A CONUNDRUM THAT ONLY MICHAEL DES BARRES CAN SOLVE

I recently bought a Nintendo Wii on eBay. This was not so that I could play computer games, (although I have borrowed a copy of Call of Duty from one of my nephews so that I can sit back in my favourite armchair, with the orange cat on my knee, and shoot people amidst a bloody maelstrom of flesh and bone) but mainly so we can watch the internet in comfort.

My friend and colleague Richard Freeman is staying with us at the moment, and we have a shared fascination with obscure TV ephemera of the 1960s and 1970s, and last night we were watching a 1959 feature film starring Jimmy Edwards.

If I told you that it was called Bottoms Up and featured a bevy of schoolboys, I am sure that this would attract a hail of opprobrium from the less clean-minded of our readers (you know who you are; I don't have to name names). However, it was set at a British public school in the year I was born (1959).

Richard was convinced that he recognised the voice of the actor (John Mitchell) who played 'Wendover', the junior lead (pictured above). But when we looked him up on the internet, the only 'John Mitchell' we could find who was roughly the right age, and who was a child actor was this one.

I know from my conversations with Michael Des Barres that he was at school with Mitch Mitchell. I also know that the opening lines of the title track of Michael's smashing new album (I still find myself almost referring to it as an LP) are "I was 19 in 1967" from which one can extrapolate that he was 11 or 12 in 1959, which would make him the same age as the schoolboy pictured with Jimmy Edwards (above).

So, the question remains. Michael - is this schoolboy the dude who played on Axis Bold as Love or is he just some random bloke? (which would mean that this whole blog post was completely pointless...)

Whatever the answer, if you have not done so already, check out Michael's Gonzo Artist Page

What a jolly way to spend a wednesday lunchtime.