JAnn

[Best of British @bestofbritishuk]

The BBC's Pebble Mill Studios in Edgbaston, Birmingham was opened by Princess Anne 55 years ago today. Home to TV programmes such as Howards' Way, Juliet Bravo and Doctors, it is best remembered for Pebble Mill at One, the weekday magazine show which was broadcast from its foyer.

[JAnn @JULESC___]

@davidsupercat So sorry.

[PoliticalPics @PoliticalPics]

Starmer telling his ministers if you back Burnham go. Ministers in the UK receive a supplemental salary on top of their standard £98,599 MP base pay. This extra pay ranges from roughly £22,000 for junior roles up to £80,000+ for the Prime Minister.

[JAnn @JULESC___]

@davidsupercat Stay positive. He's not going to go anywhere fast.

[CorkCity1185 @1185City]

Kenny Dalglish asked The Sun newspaper to tell the truth about Hillsborough & told them to F*ck Off when they wouldn't. King Kenny stood bravely against Maggie Thatcher & her cronies in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster. Liverpool FC

[JAnn @JULESC___]

@bt_uk I need to get access to my business account. Any updates on access yet?

[JAnn @JULESC___]

@SarahjevsEvans Get a mattress topper which will soften it.

[Vinnie Sullivan @VinnieSull1van]

Behold, the lost view of the 1990s corner shop. When a chocolate bar wasn't only dirt cheap, but big enough to eat in two sittings. ⏳️

[JAnn @JULESC___]

@RobLooseCannon *Hume

[JAnn @JULESC___]

@RobLooseCannon He had such a hard time burying Jack because of the Catholic Church stance on Homosexuality in that time. He had to visit Cardinal Hulme who eventually agreed. When Danny died in 2009 his family placed him with Jack so they were back together. God Bless Both of them.

[BUCHANAN: Dublin Time Machine @RobLooseCannon]

Danny La Rue was born Daniel Patrick Carroll was born in Cork city in 1927. The youngest of five kids, his Da Thomas was a carpenter who died of tuberculosis when Danny was just eighteen months old. This left his Ma Mary Anne, a seamstress, to raise the family alone. He remembers she took him to the Cork Opera House when he was five years old to see Jimmy O'Dea performing as the pantomime dame in Mother Goose. Years later, Danny would describe what he did on stage not as drag, but as being a "comic in a frock."

He attended St Maries of the Isle national school on the southside of the city and served as an altar boy. In 1937, when Danny was 10 the family left for London and settled near Soho on Earnshaw Street. When the Blitz destroyed their gaff, Mary Anne moved her children to Devon, where young Daniel, enrolled in a village school. With too few girls to fill all the female roles in drama, Danny happily found himself frequent cast.

He served in the Royal Navy and briefly delivered groceries. Then, in 1954, a promoter named Fred Gatty asked him to join the chorus at the Irving Theatre. Danny agreed and aquired the stage name Danny La Rue, reportedly explaining that he wanted a touch of French sophistication, and that when Danny was fully dressed with his feathers he was as long as a street anyway.

A two-week slot at Churchill's club in Bond Street became three years at the top of the bill. From 1957, he spent seven years at Winston's in Clifford Street, building his reputation in the London cabaret circuit alongside the likes of Barbara Windsor. His quickfire humour was cheeky and innuendo-laden. Danny always maintained it was inherently Irish, describing it as having "that little glint in the eye."

In March 1964, he opened his own nightclub in Hanover Square. Danny La Rue's became one of the most fashionable addresses in London, drawing Judy Garland, Shirley MacLaine, Warren Beatty, and Elizabeth Taylor. At its peak, the club had 13,000 members. It ran for nine years. Meanwhile, he was breaking ground on the West End stage, including a role in "Oh, What a Lovely War" believed to be the first time a man had taken over a woman's part in a West End production.

Through the 1960s he was among Britain's highest-paid entertainers. Television naturally followed and his international fame grew. Bob Hope called him the most glamorous woman in the world. His career was guided and sustained by his partner Jack Hanson, the man he described as the love of his life. They had been together since 1947.

In 1976, Danny invested over a million pounds restoring Walton Hall, a country house hotel in Warwickshire. He entrusted it to two Canadian businessmen who sadly turned out to be conmen, leaving behind a mountain of debt he was legally required to repay. On 27 July 1983, the day after his 56th birthday, his company went into voluntary liquidation. He sold his properties then he went back to work.

In 1984, he made theatrical history by becoming the first man to play Dolly Levi in a major West End production of Hello, Dolly! at the Prince of Wales Theatre. The critics mauled it but the audiences came anyway. That same year, he returned to Cork.

He had been visiting regularly since the 1960s. In June 1984 he packed the Cork Opera House for twelve consecutive performances, breaking box-office records. The Lord Mayor of Cork, John Dennehy, hosted him at a formal civic reception in City Hall. Dennehy happened to be his first cousin. Which in Cork has been known to cause sexual tension....

Tragically that same year Jack Hanson suffered a stroke while they were touring Australia together and died at the age of 64. Dannys last Cork appearance was at the Everyman Palace Theatre in 2005 during the city's tenure as European Capital of Culture. He died on 31 May 2009 in Tunbridge Wells, aged 81, and was buried at St Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Kensal Green.

Buy the Dublin Time Machine a pint and support the DTM Book
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[JAnn @JULESC___]

@behindvelvetro1 The passages from her book sound like Phoenix wrote them. Embarrassing rubbish.

[JAnn @JULESC___]

@FcJunction And still he thinks food just manifests itself into the bowls 😂

[JAnn @JULESC___]

@RyanSoapKing25 He had zero food also so nothing to soak it up.

[Paul Dalglish @DalglishPaul]

My Dad is my hero, my best mate, & the strongest man I know. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from him, it’s how to face challenges with courage, humour, & dignity
The treatment is going well & he’ll handle this the same way he’s handled everything else in life

Love you, Dad ❤️

[JAnn @JULESC___]

@CPSUK Great news. God Rest Him. 🌈🌈 #pridemonth

[JAnn @JULESC___]

@TheStourbridge It's got cooler also George. I think a nice warm blanket would do the job nicely 😉❤️

[JAnn @JULESC___]

@VirginMediaNews And could the Government please build a proper memorial. The one that is there is beyond pathetic.

[JAnn @JULESC___]

@VirginMediaNews My late mum, six siblings and my grandmother all survived it. They lived at 17 Charlieville Mall. My late mum was 9yrs old at the time. She remembered it vividly.

[BUCHANAN: Dublin Time Machine @RobLooseCannon]

Seven members of the Browne family, across three generations, were killed in the Nazi bombing of North Strand. Harry Browne, his wife Molly, their children Maureen (7), Anne (5), Edward (3), and Angela (2), along with Harry’s elderly mother Mary. Their gaff was obliterated.

Harry had gone to join the Local Defence Services after the first bombs fell that night. When he heard the Luftwaffe return, he ran home to protect his family. He had just reached the door when the bomb that annihilated his family detonated. His body was found with the knocker of the front door in his hand.

Neighbours remembered the silence after the blast, broken only by the shouts of rescuers and the weeping of those pulling bodies from the wreckage. The body of little Angela was never recovered.

On the 3rd of June, their remains made the journey from a Dublin morgue to Edenderry, the Brownes’ hometown. The coffins were carried on the open bed of a lorry, owned by a local family. As the cortege entered Edenderry, thousands lined the streets. Hurley players stood in silent formation, honouring their own.

At Drumcooley cemetery, over their single grave, local Defence Forces fired volleys as a final salute to the innocent dead. A republic that had remained neutral now stood face-to-face with the reality of war.

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