DAILY DRONE

TORY LEADERSHIP BATTLE SUMMED UP

Seriously though...

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THE ETERNAL TRUTH

THE FAR SIDE

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Watch the World’s Greatest Movie on TV tomorrow

To: The Editor                                                              June 15, 2019

Sir,

Following the success of your brilliant Drone series The Christiansen Chronicles, you will recall you asked to be informed when the cult sci-fi film The Day the Earth Caught Fire, which stars Arthur Christiansen and was shot in and around the Daily Express, was next being shown on television. 

Our excellent Chief Programme Researcher Muldoon (I can’t recall authorising that appointment — Ed) says that it will be screened on Talking Pictures TV (Freeview 81; Freesat 306; Sky 328; Virgin 445) tomorrow, Wednesday, June 19, at 6.30pm.

You will, no doubt, recall that Muldoon also contributed the following in his acclaimed (by whom? — Ed) series History in Moments:

1961: Legendary Daily Express editor Arthur Christiansen demonstrates that as an actor he was a very fine journalist playing himself in the cult sci-fi movie The Day the Earth Caught Fire. 

Chris, pictured with Edward Judd, who played a maverick reporter (aren’t they all ? - Ed), spent most of the time spouting lines like: “Hold the front page!” and “Make it sing and make it a song I like!” (Or was that another legendary Daily Express Editor?).

The film was based on the Express in its heyday and many shots were filmed in the office and Fleet Street. 

One of its main characters was Leo McKern who played a typical hard-drinking, hard-swearing grizzled Express News Editor. “ (You just mean Philippa Kennedy — Ed)

Behind the scenes there was also rumoured to have been a piquant play within a play starring an Express executive (still there in the seventies) and the luscious female lead, Janet Munro, who, after a hard day’s filming, were encountered discussing bold intros and splash heads in the lane behind the Old Bell (mem to Night Lawyer Cocklecarrot: It’s OK: they’re both dead now).

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EXPRESS CHIEF'S EXTRAORDINARY HOME MOVIE
Beaverbrook as you’ve never seen him before

THE Drone has uncovered an extraordinary home movie featuring Daily Express proprietor Lord Beaverbrook and the novelist H G Wells.

The silent film, filmed in 1924 at the peer’s home Cherkley, near Leatherhead, Surrey, takes the form of an amateur black comedy and also features the writer and feminist Rebecca West, who had a long affair with Wells and later reportedly with Beaverbrook. 

Beaverbrook, who died in 1964 and widowed in 1927, is pictured above wearing a top hat with some of the cast.

The film is fascinating also as a social document, revealing the mores of the time which are considered very politically incorrect today. 

You have been warned!

The film, entitled They Forgot to Read the Directions, runs for 20 minutes and there is no sound. 

Watch it here

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Reassurance for discerning undyed kipper shoppers

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This superb example of current journalism appears in the Mail Online. A thought: Would it be possible for you to present a prize to the first of its sub-editors to get three "afters" into a headline? 

As a general rule, my advice to headline writers is: Never write after after after.

IMPRESSED, Orpington

POT, KETTLE? Former Daily Express news editor Mike ‘Porky’ Parry reveals his version of chivalry on Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine Show

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How newspapers work 

Before last weekend, the last time that Liverpool won the Champions League was in 2005, reports POPBITCH.

A small group of reporters managed to cadge their way on to one of the club buses as it paraded around the city. While on the bus, one tabloid hack took a call from his editor who needed to know the size of the crowd cheering on the team.

Having no real idea, he blurted out "750,000" – and then suggested to all the other reporters that if they all just agreed to stick to that figure, they'd all be OK for the day. So they did.

The story came to mind last Sunday when the city of Liverpool was celebrating again. And how many people did the press think were out on the street?

Yep, you guessed it.

By MICHAEL HOLMAN, Africa Editor, 

Financial Times

I’ve just checked in

I forgot to call you; or — I’ve just woken up

I’ve just got in

S/he’s been playing tennis

My computer is giving trouble

S/he’s had another long lunch

It’s rather complicated

He/she doesn’t understand the story

There’s someone I need to speak to

They definitely don’t understand the story

I’ll have to make a few calls first

I have to call Reuters

Not to my knowledge; or It’s hard too say at this stage

I haven’t a clue

The story won’t hold

I got the story from the Guardian correspondent

I’ve managed to get a copy of the communiqué

I have been given a copy of the Press release 

Who edited today’s story?

What the hell have you done to my copy?

Note: The above sequence is sometimes inadvertently transposed by excitable correspondents

I TOLD switchboard where I’d be

I forgot to tell switchboard where I’d be

I wrote that a year ago

I’ve missed the story

I’ll keep it short

I’ll write 500

The BBC and Guardian plan to cover it

The BBC and Guardian also want to get out of the office

Really? I thought it was a two-hour difference

My copy is going to be late

Lines are terrible

My copy is going to be late

There are only six phones

My copy is going to be very late

I’m working from home

I’m taking the day off

My computer is playing up

I’m going to miss the first edition

No-one else here is interested

I want to stay home this weekend

The flights are full

I’ll have to travel business class

The hotel is lousy

My room doesn’t overlook the beach

It’s worth staying on

I’m enjoying the company of the ambassador’s secretary

I’m staying on to cover the drought

I’m enjoying the company of an aid worker

I’ve just checked in

I forgot to call you; or I’ve just woken up

Sources:

Informed source — any hack

Well-informed source — any hack corroborated by taxi driver

Diplomatic source — When two hacks agree

Official sources — Reuters

One of my sources — embassy Press officer

PIPE DREAMS: Hard at work on the Daily Express foreign desk in 1972 are, clockwise from the left: Ian Bain, Jim Nichol (deputy foreign editor), Stewart Steven (foreign editor), John Moger (night foreign editor) and Norman Jarvis

By MICHAEL HOLMAN

It’s all there

It needs a complete rewrite

It needs rejigging

The desk will have to rewrite it

It needs more work

You have to rewrite it

The intro’s not quite right

The intro is wrong 

Could we move the sixth par higher?

You’ve missed the lead

Could we have a paragraph high up saying …

The news editor has sent the story back

Is there another way of saying…?

As above

Bob’s looking at it, or alternatively Bob’s pulling it together

It’s being rewritten

In this context:

Bob, what’s the weather like?

Have you forgotten everything they taught you at Reuters?

Caroline wants a word

Not only have you stuffed up the intro, you’ve got the whole story wrong

In this context:

Darling

Arsehole

Babyshoes

You’ve really screwed up

It’s already gone through

We’re not going to change it

Might need to cut it a bit

It’s becoming a brief

No problems

Praise

Looks all right to me

Effusive praise

Can it hold for Monday? (said on Friday)

Is it boring?

We’re holding it for Monday

It is boring

He/she’s not around at the moment

He/she’s sought sanctuary and is reading the Standard

In this context:

I’m just looking at it now

Where the hell is it?

Followed by:

I’ll come back to you

I should have read it, I can’t find it, and quite frankly I’ve forgotten what it was that I asked you to file

They’re asking for it (outside story) early

I want to go home/to the pub

It’s a very bad line

Unfortunately I can hear you all too clearly

The other line is going

You’ve got 10 seconds to wind up

We’re a bit pressed

We’ve got more important stories

We’re tight on space

There’s no room for Africa

I’ve been trying to get through for ages

I forgot to return your call

Didn’t you get my message?

