So I bet you have heard the sad news about Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh who has sadly passed away.
He has been the Queens husband since over 60 years or so, and they have been a unit. So Who can A Prince of the Throne, Prince Philip, How his rein can inspire us all? Find good relationships, that are solid and you are on the same page. I have been in a unhappy relatiionship, and it was obvious as i had gone back into my shell, my life as i once knew it, had been swept beneath my feet, and was a shy unconfident girl again.
There are people who will bring the best out of you and those who don’t. It can often feel like a never ending battle ground, and constantly having to fight your case all of the time.
I am sure that the Queen and Philip had wanted a different life sometimes being in the public eye and wanting more privacy, but they never let the side down. I know there was a dispute when Lady Diana died, but we saw what happened there in the end. The tabloids can twist and turn people’s mind, and even me who loved the Royal Family and for a bit I too went against them to. This is another lesson to learn, is never listen to Gossip as often it is false news and the press being spiteful again,
This is a Sponsored post, by the Metro and please see their article about the Queen and Prince Philip:
Being a royal, it can be lonely at times, and the Queen would have never chosen any man to spend her life with, and many thought even me that he had in his younger days of being a Prince Strayed, but knowing the truth looking back on this thought, no. The Queen would not have stood by him or the other way round if that had been the case.
The other thing we can be inspired by Prince Philip is the Duke of Edinburgh Award which many kids at my Secondary school did and I look back, in that I wished I had been part of that. It was set up for young people to survive the outdoors and doing many independent skills and loads of the kids when I was at school who did this, would share their trips away and doing this award, and they would be full of adventure and funny stories.
We should be doing all we can to help young people in becoming independent warriors of the world. I write these blogs to help young people aswell as adults to build their lives up when like me being an estate kid, was destined to being a cleaner, which I have done or doing a 9 to 5 job, which again I have done, but knew I was destined for something else.
That is another thing I take from the Royal Family and someone like The Duke of Edinburgh and listen to your gut instinct and never allow haters to take away a great thing in your life and not everyone is put on this earth to work in the normal often seen,, way of living.
Many of us are destined for a different journey. So, your Royal Highness Duke of Edinburgh, I toast you with a cup of coffee as he was very much a Tea and Bourbon Biscuit kind of a guy, of your rein. Lord Live the King and The Head Prince of the Monarchy.
Hello and welcome! so it is time to write a New Inspiring stories post and because it is National Womens Month, I am talking about Women of the Monarchy in this post because I have and still am very much a Royalist and so the Royal Family I feel should be talked about, as there have been many women now of the Monarchy that even when it was a “Mans World” they took charge of the country and commonwealth, that they changed history, because they were female ambassadors looking after countries, which meant often being ruthless and being above the male community.
Queen Victoria
The first long reining Queen of England who like Elizabeth the II had a Golden Jubilee and was Queen for over 60 years and was very much the peoples Queen, as she would look after the poor aswell as the rich and was the one to be head of the British and Commonwealth Government, and she and Williams Shakespear were family which not many knew about, yet he was the Queen’s cousin, but wanted like the Royals today, be a famous writer but live like normal folk.
However it was him who helped Queen Victoria to read and write and were like brother and sister, and he was at one time one of her foot soldiers which not many people knew about and always respected his relationship with Queen Victoria and was a character he added into one of his most famous books.
Guess which one it is? I will tell you at the end. Keep reading!
She was very young when she became head of the throne and was a little fearful like I am sure we would all feel, and it did take her a while to adjust to her leading role and was very very shy. It was Albert her love, not just her Prince who helped her build her confidence as she wanted to be the first Queen to bring positivity to the world and bring the world together, and many countries did. Her and Albert were very much in love, yet it was a long winded beginning as she like many women of the monarchy guarded herself, in case she fell in the arms of the wrong person, and so it was a year or two years later that they actually became a very in love couple and he became her Prince and very much a Royal Everlasting unit, and I think this laid out what kind of woman she was.
To be the head of the Monarchy you have to be very much the authoriative to the family and the country you become head of state of, and was always cheered and never let people of Britain and other fellow countries down, and was great asset to the Head of the Monarchy, and I think from knowing the Queen as I do, that this continued onto our Queen of today, as she too is also seen like her lovely mother, The Queen Mother, the People’s Queen aswell.
