MY OTHER ALAN FENNELL STORY...

Alan Fennell and unidentified Thunderbirds pilot. Photo by Roger Elliott

No, that doesn't mean there's another ALAN FENNELL (well, not any who concern us), only that there's another story about the legendary writer and editor to tell, which I promised to relate a good many months ago.

During the course of one of several telephone conversations I had with Alan (may even have been the first one) in the mid-'90s, he mentioned that he used to come to my home town in the '60s to a tenpin bowling alley situated just along the road from where I then lived. (In fact, my father used to work there, although I can't remember if he still did in 1965.)

Apparently, Alan's wife had friends or relatives in Scotland and, whenever they visited them, they would take the opportunity to come along to the bowling alley in question. This led me to wonder aloud to Alan about the following 'what if?' scenario, which perhaps isn't as far-fetched or as unlikely as it may at first seem.

 

The actual bowling alley

Basically, I speculated on the possibility of Alan ever having passed me in his car on the way to the bowling alley as I made my way home reading a copy of TV CENTURY 21, and whether he might've seen me, turned to his wife and friends and said: "Look, that kid's reading my comic." One of the main roads to the bowling alley went right past the bottom of my street and it was the route to the main shopping centre (where the bowling alley was situated) along which I would often have walked. (Not the road obviously, but the pavement.)

I was much struck by the notion of perhaps having been in such fleeting close proximity to the editor of my then-favourite comic without ever having known it, and Alan, being the kind soul that he was, indulged my flight of fancy by pretending (I assume) to be as fascinated by the idea as I was.

Not long after, Alan dropped me a letter containing a photocopy of a chocolate Dalek recipe I remembered seeing (and which had once resided for years in my mother's cookbook) in an early issue of TV21 (# 28). This is part of what he said in his letter:

Go on - make some. You know you want to

"Take a look at the photograph above. [The recipe.] Dear Roy Castle was one of the nicest people I have had the privilege to be associated with - and I remember this photo set-up and the lunches we had whilst promoting the Doctor Who and the Daleks film.

So, I'm grateful to you for reminding me of those days - and even the bowling alley!"

I never met Alan face-to-face ('though he may have passed me in his car), and I didn't know he had died 'til a year or two after the fact - but somehow his not being around any more at times fills me with the kind of sadness that one normally reserves for close friends and relatives.

He really was that nice a man.

******

For my first Alan Fennell story, see:

http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2011/02/regrets-ive-had-few.html