The Road to Mandalay

[@flygrace]

So glad this is here. He did this recital at the Festival of Remembrance in the Royal Albert Hall one year, and it was so moving. I've always been disappointed that it wasn't available to see again, so this is a treat.

[@MichaelHill-we7vt]

simply brilliant! No more need be said...Nice one, Jim!

[@_rd_kocaman]

People in future will look back on 19-20th centuries and acknowledge the British Empire’s efforts to civilize the whole world. I’m not even British myself but admire the history truthfully

[@sbalogh53]

I am crying. Beautiful poem. I am right now looking at my Thai wife on a video call during this horrid covid-19 pandemic which has separated us for so many months. I miss her so much. I am crying.

[@johnsanders2266]

Charles Dance and our Jim? An unlikely pair! But British through and through! Thanks Jim, that's the first time I've heard your version!

[@chrisholland7367]

A poem dedicated to the British and commonwealth armies who fought and died fighting the Japanese during ww2. 🇬🇧🇭🇲

[@orangepekoe5243]

Chris Holland the poem was originally written in the 1880's after the Anglo-Burmese war, after the war Kipling went down there and fell in love with the place.

[@chrisholland7367]

@@orangepekoe5243 Sure, it's not a modern poem however its very apt for the Burma campaign .

[@orangepekoe5243]

Chris Holland indeed it is, very closely associated with the Burma campaign for all the right reasons.

[@Hollcall]

@@orangepekoe5243 Worked with a CHAP, Fred Hiscock..........was in Canadian Army. Drafted to the British [ not sure the reason } next thing Freddie knows..........He is slogging through Burma. Never really regained His health. CHEERS. sydney N.S. Canada

[@g7vak]

Actually memories of an ex soldier looking back at his service overseas and a girl he met in Mandalay. This piece is dear to me and brings me memories of those I met when in the East.

[@histman3133]

This poem is not racist. It's about a man's love of both a woman and a warm tropical place in comparison to the rainy freezing climate of the British Isles. That's it. Stop injecting something that isn't there into something so beautiful. This is my favorite poem. Kipling would be proud.

[@andrewmcmaster6364]

Well said mate.

[@islammaster786]

As a Burmese I really like this poem.

[@lonegustavsen6598]

Wow ... This is achingly beautiful. That's the way to go. This poem should not be read out by polished actors with learned diction. It is a longing soldier, right? Perfect. Bravo from Denmark.

[@g7vak]

A beautiful piece indeed. It is the memories of a lonely civilian who had served in the army and who longs for his time in Burma and his lost love (possibly of convenience for Supiyawlat). Personally the East is forever calling me ...........

[@MandarinFan]

yup, in the way of a person to person, never a actor or politician to a person...

[@willardlosingersmusicchann569]

I've never heard anyone recite a poem more beautifully.

[@peterb6723]

+Guitar Music You are quite correct never more beautiful

[@davidktd]

Try Charles Dance’s rendition

[@TheSaltydog07]

Might I suggest Charles Dance? It's on KZbin. This is lovely.

[@TheSaltydog07]

I never tire of Kipling. Wonderful rendition. Tears. ❤️❤️

[@normdunbar2943]

Jim. this is just the best, from an old soldier and a conservative councillor, we're singing from the same sheet mate.

[@trixietru]

Bravo, Jim! A bit of patriotism. That’s what we all need - pride in our country, pride in our past, pride in the deeds of our ancestors. I love it!

[@lucasgrey927]

Jim Davidson you are a legend sir, beautiful that was on a par with Charles dance.

[@garyreid7865]

almost better than the crown

[@pamlico53]

Better …I can hear the soldier in his voice….

[@Fioniajazzband]

Another wow from Denmark...me, with eyes full of tears...admirering the words of Rudyard Kipling, spoken out, with all the heart and understanding of mr. Jim Davidson...simply beautiful and utterly moving!

[@Ignorethisuk]

No matter what he ever did no one can say Jim doesn't love England and love our soldiers. It's apparent in the fact that he chose this incredibly poignant poem that defines a forgotten generation.

[@g7vak]

Well said!

[@Bruce-1956]

Of British soldiers not English.

[@Ignorethisuk]

I've been watching this video for 11 years. 11 years because this the best rendition of this poem you will ever find. Goddamn it I love Jim so much.

[@aranstuart566]

pride is a sense given my men like these to boys like me; too many disregard the sacrifices made by those who trod the road on there to mandalay

[@leemurphy3660]

one of the best renditions i have listened to. Kipling will always have a place in my heart. can always remember my dad reading him to me before bedtime some 45 years ago..... strange what stays with you from childhood

[@iandemontfort4276]

Kipling would have been proud of you Jim. Beautiful

[@gladyslustgirdle3004]

I have loved this poem ever since I was a child. But this recitation, with Mr Davidson's accent, and a life's experiences, brought tears to my eyes. Wonderful, quite wonderful.

