What connection did Cecil Madden have with The Telegoons?
Cecil Madden (d. 1987) started in television before WWII at the BBC’s Alexandria Palace (Ally Pally). A playwright with more than half-a-dozen West End productions to his credit, he served as BBCtv’s first programme organiser, and was a pioneering television producer. After a long career, during which he was creator of numerous television programmes including the well remembered children’s variety and entertainment series Whirligig, Cecil retired with the rank of deputy director of television. For many years he lived in Chelsea, a few doors down from where Margaret Thatcher lived. During his tenure as president of the British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild, Cecil Madden tried very hard to trace the Telegoon puppets (see Radio Times insert, left, which was reprinted in GSPS NL#49, July 1987), but with no success other than a report that they were in a pub near Maidenhead. John Dudley, who was a good friend of Cecil’s, recalled him saying that [the puppets] were on the walls of a pub out
