Fiz in the community - Ep.3 - Burgh Island & Angela Rippon

Fitz travels to the unique Devon island, Burgh Island to explore the local cuisine, finds himself on the air once again at an incredible initial Access all aerials and catches up with Angela Rippon.

Listen to the podcast here on Exeter Today or on Spotify , Amazon music or Google play. Alternatively read the full transcript of todays episode below.

0:00:02 - Fitz
And welcome back to Fitz in the community. And well, I'm in Devon, but off Devon I'm on Burgh Island and I'm just looking back towards the coastline and up very, very choppy sea. You can no doubt hear the wind in the background. I'm looking up at this fantastic, great white whale, as it's the hotel that clings onto Island. This was the place to be at the height of the roaring 20s and it's the place to be today. I'm spending just 12 hours on the island, sampling the food and the wine and the company and the atmosphere. Let's find out just a little bit about Island from the concierge.

0:00:42 - Simon James
Simon James, so I joined the hotel in the beginning of July 2022. Our main focus is to always exceed the expectations of guests, but when I came as a visitor myself, or as a guest myself, it way surpassed any expectations that I had of the island and the hotel.

0:01:04 - Fitz
I've always enjoyed it. Do you know much about its history and who's ?

0:01:09 - Simon James
So I am still doing the knowledge. But the hotel itself was commissioned to be built by a gentleman called Archie Nettlefold, and Archie Nettlefold, on top of being a very well known socialite in his time, he also was the governor, if you like, of Nettlefold's screws. And Archynetalfold had the hotel commissioned as a private villa in order to entertain his very wealthy friends. Now it wouldn't be fair for me to say who he invited, but I only wish that I was a fly on the wall, because I am sure a lot of fun took place at this hotel. The personalities that I do know who have been here, certainly from a historical point of view, is certainly Noel Coward, Churchill, the Beatles and the more recently people that would be happy for me to say that they had been here.

Midge Ure, the lead singer with Ultravox. He was here a couple of weeks ago we did some filming for Gone Fishing with Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse. Bob Mortimer wasn't able to come, but certainly that filming took place here. There's another travel program. Ainsley Harriet was here doing a travel program as opposed to a cooking program. James Martin was here a couple of years ago as well. So there are a few well known faces and also more to come, certainly on the horizon.

0:02:49 - Fitz
There's a rumour that Mrs Simpson, this was the last place that she set foot before leaving to join the late King.

0:02:59 - Simon James
That is perfectly feasible, but it wouldn't be right for me to say categorically that happened. There is also a very strong rumour that a confidential wartime meeting took place here between Churchill, Eisenhower and, I believe, Roosevelt, but whether that happened or not I have no idea, but that is something that I was told did take place. 1336, the Pilchard Correct.

0:03:27 - Fitz
Yes, and you still have the. I think it's called the

0:03:31 - Simon James
We do indeed. So the Hewer's Hut was originally accommodation for some of the fishermen, but also Hewer's, as in call, was a way of communicating with the fishing boats that were usually looking for pilchards. That they could see a shell and they would direct the boats towards that shell.

0:03:53 - Fitz
Simon, it's been a pleasure. I'll let you get on. You have other guests arriving today. Are we full tonight?

0:03:58 - Simon James
So you are full occupancy and it should be a fantastic atmosphere for you all and it's a pleasure having you and lovely to meet you.

0:04:17 - Fitz
Well, I'm just looking back at the hotel and right in front of the building is a very large H. If you wish to arrive by helicopter or leave by helicopter, has the facilities. And this brings back a rather sad memory for me Many, many years ago, probably talking something like 30, the only time I ever had a helicopter flight on was with a lovely friend of mine, Jill Dando, and that would have been the last time I would have seen her face to face. A sad moment, a sad memory, but on the day it was absolutely fantastic to glide over the great white whale that is Burgh Island Hotel with a great friend who unfortunately met a very untimely and unpleasant end. Let's just move on from that. Well, a new day, a new morning and certainly a new weather forecast. It's absolutely beautiful. I'm standing beside Pilchard inn in AD 1336, unfortunately it's not open a little bit early and also the sea tractor is in front of me, the famous Burgh Island sea tractor, which wasn't running yesterday because of the weather, and today it is sat there glistening in the sun the sea tractor 3. Now I know I am walking in the footsteps of many a famous person to leave Burgh Island. One particular story I remember.

