Podcast appearances and mentions of ted heath

February 28, 1972. The 1972 UK Miners' Strike, led by Arthur Scargill, comes to an end. After six weeks of struggle, the miners secure a famous victory over Ted Heath's government, and a new force enters the British political arena. This episode originally aired in 2023.Support the show! Join Into History for ad-free listening and more.History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Features vintage music by Geraldo, Vera Lynn and Ted Heath.  We also listen to a fun version of "Johnny Zero" by Sammy Kaye and a Soundie by The King Cole Trio. Consider supporting The Big Band and Swing Podcast by becoming a Hepcat.  Learn more at SupportSwing.com. * The music featured in this podcast is considered Public Domain.  Artists are credited within the podcast.

Joining Jill and Doron on the 35th episode of the podcast, the seventeenth and penultimate of our second season, to tell us their story are Dr. Alison Fisch Katz and Sally Green Wallis, BFFs - for half a century and counting - from the northern provinces of England who attended Carmel from 1973 to 1980.   Alison Fisch grew up in Leeds. She studied for her BA and MA in English Literature at Bar Ilan University in Israel and completed her PhD at the University of Leeds.  A former lecturer at Bar Ilan and the Open University in Israel, she eventually became Senior Lecturer and Head of the Languages and General Studies Department at the Azrieli College of Engineering in Jerusalem - a position she has held for 14 years.  Alongside her academic career, Alison has developed a business as a Personal and Rehab Fitness Trainer.  She lives in Ra'anana and has been married to Israeli-born Geri for almost 40 years. They have two grown sons, Tomer and Assaf.   Sally Green grew up in Grimsby.  After Carmel, she briefly attended Manchester Polytechnic before moving to London with a passion to work in travel, which is how she met her husband of 38 years, Howard.  She is now a director and shareholder at a bespoke travel agency in Radlett.   Sally has three children in their thirties, and four grandchildren, three of whom were born in a five month span earlier this year.   Hear Alison and Sally talk about the kashrut of sausage rolls, the evolution of their northern accents, the letter that nearly undid their friendship, the playwright who attended his play's opening night at Carmel, meeting the late Ted Heath, and how they maintained their bond over 50 years.   Thank you, Dr. Alison Fisch Katz and Sally Green Wallis, for turning us again to Carmel days!   Dedication: at Alison's and Sally's request, this episode is dedicated to the memory of Sally's late brother Michael Green, who inspired her to go to Carmel, and was a pupil himself from 1967 to 1973.  He worked in real estate, and was married with one daughter. Sadly, he passed away from a heart attack in 2012 at the age of 53 in Watford Hospital.   Personal mentions in this episode: Rabbi Jeremy Rosen (Headmaster) Trevor Bolton (French & Housemaster) Keith Pusey (Music) Helmut Dan Schmidt (History & Economics) Anthony Barr Taylor (Biology) Dr. John Addis (History) Yoel Silver (Computer Studies & Ridgeway Housemaster) Mike O'Connor (Art) Alastair Falk (English & Drama) Ron Evans (Mathematics) Mary Evans (Mathematics) Dr. Mendel Bloch (Jewish Studies & English) Geoff Lebens (English literature) Miss Haig (Housemistress) Alex Gerlis Jeremy Gerlis Andrea Samuels Walker Tanya Samuels Nigel Fisch Aliza Reger Simon Myerson Graham Harris Ruth Collins Claire Rosenberg Rosalind Susan Bruckner Michele Weissberg Nassimah Reynolds Daniel Reynolds David Reynolds Alan Bloom Clive Cass Kati Barr Taylor Catherine Addis Yoram Ezri Shelly Simons Schwarzmann Aviva Elias Robert Khalastchy Lisa Morrow Stephen Corrick Debra Corrick Davis Paul Corrick Nicky Richmond Sheba Sonya LeJeune Ricky Green Graham Dullop Adam Jackson Loni Saban Philippe Weissberg Moni Solti Leila Djemal Moti Taler   Feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you liked about this episode, and rate us on your favorite podcast platform

In our final week of investigating WAR HORSE, Katie and Tania return to the present day to talk about today's modern army horses. Join us as we talk with Ted Heath, Curator at the Household Cavalry Museum, about how today's cavalry horses are selected and cared for. It's a double whammy as we also talk to Glynn Jones, a former member of the Blues and Royals. Glynn tells us about his career in the army, and the posts he held at the stables. You can view any of our War Horse content, including our time with the National Theatre's UK Tour company, by popping over to YouTube and subscribing to our channel (Poles, Piaffe and Prosecco Podcast). You'll also see the World War One 'horse furniture' and equipment that Belinda showed us behind the scenes at the National Army Museum stores. Find out more about the Household Cavalry Museum: https://householdcavalry.co.uk/museum/ Book your tickets to watch War Horse on stage at a venue near you: https://www.warhorseonstage.com Join us on socials: Facebook: Poles, Piaffe & Prosecco Podcast Instagram: Poles, Piaffe & Prossecco_Podcast YouTube: Poles, Piaffe & Prosecco Podcast. #equestrianpodcast #dressage #dressagetrainer #poleworkforhorses #yourquestionsanswered #expertadvice #equestrianlifestyle #prosecco #piaffe #warhorseontour #warhorse #warhorseonstage

This week, Katie and Tania delve deeper into the story behind Michael Morpurgo and the National Theatre's WAR HORSE, and this week, we get real. Join us as we talk with Belinda Day, Senior Curator at the National Army Museum, about the REAL war horses, how they were kept and how high the standards of care were. Can you imaging managing a troop of horses in a battlefield? Neither could we! Find out how they did it. Hop over to YouTube and subscribe to our channel (Poles, Piaffe and Prosecco Podcast) to see the World War One 'horse furniture' and equipment that Belinda showed us and have a peek behind the scenes at the National Army Museum stores. Next week, we talk with Ted Heath and Glynn Jones about the modern cavalry horses and their lives. Don't miss it! Find our more about the National Army Museum: X - ⁠@NAM_London⁠ Instagram - ⁠@nam_london⁠ Facebook – ⁠National Army Museum⁠ Website - ⁠https://www.nam.ac.uk⁠ Book your tickets to watch War Horse on stage at a venue near you: https://www.warhorseonstage.com Join us on socials: Facebook: Poles, Piaffe & Prosecco Podcast Instagram: Poles, Piaffe & Prossecco_Podcast YouTube: Poles, Piaffe & Prosecco Podcast. #equestrianpodcast #dressage #dressagetrainer #poleworkforhorses #yourquestionsanswered #expertadvice #equestrianlifestyle #prosecco #piaffe #warhorseontour #warhorse #warhorseonstage #nationalarmymuseum @nam_london

Immensely influential British big band from the mid 1940's through the 1960's, Ted Heath and His Music was just finding its way in the middle 1940's. Featuring soloists like Kenny Baker on trumpet, Harry Roche and Jackie Armstrong on trombone, Reg Owen on clarinet, Les Gilbert on alto, Johnnie Gray on tenor and a rhythm section of Norman Stenfalt on piano, Dave Goldberg on guitar, Charlie Short on bass and Jack Parnell on drums, this group could hold its own with any American counterparts. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/john-clark49/support

Mystic Garv is back and she's got some quite rogue predictions... There's also lots of vehicle-chat so keep your ears peeled for mentions of Ted Heath's yacht, motor-homes and the Times Radio election bus... Variety is the spice of life! Plus, Fi speaks to author Harlan Coben about his latest novel 'Think Twice'.If you want to contact the show to ask a question and get involved in the conversation then please email us: janeandfi@times.radioFollow us on Instagram! @janeandfiPodcast Producer: Eve SalusburyExecutive Producer: Rosie Cutler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Beth gets Ruth and Jess's take on what's happening now that Diane Abbott has had the Labour whip restored. The WhatsApps from Beth's sources keep coming as they're recording.    They discuss the strategies behind the Sunak and Starmer campaigns – with one going for headline-grabbing pledges and the other spending the first week focusing on the personal rather than policy.    There's news from Jess on her plans for the campaign – and she met a dog named after Ted Heath when she was out door-knocking, so that takes us in only one direction.    Email Beth, Jess, and Ruth at electoraldysfunction@sky.uk, post on X to @BethRigby, or send a WhatsApp voice note on 07934 200 444.       

This episode was recorded at The Hill St Theatre at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on 11th August 2023. The panellists were Jane Walker, Dylan Dodds and Julia Knight. The host was Richard Pulsford. On This Day topics covered included: - Enid Blyton (born 11/08/1897) - 1st federal prisoners arrive at Alcatraz (11/08/1934) - the founding of Al Qaeda (11/08/1988) - Ted Heath's Admiral Cup victory (11/08/1971) - the UK solar eclipse (11/08/1999) - Robin Williams (died 11/08/2014)  

It is June 1970. Ted Heath is days away from becoming British Prime Minister. Mungo Jerry are riding high at the top of the charts. And popular television personality Simon Dee's career is just about to collapse in a spectacular fashion. How ironic then that Dee should co-star in the film we're discussing this week, playing a popular television personality! Doctor In Trouble was the last of the Doctor film series, which by 1970 had fully committed to aping the Carry Ons. As well as Dee, Harry Secombe is one of the principle cast, and the star is Leslie Phillips playing Dr Tony Burke, who somehow manages to stow away on a luxury cruise liner and spends much of the voyage trying to evade the clutches of Master-At Arms-Freddie Jones! Oh, and Robert Morley's in it too. Secombe is brilliant, as you would expect, and Dee (although not given a huge amount to do) puts in a fairly creditable performance. Leslie Phillips is, well, Leslie Phillips and how did we forget to mention that the peerless Irene Handl pops up too? Joining Tyler this week is writer, director and actor John Hewer. John has been behind some tributes to and revivals of classic British comedy performers and shows, including The Bed Sitting Room, Tommy Cooper and Steptoe & Son. They talk about the history of the Doctor series, the sad decline of James Robertson-Justice, the rise and fall of Simon Dee, problematic gay stereotypes from around this period, seventies posh nosh and consider the prospect of a nude Welshman on the film set! You'll really dig it!

Features music by Glen Gray, Alvino Rey, Ray Anthony and more.  Ronnaldo is battling the flu and also plays a Ted Heath track for a listener. Consider supporting The Big Band and Swing Podcast by becoming a Hepcat.  Learn more at SupportSwing.com. * All music in this podcast are Creative Commons.  Artists are credited within the podcast.

Nick And Simon Discuss the short lived but influential London Jazz club "Club Eleven", named after the number of founder members, began life just before Christmas in 1948. It was a co-operative arrangement designed to bring bebop to the attention of the jazz public at large. The musicians involved were Ronnie Scott, Hank Shaw, Leon Calvert, Johnny Rogers, Bernie Fenton, Tommy Pollard, Lennie Bush, Joe Muddel, Tony Crombie and Laurie Morgan plus manager Harry Morris. Johnny Dankworth and Denis Rose were regulars from the start. Some gave up steady work, Scott left Ted Heath, Fenton severed relations with Oscar Rabin, and Rose, Crombie, Muddel and Dankworth came from the now defunct Tito Burns orchestra.This venue with these musicians were the first truly organised bebop sessions in Britain. With the star-studded assembly of musicians, Club Eleven became the focal point for the new jazz and the inspiration to many other young musicians throughout the country.The music was played by the Johnny Dankworth Quartet comprising Dankworth, Bernie Fenton (pno), Joe Muddel (bs), and Laurie Morgan (d) and a band led by Ronnie Scott with Hank Shaw (tpt), Johnny Rogers (alto), Tommy Pollard (pno), Lennie Bush (bs), and Tony Crombie (d). The Dankworth quartet became a quintet when trumpeter Leon Calvert was added. Mac's Rehearsal Rooms, 44, Windmill Street, (where the Moffat Club had been), became the first venue operating on Thursday and Saturday nights. Entry was by descending a wooden staircase to a cramped low ceilinged room with a bandstand at one end. It was dimly lit with with bare light bulbs with a few battered sofas. Only bebop was played - fierce and urgent music! The early months of the Eleven saw the highest peak of enthusiasm in the history of British modern jazz. The jazzmen continued to listen and study as many records of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis that they could get hold of. Broadcasts, recordings, and concerts came in quick succession and public acclaim was such as to force a move within a few months to much larger premises at 50, Carnaby Street, satisfying the legions of fans coming from all over the country to the by now famous Club 11. It was now operating six days a week in the evening and was open in the afternoon as a meeting point for musicians. At this point Johnny Dankworth left to form his Seven taking Joe Muddel with him, and Harry Morris also quit.This is our website This is our InstagramThis is our Facebook group

Jenifer Rosenberg OBE has enjoyed a life of incredible opportunity and hard fought success. She was the founder of the UK's largest privately owned clothing manufacturer after a career at Marks & Spencer during the roaring 60's. She voted Veuve Clicquot Woman of the Year and today is the Chair of the Board of The Heart Cells Foundation. This episode focuses on three key stages of Jenifer's life. By her own admission she was never an academic but excited to leave school and seek opportunity within the creative field. Marks & Spencer offered her a job in the post room which whilst not very exciting, it provided Jenifer the chance to prove herself even at the tender age of 16. Jenifer found the simple administrative task of collecting senior leader signatures on cheques as a way to increase her personal brand within the organisation. Once Jenifer found herself a role within the buying department of M&S when the swinging 60's started to take shape with the likes of The Beatles, Twiggy, Mary Quant and Vidal Sassoon as London proved to be the epicentre of it all.  Jenifer, when moved to the skirts department, she suggested the trial of the mini skirt and before she knew it her career exploded as the mini skirt became synonymous with the era. Jenifer always appreciated the interaction, communication and humility of the M&S senior leaders combined with their ability to embrace risk and opportunity.  Jenifer left M&S in 1973 following a series of personal life decisions which led to her start J & J in Newcastle when Ted Heath was Prime Minister and the three day week was imposed during to the strikes. J & J was to become the UK's largest privately owned women's clothing manufacturer . During Christmas 1975, Jenifer lost her second husband having already lost her father. This had a huge impact on Jenifer who was now responsible for the leadership and growth of J & J.  Jenifer met her third husband who ended up merging with J & J which in turn led to a business with 3,000 people and 12 factories across the UK. That business was sold in 1992. Jenifer was on the receiving end of many accolades and offers of appointments at this point and she realised that life was for living as opposed to sitting back on past successes. Today, Jenifer is passionate about the Heart Cells Foundation founded in 2004 with her third husband (Ian) who later died from heart failure, however his life had been extended for three years after stem cell therapy treatment originally located out of Germany. Heart failure is currently the number 1 killer in the UK and one person dies every three minutes.  The charity focuses on the ability to use a person's own Stem Cells to repair their heart and it is revolutionising the practice of medicine. Their goal is to make this treatment readily available to everyone. Jenifer is responsible for raising millions of pounds for the Foundation and her passion for helping others is insatiable. www.heartcellsfoundation.comWatch & Subscribe:

We begin today's episode by pondering some interesting parallels between last week's letter from Dame Caroline Dinenage requesting on-line platforms to consider demonetising Russell Brand and the long but  fascinating history of Acts of Attainder. Dame Caroline's letter was discussed at length by Ben on GB News last week. We move on to an important victory for the FSU and one of our members. Colonel (retired) Dr Kelvin Wright has been cleared after he was investigated for sharing a Facebook post stating that ‘men cannot be women'. Following this positive outcome, Dr Wright commented that, while he has been vindicated, “the Army has a systemic problem where gender critical opinions are concerned. I want to ensure that nobody can be put through the type of process I've just endured”; the Army is much the poorer for the loss of a man like him. Following the publication last week of a staff letter that warns of a ‘woke takeover' across the civil service, we are rather left wondering, in the words of Ted Heath, “Who Governs Britain?”. After a brief interlude to discuss the new Online Safety Bill (thank you to all our members who have worked with us to strike out its most egregious elements) we finish the episode on a positive note: the apology statement written by Rethinking Education in the aftermath of its cancellation of director of Don't Divide Us, Dr Alka Sehgal Cuthbert.

From 1934-1940 the Six Swingers recorded several hundred sides for Regal Zonophone and Columbia of popular tunes, blues, jazz and novelties. Led by pianist George Scott Wood, the band at different times featured Max Goldberg, Lew Davis, Ted Heath, Tony Thorpe and others, but the star was reed player Freddy Gardner, whose clarinet, baritone and especially alto solos located him in the forefront of European jazz musicians. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/john-clark49/support

“As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Romans, I seem to see "the Tiber foaming with blood". That tragic and intractable phenomenon which we watch with horror across the Atlantic but which is interwoven with the history and existence of the States itself, is coming upon us here by our own volition and our own neglect. Indeed, it has all but come. In numerical terms, it will be of American proportions long before the end of the century.” That was Enoch Powell, the Tory MP who delivered his infamous “Rivers of Blood" speech on April 20th 1968. On the same day that Powell offered his apocalyptic vision of a Britain that opened its doors to immigrants, the FBI added James Earl Ray to its list of ten most wanted fugitives. Why? Two weeks prior, James Earl Ray had assassinated Dr. King in Memphis. On his death's eve, Dr. King had given a speech posthumously referred to as the “I Have Been to the Mountaintop” speech. Addressing the crowd, Dr. King said: “In the human rights revolution, if something isn't done, and done in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed.” For Dr. King the progress of colored persons was vital to human progress. For Powell, it was the end. Dr. King's influence has far exceeded that of Powell's, and the world is better off for it, but in the UK we don't learn about the debate over the Race Relations Act. We don't learn about Powell being sacked by Ted Heath from the shadow cabinet because of his speech. We don't learn about Paul Stephenson and the bus boycott in Bristol, but we do learn about the bus boycott in Birmingham Alabama.  As in other areas of public life, the UK takes its lead on race relations and the study of civil rights, from the US. This was exemplified in June 2020, when in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder, people across Britain and the world took to the streets to protest racism. In London, protesters marched in Parliament Square, and in Bristol, they pulled down the statue of Edward Colston and tossed it into the river, mirroring similar actions in the US where confederate statues had been toppled. This spurred a series of debates and actions across the UK about racism in Britain. For one of our guests, this is exactly the problem. Tomiwa Owolade is a writer and critic whose latest book, This Is Not America: Why Black Lives in Britain Matter (2023) argues that we should consider race from a British perspective, not an American one. Our second guest is Dr. Remi Adekoya, a lecturer at York University and author of two books, Biracial Britain (2021), and It's Not About Whiteness, It's About Wealth (2023). This week you can help us a lot by filling out this short survey. This is your chance to tell us what you like about the pod and what you'd like to see improved. Help us make the pod the best it can be: https://forms.gle/Mu5uqUHD5R7bwvSA7. We will pick one random respondent and award them 6 months of Patreon access for free. This is also our last episode of the season, we will be back in September for a new season of Uncommon Decency but if you're a Patreon you will get access to some deep dives that we will produce over the summer. As always, please rate and review Uncommon Decency on Apple Podcasts, and send us your comments or questions either on Twitter at @UnDecencyPod or by e-mail at undecencypod@gmail.com. And please consider supporting the show through Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/undecencypod.

With inflation remaining stubbornly high and interest rates at their highest in 15 years, this week's episode looks at the causes and political repercussions of today's crisis as well as the parallels with previous governments — from Harold Wilson to Ted Heath, James Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Conservative prime minister, soaring inflation, strikes bringing the country to a standstill - and Britain hosting the Eurovision Song Contest. Welcome to 1974.Matt looks at what happened when Ted Heath asked 'who governs Britain', and considers whether Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer could end up following the path of Heath and Wilson. Plus: Columnists India Knight and James Marriott discuss whether Zelensky should speak at Eurovision, Keir Starmer abandoning his autobiography, and who is Millennial Millie? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mike Tarraga's harrowing story of care homes and prolific child abuse.

Recorded at theSpace at Surgeons' Hall during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on Thursday 11th August. The Panel included Charmian Hughes and Alex Hiscock, with Richard Pulsford as host. On This Day topics covered included: Amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann destroys remains of Troy (1873) First federal prisoners arrive at Alcatraz (1934) The Beatles' Help! US release (1965) and Lennon's apology (1966) Ted Heath and Admiral's Cup victory (1971)

Frankie Vaughan seemed to be constantly present on British Television in 1960s. Mr Moonlight they called him. He had a big voice and a big stage presence, top hat, bow tie and tails. He had many hits during the 1950s and had a brief career in Holywood. Most notably opposite Marilyn Monroe in Lets make Love. Here he gives us The Green door. Lita Rosa- Hernando's Hideaway. Rosa started her stage career at the age of 12. At 24 she was lead female singer with Ted Heath. A strong voice which probably never reached its full potential with the material she was given. Variety is the spice of life on Forgotten Songs. So next up is Tom Wright with Driving into Glasgae in a sour milk cairt. Its billed as traditional on the Beltona label. It's not but was written in 1914 by Tom Johnstone for the comedian J.C macDonald. It's in broad Scots. Two from a F.S favourite, Kay Starr- Too busy and If you love me. Dickie Valentine was a popular crooner in Britain through the 50s. Like many British singers he existed on a diet of American covers. He died in a car crash in 1971. Joan Regan and The Squadronaires give us Ricochet. The Squadronaires were the R.A.F big band. There is some confusion of her birth name and exactly where she was born.  Again she did a lot of American covers through the 50s but her U.S recorded version of Don't talk to me of love become a Northern Soul classic. Languishing in the F.S colection has been this piece of US Billbord chart history from Tommy Edwards. It's all in the game was the first number one by an African American in the chart. Released in 1958 it was the biggest hit from this singer- song writer. He sadly died young at 47. Frank Ferera with Beautiful Love. He was a Hawaiian music pioneer. We go all posh with Air on a G string with Norbert Wethmar on violin. The only information I can be certain of about him are two references from The Radio Times in the late 1930s. Two performances with the BBC Orchestra. Florrie Forde was the Australian born grand Dame of British Music hall. Whose career spanned Victorian variety theatre to entertaining the troops in Aberdeen in 1940. She died after the performance, aged 64. Her songs included- Hold out your hand you naughty boy, Down at the old Bull and Bush and I do like to be by the seaside. Here she gives us When we were strolling around town. Maurice Winnick was another Manchester born musical child prodigy. As a teenager he was a band leader on a transatlantic liner. He had a succesful career through the 1930s and 40s. He died in 1960. He plays a lovely version of The Waltz you saved for me. The Platters need no introduction and neither does the song- Smoke gets in your eyes. Okay its not forgotten but how often do you hear it directly from the original 78?

