TALES FROM THE HILLS

(Ashmansworth and Crux Easton)

Our neighbour, the late, irrepressible Keith Chegwin, started out as a Shakespearean child actor. He played Banquo’s son in a film of Macbeth, directed by Roman Polanski – yet another Ashmansworth connection with the movies. He ended up as one of our more agreeable TV personalities and someone who, when having to back his car on our narrow lanes, would smile rather than scowl.

Early on he was a regular on the BBC’s Swap Shop with Delia Smith, John Craven and Noel Edmonds; he went on to become not just a personality but a celebrity, so recognisable that Ricky Gervais invited him onto the smash-hit show Extras to play himself: Cheggers.

He put Ashmansworth on the map by embracing the internet. He said that, of all the stuff he’d ever done, his own favourite was Cheggers’ Bedroom, a one-man internet show from his house – produced by, and starring, himself. With that show he became an ‘internet cottager’ par excellence, with a claimed world-wide audience of hundreds of thousands.

That way he proved you could earn a living up here without leaving the village; in fact without leaving your house, and even without getting out of bed! He claimed that the site became so popular that the Chinese government thought it worth hacking, and that they posted anti-American slogans on it.

He was evidently at ease with technology. When Air Traffic Control decided to change the air corridors above us, by re-routing low-flying airliners over the village, Keith turned up at the village hall with his hi-fi kit, and demonstrated to us what the proposed decibels from these planes would sound like.

He had his critics. Some comedians in 2010 claimed that Keith was posting ‘their’ jokes on his website. The newspapers gave the following example: “I used to go to the circus to see the fat tattooed lady – now they’re everywhere.” You wonder why those ‘comedians’ bothered to claim it.

Keith wrote a book about his life and his personal problems, even holding a book-signing at WH Smith in Newbury. The shop manager praised his ‘affinity with the customers.’

That was Cheggers.

Agricola, October 2023