by Malcolm Pheby | Feb 26, 2020 | Bits & Pieces
Prime Minister James Callaghan was clearly a big fan of Coronation Street character Elsie Tanner. He described the Weatherfield firebrand, played by Manchester actress Pat Phoenix, as ‘the sexiest thing on television’. Elsie certainly made an impact during her two...
by Malcolm Pheby | Feb 24, 2020 | Bits & Pieces
The FA Cup Final of 1958 will be remembered as the most poignant ever played in the history of the competition. It was the year that Manchester United, devastated by the Munich air disaster 86 days earlier, defied all the odds to face Bolton Wanderers at Wembley. That...
by Malcolm Pheby | Feb 22, 2020 | Bits & Pieces
It was a classic case of so near, yet so far for Liverpool football club in the extraordinary season of 1968-9. The Reds finished second in the First Division to Leeds United with a points total that would have won the league in previous seasons. They went out of the...
by Malcolm Pheby | Feb 19, 2020 | Bits & Pieces
For an ordinary coal-loading jetty in an inland town, Wigan Pier has carved out quite a name for itself over the past century. George Orwell wrote about it, George Formby sang about it and the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh made a special visit to its former site 30...
by Malcolm Pheby | Feb 15, 2020 | Bits & Pieces
Seventy years ago this winter, two footballing giants from Liverpool and Everton shook hands before a floodlit charity match at Holly Park. Leading the former stars of Everton that night was William ‘Dixie’ Dean, arguably the club’s greatest ever player. He scored an...
by Malcolm Pheby | Feb 12, 2020 | Bits & Pieces
Anyone who watched TV in the 1970s will remember the extraordinary group of entertainers assembled by BBC impresario Bill Cotton. They included the comic talents of Dick Emery, Morecambe and Wise and the Two Ronnies – as well as singer Val Doonican and all-rounder...
