
3 minute read
A Final Thought… Beadle’s About Orpington
by KEN TRACEY
Jeremy Beadle, the entertainer, was an Orpington boy born on 12th April 1948, and would have been 75 this year but sadly died of pneumonia aged 59. Before show business, he worked locally including on the production line at Tip Top Bakery.
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Before he was two years old, he had endured several operations due to having both Poland syndrome and blue baby syndrome, which left him with a stunted arm.
He lived with his mother, Marji, and grandmother, an exTiller girl, in Blythe Hill, St Pauls Cray. He didn’t know his father and in later life could see no point in meeting him.
Jeremy believed that schools were like factories, they mass-produced people all to the same pattern. He was an unruly boy when he attended Midfield Road Junior School and was regularly caned, but it was a surprise to his teachers when he failed the eleven plus exam because their tests showed that he was above average intelligence.
He moved on to Orpington Secondary Modern School in Charterhouse Road and later to Orpington County Secondary Boys' School, but at the age of 15, his incessant bad behaviour and constant need for a lark resulted in his expulsion. Formal education did not suit him, so he embarked on a varied and exceptional life.
While working at the Morphy Richards electrical appliances factory, (the Nugent Shopping Centre stands on the site today), Jeremy annoyed his workmates by repeatedly hiding and swapping around their clothes in the locker room, all part of Jeremy’s outlandish behaviour. Payback came when they interrupted his end of shift shower and dragged him naked onto the factory floor to greet the arriving all-female night shift.
He was sacked but his workmates pleaded to have him reinstated, claiming that they had played a part in exposing him. It turned out to be a waste of effort as Jeremy was later sacked again for bad timekeeping.
When a German girlfriend, Helga, returned to Hamburg, Jeremy hitch-hiked to be with her. He lived a rough life working as a dish-washer and in a car breakers yard but he didn’t have a work permit. He saw little of Helga, who had made her own plans, but continued to scrape a living on his own. After a few ‘near misses’ with the police, he was caught and escorted to the railway station to be deported.
It was his lifetime’s interest in trivia and snippets of odd information that introduced him to writing for TV. He sent questions to Bob Monkhouse for the programme, ‘Celebrity Squares’. His talent for entertaining was soon spotted by the programme makers and he became involved in production and appeared in front of the cameras.
The odds were against a man with only a knack for practical jokes and a library of strange facts to carve a career in TV, but at the height of his success his shows were so popular that on occasions they out-rated both ‘Coronation Street’ and ‘EastEnders.’ The practical joke genre flourished with shows such as ‘Game for a Laugh’, ‘Beadle’s About’ and ‘You’ve Been Framed,’ with Jeremy an indispensable part.
Throughout his life Jeremy helped raise sums for charities estimated to total £100 million. His concerns for justice and fairness stemmed from his mother, Maji, a keen socialist who worked tirelessly for the community and particularly for youth groups. In 2001 he was awarded an MBE for his good works.
Jeremy was married to Susan, they had two daughters and he was stepfather to Susan’s son and daughter. His headstone bears the inscription,’ Writer, Presenter, Curator of Oddities.’
You can read more from Ken Tracey at www.kentracey.co.uk
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