I met the late Sir Bill Cotton of the BBC once, many years ago – he was a lovely, funny man, much loved by all. This was evidenced by the huge turnout at his memorial service earlier this week, where there apparently was much mirth amongst the tributes. The report in The Times that some of the music was provided by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain playing, amongst other ditties, a version of the Dambusters March arranged by Bill Cotton’s namesake and father, set me off on a search on Youtube. Unfortunately this performance doesn’t seem yet to have been videoed (although I did find both Shaft and Teenage Kicks) so I ended up at the orchestra’s own website, where I was able to purchase the Eric Coates tune for a meagre one pound. A bargain! Altogether now – plink, plink…
UPDATE: Here’s a sample, about 20 seconds long, of the Dambusters March.
Month: February 2009
The glamour of the Dambusters
What is the connection between the Dambusters and the 1960 Michael Powell cult film, Peeping Tom (being shown in the UK on ITV in the early hours of Friday 27 February)? The answer is Pamela Green, the celebrated 1950s glamour model and actress, who made her ‘straight’ acting debut in this film. While Ms Green was still a student, her first nude photographs were taken by Dams Raid survivor Sgt Douglas Webb DFM, the front gunner in Bill Townsend’s aircraft, AJ-O. After the war, Webb had returned to a job in Fleet Street as a photographer and then branched out into film stills and ‘glamour’ work. He is probably the only Dams Raid participant with an entry on IMDb. In the 1950s and 60s Ms Green made a career out of glamour work, culminating in the naturist picture Naked as Nature Intended. When Peeping Tom emerged, in those still-censorious times, the moderately explicit shots of her which were included got local watch committees in a fuss. Doug Webb and Pamela Green married in 1967, and later retired to the Isle of Wight. Sadly he died in 1996, but Ms Green is still flourishing, and can be seen from time to time on nostalgia TV shows.
Lancaster in flight caught on Google Eearth
This picture, taken a couple of years back, of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Lancaster over Huntingdon caused a flurry of interest on the Google Earth discussion lists at the time, but I never saw it mentioned elsewhere. The Google Earth database has been updated, so the pic is no longer available online, but we can thank the likes of The Register for preserving it.
Bouncey bouncey
This is one way to amuse the crowd next time you go to a hen party. I’m intrigued to know whether us chaps could also do this trick, but have no intention of trying it myself. I wonder if you have to pay Eric Coates any royalties if you perform this in public?
Dambusters Blog 