Famous Faces at Great Linford

Great Linford has certainly had more than its fair share of famous faces pass through, though this is hardly surprising as for many years the Manor House served as a prestigious music recording studio, welcoming some of the top bands and singers in the world. But other names can be associated with the village from the world of show biz and television, some with more certainty than others, and two providing a link to one of the most infamous political scandals in British history!

Diana Dors

Above: Diana Dors

Diana Dors was an actress and glamour model, whose reputation as a sex symbol and lurid tabloid headlines disguise the fact that she was by all accounts a very accomplished actress, and that but for personal misfortunes and misjudgements, could very easily have secured her reputation as a serious artiste. Her name has come up in conversation often in connection to Great Linford, with older residents remembering her presence, but under exactly what circumstances she was here, and for how long she stayed, is a matter of speculation. What seems relatively certain is that she had a connection to the house known as The Mead.

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Above: The Mead, located on Harpers Lane.

It has been suggested that she owned The Mead, but it seems more likely that an aunt and uncle were living there in the 1950s or 1960s. Diana’s real surname was Fluck, while her mother’s maiden name was Payne, but neither name can be connected to The Mead. A name sounding something like Gutteridge has also been suggested, but again, a blank is drawn in trying to connect the name to the house. A person who remembers the owners of the house in the 1980s relates the understanding was held that Diana had owned it, and that it was her country get-away, but having run the theories past an expert on Diana Dors, a home in Great Linford is entirely unknown, and given that hers was a very public persona with numerous books written about her (and by her), the lack of evidence for her ownership seems compelling.

But despite the mystery of the ownership of The Mead, it does seem entirely likely from the recollections of residents of Great Linford, that Diana Dors had once turned heads in the village.

Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice Davis

Above: Christine Keeler (right) and Mandy Rice Davies

​Beginning in 1961, John Profumo, the 46-year-old War Minister in the Conservative government of Harold McMillan, began an affair with a 19-year-old model and exotic dancer named Christine Keeler. At the same time, Keeler had entered into a relationship with an attaché at the Soviet embassy named Yevgeny Ivanov, a state of affairs with clear implications for national security. The exact circumstances behind Keeler’s brief relationship with Ivanov are subject to dispute; Keeler alleges in her biography that she was being set up and the intention was to generate blackmail material so that the Soviets could ascertain NATO nuclear plans in Europe. But what does this have to do with Great Linford?

The circumstances are certainly strange. The suggestion that Christine Keeler and her friend Mandy Rice Davies had visited Great Linford had been offered by a resident who remembered seeing them in the village, but is there any proof? Indirectly there is, and the trail starts at the manor house, which in 1956 had been occupied by a Michael Dibben, an entrepreneurial character who had developed a novel way of making casts of old garden statuary and then turning out copies. His unique selling point was that he had developed a way of cheaply reproducing items with a special concrete formula that simulated the patina of old garden ornaments. Chilstone proved very successful, and the company still exists to this day; you can even still buy “Great Linford” branded items.

But how does this bring us closer to a connection to the Profumo Affair? To join the dots, we need to talk about Michael’s father, Horace Harold Dibben, known as “Hod” to his friends and acquaintances. Hod Dibben was an antique dealer who had made a name for himself as a nightclub owner in London, but his establishments were the more respectable front for the private parties he became infamous for, secret assignations where the rich and famous could shed their inhibitions.  Christine Keeler denied ever attending one of these parties, but Mandy Rice Davies had, and in the highly charged atmosphere both girls inhabited, intrigue and blackmail went hand in hand, as did espionage. 

The name of Hod Dibben is one that exists on the periphery of the Profumo Affair, but it certainly gives credence to the idea that Keeler and Rice-Davies could have visited Great Linford as guests of the Dibbens. This is not to impugn the reputation of Michael Dibben, no concrete evidence points to any shenanigans at the manor, and indeed the story that has bee passed down suggests they stayed at Linford Lodge. Christine Keeler makes no mention of Great Linford in her biography, but perhaps we can speculate that as the Profumo Affair exploded into the public eye, Keeler and Rice-Davies sought a respite from the incessant press attention in a quiet little Buckinghamshire village.

