In memory of Charles Chilton who has just died.

What a lovely man, friendly and unassuming and with such a body of creative and original work behind him and an inspiration to many that followed!

He was born on June 15 1917 and died on January 2nd 2013

Apparently he started his career with the BBC at 15 moved to  presenting a programme on Jazz  which was one of his interests. After the war his career really took off  – writing, producing and directing. One of the shows he produced was, of course, ‘The Goon Show.’

The last time I saw him was on a really happy occasion – the 60th anniversary of ‘The Goon Show.’  John Repsch the chairman of  The Goon Show Preservation Society had invited  Charles to pull the cord to reveal a commerative plaque to the Goons at the Strutton Arms.

Later he was to chat and told me thst the  original scripts for ‘Riders of the Range’  based on authentic material about the Wild West had been the basis of other aspects of his writing.  As he said ‘you have the goodies and the baddies and you just change the scene.’  I am not sure it was quite as easy as that but he went on to write ‘Journey into Space’. Later still of course, ‘Oh What a Lovely War’.

He had  something to say about the use of his script but was interested to learn that we had done the puppetry for the ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ film directed by  Richard Attenborough.

Jimmy Grafton, the landlord of ‘The Strutton Arms’, was the man who encouraged many people in show business after the war including  Spike Milligan.    It was here that the first Goon scripts were written.

This is the link to my film  of the event

I am so glad that last year Charles Chilton had some special highlights and acknowledgements of his considerable contribution to radio, television and as an author of several books.

His autobiography, published in Feb 2012  –

Auntie’s Charlie: An Autobiography of Charles Chilton

I am only part of the scene because I was a Telegoon Puppeteer .

   Our Eccles and the wonderful plaque Charles unveiled.