London-New York Eye To Eye


London-New York

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BBC Four Collections -

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archive programmes chosen by experts.

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For this collection, Simon Jenkins has selected programmes

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celebrating the people and places of London.

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More programmes on this theme and other BBC Four collections

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are available on BBC iPlayer.

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HARMONICA MUSIC PLAYS

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London is a great place to live in but a hell of a place to visit.

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New York is a great place to visit but a hell of a place to live in.

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I visited both, I've lived in both and I like both.

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These are skyscrapers.

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Skyscrapers start at the bottom and go up.

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I think that about covers that subject.

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There's the Empire State Building, the world's tallest.

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On a clear day, from the top of this building,

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you can see the people who came up in the lift with you.

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Look at those people way down there.

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Look mighty large, don't they?

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Those empty taxi cabs, and just when you don't happen to want one.

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This is the United Nations building where the delegates wear headphones

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so that they can be insulted in their own language.

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That's the Lever building. They sell soap.

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People who live in glass houses shouldn't sell soap. Or throw moss.

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Or have I got that wrong?

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The Brooklyn Bridge leading to Brooklyn.

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For those contemplating suicide,

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the Brooklyn Bridge is an absolute must.

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The House of Parliament, where the speeches, like the River Thames,

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just keep rolling along

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and where it all will end, pavane only knows.

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And I think your policemen are wonderful.

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I wish this was commercial TV,

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then I could plug the fact I wrote the music for...

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MUSIC: "Genevieve" by Larry Adler

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London has a reverence for age

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and yet is always on the lookout for new faces.

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A view from one of the Palace Guards.

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GUARDSMAN BARKS ORDER

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LARRY PLAYS A DIRGE

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Sorry, wrong band.

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Notice something about that band? They're all brunettes.

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I wonder if this is just coincidence.

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For the benefit of American audiences,

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these are London buskers, street entertainers.

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I thought that being a busker was easy

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and once, for a bet, I tried being one around 1937.

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I played to the queue at the old Holborn Empire

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and I regret to tell you I got no money whatsoever.

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What you've seen so far

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has been more or less a tourist view of London and New York.

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Now, this is more like the New York I remember.

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Anybody see that last play by Samuel Beckett?

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Here's the heart of New York's fashion world -

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glamorous, glittering, gay.

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Ladies, for you!

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But with all its faults, New York is a law-abiding city(!)

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There he stands, the inscrutable East.

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And here's some of the scrutable West - west London.

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Boy, are they scrutable.

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Big hands, too. Look at the way they're holding that camera.

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Even I wouldn't do that...I think.

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Now why does this shot remind me of the Beveridge Plan?

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This is real New York-type New York, Washington Square.

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A very rare shot showing Epstein at work.

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Not Sir Jacob Epstein, Sam Epstein. Nice kid.

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She's engaged, she's lovely, she uses bubblegum.

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Yes, New York is a law-abiding city(!)

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You, sir, take a card. Any card.

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This is London's Trafalgar Square,

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named after the famous Tube station that runs underneath.

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Here, pigeons come from all over the world to feed the people.

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No matter what the season,

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the pigeon will always find crowds of eager, hungry tourists.

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Some indeed so tame, they'll eat right out of your beak.

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Hey, Mac, any messages?

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Call me an outsider if you like

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but I can take my fountains or leave them alone.

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My feeling is, when you've seen one fountain...

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Not only that, if you happen to have hydrophobia,

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fountains are bad for you.

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I should play Autumn Leaves at this point, but the tune is copyright.

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That's why I'm making up all my own music.

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Through the magic of BBC Television,

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we were fortunate to get a shot of the Mayflower

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setting out on her heroic voyage across the Atlantic.

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Well done, o valiant vessel!

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Manhattan is an island.

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Gee, I wish I'd said that.

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To take a ferry boat ride to Staten Island is one of the few things -

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in fact, one of the last things -

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that can still be done in New York for a nickel.

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Oh, Lord, here come those damn skyscrapers again.

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This is the Statue of Liberty.

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It hasn't been fingerprinted...yet.

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That little fella's really got guts, eh? Come on, boy. Sic 'em!

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That's the Queen Mary. I was on the maiden voyage of that ship.

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You'd better stick around, I'm full of fascinating information like that.

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I was on the maiden voyage of... I know you heard it before.

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I just wanted to hear it again.