I should have rung you earlier

Perhaps we could do it this way

We’ll do it my way

As distinct from:

Really

That’s a great story

(The subtle tonal variations which distinguish one ‘really’ from another cannot be conveyed in text)

TWO talented stalwarts of the Daily Express in Manchester, Stan Welsh and Peggie Robinson, have died within days of each other.

Stan, famed copytaster and all-round good guy, succumbed to pneumonia on Wednesday, May 15.

Peggie, a brilliant news reporter, died on May 4, aged 97.

Jim Collins, a former Express sub-editor and a good mate of Stan described him as "one of those true journalists who made up the Daily Express’s backbench team in Manchester for many years”. 

Stan had been suffering from bowel cancer but eventually succumbed to pneumonia while in hospital. There will be an inquest.

His former wife Rita Welsh said it was a peaceful death in the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield.

Another friend, Mike Hughes, said: "Stan, who was in his early 80s, joined the Express in the late Sixties and soon became copytaster. 

"He stayed at the Express until production switched to London. He was also a Sunday Express regular.

"He had been active until recently, still going for a beer with former Express and Star colleagues living in Sheffield, including Peggie Robinson.

“Stan made his way to the Express, after National Service as a gunner and working for papers in East Anglia and Sheffield.”

Stan’s funeral will be held on Tuesday June 18, at 1pm, at Holy Trinity & St Mary the Virgin Church, Old Clee, Grimsby DN32 8NB followed by 2pm burial at Cleethorpes Cemetery.

A wake will be held at the Casablanca Club, Oxford Street, Grimsby DN32 7QH.

Peggie, a highly-respected mountaineer and yachtswoman, was one of the few women reporters operating after the war and covered the Yorkshire Ripper case and the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

A Tynesider, she died in a care home in Sheffield after a long illness.

Two lost legends of journalism, by RICHARD DISMORE

Shields Gazette tribute

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McFadden’s Cold War

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EVEN BEEN FOXED BY A NICKNAME?

How editor McColl came to be known as Basil Brush (possibly)

               MR BRUSH                             MR McCOLL
Former Express and Mirror man TERRY PATTINSON has entertained his friends on Facebook with two great anecdotes about the Daily Express

I was once delegated to escort Tory Minister Norman Tebbit around the Daily Express building in Fleet Street.

Editor Ian McColl, not long out of Scotland, insisted on joining me although I knew the building like the back of my hand.

After showing Tebbit around the newsoom, picture desk, and fashion department, I decided to take him to the features writers' room.

As we walked down a long corridor McColl suddenly stopped and said to Tebbit: "This is the features department, accommodating the best writers in Fleet Street."


With a grand flourish he threw open the door.
 Out fell buckets, brushes and mops. It was a store cupboard.


McColl apologised and Tebbit said he had to 'get back to the House of Commons.'


I escorted Tebbit to his chauffeur-driven limo, parked outside the Express office.
 As he got into the car Tebbit said to me: "Why don't you Express chaps drink more lemonade?"


Private Eye loved the anecdote.
 After that McColl was dubbed 'Basil Brush.”

*But there’s no denying that McColl (my first DX editor) did look like Basil Brush — Ed

*****
True story. Freelance journalist Frederick Forsyth ventured into Fleet Street in the late 60s when he was 31 years old and tried to persuade the legendary Chapman Pincher (Daily Express) to look at his manuscript for a new book.

Pincher had asked his faithful secretary, Yolande, to get rid of the 'nutter' from the front hall (as we used to call people who dropped in without an appointment. Most were time-wasting nutters).

Instead, Yolande took Forsyth upstairs to meet the great man and made a pot of tea.
 Pincher was busy with his latest blockbuster exclusive and was as polite as possible before throwing the hungry freelance back on to the street.


Pincher felt sorry for Forsyth because, said Pincher, the proposed book had no chance of success.
 The book? The Day of the Jackal.
 The rest, as they say, is history.


Pincher revealed this anecdote in his autobiography published four years ago.

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APRIL CIRCULATION FIGURES

SUNDAY MIRROR SALES FALL BELOW THE TIMES

The Day I had breakfast with Doris Day (sort of)

ROBIN McGIBBON remembers a chance meeting with  Hollywood superstar Doris Day, who has died aged 97.

In the mid-Seventies, when I was publishing books, I had breakfast with Doris Day, in the famous Beverly Hills restaurant, Nate 'n' Al's.

Well, not quite.

I was in a booth with a minor Hollywood film producer, Murray Silverman, when Doris came in, with a gentleman I didn't recognise, and sat in an adjoining booth, only a couple of feet away. 

My producer pal, who was not known for his shyness, immediately asked the actress if she would mind if he introduced me, "a famous publisher from London, England”.

In those days, I wasn't shy in coming forward either and did my best to live up to Murray's hyperbolic billing. Far from being irked that she'd been hijacked, with no escape, the enchanting Miss Day was charm itself — politely asking me about myself and my company for, at least, a quarter of an hour — before her (very tolerant) companion looked, again, at his watch and said they really must order.

Over the years, I've rarely missed an opportunity to boast of the morning I had breakfast with the legend that was Doris Day.

Well, I did. Didn't I? 

And look who met her too!

DRONE OPINION

WHY HAS THE DAILY MAIL HIRED THIS CARTOONIST?

WHAT is the point of the Daily Mail’s new cartoonist Paul Thomas? His drawings are just not funny, in fact they are embarassingly bad. Every day.

Thomas was hired to replace the brilliant Mac, Stan McMurtry, who retired last December. 

Yesterday he plumbed new depths by drawing a cartoon, pictured above, which not only isn’t funny but doesn’t make sense.

Does anyone get the ‘joke'? The Drone can’t explain it.

The editor should have taken Mr Thomas aside and whispered in his ear: “Could you have another think, old man?”

For that matter, the Mail On Sunday cartoonist Michael Heath isn’t much better either.

It’s a sad state of affairs when newspapers lose their sense of humour.

*An observant reader points out that the cartoon has a headline to which the answer is No.

Muldoon’s Lookalike

                  McENTEE                                BRADY
One is perceived to be playing a pivotal role in the future of this country with his subtle, sotto voce, behind the scenes advice and guidance; the other is the chairman of the 1922 Committee, a backbench group of Tory MPs. 

John McEntee and Sir Graham Brady may share the role of influential power brokers but they actually look alike as well.

Former Expressman McEntee, a leprechaun-like wit, bon vivant and World’s Greatest Lunch Club favourite, has just taken over the Daily Mail’s Ephraim Hardcastle column where he excels at writing short, witty and incisive observations of the events of the day (taking the pith, perhaps).

Sir Graham, a former PR consultant who edits the parliamentary magazine The House, has a genuinely important Brexit deadlock task in persuading the Prime Minister to “stop making a tit of yourself and piss off.” 

Isn’t life (and Muldoon) grand? — as McEntee’s guide and mentor Peter McKay was wont to proclaim.

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FREDDIE’S STAR QUALITY

 WE on the Drone are not particular fans of the comedian Freddie Starr, who has died aged 76. But this recording of him trying to mime to a broken tape shows him at his best.

