Cladding.

After well over three years, the scaffolding surrounding Parkspring Court, Erith Library and the Energie Fitness gym is finally being removed. I have heard no explanation as to why the works to replace the cladding on the exterior of the building has taken so very long - in fact it has taken longer than it took to build the structure in the first place. Residents of the block have suffered from a number of intrusions and burglaries as criminals have used the scaffolding to climb up the building and enter through the windows of flats. It beggars belief that the simple task of replacing some basic external cladding can have taken such a long time. If you have any insight into this issue, then please contact me in confidence at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

Last week I wrote that if you have an email address which includes @btinternet, @btopenworld, or @bt.com - basically any domain owned and operated by British Telecom, and you normally receive my weekly Blog update email, you may have noticed that you have not got the message for the last couple of weeks. The reason for this is that British Telecom have marked my messages as Spam. If you normally receive my emails and they suddenly seem to have stopped, this is the reason. If you have a BT account and can log a support call with them to get my emails unblocked, I would be extremely grateful. Talking of email, believe it or not, Google's ubiquitous email service, Gmail, just celebrated its 20th birthday on April 1st, 2024. Launched on a day synonymous with pranks, many users initially dismissed Gmail as an elaborate April Fools' joke by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Back in the early 2000s, email storage was precious. Leading contemporary services such as Hotmail offered a measly 30-60 megabytes, forcing users to constantly delete old messages to make room for new ones. Gmail's 1 gigabyte seemed like an impossible dream, but it was very real. Today, Gmail is the world's leading email service, boasting millions of users worldwide. CEO Sundar Pichai even took a moment to acknowledge this incredible journey on social media, jokingly referencing its surprising origins. I was one of the first 500 Gmail users in the UK - Google was among the first Internet companies to offer invite-only access to a new service. It was a brilliant bit of marketing but also had a more practical purpose. Google had struggled to launch Gmail and was still learning when it moved into public beta. Open access would have overwhelmed the system, forcing untold crashes, possibly un-delivered mail, and probably made it almost impossible to learn about what people wanted, needed, and used most often. By limiting the initial number of users, Google could fine tune their new messaging service before opening it to all and sundry. Gmail's success story is a testament to Google's commitment to innovation. By offering a free service with superior storage and search capabilities, Gmail revolutionised the way we communicate online. It was not just about sending and receiving emails anymore; Gmail allowed users to manage their inboxes more efficiently and keep a searchable archive of their digital lives. Google took a risk when it launched Gmail, and it knew it. In the original FAQ, Google had to explain why a Search company would launch an email service: - “Why is Google offering email? I thought you were a search company?" "Google's mission is to organise the world's information and make it universally useful and accessible. For many people, email contains valuable information that can be difficult to retrieve. We believe we can help with that.” It was further evidence that Google’s strategic aim was never just about search results, it was about information, yours, mine, and everyone else’s. Google wanted to organise the world’s information no matter the form, from search results, to mail, to video and images, and location. That quest never stops and not everyone is happy about it. Looking ahead, it will be interesting to see how Gmail continues to evolve in the coming years. With the ever-changing communication landscape, Gmail will need to adapt to new technologies and user needs. But one thing's for sure: Gmail's impact on the way we communicate is undeniable, and its legacy will likely continue for years to come.

