Big Red Book

Celebrating television's This Is Your Life

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THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Donald Campbell, speed record breaker, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews - with the help of the broadcaster Cliff Michelmore - at the BBC Television Theatre, having been led to believe he was there to present a competition winner with their prize.

Donald, the son of Sir Malcolm Campbell, holder of 13 world speed records achieved during the 1920s and 1930s, qualified as an engineer before becoming a successful businessman. Following his father's death in 1946, Donald decided to try to become a record breaker in his own right.

After an unsuccessful start, and with the help of his father's mechanic, Donald set about reclaiming the water speed record for Britain after it had been lost to the United States. He achieved his goal, firstly in Ullswater in July 1955 with 202.32 mph, and secondly, breaking his own record at Lake Mead in Nevada in November 1955 with 216.20 mph. Both records were set in his Bluebird K7, named after his father's old boat.

programme details...

• Edition No: 7
• Subject No: 7
• Broadcast live: Sun 15 Jan 1956
• Broadcast time: 7.45-8.15pm
• Venue: BBC Television Theatre
• Series: 1
• Edition: 7

on the guest list...

• Peter Carr
• Lady Dorothy Campbell - mother
• Edward du Cann
• Richard du Cann
• Leo Villa
• Teddy Knox
• Jimmy Nervo
• Connie Robinson
• Dorothy - wife
• Graham Sutton
• Billy Cotton
Recorded tribute:
• Stanley Sayres

production team...

• Researchers: Peter Moore, Nigel Ward
• Writer: Gale Pedrick
• Director: unknown
• Producer: T Leslie Jackson

• with thanks to Gina Campbell for her contribution to this page

Life at Full Throttle

the lovers of speed

These Were Your Lives

a review of the first series

The Big Red Book

the programme's icon

Photographs of Donald Campbell This Is Your Life - and a photograph of Donald Campbell's big red book

Unknown publication and date

WHO was the mystery man supposedly from the Ullswater neighbourhood, who figured in a BBC television program last Sunday night? This has been the talking point of the week among viewers in that area, where there is much puzzlement and speculation about the identity of the anonymous individual whom nobody seems to have recognised. The program - which I did not see myself, but which I have heard about from several eye-witnesses - was the weekly feature, This Is Your Life, in which the subject (always a person with some claim to distinction, but who is said to have no knowledge in advance that he or she is to be chosen) is picked out of an invited studio audience and presented, in effect, with his or her life story in the form of surprise meetings on the stage with people who have played a part in it. In this case the subject was Donald Campbell, holder of the world water speed record, to whom were introduced by Eamonn Andrews - who acts as narrator throughout, providing the connecting links in the story - his mother, his wife, his chief mechanic (Leo Villa) and various other participants in his eventful career, including the lady who keeps the hotel where he stayed during his earlier record attempts on Coniston. There was even a Transatlantic greeting from Stanley Sayers, the American holder of the record which Campbell first broke on Ullswater last July. All these people were announced by name. But last on the list came one whom Eamonn Andrews introduced simply as "a man from the fells." A bearded fellow of massive physique, he appeared in working clothes and leggings, without collar and tie (dressed for fell shepherding, presumably, in order to give a touch of local colour!) and proceeded to talk in broad dialect - perhaps unnaturally broad, say some who heard him - about local reactions to Campbell's visit, also describing how he watched "Bluebird" from Hallin Fell. The Strange thing is that I have yet to hear of anyone who knew him - even among life-long residents on Ullswater-side. Cannot the BBC lift the veil of secrecy which surrounds this mysterious "man from the fells"?