Talk:Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh/Archive 1

Archive 1

Title

Strange that the derivation of the programme title is not mentioned.

I recall from a radio interview that it came from homosexual activity carried on by those serving at Moreton-in-Marsh an RAF base in Gloucestershire - staff would gather off base in woods adjoining the base boundary for 'friendship'.

Anyone else recall this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.67.126.86 (talk • contribs) 18:33, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

The word "Much" in the title is an adjective meaning "great" or "large", akin to the same word in the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock, or in smaller places such as Much Birch, Much Dewchurch and Much Marcle, all in Herefordshire; Much Hadham, Hertfordshire; Much Hoole, Lancashire. The word "Binding" is the primary name of the settlement, the "-ing" suffix is not to do with the formation of the present tense, but is a modifier meaning "people of" (see List of generic forms in place names in the United Kingdom and Ireland), so we can assume that there was an ancient leader named "Bind", his followers naming their settlement "Binding". It's a common component of place names in southern England: consider Reading, Berkshire; Dorking, Godalming and Woking, all in Surrey; and Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. The last overlaps neatly with "in the Marsh", another adjective clause, which is also a definite parallel with Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire.

As a joke name, we see that "Binding" is also the present tense of the verb "to bind"; if we take this in the context of "to stick", the first two words taken together can be seen as a prefix to the words "in the Marsh", "much binding" being like "lots of sticking", marshes being boggy places. --Redrose64 (talk) 10:22, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

In the wartime RAF to be 'in a bind' or 'in a bit of a bind' meant to be experiencing difficulties or encountering seemingly insurmountable problems. Hence the title implies an incompetently-run airfield where nothing goes to plan. Listeners within the RAF would get the joke but others may not have. The title (and airfield name) would be read by the RAF as "Many-Difficulties-in-the-Marsh".

By extension 'to bind' came to mean to complain about the difficulties in a tiresome way. Sometimes the 'bind' was one's own fault, in which case the cause was usually stated to be 'finger trouble', i.e, pilot error if the 'bind' occurred when in an aircraft, the 'finger' concerned being accused of being inserted somewhere too delicate to mention and thus taking one's mind off what one ought to be doing.

The personification of all these faults was Plt Off Prune, a character drawn by Bill Cooper and featured in the wartime RAF publication 'Tee Emm' (Training Memoranda). [1] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.149.173.13 (talk) 11:05, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

March 2022 expansion

For the record, though the very substantial updates and additions are attributed to me, as I was the one who posted them in the main space here, it should, I think, be stated that I co-wrote them with the editor formerly known as SchroCat, who has retired from posting on his own account. Tim riley talk 13:15, 15 May 2022 (UTC)