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British postcard by Statics, London, no. PC 81.
British stage and film actor Michael Praed (1960) is best known for his roles in the TV series Robin of Sherwood (1984-1985) and Dynasty (1985-1986). He also appeared in several British and American films, but somehow his promising film career went nowhere.
Michael Praed was born as Michael David Prince in Berkeley, England in 1960. His parents were Derrick and Kay Prince, with whom he spent his early years in Iran because his father worked as an accountant for a petroleum company. Michael was sent back to England for a public school education, which he did not enjoy. He attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. As there was already a Michael Prince listed in Equity, Michael chose the surname ‘Praed’ from the phone book. He began his career in repertory theatre before moving on to roles in London's West End. Praed's first big break occurred in playing in Joseph Papp's 1982 revival of The Pirates of Penzance with Tim Curry in the West End. The producers of the TV series Robin of Sherwood spotted Praed and cast him as Robin of Loxley a.k.a. Robin Hood. The BAFTA winning Robin of Sherwood (1984-1985) was a huge hit and gained an international cult status. After two successful seasons as Robin, Praed was lured to Broadway to star in The Three Musketeers. His Broadway adventure led to him being cast as Prince Michael of Moldavia in Aaron Spelling's prime time soap Dynasty (1985-1986). After this, Praed starred in the SciFi horror Nightflyers (Robert Collector, 1986), Writer's Block (Charles Correll, 1991), and Son of Darkness: To Die For II (David Price, 1991) . Between these B-films, Michael Praed worked on writing and recording music in his own studio.
At the end of 1991, Michael Praed left Los Angeles for the lead in an Irish production of Carousel. Immediately following this Rogers and Hammerstein musical, he found himself back in London playing the lead in the West End production of Aspects of Love by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The British televised mini-series, Riders (Gabrielle Beaumont, 1993) followed, based a novel by Jilly Cooper. His next stage endeavour was Harold Pinter's terse, tense drama The Caretaker. In 1994 he starred opposite Susannah York in the drama September Tide in the West End. Praed then dived into the role of the devious, womanizing Gary in the comedy film Staggered (Martin Clunes, 1994). Subsequently, he accepted a regular role in the British television series, Crown Prosecutor (John Stroud, 1995). In 1995, he returned once again to the West End as a lead, this time opposite Rachel Weisz in Noel Coward's Design for Living. The role was noteworthy in that Praed was brought as a replacement in the last two weeks of the run and learned the massive three act play over a single weekend. The next year was spent as the lead in Barry Manilow's Copacabana: The Musical, on its first national tour of Britain. He made a cameo as the Hitman in the film Darkness Falls (Gerry Lively, 1999) with Robin of Sherwood comrade Ray Winstone before heading for North America. There, Praed took the regular role of the Victorian aristocrat Phileas Fogg in the Canadian television series The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne (Gavin Scott, 2000), which developed a devoted following.
Michael Praed played The Queen in the film comedy 9 Dead Gay Guys (Lab Ky Mo, 2002), which was shunned at Cannes but won awards at other, smaller festivals. His next appearance was in Susan Stroman's Tony Award winning musical Contact back in London's West End (2003). He also appeared in such stage productions as Somerset Maugham's The Constant Wife, the musical Beautiful and Damned, Misery with Susan Penhaligon and in Anthony Shaffer's Sleuth. On TV he was seen in popular series as Casualty (2002-2003) and The Bill (2005). Along with his acting, Praed has also recorded a number of narrations. In 2007, Praed was a cast member of the Blake's 7 audio adventure Rebel for B7 Media. He portrayed passenger Nelson Morris in the docudrama Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies (Sean Grundy, 2007) a re-examination of the German zeppelin's spectacular explosion over New Jersey on the eve of World War II. Praed has also been the regular narrator of Timewatch (2003-2009), BBC TV's award winning documentary series. He was married to Karen Landau from 1994 till their divorce in 2009. They have two children, son Gabriel (1994) and daughter, Frankie (1996). In recent years, Michael Traed appeared on stage as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music (2009–2011), as Dexter Haven in High Society (2013) and as John Greenwood in The White Carnation (2014).
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
During the latest Artsreach event, I learned more about the twists and turns of life and death in the reign of Henry V111 then I ever did in school history lessons!
Bob Whitley (right) wrote songs in chronological order to document the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn. On stage he was ably accompanied by Lee MacKenzie playing a Baroque cello....note the lack of a floor spike!
What struck me most were the shenanigans, power plays, backstabbing and intrigues within today's political parties are highly reminiscent of what went on in the court of Henry V111. The song below illustrates it very well.
bithbox # 235
Bob Whitley and Lee MacKenzie "Lady Rochford listens"
The above was recorded and produced by Jon Whitley, he of Ninebarrow. Bob is his father! Lee has also played on numerous Ninebarrow tracks and appeared with them on live internet shows.
It is often said "if you remember the sixties you weren't there". Well I have absolutely no recollection of ever seeing one of my all-time favourite bands.....but i did get the poster!
More than 40 years on, much of their music still sounds as if it could have been recorded yesterday.
BITH'S JUKEBOX # 220
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND "I'M WAITING FOR THE MAN"
Drop a coin in the slot :
“Then will come a new German Youth, trained from a young age for this new Country. Our Youth must learn nothing except to think like and act like Germans! We must get our boys into a Party organization at the age of 10, where they can be immersed in the totality of pure German spirit... Following this, we will put our young men into the ranks of the Labour Front, the Stormtroopers (SA), the Party Guards (SS), the Motorized Party Unit and so on. Then, if they have not become true National Socialists after two years in these organisations, we will re-process them through the Labour Front where they will experience another half-year of curative treatment... And if they still retain traces of class consciousness or aloofness from 'Germandom', the Wehrmacht will deal with them for another two years... In this way, they will never live freely but will spend their entire lives in the service of Germany!”
[From an address by Adolf Hitler to the Kreisleitern (County leaders), 2 December 1938; translated from an original German transcript in “Völkischer Beobachter”, 4 December 1938]
“People ask, why did I join the Hitler Youth, why did I volunteer to fight when I was 17? But they don't understand: we had no mind of our own. My education, my real education, started at the age of 22, in England. And I shall always be grateful to the people of the country for trying to educate me, or to find my own way. I think this is the way I should express it: to find my own way.”
[Bert Trautmann, interviewed in 2000 for the BBC 'Timewatch' series programme “The Germans We Kept”]
Bert Trautmann -as he would later be known- arrived at Camp 50 (Garswood Park, Ashton-in-Makerfield) from Camp 180 (Marbury Hall, Northwich) in June 1945, recruited to work as a driver for the commandant and his British subordinates and civilian support staff. At this stage the population of Camp 50 was still overwhelmingly Italian, and POW Trautmann occupied a kind of no-man's land, eating with the Italian POWs but sleeping in the British compound close to the main entrance on Warrington Rd. In many other respects he was typical of the young German POWs who began to arrive at Camp 50 from July/August 1945, housed initially in two discreet compounds or "hostels" within Garswood Park to the west of the main camp and at two similar facilities in Golborne Park. Enticed by the prospect of summer camping expeditions and participation in national soccer and athletics tournaments, he had been a willing recruit to the junior branch of the Hitler Youth (“Pimpfe”), leaving school and joining the Hitler Youth proper in 1936. On the outbreak of war he volunteered for the Luftwaffe, serving on the eastern front first as part of a ground-based communications unit but then as a paratrooper (“fallschirmjäger”). In 1941, still a few months short of his 18th birthday, he had witnessed the shooting of unarmed civilians -including children- by the notorious Einsatzgruppen, operating under cover of darkness in the Ukrainian forests. In May 1944, with the failure of Hitler's Operation Barbarossa in the east and an Allied invasion of western Europe looking increasingly likely, his unit was redeployed to France. Here he faced the Allied forces in Normandy and the Pas de Calais, afterwards joining the German retreat and taking part in the Battle of the Bulge before his capture near the German-Dutch border on 24 March 1945. His journey to Ashton-in-Makerfield was via POW camps at Weeze-on-Rhine and St Forte (Belgium), Kempton Park and Marbury Hall.