The Queen Mother
So the Queen Mother was a Queen herself but it was her husband who became Head of the Monarchy, but she was the one who stood by him to help her family and the families of Britain through the 1st and 2nd World War, and it they didn’t evacuate, because the Queen’s mum saw it that, if the families who have no palaces can stay where they are, then so should she and her children.
My nan evacuated and didn’t like it so came back to London and would use their airaid shelter where they lived to protect them, and did you know they camped out sometimes the Queen mother and Who was the Kings, her husbands name? See at the end.
The Queen Mother loved people and would during the war when people needed someone like her for support would visit the damage of it and helped give those who lost their homes, shelter and food. It was devastating and I think noone would ever know what it truly was like unless you were there too.
Lady Diana
So Who am I talking about? A Lady who was very shy but had a heart of gold and was called “The Queen of Hearts” and let me tell you YES SHE WAS! Now to address one thing. She did not have a bad relationship with the Queen, Prince Phillip, Princess Anne or even Prince Charles, you know who stirred that all up? The Tabloids, because that is what they do when there isn’t much news going around so they make stories up about the Royal Family and other famous people.
So Lady Diana, was very much a local girl of London and was when she began to attract attention of possibly being a new member of the Royal Family, in what I have done and that is, being a Nusery Nurse, because she was so natural in the way she loved children and people, that it seemed to at the time fit into place.
She turned heads because she was the first lady of fashion of that era, so the 80’s and drew a lot of attention because she was seen as the New Sweetheart of the Royal Family and she was so beautiful, because of her innocence and shyness, that you couldn’t not look at her without affection.
I remember seeing her with my Nan, walking to work and for ages I used to call her “The Pretty London Lady” as I was so taken with her, that when she became a member of the Royal Family I already thought she was, and was so mesmerised that this lady was a “Real Princess”. To me she was living a true Fairytale story and remember celebrating her wedding in mine and another housing estate having street parties, and along with Lady Diana, was featured in the Fulham Chronical, and I loved her.
She was the first to help and meet people with Aids and it shook the medical world when that became the new Pandemic of the 80’s and she didn’t hesitate in wanting to be a Patroen of the Aids Charity.
Her rein did come with turbelents, and took a break when her and Prince Charles separated and the got divorced from public duty, as she did have Demons, like all of us, but she never stopped caring for others, and I think she would like many women, put her own issues on hold to help others, but I felt she needed that break, because being a member for the Royal Family often and no not because of the Queen or other members, but could be a lonely world at times.
Yet her work didn’t stop and went onto get rid of Landmines that were stemed from the wars and certain countries didn’t get rid of them and so tried to have them safetly removed as kids would play on these places innocently without knowing and were getting killed.
I am not going to talk about her death as I don’t feel comfortable about sharing this, but I was very sad and she created a legacy of love and empowerment that has carried on in her two boys, who got back the respect of the Royal Family and it is important we keep it going, for the next generations to love them too.
Princess Margarette
So she is the Queen’s younger sister and was very much the Fashion Princess like Diana, as the Queen had her own style but as she was the sister she was seen as the beauty Princess of her generation, and the Queen loved her, and I see Zara in Lady Margarette which her friends would call her, as she loved socialising and loved a tipple and yes was a smoker, but what I mean is never allowed her Royal status to being a True Londoner and would eat a cooked breakfast without hesitation, and would say the London quote “What good in nature is good in the gander”.
Many frowned on this, as it was see as “Not what a Royal would do” but she loved to be normal and never used her Royality as a barrier to be a people’s person and a socialiser. My Nan would often speak with her, when my family lived in Bolton Gardens, and she was very glamourous, and there is a video and photo of her where she has her lovely hair in like a twisted bun with an off the shoulder dress and was like “The Royal Elizabeth Taylor”.
Now again I am not going to talk about her death to be respectful to her older sister the Queen, but they idolised one another and when the Queen made with Margarette via radio, a speech to families during the second world war, it was a team effort and the Queen did get bothered by the fact that, people thought it was just her, because as she said “It was a team effort” so her sister aswell, but often they would sound a like, but Margerette and the Queen did it together, because they wanted to reach out to mainly other children, which they were, and to let them know they were thinking of them and to help the nation, Britain stay strong.
