ON THIS DAY
MAY 4, 1945 A cell is ready in the Tower of london for lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce), the radio traitor, and the guard is standing by. Joyce will pass Traitor’s Gate on his way to his cell. When he made his last broadcast, lord Haw-Haw was very drunk. His understudy, eduard Dietze, took over last night. He finished with a testimonial to Hitler — ‘the legend will never be eradicated from the hearts and minds of German youth’. MAY 4, 1962 PolleD by a magazine for their favourite female singer, the French public has named — not Piaf, not Greco, but — Petula clark.
clark, once the most insular of British songbirds, has joined the common Market. She said: ‘In some of the central regions of the country I had difficulty making myself understood by audiences.’
letters from French fans implore Petula: ‘Don’t, please, lose your english accent.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
cHrIS PAckHAM, 57. The naturalist and Springwatch host (pictured) from Southampton was diagnosed with Asperger’s in his late 40s and said: ‘I’ve spent 30 years on telly trying my best to act normal, when I am anything but.’ He says the best kiss of his life was from a giraffe in Southampton Zoo in 1966. kATe GArrAWAy, 51. The Good Morning Britain and former GMTV presenter let the world believe she was a year younger than she was for eight years after a newspaper made the error. She didn’t celebrate her 40th birthday with friends because ‘I’d trapped myself in this nonsense’. A half-eaten banana that she signed fetched £1,650 on eBay in 2004.
BORN ON THIS DAY
erIc SykeS (1923-2012). In the Fifties, the lancashire-born comic actor was the highest paid comedy writer in the country, having sold his first joke to Frankie Howerd for £10. Sykes lost his hearing in his early 30s and used his trademark thick black glasses, which had no lenses, as a hearing aid — allowing him to pick up vibrations. AuDrey HePBurn (19291993). The British actress (pictured) was the oscarwinning star of Breakfast At Tiffany’s and roman Holiday. She spent World War II in Holland — her mother was a Dutch noblewoman — using the assumed name edda van Heemstra, where she carried messages for the resistance in her ballet shoes and said she had ‘nothing to eat but turnips and tulip bulbs’.
ON MAY 4…
IN 1953, the Duke of edinburgh was given his pilot’s wings at Buckingham Palace, a month before the Queen’s coronation. IN 1959, Frank Sinatra and ella Fitzgerald were among the first Grammy winners.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Kiddleywink (1830) A) An unlicensed public house. B) In Morris dancing, the man playing the fiddle. c) A free tiddly- wink that lands on another wink Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED Blind alley: A cul de sac. It is blind because it has no ‘eye’, or passage, through it.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
CourAge is when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and see it through. Harper Lee, U.S. writer (1926-2016)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT starts with e, ends with e, and has only one letter in it? An envelope. guess The Definition answer: A. Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD