“You better remember where you were watching this tonight - because in 30 years time someone will probably ask you”.
The great Des Lynam - 30 years ago today - as England’s Euro 96 dream comes to an end and the BBC shows one of their best montages of all time… 😭🏴
It’s 29 years to the day since England lost to Germany at Euro ‘96.
And as Wembley emptied that night, the BBC beautifully used ‘Walkaway’ by Cast for their closer.
This is possibly the greatest sad montage of all time. 💔
It’s the 30th anniversary of England’s semi-final defeat to Germany at Euro ‘96.
And as Wembley emptied that night, the BBC beautifully used ‘Walkaway’ by Cast for their closer.
This is possibly the greatest sad montage of all time. 💔
25 juin 1967, la Grande-Bretagne choisit évidemment les Beatles pour être représentée lors de la première émission de télévision en mondovision. Et elle a bien fait. Plus personne ne se rappelle des autres programmes. Alors que la performance des Beatles et ce titre sont entrés dans la légende.
#GlobalBeatlesDay
"All You Need Is Love", The Beatles, 1967.
What was it like to parachute into Normandy in 1944, on the eve of D-Day?
Paul Hamilton, as a 12th Battalion Parachute Regiment Pathfinder, did just that.
This is his personal story and eye-witness account:
(a thread)
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In the dead of night, 1944, inside a Gestapo cell in occupied France…
The most wanted woman in the Resistance stripped bare and forced her slender body through iron bars no one thought possible. Dress clenched in her teeth, she dropped to the street and vanished into the darkness.
Her name was Marie-Madeleine Fourcade — the Hedgehog. 🦔
Born in 1909 into privilege, she flew planes, raced cars, and defied every rule made for women. When France fell, she took command of a tiny spy network at 31 — a mother of two — and turned it into the largest and most vital Resistance ring in occupied France. The only one led by a woman.
She built a secret army of nearly 3,000 agents — men and women from all walks of life — feeding Britain critical secrets, including a stunning 55-foot map of Normandy’s beaches for D-Day.
The Gestapo hunted a brutal man. They never imagined the elegant woman before them was their greatest threat.
But the cost was devastating. 💔 Hundreds of her agents were tortured and killed — including the man she loved. She moved constantly, changed identities, and while pregnant, made the heartbreaking choice to send her children away without even saying goodbye — watching silently from a window as they disappeared from her life.
Captured twice. Escaped twice. She rebuilt her network from ashes every time.
After the war, she devoted her life to honoring her fallen agents. Yet France overlooked her, awarding honors to her husband instead.
They forgot the Hedgehog.
She outlasted the Nazis. She outlasted the silence.
Now we remember.
Marie-Madeleine Fourcade — the fierce little woman who led 3,000 from the shadows and helped turn the tide of history. Even a lion would hesitate to bite.
Say her name. Share her story. Never forget.
Quite something that around the tenth anniversary of the Brexit campaign murder of Jo Cox he says he is the most attacked politician of the last decade. Well done Sally Nugent for pressing with Qs so many of her colleagues have decided to move on from because he doesn’t want to answer them
If you have a spare 3 mins and 45 secs today, watch this fantastic grilling by Sally Nugent on BBC Breakfast.
The very first time I've seen Farage questioned properly about his £5M bung, and it's fair to say, he totally fluffed it.
There are points when you can see Farage tremble and even accuse the BBC of putting him in danger. 🤦♂️
It was for security. It was for cars. Nobody cares. It's no one's business. He won't tell us. DANGER!
At one point, he let slip that the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards may 'disagree' with him on the rules around donations.
He knows he's going to be found guilty on this one. He's in trouble, and his face gave it away gloriously.
Top hats off to Sally Nugent. Stellar work. 👏
Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) is one of the greatest classics of British punk, featured on the album Love Bites (1978), the second album by Buzzcocks.
Released as a single in 1978, the track became one of the band's biggest hits in the UK (reaching #12) and helped cement the Buzzcocks as one of punk's most important bands. Pete Shelley wrote the lyrics within minutes and the song gained even more notoriety years later when Fine Young Cannibals re-recorded it in 1986, turning it into another hit. The track is also one of the most re-recorded in the history of punk.
The funniest part is not even the costume, it's how quickly the whole thing starts sounding normal.
You begin by laughing at a man with a bin on his head, then 30s later he's talking about affordable housing, local accountability & kebab prices, & then you realise British politics has accidentally produced satire with a better manifesto than Reform & Restore combined.
He's the joke candidate & at least knows he's doing satire, meanwhile the men in normal suits are running around with one policy hammer marked "migrants" and treating every national failure like a nail.
17 juin 1966, Paul McCartney fait l'acquisition d'une vieille ferme délabrée en Écosse. A la base, il ne s'agissait que d'un conseil d'investissement pour réduire une fiscalité très importante à l'époque sur les revenus des Beatles. Sur cette fiscalité, Harrison en fera d'ailleurs une chanson à la même période.
Ce que McCartney ne sait pas encore, c'est qu'il va tomber amoureux de cette ferme et qu'elle aura un rôle très important à la fin des Beatles. C'est là qu'il se retirera pendant des mois avec Linda pour soigner sa dépression naissante.
Il aimera tellement cette ferme et ce lieu de décor de bout du monde qu'il lui dédiera une chanson. Et pas n'importe quelle chanson. Ce sera le single le plus vendu en Grande-Bretagne depuis... "She Loves You" des Beatles en 1963. Il faudra même attendre la mort de Lady Di et la reprise de "Candle In The Wind" d'Elton John pour que ce record soit battu.
En Écosse, il y a même eu des propositions de certains politiques pour en faire un des hymnes officieux avec Flowers Of Scotland tellement cette chanson est considérée comme une ode au pays. Mais faut pas déconner non plus, on parle de la chanson d'un anglais d'origine irlandaise !
Aujourd'hui encore, tout le monde connait cette chanson, sans même parfois savoir qui en est l'auteur.
Bref, une énième chanson universelle de McCartney.
"Mull Of Kintyre", Paul McCartney, 1977.
18 June 1942. James Paul McCartney was born in Walton Hospital, Liverpool. As a member of The Beatles and during his successful solo career he’s the best selling recording artist and songwriter of all time.
This was the first and only time the Queen appeared in such a "cinematic" scene.
The Queen agreed to star alongside Daniel Craig as James Bond.
When Bond arrived to greet her at Buckingham Palace, the Queen's famous corgi dogs also appeared in the scene.
This moment quickly became one of the most talked-about Olympic opening ceremonies of all time.
The Queen was 86 years old at the time, but she was still willing to participate in such a surprising and humorous performance.
The director of the scene was Danny Boyle, an Oscar winner for Slumdog Millionaire.
This is considered one of the groundbreaking music videos, ahead of its time and laying the foundation for the golden age of MTV's music television channel, thanks to its incredibly unique visual techniques.
When Bobby Robson finished his last chemotherapy session in 2007, Dr Ruth Plummer pulled him to one side at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle.
Bobby thought it was going to be about his health.
Instead, Ruth wanted to talk to him about something else.
Her department was too old.
There was a new Early Cancer Trials Unit being planned at the Northern Centre for Cancer Care, three times bigger than what they already had, with a proper laboratory, modern equipment and room for clinical trials.
But there was one problem.
They did not have the money to kit it out.
So Ruth asked Bobby if he knew anybody who might help.
Bobby went home and spoke to his wife Elsie.
The next day, they started making calls.
Very quickly, what had started as a quiet conversation with Ruth had turned into a committee.
Then the idea came up.
Use Bobby’s name.
He was not comfortable with that at first.
He did not want a charity built around himself.
But the others told him it would open doors, and once Bobby agreed to it, there was no going halfway.
The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation was born.
At the first meeting with the hospital, Don Robson got straight to the point.
How much money was needed to get started?
£500,000.
And Ruth needed it by the summer of 2008 because she wanted the facility running by October.
That was when Bobby knew what he had walked into.
“There could be no slowing down, no pulling out, no getting halfway down the road and turning back.”
The original plan had been simple enough.
Bobby would lend his name, act as a figurehead, and stay in the background.
It did not work out like that.
He went to the meetings.
He did the interviews.
He kept going even when he was not well.
Sometimes he would pull Ruth to one side and ask her:
“What have you bloody well got me into?”
But he never missed a single meeting.
The launch was held at the Copthorne Hotel.
By then, Bobby was fully in it.
“If I’m committed to something, then I’m committed.”
And then the money started coming in.
Within seven weeks, the first target had already been reached.
£560,000.
Then people started turning up at Bobby and Elsie’s house.
The first donation came from a woman carrying an envelope full of cash.
Her husband had recently died, and his final request had been that people at his funeral gave money to Bobby’s charity instead of buying flowers.
She handed over £271.74.
“What can you say to that?”
Then there was Johnny Bliss, a local singer with pancreatic cancer.
His doctors had told him he had months to live, but he still held a concert, sold CDs and raised around £10,000 for the Foundation.
Bobby met him at the Copthorne.
Johnny brought his family with him, and made the men wear their best suits and ties.
Bobby could see he was not well.
“I could have cried.”
And for all the football he had lived through, all the countries, all the clubs, all the games, this became his last big job.
“It’s not about beating Portsmouth any more.”
“It’s about beating death.”
As of today the Sir Bobby Robson foundation has raised over £27 million.
#football