Club Meeting Speaker Phil Pinnington

PHIL PINNINGTONS Talk  on “NAME DROPPING”

Phil; gave a very enlightening and amusing talk on name dropping.

These were based on when Phil was employed by the BBC RADIO MERSEYSIDE as the interviewer on Breakfast radio from 1976 until 1982 and met a lot of people who thought they were entertainers But one who was and still is a real entertainer was Ken Dodd but as a result of that interview, Phil reminded us of a sharp lesson he learnt which was,” don’t try and follow Ken Dodd with a joke of your own”.  K.D was not amused.

One morning in 1982 Phil was informed by his producer that Arthur Askey had been admitted to hospital and the producer informed Phil that A.A. was willing to be interviewed, so Phil went ahead and interviewed Arthur, who told Phil that he had been born in the Holy land i.e. Liverpool.

A.A. had left school at 16 and although only 5ft 1ins, he enrolled for the army and was accepted right at the end of the war. Arthur had always been mad keen on the theatre and followed his ambition of being an actor/comedian. Two months after the interview, Arthur died and BBC Merseyside believed it was his wish to be interviewed so that the people of Liverpool whom he loved, could hear it.

Michael Heseltine was in the news in 1982 especially due to the Falklands war which had been declared on the morning of his visit to radio Merseyside. Phil had been warned by one of Heseltine “heavies” not to mention the war but as it turned out 70% of the interview was about the war with M.H cleverly batting any question he did not wish to answer.

Phil had the opportunity to interview Lady Marfa Hudson, who was the daughter of Feodor Chaliapin the famous Russian opera singer. She said that at home when they were children, Her father's St Petersburg flat - now a museum - became a meeting point for artists, politicians and the nobility. She recalled vividly meeting Gorky and Rachmaninov as well as Lenin and Trotsky and including H G Wells.

In 1981 Prince Charles came to open Radio Merseyside. The first person he saw was the rugby league reporter to which Charles commented "Oh that’s the one where you kick the balls between your legs"

Phil commented that he had received a ticking off from one of the aids to Charles that he should not have been speaking to the Prince with one hand in his pocket and a note was made in the pocket book carried by the aid.

Phil had gone to Liverpool airport at 7:30 to get an interview with the Pope by 7:45 there was no sign of the Pope so Phil had to keep talking to fill in. It took so long to get the Pope in and out of the helicopter that all he saw of the Pope was through the helicopter window but Phil was sure that he received a personal wave and blessing from the Pope!

Another" name dropped" was the interview with Shirley Williams one of the "Gang of Four" who broke ranks and formed the SNP and was quoted in saying "We have our first SNP member with Charles.

Finally Phil gave a close impression of Edward Heath even going to the extent of using facial aids.

Many thanks Phil and I am sure that we all look forward to your theatre appearance in Feb at the Players Theatre.

Keith Chesters