This week marks the 65th anniversary of the first broadcast of a ground breaking radio comedy show that for many years held the record as the longest running comedy in the world. The record has now been surpassed, and the show is now mostly forgotten, but it deserves a closer look, as it both launched and promoted the careers of several famous comedy actors. This was radio show The Navy Lark, depicting the adventures of a hapless band of sailors in the Royal Navy aboard the frigate HMS Troutbridge, stationed at port for the first two series on a "small island off Portsmouth", and later more specifically in Portsmouth itself. Running from 1959 to 1977 across 15 series and 241 episodes, plus specials, the sitcom was first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme on 29th March 1959, with most editions repeated on the BBC Home Service. From around the middle of Series 9, it aired on the newly formed BBC Radio 2, with some episodes repeated on BBC Radio 4 in Series 12 and 13. As it celebrates its 65th anniversary, it remains one of the most enduring and long-running sitcoms on radio. The Navy Lark episodes were self-contained; there wasn't a continuous story arc across episodes, the only common thread being the crew being hopeless and more than often crashing the ship into things. This meant you could listen to them in any order. You knew the crew were inept and would mess up every week - it was just how they were going to mess up that led to the story. The comedy was almost wholly character, rather than narrative, driven, but also relied heavily on funny voices, invented words and phrases and a healthy dollop of, albeit gentle, innuendo. Much of that gentle innuendo came from the rakish charm of Leslie Phillips as Sub Lieutenant Phillips, a characterisation not far removed from his public persona. Mr Phillips had an eye for the ladies and was incredibly charming and well-spoken. As a Sub-Lieutenant he was a terrible navigator, regularly leading to both the comic capers contained in each episode and many of the raft of catchphrases the show became famous for. Indeed, Leslie Phillips adored The Navy Lark and prided himself on having never missed the recording of a single episode. Such was his loyalty to the show he even flew back from Rome in 1959, where he was shooting the film Ferdinando I° re di Napoli, recorded the latest episode and flew straight back to Italy, with the meagre BBC fee for the work not even covering half his travel costs. But it didn't matter. Phillips said of the show in his autobiography Hello: 'The Navy Lark was one of those jobs where money was irrelevant, and there aren't many of those in an average actor's life.' Chief Petty Officer Pertwee, played by Jon Pertwee, was always dreaming up a money-making scheme or two, and these were at the heart of any scrape the gang got themselves into. He'd also be the one to shout the catchphrase 'Ev'rybody down' as the Troutbridge hit something, no doubt after another spate of hopeless navigation by Mr Phillips. Incidentally, Jon Pertwee spent six years in the navy during the Second World War, first rising to the rank of Sub Lieutenant and after that working with the top secret Naval Division. Later in the show's run Pertwee provided some other voices, playing to his comic strengths. Before The Navy Lark he had been in the radio series Merry-Go-Round and Up The Pole and was once billed at the Wood Green Empire as 'the most versatile voice in radio'; he also enjoyed success with his own radio comedy, Pertwee's Progress. When the series began it was seen as a vehicle for Phillips, Pertwee and well-known film actor Dennis Price, who played Number One, Lieutenant Price. However, Dennis was only in the first series: he couldn't return for the second as he was committed to appearing in a play in New York. Unfortunately the play was not a success and, according to Phillips, Price cried when he was told he couldn't have his old job back on the show. Replacing Price was actor Stephen Murray, who remained with The Navy Lark until the end, firstly as Lieutenant Murray and then promoted to Lieutenant Commander Murray, but always Number One. He was a classically trained actor who had studied at RADA and appeared with Laurence Olivier at the Old Vic, and went on to perform in over 300 radio plays. As a character in the show, he was permanently and utterly bemused by what was happening around him and eventually married the Admiral's daughter. In real life, his daughter Amanda appeared in some later episodes and voiced various additional characters. The crew were constantly attempting to escape the beady eye of Commander, later Captain, Povey, played by Richard Caldicot. Affectionately known as 'Old Thunderguts' he had absolutely no faith in the crew of HMS Troutbridge and would relish in sending them on awkward missions that no one else wanted to do. The most notable additional cast member was undoubtedly Ronnie Barker. When the series started in 1959, Ronnie was not yet a star name. He had been in repertory theatre for several years learning his craft as an actor, which led to him transferring to West End shows by the middle of the decade. Radio work had come along as a result of this West End success and, by the second series of The Navy Lark, his role as Able Seaman 'Fatso' Johnson was notably written up. Such was his skill and versatility with voices and his rapport with the cast - particularly Phillips and Pertwee - that he also voiced Lieutenant-Commander Stanton. Scenes between Barker and Pertwee were very popular with the listeners, often ending with Johnson's lament of a catchphrase 'You're rotten, you are' when Chief Petty Officer Pertwee wanted him to do some menial or messy task. There was an incredible team spirit on the show and in interviews Barker, Phillips and Pertwee have all spoken of how well they got on, enjoyed working together and how they kept in touch. It was Jon Pertwee who first introduced Leslie Phillips to the delights of getting away to the Spanish island of Ibiza and Phillips - already a noted screen star - would put Ronnie Barker's name forward for roles in films he was in. Still very much loved by comedy fans today, The Navy Lark holds a special place in the history of both the medium and the genre, as for many years it was the longest-running comedy show on air - even now it remains high in the rankings. It is still repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra and cries of 'Corrrr', 'Ev'rybody down' and 'Left hand down a bit' are still making us laugh 65 years on.

