It's impossible to find the words to mark such a momentous occasion or to remark upon the tragedy that he isn't here to celebrate it and to continue changing people's lives by introducing them to whole new worlds of music. So here instead is his favourite song
Teenage dreams, so hard to beat indeed. Happy birthday Peelie End Transmission
Radcliffe and Maconie's time slot may have changed from weekday afternoon to weekend mornings on 6 Music this week, but their commitment to great music remains the same. Stuart opened a new feature on Saturday's first show called 'Sun Up', showcasing music to signify the start of the day with Sunrise Through the Dusty Nebula by Hannah Peel. Have a listen, it's beautiful
Sad to hear that June Whitfield passed away yesterday morning at the age of 93.
Whitfield had been a constant in British comedy since the late 1940s, creating an impressive through-line from Jimmy Edwards to Jennifer Saunders, with Terry Scott inbetween. As a result, this feels very much like the end of an era. Born in Streatham in 1925, Whitfield made her stage debut at the age of just three years old, as part of Robinson's Dance Studio. She graduated from RADA in 1944 and began to appear on radio alongside the likes of Wilfred Pickles in the immediate post-war period. In 1951, she was part of the London cast of South Pacific and scored her big break two years later in Edwards' radio show Take It From Here, playing Eth, the fiancee to Ron Glum. This would become so beloved by the nation that they would later have their own spin-off entitled The Glums. Throughout the 1950s and '60s Whitfield worked alongside the likes of Frankie Howard, Arthur Askey, Benny Hill and, memorably, Tony Hancock in the iconic episode, The Blood Donor. But it was her partnership with Terry Scott that many will remember her for. The pair first worked together in the 1960s sketch series Scott On..., this led to a sitcom Happy Ever After, which in turn led to their most famous collaboration Terry & June which ran for 65 episodes. The rise of alternative comedy in the 1980s seemed to sweep away much of the twee middle class suburban values of the previous decade's comedy, but June Whitfield emerged not only unscathed but somewhat cherished. A guest appearance in French and Saunders in 1988 led to Jennifer Saunders asking her to play her mother in the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous which made its debut in 1992 and has continued, in one form or another, until the big-screen film version just two years ago. The sitcom introduced Whitfield to a new generation of fans who rightfully regarded her as a comedic national treasure. Her most recent TV work was in the 2014-2016 BBC1 sitcom Boomers and several guestappearances as a nun in EastEnders. Radio continued to be a favourite medium of Whitfield's even when she was at the height of her TV fame. She was a regular performer on Radio 2's The News Huddlines with Roy Hudd from 1984 to 2001 and portrayed Miss Marple in a series of 12 radio play adaptations from 1993 to 2001. She also starred in four Carry On films and was made a Dame in 2017. RIP
Very sad to hear that legendary comic scriptwriter Ray Galton has died at the age of 88.
Surrey born Galton was working as a clerk for the TGWU when, at sixteen, he knew something was seriously wrong with him. He was 6ft 4in but weighed only nine stone and suffered from a bad cough, sweats and little energy. Diagnosed with TB, he was packed off to a sanatorium in Milford, near Godalming where his future in comedy was set thanks to a chance meeting with fellow patient, Alan Simpson (who sadly also passed away last year at the age of 87).
Working together, the pair's first great success was writing for Tony Hancock; between 1954 and 1961 they wrote some 150 scripts for the comedian and secured his status as the nation's favourite comedian. When Hancock decided he wanted to go it alone, Galton and Simpson devised a one-off Comedy Playhouse about a warring father and son rag and bone team. Their script, entitled TheOffer, went on to become Steptoe and Son, a long-running BBC series that stands to this day as one of the finest sitcoms. Away from Simpson, Galton worked with Johnny Speight on the police comedy Spooner's Patch, and with John Antrobus on Room at the Bottom and Get Well Soon, the latter a sanatorium-set sitcom inspired by Galton and Simpson's initial encounter. RIP
Another sad loss announced today is the death of Denis Norden, the comedy writer and host of the one-time ITV staple It'll Be Alright on the Night, at the age of 96.
