The sketch in question featured King's Lynn. Now that wasn't surprising given Fry's connections with Norfolk and the fact that he either lives or used to live not a million miles away from King's Lynn. But did you know that High Laurie has a Norfolk connection that actually goes back to Hethersett?
Hugh Laurie was the youngest son of William George Ronald Munell "Ran" Laurie (1915-1998) and Patricia Laidlaw.
Ran Laurie was a physician, Olympic rowing champion and gold meallist who was born in Grantchester, Cambridgeshire, in 1915 of Scottish descent
Ran Laurie began his rowing career at school and continued rowing when he attended Selwyn College, Cambridge, in 1933.
Laurie rowed for Cambridge in the 1934, 1935 and 1936 boat races, all of which were won by Cambridge. At the 1936 Olympics, he rowed as stroke in Great Britain's eight, the team eventually finishing in fourth place. Together, Laurie and Jack Wilson, rowing for the Leander Club, won the Silver Goblets ay Henley Royal Regatta in 1938.
After war interrupted their rowing careers, Laurie and Wilson returned to Henley in 1948, once again winning the Silver Goblets. This was followed a month later by a gold medal in the coxless pairs event at the 1948 London Olympics, rowing on their familiar Henley course.
Laurie was elected a steward of Henley Royal Regatta in 1951, and also served as a Henley umpire. He sat on Henley's management committee between 1975 and 1986.
Laurie joined the Sudan Political Service in 1936 and, in 1954, he qualified as a medical doctor, working for 30 years as a GP in Oxford. He also chaired the Oxford Committee of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award between 1959 and 1969, and the Oxford branch of Save the Children from 1986 to 1989.
Laurie was married to Patricia Laidlaw from 1944 until her death in in 1989. They had two daughters and two sons, the youngest of whom is Hugh Laurie, who followed in his father's footsteps, rowing for Selwyn College and Cambridge University.
In 1990, Ran Laurie married Mrs Evaline Mary Arbuthnot, née Morgan, in 1990 and this could have been in Hethersett. Laurie died of Parkinson's Disease in 1998 at the age of 83 whilst living in Hethersett. I have yet to trace definitively how he came to live in Hethersett or whether Hugh Laurie spent any time here. Would be delighted to hear from anyone with any information.
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Changing the subject slightly. Did you know we currently have an art trail in Hethersett? Over the next few days, 20 homes in the village will be displaying art in their windows so that families and local people can follow an art trail.
A copy of the map and locations is printed at the top of this page. I have been asked by the organisers not to publish photographs of the artwork until people have found them and am happy to do this.
Once the trail is over I will publish as many as I can get to on this blog.
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And finally today, a number of days ago I paid tribute to Little Richard who has died. I read a very interesting article in the Times newspaper about the song Tutti Frutti which starts with the classic lyric:
Wop bop a loo bop a lop bam bom! or something like that.
Apparently a rather sanitised version of the same song was released in the same year by crooner Pat Boone. The Times suggested that Pat Boone was the past and Little Richard the future and if you listen to the two performances on You Tube you can certainly see the point being made.
Little Richard and Pat Boone both recorded the song in 1955 but Boone's version was almost apologetic. Apparently he didn't want to record it as he "didn't understand the lyrics." Nevertheless Boone's version got to number 12 in the pop charts whilst Little Richard struggled at 21.
This was a case of Little Richard being one of the new wave of rockers whilst Boone was attempting to be hip and failing miserably. Boone would soon become one of the (almost) forgotten men of pop music (i.e the past) while Little Richard would be at the vanguard of the new craze known as rock 'n' roll.