Rainy days and bright tomorrows with a little manzanilla and Pink Gin

It Always Rains on Sunday. No it doesn't but sometimes, in our youth, things seem to be drifting that way. Arthur Sears, 95 now, smiles and sips his manzanilla.

“These questions are getting harder,” he says. “A couple of years after the war, I should think. Bethnal Green just before the Krays started roaming the streets and causing trouble. It was quite a well-made film but all I remember is Jack Warner as the copper. There was a chase through the railway stockyards, yes? It Always Rains probably got him the role as Dixon of Dock Green but only your older readers will remember that.”

“He's only GOT older readers,” Marvel Mason says, rather cheekily, but the truth often hurts and I'm not about to argue with someone who sold comics to film director Ken Russell at 15 and tried his level best to introduce the Albanians to Radio Fun. They were very fond of Norman Wisdom.