t, 
News you may have missed
HOLDING THE FRONT PAGE : Pastry shock spotted by IAN BAIN
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‘I can’t believe my front-page Poldark story was
replaced with a Bake Off story!’
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Legends in their lunchtime
Backs to the wall at Joe's
After years of being off the wall, the World’s Greatest Lunch Club has finally gone on it. A framed picture of its members has now been screwed firmly to the wall at Joe Allen restaurant in London’s Covent Garden. The brass plaque reads: The World’s Greatest Lunch Club. By an uncanny coincidence, it has been placed immediately against a poster for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, as pictured below.
Guest at the August lunch was the great raconteur John McEntee, who writes the Ephraim Hardcastle column in the Daily Mail. John’s excellent new book “I’m Not One to Gossip But…” is available HERE
Pictured from left are: Dick Dismore, Alastair McIntyre, David Eliades, Alan Frame, Terry Manners, Roger Watkins, Ashley Walton and Pat Pilton.
Photographs by courtesy of the Drone Grainy Picture Department (patents pending).
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In memory of a great Hickey
A plaque in memory of Peter Tory, former editor of the William Hickey column in the Daily Express, has been unveiled at St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street, London. Read more here
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The Express’s militant tendency
The attitude of the editorial staff to the management of Express Newspapers was bolshie bordering on the anarchic in the 1970s as this spoof memo circulated to staff at the time proves.
Staff cuts were nothing new even in the 1970s as managements strove to cut enormous staff numbers. The memo was written at the time of union dominance on the paper with the NUJ riding on the coat tails of the then much more powerful print unions.
The NUJ militancy, which often resulted in mandatory chapel meetings at busy times, resulted in some large pay rises for journalists. Those were the days!
Thanks to former Daily Express sub Nigel Lilburn for finding "this piece of creative prose" among his treasures.
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Farewell to Fleet Street
The Street of Broken Dreams is no more. The Guardian has published a terrific set of pictures of Fleet Street newspapers through the ages to commemorate the last journalists leaving our spiritual home. This photograph shows crowds outside the famous Daily Express building in December 1932 waiting to greet the aviator Amy Johnson on her return from her historic flight to South Africa.
UPDATE Stig Abell, editor of The Times Literary Supplement and former managing editor of The Sun, has written an excellent account of the state of the British Press for the New York Times.
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Lookalike
Nicola Sturgeon Wee Jimmy Krankie
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Ivor and Iain Beatle off to lunch
TWO Fleet Street veterans found much had changed when they had lunch at El Vino in London.
Ivor Davis, who reported from Los Angeles for the Daily Express for many years, got together with Iain Smith, formerly of the Daily Mail, at their old watering hole.
Ivor, pictured right, told the Drone: "El Vino's lunches were much vaunted: Champagne to start, fine wines followed – then brandy and port. Then back to the office to get the paper out. And oh yes – food."
Davis found fame in 1964 when he traveled with the Beatles on their first American tour – and has been dining out on the experience ever since.
He acted as ghostwriter for George Harrison, who was being paid fairly lavishly for his Express column. The Express helpfully referred to Harrison as “George Harrison the Beatle" so as not to confuse him with anyone else.
Iain Smith and Tony Delano of the Mirror, also joined the tour which created rock and roll history. And, as Ivor put it, a few popular songs.
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Grainy Snaps Dept strikes again
Selfies taken in the pub on a Friday night are seldom noted for their artistic merit but when the study is described as a ‘brief and limited Express reunion at Canary Wharf' the Drone cannot shrink from its responsibilities to publish. Pictured here, possibly having the time of their lives are, from the left, Mark Hoey, Nigel ‘Nine Times’ Palmer and Valerie Bolcina. We cannot shed any light on the nature of Mr Palmer’s sobriquet but if you can help, kindly send a Telex to 'Drone London’. Cleft sticks are so yesterday.
UPDATE Such was the quality of the snap that it was sent for improvement to Drone Laboratories and, in the finest tradition of the Daily Express, the result is revealed below.
