Mr Pastry
The comedians I like in general are ones who are quick-witted and good with words.
So it may seem slightly strange, therefore, that the first comedian who made an impression on me was Richard Hearne, in his television character of Mr Pastry ,as his comedy was mostly visual.
That's what I remember, anyway. I enjoyed the comedy dancing and I remember the signature tune Pop Goes the Weasel always being played.
Thanks to the wonders of the interclacker, I have found this clip of him, pretending to be at a dance:
It doesn't seem THAT long ago to me - I suppose it must have been amongst the first television that I ever saw, in the late nineteen-fifties.
But it looks - well - ancient. From a time where there was smog in Leeds caused by all the coal fires: from when people wore elbow-length gloves to go to town: from a time when there was still a post-war feel and there were sometimes old blackout curtains to play with: from a time when British food seemed to consist mostly of cabbage and rice-pudding.
To some it was a time of Elvis and Buddy Holly: but not to us though. It was a time of Sing Something Simple on the radio and a crackly old gramophone playing classical music.
Where was I then, watching Mr Pastry? In this house, in the room next door to this one, where we still watch television, with my Grandma upstairs in her two rooms, my mother making the tea and the Communist coming home from his chemist shop.
A long time ago, perhaps, the late Fifties, but it doesn't take much for me to plunge right back into them.
So it may seem slightly strange, therefore, that the first comedian who made an impression on me was Richard Hearne, in his television character of Mr Pastry ,as his comedy was mostly visual.
That's what I remember, anyway. I enjoyed the comedy dancing and I remember the signature tune Pop Goes the Weasel always being played.
Thanks to the wonders of the interclacker, I have found this clip of him, pretending to be at a dance:
It doesn't seem THAT long ago to me - I suppose it must have been amongst the first television that I ever saw, in the late nineteen-fifties.
But it looks - well - ancient. From a time where there was smog in Leeds caused by all the coal fires: from when people wore elbow-length gloves to go to town: from a time when there was still a post-war feel and there were sometimes old blackout curtains to play with: from a time when British food seemed to consist mostly of cabbage and rice-pudding.
To some it was a time of Elvis and Buddy Holly: but not to us though. It was a time of Sing Something Simple on the radio and a crackly old gramophone playing classical music.
Where was I then, watching Mr Pastry? In this house, in the room next door to this one, where we still watch television, with my Grandma upstairs in her two rooms, my mother making the tea and the Communist coming home from his chemist shop.
A long time ago, perhaps, the late Fifties, but it doesn't take much for me to plunge right back into them.
posted by Daphne at 7:28 pm
4 Comments:
Not forgetting scratchy woolen jumpers, cold lino and rooms lit by 40 W ceiling lights... ah, the late 50s ,early 60s... those were the days.
Lucy
Ah, Lucy - - I can tell you were there too!
Ahhh... Mr Pastry. Haven't thought of him for many's the long year. He came from the mythical land of Rag, Tag and Bobtail, The Potter's Wheel, Dixon of Dock Green and The Woodentops. Television is certainly a helluva lot better these days!
You think so YorkshirePudding? You can't beat the simplicity, the somehow innocence of all those shows..Morecombe and Wise at their best, the silly Harry Worth, Sid James and his mates.Am I alone in the world in not finding anything to like in "Little Britain" Have I been left behind? I do hope so.
Nostalgia, a wonderful thing, may there be more of it!
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