1973: The LAST DAYS of PORTER | Scene Around Six | Archivist Picks | BBC Archive
521,756
Published 2022-10-22
Originally broadcast 11 May, 1973.
To mark the BBC's 100th birthday, our wonderful archivists have been asked to pick THEIR favourite BBC moments.
“ 'If work was the curse of the drinking classes, then porter was their salvation.' Larry McCoubrey’s wonderfully written and gently paced news report on the final days of the ‘pint of plain’ acts as a eulogy not just to a drink, but to an entire way of life. A mini masterpiece." - Ronan
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All Comments (21)
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'Work is the curse of the drinking classes.' Brilliant!
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The level of oratory and unspoken, nostalgic emotion at the end was beautiful.
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Porter has made a comeback in recent years. Lots of craft brewers make it and stouts too. Thankfully things are better than 20 years when if you closed your eyes all pub beer tasted the same.
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“The cream is borne majestically above to form a clerical collar—that proves the goodness in its heart—and the true porter drinker would look upon such a glass with great reverence indeed.” This guy goes hard
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These were also, as I've just now discovered, numbered days for Larry McCoubrey himself. He left his programme Scene at Six in 1974 due to illness and, so says an article in the Irish Times, died shortly thereafter. It feels fitting to me, somehow, that his heartfelt eulogy for porter is also a testament to the genius of the man.
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Hats-off to that "re-PORTER" 😂👊🏻
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This sort of quality journalism is badly needed today.
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The reporter savoring this pint, admiring the history and relishing the taste is top-notch. I want to try it the old way.
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Ive never wanted a pint more, this is the greatesr advert ive ever seen and its not even an advert
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Me when talking about porter: "It's a drink that I quite like" Reporter: speaks in literature
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What a brilliant presenter: a poet...he absolutely delivered a master class in pace and vocabulary.
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Wonderful report. Almost genius in its pace and poetry. Incidentally, porter was called "porter" because it was once so popular with the porters on London Docks and Covent Garden Market.
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With no small irony, porter has seen something of a revival in England. It's not a mainstream pint, but rather a niche style with a decent following amongst beer drinkers.
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I read some where that the last barrel of Porter to leave Guiness was given a decent send off.A load of men in funeral attire and bowler hats drank it and burried the empty cask with all due reverance. Whilst visiting St James's Gate a few years back.I noticed that Guiness say that Porter is just another name for stout. This vid would surgest otherwise. When in Ireland I drink bottled ,shelf Guinness
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What a fabulous piece of reporting. I've watched this a few times now, I love the imagery in his description. I'd never heard of Larry McCoubrey before, so I had to look him up. Sadly he died of a brain haemorrhage the year after this was broadcast. He was only 38.
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"Porter: the drink that launched thousands of ships." Very good!
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Lmao. He sipped that pint like he was playing Hamlet.
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That poured pint was perfection in a glass, absolutely stunning
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Larry was a wonderful reporter and loved by all the folks here in Northern Ireland .
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I'm a bit surprised as porter never really fell out of popularity here in Sweden. Carnegie Porter has been brewed in Sweden since 1836 and still is. It's Sweden's oldest still living trademark. Actually, David Carnegie took over an already vibrant business of porter and sugar manufacturing in Gothenburg, that had been making porter since 1817 when import restrictions on imported porter was put in place.
