Such a lovely Sunday, wallowing in Light Music on Radio 3. Not an unalloyed joy – you can have too much of a good thing.
Private Passions was a compilation of the light hearted bits chosen by guests during its 800 learned episodes to date. The programme went out on one of my firm favourites, The Dam Busters March, chosen by Al Murray who spoke as if he had expected the piece to be unfamiliar to the erudite listeners. I wonder if Stephen Fry, (who was first up on this programme with his choice of Herb Alpert’s Black Forest, which he finds hilarious), will be using this music from the original film in his remake, or will that, along with the name of Squadron Leader Guy Gibson’s dog, have to be changed to Digger, as the original is unsuitable for modern ears.
In a fit of overambition & with a slight crush on Richard Todd I used some of my pocket money to buy the sheet music for piano; a very tasteful navy blue cover, with a black & white photo of bombers against the night sky.
What I cannot remember is if there were ever any official lyrics to the piece, or whether my conviction that one part goes “We who have won fame & glory” is just something inserted by my own brain, or somehow encoded into the music so that all listeners hear them.
I suspect that Sunday was a dam busters day also in the sense that tears trickled down many a cheek as memories of childhood came flooding back
