Issue 11 June 2021

2
A Warm & Toasty Welcome
Welcome to the June issue of the With live singers and fun features such as
Warm and Toasty Newsletter! the Memory of the Week, the Retro Raffle
quiz, Haircut of The Week, Jeanette’s
This publication is a way of keeping con- Poem of The Week and general silliness
nected with our members during these pe- and laughter
riods of isolation brought about by the
Covid-19 outbreak. "Warm and toasty Fridays are
brilliant, cheers people up, just what
With memories, jokes, quizzes and photos the doctor ordered - everyone here
to keep people uplifted and entertained for each other Thank you xxxx"
during this continued difficult time.
www.facebook.com/thewarmandtoastyclub
We will be back with in person events
once it’s safe to do so. Do join us if you can.

We would love to hear from you if you
would like to contribute a piece to the
newsletter.
You can share a story, a memory, jokes,
old photos or anything else to share with
our community.
Please contact Johnno via email at
thewarmandtoastyclub@gmail.com
or call 07594154709.
How are you getting on? If any of our
guests are feeling lonely and isolated or
could just do with talking to someone,
Johnno is available on the phone most
weekdays after Midday on 07594154709,
you could also let us know your number
and we can call you if you’d prefer.
Special thanks for the contributors to this
newsletter –
Editor – Johnno
Main Contributor - Deborah
Contributors – Mary, Don,
Geoff and Penny
Typesetting and graphic design –
Steve Brady
Photos – Tom Hardy, Andre Kimche
and Alan Wareham
Your Warm and Toasty Club team -
Johnno, Jeanette, Tom, and Dave!

And did you know that we have an Online

Memory Afternoon chat show that goes
out live on the internet, on our Facebook
page every Friday at 1pm? It’s a joyful
break from the lockdown to keep you en-
tertained and connected.

The Warm and Toasty Club are proud to be funded by

The National Lottery Community Fund
Thank You

Memories of the Pictures
“We are the boys and girls
well known as Minors of the ABC -
And every Saturday we line up, to see the
films we like and shout aloud with glee.
We love to laugh and have a sing-song,
Just a happy crowd are we -
We’re all pals together, we’re minors
of the ABC.”
Don’s earliest memories of being taken to the pic-
tures are scary ones. The boys next-door would
take him to the Saturday morning cinema. He re-
members seeing Disney’s “Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs” in 1938 when he was 4 and being
frightened by the wicked witch, and also being
scared out of his wits when seeing “The Invisible
Man“ (played by Claude Rains) unravelling his ban-
dages!
Interestingly, two days after Britain declared war on
Germany the government ordered all public enter-
tainment places to close, which included cinemas.
Within two weeks this was revoked, and far from
being afraid to go to the cinema, the attendances
grew steadily. This is a clear indication of the impor-
tance that cinema had for people, either to escape
reality or to keep up with the latest films and news
stories supplied by Pathé newsreels, before families
had their own televisions.
Saturday morning cinema just for children started
up again after the war. For sixpence, children were
promised a morning’s entertainment away from their
parents, with cartoons such as Looney Tunes and
serials with cliffhangers that would be resolved the
following week. There would be an interval to buy
ice-cream and sweets. Anyone with a birthday
would be invited up on stage to be sang to, and
there were competitions before the main feature.
Some children were chosen to be ABC monitors to
help keep order, which gave them free entrance.
Don can remember taking his younger sister to the
ABC Minors on a Saturday morning and her winning
a bicycle! He can still sing the ABC Minors song; the
words would come up on screen with a bouncing
red ball to set the timing for the singalong. He par-
ticularly enjoyed the comedies Laurel and Hardy,
Abbott and Costello, and the Three Stooges.
3
Mary remembers enjoying Tarzan with Johnny
Weissmuller, and Flash Gordon. Her son John also
recalls watching Flash Gordon (played by Buster
Crabbe) at the ABC in the 1970s, his spaceship
jerking along a wire with a wispy smoke trail. Ming
the Merciless could see it from light years away!
Geoff used to cycle with his friends to Catfield Vil-
lage Hall in Norfolk once a month. A van would turn
up and a man would set up the projector and
screen, and line up chairs. Geoff’s favourites were
Tom and Jerry (now considered too violent for chil-
dren) and the westerns with Gene Autry the singing
cowboy and Roy Rogers with his horse Trigger. He
said that every now and then the film would break or
melt into a molten mess; they all used to cheer, and
the projectionist would have to chop a piece of the
reel out and restart the film again. He went to stay
with family friends in London when he was 16 and
decided to join the queue to see the latest block-
buster at the Odeon in Leicester Square. He was
used to Yarmouth prices, 1s9d (1/9) for downstairs
and 2s3d for upstairs, when he got to the ticket of-
fice he asked for a 2/6 ticket and the lady told him
that the cheapest seat was 7/6. He managed to
scrape enough together to get in, and the seat was
right on the front row, you felt you were in the film!
Penny used to catch the bus to Finsbury Park for
the Saturday morning matinee, and a different song
would come up on screen. She can still remember
singing ”We come along on a Saturday morning,
greeting everybody with a smile. We come along on
a Saturday morning, knowing it's all worth while. As
members of the Odeon club, we all intend to be,
good citizens when we grow up and champions of
the free!”
Johnno recalled, “When I was a kid I used to go to
Saturday morning pictures. It was carnage - pop-
corn flying everywhere, kids screaming and running
around. They used to show things, mostly in black
and white, like The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Zorro
and Abbott and Costello, and it recently occurred
to me that the cinema had probably been showing
the same films for 40+ years.”
What are your cinema memories?
 4 Vintage TV Show of the month
Sale of the Century -Vs- The Golden Shot
Which one was your favourite?
Sale of the Century
 Sale of the Century was a British game show based on a US game show
of the same name. It was first shown on ITV from 9 October 1971 to 6 No-
vember 1983, hosted by Nicholas Parsons.
 Questions were worth different amounts of money to be won with the right
answer and contestants could then buy merchandise at a reduced price
 It started with the announcement - And now, from Norwich – it’s the quiz of the week!
 As things stood in 2016 – Sale of the Century was the 20th most watched TV Show – on November 19th
1977 it had 20.6 million viewers

