Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was a state established in 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. That treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between the forces of the self-proclaimed Irish Republic, the Irish Republican Army, British Crown forces; the Free State was established as a Dominion of the British Commonwealth of Nations. It comprised 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland. Northern Ireland, which comprised the remaining six counties, exercised its right under the Treaty to opt out of the new state; the Free State government consisted of the Governor-General, the representative of the King, the Executive Council, which replaced both the revolutionary Dáil Government and the Provisional Government set up under the Treaty. W. T. Cosgrave, who had led both of these governments since August 1922, became the first President of the Executive Council; the Oireachtas or legislature consisted of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann known as the Senate. Members of the Dáil were required to take an Oath of Allegiance to the Constitution of the Free State and to declare fidelity to the king.
The oath was a key issue for opponents of the Treaty, who refused to take the oath and therefore did not take their seats. Pro-Treaty members, who formed Cumann na nGaedheal in 1923, held an effective majority in the Dáil from 1922 to 1927, thereafter ruled as a minority government until 1932. In 1931, with the passage of the Statute of Westminster, the Parliament of the United Kingdom relinquished its remaining authority to legislate for the Free State and the other dominions; this had the effect of making the dominions sovereign states. The Free State thus became. In the first months of the Free State, the Irish Civil War was waged between the newly established National Army and the anti-Treaty IRA, who refused to recognise the state; the Civil War ended in victory for the government forces, with the anti-Treaty forces dumping their arms in May 1923. The anti-Treaty political party, Sinn Féin, refused to take its seats in the Dáil, leaving the small Labour Party as the only opposition party.
In 1926, when Sinn Féin president Éamon de Valera failed to have this policy reversed, he resigned from Sinn Féin and founded Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fáil entered the Dáil following the 1927 general election, entered government after the Irish general election, 1932, when it became the largest party. De Valera abolished the Oath of Allegiance and embarked on an economic war with the UK. In 1937 he drafted a new constitution, passed by a referendum in July of that year; the Free State came to an end with the coming into force of a new constitution on 29 December 1937 when the state took the name "Ireland". The Easter Rising of 1916 and its aftermath caused a profound shift in public opinion towards the republican cause in Ireland. In the December 1918 General Election, the republican Sinn Féin party won a large majority of the Irish seats in the British parliament: 73 of the 105 constituencies returned Sinn Féin members; the elected Sinn Féin MPs, rather than take their seats at Westminster, set up their own assembly, known as Dáil Éireann.
It passed a Declaration of Independence. The subsequent War of Independence, fought between the Irish Republican Army and British security forces, continued until July 1921 when a truce came into force. By this time the Ulster Parliament had opened, established under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, presenting the republican movement with a fait accompli and guaranteeing the British presence in Ireland. In October negotiations opened in London between members of the British government and members of the Dáil, culminating in the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921; the Treaty allowed for the creation of an independent state to be known as the Irish Free State, with dominion status, within the British Empire—a status equivalent to Canada. The Parliament of Northern Ireland could, by presenting an address to the king, opt not to be included in the Free State, in which case a Boundary Commission would be established to determine where the boundary between them should lie. Members of the parliament of the Free State would be required to take an oath of allegiance to the king, albeit a modification of the oath taken in other dominions.
The Dáil ratified the Treaty on 7 January 1922. A Provisional Government was formed, with Michael Collins as chairman; the Treaty, the legislation introduced to give it legal effect, implied that Northern Ireland would be a part of the Free State on its creation, but in reality the terms of the Treaty applied only to the 26 counties, the government of the Free State had neither de facto nor de jure power in Northern Ireland. The Treaty was given legal effect in the United Kingdom through the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922; that act, which established the Free State, allowed Northern Ireland to "opt out" of it. Under Article 12 of the Treaty, Northern Ireland could exercise its option by presenting an address to the King requesting not to be part of the Irish Free State. Once the Irish Free State Constitution Act was passed on 5 December 1922, the Houses of Parliament of Northern Ireland had one month to exercise this option during which month the Government of Ireland Act continued to apply in Northern Ireland.
