Jim, I confess to having a chuckle at your retelling of the John Brune/Ewan MacColl affair on a previous thread. The image of a big hairy bloke singing in falsetto in an effort to convince MacColl that he was a female traditional singer was too much.

Perhaps it's the perception of many that MacColl wasn't exactly renowned for leaving 'em rolling in the aisles, that makes it so comically ridiculous and which draws a po-faced response from his disciples.

More seriously though, why did MacColl think it necessary to teach Sheila Stewart a new song for the programme, when surely a song from her family's rich repertoire would have been more appropriate.