With the passing of time McColl seems more and more stagey and artificial. However, he is probably as much a construct of his time as the Monitor programme. The same patronising/superior air that went with the Monitor commentary pointing out (irrelevantly)that the girl playing guitar in the park was the grand-daughter of Lord Napier and went to Cheltenham Ladies' College.

It was the style of the time to preach down to the lower classes/uneducated.

nick