The Golden Shot

 The Golden Shot was a British television game show produced by ATV
for ITV between 1967 and 1975, with audiences of up to 16 million.
 The show involved a member of the public ringing in from home and guid-
ing a crossbow attached to a television camera to a target. It shot the bolt
at an exploding target embedded in an apple positioned on a topical back-
drop. The blindfolded camera-man firing the shot was Bernie the bolt
 It is most commonly associated with host Bob Monkhouse, although three other presenters also
hosted the show during its lifetime.
 Hostess Anne Aston was on hand to read out the scores achieved by the contestants, and each month
a "Maid of the Month", usually a glamour model of the era, would demonstrate the prizes and announce
the contestants.

They don’t write songs like that anymore…

This article was inspired by the memory of listening to Family Favourites on
the radio over Sunday lunchtime. I expect you to get singing.
WARNING - these songs get stuck in your head and never leave!

 “My Old Man’s A Dustman” Lonnie Donnegan

 “You’re A Pink Toothbrush, I’m A Blue Toothbrush”
Max Bygraves
 “Hole In The Ground” (There I was, a-diggin’ this hole)
Bernard Cribbins
 “Hev Yew Got A Loight Boy?” (Molly Windley, she
smook like a chimley) The Singing Postman
 “The Laughing Policeman” (I know a fat old policeman)
Charles Penrose
 “Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen-By-The-
Sea” (There’s a tiny house…) Max Bygraves
 5
Do You Remember?

Warm & Toasty Links & Friends

Website: www.thewarmandtoastyclub.weebly.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thewarmandtoastyclub
Twitter: www.twitter.com/WarmToastyClub
Friends and Supporters
National Lottery Community Fund; Colchester Arts Centre;
Colchester Borough Homes; Shrub End Social Centre;
Colchester Recalled Oral History Group; Fresh On The Net Music Blog;
Essex Sound and Video Archive; FaNs; Age Concern Colchester;
Colchester Borough Council and Community 360
 6 A Warm and Toasty Interview - Martin Newell
Martin Newell (it says here)
 is an English musician and poet from Colchester. Aged 68. Born Harpenden, Herts.

 The eldest of three sons. Father was an Army Captain. Mother was an office worker. East
Anglian by ancestry (mainly Norfolk).

 Attended 11 schools all over the UK and abroad. Left aged 15, no qualifications. Worked as
a kitchen porter and a gardener.

 In music, sang in rock bands for ten years from aged 19 to 26 years old, before specialising
in song-writing and record production. Has made over 40 albums and written about 20
books. Also wrote poetry and features for national UK newspapers for 28 years. Has done
much radio and some TV presenting. Has been the subject of a TV documentary and two
feature-length documentary films – one due for release this spring. Continues to write and
record music. Rarely tours.

