Talks at Six series in Chichester set to close after eight years of success

SussexWorld

The latest Talks at Six series in Chichester will be the last, organiser Marilyn Humphrey has confirmed.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. It's always

00:06really genuinely lovely to speak to Marilyn Humphrey, but sadly, very sad news this time,

00:11Marilyn has created and led Talks at Six in Chichester for the past eight years, but the

00:17current series will be the final series, won't it, after how many talks have you had over those eight

00:23years? We've had 178 talks over eight years. And that's a huge achievement, isn't it? Remind me

00:34of the inspiration, why did you start this thing back in 2016? Well, I remember telling you

00:44then and regretting it, so I don't know whether to say it again, but it was really because I

00:50like going to talks, I like listening to people, I like listening to interesting people, but the

00:55only way to do that really is to invite them round to dinner, but I'm not a very good cook.

01:00So I decided that instead of having dinner parties, I'd start Talks at Six. That's a novel

01:08idea, dinner parties without the food then. Dinner parties without the food. Just the talk.

01:13And it has gone brilliantly, hasn't it? It's gone extremely well for year after year,

01:18and you're saying you didn't know whether it would last one week or a fortnight, and yet

01:22eight years it's lasted, and you've had a terrific range of people. Why has it done so well?

01:28Well, I think it's because it's basically local speakers talking about local subjects

01:37in the local environment. So it's promoted Chichester, it's promoted people in Chichester,

01:43it's raised money for quite a lot of Chichester charities, and, you know, charities that are

01:52near to the speaker's heart, because the speaker gets to choose the charity, and I think that's

01:56terribly important. I mean, most, quite a lot of them, obviously, are national charities as well.

02:01But, you know, it's, and it's also got the personal touch, because it's a kind of venue

02:08and thing you could go to easily on your own, and you wouldn't feel, you know, odd by being

02:13a one person. So it's something that groups can go to, couples can go to, singles can go to.

02:20I know, I get to know the people, there's a welcome on the door,

02:24and I hope that that's made a difference, that it's local and personal.

02:29Absolutely. Well, goodness, I know firsthand it's been a very friendly endeavour, hasn't it?

02:34Yeah, yeah.

02:35But also the charitable side has been really important, because by the time you finish,

02:40by the time you've had the last one, you're hoping that you will have raised more than

02:43£40,000 for more than 100 charities, which is amazing, isn't it?

02:50Well, and also considering we started off saying it's actually free, and we would just take

02:57donations. And I mean, it's still free, but hopefully you'll give a donation. And of course,

03:02over the time, we've gone from cash to cash and cards, people have been more generous,

03:09more, you know, we're more organised. So we have increased our revenue into the charities

03:16considerably as the time's gone on.

03:19But alas, it is coming to an end, and you finish it with sadness,

03:24but tell me the reasons why it's finishing now.

03:27Well, I feel I've, I'm sort of not techie enough, and I'm not also good enough at publicity and

03:36promotion. Here I am on video, but I don't think I'm good enough on promoting it. Also,

03:46it's a huge commitment. Freddie, my son, who's been, you know, very helpful and instrumental

03:52very helpful and instrumental all along, and has got other commitments. Julia Sander,

03:57who's been really, really helpful in the recent years, obviously, doesn't want to take it on

04:04herself, but has been brilliant at helping me. And I've had loads of helpers along the way.

04:09But there comes a point when I think it's, it's time to hand it over or stop it. But if I hand

04:16it over, I do want it to be run on the similar charity base that this has been. It's not for

04:27profit, it's for charity. And it's not a thing that anybody else can't do and set up on their

04:33own. I mean, you know, they don't have to use, it doesn't have to be talks at six, they can do it

04:38under any name. But no, I just think it's, I've come past my sell by date.

04:44Oh, you're being too harsh. But I think the point is, as you conclude, you can feel enormous pride

04:50at what you've achieved. We spoke right at the very start when you were setting it up.

04:54And here we are, eight years later, you have really, really achieved, haven't you?

05:03Danny, I'm on the phone. Can you just, I'll phone you back. Okay, sorry.

05:11Sorry. I was saying over the years, you have really, really truly achieved, haven't you?

05:17Yeah, and I do hope everybody comes to the last six talks, especially, well, all of them. But

05:24the last one is especially done to celebrate. And that's with Dawn Gracie. She's going to talk about

05:34Dickie Bows and Petticoats, which is her charity, raising money for entertaining elderly people

05:42with lots of lovely 40s, 50s and 60s songs. And we'll have a glass of this and we'll go out

05:51singing and dancing on the, I think it's the 28th of, yeah, 28th November.

05:59Congratulations on all you've achieved with this brilliant series. It's been lovely to

06:03talk to you about it over the years. Thank you and good luck.

06:06Thanks very much. Thanks.

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