Radio Times: Take 2

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.
Deric has also written many widely-acclaimed books The Cat Who Came in From the Cold, I�m a Stranger Here Myself, Enough to Make a Cat Laugh, A Play On Words and Paws In the Proceedings. Each demonstrate his unique blend of humour, observation and his fun and adventures with his various adoptive cats.
Diana�s Story, published in 1989, some years after his wife Diana's death, was a bestseller. The book hit the Sunday Times best seller list straight away and won the NCR book award. It was followed by Lost for Words. They were adapted for television, the first under the title Wide-Eyed and Legless, and an adaptation of Lost for Words. Both were nominated for multiple BAFTAs and Lost For Words, screened in January 1999 and repeated in 2012 after the death of Pete Postlethwaite, 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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940149545919
Publisher:	Bibliophile Ltd
Publication date:	04/12/2014
Series:	Radio Times , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	267 KB

About the Author

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.