How did you first get into music?

Since I was tiny, I’ve rarely cared about anything else. I started playing a mouth organ when I
was seven or eight. Began playing guitar when I was 12 and had started writing my own songs
when I was 14.

You have already achieved so much in your ca-

reer, what drives you on and/or inspires you to
create new music and poems?

Obsession. I can’t not do it. When I was young and

troubled, they were the only things which seemed
to make sense and which I felt that I could be good
at. Might have been a bit of my Aspergism driving
that.

Do you have a favourite childhood memory?

Yeah, staying with my grandparents in school holidays. My parents never went on holiday. Well
you don’t if you’re forever being moved around by the British Army. I’d go to my grandparents’
place in Herts. Terraced house in a group of four. Long narrow garden. In autumn my grandad,
an old Green Line bus driver used to let me help with the garden bonfire. When I got to about
10, he’d have me shinning up a tall conker tree. I’d pull the bow-saw up on a bit of rope and
he’d instruct me which branch to take off, where to cut and how to make an under-cut so it
came off nice and clean. He’d say, “That’s right, Cocker. That one. We’ll ‘ave ‘Im off next.”

You are a brilliant poet Martin; how did you get into the poetry game?

Thank you. I tried to write my first poem when I was about 7. As soon as I knew what poems
were, (my Dad told me) I wanted to make them. When I was 13, the first breakthrough hap-
pened. I chose to do a poem (one of three options) for my half term homework. I was the only
one in the entire class who chose that. I remember being completely absorbed in it. It just
seemed to flow naturally from me. More, even than music. I handed the poem in. About a week
later, the English teacher held it up, handed it back to me and said, “Read it out then.” With my
hands shaking and in a tremulous voice I read the poem out to the class. I saw as I got to the
end, that in red biro, he’d written beneath the poem. “This is excellent work!” 10/10 I’d never
 A Warm and Toasty Interview - Martin Newell 7
had a mark like that for anything. It lit a fuse. Poetry became sub-
verted into song-lyrics for some years. Then, in my mid 20s I
started again. I began getting published a little while later. Fellow
musicians seemed to think it was a bit odd. It briefly made me
quite famous.

What/who makes you laugh?

Viz Comic. Especially the Profanisaurus. It’s just so filthy and cor-
poreal.

I also like anything by Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer and all the
Fast Show stuff.

When you are not being the wonderful music artist

and poet Martin Newell, what do you enjoy doing?

Being on a bicycle round the local lanes. Cutting hedges and pruning old apple trees. Bit of
cooking at the weekends, with the radio on and a bottle of cider on the go.

What’s your funniest onstage moment(s)?

“Me, John Cooper Clarke, Young Luke Wright and Ross Sutherland were doing the Christmas
poetry one year. I wanted to play a prank on John. I asked Anthony Roberts, the Arts Centre
supremo to persuade the Mercury Theatre to lend me their pantomime cow. They were reluc-
tant, I think they must have heard about me.

But they DID lend us the pantomime camel. It was massive and had levers that would make
the jaws clack and the eyes roll. I got Luke and Ross to get inside it. And while John was in the
last bit of his act, led the camel out onstage behind him. He didn’t notice for a while. When he
saw it, he did a double-take but that was all. He kept cool. The audience was laughing.