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Corbyn’s answer to Trident
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Not many dead: Important
news you may have missed
Press Photo History Project
CALLING all photographers!
The Daily Drone is pleased to be associated with the Press Photo History Project which aims to record every news photographer and photographic agency operating in the UK from 1904 to the present.
The project is run by Will Carleton, who explains: "The project was born from weekly copyright inquiries I get through my main photo industry website https://photoarchivenews.com which I have been running for almost 18 years now, it covers news from the editorial and stock photo industry.
"As I have the Fleet Street bug for anything associated with the working life of newspaper photo departments, photo agencies and freelance news photographers, starting and updating the http://www.pressphotohistory.com was a natural way of enjoying an interest while providing an information and networking base for photographers who worked in Fleet Street.
"The project as a whole intends to list/map every Fleet Street photographer and agency operating in and around the Street from around 1904 when photography was really noticed by newspaper owners.
"The PPHP has been responsible for a few reunions and arranges get-togethers for photographers across the globe - this was off the back of the site: http://www.pressphotohistory.com/central-press-photo-agency-staff-incredible-reunion-after-45-years/
"The British Library has given it a tick as a worthwhile directory and record of life as a press photographer in Fleet Street. Any cash donations to the project are spent trawling through directories at places like the British Library, trying to piece addresses of agencies and the photographers who worked for them.
There is a little more about the project here: http://www.pressphotohistory.com/about/ with links to a few memories which really make the base of the site and record what was a very industrious side to the production of a newspaper.”
You can contact Will through his website HERE
Bottoms up!
Who’s this performing her famous party trick? Found out here
Of all the bars in all the world...
The chances of two veteran Daily Express subs meeting in a deserted steak bar in Northampton on a Monday night were slim to non-existent.
But Rod Jones (left), up from London visiting friends, stumbled across Tony Boullemier, who lives in Northampton. They hadn’t seen each other for 20 years.
Tony and his family were just about the only customers and insisted that Rod and his companion took wine with them. Naturally there was much catching up and many anecdotes.
Curiously the two were Northamptonshire rivals in the 1980s when Rod edited the Evening Telegraph at Kettering and Tony ran the Northants Post group based in Northampton.
But they never met until the 1990s when Rod was at the Express and Tony had sold the Post and was back at the DX as a freelance sub.
“It was great to see Rod again,” said Tony. “From what I recall, we put the newspaper world entirely to rights.”
Jimmy Nicholson dies aged 89
THE World’s Greatest Crime Reporter, James Nicholson, known to everyone except the byline writers as Jimmy, has died at the age of 89. He is pictured celebrating his 87th birthday at his care home in Essex in January 2014.
The Drone understands that the funeral, which was family only, has already been held. A memorial service is being considered.
Drone version for those without a Telegraph subscription
EXCLUSIVE Big Noise of the Bailey by JAMES DAVIES
True story of the Prince of Darkness
See Jimmy interviewed by Sky’s Martin Brunt
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The Lino's back on the floor
There are a few familiar faces from the old Daily Express days in this snap. Can you put a name to any of them? Find out who’s who here
Memorial bench that fits the Bill
The bunting was fluttering outside the Essex home of Bill ‘Didge’ Reynolds as family and friends unveiled a bench in memory of the much-loved Expressman who died last August aged 73
PICTURE SPECIAL: Didge’s country seat
John's looking Lyth and lissom
Former Express photographer John Lyth is looking fit and well if this picture posted on Facebook is anything to go by. John started out in Manchester when he was nobbut a lad, right, before transferring to the picture desk in London. He later worked on the Daily Mail and lived in France for some years before returning to Roxby in Yorkshire.
Mr Glum takes new tech lying down
CAN YOU HEAR ME MOTHER? A reader has sent us this excellent photograph from a book on the history of an old hospital in Kent. The caption reads: 1958: St Helen’s first ‘mobile telephone’ which was funded by the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service. Some members of the WRVS are at the bedside as a patient makes the inaugural call.
We have done our best with the headline. Can anyone do better?
