I chatted this morning with Darren Parker, Publicity Manager of the Essex Badger Protection Group, about those creatures which are viewed by many as a menace but which members of his group work hard to protect.
Darren acknowledged that badgers can cause damage but argued that on balance their negative press is largely unjustified, and gave some alarming statistics and examples of how badgers themselves are threatened. He also gave some advice on what to do if badgers cause any damage in your garden – more of which you can read on their website.
Later this month they have a fundraising evening featuring one of TV’s favourite wildlife presenters, The One Show’s Wild Man, Mike Dilger. The Trials and Tribulations of a Natural History Presenter is billed as an illuminating and sideways look at what it takes to produce cheap and cheerful wildlife TV; it’s on Friday 28th October at 7.30pm at Hockley Community Centre, with details available here.
Listen again:
News broke this morning of the death of the actress who played one of the best loved characters in the history of TV, Coronation Street’s Hilda Ogden. Jean Alexander, who died just three days after her 90th birthday, also starred for 22 years as Auntie Wainright in Last of the Summer Wine, but it was as Hilda that she’s still fondly remembered, nearly 30 years after leaving the soap. Her portrayal of a grieving Hilda breaking down clutching Stan’s glasses after his funeral was one of the most moving performances in any soap, but the couple were best known as a comedy partnership – with one of their funniest scenes seeing them sipping champagne in a hotel room having won a competition for a second honeymoon:
Jean Alexander was a fine actress who deserved her 1987 BAFTA Best Actress nomination.