The British authorities had begun a programme of screening and re-education of German POWs in 1940, but in September 1944 the War Cabinet put this on a more formal footing and entrusted its delivery to the Foreign Office's Political Intelligence Department (PID). As later recalled by Executive Field Officer Henry Faulk, the objectives were “to eradicate from the minds of the prisoners belief in the German military tradition and the National Socialist ideology...; to impart to the prisoners an accurate understanding and a just appreciation of the principles of democratic government... [and] to remove German misconceptions about European history of the last 50 years and especially about the origin, conduct and results of the two world wars”.* To determine how receptive they might be to the programme, and to monitor its effectiveness, the POWs were periodically screened and graded as either-
A (White): actively anti-Nazi and anti-militarist;
B (Grey): no strong political convictions, possibly of lower intelligence but nevertheless amenable to instruction; or
C (Black): those who still adhered to Nazi and/or militarist ideology and values.
The results of the re-education programme were mixed. Several factors militated against it. Many German POWs had learned to distrust authority figures, and consequently viewed the entire process with suspicion. Whilst some of the lecturers and screeners engaged by PID were well-received, a significant number were German émigrés who had left before the Nazi era and therefore had little understanding of what life under Hitler had been like for ordinary Germans. Thirdly, the prospect of indefinite detention in a foreign country notwithstanding the German surrender in May 1945 bred a general resentment which even the most dedicated and sympathetic screeners and lecturers found difficult to overcome.** POW Trautmann was not alone in showing almost total disinterest in the official re-education and screening sessions – an attitude which may explain why, as late as August 1947, there were still 1,530 prisoners at Camp 50 graded B or B-.
Ultimately, the best method of re-education proved to be exposure to the local civilian population. In the report of its final inspection of Camp 50 in March 1948, PID was forced to concede that
“Organised re-educational activities in this camp have impressed but few. Lectures become more and more unpopular... Since the beginning of 1947 [when restrictions on fraternisation between POWs and British civilians within a five-mile radius of Camp 50 were lifted], re-education has passed into the hands of the population of Lancashire, whose friendliness has proved a great help. The ordinary workmen [of the district are] responsible for the fact that the majority of the PsW in this camp is pro-British”.
Other PID inspection reports at National Archives ref. FO 939/132 (“Prisoner of War Camps: 50 Working Camp, Garswood Park, Ashton in Makerfield, Lancashire”) and copies of the Camp 50 newspaper etc at ref. FO 939/300 (“Reports on Camp Lectures...”) shed further light on conditions in the Camp.
*H Faulk, “Group Captives: The Re-education of German Prisoners of War in Britain, 1945-1948” (Chatto & Windus, 1977).
**This was particularly the case with POWs recently transferred by ship from camps in the USA who, prior to docking at Liverpool, had naturally assumed they were being taken back to Germany. The Bishop of Sheffield suggested to members of the House of Lords that it was “a little simple to expect that by keeping them behind barbed wire, giving them no hope of release for an indefinite period of time, they will be susceptible to re-education and will presently become docile little democrats” (Lords Official Report, 11.7.1946, col 382).
Today's "Saturday Flashback" rewinds to the summer of 1972 and my first ever visit to America. I had hair.
(Scanned from an old 35mm slide)
Another lost pub! Five Bells, 85 South Street, Bridport, is one of thousands of English pubs to have closed over the decades, a trend that has accelerated recently. Five have closed in Bridport this century.
