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It's been fun looking back at my typically teenage diary entries
for 1986:
"Sunday Jan 26th - finished my design for the Blue Peter York
Minster Bosses competition today. Otherwise, pretty boring. Watched
Doris Day film. Looks like Aha is going to be Number 1."
"Friday Feb 14th - Fantastic! Brill! Wow! Simon Groom rang
up last night and they want me on Blue Peter next Monday - I have
won a prize in the York Minster competition! Two Valentines today
- one from you know who, and the other from who knows?"
I have long forgotten who 'you know who' was, but have never forgotten
how important a turning point winning the Blue Peter York Minster
competition was to my life. I was given a huge confidence boost
in my art and design skills at a time when I was anything but confident.
I am the eldest of eight children, and we all used to watch Blue
Peter together, and usually entered the competitions together too
- I have a little box of runner up badges to show for these efforts!
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It's
difficult to describe the sense of achievement I still
feel
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The York Minster Competition stood out as very special. The prize
immediately appealed to me - I loved the idea of my great-great-great
grandchildren being able to see my design in an ancient and much
revered building.
The design had to depict an event I felt had some importance in
the 20th century, and the 1982 raising of Henry VIII's Tudor warship,
the 'Mary Rose', sprang to my mind straight away.
I had just finished a personal project on it the year before, and
I felt it was such an outstanding and unusual event that it deserved
a permanent place in a historical monument.
Keeping the design simple was very important because the boss had
to be seen from a very long way off. I decided that depicting the
machinery used' would complicate the picture, and so substituted
a hand instead. I remember telling my mother that it was the last
Blue Peter competition that I would ever enter as I felt I was a
bit too old at 16, but also because I thought that the prize was
so brilliant nothing could top it.
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| The
Blue Peter winners admire the Rose Window |
The phone call at 10.30pm on Feb 13th 1986 was so mind blowing,
I still get goosebumps thinking about it. Things like that just
didn't happen to a shy 16-year old from small town Carmarthen in
South Wales!
On 17th February I travelled the BBC studios in London where I
met the other five prize winners - Rebecca, Richard, Ben, Laura
and also Tim who was the joint winner in my age group.
After lunch in the famous BBC canteen, during which we star spotted
like mad - John Craven even said hello to us - Biddy Baxter told
us that we were all prize winners and we had our first taste of
'fame' as our photos were taken by all the newspaper men.
Next came the rehearsals but nothing prepared us for the nerve
racking live show. I can't remember anything except feeling very
hot and hoping that the make up put on me would stay looking nice.
I went back to school to endure the Blue Peter tune being whistled
in the 6th form room every time I entered it - but I have to say
I couldn't have cared less for my perceived loss of street cred.
The truth was that so many people told me that they felt the same
way as I did. The sense of history always overcame the sneer factor.
On 24th February 1986 I travelled with my Mum to York, where we
were to stay with Canon Mayland and his wife. The six of us visited
the Jorvik Centre and inhaled all the deliciously disgusting smells.
We were then taken backstage, shown how it all worked, and given
lots of presents.
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| The
completed vaulted ceiling |
In fact we were very spoilt in general - everywhere we went in
York we were given such generous and kind treatment. We had a lovely
lady called Margaret Phillips to look after our every need.
We filmed one day all around and about York Minster with Simon
Groom, and met up with Nick Quayle and Geoff Carpenter, the two
carvers.
It was very enjoyable, but we were all a bit perturbed at how if
one of us said something spontaneous like, "That's a weird
looking gargoyle!", the director would shout, "Cut! Can
you repeat that again please and say it nice and loud and clear".
The best thing I remember about that time was getting the chance
to discuss with the carvers exactly how we wanted our individual
bosses to be portrayed.
It was a very informative experience, working with such highly
skilled professional creatives. I have a photo of myself and Nick
Quayle in discussion - he asked me to send him some more drawings
and specified the kind of extra detail he needed in particular for
the ship.
At the end of the first filming session we all went to Pizza Hut
and made a party of it. Everyone let their hair down. All the winners
got on despite the age gaps. I'm in touch with Tim still, but I'd
love to know what the others are doing now.
The second time I went to York was in May 1986. This time our perks
were being taken on a boat trip up the river to the Archbishop's
Palace. We all knew what the camera crew wanted from us this time,
so everything went a lot more smoothly.
Laura's and Tim's bosses had been completed, so they filmed them
ostensibly attaching their bosses to the roof of the South Transept.
However, the roof was still nowhere near finished at that point,
so as soon as Laura bolted her boss in, they promptly took it off
again.
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| Joanna
& carver Nick Quayle |
The discussions between Bob Littlewood and his team were fascinating
- particularly the decisions they had to make between what was to
be a replica, how much to adhere to the historical way of making
things, and where to bring 20th century technology in. The whole
experience was epic.
It was quite sad on the last evening of filming because we had
to say goodbye to all the people who had put us and our families
up and looked after us so well. We knew it would be some time before
we would be back in York again.
After that we all had one more trip to the Blue Peter studio to
collect our the 'mini bosses' that the carvers had specially made
for us, but the final and biggest event was our invitation to attend
The Dedication of the Roof and Vault of the restored South Transept
on 4th November 1988 - and to meet the Queen.
By this time I had transformed into an art foundation student,
attending art college and getting ready to go to Oxford University
to do a Fine Art degree - the street cred nose dive was imminent
and prominent.
But again, all that was blown away by the prospect of seeing my
design up there in the vaulted ceiling. I remember blabbering on
about how beautiful the choir boys' singing was, and how small the
Queen was, but the footage of that time clearly shows what I was
really transfixed by. My eyes are drawn up to the ceiling the whole
time.
It's difficult to describe the sense of achievement I still feel.
Every year I get at least one reminder - usually through somebody
sending me the postcard still sold at York Minster with my design
on it.
It truly affected my life in a positive way, giving me the confidence
to study and work as a creative ever since - Oxford, Royal College
of Art, and now running my own business.
I can't imagine how I would have gained the confidence to do any
of this without the knowledge that once upon a time some people
liked one of my designs enough to want a permanent realisation of
it in a context so beautiful and rich in history.
My two year old has yet to be taken to York Minster - we've decided
to make the trip when she's old enough to be a Blue Peter viewer
- and so, as the 20th anniversary comes up, we're already on to
the next generation.
Joanna Biggs
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