May 12, 2024

 

Dear family: I tend to sing first thing in the morning which Rita, happily, rather likes. I was trilling along happily the other day and went from "The mist of May is on the meadow" to the lovely Rodgers and Hart song "It might as well be Spring" Then I looked out of the window at a dawning of a beautiful day and realised  - it is Spring - and we have summer to look forward to. Hooray!!!!

 

As I mentioned to you recently, Rita has been busy with the forthcoming BRAS magazine - but there has been a slight setback. The firm that printed it has gone out of business, which has also been a setback for our lovely Heather, who was so helpful. Rita will now be self-publishing it with the help of her wonderfully techno-wise grand daughter Emily, who often acted as a resident auxiliary engineer when we were on air.

 

We're still keeping in touch with as many of you as we can and now have a provisional date for another re-union at the Caversham Bridge branch of the Toby Carvery - July 4 - and look forward to seeing those of you within reach of Reading.

 

All the best to all of the family....

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Bill x

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May 5, 2024

 

Dear Family....Well I've come to a big decision!!!! It happened the other day when our Al texted me and told me that local radio boss Chris Burns was talking about the infamous re-organisation  on Radio 4's Talkback. The subsequent platitudes and dodging of questions sent me into a rage - and led me to send a rollicking e mail  to the lady.

 

Well - it was the ultimate catharsis - and I sat myself down and told myself I'm not going to spend the rest of my life ranting about what's happened. Positive thinking is going to take over - including gratitude that our beautiful Harmony Night happened at all, giving us friends that we wouldn't have known about otherwise. Its wonderful that we've managed to keep the spirit going.

 

We talk to as many of you as we can, we've had two lovely re-unions at Beckenham and Abingdon, with a third one round the corner in Canterbury. At this one my real family - nieces, nephews and cousins - mix happily with the rest of our family. We enjoy all the telephone conversations we have with you - the other day delightful ones with two of our Annas - of Wokingham and Andover - the sound of their laughter as much music to my ears as Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings or Elgar's Nimrod. Even being bitten on the hand by Kiki had its upside - bringing new ways of rising from a sitting position. That's it then - no negs - all pos's.

 

Love and all the very best wishes to you all.....

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Bill and Rita

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April 28, 2024

 

First of all, sad news: June Kennet who, with her husband Derek, was the brilliant Kent organiser of BRAS, has passed away. Derek was a school mate of mine in Canterbury, until my family moved to Bekesbourne when I was eight.

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While we're using the word "organiser", our lovely reunion at Abingdon on Thursday took a bit of organising because a platoon of you attended. However, it was a marvellous occasion made the more so by the efficient and smiley staff of the Boundary House. (Rita and Lisa took some lovely photos, which you can view on the Crew Messages page.) We, however, missed Ian of Harwell and Jenny because Ian was ill and also Danny of Headington for the same reason.

 

Melvyn of Burghfield Common and his wife and sister had to drop out because Melvin's daughter collapsed at work. Luckily we can rule out a heart attack, with the illness put down to stress. Otherwise we had a great day with lots of people putting faces to names. I enjoyed swapping memories with Sue Calvert-Fisher who worked with me on the Oxford Mail more than 60 years ago, starting with the dreadful winter of 1963 when snow drifts were piled high from the New Year until mid-March.

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Finally, sorry to say, my right hand is swathed with bandages , after our cat Kiki bit me while I was trying to get her in for her supper. Ever since, she's been begging for forgiveness purring and rubbing round me . Didn't need a tetanus jab though - that was a couple of bites ago . She just gets over-amorous!

 

 Love to you all....

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Bill

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April 21, 2024

 

Hello me Hearties!!!! I thought it might be nice to start with the hearty welcome we used to call at the start of Harmony Night. So far, time has failed to dilute our love for the programme which  we didn't really plan to cause such an ocean of affection, but which evolved through our combined liking for the sane world we used to inhabit. We look forward to seeing lots of you at our Abingdon re-union on Thursday.

