A regional daily has joined forces with the BBC to launch a nostalgia project on the 1976 summer heatwave.
The News, Portsmouth, has teamed up with BBC Solent to ask readers to share their memories of 40 years ago – when temperatures in England reached 32.2 degrees celsius (90F) for 15 consecutive days.
Coverage will be happening throughout the summer in both The News and on BBC Radio Solent.
Editor Mark Waldron announced the project in a message to readers.
Sun seekers on Southsea beach, Portsmouth, during the 1976 heatwave
He said: “It might have been a long time ago but no-one who was there will have forgotten that summer.
“So please tell us what you remembered most and get looking through your old photo boxes and send them in to us. We’d love to see them.”
The heatwave brought drought, leading to standpipes on street corners, devastating heath and forest fires across the south and crop failures which pushed up food prices.
Labour MP Denis Howell was even appointed ‘Minister for Drought’ during the heatwave.
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What a novel idea, I wonder how they thought of it? Anything to do with the Southern Daily Echo doing the same thing two weeks ago?
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/heritage/archives/14482389.PHOTOS__Do_you_remember_the_heatwave_of_1976_/
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I remember doing a 1976 drought nostalgia feature during my days at the Manchester Evening News. It got perhaps the biggest reader response of anything I did there in my 31 years, which tells you a lot about the newspaper’s demographic.
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Cheesecloth shirts, flared jeans, Elton and Kiki at number one for weeks on end, great disco sounds, no Facebook or mobile phones. Bliss.
I really hope a TV company is going to give us a Summer of ’76 Revisited two-hour spectacular!
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