Expressman ROBIN McGIBBON met Starr in the 1980s when he took the spiritualist Doris Stokes to the comic's Berkshire home for a Sun story about him giving the medium a horse.

Robin reports: "A Sun photographer had already arrived and Freddie nodded towards the kitchen, saying: 'Yer mate's in here — having a wank,' then ushered Doris through to his lounge  where they stayed, chatting, until Freddie was ready for photos, 40 minutes later. 

"The photographer and I weren't even offered a cup of tea. A funny man? Certainly. But coarse, rude and obnoxious, too.

"I went back to Bouverie Street with the snapper and typed the story in the Sun newsroom before trotting over to the Express for my afternoon subbing shift.

"Oh, happy days!”

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Snapper hits jackpot

THERE was dancing in the streets of Britain last night as Harry and Meghan announced the name of their newborn son. 

He will be known as Archie Harrison Tarquin Fin-Tim-Lin-Bin-Whin-Bim-Lim-Bus-Stop-F’tang-F’tang-Olé Biscuitbarrel Mountbatten-Windsor. 

The long-awaited announcement broke some of the secrecy surrounding the royal birth.

This is not the first time there has been a clandestine element to the birth of a Royal baby, as former Fleet Street reporter FRANK BALDWIN found out when he door-stepped the Lindo Wing for the birth of Princess Anne’s first baby Peter in 1977.

A boot up the Lindo Wing

Mail Online again

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Team who helped make the Daily Mirror great

THERE are some well-known Fleet Street faces in this picture of Mirrormen at the wedding of Tony Hatton in around 1971.

Sadly only four of them are still alive.

Pictured from left are: Alex Collinson, Phil Walker, Ted Graham (back), Ben Noble, Tony Hatton, Phil Bunton (back), Ron Pell, Vernon Rowe and Chris Evenden. 

So far as we know, the survivors are Alex Collinson (who supplied this picture), Ted Graham, Phil Bunton and Vernon Rowe.

Alex was with the Mirror from 1971 to 1988, starting as a news sub and graduating to production editor and group systems trainer. He later joined the Mail on Sunday finance section where he worked from 1993 to 2006.

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ALL OUR YESTERDAYS

New King rises out of a crisis

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DAILY EXPRESS EDITOR CONFESSES

I TOOK COMMAND OF BRUTAL PAPER WITH
TORTURED HISTORY..
AND I COULDN’T SLEEP

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Retirement from the Daily Mail is music to the Ashworths' ears

WHAT  do two respected Daily Mail sub-editors do after being forced into retirement by that nice Mr Dacre? They get a life by creating a website full of nostalgia and great music.

Alan and Margaret Ashworth now devote their time to A & M Records, an online compilation of everything they love from Beethoven to Beefheart.

There are also clips from the old BBC radio shows like Take It From Here, Have a Go and The Brains Trust. There is even a Dog Track of the Week by Bingo Reginald Ashworth, the couple’s working cocker spaniel.

Alan told the Drone: "We now help out with the website The Conservative Woman and both write regular columns for it — myself on rock and folk music, Margaret on hymns and old programmes from the BBC when it was good."

Alan, a former Assistant Night Editor, and Margaret, who was Splash Sub, have a combined service on the Mail of more than 70 years. They live in the Ribble Valley.

You can enjoy their website here

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And so the decline goes on

Newspaper circulation figures continued to fall across the board in March with the exception of the Evening Standard where distribution stayed steady on last year.

The latest ABC figures show Reach-owned titles the Sunday People, Star on Sunday and Daily Star continued to record the biggest year-on-year declines. Daily and Sunday Express figures also fell dramatically.

Free title the Metro posted the smallest year-on-year drop of 3 per cent, followed by the Sunday Times which had a 4 per cent drop in circulation.

DETAILS HERE

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Two Mikes fall out in vicious Twitter spat

EXPRESSMEN Mike Graham and Mike Parry, who formed a popular radio partnership on TalkSport, have fallen out big time.

The origin of the dispute, which broke out on Twitter, is unclear but seems to be centred on comments in Mike Graham’s book On the Road which is due to be released next Christmas.

Their radio partnership broke up when Graham moved to host his own show in the prime mid-morning slot on TalkSport’s sister station TalkRadio. The programme is in direct competition with another morning chat show hosted by Expressman James O’Brien on rival station LBC.

Parry, known as Porky, co-hosts a TalkSport show with Alan Brazil which he bills as Alan and the Porkmeister.

The two Mikes met while working on the Daily Express in London. Parry spent some time as a reporter before being appointed news editor.

A passage in Graham's book reads: 

"The problem for Mike Parry was that he wasn’t actually very bright. He was fifth in the pecking order in his own office. He was despised by every photographer he ever worked with and was universally known as a man who couldn’t be trusted.

"Aside from that his time in New York was uneventful. He broke no stories, he came up with no great features and in London he was treated as very much the junior.

"When he met me he became very chummy. He asked me to feed him all the news that I found out about for a very substantial fee that he could pay me for the Express.

"I liked him at first. It took me a while to work out that he was a complete bullshitter.”

Cynics have wondered whether the entire affair has been engineered to publicise Graham’s book. 

EDUCATING ARCHIE: According to Wikipedia, Mike Graham’s first name is actually Archibald but, of course, you can’t believe everything you read on the internet. 

The tweets below give a flavour of the spat.

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Fleet Street between the wars

George Davison Reid photographed this uniformed messenger boy crossing Fleet Street in London some time in the late 1920s and early 30s. Such boys often went on to become photographers or journalists themselves.

The picture looks west up the street towards the Law Courts and The Strand. The church is St Dunstan-in-the-West which has stood on Fleet Street for 180 years. Close by is the Bristol Times and Mirror building.

 Below is the scene today. 

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                                            _________

The Daily Express, best policy for a healthy life

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NEWS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

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Inside story of how Daily Star’s Page 3 models went tits up

Lord Drone is obliged to his gossip friends at POPBITCH for the following dispatch ...

The Daily Star's move from Richard Desmond's stable of smut to Trinity Mirror's more right-on empire has been a surprisingly seamless transition. 

But behind the scenes, at least one huge change has been made. Last week, topless models disappeared from the Star’s Page 3 – and they're not coming back.

The fact that the change was slipped out with zero fanfare suggests that management was hoping to get away with it without anyone noticing. However, when nobody actually did notice, it got them even more worried. 

Some of the Star's long-suffering staff fear that the reason there hasn't been a resulting media storm means that no-one's actually reading their paper any more.

Never fear, chaps! We saw what you did – and we're here to pay tribute to the end of a British institution and some of the stars that Page 3 produced.

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EXPRESS JOURNALIST FOUND HANGED AFTER   GRIM 17-HOUR SHIFT

Daily Mirror newsroom 1953

Even our elderly benefactor Lord Drone struggles to identify anyone in this view of the Mirror newsroom taken in Coronation year, 1953. 

The chap pictured centre in the bow tie looks very much like David Thompson, current Life President of the Association of Mirror Pensioners, but it isn’t him as he confirmed last night.

He said: "Doppleganger reporting. No, not me. But I was involved in the Coronation, reporting local events for the Mansfield Reporter and Sutton Ashfield Times and then starting National Service.” 