Great Linford Manor: The place to be

​The tenue of the Dibben family certainly seems to have been a period when the manor was well known to various showbusiness luminaries of the time. It is recalled that the celebrity hairdresser Vidal Sassoon stayed at the manor, as did the actor Ian Hendry, well known for his role in the classic British drama The Avengers. Even more intriguingly, I am reliably informed that another visitor to the manor was Eddie Chapman, a well-known criminal and a wartime double agent, known to his handlers in the intelligence service as Zigzag.

​While on the run from the police, Chapman was caught and imprisoned in Jersey and was still incarcerated there when the Germans invaded in 1940. No doubt sensing an opportunity, Chapman offered his services as a spy and was subsequently parachuted into England, where he promptly handed himself in and turned double agent. After the war, he was involved in a number of businesses, and wrote his autobiography. Exactly what brought him to Great Linford is unknown, but it certainly adds a degree of intrigue to the history of the Manor.

Above: MI5 mug shot of Eddie Chapman.

The cast and director of Suspect

Toward the end of 1969, a television crew descended on a snowy Great Linford to film a gritty crime drama called Suspect, which was to serve as a trial run for a short series called Armchair Cinema for Thames TV. Shot on film, which was an unusual extravagance at the time, Suspect and the stories that followed are well-regarded as programmes that served as a training ground for up-and-coming actors, writers and directors; one episode entitled Regan would be spung off into the immensely popular The Sweeney. Suspect was the work of Mike Hodges, who would go on to critical acclaim for his film Get Carter, which starred Michael Caine. Hodges is also well known for the camp cult classic, Flash Gordon.

Above: Michael Caine and Mike Hodges while filming Get Carter.

Hodges wrote and directed Suspect, which filmed extensively inside the manor house, on the High Street and many other familiar locations in and around the village. The cast was led by Rachel Kempson, a RADA trained actress with many roles on stage and television to her name, including in later years Out of Africa and The Jewel in the Crown. She often co-starred with her husband Michael Redgrave, the couple founding an acting dynasty that included Vanessa Redgrave.

​In Suspect, Rachel   plays Phyllis Segal, who worries that the disappearance of her husband, coinciding with the apparent abduction of a local schoolgirl, must in some way be connected. But when the police arrive, she decides that she must keep up appearances at all costs and does all she can to deflect suspicion from her wayward spouse.

Above: Rachel kempson. Photo credit: Allan warren, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The police are led by Detective Inspector Barnes, played by George Sewell, whose craggy features graced many crime dramas of the period, playing characters on both sides of the law. He may be best remembered as Colonel Alec Freeman in Gerry Anderson’s live action UFO series. In Suspect, Sewell’s detective is a somewhat world-weary character, but determined to get his man. 

Above: George Sewell

Rounding out the main cast is Bryan Marshall, a stalwart of British television, but with roles also in movies like The Long Good Friday and The Spy Who Loved Me. Marshall plays the son of Phylis Segal, returning home to find the family’s life in turmoil.

Suspect is a particularly good crime drama, with plenty of suspense, and it is certainly fascinating to think that the village was once home to a television production of this nature. As of writing, the episode is available on YouTube.

​Bill Oddie

Bill Oddie is a name that immediately brings to mind the phrase “Goody goody yum yum”, evoking his role in the anarchic television comedy, The Goodies. But Oddie has also been a lifelong conservationist, and it was in this capacity that he came to Great Linford in 1990 to help promote the launch of the first door to door recycling scheme in the country. He met locals in Great Linford and was photographed at the launch in the manor grounds.

Above: Bill Oddie in the grounds of Great Linford Manor. Picture reproduced with the permission of Living Archive.

