Croquet was an idea of David Plowright’s. He got it into his head that the grass, which was in front of Granada, which eventually they built a studio on, would be nice as a croquet lawn. So everybody was saying, “Yes, great idea, David.” And he said, “And we’re going to televise croquet.” Silence. “And you’re doing it,” he said to me. So I said, “I know nothing about croquet!” he said, “You will – I’m sending you off to Cheltenham, where the Cheltenham Ladies’ College has a great croquet lawn, and you’re going to be taught.” So I went off to Cheltenham, where I learnt how to play croquet. So we built a croquet lawn in front of Granada, and televised it – and it was very successful! The commentator, of all people, was a bloke who used to do the horse… bedding odds for racing. Lord… can’t remember. And they were world-class croquet players. But as I say, talk about the… you had to be very careful with commentary, because you can imagine it: “He is about to hit somebody’s red ball,” and so on. But that was an experience and a half. We only ever did it once. They then decided to build a studio on the same piece of grass, and that was it. But that was a great excitement.
