John Lennon shot dead in New York December 8th 1980
One day in December 1980 I was working as a bus driver and I was driving one of our old half cab buses into Manchester. My conductor, Bob, was kept pretty busy as we took a bus load of passengers into Manchester city centre for their jobs in shops, offices and other places. At one point Bob poked his head through the little window into the cab and told me that he had heard from a passenger that John Lennon had been shot in New York. It was shocking news and when we arrived in Piccadilly, we both ran to the news stand to read the news in the morning papers. There was nothing about Lennon in any newspaper and we wondered if it had been just a mad rumour. Later when we went back to the canteen for our break, we heard the news either on the TV or the radio. Lennon had indeed been shot and was dead.
I can’t claim to be a great fan of John Lennon. I liked him and his music and had a copy of one of his albums, Walls and Bridges and a few years later I bought Double Fantasy, his last album and the last vinyl album I would ever buy but what did happen that day back in December, 1980?
It was a cold day in New York and a man called Mark Chapman took a .38 calibre revolver out of his pocket and calmly fired five shots at John Lennon who had just exited a limo outside his home in the Dakota building, just across from Central Park.
Chapman had a copy of The Catcher in the Rye, a novel by JD Salinger with him when he shot Lennon. In his copy Chapman had signed ‘from Holden Caulfield to Holden Caulfield (a reference to the main character in the story) This is my statement’. He had hung around the Dakota building in New York where Lennon lived with his wife Yoko Ono and son Sean and when Lennon left for the Record Plant recording studio, he had pushed forward his copy of Double Fantasy, Lennon’s latest album, for the singer to sign.
The last vinyl album I ever bought and the last one that John Lennon made. Double Fantasy. £2.99, what a bargain!
Lennon wrote ‘John Lennon 1980’ on the record and handed it back to Chapman asking ‘Is this all you want?’ Chapman took the album back and Lennon jumped into a limo and was gone. A photographer named Paul Goresh was there and snapped a photo of Lennon signing the album. Chapman was excited about it and asked for a copy before Goresh left. Goresh promised to return the next day with a print.
Later the Lennons returned to the Dakota and Chapman was still there waiting. Yoko entered the building and Lennon was following when Mark Chapman pulled out his .38 revolver and fired five times at the ex-Beatle. Lennon staggered into the Dakota entrance saying ‘I’m shot’. Chapman dropped his gun and began reading The Catcher in the Rye until the police came and arrested him. Another Police car arrived and seeing that Lennon was losing a lot of blood carried him to the police car and took him directly to Roosevelt Hospital. Staff there tried to revive Lennon but the wounds were too severe and he was pronounced dead at 11:15pm.
Mark Chapman is still alive today. He is still serving his life sentence in Wende Correctional Facility in New York and first became eligible for parole in 2000. All Chapman’s applications for parole have so far been denied.
King Edward 8th Abdicates December 11th 1936
The story of King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson remains one of the most dramatic turning points in modern British history. A collision of personal desire, constitutional duty and public expectation. Edward was charming, modern and hugely popular but it seemed to me that he wasn’t strong enough to carry the weight of the monarchy on his shoulders. His deep attachment to Wallis, an American divorcee, placed him on an unavoidable collision course with the Government and the Church of England. At a time when divorce was still not really socially acceptable, the idea of a king marrying a twice-divorced woman was more than a social scandal, it was seen as a direct threat to the stability of the Crown itself.
It was all terribly inconvenient for Edward, who seemed far more interested in cocktail parties and Wallis’s company than in matters of state.
His radio address to the nation was quiet and deliberate with a hint of regret. He emphasised that he could not carry on his duties ‘without the help and support of the woman I love.’ The episode left deep rifts within the royal family and cast a long shadow over the Windsors for decades, a reminder of the delicate balance between individual freedom and constitutional responsibility.
The former King, now the Duke of Windsor, left for France and prepared for his marriage to Wallis, while his shy younger brother suddenly found himself as George VI, the new King. Edward spent the rest of his life swirling around Europe in a haze of glamour, gossip and lingering tension with the royal family. When his mother, Queen Mary, died the Duke was not allowed to bring his wife to the funeral. The next time Wallis came to England was in 1972 for the funeral of the Duke himself. Honestly, it’s one of those moments in history that still feels like a cross between a constitutional crisis and a tabloid love story.
December 16th 1984 Gorbachev visits the UK
Image courtesy Wikipedia creative commons.
When Brezhnev the leader of the Soviet Union died, a succession of old men took over the leadership and within a few years, all of those had followed Brezhnev to the grave. Mrs Thatcher, the British Prime Minister, felt it was time to try and improve relations with the USSR and so she decided to attend the Moscow funeral of Yuri Andropov in February of 1984. To build on this she invited Mikhail Gorbachev to visit the UK. She guessed that Gorbachev might be a possible future leader and a break from the old elderly Soviet leaders of the past.
