FILM GUY ERNIE WEB SITE
A FEW OF MY STORIES:
ERNIE'S BETTY GRABLE PAGE:
THE CINEMA AND THEATRE SCENE
OUR VERY OWN LINKS PAGE:
FAMILIAR FACES
THE LLOYD BROTHERS:
DURANGO IN THE MOVIES:
"ALL YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT":
TRAIN & STATION MOVIE FACTS:
"The Tops!":
STAGE AND SCREEN:
Message Board
Guestbook
Mail Form
|
The Lloyd Brothers from Derby:
 This is my special page to two faces that we saw regularly on our television screens.
The first is Kevin Lloyd, better nown as 'Tosh' from the weekly series of ITVs "The Bill":
Real name: Kevin Reardon Lloyd
Born: 28 March 1949, Derby, Derbyshire
Married: Divorced
Died: 2 May 1998, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire
Children: Eight children; one adopted child
Until he was sacked from the show in late April 1998, Kevin Lloyd played Detective Constable Alfred "Tosh" Lines in the popular ITV police series The Bill. Overweight and scruffy, with an undisciplined moustache, Tosh was a policeman content to plod. But he was affable, honest and dependable in a crisis. Lloyd turned him into a stalwart of Sun Hill police station, and made him one of the best-liked characters in the show. In 1986, when The Bill was named Best TV Drama at the National Television Awards, it seemed entirely fitting that it was Lloyd who collected the honour on behalf of the rest of the cast.
He was born in Derby, the son of a police sergeant who was killed in an accident at the age of 46 when responding to an emergency call. Lloyd was to draw on aspects of his father's personality and manner in creating the character of Tosh; his grandfather and an uncle were policemen too.
As a child Lloyd suffered from Perthes' disease, a painful and debilitating condition which left him with a withered right leg but did little to curb an early enthusiasm for sport of all kinds. Educated locally, he trained to be a solicitor after leaving grammar school, but abandoned his legal studies in favour of the stage.
He attended the East 15 drama school in London from 1970 to 1973, making his stage debut on graduation in The Importance of Being Earnest. His West End debut shortly afterwards was in Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw. This was followed by work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Bristol Old Vic. One of the biggest disappointments of Lloyd's career was the death of Laurence Olivier two weeks before they were due to start rehearsing together for a production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard in Los Angeles.
His initial television appearance was in a children's show, Bob and Ben the Removal Men, but he first achieved celebrity with a regular role as Don Watkins, the flash, loud-mouthed manager of Mike Baldwin's doomed nightclub in Coronation Street. Other television credits included Z Cars, The Sweeney, Minder, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Misfits (1981), Boon (ITV, 1988 'Charity Begins at Home') as Langford, Dear John (BBC1, 1987) as Rick and The Young Charlie Chaplin (TV movie, 1989) as Fred Karno. Film credits include Lindsay Anderson's Britannia Hospital (1982) and Link (1986) as Bailey.
With its cast of regulars pounding the inner-city beat, and its format of two and later three 30-minute episodes each week, The Bill aimed to combine the investigative excitement of earlier police dramas with the running human interest of a soap opera. It quickly became a hit with viewers. Lloyd joined it in 1988 as the lovably chaotic Constable Lines, and stayed long enough to see it attract audiences of up to 14 million.
Even at the height of his success, Lloyd was determined to remain close to his Derbyshire roots. Not only was he a lifelong Derby County supporter, but for years he commuted daily from his home at Duffield, north of Derby, to London's Notting Hill where The Bill was filmed - a round trip of six hours and some 270 miles, accomplished at an annual cost of £17,000.
The grueling regimen took its toll on his marriage and on his health. He and his wife separated with great acrimony amid much publicity in 1995, and were subsequently divorced. Another relationship was short lived, and early in 1998 Lloyd sought treatment for drink problems in a private Staffordshire clinic.
The attempted cure was unsuccessful. After several ultimatums, and nine years as Tosh, Lloyd was sacked with immediate effect by the producers of The Bill in late April 1998, having reportedly turned up drunk for his first full day back on the set. He returned to the clinic, but following a drinking binge six days later was admitted to hospital in Burton-on-Trent where he died.
He left four sons and three daughters, one of them an adopted Romanian orphan. Another daughter died in infancy.
And then there was his famous brother Terry, a News Reporter for ITN:
|
Bygone Derby and Derbyshire 1960s:
 From 'The Derby Evening Telegraph':
A Precious Reminder.......
School photographs are treasured for many reasons and never fail to bring back happy memories for former pupils and their parents ...
Bill Worth, of Breydon Close, Shelton Lock,Derby, recalls: “Our son was David Worth, who became a most proficient swimmer and a founder member of a local sub-aqua club. Tragically he died in a road accident in Hereford when he was 40.
