The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[alycidon]

I guess that the trouble with being woken up by the radio is that whatever comes out of the speaker tends to go straight into one's brain, without much in the way of censorship or sanitization.

Maybe it would be safer to be woken up by a CD player.

I've done that since the nineties, Peter, when I decided that waking up to the dulcet tones of Andrew MacGregor was definitely not for me. In those days, all I could get was a flimsy tape player alarm, and I got through two of those.

Since CD players came into vogue I have had an alarm version by my bed for many years which reliably wakes me at 7.00 every morning. Although long retired, I still like to wake up at a civilised time every day.

This week, I have had Tchaikovsky's 6th conducted by Pierre Monteux, and although I have never really rated this work, I am finding that I quite like it, having listened for five mornings on the trot.

[Bryn]

Hi, Stanf

Aberdeen?

New York, last I heard. He and Pamela sold Candacraig House a couple of years ago for close to £3 million.

[ahinton]

My vote would be for Billy Connolly's suggestion that we should use the theme tune of The Archers as a National Anthem.

God (and/or whoever else) forbid! OK, it was an amusing suggestion but the prospect of it actually being taken seriously by the powers that be ("or whoever might substitute for or succeed them", as the lawyers say) would be both nauseating and of increasing irrelevance in a nation whose agricultural input/output is slowly and painfully on the wane. That said, I do not recall Mr Connolly mentioning what words should be sung to Mr Wood's Barwick Green - and anyway, it's all way out of time, as a piece from Our Native Heath surely had its chances as a replacement anthem when he was Prime Minister?

As some know here, my preference would be for Purcell's Fairest Isle if we really must have a national anathema sorry I mean anthem; the only conceivable purpose for such an anthem in Britain today might be to point up the increasing sense of "us an' them"...

[cloughie]

God (and/or whoever else) forbid! OK, it was an amusing suggestion but the prospect of it actually being taken seriously by the powers that be ("or whoever might substitute for or succeed them", as the lawyers say) would be both nauseating and of increasing irrelevance in a nation whose agricultural input/output is slowly and painfully on the wane. That said, I do not recall Mr Connolly mentioning what words should be sung to Mr Wood's Barwick Green - and anyway, it's all way out of time, as a piece from Our Native Heath surely had its chances as a replacement anthem when he was Prime Minister?

As some know here, my preference would be for Purcell's Fairest Isle if we really must have a national anathema sorry I mean anthem; the only conceivable purpose for such an anthem in Britain today might be to point up the increasing sense of "us an' them"...

Many years ago when Tom Forrest, played by Bob Arnold who was a bit of a folksinger, used to introduce the Omnibus edition on a Sunday morning with a few anecdotes. On one occasion he put words to Archer's tune. The only lines I can remember are 'John Tregorran fell down a warren and broke a bone in his arm'.

Googling has got me a little further

Daniel Archer's making hay
Walter's making trouble.
Phil and Grace are married now
?????????????????????????

John Tregorran fell down the Warren
And broke a bone in his arm.
Life in London's dull compared
To life on Brookfield farm

[ahinton]

Many years ago when Tom Forrest, played by Bob Arnold who was a bit of a folksinger, used to introduce the Omnibus edition on a Sunday morning with a few anecdotes. On one occasion he put words to Archer's tune. The only lines I can remember are 'John Tregorran fell down a warren and broke a bone in his arm'.

Googling has got me a little further

Daniel Archer's making hay
Walter's making trouble.
Phil and Grace are married now
?????????????????????????

John Tregorran fell down the Warren
And broke a bone in his arm.
Life in London's dull compared
To life on Brookfield farm

Hmmm. None of this seems especially suitable as text ideas towards an UK national anthem, though, does it? One presumes that this is all very much from a yesteryear that has in many respects become largely unrecognisable to most people under the ever-increasing state retirement age. On the presumption that "Brookfield Farm" is a mythical business featured within that ongoing series (from which you can tell that I know next to nothing about The Archers beyond that fact that I heard a few days ago that it's been rumbling on for 65 years), there probably won't be much life to have on it at all if it's going the way of a large swathe of UK farm businesses; in any case, given that it's apparently never been clear where the series is supposedly located (as it could be some kind of amalgam of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Somerset and Dorset, the last arising from the toe-curling invention of "Borchester" - I ask you!), one might presume that it's all on the way to being swallowed up by the ever-expanding Birmingham / HS2 Phase 1 on the one hand and the equally burgeoning M4 corridor on the other, for which reason perhaps the characters should for the most part speak BBC Brummerset until the series finally attains its resting place in British broadcasting history.