She loved the Theatre and would open many shows in the West end and see many shows debut like Les Miserable, the Phantom of the Opera and loved the Royal Variety and sometimes attended these aswell.
In my view she along with Prince Phillips became the Queens support along with their mum and made the family, with all its hurdles that arose, to be where it is today, Well respected and a new Royal Community.
So thank you so much in reading my blog and yes i will do more about the Monarchy including the Majesty the Queen, but for now thank you to mam and thank you to him who is my Uncle Bark who at the end of his shows would selute and say God Save the Queen
So as a kid growing up where we at first only had 3 channels to watch, but lucky enough to have a TV of my own which I saved my pocket money for to have one, I loved TV but we were also encouraged to read and write, to help our skills and they have been a godsend. Hence why I am now a full time writer and I love it.
If it wasn’t for TV I have no idea aswell as having a record player and a walkman, how I would have gotten through the days as a kid who hated going to school. So having CITV and CBBC, was a relief after seven hours of what was often hell, except when I was allowed to write stories, and my favourite TV time was at the weekend.
During the day on ITV it was Thames Television and on BBC 1 which was the last channel to close for the day and they would play the National Anthem, God Save The Queen.
I had no idea as I was always in bed round this time that the National Anthem ever played and I asked once if I could stay up one time just so I could listen and see it.
Way before then though it all began with Black and white films, and were silent films and the Picture Houses even before the war and would be packed full of people and there they could get the latest news and what was going on in the world. Televisions didn’t come about until the 50’s and some would have to go round to friends to watch a TV as not all households could afford them, and it was a luxury to people, like having Virtue Reality, which is starting to take over now in the modern technology world.
Silent films came over to the UK in the 1900’s and was how Laurel and Hardy made their name, as they were separate actors who did their own productions and then it was a film director who spotted them put them together and became one of the first Double Act, as one Canadian Actor/Comedian to a English born Actor/Comedian, who was one of the first to make it across the water in what was called Hollywoodland, and as they say “The Rest I History”.
Then you had the guy who sang the Dad’s Army theme tune, Bud Flanagan and he too made it across the boarder and went onto be a musician for many English, Canadian and American shows. He loved being behind the scenes like Stan Laurel and be a writer. That was the next step for many Actors and Comedians, like today with Peter Kay, Lee Mack, Kathy Burke, French and Saunders. Uncle Bark was always writing and he would take time off to sit and write through parts of the year.
Many like, Ricky Jervais actually direct and produce their own TV shows and has been a massive hit in America, and followed in the footsteps of Billy Connelly, Lee Evans, David Walliams, Matt Lucas and Peter Kay, in the fact they are a huge hit and now live over there from time to time.
In the UK we were very much about Crime, Laughter and making our own musicals and had TV shows like Top of the pops that went on until the 2000’s and I if I get to watch BBC 4 on the TV channels we have now, I will still watch it as they are repeats but was one of my favourite midweek shows. What more could you want with TV and music coming together and at 7:30pm every Thursday I would be sitting there on our settee or on the floor, and be fixated.
It was how I became so in love with music and would never miss an episode.
When it came to TV on the channels we had here in the UK, it was very much of what was the audience tastes and when films began to be in colour then more TV programmes came our way and it was very much shows, rather than dramas at first and then they became our TV loves, such as English Gangster films, and horror.
Comedians began to make tapes of shows they wrote, aswell as having a regular TV show. Cilla Black with Dusty Springfield were arch rivals according to TV producers then, as they were two of the first women artists as I like to call them, to have their own shows, and would on at the same time. I bet this was a hard choice as back then you had no video recorder or hard drive to record the other one you couldn’t watch, so what they did, they created omibuses of shows and TV programmes so you could still watch them, and BBC would often record shows on their channels so you could listen to one on the radio if you wanted to.
We were very much about slapstick comedy and America were very much about factual comedy, and both worked. It was good to have the American comedies aswell as our own and having only 3 channels at one time, it made a change to see programmes from over the boarder, and then along came the Cobbies, Dallas and Dynasty where Joan Collins was the beauty of that time, along with strong women like the lady who played Suellen.
TV did take a gradual step and did take a while to get going as radio came first, and was what many households listened to before everyone could afford a TV, but in the 60’s for UK and America, was when it came into its own, and noone wanted to go out or go to school, as little cuddly toys like his Highness Basil Brush, whom I am going to be working with soon, started to make his name, along with The Sooty show and then America it was the Muppets, and one of my favourites, Sesame Street and this was the first children’s show when a new channel was launched, Channel 4.