Gorbachev and his wife Raisa, arrived in the UK on December 16th 1984 and Mrs Thatcher announced famously after their meeting that ‘I like Mr Gorbachev, we can do business together.’ Gorbachev spent a week in the UK visiting places that Lenin and Karl Marx had frequented. Mrs Thatcher later flew to the USA to brief her ally President Reagan who later began his own talks with Gorbachev.
Gorbachev became the General Secretary and leader of the USSR when Konstantin Chernenko died in 1985 and he began a policy of openness (glasnost) and democratisation which ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet regime.
First episode of Coronation Street 9th December 1960
I thought I might finish with something a little lighter than Lennon and Gorbachev and King Edward 8th and so that brings me to Coronation Street. I can’t say I’m the greatest fan of TV soaps in general although I do watch Coronation Street. When you watch something like Corrie over a long period of time you do get quite attached to the characters. Soaps, I suppose, do have their place in the TV schedules.
Coronation Street was the idea of writer Tony Warren who wrote the first 13 episodes. He based the fictional suburb of Weatherfield on his home town of Salford, just over the river Irwell from Manchester. Coronation Street is a small cobbled street in Weatherfield and the stories of the various residents have entertained many of us over the years. Elsie Tanner, Annie Walker, Bette Lynch, Mavis Riley and the Jack and Vera Duckworth have long gone to be replaced gradually with new characters, some good and some not so good. I like Corrie because Manchester is my home time and it’s nice to hear the characters talk the way I talk although proper Mancunians on the show are sadly becoming fewer. These days Coronation Street is broadcast in three hourly chunks per week and as much as I enjoy it, I doubt we will ever see a moment as memorable as that one back in 1984 when Hilda Ogden returned home from hospital after the death of her husband Stan. She opened a small parcel containing Stan’s effects including his old spectacles and slowly began to cry her eyes out. Probably the saddest thing I have ever seen on television. (For some reason I couldn’t seem to add the video clip of that moment but click here to see it on YouTube.)
I do find it really strange that the F1 season should still be going on in December. Still, the F1 season these days is a long one. It starts off in March and winds its way around the world until it ends up in Abu Dhabi at what is essentially a twisty turny mickey mouse sort of track in the middle east.
It’s cold, in fact it’s bloody cold and it’s no secret that I hate the cold. I could write about the cold I suppose but then 
In the latter part of the book Mia talks mostly about Woody Allen with whom she started a relationship with in 1980. I’m a huge fan of Woody and his films. The two met in 1979 and were introduced to each other by Michael Caine. Woody invited her to his New Year’s Eve Party and later, in April of 1980, Mia received a call from his secretary asking if Mia would like to meet Woody for lunch.
This week I’ve noticed quite a few items about Richard Burton on the BBC iPlayer. I wasn’t sure why at first but it turns out that this year, 2025, is the centenary of Burton’s birth. He was born Richard Jenkins on November 10th 1925.
Some years ago I read Melvyn Bragg’s biography of Richard Burton and that book was based partly on these diaries which have now been published and are available to everyone.
He had travelled to the USA before and on his penultimate visit had become romantically involved with a lady called Liz Reitel who worked for Brinnin at the poetry centre. When Dylan arrived for what would be his last visit Reitel was shocked to see the poet looking poorly and not his usual self.
By far the most interesting part was his account of the filming of In Which We Serve, a very patriotic film showing the activities of a ship in the Royal Navy that was eventually sunk and the lives of those who served in her. In his very first autobiography, the names of the many actors and actresses he worked with meant very little to me but now I can recognise a few names, John Mills and Richard Attenborough for instance and David Lean who co-directed the film with Noël although in actual fact, Lean directed most of the film when Coward became bored with the long-winded filming process.
The book is a huge volume and the editor has woven Noël’s letters with some interesting text about what was happening to Noël in between his letter writing. In 1941 Noël was invited to stay at the Welsh resort of Portmeirion where, many years later, the famous TV show The Prisoner starring Patrick MacGoohan would be filmed. His friend, Joyce Carey was hoping to write a play away from the bombs that were dropping on London. Her play never materialised but Noël wrote Blithe Spirit during the five days that he was there.
After graduating, Scott joined the BBC as a set designer and director, working on popular series such as Z Cars and The Troubleshooters. His time in television taught him the mechanics of production and in 1968, he left the BBC to establish Ridley Scott Associates (RSA), a commercial production company. Over the next decade, he directed hundreds of adverts, developing a style of lighting, atmosphere and composition, qualities that made his transition to cinema with The Duellists (1977) both natural and visually striking.
One thing that happened in October was me! I was born on October the 3rd, quite a considerable time ago which is annoying on a number of levels. One, I’m getting a bit knackered. My back hurts, my knees ache. It’s hard to stand up straight but what is a real pain is when you get one of those things on the internet where you have to add your date of birth and I have to scroll back through the 90s, the 80s, the 70s, the 60s and finally to the 1950s.
Letters from an Unknown Author! 