Book Tower

Last week, we took the kids to visit Sudbury Hall - home to the Museum of Childhood. As I struggled up the grand entrance steps, wrestling with Josh's pushcair, I had a feeling of familiarity, as if I'd been here before.

 Of course I'd been here before - several times, I first came here when I was nine for a school trip back in 82, but this was something different - where had I seen that door before?

 ... and then it struck me (not the door) - it was from the Book Tower!

 For the nonplussed, The Book Tower was an ITV weekly kids' programme, aimed at getting children interested in (not surprisingly) books and reading. Sort of like BBC's Jackanory, but not so straight faced.

What most people will remember about The Book Tower is the theme music. This was a particularly creepy number (written by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber), played on an organ, accompanied by zoom shots of a gothic house which wouldn't have looked out of place in an M R James story. You could almost imagine Vincent Price hunched over the keyboard in Dr Phibes fashion.

 As the titles finished, you were greeted, not by Vincent leering into your living room, but grinning former Time Lord, Tom Baker (a pretty close second).

 In fact there was a bit of a Dr Who feel to the whole thing, in its 10 year run there was a steady succession of eccentric presenters, including two former dads of Adrian Mole - namely Stephen Moore and Alun Armstrong, Neil Innes (Puddle Lane, The Ruttles) followed by poet and fellow GRIMMS member, Roger McGough and finally Bernard Bresslaw (I only arsked) and Timmy Mallet (look at the camera and say BLAIR!).

 Unlike Jackanory, the stories were partly dramatised, and I can recall one quite disturbing scene of an old woman drowning a cat from (I think) The Nine Lives of Montezuma by Michael Morpurgo. Another book featured was The Warlock of Firetop Mountain by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone from the Fighting Fantasy gamebook series, where I vaguely remember Stephen Moore and a kid dressed in sword and sorcery clobber exploring a paper mache dungeon.

 One item I didn't see, but would have liked to, was Neil Innes' interview with Lucy Boston, the children's author of the Green Knowe series. She would have been in her nineties then - quite a remarkable lady.

The Book Tower closed it's doors back in 1989. Since then ITV seems to have slowly shut up the shop on children's programmes, finding it easier just to import cheap cartoons to drain kids' brains - but that's only a bookworm's opinion.

Ah well, as Tom Baker would say, 'Goodbye until next week, ha ha.'

Never Look Back

I'm putting my 40 year frame through a half marathon in October, and I thought it was only fair to do it for a good cause. So which one of the needy charities did I pick?

The idea for my chosen charity, came at the end of my recent birthday party, when (slightly inebriated)  I was chatting to my mate Jason, about 1970s celebrities, (Frank Bough, Dicky Davies etc), when he promptly put down his glass and announced wide eyed.

 'Rob, recharge the glasses - we must make a toast.'

 Not needing much encouragement, I sloshed a generous measure of scotch in each glass, and we raised them high.

'To Sir Richard Stilgoe!' intoned Jason

 We clinked glasses, toasted good Sir Richard and knocked the whisky down the hatch.

  It was only in the cold light of day, with a fiery hangover that I thought about that toast. 'Sir' Richard Stilgoe?

Richard Stilgoe was the resident pianist on Nationwide, the 1970s topical magazine show. A merry minstrel, able to knock out a witty ditty in a minute's notice. In addition he's also penned lyrics for West End musicals, and hosted Finders Keepers, a childrens' game show in the 80s for swotty kids based on 'Battleships' (Alpha Four!). All jolly clever stuff - but does it merit being made a Knight of the Realm?
 
Well,  Mr Stilgoe was knighted for his charitable services - in particular his work with the Orpheus Centre. Orpheus? Wasn't he the legendary poet and musician of ancient Greek myth, who had a can-can tune written in his honour? Intigued, I decided to find out more...

The Orpheus centre was founded in Godstone, Surrey by Richard Stilgoe back in 1998.

It is a registered charity, and enables young adults with learning/physical disabilities to learn performance arts (dance, drama etc) with productions that help promote confidence and self esteem.The students are also taught life and employment skills to live independently. This seemed a worthy cause, so I e-mailed Orpheus, and (after a cheery reply), a sponsorship pack, dropped through the letter box two days later.

No going back now - best start getting some training in for October!

For more information about the Orpheus Centre and forthcoming students' productions, visit their web site.

http://www.orpheus.org.uk/