Heat is on over my rooftop striptease

SUmmertIme in 1950 and I was a 19year-old apprentice carpenter, setting up temporary control rooms at the BBC for radio broadcasting in the many studios and theatres scattered around the West end of London. one of these was the Playhouse theatre on the corner of Northumberland Avenue and the embankment, and it was here that I was working on a glorious July day. the hot sunshine lured me up to the flat roof of the theatre. It had a low parapet wall around it, so off came the shirt to make a pillow on top of the wall on which I lay down, about six inches from the edge, with a 40ft drop to the avenue below. I wasn’t there long when I heard the sound of fire engines coming rapidly down the road. I looked over the edge and was surprised to see an engine come to a skidding halt outside the entrance to the theatre. thinking there must be a fire, I grabbed my shirt and started down the stairs. I hadn’t gone far when a couple of firemen came rushing past me, saying there was a possible suicide on the roof. this really surprised me, as I hadn’t seen anyone else up there. then the penny dropped! I continued down to the foyer, which was chaotic with theatre staff, firemen and some of the radio stars. I discovered that a person in an office block on the other side of the road had decided I looked suicidal and called 999. there was nothing else for it but to admit I was responsible. Some people laughed, while others lectured me. After that, I decided to leave my tanning sessions to the privacy of my back garden.

vic Beaumont, Hatfield, Herts.