Banstead Village

I remember Derek McCulloch well – ‘Uncle Mac of the BBC’. He and his wife lived in a detached house in Tumblewood Road, at the top of The Drive, and he would walk to the Wheatsheaf bus stop on the Brighton Road, where he would take the 711 Green Line to Broadcasting House. As well as being Head of Children’s Broadcasting at the BBC, he presented ‘Children’s Hour’ and ‘Children’s Favourites’ on the BBC Home Service.

He was badly wounded in the Battle of the Somme, taking a shrapnel hit, a bullet in the lung, and suffering facial injuries, including the loss of an eye. So in terms of his broadcasting career, he was better suited to the wireless microphone than the television camera (I have to admit that as a child, whenever I saw him, I thought his appearance was rather scary, poor man. But it didn’t stop me from knocking on his door and asking for an autograph, which he signed neatly in black fountain pen ink.)

Way back in the 1930s, Derek McCulloch was also the voice of Larry the Lamb in the hugely popular ‘Toytown’ wireless programmes. Long after that, his programme sign-off – ‘Goodbye children, everywhere’ – became his catch phrase.

Uncle Mac and Banstead got a mention on Boom radio tonight at 6.15pm when David Jamison played for me How Much Is That Doggy In The Window on his Children’s Favourite show.
The shows advert for tonight featured a lovely family scene in colour from an Uncle Mac’s Children’s Hour Book.Edited by DERECK McCULLOCK.

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