“In Britain and in Germany it is 12 noon" .... One song ….. Two Way Family Favourites ….. and a different way of saying hello

Two Way Family Favourites was one of those radio programmes that was always on in our house on a Sunday during the 1950s.

Most of the time it sat in the background as an accessory to preparing the midday meal and doing heaps of other things.

But even as background you absorbed the family messages sent to servicemen and women abroad, the choice of music and the exchanges between the broadcasters, one here in Britain and the other in Germany.

And it began with that signature tune “With a Song in My Heart” followed by “In Britain and in Germany it is 12 noon so at home and away it is time for Two Way Family Favourites”.

It is perhaps easy to forget that there was a time within living memory that communicating with a loved one was pretty much limited to letters and post cards.

Our first phone arrived only in the 1950s, and the line was shared with another family, but we were lucky because for most people making a telephone call meant a trip to the nearest public phone box while phoning from abroad might involve booking a call-in advance.

And set against this was that in the immediate post war period into the 1950s and 60s, Britain maintained a large standing army, supported by conscription and stationed across the world.

A substantial element of that force was in Germany and so every Sunday the BBC hosted a two-way radio programme of messages and music.

It is of course a bit of my past but for younger generations it will sit with the Age of the Dinosaurs and the Stone Age.

But in that time before  the internet, social media and mobile phones, it was all we had.

And I am always reminded of this little bit of my past when the song Sailor is played with that chorus

Barlow Moor Road, circa 1950s

“As you sail across the sea

All my love is there beside you

In Capri or Amsterdam

Honolulu or Siam To the harbour of my heart

I will send my love to guide you”.

From memory it was a popular choice and the programme played both the Petula Clark and Ann Shelton versions which both came out in 1961, and were a variation on an earlier German song Seemann (Deine Heimat ist das Meer)" "Sailor (Your Home is the Sea)".

I have listened to both and I like them both, but the English version is perhaps a tad more sentimental and so chimed in with Two Way Family Favourites.

Family life, 1953

And that is it.

Location; Britain and Germany,

Pictures; 1950s elegance, News of the World's Household Guide and Almanac, courtesy of Debbie Cameron ,Barlow Moor Road, circa 1950s and Family life from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Sailor, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k8fzE7UHu8

***Seemann, deine Heimat ist das Meer, https://lyricstranslate.com/en/seemann-deine-heimat-ist-das-meer-sailor-your-home-sea.html