Big Red Book
Celebrating television's This Is Your Life
The Reverend David SHEPPARD (1929-2005)
THIS IS YOUR LIFE - David Sheppard, clergyman and former cricketer, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews as he arrived for what he believed to be a meeting at the Islington Boys Club in London - from where the programme was broadcast.
David, who was born in Reigate and educated at Sherborne School, showed an early passion for cricket. After completing his National Service and studying law at Cambridge University, he was offered a trial with Sussex CCC in 1949. Within the year, he was playing first-class cricket with the club, and in August 1950, he made his Test debut for England against the West Indies.
Although David had played in five test matches and captained England and Sussex by 1953, he retired from cricket at the age of 24 to study for the church. He was ordained in 1955 and became curate at St Mary's Church in Islington before becoming warden of the Mayflower Family Centre in Canning Town in 1957. However, he continued to play Test cricket sporadically, being the first ordained minister to do so.
programme details...
- Edition No: 132
- Subject No: 132
- Broadcast live: Mon 3 Oct 1960
- Broadcast time: 7.30-8.00pm
- Venue: Islington Boys Club
- Series: 6
- Edition: 3
on the guest list...
- Grace - wife
- Mary Maxwell - sister
- Barbara - mother
- Micky Walford
- Michael Charlesworth
- Douglas Spankie
- George Cox
- Godfrey Evans
- Florence Withers
- Ronald Evans
- George Burton
- Hilary Harman
- Florence Olley
- Ronnie Waite
- Samson Obiora
- Miss Davies Filmed tributes:
- Richard Attenborough
- John Dewes
production team...
- Researcher: Ronald Vivian
- Writer: Robert Stuart
- Director: Michael Goodwin
- Producer: T Leslie Jackson
celebrating the 'men of God'
bowling up the cricketers
Radio Times feature on the programme's chauffeur
Grace Sheppard, wife of David Sheppard, recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in an exclusive interview recorded in September 2010
Photographs of David Sheppard This Is Your Life
While at the Mayflower, Sheppard appeared on This Is Your Life and Desert Island Discs, two of the most popular BBC programmes of the day. Desert Island Discs, a Home Service staple since the 1940s, featured a pre-recorded interview with presenter Roy Plomley.
This Is Your Life, which had a prime-time slot on Monday evenings, was screened live, with friends, family and colleagues of the subject contributing memories. Sheppard appeared on it in October 1960 at the age of 31.
As Grace later recalled, 'there wasn't a great deal of life to present to him except the cricket and the parish.'
His work at St Mary's, as well as the Mayflower, was featured, and there was a moving moment when Flo Withers, the housebound parishioner Sheppard had befriended in Islington, spoke from her wheelchair of the young curate's visits and the cheer they had brought her. George Burton characteristically ignored his brief, saying that the Mayflower aimed to convert young people to Christ, not make them better citizens.
The presenter, Eamonn Andrews, ended the show on a prescient note. 'You are still a young man,' he told Sheppard. 'Who knows what greater things are to come from you?'
Series 6 subjects
Leonard Cheshire | George Bennett | David Sheppard | Sybil Thorndike | Clarence Wolfe | Charles Coward | T E B ClarkeHelene Jeanty-Raven | Cyril Smith | Victor de Spiganovicz | Arthur Hartley | Ellen Field | Anthony Deane-Drummond
John Mills | Richard Bancroft | Freddie Mills | William Simpson | Alan Herbert | Madame Vacani | Elizabeth Ambridge | Robert Fawcus
Flora Robson | Edward Chad Varah | James Zarb | Maryan Rawicz and Walter Landauer | James Chipperfield | Anthony Kimmins
Thomas Cosmo Jones | Jessie Matthews | Helen Wilson | Charlie Chester | Brunel Cohen | Godfrey Winn | Billy Wright