TV baker and woodwork contestants bring greetings to life in media
Greeting cards have been hitting the media again over the past few days with interesting tales involving Mary Berry, the prime minister, Julie Andrews – and Channel 4’s Handmade: Britain’s Best Woodworker Show.
Everyone’s favourite baker Mary was featured in the Daily Mail’s Weekend magazine explaining how she accidentally appeared on the front of a John Lewis greeting card, while the 10 contestants in the latest series of the reality tv found themselves tasked with turning out a wooden version in just 90 minutes.
Mary told the Mail of the “lovely story” about the card featuring a black and white photo of a mum smiling as two children play seesaw on her back: “l was in John Lewis looking at cards and I thought, that’s me!”
She bought one of the cards then “wrote to John Lewis and told them about it, and they sent me some”, and she has the original image from 1938 framed with a letter to her father Alleyne Berry, congratulating him on winning £100 in a Daily Mirror photography contest with the shot of Mary aged two or three, her brother Roger, and their mum Margery.
Explaining the picture was taken on holiday in Pembrokeshire, Mary said the newspaper had the copyright and the money “changed my father’s life – it was the equivalent of several thousand pounds and money was short then”.
The Mail also commented on Akshata Murty’s first appearance at the Tory Party conference as wife of the prime minister where she was spotted looking at a display of greeting cards showing a photo of husband Rishi Sunak under the caption “dishy Rishi”.
Then The Times’ diary column mentioned a new edition of The Sound Of Music soundtrack which has been released with Christopher Plummer’s singing restored as the Captain Von Trapp actor was dubbed in the original movie.
The Times recounts how he was so annoyed he called the film The Sound Of Mucus, but when asked how he got on with co-star Julie Andrews, he replied: “It was like being hit over the head with a huge Valentine’s Card – every day.”
And on Sunday, 8 October, the third series of the woodworking competition opened with host Mel Giedroyc and judges’ entrepreneur and woodworking expert Sophie Sellu and design academic Tom Dyckhoff revealing the 90-minute skills challenge of making a greeting card out of one piece of wooden veneer with colourful background cards ‘to add some vibrancy to your design” – the show can be watched here with the segment starting around 23:30 minutes in.
In addition to the main task of crafting a bench, the brief was for each craftsperson to personalise the card design to reflect their own interests and personality – and contestant David really embraced the greetings ethos with his colourful All You Need Is Love caption and comment to the judges: “It’s just worth remembering what the important things in life are.”
There was a whole range of designs, including trees, stars, nature, rainbows, sports, Nessie and even one that could become a wedding invitation!
The winner was Paula, whose intricate and heart-warming design – perfect for a greeting card sentiment – showed her favourite winter sports holiday destination with mountains and herself on sledge following her daughter in her sit-ski for users with disabilities.
