best person, horse or aircraft to have switched on the Blackpool Illuminations, 1934-1972

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Pickles

His most significant work was as host of the BBC Radio show Have A Go, which ran from 1946 to 1967 and launched such catchphrases as "How do, how are yer?", "Are yer courting?", "What's on the table, Mabel?" and "Give him the money, Barney".

maybe in half a century's time someone will be reading a wikipedia list of the catchphrases of his fellow Yorkshireman and Blackpool illuminations switcher-oner Keith Lemon, and it will all seem equally implausible

His most significant work was as host of the BBC Radio show Have A Go, which ran from 1946 to 1967 and launched such catchphrases as "How do, how are yer?", "Are yer courting?", "What's on the table, Mabel?", "Give him the money, Barney" and "Let him have it, Chris"

first instinct is (always) George Formby but there are some deep cuts here i need to ponder

love that it looks like they got the US ambassador in two years after having the Soviet guy, for balance

kinda delighted that Gilbert Harding did it

and Valerie Hobson - Mrs Profumo - in 1952. what did they know?

Jayne Mansfield is the horny dads choice

my stepdad went to a Blackpool game when he was a kid just to see the wizard Stanley Matthews in the flesh. Then decades later he would compare him with the likes of Jordan Rhodes and Pawel Abbott "oh he's got a touch of Stanley Matthews about him, this lad"

funnily enough when you read about Yakov Malik it's all mainly about his work as a UN representative during the Korean War and not a mention of Blackpool illuminations. My fave Soviet ambassador to the United Kingdom was Maisky, because his dairies were a very entertaining read and he was from a bourgie background and a Menshevik, but somehow managed to live a very long life while all his friends and his mentor were either arrested or shot. This guy seems like one of the really boring machine-engineered model Soviets.

grownup soviet politics

I like the sound of this A.E. Matthews fellow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I think some smart cultural historian would view how they went from Sir Josiah Stamp to Danny La Rue in under 40 years as some kind of bellwether for British society.

I think some smart cultural historian would view how they went from Sir Josiah Stamp to Danny La Rue in under 40 years as some kind of bellwether for British society.

Whoops!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

wow lol

interesting