Daphne's adventures acting in television

Readers of Funnily Enough often ask after my mother - worried that she might be offended by some of the stories recorded in my diary. What they do not know if that she actually asked if I could put a picture of her looking absurd on the front cover.

Mum used to make an effort to look pretty. She started working as a television presenter in about 1969 and was with HTV for years, reading the local news and presenting a children's programme called 'It's Time For Me', 'Women Only' with Jan Leeming and appearing on Christmas Specials.
At the same time, she worked for BBC Radio Bristol presenting a sports programme called 'Come Alive' and reading letters on 'Any Answers' before there were phone-ins.

Here she is interviewing the artist Kit Williams at the time he bought out his book Masquerade and sent all of England on a treasure hunt, looking for a golden hare.

By 1980 Mum was working as a continuity announcer for Border Television. We nearly moved up to the Lake District. I found this clip of her appearing on Grampian TV a few years later ~

Whilst in-vision announcers disappeared from television screens in the 1980s Mum did not. She began gaining small parts in period dramas, many of which were filmed on location in the West Country.

Appearing in 'Miss Marple' with Joan Hickson

She has always thrived in front of the camera, whatever the weather -

Daphne Neville with Diana Dors in 'The Two Ronnies' for BBC TV

readily admitting that she loves dressing up and grabbing any chance to appear in costume.

Daphne Neville in 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'

What she is not so keen on is wearing fur coats.

On location with Cheryl Campbell in 'Rain on the Roof'

She hates the idea of animals suffering for fashion,

As Lady Kroesig, mother to Anthony Head in 'Love in a Cold Climate'

but is happy to comply with the costume designer's wishes. Here she is playing Lady Kroesig, mother to Anthony Head in the LWT adaptation of Nancy Mitford's novel Love in a Cold Climate, in which her daughter Tamzin played the young Linda.


To see more photographs of Mum in action, click here!

My velvet 1970s Donny Osmond cap

Someone has been searching the internet for a photograph of a velvet Donny Osmond hat. Here you can see the genuine article: the author, Sophie Neville wearing a Donny Osmond hat bought at great expense in Carnaby Street, in London in 1970.

The Donny Osmond hat was originally bought by my mother, Daphne Neville. She was working at a television presenter for HTV at the time and would wore it with a brown suede coat to present Women Only on location in Jersey. I wear it all the time. It is properly lined and doesn't mess up my hair.

My mother also had a cotton Donny Osmond hat with pink flowers, bought in Ambleside the Lake District in May 1973. Here she is with David Blagden, the transatlantic yachtsman who presented the televsion series Plain Sailing. This hat blew off when we were sailing and sunk to the bottom of Derwent Water but it was soon replaced by one with yellow flowers which my mother may still have. Daivid sadly died off Aldernay, when attempting another transatlantic crossing.

Here is rather a blurred version of the film director Claude Whatham wearing the Donny Osmond cap with yellow flowers. The movie actress Brenda Bruce is laughing at him in the background.

I'll see if I can find a few more photos. There are some on my Facebook page.

Funnily Enough at Chalford Post Office ~

My father, Martin Neville in his Denys fire engine outside Chalford Post Office, which was run by Mr Ruck back in 1966 when this photo was taken.

Sophie Neville is standing on the front seat, in front of the fire hose. Daphne Neville is standing in the back with a baby in her arms. Contemporary artist, Rufus Knight-Webb is with his brother and sister, sitting in back third from the left. His father was the local GP.

Martin bought the Denys, which had a Rolls Royce engine, from B.I.P. who had been using it as a works fire engine in Birmingham. He was taking his family and friends off for a picnic at the polo ground in Cirencester Park.

We relish the thought of what Health and Safety Officers would think of the photograph today. The vehicle had useless breaks and the clutch kept going but it took us all to Cirencester Park and back without mishap. I remember the esign of the cigarette advertisements and longing for a Walls ice cream. These were made in Gloucester, not that far away.

You can read more about the characters in Funnily Enough ~

Building boats ~ and renovating classic craft

Alastair Fothergill researching a documentary on the Thames

Men who have enjoyed reading Funnily Enough tell me that they are interested to know more about my father's boats. When I was seventeen, I helped Dad to renovate a 1901 Steamboat called Daffodil, which we kept on the Thames for many years.

What appealed to them was Dad's enthusiasm for classic design and his energy for renovating vintage hulls.

In 1991 Dad was engrossed in completing a Humber Yawl, which he had designed and built himself. We ended up taking her to the Lake District where he sailed down Windermere despite the fact that there seemed to be no wind. I preferred rowing her.

Cassy was a beautiful vessel. You could also use her with an outboard, but she proved very much a one-man concern. Almost as soon as she had been finished my father was after a new project. He bought the hull of a 1912 river launch that came down on a trailer from Scotland and immediately began doing her up.

The Ottor, as Dad christened her, replaced Dad's rather fragile 1901 steamboat - a lovely vessel that as far as my mother was concerned ran silently and had a fire on board. At first she was not keen on the idea of a noisy diesel engine but Ottor was a comfortable launch and Mum was happy once out on the Thames where there is lots to do and see.

For more about Martin Neville and his books and boats
please click on http://martinneville.wordpress.com/about/

If you wish to use any photographs please contact sophie@sophieneville.co.uk

Daffodil our steamboat kept on the River Thames

One of the characters in 'Funnily Enough' is Daffodil, my father's steamboat. She was built in 1901, a 24' river launch with a cabin long enough to sleep in and an unusual deck that extened out over her stern. For as long as I can remember her hull rested under a sycamore tree in our garden, draped in tarpulines, looking out over our lake. She had to wait for my father to find an engine that would suit her and the time to put her right.

Suddenly things started to move. Daffodil was decked with gaboon and teak, a boiler was found and clad, a funnel added. She was even fitted with a steam kettle. I helped a sweet old plumber with the pipe-work that connected boiler to engine, lagging pipes that we knew would become hot. The was to make her accelerate was simply to open up the steam valve - turn on the tap. She did have a gear that would throw her into reverse.

Once everthing was fitted, painted and shining we towed her down to Bossom's Boatyard at Port Meadow on the Thames. She was launched - and promptly started leaking. I leaped abraad to take out all our carefully stowed gear and provisions tucked into the cabin lockers. The boat yard calmly hoisted a cradle around her so she wouldn't sink. Her old timbers had been out of the water for too long. She was left for her timbers to swell but my father ended up having to have her clad in a fibreglass coat.

We had many happy weekends on Daffodil. It was wonderful to have aboat with a fire on board. It took about 45 minutes to get up steam but this never seemed a chore. On the whole we burnt steam coal which didn't produce much smoke. We did use wood but this menat that sparks could fly out of the chimney. They burrnt small holes in the canvas canopy, which was made to cover the cockpit. One got me in the eye when I was stading on the roof in a lock. It left me very sore for a day or too but I recovered.

Daffodil's engine made a wonderful sound and the smell of the high grade steam oil somehow mixed well with summer days on the Thames. With steam up she could go at quite a pace but was so well designed she never left any wake. One always had to take care no to run low on steam incase extra power was needed at a weir. She was terribly fragile. We had to take great care when going through locks and did not dare take her off the river, but people came to her and she is lovingly remembered.

If you would like to read more about my father, Martin Neville and his boats, please go to

 http://martinneville.wordpress.com/about/