I wrote a book years ago, called Made in Devon, on the films that have been shot in this county, and I remember Holocaust 2000 starring Kirk Douglas. Kirk loved the island and in one part of the film he was supposed to have been swallowed up by the sea because of a battle with the devil. I think it was supposedly the Red Sea, or at least some stretch of water set in the Middle East. But if you look very carefully in the film, as Kirk battles the devil and the tide washes around his ankles, in the background you can see Pilchard inn 1336. Oops, look, it's been fantastic, a lovely stay at a unique hotel, the great white whale that is Burgh Island.

So where next, do you know? I haven't a clue. Come with me, come on, let's go. Come on, let's find out what's happening with people from our community. Well, today the tables have turned. I'm normally the one that interviews people. Today people are interviewing me. I've come to a special radio station called Access All Aerials serving the community in Devon. I'm just about to go in and find out what the station does and who it talks to. Did you like a coffee or anything from the first? A black coffee, please.

0:07:07 - Speaker 3
Yeah, I need a black coffee A black coffee. Lovely.

0:07:11 - Fitz
Sorry, I've just walked into the studio and taken over your name, sir. My name is Craig Bowden and you are the main man on air at the moment.

0:07:17 - Craig Bowden
I am the main man on air at the moment and the project manager of Access All Aerials. Tell me about the station what is it? Access All Aerials is a community radio station based here in Exeter. It's run by disability charity called CEDA and the purpose of the radio station is to give disabled people a voice on the airwaves.

0:07:36 - Fitz
Perfect.

0:07:36 - Craig Bowden
Big gap in the market there. A disability is very underrepresented in this part of the media. No matter what ability people can go on it, no matter what ability we will give producers, we will give support. If the individuals maybe use voice boxes and encoders, then we can work with those as well. We keep everything simple.

0:07:55 - Fitz
Sounds like just my sort of station, nice and simple. Alright, where is he? Where's your brother?

0:08:00 - Craig Bowden
Do you know what? I've just looked on our tracker. We have a tracker on our vehicles. He's on his way, show me the studio.

0:08:05 - Fitz
Yeah, come on in.

0:08:06 - Craig Bowden
Come on in. So we have a really nice, easy sort of setup for a radio station. We have a height adjustable desk. We have a very mainstream kind of production desk which is called a roadcaster. It's so simple to use. Everyone can be trained on it.

None of these big old fancy production desks that you get everywhere else, because you know this does exactly the same thing and all the processing is built in, which is even better. We have a play out system where we can play any music that we want on this radio station. Within reason I'm in Chris later on he'll be playing his cheesy bits on the show, so goodness knows what's gonna come up. And then we have another screen here. This is a touch screen. This is where all of our news and all of our production elements and everything all are. Yeah, you'll get to see. You'll get to see the guys in action very, very shortly.

How long has this been going? CEDA took took over the project at the very beginning of the pandemic. It was originally being run by the Dame Hannah Rogers Trust at their Seal Haines site and at the beginning of the pandemic they were looking at asset disposal and unfortunately, this was one of the projects that they were looking to get rid of. Cedar were already involved and I was kind of like that can't happen, you can't get rid of this project. So we took it over and quickly became a 24-7 streaming radio station from my bedroom of all places, at the very beginning of the pandemic.

0:09:31 - Fitz
Brilliant when it comes to the end. Will it automatically play the next track?

0:09:35 - Craig Bowden
Well, actually there's a break note in there which says I should be doing some talking. But I've got a minute to decide whether or not I want to put another song in or whether I want to just stop this interview with you and go and do some talking. I think you'd better stop this interview with me and go and talk, I think so. You know, earlier on I was saying a little bit about kind of what you do in between the music. Normally I'll just sit back, I'll watch the TV, I'll read newspapers or whatever. But no, in the middle of those songs playing, I was doing some more recording With our very special guest who is in the studio with me this morning. Good morning, mr David Fitzgerald.

0:10:09 - Fitz
Good morning, good morning, how are you?

0:10:10 - Craig Bowden
I'm very well thank you Where's my coffee?

0:10:13 - Simon James
It's coming it's coming across the.

0:10:16 - Craig Bowden
They're running it across the road as we speak.

0:10:19 - Fitz
Good lads. Well, I've just walked away from the studio and you can hear the music dying away. I've got Craig's and Chris's parents. What a remarkable studio. It's great. I just think this is fantastic.

0:10:35 - Speaker 3
And we're the only ones with a sink in the corner.

0:10:38 - Chris
Yeah, you can wash your dishes while you're on there.

0:10:42 - Fitz
How did you get involved in this? I notice you also drive the bus.