The other one could be be seen from the distant corners of the world several times a week on ITN. He started with Raymonds News Agency in Derby and is now a rather famous reporter. He was Terry Lloyd.
“Terry Lloyd’s father, Aled, was a police officer, as I was, and so, as our boys were roughly the same age, they grew up together. We were both with Derby Borough Police. “I came to Derby in 1949 and Aled was already here. Sadly he was killed in a Panda car accident in 1967.”
To make matters worse Aled was answering a false emergency call.
Bill saw his son’s childhood friend, Terry, from time to time, recently at his mother Agnes Lloyd’s funeral. Sadly for Agnes, as well as losing her husband prematurely, she lost a son who made his mark in the world of television. The death of accomplished actor Kevin Lloyd, better known as Tosh of the Bill, at a comparatively young age, broke Agnes’ heart.
As if that was not enough, more tragedy has hit the Lloyds. Derby Evening Telegraph columnist Lucy Orgill, who knows the family well,says: “One of Agnes’ grandchildren, Chloe, died when she was just a toddler. But Agnes rallied and made her mark as an energetic and enthusiastic grandmother to nine grandchildren.
“She was full of kindness and common sense and will be missed by all who knew and loved her.”
In the wake of the sadness of losing his mother, Says Bill: “It will also surprise the others, who will now remember the happy days of their schooldays at Wyndham Street.”
(c) Derby Evening Telegraph
However, on 22nd March 2003, the news headlines read:
|
Tragedy:
 | Three members of an ITV News crew are missing after they came under fire on their way to the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
Efforts to find British TV reporter Terry Lloyd, cameraman Fred Nerac and local translator Hussein Othman are under way, following the attack at Iman Anas. Another member of the team, cameraman Daniel Demoustier, was able to reach safety having suffered minor injuries.
He was not able to see what happened to his colleagues and said: "I'm really praying that they're still okay."
The team had been travelling in two vehicles towards Iraq's second city, the scene of heavy fighting. ITV News said: "There were British and Iraqi forces in the area at the time. "Coalition and Iraqi military sources have been unable to confirm their whereabouts. "Every effort is being made to establish what happened."
Heavy gunfire:
Mr Demoustier, who had a heavy black eye and cuts to his face, said the ITV crew had passed many Iraqi civilians out on the streets and their cars on the road. "We saw tanks burning, we saw trucks burning, helmets, lots of signs of heavy fighting from probably last night. "But it looked like it was pretty under control now and so you move step by step and we put big TV signs on the car."
After passing British and US positions Mr Demoustier saw Iraqi forces approaching and turned his vehicle around when he noticed they were still armed.
|
|
'Duck down'
 Two Iraqi vehicles followed them, the occupants making "thumbs up" signs, which Mr Demoustier took to mean they wanted to surrender using them as cover. "But at that same moment very heavy gunfire started towards my car, from the right hand side.
"I had to duck down straight away, windows were exploding inside the car. "In a split second I looked to my right side and the right door where my correspondent (Terry Lloyd) was open and he was not there anymore," he said.
Mr Demoustier, who survived by jumping into a ditch just before the oil covered vehicle exploded, said he hoped his colleagues escaped in a similar way. "I saw another press vehicle - colleagues from the Mail on Sunday - and they just arrived on the scene and I took a run to that car and they got me out," he added.
News correspondent Terry Lloyd, 51, joined ITN, which makes news for ITV, as a local television reporter in 1983.He has wide-ranging experience, including stints in Lebanon, Kosovo, Bosnia and Cambodia.
He reported from the Iraqi city of Halabje, after Saddam Hussein dropped a chemical bomb on Kurdish people inside the country.
In January 1993 Mr Lloyd was on board the US aircraft carrier Kittyhawk as it launched planes against Iraq.
News of the attack came as officials announced that US and UK forces were closing in on Basra, Iraq's second city. A US spokesman earlier said there was a "major battle" on the way to the city. A large contingent of about 8,000 British troops in 120 tanks and 145 armoured vehicles were moved into southern Iraq from Kuwait to support US forces.
The advance included the "Desert Rats" of the 7th Armoured Division and paratroopers from 16 Air Assault Brigade, officials said.
|
More Information: ITN man 'believed dead'
Missing ITN reporter Terry Lloyd is now thought to be dead, the news station has said.
Mr Lloyd, 50, was last seen being shot at in southern Iraq on the approach to the city of Basra. A statement from ITN said: "We believe his body to be in Basra hospital which is still under Iraqi control."
Mr Lloyd - whose family are originally from Wales - was the station's longest serving reporter and the first to be killed on assignment in ITN's 48-year history. ITN said the fate of the other two men missing from his crew was unknown.