Back after a three month break. What better way to start than with Bob Skyles and his Skyrockets with I'm gonna die with a broken heart. Three from the hugely popular Inkspots- Everyone is saying hello again, Thoughtless and one of their big hit Java Jive.  Just one of their records alone, If I didn't care, sold 19 million copies. Their style rarely changed but they were ground breakers. They sold well to both black and white audiences. Ted Heath and his music with Walking Shoes. Two soporific songs next- Paul Robson with Just a wearyin' and Rosemary Clooney with Brahms lullaby. Should have put them at the end. We all could have nodded off. Not often we play the pipes on Forgotten songs but we have two tunes from The Bowhill Colliery and District band. Bowhill in Fife was the scene of a pit disaster in 1931 when 10 men were killed. Like many factories, foundaries, collieries Bowhill had a works band. This being Scotland a pipe band as well as a silver band. The Rhytmn Maniacs with the wonderfully titled- 'The gag song( She was only a bookmakers daughter.) To be fair it does have some funny lines. Max Darewski was a Manchester born child prodigy. At the age of 9 he was conducting a full orchestra. He had a successful career as a composer. Not convinced his genius was on display with this number- Shadow man. Sadly he died only aged 35. Edna Thomas was a African American actress and singer. She performed on Broadway and on film. Here she gives a very refined performance of Mamzelle Zizi. No need to tell you about Roy Rodgers, here singing A four legged friend. Thank goodness he mentions Trigger at the end! Alma Cogan advises Never tango with an Eskimo but in this weather we need all the heat we can get. Lionel Hampton gives laid back vocals to The mood I'm in. Naturally he gives us some vibrophone too. We finish with two BBC records. Charles Williams leads his orchestra with own composition, The Devils Gallop. This was the signature tune to Dick Barton, Special Agent. A 'cliffhanger' radio series that the BBC ran from 1946 to 1951.  As we recorded this on Christmas we end with Come All Ye Faithfull, from the BBC Choir. I'm sure Lord Reith would approve. He was the stoney faced kill joy who ran the BBC for many years and he certainly wouldn't have approved of The Gag song. Far too ribald!!  

Features recordings by Ted Heath, Hal McIntyre, Bunny Berigan and Charlie Barnet.  Ronnaldo plays some select audio clips from a 1947 educational film called "Gasoline For Everybody." Consider supporting The Big Band and Swing Podcast by becoming a Hepcat.  Learn more at SupportSwing.com. * All music in this podcast are Creative Commons.  Artists are credited within the podcast.

Ted Heath was the top UK bandleader of the '40's, '50's, and '60's and a frequent visitor to the US.

Ex-BBC reporter Anna Brees describes her work helping victims of paedophiles.

This episode tells the story of Indians arriving in Uganda, becoming administrative class to colonial rulers, mercenary army members, traders, police, and indentured labour. How they then progressed through business, the position given to them as a middle class and the eventual deportation by Idi Amin.

Indians were taken to Kenya as indentured labour to build the railway, or went there as part of the administration of the region by the British colonial authorities. This podcast shows how they got there, what they did, the way that the British colonial authorities created a class system  that favoured the Indians but also created jealously and animosity within the local Black communities.

