This Is Your Life: Mervyn Davies

Mervyn DAVIES OBE (1946-2012)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Mervyn Davies, rugby union player, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews - with the help of comedian Max Boyce - at a concert in a marquee on the grounds of Swansea Rugby Football Club, from where the programme was then recorded.

Mervyn, who was born in Swansea, joined the London Welsh Rugby Football Club in 1968 before transferring to Swansea RFC in 1972. He won his first cap for Wales in 1969 and played in 38 consecutive matches, helping the team win two Grand Slams and three Triple Crowns.

He was a member of the British and Irish Lions tours to New Zealand in 1971 and South Africa in 1974, playing in all eight tests. Nicknamed Merv the Swerve, his playing career was ended when he suffered a haemorrhage while captaining Swansea against Pontypool in 1976.

programme details...

Edition No: 444
Subject No: 441
Broadcast date: Wed 17 Nov 1976
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Fri 12 Nov 1976
Venue: Swansea Rugby Football Club
Series: 17
Edition: 4
Code name: Captain

on the guest list...

Shirley - wife
David - father
Betty - mother
Dyfrig - brother
Gordon Rowley
Bob Leyshon
Julia Morris
Carol Brown
Nora Thomas
Margaret Slay
David Rees
Gwyn - uncle
Gwyn Watts
Chris Morgan
Norman Sanders - in audience
Colin Meads
Benoit Dauga
Tom Grace
Mick Hipwell

production team...

Researcher: unknown
Writer: unknown
Directors: Royston Mayoh, Terry Yarwood
Producer: Jack Crawshaw

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related page...

Up and Under

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Screenshots of Mervyn Davies This Is Your Life

Mervyn Davies recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in his autobiography, No. 8...

In autumn 1976 Thames Television inveigled me into a This Is Your Life appearance, much to my chagrin in some ways, I must admit. Just two weeks before the recording I remember saying to a friend during casual conversation that in no way would Merv the Swerve submit to so embarrassing, tear-jerking an extravaganza! Then came an evening when I made a guest appearance on stage, along with fellow Internationals Gareth Edwards and Dewi Bebb, at a Max Boyce concert in Swansea - and sure enough from behind a curtain stepped the smooth-talking Eamonn Andrews. A quick glance at the faces of the others left me in no doubt that I was his quarry, and my initial reaction was one of extreme annoyance: 'They've damn well caught me!' I said angrily to myself. Reluctantly, I decided to sit it out in order not to disappoint those who had set up the programme. Not much of the recording sticks in my mind (and I saw only five minutes of the subsequent transmission, since on the night I was helping to open a new clubhouse for Dinas Powys RFC). But I regretted that I had no control over the guest-list, with the result that some people who are very important to me were excluded, including Christopher; agreed, it was past his bedtime, but I thought they might have shot a few frames of film of him at our house. All told, it seemed to be an unwarranted intrusion into my privacy, and I found it hard to shed the feeling of having been duped. Even Shirley had sat on the secret for four whole months: her ability to remain mum was a revelation to me!

In spite of all that, however, the evening was undeniably memorable, partly through the appearance of Colin Meads, my old New Zealand friend and rival, who had taken precious time off from his King Country farm to fly 12,000 miles and bring his land's greetings to me. My jaw dropped when he joined the gathering, and I felt tremendously moved. Equally, it was grand to see Benoit Dauga from France, not long recovered from an accident as serious in its way as my own illness. Though an Irish contingent including Willie John McBride, who were all set to come, were frustrated by fog at Dublin Airport, Tom Grace and Mick Hipwell, who had been playing for Leinster in France, did drop in en route for home to link up with Englishmen, Scots and a sprinkling of my fellow countrymen. All of this proves that rugby men do not forget, and that friendships forged on the field and in the club-house afterwards are lasting ones. After the show everyone repaired to the nearby Dragon Hotel to eat, drink and gossip our way into the early hours. Here again I experienced an almost tangible tide of affection, as 'Pine Tree Meads' told me of the anxiety and concern with which New Zealanders had followed reports of my hospitalisation and convalescence.

Mervyn Davies recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in his autobiography, In Strength and Shadow...

The day I received my OBE from the Queen is a case in point. I felt privileged to be at Buckingham Palace but also acutely embarrassed that the man who was part of a team should be singled out for such an individual honour. But that day wasn't for me; it was for my family and it made the time spent in the spotlight worthwhile.

And when I was featured on This Is Your Life, I sailed through the whole experience bemused by the good words and goodwill coming from others. I couldn't grasp that it was me who was the subject of such attention. And when Colin Meads - the greatest of the great - emerged from back stage after flying all the way from New Zealand, a small voice in the back of my head convinced me that I wasn't that bad a player after all.

But both those events were a long time ago. The goodwill, however, still remains and the people I meet on my travels are warm and kind in their welcome.

Presenter Eamonn Andrews and producer Jack Crawshaw recall this edition of This Is Your Life in their book, Surprise Of Your Life...

Two months before "D" for Davies Day, Royston Mayoh stood at the top of the steep concrete steps that lead from the touchline of the St Helen's Ground to the club house of Swansea Rugby Football Club.