Realistically it was always certain. The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Sir James Craig, speaking in the Parliament in Octob
Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II
The Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II marked the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the thrones of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms. It was celebrated with large-scale parties and parades throughout the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth throughout 1977, culminating in June with the official "Jubilee Days", held to coincide with the Queen's Official Birthday; the anniversary date itself was commemorated in church services across the land on 6 February 1977, continued throughout the month. In March, preparations started for large parties in every major city of the United Kingdom, as well as for smaller ones for countless individual streets throughout the country. No monarch before Queen Elizabeth II had visited more of the United Kingdom in such a short span of time. All in all, the Queen and her husband Prince Philip visited a total of 36 counties; the trip started with record crowds gathering to see the Queen and Prince Philip in Glasgow, Scotland, on 17 May.
After moving to England and Wales, the Queen and Prince Philip wrapped up the first of their trips with a visit to Northern Ireland. Among the places visited during the national trips were numerous schools, which were the subject of a television special hosted by presenter Valerie Singleton. In the summer, the Queen and Prince Philip embarked on a Commonwealth visit that first brought them to island nations such as Fiji and Tonga, following up with longer stints in New Zealand and Australia, with a final stop in Papua New Guinea before going on to the British holdings in the West Indies; the final stop on the international tour was a trip to Canada, in which Prince Charles joined the couple to greet the crowds. On 6 June, the Queen lit a bonfire beacon at Windsor Castle, the light of which spread across the night in a chain of other beacons throughout the whole country. On 7 June, crowds lined the route of the procession to St Paul's Cathedral, where the royal family attended a Service of Thanksgiving alongside many world leaders, including United States President Jimmy Carter, Prime Minister James Callaghan as well as all of the living former Prime Ministers.
The service was followed by lunch in the Guildhall, hosted by the Lord Mayor of the City of London Peter Vanneck. At the reception, the Queen was quoted as saying: After the luncheon, the procession continued down The Mall to Buckingham Palace, where an estimated one million people lined the pavements to see the family wave to onlookers. A further 500 million people around the Commonwealth watched the day's events on live television. On 7 June and villages threw elaborate parties for all their residents, many streets strung bunting from rooftop to rooftop across the street. In addition to parties, many streets decorated motor vehicles as historical events from Britain's past, drove them about town, organising their own parades. In London alone there were over 4000 organised parties for individual neighbourhoods. Throughout the entire day, onlookers were greeted by the Queen many times as she made several appearances for pictures from the balcony of Buckingham Palace. On 9 June, the Queen made a Royal Progress trip via boat down the River Thames from Greenwich to Lambeth, in a re-enactment of the famous progresses taken by Queen Elizabeth I.
On the trip, the Queen opened the Silver Jubilee Walkway and the South Bank Jubilee Gardens, two of numerous places named after the festivities. In the evening, she presided over a fireworks display and was taken subsequently by a procession of lighted carriages to Buckingham Palace, where she greeted onlookers yet again from her balcony. Before and after the events of Jubilee, the event was addressed in many media of popular culture throughout the Commonwealth. On 7 June, Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren and the record label Virgin arranged to charter a private boat and have the Sex Pistols perform while sailing down the River Thames, passing Westminster Pier and the Houses of Parliament; the event, a mockery of the Queen's river procession planned for two days ended in chaos. Police launches forced the boat to dock, constabulary surrounded the gangplanks at the pier. While the band members and their equipment were hustled down a side stairwell, McLaren, Vivienne Westwood, many of the band's entourage were arrested.
With the official UK record chart for Jubilee week about to be released, the Daily Mirror predicted that "God Save the Queen" by the British punk rock band the Sex Pistols would be number one. As it turned out, the controversial record placed second, behind a Rod Stewart single in its fourth week at the top. Many believed that the record had qualified for the top spot, but that the chart had been rigged to prevent a spectacle. McLaren claimed that CBS Records, distributing both singles, told him that the Sex Pistols were outselling Stewart two to one. There is evidence that an exceptional directive was issued by the British Phonographic Institute, which oversaw the chart-compiling bureau, to exclude sales from record-company operated shops such as Virgin's for that week only. On 6 and 7 June, Queen finished their A Day at the Races Tour by playing two concerts at Earls Court, London to commemorate the Jubilee; the concerts saw the band use a lighting rig in the shape of a crown for the first time.
The soap opera Coronation Street wrote an elaborate Jubilee parade into the storyline, having Rovers' Return Inn manager Annie Walker dress up in elaborate costume as Elizabeth I. Ken Barlow and "Uncle Albert" played
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released on 26 May 1967 in the United Kingdom and 2 June 1967 in the United States, it spent 27 weeks at number one on the UK Albums Chart and 15 weeks at number one in the US, it was lauded by critics for its innovations in production and graphic design, for bridging a cultural divide between popular music and high art, for providing a musical representation of its generation and the contemporary counterculture. It won four Grammy Awards in 1968, including Album of the Year, the first rock LP to receive this honour. In August 1966, the Beatles began a three-month holiday. During a return flight to London in November, Paul McCartney had an idea for a song involving an Edwardian military band that formed the impetus of the Sgt. Pepper concept. Sessions began on 24 November at EMI's Abbey Road Studios with two compositions inspired by the Beatles' youth, "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane", but after pressure from EMI, the songs were released as a double A-side single and not included on the album.
In February 1967, after recording the title track "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", McCartney suggested that the Beatles should release an entire album representing a performance by the fictional Sgt. Pepper band; this alter ego group would give them the freedom to experiment musically. During the recording sessions, the band furthered the technological progression they had made with their 1966 album Revolver. Knowing they would not have to perform the tracks live, they adopted an experimental approach to composition and recording on songs such as "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" and "A Day in the Life". Producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick helped realise the group's ideas by approaching the studio as an instrument, applying orchestral overdubs, sound effects and other methods of tape manipulation. Recording was completed on 21 April 1967; the cover, depicting the Beatles posing in front of a tableau of celebrities and historical figures, was designed by the British pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth.
Sgt. Pepper is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the use of extended form in popular music while continuing the artistic maturation seen on the Beatles' preceding releases, it is described as one of the first art rock LPs, aiding the development of progressive rock, is credited with marking the beginning of the album era. An important work of British psychedelia, the album incorporates a range of stylistic influences, including vaudeville, music hall, avant-garde, Western and Indian classical music. In 2003, the Library of Congress placed Sgt. Pepper in the National Recording Registry as "culturally or aesthetically significant"; that year, Rolling Stone ranked it number one in its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". As of 2011, it has sold more than 32 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums. Professor Kevin Dettmar, writing in The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature, described it as "the most important and influential rock-and-roll album recorded".
By 1966, the Beatles had grown weary of live performance. In John Lennon's opinion, they could "send out four waxworks... and that would satisfy the crowds. Beatles concerts are nothing to do with music anymore. They're just bloody tribal rites." In June that year, two days after finishing the album Revolver, the group set off for a tour that started in West Germany. While in Hamburg they received an anonymous telegram stating: "Do not go to Tokyo. Your life is in danger." The threat was taken in light of the controversy surrounding the tour among Japan's religious and conservative groups, with particular opposition to the Beatles' planned performances at the sacred Nippon Budokan arena. As an added precaution, 35,000 police were mobilised and tasked with protecting the group, who were transported from hotels to concert venues in armoured vehicles; the Beatles performed in the Philippines, where they were threatened and manhandled by its citizens for not visiting First Lady Imelda Marcos. The group were angry with their manager, Brian Epstein, for insisting on what they regarded as an exhausting and demoralising itinerary.
The publication in the US of Lennon's remarks about the Beatles being "more popular than Jesus" embroiled the band in controversy and protest in America's Bible Belt. A public apology eased tensions, but a US tour in August, marked by reduced ticket sales, relative to the group's record attendances in 1965, subpar performances proved to be their last; the author Nicholas Schaffner writes: To the Beatles, playing such concerts had become a charade so remote from the new directions they were pursuing that not a single tune was attempted from the just-released Revolver LP, whose arrangements were for the most part impossible to reproduce with the limitations imposed by their two-guitars-bass-and-drums stage lineup. On the Beatles' return to England, rumours began to circulate. George Harrison informed Epstein that he was leaving the band, but was persuaded to stay on the assurance that there would be no more tours; the group took a three-month break. Harrison travelled to India for six weeks to study the sitar under the instruction of Ravi Shankar and develop his interest in Hindu philosophy.
Having been the last of the Beatles to concede that their live performances had become futile, Paul McCartney collaborated with Beatles producer George Martin on the soundtrack for the film The Family Way and holidayed in Kenya with Mal Evans, one of the Beatles' tour managers. Lennon acted in the
Rocking chair
A rocking chair or rocker is a type of chair with two curved bands attached to the bottom of the legs, connecting the legs on each side to each other. The rockers contact the floor at only two points, giving the occupant the ability to rock back and forth by shifting their weight or pushing with their feet. Rocking chairs are most made of wood; some rocking chairs can fold. The word rocking chair comes from the verb to rock; the first known use of the term rocking chair was in 1766. Rocking chairs are seen as evocative of parenting, as the gentle rocking motion can soothe infants. Many adults find rocking chairs soothing because of the gentle motion. Gentle rocking motion has been shown to provide faster onset of sleep than remaining stationary, mimicking the process of a parent rocking a child to sleep. Rocking chairs are comfortable because, when a user sits in one without rocking, the chair automatically rocks backward until the sitter's center of gravity is met, thus granting an ergonomic benefit with the occupant kept at an un-stressed position and angle.
