Entertainment and information via the telephone

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32679, 7 August 1971, Page 15

Entertainment and information via the telephone

LONDON.

j Anyone dialling >246-8000 in London any ‘evening will be regaled i with a three-minute tale about Grumblehump the camel, Lulu the seal, Hilda the ostrich, or Sinbad the pelican. Dialling the same number during the day produces a friendly voice suggesting: “Why don’t you plant some Sweet Williams this week-end?”

There are hints also on how to mow a lawn or plant a salad herb bed.

The gardening hints, by the 8.8. C. gardening correspondent Eric Hobbis, are changed every week so that callers get plenty of variety for a service that costs only Ip a time.

Johnnie Morris, who comperes a 8.8. C. television programme for children, recorded 50 children’s stories

for the Post Office authorities, of which the above are ’ a sample. Since the dial-a-story service was launched in April, more than 300,000 have telephoned the number. “GOLDEN VOICE” Miss Pat Simmonds, qualifies as the person most telephoned in Britain. She receives almost 300 million calls a year as the girl who tells the time. The time service was launched in 1936, the same recording being used for 27 years. Then the Post Office organised a nation-wide “golden voice competition,” in which Miss Simmonds won the privilege of telling Britons the time.

The second most popular service is the dial-a-disc one, which attracts 60 million callers a year although it is only available in the evenings and on Sundays. The records selected are the top seven in the hit parade for that week, played in daily rota. The housewife, the busi-

nessman, the tourist, and the cricket fan are also adequately catered for by telephone services.

Daily recipes, provided by the British Farm Produce Council, offer everything from the traditional British fare of steak-and-kidney pudding to savoury beef and tomato casserole, with details read out in a slow, deliberate voice. “Teletourist,” prepared by the London Tourist Board and read by a 8.8. C. announcer, is available in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German. The daily bulletin gives information on major concerts, exhibitions, and plays. CRICKET FANS Cricket fans swamp their service, making nine million calls during the 25 days of the year when test, matches are being played. They are given a three-minut roundup of the state of play with the latest batting figures and a description of who was! last out and how.

The Post Office is willing

to rent lines and answering machines to private organisations as long as their activities are not political, sexual, seditious; or libellous. "Advertisements are generally acceptable if not for drugs or contraceptives,” a spokesman said.

Top priority on installation and breakdowns is given to the Samaritans, an organisation set up to dissuade wouldbe suicides. Lines have also been rented to Gamblers Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous. Perhaps the most soothing service on offer is one set up by the Greater London Arts Association. Dial-a-poem offers the listener three minutes of the personal touch —poems read by their authors.