Before we get started… Writing elsewhereI have recently written about modern Russian literature for CapX, as well Victorian YIMBYs and Katherine Mansfield and 1922, for The Critic.Tours of LondonSign up here to get updates when we add new tour dates. There will be three tours a month, covering the Great Fire, Barbican, Samuel Johnson and more!Helen Lewis is a splendid infovore, which is how she has come to be one of the most interesting journalists of her generation. You will see in this conversation some of her range. We chatted before we recorded and she was full of references that reflect her broad reading. She reminded me of Samuel Johnson saying that in order to write a book you must turn over half a library. I recommend her book Difficult Women to you all, perhaps especially if you are not generally interested in “feminist” books. Helen is also working on a new book called The Selfish Genius. There's an acuity to Helen, often characterised by self-editing. She has the precision — and the keenness to be precise — of the well-informed. She was also, for someone who claims to be a difficult woman, remarkably amiable. That seeming paradox was one of the things we discussed, as well as biography, late bloomers, menopause, Barbara Castle, failure, Habsburgs and so on... I had not realised she was such a royal biography enthusiast, always a good sign. Helen's newsletter, by the way, has excellent links every week. It's a very good, and free, way to have someone intelligent and interesting curate the internet for you. Her latest Atlantic feature is about defunct European royals who are not occupying their throne. Let's hope one of Helen's screenplays gets produced…(I do not know, by the way, if Tyler Cowen would endorse the reference I made to him. I was riffing on something he said.)[This transcript is too long for email so either click the title above to read online or click at the bottom to go to the full email…]Henry: Is Difficult Women a collective biography, a book of connected essays, feminist history or something else?Helen Lewis: Start nice and simple. It was designed as the biography of a movement. It was designed as a history of feminism. But I knew from the start I had this huge problem, which is that anyone who writes about feminism, the first thing that everybody does is absolutely sharpens their pencils and axes about the fact that you inevitably missed stuff out. And so I thought what I need to do is really own the fact that this can only ever be a partial history. And its working subtitle was An Imperfect History of Feminism, and so the thematic idea then came about because of that.And the idea of doing it through fights, I think, is quite useful because that means that there was a collision of ideas and that something changed. You know, there were lots and lots of subjects that I thought were really interesting, but there wasn't a change, a specific "We used to be like this, and now we're like this," that I could tie it to. So I don't think it is a collective biography because I think there's no connection between the women except for the fact that they were all feminists, and to that extent, they were all change makers. And I've read some really great collective biographies, but I think they work best when they give you a sense of a milieu, which this doesn't really. There's not a lot that links Jayaben Desai in 1970s North London and Emmeline Pankhurst in 1900s Manchester. They're very disparate people.Henry: Some people make a distinction between a group biography, which is they all knew each other or they were in the same place or whatever, and a collective biography, which is where, as you say, they have no connection other than feminism or science or whatever it is. Were you trying to write a collective biography in that sense? Or was it just useful to use, as a sort of launching off point, a woman for each of the fights you wanted to describe?Helen Lewis: I think the latter because I felt, again, with the subject being so huge, that what you needed to do was bring it down to a human scale. And I always feel it's easier to follow one person through a period of history. And weirdly, by becoming ever more specific, I think you'll have a better chance of making universal points, right? And one of the things that when I'm reading non-fiction, I want to feel the granularity of somebody's research which, weirdly, I think then helps you understand the bigger picture better. And so if you take it down all the way to one person, or sometimes it's more... So Constance Lytton and Annie Kenney, that's sort of two people. I think probably Constance is bigger in that mix. It helps you to understand what it's like to be a person moving through time, which is what I wanted to kind of bring it back. Particularly, I think, with feminism where one of the problems, I think, is when you get progress made, it seems like common sense.And it's one of the things I find I love about Hilary Mantel's, the first two of that Thomas Cromwell trilogy, is there is a real sense that you don't know what's going to happen. Like the moment, the hinge moment, of Anne Boleyn's star appears to be falling. It's very hard not to read it now and think, "Well, obviously that was destined to happen. You'd obviously jumped ship to Jane Seymour." But she manages to recreate that sense of living through history without knowing the ending yet, right? And so maybe you should stick with Anne Boleyn. Maybe this has all just been a temporary blip. Maybe she'll have a son next year. And that's sort of what I wanted to recreate with feminism, is to put you back in the sensation of what it is to be like making those arguments about women having a vote at a time when that's seen as a kind of crackpot thing to be arguing for because obviously women are like this, obviously women are delicate, and they need to be protected. And when all of those arguments... Again, to go back to what it's like to just to live in a time where people's mindsets were completely different to... Which is to me, is the point of writing history, is to say... And the same thing about travel writing, is to say, "Here are people whose very basis, maybe even the way that they think, is completely different to all of your assumptions." All your assumptions that are so wired so deeply into you, you don't even know they're assumptions. You just think that's what consciousness is or what it is to be alive. And that's, I think, why I try to focus it on that human level.Henry: How do you do your research?Helen Lewis: Badly, with lots of procrastination in between it, I think is the only honest answer to that. I went and cast my net out for primary sources quite wide. And there was some... The number of fights kept expanding. I think it started off with eight fights, and then just more and more fights kept getting added. But I went to, for example, the LSC Women's Library has got a suffragette collection. And I just read lots and lots of suffragette letters on microfiche. And that was a really good way into it because you've got a sense of who was a personality and who had left enough records behind. And I write about this in the book, about the fact that it's much easier to write a biography of a writer because they'll fundamentally, probably, give you lots of clues as to what they were thinking and doing in any particular time. But I also find things that I found really moving, like the last letter from Constance Lytton before she has a stroke, which has been effected by being force fed and having starved herself. And then you can see the jump, and then she learns to write again with her other hand, and her handwriting's changed.And stuff like that, I just don't think you would get if you didn't allow yourself to be... Just sort of wade through some stuff. Someone volunteered to be my research assistant, I mean I would have paid them, I did pay them, to do reports of books, which apparently some authors do, right? They will get someone to go and read a load of books for them, and then come back. And I thought, "Well, this is interesting. Maybe I'll try this. I've got a lot of ground to cover here." And she wrote a report on a book about… I think it was about environmental feminism. And it was really interesting, but I just hadn't had the experience of living through reading a book. And all of the stuff you do when you're reading a book you don't even think about, where you kind of go, "Oh, that's interesting. Oh, and actually, that reminds me of this thing that's happened in this other book that's... Well, I wonder if there's more of that as I go along." I don't think if you're going try and write a book, there is any shortcut.I thought this would be a very... I'm sure you could write a very shallow... One of those books I think of where they're a bit Wikipedia. You know what I mean. You know sometimes when you find those very 50 inspirational women books, those were the books I was writing against. And it's like, you've basically written 50 potted biographies of people. And you've not tried to find anything that is off the beaten track or against the conventional way of reading these lives. It's just some facts.Henry: So biographically, you were perhaps more inspired by what you didn't want to write than what you did.Helen Lewis: Yeah, I think that's very true. I think writing about feminism was an interesting first book to pick because there's so much of it, it's like half the human race. It's really not a new subject. And to do the whole of British feminism really was a mad undertaking. But I knew that I didn't want to write, "You go girl, here's some amazing ladies in history." And I wanted to actually lean into the fact that they could be weird or nasty or mad. And my editor said to me at one point, and I said, "I'm really worried about writing some of this stuff." She said, "I think you can be more extreme in a book," which I thought was really interesting.Which I think is also very true in that I also feel like this about doing podcasts is that I very rarely get in trouble for things I've said on podcasts because it's quite hard to lazily clip a bit of them out and put them on Twitter and toss the chum into the water. Right? And I think that's the same thing about if you write something on page 390 of a book, yeah, occasionally, someone might take a screen-grab of it, but people hopefully will have read pages 1-389 and know where you're coming from, by that point.Henry: Maybe trolls don't read.Helen Lewis: Well, I think a lot of the stuff that annoys me is a shallow engagement with complexity, and an attempt to go through books and harvest them for their talking points, which is just not how... It's just such a sad, weathered way of approaching the experience of reading, isn't it? Do I agree with this author or not? I like reading people I disagree with. And so for example, the fact that I call the suffragettes terrorists, and I write about that, I think people are reluctant to engage with the fact that people you agree with did terrible things in the pursuit of a goal that you agree with. And I think it's very true about other sectors. I always think about the fact that Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for terrorism. And that gets pushed down in the mix, doesn't it? When it all turns out that actually, he was a great man. And that incredibly long imprisonment in Robben Island is its own totemic piece of the history of modern South Africa, that you don't wanna sit with the awkward bits of the story too.Henry: You've had a lot of difficult experiences on Twitter? Would you have written this book if you hadn't lived through that?Helen Lewis: I think that's a hard question to answer. I tried not to make it a “Here is the cutting of all my enemies.” And actually, my friend, Rob read this book in draft and he insisted that everyone I knew that I was going to argue with had to be of sufficient stature to be worth arguing with. He's like, You cannot argue with, I think I put it in my drawing piece, a piece like Princess Sparklehorse 420. Right? That's quite hard when you're writing about modern feminism, because actually if you think about what I think of as the very social justice end of it, right? The end of it, that is very pro sex work, very pro self-identification of gender, very pro prison abolition, police abolition, it's actually quite hard to find the people who were the theorists of that. It's more of a vibe that you will find in social media spaces on Tumblr, and Twitter and other places like that. So trying to find who is the person who has actually codified all that and put that down to then say, "Well, let's look at it from all sides", can be really difficult. So I did find myself slightly arguing with people on Twitter.Henry: I'm wondering more, like one way I read your book, it's very thought-provoking on feminism, but it's also very thought-provoking just on what is a difficult person. And there's a real thing now about if you're low in agreeableness, that might mean you're a genius, like Steve Jobs, or it might mean you're a Twitter troll. And we have a very basic binary way of thinking about being difficult. And it's actually very nuanced, and you have to be very clever about how to be difficult. And in a way, I wondered if one of the things you were thinking about was, well, everyone's doing difficult in a really poor way. And what we need, especially on the left, is smart difficult, and here is a book about that, and please improve. [chuckle]Helen Lewis: Yeah, there was a lot of that and it's part of the sort of bro-ey end of philosophy is about maybe women have been less brilliant through history because they're less willing to be disagreeable, they have a higher need to be liked, which I think is kind of interesting. I don't entirely buy it. But I think there's an interesting thing there about whether or not you have to be willing to be iconoclastic. The thing that I find interesting about that is, again, there's another way in which you can refer to it, which is the idea that if you're a heretic, you're automatically right.Henry: Yes.Helen Lewis: And there's a lot of...Henry: Or brave.Helen Lewis: Or brave, right? And I think it's... You can see it in some of the work that I'm doing at the moment about the intellectual dark web being a really interesting example. Some of them stayed true to the kind of idea that you were a skeptic. And some of them disbelieved the mainstream to the extent that they ended up falling down the rabbit holes of thinking Ivermectin was a really great treatment for COVID, or that the vaccines were going to microchip you or whatever it might be. And so I'm always interested in how personality affects politics, I guess. And yeah, how you can be self-contained and insist on being right and not cow-tow to other people without being an a*****e is a perpetually interesting question. It's coming up in my second book a lot, which is about genius. Which is sort-of the similar thing is, how do you insist when everybody tells you that you're wrong, that you're right. And the thing that we don't talk about enough in that context, I think Newton is a very good example is that, obviously, he made these incredible breakthroughs with gravity and mathematics, and then spends literally decades doing biblical chronology and everyone tells him that he's wrong, and he is wrong. And we don't really talk about that side of it very much.All the people who spent all their time studying phlogiston and mesmerism, or that's more complicated because I think that does lead to interesting insights. A lot of people who the world told was wrong, were wrong. And we're over-indexing, always writing about the ones who were the one Galileo saying the Earth still moves, and they turned out to be correct.Henry: Yes. There are good books about biographies of failures, but they're less popular.Helen Lewis: Which is tough because most of us are going to be failures.Henry: Yes. Well, you're not gonna buy a book to reinforce that.Helen Lewis: No, but maybe there could be some deep spiritual learning from it, which is that a life spent in pursuit of a goal that turns out to be illusory is still a noble one.Henry: That's a fundamentally religious opinion that I think a secular society is not very good at handling.Helen Lewis: Yeah, maybe. Yeah. I've been doing lots of work for Radio 4 about the link between politics and religion, and whether or not religion has to some extent replaced politics as Western societies become more secular. And I think there is some truth in that. And one of the big problems is, yes, it doesn't have that sort of spirit of self-abnegation or the idea of kind of forgiveness in it, or the idea of just desserts happening over the horizon of death. Like everything's got be settled now in politics here, which I think is a bad fit for religious impulses and ideas.Henry: What is the role of humour in being difficult?Helen Lewis: I think it's really important because it does sweeten the pill of trying to make people be on your side. And so I had a long discussion with myself about how much I should put those jokes in the footnotes of the book, and how much I should kind of be funny, generally. Because I think the problem is, if you're funny, people don't think you're serious. And I think it's a big problem, particularly for women writers, that actually I think sometimes, and this happens in journalism too, that women writers often play up their seriousness, a sort of uber-serious persona, because they want to be taken seriously. If you see what I mean, it's very hard to be a foreign policy expert and also have a kind of lively, cheeky side, right? We think that certain things demand a kind of humourlessness to them.But the other thing that I think humour is very important, is it creates complicity with the audience. If you laugh at someone's joke, you've aligned yourself with them, right? Which is why we now have such a taboo and a prohibition on racist jokes, sexist jokes, whatever they might be, because it's everyone in the audience against that minority. But that can, again, if you use your powers for good, be quite powerful. I think it is quite powerful to see... There's one of the suffragettes where someone throws a cabbage at her, and she says something like, “I must return this to the man in the audience who's lost his head.” And given that all the attacks on the suffragettes were that they were these sort of mad, radical, weird, un-feminine, inhuman people, then that was a very good way of instantly saying that you weren't taking it too seriously.One of the big problems with activism is obviously that people, normal people who don't spend every moment of their life thinking about politics, find it a bit repellent because it is so monomaniacal and all-consuming. And therefore, being able to puncture your pomposity in that way, I think is quite useful.Henry: So if there are people who want to learn from Helen Lewis, “How can I be difficult at work and not be cast aside,” you would say, “Tell more low-grade jokes, get people to like you, and then land them with some difficult remark.”Helen Lewis: Use your powers for good after that. It's tricky, isn't it? I think the real answer to how to be difficult at work is decide what level of compromise you're willing to entertain to get into positions of power. Which is the same question any activist should ask themselves, “How much do I need to engage with the current flawed system in order to change it?” And people can be more or less open with themselves, I guess, about that. I think the recent Obama memoir is quite open about, for example on the financial relief in 2008, about how much he should have tried to be more radical and change stuff, and how much he... Did he actually let himself think he was being this great consensualist working with the Republican Party and therefore not get stuff done?And then the other end, I think you have the criticism I made of the Corbyn project, which was that it was better to have kind of clean hands than get things done. There's a great essay by Matt Bruenig called Purity Politics, which says... No, what is it called? Purity Leftism. And it said, “the purity leftist's approach is not so much that they're worried about that oppression is happening but that they should have no part of it.” And I think that's part of the question of being difficult, too, is actually how much do you have to work with and compromise yourself by working with people with whom you're opposed? And it's a big question in feminism. There are people who will now say, “Well, how could feminists possibly work with the Conservative Party?” Entirely forgetting that Emmeline Pankhurst ran as a Conservative candidate.Henry: She was very conservative.Helen Lewis: Right. And there were members of the suffragettes who went on to join the British Union of Fascists. That actually... Some of the core tenets of feminism have been won by people who didn't at all see themselves on the left.Henry: If I was the devil's advocate, I'd say that well-behaved women, for want of a better phrase, do make a lot of history. Not just suffragists but factory workers, political wives, political mistresses. What's the balance between needing difficult women and needing not exactly compliant women but people who are going to change it by, as you say, completely engaging with the system and almost just getting on with it?Helen Lewis: There's a scale, isn't there? Because if you make yourself too unbelievably difficult, then no one wants to work with you and it's... I think the suffragettes is a really good example of that actually. The intervention of the First World War makes that story impossible to play out without it.But had they continued on that course of becoming ever more militant, ever more bombings, and pouring acid on greens, and snipping telephone wires... The criticism that was made of them was, “Are they actually turning people off this cause?” And you get people saying that, that actually the suffragettes set back the cause of women's suffrage, which I'm not entirely sure I buy. I think I certainly don't buy it in the terms of the situation in 1905. Fawcett writes about the fact that there were loads of all these articles decrying the suffragettes, whereas previously they'd just been... The cause of suffrage, which had been going on for 70-80 years, quite in earnest, in legal form, had just been completely ignored. So there was definitely a moment where what it really needed was attention. But then, can you make the same argument in 1914 about whether or not the suffragettes were still doing an equal amount of good? I think then it's much more tenuous.And there was a really good article saying that, essentially your point, well-behaved women do make history, saying that a lot of boring legal heavy-lifting... And it's one of the things I find very interesting about where modern feminism in Britain is. A lot of the work that's most interesting is being done through things like judicial reviews, which is a lot of very boring pulling together large amounts of court bundles, and people saying, “Is this obiter?” This word which I once understood, and now don't anymore. But it's not people chaining themselves to railings or throwing themselves under horses. It's people getting up in the morning and putting another day shift in at quite boring admin. And I do think that maybe that's something that I underplayed in the book because it's not so narratively captivating. Brenda Hale made that point to me that she would have been a suffragist because she just believed in playing things by the book. You won it by the book.And I do think now I find I don't agree with throwing paint and pies and milkshakes and stuff like that at people whose political persuasions I disagree with, right? I fundamentally don't believe in punching Nazis, which was a great debate... Do you remember the great Twitter debate of a couple of years ago about whether it's okay to punch a Nazi? I think if you live in America or the UK, and there are democratic ways and a free press in which to make your political case, you don't need to resort to a riot. And that's not the case all over the world, obviously. But I do think that I am... I think difficulty takes many, many forms.Henry: A question about Margaret Thatcher.Helen Lewis: Yes.Henry: Was she good for women, even though she wasn't good for feminism? So millions of women joined the labour force in the 1980s, more than before or since. It was the first time that women got their own personal allowance for income tax, rather than being taxed as an extension of their husband's income.Helen Lewis: I'm trying to remember. Was that a Tory policy?Henry: That was 1988 budget, and it came into effect in 1990. And she also publicly supported. She said, “You should be nice to mothers who go out to work. They're just earning money for their families.” So even though she definitely did not, consciously I think, help the cause of feminism, you would probably rather be a woman in the '80s than the '70s...Helen Lewis: Oh yeah, definitely.Henry: But because of her. That's my challenge to you.Helen Lewis: No, it's a good challenge. And I think it's one that has a lot of merit. I'm not sure whether or not she would be grateful to you for positioning her as Margaret Thatcher, feminist hero. And it's really into having... I wrote a screenplay last year about the women in politics in the years before Margaret Thatcher, and it's very... And I cover this a bit in the book. That women have always struggled in Labour, a collective movement, where it's like if you let one woman through, you've got to let them all. Like, “I'm the vanguard” versus the Thatcher route, which was like, “I'm just me, a person. Judge me on who I am,” and not making such a kind of radical collective claim. So that's the bit that holds me back from endorsing her as a kind of good thing for women, is I think she was Elizabeth I in the sense where she was like, “I'm good like a man,” rather than saying, “Women are good, and I'm a woman,” which I think are two different propositions. But it's definitely true that... I think that growing up in a society that had a female prime minister was a huge deal. America still hasn't had a female president. It's just not... If you're a girl growing up there, it's just... That's something that you've never seen. And the other half of it is, I think it was incredibly powerful to see Denis Thatcher. The true feminist hero that is Denis Thatcher. But genuinely, that's somebody who was older than her, who was willing to take a back seat. And he found a role for men that was not being the alpha. It was kind of the, “I don't have anything left to prove. And I like playing golf. Haven't I got a great life while the little woman runs around with her red boxes. All a bit much.” I think that was almost a more radical thing for people to see.And it's interesting to me that he was somebody who had fought in the Second World War because I think the '70s and the feminist revolution, I think in some ways depends on there being a generation of men who didn't have anything to prove, in terms of masculinity. And it's really interesting to me that... So Barbara Castle's husband Ted was also, I think, a little bit older than her. But he was also very much in that Denis Thatcher mould of, “Woman! Right, you're exhausting.” And Maureen Colquhoun, who I also write about in the book, her husband Keith was, by all accounts, a very decent guy who was totally accepting of her ambitions. And then he conducted himself with incredible dignity after she left him for a woman. And I think that's a story that I'm interested in hearing a bit more about, is of the men who weren't threatened. So I do think that's a big challenge that the Thatchers did present to orthodox values. But let's not underplay them as conservatives.Henry: Oh no, hugely conservative.Helen Lewis: And also the fact that, to some extent, Margaret Thatcher was reacting to an economic tide that was very useful to her. More women in the workforce meant more productivity, meant higher GDP. And I think it was at that point a train that was just not... Why would you throw yourself in front of it to try and reverse it and get women back into the home?Henry: Her advisors wanted a tax break for marriage.Helen Lewis: Oh, that's a classic Conservative policy.Henry: Because they said, “We're in office, and this is what we're here for.” And she said, “I can't do it to the mill girls in Bolton. I can't give a tax break to wives in Surrey playing bridge.” And in a way, I think she was very quietly, and as you say for political reasons not entirely openly, quite on the side of the working woman for moral reasons that we would usually call feminist. But which because it's her and because of everything else she believes, it doesn't really make sense to call them feminist, but it's difficult to think of another Prime Minister who has had so much rhetoric saying “Yes, women should go to work, that's a good thing. Don't yell at them about it.” And who has implemented economic policies that's giving them tax breaks and trying to level the playing field a bit. So it's a sort of conundrum for me that she didn't want to be called a feminist, but she did a lot of things that quotes, if you were that sort of person would say “undermined” the traditional family or whatever.Helen Lewis: Yeah. And she found a way to be a powerful woman and an archetype of what that was, which I think again, is based enormously on Barbara Castle, I think Barbara Castle is the template for her.Henry: Oh yeah. Down to the hair. Yeah.Helen Lewis: With the big hair and the fluttering the eyelashes, and that kind of, what I think of as kind of “Iron Fem” right? Which is where you're very, very feminine, but it's in a steely ball-crushing kind of way. Although interestingly, Barbara Castle cried a lot. She would have frequently burst into tears about stuff, which again was, I think kept the men around her slightly off balance, they didn't know how to... Which I think any good politician uses what they've got. But the thing that struck me when I read more about Thatcher last year, was about the fact that if she hadn't been the first female Prime Minister, I think we would write a lot more about her lower-middle middle class background and what a challenge that was. And the fact that that really, in some ways, I think the Tory Party really loved having a female leader once they got over the initial shock because it was kind of like, “Well, aren't we modern. And now Labor can't have a go at us about all this kind of stuff, 'cause look at our woman leader.” What I think was more of a profound challenge for a long time, was the kind of arriviste sort of idea that she was, as you say, a representative of working people, upwardly mobile, or from right to buy being an example of one of these policies. I think that was a big challenge to the kind of men in smoky rooms.Henry: I don't think they ever got over it. Carrington called her “a f*****g stupid petit-bourgeois woman.”Helen Lewis: Petit-bourgeois is exactly the right, I think the right term of abuse. And there was a... And I think that's why... I mean, I think it came out as misogyny but actually it was also driven by class as well, the fact that she was no better than she ought to be, right?But that's about... I think that's how you see, and honestly I think Ted Heath experiences as a great... Leading to the incredible sulk, one of my favorite phrases, [chuckle] that he just never kind of got over that he had been beaten by a woman. I think that was an extra kind of poisoned pill for him, of the ingratitude of the party, that they would replace him with a woman.Henry: And a woman of his own class.Helen Lewis: Right. And exactly, it's not like she... So she wasn't sort of Lady Aster wafting in a cloud of diamonds and violet scent. It was, “Hang on a minute, you're saying this person is better than me.”Henry: Now, before Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Tory Party, almost nobody thought that she was going anywhere, right up to say a week before the leadership election. People would have meetings about who the candidates were and they wouldn't even discuss her. Who are the people in politics today that no one's really sort of gathered actually have got this big potential?Helen Lewis: Yeah, I think that's really interesting isn't it, that essentially she goes into that leadership context and they sort of think, “Well, someone's gonna shake it up a bit, someone's gonna represent the right to the party.” And then they go round... And it was Airey Neave who was running her campaign, going around sort of saying, “Well, you know, vote for her, it'll give Ted a shock.” And then the first ballot result comes in and they go, “Oh God, it's given us a shock as well.” And then I think at that point, Willy Whitelaw piles in, doesn't he? But it's too late and the train's already moving. And the other one who's... It's Hugh Fraser is the other... And he runs very much from the sort patrician candidate background. I love that, that leadership election, it symbolizes what I like about politics, which is just that sometimes there is a moment, that is a hinge when a force that's been bubbling away suddenly pops up. And not to get too much into the great man or in this case, a great woman theory history, but someone makes a big decision that is either going to be the right call or the wrong call.And for Margaret Thatcher is almost insanely ambitious, and she could have ended up looking incredibly stupid, and because the life didn't take that fork in the road, we'll never look back on that. But there are many people who have made that gamble, and again, go back to failures point, have crashed. You have to have that kind of instinct in politics. Who's good now? I was just thinking this morning that Bridget Phillipson of Labor, who is now currently shadow education, I think has been underrated for a long time. Finally less so, given that she's made it to the Shadow Cabinet, who knows if she can make an impression there, but she is smart. So I'll give you an example, she was asked the inevitable question that all labor politicians are now asked, like, “What is a woman?” And she said, “The correct... “ This is Richard Madeley asked her this. She said, “What to my mind is the correct legal ounce that would also makes sense to normal human beings who don't follow politics all the time, which is, ‘It's an adult human female or anybody with a gender recognition certificate. And there are difficulties in how you might sometimes put that into practice, but those are the two categories of people.'”And it was like this moment, I was like, Why? Why has it taken you so long to work out an answer to this question that is both correct and explicable. And I think that is an underrated gift in politicians, is actually deciding what issues you're going to fudge around and which issues you actually have to come out and say what you think even if people disagree with it. It was one of Thatcher's great strengths, was that she made decisions and she stuck to them. I mean, obviously then you get to the poll tax and it becomes a problem. But I think there's... One of the problems I felt with the Ed Miliband era of Labor was that he didn't want to annoy anybody and ended up annoying everybody. Wes Streeting, I think is also... No, I won't say underrated, I will say he's now rated and clearly has got his eye on the leadership next.Bridget Phillipson has a much more marginal seat than you'd like to see from somebody who's going to be a leader. Wes is an interesting character. Grew up on free school meals, has been through cancer in the last couple of years, is gay, has a genuinely kind of... But is also on scene as being on the right to the party. So he's got lots of different identity factors and political factors that will make people very hard to know where to put him, I think, or how to brand him, I guess. But those are two of the ones who you make me think that there's some interesting stuff happening. On the Tory side, there are some people who are quietly competent. So Michael Gove, I think, whatever you think about his persona or anything like that, is the person they put in when they want stuff actually to happen. I think Nadhim Zahawi did very well as Vaccines Minister without anyone really noticing, which is probably not what you want when you're a minister, but it's probably what you want from the public.Henry: Why are so many women late bloomers? Well, obviously, the constraints of having a family or whatever.Helen Lewis: I think the answer is children, I think is the answer to that one.Henry: But there must be other reasons.Helen Lewis: I think... I mean, who knows? I may be straying into territory which is pseudo-science here, but I do also think that menopause is quite important. When you lose all your caring for others, nicely, softly, softly hormones and your hormone profile becomes much more male, I think that makes it easier to not care what people think about you, to some extent. As does the fact that you can no longer be beautiful and play that card. And I don't know, I think also... Again, this is... I don't know if this is supported by the evidence, I think there's more of... I think more of the men fall away. I don't know, I think if you're a guy who's found it very hard to form personal relationships, then maybe your 50s and 60s can be quite lonely, whereas I think that's often the time in which women kind of find a sort of a second wind. Does that make sense? This is all... I mean, none of this is... There's no evidential basis for this, this is just based on my sort of anecdotal reading of people that I'm thinking of.Henry: Camille Paglia once wrote, she put it in very strict terms, she said something like, when the menopause happens, the wife becomes this sort of tyrant and starts flourishing.Helen Lewis: Yeah. No, I'm very much looking forward to that, yeah. Oh yeah.Henry: And the husband becomes this kind of wet rag and his testosterone level drops and the whole power balance just flips. And you're sort of, you're saying that, but not in quite that... Not as quite an aggressive way as she's phrased it.Helen Lewis: Yeah, and it's not a universal truth.Henry: No, no, not at all.Helen Lewis: I just think for the people for whom that happens, that is quite an arresting thing that often gives them the liberation. I also do think there's a kind of mindset change. I don't have kids, but I know from women that I know whose kids have gone off to university, that if you have been the primary caregiver, there is suddenly a great, big hole in your life, and what do you fill it with? And actually, do you have to find a new focus and direction and purpose, because you don't want to be sort of turning up at their halls of residence going, “Hello, just thought I check in, see if you're alright.” And whereas for men, who've maintained a sort of career focus throughout, whilst also adding on a family, that's not such a kind of big realignment of their day and their life and what they feel the focus of their life is.Henry: I spoke to Tyler Cowen about this and he wondered if there's something about women become more acceptable in their looks. So you think about Angela Merkel and Margaret Thatcher as... I think you were sort of implying this, when a woman reaches middle age, the public or the people around them are less likely to judge them on whether they're good-looking, and so some of that sexism slightly falls away, because when you are a woman in your 20s or 30s, you're very susceptible to being looked at or rated or whatever, whereas Margaret Thatcher had a sort of, I don't know, a motherly quality that no one would... There was a kind of cult of finding her attractive and Alan Clark said disgusting things about her.Helen Lewis: Yeah, and also we've had a queen for 70 years, right? So we do have that sort of idea of what female power looks like, which is icy and so it's non-emotional, but yeah.Henry: But I've seen that in the office, that women in their 20s have a difficult time if they're good looking because there are a certain type of men...Helen Lewis: Well, people assume you're stupid as well.Henry: Well, and also it's just what men go to. They talk about you being that, whereas once a woman gets slightly past that, men don't automatically sort of go, “Oh, how would you rate her out of 10” or whatever? And that creates a space to see them as the person.Helen Lewis: And see them as actual human. I think that's a really interesting thesis. I also think that there's a... I think being a young woman is a particular kind of problem. So I think there's definitely a form of ageism against women, where it's silly old bat, right? Which I do think you get silly old duffer as well, but there is some extra level as well about women, it's like, “Why are you still talking? No one wants to hear from you? Your... “ This is a phrase they use in the internet now, “You're dusty, you and your dusty opinions.” But I think you get the contrary version of that as a young woman, whereas I think we find... The phrase Young Turk implies man, doesn't it?It's like, thrusting young guy, on his way up, super ambitious, he's the new generation, whereas I don't think you necessarily have that whole sort of coalition of positive stereotypes about young women. It's untested, learner, still needs to learn the ropes, that kind of... I'm eternally grateful to my boss in my 20s, Jason Cowley of the New Statesman, for making me deputy editor of the Statesman when I was 28, which I think was a pretty radical thing to do. When I don't think it would have necessarily felt so radical to make a 28-year-old guy.Although I say that, but then Ian Hislop became editor of Private Eye when he was 26, and there was like a revolution among the old guard. And he had to metaphorically execute a few of them outside the woodshed. So I do think that... I also think people begin to... There's... Now, this is really straying to some dangerous, choppy feminist waters. Competition between women can be very fierce, obviously. I write about this in the book in the terms of Smurfette Syndrome. The idea that there's only one place for a woman, and by God, I've got to have it. But I do think that there can be some jealousy that maybe recedes. And I think it's probably true for men and women. As you get older, people don't see you as a threat because they think, “Well, by the time I'm 40, maybe I'll have all the stuff you have.” But if you've got that stuff at 28, I think there's a real feeling from other people in the generation that those, the stars are peeling away, and there's a real resentment of them. So one of the things I do is I provide kind of counselling services to young journalists who've just suddenly had like a really big promotion or career lift or whatever it is. And I feel indebted to go and say to them, “By the way, this is amazing, but people will hate you because of it.”Henry: It's very striking to me that we've had a period of very young politicians being leaders, but they're men. And the women who've either competed with them or become leaders afterwards are in their 50s. And I do think there's something about what's an acceptable public woman.Helen Lewis: And the idea of authority, I think that's the thing. I think as you get older as a woman, it's easier to seem authoritative.Henry: Someone like Stella Creasy, I think, has had a much more difficult time just because she happens to be under a certain age.Helen Lewis: Yeah, I think that's interesting. And I think the fact that she's now got very young children at a relatively older age. I know that's... Sorry. Apologies to Stella, if you're listening. But it is comparatively old to have children after 40, still. That that will be interesting of how that complicates her next decade in politics.And I do think those super top jobs… There was a really brilliant piece of research which I put in the book about the sort of so-called demanding jobs, the kind of lawyers, the top lawyers, and I think journalists and politicians. Greedy jobs, they're called. And the fact is that they have become more demanding in terms of hours as women have entered the workforce. And now the thing has become fetishized as can you do the 14-hour days? And it becomes a soft way of excluding women with young kids.The problem, I think, will come with all of this when both men and women end up needing to look after elderly parents, as we're having more and more of that extension, those decades at the end of life when you're alive but maybe you're not as mobile as you were. Maybe you need more help from your family. And I think there is a lot of anger among certain types of women that they just feel like they're finally free from their caring responsibilities, and then they get landed with another one. But I know, I've been to some feminist conferences recently where... There's a famous saying which women are the only minority that get more radical with age, which I think is probably true. You can meet some groups of 50-something women, and they are fuming, really fuming. And they've now got the time and the sort of social capital with which to exercise that fuming-dom, as it were.Henry: Is Roy Jenkins overrated?Helen Lewis: [laughter] That's the most random question. He's not my favourite politician, mainly because I'm Team Castle for life, right? And I think she was treated very badly by the men in that Wilson cabinet, the first, the '66 to '70 one, of whom he was one, right? I think that, yeah. I think... Do you know what? I haven't got very strong opinions on him compared with my strong opinions on James Callaghan, who I am anti. And I know there are some Callaghan-stans out there. But I think the utterly cynical way in which he sucked up to the unions in order to get the leadership at the cost, ultimately, of then Margaret Thatcher in '79, out-strikes me as one of the most sort of cynical pieces of politicking.Henry: You are sailing very close to being a Thatcherite.Helen Lewis: I'm not a Thatcherite. I'm not.Henry: No, I know.Helen Lewis: But I can see... I think you... And I think Rachel Reeves has basically written about this, who's now Labour's Shadow Chancellor, that if Barbara Castle had succeeded with In Place of Strife on what were, now, to us, very mild measures, right? A conciliation pause where you have negotiations, strike ballots, no wildcat strikes. If she'd managed to push through some of those, then some of the excesses of the '70s would not have happened. Or at least, Labour would have been able to show that it had a grip of them. But you have a situation where the teachers were asking for something like 25% pay rise in the run up to the '79 election. And the Labour government just looked completely out of control. And so yeah, that's my Callaghan beef. What's your Roy Jenkins beef, then?Henry: I don't have beef. I can't remember why I wrote that question. I read about him in your book. I suppose I think that he did implement some good progressive measures, but that he was essentially a sort of patrician wannabe. And that his whole career in politics is much more middling and establishment, and his radicalism was... I don't know. Perhaps overrated, when we look back.Helen Lewis: Well, I will go away and read some more. I read quite a lot of the... The mad thing about the cabinet, particularly in that Wilson government, is that they were all obviously sitting there writing copious amounts of... To the extent that Barbara Castle would actually write literal notes in cabinet, save it for diary later on. But Tony Benn was writing notes. Crossman was writing notes. Jenkins essentially wrote lots of... A very full memoir. Harold Wilson wrote one of the most boring memoirs that the world has ever seen. The trade union leaders wrote memoirs. Jack Jones wrote a memoir. It was an astonishingly literate and writerly sort of set of people. And yet the cabinet was, in some respects, kind of utterly dysfunctional, but with Wilson still running a sort of... You know, sort of like who was kind of currently had been nice to me. And he went... And of course in his second term, he became incredibly paranoid.It was not a model of good government really. And again, Callaghan is one of the greatest political resurrections ever, right, when he completely screws up the Treasury and then uses Northern Ireland's Home Secretary in order to kind of make himself back into a respectful mainstream figure. But before we go and fight Roy Jenkins-stans, we should both go and find out what our beef is with him.Henry: I'm gonna say her name, well, Colquhoun?Helen Lewis: Colquhoun.Henry: Colquhoun. She said, “Labor would rather fight Powell than solve poverty.” Is that still true?Helen Lewis: What read it out there is a phrase that I think Maureen Colquhoun said after not “the rivers of blood” speech, but another Enoch Powell speech in the '70s, which got her in enormous trouble. Would you like to endorse this sentiment that got her called a racist? And it was used as a pretext for drumming her out of the Labor party. So what happened to Maureen after that is that she... Her local party tried to de-select her, it then went to an appeal at the NEC. She eventually ended up holding on to her candidacy and then she lost in '79 to a guy called Tony Marlow, who's one of the most... Talk about Thatcher, I mean... He was bristly, to the extent that his nickname was Tony von Marlow. But yeah, he has some terrible quote about Harriet Harman as well, which is something like, “These bra burners have got a chip on their shoulder,” or something. It was something terrible mixed metaphor involving how you couldn't wear a bra if you also had a chip on your shoulder. Anyway, I digress.Henry: I'm not trying to endorse her quote, but if you replace Powell with Boris.Helen Lewis: I think it's a really interesting quote about... It comes back to purity leftism, what we were talking about before, is actually, “Do you want the win or do you want the fight?” And there is, I think, more of a tendency on the left than the right, to want to be on the right side of history, to want to be pure, to want to be fighting, and that sort of sense that... The perpetual struggle is the bit that you want to be in, that's the bit that's exciting, rather than the win. I think one of the really interesting sounds to me is gay marriage. I was just reading this Jonathan Rauch piece this morning about the fact that... His argument being, that there was a coalition of kind of right-wingers and centrists and liberals in America who fought with the radical left, who wanted gay rights to be predicated on the idea of sort of smashing the nuclear family and everything like that, to say, “Let's make gay rights really boring, and let's talk a lot about how much we want to get married. And maybe we wanna adopt. Let's recruit all the people who happen to have been born gay, but are also Tories or Republicans.”And I think a similar thing happened to him here, where you have David Cameron saying, “I support gay marriage not in spite of being a conservative, but because I'm conservative.” And you frame it as essentially a very norm-y, boring thing. And I think that has been really interesting to watch in the sense of... I think that's why gender is now come much more to the fore because it's a sense that, “Well, if even Tories are okay with people being gay, it's not... Like what's left? How is that interesting anymore?” And so, I think the criticism that she was trying to make there is very true in the sense that sometimes Labor wants to look right more than it wants to win a halfway victory.Henry: What are some of the best or most underrated biographies of women?Helen Lewis: That's a really interesting question. I read a lot of royal biographies, so I very much like Leonie Frieda's biography of Catherine de' Medici, for example. There is also... You're gonna think this is terrible, Princess Michael of Kent wrote a joint biography of Catherine de Medici and Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henry II, which is called The Serpent and the Moon, which is a really... I think it's... Actually, it's not a bad biography, but I think it's quite interesting to write a biography of the wife and the mistress together.Henry: Yeah, I think that's a great idea.Helen Lewis: Because the story of them is obviously so intertwined and their power relationship obviously changes, right? Because Catherine is the dowdy wife who bears the 10 children, Diane is the kind of unbelievably gorgeous, older woman. But then of course, the king dies and it's like, “Oh, nice chateau you've got there. Shame, one of us is the dowager queen and one of us is now just some woman,” and makes her hand back her Chenonceau to her. So I enjoyed that very much. I'm trying to think what the best political women biographies are. Do you have a favourite Elizabeth I biography? I think there must be a really great one out there but I can't... I don't know which one actually is best.Henry: Well, I like the one by Elizabeth Jenkins, but it's now quite out of date and I don't know how true it is anymore. But it's, just as a piece of writing and a piece of advocacy for Elizabeth, it's an excellent book. And it sold, it was sort of a big best seller in 1956, which I find a very compelling argument for reading a book, but I appreciate that a lot of other people might not.Helen Lewis: No, that's not to everyone's taste. That's interesting. I like Antonia Fraser as a biographer. I don't know if you'‘e got a strong feelings, pro or anti. Her Mary Queen of Scots book is very good. Her Mari Antoinette book is very good. And I actually, I interviewed her once about how she felt about the Sofia Coppola film, which is basically like a two-and a half hour music video. She was totally relaxed, she was like, “It's a film, I wrote a book.”She didn't say it like that, she didn't go, “Film innit,” sucking on a roll-up, she said it in a very lofty, Antonia Fraser kind of way. But I think that's a good thing if you're an author, to kind of go, “What works in a biography is not what works in a film,” so...But yeah, I grew up reading those Jean Plaidy historical novels, so I guess I read a lot of biographies of Queens. I'm trying to think whether or not I read any biographies of modern women. I haven't read... I have on my shelf the, Red Comet, the Sylvia Plath biography. And I also, which is on my to-read pile, as is the biography of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas by Janet Malcom, which I one day, will treat myself to. Henry: What are the best or most underrated biographies by women?Helen Lewis: By women? Well, again, then we go back to...Henry: I mean, you've named some of them, maybe.Helen Lewis: The interesting thing is, I remember when I did Great Lives, they said... The Radio 4 program about history. That they said, the one thing that they have tried to encourage more of, is men nominating women. Because they found there was no problem with getting women to nominate men and men to nominate men, but they found there weren't that many men who picked women, which I think is interesting. I really wanted, when Difficult Women came out, I wanted a man to review it.Henry: Did that not happen?Helen Lewis: No, it didn't happen. And I think everybody would've... I think, from the point of view of your male reviewers, why would you review a book on feminism when you're gonna get loads of people going, “Ew, what are you doing?mansplaining feminism?” But it's an intellectual project, right? It's not a... It should be open to criticism by absolutely anyone, not on... You don't have to pass an identity test. It's an ideology and a school of history. And so I would... What's the best biography of woman written by a man, is kind of a question I'm interested in.Henry: Yes. That's very difficult to think of.Helen Lewis: And how many of them are there? Because it just strikes me that when I'm naming all my women, biographies of women, that they're all by women.Henry: Yes. It's difficult to think... It'‘ easy to think of biographies of men written by women.Helen Lewis: Right. Hermoine Lee's out there repping for Tom Stoppard biography recently. But yeah, people can send in answers on a postcard for that one.Henry: Should there be less credentialism in journalism?Helen Lewis: Yes. I started as a sub-editor on the Daily Mail. And I worked alongside lots of older guys who had come up through local papers at the time when the trade unions were so strong that you had to do two years on local paper before you got to Fleet Street. And therefore, I worked with quite a lot of people who had left school at either 16 or 18 and were better at subbing than people who'd... than recent university graduates. And so, the way that journalism has become first of all, a graduate profession and now a postgraduate profession, I don't think it's got any real relationship to the quality of journalism. There are a sort of set of skills that you need to learn, but a lot of them are more about things like critical thinking than they are about literature, if you see what I mean?That's the thing. That is what I find very interesting about journalism, is the interesting marriage of... You have to have the personal relationships, you have to be able to find people and make them want to be interviewed by you and get the best out of them. Then you have to be able to write it up in prose that other humans can understand. But then there is also a level of rigour underneath it that you have to have, in terms of your note-keeping and record-keeping and knowledge of the law and all that kind of stuff. But none of that maps onto any kind of degree course that you might be able to take. And so, I think that's... And the other huge problem, I think in journalism is that, everyone in the world wants to do it, or at least that's how it seems when you're advertising for an entry level position in journalism.When I was at the New Statesman, we used to recruit for editorial assistants and I once had 250 applications for a single post, which was paid a fine amount, you could live on it just about in London, but was not... It was a plum job in intellectual terms, but not in economic terms. And I think that's a real problem because I could have filled every position that we had, with only people who'd got Firsts from Oxford or whatever it might be. But it wouldn't have been the best selection of journalists.Henry: No. Quite the opposite.[laughter]Helen Lewis: Yes. I enjoy your anti-Oxford prejudice. [chuckle] But you know what I mean is that I... But the fact that you had to have at least a degree to even get through the door, is sort of wrong in some profound way. And actually, some of the places have been... I think Sky did a non-graduate traineeship for people who were school leavers. And I think that there are profound problems in lots of those creative arts, publishing is the same, academia is the same, where you could fill every job which is low paid, and in London, with middle-class people whose parents are willing to fund them through. And the credentialism just is a further problem in that it just knocks out bright people from perfectly normal economic backgrounds.Henry: Do you think as well, that in a way, the main criteria for a good journalist, whether they're a sub-editor, or writing leaders or whatever, is common sense? And that a good English degree is really no guarantee that you have common sense.[laughter]Helen Lewis: Yeah. I couldn't put my hand in my heart and say that everybody I know with an English degree demonstrates common sense. I think that is actually not a bad... The famous thing is about you need a rat-like cunning, don't you? Which I think is also pretty true. But yeah, you do need to come back to that kind of idea about heresy and you do need to have a sort of sniffometer, not to be... I think you need to be fundamentally cynical, but not to a point where it poisons you.The right amount of cynicism is probably the thing you need in journalism. Because my husband's a journalist and quite often, there'll be a story where we just go, “I don't believe that. I just don't believe that.”And it really troubles me that that's become harder and harder to say. So I wrote a piece a while ago, about TikTok and people who claim to have Tourette's on there and actually quite a lot of them might have something else, might have functional neurological disorder. But there are whole genres of that all across journalism, where people will talk very personally and very painfully about their personal experiences. And the other half of that is that, we are not... It's mean, to question that. But they're often making political claims on the basis of those experiences. And you therefore can't put them in a realm beyond scrutiny. And so it's interesting to me, having been a teenager in the '90s when journalism was incredibly cruel. I'm talking about the height of bad tabloid, going through people's bins, hate campaigns against people. And a lot of this “be kind” rhetoric is a response to that and a necessary correction, but I do think there are now, lots of situations in which journalists need to be a bit less kind. That's a terrible quote. [laughter] But do you know what I mean?Henry: I do know exactly what you mean.Helen Lewis: When you have to say, “I know you think you've got this illness, but you haven't.” That's tough.Henry: People need to be more difficult.Helen Lewis: That's always my marketing strategy, yes.Henry: I want to ask if you think that you are yourself a late bloomer? In the tone of voice that you write in, you very often... You write like an Atlantic journalist and there are these moments, I think, of real wit. I don't mean jokey. I mean, clever. And so, a line like, “Your vagina is not a democracy,” is very funny but it's also very...Helen Lewis: It's true.Henry: Sort of Alexander Pope-ish.[laughter]Helen Lewis: That's the best possible reference. Yes, I hope to write very mean epigrams about people, one day.Henry: Please do. But you can also be very jokey like when you said, I think in a footnote, that you don't watch porn because the sofas are so bad.Helen Lewis: True.Henry: Now, there is something in those moments of wit that I think suggest that you could, if you wanted to, go and do something other than what you've already done. Maybe like Charles Moore, you'd become a biographer, or maybe you'd become a novelist, or maybe you'll run a think tank, or maybe you'll set up a newspaper and only employ 16-year-old school leavers, or... I don't know. Is that how you think about yourself or am I...Helen Lewis: You are trying to tell me I need to just grow up.[laughter]Henry: Not at all.Helen Lewis: Stop clowning around like a sea lion for applause after throwing fish.Henry: My theory on Helen Lewis is, you've got all the accolades that someone could want from a journalistic career.Helen Lewis: Not true. I've only ever won one award for journalism and you'll love this, it was Mainstream Video Games Writer of the Year.Henry: Oh my god.Helen Lewis: That's it. From the Games Awards in 2013, which I only remember this because every so often my publisher will put award-winning journalist as a merit that I have. Not really gov, not if I'm honest. You're right though. I have one of the plum jobs in journalism which is I work three days a week at the Atlantic, and then I make radio documentaries on the side and write books, and that is a position which is enormously enviable. But I have also... So I've moved away from column writing, in the last couple of years — I used to write a regular op-ed column — because I found it a deeply unsatisfying form. And I think, when you do jokes, you begin to realize that you can actually just say stupid, easy clap lines and with sufficient confidence, and people will respond to them, and after a while, you begin to hate yourself for doing that.[laughter]Well, that's one of the reasons I again... Like getting off Twitter. You know what I mean? You see some of those accounts that just exists to do lazy little dunks about the people that are appointed, that are sort of designated hate subjects. So if someone gets designated as a hate subject, then you can say nasty things about them and then everybody will applaud you. And I fundamentally revolt from that and I don't like it.I think that as a journalist, you should always try and be at right angles to whatever the prevailing opinion is. And actually as I've got older, I value the sort of... The people I think of as contrarians who I think really believe it rather than the people who are doing it for effect. Someone like a Peter Hitchens. He's got a whole ideology that's very much not mine and a set of interesting opinions and he believes them, and he truly argues them, and although they... Whether or not they're popular or unpopular is of no interest to hi

