obit

‘Mother of Scottish film’ Paddy Higson dies aged 83

by

Paddy Higson

Higson worked on a number of renowned Scottish productions including Gregory’s Girl.

Veteran film producer Paddy Higson has died at the age of 83 following a battle with cancer.

She was known for her work with the director Bill Forsyth, with whom she made films including the 1981 cult classic Gregory’s Girl.

In a post on social media, her family said she had been surrounded “by so much love” before her death.

Actor David Hayman described her as “the mother of the Scottish film industry”.

Higson began her career with the BBC in the 1970s as a production secretary.

She later moved on to work with Forsyth and Peter Mullan, making films including The Magdalene Sister and Orphans.

On the smaller screen, she also produced episodes of Taggart, Monarch of the Glen and Cardiac Arrest.

Despite retiring, she continued to work on the children’s television show Katie Morag and headed up the filmmaking charity GMAC.

She also created several schemes helping other young people into the industry.

In 2018, Hayman presented her with a Scottish Bafta for for her outstanding contribution to the Scottish film industry.

Posting on social media, her children said her funeral would be arranged in due course.

They wrote: “Not only have the three of us lost our amazing and extraordinary mother, we as a wider community have lost a kind and generous, supportive and selfless pioneer.

“We are heartbroken but find comfort in knowing she is no longer suffering.”

Source: ‘Mother of Scottish film’ Paddy Higson dies aged 83

Johnnie Walker obituary

by

Former pirate radio disc jockey who went to Radio 1 and later became a stalwart of Radio 2

By Nigel Fountain

Johnnie Walker, who has died aged 79, began his career as a disc jockey in the offshore pirate radio era of the mid-1960s. He was one of four pirate DJs – the others were John Peel, Tony Blackburn and Kenny Everett – who came to symbolise that time and continued to prosper in its aftermath.

The pirate radio stations, of which the most famous was Radio Caroline, were set up on ships and disused forts in the North Sea, avoiding British regulation by broadcasting from international waters and providing pop music to a British teen market not catered for by the BBC stations of the era.

Read more

Heather Wood obituary

by

Singer with the 1960s folk group the Young Tradition, whose songs ranged from sea shanties to haunting treatments of traditional music

Heather Wood, who has died aged 79, was the last surviving member of the Young Tradition, heroes of the 1960s folk scene in the UK and North America with their rousing three-part unaccompanied harmonies, clothes that made them look like rock stars and songs that ranged from sea shanties to a haunting treatment of the Lyke Wake Dirge.

The Young Tradition was the name of one of many London folk clubs in the mid-60s, and it was held in a pub then known as the Scots Hoose, near Cambridge Circus in the West End. Peter Bellamy and Royston Wood were two regular singers there, and Heather “just joined in from the audience” in 1965. The three of them found that “people would pay us to sing”, and were managed for a while by Bruce Dunnet, who ran the club and suggested they took its name. Later they became regulars at the Les Cousins club in nearby Greek Street, where they sang alongside Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, who lived above them in Somali Road, West Hampstead.

Signed to Transatlantic, in 1966 they released their first album, The Young Tradition, which included the Lyke Wake Dirge, the story of a departed soul making a hazardous journey to purgatory, as well as their gutsy treatment of the Tyneside colliers’ song Byker Hill. It immediately established their reputation.

Unlike the other great young unaccompanied vocal group of the era, the Watersons, the Young Tradition were not from the same family and were three very different individuals with different styles who “made up our own harmonies”. Bellamy loved the blues, Royston had roots in classical music, while Heather said she was influenced by “the Everly Brothers and years of school and church choirs”. What they had in common was their love of folk music, and a commitment to meeting and learning from veteran traditional singers such as Harry Cox or the Copper family.

Their second album, So Cheerfully Round, was released in 1967, the same year they were invited to the Newport folk festival in the US, where Heather remembered them singing informally with Janis Joplin. In the same year they recorded an EP of sea shanties, Chicken on a Raft, which was released in 1968, while their final studio album, Galleries, which came out in 1969, included guest appearances from David Munrow’s Early Music Consort of London, Dave Swarbrick and Dolly Collins.

Read more

Dad’s Army legend Ian Lavender dies aged 77

by

Ian Lavender, star of Dad’s Army as the much-loved Private Pike, has died at the age of 77.

Ian Lavender has died, just a fortnight short of his birthday. He was 77.

A television favourite, the actor’s credits include a long period on soap EastEnders, but he is best known and most loved for playing Private Pike in the celebrated BBC wartime comedy Dad’s Army.

One of just six in the sitcom’s central ensemble across its nine series, he featured in all 84 episodes: eighty regular editions and four short specials. He reprised the role in 59 radio adaptations, as well as a feature film spin-off, and further sequel to the radio series, It Sticks Out Half A Mile.

His other comedy credits include Mr Big alongside Peter Jones, Come Back Mrs. Noahwith Mollie Sugden, The Hello Goodbye Man, Parsley Sidings, feature films Adventures Of A Taxi Driver, Not Now, Comrade, The Hooligan Factory and Carry On Behind, and The Glums, with Jimmy Edwards.

Guest roles include appearances in Yes Minister, The Kenny Everett Television Show, Keeping Up Appearances, Goodnight Sweetheart, Harry Hill and Man About The House.

Born in Birmingham on 16th February 1946, he attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and joined Dad’s Army for its debut in 1968. An enduringly popular hit, he has been associated with the series ever since. After a cancer scare in 1993 and heart attack in 2004 he is understood to have been ill for some time.

The last surviving main cast member of Dad’s Army, he died in Suffolk on Friday 2nd February and leaves his second wife, Miki, and sons Sam and Daniel.

 

Source: Dad’s Army legend Ian Lavender dies aged 77 – British Comedy Guide