Peter Michel suggests: Immobile phone for Mr 1958
Ken Potter: Mr Glum not hung up on new technology
Alan Frame: Phone sex is best done in private ...
One in the Eye No 100
Volume 14: 1985
History of the Daily and Sunday Express as told 31 years ago through the columns of Private Eye (Lord Drone does not necessarily agree with the sentiments expressed although, from memory, they seem reasonably accurate.)
New readers: The Eye referred to the Express as the Getsworse, the Getsmuchworse, or the Getsevenworse or sometimes even worse than that.
29th November 1985
Street of Shame
Indolent Getsmuchworse hacks, unaccustomed to churning out more than 1000 words a year for their £25,000-plus salaries, were stunned to hear new supremo David Stevens’ megaplan for increased efficiency.
“Every journalist,” announced Stevens, “should produce 1500 words a day.”
Grovel
Following my recent appeal I am inundated with snippets about Melissa “Countess Andrassy”, the wife of new Express boss David Stevens.
I am reliably told that the Countess’s maiden name was Milicevic and that she originally came from New York. The Milicevic mob are from Serbia and there is not an aristo among them.
Prince Paul Odescalchi, an Andrassy who now lives in Cheltenham, says he does not know the lady. I am referred to his cousin Giesa Andrassy, who lives in Liechtenstein and cannot help much either. A lady in Wales who keeps notes of such matters is alas no help at all.
I have better luck concerning those dimmer days when Melissa went under the simple handle of Mrs Sadoff. After her first marriage to an American clerk, which got her into the USA, Melissa teamed up with musician Bob Sadoff. They operated for a while in showbiz in and around Las Vegas working with Welsh warbler Tom Jones among others.
The Sadoffs then came to London where they were tenants of a Mr Ralph Saunders in Chester Square. Apparently there was some difficulty getting them out.
None of this explains the mystery of the tale. My fiver is still on offer.
*DRONE NOTE: Melissa, who did in fact become Lady Stevens after David’s ennoblement, choked to death on a sliver of peach four years later in 1989. She was 55.
The Glasgow Herald reported: Lord Stevens told a Westminster inquest his Hungarian-born wife had been unwell for about two weeks. “She had a sort of flu and had not been particularly fit.”
At about 6am on February 19, Lord Stevens said he heard heavy breathing coming from the bathroom. “There was not a sound of choking, but as if gasping for air.”
He found a finger-sized slice of peach his wife’s mouth and the rest of the fruit and its stone untouched.
Coroner Dr Paul Knapman recorded a verdict of accidental death.
Lord Stevens, who will be 90 on May 26, now sits as one of three Ukip peers in the Lords.
THAT’S IT FOR 1985 CHUMS, MORE FOLLOWS FOR 1986 BEFORE LONG (PROBABLY) AS SOON AS LORD DRONE’S MAN EXTRACTS HIS DIGIT AND FINDS THE FILE
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Le boulevardier de Nîmes
An Englishman Abroad: The lesser-spotted Expressman Geoff Compton has been found alive and well and living in Nîmes. Dick Dismore, who took this picture, has just returned from Provence where he has been inspecting ancient ruins
Craig’s heroic poll failure
Never a man to shirk a challenge, Craig Mackenzie has failed in his bid to win a seat on Elmbridge Borough Council in Surrey. Craig stood as an Independent in the true-blue seat of Weybridge Riverside and did quite well, gaining 468 votes, 8.13 per cent of the poll. The surprise winner, a Liberal Democrat, gained 893 votes (15.52 per cent). Two Tories were also elected. Craig’s brother Kelvin also stood as an Independent in the seat in 2014 but failed to persuade the electorate that he was the right man for the job. The electorate don’t know what they’re missing.
Full steam for Warren Street
GOING LOCO: Expressman David ‘Bunny’ Laws is all ears as he prepares to hop aboard an Easter express Picture: RAY KING
OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH
World’s Greatest Lunch Club
GLASSES HALF FULL: But who’s who? Find out here
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IMPORTANT UPDATE!
