ALAN BODENHAM

Dear Ann, Alan was an old friend of me and my husband's back in the late 70s and early 80s. Alan was the Toffo Man Deputy and my husband Archie was the Sheriff. We were all quite close while Archie and I lived in London, but when we moved back to America (where I had met Alan and Archie back in 1978 when they were filming the Toffo adverts) we lost contact. Over the years I would search for Alan and could find little information about him. Only just today I found a post that said he had passed away back in 1999. Although that was a long time ago, it was as if it had just happened and it broke my heart. Both my husband and I loved Alan. He would spend weekends with us in London and we would listen to The Arches on the radio. Archie and I had an old out of tune upright piano in our flat that I would play and we would all drink Guinness and sing show tunes. I have a scrapbook of old photos when we went to see Alan while he was performing in Cambridge in something or other. I still look at the photos taken at that time so very fondly. We met your parents one weekend and your father taught me how to play Shove Ha'Penny. I am 19 years late in saying this but I am so very sorry for your loss. I had always hoped to be able to lure Alan out to visit us in the US. With kindness, Alexis and Archie