The LNER Encyclopedia

In these dark days with Coronavirus sweeping the land and in between watching railway dvds lately I have been watching and re-watching a old British television comedy series that was shown on the telly back in 1969-70 called The Dustbinmen that anyone over the age of about 60 may just remember watching?. The series was made by Granada television the same company that made Coronation Street and in fact a small number of actors and actresses appear throughout the series in different episodes from Coronation Street in particular Julie Goodyear who played barmaid Bet Lynch and later the landlady of The Rovers Return pub during the 1970s. The series was shown on a weekday evening at prime time and was popular when it was shown although Mary Whitehouse of the National Listeners and Viewers Association wasn't a fan of the series.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dustbinmen

The series follows the comic adventures of Thunderbird 3 a dustcart and it's 4 man crew somewhere up around the Manchester area in the north west of England and was lead by C.E. Petty the gang leader who was also known as 'Cheese & Egg' along with the maniac Manchester City football fan 'Winston' and 'Heavy Breathing' (who wore a bowler hat) and was 'the good looking one' so the series proclaimed who had to 'fight off all the housewives unwanted attentions' and 'Eric me flower' the dim-witted Welshman who's only pleasure in life was watching television and trying to save up to buy a colour television for his mum. The series was made in the days before swearing was made acceptable on television so the programme writers made up there own swear words such as 'Pigging Hell' and 'Bog Off' and 'You Great Buttock' which became popular for a time in everyday usage during the early 1970s.

Below The no.3 gang leader C.E. Petty aka 'Cheese & Egg'

https://img.sharetv.com/shows/character ... nd_egg.jpg

Below Cheese & Egg, Winston, Heavy Breathing & Eric

https://alchetron.com/cdn/the-dustbinme ... e-750.jpeg

Below Winston an 'obsessive' Manchester City fan who thinks Collin Bell (a City footballer) IS GOD!. Winston also drives Thunderbird 3 dustcart

https://img.sharetv.com/shows/character ... _platt.jpg

Below Eric & 'Bloody Delilah' the Cleansing Depot Inspector

https://img.sharetv.com/shows/episodes/ ... 588074.jpg

Below Winston, Eric & Heavy Breathing

https://img.sharetv.com/shows/episodes/ ... 588070.jpg

Below 'Bloody Delilah' & Heavy Breathing

https://img.sharetv.com/shows/episodes/ ... 588073.jpg

Before my time, but I think it is amazing that Mary Whitehouse never caught on to the fact that she was often being played. She was great for producing free advertising for a new TV show trying to find its legs, or an old one that had lagging ratings and deliberately included a particular scene or plot thread to catch her attention (Dr Who in the Colin Baker era comes to mind - it took her 20 years to notice Dr Who existed).

Yeah Mary Whitehouse and her friend Lord Longford two controversial personalities in Britain back the 1960s, 1970s & 1980s.

If The Dustbinmen series was remade again today in 2020 fifty one years after it was first made the main characters would be more diverse in ethnic make up to reflect todays ethnic diversity of Britain and the dustmen themselves would probably be decked out in HV safety clothes and boots and probably work for a private contractor as well.

richard wrote: ↑Mon Apr 20, 2020 6:53 pm Before my time, but I think it is amazing that Mary Whitehouse never caught on to the fact that she was often being played. She was great for producing free advertising for a new TV show trying to find its legs, or an old one that had lagging ratings and deliberately included a particular scene or plot thread to catch her attention (Dr Who in the Colin Baker era comes to mind - it took her 20 years to notice Dr Who existed).

I often used to wish I had her tv. The programmes on it had so much more sex, swearing etc. than on ours.

Kudu