[@stevehope2334]

One of the best renditions ever 👍👍

[@drrengland]

What an absolutely EPIC recital. Felt like you were hearing it first hand from Kipling himself.

[@biggerthanacadillac]

Never could have 'dreamed' that JD reciting my great favourite Kipling/Mandalay would have seemed SO appropriate & deeply moving. Beautiful.

[@talicatinai2637]

Now THAT was a recital , thank you sir .

[@AtheAetheling]

Best recital I've ever heard.

[@kevinbrennan4725]

Class act Jim,, patriots poem,, you and Rudyard kipling,,

[@edwardbryan5154]

This one of the best recitals. We'll done JD.

[@descolhoun915]

What a brilliant, peerless, and moving rendition of a Kipling masterpiece.

[@berwood2001]

Brilliant, well done Jim, just brilliant!

[@pim1234]

every time i watch this vid ... tears in my eyes

[@henrytree]

I have just come across this after listening to an actor trying to read Kipling and I searched for more. Jim, my son! You have Rudyard exactly right to the tee, and I bet he would have been pleased to hear your recitation.

[@TheMrGrumpyUK]

God bless ya Jim!

[@AnInterestedObserver]

What a poem. How well said. What emotions it stirs. Empire. A glorious history. Brave men. Places far, far away.

[@logminusone1272]

This is just brilliant. I have listened to many recitations of "Mandalay" - some of which by renowned actors - but this one stands way above the rest. I keep coming back to it once every while. The only thing I did not understand is why were some words changed from the original poem, especially the fifth stanza.

[@jumping_jakey]

Here is your reminder to come and listen again.

[@seamonkey41]

my uncle used to tell me this poem when I was small its wonderful

[@g7vak]

Thanks for putting this up. I saw this performance at the Festival of Remembrance. As one who grew up in the Colonies these few lines have great meaning for me. I well up everytime I read or hear them: "If you've 'eard the East a-callin', you won't never 'eed naught else." No! you won't 'eed nothin' else But them spicy garlic smells, An' the sunshine an' the palm-trees an' the tinkly temple-bells; Those smells, sounds and sights are irreplaceable memories ...........................

[@kielhunter7634]

Well done Mr Jim I'm absolutely in bits, such a breathtaking rendition ❤️❤️

[@kennypearce2371]

Stunning Jim, well done. Well done.

[@mitchelljarvis2010]

This was written in the days of empire but is in no way racist and anyone who thinks that needs their head examining!……. It’s a poem about love! About a man who has had to leave his lover and return to the drudge of British life. A man who yearns for his beautiful ‘heathen’ Burmese girl who outclasses the 50 fat faced, grubby handed housemaids of London who talk of love but can’t understand what love really is…….He’s gone native! There no going back to the man he was before!…..he’s seen a better life and is longing for the day he can return to Burma!…..So ship him somewhere East of Suez where the best is like the worst and there ain’t no Ten Commandments and a man can raise a thirst. For the temple bells are calling and it’s there where he would be, by the old Moulmein Pagoda looking lazy at the sea!

[@clivegreen185]

Brave and triumphant. Thank you.

[@mauricesullivan8625]

Well done Jim 👍🏻🇬🇧

[@Bruce-1956]

God bless the men of the Forgotten Army. #wewillrememberthem This is very moving.

[@ptt507]

Love this poem so much, it's one of my favourite things.

[@sheenareid]

Nice one Jim Spot on

[@alejandrocandioti3528]

Best version on youtube. Thanks for uploading.

[@steven-ox2mz]

thanks for the memorys love ones have passed on the memorys keep coming back when seening shows from my childhood days

[@smorri10]

Sincere reciting of a beautiful poem. I think there was vision in his recital and a timeless understanding that comes from deep in his heart.

[@madmeerkat1158]

Beautiful!

[@normbabbitt4325]

Wow! Very moving!

[@scrumpiee]

This is really great.

[@nikirk101]

absolutely great jim

[@LazlosPlane]

Brilliant. Wonderful. Thank you. From NYC.

[@redchristy]

love this!!!!

[@sapper82]

After discharge back in Britain, many British servicemen who served in the Far East wished they could still be out there. I wonder how many returned to places like Burma?

[@histman3133]

Kipling himself said of the Burmese: "I love the Burman with the blind favouritism born of first impression. When I die I will be a Burman … and I will always walk about with a pretty almond-coloured girl who shall laugh and jest too, as a young maiden ought. She shall not pull a sari over her head when a man looks at her and glare suggestively from behind it, nor shall she tramp behind me when I walk: for these are the customs of India. She shall look all the world between the eyes, in honesty and good fellowship, and I will teach her not to defile her pretty mouth with chopped tobacco in a cabbage leaf, but to inhale good cigarettes of Egypt's best brand."

[@larnce1395]

Lovely Jim

[@kevindearing2894]

Just stunning

[@essexpeter6116]

Simply wow!

[@IanReader-r6l]

For my uncle Bill, Glorious Gloucesters

[@davidpower1583]

Wonderful ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[@michaelthompson342]

Very, very well recited!

[@davidapostolaki9345]

So well recited

[@histman3133]

I was in Singapore and Malaya twice and I can completely relate to what Kipling said. I think about the Orient all the time. Sighsss. Beautiful recitation. A few errors here and there but beautifully done.

[@g7vak]

Me too. Good luck.

[@histman3133]

@@g7vak And to you as well good sir!

[@joanfaverey8177]

Boris wasn't allowed to recite the lines of this poem while in Birma, there was a shootout in the hotel the mandalay in las Vegas but alle the bad press can't hold this beautiful poem down.about love and beauty which makes you want to sing along. Mr Kipling great poem.

[@Jackthesmilingblack]

Burma

[@g7vak]

Burma, please. Myanmar has turned its back on its colonial past; it would have been a huge insult if Boris had recited this excellent work,

[@donaldross5679]

Jim’s good, Charles dance recital was also well said.

[@g7vak]

I prefer Jim's; Charles' has the wrong accent for a private soldier in my opinion.

[@flygrace]

@@g7vak Yes, Charles was good but Jim sounds more authentic.

[@rogueriderhood1862]

Just to be cynical, I'm going to quote Tim Carew from his book 'The Vanished Army' - 'The recruiting sergeant had painted rosy pictures of dusky maidens who would be his for the taking. It rarely worked out like that in real life. The private soldiers's romantic attachments more likely consisted of perilous liaisons with diseased women at wildly inflated prices.' That said, it's a wonderful poem and recited well here. Well done, Mr. Davidson. 👍

[@tomtomshay9888]

great

[@leefearn9007]

jims version of this is the best

[@rdvqc]

For a great sung version check out John Roberts and Tony Barrand. The late Tony does a great job

[@franl155]

Kipling was the mirror, not the instigator, of his times - don't blame him for reflecting what he saw all around him! anyone who thinks Kipling was himself a racist should read "The Ballad of East and West" - and read it ALL, not just the first two lines that eveyone uses to "prove" how racist he was!

[@franl155]

amen to that, dear!

[@jeremywyatt4981]

Better than Charles Dance’s version.

[@g7vak]

"Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay, "Come you back, you British bástárd; I'm in the family way! Thanks 499

[@williamsweeney6499]

Great rendition written before GB was circling the drain.

[@Hollcall]

"Thumbs Down.................REALLY? ARSEHOLES." Wow, what a JOB !

[@derdriui]

Ahaha! he edited it. "I've a neater, sweeter maiden in a CLEANER, greener land".

[@anningel5294]

What comes next. Do we now boycott Noel Coward for his song Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans? What about boycotting Scandinavia for the Vikings or the Italians foe Caesar invading Britain.

[@emilkarpo]

just try an keep a dry eye

[@LazlosPlane]

When there used to be an England.

[@andrewmcmaster6364]

We're not quite finished yet my friend.

[@histman3133]

There will always be an England! 🇬🇧

[@LazlosPlane]

@@histman3133 I wish that were true.

[@histman3133]

@@LazlosPlane Me too. Truly I do. My family immigrated from England to Canada at the turn of the 20th Century. If they could see that all that they had fought and died for was all for naught they probably just would have said to hell with it all!

[@routeman680]

There still is. We must recover it from the haters.

[@anningel5294]

I am so angry that it is now deemed politically incorrect to read this at the VJ Day memorial. I feel discriminated against all my memories.

[@PhilipClare]

It's madness, the time we are no living in. It is what it is from that period of time... I sometimes want the earth to stop so I can get off

[@thybys]

I mean, what about the people who live with the memories of British brutality and whose country was stolen from them... is it not worth putting a poem to rest to show good will toward the people who suffered at the hands of colonisers?

[@AtheAetheling]

@@thybys no. They should honestly get over it.

[@routeman680]

@@thybys The poem is about love of a British soldier for a country where he was posted and where he met a lovely girl. Life in a colonial situation but no racism. Although I am not a soldier and have never spent enough time in certain beautiful countries, I share the yearning expressed in the poem.

[@paulmuaddib451]

@Jamie Pritchardif no one is alive today that remembers British brutality, then there ain't no one alive today that remembers the road to Mandalay.

[@paulquinn7282]

We Kiss in the Shadows . . .The Burmese slave -- Rita Moreno's 1st role

[@killercd7682]

British pride welling up...

[@philipbuckley759]

it is the UK....eh mate....

[@derdriui]

It's sad that the British try to find pride in their ruthless colonisation of the world. However, I still like this poem - Kipling may be a racist, but he had talent.

[@g7vak]

Jessica Fernando; As one who grew up in the Colonies and married into our fading Empire we British walked as Gods amongst others and some of us still do. Your surname suggests you will never understand the British Empire at its best.

[@mikem9001]

Their colonisation was no more "ruthless" than anyone else's civilisation. And yes there was and is plenty to be proud of. As for racist - how do you know that you are less racist than Kipling was?

[@Notalliswhatitseems]

So we going to just ignore everyone elses Colonisation of the world and just concentrate on the British right? So Spanish didnt Colonise anyone? Or the French? Or the Ottomans? Or the Romans? Or the Germans? Or the Chinese? Or the Greeks? Right, i must know a different version of History than you.

[@BillCarrIpswich]

Wah wah wah.

[@stanbattle7436]

This guy is an amateur alongside the likes of Charles Dance,,, Look for "Charles Dance Mandalay" In KZbin and you will really hear something.

[@g7vak]

Not at all. Jim Davidson represents the ranking soldier, the lowest of the low. Charles Dance for all his professionalism cannot stoop that low.

[@stanbattle7436]

@@g7vak It wasn't a question of stooping,,, There is nothing more touching than a well delivered verse and Charles Dances' delivery was perfect and I read a lot of poetry. He wasn't accurate with his accent because the poem never tells us where in GB the original "Tommy" came from but I'm a genuine Cockney and even though so many men deployed in India were from my neck of the woods I would never recite the poem in my London accent. I teach neutral English on the net to Call Center Students in India and Philippines. That is the reason I'm interested Kipling.

[@g7vak]

Ok Sam. As one who grew up in the Colonies, albeit at the close of Empire I read and understand Kipling because I saw Colonial life and understand the system. Tommy was Tommy. From anywhere British you fancy.

[@raymonray5444]

@@g7vak An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ everything you please; An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool - you bet that Tommy sees!

[@raymonray5444]

BURMA 1944-45 Mayu Tunnels There were only two roads through Arakan one had been designed as a railway and ran through a series of tunnels from Maungdaw to Buthidaung on the Mayu River. The Japanese were in control of this road and so could pass men and supplies quickly from one side of the Mayu hills to the other. The battalion arrived in the area on the 20th March and its first objective was the capture of the two tunnels used by the Japanese for storage and gun emplacements. The enemy were subjected to three days of shelling and dive bombing and then “B” Company began a determined attack, which involved the taking of four enemy positions camouflaged in thick bamboo, which lay one after the other on a spur commanding the approach to the feature over the first tunnel. The battle developed into fierce hand to hand fighting in which “B” Company pressed on doggedly, Sergeant Woodhouse won a DCM for capturing an enemy post single-handed when its fire decimated his section. In two and half-hours “B” company drove back the enemy and established themselves over the first tunnel. The Japanese however remained in the tunnel underneath. Meanwhile “D” Company attacked a spur on the other side of the tunnel in support but failed to take its objective and suffered a number of casualties. This spur was named “Tredegar Hill”, for most of the men killed came from Tredegar in Monmouthshire. Earth from this hill now stands in a casket in the chambers of Tredegar Urban District Council. The next day a Sherman tank was brought up to fire into the mouth of the tunnel. The effect was spectacular - Bodies and debris were blown out of the other end of the tunnel and ammunition stored inside exploded and burned for hours. Next day the tunnel was occupied and aptly named ”24th Tunnel”. The Japanese abandoned Tredegar hill without further fighting. For this action which cost the battalion eleven killed, Major Crew-Read commanding “B” Company was awarded an MC and an Indian water carrier who helped evacuate wounded received an MM. @@g7vak Burma Star Association

[@pss4dm]

Jim Davidson revering a poem that celebrates other cultures! Have I had you all wrong Jim? Were all those racist jokes you told some kind of clever satire then?

[@tomdrowry]

Kipling was a disgusting waycist too, so suppose it's ok.

[@mikem9001]

He may learn something from the poem

[@derdriui]

... I refuse to judge your race by you. I refuse. By the way, do you think you're the only person who checked what continent I'm from before they commented? I'm trying so hard not to tell you that most people in the world are better than you, but - oh no! it just slipped out of my little asian brain!

[@chrisdansey2600]

Four minutes of lousy acting

[@LazlosPlane]

Fool.

[@alanpatey7833]

dreadful rendition, pathetic effort.