Simon David Eden’s new black comedy The Gift of the Gab, the first in his Brighton trilogy, is set during the 1979 “Winter of Discontent”. Our feature series on the show continues with this great glossary Eden has compiled for the show. How many definitions can you get right? To get you fully in the 1970s frame of mind, be sure to also see the show’s fantastic trailer, our period playlist and the author’s own recollections of his Brighton youth. It’s now past time to get booking!
1979. The bitter Winter of Discontent. The whole nation is at war with itself, battling industrial strikes, severe unemployment, crippling inflation and fears over immigration and home-grown terrorism. But that’s not going to cramp the style of a den of thieves in Brighton.
Unreconstructed, old-school grifters, they live by their wits and some very shady mores and morals. But even they know the end of an era is nigh and their days are numbered, so each is after one last big score before the law and society’s shifting sands catch up to them. And if that score should happen to contain a priceless lost memoir and a beguiling young waitress from Naples, so much the better!
The Gift of the Gab is written and directed by Simon David Eden whose The Albatross 3rd and Main was a hit at the Park Theatre last year. The cast comprises Ross Boatman, Charlie Allen, Madalina Bellariu, Michael Roberts, Ivanhoe Norona, Harold Addo and Lewis Bruniges.
The Gift of the Gab glossary
- A monkey – £500
- A pony – £25
- A score – £20
- A stretch – prison sentence
- Adam & Eve (it) – Believe (cockney rhyming slang)
- Blarney – Influence or persuade using charm and flattery
- Blimp – non-rigid airship or barrage balloon
- Blower – Telephone
- Bonce – Head
- Brass Monkeys – Freezing cold
- Britches – Trousers (Pants)
- Bubble ‘n’ Squeak – Traditional English dish made with leftovers. Mainly potato and cabbage
- Chick’s Club – A notorious member’s only Billiard Hall where a den of thieves played snooker and Poker
- Chuck – throw up
- Clobber – clothes
- Clot – idiot
- Cobblers – nonsense
- Codswallop – nonsense
- Colonel Bogey – British Army March composed 1914
- Daddies Sauce – Brown Ketchup made from malt vinegar, molasses and rye flour
- Doddle – really easy
- Dogs Bollocks – Best of the best. From the habit of male dog’s licking their testicles (bollocks) so much and that they must taste good!
- EEC – European Economic Community
- Enoch’s Rivers of Blood – Enoch Powell a right-wing politician who made an inflammatory speech in 1968 and prophesied doom over mass immigration to UK
- Even Stephens – equal split
- Gander – to look at
- Garibaldis – thin biscuits filled with currants
- Geezer – bloke / man
- Geezer – Man
- Gen – Information
- I’ll be blowed – surprised / I never knew that
- Jimjams – pyjamas / PJs
- Knocker Boys – conm
- Limey – English
- Moonlighting – Have a second job in addition to your regular employment.
- Mr Whippy – soft ice-cream
- Muggins – a foolish and gullible person
- Mush – person’s face
- Nicker – slang for £1
- Off the banana boat – derogatory phrase relating to West Indian immigrants arriving in UK by ship
- Petticoat Lane & Camden Passage – London street markets
- Pillock – a stupid person
- Probation Knob – Parole Officer
- Rozzer – Police officer
- Sarnies – sandwich
- Sawdust Caesar – derogatory nickname for Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
- Spook – Frighten
- Strewth – expression of surprise or dismay
- Take a butchers – also to look at from slang ‘Butcher’s hook’ = look
- The Chisel – Con game / to cheat someone
- The Smoke – London
- To Scoff (food) – To eat quickly
- Up to Snuff – meeting the required standard
- Whole Kit & Caboodle – Everything
- Winter of Discontent – From Shakespeare’s Richard III: refers to the winter of 1978-79 in the UK during which there were widespread strikes by public sector trade unions
- Wop – Italian
- Wormwood Scrubs – Notorious, Victorian built rat-infested men’s prison in North London