Wednesday 22 May 1963
A dramatic move to hold the 1968 Olympics on both sides of the Berlin Wall was revealed today. The move is being discussed by Olympic committees and a final decision will be made next month.
The first Pop Pools starts this weekend. For a stake of 3d a line punters can select this week’s top ten tunes. If they select them in the right order they will win the jackpot. The dividends will depend on the number of clients.
In the interests of road safety a 50 mph speed limit is to be introduced on all derestricted roads other than motorways during five peak holiday weekends this summer. The BBC Light Programme will also broadcast “mood music” over these weekends.
Advice for picnickers: crumbs and jam attract ants and other creepy-crawlies. Keep them at bay by drawing a magic circle around you with a Git-Stick crayon. It contains a powerful insecticide. And for cooking outdoors a Norwegian picnic set is the answer. Cost: 7s 10d.
Chelsea beat Portsmouth 7 – 0 to clinch promotion to Division One. Stoke City are the other promoted club. The match between Walsall and Charlton was abandoned at half-time because of heavy rain.
Television highlights: European Cup Final – Milan v Benfica. Queer Fish in the Red Sea. International Professional Wrestling.
Radio highlights: Living English Dialects. On with the Bands.
Weather: rain, cool. Outlook – wet. 14c, 57f.
Thursday 23 May 1963
Anxious housewives rushed to the grocers yesterday to stock up on sugar as the price rocketed higher. And the sweet-tooth stampede might sweep the shelves clean today. In Peckham some women carried 20lbs of sugar home in prams. Political upheaval in Cuba has provoked the sugar crisis.
The BBC is to seek a £10,000,000 loan from the City to finance its second television channel, colour television and other developments. Experimental programmes will start in January and the full service should be operational by the end of the decade.
An experiment in breeding salmon has led to 20,000 fish being born with two heads. Blame has been placed on a fertilisation defect and too much iron in the water.
A new word for our fashion lexicon – the skimmer. A skimmer is a shift with a shade more shape.
Romantic conundrum: Bob goes out with Sarah who loves Mick who loves Pat, but she goes out with Tom. Mick goes out with Ann who loves Bob.
Kiki Dee has entered Discland with her first single, Early Night. Also out soon, Lesley Gore with It’s My Party.
European Cup Final Result: Benfica 1 Milan 2. Half-time 1 – 0. Played at Wembley, on Wednesday afternoon. Attendance 45,000.
Television highlights: Roadworks Report. Sir Lancelot. Moment for Melody.
Radio highlights: Swinging UK. Frontiers of Sociology.
Weather: sunny spells. Outlook – changeable. 17c, 63f.
Friday 24 May 1963
A quote on the ongoing sugar crisis: “You can cold-shoulder us immigrants. You can starve our islands of aid. You can push us around. But as long as you want a cup of hot, sweet tea you can’t do without our sugar.”
Prime Minister Mr Macmillan’s view of the 1970s: express passenger trains travelling at record speeds to all the great cities; a thousand miles of motorway; an entirely automatic telephone system; the removal of all slums; housing made up of fifty percent new buildings; further education for all young people; a new modern hospital in every large town; pleasant old people’s homes, and home nurses for people who need them.
Women are luckier than men. On what facts do I make this assertion? Well, when men have a slight cold they need a week in bed to get over it, whereas women just roll up their sleeves and carry on.
An idea to improve television: when programmes break down, which they inevitably do, the BBC should show nature clips instead of playing music.
A maggotorium in Harmondsworth, Middlesex is to close because people have complained about the smell.
A plea that a white football should be used at the FA Cup Final tomorrow because it’s easier to see on tv.
Jim Clark broke his own lap record at Monte Carlo in the first practice session for Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix. In a fuel-injection V8 Lotus, he lapped at 73.81 mph. Second fastest was Graham Hill. Third fastest was Willy Mairesse.
Television highlights: Bush Walkabout with David Attenborough. Football – England v the Football League, from Highbury. Living in the South of France.
Radio highlights: Folk Songs. Speedy Disc Show.
Weather: sunny, some rain. Outlook – much the same. 13c, 55f.
Saturday 25 May 1963
American teenagers are climbing into tumble driers and spinning at sixty revolutions a minute. These laundronauts have to complete 1,000 “orbits” to “travel to the Moon and back.” The record is 2,000 “orbits”.
£250,000 worth of gold bars were snatched in the Great Bullion Robbery yesterday. The raiders put 6d in a parking meter, parked their getaway van then stole the bars from a warehouse. Twenty hand-picked detectives have been formed into a Ghost Squad. They will merge with London’s underworld and search for the gold and robbers.
Catsuits are in. And they will be in the shops in three weeks’ time. You can lounge in them, or sleep in them. But if you really feel like stopping the traffic, wear them while riding a scooter.
Here’s a disc the Beatles probably hoped they would never hear again – it’s their first recording, My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, and it’s a stinker!
Football result: England 3 Football League 3.
Top TV programmes this week: 1. Liberal Party Broadcast. 2. Coronation Street (May 13). 3. Coronation Street (May 15). 4. The Odd Man. 5. Sunday Night at the London Palladium.
Television highlights: Master of the Signature Tune – Ron Grainer. Gala Variety Show. Supercar.
Radio highlights: Saturday Club. Science Survey.
Weather: sunny spells and showers. Outlook – thundery rain. 18c, 64f.
Sunday 26 May 1963
Ordinary housewives – the people who know where the shoe pinches – were given a raw deal when the Government set up its Consumer Council. They are not represented. And its chairman, Baroness Elliot, does not even do her own shopping. This Consumer Council sham will not bring an end to the High Street trickery.
The latest on the Gold Bullion Robbery. A man with a cockney accent phoned the Sunday Mirror and said, “The gold bullion is being shipped to France tonight. That’s all I’m telling you.”
The Duchess of Argyll continues her story: “These days, the owners of stately homes may have a bitter and heartbreaking struggle to live on their estates and keep them going. Things became so desperate that in late 1955 my husband told me that we would have to move out and take the roof off, which was a way of avoiding paying rates in Scotland. To stay, we had to find £100,000. This put a strain on our marriage, and I sensed it was going to end.”
Black nail varnish is in. Some women are adding tiny spots of gold. Braided straps for wristwatches are also in. You can choose the colours to match your club or organisation.
FA Cup Final Result: Manchester United 3 Leicester City 1. Receipts – £89,000.
Rugby Union Result: New Zealand 21 England 11.
Television highlights: Sunday Night at the London Palladium with Jane Morgan. The European Grand Prix – Raymond Baxter reports from Monaco. Play – How To Get Rid of Your Wife with Peter Sallis.
Radio highlights: Music for Wind Instruments. Pick of the Pops.
Weather: mainly dry with sunny spells.
Cover reveal for The Duchess, book two in my Swinging Sixties Mystery Series. Inspired by my research, and the people themselves, this story will feature a young woman who cannot hear or speak. She will become a series character.
Available for pre-order, Songbird, my novel set in the winter of 1962-63
https://books2read.com/u/bMqNPG
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