“The patron saint of Llandudno who? Tony Bastable”
– I Love You Because (You Look Like Jim Reeves)
So… what do we know about Tony Bastable?
The A to Z of HMHB
The A to Z of HMHB
“The patron saint of Llandudno who? Tony Bastable”
– I Love You Because (You Look Like Jim Reeves)
So… what do we know about Tony Bastable?
Bobby svarc
When he joined Magpie his surname got the inevitable schoolboy treatment.
29 March 2017
jodrell banksy
‘Tony Bastable V John Noakes’ was a track on the splendid Dentists lp, ‘Some People Are On The Pitch They Think It’s All Over It Is Now’
29 March 2017
Peter Mcornithologist
One of the lads from the north east talking posh . Introduced himself as Tony Bastablay .
29 March 2017
Peter Mcornithologist
I still find the above line one of the most surreal of them all ?
29 March 2017
FERENCVáROS FAN
OK more childhood memories. I feel that I owe a debt of gratitude to Magpie, Tony Bastable and all. It would be good to be able to claim that, at the age of 8 or 9, I was already developing an anti-establishment streak and had a bit of a downer on the safer tv that was Blue Peter, preferring instead something a bit more ‘out there.’ The truth though is somewhat prosaic. Without wishing to wave the victim flag (to quote John Cooper Clarke in his brilliant book of memoirs ‘I Wanna Be Yours’), when we did finally get our first television in 1967, the only channel that we could tune into was ITV. So while I was red-hot on what a million housewives did every day, on the fact that happiness was a cigar called hamlet, and everything that you had to do all because the lady loved milk tray, I was completely excluded from all the school playground chatter regarding any cartoon or other children’s programme hosted by the Beeb. I hoped upon hope that our tv would have the decency to just give up the ghost, but it steadfastly and thoughtlessly continued to show all that ITV had to offer until about 1970. In those circs, Magpie was a staple diet for me towards the end of the 1960s, occasionally even allowing me to start a ‘did you see?’ type convo at school. I’ve only got one real Magpie memory though (which in itself might be telling), and given the programme’s reputation it may well be a case of my mind playing tricks on me, but I’ve got it in my head that I once saw one of the presenters smoking live on air, although I don’t think it was TB. If I ever find out that it didn’t happen, it won’t change the affection I’ll always feel for Magpie. However, when we finally did get a decent television, I immediately turned traitor and switched allegiance to Singleton and Co.
6 May 2021
EXXO
I was living in a house-share in Clapham in 1987 with 3 lads I knew at Uni and 2 busy actresses who we didn’t socialise with much. Us 4 lads were watching telly one night when one of the actresses – Tracy – walked in with Mick from Magpie. How surreal was that?? She was shagging one of the biggest TV faces of my childhood! (whereas I hardly remember who Tony Bastable is). Over the next couple of months there were a few awkward conversations in the kitchen but I heard more of them through the walls, unfortunately, before that one fizzled out.
[Her next fella annoyed me in some way with his bathroom etiquette and she taunted me that “yeah can a bit of a twat but he’s hung like a horse.” She never told me any such detail about Mick off of Magpie.]
6 May 2021
dr desperate
His 1975 single ‘Then I Change Hands’ may be relevant here.
6 May 2021
Cream CHEESE AND chives
Tony Bastable? Top down Rolls Royce driving over Spaghetti Junction prior to its opening.
6 May 2021
EXXO
@Dr. D – if only Hair like Brian May Blues had been written & released in 1985-86. I would definitely have had it on loud one morning when Mick came down …
6 May 2021
dr desperate
But the length of other parts of his anatomy is a secret never to be told.
7 May 2021
IDIOT SAUL
Cover star of the first edition of junior TV Times magazine Look-in
http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2008/08/look-in-early-years.html?m=1.
7 May 2021
dr desperate
Scroll down past the Bastable and Magpie bits to see comic strips based on Timeslip and On The Buses (qq v).
7 May 2021
Lord leominster
@FF ref smoking on children’s ITV. Jack Hargreaves regularly smoked a pipe whilst presenting Out of Town and I have a memory of him settling down in his shed to talk to the children whilst pouring himself and drinking a glass of beer. Interesting that Hargreaves was involved in setting up ITV and was a board member of Southern (ITV). Hargreaves was also a co-presenter of another ITV children’s show with Bunty James (I had to shoehorn a Biscuit reference in there some How).
8 May 2021
Lord leominster
I have just learned that Jack Hargreaves’ ashes were spread on Bulbarrow Hill above Raven Cottage, the site of his famous shed.
8 May 2021
EXXO
Been to Cuba and Iceland, but never been to that part of Dorset, despite wanting to ever since I was a kid. That’s thanks to Jack Hargreaves. He made so many fishing films within minutes of his cottage which helped me stay in love with that sport in the 70’s. Some of his ashy molecules may have washed off the hill, downstream past the gorgeous spots he fished like this one. Sigh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_vXcjEgohQ
Tess of the D’Urbervilles is set right there in those dairy fields, which is why NB went there of course.
Hadn’t seen that film till recently, as that one was only broadcast in ’83, and as previously mentioned nobody had a telly when we were at Uni, but that’s it, Dorset’s gone to the top of my list. I’m going to fish the Dorset Stour as soon as I can.
8 May 2021
EXXO
Ha Youtube does that and skips to the next clip before you know. this is the bucolic summer clip in question. This is Tess’ pace of life:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmTt9VwTmXA
8 May 2021
Ferencváros fan
Thanks both to Lord L and Exxo for your recent posts. Great memory re Jack Hargreaves. Like you, Exxo, I’ve only scratched at the surface of Dorset. Closest I’ve been to Bulbarrow Hill is Shaftesbury. However, with the easing of lockdown, I’ve joined a walking group. We’re staying local for now but I look forward to trips further afield later in the year. Dorset will be right up there on the to-do list, and my working knowledge of Hardy (I can still recite his poem ‘The Oxen’ from memory) will only add to its appeal.
8 May 2021
dr desperate
“…the maids walking in pattens, not on account of the weather, but to keep their shoes above the mulch of the barton (q v)” (TOTd’U)
“In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know” (‘The Oxen’).
8 May 2021