Fleur has very kindly dug it out and digitised it - and she's very kindly offered to send me a copy!
I am so excited about this message in a bottle from the deep past.
Fleur has very kindly dug it out and digitised it - and she's very kindly offered to send me a copy!
I am so excited about this message in a bottle from the deep past.
Here's me at 21, playing a song I wrote for a demo about higher education cuts in the mid-1980s!
This is a screengrab of a video I only just found out exists, filmed by Fleur Whitlock.
Quick quiz - which former monarch have I used to make the collage art for this poster?
22.02.2026 11:52 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Faultlessly accurate impression even if the lighting on the video fails to do it justice.
This is from last's Friday's show.
21.02.2026 16:32 —
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1. I don't thing Dad ever told me he'd been promoted from Second Lieutenant. Considering how often he talked about National Service, that is odd.
2. He was promoted AFTER HIS NATIONAL SERVICE HAD FINISHED.
WHAT?
Find out more in the last episode of the current series, out now.
So here's a delicious mystery.
I found this among Dad's things after he died. It's a document that seems to be informing him of his promotion to "Substantive Lieutenant".
A couple of weird things about this.
And on the basis of Dad having the temerity to come from a working-class background, Colonel Marsh refused to pass him.
Such was the naked snobbery in British society back in the early 1950
But Dad got through on his second attempt - and here's the paperwork to prove it.
Good old Dad!
"Well, you see, it makes it damn difficult for me to pass a chap like you."
So said Colonel Marsh to my Dad on discovering that Dad's father was a train driver. "Does that mean that he actually drives the bloody things?"
Want to know more? Check out episode 8.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/n...
And I think what he liked about National Service was all being in it together.
11.02.2026 18:52 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
I think National Service would have crushed me.
But he thrived. And it didn't make him go all right-wing either. He was a proud socialist all his life.
Unlike me, Dad was a joiner. Loved being part of a group. Didn't sit on the edge and say, "But why are we doing it like this? Just because it's what we've always done, doesn't mean we have to keep doing it like this!"
11.02.2026 18:52 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
If you want to spot my Dad in a National Service group shot, just look for the one with the biggest grin.
11.02.2026 18:52 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Well - there's a weird thing about that. Going to post more about it soon. And I talk about it in the episode. Because there's a document I found that I would have loved to ask Dad about...
11.02.2026 18:50 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Despite being promoted to Second Lieutenant, Dad looks about 12 in this photo.
In reality, he was about 20 and getting towards the end of his National Service.
But the question is - what do you call the stick that he's holding under his arm?
I can't remember for the life of me.
With fascism on the rise again, perhaps it's time to join in the common effort to defeat it and bring about unity and peace?
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/l...
Who knew that George VI took time out of his busy schedule to write to "you and all other boys and girls at school" to celebrate victory in World War II?
It obviously meant a lot to Dad, as he kept this for the rest of his life.
Here's my Dad channelling Elvis in the army.
Dad did two years of National Service and rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant.
Want to find out more?
Then check out episode 8 of Letters To My Dead Dad wherever you get your podcasts!
Fantastic time at the Horsebridge in Whitstable last night watching my old chum Mark Thomas perform a blisteringly funny night of stand-up.
Fantastic venue, fantastic comedian.
Both highly recommended!
I really want the podcast to be heard, and although it has listeners in five countries, the numbers are very small.
Your review would allow new listeners to find it.
Thanks, chums! You're the best!
Hilariously customised envelope, January 1984.
Hear what was in the letter in episode 7, out now!
If you've listened to and enjoyed Letters To My Dead Dad, I'd love it if you could post a 5* review on one of the big platforms (e.g. Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, etc.).
Genius!
01.02.2026 10:22 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Here it is, brought to life for the latest ep of Letters To My Dead Dad. All characters voiced by me. Atmos recorded in the streets of Whitstable. Want to hear more? Then check out ep 7 wherever you get your podcasts or via link below.
podcasts.apple.com/.../letters-...
Cartoon published in RANT magazine, Exeter University, 1984. Rant was an arty magazine full of arty poetry, creative writing and photography. So I submitted a craply drawn cartoon ro Rant, richly ripping the piss out of it.
And to their credit, they published it.
So here's a clip from Break a Leg, the full-length stand-up show about the experience that I performed at the Gulbenkian that December.
The whole show's up on YouTube - see link below.
Many thanks to KTV for filming it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=reI7...
"I think you'd have to be quite a niche pervert."
11 years ago today I fell down and broke my femur.
I had an operation to shove a big metal rod down it, spent over a week in a geriatric ward and took months to recover.
