I refuse to accept that! I've seen his photograph and he is definitely imbued with the fresh-faced enthusiasm only youth can bring. Littlejohn wouldn't lie.

The Mail's ethical standards c1966, before the slide downmarket:


Article here...

I imagine they weren't too keen on hornswogglers, bunco artists, Tom O'Bedlams and clapperdudgeons either.

I wonder what a modern version would read like?

I wonder what a modern version would read like?

Mike Randall (12 August 1919–10 December 1999) was a British newspaper editor.

Randall worked as a shipping clerk in Brazil in his youth. He moved to the UK at the start of World War II and took a job as a journalist at the Daily Sketch. In 1941, he moved to the Sunday Graphic, rising to become its editor in 1953. However, he soon left to become an assistant features editor with the Daily Mirror, and in 1956 moved to the News Chronicle. This paper merged with the Daily Mail, and Randall joined the Mail, becoming its editor in 1963.

Randall aimed to take the Mail upmarket, introducing more investigative journalism and attract younger readers with a more liberal position. However, the paper lost readers, and Randall was replaced as editor in 1966 while he was on sick leave. He joined the Sunday Times as Managing Editor (News), assisting Editor Harold Evans and co-ordinating investigations. In 1969, Robert Maxwell asked Randall to edit The Sun if he was successful in purchasing it, but the deal did not go ahead, and Randall instead retired from the Sunday Times in 1979.

In semi-retirement, Randall worked as a fruit picker and on a mushroom farm, while involving himself in the launch of the Sunday Standard.

Tom O'Bedlams and clapperdudgeons