These were great because even now, if you grab a kids attention you’ll grab and adults and was how children’s TV started to come on American and English TV, and be a world of its own.
Then you had Bill and Ben the Flower Top men and Pinky and Perky. Children’s TV was first introduced by the BBC and is the oldest channel on UK TV, and in America they already had 5 to 6 channels and were all launched at the same time.
America though didn’t have a music show like Top Of the Pops but became a top show because they too would watch it over there and you could also listen to it via the radio still.
They thought at one point that film would be taken over, but that has never been the case it was became easier to budget when it was a TV programme rather than a film, as Films budget to make the successful had to stretch and also they would take a long time to create, and so TV was and film then formed together so both industries could still be kept alive and then, that was when Cinema took over Picture houses and they created Video tapes of shows and films and new that both would always be going.
TV was the new norm and it was great for companies to cash in to advertise products and services, and the first ever advert was Fairy Liquid and then came Bisto Gravy.
BBC needed to also make money for their TV programmes and so bought in the TV Licence, and you had to have one of these, which you still do to have even one TV in your home and if you didn’t comply with this you were fined.
Not many households had a TV in their bedrooms back then and it worked via Analogue outdoor or indoor aerial, and TV’s had an aerial attached to some of them at the back. I remember when living in Peabody, having a nightmare trying to find the best place to place the indoor aerial as it could be a nightmare to get a good picture.
If you lived in a built up area it would be a hard task to find the best reception, and TV’s would catch fire if left on all night even on standby which some TV’s had.
Then came the chat shows, and these were a highrated kind of a show, as it had many celebrities of all different genrues in one show, like in the UK Wogan, Des O’conner, Pebble mill and the most successful one Micheal Parkinson’s talk show.
Check out this link of clips from his show of Interviews:
So it is now the year 2021 and with the internet we have new things where we can watch many series of TV and film, like Netflix and Youtube and still radio.
Will TV ever end? No. I think there is space for more good TV series of shows and I do hope I get to be on there too.
Have a good week ahead and see you in the next one.
Many thanks for reading,
Carrie L.M X
P.S: If you would like to read more of these types of blogs then check out these below:
Hello and welcome! So this is a blog post I do each week and share many inspiring stories and the one thing I loved was going to a holiday camp as a kid, and what it had to offer. It was a holiday I looked forward to each year and became like my summer holiday home.
Yes it meant having to go to the stone cubicles to have a wee because there was no toilet in the caravan we stayed in, but it didn’t matter to me and was a super holiday. The Holiday camps came around the 50’s after the war, and Butlins was one of the first to be created, along with Pontins and Haven Holiday homes.
I suppose if you’ve seen Dirty Dancing that is kind of based on a Holiday Camp, where there’d be swimming pools, fancy dress competitions, evening discos and entertainment, you would have food mainly in the caravan and the one in Clacton we went to, had a Pie ‘n’ mash stall and it was full of fun and days to remember.
This is the one in Oldham, where the famous Double Act Cannon and Ball first performed and became a regular venue for up coming double acts and comedians, it was there main stage during the summer and would entertain everyone each night of the summer season, when they were first open. Now there is a massive variety and even the old bands like Buck Fizz who were my favourite band since a kid, perform at many holiday camps each summer season still.
I even did stand up in the one I worked on at Bognor Regis and would dance the night away and then work in the restaurants during the day. It was a place you could enjoy the beach but still didn’t have to go far to go to your Shelley or Caravan and dress up for the evening.
Now they are open all year round and have theme weekends during the Autumn and Winter period but back when they first opened it was from May to September and be closed for the rest of the year.
They still made so a lot of money like they do now, because everything was on your doorstep and the one thing I love is Amusements and a camp with an Ice Cream shop, and who did not like a stick of rock? That was the delicacey of the seaside and holiday camps and I would often not eat my sticks of rock and would keep it for memory sake.
I even met my love there. No not the first marriage I had, but the second man I am going to marry soon and I was four years old and he was 14. He then went onto have a career in Comedy and TV and we kept meeting when I worked in London and when I was working at Butlins.
