Peter Rhodes on Basel, satire and a TV shocker
So farewell, the satirist Tom Lehrer who has died at a ripe old 97. His acidic little ditties shocked and delighted us.
One of my favourites was his song, Wernher von Braun, which reminded us that the celebrated German scientist, who became a hero of the US space programme, started his career designing flying bombs and rockets for Adolf Hitler. Lehrer argues that we should be grateful to the rocket man, just like “the widows and cripples in old London town / Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun.” His songs were like candy bars with chocolate on the outside, barbed wire in the middle.
As the Lionesses fans remember Basel, I wonder whether the Swiss city had the same effect on them as it did on me and my pals. It was 1967 and Basel was a one-hour stop on the school trip to the Alps. In the pitch-black early morning our crowd of scruffy oiks and dog-eared teachers wandered into the city, gobsmacked.