Thatcher visits the Express
Mr Geoffrey Compton, formerly of this parish, has finally got round to viewing the above photograph published last year on the Daily Drone. Geoff recalls that he was involved in an incident with a waste paper bin when Margaret Thatcher visited the Daily Express offices in Fleet Street in 1978. He also mentions that waste paper bins were considered a novelty in the subs room, although what he means by this is anyone’s guess.
Only in your Super Soaraway Daily Drone
YES chums, the Drone is widening its horizons into the dizzying world of sport. This major venture occurred after a companion remarked to Lord Drone at luncheon in Mayfair that the one thing the Daily Drone lacked was Sports News, whatever that is.
His Lordship, who confesses that he is not well versed in matters relating to games, sincerely hopes that the following items fit the bill. The companion referred to, the Hon Jonathan Zackon, wishes to remain anonymous.
(Will this do? – No, it’s crap, Ed)
RUGBY England v Wales
SPOT THE EXPRESSMAN 1: A sporting print from 1960
SPOT THE EXPRESSMAN 2: Roger Watkins, Monmouth School Colts XV (back row, second left)
SPOT THE EXPRESSMAN 3: It’s that man Watkins in sporting kit once more, Junior Colts XV (3rd row, far right)
SPOT THE EXPRESSMAN 4: Watkins in cricket gear, Monmouth School Colts XI, (back row, third left)
RACING Grand National shock
FOOTBALL Spot the Potts
As regular readers will know the Daily Drone is always keen to get news of Paul Potts, former 'deputy editor’ of the Daily Express. So it is with great pleasure that we publish this ancient picture of him fixing his gimlet eye on the unfortunate camera person.
The photograph has the added benefit of adhering to this publication’s avowed new policy of placing more ‘sport’ in our columns.
Have you spotted Pottsy? He’s in the back row, third from the right, letting his hair down.
Is this OK for legals, Cocklecarrot? – Ed. Only just my lord
… and now spot the bots
SILLY ARSE: There’s always one …
BADMINTON Two cocks better than one
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Norman takes an early bath
Express reporter Norman Luck was game for everything during his illustrious career, but what is he up to this time? Find out here
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Old songs, old fiddle (allegedly)
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A grater view of Fleet Street
London is an ever-changing city and the skyline as viewed from Fleet Street is no different. Competing with the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral is the 737ft tall Leadenhall Building, better known as the Cheese Grater. It wasn’t there when Lord Drone was a lad.
Picture by LEAH DUDMAN
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Good lord! It’s a hippo replacement
How Lord Drone survived the wartime petrol crisis: The ever-resourceful peer commandeered a hippotamus from the London Zoological Gardens to replace his limousine which had run out of fuel. Horses could not be used at the time as hay, carrots and sugar lumps were also in short supply. The snap turned up at the Drone morning editorial conference today which mainly involves his Lordship talking to himself. The news drought continues …
(Good Lord, is that the time - Ed)
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How Lord Drone survived the war
Taking no chances: This ingenious perambulator allowed a youthful Lord Drone to smoke cigars while out with Nanny
(It’s a slow news day – Ed)
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And still on the subject of masks
The year was 2003 and the Daily Express news subs decided to celebrate in typically off-beat fashion for their Christmas celebration at the Cheshire Cheese pub in London. But why were they wearing masks? Lord Drone attempts to explain here
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Chums meet up by chance
Three former Express subs who worked together in Manchester more than 40 years ago had an unexpected, unscheduled reunion in a pub near Fleet Street.
They are, from left, Danny Gallagher, Roger Watkins and Dave Hardbord. Danny and Roger were features subs in Great Ancoats Street; Dave was on news. All three subsequently worked on various papers in Fleet Street including The Sun and Today as well as the Express.
The trio met up at a party to celebrate the acquittal of journalists on The Sun caught up in the Operation Elvedon cash-for-info witch hunt. They included former Express reporter Graham Dudman, who is, of course, Watkins's son-in-law.