Who remembers Hi-de-hi? I loved it, absolutely one of my favourite shows on TV and yes inspired me to work on a Holiday camp, it was a place where I knew I was destined to go and I loved it. Yes you had those who would wind you up and want to avoid, but there were still some great people there I loved. It was a great place to have experienced and I would work at another. Hopefully I will be returning to the one in Clacton but lets see how things go.
So the first Butlins was created by a guy named Billy and he wanted to create a place where people could stay in the summer and have light entertainment, comedy wrestling, Bingo and day time events too.
My Dad actually took part in a diving competition once if I remember and me and my brother were always in the fancy dress contests and we won first and second price in one and that is where my love first saw me and we met, as I was asked by the host, why I was dressed as a Belly Dancer and I said “Because I loved The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and my Grandad liked Turkish Delight”.
I remember feeling cheated in that competition because my brother decided to be in the contest the night before so my mum had some Green and Yellow tissue paper and made him a Robin Hood Costume and won first prize.
Pontins though were the first and the one in Clacton was and still is the most popular holiday camp and I am dying to return there and I hope that the stall which you could hire a funny bike from, is there, as I loved going on these during my holidays, plus I once did have family who lived there and visited them regularly.
They were all situated near the beaches and the UK Coast lines, and I loved it when I would walk out of Butlins in Bognor Regis to walk along the Seaside and Clacton and have deck chairs available. You didn’t have to pay for them back then, and you would have some put in your caravan to use too.
My dream is to have a Caravan at the one in Claction, because the love of it has not gone away. I just love it, and will be always a place to have good memories and a bloody good holiday at. They are in a nutshell special places with a handful of good fun and memories, that last a lifetime.
Many thanks for reading,
Carrie L.M X
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So each week I write an Inspiring stories post and thank you so far for your kind feedback I am so glad you are liking them. So this week it is about The Comedy with a lot of War History and still there is Clive Dunn and Ian Lavender who were stars in the sitcom who have lots of stories as most are no longer here but in spirit still, and told the story of Veterans who petrolled the streets of London and Britain whilst other folk went out to fight across the globe in World War 2 which it was set, and that is Dad’s Army.
It is a brilliant comedy with a brilliant catchy tune, “Who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler”, and the majority of the cast were in fact retired and came out of retirement to be in the show.
It showed the funny side of the war and how they would try to make friends with the enemy and was a constant pop at Germany our arch rivals and a lot of it was, off the cuff and not scripted. They never did that many takes and sometimes left the bloopers in as it made it even funnier.
My favourite one is when they have to sleep in a barn and comaflage themselves in hay, and my favourite Pike played by the wonderful Ian Lavendar is dressed up like a Gangster.
Clive Dunn who I also adored and I know someone who knew him very well as he was a local gentleman, a Londoner, and as Ian Lavendar was a teenager when it was filmed as he was the clerk in Captain Manoring’s Bank, was taken under their wing and was famous for the catchphrase of Mr Manoring “Stupid Boy” whilst Clive Dunn’s charactor catchphrase was, “Don’t Panic Mr Manoring”.
Many of it was filmed in a studio outside London and in the countryside where they could build pretend trenches and use it to look like a battlefield and had leaves over their helmets with pretend weaponry.
It first aired in 1959 and was black and white and then when they did more shows in the 80’s it was in colour and again many retired and then came back again to be in those episodes too.
You can always tell a good comedy when the whole cast show there enjoyment of being in it and you can see many are laughing along with the audience.
Now they are shown on UK Gold and they are still as funny as they were back then and would be a relief after the war as the serious side of it was that many that fought didn’t make it back home, and so it made good TV, because sometimes coming to terms with such an iconic event, it enabled the country to look back and laugh about parts of World War 2 and celebrates it in a way that no other show did.
There were many episodes made that didn’t get aired and so they have tried to remake some of the shows, and I suppose it gives others a chance to experience being in such an iconic comedy like that and was timeless. The gags were rememberable and all the cast were national treasures and will live on to be one of the best UK Sitcomes ever made on British TV, and you can’t bit the classics and the material was good because it wasn’t overly staged and was good from the start of the show to the end.
Dad’s Army you are a fine art and the writers deserve a cheers because it bought happiness to all our homes and will continue to do so. It does help me keep memories as I would watch it with my Nan and Grandad, which others have claimed too, and yes was tremendous TV.
