LOSE YOURSELF IN 1968

DON’T TELL HIM PIKE!

Arthur Lowe was paid paid £170 2s to play Captain Mainwaring when Dad’s Army first aired on BBC television while John Le Mesurier was paid £209, 9s 6d and the 22-year-old Ian Lavender received just £51 19s. One critic complained that Dad's Army was not ‘situation or character comedy

– it’s only gag comedy, the easiest to write and the quickest wearing on the ear’ and another thought it combined ‘bland sentiment and humour rather uneasily’. Meanwhile, Le Mesurier told friends that the show was ‘going to be a complete disaster’.

RENAULT INTRODUCES THE 6

The 6 debuted at the Paris Salon to appeal to motorists who aspired to the 16 but lacked sufficient Francs. It shared the 4’s platform, asymmetrical wheelbase and dashboard-mounted gear change but the 845cc engine was more powerful. The equipment list also included such luxury as winding windows. British sales began in 1969 and one advertisement promised:

‘it doesn’t have a lot of complicated controls’. The Daily Telegraph found it ‘a sensible and civilised car’.

THE END OF STEAM HAULAGE

The Fifteen Guinea Special, head code 1T57 – marked the end of an era on Sunday, 11 August, the day before British Rail imposed a ban on all mainline steam traffic. As the name would suggest, the return ticket price was 15 guineas – £15 15s – for a journey that commenced at Liverpool Lime Street at 11:06 and travelled the Settle to Carlisle route. Some 450 travellers joined the train pulled by a LMS Class 5 locomotive 45110, which a Britannia Class 70013 Oliver Cromwell replaced at Manchester Victoria. The Fifteen Guinea Special returned to Liverpool at 19:59.