The Pooka

So that may not be male pattern baldness - just scar tissue.

Brilliant! It could have only been surpassed by the song being Bowie's 'Ashes to Ashes.' Or possibly the Crazy World of Arthur Brown's 'Fire.' Although I doubt either of those would have been on a compilation of songs that saw us through the war... Just to pick this up - Arthur Brown has just been on South Today. Despite the ravages of male pattern baldness, Arthur is entirely recognisable as Polydor's pyromaniac star of yesteryear. I believe that he is to reform the Crazy World and may well be available for the 'odd' cremation.

Yes. After Hi-de-Hi his career went downhill rapidly. Just when it didn't seem possible. Mind you, I suppose that applies to virtually the whole cast. Where are they now?

Roy Barraclough was quite brilliant as the store owner. Having googled I find that there were 26 episodes in two series. Nostalgia Central tells us that: This deservedly popular children's series - akin to a cross between Open All Hours and US cartoon Shazzam! - enjoyed a remarkable final episode in which the genie caused mayhem at a television studio. Because the series was filmed at Thames, the stars on the receiving end of the bad magic included the station's biggest names of the day: Eamonn Andrews, Tony Bastable, Wendy Craig, Dickie Davies, Jack Smethurst, Susan Stranks and, last but by no means least, Puff the Pony. Wow. This must be made available on DVD. (I guess I was not alone in finding Susan Stranks to be a source of arousal. Tony Bastable, however, was unable to produce a similar effect.) Finally, I have just remembered the appalling Junior Showtime (Opportunity Knocks for kids). About as mind-numbing and mouth-opening as TV could ever be. Having Googled I can find no trace of its presenters: the gormless Bobby Bennett and the talentless 'vamp', Ayesha Brough. Any news on them?

I'll see your Terry and June, and raise you SORRY!. Language Timothy! Or was it funnier guessing whether Terry or June's deckchair would collapse in the opening credits, or maybe even the parasol on them both? Or did I just imagine it was different in different episodes? God I hope not. Can of worms well & truly opened. Oh, Doctor Beeching! Check and mate! I think that I see a link between this and our friend twelvetrees, Do you think that one of us is him? Coffee hasn't kicked in this morning yet, forgive me if I'm being a bit dozy. Well I could pretend that I was being especially subtle. In fact, I had become slightly confused after spending the day drinking at a cricket tournament. I was thinking that Jeffrey Holland had played the part of James Twelvetrees in Oh Doctor Beeching. In fact, that was another Hi-de-Hi spin-off, You Rang M'Lud. So there is a connection but its more tenuous than I intended.

I'll see your Terry and June, and raise you SORRY!. Language Timothy! Or was it funnier guessing whether Terry or June's deckchair would collapse in the opening credits, or maybe even the parasol on them both? Or did I just imagine it was different in different episodes? God I hope not. Can of worms well & truly opened. Oh, Doctor Beeching! Check and mate! I think that I see a link between this and our friend twelvetrees,

I don't believe you.

Ok. So we know real crap when we see it. But what about the undiscovered gems. Anyone remember 'Pardon My Genie'?

There's not a lot to argue with in that list. Difficult to think of all the foul shows that have been excluded. However, I thought the worst of the sitcoms to be 'My Good Woman' with Leslie Crowther and Sylvia Sims. 'Darling', 'Yes Darling', 'Where's my shirt darling?' (Continue in this vein for 22 minutes while audience wet selves with laughter). This brings to me to another consideration: the worst lifetime's body of work. Leslie Crowther managed the above plus the Ovaltineys, Crackerjack (with the blameless Peter Glaze), the Black and White Minstrel Show, Stars in Their Eyes, the Stork SB commercials and The Price is Right. Little wonder that I resorted to sawing through his brake pipes. Is there a worse career oeuvre than that?

Sounds like it wasn't only Dr Sardonicus who had vivid dreams.

Well I never knew that Ed Cassidy appeared in Star Trek. Great band Spirit - saw them live in Bristol once. Randy California drowned. He was saving his son who had got into trouble surfing. That's about as noble and dignified a rock star death as I am aware of. Unless, of course, dear readers, you know better.

Lord St John of Fawsey and the Queen ...............!! Unlikely in the extreme. If she had had any thoughts of entertaining him sexually they would have evaporated as soon as he made a beeline for the 'tradesman's entrance'.

That's probably for the good.

Coincidentally Michael referred to the Marie Helvin trick in his Sunday Times column last week. From memory I think that he said that she had brushed her nipples when he got his camera out before realising that he wanted her to take the photo not pose for it. I am still interested that he is boasting of losing considerable weight despite his column suggesting that he is a glutton. Maybe a reasonable bet for 07 or 08.