 

Rita is beginning to formulate plans for the next BRAS magazine. It might be worth mentioning that it started off as the official organ of BRAS with a subscription  from members. Time however, has blurred the circulation with the growth of the Harmony Night family, with invitations to the re-unions to anyone with a reciprocated love of the programme . As a result, Rita is dipping into her own pocket for much of the production cost. If you haven't so far contributed,  a £5 payment would be much appreciated. Our email address which we also like to use for non-fiscal messages (!) is radiorennells@aol.com.

 

Like all of you, we are enjoying the onset of spring at Beckenham Towers. The wisteria viewed through our living room window is impossibly beautiful. However, there was another sad landmark in the murder of Harmony Night when we gave up the equipment we used to broadcast from here. The silver lining was that we made yet another lovely friend in Sharon Terry who called to pick it up. We had  a wonderful chat together and she helped us with a search for our Eli who, we thought had disappeared when the wind blew open the bolted back door .

 

Eli was confined to barracks because he was wearing the "lampshade" to prevent him licking his poorly back foot. Rita and I frantically continued the search for much of the remainder of the day, until we discovered that our Emily had taken him to the vet's where she works! Sharon, by the way, who works in content at Radio 4 and reads weekend news at Radio Kent, lives just round the corner from us.

 

Very best wishes to you all from all of us.

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Bill

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April 14, 2024

 

Hello lovely family: Well our re-union at the Toby Carvery, Beckenham, turned out to be a bijou affair with Peter and Tricia of Fulham and Paddy and James of  Sevenoaks not being able to make it and Steven of Edenbridge sadly not well enough to attend. So we had Steven's wife Joyce, Linda and Richard of Maidstone, Keith and Sheila of Tadley, Desiree of Highgate and Rita and myself. Covering a much smaller area of the table, it meant we could all join in the one conversation.

 

There'll be a whole platoon of us at the Boundary House, Abingdon, on Thursday 25th April so it should be uproarious. If we get  the same beautiful weather as we had yesterday, it'll be brilliant.

 

We're still in touch with members of the family almost every day. Arley of Waddesdon hasn't been well and neither has Kathy of Sheppey. Sadly, Marion of Walmer has had yet another fall. Our Lisa has been brilliantly keeping in touch with Marion including, at least once, travelling all the way from North Oxfordshire to East Kent to see her and I'll find out from Lisa if Marion can be reached by telephone.

 

All the very best to all of you....

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Bill and Rita

 

April 7, 2024

 

Hello lovely family: Well - one of the highlights of my week was going along to Lords and renewing my acquaintance with the former Kent captain Sam Northeast. It turned out to be a highlight for him, too. He got the highest score of any batsman in the whole history of Lords - 335 not out. It was for Glamorgan. How come Kent let him go!

 

We're looking forward next Saturday to the first of our Harmony Night  re-unions since the programme  was strangled by the BBC. We're restricted at the Toby Carvery, Beckenham, but it looks as if we might have a few vacancies if you'd care to contact me at radiorennells@aol.com

 

Best wishes to you all.....

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Bill and Rita

 

March 31, 2024

 

Hello lovely family: It has just struck me that one of the problems parallel with the scandal of BBC local radio's transparent destruction has been the decline of investigative journalism in the National Press in the last few decades, For instance, the sudden prosecution of hundreds of sub-postmasters should have triggered a massive response at the time from national newspapers. Years and years later it took action from one of the persecuted sub-postmasters.

 

There has been sporadic condemnation in the media about local radio's so-called re-organisation but, generally speaking , there hasn't been a sustained campaign anywhere against the BBC'S  transparent policy of deliberately weakening local radio to make an excuse, probably not far down the line , to take it off altogether. Never mind - Harmony Night LIVES!  We're still a family.

