Manx Rover's Ramblings
Series 1 relives the feel-good exploits of a young-at-heart retiree who walked Wainwright's 191 mile Coast-to-Coats Path through Northern England's breath-taking countryside. Series 2 recounts the early life of an eager traveller who was fatefully cast ashore in the 'lucky country', Australia. Series 3 remains a mystery, so let's wait and see, shall we?
Episodes
51 episodes
The Reluctant Conformist 20(ending purified) - I, Magnus’s pneuma (πνεῦμα) visits the ‘Ever When’: The Finale made complete.
Magnus’s nascent pneuma is captivated and charmed, yet senses utter isolation at his first encounter with ‘Liminal Time’. His habitation of the ‘Present Tense’ is somewhat akin to reading the final page of a ‘Who-Done-It’. He knows whose throat...
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Season 2
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Episode 20
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16:27
The Reluctant Conformist 18 & 19 (Chapter 10) should never have been divided into two episodes – here it is with truly thunderous TRUE IMPACT!
Magnus drifted through life with no defined purpose nor focused ambition. He enjoyed his own company and was perfectly content pursuing his current interests. One troublesome issue which dogged him throughout his life however, was the unwanted ...
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Season 2
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Episode 18
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20:18
The Reluctant Conformist 17 “It’s not A Picasso; I believe it to be The Picasso!”
“Whilst perusing the Willie Leece photographs online(http://willieleece.blogspot.com), I noticed your other blog: Is this a Picasso?. (ht...
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Season 2
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Episode 17
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11:44
The Reluctant Conformist 16 is this a Picasso? Magnus believed so. See for yourself: -(http://picassoceramic.blogspot.com)
“It reads like a Picasso. It’s right in its vocabulary; more painting than ceramic,” the Sotheby’s connoisseur affirmed enthusiastically, holding the plate securely in the crook of his arm. “It’s alive with his wit and playfulness. Where did yo...
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Season 2
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Episode 16
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15:39
The Reluctant Conformist 15 a LOST MASTERPIECE (?), with Basque hospitality spiced up with chili peppers.
Meet our vibratingly sexy Sybil Fawlty lookalike landlady who instigated the ‘dookling foot’ episode.And: -At the back of the shop, on a chair seat, alongside a red rusty, two-metre-tall, cast iron Jesus sat a grubby heavily glaze...
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Season 2
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Episode 15
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14:28
The Reluctant Conformist 14, the McAulay’s sanctuary became Robin’s Croft in the postal district of Kerrowdhoo, Onchan Parish.
Robin’s Croft was a dilapidated seventeenth century stone cottage with the luxury of a cold water tap, but having no kitchen, gas, electricity nor sanitation. However, they’d survived the war and had a roof over their heads.For the first...
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Season 2
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Episode 14
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15:12
The Reluctant Conformist 13 Magnus’s adventures along a coastal pilgrimage trail.
Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) may activate Arterial Fibrillation amongst susceptible pilgrims.A cubist inspired shrine in which 80year old Yoko Ono’s power of imagination shine.Magnus is one of millions who remain impacted by Hit...
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Season 2
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Episode 13
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16:44
The Reluctant Conformist 12, an art exhibition by one of ‘His Majesty’s Most Loyal Enemy Alien’ WW II internees, sparks a treasure hunt for a missing masterpiece.
Magnus records the unique artistry of Willie Leece, the modest creator of a unique style of rural assemblage sculpture. The ‘Hedge’ art works of this quietly thoughtful Manx farmer are selected to be hung alongside a blockbuster tra...
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Season 2
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Episode 12
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12:54
The Reluctant Conformist 11, our hero holds a joint art exhibition with a legendary Dadaist painter and Merz poet.
Magnus’s photographs preserve the singular contribution made to the world art scene by a modest Manx farmer’s unique creative flair.The incomparable and unrecognised ‘Hedge’ sculptures of Willie Leece are jointly exhibited with a giant o...
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Season 2
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Episode 11
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14:42
The Reluctant Conformist (10) Singapore, a diluted Cherokee, marooned on a volcanic island, and a gorgeous apparition.
It wasn’t all misery! The shore-side base was Singapore, and in the early 1970’s it remained a mysterious and exotic place to explore. The ancient DC3 bounded and skipped along the rough grass airstrip rapidly gathering speed...
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Season 2
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Episode 10
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12:45
The Reluctant Conformist (9) an exploding oilrig, a shipping disaster, flaming seas, and entre the exotic Sophia Elizabeth.
Magnus lived under no delusions about his own importance. If he was injured or killed on the rig, he’d be flown ashore, immediately replaced, and just as quickly forgotten On shore leave, Magnus, at one of Darwin’s notorious ...
