Chris Heath is a TV Producer, Author and Podcaster. He’s created shows for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and CBBC, including Holiday of my Lifetime with Len Goodman and The TV That Made Me With Brian Conley. He is also the creator of the children’s books series, The World According To Grandpa. Chris has been travelling the length and breadth of the country to speak to older people about their incredible lives.
In this blog Chris talks about why he started the podcast Two Cups Of Tea and how you can get involved.
I was travelling on a train into Kings Cross recently and a cheery older ticket inspector took my ticket, cutting a hole in it with his special little hole punch-thingy. It was only when I took the ticket back that I realised that it was a butterfly-shaped hole. It made me smile, so when I got off the train, I jogged past the crowd of passengers to catch up with the inspector. I asked him if these butterfly holes on tickets were a new thing. He told me that, as far as he knew, it was only him that did that. He had ordered his bespoke hole punch specially to brighten people’s day. He then said, “As you’re interested, I’ll show you what I do with children’s tickets”.
So he took a different hole-punch and cut a choo-choo train shape out of my ticket. Then he asked me if I believed in magic and told me to squeeze the little train-shaped hole as hard as I could and I’d ‘hear’ the train. So, despite feeling a bit stupid stood in the middle of Kings Cross station, I squeezed the ticket like he’d asked, and he turned away and secretly tooted a wooden train whistle. He was quite clearly a mad as a brush, but he made my day, nevertheless.
When I told this to a friend of mind later, he said, “Awww, people like that make the world a better place, don’t they!”. I thought, yes they really do. But only if you take the time to talk to them.
Jessie being interviewed for the podcast
It made me think about all the people out there who’ve got amazing experiences to share and stories to tell, but who’ve got no one to tell them to. Because, just to think purely selfishly for a moment, how many hilarious stories and amazing tales will die out without being told, just because we didn’t get out there and talk to the people around us more?
It’s like hearing that some lovely old folk songs have been forgotten, just because they don’t get played any more.
So I decided to start up a Podcast.
“These podcasts are a celebration”
I’ve recorded several conversations so far and I’ve loved every single one. In each show, I chat with a different older member of the public who is living their golden years alone. We’ll talk and laugh over a cup of tea (and probably a chocolate biscuit). But, this isn’t a hand-wringing, gloomy conversation about solitude.
Instead, these podcasts are a celebration of some extraordinary characters and the lives they’ve lived. I’ve heard stories of bravery and tales of family life, Sunday roasts and selfless endeavour. From heart-warming tales of first crushes to hilarious stories and narrow scrapes at work, in service and even under fire.
What I’ve found is that it’s not the amazing deeds or achievements that are necessarily the standout moments, but the commonalities and the familiar details that unite us. I have honestly never laughed so much in my life as with the people I’ve been recording with. First and foremost, this podcast aims to show that everyone has a fascinating story to relate, regardless of age or circumstance.
Would You Like To Be On The Podcast?
Each of these podcasts are recorded in the interviewee’s home for their convenience and won’t take any longer than 120 minutes. For more information or to nominate either yourself, a neighbour, friend or loved one to be a guest, please email: chrisheathpodcast@gmail.com, together with a short description of the person you’re nominating and the part of the country they live in.
You can listen to the Two Cups Of Tea podcast on the Acast website or on iTunes.
This article has had 9 comments
Love love your support of elders. I am writing a book about it and would love you can give me an interview. Thanks so much. Paulina Kay
What you are doing is just amazing. I am an Independent self employed PA for elderly people. Our older generation are a social gold mine, they are living history. Wonderful stories and experiences which leave me in awe.
We don’t respect or make enough time for our older generation for all sorts of reasons, but what we all need to realise is that the older generation will be us one day !!
Amazing! I watched you on the tv today, talking about this project. It is a simple and magnificent idea and made me smile. It was magical listening to the stories. I would love to become involved!!
