Nano Banana Pro/Google Flow, 1976 kids playing cricket on Tooting Commons
This fortnight is mostly for the completists, lovers of 1970s TV and nostalgists for teenage extra-curricula activity. Very little happened that I haven’t described before/elsewhere. If you have landed on this page without context, I have added links to articles that might explain the type of stuff I and my pals were up to.
Sunday, 21 March 1976 – distributed [paper] Shalom, great. TV – Who Do You Do, MASH, That’s Life.
Monday 22 March 1976 – all ok. TV Ask The Family, Hello Cheeky.
Tuesday, 23 March 1976 – athletics trials. TV Ellery Queen, Warship, Rock Follies.
Wednesday, 24 March 1976 – music competition. S & S test. TV Man About The House, Benny Hill, Skating, Oneupmanship.
I suspect that I was found guilty at the athletics trials and condemned attempt hard labour at a discipline that didn’t suit me. Unless this was the year that my short bursts of fast running assisted me in achieving a smidge of credibility at the long jump.
I shall write more about the house music competition when I write up Cribbs’s annus mirabilis in the music competition (more by luck than judgment) which must have been 1977 or 1978. Watch this space.
I have no idea what an S&S test might have been. If anyone out there remembers that abbreviated phrase and what it meant, let us know, please.
Thursday, 25 March 1976 – drama, good. TV World At War, When The Boat Comes In.
Friday, 26 March 1976 – broke up. Played with Stew [Stuart Harris] great. TV Yes Honestly Word Man House[?], Open All Hours.
Saturday 27 March 1976 – Stuart morning, afternoon shopping, TV Upstairs Downstairs
Sunday, 28 March 1976 – Good paper. East End shiva. TV Who Do You Do, Esther [That’s Life].
I’m not sure whose shiva [evening prayers in the week after a funeral] that might have been. I’m guessing my mother’s cousin Jackie Marcus, choir master, husband of Aida, younger brother of the virtuoso violinist, band leader (and saw player) Sid Marcus.
I told you I come from a musical family. Counts for nothing in terms of talent inheritance, I do realise.
Monday 29March 1976 – played Alan [Cooke]. TV Ask The Family.
Tuesday, 30 March 1976 – played with Stew. TV, Ellery Queen, Warship, Rock Follies.
Wednesday, 31 March 26 – Lloyd [Green]’s all day TV Man About The House, Oneupmanship.
Thursday, 1 April 1976 – Played with Stuart. TV World At War (last), When The Boat Comes In.
Friday, 2 April 1976 – Played alone ([worked on Shalom] paper), TV Wodehouse Playhouse, Patently Obvious.
Saturday 3 April 1976 – Grandma Jenny, Grand National day trade[?]. TV Stanley Baxter, Carry On Up The Jungle.
Sunday 4 April 1976 – Paper ok. TV MASH, The Guns of Navarone.
I cannot see the title of that film without thinking of the ska version of the soundtrack. We interrupt this diary piece to provide you with that track as an earworm. You can thank me afterwards.
In truth, the ska revival didn’t enter my consciousness until around 1978.
I had completely forgotten that Dimitri Tiomkin’s original soundtrack sounds more like a Shostakovich or Prokofiev soundtrack than a ska dance number. The main theme doesn’t even arrive until six minutes in:
But I digress.
Monday 5 April 1976 – West End with Grandma Jenny. TV film matinee, Ask The Family, Star Trek.
Tuesday, 6 April 1976 – played with Stuart. TV, Olympiad marathon.
Wednesday, 7 April 1976 – West End with mum, great new darts (140) TV last Man About The House, Oneupmanship, Two Ronnies Special.
Thursday, 8 April 1976, played cricket with the lads. TV Tomorrow’s World $6M Man, Are You Being Served and Burke Special.
I have previously described our rudimentary teenage attempts at cricket on the Tooting Commons.
Of course, back when I didn’t know my Asif from my Sarfraz, Pakistan were putting out impressive test teams that were hard to beat. 50 years later…don’t get me started…
Friday, 9 April 1976, played cricket darts, games folder. TV Goofy & Professor Von Drake, Wodehouse Playhouse, Patently Obvious.
I’ll write some more about “cricket darts” some other time. “Games folder” was probably a template for documenting cricket darts matches – I was probably planning on playing and documenting a test series of cricket darts matches or some such – I recall that I did keep records of the scores. The series was hampered in those early stages due to unsatisfactory conditions – more on “darts-gate” in the next episode.
Saturday 10 April 1976 -football on common with the lads, recording great. TV Texas Beyond River, Upstairs Downstairs.
I sense that I was probably outvoted on the Saturday, as it would always have been cricket for me, ahead of football. Unless the weather had really made the idea of cricket impractical for all of us, that too is possible. If it was the latter reason, I suspect Sunday was a muddy wash day for the local mums.