His eyes scanned the green grass marked out in white, the padded goalposts and the sea beyond. For rugger spectators in winter, and cricket fans in summer, it's a scene that provided a striking backcloth for the sporting fervour of the South Wales coastal city.

For Royston it was a last pleasing picture to savour before returning to London to report the news. The bad news that the club house behind him was too small to house a growing guest list and a huge local audience who we were certain wanted to hear the words, "Mervyn Davies, this is your life".

It was a life that we had all feared for earlier that year when Mervyn was carried off the pitch at Cardiff Arms Park, in a coma and close to death. That injury cut short a brilliant career but his fight for life had been even more inspiring than many of his sporting achievements.

Where better, then, to salute Mervyn than in the club house above the pitch where he had first taken his long and loping steps to fame.

Fortunately the This Is Your Life team have grown up with a good habit of turning negatives into plusses and this is just what Royston suggested we did.

If we can't do it in the club house, he argued, then why not do it right there on the pitch?

An open air This Is Your Life in the middle of winter?

"No", said Royston, "we will do it in a tent".

"A bloody big tent".

And that is just what we did, in a massive operation that must rate as one of the biggest hoodwinks in the business.

Problem number one was to find a marquee big enough to house the audience and a guest list that we knew would include an entire squad of rugby playing British Lions. So where better to keep the Lions captive than a circus tent?

Problem number two was to explain to the sports-mad population of Swansea why a circus tent was being erected on the sacred turf of their rugby ground, on the eve of an important local derby game.

Both problems were solved by talks with two young stalwarts of the entertainment world.

First, circus owner Gerry Cottle agreed to let us hire one of his tents – but only for one night. Gerry wasn't being awkward, it was just that the tent – and his circus – had been hired by an oil sheikh in Saudi Arabia for his son's 21st birthday party. Try and beat that for originality.

Well, we actually thought we could, after a chat with Max Boyce. Knowing just how popular the young singer/comedian was, we asked him if he would stage a concert in the tent and allow us to organise it for him.

Max, a fervent Welshman, rugger devotee and friend of Merv's, not only agreed but immediately weighed in like a Welsh forward giving his heart and soul to help us set up the operation.

When we told the key officials at the club that the cover story would be a televised Max Boyce concert, they were delighted. They just had one fear that we wouldn't be able to accommodate all those who wanted to see him.

We decided to call the cover show "Max Boyce In Touch", billed it as an evening of songs and surprises and printed 1,000 free tickets. And no one had a clue just what those surprises would include. Least of all Mervyn who happily accepted when, out of the blue, he got a personal invitation from Max to make a guest appearance on stage, with fellow players Gareth Edwards and Dewi Bebb.

Now came the third major problem – to smuggle into Swansea our entire team, and out of town guests, who included former All Black captain Colin Meads from New Zealand, without raising anybody's suspicions.

We booked into the Dragon Hotel in the city centre as a production team for Max Boyce In Touch, with an invisible Eamonn Andrews occupying a room in the name of one Peter Crawshaw. Peter is Jack's brother and I can tell you that he has stayed in more hotels throughout the country than even he knows, to help keep the This Is Your Life secret.

The night before the show we invited Mervyn's family, and many of the friends who had helped shape his career, to join us in a private room at the hotel.

The following day, not daring to go anywhere near the huge marquee that was by now causing great interest on the rugby pitch as the fans awaited the arrival of Max Boyce and his two guitarists, we were virtual prisoners of the hotel.

Again we met to plan the moves in preparation for the show that would take place in a location that we had never set foot in.

And keeping those British Lions captive for a day was a job-and-a-half, I can tell you.

After going through our paces in the afternoon, I decided to disappear to my room to snatch forty winks in anticipation of a long night ahead.

Next door the Lions, who earlier had been rehearsing their team song, Sloop John D, under the expert baton of John Taylor, started up again with more renderings from their rugby repertoire.

Jack, concerned, I feel, more for the security of the programme than my beauty sleep, asked them to try to keep it as quiet as possible.

The sotto voce version lasted for about two minutes before the next crescendo. Jack tried a new ploy, and with a nudge and a wink confided to Welsh team coach John Dawes that another reason why he wanted the lads to pipe down a bit was to give me some peace and quiet.

"You mean Eamonn's going to sleep in the next room?" asked John, with a smile on his face that told Jack he had just made a huge mistake.

"Yes. I want him to get some rest before the show", he replied.

"In that case", said John "we had better wish him goodnight."

And as I lay there in the darkened room, all I could hear for the next 15 minutes was "Goodnight Eamonn" set to a familiar tune and sung by 15 British lions roaring at the tops of their voices in what was supposed to be a secret room of a Swansea hotel.

I would swear that you could have heard them in Colin Meads' home town of Te-Kuiti. Fortunately the same Colin, one of the world's greatest-ever players, didn't beat a retreat back home.

Later that night, after I had swerved my own way across the pitch and into the marquee to, "throw the book" at Mervyn, Colin joined the Lions, the other guests and 1,000 Welsh men and women in the song "Land of My Fathers".

The atmosphere as those voices were raised in tribute to Mervyn was so warm, so fiercely warm, I thought the tent would lift off and float away...

Series 17 subjects