LOSE YOURSELF IN 1972

MINERS’ STRIKE

The first national coal strike for more than 50 years began on 9 January following a lengthy overtime ban. Because of the danger of their work, the miners wanted a pay rise of up to 35 per cent, which would have added around £9 a week to their wages – well above what Edward Heath’s struggling Conservative government or the National Coal Board wanted to pay ( just under eight per cent). With coal stocks running low, a state of emergency was called on 9 February. A three-day working week was introduced with power cuts of up to nine hours a day and more than a million workers laid off. A settlement compromise giving the miners an average 21 per cent was eventually reached and the strike was called off on 25 February.

MUM HELPS TO MAKE SOME DOUGH

An unusual group topped the singles chart for four weeks from mid-October. Lieutenant Pigeon’s Mouldy Old Dough featured mostly the repetition of the title over an otherwise old-style instrumental. Nigel Fletcher, Stephen Johnson and Rob Woodward were joined by Rob’s mum Hilda to come up with this novel hit. It was the year’s second best-selling single behind Amazing Grace by The Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.

I’M SORRY…

…I Haven’t A Clue. April 1972 saw the birth of a radio legend with the first broadcast of the BBC quiz – and we use the term very loosely here

– I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue.

Originally chaired by the late, great Humphrey Lyttelton, this ‘antidote to panel games’ continues to this day with its own special brand of silliness. Lyttelton tried to control the panellists with deadpan sincerity up until his death in 2008. Jack Dee is the current chairperson. The show’s most famous achievement has been to immortalise Mornington Crescent tube station in

London, via the game of the same name. We could explain how it works but there simply isn’t enough column space here for us to adequately clarify Trumpington’s Variations or the Tudor Court Rules…