[cloughie]

Hmmm. None of this seems especially suitable as text ideas towards an UK national anthem, though, does it? One presumes that this is all very much from a yesteryear that has in many respects become largely unrecognisable to most people under the ever-increasing state retirement age. On the presumption that "Brookfield Farm" is a mythical business featured within that ongoing series (from which you can tell that I know next to nothing about The Archers beyond that fact that I heard a few days ago that it's been rumbling on for 65 years), there probably won't be much life to have on it at all if it's going the way of a large swathe of UK farm businesses; in any case, given that it's apparently never been clear where the series is supposedly located (as it could be some kind of amalgam of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Somerset and Dorset, the last arising from the toe-curling invention of "Borchester" - I ask you!), one might presume that it's all on the way to being swallowed up by the ever-expanding Birmingham / HS2 Phase 1 on the one hand and the equally burgeoning M4 corridor on the other, for which reason perhaps the characters should for the most part speak BBC Brummerset until the series finally attains its resting place in British broadcasting history.

I think it's probably Worcestershire. Not really the point - I'm not suggesting that it would be anything like suitable - just wondering if anyone out there can add anything to Bob Arnold's lyrics.
I think that 'I vow to thee my country' would fit the E N A bill, but preferably not sung by Ms Jenkins.

[ahinton]

I think it's probably Worcestershire

I'd forgotten about that one - which just goes to show how amorphous that location is.

I think that 'I vow to thee my country' would fit the E N A bill, but preferably not sung by Ms Jenkins.

Indeed not "sung" by her, no - but don't you think that scansion problems might arise from "I vow to thee my adopted country" for all immigrants - and then further complications would arise should UK leave EU and/or Scotland quit UK? At least Fairest Isle would retain relevance to the extent that the land mass would remain an island (although perhaps better Fairest Promontory - as with "this sceptr'd promontory" - since the opening of the tunnel beneath la Manche)...

[Serial_Apologist]

"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" was suggested on a TV phone-in this morning, gaining immediate applause and cheering from the pretty much regular audience in Bayswater - an indicator of to be wisely taken notice of, imho.

Someone suggested that the whistle-along parts would help participation from those unfamiliar with the words.

[cloughie]

I'd forgotten about that one - which just goes to show how amorphous that location is.


Indeed not "sung" by her, no - but don't you think that scansion problems might arise from "I vow to thee my adopted country" for all immigrants - and then further complications would arise should UK leave EU and/or Scotland quit UK? At least Fairest Isle would retain relevance to the extent that the land mass would remain an island (although perhaps better Fairest Promontory - as with "this sceptr'd promontory" - since the opening of the tunnel beneath la Manche)...

No problems - this is for England not UK!

[ahinton]

No problems - this is for England not UK!

Well, there's no specifically English one right now, so that would represent quite a change to begin with! - but it's still no longer really as island as once it was...

[cloughie]

Well, there's no specifically English one right now, so that would represent quite a change to begin with! - but it's still no longer really as island as once it was...

Well I thought that was the point of the exercise, to have something to sing at Twickenham to counter Land of Our Fathers and Flower of Scotland etc.

[ahinton]

Well I thought that was the point of the exercise, to have something to sing at Twickenham to counter Land of Our Fathers and Flower of Scotland etc.

I'd not realised that; perhaps I've not read all the posts in this thread that relate to this particular subject. That said, a national anthem only for singing in one small district of London would hardly be national, methinks!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

New York, last I heard. He and Pamela sold Candacraig House a couple of years ago for close to £3 million.

Ah! I hadn't heard about that - my apologies to Stanf. Presumably his medical requirements (and her job) warranted the permanent relocation to the States? I hadn't noticed that BC was particularly vocal about his Scottish identity: his stand-ups regularly ridicule traditionally-regarded symbols of "Scottish" culture - a particularly unprintable "discussion" of shortbread springs to mind, and he was strongly against Independence in the Referendum.

[Bryn]

Ah! I hadn't heard about that - my apologies to Stanf. Presumably his medical requirements (and her job) warranted the permanent relocation to the States? I hadn't noticed that BC was particularly vocal about his Scottish identity: his stand-ups regularly ridicule traditionally-regarded symbols of "Scottish" culture - a particularly unprintable "discussion" of shortbread springs to mind, and he was strongly against Independence in the Referendum.

He pointedly announced that he would not participate in the Scottish independence referendum as he did not wish to influence anybody.

Re. his place of residence, while the last I heard he and Pamela were still based in New York. He had expressed a desire to move back to the UK and find somewhere on the south coast of England.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Well, there's no specifically English one right now, so that would represent quite a change to begin with! - but it's still no longer really as island as once it was...

Both Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory have been used as the English anthem in sporting events. I favour the former, preferable orchestrated by the the composer of the latter..