 

At Beckenham Towers our ducks have made a return to our pond. On their previous visit several months ago, Fred and Ginger were joined by a much larger male we called Arnold (Schwarzenegger)  whose advances on Ginger had to be repelled by Fred. This time the trio seems to have called a truce and there's a degree of togetherness with sex apparently taken out of the equation (so far).

 

Meanwhile, we've continued to keep in  touch with as many of the family as possible. Sadly Stephen of Edenbridge has been poorly in hospital at Tunbridge Wells and Joyce visited him every day by taxi. We all wish him a speedy recovery.

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Much love to you all and a very Happy Easter from the Harmony Night crew

 

March 24, 2024

 

Hello lovely family: Well, another week of great connections with many of you and thanks for a record number of Easter cards we've had. Just thinking of something we'd certainly have shared with you on our 11 and 12 talk bits on Harmony Night. We heard of a de luxe chair lift that gets you upstairs so quick that you don't have time to forget why you were going upstairs!

 

Talked yesterday with Anna of Andover who gave us delightful news that spring has sprung - the swans are nesting again on their local river. We've also been in touch with Roy in Westcliff, Mary in Newbury and Mike and his dog Ruffy in Basingstoke. One thing that has occurred to me is the number of local radio broadcasters turning up on national television and radio. From Radio Oxford alone there's Emma Vardy, Adina Campbell, Helen Catt, Robyn Cowen,  Henry Moeran and Sejal Karia. In the past there's been Libby Purves, Tony Adamson and - well - me! Here's an avenue of recruitment that will be severely curtailed now that local radio has been ripped apart  - and will entirely disappear as a result of the damage damage now being inflicted.

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And if we want proper music we have to play it at home. At Beckenham Towers we listen, with our breakfast, to wonderful music on our CDs, particularly the light music kindly sent to us by our mate Roger of Horsham. Thanks so much Roger and best wishes and love to you all....

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Bill and Rita

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March 17, 2024

 

Hello lovely family: Happy to tell you that Rita and I may have given up giving each other colds - we're both so generous - and are now down to slight sniffles! The bad news is that our lovely Lisa has been proper poorly since my last missive, but happily is now on the mend. Its been another week keeping up with the Harmony Night family and have had some great telephonics. One was with one of our resident singers Mandy Winters  and her husband Geoffrey . She is marvellously cheerful after making an amazing recovery from her long stay in hospital a few years ago.

 

We also talked to Joyce of Edenbridge. We are  lost in admiration for Joyce and her husband Stephen , who have something like 15 per cent of eyesight between them. Yet they travel around all over the place. Currently they are planning to visit Blackpool for a second time - mainly to see their idol Daniel O'Donnell - but they are including Blackpool tower in  their itinerary. We also had a call from Rosemary of Wainscot . She and her partner Jim are also in good spirits, though as supporters of Gillingham FC they have quite a bit  to put up with!

 

I've also swapped emails with my fellow nonagenarian Paddy Gaywood who holds high office with the 40 Club, an organisation for elderly cricketers. Though my playing career lapsed some time ago, age wise I'm a member more than twice over. Like so many of us she mourns the passing of Harmony Night as a programme but we hope to see her and her husband at one of our reunions.

 

As ever,  best wishes and love to you all

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Bill

 

March 10, 2024

 

Hello lovely family: Well, we're still sneezing and coughing our way through the days here, so not too many outings - and its no consolation that quite a few of you have also been ailing. Sadly that includes Val of Deal, who's had a bad attack of Covid, Linda and Richard of Maidstone and Kathy of Sheppey who gave us a welcome ring the other day. We had a lovely chat with Kathy, giving us her views on  the loss of Harmony Night, with her wonderful Poplar accent sprinkled with the Anglo-Saxon.

 

We've also been busy organising the two family re-unions. The London one at Beckenham is a bit restricted, because of the room at the Toby Carvery, but there are one or two places left. One of our problems is that the swift removal of my BBC account didn't give  time to take a note of your details. If you haven't heard from us since we left please drop us a line on radiorennells@aol.com. We recently had a nice chat with Marion of Liss and shared our joint love of the television programme Call The Midwife.

