Tunes put to the test
QUESTION Who wrote the TV test card music?
THE test card is a fading memory now TV is around the clock, but older generations will recall afternoons typically empty of any TV content but the test card — and the jaunty light orchestral music that accompanied it.
The BBC test card first appeared in 1947. Test Card A was a black and white design with lines and a single circle.
The most famous was Test Card F, the girl and clown, which made its debut on BBC2 in 1967. It was designed by George Hersee and featured his daughter, Carole, with a clown doll and playing noughts and crosses on a blackboard.
Many composers created test card music. One of the best was Gordon Langford, who sadly passed away last April. Langford made his name as a versatile BBC arranger in the Sixties.
His March from The Colour Suite won the Ivor Novello award for a best light music composition. He also composed Royal Daffodil and Hebridean Hoedown. Many were recorded by the Stuttgart Studio Orchestra. Another regular was the French composer and band leader Roger Roger.
Brian Fahey was best known for composing At The Sign Of The Swingin’ Cymbal, Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman’s signature tune. His test card tunes included Meet Me On The Bridge performed by The Skymasters, and Here In A Smoky Room by the Otto Keller Band.
Other memorable pieces were My Guy’s Come Back, written by Benny Goodman, Mel Powell and Ray McKinley, and performed by The Oscar Brandenburg Orchestra; Firecracker, written by Frank Chacksfield and performed by The Fernand Terby Orchestra; Capability Brown, written by Ernest Tomlinson and performed by the Stuttgart Studio Orchestra, and Fings Ain’t What They Used To Be, written by Lionel Bart and performed by The Oscar Brandenburg Orchestra.
Many were collected on albums released on the Flyback label, Test Card Classics: The Girl The Doll The Music and Big Band Width: Test Card Classics 2. Both are still available.
Carol Reeves, Droitwich, Worcs. Famous: Test Card F with Carole Hersee
QUESTION My dad Albert Baldry served on HMS Whitehall during the evacuation at Dunkirk. Does anyone know the fate of this ship? My Dad would never talk about his experience.
HMS Whitehall was a modified ‘W’ class destroyer, launched at Swan Hunter, Wallsend, on September 11, 1919.
Work on her was suspended until she was towed to HM Dockyard, Chatham, where she was completed in July 1924.
For much of the interwar period she was held in reserve, until she was commissioned as part of the 15th Destroyer Flotilla, based at Rosyth, in August 1939. For the rest of that year, she was employed on North Sea escort and patrol duties.
Late in December, she was transferred to Western Approaches Command and, until May, carried out escort duties in the South West Approaches and to Gibraltar. On May 20, 1940, she was transferred to Dover Command in support of the Dunkirk evacuation, and the Naval Staff history for the period records that she brought 3,453 men back to the UK.
Whitehall was then based at Harwich as part of a force intended to destroy any attempted German seaborne invasion.
Once the threat receded, she reverted to Western Approaches Command, being based at Liverpool as part of 8th Escort Group. For the rest of 1940 and 1941, she remained with Western Approaches Command, escorting Atlantic and troop convoys, before being transferred to the Mediterranean in February 1942.
She returned to home waters in April, and between May and August received a refit at Sheerness. Her forward boilers and funnel were removed and she was re-equipped with anti-submarine weaponry, such as Type 271 and 286P radars.
She re-joined EG8 in August 1942 and remained an Atlantic escort until November 1943, when she was allocated to Russian convoy escort duties, operating in support of four outward and five return convoys until May 3, 1944.
She was then selected for service as an escort for D-Day invasion convoys, remaining in the role until June 27, 1944, when she returned to Russian convoy duty, escorting three outward and three return convoys between August 1944 and February 1945. She was in the Atlantic between October 1944 and January 1945.
In March and April 1945, and having suffered from boiler feed problems, she operated in home waters, before being paid off in May 1945. She was subsequently towed to Barrow for breaking up, arriving there on October 27, 1945.
She was involved in the sinking of three U-boats: U306 on October 31, 1943, U314 on January 30, 1944, and U394 on September 2, 1944 — remarkable for a ship considered elderly by World War II.
Geoff Hewitt, Preston, Lancs.
QUESTION Have any production motorcycles had a reverse gear?
A REVERSE gear is unnecessary on most motorcycles as you can usually push one backwards if you need to — and it is difficult to ride a motorcycle (or bicycle) backwards. The steering geometry is designed for stability driving forward.
Some large motorcycles such as the 800lb Honda Gold Wing have an electric reverse to help back the behemoth out of a parking space. This isn’t a genuine gear and it’s limited to low speeds. It was incorporated into their design because they weigh too much to handle easily.
Russian motorcycle company Ural provides a genuine reverse gear. They have specialised in sidecar bikes since World War II. Their models incorporate a four-speed gearbox with a reverse gear.
Charles Dale, Derby.
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