Your assistance is required. My father, a fine, upstanding fellow and a core member of Harry Redknapp's advisory panel, wants to track down a record he remembers from the days before he had a beard. It's probably from between the wars, and was essentially a narrative about railway journeys, including French ones. The best bit was that the storyteller provided his own, vocal sound effects (eg "diddy dah, diddy dah, diddy diddy dah"). It would have been played on Children's Hour and the like. Of course, he might be hallucinating the whole thing, but the last time I looked, that was St Bruno Flake in his pipe, with no extras.It would have been a 78 rpm disc at the time, but he'd be happy to have it in any format, including download. Any ideas? I suspect there's a pint or two waiting behind the bar of the Brewer's Arms in Horndean for anyone who can point him in the right direction.
Thanking you in anticipation,
Yours sincerely,
etc.
6 comments:
Could it be this:
Model Railway (Charles Williams)
Ot this:
THE RUNAWAY TRAIN - Carson Robison & His Pioneers
Or this:
TRAINS - Reginald Gardiner
All of these were regular readers on The Children's Hour:
David Davis
Carleton Hobbs
Derek McCulloch (Uncle Mac)
Jon Pertwee
Wilfred Pickles
Norman Shelley
Might be able to track through there? Can you tell that I've really tried hard on this one.
This page also has lots of names and references that might jog a memory perhaps:
http://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/radio/childrenshour.htm
Molly, you absolute angel. Word has percolated from within the fug of pipe smoke that it was indeed Reginald Gardiner. Thank you.
(Why he doesn't post here, I don't know. Although the last time he commented on the blog was to tell me off for excessive swearing, so maybe it's a good thing.)
Now, if you can just use your magical healing powers to get Lua Lua back to full fitness, he might be persuaded to add a Chinese takeaway to the booze session.
(Incidentally, Dad once met Uncle Mac in a cinema; and I once met Jon Pertwee in a theatre. Weird, huh?)
I'm glad that my words are still popular after all of these years.
The train set off along the crickety crack lines. Choo-choo waves from the passengers and perhaps a white handkerchief tear for a goodbye.
The long journey across fields and whizzing bushes, through dark tunnels and missing edges of air. All of the little hands placed on laps of expectation: a beach; a grandma's home; an ill mamma or even just a lonely journey to nowhere.
All the days pass us by as we travel onwards. The trains take us to places up and down the valleys. France, England and further afield. Tiny faces of coal and steam-excitement. The black, heavy engines of grave disappointment or the strange hello and goodbye of love.
Post a Comment