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FOREWORD

By Francis Beckett

It was one of those occasions the British film industry does well: a glittering preview at the National Film Theatre on the South Bank. Famous actors, footballers and politicians mingled with the crowds, and watched the new film for the very first time before applauding the stars as they walked on stage.

Television presenter Samira Ahmed, who has fronted PM, The World Tonight and Sunday Morning Live, led the way, followed by the stars themselves: Toby Jones, Gemma Jones, Tony Curran, Greg McHugh, with writer Peter Bowker and director Julian Farino. They started to talk, but there was still a sense of expectation. Something was missing.

Then a short, stout, late-middle-aged man walked on stage, using a walking stick because of a recent hip operation. His round face was covered by the widest and happiest smile we had seen for a while, and he spoke in a gravelly and curiously flat voice with a strong Potteries accent.

He was wearing a dinner jacket, in stark contrast to the elaborately casual clothes of the metropolitan elite around him, but clearly didn’t feel at all overdressed. In fact, everyone else suddenly felt a bit underdressed, and Samira Ahmed said, ‘You’re the only person here who’s dressed properly.’

His name was Neil Baldwin, and the film was a fictionalised version of his life.

It’s a name everyone now feels they know, but can’t quite pin down. Is he Neil Baldwin the cabinet minister, or Neil Baldwin the famous writer, or the actor or the talk-show host or the footballer, or the latest winner of Celebrity Big Brother?

It has been like that for more than half a century. When eighteen-year-old Malcolm Clarke arrived for his first day at Keele University in 1964, a short, stout young man wearing a clerical collar came up to him and said, ‘Welcome to Keele. I’m Neil Baldwin.’ Fifty years later, Malcolm wrote, ‘I appreciated his warm welcome, but just who was he? As always with Neil, his exact status seemed uncertain.’

It was still like that in 2010, when I profiled him for the Guardian. The profile inspired the film Marvellous, which was broadcast in 2014.

So who is Neil Baldwin, and why does he matter? To understand that, you have to understand his singular life, and in this book Neil and Malcolm, with a little help from me, guide you through it. Maybe, when you come to the end, you will feel you understand; and maybe not. But you will feel more optimistic, because that’s what exposure to Neil does.