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Posted: 02-09-2013 18:22 Post subject:

Really good Frost obit here:
http://www.tvcream.co.uk/?p=33610

They're right, he did age thirty years in the space of three!

I think Felix Dennis owes a debt of gratitude to Frostie for his TV first.

Posted: 02-09-2013 22:52 Post subject:

Another golden oldie kicks the bucket!

Broadcaster David Jacobs dies at 87

Broadcaster and presenter David Jacobs, whose career spanned seven decades, has died aged 87.
Jacobs, who stepped down from his Radio 2 programme last month because of ill health, died at home "surrounded by his family", the BBC said in a statement.

He started at the BBC in 1945, hosting shows including Housewives' Choice, Juke Box Jury and Any Questions.
BBC director general Tony Hall hailed him as "one of the great broadcast personalities".
"As a young and avid viewer of Jukebox Jury, I remember him every week scoring the hits and misses," he said.
"And I was still listening to him just last month as he fronted his show The David Jacobs Collection on Radio 2."
He added: "We shall all miss him tremendously."

Announcing in July that he was stepping down from his Radio 2 show, Jacobs said: "Over the past two years Radio 2 has given me time to be treated for liver cancer and Parkinson's Disease."

Jacobs started his broadcasting career in the Royal Navy in 1944, where he was made an announcer on wartime radio station Radio SEAC.
After leaving the Navy, he began working at the BBC as an announcer and newsreader.

In 1964, he became one of the original Top of the Pops presenters and he also worked as the BBC's Eurovision Song Contest commentator before he was succeeded by Terry Wogan.

He also introduced all 53 episodes of radio sci-fi serial Journey Into Space, as well as playing 22 characters. Cool

He won a Sony Gold Award for outstanding contribution to radio in 1984 and was admitted to the Sony Hall of Fame in 1995.

Radio 2 controller Bob Shennan paid tribute to "a true giant of the BBC".
"David was a legend in broadcasting, not only for the Radio 2 audience, but for the whole population," he added.
His broadcast hallmarks were "great taste, authority and warmth", he said.
"I am sure his audience will feel they have lost a friend, as we all do here at Radio 2."

Radio 2 colleague Bob Harris wrote on Twitter: "So very sad to hear the news about David Jacobs, my friend and mentor. He gave me my first ever mention on the radio on my 15th birthday."

And veteran radio DJ Tony Blackburn said on Twitter he had been to his friend's 85th birthday party "and he did the most brilliant speech which I'll never forget - he will be sadly missed by all of us".

In a career retrospective broadcast on Radio 2 last year, broadcaster Chris Evans described Jacobs as "the gentleman's broadcaster".
"David Jacobs [is] one of the cornerstones of British broadcasting," he said. "A man who always has time for you, who always has something worth listening to."

The BBC said Radio 2 would be paying tribute to the broadcaster with a number of special programmes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23938128

Soon there'll be only me left... Sad

Posted: 02-09-2013 23:07 Post subject:

We used to watch Jukebox Jury, as a family, of a Saturday night, when I was a nipper.

Posted: 02-09-2013 23:20 Post subject:

It is one of the earliest shows I remember as a weekly ritual. Not that I liked the music much. I was, however, utterly fascinated by the workings of the juke-box and loved the rude noise they made for a "Miss." The ping of the bell for a "Hit!" was such a let-down.

I suppose it was Eurovision in miniature.

Jacobs himself was always urbane and rather bland. For that may we be thankful!

RIP. Sad

Posted: 03-09-2013 19:56 Post subject:

One of the greats of SF has gone.

Posted: 03-09-2013 20:06 Post subject:

Sad to hear that. Pohl was one of my favourites. Sad

Posted: 03-09-2013 20:42 Post subject:

Pohl and his writing partner, Kornbluth, wrote one of the sharpest SF social satires that I've ever read. One of my all time favourite SF stories.

The Space Merchants (1952)

Definitely a candidate for most one of the most prescient SF novels that you're ever likely to read.

Gladiator At Law (1955), is another good one from the partnership, well worth a read.

Two of my favourite writers.

Posted: 04-09-2013 18:05 Post subject:

Autogyro legend Ken Wallis has gone.

