When bobbies were pith-perfect

“Ah, South African TV in its early days, with a mandated 50/50 split between the two official languages,” reminisces Don Bain of Port Macquarie. “That’s when a scarcity of local content saw a dubbing of the BBC series The Sweeney that had London constabulary conversing in fluent Afrikaans – under the banner of Blitspatrollie”

Remaining on the Highveld for the moment, Rhoda Silber of Manly says that “Roger Harvey (C8) has invoked a huge bout of nostalgia for the Silber family. We all used to gather around our tiny TV on a Tuesday night to watch Dallas in our hometown of Roodepoort. Gus would always do a dancing entrance to the opening theme song.”

Readers continue to get creative with election corflutes (C8). Readers such as Barbara Tregear of Ashfield: “To protect the rear window of our Toyota Prado from stone damage on an outback adventure, my partner recycled an election corflute to fit. We were laughed at by a fellow traveller until his back window was smashed by a stone thrown up by a passing car. Political advertising has value after all.”

Both Janice McAdam of Roseville and Caron Pearce of Miranda recommend using them as a base for jigsaw puzzles, with Janice adding that “you can either cover the picture of the candidate, or use the blank side. I prefer the latter.”

“I have old political corflutes I have used to block holes that foxes have made in the chookyard,” says Andrew Brown of Bowling Alley Point. “Living in the division of New England, I decided to turn the picture of one politician outwards in an attempt to scare the predators away, and it seems to have worked a treat.” Sounds like Andrew made the right Joyce.

“Radio-controlled model planes built from foam can be repaired by replacing damaged foam wings, flaps, vertical or horizontal stabilisers by fashioning new ones from corflutes,” advises Malcolm Brown of Marrickville. “This is one way even unpopular political aspirants might rise to greater heights.”

“I don’t have a problem getting a senior’s discount (C8),” says Col Burns of Lugarno. “After perusing my driver’s licence, a twenty-something receptionist at a South Coast bowling club exclaimed ‘wow, you don’t look your age’. After I thanked her for making my day, a puzzled expression filled her face before she finally replied ‘oh yeah, I see how you could have taken that as a compliment’.”

Column8@smh.com.au

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