Happy Harry Secombe Day, everybody!

[Guy Profumo]

At least of those of us in the Northern Hemisphere that is.

[Paul S]

Harry Seacombe day? Can you explain?

[Guy Profumo]

"If I ruled the World, every day would be the first day of spring"

[Stumpy Pepys]

To Harry Secombe: "I hope you die first as I don't want you singing at my funeral." — Spike Milligan

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

First day of spring (although I thought meteorologists had that as 1st March, not the equinox).

[Guy Profumo]

To Harry Secombe: "I hope you die first as I don't want you singing at my funeral." — Spike Milligan

And they still played a recording at Spike's

[Nocturnal Submission]

Did they! Haha! Excellent.

[Eggchaser]

When the two of them first met on the entertainment tours at the end of the war, Milligan's description of Secombe's blend of comedy and singing was, "His wasn't an act, it was an interruption."

[Nocturnal Submission]

What was that Les Dawson gag, something like "The night variety died the police took my act in for questioning."

[Guy Profumo]

When the two of them first met on the entertainment tours at the end of the war, Milligan's description of Secombe's blend of comedy and singing was, "His wasn't an act, it was an interruption."

Wasn't there the first time they met when a piece of artillery fell down a hill?

have you just seen a 20pdr roll past?

What colour was it?

[Lang Spoon]

Fuckin Highway destroyed my Sunday early evenings through the 80s. Fuck the singing Valleys Holy Joe Cunt.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Did they! Haha! Excellent.

They did. Spike - despite his myriad problems, contradictions, and outright nastiness, on occasion - remains one of my heroes. I read his war memoirs on the recommendation of one of my childhood neighbours, the headmaster of a school a few miles away, and they genuinely changed my life. He seemed to see something in me that, admittedly, my own dad saw and which I kicked against, that he recognised. The same man who wanted me, as a voracious reader and owner of his own mind, to help him write a series of quiz books for children that he started and never got to finish because of his untimely death. I'd refused to help because I was as stubborn and - on occasion - as nasty as Spike. I wish I'd taken his offer.

Weird how life works out.

[Toby Gymshorts]

That's a bit of a hijack, isn't it? Anyway, happy spring, Neddie Seagoon.

[Nocturnal Submission]

No, that's very interesting, Toby, and obviously one of those points in one's life when a random event changes its course. You should start a thread.

Harry, incidentally, isn't forgotten in my neck of the woods, where he spent some of his latter years: