ADVENTURES FROM HISTORY

King Harold gets an eyeful. 

TENUOUS TIE IN

Glowering Swiss hunk and 'handsome bastard' Oliver Tobias shot to fame in Harlech Television's 'Arthur Of The Britons', so much so that a publicity shot from the series was subsequently featured on the cover of the 1972 edition of K.K Downing's well received book on the Saxon and Norman monarchy. 

Not much is really known about the 'actual' King Arthur, of course, so Downing simply wrote a chapter summarising the first twelve episodes of the hit HTV show. No-one noticed, and it became part of the History curriculum in English and Welsh schools until 1998.  

PINKY POINTER

This might be a disservice, but we're pretty sure that whatever this guy says he's doing, he's bluffing.

END OF AN AURA

  

  

A HARD DAY'S WRITE

In retrospect, writing a 215 page book about Psychical Research EVERY DAY seems like madness but, in 1954, that is what Donald J. West set out to do. He did extraordinarily well (this edition is from April 22nd, 1962) but, ultimately, the gargantuan task overwhelmed him and he gave up and went back to simply writing a book every other week.

A psychic trumpet, outlined by bands of luminous paint? Now we know what we want for Christmas.

Individual editions of the books are much sought after now, particularly the notorious last edition in the series (# 4,028) where, realising that nothing had actually changed in Psychical Research in the last twenty four hours, West simply wrote 'What's the point? What's the bloody point?' over and over and over again.   

DAVID MUNROW BLOWS

David Munrow is one of our favourite people: clever, passionate, generous, multi-talented, his sudden death in 1976 was a tremendous loss, not only to Early Music, which he worked so hard to popularise, but to the world in general. People like David are in short supply: we can’t afford to lose them.

Not long before he died, David made a great television show called ‘Early Musical Instruments’. Each week, he would talk about a group of instruments and he and his friends would demonstrate them. Despite the paucity of that description it is absolutely riveting viewing.

The best bits are when David cuts loose on one of the many instruments that he was expert in playing – this may be music from antiquity, but David ensures it doesn’t sound like it should be in a museum. His enthusiasm and animation and immersion in the moment bring it all to life in the most vivid terms.

When David Munrow plays it, Early Music swings. No wonder he gets so puffed out.  

A HOLOCAUST IN THE PALM OF HIS HAND

What a load of rubbish. Cool, though. QHE! rules.

COMMON PROBLEMS IN THE KIRKPLACE

Honestly, Captain James Tiberius Kirk is an absolute fucking liability...what's Scotty ever done apart from his best?