Simon Coward

If you see this, post a record cover with a motor vehicle on it.

Lene Lovich on Top of the Pops with the subtitle "She chirrups".

Great subtitling. #totp

A multi-coloured card offering a service which can remove the effects of black magic, bad luck, witchcraft and the like.

I often get leaflets and cards for takeaways, gardening services, guttering and roofing, estate agents, taxis etc pushed through my letterbox. I've never had anything quite like this before.

Wasn't he Little Norm's brother? #beiderbeckejoke

Oh yes, definitely. He's very slightly younger than Ollie but his career in entertainment continues to this day.

In the U.K., of his ilk, I imagine only Sooty and Sweep have been around continuously for longer.

I think the story-telling may have been Oliver as the lighthouse keeper in Dog-Watch, with Fred as his companion.

And Dog-Watch is Oliver and Peter's joint creation. So while Peter may have been responsible for creating the physical manifestation of Fred (the Raymond Cusick to Oliver's Terry Nation, if you like) I'd consider Fred to be a proper joint creation.

Fred and Ollie seem to have been created at around the same time and their billed debuts, so far as TV Times is concerned, were in Jan and Feb 1961 respectively.

But whereas Ollie just seems to have started off as one of the Small Time gang, Fred gets his own series, alongside Oliver: Dog-Watch.

And I'm not sure that either Ollie or Fred were around in the 1950s.

Was he a Postgate creation? He was made by Peter and Joan Firmin and, I thought, they made him for Wally Whyton. Ollie's mate Fred Barker might be one of Oliver's, though no doubt again made by Peter and/or Joan. I know Fred didn't have so long a life as Ollie, as his career petered out in the 70s.

Batham's bitter albeit somewhat disguised as pint of Holden's.

A pint of Batham's bitter and, soon, the company of @hannahcooper.bsky.social.

Life is good.

One of my favourite sitcoms. 44 years old! Where does the bloody time go.

I don't remember that but I may watch it again just to check.

I don't think this was a compilation. The cast matches exactly with that listed for the original first episode. It may be cut slightly, the page for this one that used to be on ITN Source gave the duration as 24:30, last night's broadcast was 23:42.

Which ones were the Dora Bryan and Ken Platt? Mentioned in the end credits but I hadn't spotted them along the way. Mind you, the credits didn't mention Deryck Guyler or Katharine Hepburn, so maybe there were late substitutions.

'And a man opened a window in his pyjamas. I thought, hmm, funny place for a window.'

The only one I don't remember noticing was Dora Bryan. Who was doing her? #WhoDoYouDo

Not so old Baz #WhoDoYouDo

But that just helps with life in general. People who haven't heard of Chic are definitely missing out.

Interesting that Peter Goodwright felt he needed to mention Chic's name beforehand. #whodoyoudo

You cheeky so-and-so.

If the regions were doing it using local celebrities, you might argue that it's surprising that more of them didn't have a go.

Not quite in the same mould, as the originating series continued to be made, but I suppose you could have Coronation Street, Pardon the Expression and Turn Out the Lights.

It's a sign of my age that I first thought of Lord Harlech.

I'd quite forgotten that they'd ever done this on #totp. Used to love Cockney Rebel but I guess, for me, it was really the Mk I band and not the Mk II that I was fond of.

Football on BBC1 (Chelsea v Real Madrid in the European Super Cup), so TOTP was on BBC2. #totp

DEFENDING THE WAC: MARK LEWISOHN LOOKS AT WHY RENEWED APPRECIATION IS URGENTLY REQUIRED I was asked to write an op-ed piece saying why I think the BBC’s Written Archives Centre (WAC) is a unique and brilliant resource, which I can do because it’s both – and why, therefore…

MUST READ! In the latest CST blog about the damaging changes going on at the BBC Written Archives Centre, @marklewisohn.bsky.social delivers his cri de cœur squarely at those who came up with or are signing-off on this policy shift. Please read and share widely.

cstonline.net/defending-th...

Fred Dinenage and Bunty James. #strictly

I'm with you there.

I had the DVDs (and now have the Blu-rays) but there are a few episodes which I don't think I've ever seen, and others which I probably haven't watched since the 1980s.

"But hang on: you said it was the penultimate episode."

Yes I did and it was, originally, but in the 1980-81 repeat run on BBC2 it was shown fifth so there were loads more.

Four of the first five episodes repeated were from season two but they concentrated much more on the first season after that.