You're quite right, I'm sure I'll find something else that fits. Being diagnosed bi-polar seems to be all the rage this year, maybe I'll give that a try. I hope it's got nothing to do with ursine sexual experimentation though, I don't think I could....erm....pull that one off. You're right - Bipolar Disorder does seem to be the diagnosis du jour, but I find it incredibly amusing when people who are desperate to be bipolar actually get the diagnosis AND the lithium/Depakote/whatever antipsychotic is on the front burner - along with the side effects. I was diagnosed 23 years ago. I've taken lithium most of that time, and I would gladly pay someone to take my tremor, GI upset and non-functioning thyroid. There's nothing fun or romantic about manic depression. I want to meet the person who decided to push the "creative, imaginative, free thinking" side of it and supress the "suicidal, out of control, self destructive" aspect. It's the latter that wins in the end. Urisine sexual experimentation? No. Plenty of other s**t though. I used to work with people with bipolar disorder and agree that there is nothing romantic about it despite it being rather fashionable currently. You're either in a mire of depression or barely in control of your energy. And, in between, you wait for the first sign of a mood swing while taking powerful medicines while regretting all the crazy things that you did when your mood went high. RD Laing has a lot to answer for.

I don't have that disease. Although I know of somebody who was diagnosed with it. I believe it involves the nervous system.I didin't mean to say I was surprised you haven't got Asperger's, our scores are both well outside the Asperger range. I just guess I was surprised that we got identical scores, as you don't strike me as being similar minded to me in the small way that we know each other through this forum. We might have got the same scores by getting our 16 points from 16 different questions of course. That's a compliment by the way, be worried if I thought that we were similar! Then you are both clearly normal. In my experience, though, that is not what most of us want to hear.

You seem, pulphack, to know all about the 1978 'misunderstanding'. Actually it was rather dark inside that wardrobe and I was unable to be sure about its contents as I was able to use only 4 of my senses. Needless to say my ejection from the premises was unnecessarily violent. The exclusion order was vague. I am never really sure whether places like Richmond or Bromley count as London. The subsequent 'inclusion order' (ie that I must not leave Dorset) was, fortunately, seen as an infringement of my civil liberties by our friends in Strasbourg.

Mitch Mitchell at the academy with Asquith and Our Dickie. Incredible. It really is exciting to see the depth of research that this thread has inspired. I think we should begin to consider creating Deathlist University. This would allow us to award Degrees and Diplomas to those of us, like BHB, who have extended the frontiers of human knowledge. I shall look into the matter. Unfortunately my own doctoral research was curtailed by some unnecessary exclusion orders (eg London). These followed a number of unfortunate misunderstandings regarding the nature of epistemological enquiry. Nevertheless, I am open to suggestions of collaborative research in which my like-minded partners could take responsibility for some painstaking fieldwork at certain addresses in the city.

Aren't Crosby, Stills and Nash favourites of Jim Davidson? Nuff said. I would only be worried if he were a favourite of theirs.

Didn't Young have a subarachnoid haemorrhage or cerebral aneurysm (if the second bursts you get the first). That's why I put him first. When in doubt always back the man with the dodgy blood vessels. Going into Ladbrokes tomorrow to see if I can get odds.

Nash has led the more virtuous life. Wiry bugger too. I fancy the running order will be Young, Crosby, Stills and then Nash. With at least 15 years spanning their deaths. My guilty secret is that I thought that they were all vary talented and I like their music. Oddly, their life expectancy seeems to be inversely proportional to their individual talent.

Well that's clearer even if I wouldn't agree with all of the qualification in italics. Just to muddy the waters there is a whole industry based around 'Emotional Intelligence' these days (Goleman is the big cheese). This argues that there is a type of intelligence based on 4 qualities: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and social skills. Apparently this has twice as much bearing on career performance as either IQ or technical skills. From what you have said, as I see it.. There are only two catagorys. Self awareness and social awareness. They are underlined and the following suggestions should go below them. Well self-awareness is about your knowledge of yourself (eg I get angry very quickly) whereas self-management is about how you interact externally, cope with your emotions etc (eg how you manage to control your anger and direct it away from self-limiting behaviour like telling the boss to F**k off). Social awareness is about being aware of group / team interactions, noting how people behave in social situations (eg being aware that X cannot work with Y without rowing) whereas social skills are more about managing the situations of which you are aware (eg finding ways of getting the best out of X and Y). So two categories are about 'knowing' (=K) and two are about 'doing' (D) and two are about the individual (I) and two about the individual's social environment (S). ie IK - ID - SK - SD. God i'm even boring myself now. Ben and Jerry's Cherry Carcia is another favourite of mine.

I get an awful grinding horrible noise from the back end... what does anyone reckon this is Cars are a major pain in the arse aren't they? Bugger. Would it get better if I had no-one in the back ever? Bugger arse bugger Bruno - these were 3 separate but successive quotes from Amanda. Wherever she has gone, I assume that she has taken her anal fixation with her.

........ and they should do the same for the sod who gave us Easter.

Well that's clearer even if I wouldn't agree with all of the qualification in italics. Just to muddy the waters there is a whole industry based around 'Emotional Intelligence' these days (Goleman is the big cheese). This argues that there is a type of intelligence based on 4 qualities: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and social skills. Apparently this has twice as much bearing on career performance as either IQ or technical skills. I'm finding it difficult to categorise myself using this so will revert to answering what I can answer. Bruno - I have, once or twice, had a stem ginger and vanilla ice cream. It is my favourite.