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The Irish Sun
2 days ago
- The Irish Sun
The retro model theme park that was like a ‘mini wonderland' – here's what it was like to visit as a child
A FORMER amusement park in Bournemouth used to be home to " Europe 's largest model landscape" with Big Ben and a mechanical Tower Bridge. The 6 Tucktonia opened back in 1976 and included an array of different landmarks such as Admiralty Arch, Hadrian's Wall and Stonehenge Credit: Alamy 6 Located in Bournemouth, Tucktonia used to be home to "Europe's largest model landscape" Credit: Alamy 6 Some of the models were even mechanical including Tower Bridge which opened and closed Credit: Alamy Some of the models even moved, including A model of an airport also was mechanical with planes actually travelling along the runway. But the model village didn't just feature big landmarks, it also had a Kellogg's factory and a motorway flyover. At the time, the attraction was dubbed "the best of Britain in Miniature", according to an advert for the destination. Read more on travel tips One woman, Emma Cansdale from Waltham Abbey used to visit regularly as a child. The 52-year-old told Sun Travel: "As an eight-year-old it was like a mini wonderland. "Back then I loved the quaintness of model villages and miniature railways. Emma added: "I remember it was a hot summer day spent following the map to find the different attractions and eating ice cream." Most read in News Travel Across the The attraction took two years in total to plan and build. Best of British: Bournemouth's beach and vibrant city life is the perfect getaway And for little ones, there was Railriders club - which Emma was part of. "One of the reasons we went to Tucktonia was to pick up a sticker for my Railriders sticker book as they were participating in that scheme," Emma added. Old maps of Tucktonia Leisure Park that Emma has, show what featured at the 21acre site. And it wasn't just the model village - it also had a number of other attractions including golf , a go-kart track and a mini cinema. One leaflet even claims the park was home to " Europe 's largest model landscape". Another poster claims it was "the greatest model Britain in the world". 6 There used to be a number of other attractions too including fairground rides Credit: Emma Cansdale According to Comedian and magician Keith Chegwin and Maggie Philbin also hosted the BBC's Multi-Coloured Swap Shop live from the park. Then in 1985, it was used as a film set for the alien movie Lifeforce - a sci-fi horror by Tobe Hooper, who also created The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Some believe that a number of the models were destroyed as part of the filming, whilst others claim that whilst the village was used as a set, the buildings destroyed in the film were actually different models created by the visual effects team. 6 Emma used to visit as a child and remembers it well Credit: Emma Cansdale In 1980, In the following years, the park changed ownership more than once and then in 1986, the park closed - just a decade after the model village had first opened. The site's buildings and fixtures were then all cleared to make the land available for a In 2003, the site then transformed again into a number of retirement flats and homes . One fan of the park commented on social media: "What a fab place it was... Big childhood memories, very sad when it closed." Another added: "Absolutely loved Tucktonia. As a child these places were so exciting." There is also an Plus, 6 In 1985, the attraction was even used as a film set for the alien movie Lifeforce Credit: Emma Cansdale
Scotsman
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Edinburgh Retro: 26 nostalgic pictures of growing up in the early 1980s, including George Best, Swap Shop and Darth Vader
At the start of the 1980s, computers for most people were still a novelty, George Best was playing for Hibs and Multi-Coloured Swap Shop was on TV on Saturday mornings. Here are some old black and white photos from the Evening News archives showing some of what was happening in Edinburgh in the early 1980s, from the Pope's visit to pony rides on the beach. Scroll through the carefully selected pictures to get a flavour of what Capital life was like four decades ago. 1 . Latest computers Secondary school pupils work with the latest Apple II computers at the Wester Hailes Education Centre (WHEC) in Edinburgh, October 1980. | TSPL Photo: Alan Macdonald Photo Sales 2 . Hibs Open Day Hibs players Peter Cormack and Jim McArthur meet two young fans, Tony Jinks and Tam Tait, at a Hibs Open Day at Easter Road in July 1980. | TSPL Photo: Bill Newton Photo Sales 3 . Puppet show Children mesmerised by the string puppets at the Ross bandstand in Edinburgh's Princes Street gardens, July 1981. | TSPL Photo: Joe Steele Photo Sales 4 . Dance time Young ballerinas from the June Geissler dance school rehearsing at Leith Town Hall in Edinburgh, November 1980. | TSPL Photo: Stan Warburton Photo Sales Related topics: Nostalgia
Spectator
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
The triumph of Noel Edmonds
When Deal or No Deal hit our TV screens in 2005, it soon became a national obsession. I remember hotfooting it from the train station to my house, desperate to make sure I didn't miss it. This was the most infatuated I'd been with a TV show since I was child. Noel Edmonds, the show's presenter, was a big reason why: his witty banter with contestants and the show's fictional 'banker' had me – and Britain – captivated. Deal or No Deal was basically just people opening boxes. In most presenter's hands it would have been a bit of a yawn. But Edmonds made it appointment viewing. Edmonds is one of the great figures of British television Now, thank goodness, Edmonds is back: after a seven-year hiatus, he's returning with a new series exploring his life in New Zealand, where he runs an 800-acre estate. ITV's Noel Edmonds' Kiwi Adventure, which starts tonight, is full of quirk: he refers to his third wife, whom he met when she was his make-up artist on Deal or No Deal, as his 'earth angel' and explains that all the clocks in their house are fixed at 11.06, the time the couple first met. Edmonds looks amazing for 76 and puts this down to a wellness routine that includes crystal healing, tranquil power, infrared saunas and oxygen chambers. TV hosts are often a bit weird and if you measure Edmonds against more bland presenters like Dermot O'Leary and Ben Shephard, he seems very weird. But perhaps the side of us that now sniggers at Edmonds is uncomfortable with the Edmonds in ourselves. We'd love to be chasing our dreams as enthusiastically as he is. We probably wish we too could be so open about our own idiosyncrasies, so we laugh at his instead. But there's another side of us that can't help but cheer him on. It's this side he appeals to in his new show. 