I would be interested in contributing – I have had an interesting and varied life but, since I lost my wife (March 2014) to cancer, I have begun to experience a degree of loneliness. I was born in London in 1935, my mother committed suicide in September 1938, I was evacuated out of London (to Little Chesterton, Oxfordshire) to escape the blitz, but was retrieved from there less than two years later, after my father visited me and found I was (in his words) “dirty and neglected. As he was unable to care for me, due to age and ill health, he arranged for me to be taken into care by the National Children’s Home & Orphanage (known these days as Action for Children), so – aged about 7+ – I was taken into their Bramhope branch, north of Leeds, in the (then) West Riding of Yorkshire. I later passed the eleven-plus exam and gained entry to Prince Henry’s Grammar School, in Otley, leaving at the age of 16 with three “O” Levels. The reason why I ended school was to transfer to the Harpenden, Hertfordshire branch of the National Children’s Home, which had a Printing Technical School, where I began a five -year apprenticeship, finishing at the age of 21 with City & Guilds Final Certificate in Composing. In the meantime, I had written to the War Office, requesting that my deferred National Service be with The Life Guards (senior Regiment of the Household Cavalry) Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment. I had to attend an interview at Horse Guards, with the then “Silver Stick” (Colonel Gerard Leigh), who readily agreed to my request – so it was I reported to Windsor for basic training, followed by two happy years in the army. As for personal hobbies, I continue to enjoy birdwatching, philately, music (I play the organ, and have a Technics GX-7 organ at home), photography, steam locomotives, railway modelling, and gardening (although, now aged 82, 83 in June 2018, I find it harder and harder to keep on top of all that needs to be done). I also enjoy doing crosswords and puzzles, and computer work – until recently, I ran and maintained my own big website (www.householdcavalry.info), but lost that when my ISP friends were hacked . . . I really miss that. My wife and I enjoyed some holidays abroad – two in Tenerife, one in Italy (Sorrento & Capri), a Romantic Weekend in Paris, and two cruises – one on “Canberra” and more recently on “Marco Polo”. We spent many holidays in the Lake District and Scotland, especially in pursuit of rare birds. Years ago I wrote the biography of “Mr Blackpool” (Reginald Dixon), famous Blackpool Tower organist, who was a personal friend until his death in 1985 (indeed, I was invited to present his life story – using 35mm slides and my own pre-recorded commentary – at his Memorial Tribute in the Tower Ballroom, two months after his death. Another close and dear friend was “Tam The Gun” (S/Sgt Thomas McKay), longest-serving District Gunner, Edinburgh Castle. I was also asked to help select the photographs, and to supply and edit text for a coffee-table book entritled “Oageantry & Performance” (Household Cavalry), and also assisted in the production of two books on Household Cavalry Drum Horses. Currently I am a Life Member of the Life Guards Association, a Life Member of the Lancastrian Theatre Organ Trust. a Covenanter to the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust (for the build and running of “Tornado”, and the current building of “Prince Of Wales”, and I have a letter from MENSA stating that, following a supervised test in York (many years ago) that my IQ is/was 156 (in the top 5% of the population). Also, up until the death of my wife, we were both Fellows of the RSPB. Forgive me if this is all in the wrong “box” . . . I would like to be involved, but am unclear as to precisely how I make contact. Peter Ashman
wonderful ! i have just listened to episode 1 and i feel like i have spent hour in some great company,
the questions asked were just the kind i would asked ! i had not realised how much i have missed a really good chat with someone after moving to a place a little bit rural , i hadn’t realised how lonely i was feeling altho i still see people, i do miss chatting with my neighbours
Really enjoyed your programme, I live in Andalucia, Southern Spain, and since the demise of my darling husband of 44 years in 2002 I have found difficulty in coping alone, we met when I was a teenager, he was 12 years my senior, I knew I would be alone at this end of my life, but I never knew just how difficult it would be mentally, he was the love of my life and every day is just as difficult now as it was in that first year.
You have given me an insight into the fact that I am not alone, I keep myself as busy as possible with things I enjoy. Thankyou
It one day I went to the shops as my wife is disabled and doesn’t get out much well went to the shops meet a few old faces hadn’t seen for a while then done the shopping had a great wee natter about what’s happening in the town got all the gossip so went home said to the wife think that’s me got everything told meet this friend and and was in the middle of telling her the gossip when my wife said you forgot something checked the bag milk bread teabags no everything here not forgot anything wife says yes you have checked again don’t know what you mean it’s all here my wife said think for a moment it’ll come to you all of a sudden like a bolt of lightning oh! No I forgot the car you see the shops aren’t that far from us and because I was gabbing away to my friends forgot I drove to the shops definitely a Homer Simpson moment DOH!!
I just came across your podcast. I am delighted by it. I have just completed a certificate from The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and am considering (and I am already a therapist). I am moved by your validation of people’s stories and hope to do something similar here in my home area. (Maine, USA). I’ve loved the people I have met through Two Cups of Tea–brilliant success!
Thank you,
Kate
By submitting a comment you grant Campaign to End Loneliness a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. Inappropriate and irrelevant comments will be removed at an admin's discretion. Your email is used for verification purposes only, it will never be shared.