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I was thinking about 'Upstairs Downstairs' last night, and whilst I'm not a great fan of the programme itself, there was this jolly little Edwardian-style song featured in the original series that went something like What are we going to do with Uncle Arthur? A blooming stallion is Uncle Arthur! I don't know why I suddenly thought of it again, but Pauline Collins released a version of it as a single. Does anybody else remember it??

It's on youtube - you can learn all the words! Dunno if the sheet music is available, or you'll have to learn it by earole.

I remember my mum used to sing it around the house. Only she used to sing:

What are we going to do with Uncle Arthur
With Uncle Arthur
Coz e's a tarter!!

It was actually the closing theme for the original TV series as I remember. Then fast forward, the late Benny Green got cajoled into playing the song on his long running Radio 2 show on a Sunday afternoon for a charitable donation! Mr.Green never hid his dislike of rock and roll music. But that did not stop him playing the theme song from the sequel to 'The Prisoner Of Zenda' one day. Return To Zenda!!

All the lyrics are on the web...bit naughty *snigger* !

Yes I know. Give us a kiss me dear, he'd say.........Bit more witty is the Thomas Sterndale Bennett Christmas song about an enterprising group of amateur carollers who can't sing that I heard for the very first time last year when I purchased a Victorian Christmas song CD in a charity shop...do you know the one I mean, Gill?? It goes something like In our village Christmas time I says to several mates. Look 'ere lads I says says I, Now what about some Waits?

The Carol Singers 'He sings forte, sounded loike a hundred, Should have heard us how we thundered'.... I've got the music for it! Somewhere...

Bloody great song. I'd love the chance to sing it if I could. The version I have is sung in Yorkshire dialect but a version on Youtube I came across was in West Country accents:

Good King Wenceslas looked out, we still keeps on recordin'
Yes said Bates, You look out too it's seldom I've heard more din!

So I'm not sure of the origins of the song, northern or southern English, but definitely rural in any case.

Might play The Carol Singers in the bookshop in December and see what sort of reception it gets. They seemed to like Charlie Parker and Chet Baker last week.

I've always thought it was West Country, but when I sang it with a choir we did Bucks accents!

I put the seasonal CDs out today. I've always believed Christmas should be kept in the month of December but we'd sold quite a few CDs last week so I was caught between a rock and a hard place with too much shelf space and not enough donated stuff to put out this week. And I counted two Victorian/Olde English ones as well.

I bagged myself a copy of Cliff Richard's Summer Holiday, not half as good as his rare Birmingham film 'Take Me High', wot I purchased on Ebay years ago for a few quid.

They were on about an old Cliff film on LBC this morning about a kid who made gay allegations against a teacher; apparently Cliff doesn't like to be reminded of it now...wonder why?

One only has to mention the word 'gay' and the Nick Ferrari's and James Whales of this world go berserk....

I have on DVD The Young Ones as well, would be interested in some of his other films too. George Cole, who starred as a Birmingham Labour councillor in 'Take me High' (and whom Cliff works his magic upon through settling his wars with his Tory rival, whom I think was played by Leo McKern) is on the One show tonight.

The film was 'Serious Charge', but he only plays a tiny part in it.

We were doing power walking in keepfit class yesterday, with our instructor showing us how we should walk every day. 'You mean like Leonard Rossiter in The Waterloo Bridge Handicap?' I call out with interest. She didn't have an answer. She's older than me!!

...but with no telly, evidently! If I ever go to Brum (unlikely) and see a bloke walking like that I shall know who it is...

Nobody walks like that in Birmingham. All the mainline stations are in the city centre so there's no need to power walk to work. Everyone else just uses the bus, or 'buz' as we say.

I can't power walk, my middle aged spread is spreading. But at least I can watch the full version of Waterloo Bridge on Youtube now as I only have the second half:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t5_oHaTE78

Fabulous. Sigh...they don't make stuff like that any more!

The old theme tune from 'Top Of The Form'. Wife says there are rude lyrics to it but cannot elaborate further when asked. So there aren't then

I bet she's right; have you tried goggling it?