ITN chief executive Stewart Purvis said it was now understood Iraqi ambulances had taken the injured men away. "We've been trying to get through to Basra hospital. There is now sufficient evidence to believe that Terry was probably dead at arrival."
He said it was most likely that fire from US Marines had caused the fatality. "Here is the man who first alerted the world to the horrors of Saddam Hussein by going to the village of Halabja and finding the Kurds gassed there. "And this guy dies in the war that is meant to overthrow Saddam Hussein, not through the guns of Saddam Hussein but now we clearly know through so-called friendly fire."
Not 'reckless':
Mr Purvis paid tribute to a much-loved correspondent. "He was brave, he was courageous, he was committed. He was safety conscious. This was not a reckless man." Mr Lloyd was married with two children aged 21 and 11. David Mannion, editor of ITV News, said: "He was my oldest, dearest friend, but I am sustained that he died doing what he did best, at the peak of his powers and at a time of his life when he was personally and professionally the happiest I have seen him."
Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith also paid tribute to Mr Lloyd. "This is a moment to reflect that some of the best journalism takes place in the line of fire in order to get the kind of stories we have seen.
Profile: Terry Lloyd:
As an award-winning ITN correspondent Terry Lloyd, 50, was known to millions of viewers for his reports from war zones around the world.
The son of a Swansea-born policeman, Mr Lloyd started his journalism career at Raymonds news agency in Derby. He joined ITN, who supply news for ITV, in 1983 as a reporter from Central Television. Over the next two decades, he worked on a range of big stories, from the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984 and the World Cup in Mexico in 1986 - and became the longest-serving ITV News correspondent. But it was for a series of reports from the world's trouble spots that brought him the most acclaim.
Fifteen years ago, Mr Lloyd was the first TV reporter to get inside the small market town of Halabja in Iraq after Saddam Hussein had dropped a chemical bomb, killing 5,000 of his own Kurdish people. In January 1993, he was the only British TV reporter on the US carrier Kittyhawk, as she launched planes against Iraq, and brought exclusive coverage of the aircraft taking off and the Iraqi targets being hit. The following March he reported on the discovery of mass graves at Ovcara near Vukovar - the remains of hundreds of Croats who had disappeared more than a year earlier.
Greatest plaudits:
In July 1997 he was in Cambodia reporting on the fighting there following the collapse of the country's coalition government. But it was for being the first reporter to get inside Kosovo - the first by a Western newsman while the region was still in Serb hands - that he won his greatest plaudits, and an award for ITV News.
With cameraman Mike Inglish, they retraced a secret escape route refugees were using to cross the border, scaling a snow-capped mountain range through neighbouring Montenegro. The father-of-two was born and brought up in Derby. He is survived by wife Lynn, and children, daughter Chelsey, 21, and son Oliver, 11.
His brother was actor Kevin Lloyd - famous for his portrayal of Tosh in ITV's The Bill.
"The pictures we see in the news are not without cost and our thoughts go out to all the families of those who are reporting in Iraq and the Middle East."
Investigation underway:
Cameraman Daniel Demoustier, who escaped with injuries, said they were hit by "friendly fire" aimed at two nearby vehicles containing about a dozen Iraqi soldiers who were killed.
The Ministry of Defence is investigating the incident but has not commented further on whether friendly fire was involved.
As well as assignments in Lebanon and Cambodia, Mr Lloyd was known for an award-winning stint in Kosovo.
Mr Demoustier told the Mail on Sunday the team - Mr Lloyd, cameraman Fred Nerac and local translator Hussein Othman - had passed through military checkpoints and been greeted in some areas by jubilant Iraqi civilians when they came across a group of Iraqi soldiers, who followed them.
"Immediately the allied tanks started heavy firing directly at us - rounds were coming straight at the Jeep, smashing the windows and puncturing holes in the bodywork.
"Then the whole car was on fire. We were enveloped in flames. It was terrifying." Mr Lloyd had been sitting in the same car, but vanished from the passenger seat as they tried to flee the firing, said Mr Demoustier who said he drove on until his vehicle caught fire and then he jumped into a ditch.
|  |
|
In Memory of Terry Lloyd
 Remembering this brave reporter,and those who gave their lives in the present conflict.
From Film Guy Ernie
By e.mail
13th. March 2006:
Hi there -
I am the daughter of Terry Lloyd. I just wanted to say thank you for writing such a heart felt story with regards to my dad.
When I sit at home, I sometimes trawl websites and read about certain pages that contain dad. This is how I have just come across your page!
May I say thanks, it helps so much with the grieving process to read the kind words of others!!
Best wishes to you.
Chelsey Lloyd
|
This page has been visited  times. |
