The Good Listening To Show: Stories of Distinction & Genius

'Legacy Life Reflections' Competition WINNER Pete Townsend: Clutter, Concorde, Lost Causes & Cake! And the Extraordinary Story of Discovering his Lost Twin at 46. A Bristolian’s Guide to Serendipity

• Chris Grimes - Facilitator. Coach. Motivational Comedian

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What if the call that changes everything arrives decades late? Pete Townsend—actor, collector of lost causes, and lifelong Bristolian—shares a story stitched with grit, humour, and heart. From a childhood spent trying to meet a father’s unreachable ideals to a mid-rehearsal phone call revealing a twin sister he never knew, Pete’s journey explores identity, reunion, and the quiet power of being useful to others.

We wander through Bristol’s creative life: Carol singing that becomes Gilbert & Sullivan, Opera choruses that lead to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and a Director’s note that becomes a life rule—“I can see you acting.” Pete talks about learning to be truthful on stage, why comedy from the Goons to Python shaped his ear, and how Radio 4 became his “university of the air.” He also opens a window into Bristol’s aerospace history with vivid memories of Concorde’s first lift and final landing—right down to a pilot’s cap trapped forever by heat and speed—and the surreal night he attended the Wicked premiere thanks to a name mix-up with the other Pete Townsend.

Beyond the anecdotes sits a deeper question: how do we measure a life? Pete doesn’t chase applause; he values usefulness, kindness, and the sense that time spent together wasn’t wasted. We talk legacy, adoption records, twin studies in Minnesota, the pull of old vehicles and even older stories, and why persistence—however modest—often wins the day. It’s reflective, funny, and deeply human.

If you’re drawn to personal storytelling, adoption reunions, Bristol theatre, Concorde lore, or the craft of acting with honesty, you’ll feel at home here. Listen, share with someone who loves a good true story, and if the idea of preserving a life story speaks to you, subscribe, leave a review, and consider gifting a Legacy Life Reflections session to someone you love.

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening!

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to another episode of The Good Listening To Show, your life and times with me, Chris Grimes, the storytelling show that features the clearing, where all good questions come to get asked, and all good stories come to be told. And where all my guests have two things in common. They're all creative individuals and all with an interesting story to tell. There are some lovely storytelling metaphors, a clearing, a tree, a juicy storytelling exercise called 54321, some alchemy, some gold, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare, and a cake. So it's all to play for. So yes, welcome to the Good Listening2 Show, your life and times with me, Chris Grimes. Are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin. Welcome to the Good Listening To Show, Stories of Distinction and Genius. Chris Grimes is me. We've had a bit of a summer lull, but now we're back the first day of September, back to school. And today is a very, very exciting day in the clearing where the show is energetically set. Because today is Competition Winner Day. Please welcome Pete Townsend to the Good Listening To Show. Townsend, make sure I say that properly, not Townshend, which we were just riffing about, which is the other Pete Townsend's famous name.

SPEAKER_00:

Slightly more famous person.

SPEAKER_01:

But uh this is going to come out, I know. I know you did get into a film premiere because of a happy mix-up. You said the name and you were on the guest list, and then you got in, and he was probably rummaging in the bins at the back going, Why didn't I get in? Probably. So I was mentioning this is competition day. Uh this is a special Legacy Life Reflections series strand of the show. Without any morbid intention, Legacy Life Reflections is to preserve either your own story, you know, to capture your own story, or the story of somebody very precious to you for posterity, lest we forget, before it's too late. And Pete and his wonderful wife Sue entered a competition when you came to the Rob Bryden theatre show version of What I'm Up To live in Bristol a couple of months ago. You scanned the QR code and you actually set a precedent, or Sue did, in filling in the form. What I didn't notice or realise until the competition uh entries were in from the 320 sitting in the audience, you gave the most wonderful answer, Sue, who's sitting in the background there, as to why she would love uh Pete to win the competition. You've set a precedent happily now. I'm going to be exhibiting about this whole construct at the Entrepreneurs Convention in about a month's time. And I now know that the criteria that I'm going to search for a winner for is to find the most interesting answer as to who you'd like to nominate or gift the episode to. So welcome to the show and Legacy Life Reflections is what this is about. I'll contextualise that a bit more further, but how's morale, Pete Townsend, and how are you feeling about being here?

SPEAKER_00:

Trepidatious is the honest answer. Yeah, yeah. I've never done anything like this before.

SPEAKER_01:

So And Sue did mention that it's prompted you to think differently, deeper, in an unusual way.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's frightening.

SPEAKER_01:

And hopefully, as we'll demonstrate, it'll be frightening in a good way, because there's an invocation in what's about to come to go as deep as you like, where you like, how you like, using the unique storytelling structure, which I hope you'll attest at the end and we'll find out as to whether you found it thoroughly enjoyable or not. So there's an existential cut and thrust deliberately, but as I say, without any morbid intention. My own father was the first ever willing guinea pig for this about five years ago. He knew what I was up to. There was no morbid intention. But my dad actually died about a year ago almost to the date, but now that I still have his story captured on film and in podcast form, I can't tell you how precious it is, which is why I got on the open road of doing this. So you're very, very welcome. Pete Townsend, from Bristol. You have been described as being an actor and procrastinator. When people say, Oh hello, what do you do? What's your favourite way of saying who you are and what you do, Pete?

SPEAKER_00:

I've got another one there, which was um supporter of lost causes. I came into acting just through doing Am Jam and being a very loud mixed infant when I was at school, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

And uh loud mixed infant, did you say? Yeah, yeah. You weren't mixed up, you went to a mixed infant school setup, you mean?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, yeah, but I was very loud. Um I had the loudest voice, I think, and so ended up sort of standing up and saying things when people said, Oh, who can we get to say that? So I was asked.

SPEAKER_01:

Pete was always put into the limelight. I have actually sincerely complimented you in the conversations we've had before today as to what a lovely voice, not just for radio, but you do have a lovely, lovely voice, so this is going to be a very mellifluous time to work.

SPEAKER_00:

So I just hope that at the end of it most people are still awake.

SPEAKER_01:

And the lost soporific is good too, if you want something.

SPEAKER_00:

Very soperific, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

A lot of people listen to podcasts either to doze off or to to sort of just fill in side activity as they go about their day. Um you mentioned Saviour of Lost Causes. Just tell us a bit more about that, first of all.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you know, I always go for the wrong one. So I've still got some old Beatamax recorders at home. I've got a lot of sort of 1950s and sixties cars which are crumbling away. I recently found how crumbling they are, and lots of things which I really shouldn't do, you know. But I I just don't I hate to see things passing by. So you're a bit of a hoarder of cars, particularly. Well, I have been, yeah. I just had the space, and so I I thought, well, why not use it? But then life gets in the way, stops you doing these projects you thought you were able to do. Another one came along, then another one, then another. Before you know where you are, you've got a backlog, which goes back for years, and you can't actually physically do them, especially if you're trying to do other things as well.