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Come on, have another skyscraper. Take two, they're small.

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At least in London they're small.

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We wanted to show you some of London's historic ruins,

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but we couldn't get just the people we wanted

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so we're showing some bomb sites, St Paul's.

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You know, that sort of thing.

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This is William Shakespeare,

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author of Kiss Me, Kate and many other hit shows.

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What secrets have we here?

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Could this be the new Budget?

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This is part of the old Roman wall of London.

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It is not for sale to Mike Todd.

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Here's the Portobello Road market,

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for sale to Mike Todd or anybody else.

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A typical British scene.

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This man calls his stall the Cheap and Nasty.

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That's what I like - truth in advertising.

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# Please sell no more drink

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# To my father. #

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Jamaica rum, eh?

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Hold that monocle. Hold it. Don't lose it!

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He's lost it.

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Spode...

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What are you giving me, Spode? Spode my eye.

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Do you know, for one moment,

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I honestly thought that dog was stuffed.

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This gentleman, who is now a picture restorer,

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used to call himself Rembrandt.

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He was a lightning sketch artist in music hall.

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Music hall?!

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Whatever became of that?

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I don't know anything about art, and what's more,

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I don't know what I like.

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Buffeted by wind, waves and the full fury of the elements,

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onward, ever onward, the valiant Mayflower sailed.

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There's something about getting behind the wheel of a car

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that can make a monster out of the meekest Mitty or milk toast.

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How do you like that for alliteration?

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But haven't you ever wanted to take all the other cars on the road

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and make them look like...

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this?

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This man has found true happiness.

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Please! Not while I'm eating.

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I'm sorry. I really shouldn't talk while his mouth is full.

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Do you realise that if all these cars were laid end to end

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they'd look like Piccadilly at 5.30? Do you?

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I don't know why it is, but I just don't like the expression

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on these cars' faces. I think they're snobs.

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This one for example.

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And you!

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Well, that's what you get for showing off and I'm glad.

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Glad, do you hear me?

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This is taken from one of the gravestones

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in London's Highgate Cemetery.

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I wonder why he wrote the music on a gravestone.

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I'd have used manuscript paper. But then I'm mad.

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You know what I'm going to have on my gravestone? "Here lies Larry Adler.

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"Who?"

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Got to hand it to these rich people, they really know how to live.

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My audience doesn't seem to be getting the message.

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Hmm.

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Taxi!

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Taxi!

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Oh, heck. Missed it.

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Fascination yet, 42nd Street.

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Here's where they have the striptease.

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On film anyway. The real stuff is verboten.

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I don't know what they mean about strip cos here it says only 70% off.

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"A nature film about violets. Bring the kiddies."

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Look! Living commercials.

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This man has a hole in the head.

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This man is carrying A Hole In The Head.

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Broadway. The gay, white way.

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Except that it ain't gay and it ain't white

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and there ain't no legitimate theatres on it.

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They're all here on 45th Street.

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"No ugly overhang." Whatever do they mean?

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Look! Those sailors walked right past those girls!

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I could understand it if the sailors walked right past THESE girls.

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Although let's be fair, I think what they're probably doing

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is being initiated into their college sorority.

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Honey, aren't you happy?

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And still she sailed onward, ever onward.

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Would she make Plymouth Rock?

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Would she make Brighton Rock?

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Piccadilly, which this is, and Times Square

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have something in common.

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Gaudy, not neat.

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See that sign over there, "This man is wanted"?

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In this neighbourhood, it also applies to girls.

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This cinema can't make up its mind.

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Is its main attraction Macmillan or Brigitte Bardot? Quel dilemma.

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Did you know that in sculpture a bust means a head?

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By the way, have you read any bad books lately?

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"Ole"?

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That's for a bull.

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Doesn't this take you back?

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Gay Vienna, the waltz,

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the grace.

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Man, dig that crazy gavotte.

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When he grows up, he's going to be a tic-tac man.

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# Did you ever get the feeling

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# That you wanted to go?

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# And then you got the feeling That you wanted to stay. #

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This girl has gone.

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This one hasn't arrived yet.

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Pity to hit the bottle at that age.

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This one is being sent by special delivery.

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Oh, I beg your pardon. I thought you'd gone.

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This is a fan.

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This is a cool cat.

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This is a fountain.

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And as the Mayflower slowly sinks in the west with all hands,

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we in London say,

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"Good night, New York."

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