Freddy Gardner - great (if under-remembered) saxophonist in England in the 1930's and 40's - these are great jazz recordings under his own name as well as with Benny Carter, Bert Ambrose , Buck and Bubbles and others . . including Norman Payne, Cecil Norman, Ted Heath, Bill Mulraney and others --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/john-clark49/support

I was very pleased to talk to Charles Moore, who I have read admiringly for many years. His three volume biography of Margaret Thatcher is one of the most interesting biographies published in the last few years. He also edited a volume of T.E.Utley's journalism. In this discussion you will hear (or read the transcript below!) whether Margaret Thatcher is more left-wing than we think, what Charles thinks of political biography, how his footnotes work, who are the most underrated Thatcher cabinet ministers, the relationship between fiction and biography, why he's not a natural Thatcherite, and more. I asked a lot of my questions much less elegantly than I had written them, but the answers are frequently models of spoken English. I particularly enjoyed Charles' use of “jealous” in its original, perhaps now semi-archaic, meaning (i.e. suspiciously vigilant or careful). He also seems to use “cunning” in the way Johnson defined it, pleasingly. I remember reading once how much Charles enjoyed the language of the Book of Common Prayer as a child. Perhaps those lexicographical waters run deep. The transcript is lightly edited for intelligibility. You will notice, sometimes, that the transcript moves from past to present tense when Charles talks about Margaret Thatcher. Here, as elsewhere, he often refers to her in the present tense. One topic we didn't cover was Margaret Thatcher as a late bloomer. Maybe another time.Henry: You once wrote that you found political biography boring to read, or you used to. Why did you find it interesting to write?Charles Moore: I think making one's own enquiries makes you think about it more deeply, which is intrinsically interesting. But also I think the subject, Mrs. Thatcher, is a particularly interesting person because she was very unusual and because she was the first and, effectively at the time, only woman. And so everything's different. And so the impact of her is very strikingly different from that of even very well-known male politicians.Henry: And do you enjoy reading political biography more now that you've written your book?Charles Moore: I don't find that I do read it more, particularly. But probably the answer's yes because I can understand more how the work is done. And therefore, I can see who's good at it and who isn't, and when they're evading a subject they don't understand or whether they've really got to the bottom of it and so on.Henry: How do you assess that? What sort of things make you think that someone's really got a grip on what they're telling you?Charles Moore: Partly it's their mastery of the sources, of course. And also, it's a matter of, to some extent, perceiving their fairness. And I think that's quite an interesting subject, because fairness doesn't mean, necessarily, that you're neutral about the person. You can be highly sympathetic to the subject, or you can be even unsympathetic to the subject and still be fair. But fairness is something about considering the evidence and trying to give it its right weight. This, I think, is easily detectable in biographies. And some just don't do that. They wish to assassinate the character, or they wish to make a hero of the character, or they're simply rather lazy. If you've walked down that path, you can detect what's going on.Henry: What parts of Margaret Thatcher's life did you find it most difficult to be fair about?Charles Moore: Well of course, I wouldn't be the best judge of that, I suppose.Henry: Were there any bits, though, where you had to work at that practise of fairness?Charles Moore: One way in which you need to be fair to a subject is simply to try to understand the subject. I don't mean the biographical subject. I mean the issue. And there are certain subjects that I'm less good at and, therefore, have to work harder on like, let's say, monetary policy or details about missiles. Neither of which are my natural territory, and both of which are important in the case of Mrs. Thatcher. So I would have to make more efforts about that, mental efforts, to really understand what's going on than I would about, say, fighting an election or reform of the trade unions or something like that. There's a sort of broad point about being fair, which is that biography naturally and inevitably and rightly must focus on the individual. And therefore, it may do that to the exclusion of other individuals or of a wider milieu, which is an inevitable danger but is also a mistake because the individual in politics doesn't act alone, even a very remarkable character like Margaret Thatcher or Winston Churchill. And one needs, somehow, to convey the milieu and the weight of the other characters while never ceasing to focus on the one character.One of the extraordinary features of Hilary Mantel's novels about Thomas Cromwell — Wolf Hall etc — is that, I think it's right to say, he is in the room the entire time, or in the field or whatever. I think Thomas Cromwell is in every scene. Sometimes it's reported speech that he's hearing, but still. And, as a biographer one sort of does that. Mrs. Thatcher is almost always in the room, not absolutely always. And that's right. That's fine. But one mustn't let her crowd everything else out.Henry: Were the Mantel books a conscious model or influence for you, or is that something you've noticed separately?Charles Moore: Not really because I was reading them more towards the end. Well, I read Wolf Hall quite a long time ago, and then I read the other two pretty much when I was finishing. But I think they're very good. Obviously, they're not biographies. But I think, I hope, I learnt something from them because there's a sustained effort of the imagination, which the novelist has to have, to see through the eyes of, in her case, Thomas Cromwell. And though biography is fact not fiction, imagination is required in biography as well. And so in some ways, it's a similar task.Henry: On this question of the milieu that Margaret Thatcher was in, you paid a lot of attention in the three books to the biographies of all the people around her, especially in footnotes, but also when you're describing events such as the leadership election in 1990, there's a lot of biographic information. Is this compilation of brief lives, a way of providing not just information, but commentary, almost like a sort of prosopographia? What stood out to me was that, even just through the footnotes, it really details the way that she was very, very different to everyone else in that world, demographically and socially.Charles Moore: Yes. That's right. So, in putting footnoted autobiographies of most of the characters, that's useful for reference, but it's also a sort of short-hand way of telling you about the milieu and the range of characters she was dealing with, and of course, it brings out the fact that they're almost all male and a very high percentage of them went to public schools and Oxford or Cambridge. She of course went to Oxford, but she didn't go to public school and she wasn't a man. So I think when your eye goes to bottom of the page and picks up one of those biographies, it should be helpful in its own right, but it also should have a cumulative effect of placing Mrs. Thatcher among all of these people and of course, rather like the only woman in the room is very noticeable physically, she's very noticeable as unique in this milieu.Henry: Is that a technique that you took from somewhere, or is that something that you devised yourself?Charles Moore: Well, I think she devised it to some extent, and I picked up on that. She always had to wrestle with the point that it was considered a disadvantage to be a woman in the world in which she was moving. And she realized that though in certain respects it was objectively a disadvantage because of prejudice and so on, she could turn it to advantage. And I think one thing she understood very early on, because though she's a very sincere person she's also a very good actress, is that she could see the almost filmic quality of her position. So she would know that the camera would come in on her, and therefore she should exploit that to the full with her hair, her bag, her dresses, the sense of being different and noticeable, her voice. And she put that to good use and tried to refine that and simplify it really so that it could have maximum impact.Henry: There was a High Tory ambivalence about Margaret Thatcher, so someone like T.E Utley was a supporter, but not a complete supporter, a slightly guarded pro-Thatcher. And I think you potentially fall into this group, not entirely aligned with the Thatcher government on Ireland, Hong Kong for example. How did this position affect you as her biographer?Charles Moore: I don't think my own specific views on political questions were so important in that, but I think perhaps my overall approach affected it. What I mean by that is that my background, I'm actually brought up as a liberal with a big “L” — Liberal Party. And by cultural inclination I wouldn't be a natural Thatcherite, and I would always look at Mrs. Thatcher as somebody different from my way of thinking in that sense, which of course makes that very interesting. I'm not part of her tribe, and wasn't by upbringing, and I hope that's useful because it gives a certain historical detachment. However I wasn't trying to write an interpretation of Mrs. Thatcher coming from my tribe, it wasn't like the Whig interpretation of history sort of thing. And indeed, in some ways, I was more impressed by her because I came from a different tribe, that's to say, she had to overcome more barriers in my mind, perhaps. Suppose I'd been writing a biography of Asquith, that would have been more like the world I grew up in, and perhaps less of a challenge. And writing about Mrs. Thatcher, it's exciting to enter a world which in social terms and political terms, and of course, a different sex as well, was less known to me.Henry: I think you wrote that she is, with the possible exception of Jim Callaghan, the most socially conservative Prime Minister that Britain has had. To what extent do your background and your personal views make it easy or difficult for you to be, as you said earlier, fair in the way that you presented that?Charles Moore: She's a very odd mixture in that way. I think I perhaps did write that. But of course, she also was such a change bringer. If you think of Mrs. Thatcher's natural demeanour and reactions, she would be very socially conservative. I mean not ultra socially conservative. For example, she married a divorcee, which was quite unusual in 1951. But a fairly conventional Christian, starting as a Methodist and sort of sliding gradually into Anglicanism as she rises up the social scale without ever abandoning Methodism. Believing strongly in firm punishments for criminals. A very uncomplicated monarchist. No problem about hereditary peers in her mind, etcetera, etcetera. Very fond of obvious traditional British things like the armed services, support for the police, all that sort of thing. And things like traditional high standards in school of a rigorous kind. So on and so on, all those things. But in another way, she's so impatient to change things and unafraid of challenging whatever it is that people usually go around saying. So it's a curious combination and an interesting one. For me, I don't remember that presenting a particular fairness issue. It's just this funny thing about her, which is also biographically very interesting, that she's very, very conservative and very, very radical.Henry: Do you think the fact that you have religious belief. Do you think that had any part in the consideration to pick you as the biographer? I think you've said before, you don't really know why she chose you.Charles Moore: No, I wouldn't have thought that it did have any consideration. Mrs. Thatcher's religion was quite vague, and she wasn't interested at all in ecclesiastical or theological questions. But one of the things she respected in religion was some sort of seriousness about ultimate purpose. And she certainly had such a seriousness herself. And I remember talking to her about that. This is before I was engaged in the work, I think just in conversation. I had recently become a Catholic, and she talked about that. This is another interesting example of her, in some ways, rather open mind because she's fundamentally brought up anti-Catholic as most English Protestants were. And I don't think she would ever have considered becoming a Catholic. But I remember her being rather pleased that I had become a Catholic because she thought this is a proper serious Christian thing to do, and it was something she respected. She felt this about Jews too, obviously they weren't Christians. But again, she had a respect for Judaism and Judaic law and custom and manners and thought. And that was something which she recognised and liked in other people.Henry: Margaret Thatcher is sometimes thought of, or dismissively described, as un-philosophical. You said in your prefaces that she would confound Socrates with her lack of reflection on her own life. But in some ways she was quite an ideological person, at certain times, about freedom and things. Is the difference between being philosophical and ideological really so great? And was she really living if not a philosophically reflective life, a very philosophical life in what you've just been saying about seriousness and purpose? Is she more philosophical than she looks?Charles Moore: Yes. Good way to think about it, I think. Alfred Sherman, with whom she fell out but who was close to her in the '70s, said that “she is not a person of ideas but a person of beliefs.” And beliefs, he said, are better than ideas. I think he meant better from a political point of view, for politics. And I think that's sort of right. So there was a sense in which Mrs. Thatcher was philosophical, which was that her mind was an enquiring one. And she was always thinking, thinking, thinking. “What's right here? What's the best? What's the problem? What's the solution?” But she didn't have the philosopher's sceptical mind or pure intellectualism. She wanted results. And she wanted good things to happen and bad things to be stopped. And so she did have what you could call a philosophy, but she was not a philosopher. She was a person of action and beliefs.Henry: I heard an interview with you recently where you, I'm going to paraphrase, you said something like the limitation of left-wing political thought is that it has a utopian belief in politics. As in, if everybody only could have the right politics, everything would be okay. And you've written and talked about Margaret Thatcher trying to create a Christian Social Order in Britain. And that's really the drive she had. Is she, in that sense, a bit more of a "left-wing" political thinker, with a more utopian vision, than we would typically think of her as being?Charles Moore: There is an element of that because she is partly a preacher in politics. There's an element of, some sense in her mind of building Jerusalem or rebuilding Jerusalem, I think is there. And that tends to be more associated with socialism and, indeed with certain forms of Protestant Christianity going back, than with conservatism. So there is something of that. However, one of her beliefs, which was true — I mean, which she did adhere to — was that politics doesn't contain the solutions of everything, because people do not political structures. And she did believe that. Though of course, she also, because she was very egotistical, she did believe that something which she ran was bound to be good. So she could accommodate. People said she was very intolerant of other ideas. She was certainly very argumentative. But for example, she respected the Labour Party. She didn't respect the Liberal Party, but she respected the Labour Party because she thought that it represented something in Britain that ought to be represented and that conservatism didn't really represent, the way she put it was that it was the party of the underdog. And she thought there should be a party of the underdog.And her own approach to the problem of people who are less successful and poorer and things like that was to open up their opportunities. But I think within that was also a sort of acknowledgement that not everybody can take those opportunities. And for those people, it's important that there be a party that represents their interests. And she thought that Labour was the party to do that. So that shows a certain sense that, “I, Margaret Thatcher, don't have the answer to everything. I'm trying to do a particular set of things, and I believe I can do this right. But life is bigger than that, and politics is bigger than that.”Henry: On the question of her being argumentative, or however you want to phrase it, you have that great memo, I think from 1981, that someone in her office wrote to her...Charles Moore: Oh, John Hoskyns?Henry: Yeah, yeah. And saying everything that gets quoted about her. But actually, after that memo, she was in power for another nine years. Should we be quite cautious about this idea that she was single-minded, not consensus-minded, a rude person? Should we try and be revising that image of her and saying that actually that was a more narrow part of her leadership style than is thought?Charles Moore: Well, the famous Hoskyns memo was very powerful and contained criticisms which were true. But it's also a sort of protest because he was feeling that she wasn't listening to him. And also she had certain completely maddening qualities, if you were working with her every day, which he had to get off his chest. One of them was, the less sure she was about something and the more tired she was, the more rubbish she talked. And she could, in a tight corner, particularly before she'd made a decision, burble on a great deal and criticise others for a problem which really rested with her because she was psyching herself up to do something. And that happened a lot in certain economic decisions where she was worried about their unpopularity. She might argue with Geoffrey Howe or, later, Nigel Lawson about putting up interest rates, which she was almost always against. They were quite often in favour of it. And she used this tactically and psychologically, I think without realising it. And it could be a nightmare to live with, but leaders perhaps have to be a bit of a nightmare to live with some of the time.The other thing was that because she was so jealous of her position and felt so fragile in her position as the only woman and the leader that she sort of knew people would like to get rid of, she had to — she thought, at least, that the way to deal with this is to be extremely forceful and not to be seen to give in. An upper-class man would tend to think that the graceful and sensible thing to do would be to give in and say, as a tactical thing, to say, “I'm frightfully sorry. You're completely right. I've got this completely wrong.” And she never felt she could do that. She felt she had to maintain her argument, her position at almost all times. But it didn't mean that actually she paid no attention to the criticisms or that she never altered her views because she would always claim consistency, which might not, in fact, always be there. And that was, again, a sort of technique of hers. And so she was more consensual and more pragmatic than she would admit. Her colleagues often find that hard to understand because she didn't want them to understand it. She wanted them to think that she was iron and immutable and unchangeable and, as she would put it, staunch. And actually, there was a lot more subtlety, and a sort of listening, than she or they would acknowledge.For example, trade union reform. She was always complaining about Jim Prior going so slowly, but actually she did, herself, want to go slowly. She had a great impatience which made her want to get reforms in and bring about the changes, but she also knew that she mustn't make the mistake of Ted Heath of doing one great big law all at once. She must do it bit by bit. And so she was much more pragmatic in what she did when about trade union reform than she would say she was being.Henry: You found some new material about Thatcher, particularly from when she was a young woman to do with boyfriends and letters to her sister and things that inevitably gave a much broader view of her character than we were used to from the television and the news and so forth. How did that change your view of the way she operated politically?Charles Moore: I think it confirmed something which I sensed, but it brought it out much more clearly, which is what a cunning person she was. I didn't mean that in a nasty way. Her self-description was of somebody who just knew what's right and does it. But it wasn't like that. She did have a strong moral sense and she did have strong convictions, but she also had very strong ambitions and a sense of when to do something and when not to do something.So if you look at Margaret Roberts that she then was, wondering whom to marry, it's the female equivalent of what nineteenth century novels used to call the choice of life for a man, which is often depicted in 19th and 18th century novels. A young man goes out to the world. What does he want to do? Does he want be a soldier or a lawyer, or whatever it might be. And how is he going to shape his life? And she was thinking a lot about that. She wanted, in the case of marriage, she definitely wanted true love, she is a romantic person, but she also wanted security, financial security, and a sense of a man she could look up to, almost certainly older, or very unlikely that anyone she would marry will be her own age, I think would be fair to say. And her most serious boyfriend was twice her age and then Dennis was 11 plus years older than she.And you can see her particularly in the year 1951 when she has three serious boyfriends, one of whom was Dennis, weighing up. One's a farmer. Does she want to be married to a farmer? No. One is a distinguished doctor. Yes, but he is a lot of older than her. And then there's Dennis who had had a good war and had his own business, but on the other hand was divorced. And so she's thinking, wouldn't perhaps put it to herself like this, “How am I going to be an MP? Maybe even, how am I going to be a minister? Maybe, maybe, even how I'm I going to be Prime Minister.” Though I'm be much less sure about that, this is all very early on. But also, “How am I going to marry the right man and have children?” And these things are all going around and around in her head and influencing her decisions. “And how am I going to be able to support myself or be supported by a man. How will I have enough money?” Because she had no money from her family.And so you can see this very ardent person, but also a person who thinks very carefully before she does something, she loves the expression, the well known expression, “time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted,” and I think she was always making reconnaissance.Henry: The political scientist, Mark Garnett, has described Thatcher as banal. This is a quote from him, he says: “She was prepared to face down establishment institutions, if they opposed her. This defiance was not the product of a deep delayed plan: only interesting people engage in that style of thinking.” Is that a helpful way to think about Margaret Thatcher?Charles Moore: No, I think it's an unhelpful way to think about it, because what he's not acknowledging is that she's a politician. So the point about being a politician is not, do you have a brilliantly original mind? But what are you capable of doing? And she's extremely unusual in politicians for a sustained interest, sustained over a very, very long period in her case, in office, in the content of what she was doing. And therefore, she was thinking really hard about some questions. How do we end the Cold War? How do we beat trade union leaders? How to beat inflation? With a resourceful seriousness, which might not be intellectually original, but which was in a political sense, profound. To call it banal is mistaken, because actually nobody else was like that. There was simply nobody else in the first rank who was behaving and thinking that way. So it was original. It wasn't original in the sense that Plato's original, but in politics it was original.Henry: Tyler Cowen has talked about the advantage of having or displaying what he calls autistic cognitive traits, so the ability, and the absorbing interest, to absorb a lot of information to categorize it, to order it, and to do this much more so than other people, along obviously with some other things. Do you think Margaret Thatcher displays those sorts of traits and did they, as I think you are sort of suggesting here, give her a political advantage and an advantage as prime minister?Charles Moore: I wouldn't use the word autistic, and I know something about autistic behavior through my own family, my own wider family. I think it's probably not the right sort of categorisation, but I think Mrs. Thatcher had astonishing powers of application. And she did have the ability to, in order to apply herself to a subject, to shut out other ones, while she was applying herself. However, she was a vulnerable human being as well. And though she wasn't the best person at reading other people's emotions, she was, in many ways, sympathetic to people. I mean, she could be very unpleasant to people. But she was really fond of some people and grateful to them and solicitous in their difficulties and conscientious in how she ought to behave to them. She was odd in the way that all great people are odd. I don't mean all great people are odd in the same way, but all great people are odd in some way.But I don't think her mentality was quite as you described there. And I think she couldn't have survived in politics if it were because one of the things you have to do in politics is you have to have intuition about what other people are thinking. She constantly attended to what she thought voters were thinking, what was the public reaction to something or other. She wasn't obsessed with the media to anything like the degree that politicians are now, but she knew how to sniff the wind. And though she could be very brutal with colleagues, I think she did actually have powers of diplomacy which were put to very good use on the world stage, if you think of her relation with Reagan or with Gorbachev for example.Henry: How much of what we call Thatcherism was actually Lawsonism?Charles Moore: Perhaps they started out more or less together and diverged. And there was a lot in common. Before things went wrong, there was a strong alliance about that. But I think Lawsonism — I wouldn't call it an ism actually — but I think Lawson's views about things were generally more economically based, as you might expect. There was less politics and more economics in it. And he was more thoroughly liberal in economics than she. Whereas she tended to see economics as the instrument. She did believe in free market economics, but she saw them more as the instrument of something wider. Whereas he was more interested in them in themselves, I think.Then there's a second point, of course, which takes us on to rather different territory that Lawson, like Thatcher — because, again, a big ego — suffered from feeling that if he was doing something himself, it was bound to be good. I think all important politicians tend to fall into this category. So it was sort of self-evident to him that if he was Chancellor of the Exchequer it must be better than anybody else being Chancellor of the Exchequer. And this led him, after several successes, to a great mistake which was the whole attempt to get into the ERM and the shadowing of the Deutsche Mark in relation to that. Because it became a sort of totem about how you could manage Sterling, and it became a piece of alchemy or magic or a sort of hieratic thing, which only people of great brilliance could operate. And she, I think, had a wider view, a more common sense view about economic questions and how they weren't really like that. They didn't really depend on such calculations but on things that are, in a certain sense, simpler. Lawson was much the superior economic brain to hers, but I think he was more defective politically and didn't understand. I think there's a reason why he couldn't ever have been Conservative Party leader, though he was a very distinguished Chancellor of the Exchequer.Henry: Who are the most underrated Cabinet ministers from Margaret Thatcher's governments?Charles Moore: Well things went wrong for Geoffrey Howe. It's perhaps forgotten that he was a very good Chancellor of the Exchequer. In some ways he was a very good Foreign Secretary, but he was perhaps too indecisive and too sort of official minded. Howe was also very important in Thatcherism, though he didn't really like Mrs. Thatcher much. Richard Ryder described him as the tapestry master of Thatcherism. I think it's a very good phrase. Howe actually preceded her in his interest in free market economics, even in the '50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. She was interested, but he got there first very often. I think he was very important to her, in the early days, and of course, it was pretty disastrous when they finally fell out. And he was definitely a really high-class servant of the state.I think Nicholas Ridley was so bad in public presentation and politics in that general sense that people didn't realise what a competent Minister he was and what a good brain he had. I think he was temperamentally very unsuited to modern politics in some ways, but of all the ministers in her government I always found he was one most respected by officials interestingly. He was decisive, he would take responsibility, he wouldn't duck problems, he would think through things, he was a bit wild on the political aspects, but he was more impressive than people realised.And then Norman Tebbit is an interesting one because of course, he suffered great difficulties because of the terrible injuries he suffered, he and his wife suffered in the Brighton bomb. So he may not have been such a good minister of a big department, but he did have the most formidable brain and the most tremendous capacity to express something very clearly and often amusingly. And so he sort of cut through both the people who agreed with him and people who disagreed with him. It was a very striking phenomenon, Norman Tebbit, and highly unusual in somebody who in formal terms was a middle to higher ranking rather than top ranking cabinet minister in terms of jobs. You never knew who he was and you had to watch out for him and his fierceness in debate his sort of rather spare eloquence, his toughness. All that was formidable.Henry: We live at a time when so many of the essential moments in Thatcher's political career can be watched on YouTube, and we can hear radio clips, and we can see her letters online, and it's possible to imagine a sort of biographical Museum of Margaret Thatcher where you can be sort of immersed in her and in her world. What sort of challenge does that present to a biographer? There's a sort of inevitable limitation in that Disraeli only exists on paper, but Margaret Thatcher exists in all these mediums. But you as a biographer only have paper.Charles Moore: Yes, well of course I didn't only have paper in a sense that I only have paper on which to express it, but I could myself watch the clips, and indeed I saw them live frequently, because I was around at the time. I think it's very, very interesting and instructive to watch clips of Mrs. Thatcher and I'm always urging people instead of sort of theorizing about it to in television programs to show those clips because she had a tremendous gift of communication, even though sometimes the communication didn't please the recipients. She very, very clear and, in that sense, extremely good at getting a message across and that survives very well in the clip. So you can see her intent often much more clearly and strikingly than that of modern politicians and the sheer sort of emotional force she put into everything.For example, you watch when she's answering questions on the day she resigned in November 1990, answering questions in the house and then doing the no-confidence debate. It's absolutely astonishing. Particularly in the questions. When if you keep bearing in mind that she has just resigned. So she's still Prime Minister, but she's tendered her resignation that day, and there she is, not a hair out of place, incredibly tough argument, really rather witty. And as she said at one point in the debate, “I'm enjoying this.” And sort of playing it for all it's worth and engaging with people from the other side. There's a sort of almost banter she has about the nature of the gap between the rich and the poor, I think it's with Jim Sillars, the Scottish Labour MP. And a bit of a ding-dong with Simon Hughes, the Liberal MP. And it's a very good theatre, and it brings home a lot of us. I think those clips are vivid.And thank goodness for television interviews and news clips, because the House of Commons was not televised until 1989. So she'd been Prime Minister. It was on the radio all through her prime ministership, and not on the television. So we haven't got most of that on television. But we can see other things like Brian Walden interviews or news clips and so on. And they are really, really worth studying.And you're right that, obviously, I can't convey that fully in a book. I can describe it, I can quote from it, but I hope that what would happen is when people read the book, they can get more out of the clips, and when they look at the clips, they can get more out of the book.Henry: One or two general questions to close with. Who should write Tony Blair's biography?Charles Moore: I don't know who should write Tony Blair's biography, at all. And I'm certainly not volunteering myself. But I think, again, the question of fairness is important, because Blair suffered from a thing where he received absurd adulation and then absurd vilification. And, actually, the judgment on him, the historical judgment on him, should be much more nuanced and requires some detachment. And speaking only for myself, I must have written, as a journalist, thousands, tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of words criticising Mr. Blair and his policies. But I think he deserves to be taken seriously as a political leader and was important, and that his fundamental message about New Labour was actually true. He's often described as a liar, but I think his fundamental message about what he was and what he was trying to do was true, and people appreciated it. And it's also true, unfortunately, that a lot of his actions were rather ill-thought-out and didn't come to much, so that's a slightly tragic element in his time. But he deserves much more serious attention than the great majority of British prime ministers.Henry: What are the most underrated political biographies?Charles Moore: I think there are quite a lot that are overrated, but it would be invidious to say which. What I most value, but this is probably somebody who's in the trade talking rather than the general reader, but what I'm looking for, I want to feel very confident that the author is fair-minded, and it also has a sort of feel for what it is he's writing about. So that he is not somehow off the point or out of his depth, or, as it were, wasn't there. I didn't mean that a biographer has to have been present when these things happen, but I mean he doesn't have a feel for how, let's say, the House of Commons really works or something like that. I like, in that sense, the biographers that are a professional. I think that man D. R. Thorpe is good, for example. I'm afraid I don't have a biography of a modern politician (and by modern I'm going back quite a long way) to hold up and say, “This is it. This is how it should be done.” But this may well be my fault. I've read by no means all of them.Henry: Charles Moore, thank you very much for your time.Charles Moore: Thank you.Don't forget!My salon, on 1st March, TONIGHT, is Samuel Johnson: Reading for Wisdom where we will discuss pessimism, pragmatism, and the good life. The attendee list has some interesting Johnson enthusiasts — join them!My am giving a tour of the City of London tracing the route of the Great Fire and the genius of Christopher Wren on Saturday 5th March. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk

On this episode of our Big Band Jukebox you will hear selections by Benny Goodman, Bob Crosby, Buddy DeFranco, David Carroll, Fletcher Henderson, Glenn Miller, Henri Rene, Jack Teagarden, a BRUNSWICK side by Glenn Miller, Ray Anthony, Si Zentner, Stan Kenton, Ted Heath and Urbie Green.

Did Jimmy Savile procure children for Prime Ministers and celebrity friends?Were the BBC aware of what was going on?patreon.com/whatkastSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/whatkast)

Actor and impressionist Jon Glover discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Jon Glover most recently appeared in the play Maggie and Ted, written by Michael McManus, about Ted Heath and Margaret Thatcher, providing forty voices, including Michael Heseltine, who attended one of the performances. He was previously a presenter on Playschool, impressionist on Radio 4's Weekending and ITV's Spitting Image, and portrayed Mr Cholmondeley Warner on Harry Enfield's television series. He lives in Surrey with four Burmese cats and an endlessly patient wife. Maggie and Ted https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/jun/29/maggie-ted-review-two-tory-prime-ministers-one-long-spat The Yacobean Building by Alaa al Aswany https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/books/review/Adams.t.html Wodehouse's World War Two broadcasts https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v27/n21/fatema-ahmed/no-snarling The Schlumpf Collection https://sportscardigest.com/schlumpf-collection-profile-and-photo-gallery/ Montreuil Sur Mer https://www.baldwinstravel.co.uk/blog/a-little-spot-called-montreuil-sur-mer-in-france Classic radio comedy https://www.mislaidcomedyheroes.com/the-wonderful-wit-of-wireless This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Joined by two current students and one long serving member of staff,  Mr. Hadley, John and Olly discuss Ted Heath. He was Prime Minister 1970-74, a tumultuous time in British politics.

For reasons that we'll get into in the next episode, the plan had been to start this series in 1977. But that was always a bit misleading as it started with events that happened at the end of the year before. So what was the background, context and the general state of play that lead up to those events? The music of the mid 70s was disco, glam rock and sickly pop ballads. As 1976 begins, Gerald Ford is president of the United States, Harold Wilson is British prime-minister and leader of the Labor Party, Ted Heath leads the Tories and Jeremy Thorpe the Liberals. Women are being attacked in northern England by what appears to be a single person, the violence escalating to a first murder in 1975. But I was 10 years old and oblivious to all of this. I attended Northleach C of E Primary School in the Gloucestershire, Cotswold country side and my main interests lay in climbing trees, convincing my mum to let me have jeans with flares and seeing what they got up to on Blue Peter.

From PALM SPRINGS, join the BIG W for the next hour as he explores, with a drink in hand, the Space-Age Pop Hi-Fi musical sounds of the 1950's and the 1960's in LIVING STEREO! Playlist for show 418:  Don't Rain On My Parade  -  Bobby Darin Indiscreet  -  Nelson Riddle Should I  -  Frank Sinatra Music To Watch Girls By  -  Peter Nero Man's Favorite Sport  -  Ann-Margret Wives And Lovers  -  Ted Heath & His Music I Ain't Got Nobody  -  Lena Horne Mocking Bird  -  Ray Anthony Sunshine Face  -  Sandy Warner Murderer's Row  -  Lalo Schifrin Showgirl Walk  -  Elmer Bernstein Santiago  -  Elmer Bernstein Sugar Lips  -  Al Hirt You Hit The Spot  -  Vicky Lane,  Goin' Out Of My Head  -  Wes Montgomery Ain't That Love  -  Peggy Lee Mickey Mouse Club March  -  Frank Comstock Mississippi Mud  -  Si Zentner & Johnny Mann Singers Donna  -  Edmundo Ros & His Orchestra Oh, Lady Be Good  -  Gene Barry Bossa Nova 1 AM  -  Living Jazz The Most Beautiful Girl In the World  -  Buddy Greco The Green Hornet Theme  -  Billy May

Music can be therapeutic and evoke memories from the "good old days". But here's to Better Days. Come take a journey down memory lane. If you long to remember times gone by, listen to these memorable songs. Tap your feet, sing along, and smile. "Those were the days."  ***** Join the conversation on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008232395712 **** or by email at dannymemorylane@gmail.comIn this episode you'll hear: 1)     In The Mood by Glenn Miller & His Orchestra 2)     Fly Me To The Moon by Frank Sinatra (with Count Basie and his Orchestra) 3)     Rum And Coca-Cola by The Andrews Sisters 4)     Cab Driver by The Mills Brothers 5)     On The Atchison, Topeka And The Santa Fe by Johnny Mercer And The Pied Pipers 6)     Who's Sorry Now by Nat King Cole 7)     Opus No. 1 by Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra 8)     Pretty Baby by Kay Starr 9)     New York, New York by Steve Lawrence 10) More by Perry Como 11) Old Cape Cod by Patti Page 12) Somewhere There's A Someone by Dean Martin 13) Only You (And You Alone) by The Hilltoppers 14) You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To by Nancy Wilson 15) Chattanooga Choo-Choo by Ray Anthony & His Orchestra 16) I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter by Billy Williams 17) I Left My Heart In San Francisco by Tony Bennett 18) Sidewalks Of Cuba by The Woody Herman Orchestra 19) Every Day I Have The Blues by Count Basie & His Orchestra (featuring Joe Williams, vocal) 20) I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair by Ella Fitzgerald 21) Till I Waltz Again With You by Teresa Brewer & Jack Pleis' Orchestra 22) Hot Toddy by Ted Heath's Orchestra 

Steve Nallon is one of Britain's most versatile and prolific writers and performers, working in all aspects of the media from film and television to radio and theatre as actor, writer, broadcaster, academic and voice artist. His eclectic body of work ranges from acting, stand-up and audio books through to playwriting, panto and motion capture performance - plus a time as a university lecturer on Greek Drama, Restoration Theatre and the American Musical.Steve began as a performer in 1976 on the Northern Working Men's Club circuit in his home county of Yorkshire in northern England. After gaining a degree in Drama and English at the University of Birmingham, he went on in 1984 to became a foundering member of the ITV television series SPITTING IMAGE, providing voices for The Queen Mother, Roy Hattersley, Denis Healey, Malcolm Rifkind, Margaret Thatcher, David Attenborough, Enoch Powell, Bruce Forsyth, David Frost, Ted Heath, Leonard Rossiter, Harold Wilson, Alan Bennett and many more for well over a decade. And when in 2015 SPITTING IMAGE created a puppet of the then Prime Minister David Cameron for the show NHS IN STICHES at the Hackney Empire it was Steve who was invited to provide the voice. Steve was invited to be a special guest at the Thirtieth Anniversary Celebration of SPITTING IMAGE at the BFI (British Film Institute) and the interview with Steve featured in the BBC Arena documentary WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SPITTING IMAGE?Steve continues to work as an impressionist on television, often guesting on such programmes as POINTLESS CELEBRITIES and THE ONE SHOW. He has made appearances on ALISTAIR MCGOWAN'S BIG IMPRESSION (as Dame Maggie Smith), THE IMPRESSIONABLE JON CULSHAW (as Ann Widdecombe) and RORY BREMNER... WHO ELSE? (as Patricia Routledge). Steve has been heard on countless radio comedies and panel shows, notably FIRST IMPRESSIONS and AND THIS IS THEM, and his impression based stand-up act was featured on the cult comedy TV series DAN AND DUSTY SHOW (ITV1) to great acclaim. Among his other television credits as a celebrity guest are THE COMEDY YEARS (ITV), CALL MY BLUFF (BBC), NOEL'S TELLY YEARS (BBC), WHEN TV GUESTS GO HORRIBLY WRONG (C5, PULL THE OTHER ONE, LOOSE LIPS and DON'T DRINK THE WATER.Over the years Steve has contributed to various TV shows and documentaries celebrating the art and craft of the impressionist including NIGHT OF A THOUSAND FACES (BBC) in a sketch with Dame Edna Everage and WHO DID YOU DO? (BBC) presented by the actor Ricky Gervais. In SIXTY YEARS OF SWING, a documentary for BBC Parliament on the history of General Election night broadcasts, Steve discussed the contributions of anchor men and political pundits such as Robin Day and Bob MCKenzie, giving illustrations of their individual styles and vocal techniques along the way. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Overlooking Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, Welcome to the Suncoast Supper Club. Your host is Danny Lane “high above the dance floor”. For the next hour, you’ll hear the greatest music from the Big Band Era – continuously from four stages surrounding the dance floor. Dinner is winding down and Kenneth, the maitre ‘d, is seeing the guests to their tables. They’re settling in with cocktails and introductions. That's our virtual ballroom. Your V.I.P. table is ready …. at The Suncoast Supper Club. You’ll hear: 1) Blue Moon by Les Brown & His Band Of Renown 2) Nevertheless by Ray Anthony & His Orchestra (with Ronnie Deauville & The Skyliners, vocals) 3) Eager Beaver by Stan Kenton & His Orchestra 4) All Of Me by Benny Carter & His Orchestra 5) Too Close For Comfort by The Count Basie Orchestra (with Joe Williams, vocal) 6) King Porter Stomp by Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra 7) I Got Rhythm by Fats Waller 8) Swingin' The Blues by Count Basie & His Orchestra 9) Ten Cents a Dance by Ted Heath and His Music 10) The Hucklebuck by Lionel Hampton (with Betty Carter, vocal) 11) American Patrol by Glenn Miller & His Orchestra 12) Sing, Sing, Sing by Louis Prima (backed by his Las Vegas group, Sam Butera & the Witnesses) 13) Chattanooga Choo Choo (Cha Cha) by Tito Puente 14) Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away) by Red Norvo & His Orchestra 15) I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate by Muggsy Spanier & His Ragtime Band 16) Elmer's Tune by Benny Goodman & His Orchestra (with Peggy Lee, vocal) 17) Traffic Jam by Artie Shaw 18) For Dancers Only by Jimmie Lunceford & His Orchestra 19) Things Ain't What They Used To Be by Charlie Barnet & His Orchestra 20) I'll Be Seeing You by Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (with Frank Sinatra, vocal)

Matthew Bannister on Doreen Lofthouse, the Lancashire businesswoman who took Fisherman’s Friends lozenges from a Fleetwood chemist’s shop to a multi-million pound international company. Dr Chris Doake, the glaciologist who was able to predict with great accuracy the break-up of the Antarctic ice shelf. Barbara Hosking, who served as a Downing Street press officer under both Harold Wilson and Ted Heath and came out as a lesbian in her nineties. Bernice Cohen, the self-taught investor who became a TV star. Producer: Neil George Interviewed guest: Duncan Lofthouse Interviewed guest: David Pearce Interviewed guest: Dr Andy Smith Interviewed guest: Iain Dale Interviewed guest: Lawrence Lever Archive clips used: Women of the Year: BBC One, TX 16.10.1989; Government ad re preparations for the European Single Market: BBC One, TX 12.7.1990; Horizon: Antarctica - Ice Station Rescue: BBC Two, TX 5.2.2018; The Emma Barnett Show: Radio 4, TX 14.2.2018; The Morning Show: BBC One, TX 14.2.2003; Woman’s Hour: Radio 4, TX 4.6.1999

Blues upstairs and downstairs, from Nat Gonella, starts us off. Two Scottish numbers from Greenock male voice choir, with Loch Lomond and William Hannah with Caledonian circle. Hannah was a leading pre war accordionist and lived about 20 miles away from the Forgotten Songs studio in West Lothian. Also up The Avenue Tango Band with the rather tame, The golden tango girl,  Anton Walbrook, Benjamino Gigli, Carrol Gibbons and Benny Goodman, vocals by Helen Forrest. Three budget records: The Bluejays- Louise, Roland Blair- I cover the waterfront and, on a six inch The Victory label, The waters of kilarney. Frank Ferera is back with his wife Louise Greenus, Hawaiian Guitar duet. Early jazz from The  Happy six. Mr Sydney Coltham gives us a very refined song, which I think is pre 1920. Satya Chowdhury was born in Bengal, India and was very popular in the 1940s. Both starring and being a play back artist in many Indian films. Excellent track from Irish born Phil Green and his Basin Street band. He was long time arranger and conductor for Decca recorders.  What's that hammering? Ted Heath and Blacksmith Blues, vocals by Lita Rosa. Stay safe, stay positive.   

