Date published: 01.09.08 - not release date

CHELSEA PENSIONERS MAKE TV DEBUT IN NEW BBC DOCUMENTARY SERIES

For the 1st time in its 300 year history, The Royal Hospital Chelsea has opened its doors to the cameras, as part of a unique BBC documentary series to start on 5 April.

If you are interested in the series or would like to find out more about the Chelsea Pensioners please see full press release below.

We also have a number of interview opportunities to coincide with the new documentary:

A selection of Chelsea Pensioners – the life and soul of The Royal Hospital.

General Sir Michael Walker, GCB, CMG, CBE, Governor of The Royal Hospital – The Governor is in charge of The Royal Hospital Chelsea. How does the BBC documentary play a part in the modernisation of The Hospital and what are the Governor’s plans for its future?

Karen Smith, Matron – As one of the few women at The Royal Hospital, Matron has a unique insight into the lives of the Chelsea Pensioners. How will the Appeal-funded new Infirmary help to improve their lives?

David Radcliffe, Adjutant – David is in charge of the day-to-day lives of the Pensioners. Find out more about how the Pensioners coped with the cameras and what it is like to live at The Royal Hospital.

Roy Ratazzi, Appeal Director – The Chelsea Pensioners’ Appeal aims to raise £35m by mid 2008 to fund urgent refurbishment work at The Royal Hospital. Find out more about how the Appeal is going, why it is needed and what it will mean for the future of the national institution.

The Marquess of Salisbury, Appeal Chairman – As part of the Appeal executive Committee, Lord Salisbury can update on the work being done behind the scenes to pull together the fundraising effort and explain why the Appeal is so desperately needed.


Contact: Nicola Hamilton/Kate Griffiths
LAWSON DODD
TEL: 020 7535 1355
FAX: 020 7535 1350



CHELSEA PENSIONERS MAKE TV DEBUT IN NEW BBC DOCUMENTARY SERIES

For the 1st time in its 300 year history, The Royal Hospital Chelsea has opened its doors to the cameras, as part of a documentary series of eight television programmes entitled ‘Once a Soldier…’. Showing a behind-the-scenes view of life at The Royal Hospital Chelsea the series on BBC4 starts on Thursday 5 April at 8.30 pm.

Filmed during 2006, the series will show the reality of life as a Chelsea Pensioner, from choosing to live in such a unique retirement home to meeting the Queen.

“The Royal Hospital Chelsea is a much loved national institution but most people have only a vague idea of what it really means to be a Chelsea Pensioner,” says General the Lord Walker GCB CMG CBE.

“We wanted to offer viewers a unique opportunity to gain an honest insight into life at The Hospital,” says Amanda Richardson, producer of the BBC series.

The programmes will air during a key year for the Hospital as its Chelsea Pensioners’ Appeal continues to raise money towards its £35m target in 2008 to fund urgently needed refurbishments at The Royal Hospital. As a non Government organisation, the Hospital relies on private funding to undertake building projects and hopes this series will help to encourage donations.

Director of the Appeal, Roy Ratazzi commented: “It is important that we continue well into the future to provide the quality of care that has proved so successful during our long history. The modernisation programme now under way is urgently needed to ensure that we take full account of changed legislative requirements, while also making The Royal Hospital fully fit for the 21st Century. Future Pensioners, many of whom will be today’s soldiers, will look to us to give them a fitting home in their twilight years of life. We hope that these programmes will educate people on what it means to be a Chelsea Pensioner and how important it is to support these Army veterans, who are both a symbol and living memorial to those who have given their lives in service to our Nation.”


Series summary:

‘ONCE A SOLDIER...’

8 x 30 minute BBC documentary series

The Royal Hospital Chelsea is the place some of our bravest old soldiers go to die, but instead of fading away, they live life to the full. These films capture the essence of their final posting at one of the most unique old folk’s homes in the country.


