STRAW POLL. Miriam Lord makes great use of a Biggles reference today. How many of you have read Biggles or at least can picture him? How many of you have never heard of him til her article or this question? You may feel your location or age are relevant to your reply.
I've read tons of Biggles books thanks to my dad. I can immediately picture him. I saw the lousy Biggles movie. I listened to the Monty Python Biggles meets Bruce Springsteen sketch over and over
I just skimmed her "column" today and ffs does she get paid for this
I do not find her funny. Given her subject material, it should be hilarious
The only times she ever manages to amuse is either by accident or when directly describing or quoting something that is itself funny
I never even knew of the Biggles movie and must not seek it out!
It's dreadful. Time travel shenanigans. Peter Cushing's last role!
TIME TRAVEL? Like, absolutely unnecessary! And I’ll definitely seek it out.
I remember very little about it except possibly some sort of terrible sonic weapon that led to nasty deaths that were upsetting to me at 10 or 11
Some of us are old enough to have seen it at the pictures. Not me though. 👀
I was 7 when it came out but I either saw it on video or on tv
I’m glad I’m not old enough (or too old?) to have paid money to be disappointed by what should have been a reliably good tale of adventure and derring-do!
If you want to see Porkins from Star Wars declare "He's a religious transvestite!", then go find Biggle,an adventure in time,on you tube.
I read Biggles when I was a kid...
I wondered how many people would get the reference today - connecting a former pilot (potential presidential candidate) with our current President (aka Miggledy Higgins) as Biggledy. And I know some of my pleasure was from imagining actual Biggles campaigning.
Ditto
Beware the little green Rumpler.
he was based on my great grandfather does that count
Aaaaaaaggghhhh!!! It most definitely counts! How come?
he was a rugby player and ww1 aviator and got up to some wild shit. im not sure if he and Johns knew each other, knew of each other, or what. id guess in this day and age its a pretty deep cut reference to make though lol
So he was to Biggles as Ian Fleming was to Bond - that is pretty cool! I like the whole “6 degrees of separation” thing as it applies to the past - like a particular time or event having a living personal recollection :)
yeah a kinda spiritual inspiration i guess, as the center of a sort of incorporation of other people and actions and tropes and you know all that stuff
Can I say, I’ll be telling all my family about meeting you on here today :)
ahahah fair, wish them well for me
Haven't read, but aware of and can picture (41/UK)
I only read one: "Biggles of the Camel Squadron"; didn't like it so didn't read any others 🤷
I would’ve started reading him when I was about 7 or 8, and just devoured words like the hungry caterpillar. And there were a LOT of Biggleses, so fuel for my fire. I don’t think I’d have considered having an opinion until much older, by which time I’d formed a kind of attachment.
I have not read Biggles but definitely picked up who Biggles was through cultural osmosis (references in books, TV, etc.). I am 53.
I can loan you a compilation if you feel you’re missing out. You can see how it fed so many later stereotypes. Though as you’ve already observed its intertextual place, you probably have enough of the measure of it - it’s not going to get any more relevant!
I think that's one of my auntie Toinette's books there - she edited Kavanagh's Collected Poems iirc
Or maybe Selected?
No, nvm that's not hers. Ignore me!
I was just about to go back to the book shelf and check!
Pay no attention to my posts!
(Quickly looks away)
*escapes*
She lectured me in college!
Oh no, was she horrible to you?
No! She wasn't the warmest fluffiest lecturer but I never had any issue with her! I don't think I was in any of her tutorials so I didn't have a chance to get on the wrong side of her.
Phew! She was an excellent auntie and sister to my mum but warm and fluffy wouldn't have been a big thing for her!!
Very smart lady, passionate and knowledgeable about her subject.
😊❤️
What year (if not too personal)? In case we were there around the same time…
1992-1996.
We *just* missed each other - and you are younger than me by about 4 years 😂
I was there from 1998–2002. Not studying English though
Nice to be younger than someone,it's happening less often 😂
Yes, I feel my brain has sufficient Biggles to be getting on with.
I've never read any of his books afair, I know there was a film, but again I've never watched it. I can picture him exactly but I'm not entirely sure how he transferred himself into my consciousness so I'm a bit freaked out tbh
I’ve been told the film is woegeous - I intend to seek it out!!!! How did he seep into the consciousness of those who never read him? He must have been more widely referenced than I remember.
after reading the comments it was definitely via python for me, my parents were big fans
He seems to have been a bigger Cultural Character than I’d thought, made the leap from his franchise to a wider consciousness!
I've a feeling he may have been parodied in lots of comedy sketches, but can't remember any specific ones (googling there and I see Monty Python had a "Letter from Biggles" sketch for instance)
Yep - like he’s become a cultural character, realised from the confines of his series.
Used to sneak into my older brother's room when he was out and read his books, Biggles amongst them. Early 80s.
My Dad would have brought Biggles into the house - and Jennings: even as a grown-up he’d laugh till he cried at some of the antics in Jennings “home made cakes and bicycles repaired” 😂
Jennings! My brother had Jennings as well.
I also STILL have Jennings books, though ugly editions. They also make me laugh out loud, if not quite cry with laughter like my dad - boy, he could laugh!
That's a lovely connection with your dad. For my dad it was P.G. Wodehouse and The Goon Show that made him cry laughing.
We had Goon laughter too!!! I found Wodehouse myself, but I think I was in the right place to naturally do so :)
Had to go and find this, never fails to make me feel like my dad's in the room. m.youtube.com/watch?v=33-f...
I’ve just finished my last piece of work for the day while listening to this 😊
I read quite a bit of Biggles as a kid, probably between the ages of about 9 to 12. Square jawed, upright chap, very much one for defending the Empire against the machinations of sinister foreigners.
My mother had some Biggles books from her childhood, so I have long been familiar with the world of Biggles et al. The name was too good to ever forget. Especially after all the parodies.
I had a teacher we used to call Biggles but I never understood why. I am 44
Did he wear a pilot’s cap?
He’s sort of an otter in a dressing gown, and he has a napsack with anthropomorphic woodlice in it, that keep shouting contradictory advice at him. He doesn’t quite look like an otter though, there’s something off about him
Different Biggles - not saying I wouldn’t read that book, though 😂😂😂
I might have dreamt it, is he from the Rupert Cinematic Universe?
There’s a Bingo? rupertthebear.fandom.com/wiki/Charact...
That's not an otter! This is a disgrace, I am outraged, and various other emotions described inarticulately
Tell it to the woodlice!
He had mates called Algy and Ginger and ( when in a dive) his lips would part into a mirthless smile as the twin vickers machine guns chattered DEATH. That Biggles ?
😂😂😂😂 I couldn’t have described him so well 😂😂😂😂
Read the books as a kid. I always liked airplanes. My Dad was a fan of Billy Bunter . Does that help ?
I have vague memories of reading Billy Bunter - was he in a comic, or did a newspaper still carry a strip? Hmmmm.
Rabbit hole identified… en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles...