Maggie, top of the flops
QUESTION Was Margaret Thatcher once on a pop music panel in a children’s game show? Saturday Superstore was the 1982 replacement for Noel Edmonds’ Swap Shop. Compered by radio 1 dJ Mike read, it featured the presenting talents of Keith Chegwin, Sarah Greene and John Craven.
In the run-up to the 1987 General Election the show managed to get the leaders of the main three parties, Margaret thatcher, Neil Kinnock and david Steel, to appear on the show. Prime Minister Margaret thatcher appeared on January 10, 1987.
In the Q&a section with John Craven, a caller named alison Standfast famously asked her: ‘In the event of a nuclear war, where will you be?’
‘Well,’ thatcher hesitantly ventured, ‘I shall be in London.’
Stedfast continued: ‘Will you have your own bunker or something?’ the PM chose to deflect the question and instead highlight the merits of a nuclear deterrent. Mrs thatcher then took part in the music panel segment alongside Gordon Kaye in his rene artois persona from ’allo ’allo.
She watched the video of Heartache by Pepsi and Shirlie and said it ‘didn’t sound like heartache at all . . . it was thump thump thump’. When asked if she would dance to it she said ‘no . . . because it lacked melody’.
She liked the song Beautiful Imbalance by Indie band thrashing doves, which proved the death knell for its credibility. It reached only No 50 in the charts while Pepsi and Shirlie’s song went to No 2.
When asked by read how she had enjoyed the show, she said ‘I loved it’, cheekily adding: ‘Can I come again after the next election.’
James Blake, Richmond, Surrey. QUESTION How many species of shark can be found in British waters? at LEaSt 21 species of shark are resident inhabitants and commonly found around the coasts of Britain all year round. these are: the Greenland Shark ( Somniosus microcephalus), the Great Lanternshark ( Etmopterus spinax), the Kitefin Shark ( Dalatias licha), the Bramble shark ( Echinorhinus brucus), the Bluntnose Sixgill Shark ( Hexanchus griseus), the Sharp- nosed Seven- gilled Shark ( Heptranchias perlo), the Frilled shark ( Chlamydoselachus anguineus), the Spiny dogfish ( Squalus acanthias), the Smooth Hammerhead Shark ( Sphyrna zygaena), the Smooth Hound ( Mustelus mustelus), the Starry Smoothhound ( Mustelus asterias), the tope ( Galeorhinus galeus), the Blackmouth Catshark ( Galeus melastomus), the Nursehound ( Scyliorhinus stellaris), the thresher shark ( Alopius vulpinus) and the Porbeagle Shark ( Lamna nasus). Other sharks in our waters are: Blue Shark ( Prionace glauca) — beautiful sleek animals known as one of the ocean’s quickest predators, they have killed four people worldwide in the past five years. they can grow up to 12ft long and are known as the ‘wolves of the sea’ because they gather in packs. there have been only two unprovoked shark attacks around England since 1847, neither of which proved fatal.
the Lesser Spotted dogfish ( Scyliorhinus canicula) — the egg case of this small shark is known as a Mermaid’s Purse.
the angelfish ( Squatina squatina) better known to gourmands as the monkfish.
the Shortfin Mako Shark ( Isurus oxyrinchus) — with its perfect hydrodynamic shape, this shark is the fastest of all. One was once clocked at 43mph!
the Basking Shark ( Cetorhinus maximus), by far the largest visitor to these shores, are often up to 30ft long. they pose no threat as they are passive filter feeders, swimming with their mouths open and straining the water through the pharynx for plankton.
up to 15 further sharks are found in the deep waters off the British continental shelf, including various dogfish and gulper sharks living at depths of more than 1,500 ft. For more information, sharktrust. org is an excellent resource.
Ian Lavender, St Andrews, Fife. QUESTION Who coined the term ‘muzak’? IN 1922, u.S. army Signal Corps officer and inventor Major General George Owen Squier, of Washington, dC, created ‘wired radio’, a service that piped music to businesses and subscribers over wires. at that time, radio required fussy and expensive equipment. Squier sold the rights to his patents to a utility conglomerate which created a company named Wired radio Inc. It aimed to deliver music subscriptions to private customers of the utility company’s power service.
Squier remained involved in the Wired radio project. Intrigued by the use of the neologism ‘Kodak’ as a trademark, he took the ‘mus’ syllable from ‘music’ and added the ‘ak’ from ‘Kodak’ to create the name.
By the time a workable Muzak system was fully developed, commercial radio had become well established, so the company re-focused its efforts on delivering music to hotels and restaurants.
the first delivery of Muzak to commercial customers took place in New york City in 1936, two years after Squier’s death.
Muzak didn’t have access to the huge libraries of licensed music that radio stations can pick from today, so the company brought in top bands and orchestras to record original selections and standards that could be piped into businesses.
the company received a major boost during World War II when researchers discovered that Muzak could make workers happier and more productive.
Dennis Willey, St Ives, Cornwall. QUESTION A Daily Mail from 1929 had an advert for Army Club cigarettes that featured a series of cards with ‘an ever changing series of fascinating travel scenes from every corner of the globe’. To view them you had to look through a device called a Camera-scope. Does anyone still own one? FurtHEr to the earlier answer, the military character, known as the Major, featured on the front of the cigarette pack was based on George rolling — my grandfather.
He was in a pub in East London during World War I when he was approached by a commercial artist who was looking for someone of military appearance to promote Cavander’s army Club cigarettes, and the artist sketched him there and then.
George was born in East rudham, Norfolk, in 1866 and moved to East London about 1895. He died in Leytonstone in 1939. despite being depicted as the classic British major, he was never in the army, but had a long career in the drapery trade.
Peter Rolling, Tunbridge Wells, Kent.