Saturday 6 September 2008
1981: The Cat And The Hat
Emily Brearly's first visit to The Woolpack had caused much disruption. She had been horrified to find her nephew, Amos, meddling with the occult - bog-a-boos no less! - and departed in a great flurry - telling Amos that he should have the pub exorcised!
In 1981, Auntie Emily sent Amos a gift - a wonderfully classy hat. Very dressy. Too dressy in fact.
"This is the type of hat as history is made in," said Amos.
Amos' pleasure soon turned to disgust as his friends and neighbours sniggered to themselves whenever he came into view in his natty headgear, and Seth Armstrong serenaded him across Main Street: "Where did you get that hat, where did you get that hat?"
Mr Wilks and Walter were not impressed.
Amos did not want to give into the local philistines - he certainly didn't want to give into Seth Armstrong - and, besides, his feared Auntie Emily had bought him the hat and she would be not happy if she knew he wasn't wearing it.
Finally, he hit on a solution: Mr Wilks had adopted a pregnant cat, due to have her kittens any day. Amos decided that the hat was the perfect home for the new family - and organised things so that it looked like the cat had chosen it herself.
Of course, he couldn't possibly wear it now!
But Mr Wilks secretly guessed what he'd done, and told Amos that he felt dreadful about the loss of the hat (he, after all, had adopted the cat) and that he was going to buy Amos a new one, just the same as the original, from the very same shop.
Amos squirmed, and owned up.
Friday 5 September 2008
Did The Malt Shovel Ever Appear On-Screen?
An e-mail from Wendy asks if the interior of The Malt Shovel, the arch rival public house to The Woolpack, ever appeared on-screen?
I have some episodes from 1981, Wendy, in which Seth Armstrong revisits the 'Shovel - his old local (he became a regular at The Woolpack in 1980) - and both interior and exterior are seen. I believe the interior of the pub was also seen in the 1984/1985 storyline involving Mr Wilks and Doreen.
Saturday 23 August 2008
1980: Bogles In Beckindale...
Seth suggested that they should walk back to Beckindale...
... but Amos was having none of it. They couldn't walk back it was dark. The Hotten Courier had hired the cab to get Amos home after a function, the taxi proprietor was legally bound to do just that, Amos was ex-artillery - he knew his rights, Seth must go back to the phone box they'd passed earlier and phone the taxi firm from there and demand another vehicle be sent out to them. And whilst he was at it he must also phone Mr Wilks (Arthur Pentelow) - it was late and he'd be wondering where Amos had got to.
Seth asked him if he was afraid of Bogles (more about them later) but Amos hotly refuted the idea.
Seth went. Amos clicked on the car radio. Beneath all his bluster he was actually quite afraid, being out there alone at that time. It was around midnight. The newsreader provided little comfort - just a tale about a man trapped on a ledge of rock in the Lake District by a freak storm. Amos changed channels, to find a dreadful winky-wonky instrumental version of Smile Though Your Heart Is Breaking...
He was listening to an equally winky-wonky version of Amazing Grace when he saw it. A light, moving around and going on and off in the sky over Bogle Bog...
Amos stepped out of the taxi. Instinctively, he thought Seth was to blame, playing one of his daft tricks. But when Seth returned, coming from the opposite direction, Amos knew he was wrong. Seth didn't see the light and doubted Amos' word. The Woolpack landlord was a barmpot anyway. How could there be a light out there? That was Bogle Bog...
What is a "Bogle"? Well, according to my trusty old dictionary, it's a spectre or goblin, a scarecrow or bugbear.
The word is claimed to be of Scottish origin - although Emmerdale Farm had a strong Yorkshire flavour in the 1980s, and I fail to see how a word that originated from Scotland would be deeply embedded in Beckindale folklore. I wonder if the word is in reality simply Northern British - perhaps derived from the Vikings.
Much is made of various colloquialisms being strictly Scots/Welsh/English - but the simple fact is that this is a tiny island and national borders (and indeed county) are entirely artificial. It's next to impossible to be entirely sure - and things often overlap. The Welsh fancy that the quaint phrase "round by here" is Welsh is another uncertain claim - I've also heard it just across the border in England.
Bogles, it seems, can manifest themselves as lights in the sky. Boggy areas are often renowned for this phenomenon - and names for it differ in various parts of the UK. "Will O' The Wisp" is another. Variants on the "Bogle" name in Beckindale included "Boggarts" and "Bog-A-Boos".
The logical scientific explanation is that the lights are created by marsh gases.
Amos, of course, was neither logical nor scientific, and thought he had seen an alien space craft. UFOs were very big in 1980 - the BBC radio serial Waggoners' Walk had contained a UFO story line in its closing months, Close Encounters was just three years before, The Empire Strikes Back was debuting at cinemas, and ET was a couple of years ahead. The pop group Hot Chocolate scored a major hit in 1980 with their excellent UFO ditty No Doubt About It.