It probably opened in 1852 but it is not known when it actually called "last orders". Apparently the area in and immediately around Bridport had a maximum of c80 licenced public houses of which about 20 remain today. This tile panel is all that remains of the Five Bells which is now a private house.
Courtesy of The National Park Service, this photo shows the steamboat Charles H. Spencer tied up at Lee's Ferry, Arizona, on the Colorado River. The backdrop shows the cliff walls of the river canyon. The photo was taken just over 100 years ago.
According to Wiki, the parts of the vessel were manufactured in San Francisco, shipped by rail to Marysvale, Utah, and then conveyed by ox-cart to the mouth of Warm Creek, where the boat was assembled during 1912. Once complete, the boat carried 5-6 tons of coal 21 miles downriver from Warm Creek on each trip, the fuel being used to power gold-refining machinery. However, its operations lasted a mere 2 years as little gold was found. The Charles H. Spencer was moored on site but sank less than ten years into her life during a flood in 1921.
Not an old photo for today's "Saturday Flashback". However, this same scene could have been taken many years, decades, even centuries ago.
This week's Saturday Flashback is a rather intriguing photo taken during World War 2 by the father of a friend.
It shows General Patton leaving a mansion for his transport. When I first saw it, I thought "that is Tatton Hall!" in Cheshire. Before the D-Day invasion Patton spent some time in the area where his Third Army were training. He stayed at Peover Hall, about 5 miles from Tatton. Indeed Eisenhower visited him there to plan the invasion.....and have lunch at the adjacent Bells Of Peover pub! However, having looked again at photos I don't think it is Tatton Hall in the photo, nor indeed Peover Hall.
The conundrum is that my friend thinks the photo was taken in Germany and that may well be the case. However, for all the world, that building looks like a Cheshire stately home. So, do any Cheshire locals recognise it?????
Born Jessie Margaret Matthews to a huge, poor family in Soho in London's West End. Jessie became a big stage star in the late 1920s and 1930s, enjoying some cross over success in musical films. Her career never quite relaunched after the war though, but she staged a comeback replacing the lead actress in radio soap "Mrs Dale's Diary" in 1963 until it's closure in 1969. Her life was blighted by breakdowns of relationships and her own struggles against ill-health and insecurity, and ended, amazingly, buried in an unmarked grave (only rectified after a TV documentary in the late 80s brought this to light - beg, steal or borrow a copy of the BBC's Timewatch documentary "Catch A Fallen Star"). An amazing life.
Huw Edwards presenting a BBC 'Timewatch' at Caernarfon Castle on the 40th anniversary of the Prince of Wales' Investiture (2009).
It isn't my original photograph of course, but I was fascinated by this old image (exact date unknown) of Alkmaar's cheese market. The earliest known date for a cheese weighing house in Alkmaar is 1365. Obviously this is from a much more recent time. In the photo, cheese is being delivered from local farms for a certain amount of quality control, bargaining, weighing and onward sale. Such events live on during the summer season as tourist attractions. However, the commercial reality is that consolidation and buy-outs mean that there are just two enormous industrial cheese companies left in Holland, Beemster and Campina.
The square is certainly recognisable today, although it is now surrounded by cafes and restaurants. Also, you now see a vastly different populace from all cultures and ethnic groups, not to mention as many women as men!
This week, Saturday's Flashback features a classic old tea room, known in 1955 as "Bosherton Tea Gardens", near Pembroke in Wales. Although the name has sadly changed to "Ye Olde Worlde Cafe" the photo below shows that it looks much the same in 2012. The business is still owned by the same family. Wall's Ice Cream remains for sale and even now you still ring the door bell for service! If their Egg On Toast, Welsh Cakes and Pot of Tea are anything to go by, I'm not surprised this fine old tea room is still open and thriving.
