of removing the turnstiles while eighteen councils are undecided.
Leaders of the major churches in Britain hit out at a proposed alteration to the law to allow “divorce by consent” after a seven year separation. The State laws of marriage have been framed on the assumption that marriage is a life-long covenant. Church leaders believe that if divorce by consent is allowed couples will not take their marriage vows seriously.
Two British submarines were back in home waters last night after carrying out an exercise more than 30 miles under the Arctic ice pack at depths of more than two miles. The submarines, 295 feet long, both have seventy-one man crews, bunks with foam mattresses, a cinema projector, and a tape recorder.
Last month, a record 24,600 cars were sold on hire purchase, 10.000 more than a year ago, and 57,580 refrigerators were bought in February, 2,800 more than last year.
Two demolition workers who found £5,728 in an old safe on a building site are to receive £600 each. The men handed the money to the police and it was never claimed. After making a claim at the High Court, the men received their reward.
Television highlights: The Budget. I’m Going to Be…careers advice on becoming a footballer with Tommy Docherty and Terry Venables. Here and Now – folk singers.
Radio Highlights: Parade of the Pops. Music We Love.
Weather: sunny and warm. Outlook – continuing sunny and warm. 16c, 61f.
Thursday 4 April 1963
On the menu, radishes, mustard and cress, grown on a submarine that cruised for fifty miles under the Arctic pack-ice. After the meal, the submarine surfaced and the crew played football on the pack-ice (📸 below).
Scotland Yard detectives are studying at the Metropolitan Police Detective Training School. They are learning how to go over the scene of a crime like scientists, and spot clues that can trap a criminal. In recent years, forensic science has bounded forward. However, the probing skills of a good detective are still required.
A £1,000,000 television deal was announced yesterday by Mr Lew Grade, Associated TeleVision’s managing director. Under the deal, Associated TeleVision, the London week-end and Midlands week-day programme company will go into co-production on a new series with America’s National Broadcasting Company. The series will be called Espionage. Its 26 hour-long films, costing £45,000 each, will tell the stories of British and Allied agents during World War II.
John Barry, the music man who guided Adam Faith to disc fame, has just landed a big job – writing the score for the new James Bond film, From Russia With Love. He is also likely to have a hit on his hands with the TV theme The Human Jungle.
London has displaced Paris for the dubious honour of being Europe’s number one sin city, says the News Call Bulletin newspaper.
Football result: Home Nations Championship – Northern Ireland 1 Wales 4. Hockey result: RAF 2 Army 3 – Army win the Inter-Services Championship.
Television highlights: The Kilt is My Delight – Scots Songs and Dances. Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Table Tennis.
Radio highlights: The Twenties to the Twist. Disc Break.
Weather: bright spells then showers. Outlook – cold with rain. 9c, 48f.
Friday 5 April 1963
Not so long ago wearing an ankle bracelet meant that you were either a film starlet with an eye for a publicity gimmick, or a woman who put impact before good taste. But today things are changing fast and rings on her toes are just as acceptable as rings on her fingers. Foot jewellery is selling fast and likely to become a fashion trend.
Many modern chairs look good, but just try sitting on one for half an hour. They are uncomfortable. The loudest complaints come from women. Many feel that modern chairs are designed with men in mind. And that should come as no surprise because out of 59 designs submitted to a competition organised by the British Latex Foam Manufacturers’ Association only three were by women.
Most motorists are wearing out their cars by not driving them enough. Two-thirds of Europe’s motorists use their cars on journeys of eight miles or under. And that is wearing out the engines. Why? Because the engine never gets to its proper working temperature and therefore never works efficiently. A car thrives on a good long run whereas stop-and-start motoring has the opposite effect.
There’s a drive to persuade us to eat turkey for Easter, not with quite the same abandon as at Christmas; just a modest turkey dinner. Oven-ready mini-turkeys weighing between 4lb and 6lb, and costing 23s, are available this weekend. Don’t expect quite the same succulent flavour of a big bird, but with the right trimmings they do make a change.
Abolish the policeman on the beat and replace him with patrol cars, says a report in Police Review. A criminal can evade a constable on the beat, but a police car is better equipped to give chase.
Television highlights: Gardening Made Easy. Donegan’s On Again! with Lonnie Donegan. Close-Up – Peter Sellers’ films.
Radio highlights: The Navy Lark. Latin-American Music.
Weather: cold and cloudy with showers. Outlook – little change. 7c, 45f.
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