Ronald Magill as Amos Brearly, 1983.More treasure from Carl "The Gresh" Gresham, who, in 1983, ran a series of hour-long programmes on his Radio Pennine show featuring various stars of Emmerdale Farm highlighting their favourite music.
Did Beckindale ever play home to a larger than life character than Mr Amos Brearly, licensee of the Woolpack Inn? Accomplished actor Ronald Magill took the role of a surly, nosy Yorkshire publican and made it one of the best loved characters in soap history.
One of the best things about Amos was how he evolved. In the era 1972-1979, he was a great character - a puffed up peacock of a man, given to fads, with a stout Yorkshire commonsense underlying. In the 1980s, with Stan Richards joining the cast full-time as Seth Armstrong and Seth transferring his custom from the Malt Shovel to the Woolpack, and Al Dixon arriving as the weird silent Walter, the character of Amos became odder and more lovable than ever, thrusting off the last few vestiges of commonsense and lurching through the decade at war with Seth over his allotment, launching his own local newspaper, seeing UFOs at Bogle Bog, fighting a bitter war with rival landlord Ernie Shuttleworth, visiting a health farm, keeping bees, seeing crop circles and literally dozens of other exploits. The character was voted Emmerdale viewers' favourite in several mid-to-late 1980s polls.
Walter, played by Al Dixon from 1980-1985, gets a roasting from Amos in 1984.When Carl "The Gresh" Gresham brought Ronald Magill to Pennine Radio to play some of his favourite music, Mr Magill chose the wonderful world of the musicals, and his choices were nothing less than inspired, spanning from the classic "greats" right through to the early 1980s.
Ronald Magill was actually a quiet and cultured man, very different to the part he played on TV, but he displayed his great sense of humour when he announced that a Mr Amos Brearly of The Woolpack Inn, Beckindale, had sent a request to his musical choice show. What would Amos's choice be? And how did Seth Armstrong and Mr Wilks come into the picture?
This wonderful hour with the man who created an Emmerdale legend, is available simply because Carl Gresham is a bit of a hoarder. He kept the old Ampex ten inch tapes containing the Ronald Magill material, and, despite advice that they would have gone "crumply", persisted in seeking help so that they could be transferred onto CD. The result is an hour of sheer magic that might have been recorded last week!
Seth Armstrong - played by Stan Richards - annoys Amos at the 1983 Beckindale Christmas show.Copies of Ronnie Magill's musical choice are available from:
PO Box 3. Bradford. West Yorkshire. BD1 4QN
The cost is £5.00 - including postage - which is a real bargain. Please make cheques payable to Carl Gresham. We don't usually go in for advertising or selling things at the Bugle, but this CD is, in our opinion, absolutely priceless!
No stranger to the stars - Carl "The Gresh" Gresham with Coronation Street legend Pat Phoenix.
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