Revel Barker added: "I have a vague recollection that one of them (and I couldn't even guess which) was Joe Grizzard, who was on the back bench as a rising young star, perhaps even around that time.

"You need somebody to contact Hannen Swaffer — a committed spiritualist, he was still around then, and will still be online, somewhere. You could get him via Doris Stokes."

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News you have missed

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Bottoms up Down Under

IT’S an unwritten law that when old Fleet Street hands get together they end up in the pub.

Expressman Roger Tavener and his old chum Allan Hall carried on this fine tradition when they met to discuss old times in Sydney’s Lord Nelson, allegedly Australia’s first pub.

Roger wrote on Facebook: “Very excellent to meet up with foreign correspondent and author Allan Hall in the Lord Nelson.

“After 35 years (we were kids) it ended as it must. He fell asleep on a ferry and had to be woken by a friendly deck hand.

“I fell asleep on a bus (what’s a bus?) and the driver woke me. Mr Uber got me home. A very lovely Fleet Street day in Oz.”

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Sucker for a chukka

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A TRIBUTE TO HECTOR BREEZE IN THE TIMES

THE Times has paid tribute to Daily Express Pocket Cartoonist Hector Breeze in an obituary. 

Breeze, who died last December at the age of 90, was appointed by the Express in 1982 and was best known for his drawings featuring impoverished gentry with characteristic chinless faces and tiny dot eyes. 

Fellow cartoonist Ralph Steadman wrote in 1996 that Breeze's "clumsy bewildered characters restore my faith in the seriously daft”.

In 2004 Breeze was voted Pocket Cartoonist of the Year in the Cartoon Art Trust awards, but six months later he was sacked by the Daily Express.

Times Obituary

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Lament for the death of the gossip column

DAVID LISTER, a writer and columnist for The Independent, has written a masterly account of the slow demise of the Fleet Street diarist, including the death and resurrection of the William Hickey column in the Daily Express.

The rise and fall of the Fleet Street diarist

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A song to strike a chord with all long-suffering newspaper journalists

(CONTAINS SWEARING)

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LEVY’S GOLDEN FIFTY

Former Daily Express and Daily Mail star features writer Geoffrey Levy has celebrated 50 years of marriage with his wife Stephanie … and Alan Frame was invited to the Golden Wedding party of his old friend.

Levy’s golden day

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MEANWHILE AT WESTMINSTER…

New Brexit plan revealed

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C’est Jim sur le TV

Your eyes do not deceive you, this is Sunday Express sub-editor Jim Humphries appearing on BBC Breakfast TV. 

Jim, who has lived in the Dordogne region of France for the past 15 years, was interviewed  about his attitudes to Brexit with a fellow villager in Corgnac-sur-L’Isle.

As you perceive from his expression he is not keen on it. Jim said he was worried about continuing to receive free health care after he had undergone three recent operations in France.

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Expressman David Laws gets full-page treatment

Long-serving Expressman David Laws is busily publicising his latest novel Brexit Day, a fact that has not gone unnoticed by the Bury Free Press in his native Suffolk.

The paper gave David the full-page treatment with an interview with writer Barbara Eeles.

The book, a thriller, involves an out-of-favour journalist who tracks down a group of spies intent on sabotaging Brexit — and an assassin who is stalking the Prime Minister.

It’s a cracking read and is available as an ebook or paperback on Amazon. BUY IT HERE

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Brandt’s masterpiece

An atmospheric picture of Battersea Power Station taken in 1936 by Bill Brandt. It is from his classic series of night photographs of London inspired by Brassaï’s pictures of Paris.

Brandt was arguably the most influential photographer of his generation and this picture is widely regarded as a masterpiece.

SIR — Your organ rightly points out that the answer to any headline with a question mark at the end of it is invariably 'no’. 

Ernie Burrington, when night editor at the Mirror decades ago, would attest to the truth of this by citing the following  classic  example (from the Daily Herald, I believe): Is this the face of Christ in the sole of a cobbler's boot?

My question is: Is there an earlier or more absurd example?   Silly me. The question mark provides its own answer.

Yours etc

CONFUSED of Epsom

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Sir — I was intrigued to read in your mighty organ the reference to “the face of Christ on a cobbler’s boot.”

This may be an offshoot of a similar miraculous apparition which is indeed linked with the late, great Ernie Burrington, with whom I worked on both the Daily Herald and The People and who was mentioned in your item

Ernie was chief sub on the Herald when they published an astonishing picture showing the face of Christ in a patch of snow. This picture remained in the Odhams library and was occasionally exhumed to make appearances in The People when Ernie was deputy editor. It invariably produced a torrent of letters from readers who had spotted the face of our saviour in a variety of alternative settings including a pancake and a bar of soap.

Regards

PLAIN JOHN SMITH

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A  song about Brexit

(Contains swearing)

GREAT TIMES: The Observer has republished a fascinating piece about Fleet Street watering holes written at the time the paper left for new pastures in 1988. The picture shows the conviviality continuing despite a power cut.

READ IT HERE

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LOOKALIKE (DON’T HAVE NIGHTMARES)

PICTURE OF THE YEAR

SALISBURY JOURNAL

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VIZ

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CARTOON EXTRA

PUBLISHER Reach increased its revenue by more than £100million last year following its acquisition of Express Newspapers.

New figures showed income rose to £723.9million in 2018, with an adjusted profit before tax of £141.9million, both numbers up by 16 per cent year-on-year.

The company, formerly Trinity Mirror, also increased its cash pot for dealing with phone hacking cases by £12.5million last year.

It spent £9.6million of the more than £70million provision in 2018, with £13.6million remaining. The publisher has faced more than 100 civil claims for historical phone-hacking carried out on the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People.

Reach made an operating profit of £145.6million last year.

However, the company, which owns the Mirror, Express and Star titles plus the Sunday People, posted a pretax loss of £120million last year after writing down the value of its goodwill, publishing rights, titles and buildings, against a profit of £82million in 2017. Excluding the writedown, it made a profit of £141.9million.

According to its full-year accounts, the company is on track to deliver at least £20million of savings by 2020.

The company said it had made £3million in “synergy cost savings” in 2018 as it cut out duplication across the Express, Star and Mirror teams, with up to 70 national newspaper redundancies falling over the 12 months.

A further £20million in cuts was the result of “structural cost savings”.

Reach made up to 140 people redundant in its regional newsrooms in 2018 under its strategy of building separate print and digital regional teams, Press Gazette has reported.

The company’s net debt is at £40.8million, with a pension deficit of £348.6million.

In a statement alongside its accounts for the year, the company said: “Subject to there being no significant adverse implications arising from the UK’s exit from the European Union, we are confident that our strategy will enable continued progress to support profit and cash flow.”

Simon Fox, Reach chief executive, said: “I am pleased with the performance we have delivered in 2018 and encouraged by the stronger finish to the year.

“We have begun 2019 in a strong financial position with good momentum on the integration of Express and Star and with clear plans for digital growth.”

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FASHION stops for no man as former Express photographer Steve Wood has proved. 

Despite breaking an ankle, Steve grabbed a pair of crutches and struggled to the airport to catch his flight from London to Italy for Milan Fashion Week.

He was philosophical about his broken ankle, telling the Drone: “It has stopped me going skiing so it has saved me £300 a day. I would rather have been skiing but I broke it the day before I was due to go.”

