Radio Times: Take 1

by Deric Longden

Overview

Deric Longden was best known for his books which touched millions in print and on screen, and which were critically acclaimed on both the UK and International stage. Many of the stories he told were drawn from his broadcasting days with BBC Radio Derby and BBC Radio Nottingham, where he enjoyed regular slots and a large audience of loyal listeners.

These insights into Deric�s world are drawn from his original �Line Up� Radio Derby scripts, which he often wrote the night before his Friday morning air time and typed on all colours of paper. The stories in this collection are but a small number of those Deric wrote during his twenty plus years of broadcasting. They often became the original source material which Deric adapted and used in his books, magazine articles, lectures, after dinner speeches and by popular demand, were often re-broadcast. They demonstrate both the diversity of his subjects, his witty and humorous style and view of life and how he could make conversations with almost any animal or object.

The very first story in this collection is �Living to a Ripe Old Age� and is the one Deric first submitted to Radio Derby under the pen name Biro. The other stories in this collection cover his early broadcasting years when he lived with his first wife Diana and family in Matlock, Derbyshire.

A small number of these stories were released by Radio Derby as an audio recording and some were released on a CD �A Funny Thing Is.� Where we can, we have noted the date of the first broadcast of each piece. Our special thanks go to Mick Peat of ADA Recordings and a close colleague and friend who says: �Deric was always entertaining; he was a joy to know.�

These typescripts were discovered in the basement of his home, carefully filed and with his handwritten scribbles to assist him during the broadcasts of where to pause for breathe. Deric believed all of this material had been used and re used and heard before, but we now know there are many new laughs and surprises in this collection, which we have given titles to together with old favourites. They all show the workings of the mind of this comic genius.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940149599622
Publisher:	Bibliophile Books
Publication date:	03/19/2014
Series:	Radio Times , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	268 KB

About the Author

Deric Longden 1936-2013

Deric Longden was born in Chesterfield in 1936 and married Diana Hill in 1957. They had two children, Sally and Nick. After various jobs he took over a small factory making women's lingerie. He began writing and broadcasting in the 1970s which led him to become a scriptwriter and self-styled comedian�s labourer for, among others, Les Dawson and The Two Ronnies. Before long he was writing regularly for programmes like 'Does He Take Sugar?' and 'Woman�s Hour' and also enjoyed regular broadcasting slots on Radio Derby and Radio Nottingham.

Most of his work was based on his own experience. The demands made on him by Diana's illness, subsequently believed to be a form of ME, forced him to sell the factory, and since then he devoted himself to full-time writing, broadcasting, lecturing and after-dinner speaking.

Diana�s Story, published in 1989, some years after Diana's death, was a bestseller. The book hit the Sunday Times bestseller list straight away and won the NCR Book Award. It was followed by Lost for Words, The Cat Who Came in from the Cold, I�m a Stranger Here Myself, Enough to Make a Cat Laugh and A Play On Words. Deric Longden's first two books were adapted for television under the titles Wide-Eyed and Legless and Lost for Words. Both were nominated for multiple BAFTAs and Lost For Words, screened in January 1999, attracted an audience of more than 12 million viewers and won the Emmy for Best Foreign Drama and a BAFTA for Thora Hird as Best Actress. Diana�s Story which was first read on Woman�s Hour by Deric himself was voted by Radio Four listeners as the most popular serial in 50 years of broadcasting.

Deric married the writer Aileen Armitage in 1990 and moved to Huddersfield. Aileen and he were jointly were awarded Honorary Degrees of Doctor of Letters from Huddersfield University in 2004 and Deric also received an Honorary Degree of a Master of Letters from Derby University in 2006. He commented that he often wondered if they had him mixed up with somebody else!

After years of battling cancer he died in June 2013.