Secret Army

Between 1977 and 1979, the BBC showed a series called "Secret Army", which was made in association with the Belgian company BRT.
"Secret Army" featured the Brussels-based escape line "Lifeline", which would guide Allied airmen from Belgium down into Spain where they could be returned to active service. Of course, things didn't always go smoothly for Lifeline, and they were constantly having to worry about the possibility of the Gestapo or Luftwaffe finding out about their activities.
"Secret Army" was repeated (in edited form) on UKTV History but has not been shown on the BBC in full for many years.
In my opinion, "Secret Army" was the best BBC drama series ever.

The opening sequence to series three.


Major Reinhardt, the best character in the series, works out who was running Lifeline.
 For fans of "Secret Army" I am building this Facebook page tribute to the series: Secret Army

Favourite crisps you never see now

When I was at school, crisps were part of my daily packed lunch, I adored them! I remember the only flavours I never liked much were salt and vinegar and prawn cocktail (which never tasted much like prawn cocktail in my opinion!) Sadly, alot of the crisps I used to enjoy are no longer available.

Walkers made a range of pizza-flavoured crisps called "Bitza Pizza" and I loved them. I don't know exactly when they were discontinued though. Below you can see one of the TV adverts for the Bitza Pizza crisps.




I remember Walkers briefly producing spicy sausage flavoured crisps, which were among my favourites along with roast chicken and smoky bacon flavours.

In the 1980s, Holland and Barrett health food shops used to sell a range called Wheateats, another favourite. They were available in cheese, peanut butter, spring onion and natural flavours. The cheese ones were my favourite, they were bright orange and had a great taste.

Rail Travel

When I was younger we lived in Barnsley, which, like many other areas, had lost railway stations owing to Beeching's mass closures. So instead of being able to catch a train in Cudworth, Royston or Monk Bretton, we had to go from Barnsley. At that time, you could either catch a train to Leeds or to Sheffield. The train I remember most from those trips to Leeds and Sheffield was the Class 101 DMU, which, at that time, were all in British Rail blue liveries (much better than the various train companies we have now, and certainly these British-built trains were preferable to many running on our rails in the present day!)

I remember holidays in Scotland, which invariably meant a change in Leeds onto the Inter City 125 train, which, when I was a kid, I loved travelling on. Travelling onwards to Aviemore, Inverness or Oban was a real delight, train travel in Scotland was always good, as I loved the scenery and the places.

Catching a train from Leeds to Scarborough would involve travelling on a long train, hauled by a locomotive. On those long trains you were almost certain to be able to find a seat and the journey would be enjoyable, as, once past York, the ride to Scarborough is very pleasant and through rural areas. Nowadays, the ride from Leeds to Scarborough involves getting on a three carriage, cramped thing which will have a huge number of reserved seats and could well involve standing up for most, if not all of the journey.

Rail travel is one thing which has certainly NOT improved over the years.

The United biscuit

When I was a kid my Mum often used to buy Uniteds, a chocolate biscuit which came in a multipack. The United was divided into three square chunks, and consisted of a chocolate-covered biscuit base topped with thick chocolate containing small pieces of "honeycomb" similar to a Crunchie bar or cinder toffee. I loved these biscuits but, like many other good things, they are no longer available.

There was also an orange-flavoured United but the ordinary ones were my favourites.

Below you can see one of the United adverts.

The cheesy snack by Cadbury's

In the mid 1980s I remember my Mum sometimes buying the Cheesy Criss Cross snack, which was made by Cadbury's, a firm I had always previously associated with chocolate.

The Cheesy Criss Cross consisted of two crispy, wafer-y lattice strips filled with a creamy, cheese paste. I loved them, but sadly they weren't available for very long, and vanished from the shops a relatively short time after they had been introduced.

I normally can't stand cheese-flavoured biscuits but the Cheesy Criss Cross was something else!