Man with a Warwick Deeping

(I had to look up who/what Warwick Deeping was.)

You obviously have a great knowledge and love of certain things which seem quintessentially British, Pim: John Betjeman, English Light Music from the 1950s, British films from the 1940s and 1950s and so on. I'm intrigued how someone who was born and brought up in The Netherlands (and is under 30 too?) came to know and like these things. They seem to be the sort of things that notoriously 'don't travel' and yet, rather wonderfully, they obviously have. I hope it isn't impertinent to ask, and please don't feel obliged to respond, but I'd be intrigued to know how and why.

I always thought it was a type of old-fashioned chair.



'Darling, be a dear and bring the Deeping in from the garden, would you?

Only 'I'? Did your other half know it already?

A Bulgarian picture framer, to clear things up, is a person originating from Bulgaria who frames, or framed when he was working, pictures.  He claimed to have framed pictures by John Piper.  John P was a fellow church trotter with JB, and designed sets for BB.  I am afraid that I suspect BB's views of JB's verse may have been as trenchant as his views about Richard Strauss.  (see Rosenkavalier thread.)

I am going to post my photos of one of Betjeman's favourite churches over on the Cathedrals and Churches thread.

This is getting too hilarious for words! I think I may be at least partly to blame: I had messaged DonB to say that I kept misreading his phrase as 'Bulgarian picture farmer'. (In fact, I still do: it just seems to be one of those things.)

I'm not a great fan of cheeses (Cheddar does me just fine), but George's Cheese Impresario has some very enticing-looking baguettes, as well as a hairstyle that looks like a wig - but who would choose a wig in such a silly style/colour?

Bulgarian lesson 15: Children, repeat after me, "The baguettes of the impresario are a joy to behold, and are stored in the bureau of my aunt."

Many thanks for the compliment, George.

It's all a matter of coincidence.

Betjeman. We used to have a lovely little programme on Dutch television called De Dode Dichters Almanak ("The Dead Poets Almanac"). Every Sunday evening a poem was featured on this programme. Just one poem by a poet who wasn't alive anymore. Sometimes the length of an episode was less than a minute. One evening, somewhere in the late 1990s, I was watching this programme and the title of the featured poem was Hertfordshire and it was recited by a very funny man who was sitting on a park bench. It was John Betjeman. I thought: I have to remember that name. A few months later a Dutch radio station broadcasted those old records he made (with music by Tim Parker). I found these recordings very entertaining so I decided to order a book of poems by Betjeman and the rest is history.

I know remember that the Dutch translation of that Betjeman poem was published in a Dutch television guide in the week when it was shown on television. I'll see if I can find it. I must have saved it somewhere.

Light Music. Television again. Also late 1990s. I saw a concert on Belgian television. I don’t remember which orchestra played, but I suppose that it was an orchestra from Belgium. It was a light music concert and Clive Swift was the presenter. He had become famous because Keeping up Appearances had become a hit on Dutch and Belgian television. “What a lovely music!” I thought. Some time later I found a CD with light music and I became a fan for life. I hasten to add that I already was a fan of Mantovani. I found those wonderful old Decca recordings in the record collection of my parents when I was ten year old or so.

British films. Well, sometimes you meet a nice person on a message board who’s willing to give you some advice:

http://r3ok.myforum365.com/index.php?topic=1201.msg35618;topicseen#msg35618

I’m intrigued by your point on things that don’t travel. I think it has everything to do with meeting the right people. Some composers, writers or painters are just unknown in some countries because they don’t know influential people there. But probably there are also other reasons. Perhaps I should open a new thread on this subject?

Yes, Loeki is great, George!

He appeared on Dutch television for the first time in 1972 to introduce commercials and he was last seen on TV in 2004. A year later, Loeki became a figure in the attraction Carnaval Festival, opened in 1984 and created by Loeki's creator Joop Geesink, in the Dutch amusement park De Efteling. This attraction has always been a bit controversial because some people think that Geesink stole the idea from Disney's It's a Small World. I don't know if this is true, but recently I discovered that the Bavarian television also used a lion puppet at the start of commercials. This was in the late 1950s. Perhaps Geesink was just an imitator, but he made some very fine commercial puppet films and I'll see if I can find them somewhere online.

I found a Carnaval Festival clip on Youtube. You can see Loeki at:

0:51  Loeki in Holland
1:07  Loeki in Paris (fountain)
1:26  London (Loeki wearing a bowler and umbrella)
1:43  bagpipes!
2:13  Loeki climbing a German mountain
2:35  Italy (note the Loeki bust and his little duck friend Guusje wearing a laurel wreath)
3:35  Japan (Loeki in Samurai costume)
4:00  Loeki in a Chinese circus
4:11  Alaska (Loeki catching a cold in an igloo)
4:49  Loeki in Africa
5:23  Loeki in Mexico
6:01  Loeki waving goodbye (he's wearing a T-shirt with the letter L on it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BugbVTE3H1s

I loved this show when I was a little kid.