This is Leicestershire -- Remember Ben Hatch? He was a Leicester Mercury journalist in the 1990s, who riled a good chunk of our readership with his, um, forthright TV reviews. "Down the Hatch" crowed one letter writer, gleefully, when he finally stepped down. Well Ben's an author now and doing very nicely, thank you. In his 2011 book Are We Nearly There Yet? he set out on an 8,000-mile round-Britain trip with his wife Dinah and two young kids. In a Vauxhall Astra. Now he's repeated the trick, but in France. It's called The Road to Rouen. Here, Ben recalls some formative experiences for the First Up column, which runs each Saturday in More Mercury. *First memory:* I am standing behind a beach ball aged two, looking back at the beach where Bill Oddie is sunbathing beside my mum and dad. Bill has a long, thin moustache and looks Mexican, like a gunslinger from a cowboy film. For some reason, I still don't fully understand how he came on holiday with our family. *First album:* I'd like to say it was something by The Jam or The Style Council, but it wasn't. It was Danny Kaye sings Hans Christian Anderson. To be fair to me, it did have the Inchworm on it, which is a genuine classic I am sure will one day be sampled by P Diddy. *First gig:* it was The Human League in the tiny Limit club in Sheffield, where I went to university. I couldn't believe it when a guy dropped his watch and everyone wildly stamped on it, including the guy whose watch it was. I went to see Queen shortly afterwards at Wembley. It was a huge disappointment. There was no atmosphere and nothing at all was stamped on. *First job:* I worked in the Royal Bank of Scotland in Baker Street, in London, a job I was fired from for sending Michael Crawford's bank statement to the wrong address. *First car:* A Ford Capri. It was metallic blue apart from the bonnet which was jet black. It had to be resprayed as I'd written Welcome Home Denise on it in corrosive Crest toothpaste when my girlfriend came home from her summer away in Paris and I drove to meet her at the airport. She finished with me a few days later, as well. *First place of your own:* I bought a flat in Ealing aged 30. I got into DIY and did it up myself with the help of my artistic friend Dave, who insisted I install a huge fish-tank above the doorjamb into the living room. It was impossible to ever change the water as the tank was too heavy to bring down once in place. As the fish died slowly in the blackening water they stank the place out. *First love:* Justine Harvey. She was a foot taller than I was and I kissed her stood on an Encyclopaedia Britannica in the library of Hawridge and Cholesbury Infants aged 11, while Laura Woodstock timed us with a stop-watch. One minute and five seconds. It broke the school record! Unfortunately, the relationship ended soon after, possibly because David Broom gave her a creme egg. *First holiday abroad:* France. I went with my mum and dad, aged about 13, and spent the entire week as my parents shopped for AOC-approved pates and jams in markets trying to buy a flick knife and French bangers. *First time in Leicester:* Probably my job interview at the Leicester Mercury, where I ended up working for two years from 1995 to 1997. I've been back regularly ever since just for the pure never-to-be-dulled joy of being called "me duck" by grown men. •Former Leicester Mercury journalist and reader-riling TV critic Ben Hatch's new book The Road To Rouen (Headline) is out now.
Reported by This is 13 hours ago.
This is Leicestershire -- Remember Ben Hatch? He was a Leicester Mercury journalist in the 1990s, who riled a good chunk of our readership with his, um, forthright TV reviews. "Down the Hatch" crowed one letter writer, gleefully, when he finally stepped down. Well Ben's an author now and doing very nicely, thank you. In his 2011 book Are We Nearly There Yet? he set out on an 8,000-mile round-Britain trip with his wife Dinah and two young kids. In a Vauxhall Astra. Now he's repeated the trick, but in France. It's called The Road to Rouen. Here, Ben recalls some formative experiences for the First Up column, which runs each Saturday in More Mercury. *First memory:* I am standing behind a beach ball aged two, looking back at the beach where Bill Oddie is sunbathing beside my mum and dad. Bill has a long, thin moustache and looks Mexican, like a gunslinger from a cowboy film. For some reason, I still don't fully understand how he came on holiday with our family. *First album:* I'd like to say it was something by The Jam or The Style Council, but it wasn't. It was Danny Kaye sings Hans Christian Anderson. To be fair to me, it did have the Inchworm on it, which is a genuine classic I am sure will one day be sampled by P Diddy. *First gig:* it was The Human League in the tiny Limit club in Sheffield, where I went to university. I couldn't believe it when a guy dropped his watch and everyone wildly stamped on it, including the guy whose watch it was. I went to see Queen shortly afterwards at Wembley. It was a huge disappointment. There was no atmosphere and nothing at all was stamped on. *First job:* I worked in the Royal Bank of Scotland in Baker Street, in London, a job I was fired from for sending Michael Crawford's bank statement to the wrong address. *First car:* A Ford Capri. It was metallic blue apart from the bonnet which was jet black. It had to be resprayed as I'd written Welcome Home Denise on it in corrosive Crest toothpaste when my girlfriend came home from her summer away in Paris and I drove to meet her at the airport. She finished with me a few days later, as well. *First place of your own:* I bought a flat in Ealing aged 30. I got into DIY and did it up myself with the help of my artistic friend Dave, who insisted I install a huge fish-tank above the doorjamb into the living room. It was impossible to ever change the water as the tank was too heavy to bring down once in place. As the fish died slowly in the blackening water they stank the place out. *First love:* Justine Harvey. She was a foot taller than I was and I kissed her stood on an Encyclopaedia Britannica in the library of Hawridge and Cholesbury Infants aged 11, while Laura Woodstock timed us with a stop-watch. One minute and five seconds. It broke the school record! Unfortunately, the relationship ended soon after, possibly because David Broom gave her a creme egg. *First holiday abroad:* France. I went with my mum and dad, aged about 13, and spent the entire week as my parents shopped for AOC-approved pates and jams in markets trying to buy a flick knife and French bangers. *First time in Leicester:* Probably my job interview at the Leicester Mercury, where I ended up working for two years from 1995 to 1997. I've been back regularly ever since just for the pure never-to-be-dulled joy of being called "me duck" by grown men. •Former Leicester Mercury journalist and reader-riling TV critic Ben Hatch's new book The Road To Rouen (Headline) is out now.
Reported by This is 13 hours ago.