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It’s Ladies Day at Joe Allen
Members of the World’s Greatest Lunch Club broke the habits of a lifetime and invited their wives to the Christmas get-together at Joe Allen in London. The lunching was as rigorous and intense as ever and if you thirst to know more, kindly click HERE
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Who’s this sunning himself?
The Sheikh of Araby maybe? Or just an Englishman abroad protecting himself from the madness of the midday sun. The answer to the conundrum, which amazed even Lord Drone, may be found HERE
Downward spiral of a once-great newspaper: Lord Beaverbrook would turn in his grave, mutters Lord Drone.
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Our snappers in the North
Daily Express photographer JOHN KNILL has been delving in his drawers again and come up with this snap of the serried ranks of DX photographers. And this was just the Manchester contingent, well most them – someone must have been working that night. Just who is who? Find out here
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Here’s to Evans above
Family and friends of the late Terry Evans, picture editor of the Sunday Express, gathered for a lunch in his memory at Joe Allen in London’s Covent Garden on 13th October. Who’s who?
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Gunner Hulls, hero of Arnhem
Everything comes to he who waits, so the old saying goes.
But some have to wait a little longer … 71 years in fact.
Daily Express sportswriter Sydney Hulls has at last received three medals which he should have been awarded after the Second World War.
Gunner Hulls, 92, is pictured with former Expressman David Eliades at a lunch in the old soldier's honour at the October First Tuesday reunion meeting in London in 2015.
Sports journalist David Miller, who discovered that Sydney was entitled to the medals, has written a tribute to his old colleague.
Who put the lights out?
NOTHING stopped the Daily Express in 1972, not even the miners’ strike. It was the year of constant power cuts instigated by Prime Minister Edward Heath to cope with the lack of coal to fuel the power stations. And as the clock hit 4.14 on a winter's afternoon the Express news sub-editors slaved away by gaslight. Lord Drone recalls that the gas lamps on the ceiling were still there when the Fleet Street office was vacated in 1989.
Who’s in the picture? We put a few names to faces HERE
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Hail and farewell to Fleet Street
The year was 1989 and Daily Express was finally leaving its old home in London’s Fleet Street. Three of the paper’s old hands joined in the celebrations in the composing room before the move across the river to Blackfriars. They are from left, picture editor Terry Evans, backbencher Bob Cocksworth and showbiz writer David Wigg. Bob died in 1994 aged 49 and Terry passed away last April aged 69. Both are greatly missed.
Picture supplied by TERRY MANNERS
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Who’s this at the Black Lubyanka?
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In praise of the unsung heroes
Writer Robin McGibbon, a former sub-editor himself, has discovered this old slightly stained Sunday Times piece dating at a guess from the 1980s
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Youngest Express sub dies at 80*
Another chum dies, this time it’s Guy Bellamy, who later found fame as author of The Secret Lemonade Drinker.
*Apart from Tony Boullemier, who came along 10 years later – and Alan Frame who says he can beat them both by five years.
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NEW FROM DRONE TV
Life After The Front Page
This rare and previously largely unseen film, unearthed in the annals of Lord Drone, recalls the grand old days of Fleet Street. It includes interviews with Ann Buchanan, of The Sun and Daily Mirror; Clem Jones, from the Wolverhampton Express; Eric Todd of the Manchester Evening Chronicle and The Guardian; and George Bell and Ted Townshend of the Daily Telegraph.
The film, which was made by students of Goldsmiths College, University of London, in 1999, also includes someone called Alastair McIntyre (who he – Ed?) who addresses the public from the Daily Express offices in Blackfriars.
Runtime is 16 minutes.
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Why the Express cartoonist Carl Giles said: I can’t draw people
ONLY ON DRONE TV
The Crusader Years 1900-1990
Only in the Drone: This video was supplied to Express staff in 1990 and is now published on the web for the first time.
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Two great men of Fleet Street
CHUMS: Former Daily Express Showbusiness Editor Victor Davis, left, meets his old colleague from the Daily Mail Brian Freemantle in a pub in London’s Kensington
Picture by MAUREEN FREEMANTLE
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Esther’s right Ryle mix-up
WE’VE all done it ... you arrange to meet a friend in the pub and you turn up on the wrong day or even the wrong pub.