Posted: 04-09-2013 18:25 Post subject:

Aw, I have always loved autogyros...

Posted: 04-09-2013 19:15 Post subject:

I see that Mike Winters (of Mike & Bernie fame) died a week or so back:

They were a fixture on ITV.

I have never noticed much interest in them online, even in nostalgia circles. They were much promoted but probably tolerated more than loved. After a violent falling-out. Bernie continued in a double-act with a dog, while Mike left show-business.

A blast from the past. I suspect they were on the cover of TV Times one week in three at least!

I only came across the obituary when Googling "Unfunny Comedians: Rufus Hound Why?" Sad

Posted: 04-09-2013 19:38 Post subject:

I used to like them when I was very young. I suspect that they patterned their act after Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, rather than any homegrown stuff.

Bernie's catch phrase was, 'Heyy! Choochy face!', for some reason.

I preferred Mike to Schnorbitz.

Posted: 04-09-2013 20:53 Post subject:

Posted: 04-09-2013 22:05 Post subject:

Posted: 06-09-2013 09:21 Post subject:

Lieutenant-Commander Peter Marshall
Lieutenant-Commander Peter Marshall, who has died aged 82, was a Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy pilot and saved a valuable new aircraft from destruction.
6:56PM BST 05 Sep 2013

On December 3 1969 Marshall was flying a Phantom jet from the Royal Naval Air Station, Yeovilton, with his observer, Flight Lieutenant Jack Haines, RAF. They were engaged in mock dog fights over the sea north of Land’s End when, at 18,000ft, their aircraft suffered a heavy blow and began to vibrate severely, with the windscreen covered in thick dark hydraulic fluid and both engines flaming out.

Marshall’s immediate instinct was to prepare for ejection; overcoming this, however, he decided to remain with the aircraft . As it turned out, the radar cover on the nose of the aircraft had become detached, and it and parts of the radar had been ingested by the starboard engine.

Marshall found that, although he was experiencing severe buffeting, the jet was still controllable. The starboard engine and intakes were badly damaged by debris that had also punctured the wing’s leading edge flaps and ripped the fuselage skin. Even so, assisted by another aircraft, which joined him in the air, Marshall decided to attempt a return to Yeovilton, 130 miles away. It proved an extremely hazardous final approach: forward vision, due to the hydraulic fluid on his windscreen, was practically nil, while pronounced yaw and buffeting threatened to throw the aircraft out of control.

None the less, Marshall managed to land safely, thus saving weeks of speculative investigation and the consequent disruption to the Phantom flying programme, as well as its introduction into front-line service. He was awarded the Boyd Trophy 1969 for exceptional skill and personal courage, and received an AFC.

Peter Charles Marshall was born on January 18 1931 in Birmingham. A builder’s son, he was educated at Bishop Vesey’s grammar school, Sutton Coldfield, and had started to read Mining Engineering at Leeds when, in 1954, he decided to join the Royal Navy, learning to fly at the US Navy flying school at Pensacola, Florida.

In 1958 he qualified as an air warfare instructor. He flew more than a score of aircraft from single-engine trainers to jets and helicopters, and served in the aircraft carriers Centaur, Ark Royal, Eagle, and the Australian Melbourne. He also commanded 767 Naval Air Squadron at Yeovilton in 1969-70 before, in 1972, transferring to the Royal Australian Navy, with which he served for the next 18 years. He commanded 724 Naval Air Squadron at Nowra, New South Wales, from 1975 to 1977. His personal call sign was “Pegasus”.

After retiring from the RAN in 1990 he spent 10 years rebuilding a 42ft steel-hulled ketch on which he explored the coast of eastern Australia with his family.

Peter Marshall married Carolyn Barker in 1955. She survives him with their 10 children.

Lt-Cdr Peter Marshall, born January 18 1931, died August 3 2013

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10290003/Lieutenant-Commander-Peter-Marshall.html

I took a school party to visit RNAS Yeovilton in about 1970. We saw the Phantoms, and their simulators, which created the images the pilot saw by 'flying' a video camera over a scale-model of the land- or seascape! (No virtual reality computer simulations back then!)

Posted: 06-09-2013 18:41 Post subject: