Too late to be an April Fool, but was this a wind up, or was it actually part of a BBC licensing campaign? Here, a small building on the end of the Manor House was adapted for use as a pill box, the windows blocked up with reinforced concrete to create two gun positions. James Nesbitt says: “It’s great to be back making a drama in and about Northern Ireland, which now has a film and television industry as good as any in the world. They were beginning to be retired from the fleets prior to the outbreak of war and some were apparently moved further down the east coast to be used as houseboats, until they eventually rotted away. I also have photographs showing MTB 653 being used as a liveaboard at Horning in the early 1950s and, in the late 1960s an ex RAF launch renamed “Mutty” was available to hire at St Olaves.

Fourteen days of unfettered freedom on a floating home, in surroundings entirely different and better compared with other holidays. It’s been a difficult year for all and Christmas is going to be very different, but let’s hope that 2021 is kinder to everyone. Eric Lyons went on to achieve critical recognition for his modernist architectural designs in the post war years, working in partnership with Span developments.What makes the book rather special, and very different to other brochures of the era, was that Graham Bunn obviously fancied himself as a bit of a poet. The Collins Family name was synonymous with boat building and hire on the Norfolk Broads, from humble beginnings in Coltishall to establishing one of the most successful hire fleets in Broadland at Wroxham .

Dr Andrew Tullet from the Norfolk Heritage Environment Service talked about the role Acle played in the defence of the region and then guided us around the trail, with Chris Kolonko providing further insights into the structures that still remain. I was intrigued to see how Blake handled a serious crime thriller, as it is a completely different beast from his Space Police series. As restrictions on leisure boating eased in 1943, holiday boat hire resumed at the yard, but it seems that Herbert had his eye on a rather ambitious venture. I found the book heavy on description: I knew so much about the police station that I felt I would have been in a position to make a bid for the cleaning contract.Soon the disappearance turns into murder and Tanner clashes with a veteran of the department, DI Burgess. The brochure entry below is from 1935 where she was described as: “One of the finest, smartest, and most comfortable cutter-rigged sailing yachts”.

Although one of the ladies clearly moved whilst the photograph was being taken, this is still such an evocative shot. Having been distracted for almost an entire afternoon, I got very little work done on the actual Broads photographs. During the 1950s and 1960s, Span built over 2,000 new homes in London and the South East, and many of these estates included the communal outdoor garden spaces which were apparently a key feature of Lyons designs. it was clear since the beginning that the two were attracted to each other, before even starting with the case, we see this attraction and I find it out of place and deterrent to the figure of Jenny Evans.They were more two-dimensional than I wanted, and I did not connect with them in the way that I wanted to.

Lucy Mangan of The Guardian, described the drama as "enjoyably dense with enough black humour to let it breathe" and gave it four out of five. The eastern coastline of Britain was thought to to be the most likely point of attack, with East Anglia in particular considered to be the most vulnerable. So was this an April Fool that was just filed away at a later date, or was this genuinely designed to encourage the purchase of a TV licence. The former MBG 56 “Morning Flight” became home to Commander Ron Ashby and his family at Hearts Cruisers in Thorpe St Andrew, and she appeared in countless photographs over the years. The latest hand-held detection device and Licence Administration Support System is demonstrated by model frogman Chris Wilson.A closer inspection led him to identify it as being ‘America’, modified for ocean sailing with a reduced sail size and a mizzen mast added aft. I hope we haven't seen the last of his comedy stuff, but in the meantime, I'm delighted that we don't have to wait long for more for John Tanner, and hopefully Jenny. The story was added to some thirty or so years later when the Norfolk Broads Yachting Company at Horning designed and built three new sailing cruisers for their hire fleet.