British West Hartlepool

[ombugge]

Shipping News revived

Never heard it called that, even by the resident Geordies!

To avoid upsetting any moderator I reply the above in this new thread.

I first heard it from Geordie Engineer I sailed with many years ago.
(He claimed to be a citizen of “The Republic of Northumbria”)

The origin of the term “British West Hartlepool” is not clear.
Here is one version:

One of my correspondents signed himself last week from “British West Hartlepool”. This odd prefix seems to be a joke going back decades, the origins of which are debated. According to The Northern Echo, some attributed it to the comedian Jimmy Edwards, in a 1950s radio sketch supposedly called Night Train to British West Hartlepool. Others claimed it was Victor Sylvester, the band leader and request programme presenter, who said: “British Honduras, British East Africa and British West Hartlepool”. One local said he had first heard it in the 1930s. The only authenticated source, though, is Benny Hill, who had a line about Fred Clockenlocker of British West Hartlepool in his 1961 record, “Transistor Radio”. Hill’s composer, Tony Hatch, said: “This is Benny satirising a 1960s BBC World Service programme when record requests came from the far corners of the original British Empire. British West suggests an idyllic Caribbean location. The joke is complete with the addition of Hartlepool, which I’m told is anything but idyllic.” I think we can call this an irony, in the proper sense.

Source: Financial Times (Subscribe to read)

[Hornblower]

Obviously nothing to do with this.

Who Hung the Monkey? | An Old Song from Hartlepool — Jon Wilks

[Binbag_the_Saylore]

@Hornblower

Obviously nothing to do with this

The Hartlepool remark in my original Shipping News Revived post was all about suspended sentences for simians.
Now lost in the noise - never mind…

[ombugge]

@Binbag_the_Saylore

Now lost in the noise

To avoid that is exactly why I answered your reply by moving to a new thread.

[Binbag_the_Saylore]

Understood, and appreciated.