I found this posting on the internet :
"I am the lady at the door with my husband Don Weston. The date is about 1959 because that is the year we had electricity in the village and started to sell ice cream. Hence the Walls sign. My parents Mr and Mrs Caesar Evans started the tearooms here in 1922 and after my mother died in 1952 my husband and I ran this little business together very happily for fifty two years until his sudden death three years ago. But I have managed to keep the business going with the help of many good friends. I am now nearly eighty five and affectionately known by many customers as Auntie Vi."
This week's "Saturday Flashback" goes back to a classic age of Dutch architecture. These two buildings face Hoorn harbour and were built in 1616 and 1618. The wonkly verticals can clearly be seen. From what information I could find, the stone panel showing a ship indicates much trade from here involved carrying grain from Poland and Baltic countries, through the Strait of Gibraltar to the countries around the Eastern Mediterranean. Apparently there was a massive shortage there during this time in history. Often salt was transported on the reverse journey.
The building below is the Carpenter's House and Workshop in Leiden, built just a few years earlier in 1612.
Paddle Steamer Waverley is the last ocean-going paddle-steamer in the world. On this occasion, although the wheels were turning and she was ready to set sail, she never left harbour due to a mechanical breakdown.
Nevertheless, you can see below that a week later everything went according to plan.
There is much more information here
This week's Saturday Flashback features yet another fascinating old photo that I came across. Taken over a century ago, it shows fishermen with their catch of two humungous salmon. I had no idea salmon could grow that big! Apparently the word "tyee" comes from the coastal Indian language and means “The Chief” or “Great Leader.” The term is used to describe Chinook or Spring salmon that weigh 30 lbs. or more.
You can see loads more "Saturday Flashbacks" here www.flickr.com/photos/99303089@N00/sets/72157628862484523/
This Friday (February 9) on BBC2 at 9 o'clock, you will be able to see me, briefly, begowned and bewigged, discussing weighty matters in the old Parliament hall in a documentary about duelling.
My friend, who works for the company that produced the film, says that it's the best thing they've done. That means, hopefully, it'll be worth watching even if, in a moment of foolish distraction, you miss the split second during which I make my appearance.
Here's the Radio Times review:
The Last Duel - Timewatch
9:00pm - 9:50pm
BBC2 London & South East
It's curious to think that a bank manager's letter about a loan could result in a duel, but that's precisely what happened in Kirkcaldy, Fife, nearly 200 years ago. The pistol duel between respectable linen merchant David Landale and Bank of Scotland agent George Morgan was famously the last one to be held in Scotland. The subject's perhaps a bit esoteric, even for a history series, but as the story unfolds, led by BBC News 24's chief political correspondent James Landale, who's also the descendant of one of the duellists, and the minutiae of duel etiquette is explained, it becomes quite engrossing. That there was a hefty book called The Code to Duels, detailing how to go about blasting your opponent to kingdom come in a proper and honourable way, seems extraordinary. And possibly quite useful to consult, should you ever be refused an overdraft.
The documentary is based on The Last Duel, by James Landale.
Ordnance Survey Revised 1938, published 1947.
Upwey Wishing Well Halt is towards the top right. The wishing well is towards the top left.
Huw Edwards presenting a BBC 'Timewatch' at Caernarfon Castle on the 40th anniversary of the Prince of Wales' Investiture (2009).
1.- ♥ _Operación Gladio 1 - Los Jefes De Los Anillos_♥ Con subtítulos en español. Producción original de la BBC sobre esta estructura criminal nazi de la OTAN
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2.- ♥ _Timewatch, Operación Gladio: Segunda Parte_♥ Con subtítulos en español.
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3.- ♥ _Timewatch, Operación Gladio: Tercera Parte_♥ Con subtítulos en español.