SPEAKER_01:

So we rift on it not being quite as extreme as Diogenes syndrome where you hold everything, but you find things difficult to throw away. I can still find my bed.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh but I know some people can't even find their bed to sleep in because um it's so bad, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. And we were talking about a book by Quentin Blake called The Green Ship, where things can have ivy grown and the green ship, once majestic, is now a little bit overgrown. Is that a sort of proper description of your garden, probably? Oh my god, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Actually, I I'm I'm I'm now gonna be please don't be offended, but I was just thinking of life of grime, you know. Play on words here. I've not quite got to that, but um uh you know, it's quite frightening when you see and and it it obviously is something of a disease, isn't it? I mean a mental disease, definitely. And I'm halfway there. Sue is trying to rescue me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. And uh a healthy hoarder, we can call you that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. And the other thing is um having had a van which I came by and then helped people clear houses and things their own, and then finding I was clearing friends' houses who died and your parents' houses and things, I've suddenly got a whole load of stuff, and I feel I I can't cast these to the wind. I've got to contemplate them and and go through them and you know, um and even my my father's awful photographs, I've got no idea where they were somewhere in the Mediterranean, you know, back in the sixties and seventies. And I find it so difficult to even think about throwing them all.

SPEAKER_01:

So you don't know whether it's Toromelinos, Lanzarotti, wherever. Yeah. You've just got these wonderful random old photographs. And when Sue filled in the why she'd most like you to be the guest, you do have a very, very intriguing particular part of your life story that I hope you'll get on to to do with twinning, which we'll get on to. So it's my great pleasure to curate you through the following structure. So we use the familiar structure to those of you who've been following the programme so far, but with a slightly more existential deep dive into the idea of legacy and how you'd most like to be remembered at the end. Again, no morbid intention, but there's gonna be a clearing or serious happy place of my guests choosing. Then there's gonna be a tree. I'm gonna shake your tree to see which storytelling apples fall out, how'd you like these apples, and then there's gonna be um a couple of random squirrels, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare, a golden baton, some alchemy, some gold, and a cake. So it's absolutely all to play for. So any questions before we start?

SPEAKER_00:

No, I'm just thinking the cake is good to have at the end because it gives me something to aim for, being a cake like her.

SPEAKER_01:

Head towards the cake.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. Well done.

SPEAKER_01:

So let's get you on the open road. Where is what is at Pete Townsend a clearing or serious, happy place for you in your life? Where do you always go or have always gone to get clutter free?

SPEAKER_00:

I haven't got an always gone because I've very rarely ever been clutter-free. I can think of places that I've enjoyed the sense of freedom and openness of and I I was going to suggest um a cliff walk on the coast and just sitting there in the sunshine. And that's when I've probably got my head clearest, probably. But um in a place I I've never really ever gone anywhere. I've just keel over at the end of the day and fall asleep.

SPEAKER_01:

That's basically. That's a duracy bunny who's na knackered, batteries flat, and good night. And when were you last on one of your hill or sea side walks?

SPEAKER_00:

Got a group of friends. We all left school in 65, and we meet up every now and then. And we just wandered around uh Durham Park the other day, and up on the top I'd never been. There's a um a spot where you can see over the the seven estuary and over to Wales and everything. Wonderful just to stand there and just look at it and surrounded by beauty and trees and birds and and and that was great. And we're not talking of a long period of time, but it was just sufficient.

SPEAKER_01:

So there's a happy juxtaposition in you l liking and enjoying the notion of clutter, but every now and again when you go because obviously you can't take goods and chattels with you when you go on a mountain state.

SPEAKER_00:

I like clutter. But I can actually it can disappear from my eyesight. Somehow I manage to live in clutter but not see it. And I think this is how people get away with clutter, is anybody coming in would say, God, what an awful place. But you don't see it because your mind is set on something else, and in your mind's eye, this is just you know, all around you, which you don't actually take on board anymore. It's now become part of the way you live. And um otherwise you would actually go nuts trying to deal with everything which is in front of you, you know. You do it because there are things, important things that you've got to do in a sequence, yeah. And that's way down the road in the sequence. So, okay, in in due time I'll get there, but I've got to do this now.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. And your wife, Sue, who obviously adores you, uh you've been married for two years, but together many more, but presumably she knows you came with clutter.

SPEAKER_00:

She certainly did. She actually had to help me take the front door off and remove a part of the front door before the door would shut properly, and then clear a pathway up the house, up through the the staircase.

SPEAKER_01:

And um that was this is before you could carry her across the threshold. Yeah. So we're gonna go for I mean, Deer and Park, no one's ever mentioned that yet. So shall we go for a clearing which is in Deer and Park with your friends, or are you on your own having a moment in the sunshine?

SPEAKER_00:

Probably on my own, but I'm just thinking of um It's that looking into the middle distance and being surrounded by nature and balmy air and sunshine and just away from traffic noise and everything else. And that's idyllic for me.

SPEAKER_01:

That shall be your clearing. Thank you. I'm now going to arrive with a tree in your clearing, and I'm gonna shake your tree to see which storytelling apples fall out. So this is where you've had five minutes to have thought about four things that have shaped you. Three things that inspire you, two things that never fail to grab your attention, that's where the random squirrels uh will come in, borrow from the film up, and then the one is a quirky or unusual fact about you, Pete Sounds, and we couldn't possibly know about you until you tell us. So over to you to it's not a memory test, just to reassure you, but how would you like to interpret that structure?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't want it to be too negative. I'm quite a self-deprecating person, so but I will start on something uh a bit negative. My childhood. I had a father, I never aspired to things he wanted me to aspire to, so as a consequence I was always a bit of a failure. And that stuck with me. Sort of didn't really have the support that I otherwise could have had, and never felt adequate and that stuck with me. And so I never feel that I've really achieved something because you know I I can remember all sorts of things he said that just cut me off at the knees, you know. Can I say one in particular which is a bit I joined I joined an amateur group uh in the 80s that performed in Bristol Hippodrome and uh we did a thing called the Great Wolf, and I was the comedic part of it. Uh it was about Strauss and the fact that he was always bringing out these new waltzes, and he had a manager who was really more interested in dead enough fireworks than actually running his life. And um I actually get blown up part way through the the storyline, but it was all full of Strauss walses and words to it. It was called the Great Wolves. It was, I think it was the 50th anniversary of the club. Got my father to actually come and see me. And it went really well on this particular night because they'd invited Princess Anne and Duke of Beaufort, Duchess of Westminster, all the MPs, Bristol Lord Mayor, and they were all there, and my D my Dad loved that. And I thought, well, he can be proud of me for the first time in his life. I went down, I saw him in the stalls, wandering around, they had a party afterwards. There was champagne, there was caviar, the Secret Service were carrying out a lot of this actually to their Lamb Rovers outside, but nevertheless. Uh and uh I went down to him, I just said, Um, how was that? Well, all right. I said, I bet you never thought you'd have your son actually performing in front of royalty. And he said, Yeah, you're still a clown now, aren't you? And that was that summed up our relationship. I still didn't, I still didn't match up to what he wanted, you know. And yet I did hear from colleagues of his that uh somebody said he's very proud of you. Yes. And I said, Really? And they said, Yeah, he talks about I said, he's never said anything to me at all. And and yeah, it was. And and it clouded my my feeling towards him, obviously, because I just couldn't do anything right as far as I was concerned.

