Monday December 1st 2025 "Friends, have YOU ever had to get used to a new manager? It's a difficult time, isn't it!"

Yes, Friends, have YOU ever had to lose your manager and have him (or her) replaced by somebody else, possibly an unknown quantity, with as yet unknown rules and foibles? The transition is sometimes almost more difficult for the staff, than it is for the manager himself, isn't it. Am I right, or am I right!

Around these parts, where my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois and I live, here in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, one man's name is on everybody's lips today. Yes, I'm talking local man Charles Roberts, late of local firm Ames Farm Products, as if you didn't know! His story was all over page 94 of this morning's local Onion News for East Hampshire - you must have seen it!!!

Kudos, Roberts!!! But good luck trying to enforce your so-called "dress code" on the notoriously laid-back Four Counties Shipping crowd with their relentless "easy come easy-go" culture, that's for sure!!!

a typically laid-back "ten thirty" at local firm Four Counties Shipping

Roberts' story, however, sends a wicked smile to the lips of Lois and me today as we sit in Liphook's Millennial Hall this afternoon with a bunch of other "old codgers" (!), all here for this month's local U3A meeting, where we're all preparing to hear a lecture by a former BBC TV continuity manager, Jenny Mallin.

(right) Lois and me, looking smug because we came early and got good seats (!), and (left) 

local "old codgers" looking desperately for a vacant seat at Liphook's iconic Millennial Hall

here to listen to an address by former BBC continuity manager Jenny Mallin

Needless to say, there's no official dress code here in the Millennial Hall for this afternoon's lecture - but we're all wearing standard "old codgerwear" (!).

"Old Codgerwear" - it's a phrase you don't hear very much - yet (!), but how long before department stores catch up with the "vibe"? How long till we see signs directing us to "Old Codgerwear Corner", which would be a help, to put it mildly! We need some reward for making it to the back of the floor through all the "modern" styles, designed for young people glorying in their height and in their tight waistlines with their obsession with "the sporty look" and with their skimpy underwear!!!!

flashback to 2023: me in a typical local department store,

searching desperately for the tiny Old Codgerwear Department (!)

This month's speaker, Jenny Mallin, is now retired, like her audience, but she worked for years in Continuity Managements at BBC TV, where she says, staff were often uncertain about dress codes and other management policies.

The overall 'culture', she says, was one of uncertainty, symbolised by the shape of the BBC TV Centre, which was designed as a giant question mark by architect Graham Dawborn.

this month's U3A speaker, former BBC TV manager Jenny Mallin (right),

showing us aerial views [no pun intended!!!] of the BBC's TV Centre

in London, designed by maverick architect Graham Dawborn to be in the shape of 

a giant question-mark - what madness !!!!!

The uncertainty was carried through even to the commissionaires and security men on the building entrances.

Maverick actor Ken Campbell, Jenny says, was once refused entry to the TV Centre because he had a dog with him that wasn't on a lead (quite rightly in mine and Lois's view!), but he simply took off his necktie and used that as a leash, while somehow managing to bypass the "jacket and tie" rule in all the confusion. 

Campbell is best known for his performance as Roger, a perennially awkward customer at "Fawlty Towers" hotel, one of the guests invited by manager Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) for the15th anniversary party he was intending to throw for his medium-to-long-suffering wife Sybil (Prunella Scales). You know, the episode where, just before the guests arrive, Sybil storms out after a row with Basil, and Basil has to somehow "cover up" her absence by pretending she's ill in bed and can't be disturbed. You must remember that one!!!!

Amid all the chaos, the cheeky Roger, played by Ken Campbell, utters the immortal line, "Who wants to go to the boozer, or play golf when you can come to one of Basil's do's!"

Tremendous fun, wasn't it! [If you say so! - Ed]

Also this afternoon, we hear about the inside stories behind some of the BBC's more famous 'snafus', like poor meteorologist Michael Fish's notoriously inaccurate "no hurricane" weather forecast from 1987.

During her time at the BBC, Jenny says the Corporation was meticulously sensitive to viewer feedback, with managers always demanding instant reports of what viewers had been telling the BBC about their reactions.

And it's a pity that Jenny's talk overruns and there's little time for questions at the end, especially as Lois had a few challenging questions fully prepared and word-perfect, "up her sleeve". One of these reflects Lois's opinion that the BBC may have been responsive to its viewers back in the 1970's, but that, nowadays, the Corporation no longer seems to care about the most loyal section of its audience, the old codgers who stay indoors in the evenings, and have nothing better to do than sit "glued to the telly" (!). 

Lois and me, famously with nothing better to do in the evenings

than to have a bit of cake and watch the "telly" - poor us !!!!

Lois says the BBC is forever trying to chase a younger audience, who, she suspects, are doing other things anyway - either being on their iPads or going out to pubs and clubs etc. Lois wants to highlight the world's longest-running radio soap opera like "The Archers", supposedly focussed on "everyday stories of countryfolk", but now actually focussing solely on the doings of the village's young people. 

This is despite the fact that it's only going to be older listeners who faithfully tune in at 7pm, while any younger people in the house are all getting ready to go out, or are in their bedrooms looking at their iPads. What madness !!!! 

flashback to 1950: an early recording session for BBC Radio's

"The Archers", featuring 'everyday stories of countryfolk'

What a crazy world we live in!!!!

20:00 Later in the day, however, and not wanting to buck the "stereotype" (!), Lois and I find ourselves, completely accidentally (!), spending the evening on the sofa watching some "telly", and laughing like drains at the same time, would you believe. Well, you're only old once, is what we say, with a wry smile!

And true to form, it's Monday night, so we're glued to our favourite TV quiz, "Only Connect", which tests lateral thinking. [I'd never have guessed! - Ed]

Can YOU guess what might be the fourth element in this sequence of 4 seemingly unrelated 'things'?

Yes, I think you've guessed a possible 4th element already, haven't you! You have to take the last 4 letters off the country name Thailand, to get the name of the local language or the name of a national of that country, Thai; or 3 letters off to get Malay etc etc. And tonight's teams suggest the 4th element "Germany -1" - i.e. you need to take one letter off the end of the country name and you get the name of one its nationals or of its language: "German".

Simples !!!!

It doesn't work for "Australian", as Lois points out to me. For Australia you have to add a letter to get the language, so Australia would be two further on in the "Thailand, Malaysia, Slovakia" sequence.

"But Australian isn't a language, Colin", I hear you cry!

Well, if you think that, think again - and check out this morning's Facebook post from Good Morning Australia, if you don't believe me!!!

And if you're looking for the intermediate element in the sequence Slovakia-1, Australia+1, I wonder, could one of the many e.g. "animal and bird languages" in Doctor Dolittle, like "Eagle", for instance, "fit the bill" - no pun intended!!! -  e.g. Eagle+/-0 ?

I wonder.....!!!!

[That's enough whimsy! - Ed]

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!