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Producciones de periodismo de investigación que contradice todas las actividades de propaganda vertidas en todos los medios de comunicación desde 1947 hasta nuestros días por los servicios de inteligencia de la alianza militar de la OTAN que ha infiltrado TODAS las instituciones judiciales, estatales de comunicación y de funcionamiento estatal con la organización político militar nazi World Anticommunist League, WACL. Organización terrorista militar nazi controlada por el último Secretario General conocido John K.- Singlaub, CIA operativo y Críminal de Guerra aún con vida jamás INVESTIGADO residente en Colorado, Estados Unidos de América.
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Video documental relacionado a CRIMENES DE GUERRA SIN AJUSTICIAR. Crímenes de guerra de la alianza militar de la OTAN con sus esbirros nazis en guerra.
VIDEO: LO QUE NO SABÍAS DE LA GUERRA SIONISTA...CLICK ON...CLICK ON
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK12q9Nvci4
CLICK ON...CLICK ON....
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Este es el verdadero TERRORISMO!!. Este es el terrorismo de la OTAN nazificadora de las relaciones mundiales
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Tal como fuere practicado por las Tropas de las calaveras de Adolf Hitler son hoy las tropas militares nazificadas de Noruega, Reino Unido, Estados Unidos de América aplaudidas por la socialdemocracia internacional las que nazifican las relaciones sociales mundiales.
Colectividad política transnacional CRIMINAL y nazificadora de las relaciones sociales humanas. Organización política colaboradora de los Proyectos Nazis Internacionales del Pentágono MK ULTRA, MK NAOMI, MK SEARCH, MK DELTA y organización que ha dedicado TODOS SUS ESFUERZOS EN ESCAPAR DE LA JUSTICIA ORDINARIA.
La socialdemocracia está conformada por falsificadores profesionales que utilizan el sistema de Naciones Unidas en función de actividad de corrupción y prestigios privados y personales. Toda la política de la socialdemocracia internacional está conformada por actividad planificada militar de IMPUNIDAD.
La socialdemocracia internacional se mofa de Naciones Unidas y se rie del sistema de justicia mundial a gritos.
Organización y colectividad política comprometida en actividades de planificación de genocidios humanos, colaborado de las actividades nazis de la OTAN, organización colaboradora de los Proyectos de destrrucción humanas y que controla el cartel del petróleo.
(This is the first of an occasional series of flashback photos. I apologise in advance for the inevitable poor quality. These ones are actually 'new' photographs of old prints. Others will be scanned from rather faded 35mm slides)
I have no idea what the official name of the 'sport' is but to me it is "Cow Tipping". This series was taken during Feria de Caballo (Horse Fair) at Jerez de la Frontera, Spain in May 2004. Most events take place in town. However whilst driving through the nearby countryside, I stumbled on this unpublicised event and was sufficiently intrigued to stop and see what was going on. At first I feared it might be some sort of bull-fighting, something I abhor. It was not. As far as I could see no cruelty was involved to either horse or cow. The 'sport' seemed rather like sheep-dog trials, in that it was basically a 'sporting' demonstration of a traditional way of catching cows on the range.
The main photo is from the parade before the event started for real. The photographs below illustrate what then went on.
Best viewed large:
The Arch of Septimius Severus (Arcus Septimii Severi) is a triumphal arch, erected in 203 AD to celebrate the victories of emperor Septimius Severus and his sons Caracalla and Geta in the wars against the Parthians and the Osroeni in 195 AD and 197 AD. It is located in the Forum Romanum between the Curia and the Rostra. It spans the Via Sacra on the route of the triumphal processions just before the ascent of the Capitoline Hill towards the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.
For more information on the monument see here
I have provided a translation for the formal inscription on the face of the monument.
See site map here
For those Yorkshire folk obsessed with the emperor Constantine's links with the city of York. This emperor, Septimius Severus, campaigned from York for over two years, adopted the title "Britanicus" to commemorate his victories here and finally died in York in 211 AD and was succeeded by his two sons Caracalla and Geta; the latter was soon murdered by the former and the bodies of at least 30 of Geta's supporters have recently been found, beheaded, in graves on the Mount in the city.
For more information from the BBC see here