Norden had apparently been ill for some time, residing for a number of weeks at London's Royal Free Hospital where he died earlier today. Born in Hackney in 1922, Norden was a contemporary of Kingsley Amis at the City of London School and at the age of sixteen was accepted by the DailyExpress to accompany their foreign correspondent in Spain to report on the civil war - it was only his parents putting their foot down that nixed his plans. Unperturbed, Norden left school to become the countries youngest cinema manager at just 18, before joining the RAF on the commencement of WWII. There he met Eric Sykes and the pair soon branched out into entertaining the troops with ENSA. It was with Sykes and a fellow comedian Ron Rich that Norden came across the recently liberated camp Belsen, appalled by the inhumanity and the starvation they witnessed among the inmates who had yet to be repatriated, the trio immediately hurried back to base to collect as much food as they could, handing out rations to men, women and children on the brink of death. After demob, Norden teamed up with fellow comic Frank Muir and the pair began writing scripts for radio. Theirs was to become one of the most successful and enduring partnerships in the history of British comedy and together they wrote three hundred episode of Take it From Here which ran for eleven years, launched the career of June Whitfield and placed phrases like 'trouble at t'mill' and 'disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' into common parlance. The pair would go on to work in TV appearing both in front of the camera as well as creating the school master sitcom Whacko with Take it From Here star Jimmy Edwards and legal comedy Brothers in Law with a young Richard Briers and writing for TheFrost Report and Marty. In film they gifted Carry On movies such classic lines as 'Infamy, infamy, they're all got it infamy' as memorably cried by Kenneth Williams in Carry on Cleo. Norden also co-wrote the screenplay for Buona Sera, Mrs Campbell starring Gina Lollabrigida for which he received an Oscar nomination. He also penned the screenplays for films such as The Best House inLondon and Every Home Should Have One.
It was the famous Blue Peter clip of the elephant making a mess of the studio that led to Norden's twenty-nine year run as the clipboard wielding presenter of ITV's blooper clips show It'll Be Alright on the Night. He had been reminiscing about that moment with producer Paul Smith one lunchtime in 1977 and wondered if there was any mileage in an outtakes show.They soon get their answer: a commission was made by LWT within half an hour. Despite Norden's reservations over the title, the show was a huge success for ITV in a time when the internet wasn't even a gleam in the eye, let alone YouTube, and Norden became a household name as a presenter, something the writer never expected - indeed his famous clipboard was said to be something he used just to preoccupy his hands. Failing eyesight as a result of a haemorrhage in the back of his eye meant he had to retire in 2006 when he could no longer view the clips. His successor was the rather faithful Griff Rhys Jones but the show's heyday was over, unable to compete with the aforementioned YouTube and the many imitations it had spawned. It has recently had an attempted relaunch as David Walliams Presents It'll Be Alright on the Night, an even worse title than Norden considered original to be, by virtue of its association with the irritating Walliams who has replaced Jones. RIP
So those BBC mandarins have gone and made the most ridiculous decision of them all as a massive schedule change at 6 Music sees the relegation of the Radcliffe and Maconie show from weekday afternoons to a weekend breakfast show.
It really is an absurd move. Radcliffe and Maconie is not only the best show on 6 but the best show on radio, full stop. It's been a beacon of hope for listeners since 20011 (when it moved from Radio 2 weekday evenings after a successful four years there) and the decision to slash the pair's broadcast time from fifteen hours per week down to just six, shunted off from the 1pm til 4pm weekday slot to a 7am til 10am weekend slot is an incredibly short sighted one from the mandarins and not, it seems, one either broadcaster was looking for. Twitter has been overwhelmed by a mass pouring of protest and criticism at this decision. There's also a petition at change.org that I strongly urge you all to sign. You can do so here
Really sad to hear down the pub last night that Dale Winton had passed away at the age of 62. Being a teen in the '90s ostensibly revising for GCSE's and occasionally bunking off from school, his morning game show SupermarketSweep became cult viewing so much so that he even appeared in the supermarket-set video for Sleeper's Inbetweener
It's important to remember just how much of a well known and well loved figure Winton was in the '90s, fronting many entertainment shows and quizzes on TV. In later years he wasn't on TV as much (seemingly he preferred the radio, hosting Pick of the Pops on Radio 2 for a number of years - though changing tastes may also have had something to do with it) but when he was, such as hosting the National Lottery quiz In It To Win It for example, you were instantly reminded just how much of a safe pair of hands he was. His talent and likeable screen presence will be much missed. RIP
More sad news as it has been announced that the northern comedian, actor and Bullseye presenter Jim Bowen has died at the age of 80.
