Anneka Rice with Lynda Snell (1993)
The Village Hall had fallen into a state of disrepair until a rallying cry from Anneka Rice saved the day…
You can listen here to Anneka fondly recalling her visit, on her Radio 2 Breakfast Show
January 1993: overreacting to a worrying report from the Licencing Officer, doubling as Environmental Health, Christine banned everyone - including the Over 60s Tea Dance - from using the Village Hall.
With the Committee short of funds (and no bookings meant no income), Joe saw an earner in letting rooms out to displaced village hall groups, starting with the Over 60s who ended up meeting at Grange Farm. Here the rumours abounded over the cost of rectifying the village hall kitchen - and there was only £190 in the village hall account!
Lynda decided on an appeal to raise funds, and a lunch for the "Village Hall Committee". Kate came up with the suggestion of getting the village to do the Hall up themselves. With this in mind, Lynda unveiled her plan for the refurbishment under the banner "Challenge Lynda”.
With the use of flattery and acting like a "sweet talking steamroller", Lynda managed to get Sid Perks to sign up for the Refurbishment, as well as Eddie, and tried to rope Tony into it.
The rest of the refurbishment didn’t run smoothly. Mike and Neil fell out and downed tools; Eddie got fed up with Lynda and some non-fitting village hall kitchen units and Julia managed to insult all the workforce. Added to this, having persuaded a local Radio reporter to do a piece on the village hall, Lynda had to put up with Eddie offering to sing. It was the last straw when Bert maligned Lynda’s leadership skills. She threw in the towel, telling Robert that community spirit was “dead as a doornail”.
Finding a solution, Robert discovered that Anneka Rice would be in the area later in the week - on her own and without a film crew. She could be the figurehead that Lynda had failed to be thus far.
Anneka arrived in Ambridge on 26 March 1993 - a bit late. She persuaded everyone to declare a truce, and then rounded up the village to help. Neil turned up protesting that there wasn’t a rift between Mike and him, so Anneka dashed off in the buggy to Hollowtree. She phoned Eddie but he didn't believe it was her and refused to help until he actually saw her. Eddie was gobsmacked when Anneka turned up with Mike, who promptly set to work with Neil like they were old friends. By the time the kitchen was finished, Eddie regained his composure enough to ask for a signed photo…
Listen again to a few moments from Anneka Rice's visit to Ambridge...
When Anneka Rice came to Ambridge (1993)