Varieties of rockers include those mounted on a spring base called "platform rockers" and those with swinging braces known as gliders. Though American inventor Benjamin Franklin is sometimes credited with inventing the rocking chair, historians trace the rocking chair's origins to North America during the early 18th century, when Franklin was a child. Used in gardens, they were ordinary chairs with rockers attached, it was in 1725. The production of wicker rocking chairs reached its peak in America during the middle of the 18th century; these wicker rockers, as they were popularly known, were famous for their craftsmanship and creative designs. Rocking cradles long predate rocking chairs however and an example exists from antiquity, found in the ruins of Herculaneum. Michael Thonet, a German craftsman, created the first bentwood rocking chair in 1860; this design is distinguished by its light weight. These rocking chairs were influenced by Greek and Roman designs as well as Renaissance and colonial era artistry.
During the 1920s, folding rocking chairs became more popular in the United States and in Europe. They were handy for outdoor activities and travel purposes. By the 1950s, rocking chairs built by Sam Maloof, an American craftsman, became famous for their durability and deluxe appearance. Maloof's rocking chairs are distinguished by their ski-shaped rockers. President John F. Kennedy made the P Chair Company's rocking chair famous. In 1955, who suffered with chronic back problems, was prescribed swimming and the use of a rocking chair by his physician; the President so enjoyed the rocker that, after he was inaugurated in 1961, he took the chair on Air Force One when he traveled around the country and the world. He bought additional rockers for the Kennedy estates. Kennedy's rocking chair from the White House is on permanent display at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum. Per the manufacturing design, the Kennedy Rocking Chair is shaped, steam-bent, assembled while the wood is still green. Bassinet, another rocking piece of furniture Glider, a chair that rocks via suspension from a four-bar linkage "Rockin' Chair" by Hoagy Carmichael Swing, the rocking movement comes from suspension Pictorial history of rocking chairs Media related to Rocking chairs at Wikimedia Commons
Courtown
Courtown, is a village which developed after Lord Courtown ordered the construction of a harbour during the Famine years, 1839-1846. The economic boost of the new harbour led to a small village developing with fishing being the primary economy of the village. Courtown is situated on the Irish Sea coast and with the recent development during the "Celtic Tiger" years, has merged into the adjoining village of Riverchapel, it lies on the R742 regional road. The name Courtown applied to a townland in North Wexford, 4 kilometres east of Gorey town; the townland was home to the seat of Lord Courtown during the 19th centuries. Courtown House was demolished in 1962; the remains of his private church and cemetery can still be seen in the townland. Today it is home to Courtown Golf Kiltennel Church. In recent years significant urbanisation has taken place in Riverchapel, just south of Courtown Harbour. Large housing estates are now home to commuters working in Dublin. While the population of Courtown remains quite small, the census combines the area of Courtown and Ardamine.
As of the 2006 Census the population of this area was 1421. Courtown is home to'The Dinky Take-Away', serving the "best chips in Ireland", as voted on Marty Whelan's morning show on the 2FM radio station; the town features crazy golf, amusement rides, ten-pin bowling, a golf course, as well as a beach and forest park. Courtown is home to a Class D RNLI inshore lifeboat. Courtown has a confectionary shop known as Candyland, a small ice-cream shop in the middle of the carpark opposite Flanagans amusement centre. There is a unisex hair salon and a female hair salon called Revive as you enter into the town. There is a bus once a day to and from Gorey, departing in the morning and returning in the afternoon. On Mondays and Saturdays Bus Éireann route 379 continues to Wexford via Curracloe. Route 879 operates on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays the service is provided by the Rural Roadrunner bus operated by Wexford Local Development; the nearest station is Gorey railway station, around 7 kilometres away.
