Public decide TV trial verdict
A MAGICIAN’S lair, a hospital for hedgehogs and even a chapel complete with an organ are among the wild and wonderful creations vying for the title of 2017 Shed of the Year.
And while Stephen Davies’ Swansea shed might not match some entries for creativity – what he does inside his is arguably more inspiring than any of this year’s other finalists.
His shed is the centre of operations for Team UnLimbited, where he has developed and built a 3D printing operation to make prosthetic limbs.
They are provided free to people across the country and the designs are used all over the world.
The 42-year-old said: “It is something I do in my spare time, and I have to fit in the hours where I can.
“I’ve also got three children, and sometimes I do miss out on days out.
“But my wife Rhian is brilliant. She thought I was mad in the beginning, but she knows why I am doing it.
“I was born without a left hand, so doing this is something that means a lot to me. I know what it means to the children that we help.”
Stephen’s shed, in the garden of his Clydach home, is where all the equipment needed for making the limbs is housed, and was started with help from his employer Ogilvie, which made a £1,000 contribution after learning what he was up to.
A typical arm can take up to 12 hours to make, and the work has to be fitted in as and when circumstances allow. His efforts have seen him help up to 50 children.
Stephen added: “I don’t think there is anything particularly spectacular about the shed, especially as some of the others shortlisted are amazing. But it’s a bit of fun to have been nominated.”
Shed enthusiasts across the nation have lovingly crafted their creations and now their finest efforts have been whittled down to a shortlist of 32, which will battle it out to be named the Cuprinol Shed of the Year – the competition with a cult following founded by Andrew Wilcox from Penarth.
The Welsh shed king said: “Every year I am overwhelmed with the nation’s love of sheds and how they re- ally get behind this celebration of British eccentricity.”
Sheds have been nominated in eight categories, from environmentally friendly buildings and historic extravaganzas to those built on a budget and cabins and summerhouses.
Purists who prefer the smell of sawdust and the sight of gleaming saws hung up next to rows of screwdrivers may well be a little disappointed, though – many of the finalists bear little resemblance to somewhere you might knock up a set of shelves or oil your gardening shears.
A shed created by Paul Foden in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, appears bigger on the inside than from the outside – it is a full recreation of the Tardis, complete with a console, cyberman and dalek.
Another is set out as a whisky bar for a group of friends to meet, play board games and “talk nonsense”, a shed in Staffordshire is disguised as a fully-working cinema, while Captain Mark Lowen’s shed in Buzzard, Bedfordshire, holds a commercial Boeing 737 flight simulator.
There is even a shed for poorly hedgehogs – Pricklebums is owned by Ailie Hill in Ludlow, Shropshire, and was converted from a garden summerhouse to care for sick, injured and orphaned hedgehogs.
Now in its 10th year, the competition shows no signs of creaking – the shortlist came from a record 2,963 entries.
The shortlisted outhouses will go “shed-to-shed” on TV programme Amazing Spaces Shed Of The Year, shown on Channel 4 this summer.
Voting to choose the category winners has opened, and people have until noon on June 2 to pick their favourite for Shed of the Year.
To see the full shortlist and cast a vote, visit www.readershed.co.uk TWELVE members of the public will decide the verdict of a fictional murder case in a new TV series that will open the doors to the jury room for the first time.
The Trial: A Murder In The Family will see the randomly selected panel sit in on the fully recreated court case following a staged domestic killing.
Created by Channel 4 and featuring professional lawyers, the drama-documentary hybrid aims to reveal what really goes on in a court case.
The only actors include Michael Gould, who plays university lecturer Simon Davis, accused of murdering his ex-partner Carla Davis (Emma Lowndes) in September 2015 in Newbury.
Executive producer Jonathan Smith said: “We were obsessed with making it authentic.
“We wanted to create a dilemma. We deliberately didn’t choose a gang murder or something too dramatic.
“It’s a domestic murder, an almost curtain-twitching, middle England case, to give the sense that the jury are genuinely judging one of their peers.
“It raises that question of where, as a jury member, you bring your life experiences into the deliberations – because that is why we have juries.”
The programme, which begins on Sunday evening, is directed by Bafta winners Nick Holt and Kath Mattock, with barrister Max Hill QC leading the prosecution and John Ryder QC leading the defence.
Neither the makeshift jury, nor the viewers, will find out what really happened on the day of the “murder” until the end of the five-part series.
At a preview screening event, the channel’s head of factual programming Amy Flanagan said: “It’s an extraordinary thing we have in this country that 12 ordinary people will come together and make some of the biggest decisions about the fate of individuals.”
It is illegal in England to film inside a court or jury room, so The Trial’s creators used a decommissioned crown court in Newbury to film and developed the entire detailed case from scratch. They persuaded the barristers to get involved before picking people from the area to form the jury.
The Trial: A Murder In The Family begins on Channel 4 at 9pm today.