In the early Nineteen Seventies, in the Officers’ Mess of 39 Medium Regiment Royal Artillery in Sennelager, Germany, we had a monthly ‘film night’ on a Sunday evening, the 16mm film being shown in two parts through an old-fashioned projector. In the interval we tucked into traditional curries and their accompanying side dishes. For a year or so I was the Mess Secretary, responsible for all the Mess’s social events and in this case for choosing the film. One Sunday evening we showed Klute: ‘John Klute’s best friend has disappeared, and he has only one lead, a prostitute. While he struggles to get her to help him, he doesn’t know her life is in danger.’ The film came out in 1973 and starred Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland.

It was sad to read that Sutherland had died in June aged 88, for I loved his films, particularly ‘Don’t Look Now’ and ‘Death in Venice’. But then I remembered ‘Klute’ and how Sylvia, the wife of the Commanding Officer Guy Watkins, had come up to me in the interval and criticized my choice of film: “I don’t like smutty films!” Such a good word ‘smutty’; such a great film!

The memory of the 16mm film and its projector reminded me how important radio was in providing entertainment when I was growing up.  Television was in its infancy and my step-father was not, at the time, a fan. One of the best comedy shows was ‘Beyond Our Ken’, which was broadcast from 1958 -1964, and starred Kenneth Horne, Kennith Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden, Bill Pertwee.

It was replaced by ‘Round The Horne’ (1965-1968). I can still hear one of the regulars on his show introducing himself: “Hello! I’m Jules and this is my friend Sandy.” in an extremely camp voice, something which wouldn’t be acceptable these days! The Goon Show, with Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine, was another must as were some of the American comedians like Allan Sherman (Camp Granada: Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh) (1924 – 1973), Shelley Berman (1925-2017) and Bob Newhart who died last month aged 94.

Two of Newhart’s sketches are worth highlighting; bear in mind his gift was to make you the listener fill in the other side of his one-sided dialogue.

In his ‘The Driving Instructor’, he imagines the instructor making all sorts of allowances for his student: “You want to start the car?  ….. You turned on the lights. The controls all look alike, don’t they? …. All right, let’s pull out into traffic. What’s the first thing we are going to do before we pull out into traffic? I mean besides praying, let’s say. No, what I had in mind was checking the rearview mirror. DON’T PULL OUT! Haha! Please don’t cry. I’m sorry, but there was this bus . . .”

Ironically, when he first performed this monologue, Newhart could not drive.

His Walter Raleigh sketch relied on huge assumptions. We do not hear Raleigh, who is in Virginia. Instead, the speaker is the English importer, with the voice of a wise-guy modern-day American, reacting to the 16th-century Raleigh’s despairing description: “What’s tobacco, Walt? It’s a kind of leaf, huh? Oh, it has a lot of different uses. What are some of the uses, Walt? You can chew it or put it in a pipe. Or you can shred it and put it in a piece of paper and roll it up. Don’t tell me, Walt, don’t tell me. You stick it in your ear, right? Oh, between your lips. Then what? You set fire to it. Then what do you do, Walt? You inhale the smoke, huh?” His genius is obvious.

I read them now, hear his voice narrating the skit, and find them funny. I wonder whether they transcend the generations.

I am an avid fan of the books of John Grisham and some years ago read The Testament, about a rich American leaving his fortune, much to the anger and bewilderment of his ex-wives and children, to a missionary living in Pantanal. (See PC 17 Pantanal – a Prequel August 2014). I had never heard of the Pantanal, the world’s largest, flattest wetland, 800kms north to south, 500 east to west. On our next visit to Brazil, Celina and I decided to spend a few days at the Fazenda Barranco Alto, one of the agrotourism eco haciendas (see PC 20 Pantanal September 2014) We spent some time on the Rio Negra, often in the company of two Americans, Tim & Diane Tinnes. We kept in touch and in 2015, after our two weeks in Alaska (See PCs 44 & 45), dropped down to visit them in San Francisco for a couple of days.

Tim continues to read my PCs and occasionally comments. Recently he highlighted an article in The Guardian about the current state of the Pantanal, how it’s drying out at a horrendous rate, so much so that large parts of it have been ravaged by fire and fauna and flora are dying. Maybe it will recover but we’re pleased to have had the opportunity to visit it and understand its importance.

During the WhatsApp conversation with Sami and Mo in the Hope Café (PC 401 23^rd August 2024) a couple of weeks ago, Mo and I chatted about OE (Note 1). I was about to tell Mo about Joe Baines-Holmes, a neighbour who was off on the ultimate OE and the internet had connection dropped out. What I wanted to say was that Joe, a computer engineer, has flown out to Wisconsin on a 17-month contract. In a few weeks he will travel via Christchurch New Zealand to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Base (Note 2) where he will spend twelve months ensuring the base’s computer equipment is serviced and maintained. The Antarctic has two seasons; winter, when it’s completely dark, starts in March and lasts until October; summer, when the sun doesn’t set, from October to March. And in the winter the temperature varies between -40C and -70C. Quite an experience for anyone; not sure any other OE could beat this?

My regular readers will already have been introduced to Francisquinha. If you have only recently started reading these scribbles, you could update yourself by reading PCs 172 and 217. I had to apply for a new passport around Easter this year so thought I could apply for one for Francisquinha. Both arrived back in the same envelope, although hers is slightly bigger than mine!

Richard 6^th September 2024

Estoril

http://www.postcardscribbles.co.uk

Note 1 OE is a New Zealand abbreviation for Overseas Experience.

Note 2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen%E2%80%93Scott_-South_Pole_Station