Amos took to studying the skies over The Woolpack...As it turned out, the young man was called Ned and he was at Bogle Bog with a metal detector, searching for Roman artifacts. He had some success, and told Amos about a legend he had read whilst doing his research: Romans fleeing from a villa in the locality during the Boadicea era, had seen a strange light over what was now Bogle Bog - and attributed it to an evil Bogle!
So it wasn't an alien space ship Amos had seen, it was a Bogle. Well, at least that's what our Mr Brearly thought!
This he did, although he had moments of uncertainty. What if Bogles read The Courier and were upset by what he wrote? Mr Wilks was amused. That was assuming that Bogles could read, let alone that they read The Courier, he told Amos.
Amos was going well over the top in 1980. The arrival of Seth as a Woolpack regular and Walter (Al Dixon) seemed to be making him pottier than ever. He told Mr Wilks that The Courier was the only local paper they could read - there was only one!!
I agree with Amos - it's likely that any self respecting Bogle would be keen to keep abreast of local news!
The article was published. Towards the end of 1980, Amos had cause to upbraid Mr Wilks about the inconsiderate nature of his relatives. Alice Wilks (Hazel Bainbridge), Mr Wilks' cousin, had announced she would like to visit him with very little notice, and Mr Wilks had agreed.
But if Mr Wilks' relatives were inconsiderate, Amos' were even more so: his Auntie Emily (Ann Way) turned up out of the blue in her old fashioned car, almost colliding with the Emmerdale land rover before she reached Beckindale.
Sam Pearson (Toke Townley) commented that Amos Brearly had been in Beckindale for around twenty years. In all that time, Sam hadn't even known that Amos HAD an auntie! Matt Skilbeck recalled that Amos had been expecting a visit from an aunt some years before - but she hadn't actually turned up.
Auntie Emily was a large eyed, somewhat bird-like woman in appearance, who bossed Amos around, sat in the bar with her knitting, and was decidedly different to your average relative. It was easy to tell she was a Brearly. Mr Wilks actually wondered if she might be a Bogle!
Mr Wilks' cousin, Alice, was relaxed and charming. Very much a Wilks. She and Auntie Emily managed to fall out and gently tiffed for a while, but a party at Emmerdale Farm, thrown by Annie Sugden in honour of the visitors, lessened the tensions.
She told Mr Wilks that she hoped she would meet him again, although she would not be returning to The Woolpack, and left in a great flurry, telling Amos he should have The Woolpack exorcised.
Amos' loss of interest in Bogles was immediate.
And, as far as I know, the lights in the sky were never seen again. Auntie Emily returned in 1983 however.
Sunday 10 August 2008
1980: September: Al Dixon Becomes Walter Of The Woolpack...
Before The Beckindale Bugle, confusion reigned over the character of Walter, the silent Woolpack bar propper. When did he first appear? Did he ever speak? Why was he so quiet? What was his surname?
Well, The Beckindale Bugle couldn't, and can't, solve the last two mysteries, but we did manage to solve the others.
Regular readers of this blog will know that there were two Walters, one played by Geoffrey Hooper on-screen from circa 1974-1980, and the other played by Al Dixon from September 1980 to December 1985.
Geoffrey Hooper's Walter was often heard to speak - from episodes available to me and my readers, I can state that in 1976, he informed the Woolpack that there had been a train crash at the junction; I'm reliably informed he told Annie Sugden at a village dance that he would rather be having a drink with Amos. In an episode from early 1980 he told Amos that he wouldn't have his usual pint of beer, he'd have a half!
Al Dixon's 1980s Walter said much less - I heard him mumble "Thank you" when Mr Wilks handed him his change in a scene from November 1980, and he laughed out loud when Amos planned to fix the plumbing at The Woolpack - but then who wouldn't have?! Anyway, if you want to know more about Walter and Al Dixon, simply click on the labels below.
Actually there was a third Walter in Emmerdale Farm, played by Meadows White in a few early episodes, but as that Walter wasn't particularly quiet, nor a Woolpack bar-propper, I assume he was unrelated to the subject of this article! According to Meadow White's IMDB entry, he died on 20 November 1973. Read it here.
Today we're thrilled to be able to show you, in screen captures, how Al Dixon's Walter was introduced into the story. The Woolpack was absolutely Walter-less for much of 1980. A non-silent character called Wilfred was sometimes seen at the bar, but then the Emmerdale Farm production team decided that a new Walter was required. And a new, rather different, rather quirkier Walter at that!
Al Dixon was auditioned and later revealed: "They asked me to take my teeth out and that's how I got the part."
His on-screen introduction - episode 597, broadcast in September 1980 - went like this...
Amos was ranting away to Mr Wilks - in high dudgeon about "summat and nowt" - one morning before Opening Time. As he stalked out of the bar, there was a knock at the door. Amos told Mr Wilks it was Walter knocking, it was time to open up, they had the good name of the house to consider, and so on.