As a harbour and seaside village, there is a high tourism rate during the months of the summer. There is a variety of accommodation such as "The Harbour House B&B", "The Taravie Hotel" and "The Courtown Hotel". There are many mobile home parks such as "Ireton's Caravan Park", "Courtown Caravan Park" and "Ardamine Holiday Park"; the name'Courtown' dates back to 1278 but the harbour was not built until the mid 1800s as a response by Lord Courtown to the Great Famine, cost £25,000 to complete. Courtown was by already well known for its beaches, but the presence of the harbour made it popular as a fashionable destination, with people from Dublin and the midlands frequenting the village and beaches, its popularity as a summer holiday resort for Dublin people increased after 1863, when the railway line from Dublin reached nearby Gorey. List of towns and villages in Ireland List of RNLI stations www.courtownharbour.com The official website for Courtown Harbour. Www.courtownrnli.com RNLI Lifeboat Website
Country music
Country music known as country and western, hillbilly music, is a genre of popular music that originated in the southern United States in the early 1920s. It takes its roots from genres such as folk blues. Country music consists of ballads and dance tunes with simple forms, folk lyrics, harmonies accompanied by string instruments such as banjos and acoustic guitars, steel guitars, fiddles as well as harmonicas. Blues modes have been used extensively throughout its recorded history. According to Lindsey Starnes, the term country music gained popularity in the 1940s in preference to the earlier term hillbilly music. In 2009 in the United States, country music was the most listened to rush hour radio genre during the evening commute, second most popular in the morning commute; the term country music is used today to describe many subgenres. The origins of country music are found in the folk music of working class Americans, who blended popular songs and Celtic fiddle tunes, traditional English ballads, cowboy songs, the musical traditions of various groups of European immigrants.
Immigrants to the southern Appalachian Mountains of eastern North America brought the music and instruments of Europe along with them for nearly 300 years. Country music was "introduced to the world as a Southern phenomenon." The U. S. Congress has formally recognized Bristol, Tennessee as the "Birthplace of Country Music", based on the historic Bristol recording sessions of 1927. Since 2014, the city has been home to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. Historians have noted the influence of the less-known Johnson City sessions of 1928 and 1929, the Knoxville sessions of 1929 and 1930. In addition, the Mountain City Fiddlers Convention, held in 1925, helped to inspire modern country music. Before these, pioneer settlers, in the Great Smoky Mountains region, had developed a rich musical heritage; the first generation emerged in the early 1920s, with Atlanta's music scene playing a major role in launching country's earliest recording artists. New York City record label Okeh Records began issuing hillbilly music records by Fiddlin' John Carson as early as 1923, followed by Columbia Records in 1924, RCA Victor Records in 1927 with the first famous pioneers of the genre Jimmie Rodgers and the first family of country music The Carter Family.
Many "hillbilly" musicians, such as Cliff Carlisle, recorded blues songs throughout the 1920s. During the second generation, radio became a popular source of entertainment, "barn dance" shows featuring country music were started all over the South, as far north as Chicago, as far west as California; the most important was the Grand Ole Opry, aired starting in 1925 by WSM in Nashville and continuing to the present day. During the 1930s and 1940s, cowboy songs, or Western music, recorded since the 1920s, were popularized by films made in Hollywood. Bob Wills was another country musician from the Lower Great Plains who had become popular as the leader of a "hot string band," and who appeared in Hollywood westerns, his mix of country and jazz, which started out as dance hall music, would become known as Western swing. Wills was one of the first country musicians known to have added an electric guitar to his band, in 1938. Country musicians began recording boogie in 1939, shortly after it had been played at Carnegie Hall, when Johnny Barfield recorded "Boogie Woogie".
The third generation started at the end of World War II with "mountaineer" string band music known as bluegrass, which emerged when Bill Monroe, along with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs were introduced by Roy Acuff at the Grand Ole Opry. Gospel music remained a popular component of country music. Another type of stripped-down and raw music with a variety of moods and a basic ensemble of guitar, dobro or steel guitar became popular among poor whites in Texas and Oklahoma, it became known as honky tonk, had its roots in Western swing and the ranchera music of Mexico and the border states. By the early 1950s a blend of Western swing, country boogie, honky tonk was played by most country bands. Rockabilly was most popular with country fans in the 1950s, 1956 could be called the year of rockabilly in country music, with Johnny Cash emerging as one of the most popular and enduring representatives of the rockabilly genre. Beginning in the mid-1950s, reaching its peak during the early 1960s, the Nashville sound turned country music into a multimillion-dollar industry centered in Nashville, Tennessee.
