The late Beadle's gone up in my estimation
Posted by: JWM on 31 January 2008
Like everyone else (or so they say - so how come he got such high viewing figures?) I couldn't stand Jeremy Beadle's television programmes - from the short snippets I have seen, anyway.
But I seem to recall that in the '70s(?) he acted as some kind of promoter, who got some emerging-now-household-name-rock-and-roller (can't remember who) over from USA to UK for the first time, and that was pivotal to this performer's success.
More seriously ... he helped to raise more than £13 million for charity, especially for Children with Leukaemia, and it was for this rather than his showbiz(!) that he was appointed an MBE in 2001.
But - rather unworthily, I know - the real reason Beadle's gone up in my estimation is because from the present news coverage of his death I learned that in 1995 he had to apologise to the Duchess of York, who had been a guest at a black-tie fundraising dinner at which Beadle had persuaded several male guests to drop their trousers while standing on their chairs. (Good job the Duchess of York hadn't married anybody in the Navy, or some other bunch of well-known slightly-rude-humour pranksters...)
But I seem to recall that in the '70s(?) he acted as some kind of promoter, who got some emerging-now-household-name-rock-and-roller (can't remember who) over from USA to UK for the first time, and that was pivotal to this performer's success.
More seriously ... he helped to raise more than £13 million for charity, especially for Children with Leukaemia, and it was for this rather than his showbiz(!) that he was appointed an MBE in 2001.
But - rather unworthily, I know - the real reason Beadle's gone up in my estimation is because from the present news coverage of his death I learned that in 1995 he had to apologise to the Duchess of York, who had been a guest at a black-tie fundraising dinner at which Beadle had persuaded several male guests to drop their trousers while standing on their chairs. (Good job the Duchess of York hadn't married anybody in the Navy, or some other bunch of well-known slightly-rude-humour pranksters...)