John finished his act and I led the camel (Luke and Ross) back out again. I got on the piano
and started playing ‘Santa Claus is Coming To Town’. I handed the mic to John. He began to
sing. It was too high for him., So we went low. The song was now too low for him. Now the
camel began to dance. But Luke and Ross were hammered. They’d had a big drink during the
break, So I’m on the piano, John’s struggling with the song and then the f****** camel falls over.
The audience was in uproar. I thought I’d bloody die laughing. “
 8
Members of The Month - Colin and Irene
Where did you grow up and
what brought you to
Colchester?
Irene: I was born in Olney dur-
ing the war, as it was safer than
in Stepney, East London where
we lived. We became homeless
after an air raid when I was 18
months old, then eventually we
were rehoused in a flat. My
brother and sister married when
I was 6 or 7 so I was brought up
more like an only child. Colin,
the youngest of 4 boys, was
born and bred in Walthamstow.
His mum raised them by herself
after his dad died when he was
10. London was expensive to
buy property. After a Romford
house purchase fell through we
ended up living in Great Tey for
36 years.
Essex Picture Quiz
Can you guess where in Essex you will find these places?
The best jobs you have
ever had?
Colin enjoyed working outside
being a milkman and then driv-
ing a road sweeper. I had vari-
ous jobs in London and travelled
up for a few years after moving
out. Bankers Baring Brothers
was my last job there, working
on the IBM punch tape computer
system. After having children I
did part-time office jobs, house
cleaning and potato/fruit picking,
taking the pram to the fields
around Great Tey, which fitted in
with family life. Then for 12 years
I worked for a small publishing
business which introduced me to
Desk Top Publishing. After that I
worked for Anglian Care Ser-
vices, then at an independent
hospital for people with learning
disabilities and mental health
issues. I ended up as a medical
secretary to a psychiatrist. Help-
ing others in care was the most
rewarding job.
Favourite Singers?
Can’t say either of us have a
particular favourite singer. I like
Abba and Andre Rieu. Colin
likes any music you can dance
to!
What hobbies have you
enjoyed?
Irene: My first love is ballroom
and sequence dancing. I like
knitting, watercolour painting
and playing Bridge. Colin has
always been a DIY man and we
both like gardening. We had
some fun times running the
Great Tey Cub Scout group for
several years, so camping, out-
ings and meetings took a lot of
our time.
Your favourite places?
We have cruised and visited
many wonderful places around
the world. Cruising the Carib-
bean 20 years ago was great but
it is very busy nowadays. We
loved Egypt, India, Hawaii, New
Zealand and of course Australia
where our eldest son now lives.
Our first visit to Australia was to
Palm Cove in Queensland, the
most amazing holiday ever.
What were the best years
of your life?
Raising children in the country
and of course travelling the
world.
 Game Show Quiz 9

I’ll give you the catchphrase, can you name the gameshow?

1. “Let’s have a look at the old scoreboard” (TGG)

2. “We asked 100 people to name something you do in the dark” (FF)
3. “Your starter for 10” (UC)
4. “Phone a friend” (WWTBAM?)
5. “Supermatch Game, with a chequebook and pen” (BB)
$
6. “Look at what you could have won” (B)
7. “Go wild in the aisles” (SS)
8. “Live from Norwich…” (TSOTC) X
9. “Bernie the Bolt” (TGS)
10. “I’ve started so I’ll finish…” (M) O
11. “Could I have a P, please Bob” (B)
12. “Higher…lower” (PYCR)
13. “You are the W L. Goodbye!” (TWL)
14. “Badda... badda... badda-daa-da.... boom!” (C)
$
15. “Please step up to the podium” (P)

Mary's Joke Corner

A man went into a fish restaurant and was asked to pick a live fish
from the tank. He chose a little green squid with a bristly moustache,
which was trying to hide in the corner. So the
squid was scooped out and taken to the kitchen.
The chef Jervais took hold of the squid ready to
chop his head off with his knife, but the squid
looked up at him with large sorrowful eyes and let
out a tremulous sigh. His heart melted “No, I can’t
do it! You’ll have to do it Hans” and he passed the squid and the knife
over to Hans, the pot washer. Hans lifted the knife, but the squid
looked up at him with his sad eyes and whimpered. “No, I can’t do it
either!”

Which just goes to show that “Hans that do dishes can be as soft as
Jervais, with mild, green, hairy-lip squid!”
10
SAYINGS
1. "Cack-handed" A task performed in an awkward or uncomfortable
fashion, usually clumsily, would be described as "cack-handed
2. "Cheeky" An act which could be deemed as impolite or shameless,
but for some reason comes across as funny or endearing to others,
would be described as "cheeky!"
3. "Chinwag" A "good old chinwag" is a good
chat, catch up, or gossip with someone. The
action of chatting away -- with the jaw bobbing
up and down -- resembles a chin "wagging" like
a dog's tail.
4. "Chockablock" Something full to the brim, or
rammed, could be described as "chockablock. "This is sometimes
shortened to "chocka”
5. "Chuffed" Overjoyed; full of pride. "I heard you got the promotion.
Congratulations! You must be chuffed."
6. "Clanger" An obvious and indiscreet mistake or blunder. Unrelatedly,
"Clangers" was also a children's TV show from the 1970s about pink
mouse-like creatures that lived on the moon. "You dropped a clanger
there."
7. "Codswallop" Something untrue -- often made up for dramatic effect.
Although no one is completely sure of the word's origins, it could de-
rive from the words "cod" and "wallop," which historically meant
"imitation" and "beer" respectively -- implying that "codswallop" is the
kind of rubbish you make up when drunk. "Oh, what a load of cods-
wallop!"
8. "Cost a bomb" Expensive. "Your watch is gorgeous." "I should hope
so, it cost a bomb."
9. "Cream crackered" Cockney rhyming slang for "knackered," if you're
"cream crackered" then you're incredibly tired.
10. "Curtain twitcher" A nosey neighbour, often
caught peering out on their street's activities
from a curtained window, might be referred to
as a "curtain twitcher."