The late 1960s in American music produced a unique blend as a result of traditionalist backlash within separate genres. In the aftermath of the British Invasion, many desired a return to the "old values" of rock n' roll. At the same time there was a lack of enthusiasm in the country sector for Nashville-produced music. What resulted was a crossbred genre known as country rock. Fourth generation music included outlaw country with roots in the Bakersfield sound, country pop with roots in the countrypolitan, folk music and soft rock. Between 1972 and 1975 singer/guitarist John Denver released a se
This Is Your Life (UK TV series)
This is Your Life is a British biographical television documentary, based on the 1952 American show of the same title. It was hosted by Eamonn Andrews from 1955 until 1964, from 1969 until his death in 1987 aged 64. Michael Aspel took up the role of host until the show ended in 2003, it returned in 2007 as a one-off special presented by Trevor McDonald, which to date was its most recent airing. In the show the host surprises a special guest, before taking them through their life with the assistance of the'big red book'. Both celebrities and non-celebrities have been'victims' of the show; the show was broadcast live, over its run it has alternated between being broadcast on the BBC and on ITV. The surprise element was a important part of the show; the British version of the show was launched in 1955 on the BBC and was first presented by Ralph Edwards to the first "victim", Eamonn Andrews, the presenter from the second show. The scriptwriter for the first 35 episodes was Gale Pedrick, it ended in 1964 when Andrews moved to Associated British Corporation, but it was revived on ITV in 1969.
The only other occasion during Andrews' presentational run where he was not the presenter was in 1974 when he was the subject a second time, the show was presented by David Nixon. Michael Aspel became presenter after Andrews died in 1987; the show was still produced independently by Thames Television. The programme was discontinued again in 2003. At first, the show was always broadcast live. Live broadcasts ended in 1983; the show returned in June 2007 on ITV for a one-off-special programme hosted by Sir Trevor McDonald with guest Simon Cowell. The new edition was co-produced by ITV Productions, STV Productions, TIYL Productions, Click TV and Ralph Edwards Productions. Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway featured a return of This is Your Life to celebrate Ant & Dec's 25 years together, quizzing them on their 25 years as part of "Ant vs Dec" in episode 6 of Series 11. Michael Aspel returned as host alongside Ashley Roberts. Lynn Redgrave, in December 1996, was caught while taking her bow in her one-woman show on stage at the Haymarket Theatre, the only time the Redgrave clan was seen together on stage at the same time.
Bob Hope and Dudley Moore have been the only subjects of two-part editions of the programme, in 1970 and 1987 respectively. Both were broadcast over two weeks. Clive Mantle's profile included a post-credits sequence. Footballer Danny Blanchflower turned down the "red book" in February 1961. Author Richard Gordon was asked in 1974 and, like Bill Oddie in 2001, he turned it down, but changed his mind and appeared on the show. Actor Richard Beckinsale was a feature on the show shortly after his 31st birthday, eight months before his death. Hattie Jacques appeared in 1963 and featured her husband John Le Mesurier who had helped set up the surprise. However, much to her extreme discomfort, she was at the time living separately from Le Mesurier with her younger lover John Schofield. In 1996, the Sunday Mirror reported that a planned show for Cockney comedy actor Arthur Mullard was pulled after researchers contacted his eldest son; the same report featured claims that Mullard had terrorised his family and had sexually abused his daughter for many years.
The series included non-celebrities who had done extraordinary things in their lives. In years, following a persistent criticism of only deeming celebrities worthy of being featured on the show, non-celebrities were featured again; these included businesspeople, military personnel, the clergy and those that had performed outstanding community or charity service but who were not well known to the general public. Examples include: paramedic Allan Norman; the series never profiled serving politicians, although retired politicians were featured, e.g. Lord Brabourne. Forty-two celebrities have appeared on the show twice — including Honor Blackman, Dora Bryan, Bob Monkhouse and Eamonn Andrews himself. David Butler was 17 when he became the youngest subject of This is Your Life, he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the headmaster's study of Hemel Hempstead Grammar School. David lost both a hand when, aged 11, he found an unexploded bomb on Ivinghoe Beacon; when snooker player Stephen Hendry was surprised with the red book in 1990, aged 21, he remarked that he had "hardly had a life".
The theme tune used from 1969 was called'Gala Performance' and was composed by Laurie Johnson for KPM. 2 June 2007 This is Your Life on IMDb. A celebration of This Is Your Life Guest and series list