Amos went into the living quarters, leaving easy-going Mr Wilks to open the pub. He made his way to the door and the episode switched scenes to elsewhere in Beckindale so that we didn't get to see Walter at that point.
Screen capture from Walter's very first scene, September 1980.
Later in the episode, Amos was putting Seth Armstrong to rights in no uncertain terms and Walter made his very first appearance, sitting quietly in the shadows. Walter would soon become associated with the corner of the bar nearest the till, but made his debut at the opposite end by the hot food cabinet. In his early episodes, he switched bar ends several times.
At first, Walter was quite low key, but he quickly became more prominent. It was in October 1980 that he got his first screen close up.
Walter's bizarre silence and highly expressive face added something very distinctive and slightly surreal to the atmosphere at The Woolpack. He contributed to Amos' growing reputation as a barmpot as the Woolpack landlord stood wittering away to him about all his latest fads. Walter never answered, but this didn't bother Amos who simply wanted to be heard and not ridiculed. Very occasionally, early on, Walter was heard to laugh at certain particulars of Amos' daft doings, but in the main Amos' chunterings were greeted by an attentive (or sometimes blank) expression and much head nodding.
Bliss for Amos - somebody who would listen to his strange flights of fancy.
Although Walter was silent, his facial expressions spoke volumes. Neither he nor Amos were at all impressed when the uncouth John Tuplin, NY Estates worker, rapped on the bar with his glass in an attempt to get service in October 1980.
Mr Wilks is bemused, bothered and bewildered by Amos' behaviour, Seth is amused, Walter is blank.
By 1983, viewers were campaigning for Walter to speak. But Al Dixon said in 1984: "I hope Walter never speaks. If he did, I think I'd be finished because the character wouldn't be a novelty any more!"
Al Dixon suffered a stroke in late 1985, and Walter last appeared on screen in December of that year, in the village's Christmas play Toad Of Toad Hall. The scenes had been recorded before Mr Dixon was taken ill.
In early 1986, Walter was reported to have gone to visit his sister in Worthing. The production team hoped that Mr Dixon would be well enough to return to the role soon. But, sadly, this was not to be and he died a few months later.
Walter was a tremendous favourite of mine - he brought a great deal of fun to the show from 1980 to 1985, and was a lovely, quirky and gentle character.
Fondly remembered.
Tuesday 5 August 2008
1980: A Tale Of Three Marrows...
Amos was not happy. He hated phone calls of this nature, and he was ill at ease wondering what Seth wanted.
Amos was suspicious of Seth at the best of times: "Any man who spends as much time as he does in't Malt Shovel when he could drink good beer in't Woolpack... He needs watching."
The Malt Shovel was Seth's "local" at the time - although as 1980 wore on, he switched to The Woolpack, which didn't please Amos either.
Seth had invited Sam Pearson along to hear the news he had for Amos.
"What were you phoning me about this morning, Seth Armstrong?" asked Amos. "Mr Wilks said it were important. You can have folks worrying leaving that sort of message."
"It's about your allotment," said Seth. "It's come through sooner than expected." Amos had applied for an allotment some months before. "There's been one disused for awhile up near't Ramseys'..."
"Well, what's that got to do with me?"
"It's yours now. I know how disappointed you were when you didn't get one a few months back. So, me as Chairman and't allotments committee have moved heaven and earth to get you this one."
Amos was most unhappy. He confided in Mr Wilks: truth to tell, he'd gone off the idea of an allotment. But he didn't want to turn it down when so much trouble had been taken to secure him one.
"Anyway, Seth and Sam were waiting for me to back down - I could see it in their eyes."
And the Brearlys had their pride.
Amos made his way to the allotments and consulted a rough map Seth had drawn... where was his plot?
Amos had been allocated a shambles of an allotment. And he knew Seth Armstrong had done it on purpose.
"You'll sort that out in less than five minutes, Amos," said Seth later that day in The Woolpack. "Anyway, digging runs in't family, don't it?"
"Eh?" Amos was puzzled.
"Undertaking!"
"I hardly thinks that's the sort of comparison to go making in polite company," bristled Amos. "Anyway, techniques are quite different."
"How?" asked Seth.
"I've no intention of discussing that sort of thing over my bar!"
"Well, Amos, if you can't cope..." said Sam, impishly.
"Of course I can cope! Us Brearlys have always been noted for keeping a good garden - we've always had brown fingers!"
- So, fleet of foot and light of head, Amos made his way down to the allotments again to start work on transforming his patch the very next day.
Off with his duffle coat, out with his fork, dig in, and...
... immediate humiliation as the fork handle snapped in two. Of course, there were a couple of village worthies nearby to spread the news of Amos' glorious debut at the allotments all around Beckindale.
Of course, the physical toil took its toll on Amos and one afternoon Seth and Sam called on him and found him in a very undignified state...
... sleeping like a true allotment holder.
... a magnificent marrow - which he had planted but which had since grown with no help from him!