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Elly Roberts presents
Beadle’s Miscellany: 
Prankster Jeremy Beadle was nationally known for his TV antics.
So, when the opportunity came to interview him, it was with sometrepidation. What would he try on with me? Would he embarrass me like he’ddone with so many ‘victims’ on his shows? Actually, it was quite theopposite.
One evening in the summer of 1985, I was given a tip-off by afriend that Jeremy Beadle was coming to town in the next couple of days.Back then, he was at the peak of his Game For A Laugh career. Having joinedRadio Maelor based at the Wrexham Maelor Hospital, I was looking for anotherstar ‘scalp’. I had already interviewed Ken Dodd and Barbara Windsor, so Iwas now getting used to meeting celebrities, and their quirky ways.
As I recall, it was a Friday night when my friend phoned me he saying Beadle wasin the Turf Hotel next to the Wrexham FC ground on Mold Road. Excitedly, Idashed to the pub, and as I walked through the entrance I could hear musicplaying. It wasn’t a jukebox. In I walked to a packed room only to seeJeremy Beadle tinkling at the piano, and he was very good. He was wearing aloud shirt, the flashy Caribbean type. I stood for sometime watching Beadleentertain the crowd who were lapping it up as he ran through a repertoire ofsing-along tunes, constantly beaming with joy. I had to bide my time inapproaching, so when a break arrived I made my move.
I introduced myself andwe shook hands. He was very polite and very friendly. I asked about doingan interview for hospital radio, which he was thrilled about. We arrangedfor 11 am on the Sunday morning, and then I stayed- on and marvelled at hismusical talents. Come Sunday morning, I arrived at 10.50 am, armed with mynotepad with enough questions for a 20 minute interview and a Uher portabletape recorder and mic. I sat in the empty bar waiting for him to greet me.Half an hour passed when the landlord, a friend of his from Beadle’s Sidcupcollege days apparently, announced he’d be coming soon.
Eventually at 1pmBeadle surfaced. Was it a prank I thought? I was on my guard. He’d obviouslyhad a good Saturday entertaining . Dressed in a blue checked shirt, lightgrey jacket and dark blue he trousers he apologised for his lateness. Wemoved to an upstairs room where I set up the recording gear. Whatimmediately struck me was that lack of TV persona, just an ordinary guy whohad managed to pull in 15 million viewers on shows like Game For a Laugh andlater Beadle’s About.
During the entire interview he was extremely effusive,charming and even humble about his achievements on both TV and radio. As Irecall, he’d done quite a lot of television work behind the scenes,producing on Saturday morning children’s programmes, if memory serves meright. Some of his fondest memories were from his radio days, where hefronted a late night show for the BBC. Typically, the show was all aboutpranks, some achievement for a radio show. At this time I had beenexperiencing some presenting problems during my rehearsals for a RadioMaelor show.
Sitting in a room with two turntables, a mic and a clock wasquite a stark experience. To overcome this, his tip was to put pictures offriends and loved ones on the wall, and speak to them, which I took as goodadvice. One thing that struck me about him was his gushing cheerfulness, andhonesty about what he was trying to do on his show, and the fact that he’dmanaged to make a rookie interviewer feel relaxed. During the entireinterview, I was half expecting him to pull a prank on me, but thankfully,he didn’t.
With tributes flowing in from his colleagues, it’s veryunderstandable why within the business, he was considered a gentleman, andlike during my interview, he was true professional, even if he was two hourslate !
The picture above is of Elly Roberts interviewing Jeremy Beadle at the Turf Hotel, Wrexham 1985.
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.