Two folky tunes from Burl Ives start us off. A jolly orchestrated(Percy Faith) version of Oh! Dear! She's wonderful beautiful and the more pared down Bonnie Wee Lassie. Ives spent the 1930s travelling the USA as an Itinerant musician and developed his singing career via the radio. He was also a well known actor, his most famous acting role was probably as Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Old favourites Carroll Gibbons, Len Fillis Roberto Murolo, Archie Lewis, Ted Heath, Bob and Alf Pearson and Harry Roy return. Edna Kaye does vocals for Gibbons. A new Italian singer joins us though, Carlo Butti.  We have Miss Lee Wiley, whose jazz singing career was at its peak from the 1930s to 50s. She had a short tempestuous marriage to Jess Stacy, the jazz pianist. Great voice. Big Bill Campbell was a Canadian born purveyor of Cowboy music here in Britain- I'm Rocking to the Rockies is jolly and cheesy. Nowt wrong with that. Ted Wallace and his Campus boys provide some lovely 30s music and vocals. Wallace was Wallace T Kirkeby, manager of the highly prolific Californian Ramblers. Must play them again. Penultimate record is Jimmie Rodgers, Blue Yodel from 1927. So bluesy, great lyrics. Just to prove we like a good mix of music on Forgotten Songs we go out with The Jacques String Orchestra and Berinice by Handel.  How Highfalutin is that!  

We start with two versions  of the same song. Ted Heath and his music gives us an instrumental version of Mountain Greenery and then Mel Torme sings the definitive version of the song. Not forgotten Mel but is not celebrated enough. He was bizarrely known as The Velvet Frog.  Fantastic lyrics from Lorenz Hart- 'How-how-how-how-how we love sequestering..' What's not to love there? Classics from Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, The Andrew Sisters and our old friend Leslie Hutchinson, Hutch. We have both sides of a Charlie Barnet record- Pumpton Turnpike and Swinging on Nothing. Charlie was one of the first band leaders to integrated his band. Massive fan of Basie and Ellington. Oscar Rabin plays a great version of Cherokee. He was a Latvian born English band leader. Sentimental Journey from Paul Fenoulhet, vocals Doreen Lundy Slightly mad track from Bill Snyder, Drifting Sands, vocals by Ralph Stirling. Our oldest track is Driftwood from Leo F Reisman from 1924. Bebe Daniels sings Imagination. She was an all round entertainer but is best remembered in Britain as being in the long running radio series Life with the Lyons, with husband Ben Lyon. Archie Lewis is a new discovery for me. Known as the Crosby of the Caribbean. He was one of the first black singers to front a big band in Britain, Geraldo's band. A pioneer and very popular in the 1940s and yet forgotten now it would seem. We get romantic with our last two. Roy Fox with vocals by Denny Dennis On the beach at Bali Bali and Carroll Gibbons, vocals by Leslie Douglas gives us I don't want to set the world on fire. Lovely version of a classic song. Stay safe out there.   Thanks to Jessica Parkman for many of the records in this episode

Final blowout fears: Boris Johnson urged to clarify plans for new local Covid restrictionsCoronavirus liveblog: 17,540 new UK cases, as more than 1,000 Newcastle University students test positiveNHS Test and Trace: Service registers worst week for contact tracingTV debates: Trump refuses to participate in virtual eventLiner, lashes, lip gloss: The youthful beauty tricks behind Kamala Harris's confident lookEnd of an era: British Airways' last Boeing 747 jets fly into retirementSherelle Jacobs: Will the EU turn Boris into another Ted Heath?Secret history: The lost story of Queen Victoria's god-daughterRead all these articles with a Telegraph subscription. Try a free one-month trial - then save 50pc on your first three months. Sign up here: http://bit.ly/2WRuvh9.

This week we talk about the politics of incompetence: when does it matter and when can politicians get away with it. Have repeated u-turns during the pandemic damaged the government? Has Nicola Sturgeon had a better crisis than Boris Johnson or is it just competence theatre? Is the government's incompetence going to be enough to get Keir Starmer into Downing Street? With Helen Thompson, Chris Brooke and Chris Bickerton.Talking Points:Competence: does it matter? What kinds of incompetence are likely to do this government the most harm?There have been a lot of u-turns in the policy and rules around COVID.Are these u-turns or is the government improvising in an unprecedented situation?The u-turns that do the most harm are those that are seen as a breach of trust.The important context for u-turns in British politics is Margaret Thatcher’s 1980 speech to the Conservative Party Conference.Her predecessor, Ted Heath, did not stick to the manifesto line in government.She actually was making a u-turn in macroeconomic policy, but she had concluded that voters saw pragmatic chopping and changing as incompetence.The difficulty for Johnson is that there’s a general perception that the government isn’t entirely on top of things. The competence issue comes back to the surface.The internal market bill is being published and it will apparently renege on some aspects of the withdrawal act.Being perceived as seeing yourself above international law is a risk for any government.In the context of Brexit, this is the consequence of how boxed in the Johnson government was when it came into power.COVID has revealed big differences between Westminster and the devolved governments.Sturgeon in particular has pitched her government as more competent than the Johnson government.Critics of the SNP say that this is theatre. But the handling of the pandemic may well feed into the SNP’s pitch heading into what appears to be an increasingly imminent referendum, which they are increasingly confident of winning.But it’s not just the pandemic; it’s also the whole Brexit process.Can Starmer use competence as a lever? Can you win power through competence?The opposition is not in a great place to set the agenda. A number of very important decisions will be made in the next year or so that change the political situation.Don’t underestimate the power of the Conservatives to replace Johnson.Many of Johnson’s ministers are creatures of his politics.What’s interesting about Sunak is that he doesn’t quite fit that template.Mentioned in this Episode:Margaret Thatcher’s 1980 speech to the Conservative Party Conference (‘the lady’s not for turning’)Scottish support for independence rises in the pandemicWho is Boris Johnson?Further Learning: More on the Internal Market BillThe Guardian’s view on the Internal Market... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Join us in the MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM. On this week’s showJess Stacy’s Monumental Solo.The Andrews Sisters 13 Weeks with Glenn Miller.Red Norvo, the only xylophonist to lead a big band!Reminiscences and music with Harry James, Benny Goodman and Bea Wain.Additional music by The Rhythm Boy’s, Mildred Bailey, Larry Clinton Orchestra, Paul Whiteman, Ted Heath, Dick Haymes and Frank Sinatra.

Its an imaginary train journey on my part. West to east across the USA, from San Francisco to Hagerstown in Washington County and this is some music to accompany the journey.  Two Choo, choo songs to start: The Merry Macs with Choo Choo Polka and a crazy track from Winifred Atwell, Choo Choo Samba. A double sided train record from Michael Holliday, 10 Thousand Miles and The Run Away Train. Remember the latter from Junior Choice, a BBC radio children's show in the 1960s.  Hutch sings Over the hill. Okay its not about trains but you'll understand the reason and it is Hutch! Trains in the title or train type music: Honky Tonk Train- Meade Lux Lewis(1935 recording), Munson Street Breakdown- Lionel Hampton, PDQ Blues- Fletcher Henderson and Red Nelson- Streamline Train. We take a break from the dusty travel to clean up. So its The Rhythm Maniacs and Singing in the bath tub. Back on the train and Sleepy Town Train from the Milt Herth Trio, some early Hammond Organ from 1942.  George Chisholm next and another non train song but the title says it all- Lets go!  Freight Train, Chas McDevitt and Nancy, excellent track and big hit from 1962. Wrongly credited and copyrighted to Williams and James for many years. It was in fact written by Elizabeth Cotton, around 1908. My favourite of the day, When the sun goes down. Lonnie Donegan at his best. Billed as Skiffle, its blues though. We finish with Ted Heath and his music and Grand Central Station. It's not even about the station or trains!

From the Crystal Studio of the Make Believe Ballroom some great reminiscences, history and stories wrapped around the classic music of Glenn Miller, Chick Webb, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Ray Anthony Kay Kyser, Ish Kabble, Jo Stafford, Bunny Berrigan, Ted Heath, Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, the Boswell Sisters and a whole lot more! Listen for a great interview as Ray Anthony explains his love-hate relationship with Glenn Miller.

From STUDIO 67 in Hollywood, join the BIG W, with a drink in hand for the next two hours as he breaks "the sonic barrier” with his PHASE 4 STEREO SPECTACULAR!! If you’re serious about stereo and Space-Age pop, this is the episode for you!!!! Playlist Show 398: These Boots Are Made For Walking - Alan Tew Orchestra Coming Home Baby - Trax Four Got My Feet On The Ground - Larry Page Orchestra Fascinating Rhythm - Eric Rogers & His Orchestra Daddy - Johnny Keating I Got Rhythm - International ''Pop'' All-Stars I Saw Her Standing There - Bob Leaper Girl - Raymonde Singers Etcetera Got To Get You Into My Life - Frank Chacksfield & His Orchestra Twisting With James - Roland Shaw & His Orchestra Mr. Kiss-Kiss, Bang-Bang - Roland Shaw & His Orchestra The James Bond Theme - Roland Shaw & His Orchestra Music To Watch Girls By - Ronnie Aldrich And His 2 Pianos Georgy Girl - Ronnie Aldrich And His 2 Pianos Chim Chim Cher-Ee - Ronnie Aldrich And His 2 Pianos The Look Of Love - Caterina Valente I'll Never Fall In Love Again - Guitars Unlimited Soul Sauce - Kenny Baker With A Little Bit of Luck/Get Me To The Church On Time - Werner Muller Old Devil Moon - Stanley Black There's No Business Like Show Business - Ethel Merman Route 66 - Frank Chacksfield & His Orchestra Up, Up And Away - Frank Chacksfield & His Orchestra The Good The Bad And The Ugly - Frank Chacksfield & His Orchestra Peter Gunn - Frank Chacksfield & His Orchestra Together Wherever We Go - Tony Randall and Jack Klugman Make Like Shake - Shake Keane Whipped Cream - Edmundo Ros & His Orchestra Tie A Yellow Ribbon - Edmundo Ros & His Orchestra Dark Eyes - Edmundo Ros & His Orchestra St. Louis Blues - Ted Heath & His Orchestra Yes Indeed! - Ted Heath & His Orchestra Skyliner - Ted Heath & His Orchestra Heat Wave - Ted Heath & Edmundo Ros South America Take It Away - Ted Heath & Edmundo Ros America - Ted Heath & Edmundo Ros

Ted Heath led an exceptional Big Band in England after World War Two into the 1960's. He always had top notch musicians in his bands. I wanted to put together a show about Ted for quite a while and I hope you enjoy his recordings as much as I do. I'll be playing from two albums called Swing is King. I bought these albums early in my youth and have nearly worn them out they are that good. Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this look at the bands of Ted Heath. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

A new decade, but still in Sheffield, Jack and James take to the pub to see how far their £5 singing competition winnings will stretch - only to discover that in 1969, it goes pretty bloody far! But as a result, they may have managed to overstay their welcome in Sheffield. Ted Heath takes over in the UK, A socialist government is elected in Chile, Apollo 11 fails to make it to the moon and the Miss World ceremony is taken over by protesters, oh 1970! Please consider supporting the podcast, it makes a big difference to us and is massively appreciated >> https://www.patreon.com/lostintimepodcast =============== If you fancy immersing yourself in the music of 1970, here's a link to a Spotify playlist of all the music featured in this episode >> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2YIoKcI1vkGSQjXvZUlh8R =============== All copyrighted material included in this Podcast is covered by Fair dealing for criticism or review.

From STUDIO 67 in Hollywood, join the BIG W for the next two hours as he explores, with drink in hand, swingin' Space-Age Pop songs of LOVE in LIVING STEREO! Original aired on Metromedia Radio 2/14/14 and rebroadcast 2/11/17 on WFSN-96.7fm / WJUB 1420am Show 236 playlist: • Your Love - Nat King Cole • Love Me Tonight – Ted Heath • You Bring out the Lover in Me – Eydie Gorme • People Will Say We’re In Love – Bob Thompson • I Love You, and Don’t You Forget It – Sarah Vaughan • Love Potion No. 9 – Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass • I Love You – The Kirby Stone Four • Wives and Lovers – Wayne Newton • Loads of Love – Peggy Lee • So in Love – Julie London • Love Is Just around the Corner – Sid Ramin • L.O.V.E. – Buddy Greco • I Wish I Were in Love Again – Ella Fitzgerald • Lover – Si Zentner • What Now, My Love – Lou Rawls • Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love – Skip Martin • Turn On Your Love Light – Tom Jones • You Can’t Love ‘Em All – Sammy Davis, Jr. • The Tunnel of Love – Doris Day • From Russia with Love – Dick Schory • I Can’t Believe that You’re in Love with Me – Dean Martin • What Is This Thing Called Love – Frankie Avalon • Lover’s Concerto – Xavier Cugat • Hooray for Love – The Skylarks • Love Won’t Let You Get Away – Rosemary Clooney & Bing Crosby • When Love Walked in with You – Dakota Staton • Almost Like Being in Love – Beverly Kenney • The Lady’s in Love with You – Mel Torme • Falling in Love with Love – Lena Horne • The Pagan Love Song – Arthur Lyman • Hello Young Lovers – Martin Denny • I’ve Never Been in Love Before – Bobby Darin • Lover Come Back to Me – Ray Conniff Singers • Swing, You Lovers – Keely Smith

Nombre de nacimiento George Edward Heath Nacimiento 30 de marzo de 1902 Londres, Inglaterra, Reino Unido Fallecimiento 18 de noviembre de 1969 (67 años) Virginia Water, Surrey, Inglaterra, Reino Unido Nacionalidad Británica Familia Cónyuge Audrey Keymour (?-1932, muerte de ella); Moira Heath (16 de diciembre de 1933-18 de noviembre de 1969, muerte de él) Información profesional Ocupación Músico, líder de banda, compositor Años activo 1916-1969 Género Jazz Instrumento Trombón

STANDARD SEMANAL.- “Moment's Notice”.-JAZZ RECUERDO ANIVERSARIO.-Ronnie scott - the couriers of jazz!( & tubby hayes) (1958).-JAZZ ACTUALIDAD .- Ander Garcia Trio con su álbum “AMAHIRU” PROG.Nº 648.- Dos horas para el análisis y repaso a la historia y actualidad que generan esta música americana . Todo en el tono que acostumbra este programa, en dos secciones JAZZ ANIVERSARIO y JAZZ ACTUALIDAD importantes novedades y diferentes canales de comunicación que se ofrecerán al oyente. STANDARD SEMANAL.- “Moment's Notice” JAZZ RECUERDO ANIVERSARIO.-Ronnie scott - the couriers of jazz!( & tubby hayes) (1958) Ronnie Scott & Tubby Hayes - The Couriers Of Jazz* ?– The Couriers Of Jazz Sello: Carlton ?– LP12-116 Formato: Vinyl, LP, Mono País: US Publicado: 1958 Género: Jazz Estilo: Bop Lista de Títulos A1 Mirage 5:20 A2 After Tea 7:50 A3 Stop The World, I Want To Get Off 3:40 A4 In Salah 3:50 B1 Star Eyes 4:10 B2 The Monk 4:35 B3 My Funny Valentine 4:45 B4 Day In, Day Out 5:30 Créditos • Bass – Jeff Clyne • Drums – Bill Eyden • Piano – Terry Shannon • Tenor Saxophone – Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes Ronnie Scott OBE (nacido Ronald Schatt , 28 de enero de 1927 - 23 de diciembre de 1996) era un saxofonista tenor inglés de jazz y propietario de un club de jazz. [1] Cofundó el Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club , uno de los clubes de jazz más populares del Reino Unido, en 1959. Ronnie Scott nació en Aldgate , East London , en una familia judía. Su padre, Joseph Schatt, era de ascendencia rusa, y la familia de su madre Sylvia asistió a la sinagoga portuguesa en Alie Street. Scott asistió a la Fundación Central Boys 'School . Scott comenzó a tocar en pequeños clubes de jazz a la edad de 16 años. Su reclamo a la fama fue que "el suegro de Vera Lynn le enseñó a tocar". Estuvo de gira con el trompetista Johnny Claes de 1944 a 1945 y con Ted Heath en 1946. Trabajó con Ambrose , Cab Kaye y Tito Burns . Estuvo involucrado en la cooperativa banda y club Club Eleven de músicos de corta duración (1948–50) con Johnny Dankworth . Scott se hizo conocido del arreglista / compositor Tadd Dameron , cuando el estadounidense trabajaba en el Reino Unido para Heath, y se informa que actuó con Dameron como el pianista, en un concierto de Club Eleven. Scott fue miembro de la generación de músicos británicos que trabajaron en el transatlántico Cunard Queen Mary de forma intermitente desde 1946 hasta alrededor de 1950 para visitar la ciudad de Nueva York y escuchar la nueva forma de jazz llamada bebop en los clubes de allí. Scott fue uno de los primeros músicos británicos influenciados por Charlie Parker y otros músicos de jazz moderno. En 1952, Scott se unió a la orquesta de Jack Parnell y de 1953 a 1956 dirigió una banda y quinteto de nueve integrantes que incluyó a Pete King , con quien luego abrió su club de jazz, Victor Feldman , Hank Shaw y Phil Seamen . Co-dirigió The Jazz Couriers con Tubby Hayes de 1957 a 1959 y fue líder de un cuarteto que incluía a Stan Tracey (1960-67). De 1967 a 1969, Scott fue miembro de la Big Band Kenny Clarke / Francy Boland , que recorrió Europa e incluyó a Johnny Griffin y Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis . Simultáneamente, dirigió su octeto, que incluía a John Surman y Kenny Wheeler , y un trío con Mike Carr en los teclados y Bobby Gien en la batería (1971–1975). Las otras bandas de Scott a menudo incluían a John Critchinson en los teclados y Martin Drew en la batería. Hizo un trabajo de sesión ocasional, que incluyó tocar el solo en " Lady Madonna ", el sencillo de 1968 de los Beatles , tocar en la partitura de Roy Budd para la película Fear Is the Key (1972) y tocar el solo de saxo tenor en " I Missed Again ", el sencillo de 1981 de Phil Collins . Charles Mingus dijo de él en 1961: "De los niños blancos, Ronnie Scott se acerca al sentimiento del negro y azul, como lo hace Zoot Sims ". [9] Scott grabó con poca frecuencia durante las últimas décadas de su carrera. Sufría de depresión. Mientras se recuperaba de una cirugía para implantes dentales, murió a la edad de 69 años de una sobredosis accidental de barbitúricos recetados por su dentista. La viuda de Ronnie Scott, Mary Scott, y su hija, Rebecca Scott, escribieron las memorias A Fine Kind of Madness: Ronnie Scott Remembered , con un prólogo de Spike Milligan. El libro fue publicado en 1999 en Londres por Headline Book Publishing. Scott es quizás mejor recordado por su cofundación, con el ex tenista de saxo tenor Pete King , Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club , que abrió el 30 de octubre de 1959 en un sótano en 39 Gerrard Street en el distrito Soho de Londres , con el debut de un joven alto El saxofonista llamado Peter King (sin relación), antes de mudarse a un lugar más cercano en 47 Frith Street en 1965. El lugar original continuó operando como el "Old Place" hasta que el contrato de arrendamiento se agotó en 1967, y fue utilizado para actuaciones de la nueva generación de músicos nacionales. Scott actuó regularmente como el genial Maestro de Ceremonias del club, y se destacó por su repertorio de bromas, comentarios y frases ingeniosas. Una introducción típica podría ser: "Nuestro próximo invitado es uno de los mejores músicos del país. En la ciudad, es una mierda". Otro anuncio memorable fue: "La próxima semana estamos orgullosos de tener un cuarteto con Stan Getz y el violinista Stuff Smith. Se llama el" Cuarteto relleno de Getz ". Ronnie solía usar en los últimos días los servicios de John Schatt para reservar bandas de rock para Ronnie. Scott está arriba. Después de la muerte de Scott, King continuó dirigiendo el club durante otros nueve años, antes de venderlo al empresario de teatro Sally Greene en junio de 2005. En septiembre de 2013, mientras se redecoraba el club, se colocó un acaparamiento de 12 metros cuadrados en la fachada de la calle Frith como un homenaje a su fundador homónimo, con una fotografía gigante de Ronnie Scott por Val Wilmer , junto a una de su legendaria -liners: "Me encanta este lugar, es como estar en casa, sucio y lleno de extraños". Además de participar en orquestas de nombre, Scott dirigió o co-dirigió numerosas bandas con algunos de los músicos de jazz más destacados de Gran Bretaña del día. JAZZ ACTUALIDAD .-Esta semana vamos a tener al contrabajista Ander Garcia Trio con su álbum “AMAHIRU” Cuando los ingredientes son sobradamente conocidos, tendemos a pensar que los resultados también serán los habituales. Y aunque a menudo es así, cuando esos mismos ingredientes caen en manos de un artitsta valiente, obstinado y brillante como Ander Garcia la sorpresa puede ser mayúscula. Y este bello y excitante nuevo trabajo que se presenta bajo el nombre de Ander Garcia Trio sin duda lo es. En ese sentido, son especialmente destacables sus discos en solitario “Ttun Kurrun” y “Hiru”, ampliamente aclamados por la crítica especializada. Pero en el caso que nos ocupa, el del trio que forma junto al piano de Jorge Castañeda y la batería de Mikel Urretagoiena, nos encontramos con el Ander Garcia mas explorador y aventurero. En este proyecto Ander utiliza las métricas y melodías de ancestrales bailes y bersos euskaldunes para desarrollar sus improvisaciones, y al mismo tiempo los moldea y adapta a nuevos contextos musicales creando un espacio de intercambio limbre entre ellos. De este modo el ritmo de la ezpata dantza se convierte en danza latinoaméricana, y partiendo del de los zortzikos llega a un híbrido rítimico absolutamente contemporáneo y desconocido, o se lanza a llevar el ritmo del tamboril a la batería para diseccionarlo en un abánico de variantes deslumbrante. Las oportunidades para la sorpresa son infinitas en este disco.

