Saturday 2 November 1963
Army corporal Roy Blake indulged in an “orgy of marriage”. He has wives in Germany, Holland and England. And he was planning to marry again. His legal marriage is to a German woman. Sent for trial accused of bigamy, he said, “I don’t know why I have done these things. I think it was because my first marriage was in such a mess.”
The execution of Edgar Valentine Black, who was sentenced to death for the murder of Richard Cook, has been fixed for 21 November at Cardiff Prison.
An article in Dental News states that dentists suffer a lot more than their patients. “The muscular strains suffered by a dentist during the course of his work are considerable,” the article said. “These strains plus unnatural postures mean that the dentist is literally killing himself while curing the patient.”
Members of the Women’s Institute were angry when the BBC’s radio serial The Archers presented them as only being interested in making jam and lampshades. A spokeswoman explained, “We do a great deal of serious social work to help the old, the young and the sick.” A BBC spokesman said they would highlight the welfare schemes in future episodes.
Sport is no longer enough to the public in these enlightened days. You must have a gimmick to go with it. Coventry City put on a forty-five minute radio show before each game. Manchester United parade drum majorettes, and other clubs are thinking of doing the same. And tonight, at the Empire Pool, Wembley a full house will watch an ice hockey match but, more importantly, listen to Beatle music during two fifteen minute intervals.
Television highlights: Comedy Playhouse – The Plan starring Peter Cushing. The Avengers – November Five. Espionage – spy series with Billie Whitelaw.
Radio highlights: Music While You Work. Compline.
Weather: rain or drizzle. Outlook – similar. 13c, 55f.
Sunday 3 November 1963
Views on people and countries. Nicest people – the Poles. Least friendly – the Swiss (unless you have money, they are not interested in you). Most beautiful country – Norway. Prettiest girls – Sweden. Warmest-hearted girls – Poland. Least friendly girls – Italy, Greece, Spain. Best food – France. Best beer – Denmark. Worst beer – Spain. Worst roads – Yugoslavia, England. Best roads – Italy and Germany. Happiest people – Poland and Denmark. Unhappiest people – Ireland and Sweden. Shrewdest – the Scots. Most naive – the Americans. Best dressed – the Hungarians. Worst dressed – the Danes. Most arrogant – the French. Most humble – the Spanish. Noisiest – the Italians. Quietest – the Finns. Friendliest – the Tunisians. Most organised – the Dutch. Most disorganised – the Belgians. Most rebellious – young Germans. Most dishonest – the Italians. Most honest – the English.
Lord Robens, chairman of the National Coal Board, appealed to Britain’s coalminers to join in a voluntary “Big Dig” on six Saturdays before Christmas in order to avoid a coal shortage this winter.
Fancy being a Poppy Day collector next Saturday? The British Legion are appealing for volunteers. They are hoping to reach a donation target of £1,250,000.
The big showbiz bombshell this year was the break-up of the Springfields. And the big question was what would Dusty Springfield do next? I’m tipping her first solo disc, I Only Want To Be With You to make her the number one British singer in 1964.
Football Results: First Division – Blackburn 1 Sheffield Wednesday 1, Blackpool 1 Everton 1, Chelsea 2 Birmingham 3, Liverpool 0 Leicester 1, Sheffield United 2 Arsenal 2, Stoke 4 Burnley 4, West Ham 4 WBA 2, Wolves 2 Manchester United 0. Top three – Sheffield United, Spurs, Manchester United.
Television highlights: Play – Veronica with Billie Whitelaw. Billy Cotton Band Show. Pinky and Perky.
Radio highlights: Around the World in a Bowler Hat. The Jazz Scene.
Weather: sunshine and heavy showers. Warm.
Monday 4 November 1963
Mr Sidney Silverman, Labour MP for Nelson and Colne, appealed to the Hone Secretary to reprieve Edgar Black, who has been sentenced to hang at Cardiff Prison on 21 November. Black was sentenced after shooting his wife’s lover. His appeal against conviction was dismissed.