Bowen was a Maths teacher and a deputy headmaster originally, but he was compelled to try comedy after watching Ken Dodd perform two nights in Blackpool in the 1960s, and there's a bitter irony to be had in the fact that Bowen died just two days after his inspiration and hero. The years spent on the stand up circuit in the pubs and working mens clubs paid off, as Bowen bagged a regular spot on Granada's stand up showcase The Comedians in the 1970s. This led directly to the show Bowen became synonymous with, Bullseye.Arriving on our screens in 1981 the partnership of darts ability and general knowledge quickly proved to be a winning formula and Bullseye became a Sunday teatime mainstay for 14 years, attracting up to 17.5 million viewers in its heyday, and providing Bowen with both a clutch of catchphrases ('You can'tbeat a bit of bully', 'let's have a look at what you could've won' and 'super, smashing, great' to name but a few) and household name status. Away from Bullseye, Bowen had a sideline in acting, appearing in Victoria Wood's TV play Happy Since I Met You and the 1980s property development drama Muck and Brass, alongside Mel Smith. In later years he appeared in The Grimleys, Jonathan Creek and as bewigged Blackpool bar owner Hoss Cartwright in Peter Kay's sitcom Phoenix Nights. He was also the president of Morecambe Football Club. Between 1999 and 2002 Bowen had his own morning show on BBC Radio Lancashire but an ill considered, on air racist remark let to his resignation. In recent years Bowen suffered a series of strokes. He died in hospital this morning with his wife Phyllis by his bedside. RIP.
Very sad to hear that Brian Matthew has passed away this weekend at the age of 88.
Just a couple of months ago it was announced that the radio legend would be stepping down from his weekly duties presenting Radio 2's Sounds of the 60s due to ill health - I even composed a blog bidding farewell and a happy retirement. However, it seems that those recurring health problems were more serious than we thought (perhaps more serious than Matthew himself thought, given his response to the newspapers when his retirement was announced) and the great broadcaster has sadly hung up his mic for the last time. It really is the end of an era, and radio won't be the same without his wonderfully reassuring, friendly tones and his great music selections. RIP
Bury Born singer-songwriter Peter Skellern died yesterday aged 69 following a battle with brain cancer.
Skellern's biggest success was with the 1972 balled 'You're a Lady' which was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. In a music career that saw him release 14 albums, he also penned the lyrics for 'One More Kiss, Dear' which featured in the 1982 classic Blade Runner. He also diversified into TV presenting with the BBC2 chat show Private Lives as well as BBC1's Songs of Praise, which reflected his growing interest in religion, an interest that would later see him enter the church as a priest. He also acted,playing Carter Brandon in the radio adaptation of Peter Tinniswood's Uncle Mort stories. In October of last year, after his tumour was diagnosed as inoperable, the religious Skellern was finally ordained by the Bishop of Truro, becoming the Reverend Peter Skellern in his adopted county of Cornwall.
Sad news today as it has been announced that the legendary comedy scriptwriter Alan Simpson has died at the age of 87.
Simpson's name will forever be associated with his scriptwriting partner Ray Galton. Together they were responsible for two of the finest British sitcoms ever to grace our screens; Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son.
The Brixton born Simpson met his writing partner at the age of 17 when they were both patients at a TB sanatorium in Milford, near Godalming in the late 1940s. The two youths made each other laugh and both a friendship and working relationship was forged thanks to the opportunity to devise comic broadcasts to their fellow patients via the sanatorium's radio. Galton would later use this meeting as the basis for his short-lived 1997 sitcom Get Well Soon, which he co-wrote with another writing partner John Antrobus.
Upon their release from the sanatorium, Galton and Simpson offered their services to the BBC where they received their big break writing scripts for Derek Roy's Happy Go Lucky radio show. Their work attracted the attention of Tony Hancock who, in 1954, promptly offered them 25 guineas (5 guineas more than Roy) to write his new programme, Hancock's Half Hour. The pair never looked back; the show transferred to television in 1956 and Galton and Simpson scripted some 160 radio and TV shows for the popular star, along with the script for the feature film The Rebel, over the course of seven years.
Their parting of the ways with troubled Hancock could have been the death knell for some writers, but not for Galton and Simpson who simply picked themselves up and offered a pilot for the BBC's Comedy Playhouse strand entitled The Offer. This one-off, concerning father and son rag and bone men, proved an instant hit and Steptoe and Son was born. It remains one of the BBC's most enduring, classic sitcoms and ran from 1962 to 1965 and returning for a new run in colour from 1970 to 1974, with two spin-off feature films also appearing in the '70s. Later in the decade the pair wrote The Galton and Simpson Playhouse for ITV, and several of these scripts - along with scripts from the Hancock series - were subsequently remade as vehicles for Paul Merton in the 1990s.
