VALERIE SINGLETON GOES BACK TO SCHOOL

THERE’S excitement and expectancy in the air, just like the first day of term at a new school.
‘Pupils’ are animated as they chat enthusiastically to fellow classmates over organic coffee in front of a welcoming log fire; toasting themselves gently on a chill winter-moving-into-spring morning; readying themselves for the day of learning ahead.
First lesson of the day: If you are going to have soya milk with your brew, you must put it in first. Added last it will curdle. Amazing what you can glean before you’ve even taken your seat in class.
These students are part of the New Labour dream. ‘Education from the cradle to the grave,’ bellowed David Blunkett, heralding a fresh chapter in the life of the nation’s text books and teachers.
And nowhere plays its role better in that fine scholastic and nurturing ideal than historic Dillington House, a short walk through the woods from Ilminster in the shiny Somerset countryside.
Outside in the beautiful walled gardens of this Ham stone gem is the sans-pesticide micro farm run by one time Fleet Street editor and leader of Liberation, Rosie Boycott, now a cutting edge columnist and fully-fledged farmer who writes her stuff these days with soil under once manicured talons.
So celebrities are nothing new in the life of Dillington, for many years a unique leader in the field of adult education, and also a masterful, mindful mein host for the many residential business conferences and seminars held in the discreet environs of the old house with its mature malt whiskey-walls and inviting interior full of understated art. Stuffy it is not. Clubby in a comfortable, inclusive way.
That’s why is attracts such a quirky, colourful cross-section of customers from every walk of life and livings. You’d be surprised. Very surprised.
Lords and ladies, not totally undercover – what’s the point in being landed if no-one knows it? – mix easily with builders and bank managers, housewives and helicopter pilots or simply the relaxed and retired from a myriad of occupations who want to expand the breadth of their knowledge with a few courses in these stimulating surroundings.
Why, you might even find yourself sitting next to the mother or father of a rock star. They come a little more covertly to the gatherings. But it has been known.
This part of the world is the new showbiz golden triangle, on the apex of the Somerset – Dorset – Devon borders, a location, location, location must, far away from the madding crowds of the Cotswolds, “so yesterday darling.”
There’s a bit more of a buzz today than usual over the home-made cakes and cookies.
Gentle, whispered conversations. Eyes averted. Don’t look now but…
It isn’t is it? It can’t be! It’s her. What a member of the royal family? No. No. Not quite. Oh yes I think you‘re right. I bet it is. What, here?
A gentleman in his middle –age, old enough to remember the flickering black and white screen fired up by an energy-guzzling cathode ray, displaying grainy live broadcasts featuring incontinent elephants and flirty ferrets, proffers his right hand and a nervous smile and asks quietly, so that only she can hear: : “Excuse me, but are you Valerie Singleton?”
“I am and you can call me Val,” responds the crowned head of British television through the swinging sixties and slightly svelte seventies. As presenter of arguably the nation’s favourite show watched in every household by every child, Blue Peter, she was one of the first stars of the screen.
Of course it’s an answer she made earlier. Being Valerie Singleton puts you in a small, select band of televisual celebrities who is always recognised everywhere, and like a good girl scout, is prepared.
Our Valerie Singleton was the undoubted Queen of TV, the most known female face in the British world, rivalling that the monarch herself.
And, at first, shaking hands with such an iconic figure is a little like kneeling on bended knee before Her Majesty, waiting for the tap of Sheffield-steel on the shoulder, while being told: “Call me Liz.”
But of course, it is not the same thing at all. Val Singleton was and remains, the ultimate icy cool professional, unflappable and unflustered, a flawless diamond of the early age of broadcasting who went on to present a plethora of heavyweight radio and televisions shows. But in real life, she’s approachable and affable with few airs and graces who has found a new lease of life in the West Country after finally uprooting from London.
Her excitement with this fresh start is barely concealed as she chatters away like a schoolgirl with a new circle of friends.
“People do come up to me and ask if I am who they think I am,” she explains, “I say I am and that’s that. It isn’t mentioned again and we just get on with things, like normal people do. I don’t mind at all.
“It’s a friendly inquiry and I do understand that Blue Peter was a big part of people’s lives and millions grew up with it. We were in their homes every week for a long, long time, and the show still runs today.”
It was comic and social commentator Stephen Fry who said of celebrity: “I have been pondering this business of fame since I was young enough to know Valerie Singleton from the Queen. For Americans and foreigners I should explain: One is a remote, god-like, autocratic woman endowed with powerful charismatic charm and the other is a constitutional monarch recently played by Helen Mirren.”
Val, now an extremely youthful-looking 70, with classy dark tips to her, designer cut hair, laughs. “I really keep meaning to email him about that, it’s quite flattering, although I’m not sure about autocratic.”
Today Miss Singleton, who remains romantically-positioned as her surname suggests, reveals she has boyfriends, often much younger than herself, and a lust for learning, travel and her new love, digital photography. She has just fronted a successful Money Programme which may lead to more, is an energetic published writer about her journeys and is pleased to report work offers still arrive regularly.
She taps a forefinger to her head and says: “Age is all up here. It’s not about the number of years. If you are fortunate enough to be able to be fit and well, age should not limit us in any way.
“If the attitude is young and go-for-it, that’s all that should matter. I want to learn about digital photography, but sadly all the courses are booked up well in advance, but after hearing about Dillington I realised they have a lot of exciting courses and when I came here for the first time I fell in love with it.
“I have been thumbing through the brochure for new courses, but what I have done so far are Reputations: Alfred the Great and the ‘Evil’ King John.
“From Muhammed to Osama: A survey of Islam and its politics through the ages.
“I loved The Origins of Humanity…and the Wonderful Temples of Ancient Egypt, because I am fascinated with travelling.”
Her report book is blotted today however. The star pupil missed the morning session of Mummification and Afterlife in Egypt after a late arrival back from London the previous night.
“I know a bit about mummification already,” she jokes. “I did some courses in London in the early days of Blue Peter, on antiques and porcelain and wine, but I have never come across such amazing, interesting and varied courses as the ones at Dillington.
“It’s hard to believe a council is running it! The brochure is beautifully set out and the setting is fabulous. Inside it is lovely and incredibly relaxing…and the food superb. The courses attracted me, the rest was a bonus. In winter the old hall and the real log fire make it enclosing and peaceful and I think sitting out in the wonderful gardens in the summer will be heaven.”
Val reveals she was far from an ideal pupil when she went to school and left for RADA hoping to become a dancer with little formal education or qualifications.
“I couldn’t concentrate at all,” she remembers. “I would get on everybody’s nerves by kicking the desk absent-mindedly.
“So my learning left a lot to be desired and I doubt now if I tried to get into television that I would be given any kind of a job because I had very little in the way of passes in exams and didn’t go to college or university.
“It is so heartening to see so many people of a certain age at a time of life when it would be all too easy to say, ‘Why bother, how am I going to need or use this information?’ instead being so enthusiastic to learn.
“And they come from so far away, I’m sure so many new friendships have been made. I haven’t stayed myself because I don’t live too far away, but I’m sure that is a delightful way to spend your time, relaxing in beautiful surroundings and learning something fascinating.”
With that Valerie Singleton heads for the afternoon session on Mummies, just one of the gang.