BBC trying to get with the Sixties.

After it was played

compere David Jacobs

repeated the title in his

suave Light Programme voice

and only just the hint of a sneer.

 

The panel – people like

Eartha Kitt and Pete Murray –

looked at each other, trying

not to laugh. The last thing

they wanted was to seem square.

They had got the Beatles

 

and those other long-haired groups.

But this jangling clattering

concoction of words, like a box

of spanners being shaken? 

This was too much, would never

catch on. Jacobs pressed his buzzer.

 

It reached number nine.

And I’ve remembered

something else; a character

called Mr Jones was there.

 

PHOTOGRAPH: BBC