Duncan Harley

According to last Sundays Observer Magazine the very-third-time-ever that the word fuck was broadcast live on the UK airwaves was on 1 December 1976. How do they know this? Well, seemingly the Sex Pistols appeared on the Bill Grundy Show and uttered the immortal words “Bill Grundy is a fuckin’ rotter”. That’s probably on record somewhere in the depths of the BBC archives but what about the first two utterances, of which writer Juliana Piskorz makes no mention whatsoever. I may have an answer . The art of swearing upon the airwaves goes back a fair wee bit beyond those heady seventies. Broadcaster Richard Dimbleby was a close friend and colleague of Robin Duff, the 32nd and last laird of Oldmeldrum. Aberdeenshire-born Duff inherited both his lairdship and Meldrum House, the family ancestral home, from his uncle in 1954. A Cambridge graduate, he worked as a presenter then as a radio journalist for the BBC. During World War 2 Robin famously stood on London rooftops during the Blitz de...

Had a wee half-hour break from pounding the keyboard today and headed out to Osprey Heights on the new fringes of Inverurie. It’s a new-build development and, until recently boasted a Bridge to Narnia. I referred to it in my old Leopard column in glowing terms as a source of local speculation. ‘The Bridge to Narnia has been a source of local speculation for several years. Constructed as part of the Osprey Village residential development at Souterford, the pedestrian bridge literally goes to absolutely nowhere and during the spring when the River Ury floods at Souterford, the decking of the bridge vanishes from view. Seemingly plans are afoot to build a footpath across the flood plain to link Osprey Village with the nearby retail park and, subject to satisfactory design and environmental consultations, the infamous bridge may finally find a new use. No doubt both C. S. Lewis and King Canute would approve.’ Thankfully this quirky landscape error has now been rectified and a spl...