Big Wood Tales

Uncle Bill and his Tales

I received many requests for help to find these great Uncle Bill stories that first aired on BFBS during the 60s and lived on on BFBS during the following years. A big thanks to BFBS's own Richard Astbury who kindly helped us with the search and got hold of a copy for our BFBS Radio Archive. A big thanks to Kevin Lach who kindly more stories for our BFBS Radio Archive. So the entire series is there for all the fans listed below. Enjoy this trip down Memory Lane! :)





Peter McDonagh (PMcD) from BFBS (He of BFBS Angora) - wrote on his Facebook page the following note after seeing that the Big Wood Tales are on the BFBS Radio Archive website here:

(2014-06-03)
Juergen Boernig, BFBS's archivist in Germany, in conjunction with Richard "Asters" Astbury, MBE, has located and placed in the public domain the tales written and performed in the 60s and 70s by Uncle Bill - William Charles Boyden-Mitchell, possessor of the only airtime voice which made Brian Sewell sound common. I was lucky enough to see at first hand the impact of these stories on HM Forces when I flew out for a Directorial BFBS visit to Hohne. This was the home of the 9th/12th Lancers and their Scimitar Tanks. Their Officers' Mess was an ex-Nazi mansion in the deepest woodland. One lunchtime, with Station Manager Steve Britton, we were driven in convoy on Scimitars to this Wolfschanze, and, standing on the steps of the Mess, I was told by the CO how his officers used to rush back from exercise to undergo a daily weekday ritual with Uncle Bill on BFBS.

As Bill started his Big Wood story for the day on the radio (they lasted about 11 minutes each), every officer would pull the cork from an individual 75cl bottle of duty-free scotch, and see how many inches of scotch he could glug while Uncle Bill's story ran. The prizewinner, who had drinks bought for him for the whole evening, was the officer who consumed the most scotch.

The outright winner was a renegade ex Rhodesian Forces Special Forces officer who managed a whole bottle. Sadly, he didn't last too long....

If the Soviets had known this was their opposition during the Cold War, they would have fucked off back to Russia many years before they actually did!

We salute Uncle Bill for his selfless contribution to the Cold War, and the Triumph of the West!
PMcD 

And now it is time for some more stories as told by Uncle Bill:

We grouped four or five episodes into one file. See below.

Big Wood Stories - Session 1: - click here to listen
01 - Big Wood Cricket Match
02 - Gold And Cream Teas
03 - High Wind In Big Wood
04 - Mr. Owl & The Sorry Tale Of Summer Madness

Big Wood Stories - Session 2: - click here to listen
05 - Mr. Owl Strikes Oil
06 - Mr. Owl & The Spring Flower Show
07 - The Big Wood Local Defense Regiment
08 - A New Look For The Regiment

Big Wood Stories - Session 3: - click here to listen
09 - War In Big Wood
10 - Mr. Hedgehog's Secret
11 - Mr. Owl And A Strawberry Trifle
12 - Trouble On The Industry Front

Big Wood Stories - Session 4: - click here to listen
13 - Mr. Owl And The Bees
14 - Mr. Owl And The Big Wood Firework Display
15 - Mr. Owl And The New Bus
16 - Mr. Owl And The New Council Offices
17 - Mr. Owl Catches Fire

Big Wood Stories - Session 5: - click here to listen
18 - Mr. Owl Does The Cooking
19 - Mr. Owl Gets A Surprise
20 - Mr. Owl Goes Caravaning
21 - Mr. Owl Goes On A Picnic
22 - Mr. Owl In The Fog

Big Wood Stories - Session 6: - click here to listen
23 - Mr. Owl Paints The House
24 - Wild Man Of The Woods
25 - Mr. Owl Takes A Bath
26 - Mr. Owl Under The Weather
27 - On The Night Of The Blizzard

Big Wood Stories - Session 7: - click here to listen
28 - Owl And The Fishing Contest
29 - Owl Goes Camping
30 - The Big Wood Elections
31 - A Visitor From Mars
32 - The Black Leather Document Case

Big Wood Stories - Session 8: - click here to listen
33 - The Egg & Spoon Marathon
34 - Thunderstorm In Bog Wood
35 - Unveiling The Cathedral Clock
36 - Water Rat's Grand Flying Tour
38 - Mr Owl and the Bishop's ring

Big Wood Stories - Session 9: - click here to listen
39 - Aunt Daisy's Potted Plant
40 - The old windmill
41 - The water cress adventure
42 - The secret of the castle library
43 - Badger's motorbike and sidecar

Big Wood Stories - Session 10: - click here to listen
44 - Mr Ospray's magic
45 - A game of golf
46 - The bells of St. Francis
47 - Rumpus at Big Wood Primary School
48 - Greenfly

Big Wood Stories - Session 11: - click here to listen
49 - Counterfeit Money - Big Wood
50 - The Highwaymen
51 - Bramble Pie
52 - The Ten Tennis Balls (* - episode 53 is missing)
54 - Operation Thatch Cover

Big Wood Stories - Session 12: - click here to listen
55 - Mr. Owl's Dig - Big Wood
56 - Mr. Owl and the Fire-Fighting Exercise
57 - The Luxury Cruise
58 - The Silver Jubilee Visit
59 - Owl's bi-plane Hetty-incomplete

Big Wood Stories - Session 13: - click here to listen
60 - The Jam Runners - incomplete
61 - The trip to the sea
62 - The long weekend