1973: The KNIGHT of WORTHING | Nationwide | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive

[@quietside3734]

"From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel".

[@gooseywhispers]

praise the Omnissiah

[@BC-ur9yi]

"I aspired to the purity of the blessed machine..."

[@kerbal666]

"You will beg my kind to save you"

[@hilaryepstein6013]

Not only a Great British eccentric but a craftsman. A nice combination.

[@Braskil]

True, but in my humble opinion he is lacking an underground stable for his steed in his front yard.

[@jasonayres]

Spending your day kitted up as a knight. That'd test your mettle.

[@jillyb9995]

What a brave guy walking about in that clanking get up. And ah, the nostalgia of the British high street...Dolcis, Etam. Such familiar names in my youth. Swallowed up and spat out by corporate business 😢

[@JJONNYREPP]

1973: The KNIGHT of WORTHING | Nationwide | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive 1553pm 20.6.24 last seen in peer hat, manchester... i think he's still there. stood, motionless.... pissed.

[@JasonRamasami]

I am totally here for the Worthing content. Thankyou.

[@YTispartofproblem]

4.34 "i'm jolly well pleased with this one!" i believe him he is smiling from ear to ear. I like this guy's attitude he is doing something a bit unusual and isn't hurting anyone, well done that man from yesteryear😂

[@nigelcarren]

I have made armour professionally for a long time now. I started in much the same way as Harry… down in the corner of the garden in suburbia. Now I do it in the remains of a medieval manoir in a French forest. Three things surprised me here: 1) Harry didn’t have cotton-wool in his ears. 2) He did this with the shed door open! 🤣 3) His wife was still with him!!?? Because mastering this craft, fast becomes an obsession! One which has cost me, one fiancée 12 subsequent girlfriends, one house and the custody of one cat! I would love to know what happened to Harry and his armour? I hope it still stands proudly in the corner of a family room somewhere. This is how mad it makes you: I regularly turn my armour around, so ‘they’ can see out of the window!!! 🤫

[@TH3TIMP5]

Actually quite impressive metal work!

[@marciabaldwin2506]

Fantastic what a craftsmen imagine what that would sell for now and cost to be made 50 years later. Definitely a character who must be missed ❤

[@robinvanags912]

"Now on BBC1.....'Clankety-Clank".

[@mattsan70]

All that steel in sea air is asking for trouble

[@5nowChain5]

In WUST WE TRUST😂

[@tonys1636]

Before modern steel alloys the metal would have been blued to inhibit rust by heating until blue in colour then quenching to cool. It would also have been waxed with Beeswax or animal fat on the battlefield.

[@milquetoasted]

I actually have to go to Worthing for the first time today, for a work thing. Got to change trains at Haywards Heath...weird this came up, actually.

[@Tmuk2]

Nice place - love the pier, not much on it as I recall but very pretty

[@milquetoasted]

@@Tmuk2 I grew up in Southend On Sea so I love seaside towns with great piers. I adore the UK coast.

[@Tmuk2]

Had many a happy day out with my grandparents at Southend in the 80s/ 90s. Enjoy your trip!

[@Alan_GA]

Well, if you did any searches online as regards your journey. Such video suggestions are an indicator that the net via any connected devices you have tracked your related online activity.

[@margin606]

You're doomed - if the vagrants don't get you the drug dealers will 🙁

[@garypoulton7311]

The great British eccentric! Good stuff

[@hopebgood]

Yeah, good for him. I like quirky people.

[@VulcanDriver1]

I lived in Worthing in the 1970s. It attracted the eccentrics.

[@199019852007]

Now I just go there for parkrun on the seafront and splash point swimming

[@pigsymagic4741]

Cosplay before cosplay

[@magpie6648]

The piece on the chest was to deflect a lance when the Knights were jousting.....😂😂😂

[@kenormsby6702]

The film quality is really good, must be a new 4k scan. We can see all his eccentricity in all its glory.

[@76ToneCrome]

I can see why Brenda is smitten by Harry Of The Britons. Tis but a scratch when he has an accident at work.

[@YTispartofproblem]

i could use something like that for going to pint of milk in Glasgow!

[@joedge6142]

He puts it on over his suit 😂

[@Alan_GA]

Older ladies & gentlemen along the high street thought that that a medieval time traveller was about. When the knight clumsily wobbled by.

[@margin606]

They just thought he was nuts

[@JCAUDITS]

Great editing and audience shots make this.

[@depniff]

Suits of armour never sound this noisy in the films so this gives you an idea what it was really like. Imagine an army of these guys and it must have been deafening.

[@MrMusicbyMartin]

Imagine going for a quiet walk at 3 am dressing like that.

