Tim Grundy - RIP

How I missed this piece of sad news I'll never know, particularly given my profession and my morbid obsession with reading obituaries but I only found out this morning that the ever genial and much-loved TV and radio colossus Tim Grundy passed away in February.

Tim, of course was the son of Bill Grundy - he of the Sex Pistols infamy - and continued the family tradition of erudite and witty commentary whilst maintaining an air of self-deprecation and exuding an obvious joy at the job he did.

Personally, I'll always look back on Tim's excellent series "Two's Country" as his finest piece of work.

This was television at its simplest yet most entertaining - essentially Tim and the mysterious, mute & unseen cameraman/director called 'The Eye' would go somewhere - tell you all about it and then the next day they'd go somewhere else and do the same.

Along the way, Tim (a trained teacher and journalist) would drop in nuggets of information about the place being visited whilst gently ribbing his companion in the process - a strange but highly-endearing relationship, all the stranger for the fact that only one of the parties ever said anything..

I had the good fortune to bump into Tim and Mr (?) 'Eye' in a pub in Windsor in 1996 where they were enjoying a pint after finishing shooting an episode in the Royal town.
Despite my somewhat clumsy introduction, Tim could not have been more friendly and seemed genuinely pleased to have been hassled by a fan-boy such as myself and after chatting for a while about the show and where he was off to next he kindly signed the copy of Autosport I was carrying - the only piece of paper I had to hand and a memento I still fondly retain to this day.

Somewhere in the deep dark recesses of the loft I still have a load of old off-air VHS recordings of the show and maybe now's as good a time as any to dig them out and watch a master at work..

He was only 50 when he died, which is a criminally young age at which to go.
I for one will mourn his passing and know that many others who found him to be a genuinely engaging, talented & entertaining broadcaster will do likewise.

I offer my sincere condolences to his family and friends.