I cannot believe such an obscure tune has any rude lyrics, or indeed any lyrics at all. I remember seeing on some entertainment TV programme long ago the Match of the Day theme 'sung'. I guess it's just because the TOTF theme (written by Ray Martin) along with Bert Kaempfert's 'A Swingin' Safari' annoys her...a bit like 'Handyman' by James Taylor annoys me.

I thought, for a change instead of my usual Radio 3 in the morning that I'd have Radio 1 on. No, I've not gone mad:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrdXAewXAa0

And Paul Gadd is Number One....hmmm. Way before he got found out for possession of a stash of James Last albums, shall we say??

Well I STILL like his music and think it's odd that his stuff is boycotted yet I heard Jonathan King's crud on R2 the other week.

'I'm The Leader Of The Gang' was one of the very first songs I can remember, and the first one Noel E played on the Youtube clip, I Love You Love Me Love.

I was a secret Stylistics fan though. I would never admit to it at school and my mother didn't like them (probably due to the colours of their skins, see avatar) but when I first heard their stuff in stereo on our old radiogram it was like nowt I'd ever heard before. It made me feel brand new. That was, until my mother switched it over to Radio 2 (on long wave at the time) making a vile racist comment as she did so.

My first ever memory was going to see a bloke with a red cloak and white beard at Lewis's department store in Brum in December 1973 (as a 3 yr old), which is when that clip dates from. Always had Noel's show on in the morning till I broke the transistor radio. Now Lewis's is empty apart from a pub chain on the ground floor and Noel's an egomaniac.

I'd always thought this song was a belter of belters, but I'd never ever seen the video. Spot the mysterious jolly mummers:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjPau5QYtYs&feature=kp

Been watching some old bits of Pebble Mill at One on YT. The old Pebble Mill site is now having a huge dental hospital (with a copious amount of PFI behind it) built on it but on the clips you can see the houses on the Pershore Road near the Birmingham Wildlife Park where the 45 and 47 buses run down.

The show, well that has lost its 'Pebble Mill At' and suffixed by the word 'Show'. Oh, and it's moved south. Hardly any British broadcasting is produced here these days, all we really have is The Archers and it'll only be a matter of time before that goes to Bristol.

I thought it had all gone either to Salford or Caerdydd?

I can't imagine The Archers produced in Manchester as the fictional English county of Borsetshire where it is set is supposedly in the south Midlands. Bristol, where the Natural History unit is based would be the obvious choice should it leave the Second City. Countryfile is produced here and the BBC have expressed a desire to move that down the M5.

This could also go in the Television thread, but I have been watching a load of old Crossroads Motel episodes online. As we all know the serial was famous for its bad acting and shaky sets but it was both made in and set in Brum and was a staple diet of British household evening mealtimes throughout the 70s and early 80s.

Its theme tune was, in common with those of Emmerdale Farm and Neighbours, composed by Tony Hatch. Mr.Hatch is well known for not taking criticism of his work well, as he is rich enough to file lawsuits against anybody who even dares to call him a 'wally' but I think the theme tune from Crossroads is one of his best works. It was even covered by Paul McCartney and Wings!!

Oi luvved Oimy Terrrrrrrrrrtil.

Gill the Piano wrote:Oi luvved Oimy Terrrrrrrrrrtil.

For me it was Adam Chance, suave, good looking, suited and slightly underhand. And a romeo. Everyone says Benny but I disagree. There was a young boy in it who was a bit of a tearaway whom was played by Gian Sammarco (Adrian Mole) along with loads of old Eh Brian Its a Whopper actors.

If ITV did decide to resurrect it YET AGAIN it would have to be based in Manchester and the Brummie accents would be replaced by Corrie ones. Meaning the magic would be non-existent.

I really wish they'd show some old episodes of Shoestring alongside To The Manor Born and Hi De Hi etc.

I'm really enjoying Open All Hours though!

My favourite for the lines on the bass clef I use this all the time;

Gordon Brown Did All.....

and for the spaces

.....and couldnt even govern.

Any better ones???