Normally my Theme Time posts are related to TV programmes but I can't let what has happened this week pass by without marking it in some way, and so today I'm sharing The Shadows' 1963 hit Foot Tapper, the theme from Radio 2's Sound of the 60s, the long running Saturday morning series that has been a mainstay of the station since 1983.
The reason I'm sharing it is because the time has come for the show's legendary presenter, the warm and mellifluous toned Brian Matthew, to hang up his headphones of the show at the age of 88 due to recurring ill health.
Matthew had presented the show for twenty-six years, taking the baton from previous presenters such as Keith Fordyce and Simon Dee in March 1990. He continued to present the show each week right up until the 19th of November last year when a fall at home took him off the air. Since then, the show has been hosted by Sir Tim Rice and yesterday it was announced by Radio 2 that the production company that makes the show and Brian both agreed that it was "the right time for Brian to step off the weekly treadmill of presenting the show", and that they hope that Matthew will be well enough to present special one-off programmes for them in the near future. However, Matthew told TheTelegraph that this version of events was "Balderdash" adding "I was ready, willing and able to go back, and they've just said that they are going to put the programme in the hands of other people" If that is really the case, then this is the most shoddy way to treat a national institution and the voice of several generations - but not unexpected given the BBC's track record with its talent.
Brian Matthew joined the BBC in 1954, hosting the Saturday Skiffle Club on the Light Programme in 1957, which became Saturday Club the following year and Easy Beat, interviewing the very best of the music world in the 1960s. By the '70s, Matthew was hosting My Top 12 on Radio's 1 and 2, before becoming the presenter of Round Midnight on 2 from 1978 to 1990. He received the Gold Award at the Sonys in 2008, a fitting tribute to the man whose catchphrase was "That's your lot for this week, see you next week"
I'd previously read just one novel by John Harvey and that was 2014's Darkness, Darkness - the final novel in the 13-book series featuring his hero Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick. That novel concerned a cold case mystery left unresolved from the days of the miners strike of 1984/'85. It was OK, a readable affair, but I felt I needed to have experienced Resnick before to have perhaps fully appreciated it.
So I went back to 1991 and book 3 in the series, Cutting Edge which I recommend.
A savage assault with a scalpel leaves Dr Tim Fletcher's body badly slashed in a deserted hospital walkway - the first victim in a series of brutal assaults on NHS staff in Nottingham. As panic grips the city, it's up to DI Resnick to find the killer. His chief suspect appears to be an over confident, sexually abusive medical student who had previously dated Fletcher's girlfriend - but is he and his team letting their dislike for the man clouding their judgement? Faced with a mass of clues that lead nowhere, Resnick is confronted by a face from his own past as he finds himself pushed to breaking point.
I really enjoyed this one and have come to like Resnick, the sandwich eating, multiple cat owning and jazz loving troubled 'tec. So much so that I went on to ioffer and bought a DVD of the BBC's sole attempts at adapting Harvey's novels (Lonely Hearts and Rough Treatment, books 1 and 2 in the series) starring Tom Wilkinson in the role and dating back to the early '90s.
Cutting Edge is an engrossing read full of lovely little details that play out on the periphery of the main crime; there's a handful of other investigations Resnick's team are currently looking into, and then there's their home lives too with one of his detective constable's struggling with a wife suffering from post natal depression, and Resnick himself finding himself putting up a drunken down and out acquaintance based on their mutual love for jazz. In tackling these various strands Harvey's style is quite fragmentary at times but it's never alienating or difficult in its approach. Without giving anything away, a turning point of the plot concerns a medical phenomena that is rarely spoken of and quite terrifying to consider!
But if reading Cutting Edge isn't appealing to you, you could always try listening to this enjoyable full-cast adaptation for Radio 4 dating back to 1996 and starring Tom Georgeson as Resnick, a young John Simm as Tim Fletcher and Gillian Bevan who plays staff nurse Sarah Leonard and also provides the chanteuse torch song style vocals to the play's theme tune.
Up until 90 minutes ago, I hadn't even heard of Cabbage, but bandmates Joe and Lee appeared on this afternoon's Radcliffe and Maconie and were an absolute scream.
Cribbed mercilessly from this blogger, I thought I'd mark the passing of the great Terry Wogan by showcasing twenty of the songs I fondly recall him playing regularly on his Radio 2 breakfast show Wake Up To Wogan when I was an avid listener, around 1999 to 2006/07. Without Wogan - and his producer Paul 'Paulie' Walters who died in 2006 - I'd never have heard of some of these songs and artistes.