Mike Tarraga's harrowing story of care homes and prolific child abuse.

Mike Tarraga's harrowing story of care homes and prolific child abuse.

Where else would you get this sort of selection and all on 78rpm records. Intriguing labelled blues from The Sonny Terry Trio- Parlophone refer to it as 'novelty instrumental.' In the mix: three from Tennessee Ernie Ford- (Ford started his career as a radio presenter), Kay Starr( she achieved success in every field of music she tried-jazz, pop and country), Michael Holliday, Louie Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey,  the great Frankie Laine( Old leather lungs himself- had hit records 60 years apart), Humprey Lyttleton, Ted Heath, Lou Busch, Ken Mcintosh and Dorothy Squires.

An all 78rpm episode. The usual eclectic mix of little played or forgotten songs and artists. Presented by Miles Tubb Amongst others:  Tennessee Ernie Ford, Teresa Brewer ( a long carreer- she was even a guest star on The Muppets) , Ted Heath      (Britain's most popular post war big band leader), Kay Starr, David Whitfield, Josephine Bradley(ballroom dancer, teacher and strict tempo bandleader) , Nat King Cole, Everly Bros, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Frankie Laine and Fletcher Henderson's Livery Stable Blues- Henderson, along with Duke Ellington, is considered to be be one of the most influential arrangers and band leaders in jazz history.

Í dag eru liðin 63 ár síðan stórstjörnurnar Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis og Johnny Cash hittust fyrir tilviljun í Sun-hljóðverinu í Memphis og hljóðrituðu nokkur lög. 25 árum síðar voru þau loks gefin út á plötu. Freyr Eyjólfsson rifjaði upp söguna af þessari dagstund fjórmenninganna 4. desember 1956. Landsvirkjun ætlar að verða kolefnishlutlaus árið 2025. Hörður Arnarson forstjóri sagði frá aðgerðaáætlun fyrirtækisins í þeim efnum en nú þegar hefur náðst mikill árangur í að draga úr losun. Aðgerðirnar eru þríþættar, það á að fyrirbyggja losun, draga úr losun og auka bindingu. Katrín Jakobsdóttir forsætisráðherra snæddi í gær kvöldverð í Downingstræti 10, bústað forsætisráðherra Bretlands, ásamt leiðtogum annarra Nató-ríkja. Af því tilefni stiklaði Vera Illugadóttir á stóru í langri og merkri sögu þessa kunna húss sem fyrir margt löngu var talið orðið svo táknrænt fyrir Bretland og forsætisráðherraembættið að horfið var frá hugmyndum um að rífa það. Ekki stendur til að ráðast í framkvæmdir á flugvöllunum á Akureyri og Egilsstöðum á næstu árum. Við það eru margir ósáttir enda illgjörningur að fá erlend flugfélög til að fljúga þangað meðan aðstaðan er ekki betri en raunin er. Óðinn Svan Óðinsson, fréttamaður á Akureyri, ræddi þessi mál við hagsmunaaðila í ferðaþjónustu á Akureyri, þá Steingrím Birgisson, forstjóra Bílaleigu Akureyrar, og Þorvald Lúðvík Sigurjónsson, eiganda útsýnisflugfélagsins Circle Air. Tónlist: Just a Litttle Talk With Jesus - Elvis Presley, Lullaby of birdland - Ted Heath, Dead Flowers - Rolling Stones.

Í dag eru liðin 63 ár síðan stórstjörnurnar Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis og Johnny Cash hittust fyrir tilviljun í Sun-hljóðverinu í Memphis og hljóðrituðu nokkur lög. 25 árum síðar voru þau loks gefin út á plötu. Freyr Eyjólfsson rifjaði upp söguna af þessari dagstund fjórmenninganna 4. desember 1956. Landsvirkjun ætlar að verða kolefnishlutlaus árið 2025. Hörður Arnarson forstjóri sagði frá aðgerðaáætlun fyrirtækisins í þeim efnum en nú þegar hefur náðst mikill árangur í að draga úr losun. Aðgerðirnar eru þríþættar, það á að fyrirbyggja losun, draga úr losun og auka bindingu. Katrín Jakobsdóttir forsætisráðherra snæddi í gær kvöldverð í Downingstræti 10, bústað forsætisráðherra Bretlands, ásamt leiðtogum annarra Nató-ríkja. Af því tilefni stiklaði Vera Illugadóttir á stóru í langri og merkri sögu þessa kunna húss sem fyrir margt löngu var talið orðið svo táknrænt fyrir Bretland og forsætisráðherraembættið að horfið var frá hugmyndum um að rífa það. Ekki stendur til að ráðast í framkvæmdir á flugvöllunum á Akureyri og Egilsstöðum á næstu árum. Við það eru margir ósáttir enda illgjörningur að fá erlend flugfélög til að fljúga þangað meðan aðstaðan er ekki betri en raunin er. Óðinn Svan Óðinsson, fréttamaður á Akureyri, ræddi þessi mál við hagsmunaaðila í ferðaþjónustu á Akureyri, þá Steingrím Birgisson, forstjóra Bílaleigu Akureyrar, og Þorvald Lúðvík Sigurjónsson, eiganda útsýnisflugfélagsins Circle Air. Tónlist: Just a Litttle Talk With Jesus - Elvis Presley, Lullaby of birdland - Ted Heath, Dead Flowers - Rolling Stones.

Ex-BBC reporter Anna Brees describes her work helping victims of paedophiles.

Ex-BBC reporter Anna Brees describes her work helping victims of paedophiles.

RUNNING TIME: 3 Hours 41 MinutesHosted by Don Tony SYNOPSIS: S2 E29 (07/16 - 07/22) Audio: 'The Great Betrayal': Paul Orndorff turns on Hulk Hogan during a Tag Team match against King Kong Bundy and Big John Studd (1986). Audio: Memorable promos from Paul Orndorff and Hulk Hogan following the 'betrayal' (1986). Looking back at WWF Saturday Night's Main Event #22 (1986). Audio: The Brain Busters makes WWF/NWA history and end Demolition's record 478 day reign as WWF Tag Team Champions (1986). Canada threatens arrest and bans Jacques Rougeau and WWF from using 'The Mountie' in Canada. Audio: 'I am, The Mountie!' Audio: 'I am, Jacques Rougeau!' Audio: Bret Hart defends IC Championship in the first ever WWF Ladder Match (1992). Looking back at NWA/WCW 'Beach Blast' PPV (1993). Vince McMahon found not guilty in 1994 steroids conspiracy trial. Looking back at WCW 'Bash At The Beach' PPV (1994, 1995). The Giant (Big Show) makes his WCW debut. Audio: Hulk Hogan makes his WCW debut and defeats Ric Flair for WCW Heavyweight Championship (1994). Audio: Phantasio makes his one and only WWF TV appearance. Audio: Woman (Nancy Benoit) causes TV controversy as Mikey Whipwreck takes ten Singapore cane lashes from The Sandman (1995). After defeating The Gangstas in the main event, Public Enemy and fans 'break' the ECW ring. Looking back at WWF In Your House 9: International Incident PPV (1996). Wild Bill Irwin (as The Goon) and Ron Simmons (as Faarooq Asad) make their WWF debuts. Looking back at ECW Heatwave PPV (1997, 1999, 2000). Audio: The Dudleys and Joel Gertner's memorable Heatwave '99 promo (1999). XPW sits ringside during Heatwave 2000 PPV and ECW wrestlers are none too happy about it. Looking back at WWF 'Invasion' PPV (2001) and the massive PPV buyrate. Following Eric Bischoff announced as Raw GM, Stephanie McMahon debuts as Smackdown GM (2002). Audio: First on air promo exchange between Eric Bischoff and The Rock (2002). Looking back at WWE 'Vengeance' PPV (2002). Triple H turns on friend and 'manager', Shawn Michaels. WWE unifies the Intercontinental and European Championships. Audio: Memorable promo exchange between The Rock and Eddie Guerrero (2002). Audio: Sabu makes NWA TNA debut in a memorable ladder match against Malice (2002). Who remembers the WWE Evolution 'Paid, Laid, and Made' T-Shirt?! Audio: Goldberg tells Triple H, he's next! (2003). Kane tombstone piledrives Linda McMahon on WWE Raw stage. Audio: John Cena cuts memorable graveyard promo on The Undertaker and urinates on a tombstone (2003). Looking back at ROH 'Death Before Dishonor' 2003 event. Looking back at TNA 'No Surrender' PPV (2005). Looking back at TNA 'Victory Road' PPV (2006, 2009). Looking back at WWE 'Great American Bash' PPV (2007, 2008). Hornswoggle wins the WWE Cruiserweight Title. Bobby Lashley wrestles last match during his first run with WWE. WWE replaces Edge (due to injury) with The Great Khali as WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Edge forfeits WWE World Heavyweight Championship after suffering a torn pectoral muscle. Bye bye TV-14! WWE officially becomes 'PG'. Triple H (and Alicia Fox) ruin the 'wedding' between Edge and Vickie Guerrero. First ever WWE Divas Champion crowned (2008). D'Lo Brown makes a memorable return to WWE (2008). Audio: TNA employee exposes Jeff Jarrett and Karen Angle affair on Bubba The Love Sponge Radio Show Ron Simmons inducted into the College Football Hall Of Fame. Looking back at WWE 'Money In The Bank' PPV (2010, 2011). Audio: CM Punk defeats John Cena and leaves WWE as WWE Champion (2011). Audio: Triple H 'takes over' WWE and relieves a crying Vince McMahon of his duties. Rey Mysterio (for 46 minutes) then John Cena replaces CM Punk as WWE Champion. Audio: CM Punk confronts Triple H at San Diego Comic-Con (2011). Audio: Daniel Bryan proposes to AJ Lee (2012). Brie Bella suffers wardrobe malfunction during segment on Raw (2013). TNA releases D'Lo Brown and Bruce Pritchard. Looking back at WWE 'Battleground' PPV (2014, 2015). CM Punk appears at Alternative Press Music Awards and vows a WWE return will never happen. Dixie Carter attempts to rehire and hide Vince Russo as a creative consultant for TNA. Mick Foley (Raw) and Daniel Bryan (Smackdown Live) announced as new WWE General Managers. Looking back at 2016 WWE Draft. Audio: Cesaro is not happy about WWE Draft. Audio: Kalisto 'Lucha Thing'. Audio: Bubba Ray has a problem with The Uso's Samoan wrestling lineage. Audio: Kurt Angle reveals Jason Jordan as his son. Looking back at Impact Wrestling 'Slammiversary XVI' PPV (2018). And so much more! NOTABLE BIRTHDAYS: Fabulous Moolah, Hiro Matsuda, David Von Erich, George Hackenschmidt, Édouard Carpentier, Joe Brunetti, Sky Low Low, Bob Orton Sr, Tex McKenzie, Ted Heath, Sonny Fargo, Farmer Brown, Angel of Death, Cyclone Mackey, Great Scott, Leo Garibaldi, Lofty Blomfield, Mike Nazarian, Gil Guerrero, Frankie Talaber, Frank Martínez, Jean Antone, Randy Anderson, DJ Peterson, Dr. X-Treme, Dick Griffin, Ray Richards, Happy Humphrey, Mighty Igor, Arkángel de la Muerte (RIP), Richard Brown 90, Frenchy Lamonte 73, Carlos Colón 71, Randy Rose 63, Robert Gibson 61, Yoshiaki Yago 58, Dusty Wolfe 57, Al Snow, Giant Silva and Steve Gillespie 56, Shawn Michaels 54, Blue Demon Jr and Shaun Simpson 53, Pequeño Violencia 51, Great Sasike and Mike Sanders 50, Shawn Stasiak, Choden Senshi Battle Ranger, Azteca and Mr. Niebla 49, Michael Modest, Otoko Sakari and Chastity 48, Shinjiro Otani, Jason Rumble and Mike Kehner 47, Homeless Jimmy 46, Chris Chetti, Avisman and Rey Bucanero 45, Daffney, Yuki Kondo, UltraMantis Black and El Zorro 44, Bobby Lashley, Rey Trueno, Kage and Abdullah Kobayashi 43, Tony Mamaluke, Yuji Sakuragi and Trik Nasty 42, Mike Knox, SUSHI, Decnis, Bulk and Caiman 41, Adam Rose, Joey Mercury, Stuka Jr, El Nazareno, Pólvora and Mark Sterling 40, Fandango, Mikey Whiplash, Lou Cypher, Marc Letzman, Masato Yoshino and TJ Harley 39, Kenny King, Jerry Bostic and Jon Cutler 38, Robbie Dynamite, Luis Ocasio and James Johnson 37, Yoshiyasu Shimizu, Kenny Li and Ryan Wood 36, Ben Sailer, Tron and Dave Mastiff 35, Killer Kross, Thumbtack Jack, QT Marshall, Akira Tozawa and Todd Chandler 34, Jinder Mahal, Lacey Von Erich, Mojo Rawley, Dave D'Jour, Alex Price, Red Dragon and Mochi Miyagi 33, Azusa Takigawa, Ho Ho Lun, Mortiz, Player Uno and The Flyin' Hawaiian 32, Donny Douglas 31, Lady Afrodita, Fabian Aichner, Zarco, Golden Magic and Hania the Howling Huntress 29, Mandy Rose, Shoko Nakajima, Laura Di Matteo, Holidead and Thunder Rosa 28, Dinosaur Takuma and Yuu 27, Kotaro Yoshino, Lady Puma, Aria Blake and Dinastía 25, Maki Natsumi and Dulce Kanela 24, Muerte Infernal and Kaito Kiyomiya 23, KC Navarro 20 NOTABLE PRO WRESTLING DEBUTS: Ivan Putski 1969, Cedric Alexander 2009, Brandi Rhodes 2011 NOTABLE DEATHS: Rayo de Jalisco 85, Gorgeous George Arena 84, Geto Mongol 82, Karl Rosenstein 79, Lord Alfred Hayes, Bob Orton Sr and June Byers 76, Jackie Brown 75, Tony Galento and Greg Peterson 69, Miguel Pérez and Jack Kennedy 68, Pat Roach and Lil Abner Osborne 67, Chuck Richards and The Missouri Mauler 65, Goldie Rogers 61, Johnny Canuck 56, Joe Komar 53, Randy Rice 50, Bullwhip Johnson 49, Mustafa Shikane 43, Bruiser Brody 42, Terry Gordy and Billy Firehawk 40, John Kronus 38, Virgil E Flynn III 33, AJ Mitrano 29 RIGHT CLICK AND SAVE to download the TWIWH S2 E29 (07/22/19) episode. CLICK HERE to listen to the TWIWH S2 E29 (07/22/19) online. CLICK HERE to listen to the AD FREE (07/22/19) episode. ITUNES LINK Please subscribe to us on ITUNES =================  PROGRAMMING NOTE: TWIWH (S2 E30) HOSTED BY DON TONY Your next episode of 'TWIWH (Season 2 Episode 30)' will be posted Tuesday, July 30, 2019. In addition to download links, a preview of TWIWH airs every week immediately following the live episode of Don Tony And Kevin Castle Show. ================= DTKC AND WRESTLING SOUP ARE NOW ON DISCORD!Join DTKC, Mish, Joey Numbas and fellow members of our DTKC Show family as we take our shows to a whole new interactive level. Join the thousands who have already signed up. Coming soon, call-ins to our shows, video podcasts, bonus content exclusive for our Patrons, impromptu chats with Mish and DT, even gaming! Want to challenge DT to some Poker? Spades? Hearts and more? Sign up now. 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RUNNING TIME: 3 Hours 30 MinutesHosted by Don Tony SYNOPSIS: Episode 33 (08/14 - 08/20) AWA is created and Verne Gagne awards himself first AWA World Heavyweight Champion. NWA refuses to recognize Bobo Brazil as the first Black NWA World Heavyweight Champion. Nikita Koloff wins Best of Seven Series (4-3) against Magnum TA to become NWA US Champion. Looking back at first ever Indy Wrestling event Don Tony attended: WWA Rumble II. Audio: Jake The Snake Roberts betrays Ultimate Warrior. Audio: Similar promos by Jake Roberts and President Trump almost 30 years apart. Audio: Jesse Ventura does play by play for 'Grudge Match'. Audio: The Shockmaster makes his memorable WCW debut. Audio: Dusty Rhodes speaks on The Shockmaster. Audio: Prelude to Mr McMahon 4+ years before Montreal Screwjob: Vince McMahon invades USWA and Memphis. Lex Luger vs Yokozuna battle in USWA right before Summerslam. Audio: Leslie Nielsen hunts for The Undertaker. Undertaker vs Undertaker Summerslam outcome spoiled at Monday Night Raw taping. Breaking down problems between NWA and ECW which would ultimately lead to ECW 'throwing down' NWA Heavyweight Title. Audio: Dean Douglas is coming to WWF, and he isn't a fan of Bret Hart. Cactus Jack def Terry Funk in No Ropes, Barbed Wire, Exploding Death Match to win IWA King Of The Deathmatch Tournament. Sabu, Eddie Guerrero, and Dean Malenko sign with WCW. WCW holds NYC Press Conference to announce debut of Monday Nitro on TNT. Mankind vs Undertaker Boiler Room Brawl and HBK vs Vader highlight Summerslam 1996. Looking back at ECW Hardcore Heaven 1997. Undertaker busted open for the first time ever on Raw as the development of DX continues. Audio: Rocky Maivia addresses 'Die Rocky Die' chants and NOD push racist storyline further. Audio: Eddie Guerrero tells Eric Bischoff to shove it and leaves Nitro. Audio: Ultimate Warrior equals big ratings for WCW. The Warrior makes his memorable WCW debut. Kevin Nash loses retirement match at WCW Road Wild '99 - just to return two months later. Lenny Lane wins WCW Cruiserweight Title and is quietly stripped due to Time Warner's concerns over homosexual character. Audio: Mick Foley announces first ever TLC match. Audio: Linda McMahon at Democratic National Convention?! Vampiro and Great Muta win WCW Tag Titles - just to lose them one day later. Audio: Lance Storm vs Mike Awesome on Nitro in Canada ends up in a clusterfu**. Audio: Team Canada is formed and Lance Storm gives away the US and Cruiserweight Titles as presents. Stacy Keibler announces to David Flair and the world that she's 'pregnant'. Showing love for the brief WCW career of Papaya. Looking back at Summerslam 2001: WWF vs The Alliance. Kurt Angle spoils 'Austin Appreciation Night'. First ever live WWF Smackdown airs with new set and new music. Kevin Nash loses a Hair vs Hair match on Raw against Chris Jericho. Randy Orton (24) becomes youngest ever WWE Heavyweight Champion. Thumbs Down: Triple H, Ric Flair, and Batista kick Randy Orton out of Evolution. Audio: Kane announces wedding to Lita next week on Raw. As you will hear, the 'threatening of rape' claimed on many wrestling sites is untrue. Audio: Shawn Michaels trolls and has nuclear heat with Canadian Raw fans.  Audio: Hulk Hogan wrestles last ever Raw match against Kurt Angle. Ashley Massaro wins 2005 Divas Search. Layla El wins 2006 Divas Search. Undertaker vs Edge HIAC, Batista vs John Cena, Chris Jericho accidentally punches HBK's wife Rebecca highlight Summerslam 2008. WWE releases Nick Dinsmore (Eugene) after returning a few weeks prior. Kevin Nash def Mick Foley to win TNA Legends Championship. Hornswoggle def Chavo Guerrero Jr in Falls Count Anywhere Match. Daniel Bryan makes his WWE return (Summerslam 2010) after being fired due to incident during Nexus angle. Darren Young kicked out of The Nexus. Bret Hart introduces new WWE Tag Titles as WWE retires Unified WWE Tag Titles. Alberto Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez make their WWE main roster debut. Ring Of Honor replaces Adam Pearce with Delirious as head booker. Audio: CM Punk def John Cena (Referee: Triple H) to win Undisputed WWE Championship. Audio: Kevin Nash attacks CM Punk in surprise return. Audio: Alberto Del Rio cashes in MITB to win WWE Championship. Audio: Kevin Nash and CM Punk try to turn Chicken Sh** into Chicken Salad on Raw. WWE suspends referee Mike Chioda and Tough Enough winner Andy Leavine. Matt Hardy arrested after DUI which included auto accident. WWE debuts Saturday Morning Slam. CM Punk vs Big Show vs John Cena and Brock Lesnar vs Triple H highlight Summerslam 2012. Bully Ray def Chris Sabin to win TNA World Heavyweight Title. Main Event Mafia vs Aces And Eights. Brock Lesnar vs CM Punk, Daniel Bryan vs John Cena, Randy Orton MITB Cash In to win WWE Title highlight Summerslam 2013. John Cena undergoes triceps surgery. Sin Cara suffers broken fingers during Raw match. Stephanie McMahon wrestles first match in eleven years, Title wins for Paige (Divas), Dolph Ziggler (IC), and Brock Lesnar (WWE World Heavyweight Title) highlight Summerslam 2014. Audio: Brock Lesnar destroys John Cena (Summerslam 2014). Audio: Brock Lesnar doesn't give a sh** about Heath Slater's kids. Alberto Del Rio wrestles last WWE match (against John Cena). Baron Corbin cashes in MITB but loses against Jinder Mahal in WWE Championship match. Akira Tozawa def Neville for WWE Cruiserweight Title. And so much more! NOTABLE BIRTHDAYS: Fritz Von Erich, Wally Carbo, Dick Murdoch, Bill Lee, Buddy Pappas, Victor The Bodyguard, Buddy Landel, Eddie Gilbert,  Uncle Elmer, Gino Hernandez, Kurt von Schober, Jack Allen, and Gypsy Joe (RIP), Irma Gonzalez 82, Bobby Duncum 74, Bob Backlund 69, Gran Markus Jr 65, Bobby Eaton 60, Tom Prichard and Tim Horner 59, Jeff Farmer 56, Tamon Honda and Tarzan Goto 55, Tori (DX) 54, Lilian Garcia and Nitro 52, Super Boy 50, Dick Togo 49, Katsuhisa Fujii 46, Tomohiko Hashimoto 41, Ruckus, Court Bauer, Susumu Yokosuka, and Ryo Saito 40, Shawn Patrick, Homeless Tom, Fenix, and Hank Calhoun 39, Nikki The Knockout, Chet Jablonski, and Terry Daniels 38, Kofi Kingston, Byron Saxton, Percy Watson, and Noel Harlow 37, Cheerleader Melissa 36, Big Cass 32, Johnny Gargano and Lucky Cannon 31, Ryan Rage 30, Cedric Alexander and Justin Sane 29, Paige 26, Velveteen Dream 23, Alberto Dos Rios 21 NOTABLE PRO WRESTLING DEBUTS: Ole Anderson (1967), Negro Casas (1979), Rick Rude (1982), Kurt Angle (1998), Cheerleader Melissa (1999), Chris Masters (2002),  Apollo Crews (2009), Sasha Banks and Roman Reigns (2010) NOTABLE DEATHS: Tony Cosenza 92, Chief Lone Eagle 88, Gabrielle Calderon-Vasseur 83, Ted Heath and Sonny Fargo 80, Jim Londos 78, Kurt von Schober 77, Skandar Akbar 75, Buddy Bison 71, Dewey Robertson and Marv Westenberg 68, Pat O'Connor and Babs Wingo 65, Terry Garvin 61, Tony Parisi 58, Paul McManus 57, Nightmare" Ted Allen 54, Ian 'Doc' Dean 48, Masanobu Okamoto 44, DC Dillinger 43, Jeep Swenson 40, Moondog Lonnie Mayne 33, Joe Delicious 31, Plum Mariko 29, Shane Shamrock and Chri$ Ca$h 23 RIGHT CLICK AND SAVE to download the TWIWH EP33 (08/20/18) CLICK HERE to listen to the TWIWH EP33 (08/20/18) online. CLICK HERE to listen to the AD FREE (08/20/18) episode (Patreon Link) ITUNES LINK Please subscribe to us on ITUNES ================= PROGRAMMING NOTE: 'TWIWH (EP34)' HOSTED BY DON TONY Your next episode of 'TWIWH (EP34)' will be posted Tuesday, August 28, 2018. In addition to download links, a preview of TWIWH airs every week immediately following the live episode of Don Tony And Kevin Castle Show. #ThrowbackTuesday =============== IF YOU ARE A FAN OF 'DON TONY AND KEVIN CASTLE SHOW' and 'BREAKFAST WITH BLASI' and just can't get enough of the shows, check out our PATREON PAGE! You'll gain access to our Patreon Exclusive shows such as 'The Castle Chronicles' hosted by Kevin Castle, and 'BREAKFAST SOUP' hosted by Don Tony & Missionary (Wrestling Soup), and early access to other content. You also have exclusive access to lost episodes of 'The Minority Report' from 2004/2005, select vintage episodes of 'The Masked Maniac Show', and retro Blackhearts Hotline reports from 2001/2002. In addition to the shows, we hold monthly PPV Predictions Contests and other prize giveaways! And by signing up, you'll help us keep the DTKC Show and BwB free for everyone, and get interactive with DTKC like never before. You get it all for as little as $5! CLICK HERE to visit our Patreon page and gain access now! =============== DTKC SHOW / BwB / BREAKFAST SOUP / MATARRAZ T-SHIRTS ON SALE!Pro Wrestling Tees has launched the only source for T-Shirts of' Don Tony and Kevin Castle Show', 'Breakfast w/ Blasi', 'Breakfast Soup', and even 'Deli Man'! Please visit our T-Shirt store now. More designs will be added shortly. CLICK HERE to visit our T-Shirt Store now! ===============  PROGRAMMING NOTE: DON TONY AND KEVIN CASTLE SHOWYour next episode of the 'Don Tony And Kevin Castle Show' will air Monday August 27, 2018 LIVE at 11:15PM EST following WWE Raw. Thank you to everyone who enjoys what we do. Please spread the word of our show. You are the reason why our show now receives over 150,000 downloads weekly and over six million downloads annually! =============== CLICK HERE FOR STITCHER CLICK HERE FOR IHEARTRADIO CLICK HERE FOR BLUBRRY CLICK HERE FOR IPHONE,IPAD, & IPOD TOUCH APP

