"Summer Holiday" Voice from the Past

I made the most amazing discovery last night that I could not believe. I did not recognize this person that I have watched for more than three years on Sherlock from the BBC. The actress was Una Stubbs

and the discovery brought back memories of a movie that I saw when I was only a teenager and fell in love with it was called Summer Holiday: starring Sir Cliff Richards and The Shadows as well as Una Stubbs. I know most of you are scratching your head going what is he talking about well let me explain Una Stubbs plays the character of Mrs. Hudson on the BBC's Sherlock and she also played Sandy in Summer Holiday.

I know you are still wondering why this would really matter well let me give you just a brief history, in the United States in the late 50s early 60s we had a young gentleman known as Elvis Presley who dominated the music scene and in the United Kingdom they also had a young man who dominated the music scene and his name was Sir Cliff Richards he was what we would call the Elvis Presley of Great Britain. The only time that I ever really saw anything of Sir Cliff Richards was from the movie summer holiday in 1963.

It was about three young men trying to show the British transportation system that they could make money with a double-decker bus touring the European countryside. On their summer holiday they took a double-decker bus to show British transport that it would be possible.  While on their holiday they ran into a trio of girl singers that desperately needed a different mode of transportation than what they had the gentleman offered to take them for a ride.

It is a British style beach party you know the ones with Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon. Yet however it was very British and the dark bobbed haired girl was known as Sandy in the movie, she was Una Stubbs

that was the star of the trio of girls as she is a brighter personality than the others just as Mrs. Hudson in the BBC's Sherlock is a bright personality.

The reason I found out who she was from my past was I was searching through the BBC's who do you think you are on YouTube and found that she was one of those that they had picked for their version, which by the way is the original version, the American version is not the original it is a copy of the British version of who do you think you are. They had stars like Robin Gibbs from the Bee Gees, Martin Freeman from the BBC's Sherlock, Graham Norton talk show host from the BBC, Stephen Fry from the BBC's Dr. who and Sherlock Holmes game of shadows and last but not least Julie Walters Mrs. Weasley from Harry Potter.

These are shows that we have never seen and it tends to aggravate me immensely that we never see them. I was so happy when I saw a few years ago that we were getting BBC America I thought wow we will now get to see some British programming, but there is very little British programming on the BBC America it is mostly American programs such as Star Trek the next generation. It was a complete letdown for me that I seldom watch it anymore.

Una Stubbs was one of those dancer actresses that got her start because she was multitalented I was so ashamed that I did not recognize her, but I knew that her voice was so familiar. Who do you think you are had a small clip of her dancing on one of either hers are Sir Cliff Richards British TV special together and I recognized her immediately and it came to me like a bolt of lightning that voice, her voice was that of Mrs. Hudson's voice and was the same as Sandy on summer holiday I knew it immediately my wife double checked on the Internet movie database.

I was astonished I could not believe that I had not recognized her on my own. She has not changed really like all of us she has gotten older but she still has that bright bubbly personality she puts in her acting.

I have always admired the British actors and actresses for their down-to-earth approach to acting and also when they are not in character. It's a different world for actors in Britain than it is in the US. I hope someday I might have some of my favorite British actors and actresses autographs. Any time we go to Great Britain I scour the markets to find those that have autographs and pictures of the British actors and actresses, because we never seem to have any of them at our autograph shows other than the most famous.

Just another of my memories in time that I love to think about.