0:10:45 - Chris
I do, indeed, I've worked CEDA now now for 23 years. What CEDA stand stand for? Community equality, disability action. Right Before that, it was Rise, respect, independence and Self-esteem.

0:11:02 - Speaker 3
Something like that. Yeah, and then before that it was DYAC disabled young adult centre.

0:11:09 - Chris
This sort of came about as a result of Dame Hannah Rogers School down in Ivory Bridge. They were at Seal Hain. With this setup, seal Hain got a little bit unaffordable for Dame Hannah Rogers to keep going. So the studio basically was like, well, we've got to move somewhere or it's going to go nowhere. So Craig, to his credit, found this place and this is where we've sort of washed up for now. He's done brilliantly.

0:11:35 - Speaker 3
Well, yeah, because it was a toss up between whether he took a gamble and took it on himself or spoke to the directors and that, and see where CEDA would would take it on. CEDA , took it on, so it's now part CEDA and and it's such a popular thing.

0:11:55 - Chris
And I'd just like to say thank you to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for supporting access or areas in a big way. So it's certainly helped a lot. So it's got a future. It's right across the county. It's going to be going DAB sometime early next year, hopefully on the multiplex in Exeter, so we'll have to see how that goes. They've got the funding for it. But I'm not going to decry anybody. But apparently you're off-comer, dragging your heels a little bit.

0:12:25 - Speaker 3
But it's also worldwide. We've got people in America, canada and everything that listen, belgium.

0:12:30 - Fitz
All online. All online. Yeah, oh, that's fantastic.

0:12:33 - Chris
So if any of you feel like you want to have a quick listen and when you're away from home Fitz, just tune into Access or area I was listening.

0:12:40 - Fitz
Last night I turned off whatever I was watching, great sound.

0:12:45 - Speaker 3
Friday's is a really funny day here, especially Friday morning going into Friday afternoon. We have a Foodie Friday because I volunteer with a cook-in. I used to do the CEDA for for 18 years and now I do down here on a Friday with one mini-oven, a portable hob and two microwaves. But it's amazing what we and we call it Foodie Friday and we always cook while we're on air. So yeah, it's such a laugh because it's included in the radio show and everything.

0:13:22 - Chris
Access all aerials. Access all aerials. Get it on your dial.

0:13:27 - Craig Bowden
Breaking broadcasting boundaries. Chris is here morning, chris. Hello everyone. David Fitzgerald is still here in the studio with us as well. He's not going anywhere, and Chris has two microphones pointed at his face right now.

0:13:43 - Fitz
So yeah, this is a recording of a recording of a radio, which is live recording and when people listen to it, this will all be recorded, and I'm going to shut up now.

0:13:51 - Craig Bowden
Do you want to explain a little bit about what you may be recording? So yeah, why are you recording?

0:13:57 - Fitz
This is my podcast, which goes out via Clear Sky Publishing the local newspapers within Devon. They've asked me to do this and I thought what a fantastic way of getting across the message that everyone has a voice, no matter whether it's paper or radio. By talking to my old mate, chris. Chris, you're looking fantastic.

0:14:16 - Chris
Yeah, oh, 40.

0:14:20 - Craig Bowden
You're 40 now.

0:14:23 - Fitz
You're not 40. Can't have got older pants, which I was 40. Can you wait? What an amazing radio station, giving everybody a voice and serving the community. It fits here in the community. Where to next Again and I say this in every podcast I have absolutely no idea. Mind you, I have absolutely no idea how to get out of here. Why has my city changed so much? I'll speak to you soon. Music Fits in the community. What a wonderful day it is today. The noise in the background I don't know if you can just pick it up a dozen builders banging away, soaring, hammering nails in building yet more houses, filling in that gap between Ivy Bridge and South Brent. I'm waiting for the train which is arriving now to take me into Plymouth to meet an old friend, angela Rippon. She's opening a medical building today, right beside the railway station. What Angela has been through in the last couple of weeks on Strictly has been truly amazing. Let's jump on the train and let's go and find Angela. Well, angela, you've survived. That's the only thing I can say. You were fantastic.

