ON THIS DAY
February 7, 2024
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
FEBRUARY 7, 1978
RADIO broadcasts of Commons debates were given the go-ahead by MPs last night. Attempts by some backbenchers to lay down strict conditions were rejected. The BBC will be responsible for setting up the broadcasting system, but a committee of six MPs will oversee arrangements.
FEBRUARY 7, 1998
JAMES BOND and david Jason are the two key figures in a new list of Britain’s 40 most popular TV programmes and films of all time. Jason is the star of the overall no 1 — the 1996 Christmas special of Only Fools And Horses. There are three 007 movies in the top ten.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
RAY MEARS, 60. The Surrey-born author and TV presenter, ‘the UK’s no 1 wilderness bushcraft guru’, decided that he wanted to work outdoors after doing a ‘ horrible’ office job in London where everybody smoked. He made sure his home office had no windows: ‘If I could see outside, I would never get any work done — I’d be constantly distracted by the clouds or the birds.’
GARTH BROOKS, 62. The country singersongwriter is the best-selling solo artist in U.S. history, with 157 million album sales — ahead of Elvis Presley’s 139 million. He is the only solo star to have nine albums each sell more than ten million copies. He has never had his own UK chart-topper, but Ronan Keating took his If Tomorrow never Comes to no 1 in 2002.
BORN ON THIS DAY
HATTIE JACQUES (19221980). The actress from Kent made her name playing ‘formidable hospital matrons’ in the Carry On films. Her weight was frequently the butt of the joke, but she said: ‘I hate being the size I am with all my heart and soul.’
LAURA INGALLS WILDER (1867-1957). The U.S. author wrote the Little House On The Prairie children’s books. The first in the series was not published until Wilder was 65 and her very first book — the autobiographical Pioneer Girl — was not printed until 2014.
ON FEBRUARY 7…
IN 1974, Grenada gained independence from the UK.
IN 1981, John Lennon was at UK no 1 with Woman — his third solo chart-topper, all posthumous.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS DEFINITION Ranarium (coined 1889)
A) One-way peephole in a door. B) Place where frogs are kept. C) A pantry. answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED Bish-bash-bosh: describing something done well and quickly, it originated in the 1980s and was made popular by comedian Harry Enfield in the 1990s as a catchphrase for his character ‘ Loadsamoney’. It was later contracted to ‘bosh’ and used by manual workers to mean ‘sorted’.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them. George Orwell, English novelist (1903-1950)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a policeman in bed? an undercover cop.
Guess The Definition answer: B.