[CR]Jimmy Saville

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From: "Doug Smith" <doug@Kingsweir.plus.com>
To: <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:40:02 -0000
Subject: [CR]Jimmy Saville

Following on from Paul William's subject on cycling films brought back a few memories. Indeed Sir Jimmy Savill did ride in the 1951 Tour Of Britain but not being interested in road racing at the time I don't recall the details only that was more of a publicity stunt more than anything else! Over the years he has raised many thousands of pounds for charity which included his favourite hospital Stoke Mandeville where he was a partime member of the staff for many years. His most well known method of raising funds was completing in marathon running race events. When I lived at Camberley in Surrey it was'nt unusual to see him out training in roads around the area and following on behind at a crawl was his chauffeur with the Rolls Royce .Another point of interest away from cycling it was only a few weeks he prensented the last of the BBC's weekly "Top of the Pops" . What a character not many like him about now!!

The film you mentioned was only a hit for the cycling enthusiast and not for the normal cinema followers of the time which resulted in its early demise.In your list attached of Cycling Films Big List under the TV Films ,Plays and Series no. 148 Fat Man in France brings my mind back to when Tom Vernon filmed the in the Wessex area he used my then Claud Butler All Rounder for the whole of the series. I did go out on location occasionally just keep an eye on the bike because many times he did'nt actually ride the full distances thus the CB was'nt always handled carefully been transported from sequence to sequence. To think I did'nt receive a "halfpenny" for all my help I gave the TV company.Talk about using people the're well known for it.
Doug Smith
North Dorset
UK