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Alton Towers on BBC's Who Do You Think You Are?

Jordan

Jordan

TS Contributor
(Hat-tip to my Mum for spotting this one :p)

Alton Towers will be featuring on BBC One's Who Do You Think You Are? this Wednesday evening. The episode is following William Roache (known as Ken Barlow from Coronation Street), whose grandmother, Zillah Waddicor, ran a café in the Towers in the mid 1920s.

It looks like it'll be worth a watch, likely some good archive footage will make an appearance. :)

BBC programme page.
 
Jordan said:
(Hat-tip to my Mum for spotting this one :p)

Alton Towers will be featuring on BBC One's Who Do You Think You Are? this Wednesday evening. The episode is following William Roache (known as Ken Barlow from Coronation Street), whose grandmother, Zillah Waddicor, ran a café in the Towers in the mid 1920s.

It looks like it'll be worth a watch, likely some good archive footage will make an appearance. :)

BBC programme page.
Click to expand...
Brilliant shell be watching :)
 
Looks interesting. She's listed as the proprietress of at least one cafe on the Towers estate in that period in a couple of the old guidebooks from that time, so now there will be a face to the name :)

Thanks for the heads up. I'll try to catch this if I'm around a TV.
 
What was it like, I completely forgot to watch it? *remembers that iPlayer exists*
 
Two thirds of the way through now. I expected there to be just a snippet of Alton Towers. I was wrong. A large part of the show is concentrated on his Grandmothers business at the Towers and there are a few pics etc that I've never seen before. I thought that this would be a bit...errrrrr...you know....but it's actually very, very good if you've got the slightest interest in the Towers' history. Even if you havn't, you might after this. Gary Kelsall who made the 'Story of Alton Towers' DVD also features in this and if I'm guessing he's probably been involved in most of the history work from the Alton side of things on this project. A really good watch for anyone who frequents this forum I reckon :)

Here's the link on BBC Iplayer - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... am_Roache/
 
Really went into detail about his history at Alton towers really enjoy it
 
There were a couple of bits of raised eyebrow moments (500 years?), but generally a very good review of the Towers pre-war. I'd never seen the picture of the Banqueting Hall with the bar in it before, which was a nice find and the link to the Old Mill in Alton was very interesting too. I did find it rather amusing when John Broome's desk out of the Archives appeared in the middle of the Drawing Room, in a "here's where we keep our desk" sort of moment.

I have to say though the absolute highlight for me was the Blackpool Pleasure Beach section, which was totally unexpected and amazing footage of lots of lost attractions.
 
Was Albert Waddicor's father a medical electrician? I didn't hear the first time :p

I've been watching the show for a while now, it's so insightful and helpful with regards to history on the Towers. It's great that they expanded upon the former cafe and restaurant too which we don't especially get in the history books.

Cheers Ken (and Jordan's Mum)!
 
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