Doon the Watta

Available for over a year

Nicholas Parsons was only just 16 when his parents sent him from his relatively privileged home in London to the industrially hardened city of Glasgow. It was January 1940 and with the country still at war, the Parsons felt the best place for their teenage son was serving his country north of the border. So with the help of an uncle, Nicholas secured an engineering apprenticeship on the busy River Clyde. For five years he combined his studies at Glasgow university with work for the Drysdales firm. 60 years on, Nicholas Parsons goes back to the place where he was sent as a boy but grew into a man. By day, he had a tough education from the uncompromisingly tough men of the Clyde, but by night he had the freedom to discover his talents on stage and perform to packed out theatres and concert halls full of the men with whom he was clocking on and off. Producer: Lyndon Saunders An All Out production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in June 2010.