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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13:58
The Reluctant Conformist (8) Elvis in the Sahara, offshore in the Adriatic, then Australia bound.
Just three weeks after leaving England, Magnus was bouncing across the Algerian Desert in the back of a long-wheel-based Land Rover. The vehicle was jam-packed with robed and turban clad Arabs and desert dwelling Berbers.Before heading D...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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13:37
The Reluctant Conformist (7) kismet’s gift; education as replacement for whale blubber on toast.
Magnus started work with Hawker Siddeley in the autumn of 1964. Providence, destiny, or mere chance guided Magnus to the greener pastures of aviation and away from a seafarer’s life toiling in the oppressive and claustrophobic hell-hole of ship...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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11:14
The Reluctant Conformist (6) a whale of a time at Hamburg’s notorious dockside haunt, The Cabbage Patch.
After a stint in the dole queue, Magnus’s receives a new job offer. His potential employer was one of the biggest whaling companies in the world, with a blubber rendering slaughterhouse on the isolated island of South Georgia. This icy and wind...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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14:54
The Reluctant Conformist (5) a seahorse attack and in Savannah, Georgia, all are warned: Beware! Moonshine Kills.
It wasn’t only appearances that needed to be spruced-up to meet the required standard of the officers’ dining saloon; a sailor’s immune system also needed a booster. Magnus was pleased to benefit from the years of research into tetanus, cholera...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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16:07
The Reluctant Conformist (4) has his first encounter with the unknown.
Magnus subconsciously writes and star in his own erratic play. Act one exposes the dangers of self-reliance at the tender age of sixteen.Initially our ‘star’ opted for hedonism over applied scholarship, but fate intervenes to nudge him t...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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10:44
The Reluctant Conformist (3) prepares to take a leap into the unknown.
After failing to become a budding Field Marshal Montgomery understudy in the British Army, Magnus was obliged take a different tack. The call of the sea was in his blood, or so he was lead to believe. It looked as though a life on ...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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12:43
The Reluctant Conformist’s stoush with and wariness of, ‘Authority'.
Following the Army entrance exams, the aspirants, predominantly from privileged private schools, awaited their fate in a small conference room. When ‘Mr McAulay’ was called, Magnus followed the subaltern into a stark room that veritably crackle...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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15:46
The Reluctant Conformist 1 A Warrior’s Heritage Over Stated, or ‘Checkmate Granddad’.
Apart from observing what those around him on the island did to earn a living, Magnus remained ignorant of what employment possibilities existed, what job requirements were, or what most professions entailed. Like everybody else, he didn’t know...
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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15:30
Coast to Coast 32: The End, or the Launch of a Laggard’s Literary Life?
This is the FINAL episode of Retirement Blues GoodbyeIn wasn’t just the smell of the flowers; the enchantment of rolling hills, dales and moors; slow motion walking through torrential rain; being in good company; or breakfast with...
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Season 1
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Episode 32
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13:25
Coast to Coast 31 the ‘End of the Line’ prize; a lifelong ‘Shot in the Arm’.
The heavens, having rained themselves dry, radiated a pale greenish glow which brightened the tumbled stack of cottages that is Robin Hood’s Bay. The higgledy-piggledy houses appeared to cling limpet-like to the cliff face to prevent them slidi...
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Season 1
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Episode 31
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15:41
Coast to Coast 30. a Yorkshire ‘monsoon’: shiveringly cold, but Heaven on Earth to the devout rambler.
Suddenly a mighty squall was upon us. A lashing headwind drove raindrops straight at us. Rain on the face and the curiously comforting staccato drumming of heavy raindrops on the tight fitting hood, close against my ears, gave the final day a h...
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Season 1
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Episode 30
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14:46
Coast to Coast 29 to Littlebeck Farm where we dined like Epicurean gods.
Getting lost wasn’t easy, but we did. After a wretched time battling the quagmire of bog holes and waist high tussock grass, we arrived where we started, and, knowing the place for the second time, found the path almost immediately. ...
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Season 1
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Episode 29
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16:23
Coast to Coast 28 Glaisdale, Whitby, Dracula, wild salmon reminiscent of Claude Jeremiah Greengrass.
The trek from The Lion Inn to Glaisdale was the shortest section we’d walked and so we had time for a little sightseeing at the North Sea fishing port of Whitby. This seaside town is high on the tourist must visit list, not only for its crispy ...
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Season 1
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Episode 28
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11:13
Coast to Coast 27 an eerie stroll by Yorkshire’s Fat Betty towards Great Fryup Lane.
There was no need for sunscreen this morning. The besieging mist limited visibility with a veil of damp greyness that chilled the face and numbed the hands. The opaque blanket clung low to the soggy earth squeezing the acrid stench of marsh gas...
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Season 1
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Episode 27
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10:14