SPEAKER_01:

Did you have siblings as well, or were you an only Yeah, I had a a sister.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And I better can I chuck in the fact that we were both adopted?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I was gonna ask whether he was your real dad or not.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, it wasn't my real dad. Uh and the irony was it he adopted me on his birthday, or the family did, or my but my parents. Yes, and and the same really applied to her to her as well. So that's rather sad actually. And I felt although I was knocked back by it, I also felt sad for him. Yes. That he couldn't get that feeling and he couldn't talk to me about it. It's a destructive attitude of mine.

SPEAKER_01:

There is that adage, your criticism of me is a reflection of you. So sometimes people's own stunted inability to express themselves is because they've got had that in their own conditioning as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And d more explicitly to throw in, you said he he wasn't your real dad. Yeah. I'm intrigued to talk about that more explicitly because you were one of the things that Sue mentioned was you were unexpectedly rediscovered by your twin sister.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So it's all tied in with the acting, I was avatar acting I was doing at the time. I came back from the final rehearsal before we went to the Minak Theatre, and I was playing the Scarlet Pimpernell in the Scarlet Pimpernell, and I came back eleven o'clock at night on a Thursday night, I think it was, and we were going to be travelling down to Cornwall the following day. And I had a call, and it just said, you know, uh it's Peter Townsend, so and so and uh I I had a a couple even with me at the time who actually set up um circa media and uh Helen had uh picked up the call and said, This person was saying, What's the name of your father, what's the name of your mother? We didn't know one another that well, you know. So but gave a number and I phoned back and I got a um sort of, oh no, go to bed, tell her in the morning. Anyway, the following morning I got a phone call and um this lady said, Are you Peter Townsend? Yes, and what what may I ask what your father mother's name is and father's and I told her and she said, Oh, well, I think you better get a drink. And I said, Well, it's ten o'clock in the morning. And she said, You might need it. I said, Oh, come on, tell me. And she said, I'm your twin sister. And I didn't know I had a twin sister.

SPEAKER_01:

And how old were you at this point? Forty-six. Good grief. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And we both live separate lives, but there are links between the two, which are just and when you look into twins, there are very, very strange things that link people together. Coincidences. We did end up going to the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. They had a twins we're depart project. We were the 135th set of twins. Britain was a really great place to get twins who'd been separated because after the second world war there were a lot of illegitimate births, you know, with with soldiers coming back home and uh all the rest of it. And uh and we were in in that.

SPEAKER_01:

And you're 73, so we're talking about the 40s, aren't we?

SPEAKER_00:

Here we were born in 47. Yeah. And and uh we stayed at the at this place down in um at Port Cono, and the following Monday, she'd sent me a whole load of photographs. I'd sent her photographs of me, and the only photos I had was actually being in shows, because I don't don't have photographs taken of me at all. She'd sent a photograph of us two in Prams or in a pram. And at the time, probably half a mile from where I was living and where I still live, Victoria Walk in uh in Cotton, and it was just like um, you know, it was a shelter for the fallen women. Um my mother had come up from Cornwall, there was no social security, and uh she came to have a child and then have it adopted and then go back again, and it was done by quasi-religious setup. And uh yeah, and it turns out that the photographs that I was seeing down in Cornwall on the Monday morning as we were having our breakfast before we went out the Minnach Theatre, were photographs of uh of us in this garden, which I've since obviously visited because it's only half a mile away from of these two real bored little kids, and she had us for three months before uh I think it was three months before I was adopted.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'm assuming you've had no contact, therefore, with your mother, as you said, of its time, the fallen woman label.

SPEAKER_00:

Did we I did have, and in fact Beverly, my twin sister, had actually I mean, she worked her socks off to try and find out who her mother was, and it was through trying to find out who her mother was that she found me. The problem was the way the whole thing was set up in London, she had to go to Somerset House, or I think it was Somerset House, and you had a card index, and that card index was related to a massive storage hydro in Stockport. And those days, obviously, we're not talking about um times when you could actually get on the net or anything, and so she had to fax a name she saw. Um she was trying to find somebody who could have been born or could have been married or could have been could have died, and you look in all these sort of categories and you're looking for somebody, and she knew by then knew her mother's first and last name and her middle name, but the way that the categories were actually listed on this card index only had the middle name with with the first letter. Yeah. And our mother had quite an interesting, well, nice um middle name, but uh her name was Miranda, second name, which is obviously a Shakespearean name. But she would say get a name and a a a date and things for whether it was married or born or whatever, she was which she was going through. She then asked for the th facts to be sent back, and it I think it was five quid a time, and it came back, and it was Maureen, Margaret, Muriel, anybody but Miranda, but she couldn't say what it was Miranda because only it was only listed with the you know with the outlet. So it took her weeks to find her mother, and at the end she was dealing with a Pam, who was a good friend, who actually I think set up NORCAP subsequently, that's a national organization for the reuniting of children and parents.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

And she was uh worked in social services, and so Bev phoned her up and said, Look, I'm having real difficulty trying to find my mother. I've got my birth certificate, but I can't get any further with it. I can't find my mother. She said, Well, read out what's written. And she said, Um, born, uh, and her name was Heatherington, and it was at the this is nice, the unmarried mother's ward of Bristol Maternity Hospital. And uh, she was born at 8 30am. And she said, Well, I think you need to get yourself a stiff drink. She said, Why is that? Well, just get yourself a stiff drink. So she did. I said, on the phone call.

SPEAKER_01:

And you too were invited to have a stiff drink later on.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it is later on, yeah. And uh she said, So what what what are you gonna tell me? She said, Well, you're a twin, or even triplets, multiple births. Why's that? Well, in those days, they only gave the date of the birth, they didn't give the timing of the birth. The timing was there for hereditary purposes subsequently. So she said, So you've got a brother or a sister, or maybe even more, you never know, but probably a brother or a sister. So she suddenly finds she's not just looking for a mother, she's looking for uh a sibling. And uh and so she found our mother first, and then found me. And I got this phone call, and I was the 18th person that she'd phoned in Bristol. She found out through Pam's good offices, and Pam said, People who go to Bristol often stay there, they don't move away, so you might have a good chance of finding. And um so she did, and just I was the 18th person she'd phoned up that day. She'd gone to the library and was making phone calls from the library where she lived, which is in Kenilworth, and just Scott Hoffled with me, uh well not me, but um Helen answered the phone, and um that's how that happened. So I phoned her that morning and then set off for uh Porthurno only a few hours later, and then by the I think it even I don't think it was Saturday, I think it was the following Monday, had these black and white photographs which she'd actually sent in the post. I opened them up as I was eating my my full English breakfast, you know, in the Having been at the Minnach, yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And you're still in touch, I hope, with Beverly to this day?

SPEAKER_00:

We saw her last week, yeah. And we stayed with her. She now lives up in Orton on the Hill, which is in very rural Leicestershire, with her husband, and um we kept in touch and we're quite similar in lots of regards, and not in others, but you know, there are similarities. Obviously, we're what you call a duozygote, i.e., we're not identical because we couldn't be cut with different sex, but you've got traits like skin texture, eyes, nose, the way your brain works to some extent, and you you can sense that.

SPEAKER_01:

And what an extraordinary force of nature and energy she applied to find you.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, that's such an extraordinary force. Well, primarily also because, as I understood it, she had to go down to London at weekends and trail around with a friend of hers who was also interested in genealogy and looking back onto and in those days it it was more unusual. People can easily do it now because of the internet, but then they had to physically go to London and go through all these. So many people would give up because it's too much. And it must have cost uh, you know, hundreds of pounds getting back all these the wrong person, and you're you're i i it's trying to it's an eel in a haystack job. Yeah. Trying to find somebody who could have been born on a certain day. So when could she have book given birth to us? Anytime from sort of fifteen to forty-five, you know, and and then dates in that when you know the birth could have been done, and all it just just phenomenal what she did. It was amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

It's almost like several episodes in there about trying to find out the genealogy and where your mum ended up and all of that stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Gosh. So we're still in the tree shaking the four things that have shaped you. What would you like to say next?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, the twin bit was part of it, really, because the first thing was my father, um and and and my upbringing.

SPEAKER_01:

And his poor conditioning.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and and and uh you know, I'm being unfair probably by by being so critical, but I don't think he realized I don't think people do realize that. I mean, you can, you know, it used to be you had to have a license for a dog, but you didn't have to have a license for a child. Which seems absolutely crazy, doesn't it, when you think about it, that you know, that people And yet he took you on and you're not defending him in the slightest way. No, no, no, no. I obviously didn't aspire to what he wanted me to aspire to, but there you go. So another thing for changing with regard to acting and all the rest of it, I basically, because I had a loud voice, I could sing, by sheer coincidence, I was in a pub in Ham Green meeting uh a husband of a really good friend of mine, I've never met him, and while I was there, there was what sounded like a Welsh male voice choir was going on in Skittle Alley uh in this pub, and these people were coming out, and they were going to the to the loo and coming back and having to go all singing. And I stopped one of them, I said, excuse me, are you Welsh male voice choir? Oh no, no, no. I said, Well, who are you? Oh, we be the owls. Yeah, the owls? Yeah, the owls, yeah. So what why are you the owls? Oh, well, we go out singing at Christmas. We'll have another our post-Christmas get together here in the Skill Alley. Really? Oh, right, fine. So what do you sing? Oh, we sing um charity for what do you sing? Carols. Go out singing carols. We dress up, and you know, top hats, um Dickensian, basically. I mean, we're in, you know, back in yeah, early Dickensian times. And at the time I was getting a group together from school to go out carol singing uh at Christmas, and it was people who'd gone to university or moved away, and they came back to their parents' nest at Christmas, and I'd phone up and say, you know, and we used to go around to the old teachers that we used to have and sing for them and other things. And uh I got the whole sense of me phoning up, saying, Oh, you're back, are you? Yeah, we're back, yeah. Seeing the parents, and then I I could imagine the hand going over the receiver. He's phoning up to ask if we can go carol sing it again. And and and I I realized that it was withering on the vine, and I was really not doing anybody any good at all. And so this thing turned up, and I said, Well, could I join you next year? And this is 72. Yeah. So I did and borrowed bits and pieces, uh, and got to about 79. And um my marriage by then was that my first marriage was on the rocks. One of the chaps said, uh, uh, and I'd I've been singing with them then for five, six years. And uh I said, Why why why don't you all sing together in the year besides oh, I play Skittles? Oh no, no, I'm playing cricket. But what don't you you I mean you all enjoy singing, oh yeah, but why don't you sing other things? Oh, I mean, I haven't got time for that. One chap said, Well, I do a bit of singing. I said, Do you? He said, Well, yes, I I'm the lead occasionally, you know, with the local um Savoy Operatic Society. I said, Who are they? And he said, Well, they sing GNS. I said, GNS. He said, Yeah, I said, but um, you know, if you'd like to come along and see if you'd like. So I went along to this, and um, I'd never really I'd sung in the school choir and things, and totally untutored, and uh he said, Um, yeah, well, come along. So I went along. A wonderful music teacher called Sheila Rice made you sing, and the great thing about GNS, which nobody has got any time for anymore, but was that they you actually delivered the lines with clear diction. That was the most important thing because the words were so important from you know, from Gilbert. And um, and so I joined them, and that was really a good start. And then one of the guys was doing Nabucco with Bristol Opera Company and said, We need somebody to hold a spear, would you like that? So I said, Okay, I'll go along. And I stood around and listening to all this fantastic sound. They were doing Nabucco, and I could fit hear the harmonies, so I started to join in. And so by the time we were doing the show, I was up there singing with the bass line, which I could I I got a good good ear for harmony. Yeah. And then I joined them, and then that just led on from one thing to another through the eighties. I mean, I had loads more time because I wasn't married in the eighties.

SPEAKER_01:

You got loads more time because you weren't married, is that what you said?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Spare time, you know. Spare time. And you're you know, you're kicking eels a bit. And um in those days, and I think probably similar now, girls getting into an amateur dram group or singing group. Well, I mean, it's a hard task. Um, you know, you see what wonderful singers next, and they they don't get in or whatever, and a chap comes along and he and he oh, you want to join? Sign there, and that was it. You you were in, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Singing being a great shapage of your love of singing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, to start off with, yeah. Yes. But I found I suffer with more and more. Problems of asthma and um spiritual problems and things. And I I then found I could act a bit as well. And so it was a if you were doing a light comedy, they needed somebody who could sing and act.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And sometimes the singers are not very good actors, and I could perhaps act a bit better than them. So I I got some really nice parts where you had to be able to act and sing. Yeah. Performing in Redgrave and uh Colson Hall and um.