5 April - ‘Always a Soldier’

101 year old Bill Swingler, is the oldest Chelsea Pensioner. Each new pensioner has to find their own way of fitting back into an army way of life at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. After 58 years of marriage, recently widowed 79-year old Len Tough is brought to The Royal Hospital by his two daughters for a four day trial. Len will discover if he is to be accepted into the ranks of the men in scarlet and 101 year old Bill reveals the secret of his long life.


12 April - ‘New Boys’

Every year fifty old soldiers die at The Royal Hospital Chelsea, making room for new men to join the ranks of the Chelsea Pensioners. 90-year old Wally Hilling, a former Japanese Prisoner of War and Bill Brierley aged 76 leave family, friends and homes to live instead in a 9’ square window-less berth and become uniform wearing Chelsea Pensioners. How will they handle the transition from civvy to new recruit for the 1st time in half a century?


19 April - 'On Parade'

All leave is cancelled as all 300 Chelsea Pensioners at The Royal Hospital Chelsea are ordered to the parade ground for one very special day when Her Majesty the Queen takes the salute on Founders Day. But in the hottest June since records began how will the massed ranks of the pensioners cope?


26 April - ‘Comrades in Arms'

Frank Chambers aged 90 and Joe Britton aged 95, first became mates as Royal Fusiliers in India in 1936 - then lost touch. After nearly seventy years they meet again as Chelsea Pensioners and rekindle their friendship. Dougie Huxley aged 86 and Don Smith met on their first day as new recruits at The Royal Hospital Chelsea and became inseparable. Is their past as soldiers the reason their bonds of friendship are so strong?


3 May - ‘Soldiering On'

The Royal Hospital Chelsea needs to raise serious money to pay for maintaining it’s Grade 1 listed building and construction of a new £20 million infirmary. The Hospital becomes the backdrop to a Bollywood movie and a period drama, but the old soldiers also need to rely on friends in high places to fund a long-term survival plan. Increasingly infirm Chelsea Pensioner ‘Windy’ Gale needs nursing care and is moving berth and clearing out 60 years of memories.


10 May - ‘Ladies in Waiting'

Women are coming to The Royal Hospital Chelsea. It is a case of when, not if. But is this all male bastion prepared for the 1st women in scarlet? Ex-Regimental Sergeant Major Agnes Doig (aged 75), Second World War girl-gunner Barbara Wetherall (aged 81) and Warrant Officer Winifred Phillips (aged 80) visit - and put the Hospital and the men through their paces to see if life at The Royal Hospital Chelsea could be for them.


17 May - 'Not Forgotten'

At The Royal Hospital Chelsea, Armistice Day approaches. Memories of the wars the men fought remain vivid and painful. To honour their fallen comrades a dozen Chelsea Pensioners hope to be passed fit enough to walk down the steps of the Royal Albert Hall’s Festival of Remembrance and to march past the Cenotaph. But at the Hospital, the poppy collection box is stolen, the culprit is caught on CCTV. If they catch him what style of justice will he receive at the hands of the old soldiers?


24 May - ‘Changing the Guard’

The Royal Hospital Chelsea has been told it needs to shape up for the 21st Century.

But how do a group of old soldiers whose average age is 83, cope with the changes? From cyber cafes and a gym, to revolutionary discussions about whether to have en-suite bathrooms in the Grade 1 listed berths, the pensioners make clear their views to the modernising new top brass. Arnhem veteran Vic Massingham aged 81 is unfazed by the upheaval, determined only to retain his bowls club crown.


THE CHELSEA PENSIONERS

The Royal Hospital Chelsea was built in 1692 to provide for old and injured soldiers and today is home to approximately three hundred Pensioners, providing a stimulating living environment for its residents. Men are eligible to become Chelsea Pensioners if they are in receipt of an Army Service or War Disability Pension and are free from the obligation to support a partner of family. They cease to draw their military pension on entry. Most In - Pensioners are usually 65 years or over although occasional exceptions are made.


Media Information
For further media information please contact:

Nicola Hamilton /Kate Griffiths at Lawson Dodd

020 7535 1355

nicola.hamilton@lawsondodd.co.uk