When I was about ten years old, my younger brother and I, sent a half a crown postal order off to join The Man From U.N.C.L.E Club.' Half a crown was a fortune in those days.

Within ten days we received our membership cards and a triangular badge, it was supposed to open, a secret passage to the spies head quarters.

Our spy head quarters, was under the kitchen table, in a Runcorn council house, we made up our own missions as we went along.

The real headquarters of U.N.C.L.E. was supposed to be somewhere in bustling, down town New York, and was entered through the back of a tailors shop, were good old Mr Waverly waited to give them their latest mission.

I wonder, maybe we should have tried the back of our local tailors in Runcorn, you never know. As a child I was always a bit suspicious of some of the people who worked there, that was, until I ended up working there myself many years later!

How many of you remember what U.N.C.L.E stood for?

U.N.C.L.E. stood for the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.

The two main spies Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin battled gallantly each week against their deadly enemies T.H.R.U.S.H.

Thrush, years later has a completely different meaning, and can be wiped out by our local chemist.

In those innocent days T.H.R.U.S.H stood for Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity. Which was a bit of a mouthful to remember let alone belong to.

The two spies saved the whole world with the aid of their secret radio's disguised as silver cigarette cases, with aerials about a foot long.

I wonder if today's smoking ban would curtail the covert surveillance plans.

Children, had lots of imagination in those days, lets not forget there could have been spies on every corner, even in Runcorn!