[@tooyoungtobeold8756]

Once a knight, always a knight, but once a night is enough.

[@davidwilson123able]

Brilliant the british Don quixote!

[@ChorizoCentauri]

"It's only a flesh wound"

[@torquetheprisoner]

this guy was ahead of the curb

[@phillipnoone8044]

The world needs eccentrics! But he's also very gifted at metalwork

[@Buff_Cupcake]

This man would have made a fortune on social media if it existed in his lifetime.

[@theylivewesleep.5139]

He’s lucky it didn’t

[@captainweekend5276]

Reminds me of the guy in Brighton who makes and dresses in Georgian clothing, he got pretty big on social media and was pretty successful with it, I think he makes a living tailoring historical clothing.

[@Adalwolf17]

Harry is prepared for walking around modern day england.

[@danielktdoranie]

You know he wore that in the bedroom a few times 😂

[@alililley5697]

Tobias Capwell would love this. 😂

[@zaragozakid310]

People seemed to look much older back in the 70s

[@eddjordan2399]

Love it.

[@hopebgood]

2:00 "Oh... Brenda luv, do we have to go through this every night? Couldn't you just dress up as a nurse for a change?" "NO HARRY! All that clanging tickles me ovaries."

[@haroldfarthington7492]

What ever happened to Harry?

[@bojack-horseman]

jousting accident

[@Elberto71]

On the back of a tatters van

[@alun7006]

This was almost fifty years ago. He'll be dead now, as will nearly everyone in this film.

[@haroldfarthington7492]

@@alun7006 I meant after the film ._. Like his life in general. I think it’s obvious he’s dead.

[@haroldfarthington7492]

@@Elberto71 a what van

[@jamesoneill122]

His poor neighbour must have been mithered

[@TheWizardOfTheFens]

Mithered …..there’s a word that’s gone out of use sadly…….

[@ronventy798]

Hey it's the clangers

[@Traderjoe]

I’m sure it would be many thousands now rather than 150 quid.

[@Problembeing]

Oh, to have been Harry's neighbours lol

[@adrianrevill7686]

Oh to be able to give some kids fridge magnets

[@DerEchteBold]

That can't be historically accurate armour, how would someone be able to fight in that when they can barely move? Or maybe it's a recreation of tournament armour, only meant to be used on horseback?

[@hrodberht3152]

Because it isn't. It's definitely inspired by historical pieces, I can tell that much. But overall Harry's suit looks more akin to a cheap mass produced costume from China or India than anything you'd see on a medieval battlefield. The proportions and tailoring is terrible. Now I don't want to bash on Harry too much, he was just a chap pursuing a hobby in his little spare time, and in the grand scheme of things recreating any functional suit of armor is an achievement in itself. Especially if you consider that in his time he had very limited ways of getting any information on the topic. Nowadays there's tons of material readily available online and a small but very active and dedicated community of like-minded enthusiasts and makers to exchange information with. For all Harry knew, he might've been the only guy on his side of the globe doing anything like this, while scouring any nearby library and museum for source material. He was very much still a novice in his craft, but you gotta start from somewhere, and he pulled through in pursuing his passion. So props to Harry.

[@DerEchteBold]

@@hrodberht3152 I'm not sure what you mean, most of the information we have now was certainly there in 1973, I don't think that much has emerged since then, just the means to find it were way different. I think the fact that I was born two years before that and you make it sound like the middle ages irks me ; ) Anymways, I guess the main difference is that all 'new' armour around the time was certainly only made for decoration and not for accuracy and active studies. Thanks for the reply!

[@kieronparr3403]

Why is 1972 still in black and white?

[@5nowChain5]

Because a lot of local TV was still in Black & white back in the day. We were still watching ABBA win Eurovision on a 9" 1950's B&W TV on cable.

[@tonys1636]

It was well into the mid to late 70's before news and documentaries were shot in colour as film was still used, B&W film was cheaper than colour and quicker to process. The professional video camera enabled OB's to be cheaply shot in colour as the tape would be wiped and reused after broadcast. The cameras were much larger and heavier as professional video tape is 35mm wide compared to the 16mm film and cameras that were used.

[@561jeffkelly]

Excellent Vlog made me chuckle. Only problem is he was riding the wrong kind of horse. Knights rode Shire Horses

[@MrSimonmcc]

They actually rode destriers, rounceys or coursers. Well built war horses but not as big as a draft horse.

[@561jeffkelly]

@@MrSimonmcc “I stand corrected” said the man in the orthopaedic shoes 👍👍👍

[@MrSimonmcc]

@@561jeffkelly 😆

[@avus-kw2f213]

6:06 6:45 the inflation is outrageous

[@Problembeing]

Would be nice to know what happened to Harry.

