The Full English Lyrics

She had some good O levels

And she was seventeen

And he sold double-glazing

Always looked neat and clean.

Each night he'd come around to take her out

And in his mother's spare-room showed her

Just what life was all about.

No one was too surprised

To learn a child was on its way.

They chose a ring together

Named an early wedding-day.

The church was full when there arrived the telegram that read

'I've gone abroad. Stop. The wedding's off. Stop'

That's when her mother said...

Seemed such a nice boy

Seemed like a real nice kind of boy

Seemed such a nice boy at the time

Seemed such a nice boy

Seemed like a real nice kind of boy

Seemed such a nice boy at the time 

George made a pile in textiles

His hair was silver-grey

Collected Meissen china

And was discretely gay.

He met a young man who'd been sleeping rough

Said he didn't want his money

Said his friendship was enough.

The boy moved in and made

The great big house a happy home.

George went to work each morning

Left the lad there on his own.

Came back one night to find the front door open

And all the lights turned on

And the boy, twelve hundred pounds

And all his precious porcelain gone (and he said...)

Seemed such a nice boy

Seemed like a real nice kind of boy

Seemed such a nice boy at the time

Seemed such a nice boy

Seemed like a real nice kind of boy

Seemed such a nice boy at the time 

Oh the heartache when we realise

Charming people have told charming lies.

We're sadder now but does that make us wise?

 

He spoke to us on TV

In words we'd understand.

Made other politicians

Look cheap and underhand.

He looked so young and yet so unafraid.

The country voted in a landslide

Now we'd see some changes made.

We didn't understand his reasons

For the foreign war

And when the kids protested

He brought in martial law.

Though six black years have passed we still ask why

And from behind the wire and searchlights

Comes the terrible reply...

Seemed such a nice boy

Seemed like a real nice kind of boy

Seemed such a nice boy at the time

Seemed such a nice boy

Seemed like a real nice kind of boy

Seemed such a nice boy at the time

There's not too much more I can tell you about this song, except to say that it was written before the Prime Minister decided that it might be a nice idea to invade Iraq.

For non-UK listeners
'O levels' were, or still are for all I know (I have no children), the basic level of the UK General Certificate of Education.

Sadly, telegrams seem now to have fallen out of use, in this country at any rate, but one endearing oddity of the system was that the 'message format' did not support punctuation, so that any stops or commas had to be spelt out.