Tuesday 9 April 2013

NUTS.. WHOLE HAZELNUTS..

Do YOU remember this line? Apparently they did 'it' in one take.. 

YOU know what I am talking about, don't YOU? YOU don't.. well, it was a television advert for Cadbury's Hazelnut Chocolate Bar.

The reason it was done in one 'take' was that the actor who did the advert was a highly professional actor of Radio, Screen and Stage.

YOU would know him as Richard Caldicott but SHE knew him as Uncle Richard and then Dick when SHE grew up.

On radio in The Navy Lark, he played Commander (later Captain) Povey. He was in many a West End play and LOTS of good films.. Room at the Top (Laurence Harvey), The VIPS (Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton, Firefox (Sophia Loren, James Coburn, Eli Wallach), The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (Richard Burton & Claire Bloom) to name just a few.

He was married to Judy and when SHE was growing up, they lived in Oakley Gardens in Chelsea. It was a place where SHE spent many a night and what funny times they made sure SHE had! 

"Tickets to a play? Yes darling, what haven't you seen? Now, let's think.. oh yes, we know so and so are filming at Pinewood or at such and such a location, shall we go and see what they are up to?"

They met Constance and Hugo before SHE was born so SHE knew them whilst SHE was growing up. They were constant in HER life and it was a VERY black day indeed when Judy telephoned HER to say that Dick had died.. he worked right up until he died in 1995. 

His Memorial Service held in St.Paul's Church, Covent Garden, aka The Actors Church, was packed with friends and colleagues. 

They were such a lovely couple.. and SHE owes HER Volunteering ethos to Judy, who was Chairman of Fundraising and Volunteers at a large London Hospital. 

The same hospital whose A&E dept were appalled to receive an unconscious patient who had fallen and struck their head on a paving stone.. but why was a hospital appalled, I hear YOU ask?

Because it was JUDY.. their own Chairman. She never regained consciousness.. and died three days later.

But SHE has HER memories of those two extraordinary people and "NUTS.. WHOLE HAZELNUTS.. Cadbury's take them and cover them in chocolate".. does make HER smile and brings several of the funnier occasions to mind..

GeeGee Parrot.
April 9th, 2013.

1 comment:

  1. That musta been something to be so close to the acting profession growing up! Judy sounds like a wonderful person. It was a surprise ending that she fell & died where she love to do good things.

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