SPEAKER_01:

And you really did do as Beverley said, you didn't move away from Bristol, which is why she was able to find you. So very ingrained in the fabric.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So then I I then joined, I don't know, about twenty different clubs. Yeah. And it was great. The eighties was fantastic. Theatre or bath. Yeah. You know, and of course, when you're an amateur, you can do lead roles and things, which is just amazing. So that's that's what led that way. I've I've gone on for ages sometimes.

SPEAKER_01:

Well I have got a bet if we get into a bit of a rabbit hole of cash here. Number four, please. So we're back into the I think it's the fourth shapage now, the fourth thing to shape you.

SPEAKER_00:

The first one was my father, second was twins, and that's the third thing was my divorce, but also subsequently after that, I actually was made redundant. Yeah. Through the 80s, through the Margaret Thatcher 80s, uh, you were headhunted. And just because I could uh speak loudly, um, I got various jobs which probably I I wasn't really any good at. But um, they were just they were throwing money at people. So um and then in the early 1990s, there was a big crash and everybody was being laid off, and I was as well. And then I kicked my heels around, didn't know what to do.

SPEAKER_01:

Um what's been your main way of making money over the years? Because just being acting and singing, I know is it's a silly way not to make a living unless you're very lucky being an actor.

SPEAKER_00:

So well I did do a little bit of extra work, but um, you know, in terms of acting. Um I ended up with a van. Um this is the emptying house. Yeah. And then a chap got in touch with me and he did upholstery, and he would actually re-hubholster people's three-piece suites that they really didn't want to get rid of, but we're a bit mucky. And uh so we ended up I I'd be doing that with him and real strong-armed stuff, you know, lifting some very, very horsehair stuff. Uh oh god, yeah. Yeah. And so that I mean we're talking of peanuts. I I I lived on peanuts, um, and well, not really, but nearly, but that kept me going with that. And then eventually, a girlfriend I had on and off through the 80s, she'd gone to the Bristolovic Theatre School, and I thought I just didn't want to do what I'd been doing. Um, we haven't talked about my actual job that I did, but I ended up being a technical sales engineer, but I just did not enjoy it. I didn't enjoy the I don't know, I'm a terrible salesman, I'm just hopeless. I could talk a hind leg of a donkey, but I can't sell anything because I'm too too basically honest, I think. You know, I can't tell lies or fibs. Yeah, so I I was making money with that, and then I applied to go to the old Vic school just to try and stop them from making me an office manager somewhere or something. And at the time, computers are coming in, and and I thought, well, the best way to not be uh employed in an office or whatever is to be computer non-compliant. And so I learned nothing about computers. I couldn't lie, so I didn't learn anything about computers at all. And I was signing on, and they'd say, Well, you know, you've got quite an experience here, and by now, computers are coming in. Are you computer literate? Uh no, I'm not. And I wasn't lying, I haven't got a clue, and I didn't want to either. But I did actually get sent to a couple of courses to try and And did you go to the LV Theatre School?

SPEAKER_01:

Is that the other thing you did? Eventually.

SPEAKER_00:

Eventually, yes. And which is where I went to.

SPEAKER_01:

Hurrah!

SPEAKER_00:

Hurrah.

SPEAKER_01:

Hurrah! We're like twins, as they say, but in a different way.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh the the couple I mentioned before, uh Bim and Helen, uh, were uh doing circummedia. It's Bim Mason, is that right? Yeah. Yes, I think. That's right, yeah. Yes. And well, they live Mr.

SPEAKER_01:

Elastic Bands on his face, I think.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, three or four years. And uh he was wanting to get people onto the circumedia thing. There were students who the University of West of England wanted to get back in to retrain on computers because things were moving so fast, but people who'd actually done a computer degree or something to do with computers were finding that they they lost a job and they wanted to go somewhere else and they didn't have the technical expertise. They needed more training. Yeah. And so I think it was uh the government wanting to reduce the unemployment lists, and so there was a an arrangement whereby they could go to the University of West of England and be a student, but be paid, they could get an employment pay as a student, and they disappeared off the unemployment list, you see. All very nice.

SPEAKER_01:

Sounds like the enterprise allowance, something like that. Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

So I think I was the first ever a student at the old Vic who was actually getting unemployment pay. But I had to get Chris Dennis to actually uh countersign my principal in my time. Yeah, he was great. He was wonderful.

SPEAKER_01:

And what year are we talking? Because 94-96. Oh, okay. So I was there before you actually, 86 to 88. So yes. Um, I believe we could be on to the inspirations now. Oh, right. So three things that inspire you.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, obviously watching theatre and being in a live theatre, and I'm astounded when I watch actors. Yeah. I think, how the hell did you learn all that? I've always had a problem learning, which is why, you know, I I'd I'd be far better as a radio actor than uh and I I just I'm staggered when I watch fantastic acting and it just pulls me over. Inspiring, yeah. Yeah, really, really inspiring, yeah. So that inspires me. I I also like comedy. As a kid, there was a gun show and things. I I can remember seeing Monty Python with Michael Palin being like a Ben Gunn character running around. It was about 11 o'clock at night, I think it was. It came on for about half an hour, and they just sort of ran it as an also ran thing, and they were trying to hide this strange thing. And I watched, I can remember watching it with my father, and I was just I was falling about watching it. I thought it was so funny.

SPEAKER_01:

It's very relatable because Monty Python are my heroes as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. There's loads of boring stuff in it as well, don't get me wrong. But um, some of it was just just so excruciatingly funny. And um, so that and silent films I've always enjoyed, and you know, Lauren Hardy as well. Stan Laurel is my all-time, all-time comic show. Uh uh exactly so, and um, you know, the the film that was made. Did you get involved in that? The Steve Coogan one.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I didn't, but yeah, I thought it's and that they did some, you know, the um uh the Balmoral went out with everybody on board. Yeah. Uh going to Ireland.

SPEAKER_01:

Board in Bristol Docks, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That has always in inspired me. I mean, as a kid, other things, we used to go out on country rambles. There used to be a country around where I lived, you know, and uh you know it's all been built on where I used to, it's quite frightening. But you used to go out on rambles and birds nesting and butterflies and used to get eyed hawk moths on the apple trees in the back garden and privet hawk moths and these amazing looking things. And if you've ever seen a hawk moth caterpillar, and where I've moved to, uh uh, when I moved years and years ago.

