If I were to mention the name Shaw Taylor to people over the age of 30, who grew up in the Midlands or the South East regions, they’d tend to smile and say, “Oh yeahhh!… I wonder what happened to him?… Is he dead?”
Well he’s not! and I can categorically confirm that since I’ve spent most of the day in Wolverhampton on a documentary shoot with him.
(For those who don’t know – he is a TV Presenter who was most famous for presenting ‘Police 5’, a precursor of CrimeWatch, that ran for years. It’s hey days was probably the 70’s and the 80’s. He was also famous for presenting public information films asking people to wear seat belts or avoid flying kites near electricity pylons… you get the picture)
After that little broadcasting biography of the man I think it becomes obvious why he was the natural choice for Matt and Nick’s documentary, “Things to Do in Wolverhampton when you’re Dead”.
He’s an Old Pro! – that’s what I’ve got to say about this fine Gentlemen. He’s over 70 years old and he now lives with his wife, in retirement on the Isle of Wight but can obviously be presuaded to come out of retirement for the odd day or two. And they don’t get much odder than today!
At one point I witnessed our ‘pro-am’ TV crew explaining to a couple of uniformed police officers why Shaw Taylor was riding pillion to an eccentric Glaswegian ordained minister on a motorbike with a side car hearse which contained a seven foot coffin and a wreath with the name ‘SHAW’ spelled out in lovely white flowers. (Phew!)
When not actually on camera, Shaw served up a huge banquet of choice anectdotes from his 50 years of broadcasting, for us whippersnappers… one of which was that during the Second World War, He served as a frontline RAF Radar operator in Imphal, India (only a few miles away from Sylhet, Bangladesh!).
Of course, today wasn’t entirely about Shaw Taylor, there was the Kite Guy, the Cortina and the Chopper… Oh forget it! you’re not going to believe me anyway.