Ooh Betty, I was naughty!
QUESTION Did Michael Crawford perform a sketch as Lord Byron?
MICHAEL CRAWFORD is one of our finest and most versatile entertainers. he is best known for playing hapless Frank Spencer in 1970s sitcom Some Mothers Do ’ave ’em and for his show-stopping lead performance in andrew lloyd Webber’s Phantom Of The Opera.
in 1964, crawford played a fast-talking, no-nonsense motorcyclist called Byron in the satirical BBc TV series Not So Much a Programme, More a Way Of life.
Other than being an acute observer of human nature, crawford’s character bore little resemblance to lord Byron, the Romantic poet who was mad, bad and dangerous to know.
crawford got the role aged 22 while he was filming his break-out performance in Richard lester’s The Knack...and how To Get it. Ned Sherrin, who was creating a sequel to his TV satire That Was The Week That Was, cast crawford as a cool liverpudlian character.
an observer of the human condition, like holden caulfield in J.D. Salinger’s catcher in The Rye, he analysed the social scene in a five-minute slot on the Sunday night programme.
The writing was sharp and often shocking. in one monologue about waiting at traffic lights, Byron says: ‘There was a girl in the car, one of those debutantes. Y’know...she had an expression on her face as though she was thawin’ out a packet of peas between her legs.’
The character was so popular that Byron had a column in Fab magazine.
Caroline Fuller, Ludlow, Shropshire.
QUESTION Why was Birmingham Snow Hill demolished in the late 1970s and its intercity services replaced by a small local station?
The first station at Snow hill was a temporary wooden structure built in 1852, replaced by the first permanent station in 1871.
This in turn was replaced by the finest station in Birmingham. Built between 1906 and 1912, it was the epitome of GWR opulence with its grand Great Western hotel frontage, vast booking hall with a single span glazed arch roof, immaculate white salt-glazed tiles and waiting rooms with mosaic floors and oak bars.
however, it was closed in the early 1970s following the West coast modernisation plan, the Beeching cuts of 1963 and electrification.
in the 1960s, there were five main lines running south to london through Birmingham. The West coast line, london euston to Glasgow, was chosen to be electrified, with new stations at euston and Birmingham New Street.
The cost of expanding Snow hill was considered prohibitively expensive. its last train operated in 1968, a single car diesel multiple unit to Wolverhampton that i used to catch. Trains from Mid Wales/Shrewsbury were diverted in Wolverhampton. local services south to leamington and Stratford-Upon-avon terminated at Birmingham Moor Street.
lines south through the tunnel and north to handsworth and Smethwick station were removed. Part of the line from hawthorns Junction to Wolverhampton became a cycling/walking route in the West Bromwich area.
Snow hill became a temporary car park and the station building was demolished in 1977 when it became derelict.
as Birmingham expanded in the late 1970s and 1980s, the West Midlands Passenger Transport authority decided to restore cross-city rail services through Snow hill to serve office developments and take the pressure off an increasingly over-burdened New Street.
The new station opened on October 5, 1987, when it received its first train from Birmingham Moor Street via the recently refurbished tunnel.
in October 1990, the Sunday Mercury newspaper organised a charity ‘walk the line’ to the defunct handsworth and Smethwick station, where i caught a diesel train to Birmingham New Street station via Smethwick West Junction.
This was before work started to reconstruct the line north to Smethwick West Junction, which opened as the Jewellery line in September 1995. in 1999, the line to Wolverhampton was reopened as the Midland Metro tram line.
chiltern Railways operates intercity trains to london Marylebone via part of the old Western Region route from Snow hill.
Ken Ford, Sandwell, W. Mids.
QUESTION Are minors allowed to marry in most U.S. states?
YOU may marry without parental consent on reaching 18 in all states, except Nebraska, where the marriage age is 19, and Mississippi, where it is 21.
however, controversially, in every state, exceptions are possible when parents approve and a judge gives consent.
There is no minimum marriage age in ten states: california, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rhode island, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming. Other states allow children to get married at 14 or 16 with parental consent.
in the past 15 years, more than 200,000 minors have legally wed in the U.S., many marrying below the age of consent to sex in their states, including three ten-yearold girls and an 11-year-old boy.
Mary Bronwyn, London E6.
QUESTION How many bowlers have taken a wicket with their first ball in first-class cricket?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, a unique record is held by F. W. ‘Freddie’ Stocks of Nottinghamshire ccc.
in 1946, he took a wicket with the first ball he bowled in a first-class match following hitting a century on his debut in championship cricket.
Freddie’s son was a pupil at my school, henry Mellish Grammar, Bulwell, Notts, in the 1950s, which made the parents vs First Xi matches in which i took part most interesting!
Dr Tom Elliott, Kidderminster, Worcs.