20. Double ~ The Captain of Her Heart
A good breakfast show knows how delicate we are first thing in the morning. Wake Up To Wogan certainly did and would often ease us gently into the day with this melancholic '80s offering which often seemed to start the show at 7:30am
19: KD Lang ~ Miss Chatelaine
I always got the feeling this was one of Paul Walters' (aka Paulie, aka Dr. Wally Poultry, aka many many other things) favourites
18: Carly Simon ~ You're So Vain
Often concluded with Wogan informing us that Carly wrote the song about him. This ranks alongside many of Terry's great whimsies, including his audition for Bond when Connery left and his 'racing snake' physique. Fond of Carly, he often played Let the River Flow and Kissing With Confidence too - chuckling at the overbite reference.
17: Catherine Porter ~ Crazy
An artiste Terry championed in the early '00s who sadly failed to catch with the nation's imagination. He played quite a few of her songs from the album Something Good (which I went out and bought)including this one which, if I knew it was a contender in the Song for Europe, I had clearly forgotten about until looking for it today. Clearly, Terry thought a great deal of her.
16: The Corrs and Bono ~ Summer Wine
The Corrs, or as Terry teasingly called them, 'a bag of auld spanners'
15: The Beautiful South ~ Don't Marry Her
Often played with Terry and Paulie's concern that one day they would inadvertently play the obscenity littered album version rather than the clean radio edit.
14: The Small Faces ~ Lazy Sunday Afternoon
You never actually knew when this song ended as so often Terry and Paulie would provide their one cheery whistles and 'a-rum-de-doo-de-di' long after the fade-out.
13: Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston ~ It Takes Two
At the conclusion of this song, Terry would almost certainly say ''It takestwo...Radio 2'' a catchphrase that never caught on with the rest of the station!
12: The Yardbirds ~ For Your Love
A pips crashing classic. Almost always played immediately before 8am and the news. So much so that whenever I hear it now, I expect to hear the pips immediately after the last rattle closes the song.
11: Juliet Turner ~ Doctor Fell Splendid Northern Irish singer that Terry championed. Like Catherine Porter around the same time, I went out and bought the album Burn The Black Suit, which Terry played several tracks (including this, the titular track and TakeThe Money And Run) from in his efforts to make Turner a mainstream hit. He didn't succeed, but more fool the general public. Often concluded with the Limerick born Tel adopting a N.Irish accent and demanding an ''Ulster Fry''
10: Paolo Conte ~ Via Con Me
Another perennial fave, always referred to as ''the chips chips song''
9: Tony Joe White ~ Polk Salad Annie
Who needs Elvis? Tel played the original and the best.
8: The Four Tops ~ If I Were A Carpenter
Known affectionately as ''the cummerbund song''
7: Peter Gabriel ~ That'll Do
Taken from the Babe soundtrack and written by Randy Newman, this was invariably concluded with an ''aww'' from El Tel
6: Katie Melua ~ Closest Thing To Crazy
An example of a successful artiste that Terry helped to break, this became a sensation thanks to his repeated playing and scored a hit for the young Georgian born singer and former Womble Mike Batt.
5: Harry Chapin ~ W.O.L.D
Terry loved the rather meta thing of playing songs about radio DJ's. As well as this classic he would also often play The Last DJ by Tom Petty, sharing much of its sentiment.
4: The Moody Blues ~ Question
A favourite for the show. that never failed to revitalise both everyone in the studio and the listeners at home. Often preceded by ''Feet - do your stuff'' and, after its whiplash, lightning speed conclusion, ''Anyone hurt?''
3: The Doors ~ Riders on the Storm
I well remember being driven into work one rainy morning by my sister and hearing this being played after the 8am news. How many other mainstream radio breakfast shows play The Doors? It secured kudos from my Doors loving friend at work who had previously viewed Radio 2 as 'cardigan country'.
2: Eva Cassidy ~ Over The Rainbow
Terry loved his country. Shania Twain and Faith Hill would often get played but it was this songbird, who sadly died in 1996, that gained the most recognition thanks to Paulie's introduction of her music to Terry. They both deserve the plaudits for discovering Eva and bringing her to the UK. Without Wake Up To Wogan, Eva Cassidy would be unknown here. It's as simple as that.
