With his specs, cloth cap and infectious toothy grin, Bolton-born steeplejack Fred Dibnah was instantly recognisable. He burst onto TV screens in 1978 blithely repairing Bolton’s town hall clock at the dizzying height of some 250 feet and quickly found a place in the nation’s heart, becoming a familiar face on TV for many years. Now some of Fred’s most famous programmes can be enjoyed again thanks to the DVD release from Simply Media.
 
Following that first local news report, the BBC commissioned the BAFTA winning 1980 documentary ‘Fred Dibnah: Steeplejack’, which showed him demolishing giant factory chimneys with ease and casually hopping across the chimney tops with death-defying agility.
 
After that, eight 30-minute programmes were made, exploring Fred’s eccentric life as a steeplejack and steam tractor fanatic, and now for the first time together on DVD, the eight episode 1982 BBC television series ‘Fred’ arrives alongside ‘Fred Dibnah: Steeplejack’.
 
In Fred, director by Don Haworth caught Dibnah at great heights doing what he does best - and filmed him far below. Driving his favourite steamroller Betsy, soon the man with two very Victorian tastes became a television star just for being himself, long before the days of reality TV.
 
With the world literally at his feet, Fred was much in demand as a television presenter and after-dinner speaker on industrial history and all things mechanical – and especially anything related to his overriding passion: steamrollers – he even arrived on one to collect his MBE from Buckingham Palace.
 
Step into the fascinating life of national treasure, Fred Dibnah in this fantastic collection of his first ever appearances on TV in Fred, available on DVD for the very first time on 23 May 2016.

We have four copies of Fred to give away. Just tell us what town Fred called home and email your answers to diarmuid.macdonagh@dorsetecho.co.uk

Closing date 5pm on June 3.

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