Budleigh Past and Present

It’s a long way in many senses from London’s East End of London to the tranquil coastal setting of Budleigh Salterton. But for thousands of fans who look back with nostalgia at the age of British sitcoms like The Rag Trade and On The Buses   the little East Devon town is making quite a name for itself. An exhibition at the local museum, free vintage bus rides and pebble art on Budleigh’s famous beach… it’s all to mark the centenary of Reg Varney, better known by many including more than 12.5K members of the On the Buses Fan Club as Cockney comic bus driver Stan Butler. There’s even a musical show in his honour, staged at the local Football Club. But  Before The Buses, as the show is called, deliberately focuses on his little-known early years when he started out as an 15-year-old self-taught pianist and singer playing in the tough environment of working men’s clubs. By pure chance one of the show’s stars, Madalaine Pe...

Ads for Our Little Clown, the 2016 tribute to Reg Varney at Fairlynch, are getting quite a lot of attention. See http://www.onthebusesfanclub.com/id184.html

Matt Lambert: keen to hear from people with any memories of Budleigh-born film star Belinda Lee  She was a celebrity who tragically met an early death in a car crash. The policeman at the scene described her as “the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” No, not Princess Grace of Monaco, or even Diana, Princess of Wales.  Although the sight of Diana’s body at the crash scene provoked an uncannily similar comment at the time. “ I got shivers up my spine,” recalled photographer Nikola Arsov, who arrived at the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, shortly after the accident on 31 August 1997. “You can't imagine how beautiful she was. It was devastating!” A poster from the 2006 Fairlynch Museum exhibition The crash victim  in the case I’m thinking of was Budleigh Salterton’s own Belinda Lee, the subject of an exhibition at Fairlynch Museum in...