1: Clifford T Ward ~ Home Thoughts From Abroad
Another much loved favourite, indeed it was - as Terry confessed - one of his all time favourite songs. Another lovely melancholic wake up, the song gained extra resonance when I heard it after I had just broke up from a long-term girlfriend in 2006. It's become one of my all time favourites too.
God bless you Terry (and Paulie, pictured above too) Heaven has a wonderful new breakfast show now you've been reunited.
This month is now officially the worst. So many celebrity deaths and now we've lost Sir Terry Wogan.
A national treasure, an institution and a firm fixture in our house; Sir Terry Wogan has passed away following a short battle with cancer aged 77. Wogan meant so much to me; growing up with his eponymous chat show, watching him host every year two of the BBC's biggest events, Children in Need and the Eurovision Song Contest, which he blessed with his wonderful dry wit for almost four decades. But it was perhaps his Radio 2 breakfast show, Wake UpTo Wogan, that I really got to like him and appreciate his warmth and talent. It takes a real gift to entertain at that time of day and set someone up for what lay ahead but Wogan did it effortlessly, with some wonderful banter and some great tunes. RIP
I'm surprised I haven't shared this before given my romantic idea behind the Out On Blue Six posts.
Theme One by The Beatles producer George Martin was the theme tune for Radio 1 and heralded the start and close of the broadcasting day from 1967 until it was phased out in the mid '70s. I heard it again just the other day on Ken Bruce's Radio 2 show and felt compelled to share it here. I love that it is full of delicious pomp, that it has a clear retro futuristic sound and vibe.
First off the bat today, let's tackle the insufficient information regarding your right to appeal against benefit decisions. Sign this petition to get things changed and your rights made clear.
The repugnant, shameless Iain Duncan Smith (the cunt) has announced a further benefits shake up, despite being proven to have blood on his hands and lies on his lips. How this man is still in a job is beyond me. We need to get him out! Sign this petition demanding his removal, and this to get the CPS to investigate him for the manslaughter of benefit claimants. It's not just the Tories alas who show their disgusting true colours regarding the disabled in our society. Liz Kendall, the prospective Labour leader, made an almighty gaffe on BBC News last week when she said "Yes, we must support the disabled. But we must also support the ordinary people as well" That kind of mindset should nix anyone's dream of high office. Sign here to demand she apologises. The Labour leadership election is sadly becoming a terrible farce of dishonourable unfair conduct. Several thousand votes have been purged - and we all know who these votes are for - which stinks of corruption within the system by the Blairites. Sign here to demand this stops. Whatever the outcome next month, Labour needs to unite and realise who its enemy actually is - the Tories. The in-fighting and constant statements of intent to battle within a potential Corbyn led party is despicable. The party needs to unite and this petition asks them to realise this for our sakes. Cos y'know, we're only the electorate after all. For over a fortnight now, parts of Lancashire have been without safe drinking water thanks to the bug cryptosporidium having been found in the local water supply. Some 300,000 homes have suffered as a result. But how did this parasite get into the water supply? This petition demands an inquiry. The Tory govt has turned its back on those who helped them fight the war in Afghanistan, namely the hundreds of interpreters who risked their lives to help our forces. Cameron refuses to resettle these interpreters who served our country between 2006 and 2012 unless they can 'prove' their lives are at great risk. They seem to ignore the murdered family members, bullet holes through cars and injuries they have faced. A previous petition gained 50,000 signatures, but still the Tories have done nothing. Sign here to remind them of their responsibility. It disgusts and astounds me that this government proposes to cut the wages of our firefighters. These people risk life and limb to ensure our safety and they're struggling to make ends meet as it is. Sign here to reverse that decision and ensure their situation improves. Chichester Ambulance Service is to be closed to make way for a centralised hub which outsources services to private contractors. This is a waste of NHS money and a terrible risk for Chichester itself. Please sign this petition to express your dissatisfaction with the decision. Lastly, this one doesn't have anything to do with injustice but I would like people to consider signing it. The BBC are terminating its contract with The Met Office, a contract that has seen these professional forecasters broadcast our weather report for over 90 years, to seek another provider of the service. I think this is a really bad move and so do many others. This is just one petition calling for this decision to be overturned.
News of another sad loss has reached us today; the actress Susan Sheridan has died aged 68
For some, the face may not be that familiar, but the voice most certainly will be as Sheridan was one of the countries most impressive vocal artistes with a knack for children's voices. She was the voice of Noddy, the Moomins and many of the characters in The Family-Ness, as well as providing the voice of Eilonwy in Disney's The Black Cauldron and starring as Trillian in the original radio version of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
