Tony Pollard

A question asked on Front Row just now. How do you make a child friendly exhibition about children at war? Guessing this is no longer the answer. #Warlord

@For_Film_Fans My favourite anecdote related to George Sanders, who during the war suggested a bomb which sounded the all clear on the way down. Now that's caddish!

I remember reading both these books before I hit my teens and LOVED them both so much. DAVID NIVEN — who left us 43yrs ago today, aged 73 — was a glorious anecdotalist & raconteur.

@For_Film_Fans I think Alias Smith and Jones was one of the first TV series I really fell in love with. Thanks for the reminder. "I sure wish the governor would let a few more people people in on our secret!"

PETE DUEL had his whole life & career ahead of him. He was just 31.

@petefosk Sounds like the time my dad taught me to tell the time.

@ProfTonyPollard Thanks for that Tony, takes me back to sitting with my dad trying to work it out for myself much to his frustration 😁

Remember Warlord? Got distracted today with wee war comic project. This weekly comic first hit newsagents on 28 Sept 1974, when I was 10. It launched some iconic characters but also a bunch of secret agents. It was an act of marketing genius which went live with issue 20 on 8 Feb 1975. I ran a ring of agents which met in a furniture shop on a Saturday. Were you an agent?

@petefosk Here you go - not quite Bletchley grade code breaking.

@ProfTonyPollard You had to break a code to become an agent I seem to remember, once broken I’m sure the phrase was “ the name Peter means stone” or something similar

@yarkshiregamer Had to cancel my subscription. Couldn’t keep up.

@ProfTonyPollard They do tend to expand exponentially 😀

@AndyJac1994 Class

@ProfTonyPollard Loved Hook Jaw. Remember the story of the airliner crashing in the sea, the stewardess opened up the cockpit door to see the pilot being eaten by Hook Jaw.. 🪝

Then there was Action and Bullet, launched by rival publishers in Feb 1976. Bullet provided a rival to Lord Peter Flint in the form of Fireball (though I think his backstory had him as ward of PF). These were cooler than old school Warlord and the violence in Action closed it down for a while - Mary Whitehouse etc - before a tamer version was relaunched. It also had the best character of them all - Hook Jaw!

@petefosk That’s right. Think they gave you the first word.

@TheUCS473 Think I bought the first issue of Kerrang!

@ProfTonyPollard That took me back. I remember all the moral panic about Action at the time. Printed press was huge back then for boys. Also Commando comics. Then moved on to NME, Sounds, Melody Maker. Great days.

@yarkshiregamer Shelves in my study

@ProfTonyPollard Ashamed to say I was a Commando lad, after that 2000AD, Roy of the Rovers and Whoopee I couldn't stretch to an extra one ! Still get the Commando magazines myself and they have occasional Warlord crossovers 😁👍

@ChrisMackay16 Indeed - high quality art.

@ProfTonyPollard Another one I enjoy revisiting is The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire. Appeared in “Look & Learn”. Picked up five compilation volumes a few years ago. Great escapism!

@JohnTierney_ Fabulous! Yes, there was a bit of rivalry between Warlord and Fireball agents at school.

@ProfTonyPollard Those secret agents badges taught me how toilet cisterns worked - I hid mine - like any good secret agent would - inside in the cistern without realising the ballcock moved so much - drenched credentials - Warlord i think😅

@ChrisMackay16 Brilliant - just the sort of thing I'm interested in.

@ProfTonyPollard I must have spent a fortune on comics! Read it and Battle. Even used one issue of the Victor in the classroom. One of its cover stories referred to Fred Luke. He had won the VC saving the guns at Le Cateau and had been janitor at the High School in the Thirties.

@DavidNi09148795 I love that story!

@ProfTonyPollard Hook Jaw was fantastic - unforgettable! My mum washed my trousers with the Fireball pendant in the pocket... Had to lovingly repaint the gold with some humbrol enamel (and a pretty poor job I made of it 🤣)

@Taff_Gillingham Alas mine was lost on operations many years ago.

@ProfTonyPollard I was, and I still have issue No.1 somewhere. I probably still have the Warlord Special Agent wallet too!

@ThatchGer1 From cover to cover, no. Currently reading Anabasis.

@ProfTonyPollard Have you read the Iliad though?

Amazing how many people have read The Odyssey. Happy to admit l haven’t.

@Giesabrek I’ve just finished The Terror by Dan Simmons which l think was 26 hours. I love the premise of this book and was committed to it but no way l’d have finished reading all 766 pages given how all over the place the second half is.

@ProfTonyPollard I've listened to a few books I'd have given up on reading part way through including Les Miserables, War and Peace and Churchill's biography of Malborough, recently binged Prof Frank McDonoughs trilogy, the Weimar Years and the Hitler Years Vol 1 & 2.

@SoundsClips @Sofa_sound Stunning album. To my mind possibly his best.

Peter Hammill's album 'A Black Box' reviewed by John Gill in Sounds 26th, July 1980. @Sofa_sound

@Giesabrek No cheating involved. I spent a long time as an audio book snob. Now a total convert.

@ProfTonyPollard I cheated, listened to Stephen Fry read the audiobook, kept me company on many a long walk.