Nadiya Hussain

Nadiya Hussain was catapulted to fame after winning the Great British Bakeoff in 2015 and is now a popular television cookery star. In 2017, she visited Great Linford Manor Park for the first episode of Nadiya's British Food Adventure, which saw her meeting Turan T. Turan, who was then running a food smoking business from one of the pavilions.  The episode is occasionally repeated on the BBC, but as of writing is not available on iPlayer, though it can be purchased via Amazon and Apple TV.

The one that got away

Sadly not all celebrity visits to Great Linford have gone to plan. I am aware that Journalist, producer and TV presenter Dr Michael Mosely visited the park in 2023 to film for his TV series Secrets of your big shop. Sadly, it seems that the footage shot in the park hit the cutting room floor, as there is no sign of any scenes in the episode in question, which was the third in the series, featuring a Milton Keynes couple hoping to improve their eating habits.

Above: Dr Michael Mosely

Wimbledon tennis stars

Great Linford was once home to a promising tennis player named Jean Gambell. She played at the juniors at Wimbledon in the late 1930s, but her career was cut tragically short when she died aged just 19. Her father Philip Clayton Gambell was an important figure in county tennis, and it is said that as a result, famous tennis players were to be seen playing on a court at the Gambell's home, Linford Lodge. Unfortunately no firm evidence has been found to support this, but you can read more about tennis in Great Linford here.

Great Linford Manor Recording Studio

Arguably saving the best until last, the manor house was home from approximately 1984 to the early 2000s to a recording studio. Bought by music manager Harry Maloney and converted into a residential studio, artists travelled from all over the world to use the facilities, which included digital equipment, making it one of the first studios to use such cutting-edge technology in the UK. In later years, the studio came into the hands of the manor’s present owner, Pete Winkleman. He continued to run the business for some years more, though its days as a recording studio are sadly now over.

Some extremely well-regarded albums were recorded at the manor, amongst which was P.J Harvey’s acclaimed album Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, which was recorded between March and April of 2000. Other big names that passed through Great Linford was John Lydon of Sex Pistols fame, who recorded at the manor with his band PiL, as well as Del Amitri and Babylon Zoo. John Lydon was spotted in the Nag’s Head.

I’ve been told that the artists rather kept themselves to themselves though “Skunk Anansie, Feeder and Jamiroquai were recording during one of the festival times in the park and made appearances either on the Friday in the garden or when the stage was in front of the manor.”

Skunk Anansie offer their recollections of recording at the manor in the video below.

​One band for whom we have photographic evidence of their presence is ELO Part II, portions of whose album Moment of Truth was laid down at the manor in 1994. The band were captured on film at the manor, and having a crafty pint in the Nag’s Head, by photographer Paul Spencer, who has kindly given permission to reproduce the following photographs from the album sleeve. Please visit Paul’s Instagram account here for more great photographs.

ELO as seen from a window in the Manor House.

Above: ELO in the Nags Head.

Much has been written about the Manor’s days as a recording studio, so rather than repeat this here, I will provide some links for those who are interested to further explore.

The Discogs site provides a very comprehensive looking list of the artists who have recorded from the manor, and using this, I have created a Spotify playlist. It’s not complete as unfortunately not every song is available on Spotify, but if you have an account, you can listen to the Great Linford Manor Spotify playlist by clicking here.

Some rather grainy videos of the manor studio can be viewed on the record production website, and for those with an interest in the technical aspects of a music studio, the same site also has a piece here on one of the consoles used.

Home and Studio Recording Magazine featured an extensive article about the studio in their May 1987 issue, which can be viewed online here.

For an obituary of Harry Maloney, click here and for a general overview of the manor house as a recording studio, click here.

Share your celebrity stories

Do you know of any other famous faces who have visited Great Linford, or have stories to tell about the celebrities named above, perhaps even photographs or memorabilia? Please comment below.