I mentioned in former blogs a magazine/newspaper entitled Hethersett Mercury, a fairly short-lived publication at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. I found a few copies when I was sorting through old files in my study.
Now Duncan has let me have his collection of 18 more dated from September 1999 to October 2002. They give a fascinating insight into life in the village two decades ago and one of the first things I came across was a photograph of myself with youngsters from what was then Hethersett Middle School (now Hethersett Primary School).
I was accompanying one of the teachers, the school secretary and a number of the children for a recording of Ready, Steady, Cook in London.
I have vivid memories of that day - the coach journey into London, arriving at the studios via train, being in the audience for the recording and ending up on stage chatting to Fern Britton.
One of the chef's was Yorkshireman Brian Turner. At the end he came over to talk to the kids and one asked him "Do you like doing the programme?"
"Son, I get picked up in a car and brought from my home to the studio, I get to cook some of my favourite food, I get to meet all you lovely people, I get taken home again and I get paid for doing it. Of course I love the programme."
Those weren't his exact words but they were something along those lines and he had a twinkle in his eyes as well. I don't remember much about the actual cooking but I do remember that nobody was allowed to eat what was cooked and it was all thrown away (what a waste but I guess it had a lot to do with health and safety!!)
The main thing I remember about the day - apart from the excellent behaviour of the children we took all of whom will now be either in their late twenties or early thirties and the fact that when we had to vote for a winner by holding up either a green tomato or a red pepper card they counted the numbers without the cameras rolling and then pretended surprise and delight when we were asked on camera to vote for the second time - was a very strange incident which saw us all have to leave our seats to crowd onto the stage.
It concerned one of the audience - a very muscly man wearing a Welsh Rugby Shirt. Apparently he had an aversion to plasters and the crew was made aware of this by his wife but obviously thought nothing more about it.
Everything went smoothly until one of the chefs nicked his finger with a knife. It wasn't a bad cut but obviously they didn't want to get blood on the food. So they stopped filming and called for a plaster at which our friend in the audience promptly fainted! We all had to go onto the stage whilst the medics came and carted him away.
Apparently he soon recovered in a back room but didn't return as the filming started again. I have heard of people keeling over at the sight of blood but never at the sight of a sticking plaster.
Here is a transcript of the story that appeared in the October 1999 edition of Hethersett Mercury:
"Hethersett Middle School teacher Nicky Peters and Jill Garrould, the school secretary, have been filming in London to appear on BBC2s Ready Steady Cook.
It will be broadcast in December. They took eight lucky competition winners from Mrs Peters' class to be part of the audience and support them. Also there was the chairman of the governors, Peter Steward and another member of staff, Angela Farrington. In order to win a place on the trip, the children had to say which famous person they would most like to have a meal with, what they would like to eat and why.
One of the winners, Chloe White, chose Nostradamus as her guest. She said: "I would like to ask him how he found out that he could predict all those things. I would serve him monk fish stir fry because he was a monk, mange tout because he was French and fortune cookies with coffee."
The trip was generously sponsored by Tesco's of Norwich who paid for the travelling expenses on Anglia Railway, Local companies Pickerings of Dereham and Caleys Chocolate of Norwich provided some of the ingredients to promote Norfolk foods.
Nicky Peters cooked with Brian Turner and Jill Garrould with Ross Burden."
I have no real recollection of who won but have a suspicion that it may well have been Nicky.
The Mercury has a picture of the group including myself wearing a ridiculous chef's hat that fails to stand up and looks as if it has been squashed onto my head.
The children pictured are Rohan Chitale, Oliver Armstrong, Neil Anderson, Kirstyn Middlemiss, Gina Self, Emily Garrould, Charlotte Harvey and Chloe White.
I will have more from these new finds in coming blogs.
Basil was a great character who really would do anything to help people and hopefully my piece reflected this. Basil died at the end of May in hospital and a subsequent inquest established that he died of natural causes.
The Eastern Daily Press/Norwich Evening News contacted me and I was able to send them my piece and also help them source photographs of Basil. The result has been a nice tribute piece in local newspapers. You can see a copy of the cutting above.