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Festive fun with Alan
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This weeks feature
Christmas has always been special for Alan Titchmarsh.
Ever since he was a boy he has always been a fan of the festive season. As an angelic church chorister he used to go carol singing, entertaining the people who lived in the posh part of town, and on Christmas morning was often delighted when a wooden fort or zoo appeared at the bottom of his bed, lovingly crafted by his father in the cellar of the family’s terraced house. |
...loves the festive season. |
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“I think having those toys made for me is one of my abiding memories of Christmas,” he recalls. “It was such a wonder that they should suddenly appear; where had they come from? It was amazing my dad cared so much to go to all that trouble.”
For the past 20 years Alan and his family have hosted a Christmas special of their own, a festive celebration comprising carols, skits, monologues and poetry. |
“I try desperately hard to keep the old Christmas traditions going,” he says, “which is why we do this Christmas entertainment every year. It’s something homespun and invented rather than just shopped and bought; everything is so instant these days, and that takes some of the magic away. The creativity at Christmas makes it special and I never want to lose that.” |
A good stocking filler! |
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Alan has pulled together some of his favourite items from these entertainments in his book ‘Fill My Stocking’. In between Alan’s own poems and mini-pantomimes are evocative verses and writings from the likes of John Clare, John Betjeman, Keith Waterhouse and G. K. Chesterton.
“I wanted the book to have that home-made feel to it,” Alan explains. “I have got piles of Christmas books; when a new one comes out I tend to buy it. A lot of the stuff isn’t suitable to be read out loud, you have to edit quite a bit; but quite a bit of this I wrote myself anyway, the pantomimes for instance.
“I do feel embarrassed when I see them written down, because they were intended to amuse my friends and family, who are more indulgent towards you than a paying audience. People who read the book can perhaps put them on for their own families, who will doubtless groan in the same places!”
“This big entertainment that we put on is always the Sunday before Christmas and it really kicks us off. We’ve been doing it for 20 years now, and it’s the same old people who come, but when everyone leaves they always say, ‘this is the start of Christmas; please never stop doing this’.” |
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