SPEAKER_01:

Well you then since cluttered it up.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. But the middle of Bristol, I had an elephant hawk moth actually in my front garden and not half a mile from this.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I'm just you're the first guest I've ever had who's got an elephant hawk moth in their garden. Yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so I uh you know I had my observer's books, but I also had my observer's books on trains and uh and and aircraft, and and where I was, I was close to the end of Filton runway. Yeah, I was near to Filton station, so I was both a plane watcher and uh um You're just very interested in stuff, I I'm I I just assuming I went to a grammar school which was really didn't produce um it produced Melvin Bragg's wife uh and Lord Brown, who was the head of BP, and that's about it, I think. And you uh Tony Britton was there. Uh-huh. If you can remember Tony Britton, that doesn't mean anything to you at all? Yes, yes. And he was expelled. Uh he was expelled for flying a pair of ladies' knickers from the flagpole. How about that? Amongst the the teachers, there there was were great teachers, but it was I think it was designed to produce fodder for the civil service. Do you know what I mean? Yes, that's true. Uh I'm I'm sure that that's what we were channelled towards. And at the end of it, there was a careers master who hadn't got a clue, I don't think. And if it wasn't a government thing, he didn't know where to put you. Somebody like me, who's never known where he wanted to go, I've never had a direction. It could be anything. I like a bit of that, a bit of that, but you know, I've got a grasshopper mind. It didn't help really, but um, there was one great teacher, uh, he was the English teacher, and just a few times he said wonderfully encouraging things to me. He used to have write essays in those days, and I wrote a story. And what was his name? Bill Handon.

SPEAKER_01:

And he's a source of inspiration. He was because he's the first he's giving you positive feedback that you deserve.

SPEAKER_00:

And he read out one of the stories. I think I nicked a load of the storylines from a book I've been reading, but he liked it. He read it out to the class, and I was squirming because he said, The essays from last weekend, right? I'm gonna read you one. And he read this, and I'm going like this, and everybody's going, What was that? Who did that? So he put it down at the end and he said, uh, and that was my Pete Towers. And they went, What? And and he was just lovely, and he he got cancer and he died only about a year later, and he was just a lovely man, and everybody I never realized it, but talking to the chaps uh I I'd remet after the 400th year uh anniversary get together in 2006, and I've met these guys who I went and went to school with in the 60s, and they said just what a wonderful bloke he was. And I didn't realise it wasn't just me, he was nice too. He was just wonderfully warm and supportive, and a wonderful source of inspiration. Yeah, yeah, he was great.

SPEAKER_01:

And talking about collecting the uh rare moths uh or things to distract you, now we're on to two things that are your squirrels, what are your monsters of distraction, two things that never fail to grab your attention. Oh, that's borrowed from the film up, irrespective of anything else.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a bit boring, I'm afraid. Um because it's away from nature. I've got this sort of penchant for old vehicles. Yeah, you mentioned that. And it uh it has to be a specific type of old vehicle, but I do just enjoy looking at old vehicles. So if you're driving along and suddenly there's a uh, you know, it's it's one of those things like you could drive off the main road, because of course, did you see that? And uh, you know, you could be driving into the So what's your favourite old vehicle to espy? Well, I've never really seen them. Uh that they are the ones I've got in the back of my old uh which are now never ever going to see the light of day on the road, I don't think. But there's a funny old thing called a four C V. Um it's not a two C V, it's a four C V. Uh, and it's not made by Citrums, it's made by Renault. And it looks like a noddy car. It's just the shape of a noddy car. It's like a cross between uh Volkswagen Beetle and a Morris Minor, which has been sat on, and uh they're just wonderful cars. And I met a chap down at the beauty auto jumble uh back in the 90s, and still in touch with him, and he'd taken one apart right back to the last nut and bolt. He took 15 years to rebuild it, and then he he actually moved over to France and he's got it over with him in France now. But um and I always tempted him with yours to see if he wants to rebuild it. Oh no, no, no. He's uh no, he's done his fifteen years. Don't you think that's enough time to spend on a car? Yeah, I don't think the wife would let him. But um and the other thing was being at the end of Filton Runway, I saw the Bristol Rabbison, I can remember it. The Bristol what rabbit? Oh, Brabazon. Brabazon. Anybody nowadays would say, well, those are placed at the end of uh on the A38. That's unfortunate that the whole runway and everything is gone. But as a train spotter, sort of boring little kid, I'd be down there with my pencil and my Alina 35mm camera taking photographs of aircraft landing and taking off. And it it was a really fabulous place for a kid to grow up because I had the nature, I had the the railways, well, steam engines, I can remember, and uh you know, aircraft. So it's great, you know, you've got these all these facilities that you can actually and you never knew what to do first.

SPEAKER_01:

I thought you were going to mention Concorde, because of course that's a famous iconic aeroplane connected to the Bristol.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, yeah, the landing strips of Bristol. Yep, and I was there at the initial flight at the end of the runway, well, up at up where there are now loads and loads of houses. Uh I was there at the 25th when it came back, 25th anniversary. And okay, Radio Bristol did a thing called Concord Stories, a chap I know called Tom Phillips, who now lives in Bulgaria.

SPEAKER_01:

He wrote I think I know him too. Yeah, he used to be a venue editor.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, that's right. He was an editor of venue. Uh he he wrote stories sort of loosely tying up the Concord thing. So we did, under the auspices of Radio Bristol, did do Concord stories at uh Victoria Rooms. And I played Brian Trubshaw. We actually had a theme song which Richard Jeffrey Gray, just name dropping again, who's the organist choirmaster at Bristol Catholic Cathedral, he wrote a uh um song on it. So when the last Concord came in, and through the auspices of Vicky Klein, who was a producer at Radio Bristol, and Les Mankford, who staged everything, we ended up underneath the Concorde wing when it stopped and the engines turned off. And we sang this song that was the final voyage. Uh on the very last one, the very last line. So I've been there on the on the first flight on the 23rd anniversary, underneath the wing as the engine shut down for the for the last time. And strangely enough, they didn't allow any photojournalists there at all. So you had Prince Andrew and Les Brodie, who was the the pilot, and Rod Edelman, I think he was the chairman. Uh he was the chairman of Bridge Airways, and they were on board. And as I came down the stairs, I found Les, who'd recently got a digital camera. We were talking 2004, I think, or two, three, and he just recently got a digital camera, and he he had photographs of the Spitfire barrow rolling over the top of the Concord as it landed, and it was it was quite a rainy day, and it was really fantastic photographs he had. And then he had the mall coming down the stairs, and uh Les Brody had put his cap in between two of the not cupboards but metal parts of the structure when they were flying. And the thing about Concord was it expanded about six inches at supersonic speeds because of the high temperatures, even though it was being cooled at that height. And so if you put anything in between two bits, the thing came apart. When it landed, it was there for keeps. And so he put the peak of his cap, I think it was, in there. And if you go to aerospace Bristol, it's still there because you can't get it out because it's been squeezed up together.

