Member’s Lunches are held at Banstead Downs Golf Club (except May & December) from 12 noon.
Website – http://www.bansteaddowns.co.uk
Our Two Ladies Lunches are held at the Kingswood Golf & Country Club, Kingswood on the first Wednesdays in May & December.
Web site – https://www.kingswood-golf.co.uk
Details of forthcoming speakers are listed below. Information on previous speakers can be found under Member’s lunches on the Recent Activities page.
2019
Next meeting:-
Wednesday 4th September 2019 –
Wilf Lower – Behind the scenes of television’s golden years.
Growing up in a family home providing ‘pro digs’ for music hall and variety performers appearing at local theatres, it was hardly surprising Wilf acquired an intimate knowledge of ‘the business’. However, he opted for a more ‘respectable’ career in management, but subsequently joined BBC television where for many years – including the ‘golden days’ of the seventies and eighties, he was responsible for Scenic Operations – the scenery, props, and ‘working’ the shows…. essentially everything seen on the screen except the performers, their costumes and make-up! Wilf subsequently set up a consultancy serving the television, film and theatre industries, which included several years with the National Theatre on London’s South Bank.
Who can forget Morecambe & Wise, the Two Ronnies, Terry & June, Till Death Do Us Part and The Good Life? Dramas like the Forsyte Saga, Pennies from Heaven and When the Boat Comes In; music from Top of the Pops to the Last Night of the Proms; and the pageantry of Royal events. These were truly television’s ‘Golden Years’ but how these and many other great programmes were made, the situations and ‘characters’ involved, was often astounding and hilarious. Never has ‘you wouldn’t believe it’ been more appropriate!
Wednesday 2nd October 2019 – Malcolm Nelson – Forty years catching smugglers.
| Malcolm Nelson worked for 40 years for HM Customs and Excise. He worked on every aspect of catching smugglers. He was mainly based at Heathrow but he also spent time at London Port, Dover, St Petersburg (Russia), Malta, and at most major airports throughout the EU. He is credited with the largest quantity of drugs by weight ever found in a single suitcase. Forty two kilos of compressed herbal cannabis concealed inside plantains that had been scooped out and sewn back together again. Then left to rot. As a senior manager he led the first Customs and Excise Division to attain the Cabinet Office Charter Mark accreditation for service delivery. Very difficult in a law enforcement working environment. Since retirement in 2005 he has developed his speaking activity and now delivers in excess of 80 talks a year to clubs and societies throughout the south of England, and speaks on 4 or 5 cruises each year. His main programme of talks is entitled “40 years of catching smugglers”. In this series of talks he uses his experience to give his audience an insight into just how Customs Officers catch smugglers. However he also gives talks on the history of smuggling, historical events in Australia and the Russian revolution. His talks are invariably informative and his unique style of delivery make them both entertaining and, where appropriate, extremely amusing. He is an accomplished speaker having been trained in Advanced Presentational Skills. He is a member of the British Society of Criminologists and he is accredited by the Australian Tourist Board as an “Aussie Specialist”. His first book “Forty Years Catching Smugglers” was published in 2011 and his second “The Pursuit of the Two Legged Drug Mule” was published in March 2017. He is married with 3 children, 1 granddaughter, and a great grandson. He supports Spurs and Essex County Cricket and drinks rum. |
