Ian As Para Handy himself would say "You have it chust exactly, Ian! If Dougie wass here he would tell you." Neil Munro's Para Handy stories were made into a popular TV series by BBC Scotland in the late '50s/early'60s. Some episodes were remade in colour in 1974. Apparently the BBC "lost" the recordings by re-using the tapes! British Sitcoms website lists the following;- PARA HANDY - MASTER MARINER
BBC / 6x30m-e / 1959-60 11 Dec 59 - 22 Jan 60 black and white
Writer: Duncan Ross / Producer: Pharic MacLaren / Director: James MacTaggart
Sitcom. The exploits of wily Captain Para Handy and his somewhat hapless crew on board their puffer The Vital Spark.
Para Handy......................................... DUNCAN MACRAE Dougie................................................ RODDY McMILLAN Dan MacPhail..................................... JOHN GRIEVE Sunny Jim.......................................... ANGUS LENNIE
So perhaps not John Grieve - my memory playing tricks? I remember Roddy McMillan as Para Handy, but apparently he was "promoted" to skipper when the "Vital Spark" series was made (a couple of years after the "Master Mariner" series)
The cast I remember is the following:- Cast List
Roddy McMillan....as Para Handy John Grieve..........as Dan Macphail Walter Carr..........as Dougie Alex McAvoy........as Sunny Jim Robert Urquhart...as Dougie (Pilot)
There's more Para Handy material on YouTube, but most relates to the more recent Gregor Fisher remakes (1994).
A bit more digging reveals the continuing availability of a CD "Highland Voyage" originally recorded in 1963. The track-list credits John Grieve (as Dan MacPhail the Cook) as the singer of the "Crinan Canal Song". That would explain the potatoes, then?
I've passed the Ardrishaig end of the Crinan Canal a few times in the past year, on the way to visit my brother in Islay. I'll have to try to spend a couple of hours there next trip. There used to be a "puffer" set up as a museum in Inveraray, possibly the last of its type afloat.
Good link, Ian, it brought back some nice memories.