Comics UK

In It to Win It just finished on BBC One. One of the questions was "In which comic did Desperate Dan originally appear? The Beano, The Tiger, or The Dandy". Of course the answer was The Dandy, though I did notice a mistake in the question. Tiger wasn't called THE Tiger...

Just spotted the knockout fun book 1956 on antiques road trip.

My journey through the box set of Please Sir! is becoming something of an ordeal as I reach the later episodes and the quality of the programme deteriorates.

This is the opening scene of the episode entitled Sibley, Mumsie, Dodo and Georgie, originally broadcast on 27 November 1971. I didn't recognise this comic at all, but thanks to the mighty internet I quickly discovered that it's the May 1967 issue of Charlton's Fightin' Marines.

I'm going through all the episodes of grange hill via kodi and you tube and that is certainly an ordeal the futher along it goes but it is good seeing old comics and the spinning racks again i've seen look- in & dandy to name but 2

I watched a few of the early series of Grange Hill on Youtube a couple of years ago and thought they were still good, but I bailed out before the rot set in. I downloaded the Grange Hill spinoff Tucker's Luck a while back but haven't got round to watching it yet.

fear not, Nibbles: apparently the


Male chauvinism alert!



delightful Carol Hawkins appears in the last episode


END male chauvinist alert


[or thereabouts] of PLEASE SIR!

Carol also makes it to the large-screen film version, which should be in your box-set if it's the same as mine.

I will get around to FENN STREET GANG on dvd if the price comes down a bit.

Thanks Rab - the enticing prospect of an appearance by the fragrant Carol has strengthened my resolve to reach the final Please Sir! disc (yes, my box set is the same as yours).

I remember carol in a video roller skating to Melanie's Brand New Key on Top Of The Pops around 1972.

stevezodiac wrote:I remember carol in a video roller skating to Melanie's Brand New Key on Top Of The Pops around 1972.

Nice song that, Steve. A pity Melanie wasn't a better singer.

As good as Bob Dylan.

Phoenix wrote:Nice song that, Steve. A pity Melanie wasn't a better singer.

stevezodiac wrote:As good as Bob Dylan.

It isn't really possible to compare them because while Melanie was actually trying to sing. Bob was just presenting and interpreting his songs in his own way, and never even pretended to be a proper singer.

The funny thing is that I actually preferred Melanie's version of Mr. Tambourine Man!

philcom55 wrote:The funny thing is that I actually preferred Melanie's version of Mr. Tambourine Man!

My favourite version was sung by The Byrds. Melanie? She's barely in the frame!! I have to admit, though, that I do have a couple of her albums on reel-to-reel tape.

I must admit that neither Melanie nor Bob had brilliant voices (though both were certainly distinctive), but there's something about the arrangement on Melanie's version of Tambourine Man that always makes the back of my neck start to tingle. Especially the hypnotic bit about wanting to 'dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free'.

As far as 'Brand New Key' goes, however, I think I prefer Adge Cutler's version about the Combine Harvester!

philcom55 wrote:there's something about the arrangement on Melanie's version of Tambourine Man that always makes the back of my neck start to tingle. Especially the hypnotic bit about wanting to 'dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free'.

I've just listened to it on YouTube, Phil. It was interesting to hear again her idiosyncratic phrasing. It certainly isn't easy to do it that way. The song did sound rather better than my recollection of it but not that much better.