0:15:50 - Angela Rippon
Oh, fits, thank you so much. Not only did I survive, I was having the time of my life, I loved every minute of doing Strictly Come Dancing, and I am so looking forward now to being able to do the tour in the new year. I saw that as well, I know. I mean, can you believe I should be in my 80th year and I should be performing in front of 20,000 people in arenas? I'll be there. Who would have thought? Who would have thought, no, I'm fine To be doing what I'm doing at the moment and what I've done over the past several weeks and what I have to look forward to in the new year, my time of life. Every time I meet someone in the street, in the supermarket, on a bus, and they say to me you have inspired us, I'm overcome with so much emotion because I wanted to be able to demonstrate, if nothing else, that age is not a barrier to doing things in your later life that help to keep you fit and happy and strong and well. And if I've achieved that, then I'm very happy.

0:16:54 - Fitz
You have achieved. You have achieved in buckets. Do you know where the tour is going? Are you coming back down to the West Country?

0:16:59 - Angela Rippon
We're not, sadly, no, London, I think, is the farthest south that we come. We're going to perform in the O2. Can you believe it? What it's? All arenas. We start in Manchester, we're in Birmingham. Oh no, we start in Birmingham. Manchester, Glasgow, Sheffield, Leeds, All over the place. I'm finishing the O2. Can you believe that in February?

I keep saying to me, you have no idea what it's going to be like? You said to go into an arena with 10,000 to 30,000 people, which is what these arenas hold. You have no idea what the sound is like, the volume. I mean, I'm just still looking forward to it. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I just can't believe it.

I should be in my 80th year when I'm doing it. When you think about it, I keep going back to this lovely lady that I met in the supermarket when I was loading my groceries off the checkout. She just tapped me on the shoulder and she was a lady of about my age, white hair like me. This was before we started and she said I'm so glad you're doing it strictly, she said, because it is true that women of our age and our hair colour, we become invisible when we reach a certain age, and I think you're going to make some headlines for us. Well, she was prophetic where that was concerned, wasn't she Totally? And she said thank you for doing it because it's she said, I already find it's an inspiration that you're going to do that, and I have had so many people using that word inspirational, which I find extraordinary.

And I am just so thrilled that so many people have said to me I'm getting the misses, we're going to go dancing, or you know, hey, I'm going to go to a line dancing class, or I'm going to go to a ballet class, or you've tempted me now to learn how to do the salsa. I am thrilled that that is happening, especially when I heard the chief medical officer 10 days ago or so saying that he wants people in their latter years to keep moving, to be energetic, to be fit, and he mentioned dance as a way of doing it, as a way of us all keeping strong and fit and healthy as many of us as can. That is, there will be some people perhaps who have physical or medical conditions that aren't able to do that, but if you can that, you can actually go on enjoying your life and all the things that you always want to do to a degree well, into your 70s or 80s, even into your 90s, and if people are inspired to do that now, then I'm absolutely thrilled that that message has got across.

0:19:41 - Fitz
You are visibly thinner or am I visibly fatter? One of the two.

0:19:45 - Angela Rippon
Well, I did lose half a stone, but then, no, a stone. Actually I've lost almost a stone, but I have been doing six hours training a day, five days a week for ten weeks and it's been like going to boot camp.

0:19:58 - Fitz
Bizarre, Bizarre. It is bizarre. Actually, I got a tweet. Tom Daly turned up to see you as well.

0:20:04 - Angela Rippon
Yes, he did, and I didn't know he was in the audience. Tom, I didn't see you. I'm so sorry. I wish I'd known you were there.

0:20:10 - Fitz
What is next? I know the tour. Any other offers?

0:20:14 - Angela Rippon
Well, I mean, it is very handy, the building that we're in. I've just got to walk around the corner and get on the train. I have to go back to London because tomorrow the oldies is giving me an award the oldie magazine as the old person of the year. Can I have a fraction of the title? I don't mind, I don't care.

And then I'm hosting a lunch on Friday for one of the charities that I support, but then on Monday I go to Manchester for another week to do more programmes for the new series of Rip Off Britain. So I should be in Manchester, come back and then we start rehearsals for the group dances, for the final of Strictly Come Dancing, because all of us all 15 of us that were personalities or celebrities rather have to dance in the final and a group number. Then it'll be Christmas here in Devon. I shall be back in Devon for Christmas and New Year and then the tour up until I think it's something like February the 12th or 13th, something like that, and after that more Rip Off Britain and just more work in Telly.

0:21:14 - Fitz
SAS, who dares wins, no, no no, no, no, don't be silly.

0:21:19 - Angela Rippon
Even I've got limitations, darling.

0:21:23 - Fitz
The amazing Angela Rippon. They really ought to name a train after her because she really is a well an express and I happen to know that she's now back off to London for a meeting at 11 Downing Street. Incredible, listen fits in the community. Back very soon for another episode. Thanks for listening.