|
|
|
|
And Then We Wrote... At the Drop of Hat At the Drop of Another Hat The Bestiary Tried by the Centre Court EPs Other albums Alphabetical index Home |
RockallOf course, in those days of the mid-fifties, the London stage still suffered under the iron hand of the wicked Lord Chamberlain, who at that time was a very charming chap called Lord Scarborough. You weren't able to ad lib, or mention members of the Royal family, or presidents, or so on, and my goodness, you couldn't mention lavatories or anything dreadful like that! No sexual deviation, or four-letter words - you may wonder how we managed. I remember, I used to be rung up by indignant members of the press, saying 'Isn't it dreadful, all this censorship. Tell me some of the great ideas you've had that the Lord Chamberlain has refused to pass'. I was terribly embarrassed, and had to say rather sheepishly that I'd never had anything banned at all. And I didn't dare tell them, which was even worse, that sometimes my scripts used to come back from the Lord Chamberlain's office with little remarks written on them, saying 'I like this one', 'Jolly good', 'Give it to 'em', things like that. All rather embarrassing, but never mind, once you're on the establishment, you stick there, I find. But I did get away with one mild double entendre, in a song celebrating the occasion when our gallant British Navy annexed Rockall - that lump of rock in the Atlantic. It was really more of a single entendre, because the lyric looked innocent enough written down, but when you sung it it was considered daringly near the bone then. Nowadays, I don't think anyone'd raise an eyebrow. Anyway, judge for yourselves.
The fleet set sail for Rockall,
Originally from the album 'And The We Wrote...'. |