A gay icon. A diva. Over a career spanning four decades, Dusty’s glamorous image was to be as much her hallmark as her voice. But it masked the deeply private person. ibid.
Dusty the solo singer burst on to thee screen in 1963 and was an immediate success. But her rise to stardom was not without its difficulties. ibid.
Dusty would have a string of hits throughout the sixties and host her own television star. She seemed to be able to sing anything while remaining distinctly Dusty. ibid.
‘The look of love …’ [Dusty] … ‘It was smoky, it was sexy, it was restrained, it was held in check but underneath it was smouldering. It was just on fire.’ ibid. Burt Bacharach
She was a tireless promoter of black music. ibid. Burt Bacharach
Dusty was cast as a hero of the Apartheid movement when her 1964 tour of South Africa provoked a political storm. ibid.
Dusty left England at the start of the Seventies. Her sales were dropping. She had a horror of ending up on the nostalgia circuit. And she wanted to escape the prying into her sexuality. ibid.
#2 in America: Dusty Springfield & the Pet Shop Boys. ibid.
For fifty years BBC has been making programmes about British homes. It’s gone mad with makeovers, it’s finessed our food, it’s directed our leisure time, and it’s planted ideas in our back gardens. The Home that 2 Built s1e1: The Sixties, BBC 2020
It was a decade of such extreme and rapid change … [BBC2] began with a range of how-to programmes that were reassuringly old-fashioned. ibid.
The basics of life: growing things, eating things, and having somewhere nice to live. ibid.
They began with cookery … ‘From all over the world comes a flood of raw materials’ … Now austerity was a thing of the past … [BBC2] set about making food programmes of various kinds, but their early offerings were as bland as boiled cabbage. ibid.
‘Hello and good evening and welcome to Know Your Onions. Now, this is a programme about food, something we all have to have.’ ibid.
Is it Ever Too Late to Learn? ibid.
Fanny Cradock was a professional food writer and cook whose avowed mission was to get rich women to up their game … In the mid-60s BBC hired her as their main food presenter. ibid.
Fanny Cradock’s message to the housewives of Britain was powerful too: be modern, be bold, climb out of your rut and experiment. With the advent of colour TV, viewers realised she brought those ambitions to her outfits as well: she was great television. ibid.
People were sick of living in dreary homes. They wanted a place that felt modern, clean and stylish. ibid.
Homeholders all over the land began to ‘do up’. Older properties in particular started to get a face-lift. ibid.
1967: In Your Place: in its day it was a ground-breaker. ibid.
‘The surface which I’m suggesting for the worktops, erm, is an asbestos sheet. Now, it’s very hard. It’s slightly more expensive.’ ibid. home design visit
Habitat: ‘For some people modern design served straight will suit their eye and suit their wallet’ … More extreme 60s’ looks were available. ibid. contemporary commentary
Margaret Powell [Waring & Gillow] v David Hicks [Habitat] – the pair were asked to go shopping for furniture and design their favourite room … they swapped rooms and then the fun began. ibid.
Gardening Club with Percy Thrower, filmed in a fake studio shed, was watched by up to five million people. ibid.
In 1968 BBC2 got in on the garden boom with a new series: Gardeners’ World … Sadly, for vintage anoraks, only a handful of Gardeners’ World survives. ibid.
Shot, stabbed, massacred: In the months it took place to find the murderers, fear and panic spread. Four members of the so-called Manson Family were arrested, convicted and sentenced. Driven into a homicidal frenzy by the crude apocalyptic visions of their guru Charles Manson, they had committed this appalling crime and others. Too Young to Die s1e4: Sharon Tate, Arte 2012
Charles Manson became an evil icon of the twentieth century. The man with a long criminal record who could hardly read or write and who saw himself as Jesus and Satan in one person still has followers today. ibid.
London had a new celebrity romance … The couple [Tate & Polanski] were a sensation … They ignored conventions and enjoyed life. ibid.
Sharon’s next roll earned her a Golden Globe nomination: Valley of the Dolls. ibid.
The 13 Chairs was a highly promising comedy to be filmed in London and in Rome. ibid.
She was set on having the baby at home. ibid. director
One tiny innovation in the Sixties changed sex for ever … because of this little baby, the Pill … In 1961 it hit the UK market. Sex: A Bonkers History V: Twentieth Century, History 2023