‘The basement has become the jumper room’
Gyles Brandreth, Countdown’s Dictionary Corner regular, on his collections of diaries, teddy bears and novelty jumpers. By Angela Wintle
Gyles Brandreth, 76, worked in theatre, television and publishing before becoming MP for the City of Chester and a lord commissioner of the Treasury in John Major’s administration in the 1990s.
He is perhaps best known for his appearances on This Morning, The One
Show, QI, Countdown and Celebrity Gogglebox, and as a long-running panellist on Radio 4’s Just A Minute. His podcasts include Rosebud, where famous guests share their first memories, and
Something Rhymes With Purple, in which he and Susie Dent share their love of words. He is also a prolific writer.
He grew up in a series of rented London mansion flats in and around South Kensington. For the past 38 years, he and his wife, Michele, with whom he has three children, have lived in Barnes, south-west London.
WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO YOUR CURRENT HOME?
I love my house, most of all because it’s a Victorian house, and in my head I’m still living in those times. In fact, I’ve written seven novels set in that era. And I wrote them all in this house. The property was built in 1881 and it’s interesting to me how much of Victorian England is still there to be visited and touched. I post my letters in a small red post box built into the wall not 20 yards from my front door. It has been there since Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee.
WHY BARNES?
It’s an old village with a fascinating heritage that I find very attractive. About 100 yards from where I live is a house that once belonged to Henry Fielding, the wonderful 18th-century author who wrote Tom Jones. George Frideric Handel lived in a house that stood where my house stands now, overlooking Barn Elms, along the south bank of the Thames. Samuel Pepys writes about visiting Barn Elms in his diary.
WHEN DID YOU MOVE THERE? My wife spotted and chose the house in 1986. It was a major wrench for me as I’d never lived south of the river. I thought it was the end of the world. In fact, I paid a vast amount of money to keep a phone number that gave the impression I was still north of the river. Instead of Barnes, I’d say, “I live halfway to Southampton.”
WAS YOUR HOUSE VERY DIFFERENT WHEN YOU BOUGHT IT?
It was painted Harrods green and owned by a real character called Peter Marsh, a famous advertising man. He was formerly an actor and had been married to Pat Phoenix of Coronation
Street fame. He interviewed us. It wasn’t a matter of you buying the house from him. If he considered you eligible, he would sell the house to you. The house reflected him. In every room there was an intercom system so he could speak from his study to any room in the house.
There were also security cameras so he could see at what time the newspaper was delivered. The security systems are still there, but we got rid of the industrial-scale safes. You could step into the space, they were so huge. It’s where he kept his gold-plated china.
WHAT’S YOUR STYLE?
In my wife’s view, there is too much clutter. She has declared that the moment I die, she has the local skip company on rapid dial and all will go.
WHERE DO YOU STORE YOUR FAMOUS JUMPERS?
They are in the basement, now known as the jumper room. There are racks and racks down there with hundreds of jumpers on them. Every day, before I go into This Morning, I check what the news of the day is and choose an appropriately themed jumper. Last year, Petersfield Museum and Art Gallery in Hampshire held an exhibition of my jumpers, so I’m pleased to say they can now be classified as museum quality.
WHAT ELSE DO YOU HOUSE
IN THE BASEMENT?
I’ve been keeping a diary since 1959. All the material that goes with the diaries – letters, postcards, photographs and scrapbooks – is piled high in my memoir boxes. In relation to my political diaries, recording my time as an MP, I also have notes from politicians of that era.
I am looking for a proper home for them. Amusingly, a friend introduced me to somebody who specialises in selling archives to universities and museums. He saw them and said, “You may be in luck. There is some interest nowadays in minor figures from popular culture.” My wife did laugh at that.
WHERE DO YOU WRITE?
My study. Well, it used to be my study; it’s now the “Gogglebox room”. I have appeared on every series of Celebrity
Gogglebox with well-known friends ranging from Sheila Hancock, Maureen Lipman and Joanna Lumley, to Carol Vorderman and Susie Dent. There’s no crew with us when we film. They set up the cameras and operate them remotely.
WHAT DO YOU STORE IN
THE GOGGLEBOX ROOM?
It’s home to my many books and Judi Dench’s teddy bear. I do a stage show with Judi celebrating her amazing career. We’re doing it again this year. She’s the most wonderful, remarkable person. I have a teddy bear collection that Michele and I built up over the years and it now lives in Newby Hall, near Ripon in Yorkshire. Judi comes from York, so she thought it would be nice for her teddy bear to return to Yorkshire. It’s in the Gogglebox room, on its way to Newby Hall. I love my study as I’m the only person, when my life comes to an end, who’ll wish they’d spent more time in the office.
A new edition of Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries by Gyles Brandreth is out on Wednesday in paperback (Biteback Publishing, £14.99)