New issues -
🇮🇲 Isle Of Man Post Office -
30 July 2024 - ‘Stars of Variety’ - 6 stamps. Designed by EJC Design from illustrations by Matthew Richardson and lithographed by bpost and perforated 11.5. This issue does not appear to be related to any specific anniversary. Rating:-*.
🇬🇬 Guernsey Post (issues inscribed ‘Alderney’) -
25 July 2024 - 50th anniversary of Bagpuss (children’s television programme character). See Blog 2511.
In addition to the set of 4 stamps and miniature sheet containing all 4 stamps there will also be a Prestige booklet sold for the extraordinarily large sum of £35.48p. Rating:- 0.
🇮🇳 India Post -
2024 - Protected monuments of Haryana, My stamps (personalised stamps usually sold in sheetlets of 12 with attached labels and at a premium price) - 12 different stamps.
Maybe a slightly fatuous comment, but is there anyone alive today who remembers seeing any of the Stars of Variety featured on the Isle of Man stamps? The only one I'd even heard of was Tommy Trinder.
ReplyDeleteWK replying - Notva fatuous question at all. I remember Tommy Trinder making many appearances on television when I was young and if I remember rightly he was the host of Sunday Night at the London Palladium on ITV (when there was only one independent television channel) and I seem to recall him hosting the Stop The Clock Game half way through the show. If I’m wrong about that, it might have been another game show on ITV. I also remember (vaguely) Sandy Powell appearing on the television from time to time but none of the others. This is an excellent set except when you set it against a background of all the issues IOM releases & the ridiculous cost of it all. If only IOM Post had related it to a reasonable anniversary.
ReplyDeleteOne particular thing I will say in favour of the 'Stars of Variety' is that, unlike any of the entertainment-related tat offered by Royal Mail in recent years, it prompted me to read about the subjects depicted both because I too had only heard of Trinder but also to try to divine why these individuals were deemed particularly worthy of inclusion in the set.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how common (or rare) it was for the top names of the day to take in the Isle of Man on a tour, but I suspect Manx audiences would have been appreciative of those who crossed the water.
As to the lack of a specific anniversary or event to tie to the issue, I don't mind that so much - after all, every year is the anniversary of everything that has ever happened - but I did wince at the decision to have 3 stamps at the highest price-point (better to have had an issue of 8 stamps, with 2 at each value).
WK reply to Anonymous - Yes, I agree - a good and interesting set but against a background of extremely excessive stamp issuing. If IOM issued few stamps each year I would be more welcoming of them. As regards the visiting to the island by the various featured artistes - I suspect they mainly visited the island to perform in the summer holiday season when tens of thousands of holidaymakers especially from north west England would embark on the ferries and head for a fortnight on the island to be entertained in the evenings at the Gaiety Theatre and other spots by the great music hall & variety stars of their the time.
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