The One Show: Growing up with Elisabeth Beresford

BBC One’s topical magazine show The One Show broadcast a lovely feature about Elisabeth Beresford, the creator and author of The Wombles, on 10 November.

The five-minute film was presented by Elisabeth Beresford’s son, Marcus Robertson, reminiscing about his childhood as part of a series in which the children of famous parents talk about what it was like growing up with them.

Marcus began with the legendary tale of his family’s Boxing Day walk on Wimbledon Common in the 1960s, before they moved to Alderney.

He talked about how his mother loved the island life in a small, friendly community, and then he showed us her house. The “parlour” was the room where she wrote all her books, on a typewriter which she called her “tryper”. The door is still covered with children’s drawings of Wombles, and the shelves are full of Wombles books and cuddly toys.

Marcus also remembered how excited his mother was when she got her OBE at Buckingham Palace, and how the Queen knew a lot about the Wombles and was “clearly a Wombles fan”.

The film, which you can watch below, included some nice archive photos and interview footage of the young Elisabeth Beresford.