The Saturday briefing
IS THERE anything you are desperately yearning to know? Are there any pressing factual disputes you would like us to help resolve? This is the page where we shall do our best to answer any questions you throw at us, whatever the subject.
HAS any guest on Desert Island Discs chosen the programme’s theme tune to take as one of their eight discs?
AROY Plomley, the creator of Desert Island Discs, had originally wanted the sounds of surf breaking on the shore and the cries of sea birds to open and close each programme but was persuaded to use music instead.
It was his producer, Frederic Piffard, who selected By The Sleepy Lagoon by British composer Eric Coates, which seemed to capture the castaway sound Plomley was after.
In fact Coates, who himself appeared as a guest on the programme in 1951, had been inspired to write the music in 1930, not by a tropical lagoon but by the view across East Beach, Selsey, to distant Bognor Regis. Lyrics were added in 1940 to make it a popular song of the time.
The music has been used from the first transmission on January 29, 1942, with bird sounds played over it to satisfy Roy Plomley’s original idea.
In 1964, the herring gulls which accompany the music were replaced after listeners pointed out that they were indigenous to the Northern hemisphere and would not be found in the skies above a tropical island.
However that provoked more complaints and the herring gulls returned.
In answer to your question, though, listeners did not have to wait long for the first guest to choose By The Sleepy Lagoon. Theatre critic James Agate did so in only the second episode, on
February 5, 1942.
TP Roberts, Macclesfield, Cheshire CASTAWAY: Roy Plomley, the creator of Desert Island discs, had originally wanted a different theme tune
I RECENTLY read a book called The English Godfather about a man named Owney Madden (known as The Killer) during his life in America. He was, at one time, top of the FBI’s most wanted list because of his criminal activity yet I have heard nothing about him in any films or documentaries. Can you enlighten me?
HE news announced this morning that Santa Claus has postponed Christmas until January 7 has been greeted with shock throughout the world. With only two days to go before the scheduled delivery of presents, Mr Claus has laid off his troop of helper elves, suspended the sleigh-loading and informed air traffic control that they will not be bothered by flying reindeer.
“It is with deep regret,” he said, “that we have had to leave it so late before announcing the change but circumstances have forced it upon us. The new CrossGift services, which were to replace the outdated flying reindeer, are not ready for implementation.
“Resignations by several lead reindeer,
ABrian Murray, by email
OWEN Madden’s nickname was well-earned. Born in Leeds in 1891, the son of a petty thief, he sailed to America with his brother and sister when he was 11, to join their mother.
He soon fell in with the Gopher Gang in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen and became known as a vicious fighter. When he killed an Italian gang
member in the street he shouted out: “I’m Owney Madden, 10th Avenue.” No witnesses came forward.
By the age of 18 he was already a suspect in the deaths of five rival gang members and earning up to $200 a day from criminal activities. He attracted a string of girlfriends and so violently jealous was he that when a store clerk called William Henshaw asked one of the girls out, Madden shot him.
Henshaw identified his attacker before he died but, once again, no witnesses could be found to corroborate the evidence and the case was dropped. Another row over a woman led Madden to kill rival Little Patsy Doyle in 1914. The two women he used to lure Doyle into a trap confessed their part and Madden was sentenced to 20 years in New York’s notorious Sing Sing prison.
On his release, after nine years, Madden began acquiring the flashiest speakeasy drinking dens, including the famous Cotton Club, and became a significant player in New York, with his string of nightclubs, his violence against including Rudolf, the only reindeer equipped to fly safely through fog, and disputes among the elves have left us with no choice but to delay the present-giving.
“I can, however, promise the children of the world that we shall not enter a No Presents scenario but will deliver gifts on January 7 instead of the night of December 24.”
Critics of Mr Claus, including many reindeer and elves themselves, are demanding his resignation. “If you recall,” a leading elf said, “the current crisis began with the so-called Checkers agreement which Santa by
rivals and his bribery of officials.
At the end of prohibition he got into boxing promotion, arranging fixed fights. After being involved in another murder in 1932 and under increasing pressure from the police and the Italian mafia, he left New York City.
He settled in Arkansas where he was involved in the illegal gambling trade and died in 1965.
QIS the actor Mark Harmon, who plays special agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the series NCIS, related to a footballer who played in the NFL?
J Rhodes, Leeds
AINDEED he is. Mark Harmon’s mother Elyse Knox was a Hollywood actress and his father Tom Harmon was a trophy-winning college footballer before the Second World War.
When America entered the war, Harmon became a military pilot and later played two seasons of pro-football for the Los Angeles Rams before becoming a sports broadcaster. Son Mark was also a trophy-winning college football star before becoming an actor. proposed to resolve sleigh-loading disputes. His suggestion that every child on Earth should receive a set of checkers, or draughts, was ridiculous. It might have introduced uniformity into sleigh-loading but would have caused huge misery to kids worldwide.” Talking to us after the announcement, Santa said, “I really don’t see what all the fuss is about. In 1752, we voted to switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar which resulted in the loss of 11 days.
“Since then, we have lost two more, as 1800 and 1900 would have been leap years under the Faster than fairies, faster than witches, Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle,
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain; And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by. Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And there is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart run away in the road Lumping along with man and load; And here is a mill and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone for ever!
Do you have a half-remembered poem from your childhood you would like to see again? Just send us details of what you can remember and we shall bring as many as possible to our Forgotten Verse Corner.
Is there anything you can’t answer?
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By email:
● put “questions” in the subject line and send your question to william.hartston@express.co.uk
● to Any Questions, c/o Dominic Midgley, Daily Express, Number 10 Lower Thames Street, London EC3R 6EN
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We cannot promise replies to everyone but the best will feature on this page.
Julian system but were not leap years under the Gregorian. We have given this a fair try for 266 years but now realise that the Julian was better after all. This will move the Gregorian Christmas on December 25 to a Julian Christmas 13 days later on January 7.
“Think of the advantages: you can recycle all your old Christmas cards by adding the words ‘and Beachcomber’ to the name of the sender; you can buy all your presents in the January sales and you can drag in other people’s Christmas trees and decorations from the street when they throw them out on January 6.”
Mr Claus has, however, been accused of cynicism for adding the words “Ho-ho-ho” at the end of his statement.