I flew with Monarch to America one time, it ws lovely in midclass, but economy just looked like a cattle truck, so bloody glad I'd upgraded. Don't know about the British Midland thing, but expect you are right. It was on Monarch (return journey) that someone who was being kicked out of America, wouldn't settle down, so we got stranded until the cops came and removed them.
Just looked up the BM thing, they got took over partly by Lufthansa and partly BA. Where I got confused is, Flybe took over their offices at Brum airport.
Just finished watching allegiance at the theatre. Saw george takei in the flesh. The 85 year old Legend is still doing 2 theatre shows a day.