Chapter 32: Decimal coins, fashion, humour and scandal

A wide range of topics...

As I made clear in my earlier chapters, I have been able to draw on my diaries and letters which my mother, Rena, kept for me. They have played a huge part in helping me make postings as accurate as possible. The downside is that I am faced with opinions expressed decades ago — some of which would have been best left unsaid.

Here’s one extract from a family letter dated February 15, 1971. I am not at all sure it passes the test of time…

Today is Decimal Day in Britain – and what a mess it is! They’ve completely come unstuck with the decision to retain the pound as the basic unit. It’s just too big, and the result is that they’ve had to introduce a new half-penny (worth just over one old penny). This means prices are listed thus: £1.24½. Who’s ever heard of a half unit in a decimal system! The banks and a number of other organisations are making all their accounts to the nearest new penny (worth about tuppence-ha’penny in the old currency). Many organisation are also refusing to deal in the sixpenny piece (now, two-and-a-half new pence), and this has resulted in most automatic vending machines accepting nothing smaller than the shilling piece (now called five new pence). All in all, it’s causing enormous confusion, and worst still, greatly contributing to Britain’s galloping inflation. [Prime Minister] Ted Heath, as is his wont, remains aloof from it all at 10 Downing Street. He is proving to be one of the great plastic men of our times, and people are getting very fed up with his mechanical toothy smile, his insensitivity, and his doctrinaire and holier-than-thou attitude. Not surprisingly, a survey held a week or so back showed that the number of people who supported him had been halved.

And the Australian switch to decimal currency…

From the same letter…

The new fashion craze, Hot Pants, are really taking on here, despite the weather. Most of them are, of course, meant for casual wear, but we’ve seen a few that are quite dressy and are being worn to the office. Shorts for women are not new in Australia, but the difference now is that panty-hose make them look much classier.

Here is our friend, Australian pop star Noeleen Batley, and Rosemary showing off their Hot Pants…

More on the talented and famous Noeleen Batley in Chapter 29.

A third extract from the same letter: This time a scandal in the BBC pop music radio…

The BBC has found itself in the middle of an enormous scandal being reported in the News of the World, now owned by Rupert Murdoch. A number of disc jockeys and producers working on the pop channels are being named for payola offences, and I hear that people are diving for cover all over the place. There are bound to be quite few DJs and producers out of work by the time the dust settles.

In short, the scandal was about BBC DJs promoting songs on their radio and TV programmes in exchange for gifts and free sex. It’s interesting that the DJs included Jimmy Savile who died in October 2011 without being exposed as one of the UK’s most prolific sexual predators. The exposure came only after his death, despite some BBC executives knowing of his sexual activities with young girls in the early 1970s.

The London Daily Telegraph wrote a summary of the scandal for its archives in October 20 2012…

For the full Telegraph story go HERE.

This brings back to mind the Profumo scandal in the 1960s when we were still in Melbourne. It was a huge story in Australia as Aussies loved to see posh people in “the home country” embroiled in scandal. I was in the newsroom at Radio Melbourne 3AW and because of the time difference between Australia and the United Kingdom, the unfolding events in London gave us many a wonderful lead for our breakfast bulletins.

To summarise: John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War, had an affair with 19-year-old model Christine Keeler in 1961. He denied it to the House of Commons in 1963, but a police investigation exposed his lie. This scandal damaged Harold Macmillan's Conservative government, leading to Macmillan's resignation as Prime Minister in October 1963 and contributed to the Conservative defeat by the Labour Party in the 1964 election.

We often visited Cliveden, a grand property not far from London, now owned by the National Trust, and would sneak a look at the private enclosed swimming pool where Profumo and Keeler were said to go swimming in the nude.

One of our treasures is a wonderful comedy recording Fool Brittania, starring Peter Sellers, Joan Collins and Anthony Newley. At the time we bought it, it wasn’t available in the UK for legal reasons. (It is now, of course.)

There were many tracks that Rosemary and I regarded as a joy but a real favourite was a sketch in which Sellers and Newley phoned Christine Keeler (Joan Collins) with a film offer while they were squeezed into a phone box in London’s Soho district. Listen to it HERE. Enjoy.

This is from a letter dated February 23, 1971…

I gave Rosemary a terrible fright one night recently. I was having one of my “adventure dreams” (halfway between a happy dream and a nightmare). The dream involved my being chased by the Russian secret police, the KGB. It was quite exciting, but the time came when I found myself cornered. I decided to give a hearty yell for help. It was at this stage that the dream switched to reality. The ear-splitting scream woke both myself and Rosemary up. Rosemary said it sounded as though I was being strangled, and she got such a start, she had difficulty in getting back to sleep.

Still on the subject of the KGB, we noticed in the papers a week or so back about the chap who was arrested for taking a photograph with Leningrad Harbour in the background. Well, we have quite a bit of movie film taken of this harbour — and it includes long shots of Russian warships moored there. When I took the film, an official Russian guide was standing beside me and gave me permission to do so.

From a letter of March 15, 1971…

Do you remember the Christie murder case in London about 15 years ago? Christie murdered seven women and a baby and concealed their bodies in various parts of his house. We got interested in the case because the house is just a mile or so from where we live. We have read Ludovic Kennedy’s fascinating book 10 Rillington Place. We are hoping to see the film of the same name soon. A good friend — an Irish woman who lives two doors from us — has met Christie. One of her friends was a neighbour of his.

Our Irish friend decided that she needed to get Harley off on the right foot health wise (how’s that for a mixed metaphor!) by sprinkling him with holy water from Lourdes. She claims she was cured of a chronic leg ailment by a visit to Lourdes.

From the same letter…

I did an interesting interview the other day with actor-singer Dennis Quilley who played the part of Hallam in the ABC series Contrabandits. He’s doing very well for himself over here. Among other things, he has been making a name with criminal roles. I’ve done a feature on him for TV Week. Shortly, he is joining the National Theatre which is headed by Sir Laurence Olivier.

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