John North: Get me to the church sometime

He proposed, she accepted; five days afterwards the good news was announced in the Forthcoming Marriages section of the Telegraph.

Nearly 34 years and a lot of ifs and Burtts later she still happily wears his ring - and the marriage is still forthcoming.

"We just never seem to have got around to it," says Rod, 62, a Conservative on Darlington Borough Council.

"I'm sure it'll happen one day," says Judith, 18 months his senior, with whom he has shared a house in Hurworth for more than a quarter of a century.

They became engaged after a "rather good" party at the renowned Black Bull in Moulton. "There was a big celebration at the time," recalls Judith, a teacher for 44 years at Abbey School in Darlington and awarded the MBE for services to education.

Would she also need a medal to marry Rod Burtt? "He's a lovely man with a tremendous sense of humour which keeps everything ticking over very well," she says.

"He also got down on one knee and proposed to me at someone else's wedding - I even caught the bouquet - but the years just seemed to have rolled by without anything happening.

"We've had so many friends wondering if their children might be bridesmaids and now the children are asking if their children can be bridesmaids. When it does happen we'll probably just have a quiet wedding and another great big party afterwards."

Rod - world traveller, former Round Table national president and accomplished after dinner speaker - insists that there've been no regrets, only delays.

"Proposing was a bit unexpected so I hadn't a ring, but a few days later we were up and down Post House Wynd looking for one.

"Far from being the longest engagement on record, it was almost the shortest. We couldn't find anything to my taste, which means within my price range."

Judith, whose mother died when she was young, continued to live with her father, a well known Darlington GP, until his death in 1977.

"Rod and I had chosen this house together quite a long time previously. I asked if I could stay for a night or two and I've been here ever since. He'd got into a nice little lifestyle. I think he was quite content."

She has become accustomed, says Rod, to gentle leg pulling. "If we got married I'd have to re-write all my speeches.

"She's still a beautiful lady and we're very happy. It's not that I'm not the marrying type, I just don't believe in rushing things."

Ever the romantic, the column has suggested - proposed may not be quite the word - a Valentine's Day wedding.

Rod demurs, knotty problem. "I know it's been 34 years, but I need a little bit more notice than that."

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ROD Burtt, bless him, had only looked into the cuttings library to research a Civic Theatre production when the column incorrigibly popped the question. "You and Judith got hitched yet then?"

It seems only proper, therefore, to offer a little publicity for The Late Late Jubilee Show, sub-titled "A light hearted journey through Darlington's progress over the 50 years of the Queen's reign."

Even that's behind schedule. "I thought you might marry the two together," said the old romantic, mischievously.

The one-night stand, at the Civic in Darlington on Wednesday, March 12, has been devised by Rod, a retired estate agent, and his former colleague and Shildon lad Alan Cowie - "about as daft as me".

Backed by Darlington Rotary Club, it will raise funds for St Teresa's Hospice, the Giving Tree appeal and other Rotary-backed charities and also feature music down the decades from pupils at five Darlington area schools - Carmel, Polam Hall, Abbey Junior, Bishopton and Heighington.

Tickets, £10 and £7.50, are available on 01325 487231.

"We're both show-offs and exhibitionists but as it gets nearer the thought is starting to terrify me," says Rod. "The show will be jolly and optimistic. I think Darlington has a tendency to take itself too seriously."

May we therefore expect a happy ending? "Ah," says the canny councillor, "you will have to wait and see."

ONLY half time by Roderick Burtt's standards, but we also hear that Jim Anderson - sedulous secretary of Newcastle Blue Star FC in the Albany Northern League - is to marry his partner Lynn after 17 years together. The wedding, conducted by club president the Rev Ted Walton, is on June 14. "In all that time," says Jim, "it's the first free Saturday I've ever had."

ANOTHER high note: echoing Mark Knopfler's song about nipping into Tow Law for a ripsaw, or some such cutting edge gadgetry, last week's column wondered which other North-East locations had a place in pop culture.

There were lots. Most remembered Durham Town by Roger Whittaker, concluded that it wasn't Durham City because the leaving wouldn't have got him down - though it might have been a pity - and that sailing on the banks of the River Tyne might have owed similar allegiance to diluted rhyme.

Stainsby Girls by Chris Rea was about a school in Acklam, Lindisfarne sang about Sunderland Boys, Tunnel of Love by Dire Straits was a kiss and tell about the Spanish City fairground in Whitley Bay with the immortal line: "Walk away, walk away, through Cullercoats and Whitley Bay."

The couplet also featured, recalls James Pattison in Whickham, in the Hollywood blockbuster An Officer and A Gentleman when Richard Gere put the song on the juke box and sang along to his unnamed leading lady. (She probably thought the Spanish City was San Sebastian.)

Several readers recalled the Prefab Sprout album From Langley Park to Memphis, a reflection of the band's humble browtings up around Witton Gilbert in Co Durham and striking a particular chord with Redcar and Cleveland Council leader David Walsh.

"As someone born in a prefab I've always felt a certain empathy with them," says David, who also remarkably recalls a Benny Hill number called My Baby Loves Her Transistor Radio (No 24, June 1961) on which Victor Sylvester makes a reference to British West Hartlepool.

Richard Jones in Darlington not only remembered Scarborough Fair by Simon and Garfunkel and Driving Down to Darlington County by Bruce Springsteen - "apparently there's a Darlington race track in Ohio," says Richard - but several songs by The Toy Dolls, drawn from around Peterlee and Sunderland and best remembered for heroically resuscitating Nellie the Elephant.

Fisticuffs in Frederick Street mirrored the city's pugnacious night life, She Goes to Fino's was about a Sunderland night club and Queen Alexandra Street Was Where She Said She Would Be But Was She There To Meet Me? No Chance probably speaks, voluminously, for itself.

It may also be the longest song title of all time, beating San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear a Flower in Your Hair) which - Scott Mackenzie, 1967 - was the wordiest number one.

Thanks to all who contributed. Anything longer than Queen Alexandra Street in Sunderland?

ARMED with his book of North-East place names and his Guinness Book of Hit Singles, Tom Purvis had a field day. More of those next week. He also naughtily reprises the song Sunderland Are Back in the First Division, vocals by Bobby Knoxall and the first team squad. Football fans will understand.

LAST week's obituary on Ronnie "Rubberbones" Heslop, the first man to go over the wall at Durham Jail, brought a note from John Heslop, also at large in Durham though he believes himself no relation.

"There may be something in the general Heslop genes, however, because I once escaped from a locked computer room by removing some floor tiles and squeezing through a six and a half inch gap beneath the door."

After release, says John, Ronnie was a gardener at a local school and a popular member of staff.

Tom Peacock, then a young probation officer, remembers visiting Page Bank - Ronnie's adopted home, near Spennymoor - in the early 1960s.

"Only one house seemed to have mains electricity and the rest were somehow connected to it."

The farewell to Ronnie was pinched (appropriately, if inaccurately) by the Nigel Dempster column in the following day's Daily Mail. He'd made the High Society page at last.

...and finally back to music, and to St Valentine's Day. At Trimdon Labour Club, Tony's gaff, the Bruvvers appear on February 14 and 15 - "authentic rock and roll and skiffle," it says - with support acts. We have two tickets to give away for each night.

Many will recognise The Bruvvers as Joe Brown's backing group. The first readers out of the hat next Monday correctly to have named Joe's biggest hit can have a pair apiece - otherwise they're £7.50 and £6.

Winners next Thursday. Until then, as Roderick Burtt and Judith Kent probably say, we're otherwise engaged.

What else happened on June 21, 1969

June 21, 1969, wasn't just the day when Rod Burtt and Judith Kent became engaged...it was also when actress Judy Garland died at 47 and tennis star Maureen "Little Mo" Connolly at 34, when Jackie Stewart won the Dutch Grand Prix, a 100 minute television film called The Royal Family failed to stir the nation and John Stonehouse, the Post-master General, was consid-ering the future of BBC Radio Durham.

Doggart's clearance sale was about to start in Bishop Auckland, Binns sale offered nylons for two bob, George Kinnell, above - "a £25,000 flop" - was shipping out of Middlesbrough FC for Australia and The Northern Echo, which reported it all, cost fivepence.

With thanks to Colin Randall, The Daily Telegraph on Thursday, June 26, reported that General Franco, below, was cutting ferry links to Gibraltar, a time bomb had been found beneath a pier being used for the Prince of Wales's investiture and Ian Smith said there was no hope of further talks over Rhodesia. Forthcoming marriages came later.