A Little Bit of History Part 1

I was asked the other day when I first started out on the TDW Radio project and without thinking I said about 1977. Not surprisingly the person who posed the question looked a little confused until I explained with a little bit of history.

It was a hot summers day in July 1977 and as I had done for a few years I was attending an Open Day at Friern Hospital in North London. The hospital had been part of my life for as long as I could remember living in the road opposite as I did. There’s no real way of dressing it up, it was an old victorian asylum which to most people was a pretty frightening place. Once a year though they let the locals in for a fete on the field and Mum and I were regular attendees, although I was under strict instructions for years, don’t talk to any strangers and don’t look the patients in the eye because it will upset them. On this particular afternoon my Mum knowing my love of music and attempts to run school disco’s had spotted a stand close to the main entrance with the words ‘Radio Friern’ above it. “Go and ask them how you become a DJ” she said pushing me forward. As I approached an amiable looking guy a couple of years older than me I some how blurted out the words; “er how do you become a DJ here?” Within minutes I was in a converted dental technicians lab that had been turned into a radio studio. I got to know it pretty well because I was still there for one final time 16 years later when the hospital closed.

I will never forget being taken into my first ward one night for what the presenters called ‘a visit’. The general idea being to talk to the staff and gather any requests for the nights programmes. Having seen the building from the outside I must admit I had little idea what it would look like from the inside. The answer was high ceilings, patches of peeling paint, and a general run down appearance. That though wasn’t my main impression, what concerned me much more were the circle of ‘patients’ sitting round staring at a TV which presented a picture which turned over every 30 seconds. Who were these people and what were they suffering from? The answer from the staff was they were geriatrics? They all seemed of a similar age but what about the younger woman in the corner who wasn’t as old as my Mum?

That was Catherine who as I know now had early onset dementia sitting in a ward of dementia patients all at least 25 years her senior. Catherine was mild mannered and loved the song Mississippi by Pussycat a song we all got to know well.

As the years progressed we got more and more involved with the patients and staff dreaming up various wacky plans to try to lighten the gloom. Easter 1988 was a good example for some reason we decided it would be good to do a 27 hour non stop broadcast the first part of which would be a series of challenges for two sets of presenters. A kind of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here minus the creepy crawlies and the nauseating menu. One of the activities was to stage a party in one of the wards. This particular ward had managed to get an old piano from somewhere but they didn’t have anyone to play it. Then out of his armchair Sam arrived, he was in his 80’s as I now know living with dementia but that didn’t stop him banging out an hour of cracking party tunes. At the end I’ll be forever endebted to my friend Michelle who put a microphone in front of Sam who calmly looked up and said: “I came to this place many years ago and by and large this party has been the jolliest time I’ve had since I’ve been here. The only thng is next year you’ll have to find a second pianist.” No there wasn’t a dry eye in the house and true to his prediction when we did go back a year later sadly Sam’s dementia had progressed and he could no longer play the piano.

I have no idea what happened to Catherine and Sam after the hospital closed. I do know though that they live on in my memory and to this day I carry the audio clip of Sam recorded at Easter 1988 on my phone. In fact I used it as the closing point of the presentation which got me a job with the Alzheimers Society. When Friern Hospital closed in 1993 I was already making my way as a freelance sports reporter on Chiltern Radio but it wasn’t long before dementia entered my life again….