Former Daily Express Editorial Secretary Esther Harrod did exactly that when she asked Glenys Pyne, former secretary to Daily Star editor Brian Hitchen, and one-time news and features sub-editor Terry Ryle to meet at the monthly First Tuesday get-together of old colleagues at the Old Bank of England pub in London.
Not understanding why 42 strangers were squeezed into the usual private room reserved for the Express, Esther harangued the manager – only to be told that she had come a week too late.
Nevertheless, Glenys, pictured above right, Terry and Esther had an enjoyable couple of hours catching up with each other and sinking a few beers.
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Say cheese! Or cheesed off?
Clive Hollick’s interesting decision in May 1998 to appoint the Left-wing women’s libber Rosie Boycott to the editorship of the then staunchly Tory Daily Express met with mixed results to put it mildly.
Rosie did her best to promote women to senior roles but the one executive she inherited, Deputy Editor Nicola Briggs, seemed less than happy with her lot when this photo was taken in 2000 shortly after Ms Boycott took the chair.
Pictured are: Front row, from left, Rosie Boycott; night editor Tina Moran, Lesley Thomas, Nicola Briggs, Colette Harrison and copy taster Wendy Fuller.
Back row: Jacqui Goddard, Heather Preen, Laura Kibby (now Fox) Tiffanie Darke, and Lisa from the art desk.
Rosie exited left in 2001 shortly after Richard Desmond bought the Express and she now runs a farm in Somerset. Nicola quit in 2003.
Philip Derbyshire comments: Boycott ordered this picture to be taken to show that the paper was being produced by women execs. Except that I was news editor that day. I thought she was going to sack me after I asked to be in the pic.
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Old Soaks’ Home
(Up to a point, Lord Copper)
The headline is not entirely correct. There were five of us for lunch but only two were drinking the hard stuff. Lunch with Didge
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Arthur Brittenden dies aged 90
Daily Mail editor Brittenden with Princess Anne on the stone of the newspaper in November 1969. He was formerly deputy editor of the Sunday Express Photo by Daily Mail/REX Shutterstock
When the Mail trailed the Express by two million
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Who’s that outside No10?
Who’s this on his bike – and
why is he wearing a hairnet?
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If this is the pub it must be Tuesday
Daily Express old-timers got together in April for another First Tuesday meeting. Find out who’s who here
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Late-night newsroom madness
A SPECTACLE IN MONOCLES: A typical late-night scene from the Daily Express newsroom in Fleet Street some time in the 1980s. Freshly back from the pub, Alastair ‘Bingo’ McIntyre (left) and Bob ‘Algy’ Smith make a feeble attempt to look busy. McIntyre commented: ‘At least only one eye was glazed.’
Picture by STEPHEN ‘BIFFO’ WOOD
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Manchester Express special
STILL THERE: The iconic Daily Express building in Great Ancoats Street, Manchester, today as seen by Google Streetlife
Remember the terrible twins?
Here on the Drone we never forget a face, particularly not these two terrifying characters – sunken-cheeked Ted Hodgson and bespectacled John McDonald. What were they up to? Find out in John Knill’s extensive photo archive from the Manchester office of the Daily Express – only in the Drone
DRONE PHOTONEWS:
Hands up those who recall the good old days at Ancoats
55 years ago: Massed ranks of Daily Express photographers
Where are they now? This, believe it or not, is the Daily Express team of 62 photographers in 1960. The picture, supplied to the Drone by John Knill (back row, fourth from right) was a publicity shot for Express Photonews, a major feature of the paper in those days. Who can you spot? Click here for a larger picture
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One in the Eye Special
Daily Mail’s big earners in 1990s
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Daily Express Newsroom 1990s
Who can you spot? This picture was taken in the early to mid-1990s at the new Daily Express offices in Blackfriars shortly after the paper had gone over to the SII system of direct input. The view is from the picture desk in the foreground to the news desk and behind that the backbench and news sub-editors.
