![]() what I didn't like, and that's why I have a query as to why I ever continued to turn up, was the opponents glove landing heavily on my nose or indeed on any part of my anatomy! I wasn't much good at it but I did enjoy the physical aspects of the training - the gym rounds, the punch ball, fast skipping etc. ![]() I have no idea why I became interested but I think it appeared a tad glamorous and macho to a youngster. I started boxing as a 9-year-old in a makeshift gym in Boxmoor close to my home. ![]() They had also lined up celebrities in the sports I loved.įreddie Mills, former light-heavyweight Champion of the World, opened the show to introduce me. The guests that evening included my parents, the ward sister, my headmaster, swimming instructor, dance teacher, best mate and mechanic - and my future wife, Marilyn. I was just about to protest when he put his head back round the door and told me I would only be following Lord Boothby's example a few weeks before. I told him I was so nervous that I needed a wee but there was no time to go to the toilet on the next floor - "do it in the sink" he said as he left the room. Graham mentioned that you must never return by the same route, not surprising as you could probably hear the Jaguar's racing exhaust a mile away.Īt the Shepherds Bush Theatre and just a few minutes before the off, Eamonn came into the dressing room to explain the procedure and warn me about not tripping up on all the cables I would have to walk over to get onto the set. Very early the following Saturday morning I did get that ride and sat in the un-upholstered passenger seat holding the car’s battery on my lap while we did 130 mph in third over Chiswick Flyover. It would have taken a cosmetic surgeon to remove the smile from my face! Graham offered that if I would like to come back the following Saturday he would take me for a drive in the car I was drooling over, Ron Flockhart’s Le Man Jaguar D Type. While I wandered round the cars he was told I was to be the subject of the This Is Your Life that evening and that I had a passion for motorsport. The owner, Graham Warner, happened to be on hand and noticed the BBC chauffeur. Travelling into London the traffic was very light and we were a good 20 minutes early and in Chiswick High Road I notice one of my favourite garages, Chequered Flag, with a showroom full of sports and racing cars, so of course we stopped. The live show was to be filmed at the BBC Theatre in Shepherds Bush and the BBC had that evening sent a car with a uniformed chauffeur complete with a cap emblazoned with a BBC badge. Having filmed the introduction Eamonn explained I would be picked up later and with that the whole crew rapidly disappeared back to London. I was both stunned and excited in equal degree. "Come in" I heard, opened the door to walk into a bank of lights, microphones and cameras with Eamonn Andrews standing there with a book in his hand with the immortal words David Butler - THIS IS YOUR LIFE. My previous visits to John Robinson's office had, deservedly, never been very pleasant. ![]() On the 5th March 1962 at Hemel Hempstead Grammar School while in the midst of taking my mock O level exams I was summoned to the Headmaster's study. David Butler recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in his autobiography, Cordite and Castrol R.
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