I seem to have created a bit of a stir with my latest Twitter/Facebook status update. For those who missed it, this is it...Iain is wondering if it is wrong to admit that as an eleven year old, he fancied Esther Rantzen
Now, perhaps it deserves a little - but not too much - explanation. Well, so it might, but who can explain these things properly? Was it her teeth? Was it the way she looked over to the old man at the edge of the studio and said, "Cyril"? Was it her billowing evening dressed in which she presented THAT'S LIFE? Who knows, but as I watched her this evening on I'M A CELEBRITY buried in a coffin with maggots and cockroaches crawled over her prostrate body, well, those old stirrings kind of returned. [enough info - ed].
When someone on Facebook wrote...
Iain, if it helps, I'll raise you Gail Tilsley...it set me thinking. Who is the weirdest person anyone fancied as an 11-14 year old? You know how to click on comments... go on, you know you want to tell someone...
Madame Cholet. It was the French accent and frilly hat.
ReplyDeleteWell, I did offer up Connie Booth (that maid uniform!) in Fawlty Towers, on Facebook. I am not sure that passes your "wierd" criteria, though, so I will offer Mrs McCluskey in Grange Hill. Detention? Yes please. :-)
ReplyDeleteEr..Una Stubbs(in panto)and Wendy Craig in 'Butterflies.'Oh,and Stephanie Beacham in the 70's lunchtime series about office life,but on reflection,that's not weird at all..she was gorgeous. *blush*
ReplyDeleteIt's Friday its five o'clock and it's crackerjack,....
ReplyDeleteLeslie Crowther!
Well you did ask.:)
Sophie Tucker...it was her staff that did it!!
ReplyDelete"One of these days...your gonna miss me honey"
Sue Nicholls (in Coronation Street since Noah was a sailor, but in those days she was in Crossroads. My granny made me watch it, honest.) Daughter of Sir Harmer Nicholls, Tory MP for Peterborough, later Lord Harmer-Nicholls of Hyphenation in the County of No-one's-ever-hear-of-me-shire.
ReplyDeleteWV: luthr, a short protestant.
My first recollection of Rantzen is of her working as a "researcher" on the Bernard Braden Show.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember the details, but in short order, Braden was out and Rantzen was in charge, supported by the producer Desmond Wilcox.
I liked Braden. I've never liked Rantzen.
Slightly before the age of 11 but my first teacher in primary school...a Miss Layson....as she was then. She could have floated my boat that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean that Esther Rantzen is now a gay icon like Judy Garland? We should be told!
ReplyDeleteOh,by the way, my teenage crushes were on Jenny Agutter and Jane Asher. But the real love of my 11-year old life was Hayley Mills when she played Polyanna. Cor!
ReplyDeleteJohn Noakes, daredevil and action man extraordinaire... Never got that Blue Peter badge, sigh.
ReplyDeleteSian Adey-Jones.
ReplyDeleteAnd I still would.
Yes, I once had a guilty fetish for Margaret Beckett... I then discovered she was actually a woman and was mightily disappointed.
ReplyDeleteStrangely, I also made the same mistake with Denis Thatcher.
Michael Donovan...not the one in the Shannon Matthew's case. Then it was Carol and Sandra Miller, in the stable, which was our makeshift hospital for doctors and nurses. Kids today would be made to sign the sex offender register!
ReplyDeleteOoh Carol Vorderman. MILF.
ReplyDeleteHowever, how many teenage boys are going to admit in twenty years time that they fancied Sarah Palin?
Carol Vorderman.
ReplyDeleteWhich is a bit odd, as I normally prefer the likes of Kelly Brook.
Esther Rantzen?
ReplyDeleteIf you could go back and start again, how different your life might turn out Iain.
Bird said...
ReplyDelete"My first recollection of Rantzen is of her working as a "researcher" on the Bernard Braden Show. I can't remember the details, but in short order, Braden was out and Rantzen was in charge, supported by the producer Desmond Wilcox. I liked Braden. I've never liked Rantzen."
I bumped into Braden at the bar in Doncaster FC after some promotional evening that my company had run and he was a miserable bugger - wouldn't even buy me a drink. Canadian, you see.
Not that it matters Diablo, but I think Braden was sacked by the BBC because he appeared in an ad for something or other on ITV which the BBC thought was wrong for the presenter of a "consumer" programme. The essential point is right "That's Life" was "Braden's Week" without Braden. Rancid, everafter, claimed to have "invented" the format. No malice intended. If you are a low-level oppo allowed the chance to grab the crown, by all means take it.
ReplyDeleteJackie Ashley, when she was a Journalist for ITN/BBC in the 90's
ReplyDeleteBraden's show was "On The Braden Beat" and he accepted the cash for advertising margarine on ITV.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise... it was Mrs Peel and Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha the witch.
I had a thing for Ayshea, who presented Lift Off. But I was only about 7. She occasionally crops up now on UFO on one of the timewasting freeview channels.
ReplyDeleteMmmm seem to remember having quite a crush on Peter Vaughan-Clarke who played Stephen (right-hand of photo) in The Tomorrow People.
ReplyDeleteWeirdly, I later had a major thing for Kate Bush too.
What a mixed up kid!
Prince Charles. And I still would.
ReplyDeleteI still go all goosebumps when I hear Delia Smith say 'Black Forest Gateau'
ReplyDeleteEldred. A creature made from stone in a 1976(ish) episode of Dr Who with Tom Baker ("Hand of Fear").
ReplyDeleteNo. Really. She was well fit. But unfortunately she turned into a bloke at the end (again made of stone) so that ruined it a bit.
Also, Destiny Angela in the origianl Captain Scarlett puppet series.
In the immortal words of Sid James ...
"Phwoooooaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr."
Ok, let's see: Cleo Rocos / Corrine Russell (both of Kenny Everett), Glynis Barber (Dempsey and Makepeace gal), Wilma Deering (Buck Rogers), and this particular attractive lady goalkeeper on the cover of Fiesta magazine!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely Jennifer Connelly (Sarah in Labyrinth). I'd get locked up for that now, but I was only 9 when the movie came out...
ReplyDeleteKenny Everett was possibly my most shameful.
ReplyDeleteAnd Joey Tempest (of Europe fame) although I thought he was a she, which may explain everything...
John Major. Yes, it's true. Pictures on my wall and everything. My taste hasn't got any better, I'm afraid!
ReplyDeleteNina Mischow or however you spell the name. Mainly on the back of some of her sex stories appearing in the press.
ReplyDeleteShameful barrel scraping.
Richard Hammond.
ReplyDeleteMy secret shame.
There was always something about Barbra Streisand (still is I think).
ReplyDeleteJulie Christie..... Don't Look Now.... only a woman of perfect, timeless beauty could arouse such teenage ardour despite the presence of gurning, bog eyed, Jack Bauer-spawning 70s hunk Donald Sutherland.
ReplyDeleteThe b******d; I was only 14 but I could have played the part - no, really I could.
R56
Like your Facebook friend I also fancied Gail Tilsley (or Gail Potter as she then was) when I was about 15. Then again I also had a bit of thing about Suzanne Ross in Grange Hill (who later became Michelle Fowler in EastEnders). There's no accounting for taste.
ReplyDeleteI confess, I did fancy Gail Tilsey when I was about thirteen or so. It was the elfin-type looks and she was more lovely then!
ReplyDeleteBut I have never fancied Esther Rantzen. That said Iain I think you are a brave man to mention it
And having read some of the comments and seeing that Sci Fi counts. Nyssa in Doctor Who
ReplyDeleteBut thing is, am not at all embarrassed about that
At least it wasn't Cyril Fletcher. And in any case, you're embarrassed? I once faniced Wendy Craig. Try living that down.
ReplyDeleteBTW in order to post crap like that, I have to create a new account each time. When I try and log on my password is always incorrect. Hope I'm not the only one.
Jenny Hanley, mind You Gail Tilsley has a great set of hooters. Nowadays its Sian Williams.
ReplyDeleteFelicity Kendal in The Good Life, and sometimes Margot too (13 years old is a terrifying time)
ReplyDeleteI had to seriously rebuke myself once in the late 90s though, when a report from Jenny Bond had me thinking impurely. {shiver}
Subconcious : Wendy, one of the two girls on the cover stories of 1950s "Girl" comic (sister paper to "Eagle").
ReplyDeleteOne morning realised I had been dreaming about her.
Alan Douglas
What's up with WV - so many are making sense lately : morsu (morsell, as in tasty)
'Bad girl' Emelda Davis off Grange Hill circa 1986.
ReplyDeleteGail Tilsley could raise nothing of mine! But then I used to fancy the pants off Wendy Richard as Miss Brahms, a thought that's verging on necrophilia now!
ReplyDeleteI second Jennifer Connolly with a resounding "Oooozaaahhhh".
ReplyDeleteAlso a newsreader called Julie Banderas on the Fox News channel. Stunningly attractive brunette.
Angela Lansbury for me...
ReplyDeleteKate Bush. And Olivia Newton-John.
ReplyDeleteGoldie Hawn in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.
ReplyDeleteA close second and when I was even younger, Hayley Mills in Polyanna, The Parent Trap and Whistle down the Wind.
Don't do this to us Iain! It is just not fair! After all I'm meant to be a grumpy old git now.
The girl from haysi fantayzee.
ReplyDeleteKerry Dixon
ReplyDelete- The bus conductor (OK he had a withered arm but at least he was a man)
ReplyDelete- My brother - very sporty at 17
- Ilya Kuryakin
- Trampas in The Virginian (and in his chaps)
ps Bird @ 10:51 - yes, Esther and Des simply highjacked the whole format - and of course the delectable Barbara Kelly was shafted as well.
I fancied Sarah Palin, but that turned out to be a rather common disorder.
ReplyDeleteI'll cover (oops pardon!) your Gail Tilsley and raise you a POam St. Clement.
ReplyDeleteBrigitte Bardot, Kim Novak. Ah, me!
ReplyDeleteWas in my early 20s when Dr No was released. Fancied Ursula Andress (with 'A' replaced bu 'U') looking at her rising from the Sea. Later watched an obscure film called 'Four for Texas' with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Ursula Andress and Anita Ekberg who sported eye-popping biggest pair of jugs!. Made my day!
ReplyDeleteLinda Bellingham in the Bisto Ads...!
ReplyDeleteRobert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris from Voyager. Aaaaaaanyway...
ReplyDelete