First resort for comedians
QUESTION Have any Butlin’s Redcoats gone on to find fame?
WHEN Billy Butlin opened his first Butlin’s in Skegness in 1936, he was dismayed to find that families weren’t mixing.
He asked Norman Bradford, the camp’s chief engineer, to liven things up. He did this with a series of jokes, games and entertainment. Soon after, Billy chose a red blazer to distinguish his entertainers. The colour was inspired by the Mounties he’d seen during his childhood in Canada.
A host of famous names have cut their teeth as Butlin’s Redcoats. The Irish comedian Dave Allen was a Redcoat at Skegness, Johnny Ball worked at Pwllheli and comedians Roy Hudd and James Mulgrew, ‘aka’ Jimmy Cricket, were Redcoats at Clactonon-Sea. Des O’Connor was a Redcoat at Filey in North Yorkshire, as were comedians Charlie Drake and Rod Hull of Emu fame. Liverpool comic Jimmy Tarbuck was a Redcoat at Butlin’s Ocean Hotel, Brighton. Scottish presenter Isla St Clair was a Redcoat at Butlin’s, Ayr, where she sang with TV astrologer Russell Grant.
More recently, Ian ‘H’ Watkins of Steps was a Redcoat on Barry Island, and TV magician and Dancing On Ice presenter Stephen Mulhern worked at Minehead.
Jimmy Perry and David Croft, the team behind Dad’s Army, worked at Filey. In 1980, they launched Hi-de-Hi!, set in the fictional town of Crimpton-onSea, in a camp called Maplins, where the entertainers were Yellowcoats. Natalie Evans, Cheltenham,
Gloucestershire.
QUESTION How did the word gross come to signify disgust?
GROSS in its earliest definition dates back to at least the 1380s. In that era, it meant: ‘Of conspicuous magnitude; palpable, striking; plain, evident, obvious, easy to apprehend or understand.’ The word came from the French gros(se) meaning ‘big, thick, coarse’, itself from the Latin word grossus meaning ‘thick’. From this sense we get the number 144, a gross, and the idea of gross domestic product.
It later picked up negative connotations like ‘vulgar’, and ‘crude’; a 16th-century tract described ‘Grose folke of rude affection Dronkerdes. Lubbers, knaues’, or ‘ignorant’ as in ‘a grosse unlettered people’ (1833). There is no great shift from this to the teenager’s phrase ‘That’s gross!’ – a common usage from the 1960s.
M. L. Lewis, Ludlow, Shropshire.
QUESTION What are the most famous riddles in literature?
Perhaps the most well-known riddle comes from the Mad Hatter’s tea party in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The Mad Hatter asks Alice: ‘Why is a Raven like a Writing Desk?’ Alice eventually asks: ‘What’s the answer?’ The Hatter replies ‘Haven’t the slightest idea!’
Carroll felt obliged years later to give the solution: ‘Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front!’ Early issues of the revision spell ‘never’ as ‘nevar’, i.e. ‘raven’ backward.
Other answers include, ‘It lies in the quill: both may be penned, but they can never truly be captive’, or ‘Because outstanding bills are found on both of them.’
Oliver Rice, Coventry.
QUESTION Would it be possible to make an entire album of songs inspired by motorbike crashes?
FURTHER to the answer that featured classic songs such as Leader Of The Pack and Bat Out Of Hell, I would like to mention a couple of others.
Elton John named his lovely instrumental Song For Guy in tribute to a 17-year-old courier biker who died while taking some tapes across London.
The other was a comic song by Tony Robinson and Julia Hills from the 1990s comedy show Who Dares Wins. This was a spoof on the Shangri-Las’ song called The Electric Leader Of The Pack. Danny Darcy, Aldbourne, Wiltshire.
QUESTION What’s the most ridiculous or funny school nickname you’ve come across?
FURTHER to earlier answers, when my elder brother and I worked as post office telegram boys, because we lived on Mooey Island (Canvey Island) he was known as Big Mooey and I was Little Mooey. Years later my wife and I were walking through Ilfracombe when ‘Little Mooey’ was shouted very loudly by two old post office mates.
Derek Reeve, Benfleet, Essex.
QUESTION The song White Christmas has no middle eight and no chorus. What other hit songs have lacked both?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, may I add Vincent by Don McLean, Virginia Plain by Roxy Music and Help! by The Beatles as songs without a middle eight.
In fact, several Beatles’ songs don’t have a middle eight, having verse and chorus only, including She Loves You, Can’t Buy Me Love, Paperback Writer, Yellow Submarine, All You Need Is Love, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields Forever, Hello Goodbye, Get Back, and Let It Be. John Whapshott, Westbury,
Wiltshire.
Is there a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Irish Daily Mail, DMG Media, Two Haddington Buildings, 20-38 Haddington Road, Dublin 4, D04 HE94. You can also fax them to 0044 1952 510906 or you can email them to charles. legge@dailymail.ie. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.