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LUDGATE CIRCUS,1926

Hold tight to your hats chaps, there's a General Strike on

A BUS operated by an independent company passes through Ludgate Circus at the foot of Fleet Street, London, crammed with passengers during the General Strike on 4 May, 1926

The 15A bus route ran until 1987 when it was merged with the 15 which still runs down Fleet Street.

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Tony Benn on the Guardian

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Craig parties with Fleet Street royalty on his 70th

Just a few of Craig's editor pals: From left, Eve Pollard, Sir Nicholas Lloyd, Wendy Henry, Craig MacKenzie, his brother Kelvin, Judy McGuire and Piers Morgan  

By TONY BOULLEMIER

Tabloid royalty turned out in force for Craig MacKenzie's 70th birthday bash last Saturday.

Ex-editors and many others from across the newspaper spectrum descended on the party in Weybridge, Surrey.

Craig started as a sub on the Daily Express and went on to become deputy editor of the Daily and Sunday Express. He also edited titles for the Murdoch and Mirror groups.

He thanked guests who had made him welcome when he first arrived in Fleet Street.

Presenting him with a spoof Sun Page One, Piers Morgan paid tribute to his incredible loyalty. 

He said whenever he had problems, Craig would be in the trenches alongside him. 

Piers described him as "mad funny" and said he loved Craig's passion for life and work.

He added: "All the MacKenzies are like that. Everything at 100mph." 

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FOUND HIM YET? Look closely and you will see Terry Chinery hard at work on the Luton News back in the 1970s. Terry, first left, went on to greater things and became Night News Editor on the Daily Express. And yes, that dagger in the foreground is his, we are reliably informed.

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Help cheer up John Downing

THE many friends and colleagues of star photographer John Downing are being urged to rally round him today.

John has been diagnosed with incurable lung cancer, according to his wife, the pianist Anita D'Attellis.

She said John was ill over Christmas, culminating in an 

operation to remove liquid from his lung.

Anita added: "At the same time they took a biopsy, which sadly turned out rather bad news.  He has a particularly virulent cancer, which is incurable. He’s in good spirits considering, and full of gallows humour. 

"He's happy for you to mention it to any of his old colleagues, but would appreciate emails only, because he’s not up to taking phone calls at the moment."

John's great friend, Tom Smith, reported that the surgery John underwent last week at London Bridge Hospital will, in John’s own words, only "delay the inevitable a short time”.

He added: "Most of old-time Fleet Street and all of the London Welsh Choir have our fingers crossed. Please pass this on to all who knew him and worked with the 'best snapper of his time'.”

Understandably, John is not up to phone calls at the moment but Anita said you may contact him by email at jd@johndowning.co.uk

UPDATE

John writes in an email to friends:

The operation has gone well and will, I hope, extend my time a little longer.  In fact I feel pretty good. 

I am very lucky to have such a lovely wife Anita, who has been a true stalwart. I have had a great life full of excitement, fun and had the pleasure of befriending all of you.  Throw in a handful of tablets each day (the most important of which is the morphine I suspect) and how could I fail to feel good.  

In passing, watching two nurses trying to part me from my underpants whilst I was attached to tubes and wires would have had you in fits and would have made a great Jacques Tati film.

Well, must away and write a epitaph.

All the very best to you all, and thank you.

FORMER Daily Express news sub Robin McGibbon is justly proud of this Downing photograph of his wife Sue taken when she was aged 17.

Robin told the Drone : "In the early 70s, my wife, Sue, worked at the Daily Express, selling classified advertising. Her boss was John's wife, Jeanette, who felt it would make the girls' regular sales calls more personal if clients knew what they they looked like. 

"She primed John on each girls' personality and he chatted with each one — to relax them — before taking their photograph, which was stuck on compliments slips sent to prospective advertisers.

"The attached pic of Sue, aged 17, is displayed in our study, assuring that, for her, John will never be forgotten.”

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Legendary sports writer McIlvanney dies at 84

THE greatest sports writer of his generation, Hugh McIlvanney, has died at the age of 84.

McIlvanney spent most of his 60-year career with The Observer and The Sunday Times and worked briefly for the Daily Express.

He leaves a wife, Caroline, son Conn and daughter Elizabeth.

In 1996, McIlvanney was awarded the OBE, was given the Lifetime Achievement Award 2004 by The Scottish Press Awards, and is the only sports writer to be voted Journalist of the Year. 

McIlvanney was great friends with fellow Scotsman Bill Montgomery, a Daily Express news sub who was never reluctant to give someone a thump whether they deserved it or not. 

An Expressman who prefers to remain anonymous, recalls:

"I am reminded of the night I was chief sub and, for no reason, didn’t give Bill Monty a story. He thought he was getting the freeze. Later in the Press Club, Bill told me there was a call for me. Remember those phone booths in that dimly-lit hall?

"I went out and picked up the phone which was hanging off its hook. The line was dead. It was a set-up. 

"I felt the grip of  death on my throat. It was paranoid Monty, demanding to know who’d instructed me to give him the freeze. I couldn’t plead my innocence owing to asphyxiation.

"Just then Hugh McIlvanney appeared through the gloom. 'Need a hand there, Billy?' he said. 

"You don’t forget moments like that.”

PATRICK COLLINS, sports writer and friend of McIlvanney’s summed up the man, saying: "When his countless admirers speak of Hugh’s writing, they recall the rolling phrases, the astute insights, the dramatic sense of occasion. 

"But those who worked with him — and especially the heroic subs who placed paragraph marks on his copy — will tell of the tireless perfectionist, the man whose Sunday would be spoiled by a misplaced comma or a wayward colon.”

ALAN HILL, former Express Chief City Sub, writes: One of my former bosses, Roy Mackie, City Editor of the Daily Express for some years, was a good friend of Hugh McIlvanney’s. I spent many a convivial night in their company, usually in The Old Bell.

My friend Iain Murray, formerly of Daily Express features and The Observer, told a Hughie story some years ago. 

Hugh was becoming a wee bit stressed by someone in the pub. Seeing what was coming our good friend Bill Montgomery placed his hand on the back of Hugh’s neck. 

The squeeze on the McIlvanney neck was said to be tighter than a Scotsman’s grip on a tenner. And it was accompanied by Bill, saying in his warmest Glaswegian tones: “Now Hugh, we’ll nae be havin any of your nonsense tonight.”

Iain claims Hugh’s feet came off the floor.

Calm was restored. And as Roy Mackie said: “Strong drink was taken, and we all went home good friends.”

ROGER WATKINS: I was a features sub in Manchester in 1972 when a newly-appointed McIlvanney came into the office to write up a featuremin time for the first edition.  He was taciturn and uncommunicative and I recall thinking at the time that he did not seem happy to be on the World’s Greatest Newspaper and, especially, not to be camping in a branch office wrestling with a battered Olympia.

When his copy came I’d  like to say I subbed it with all the attention of a Cliff Barr or a Roy Povey but, to be honest, I didn’t sub it at all.

JIM DAVIES: The fully-deserved paeans of praise for the work of Hugh Mcilvanney prompted some fond memories of our time together.  When he — I thought inadvisably — came back to the Express in the early Seventies (he had been on the Scottish Daily Express earlier in his career), we were having a jar or six in The Old Bell.