'Maybe people who have had negative thoughts about me personally will see this and see an honesty, a sincerity, a commitment, a positivity,' he says. 'Maybe a few of them will change their views'. Let's hope so. Around the time that his stint on Deal or No Deal came to an end in 2016, people stopped laughing with Edmonds and laughed at him instead. It's not hard to see why: Edmonds cuts a curious figure. There's something of the Lassie dog about his appearance, and the way he's embraced so many unserious TV shows while often taking himself painfully seriously doesn't sit well. Alan Partridge and David Brent both poked fun at him, perhaps an indirect tribute from their creators, who surely took some inspiration from Edmonds. But his kooky personality shouldn't mean that we ignore something that isn't often said about him: he is one of the great figures of British television. Born in Essex, Edmonds started off on radio before moving to TV in the 1980s, where he presented Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, my first favourite programme. The madcap entertainment show was broadcast live for three hours on Saturday mornings, and allowed kids to phone-in and swap unwanted belongings with other children. He also presented Top of the Pops, Top Gear and Telly Addicts, and became the toast of television during the 1980s thanks to his impish energy, which chimed with a more optimistic nation. He was the first British broadcaster to brand himself distinctly from his shows, and he began to sometimes refer to himself in the third person. In the 1990s, he presented Noel's House Party, which was regularly watched by 18 million viewers and was described by a senior corporation executive as 'the most important show on the BBC'. The stunning success of the series, and its bulbous hero Mr Blobby, showed how Edmonds could tap into our sense of silliness, but it was dropped in 1999, when viewing figures started to fall. Edmonds, who'd been omnipresent on the airwaves for nearly three decades, suddenly disappeared. But when he came back six years later it was with something special. In the dark, moody Bristol warehouse where Deal or No Deal was filmed, he raised the tension by increasingly injecting a spiritual edge. He encouraged talk of telepathy, of box numbers having different energies and of a mystical force being at work in the game. You don't get that on Countdown. Wearing tight floral shirts, with his trademark bouffant still going strong, he was as charismatic as ever. As the atmosphere became ever more esoteric, he seemed a bit like an aspiring cult leader who hoped he'd finally found his flock. Where The Weakest Link had a bitchy host in Anne Robinson, Deal or No Deal had one who preached positive thinking to the contestants. A producer said later that the role was 'God given' for Edmonds. The columnist AA Gill wrote that watching Deal or No Deal was 'like putting heroin in your remote control'. That was a ridiculous thing to say: it was far more addictive than that. But the show's success didn't last, so Edmonds took his spiritual message beyond the studio. He claimed that he'd found an electromagnetic pulse machine that 'tackles cancer' and suggested that the disease may be caused by a 'negative attitude', a remark he later apologised for. Edmonds also offered to phone up people's sick pets and give them a motivational talk, even counselling a cat live on air on the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2. He told the Guardian that the UK's population was at least ten million higher than official figures, saying that he worked this out using a formula he devised called 'the three 'F's' – food, faeces and farewells'. Edmonds went from national treasure to something of a joke. He upped sticks to New Zealand in 2018, settling in Ngatimoti, a small town at the north end of New Zealand's South Island. Many of his fans thought that was it. But now – thank goodness – Edmonds is back. I can't wait to watch him on TV again.
New European
17-02-2025
- Politics
- New European
The incredible memory of Daniel Hannan
'My first clear political memory is of Margaret Thatcher's victory in May 1979,' writes Daniel Hannan, Tory peer and self-styled 'Brain of Brexit' on the Conservative Home website. Young Hannan was struck by 'the sense of despair that hung about the country like a cold mist in the late 1970s,' he writes. 'I recall being shocked at the way adults talked. Britain was finished, they were forever telling me. Things were going to the dogs. It was time to emigrate. Remarkably similar to how people talk now, in fact. 'A three-day week, a Conservative government setting prices and incomes, trade union barons being better-known household names than cabinet ministers, double-digit inflation, 83 per cent income tax, power cuts, strikes. It did indeed feel as if Britain was finished.' Fun fact: Daniel Hannan was seven years old when Margaret Thatcher was first elected on May 4, 1979. It would have been precocious of Hannan that, at a time when his schoolmates were preoccupied by Star Wars and Multi-Coloured Swap Shop , he was fretting about inflation and income policy. But it's even more bewildering when you consider that Hannan – born, like Paddington, in Peru – didn't move to Britain until he was sent to boarding school in the Cotsworlds at the age of eight, meaning he was learning the name of trade union barons from a poultry farm outside Chaclacayo, 6,300 miles away!
