Beadle's Miscellany:

Prankster Jeremy Beadle was nationally known for his TV antics.

So, when the opportunity came to interview him, it was with some trepidation. What would he try on with me? Would he embarrass me like he'd done with so many 'victims' on his shows? Actually, it was quite the opposite.

One evening in the summer of 1985, I was given a tip-off by a friend that Jeremy Beadle was coming to town in the next couple of days. Back then, he was at the peak of his Game For A Laugh career. Having joined Radio Maelor based at the Wrexham Maelor Hospital, I was looking for another star 'scalp'. I had already interviewed Ken Dodd and Barbara Windsor, so I was now getting used to meeting celebrities, and their quirky ways.

As I recall, it was a Friday night when my friend phoned me he saying Beadle was in the Turf Hotel next to the Wrexham FC ground on Mold Road. Excitedly, I dashed to the pub, and as I walked through the entrance I could hear music playing. It wasn't a jukebox. In I walked to a packed room only to see Jeremy Beadle tinkling at the piano, and he was very good. He was wearing a loud shirt, the flashy Caribbean type. I stood for sometime watching Beadle entertain the crowd who were lapping it up as he ran through a repertoire of sing-along tunes, constantly beaming with joy. I had to bide my time in approaching, so when a break arrived I made my move.

I introduced myself and we shook hands. He was very polite and very friendly. I asked about doing an interview for hospital radio, which he was thrilled about. We arranged for 11 am on the Sunday morning, and then I stayed- on and marvelled at his musical talents. Come Sunday morning, I arrived at 10.50 am, armed with my notepad with enough questions for a 20 minute interview and a Uher portable tape recorder and mic. I sat in the empty bar waiting for him to greet me. Half an hour passed when the landlord, a friend of his from Beadle's Sidcup college days apparently, announced he'd be coming soon.

Eventually at 1pm Beadle surfaced. Was it a prank I thought? I was on my guard. He'd obviously had a good Saturday entertaining . Dressed in a blue checked shirt, light grey jacket and dark blue he trousers he apologised for his lateness. We moved to an upstairs room where I set up the recording gear. What immediately struck me was that lack of TV persona, just an ordinary guy who had managed to pull in 15 million viewers on shows like Game For a Laugh and later Beadle's About.

During the entire interview he was extremely effusive, charming and even humble about his achievements on both TV and radio. As I recall, he'd done quite a lot of television work behind the scenes, producing on Saturday morning children's programmes, if memory serves me right. Some of his fondest memories were from his radio days, where he fronted a late night show for the BBC. Typically, the show was all about pranks, some achievement for a radio show. At this time I had been experiencing some presenting problems during my rehearsals for a Radio Maelor show.

Sitting in a room with two turntables, a mic and a clock was quite a stark experience. To overcome this, his tip was to put pictures of friends and loved ones on the wall, and speak to them, which I took as good advice. One thing that struck me about him was his gushing cheerfulness, and honesty about what he was trying to do on his show, and the fact that he'd managed to make a rookie interviewer feel relaxed. During the entire interview, I was half expecting him to pull a prank on me, but thankfully, he didn't.

With tributes flowing in from his colleagues, it's very understandable why within the business, he was considered a gentleman, and like during my interview, he was true professional, even if he was two hours late !

The picture above is of Elly Roberts interviewing Jeremy Beadle at the Turf Hotel, Wrexham 1985.