[@LEOP547]

Died

[@patrickgibson3992]

Impressive but he missing the chain mail. Also would be cooler if he had a sword and shield.

[@Take_Me_Back_To_The_1980s]

It's these kind of eccentric pastimes that have been made almost totally extinct by vacuous internet culture

[@alun7006]

Nah. The internet lets people find out about this stuff more easily than ever before. I do most if not all my hobby research online.

[@Bod8998]

The street rats would rob him of that today

[@RichardMontgomeryYT]

Well he'd better carry a sword then ;)

[@YellowKing1986]

Lol that is such a bad quality suit of armor.

[@LuciThomasHardylover-qx6ts]

Does anyone else remember the elderly man who used to dress as a clown and stand on the verge next to the middle A27 roundabout at weekends and bank holidays waving at children in passing cars? He was there (I think)at least from the late 70's to the end of the 80's. As children we used to watch out for him and wave back, but as we got a few years older we could see how filthy, shabby and slightly sinister he was. Then in my teens we moved to Worthing and I would sometimes find myself walking past him... gave me the heebie-jeebies!! I seem to remember that in later years the police were trying to stop him? Does anyone know what happened to him? Or more about him?

[@johnrutledge7258]

I think that was Burlington Bertie, there is footage on you tube if you search for long enough.

[@johnrutledge7258]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/m32QmX6Inpl-acksi=BfzM7mSTS1FX2YVy

[@robhavock9434]

He must hate tin openers

[@nzratty3889]

Better than them furries,no sneaking up on folk in amour

[@tobyskerman4775]

I’m a knight I’m a knight and I’m knight and our only aim in life is too

[@digitaldobbie]

Iron man as he was in the 70’s

[@richardm9934]

Very sweet, but a very bad suit of armor by period and modern reconstruction standards.

[@Jimmy_Moon]

The original Iron Man.

[@docholiday7975]

An enthusiastic effort but not a terribly well researched bit of work. Quite a number of bad design choices making it more stiff and awkward than need be.

[@Akm72]

True but sometimes you have to walk before you can run. Full plate armour is complicated.

[@clarsach29]

God people in Worthing look miserable. Nice gear though.

[@bonnetdedouche437]

I wonder if Brenda dresses up like a copper for Harry? Rodney and Cassandra Mk. 2!

[@5nowChain5]

It's way b4 only fools was made.

[@margin606]

Clearly not a native of Worthing. Huddersfield maybe?

[@Pedro8k]

It looks like he made it in a shed too it does not fit or move properly

[@nedlooby7419]

What do you expect it to move like a spandex suit?

[@tonyclifton265]

his accent is more like Leicester or nottingham than worthing.

[@johnathandaviddunster38]

When he first went up to London god knows what he would have made if he went to the playboy club....🤔🤪😜

[@danorthsidemang3834]

Sir Harry The Attention Seeker

[@michelguevara151]

barking utterly british absolutely barmy

[@croonyerzoonyer]

That’s an awful suit of armour 😩🤣👎🏻

[@swaneknoctic9555]

The quality of these videos is comical. 1973 lol, I was born 7 years after this, yet this looks like 1921. Surely a company such as the BBC had colour film in 1973?

[@Take_Me_Back_To_The_1980s]

So other than being black & white, why exactly is the quality bad?

[@swaneknoctic9555]

@@Take_Me_Back_To_The_1980s the entire recording looks like it was filmed in medieval England.

[@Take_Me_Back_To_The_1980s]

@@swaneknoctic9555 You're 44 years old and talking rubbish like a teenager. Wise up

[@nedlooby7419]

Is every digital video you sea today in 16k 500fps on a 4d screen?

[@swaneknoctic9555]

@@nedlooby7419 I don't see videos in the sea.

[@Grunchy005]

The armour is completely impractical, you can’t do anything with all that junk on. That’s why only the nobility ever wore it, they had nothing to contribute anyway! Funny thing, hockey & American football uses plenty of modern, practical body armour, but the one British sport that actually needs it will never: rugger. (Similar full body suits are for use only in thoroughly hostile environments: scuba & space-suits.)

[@jackorton821]

Well as others have pointed out the armor is really not that well made or researched, being based of the armor worn by henry viii. a actual set of armor from the period worn by anyone actually fighting would be a lot more practical and versatile.

[@stephfoxwell4620]

What about the transatlantic slave trade?

[@margin606]

The UK outlawed it, and stationed warships to stop it

[@5nowChain5]

That ended over 120 years before this film was made.

[@mabonbran8913]

What about a comment relevant to the content? Or would that be just too weird...

[@RichardMontgomeryYT]

What about it?

[@Jimfowler82]

Bring back the British empire.