This week I am going to continue with Part-two of "Into the 50's" from the Time Life series "The Swing Era". Today's show focuses on songs from the the late 1940's and early 1950's. There are only a couple more volumes in this set and the producers of the series stopped using individual years and lumped several years together. So today, we'll be hearing from the bands of Benny Goodman, Ralph Flanagan, Ted Heath, Count Basie and several others. There are some great songs in this set so lets go back to the years right before 1950 and hear some exciting music from the big bands. As always I am following the playlist from the original set and playing the original artists instead of the recreations. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

RUNNING TIME: 3 Hours 28 MinutesHosted by Don Tony SYNOPSIS: Episode 29 (07/17 - 07/23) Tommy Rich loses a Hair vs Hair Match against Ole Anderson. Super Destroyer Mark II (Sgt Slaughter) loses Mask vs Title Match against Nick Bockwinkel. Masanobu Fuchi and Atsushi Onita lose a Hair vs Hair Match against Steve Keirn and Bill Dundee. Abdullah The Butcher is named first ever World Wrestling Council World Heavyweight Champion. WWF 'The Brawl To End It All' airs live on MTV. Audio: Macho Man Randy Savage first appearance on TNT. Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart wins a date with Fabulous Moolah. The Great Betrayal airs on television: Paul Orndorff turns on Hulk Hogan. Bruiser Brody murdered by Jose Gonzalez in Puerto Rico. Audio: Tony Atlas and Dutch Mantell speak on the murder of Bruiser Brody and the cover up that followed. Audio: Memorable Ric Flair vs Terry Funk battle and post match brawl at Great American Bash '89. Brain Busters become first Tag Team to win NWA and WWF Tag Team Titles. Terry Gordy def Stan Hansen to win AJPW Triple Crown Championship. Canada's ban leads to the end of 'The Mountie' character in WWF. Audio: First ever WWF Ladder Match: Bret Hart vs Sean Michaels w/ Sherri for IC Title. Randy Savage and Bret Hart vs Ric Flair and Sean Michaels. Ric Flair wins his last NWA World Title against Barry Windham. Vince McMahon found Not Guilty of Conspiracy to distribute steroids. Looking back at the case and trial testimony of Hulk Hogan. Audio: Jim Cornette suggests what would have happened had Vince McMahon gone to jail in 1994. Bash At The Beach 94: Hulk Hogan def Ric Flair to win WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Looking back at July 1994 (Non Wrestling History). Memorable 1995 ECW event in Florida featuring Malenko vs Guerrero, Gangstas vs Public Enemy, Fans breaking the ring, and Woman causing controversy during Mikey Whipwreck 'caning'. WWF debuts for The Goon and Faarooq Asad. WWF Wrestle Vessel departs from Florida to Mexico. Heatwave '97: Rick Rude turns and Jerry Lawler's last ECW appearance. Audio: The Dudleys and Joel Gertner's memorable and controversial promo from Heatwave '99. Audio: Hardys vs Dudleys match leads to Trish Stratus putting Lita thru a table. Lance Storm wins US / Canadian Title on WCW Tuesday Nitro. WWF Invasion PPV draws staggering PPV Buyrate. The Rock wins WWE Championship a record 7th time def Kurt Angle and Undertaker. A record until broken in 2009 by Triple H. Lance Storm and Christian end Hulk Hogan's only tag team title run (with Edge). Audio: John Cena 'urinates' on Undertaker's Grave. Triple H turns on HBK after their 'D-X reunion'. WWE unifies the IC and European Titles. Kane tombstones Linda McMahon on the Raw stage. Bobby Lashley first in-ring career for WWE ends. Great Khali wins World Heavyweight Title vacated by Edge due to injury. Michelle McCool becomes first ever Divas Champion. Triple H and Alicia Fox 'ruin' the wedding of Edge and Vickie Guerrero. WWE changes programming from TV-14 to PG. Audio: Batista speaks on WWE going PG. Dlo Brown makes a surprise (albeit brief) return to Raw. Jenna Morasca vs Sharmell bombs at TNA Victory Road. Audio: TNA employee reveals on Bubba The Love Sponge Show that Jeff Jarrett is living with the then wife (Karen) and kids of Kurt Angle. Randy Orton vs Dusty Rhodes: Texas Bullrope Match. Hornswoggle wins and becomes last WWE Cruiserweight Champion. Ron Simmons inducted into College Football Hall Of Fame. Audio: Highlights of CM Punk winning WWE Championship from John Cena in Chicago (Money In The Bank PPV). Vince McMahon 'fired' and Triple H is replaced as COO of WWE. Christian wins World Heavyweight Championship for 2nd time. Audio: CM Punk confronts Triple H at San Diego Comic-Con. Audio: Daniel Bryan proposes to AJ Lee. All women's promotion: Shine Wrestling debuts. First episode of the three-hour era kicks off with Raw 1000. Chris Sabin wins TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Audio: CM Punk at Alternative Press Music Awards says he's never coming back to WWE. Inadvertent email leads to reveal of Vince Russo working secretly behind the scenes for TNA. Audio: Vince Russo dispels claims the Spike TV dropped TNA Programming due to his secret employment. Stephanie McMahon 'arrested' for slapping Brie Bella. Raw GM and Commissioner revealed as Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley. Smackdown GM and Commissioner revealed as Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan. Audio: Cesaro's controversial comments from WWE 2016 Draft. Audio: Kalisto's memorable 'Lucha Thing' comments from WWE 2016 Draft. Audio: Fun exchange between Bubba Ray Dudley and Jimmy Uso from a match on WWE Main Event. Audio: Kurt Angle reveals Jason Jordan as his biological son. And so much more! NOTABLE PRO WRESTLING DEBUTS: Van Hammer (1991), Masato Tanaka (1993), Tyson Kidd (1995), Braxton Sutter (1999), Delirious (2001), Tenille Dashwood and Bobby Dempsey (2005), Brett DiBiase (2008), Cedric Alexander (2009) NOTABLE DEATHS: Rayo de Jalisco 85, Buddy Hack 82, Lord Alfred Hayes and June Byers 76, Tor Kamata 70, Pat Roach 67, Chuck "Popeye" Richards and Missouri Mauler 65, Randy Rice 50, Bruiser Brody 42, Herb Abrams 41, Billy Firehawk 40, Hercules Cortez 39, John Kronus 38, Virgil E Flynn III 33, Damien Steele 34, AJ Mitrano 29 NOTABLE BIRTHDAYS: Fabulous Moolah, Édouard Carpentier, Perro Aguayo Jr, George Hackenschmidt, Sky Low Low, Bob Orton Sr, David Von Erich, Frenchy Lamonte, Hiro Matsuda, Tex McKenzie, Sonny Fargo, Angel of Death, Ted Heath, Gil Guerrero, Randy Anderson, Dr X-Treme, and Spider (RIP), Carlos Colon 70, Randy Rose 62, Robert Gibson 60, DJ Peterson 59, Al Perez 58, Dusty Wolfe 56, Al Snow and Giant Silva 55, Shawn Michaels 53, Mike Sanders 49, Shawn Stasiak 48, Chastity and Michael Modest 47, Shinjiro Otani 46, Homeless Jimmy 45, Rey Bucanero, Mammoth Sasaki, and Sonny Siaki 44, Daffney and UltraMantis Black 43, Abdullah Kobayashi 42, Tony Mamaluke and Trik Nasty 41, Stuka Jr, Drago, and Joey Mercury 39, Fandango 38, Kenny King 37, Lacey Von Erich and Akira Tozawa 33, Mojo Rawley and Jinder Mahal 32, Mandy Rose 27, Lady Puma 24 RIGHT CLICK AND SAVE to download the TWIWH EP29 (07/23/18) CLICK HERE to listen to the TWIWH EP29 (07/23/18) online. ITUNES LINK Please subscribe to us on ITUNES ================= PROGRAMMING NOTE: 'TWIWH (EP30)' HOSTED BY DON TONY Your next episode of 'TWIWH (EP30)' will be posted Tuesday, July 31, 2018. In addition to download links, a preview of TWIWH airs every week immediately following the live episode of Don Tony And Kevin Castle Show. #ThrowbackTuesday =============== IF YOU ARE A FAN OF 'DON TONY AND KEVIN CASTLE SHOW' and 'BREAKFAST WITH BLASI' and just can't get enough of the shows, check out our PATREON PAGE! You'll gain access to our Patreon Exclusive shows such as 'The Castle Chronicles' hosted by Kevin Castle, and 'BREAKFAST SOUP' hosted by Don Tony & Missionary (Wrestling Soup), and early access to other content. You also have exclusive access to lost episodes of 'The Minority Report' from 2004/2005, select vintage episodes of 'The Masked Maniac Show', and retro Blackhearts Hotline reports from 2001/2002. In addition to the shows, we hold monthly PPV Predictions Contests and other prize giveaways! And by signing up, you'll help us keep the DTKC Show and BwB free for everyone, and get interactive with DTKC like never before. You get it all for as little as $5! CLICK HERE to visit our Patreon page and gain access now! =============== DTKC SHOW / BwB / BREAKFAST SOUP / MATARRAZ T-SHIRTS ON SALE!Pro Wrestling Tees has launched the only source for T-Shirts of' Don Tony and Kevin Castle Show', 'Breakfast w/ Blasi', 'Breakfast Soup', and even 'Deli Man'! Please visit our T-Shirt store now. More designs will be added shortly. CLICK HERE to visit our T-Shirt Store now! ===============  PROGRAMMING NOTE: DON TONY AND KEVIN CASTLE SHOWYour next episode of the 'Don Tony And Kevin Castle Show' will air Monday July 30, 2018 LIVE at 11:15PM EST following WWE Raw. Thank you to everyone who enjoys what we do. Please spread the word of our show. You are the reason why our show now receives over 150,000 downloads weekly and over six million downloads annually! =============== CLICK HERE FOR STITCHER CLICK HERE FOR IHEARTRADIO CLICK HERE FOR BLUBRRY CLICK HERE FOR IPHONE,IPAD, & IPOD TOUCH APP

This week I am going back to another set in the Time Life series "The Swing Era". Today's show focuses on songs from the the late 1940's and early 1950's. There are only a couple more volumes in this set and the producers of the series stopped using individual years and lumped several years together. So today, we'll be hearing from the bands of Tommy Dorsey, Stan Kenton, Glenn Miller, Harry James, Woody Herman, and Ted Heath and several others. There are some great songs in this set so lets go back to the years right before 1950 and hear some exciting music from the big bands. As always I am following the playlist from the original set and playing the original artists instead of the recreations. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

A dapper Italian gent, Ted Heath and the fate of the heroine, Ivy...

British Conservative Party chooses Margaret Thatcher as leader. The British Conservative Party was not known for being the most progressive. However, on February 11, 1975 the Tories made what was considered great strides for the equality of the sexes by choosing their first woman leader, Margaret Thatcher. In Britain, party leaders are chosen by a vote of the members of Parliament and in 1975 the Conservatives were her Majesty’s Official Opposition party. Thatcher, who was known for showing an interest in the lives of fellow MPs, won handily over her four male opponents in the party. Thatcher began her process by telling former Prime Minister and party leader at the time, Ted Heath, that she would be challenging him for the job. She had served in Heath’s cabinet as Secretary of State for Science and Education when Heath was Prime Minister between 1970 and 1974. The rest, of course, is history: In 1979, Thatcher did indeed become Britain’s first woman prime minister. But if anyone was expecting a more “sensitive” PM in a woman, they didn’t get it in Thatcher. She soon became known as the Iron Lady, and ruled Britain for more than 10 years before being forced to step down. After a decade, her party MPs had had enough of Thatcher’s unbending style, and she lost a leadership vote in November 1990, even though her party remained in power. While Thatcher had many critics, she was credited with making economic reforms that allowed certain members of the public to prosper financially. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week we focus on what the general election in Scotland might mean for the rest of the UK. Does a Tory revival in Scotland spell the end of Indyref 2? Does Labour's collapse chime with what's going on in the rest of Europe? Plus we explore whether a thumping majority for Mrs May would strengthen her hand in the Brexit negotiations. In the first in a series of historical comparisons, we also ask whether this election has echoes of what happened when Ted Heath called a snap poll in 1974. Is Tony Blair now the Enoch Powell of British politics? You heard it here first. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Surprise election results are nothing new. In 1970, the Conservatives rallied a majority of 30 even though most opinion polls predicted a very different result, and bristling Ted Heath duly replaced the raincoat of Harold Wilson at Number Ten. It was a noteworthy election as the voting age was lowered to 18 for the first time, and spotty youths hurried to the ballot box on the way to the pub. For radio, if was significant too. This new Government was to announce it would introduce commercial radio, as it did with the Sound Broadcasting Act 1972. It was also an election where one radio station was to break the rules - and openly rally support for a party. Having been jammed by the British government, the pirate Radio Northsea International, anchored just off the coast, vented its frustration by urging voters to turn Right. Its impact was compounded by the tactical adoption of the fond 'Radio Caroline' brand, a name which elicited painful memories of the role Harold Wilson had seemingly played in taking away their favourite pirate music stations three years previously. Whether or not the station did play an appreciable role in this political surprise is a matter for debate, as explored brilliantly in this documentary by Paul Rowley.

"Commonwealth" was recorded January 9, 1969, at Twickenham Film Studios, London, England, during the "Get Back/Let It Be" rehearsals. The lyrics are improvised, as well as the instrumentation, with Paul McCartney ad-libbing on lead vocals, and John Lennon ad-libbing a backing vocal ("yes"). It was never officially released on either a solo Beatle album or as a cover version. The session was captured on film as well, showing how Lennon enjoyed himself, sitting on an amp with Yoko Ono. The film shows that Harrison was did not play on this take, but was discussing with an engineer. The lyrics mention (Harold) Wilson and (Ted) Heath, who were prime ministers around this time. The focus appears to be on Cabinet minister Enoch Powell, who had delivered his anti-immigrant “Rivers of Blood” speech the previous year, which dealt mainly with Pakistani immigration. As the song continues, John and Paul touch on Britain’s entry into the European Common Market, which had been denied in late 1968, making a pun out of the phrase “common market.” Race issues evidently played on McCartney's mind during the Get Back sessions. This theme also occurred in the early lyrics of Get Back, which were not used and replaced by the story of Jo Jo and Loretta Martin in the released version of Get Back. There is only one take of "Commonwealth", indicating that it served to relieve the tedium and depression the Beatles were in, in the early days of January. It is interesting to hear the Lennon-McCartney composer team in action; On the fly, Lennon changes McCartney's "you're much to wealthy for me' into "you're much too common for me", which is indeed a more powerful lyric. The songs itself sits somewhere between Get Back and the Ballad of John and Yoko; perhaps could have been released, if they had cleaned up the lyrics and spent some effort on a middle-eight....... In the beginning, the chord scheme is quite unstable, later on, it becomes more like a regular blues scheme. Listening to this remix, I feel ever more strongly that Paul's Commonwealth served as 'inspiration' for John's Ballad of John and Yoko. Not just the chords, but also the lyrics share a lot: travel to different countries, names of actual people, returning to England etc. So, after all, The Ballad IS correctly registered as a Lennon/McCartney composition ! This remix was first released on IT IS TO LAFF 3, still available at: http://www.groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2013/06/it-is-to-laff-3-funny-mashups.html

What is Margaret Thatcher's legacy? Academics Gillian Peele and Tom Lubbock discuss the legacy of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. In 1975 Margaret Thatcher defeated Edward Heath for the Leadership of the Conservative Party. Both have a firm claim to be the Prime Minister with the humblest origin. Both resigned after failing to defeat a challenge to their leadership on the first ballot. In the words of Malcolm Rifkind, both were 'strong-willed, stubborn and convinced of their own rectitude' (Thatcher's most famous quality but also one that Tony Blair cited in his 2005 Eulogy for Ted Heath). But these similarities are as tittle tattle compared to the fact that as prime minister both faced the same governing challenge, the same kernel of the same problem: how to govern a country that some said had become ungovernable. This is where their fortunes diverge sharply. How did the figure of Margaret Thatcher so completely come to overshadow that of her predecessor as Conservative Leader? That is the subject of this podcast by Dr Tom Lubbock and Prof. Gillian Peele.

Band arrangments of boogie woogie tunes.  Songs include: Pinetop's Boogie Woogie, Boogie woogie Bugle Boy, Honky Tonk Train Blues and Yancy Special. Perfromers include: The Andrews Sisters, Bob Crosby Orchestra, Lionel Hampton, Harry James, Cab Calloway and Ted Heath. 

“Hindsight is a great simplifier, and the Seventies as an era has been simplified more than most.” Andy Beckett My interview with Guardian journalist Andy Beckett about When the Lights Went Out, his reassessment of the 1970s (were they really as bad as we remember them?) has recently gone up on the Faber website. You can listen by clicking here. Andy interviewed many of the major political figures from the decade. There is, for example, an almost tragi-comic encounter with the very elderly Ted Heath. I asked him before the interview whether he’d tried to get an audience with Margaret Thatcher and he pointed out that his previous book had made that a bit of a long shot: