Back in the 1950's, a documentary programme called 'Away from it all' was made by the BBC in the village of Cheriton, Hampshire largely due to the connection which my father-in-law Bob Copper (still very much with us) had with the BBC.

Bob was a Folksong and Dialect collector in Sussex and Hampshire for the BBC in those days and knew many of the then current broadcasters, producers and technicians (Stanley Unwin being responsible for the maintenance and repair of the laughingly-named 'midget' portable tape recorders then being used). The documentary was (he thinks) produced by Richard Cawston and directed by Stephen Hirst (Hurst?)...the presenter was Chris Chattaway.

The point of all this is that apart from being a fine record of a vanished way of life, a scene of Bob's wife Joan washing glasses behind the bar of the HH Inn, Cheriton was used prior to the Queen's speech at several Christmasses along with pictures of others who had to work at this festive time, serving as a sober reminder that not everyone was fortunate enough to sit down to dinner at one o'clock!

Jon Dudley

October 2001