I said the Express was a tightly-subbed paper which might fit ill with the lengths he had been accustomed to at The Observer.  "I decide what a piece is worth," he said with what, in anyone else would have sounded like rank pomposity.

I teased him.  "I doubt they have a type face small enough so what do they do?”  'They hang it in a strip below the page,' he said with a look that almost challenged anyone to disagree.

His return to the Beaverbrook fold was not a match made in heaven and did not last.  But happily it did not derail an illustrious career the like of which I doubt we will see again.

Hughie and I were both among the class of '34 who arrived in Fleet Street in the late 50s and early 60s and, sadly, we are a rapidly dwindling bunch.  But boy, did we have the best of it! 

1 DRONE EXCLUSIVE: My last meeting with Hugh

2 Guardian obituary 

 3 Donald Trelford’s terrific tribute in the Sunday Times

Hugh’s tribute to Pele last year

Hugh McIlvanney’s address to the Football Writers’ Association at The Savoy, London on 21 January, 2018 

SENIOR journalists at the Mail on Sunday are in despair after alleged blatant plagiarism at the paper.

The entire Page 3 of this week's edition of the MoS was apparently a straight lift of the Sunday Mirror’s splash about the woman who broke her wrist when her car was in collision with Prince Philip’s Land Rover.  

Our mole at Northcliffe House said staff had their heads in the hands over the incident and that the Sunday Mirror plans to bill MoS editor Ted Verity for the story.

An unconfirmed report claims that the woman who sold the tale to the Sunday Mirror went first to the Daily Mail and asked how much they would pay.

They gave a price which she agreed before being told: 'We'll call back you in the morning’. Exasperated, she took her story to  the Mirror who snapped her up.

Our informant told the Drone: ‘I seem to remember that in the old days it was always a case of 'grab the body and get it away.

'How times change.’

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THINGS are going from bad to worse at the Mail On Sunday with editor Ted Verity under pressure following the axing of star columnist Tina Weaver.

Weaver's removal was ordered by Lord Rothermere following revelations that she masterminded phone hacking at the Sunday Mirror while she was editor.

Verity is already facing a costly lawsuit for referring to the couple wrongly arrested for the Gatwick drones chaos as morons in a splash headline.  

Our informant at Northcliffe House says morale at the MoS is at rock-bottom because staff had been accustomed to the gentlemanly ways of former editor Geordie Greig. Under Verity they now find themselves back to the bad old days of Paul Dacre.

Weaver’s reported involvement in the phone-hacking scandal was revealed exclusively by the news website Byline.

A source told Byline: 'This is already being seen as a humiliation for Ted Verity and leaves a big question mark on his judgment. The decision to get rid of Weaver was made by the paper's top executives last Saturday.

'When they hired her, they knew there were some skeletons left over from her years at Mirror Group Newspapers. But until Byline's stories came out, they did not know the full extent of Weaver's involvement in the phone-hacking scandal. 

'It was abundantly obvious they had scored a big own goal. Reluctantly, but inevitably, they had to let her go.'

Read the report here

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Who’s still in the Q?

Dear Lord Drone,

I wonder how many of your digital followers worked on the old broadsheet DX in the late 60s and early 70s, when Douglas Orgill was Chief Sub?

Dougie was very stout and never ventured far from his chair. He could just about reach Ralph Mineards & Co on the middle bench to hand out copy.

But we lower mortals, on the distant benches, had to be summoned to receive our LP, Brev and Min instructions. 

As an ex-tank commander, Dougie liked to keep up morale with a joke or two. So when he issued an order, he interposed the initial Q in our names.

When, for example, he called out: “Anthony Q. Boullemier, approach the base of the podium,” a hum of merriment would go round the desks.

But how many of those in the Q are still with us?

Clearly Kelvin Q MacKenzie is. As is David Q Laws, Ian Q Bain, Laing Q Leith, Chris Q Chalke and Rick Q McNeill, although I believe Rick sat near enough to Dougie to be handed his copy.

But listing those who have departed this earth is sobering. Lloyd Q Turner, William Q Reynolds, Leslie Q Diver, Robert Q Kilby and William Q Montgomery to name just a few. 

How many others are still out there today?

If they’re readers of this mighty organ, perhaps we could be told?

Yours as ever,

Anthony Q Boullemier.

PS:  Dougie never did tell us what the Q was meant to stand for.

IAIN Q MURRAY may have the explanation.

He writes: I suspect that Dougie, whom I fondly recall from my brief spell in DX features, was enjoying a mischievous private joke.
Q was the pen name of Sir Arthur Quiller Couch (1863-1944), editor of the Oxford Book of English Prose and a series of Cambridge lectures published as On the Art of Writing.

He coined the writers’ maxim ‘murder your darlings’. 

“If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it— whole-heartedly — and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.”

It would have amused Dougie to see the subs as discerning assassins hired to butcher purple prose.

This from RICK Q McNEILL:

I recall Dougie Orgill also used occasionally to address lowly subs as Shufflebottom and Aloysius — as in “Anthony Aloysius Armstrong, your past has caught up with you!”

DOUGIE THE WAR HERO
By JIM Q DAVIES

When Dougie Orgill was brutally sacked as chief sub he found himself deposited in features where I lived.  I barely knew him but attempted to commiserate.  'Nonsense, dear boy,' he said.  ‘It's out of the kitchen and into the restaurant.'

That lovely piece of insouciance began a friendship which lasted for several memorable years until his early death at the age of 63.

Dougie was an expert in some pretty diverse fields from tank warfare to butterfly collecting, a constant source of entertaining stories and a joy to lunch with — especially in El Vino where he loved my embarrassment at being made to wear a tie, usually one of Geoffrey Van Hay's gravy-stained numbers.

During the advance through Italy in early 1944 Dougie's tank was knocked out by a German shell and his crew surrounded and told they would be shot.  Bravely, Dougie told the Panzers that they could shoot him as commander but that his men must be taken prisoner under the terms of the Geneva convention. 

Into this crisis charged  a German officer, ironically the same rank as Dougie, who ordered the German troops away and apologised saying his men had sustained days of aerial bombardment and were stressed out of their minds.

He explained that he had no facilities for taking prisoners and told Dougie and his men to stay by their stricken tank until the Allied advance caught up with them.  'This war will be over very soon,' he said by way of farewell.  

Dougie congratulated him on his perfect English and asked where he had learned it.  ‘Oxford,' said the German. 'Which college?" asked Dougie.  ‘Balliol,’ said Herr Maior. 'Me too,' said Dougie, upon which they exchanged names and addresses and promised to get in touch when the war was over.

Dougie fulfilled the promise only to find out that his generous combatant had been killed within days of their battlefield meeting.

I can't settle Tony Boullemier's query about Q any more than I could ever discover why he always called me Soulberry.

I am, though, proud to say that I was invited by his family to give the address at his funeral at St Bride's where, to his undoubted celestial amusement, I did not wear a tie!

Good to know there are still those of us around who remember this great man.  Best to everyone, Jim.