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Rita and I also enjoy dipping into YouTube with its recent introduction of episodes of the grand old This Is Your Life programme. Particularly moving was the one about the marvellous Douglas Bader. Particularly  poignant was his comradely hug with the German ace Adolf Galland - a reminder, in the current climate, of the futility of war....

 

Love to all of you from all of us.

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Bill

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March 3, 2024

 

Hello lovely Harmony Night family members:    Well life has been on hold a bit this week. Both Rita and I have coughed and sneezed our way through the days - I think about 17 sneezes in one session has been my record. However, to us its just a reminder of how together we are. Not a week passes without a reminder of our simultaneous thought processes. The more mundane they are, the more amazing. This week's main example was Rita thinking :"Perhaps we'll have those apple turnovers and immediately me saying: "Shall we have those apple turnovers". We have a joint reminder of the love we've come to share together in our ancient years. And its so much that we have some left over for our Harmony Night family and Al ,Pete, Lisa, Mark and the others who've worked with us,  as that multiplies and spreads like the feeling on a summer's day .

 

Pete has kindly recorded for us that amazing last programme on New Years Eve/Day and we listened to it yesterday with mixed emotions. The uppers were the heart-warming messages we received from you, the downers were in the incredulity that the BBC should be so heartless as to destroy such a jewel in the crown as Harmony Night and to cause such heartbreak in the process . I find no joy in predicting that within 10 years or so, there will be no BBC .

 

We did find family joy on Friday when we'd sufficiently recovered from our maladies to have a family get-together. Rita's granddaughter Emily happily got through an operation and we had with us Emily's partner Eosa, Rita's son Russell  and her granddaughter (and Emily's sister)  Charlotte and her little 3-month-old son Freddie. He's Rita's second great grandson and he's grown from a gorgeous little bundle to a gorgeous aware, smiling and happy little bundle . We wish this sort of happiness on all our extended Harmony Night family. Our joint love is something the BBC cannot destroy... 

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Bill

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February 25, 2024

 

Hi family - my weekly report on how things are going in  my enforced retirement. I've sent out a couple of cheeky letters - the least cheeky one to the boss of Boom Radio, suggesting that we'd love to move Harmony Night lock stock and barrel to one of Boom's titles. Awaiting a reply on that one. The other letter went to the Head of Radio 2 Helen Thomas, upon my reading that they are proposing to launch a new channel for underserved music, suggesting a similar thing to her for that channel. I thought "underserved" would certainly describe our music. A week has gone by since I wrote that letter so it might just be that its being considered. I hope so. Most of the music knocking about nowadays is not so much underserved as undeserved.

 

The wildlife is beginning to stir at Beckenham Towers. The biggest fox we've ever seen has started to wander round our back garden. Our pusscat Eli advances on it menacingly, while his sister Kiki looks on with concern - but before Eli has a chance to display his heroism our near-resident magpie Dick Dastardly flutters wildly at the fox, closely followed by his unlikely ally Peter the pigeon and the fox retreats to and over the back fence. That's it folks. More news next Sunday....

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Bill and Rita

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February 18, 2024

 

Hello Harmony Night family: An excellent idea from our Editor, Mark to look back on the week as we used to in our hourly chats on the programme. Well its still a story of marvellous support from so many members of our Harmony Night family. Since we disappeared off air never a day has gone by without contact from some one in the family and its so very heartening .One problem is means of making contact for those who are not online. If you happen to be in contact with non surfers you could perhaps let them know. We're very sad at the loss of Steve Wright and I've been in touch with  a mate and former colleague Gavin McCoy who was the voice of the cinema manager and the hairdresser on Steve's Radio 1 show. I notice a wave of grief online from Steve's fans slightly and sadly offset by the usual trolls who have a "so what" attitude to the way he was treated by the BBC. I posted one reply to the effect that none of these considered the effect that this had on the listeners. In my own case my main thought was your sadness. Harmony Night was really your programme and you were the producers,  giving the programme wonderful balance with your variegated requests . I'm still very much in touch with Mark, Lisa, Pete and Al and together we are determined to keep the Harmony Night flag a-flutter. More next Sunday. 'bye for now...