Where were you when?
 VE Day 1945
Mary can remember her mum taking her into town
in Cheltenham on 8th May 1945 when victory in
Europe was announced. The streets were packed
with people, cheering, singing, laughing, holding
hands and doing the Hokey Cokey. A young man
asked her to dance but she was too shy to say
yes.
 The winter of 1947
Geoff remembers the terrible blizzard of 1947. He
and his friends had just come out of the pictures at
Catfield in Norfolk and it was snowing heavily.
They tried riding their bikes through the snowdrifts
back to Potter Heigham , but it got too deep. They
had to abandon their bikes in a field and walk
through knee deep snow. The next day the snow
was so deep, deeper than a child's height. You
could only make out where the road was by the
tops of the telegraph poles. It was weeks later be-
fore the snow cleared and they were able to re-
trieve their bikes.
Don can remember temperatures being so cold
that people were skating over the frozen Hickling
Broad.
So you think you know Essex?
1. What happened in Colchester on 4. In the nursery rhyme which origi-
April 22nd 1884? nates from Colchester, Humpty
Dumpty was originally a what?
2. What is the name given by locals
for Colchester’s water tower, built in 5. What is on the Essex coat of
1883? arms?
3. The sign into Chelmsford says
“Welcome to Chelmsford, the birth-
place of…”
11
 The death of
King George VI 1952
Geoff remembers on 6th February
he was working as a tractor driver
on a local farm and his boss
pulled him over to tell him the
news that the king’s death had
been announced on the radio.
 The floods of 1953
Don was upstairs in a cinema in Great Yarmouth
on night of Jan 31st 1953 when the manager
stopped the film to say that the police were advis-
ing anyone who lived across the river in Gorleston
to go home now before buses stopped running due
to the flood warning. He remembers most people
got up to leave, and he was one of three who
stayed to watch the rest of the film. The next morn-
ing he went along to look at the flood. They were
using the leisure boats from the Waterways to res-
cue people trapped in their homes.
Don worked as a gas fitter, and they were kept
busy with repairs to gas meters and gas ovens for
the following 3 months.
Geoff was on leave from the RAF on that night and
was staying with his sister in Gorleston, but was
called upon to carry sandbags to sure up the
coastal protection at Sea Palling.
Does anyone have particular memories of where
they were when Princess Elizabeth married Philip
in 1947, or her coronation in 1953? Or maybe
when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, or when
man walked on the moon in 1969? We would love
to hear your memories.
More next month!
 12

Never underestimate the power
of something to look forward to
Everyone's fighting their own
battles, facing their own
challenges, go easy
It’s ok to say ‘I love you very much’
when your family gives you something
really nice, though it may be a bit weird
if you say it to the checkout operator at
the supermarket till as they pass you
your fairy liquid (wait until you get
home, and tell your fairy liquid then)

So you think you know

Essex? Answers: Game Show Quiz
Answers:
1. An earthquake 4.6 on the
Richter scale. It killed one 1. The Generation Game
person and damaged every Essex Picture Quiz 2. Family Fortunes
building in Wivenhoe and Answers: 3. University Challenge
Abberton. 4. Who Wants To Be A Mil-
1. A House for Essex (by
2. Jumbo, named after a cir- lionaire?
Grayson Perry), Wrab-
cus elephant. 5. Blankety Blank
ness, Manningtree
3. The birthplace of radio. 6. Bullseye
2. St. Botolph’s Priory, Col-
Guglielmo Marconi opened 7. Supermarket Sweep
chester
the world's first wireless 8. The Sale Of The Century
3. The longest pier,
factory here in 1899. 9. The Golden Shot
Southend
4. A large cannon which sat 10. Mastermind
4. Frinton-on-sea
on the town wall in 1648. 11. Blockbuster
5. Three Saxon knives 12. Play Your Cards Right
13. The Weakest Link
Keep In Touch With Friends 14. Countdown
15. Pointless
Please send us your telephone number or
email address if you are trying to
reach a friend from the club and we will
do our best to link you up.
Contact us
Telephone - 07594154709
Email - thewarmandtoastyclub@gmail.com
Facebook - www.facebook.com/thewarmandtoastyclub