Ian and Hilary Templeton had a series of nine mini programmes of different aspects of Shropshire life. They come from the very picturesque village of Church Stretton.
The programmes lasted about six minutes each and were themed. I was as interested in how they were put them together as much as the content, although that was very interesting too.
It's difficult to describe them. There was one on the Shropshire poetry of A E Houseman, one on a small gauge railway, one on Little Stretton, one on a ploughing match, one on a Flanders and Swann song about the seasons and one on a dissolute local character called Jack Mytton who was a gambler, a landowner, a practical joker and much more. He went bankrupt but had the last laugh when they named a walking trail after him. So now you can wander all over Jack Mytton.
Ian told us that each of their programmes takes an astonishing 100 hours to produce. Hilary takes the photos, Ian adds the commentary or gets friends to do it and then adds the music and graphics and then Hilary puts the whole thing together. I found it fascinating, particularly when they said they have over 150 of these including topics as diverse as Holiday Property Bond properties and the American Civil War.
They put on shows all over the place and always in aid of the Midlands Air Ambulance. Over 20 years they have raised more than £40,000 for the charity. Now as you know it's a charity that I supported with my 1500 mile walk a couple of years ago. I do have a slight whinge though that I feel I must vent here.
After finishing my walk I sent the East Anglian Air Ambulance a final cheque. Donations received amounted to around £1700, an amount I was pleased with. To date I have received no acknowledgement of this. A simple letter from them would have been appreciated and I have to admit that it's left a slightly sour taste in my mouth. Recently as a supporter of their work I was sent books of raffle tickets to sell. I sent them straight back. The raffle tickets came with a letter about them which included a supporters' number which was unique to me.
Having said that I don't sell unsolicited raffle tickets sent to me by any organisation. I used to get phone calls from charities I support asking me to sell raffle tickets but I find doing so rather embarrassing and rather taking advantage of support I have previously shown. I haven't received any such calls for quite sometime although the University of East Anglia ask occasionally for money from graduates. These I ignore as well. I want to choose which charities I support.
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After the presentation we returned to our billet (nice old fashioned word) and I watched a football match on my laptop via Sky Go whilst keeping one eye on an interesting documentary about Lily Savage. Of course Lily Savage was the drag queen persona of the much loved Paul O'Grady and the interesting thing for me came from how a foul mouthed drag queen became a national treasure.
Probably just as interesting was how a foul mouthed drag queen got into mainstream entertainment in the first place (Lily Savage hosted the prime time BBC game show Blankety Blank which is now hosted by the brilliant Bradley Walsh).
Suddenly he decided to ditch the Lily persona and just be Paul O Grady. But at first his rants were pretty similar. Then he started tempering them and became Mr Nice, full of fun and animal loving goodness and loved by most. The kind of guy that you know would be genial and kind of you ever met him. It was an interesting documentary.
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Yesterday was unique amongst our holiday days so far. It didn't rain. So off we went to the charming town of Ludlow. Travelling with a three month old baby and a dog means that getting ready to go out takes much longer. Ludlow is just a handful of miles from where we are staying although the first couple of miles are down a single track road where passing can be hairy if you meet somebody coming the other way. HPB properties are usually located in very rural settings. In the past the organisation has bought up entire villages which have crumbled and fallen into disrepair. This is particularly the case with a place known as Constance which is in France.
Our current location is about three miles from Craven Arms. Craven Arms is the name of a town that was indeed named after a large pub which is currently bordered up although there is the suggestion it might open again some time in the future. Craven Arms isn't an attractive place. It has a few shops, a supermarket, a petrol station, a discovery centre, two quite confusing roundabouts and not a lot else other than a railway station from where you can get to Shrewsbury or Stoke on Trent. Craven Arms isn't the kind of place you would go on a day trip.
But it is close to some lovely Shropshire scenery and an easy drive to the Welsh Marches which mark the border between England and Wales. And before I forget two of the other presentations by Ian and Hilary were in the Welsh Marches and Ludlow horse races.
But I digress. After breakfast we set off for Ludlow. The worst thing about a trip out in the car is often finding car parking which can either be a nightmare or very costly. As you know I have a thing about overcharging for car parking.
Traders of a specific place will complain that their trade is going down while the local council put people off by charging ridiculous prices to dump your car on what is often little more than a piece of waste land. It doesn't make you feel very welcome.
It's not too bad at Ludlow. There's a large car park close to the town centre which has a number of levels. The top levels which are closest to the centre charge 70p an hour. Travel downwards and walk a few extra yards and it's just 40p an hour. Don't quite know why they have two rates for the same car park. We found a space in the cheapest area.
Retraced steps from a couple of years ago and took lots of photos which are probably identical to those I took last time. Hope you enjoy at least some of them.