We can spot Terry Evans (looking very ginger), Mick Lidbury, Maurice Hibberd, Gordon Ducker, Mike Parry, Annie Leask, Ian Walker, David Richardson, Danny McGrory, Brian Thistlethwaite and Ian Benfield
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What’s in the box?
Lost and Found: The Bulletin Box
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Ye olde Express Christmas
Old flame: Sub-editor Alastair ‘Bingo’ McIntyre celebrates Christmas in traditional style at the Daily Express in the 1980s. Note the lick of flame emerging from the wastepaper bin. If memory serves, McIntyre was invited by Night Editor Craig Orr to come out from beneath the desk ‘just for the first edition’. Needless to say, the picture was taken after the subs’ festive lunch.
McIntyre comments: Elaine Canham has been in touch to say: 'The flaming waste basket reminded me of the night you and I and Jan [Barden] set off fireworks in the subs room; you burned your thumb as I recollect.’
A spokesman for Sue, Grabbit and Runne said: 'Needless to say Mr McIntyre has absolutely no recollection of this. Will this do Bings?’
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Daily Express Foreign Desk 1972
ANOTHER WORLD: Clockwise from the left: Ian Bain, Jim Nichol (deputy foreign editor), Stewart Steven (foreign editor), John Moger (night foreign editor) and Norman Jarvis. The elbow on the bottom right may have belonged to David Ross, David Eliades or Jim Thurman.
Ian Bain, who supplied this picture, recalls a drunken journey he blames on Jocelyn Stevens
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Daily Express Features Desk 1984
Pictured at the Fleet Street offices are, from left, Ross Benson, features secretary Tinu, Mike Deane and Alan Frame
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THE WORLD’S GREATEST LUNCH CLUB
Despite the dishevelled look of the table, there was a modicum of food consumed when the Drones met for lunch at Joe Allen on Wednesday 11th December, 2013. Pictured are, from left, Alan Frame, Ashley Walton, guest of honour Liz Gill, Terry Manners, Roger Watkins, Pat Pilton, Alastair McIntyre, Terry Evans and Dick Dismore
MORE GRAINY PICS AND A READER’S COMMENT HERE
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WHEN JOE HAD A GO AT POLITICS
Former Daily Express sub-editor Joe Neal has resurfaced as an actor in Ireland. And, as this picture proves, he stood unsuccessfully as an independent (or indepenent as his campaign literature puts it – sub-editor here please, steward) in the 2004 European elections. Joe has also written a book of poetry, Telling It At A Slant, which is available as a paperback from all good booksellers. If you want to see if he can act, (he can in the Drone’s opinion)
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Spaghetti House Siege (Part 2)
Laddies who lunch: The Daily Express Drones got together at the Spaghetti House in Holborn to drink to the memory of former Daily Express sub-editor and radio DJ Bob Kilbey who died in July. Bob used to organise an annual Christmas lunch at the restaurant. Pictured from left are Ashley Walton, Alastair McIntyre, Bill Reynolds, Ray King, Ross Tayne and Tony Boullemier
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ER … COME AGAIN?
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IT'S ALL IN THE TIMING...
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AND SO TO BEDS
This charming snap was taken from an aeroplane by Joy Desmond as she was wafted into Luton Airport. But what does it show? Find out here
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If the cap doesn't fit...
Sometimes editors have to do the most undignified things, as Sir Nicholas Lloyd found in 1995 when Sky TV invaded the Express offices in Blackfriars for a charity Telethon which was broadcast live to the masses.
The picture came to light during a gathering of the World's Greatest Lunch Club at which the guest was the man with the longest career in Fleet Street – 57 years and still counting. Read about it here.
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EXCLUSIVE PICTURE – LORD DRONE MEETS THE QUEEN MOTHER
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Who Was Who on the Express in 1969
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HISTORY OF THE EXPRESS DRONES CLUB
THE DUCK CALL AND FIRE EXTINGUISHERS AT MIDNIGHT
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