WDP Promotions & Bellevue Marketing
I loved news editing, competing with the national newspapers and never knowing what stories the day might bring, but I came to like promotions as much and sometimes even more.
It all began when we were offered four foreign holidays to give away as prizes.
Ian Beales, the brilliant journalist who had followed Eric Price as editor, told me to go back to the tour operator and ask for two more holidays, so we could run Win A Holiday A Day - Monday to Saturday.
With trepidation I asked the question, the extra holidays were agreed and so began a highly-successful series of promotions, based around wordgrids, compiled by our ever-willing copytakers.
Of course, it was left to me to sweet talk the tour operators, between running the newsdesk.
But that was nothing compared with Ian's next brainwave - to organise a coach trip to The Bull in Ambridge, watering hole of The Archers, the favourite radio soap of our readers.
I contacted the series producer, William Smethurst, who quickly told me that The Bull that everyone had seen illustrated was in fact on a ring road in Birmingham, surrounded by urban housing and not suitable venue.
I asked if he could suggest an alternative and he mentioned that he often based storylines around his home area in Warwickshire and had one of his characters producing a Landscape Survey book, complete with drawings of the locality, which was to be published in real life.
I met up with William and we decided that the pub in nearby Cherington would make an ideal Bull, a village store would make Martha Woodord's shop and the parish church of St Martin’s a few miles away in Barcheston, already featuring in plotlines, would become St Stephen’s Ambridge.
Even better, the farm alongside William’s home in neighbouring Willington had been the inspiration for Eddie Grundy’s home, with a farmer, who wore a cowboy hat with cow horns like the radio character and had a Wild West mural on a barn wall.
William said he could ask his actors to come along to play their characters and up to 15 agreed – the first time they had performed outside in such circumstances.
So, with the location agreed, I set about making it happen.
First I organised for a Bristol company to provide a coach needed to carry 30 passengers – 15 prize-winners and their guests – with a banner on the side and Bristol city council agreed to make an Ambridge sign to go on a triangle of land in Cherington near the pub and shop.
Whitbread, owners of the pub, agreed to have a Bull sign painted and provide a Ploughman’s lunch for the WDP party and the actors, and the publishers of the real-life Landscape Survey prepared a display for the pub’s front window.
The Yetties, who played the Archers omnibus theme tune, agreed to come along to play as the coach arrived and then perform in the pub’s rear patio.
I wanted our coach party to be driven to Moreton-in-Marsh and be met by Jack Woolley, of Grey Gables, before being taken on a mystery tour into fictional Borsetshire.
Therefore I organised with the local authority and emergency services to be able to change the road signs for a day and our graphic artist/messenger, Mike Burns, came with me to work out which finger posts could be changed to show Penny Hassett, etc.
He also prepared appropriate signs to go in “Martha’s” shop front window.
It turned out that St Martin’s church was holding a flower festival in real life as well as in the series as St Stephens, so I organised for NFU Insurance to print festival posters to display on the run in to Cherington.
Actor Norman Painting, who played Phil Archer, for 59 years, was an organist, so agreed to play in the church as the WDP party came in and the church ladies agreed to provide a tea outside, with the vicar, masquerading as the Rural Dean of Borsetshire.
The competition was duly run in the newspapers, attracting a flood of entries, and the great day dawned with the media, including newspapers and TV alerted, as well as, of course, Radio Four.
The coach made the planned comfort stop in Moreton-in-Marsh to be met by Jack Woolley, without his beloved dog, Captain, and then their adventure began.
The winners and guests arrived at the “village green” in Cherington to be met by The Yetties playing the memorable theme tune and, a surprise to me, the villagers also turned out to greet them with glasses of cider.
Then after a visit to meet Martha Woodford, who was closing up her shop, it was off to The Bull to see the Landscape Survey display, meet the actors and sit down for the ploughman’s lunch.
I had arranged for the actor playing Eddie Grundy to be there – he was to sing a duet with his girlfriend, Clarrie, later – but his father, Joe, I had hid out of sight.
I then arranged for him to appear and angrily confront Jack Woolley because he had not been invited to the lunch, but he agreed to be pacified and join the celebration.
After more music, including a song by Tom Forrest, the coach party left, with Eddie asking if he could be given a lift back to his farm on their way to the church for the flower festival.
Unknown to the WDP party, Joe had been taken back earlier and when they arrived at the farm gate, he jumped out with a pitchfork and demanded they pay for a farm visit – again he had to be calmed down.
After music and tea at the church, the WDP party got back on the coach and were handed copies of the Landscape Survey containing a map, showing where they had actually been – many of them had had no idea, thinking they were somewhere in the Birmingham area.
At the end of the day, I returned to the WDP office in Temple Way, where the stories of the day, written by super-talented Liz Marleyn, and photographs were put together in a special supplement, entitled the Borsetshire Echo.
The second major promotion followed the next year after Courage PRO Bruce Lewis offered the use of the Old England test team for a charity match.
The team featured stars including Fred Trueman and John Edrich and Ian decided to make it the centrepiece of a competition aimed at community groups throughout the West Country, with the best project winning a fund-raising weekend, to be called the Fundfair.
While the entries flowed in, I set about organsing the programme.
We eventually had two main contenders – Carhampton, near Minehead, and Milborne Port on the Somerset-Dorset border – both with projects to improve meeting hall facilities.
However on a recce to Carhampton we discovered that there were two village halls and the rivalry had caused a lot of ill-feeling, so the prize went to Milborne Port, who were asked to organise a Saturday fete to link with the activities I had organised.
By the time that the Fundfair took place, the programme had grown far beyond just a cricket match.
On the Friday night, HTV organised a talent show with perfomers from the six finalists, but sadly did not film it.
The brother of the Milborne Port council chair was Matthew Parris, composer of the theme tunes for TV series, The Duchess of Duke Street and Wings, and he agreed to write a Fundfair fanfare, which the Bristol-based Unicorns marching band played to launch the Saturday morning.
That was followed by a three-hour visit of the Radio One Roadshow, organised with the help of the brother of local show business agent, John Miles, who was a stalwart of programme, known as Smiley Miley.
Next came a jousting tournament for the afternoon, with a Don Cameron balloon and a Yeovilton flypast added into the mix and the town providing a fete with stalls and sideshows.
In the evening there was a disco for the youngsters and a barn dance with the ever-helpful Yetties.
And on the Sunday the Fundfair came to a climax with a cricket match between the town team and the Old England test team.
After a weekend that the town remembers to this day, we were able to present them with a cheque for some £7,000, the profit after all the expenses had been paid.
It was probably the enjoyment of organising promotions like these, which led me to leave the WDP and set up Bellevue Marketing in the summer of 1994.