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CHAPMAN’S PARTING SHOT AS HE QUITS THE EXPRESS
Private Eye reports:

Veteran Daily Express hack John Chapman, who refers to himself as a “Fleet Street survivor” having stuck with the paper through its Desmond doldrums and on to the new Mirror-managed era, left last month with an old-school retirement party at El Vino.
He had an admirable valedictory message for his assembled colleagues: “I have witnessed the slow, sad decline of a once-great newspaper … but I was earning an old-style Fleet Street salary so I don’t give a fuck.”

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MARTIN HOLDS COURT

Sunday Express editor Martin Townsend, left,  holds a riverside conference with deputy editor Dick Dismore, right, and Andy Hoban at the Lower Thames Street offices in London some time in the mid-Noughties.

…. AND HERE’S ANOTHER

Deep in thought, the late, great Paul Carter

IF there was one man the Daily Express should never have let go it was Paul Carter. He was the finest journalist many of us have ever worked with — and not only that he was a delightful person.

Here he is meticulously checking the first edition proofs at the Express offices in Blackfriars, London, in 1999 or 2000.

Paul, who went on to be a brilliant deputy editor of the Daily Mail, was forced out by editor Rosie Boycott  mainly because she failed to understand the culture of a middle market tabloid.

Paul died in 2017 aged 54 after a long battle with cancer.

Also in this pic is the back of production editor Bob Smith’s head and Nick Dalton.

In his own words: Paul bids us farewell

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The Roaring Eighties

IF ever there was a decade for partying on the Daily Express it must have been the 1980s — and here is the proof. 

Pictured at a Roaring Twenties evening are, from left, the late and much lamented Ross ‘Crommers’ Tayne, Robin McGibbon and his wife Sue, and Jan Barden who hosted the party at her home in Penge, South-East London.

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HOORAY FOR PINKY!

A quiet Saturday night on the Sunday Express

Here’s another snap from the old days, this time at the Sunday Express offices in Lower Thames Street, London, circa 2005.

On the far left is Tessa Evans, then Roy Povey arriving in his overcoat. In the distance, trying to mind his own business, is Alastair McIntyre, then from left on the middle bench is Mark Hoey, Rod Jones, Brian Izzard and on the backbench, Andy Hoban.

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I had that Tim Shipman in the back of the cab ...

MORE FLEET STREET FUN

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES: Daily Express features subs having fun in their break some time in the 1990s are Elaine Canham, Norman ‘Normal’ Cox and Jeff ‘Mine’s a Toby Light’ Boyle. The blonde in the foreground is features desk secretary-cum-nurse Alison Greenacre, who, according to one member of staff, 'dispensed our morning hangover cures’. 

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A message arrives in a forked stick from ROBIN McGIBBON.

He writes: A girl, aged no more than four, was walking by our bungalow, with her mother, when she spotted blankets in the back of the pictured Perodua Kenari, which my wife, Sue, uses to take friends' dogs for walks.

"Look, mummy," the girl said, pointing at the odd-looking vehicle, "A caravan for little people."

As one of the shortest subs ever to work for the Express, I'm wondering if I should seek your permission to start driving it!

Lord Drone replies: On yer bike, Stumpy!

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Muldoon’s Lookalike

THE SLIPPERY SLOPER

ONE of the great legends of the old Fleet Street Daily Express in the 1970s and 80s was Ted ‘Kipper’ Keeling who, although an excellent news sub-editor, was mostly noted for his ability to slope off to the pub in a cloud of cannabis fumes without the Chief Sub noticing.

Reading on the Drone of Kipper’s exploits, former sub Nick Pigott climbed into his loft to retrieve this sketch he drew at the time of Assistant Chief Sub Jon Zackon tearing his hair out as his nemesis slipped out to the pub.

The original story is here:

The Grey Ghost, Forgotten Hero of the Lopés Cup

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GLOOM AT MAIL AS ONE MORE STAR NAME QUITS Now Charlie throws in towel

Charlie Sale, former Daily Express sports sub and latterly sports columnist on the Daily Mail has announced his retirement on Twitter.

His decision to quit follows the exodus of several star names following the appointment of Geordie Greig as editor to replace Paul Dacre. It is not thought that Charlie’s retirement is connected with this.

Last night after more that 200 Twitter tributes to Charlie, he tweeted: "Absolutely overwhelmed by all the kind messages today re retirement. Even the trolls were nice. Thanks so much.”

One fan tweeted: "Charlie, many congratulations on your recovery. Yet another foe bested, though I’m sorry you’re leaving the circuit; you’ll leave a gap that’s impossible to fill. An absolute doyen of journalism and cantankerous harrumphery. Retiring now, maybe, but you’ll never be ‘irrelevant’.”

On the Express, Charlie rose from sub to No 3 and was a candidate for sports editor when David Emery was short-listed for deputy editor on the Sunday Express, but SX editor Eve Pollard opted for Craig Mackenzie.

LATEST gossip from Northcliffe House reveals that a memo from the Mail’s managing editor informing all staff of the details for Victor Davis’s funeral was sent to everyone — including Victor Davis! Well, he WAS there…

Our informant had a long chat with a Mail insider who said the troops were very distressed at the way the Daily Mail has lost its edge under Greig. Our mole compared it to the emasculation of the Express.

THE DRONE is indebted to Popbitch for the following titbit in its review of the year:

After nearly three decades of steering the ship, Paul Dacre stepped down as the Daily Mail's editor. 

Once in a morning conference Dacre interrupted a journalist talking about the female fighter pilots who were going into Libya to ask: "What? Actually flying the planes? And shooting? Not just navigating? Or giving directions?" 

The reporter informed him that, yes, the women would be flying fighter jets. 

Dacre mulled this over for a hot second, before asking: "Won't their tits get in the way of the steering?”

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HOW THE EXPRESS DID IT IN STYLE IN THE EARLY 1950s

These two images are taken from from a style book entitled The Express Way, issued to staff in Manchester and Glasgow in the 1950s, writes BOB CUMMINGS.

The pamphlet contains such gems as:

THE CRITICS

Advice to the critics: They should not assume too much knowledge on the part of the reader. It is their job to give information to the reader in such a way as not to offend the erudite and not patronise the ignorant. (April 1, 1953).

Whenever possible print a woman's age. That's a fine paragraph in today's Diary about Lady Helena Hilton-Green who flies to the hunt — but I wanted to know how old she was (March 31, 1953).

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SNAPPERS SNAPPED

Here, in glorious black and white, is another trip down memory lane. This pic of Sport and General Press Agency staff was taken at the retirement in 1980 of John Macnee, centre standing. Back row, fourth from left, is Tony Sapiano.

Stuart Clarke, editor of The Moorlander in Devon, fills in some of the gaps: Middle row, Dave Ofield, Scoby Riggs, printer, Alistair Loos, Dennis Jones, Hugh Routledge. 

Front row: Neville Mariner,  Stuart Clarke, Roy Chaplin,  Julian Parker and Dave Benett.

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Daily Express news subs 1960s

This snap, provided by David Eliades, shows the Express newsroom in London some time in the early 1960s. 

In the foreground is foreign sub Jack Atkinson and next to him in his customary white shirt is splash sub Peter Hedley. The man to Hedley’s left on the middle bench is Ted Hodgson who later became night editor.

Opposite Jack is Ken Macaulay and next to him is Ralph Mineards. 

The man seated under the pillar in the white shirt and dark tie, is Eric Price. This would date the pic as before 1962 as Price left the Express that year to join the Western Daily Press in Bristol.

