We know of several radio presentations related in some fashion to Hook Norton:
Gillie Potter (1887-1975) began his popular radio skits on Hogsnorton in the 1930s and they continued to be broadcast intermittently until 1953. However, it is almost certain that his Hogsnorton was not our Hook Norton; the point is discussed in the article on “The Unflattering Reputation of Hook Norton”.
Potter’s programme was sufficiently popular for a 1943 Ministry of Information film to have him reading out a whimsical letter from Hogsnorton which spelled out the wartime need to save fuel; this is available online here .
Some later radio excerpts are available on You Tube, and a CD or MP3 download may be purchased through Music Hall CD site, which includes his 1953 swan song, “Coronation at Hogsnorton.”
Wynford Vaughan Thomas (1908-1987) in a BBC programme about the survival of regional accents broadcast in May 1980, included a recording of Hook Norton’s poet of the day. George Dumbleton was caught by Rob Woolley reciting, at the age of 80, a poem entitled ‘Dying Out’, which he had deliberately written to preserve the old North Oxfordshire rural voice and the memory of old country ways.
Recording available here
Ray Gosling (1939-2013) made a fascinating radio programme on Hook Norton in the BBC series Ray Gosling’s Travels sometime before 1983. He had earlier visited the village in 1974 to make the excellent television film mentioned below and had won the hearts of villagers; one house on the High Street had been renamed Gosling’s Cottage after him. The radio programme is an interesting supplement to the film, but cheats slightly by using some material from the film (e.g., a cow called Daisy!!) as though it was up-to-date. Gosling contradicts Betjeman’s view that old picturesque villages are a “rich man’s toy”, and insists that villages like ours in the “honey-colour soft centre of England” are real working places revitalised by the fresh ideas and energy of in-comers.
Recording available here.
Gardener’s Question Time broadcast a programme from the village in November 1990. The chairman was Clay Jones, and the team Fred Downham, Stefan Buczacki, and Sue Phillips. The locals asking questions were (in order): Peter Coates (aged 8), Ann Faulkner, Jay [or J.?] Gillet, Adam White, David Coates, Frank Faulkner and Mary Williams.
Recording available here
© Donald Ratcliffe
17/04/2017
