Bonfire Night, unlike Hallowe’en, used to be properly scary…..

……..Dickensian urchins on Kilburn High Road demanding a “Penny for the Guy”. And woe betide anyone who actually gave them a penny. Impromptu and unsupervised firework displays everywhere, rockets tied to cats’ tails and children on the news the following day having lost the tops of three fingers or the sight of one eye. Doesn’t really happen anymore which, of course, is a good thing. Though I do feel slightly nostalgic for the “bang, bang” of a banger chucked through a letterbox or of BA Robertson being played on the radio.