Big Red Book

Celebrating television's This Is Your Life

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THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Catherine Cookson, novelist, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the studios of Tyne Tees Television in Newcastle, having been led to believe she was there to be interviewed by a local television journalist for a programme called Northern Life.

Catherine left school at 14 and after a period of domestic service, took a laundry job at Harton Workhouse in South Shields. In 1929, she moved south to run the laundry at Hastings Workhouse, saving every penny to buy a large Victorian house, and then taking in lodgers to supplement her income.

She took up writing as a form of therapy to tackle her depression, and joined Hastings Writers' Group. Her first novel, Kate Hannigan, was published in 1950. By 1982 Catherine had written 58 books, which had been translated into 14 languages and had sold more than 50 million copies worldwide.

"I won't have much life left!"

programme details...

• Edition No: 609
• Subject No: 605
• Broadcast date: Wed 22 Dec 1982
• Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
• Recorded: Tue 14 Dec 1982
• Venue: Tyne Tees Television, Newcastle upon Tyne
• Series: 23
• Edition: 10
• Code name: Katie

on the guest list...

• Tom Coyne
• Tom - husband
• John Hallam
• Caroline Blakiston
• Mary Healey
• Jeremy Clay
• Gillian Lewis
• John Southworth
• Juliet Stevenson
• Geoffrey Wilkinson
• Victoria Williams
• David Rintoul
• Sarah - cousin
• Jack - Sarah's husband
• Teresa - cousin
• John - Teresa's husband
• Alec - cousin
• Nancy - Alec's wife
• Lawrie McMenemy
• Anne McMenemy
• Lily Bulloch
• Kitty O'Neill
• Maisie McKenna
• Annie Robson
• Maud Butcher
• Lucy Baird
• Helen Baird
• Catherine Phillips
• Hilary Norton
• Jane Pickering
• Chris Gravin
• Jill Carr
• Clive Carr
• Alison Carr
• Jill Pickering
• Sister Catherine Marie
Filmed tributes:
• Windsor Davies
• Melvyn Hayes
• members of Queen Elizabeth High School rowing team

production team...

• Researchers: Charmaine Carter, Tom Wettengel
• Writers: Tom Brennand, Roy Bottomley
• Director: Terry Yarwood
• Producer: Malcolm Morris

• names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

A Novel Life

a page-turning good read

Windsor Davies

Lawrie McMenemy

Screenshots of Catherine Cookson This Is Your Life - and a photograph of Catherine Cookson's big red book

Kathleen Jones recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in her book, Catherine Cookson, The Biography...

One of the honours that Catherine most valued came at the end of December, when she was the chosen subject of the TV programme This Is Your Life. Apart from worrying about whether she would be well enough on the day, Tom also wondered how he was going to keep the secret from her. However, when Catherine sprained her ankle a couple of weeks before the programme, Tom was able to keep her upstairs and out of the way of the preparations. He had fretted for weeks over how he was going to prepare the guest bedrooms and buy in the extra food that would be needed without Catherine guessing that something was happening.

But when the day came she was driven into Newcastle by Tom thinking that she was going to be interviewed by a local television journalist for a programme called Northern Life. When Eamonn Andrews appeared with the famous Red Book, Catherine was completely surprised and very moved that anyone had thought her important enough to feature in the series.

It was a very emotional evening as relatives and new friends, such as her favourite television personality Russell Harty, were ushered on stage alongside old friends such as Annie Robson. [Bigredbook.info editor: Russell Harty does not appear on Catherine's tribute]

Scriptwriter Roy Bottomley recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, This Is Your Life: The Story of Television's Famous Big Red Book...

From workhouse laundry to millionaire status after fifty-eight books translated into fourteen languages: that was the story which took the Life to Tyneside on 14 December 1982.

Catherine Cookson's The Mallens trilogy was enjoying huge success in a television adaptation, and she had accepted an invitation to be interviewed by Tom Coyne on her favourite programme, Tyne Tees Television's Northern Life.

Catherine was born just eight miles from those City Road, Newcastle, studios, illegitimate and in dire poverty. As a child she picked driftwood from the Tyne and scraped cinders from the refuse tip to make a fire.

Until she was seven, she thought her grandmother was her mother, and her mother her sister. And, like Harry Patterson, she came to writing late – she did not start her first novel until after her fortieth birthday.

From The Mallens came the Squire, John Hallam, and the governess, Caroline Blakiston; two great fans, Windsor Davies and Melvyn Hayes greeted her from panto in Sunderland, and two more favourite Tynesiders, Lawrie and Anne McMenemy were there.

From the Harton Institution – the 'workhouse' – to selling fifty million books worldwide; a few Geordie tears were shed in the City Road studio that night.