The photo above was kindly sent to me some years ago by local history expert Ken Chamberlain; it is my current favourite shot of old Erith, as it shows so much life and activity, and is not a posed photograph. It shows the view looking Northwards along the High Street, towards the River Thames. Unfortunately it is impossible to take a modern equivalent photograph from the same location as the historic one, as the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre is now in the way, and the road layouts in and around the centre of Erith have drastically changed in the intervening years. The one thing we do know for certain is that the photograph was taken in 1910. By the looks of it, the shot was taken late on a Saturday morning in Spring or Summer - there are a lot of adult men in the photo, most of whom would be at work if the photo was taken during the week; secondly the shadows are very short, indicating the photo was taken around midday. Quite why so many people are standing around in the street is unclear. There are no apparent indications of preparations for a parade or other festival; it just appears to be a very busy street scene. I do gather that men were encouraged to stay out of the house during the day if they were not at work. The one building that is still readily recognisable in modern Erith is the Cross Keys pub, which is shown in the distance in the old photograph. Nowadays it has been renovated and converted into offices and meeting rooms for management consultancy the Aleff Group. They take the preservation of the historic building very seriously.

Many thanks to the number of readers who responded to my stories about my time with Radio Caroline on the occasion of their 60th anniversary last week - a couple of additional period photos above. Your kind comments are greatly appreciated. Incidentally the 17th Bexley Beer Festival will have a Radio Caroline theme this year - you can read more about the festival by clicking here. 

Local Arriva run buses have encountered yet further unreliability issues in the last week; I took the photo above yesterday afternoon. A 99 bus had broken down at the bus stop close to All Saint's Church in Erith Road, Upper Belvedere. The passengers had to leave the bus, which apparently would not go into gear, and wait for the following 99, as shown in the photo above - click on the photo to see a larger view. The problems with local bus reliability - or the lack thereof continue. As I have previously written, I was a passenger on a Woolwich bound 99 bus on the 10th of October last year, when it stopped in Erith town centre for a change of drivers. As is often the case during these changeovers, the drivers had a chat; I happened to be sitting in the seat nearest the front of the bus, opposite the drivers cab, and was able to hear the conversation quite clearly. The two drivers were bemoaning the fact that the buses they drove were breaking down far more regularly than in the past. They both agreed that the reason for this was down to penny pinching by the bus operator, Arriva. Apparently buses used to have a minor mechanical service every week, but Arriva had recently instructed their engineers to carry out the minor service on a monthly basis to save on parts and labour costs. This the drivers agreed was the main cause for the increase in mechanical breakdowns. I can only report on the overheard conversation and cannot guarantee its veracity; I have also been told that the secondary reason for the increase in bus breakdowns is because many of the vehicles are old and at or nearing the end of their service lives. 

The end video this week is by popular public transport YouTuber Jago Hazzard. Here he explores the Elizabeth Line station at Woolwich, and explains why it is such a bad idea in the form built. Comments and feedback as always to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.