Soft soap

While Emergency Ward 10 was not Britain’s first “soap opera” (this would be BBC’s The Grove Family from 1954-1957) it was the first medical soap, airing on Tuesdays and Fridays on ITV from 1957. Set i

VUK VALCIC/SOPA IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES; JUST STOP OIL ● ...

Material from the BBC’s ‘golden age’ tends to be recalled through a heavily rose-tinted lens. Apart from Fawlty Towers, certain Monty Python skits and a few documentaries, I’m not sure it was all that

RINGWOOD MARKET PLACE, HAMPSHIRE

JOSH dabbed expertly at the cut he’d just finished sewing up. He’d made a neat job of it and it should heal very nicely, leaving only a line. It wouldn’t be seen, anyway, once the cat’s fur grew back.

When I was aged 10, the farmers used to come round the schools to pick volunteers to work on the farms during the summer holidays, mainly to help bring in the harvest. The country was still building u