SPEAKER_01:

We need to go back at supersonic flight to get his hat back.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly so. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Now it's the one finally in the 54321. The quirkier unusual fact about you, we couldn't possibly know about you, Pete Townsend, as you do your special legacy life reflections until you tell us.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it's it's it's it's something you actually alluded to earlier on. I have been mistaken, uh other people have been mistaken, for the wrong one. Uh for the other one, I'm the the least known Pete Townsend. There are loads of other ones. There was a golfer, there was a plumber in Bristol, there's all sorts of people called Pete Townsend. But I was at the time actually going to be in Tommy, which is a strange, ironical quirk. And I was going to be in an amateur production, only a tiny part. Bristol Musical Comedy Club did it at the Red Grave. And in my van, I went up to uh Sheffield to the Crucible, and Paul Lewis, who is uh this guy who does all the technical stuff, lighting, his daughter was stage manager there, and we got 30, because at the time there were no big screens, we're talking big, lumpy things, and we brought down, I brought down in my van 30 very large monitors, and they stacked them up at the back and had a massive screen of all these all these things, yeah, and we're able to create a massive screen at the back of Tommy in the uh in the red grave. Anyway, we're we're we're rehearsing it. Uh it's a tiny part, it's only the vicar. I'm often vicars and solicitors, it always seems. Uh and uh that you know, I don't know why, but it's some way I look, I think. And uh one morning through the post, I got this invite to go to see the UK premiere of Wicked at the Apollo Victoria. So I I just turned up to the rehearsal. I mean, it's so weird. And I just said to people, has anybody got an invite to go and see the UK? What do you mean? I said, Well, I've got an invite to go and see the UK Wicked? I said, I'd never heard of it. Wicked, yeah. Oh, not with and I what's her name? I can't remember her name. The the the the the lead singer, she's just phenomenal. I said, Yeah, how did you get that? I said, I don't know. I just came, well said, look at it. And it was this strange iridescent green colour that they adopted for Wicked, and it was all done in that. And they said, Well, how did you get that? I said, just came through the person. So surely you got one as well. No, no, no, so I thought about it, and it took a long while for it. Yeah, till eventually I thought, they got the wrong one, haven't they? That's what has happened. And um, so I phoned up and left a message. I didn't get to speak to anybody. I left a message and I said, I just thought I'd let you know that I think you've got the wrong Pete Townsend if this is an invite to the premiere. I'm the unknown, boring Pete Townsend in Bristol, not the one in um in the Who. And I didn't get any any response, so I got a bit too close to it for comfort. So I phoned up again and I got this chap said, Yes, hello. And I said, I'm just phoning up. I I I I left a message. Uh oh, you're the Pete Townsend. I said, Yep. And he said, Oh, right. I said, So I'm sorry, um, you know, you gone to the wrong one. How did that happen? And he said, Well, I've looked into it, and it was uh we had this student in, and you're in equity, you know, we're you're in the the Bible, as it were, and there and and she just did it on the name. So I said, All right. No, I can't go. And he said, Oh, no, you can't. I said, Really? He said, for being so honest, you can come. I said, Can I bring a partner? And he said, Yeah, okay. So a friend of mine, she lived um in London at the time, and uh she worked at Unilever Export right by Blackfriars Bridge. And I Keith um Warmington, yeah, I told him I told him about previously guested, actually. Yeah, I told him about it. He said, That's a really good story. He said, Can I contact you when you're doing this? I said, Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You've been on Radio Bristol talking about it too.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, this well, this is we'll talk about it a long time ago. And uh I I said, yeah. So I went up to London on the coach in shorts and flip-flops, like I often am, carrying a white DJ, you know, a tuxedo and everything else. And Sarah got me. I went to the director's loo in the headquarters of Unilever by Blackfriars Beach. And I went in wearing flip-flops and shorts and came out wearing a white DJ. And um Keith phoned me when I was just outside. I just got up there from the coach and he said, Where are you now? And I said, Well, I'm I'm just about to go in. I I'm just intrepidous because I'm not quite sure what sort of reception I'm gonna get. But uh he said, Oh wow, tell us how it goes. So I did phone the following day, and and uh what happened was we went together, uh Sarah came came with me, but didn't want to stay. But they had a party afterwards. Well, when we get in there, it's all these faces that I really didn't recognise, other than I thought, he's famous, he's famous, he's famous, she's famous. Basically, it was all the important. Got in the inner circle. I got into the inner circle. Yeah. Afterwards, and oh ah, well, right. I was sat next to Christopher Biggins, so I put Sarah there just-two is previously guessed. Yeah, so I put Sarah there just in case, you know, and I didn't want to annoy him. And um at the end, uh they had ten red London buses, which took all the people who were there up to a special party in the law courts on the strand. And I thought, I could try this. I mean, you know, I've flagged myself so far. So went, I don't know, and and and came up to the um one of the buses and they said, Your name, you know, muscles on the forehead and all the rest of it. And I said, uh Pete Town, oh, go in there, yeah, it's all right, fine. So I got in there.

SPEAKER_01:

So you got the ultimate bus ticket as well?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. And then and then offloaded it to the uh the law courts, went in, and the whole of it's it's a you know the Wills Hall, you know, in Bristol. Well, it's like that, but many times over. Yeah. And there's this long, wonderful, and it's all lit with up lighters of uh and down lighters with this wonderful green, there are ladies going around with canopies and you know, and and I'm wondering about, and people sort of thought, who is this lost person? Came up and had a chat. Said, What who are you? And I was obviously looking really dazed and lost, and I said, I'm the unknown Pete Townsend. And they said, Well, how do you come to be here? And I said, Well, uh and then I explained it.

SPEAKER_01:

Hey, come over here, have a listen to this story. The unknown Pete Townsend, that's great.

SPEAKER_00:

And the only thing was at the end of the uh there was another party for the inner sanctum. Stuart Elton Johns and all the rest of it were in there, and I thought, and I chickened out. I just so far. I could have gone for that, and I didn't. And so that's as far as I got, but I thought I did pretty well.

SPEAKER_01:

Great quirky fact two. So that's the 54321. Now um we're going to talk briefly about alchemy and gold. When you're at purpose and inflow in your life, what have you been absolutely happiest doing in what you're here to reveal to the world?

SPEAKER_00:

I like listening to Radio 4. As Glenda Jackson once said, it's been my university of the air. It's what I learned life from. Lovely expression. And uh I am totally at one with it. I've been listening to it since I was a kid.

SPEAKER_01:

That's such a lovely turn of phrase. It's the university of the air. So you're you're you're at your absolute happiest when involved in the university of the air.

SPEAKER_00:

And you just never know what it's a potpourri, you never know what's going to hit you. Yeah. And you find interest in all of it, and you know that the tremendous amount of work has gone into most of it anyway, and you know, the documentaries and everything else. Yeah. And you and obviously there's a comedy and uh all that. So and but I can do that, and have done it for years, and I've not had a television for about 40 years, which is why I don't know lots of faces and lots of current things. I mean, if I I went for a pub quiz now, I wouldn't have a clue because it's all related to what something to do with television or who's been famous for 15 minutes.

