Francis Ravenscroft, as audience guest on This Is Your Life
Francis Ravenscroft (29 July 1941 - 25 July 2018), sometimes known as Frank, was one of John Peel's siblings along with Alan. Peel in Margrave Of The Marshes described how him and Francis in their childhood saw their father after a long time, but couldn't recognise him when he came home after military service.
Peel would occasionally mention that as a child, Francis once fell out of a moving car whilst it was travelling through Wrexham. Fortunately he emerged unscathed from the experience.
Francis gave Peel his first EP when he was ten years old, which had on one side two tracks by Bing Crosby and on the other side, two tracks by Russ Columbo. The Bing Crosby track, 'Just A Gigolo' from the EP was later added by Peel to his Peelenium 1931 in 1999.
Francis was audience guest on Peel's This Is Your Life, which was broadcast in January 1996 after Peel received the big red book from Michael Aspel while presenting Top Of The Pops on 14th December 1995.
Francis worked in the insurance industry and tragically died of cancer in 2018. [1] [2]
Mentioned In Shows[]
- 1969
- 07 May 1969: Peel dedicates a Leonard Cohen record to his brother Francis, whose wife Sarah has given birth to their first child.
- 1979
- 21 February 1979: Peel mentions that his brother Frank is a dab hand at solving cryptic crossword clues.
- 30 July 1979: Mentions his brother Frank and his wife, who are celebrating the birth of another child
- 1981
- 19 January 1981: John recounts how his brother Francis once fell out a moving car in the town of Wrexham.
- 1983
- You'll Never Walk Alone(2): Peel mentions that his brother Frank works for the Royal Insurance.
- 1987
- 28 February 1987 (BBC World Service): Peel mentions his brother Frank lives in Crowborough in Sussex.
- 04 March 1987: Peel reveals that his brother Frank was born in 1941.
- Peeling Back The Years 1 (Transcript): "I mean, when people ask me what it was that I wanted for Christmas or birthdays, I just used to say, “Records.” And not specific records at all, just any record that they were prepared to buy for me I was perfectly happy to receive. And that went on for a few years. I mean, my brother Frank – Francis as he was in those days – one Christmas bought me an EP, the first EP that I ever owned, which had on one side two tracks by Bing Crosby, including Just A Gigolo, which is still one of my favourite songs, a very moving song. And on the other side, two tracks by Russ Columbo, who threatened to equal Bing Crosby but shot himself."
- 05 August 1987: Peel mentions he doesn't like Opera, but his brother, Francis Ravenscroft does.
- 1991
- Peel 004 (Radio Bremen): (JP: "This is from Goodnight Said Florence who come from Wrexham in the north of Wales and all I can tell you about Wrexham is once back in the 1950's my brother Frank fell out a moving car and disappeared down the side street in Wrexham, he re-appeared in a few moments later I should emphasise")
- 20 October 1991: (JP: 'When I was a little boy, me and my little brother Frank, who was a couple of years younger than me (still is as a matter of fact) had an imaginary person who lived in our garden called BooBoo, who lived at the bottom of our flag pole in fact – we had a flag pole - that sort of a family – and we had a secret word as well.')
- 04 November 1991 (Ö3): (JP: 'When I was a little tiny flaxen-haired child, my brother Francis and I used to have a secret word.')
- 1992
- Chain Reaction: David Gedge Interviews John Peel (Transcript): (JP: "I have two brothers, Alan and Francis, and on one notable occasion she (Peel's mother) said, "Alan was always my favorite son, and then Francis." And then she sort of fixed me with this steely gaze and said, "And then you!" But in her last years it wasn’t like that at all.")
- 1995
- 27 May 1995 (BFBS): (JP: 'As a boy, as I told you before, I was sent to dancing lessons, which I really hated, as you do, you know. This was to learn things like the foxtrot, the military two-step...and we used to be shoved into Neston Village Hall at the front, me brother Francis and meself, and the first few times we went, we just walked straight through the hall and out the back and hid in the lav until it was over, but they cottoned on to this after a while and we were compelled to dance. Francis and I, both rather shy country-ish children...I always used to end up dancing with this rather large young woman...whatever the season was, the back of her legs were always covered in mud. I always wondered what she did in her personal and private life that caused this to happen, but she was always covered in mud. And Francis used to dance with this enormously tall girl who he once rendered unconscious during one of the more complex manoeuvres of the foxtrot. Sort of head-butted her, I think, 'cos I was aware of a disturbance at the other end of the hall, and there was Frank standing over this unconscious girl on the floor, sobbing his eyes out, as you might imagine. It does set you against dancing, that sort of thing, I think.')
- 1997
- 12 June 1997: Peel plays Orange's I Feel You, and mentions it is one of Francis Ravenscroft's record tip.
- 25 September 1997 (BFBS): (JP: 'I wish I believed in an afterlife, I really do. I mean, I'd be much cheered up at the prospect. Obviously, the older you get, the more you'd like to know that there was one, but I don't really believe in it. And if there was one, I wouldn't be one of those people who wanted to meet Shakespeare, 'cos for a start, you wouldn't understand him, would you? He'd be chatting away, in apparently some kind of rural West Country accent, and saying things. "What? What was that? What are you trying to say, mate?" But what I would like to do is sort out mundane things, like sort out with my dad whether he wanted me or my brother Frank to have that Welsh dresser (Frank got it, needless to say). And also, on a more serious level, to apologise to him for being such a terrible, inconsiderate and selfish son.')
- 1998
- 29 December 1998: Delgados, 'Everything Goes Around The Water (CD single)' (Chemikal Underground) (JP: 'We love 'em in our house, even my brother Francis, who doesn't like anything.')
- 1999
- 27 July 1999: The Bing Crosby Peelenium track is cited by Peel as one of his favourite records ever, and is dedicated to his brother Francis, who gave JP a copy of the record when he was 10 years old, "and I've not stopped singing it since."