Meeting an old friend after almost 50 years is a risk. Time isn’t always kind and can open the door to discussing a litany of aches and pains the length of your arm.
That most certainly was not the case when I joined Brian Willis, striking with his white hair and Santa Claus beard, in the Bushmills Inn. This is the place he landed a hired helicopter only days beforehand, part of his search for earth’s energy lay lines. He doesn’t do thing by halves.
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Brian joined BBC Northern Ireland in 1962 and that’s where we first met, he a young sound engineer me a rookie reporter. He was kind and helpful and I’m thankful to him for inviting me to hospital radio where I gained experience and confidence behind a microphone: March 1976, Sunday morning, Ulster Hospital Radio, a sound desk and a sack of requests - 50% of them for Charley Pride’s Crystal Chandeliers. You can have too much of a good thing...
We Talked Non-stop
Sitting by the open fire over coffee and scones I learned of this remarkable man’s life and his achievements over 87 years. Born in Dorset, he began his theatre life when he was 16 playing the king in a youth club production of Sleeping Beauty. Recently his queen found him on Facebook and renewed their friendship after 70 years.
Brian joined the RAF, learned to fly, met a nurse and married. Sadly Angela passed away five years ago after 60 years of marriage. He’s drafting a book about their life together, highlighting her witty diaries and I’ve no doubt some of the love letters he discovered recently - she had kept them all.
“We’d no money when we met so we’d sit on the Circle Line tube going round and round just to be together and to keep warm,” he tells me.
He was destined for showbiz. After all, his grandmother was a tightrope walker in Chipperfield’s Circus and his cousin trained elephants in Johannesburg. Brian could have ended up performing for him but instead he joined the BBC in London in the days of the Home Service and legendary announcers Alvar Lidell and Frank Gillard. Brian was in the production department where, amongst other things, he made custard pies for television comedy routines and worked with the famous Tiller Girls dance troupe.
He was destined for showbiz. After all, his grandmother was a tightrope walker in Chipperfield’s Circus and his cousin trains elephants in Johannesburg
He’s a writer, an animator and an artist with five illustrated books published already. There’s no shortage of material as he has kept a daily diary since he was 11, all in a suitcase under the bed except for the 12 years of the Troubles when, with cameraman Dick Macmillan, he was in the thick of the action. His detailed diaries from that period are in the Public Record Office and the others will join them some day in memory of this man’s life and times.
The years of the Troubles were rough and he talks of the trauma, including filming at the Ardoyne bus depot minutes after a bomb destroyed the vehicles; he produces an object which at first glance looks like a piece of contemporary art but as it sat in my hand he explained it was part of a molten bus and the shiny surfaces shards of glass. It is a reminder of those dreadful days.
From being part of a BBC film unit he began to produce and present his own programmes, Why Don’t You? for children and Ye Tell Me That. “I was the Joe Mahon before Joe Mahon,” he says.
Ask A Busy Man
I had to work the date of our meeting around his busy routine including last minute tweaks to the huge backdrops he designed and painted for Mr Hullabaloo’s children’s Christmas show, although he’s worked with most amateur companies over the years.
“I’ve let the family know that I want to be buried in my paint splattered overalls,” says Brian.
His latest book, The Amateur Stage, is an illustrated manual covering every aspect of his craft from ‘sealing’ backcloths to creating multiple shadows. Then there’s his regular storytelling sessions using a wardrobe of hats for his characters as well as providing cartoons to the Coleraine Times.
This is the place he landed a hired helicopter only days beforehand, part of his search for earth’s energy lay lines. He doesn’t do thing by halves
At the moment he’s travelling the north coast sketching various beauty spots for a bride’s stationery: “I have my folding chair and table, my builder’s high-vis vest and a road cone so I’m safe and I’m happy.”
Brian has packed a lot into his long and fascinating life and I promised to go back for more. With a mind that never rests, two more books are on the skids, no wonder he’s give instructions to his family: “I want the following on my tomb stone - ‘But I Haven’t Finished Yet’.”
I’d like to wish Brian and all of you a very peaceful Christmas and a healthy, happy new year. Thank you for your messages and comments, I look forward to more stories from around the place in 2024.
Things Are Looking Up
If you look up until December 23 with a bit of luck you’ll see the Ursid meteor shower, a dozen per hour. It’s not a huge number but it makes me wonder if the Wise Men saw meteors as they followed the Star of Bethlehem.
Terry Moseley of the Irish Astronomical Association keeps members up-to-date on the sky at night - memories of his friend Sir Patrick Moore... - and there is so much going on: satellites, the waxing and waning of the moon, the planets, and it’s worth researching these wonders of the heavens.