Two men have been sentenced to death at Cornwall Assizes for murdering farmer Wiliam Rowe. The men are Dennis Whitty, 22, and Russell Pascoe, 23.
There are 11,000,000 vehicles on Britain’s roads today. By the end of the century there will be 33,000,000 – Government Road Research Estimate.
The British Boxing Board of Control are to probe allegations of a monopoly syndicate headed by a mysterious “Mr X”. Rumours of “dubious practices” have riddled boxing for months.
Happiness is…by Daily Mirror readers: When my baby budgie says “Pretty Bobby”. When the wife keeps her mouth shut. Being free from the Beatles. A ticket for the Beatles. A slimming diet with sticky buns. Eight draws on the pools. A television and wife – both working! When someone takes the spider out of the bath.
Where will the Beatles and the other Liverpool lads be this time next year? Most predict that they will still be riding high. However, some pop makers, like the Fourmost, are holding on to their day jobs, in case the Mersey roar becomes a whisper. This week’s number one, You’ll Never Walk Alone by Gerry and the Pacemakers.
Television highlights: The Way We Live – family relationships. Panorama – a report from Bournemouth on lonely old people. Jane Eyre – episode six.
Radio highlights: Tonight’s Topic. The Sense of the Future.
Weather: Bright spells, showers, mild. Outlook – similar. 13c, 55f.
Tuesday 5 November 1963
A storm is blowing up over reports that council workmen have been given a list of “amorous wives”. The wives in question live in Frimley and Camberley. Mr William Morris, chairman of the Tennant’s Association has arranged a special meeting to discuss the list. Airline pilot John Jeffrey, chairman of Frimley and Camberley Council, is also looking into the matter.
A family yesterday moved into Britain’s first “instant” skyscraper home. The eleven-storey building was built in twenty-eight weeks, half the time normally taken. This was possible because contractors used the “critical path” computer system employed to produce Polaris missiles.
“If I had a large amount of money to spend, I would not spend it on trying to get to the Moon, I would spend it on trying to double the agricultural production of the World.” – Dr Alexander Todd, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1957.
Dennis Whitty, 22, and Russell Pascoe, 23, sentenced to hang for murder, have appealed against the sentences. The men blame each other for Wiliam Rowe’s death.
Shoe prices are expected to soar next spring. Hide prices have increased by 30%. The rising costs will not affect the current stocks of shoes and boots.
Half of Britain will have no trains on Christmas Day this year. British Railways said that a steady drop in Christmas Day travel has made many services uneconomical.
Television highlights: World in Action – the electrical family. Emergency Ward 10 – bonfire night. Five O’Clock Club – Freddie and the Dreamers.
Radio highlights: Keep Up Your French. The Power of Evil.
Weather: sunshine and showers. Outlook – rain at times. 14c, 57f.
Wednesday 6 November 1963
Fighting broke out between women on a council estate in Frimley where twelve housewives are said to be too amorous. The twelve are on a secret list issued to council workmen. There are demands for the women’s names to be made public. For their safety, council workmen are now working in pairs. Mrs Moria Spencer, a 25 year old mother of seven, said, “We have our own ideas about who should be on that list. I used to make a cup of tea for the workmen, but never again.”
Police in three counties and the London area are searching for four men who hijacked a lorry on the M1 near Crick, Northants. The driver was bound and dumped 13 miles away. The lorry contained £5,000-worth of hair cream.
Fifty year old Lady Campbell told a court that she had “two really stiff gins” before driving off to keep a dinner date. On the journey, she crashed into a coach. She added that she was used to stiff drinks because she had been an alcoholic. Lady Campbell was fined £40 and banned from driving for two years.
“I believe Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale is soon to be tied to a railway track in an episode of The Avengers. I believe this is a good thing to happen to self-reliant females. Can we have a picture of her tied to the rails printed in your newspaper?” – P.R., Trinity College, Oxford.
