About

I worked in local newspapers in Lincolnshire before joining BBC Radio where I spent more than 30 years as a reporter, presenter, journalism trainer, producer and news editor in BBC local radio and at the Asian Network national radio station, where I was its first News/Sports Editor and then Network Manager.

I have had a life long interest in aviation, especially the military aircraft that were developed and first flown in the 1950s and 1960s. As a journalist, I was privileged to enjoy many media facility flights and deployments abroad with the RAF. I also helped the commentary team at the International Air Tattoo before it moved to Fairford. I do some freelance writing for the Royal Air Force Association – and coordinate school and groups visits to the East Midlands Aeropark aviation museum (see Connections).

**********

Erratum from Chapter 7 A Stickler for Exactitude…..

The BBC had numerous buildings in London and I trained in, worked in and visited most of them over the years – Broadcasting House, Bush House, Television Centre, Western House, Egton House, Yalding House, Grafton House, Marylebone High Street, White City, Media Centre…..and The Langham. The building across the road from BH was called The Langham. Before it was sold and turned into a luxury hotel, it was the home of the headquarters of BBC Local Radio, the Local Radio Training Unit and that lively bar. The Langham. It was The Bloody Langham. So why, oh why did I call it Grafton House in Chapter 7? Grafton House was the later headquarters of the Local Radio Training Unit at the other end of Great Portland Street. So on page 79 of the paperback edition, when you see the words Grafton House, it should read The Langham. It`s The Langham bar and The Langham ghost. And I called the chapter `A Stickler for Exactitude`…….(oh, and later in the book, Stow-on-the-World really should be Stow-on-the-Wold, should it not? It has all been corrected for the e-book version……………….)

Butlins 1955
Hopalong Cassidy and Charlie Drake? And Dad`s the Camp Chaplain, right? And now I have been exposed as the baby crying in Chalet ZH10 as announced by Radio bloody Butlin last night during the grown-ups` Glamorous Grandma contest in the so-called Gaiety Ballroom when it wasn`t me but a lady friend dealing with a particularly difficult jar of strained prunes………..A quizzical MC muses on life at Butlins at Filey in 1955 (Chapter 3).

Awaiting the call from the Oxford AM team circa 1980. MC recovers in the BBC Radio Oxford radio car after vox-popping disgruntled BL workers at Cowley about their latest pay offer (Chapters 7 & 25)

Drummer
Drummer, the Filey Vicarage cocker spaniel, returns from some serious investigative work at the end of the garden. Mrs Sheila Curtis gives him the `You Daft Brush` look (Photo: MC circa 1970).

G-suited and booted, a quick pose in front of a pile of mud before climbing in a Tornado F3 at RAF Coningsby in June 1992. Another Tornado can be seen in the background to prove it was Coningsby and not a fantasist on a building site (Chapter 22)