The latest Phil Evans column from the South Wales Evening Post
The latest Phil Evans column from the South Wales Evening Post.
Comedian Phil Evans is from Ammanford. He is known as the man who puts the ‘cwtsh’ into comedy.
www.philevans.co.uk
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Sad but strange:
When two well-known people die on the same day, the person who gets more coverage in the newspapers and the TV and Radio news is often the one who deserves it the least . . . in my humble opinion, I hasten to add.
On February the 8th, an elderly man and a much younger woman, who were high profile in entirely different fields, both died.
He was 87-year old Alan Simpson, one half of the legendary comedy-writing team of Galton and Simpson who not only created the first British television sitcom “Hancock’s Half Hour” in the 1950s but then went on to even greater heights in the 1960s with “Steptoe And Son” which regularly attracted 18 million viewers. American TV made their own version called “Sanford and Son”.
The prolific Galton and Simpson also wrote films including the hilarious “The Wrong Arm Of The Law”, starring Peter Sellers; “The Rebel”, starring Tony Hancock; and two “Steptoe and Son” spin-offs - plus hundreds of episodes of radio and TV sitcoms.
The young woman who died on the same day - who I won’t name in case any readers knew her or felt some affinity with her - was described in her obituaries as a ‘socialite’.
I wasn’t aware of what a socialite does for a living . . . so I looked it up.
The thousands of pounds that Mater and Pater spent on my years at Eton weren’t wasted were they?
It turns out that a socialite isn’t actually a job description.
It refers to a person who’s well known in fashionable society and fond of social activities and entertainment.
So, there’s no chance I’ll ever be called a socialite.
As she didn’t have a career, presumably the lady was able to maintain her fun lifestyle because she came from a rich family.
Another reason I’ll never be called a socialite.
While many newspapers splashed on the young woman’s passing on their front and inside pages, they relegated Alan’s demise to a paragraph around page 20.
It’s a funny old world, to be sure.
During the decades he created timeless, classic comedy, Alan Simpson helped to make it so.
Well, someone needs to point this stuff out.
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We must all do more for the environment:
I’ve heard it all now.
Prince Charles – aka the Prince of Wales, aka the Heir to the Throne - has called on us all to put two bins in our bathrooms to help recycling.
Now I don’t know how big his bathroom is, but if I did that I wouldn’t be able to fit in the bathroom.
Absolutely ridiculous, many would say, but there are others that would agree I’m sure.
Dumping all our rubbish in one bin has become a thing of the past, fines for doing this are on the increase and the recycling police are extremely vigilant at the local ‘amenity site’, aka the recycling plant.
I paid them a visit myself on Sunday morning and witnessed dozens of people strategically disposing of their domestic waste in no less that 12 separate containers.
This was something of an event in itself and something that many are now doing on a regular basis.
Has this now replaced Sunday morning church or a walk in the park?
We do live in interesting times.
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You can follow Phil Evans on Twitter @philevanswales and www.philevans.co.uk
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