 

Bill

 

January 12, 2024  

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Well two Sundays have elapsed since Harmony Night was strangled and, no doubt like all of you, we still can't get used to just retiring to bed at 10 and trying to forget the aching void between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m . As a result of my last post ,there was some interest in  national newspapers, notably The Sun. Sadly those who commented seemed to think I was complaining completely on the effect on myself. One of them said: "Probably the BBC was fed up with his comb-over!!!". However I think I speak for all of the marvellous Harmony Night crew when I say that our main feelings are with all of the family, particularly those of you living alone. Our lovely Lisa tells us that one lady spoke only to her all week when she rang in to Harmony Night.

 

    The heart-warming and sometimes heart-breaking messages are beginning to include the word "bereavement" and ,to some extent, that's how it seems to us . In fact, in my humble opinion ,the national media, has failed to notice that the " local radio re-organisation"  is the first clumsy step to abolish local radio altogether - just as it failed to notice the Post Office scandal as it developed . Sadly, investigative journalism is going down the pan and many so-called news hawks wouldn't know a story if it kicked them in the behind . There - a rant on your behalf !. The important thing is that we are all together and we're beginning to plan some re-unions.

 

Love to you all.....Bill

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January 6, 2024

 

Dear family.

Here it is Saturday Jan 6 2024 and I still find myself thinking of things to do in Harmony. I have to pinch myself to tell myself we are no more as a radio family .As long as I can remember, there's always been radio. When I was a child in London Road, Canterbury, the radio was on all the time. As I drifted off to sleep the sounds of dance bands floated up the stairs from the radio . I recall radio plays too and resolving at the age of six or seven that when I grew up I would  be a Great Lover! Then,  of course, I didn't know all the details implicit in such a title.

 

Later, perhaps when I was eight-ish I resolved to be a radio announcer and 31 years later, at the age of 39 the ambition was sort of realised . After many years of bouncing around southern newspapers as a journalist, I decided to apply for a job on the new BBC Radio Oxford and became a programme assistant in the newsroom there.
 
  Like the rest of us I got the chance because  of the successful campaign by the renowned war correspondent Frank Gillard to set up local radio . I was so proud to be with the BBC and still look back with pride . I am however unhappy with some of the senior appointments that I consider to have dragged the Corporation down.

 Recent events have been the prime example and we now see what is clearly the first  instalment of a blatant attempt to save money by abolishing local radio altogether . Scores and scores of the best presenters and backroom staff have been jettisoned and others  like our great ex-producer Al Ryan have seen what's coming and have simply and sadly gone away . Their replacements might be all right but their terms of reference have manifestly not produced  the sort of programmes that our audiences want.
 
Clearly , listening figures will haemorrhage and there'll be the excuse to close the whole lot down . My sympathies lie not only with our wonderful Harmony Night  family but also the middle management that has had to introduce the changes. I suspect that they are simply carrying out the orders of senior management - very senior management . One, who's name I could mention, has been a really good boss and a thoroughly nice person. I can't believe that he honestly thinks that the "re-organisation"  will work. I'm so sorry that the dislike for him has hovered somewhere between that addressed to Meghan Markle and Vladimir Putin.

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  So many adjectives have been used for the destruction of our beautiful Harmony Night and the league leader of those is "cruel" . Our last night was so emotional. It is ludicrous that they destroyed us when the programme was at the height of its strength and popularity . Our tears have joined yours in despair but we have resolved that the Harmony Night family will live on. We'll keep in touch with as many of you as possible and have re-unions in several places . Happily we have this website, brilliantly set up by our Mark and Lisa to help this along. Truly it is au revoir and not goodbye.

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Much love to you all from Bill and Rita