To heck with Shakespeare. This is British culture...
Fifty years ago today, the world was introduced to the first James Bond movie and the first Beatles single on the same day. Both Dr. No and “Love Me Do” debuted on Oct. 5, 1962. The world was about to change, although no one probably knew it at the time.
Dr. No began a franchise so successful that it would last through 22 movies over half a century, survive several changes in its leading man, and hardly break a sweat. It’s the character, not the actor, who people wanted to see. Daniel Craig will fill Bond’s shoes for the third time—in the 23rd Bond movie—when SkyFall opens on Oct. 23.
“Love Me Do” was a hit not once, but three times. When first released in Britain, it rose to No. 17 . Here it went to No. 4 and when it was re-released in the US in 1964, it went to No. 1. By then the Beatles were well on their way to becoming not just an insanely popular rock ’n’ roll band but a cultural phenomenon. It’s a safe bet that there’s no other band so beloved by 5-year-olds and their grandparents and an awful lot of people in between.
Then there was Monty Python who debuted on Oct. 5, 1969. Some people got them some didn’t. I knew just about every routine by heart when I was in school and annoyed people endlessly with quotes at the most inopportune moments.
So today…lets salute Britiains biggest contributions to the last century…with all due respect to the queen…Oh…there was Coronation Street…
But to this day I still can’t understand what any of the characters were saying so that doen't count.