Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
Google David Bowie/Lori Mattix
Proabably not a proper nonce but he had sex with underage girls.
Remembering Polari, the Forgotten Language of Britain's Gay Community
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Proabably not a proper nonce but he had sex with underage girls.
Kasper Jonran
What is a title anyway?
He knew it was wrong he just had a hard on for a smooth bonnet. Wrong is wrong. It's a bit like all the people who ignore John Peel and his shortcomings. people want to carry on loving their heroes and just can't cope with the bubble being burst. A bit like those people who talk about Jimmy and his charity work.
rubbershoes
not the only raver in the village
Wouldn't the knowledge of it have been restricted to the Radio 4/Home Service audience?
Apart from Julian and Sandy I first heard Polari in Harrods in the late 70s where it was used a fair bit, and in louche drinking-clubs in the 80s, by which time the Polari speakers were hanging onto the quaint notion that nobody could understand them.
Reno
The In Kraut
...which at the time would have been a large audience. Page 111 here:
Polari - The Lost Language of Gay Men
Polari is a secret form of language mainly used by homosexual men in London and other cities during the twentieth century. Derived in part from the slang lexicons of numerous stigmatised and itinerant groups, Polari was also a means of socialising, acting out camp performances and reconstructing...
books.google.de
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
I've only come across it a few times and considered it more of a novelty than a language. You can usually pretty much work out what's being said. Cockney rhyming slang is far more impenetrable to the uninitiated!
Lurdan
old wave
It was getting audiences of 15 million or so. (To set that in context the UK population has increased by 13 million since the mid-sixties, but only one TV programme last year - the Gavin and Stacey Christmas special - attracted an audience larger than that)....which at the time would have been a large audience. Page 111 here:
Polari - The Lost Language of Gay Men
Polari is a secret form of language mainly used by homosexual men in London and other cities during the twentieth century. Derived in part from the slang lexicons of numerous stigmatised and itinerant groups, Polari was also a means of socialising, acting out camp performances and reconstructing...books.google.de
Audiences of that size weren't just down to the shows own popularity, It was broadcast on the Light Programme on Sunday afternoon which was the peak radio audience at the time. Part of a regular strand of programmes beginning with Two Way Family Favourites, then Billy Cotton's fucking Band Show, then a couple of comedies, Movie-Go-Round and then Down Your Way surrounded by a number of music programmes. This would include Pick of the Pops, but also Semprini and/or Mantovani and their ilk. If we were really, really lucky as darkness fell there would be Sing Something Simple or the 'have you ever seriously considered suicide' programme to round things off nicely.
And in households up and down the land, including my families, the early part of this regular schedule was the aural backdrop as simmering family tensions seethed and occasionally erupted around the ritual of 'Sunday Roast Dinner'. Anything that distracted from that, like Round the Horne, was doubly welcome.
lefteri
Well-Known Member
from that film it seems there’s a bit of crossover with rhyming slang (eg plates) and from the article its roots appear to be partly in thieves’ slang which also crosses over with rhyming slang afaik
Puddy_Tat
naturally fluffy
Serge Forward
Just enjoyin' my coffee.
I still have nightmares of Sing Something Simple 
ElizabethofYork
Old Crone
Oh God, yes. It meant the horror of sunday evening and back to school the next day.I still have nightmares of Sing Something Simple
When we got the telly a whole world of fabulous entertainment opened up
genome.ch.bbc.co.uk
well after my bedtime
Schedule - BBC Programme Index
well after my bedtime
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