A waterspout, forty yards high, knocked over seven beach huts in Exmouth. It also damaged a roof and a porch. Engineer Mr Charles Tighe said, “It was like a tall white cloud. It moved in very fast.”
Television highlights: Sportsview – the All Blacks, boxing and figure skating. Boss Cat. What Next in Beds? with Barbara Cartland and Stirling Moss.
Radio highlights: Play – The Bedmakers. Makes a Change.
Weather: sunny spells, showers. Outlook – similar. 14c, 57f.
Thursday 7 November 1963
A suspicious wife hid under the bed in the daytime because she thought her husband was having an affair with one of her friends. The friend told a divorce court that nothing more than “mild horseplay” had occurred and that she’d met the husband to discuss chrysanthemums because they were both keen gardeners. The judge concluded that that was an unlikely story. Divorce granted on the grounds of adultery.
Edgar Black, sentenced to hang a fortnight today at Cardiff Prison, was reprieved yesterday. Black killed his wife’s lover with a sawn-off shotgun and will now serve a life sentence. Mrs Black expressed her relief at the decision and vowed that she would wait for her husband.
Big Tony Mella, the Soho nightclub owner shot dead in January, left £17,809 – but no will. Letters of administration have been granted to his widow, Mrs Peggy Mella.
Stolen cars and parts of stolen cars worth over £250,000 were recovered in London last year. The “Big Boys” pay drivers £25 to steal a car and £1 a mile for delivery. The crooks have workshops that can change the look of a car within a few hours. But they frequently miss small identifying marks which can put the police on their track.
“Really, I’m a misfit. I haven’t got a pop face or a pop voice.” So says Dusty Springfield, who begins life as a solo artist in Discworld with I Only Want to Be With You. Tomorrow, she begins a nine-day stage tour. “I shall feel very odd and strange indeed. On stage, I shan’t know what to do with my hands.” She sings of love, but has no thoughts of marriage. “It wouldn’t be fair. In fact, it would be downright stupid.”
Television highlights: Miss World 1963. This Week – Beatle-mania. My Favourite Martian – new comedy series.
Radio highlights: The Rise and Fall of Poliomyelitis. Concerts on Records.
Weather: sunny spells, showers. Outlook – rain at times. 13c, 55f.
Friday 8 November 1963
Police swooped and seized 4,000 copies of a book that was due to be re-issued as a paperback. And Scotland Yard warned that anyone selling copies of the book will be prosecuted. The book, first published 200 years ago, is Fanny Hill by John Cleland. A spokesman for the publisher refused to comment until they have taken legal advice.
Cockney singer Joe Brown will not appear on the television programme Thank Your Lucky Stars because his version of George Formby’s Little Ukulele has been banned by the Independent Television Authority. The ITA said the song was “too suggestive”.
Marijuana – the drug used in the illegal “reefer” cigarettes smoked by some young people on the fringe of the beatnik movement – might be given the same social status as beer and whiskey. An article in the Lancet stated that the drug encourages passivity and is not addictive.
Monty Sunshine, the jazz clarinetist, had his honeymoon interrupted by the police. Someone had tipped the police off that Monty was Roy “The Weasel” James, wanted for questioning in connection with the Great Train Robbery. Satisfied that they had the wrong man, the detectives allowed Monty to continue his honeymoon with his bride, Jacqueline Lucy.
Miss Jamaica, Carole Joan Crawford, is the new Miss World. Second was Miss New Zealand, Elaine Miscall, and Miss Finland, Marja-Liisa Stahlberg was third. Fourteen million television viewers watched the contest.
Television highlights: Hobbies Club – embroidery and model boats. Dylan Thomas – a tribute introduced by Richard Burton. Pie in the Sky – comedy with Keith Barron and Diana Coupland.
Radio highlights: Continental Cocktail. Friday Spectacular.
Weather: showers. Outlook – showers. 11c, 52f.
Available for order and pre-order, my Swinging Sixties Mystery Series
https://books2read.com/u/bMqNPG
Hannah Howe 