Judith Hibbert: Round the Radio

Photograph © Judith Hibbert

We were honoured to have the Mayor and Mayoress of Wolverhampton as special guests at our October lunch.

Other guests included the husbands and partners of some of our members, who were brave enough to accept an invitation to our annual open event and see what we get up to each month! 

Our post lunch entertainment was provided by Judith Hibbert, who has worked extensively in both stage and screen. Judith is part of the Good Old Days Company and has two talented theatrical children, one of whom is Eleanor Tomlinson, perhaps better known as Demelza in the BBC series Poldark.

Using only a few simple props, such as hats and scarves, she showed her versatility imitating the voices and mannerisms of various theatrical ladies including Joyce Grenfell, Julie Andrews and Gracie Fields. She soon had us laughing and joining in, although she wasn't too impressed with our singing!

Her presentation was much admired and so was her skill at being able to change characters by just wearing different hats .She was thanked for her amusing performance, which evoked pleasant memories from the past.

Cameron Addicott: My life as an Undercover Agent

Photograph © Cameron Addicott

We restarted our meetings after the summer break with 75 members present. We all had a lot to talk about and there was much catching up to do over lunch. 

Our speaker this month was Cameron Addicott, who spoke to us about his exciting and sometimes dangerous life as an undercover agent. He told us tales of his former career as a criminal investigator with HM Customs and the Serious Organised Crime Agency and described how devious criminals have become when motivated by greed. Unsurprisingly, crime has now spread out to smaller towns and villages in order for them to target unsuspecting victims.

The main focus of this talk was on drug dealers and how in these circumstances, the investigators' work is often like cat and mouse: waiting, watching and then pouncing at just the right moment to catch their prey. The dealers have become very clever in trying to disguise the drugs, using different ways of transporting them from where they're grown and doing their best to try outwit the authorities.

We learnt that undercover agents, like Cameron, spend months of intelligence planning using three main methods: interception of all communications including texts, emails and phone calls; surveillance watching suspects from unmarked vehicles and neighbouring buildings and infiltration using informants with access to information. At times we felt we were in the middle of a TV thriller, as much of what he said reminded us of programmes we have watched. It's certainly reassuring to know that there are people like him who are endeavouring to keep the public safe.

Cameron left SOCA in 2008 and has written several books on the subject of crime. He is currently working on two others and also acts as a consultant or on-screen expert on various crime-based TV programmes.

All of our members were intrigued by his stories and an interesting time was had by all.