The backbench is the long desk on the left, second left is Bob Edwards, (the only man to be made editor of the Express twice) next to him is Eric Raybould and Morris Benett.

Thanks to TONY BOULLEMIER  and ROGER WATKINS for help with this caption.

RICK McNEILL reports:  I would date the picture pre-1965, before I joined. I recognise those you mention but others are unknown to me. 

I think the man in the far right background, on the telephone, is picture supremo Frank Spooner and the man seated looking up at him Jim Nicholl. I seem to recall the picture desk and foreign desk shared the same space around then. 

Facing Ted Hodgson is Welshman Harold Jones wearing his signature cardigan, look you. Apart from Morris and Raybould the Backbench is populated by strangers. I’d love to know who they are!

ALAN HILL, Chief City Sub from 1968 to 1996, who identified Bob Edwards, recalls: Bob gave me my job on the Express City staff. When I arrived, six weeks later, he had gone … again!

I believe he sacked Frank Spooner in the morning. Frank’s staff took him for a long lunch and when he returned to clear his desk … Bobbity had been sacked himself.  Frank continued as Picture Editor for years.

Click pic to enlarge

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

SIR — How nice to see a photograph of my late father, Ralph Mineards, deputy father of the Daily Express chapel, in your illustrious organ.

When he retired in 1979, getting the honor of being "banged out" by the printers, he estimated he had travelled more than a million miles commuting from his Northampton home to London Euston, whiling away his hour-long ride doing the Times crossword.

I always remember him telling me that when he sat on the committee that helped launch the Daily Star, its audience was considered "the Millwall supporter who rolls his own cigarettes”.

An extremely capable journalist and wonderful father.

I followed in his footsteps as an Express trainee on the Falmouth Packet, where my colleagues included Nick Coleridge, now the head of Conde Nast UK, before joining Paul Callan's Inside World on the Mirror and then moving to Nigel Dempster's Diary on the Mail, leaving for the U.S. as an editor on New York Magazine, eventually becoming an anchor for CBS and a commentator on ABC News.

I have now lived in Santa Barbara for 11 years, where I write a weekly column for the Montecito Journal.

RICHARD MINEARDS

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FLASHBACK TO 1965

Twiggy’s Express dress

MORE TWIGGY

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They look glum but these Daily Express women were in fact putting on an act. They were actually having fun, mourning the death of the paper’s William Hickey gossip column. 

Back in 1987, the Express decided to replace the long-dead diarist with a real person in the shape of Ross Benson. Fleet Street gossip columnists led by the Daily Mail’s Nigel Dempster held a mock funeral for Hickey whose  name was revived following Benson’s death. 

This picture is supplied by Kim Willsher, second left, with Louise Court on her right.

The day they buried Hickey

The rise and fall of the Fleet Street diarist

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

SIR — On a flying visit to London recently I took my family for dinner at the new Joe Allen, fondly expecting to wallow nostalgically in its uniquely cool and quietly clubbable atmosphere.

Imagine my surprise (as they say) to find myself in a overcrowded characterless bistro full of shouting tourists off the street and an expensive menu with little to remind me of its bygone Exeter Street heyday. Even the signature cheesecake tasted like Tesco’s!

Perhaps you chaps have a different perspective at your regular get-togethers there. Probably it’s the company not the place? Maybe also night times are a no-no. Too close to the Strand.

You know what they say . . . never go back.

Greetings to all Express Persons of Good Standing!

 RICK McNEILL

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Tweet of the Year

TERRY MANNERS tells the story behind one of thousands of cartoons drawn for the Express by Michael Cummings

__________

Caricature of the week

Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart by Adrian Teal

They way we were

Production editor Bob Smith, left, and artist Fred Boyce inspect the first edition of the Daily Express at the Blackfriars offices in the 1990s

It’s the Duke, caught on camera in the 1970s

There’s a few familiar faces in this pic of the London Evening Standard backbench in, at a guess, the 1970s. In the background gazing into the middle distance is Chris ‘Duke’ Djukanovic, later to become picture editor of the Daily Express. 

Seated on the right is Charles Wintour, famed editor of the Standard, and next to him in the striped shirt is Roy Wright, who later became the editor of the Daily Express before disappearing without trace.

PETER STEWARD has filled in the gaps. He writes:

I believe the picture was taken before I joined the Standard (in the long hot summer of 1976) and for some reason I think it was a pre-Budget meeting. At that time the Evening Standard was part of the Beaverbrook empire and housed in Shoe Lane.

As you say, to the left of Charles Wintour is Roy Wright who returned to the Standard while I was there. I think he was deputy editor when Simon Jenkins was fired and Wintour returned for a short time before Lou Kirby arrived and Associated took half a share in the paper.

Seated centre is Bill Sharp, the splash sub.The chap back left in beard and specs is Cyril Raper, who enjoyed a White Shield Worthington. I think he was once chief sub, but during my time there he was like an executive revise sub. 

In those days subs sent copy direct to the printers below via a conveyor belt down the middle of the desk and a hole in the floor. The first opportunity to get it revised was when galley proofs arrived upstairs or when the stone sub got a chance to read it.

On the left is the legendary political editor Bob Carvel (with pipe) and Michael King.

Perhaps the person furthest right could be David Henshall.

I left the Standard on December 29 1983 after being kidnapped in the Poppinjay by the sweet-talking Terry Manners. I was working a five-day week as the Standard's chief sub at the time but Terry held out the prospect of a four-night week for more money. 

Six months later Mr Manners showed me the way to the escape tunnel (or perhaps he regretted tempting me in the first place) and I left to join the Sunday Express under that dynamic liberal editor Sir John Junor.

Click pic for larger image

____________________________________________________________________________

When we were very young

The faces look familiar to anyone who was on the Daily Express in the 1970s and 80s. But who are these two youngsters? The answers are here

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Fleet Street then and now

1899: Carter’s Hair Cutting Saloon, at 17 Fleet Street, London, just opposite Chancery Lane. The facade above the gateway, which leads to Inner Temple, hid the original 17th Century half-timbered front which was subsequently restored. 

The first floor of the building comprises Prince Henry’s Room, named for the son of James I. It is one of the few surviving buildings in the City of London dating from before the Great Fire of London in 1666. It is a Grade II listed building.

BELOW: The same building today.

More on this

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Hold the front stage! It’s Christiansen the film star

1961: Legendary Daily Express editor Arthur Christiansen demonstrates that as an actor he was a very fine journalist playing himself in the cult sci-fi movie The Day the Earth Caught Fire. 

Chris, pictured with Edward Judd who played a maverick reporter (aren’t they all? — Ed), spent most of the time spouting lines like: “Hold the front page!” and “Make it sing and make it a song I like,” (or was that another legendary Daily Express editor?) 

The film was based on the Express in its heyday and many shots were filmed in the office and Fleet Street. Behind the scenes there was also rumoured to have been a piquant play within a play starring an Express executive (still there in the seventies) and the luscious female lead Janet Munro, who, after a hard day’s filming, were encountered discussing bold intros and splash heads in the lane behind the Old Bell (mem to Night Lawyer Cocklecarrot: It’s OK: they’re both dead now)

MULDOON

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We think this may be a pic of the Express subs

but could it be the Mail?