SPEAKER_01:

Radio's been your thing.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, and and and and then you can do what you want to do when you're listening to the radio. So I'm tinkering with cars, and I can have the radio going on, you know, and and and do that. You know, and uh I like listening to old comedy. I mean, yeah, goon shows have appeared that I never heard when I was a kid. Yeah. And I've got all Spike Milligan's books, and I've got the goons show scripts, I've got the 40 Tower scripts and all the rest of it. And I just in in in enjoy the sort of things, you know, and a cup of coffee and a chocolate ginger biscuit, and I I'm away, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm gonna award you with a cake now. Oh, um, will you get to put a cherry on the cake now with what's a favourite inspirational quote that's always given you succor and carried you towards your future? Peter Townsend.

SPEAKER_00:

I I don't know. It's a don't give up trying thing, I suppose. Um or you might be right, you might be wrong, but you might be right, so carry on doing it for a bit longer because you never know it might turn out to be all right. But what when I'm doing anything, I'm never sure whether it's working or it's not working, whether I'm good at it or I'm not good at it. And uh But keep on keeping out. Yeah, keep on going on.

SPEAKER_01:

Um with the gift of hindsight, what notes, help, or advice might you proffer to a younger version of Pete Townsend?

SPEAKER_00:

Ah, well, the the best advice I've been given. Yeah, I'm trying to remember her surname can't. I did a play in the Alma upstairs. It was called Shut Up, I think it was about the uh exclusive brethren. Yeah. Written by a lady who'd been in the exclusive brethren. And when I was acting, when I was actually in rehearsal, the director Carolyn looked at me and she just said, Stop, stop! I said, What's up? She said, I can see you acting. I said, sorry. She said, I can see you acting. You're not I know that you're acting. Be yourself, be in the part more, don't act. And I thought, that's brilliant. That is just fantastic.

SPEAKER_01:

That's fantastic, yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Um I can see you acting is just a wonderful line. And you and sometimes you go to, you know, if you go to see a show, and occasionally you think, I can see that person acting. I can I can see the technique, I can see the things being done, you know, it's all being uh tied together, but it's not working. Yes, yeah, it's which which was brilliant. I just thought, and I didn't take it as a criticism at all. Yeah, you know, exactly right. Yeah, you you're spot on, Carolyn, you got your got it right.

SPEAKER_01:

Lovely answer. We're gonna ramp up to Shakespeare shortly to talk about Legacy, the final thing. But just before we do that, this is the pass the golden baton moment, please. As you've experienced this from within, and this is a special Legacy Life Reflections to record your story for posterity, who might you most like to pass the golden baton along to in order to keep the golden thread of the storytelling going?

SPEAKER_00:

There's a lady involved in the Bristolians that I mentioned earlier on when we went down to Falmouth with Sally Noble. Sally Noble, everybody who was in youth drama in Bristol from the sort of seven eighties onward would know her. Unfortunately, she died a I don't know, five, ten years ago now. But her friend and uh compatriot in nearly everything they did was Edwina Lloyd. Yeah. And uh she is now 86, 87. Uh, she's got a uh an incisive brain not unlike yours, Chris, I must say. And and she can remember everything clearly. And on the way here, because that was the idea in my mind, we've actually asked her, would she mind if I mentioned her? She's got a wonderful history of training and professional acting and uh adjudicating. I know it's all related to acting, but there's obviously a bigger life story there as well. And I said, Would you if I mentioned your name, would that be okay if I passed your details on to Chris? And she said, No, that'd be fine. That'd be very, very kind of you. So And say her name one more time. Yes, uh Edwina Lloyd. Edwina Lloyd. Lovely. And she's been a major part of a lot of youth drama in Bristol for the last 40 years or so.

SPEAKER_01:

And now finally, inspired most profoundly in the Legacy Life Reflections Curated Structure, inspired by Shakespeare, all the worlds are stage and all the better wibbed milli players, we're going to talk about legacy, Pete Townsend. How, when all is said and done, do you think you most like to be remembered?

SPEAKER_00:

I suppose to feel that other people may have valued me, even though I might have valued myself, and I've contributed something to other people and helping them or being a friend, being whatever. I mean that's the most important thing I think. I mean, I I don't hold myself up as anything to be looked up to, really, but um you know, if if people feel that I haven't wasted their time, I'd be happy with that.

SPEAKER_01:

As this has been your moment in the sunshine of the good listening to show and legacy life reflections, is there anything else you'd like to say, Pete Townsend?

SPEAKER_00:

No, I just suppose I should thank my wife, who has actually shoehorned me into this uh into this chair, and she's got faith that I haven't got it myself, and uh thought that your idea was a great idea. And she doesn't just do that. This garden we've been digging, I mean she's I fill one bag of uh builder's bag full of rubbish, she fills four at the same time. I'm so pedantic and pernicety, and I cut everything down to a small size and so.

SPEAKER_01:

Phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. And uh so I should should mention her because I wouldn't be here without her.

SPEAKER_01:

Wonderful. Thank you so much for being a guest and for being a very willing prize recipient for the Good Listening to show's Legacy Life Reflection Structure. If you've been watching this and you'd be interested in having a conversation in either curating your own story or gifting it to somebody else, then have a look at the website which is legacylifereflections.com. Is there anything else you'd like to say?

SPEAKER_00:

Just many, many thanks for um having the patience to interview me.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you. You're very welcome. Been a pleasure and a privilege. And we've got a bit of a uh Ollie McConnell is in the background. He's doing a film of the filming, a bit fly on the wall. So we'll ask you a couple of questions when this is all finished, too. Thanks to Joe, our wonderful technician here at VictorLeap Studios 2. And thank you, Sue, for recommending the lovely Pete Townsend. I've been Chris Grimes, but that's been uh Pete Townsend, LegacyLife Reflections.com. Good night. Boom. Oh boom. You've been listening to the Good Listening to Show with me, Chris Grimes. If you'd like to be in the show too, or indeed gift an episode to capture the story of someone else with me as your host, then you can find out how care of the series strands at the Good Listening2Show.com website. And one of these series strands is called Legacy Life Reflections. If you've been thinking about how to go about recording your life story or the life story of somebody close to You for posterity, but in a really interesting, effortless, and creative way, then maybe the good listening to show can help. Using the unique structure of the show, I'll be your host as together we take a trip down memory lane to record the 54321 of either your or their life story, and then you can decide whether you go public or private with your episode. Get in touch if you'd like to find out more. Tune in next week for more stories from the clearing. And don't forget to subscribe and review wherever you get your podcasts.