He’s been doing his bit all his life, although (whisper it) his wife is originally from Leicester and one of his sons now lives in Cheltenham. I think there’s enough people who can do it properly and can put it into practice.” People have read it the last rites so many times. He believes the Norfolk dialect will survive. You can talk squit, write squit, share squit.” It’s descriptive and adaptable and moves with the times - because I have been writing it all these years!” he said. Keith’s absolute favourite Norfolk word is ‘squit’ “It’s always been my favourite because it’s what life is about. Members produce an annual pantomime in broad Norfolk and work with film and television producers to try and prevent upsetting manglings of the Norfolk accent. It aims to record the county’s traditional words, sayings, stories and songs. Keith is passionate about the preservation, and use, of Norfolk dialect, and founded The Friends of Norfolk Dialect in 1999. “He’s learning two languages, Norfolk and English.” “He called me a ‘rum ole boy’ the other day,” he laughed. Now 78, Keith has great hopes for five-year-old, Alfie. Keith and his wife Diane, a retired pharmacist, met at a disco in Dereham and despite it being a Friday 13th they went on to a happy marriage, two sons, Danny and Robin, and two grandsons.
He loves Norfolk’s understated landscape, its history and people, and most of all its villages – and mourns both the sense of community and the countryside lost by the building of so many new roads and houses. The shining threads which run through all those articles, broadcasts, talks and stage shows of the past 60 years are his sense of humour and his deep love of Norfolk. Keith never took that shorthand exam but did go on to an outstanding career. “My shorthand is outstanding!” he says, truthfully, explaining that when he was a trainee the big boss had checked everyone’s shorthand credentials and written “outstanding” against Keith’s name – not because of his brilliance but because there were no results to record. He had taken, and failed, some tests – unlike the shorthand test he was supposed to have passed to become a journalist. “They got their revenge by sending me to London for training where they said, ‘Don’t worry Keith, it’s just like driving your car.’” “I’m technologically dyslexic and haven’t a clue about microphones and sliders and faders but they needed someone who wouldn’t talk about Happy’s Burg or Why Moan Dom!” he said. Radio Norfolk launched in 1980 with Keith on the staff. If Keith was not going to leave Norfolk to work in radio, then radio had to come to Norfolk. “How would I get back in time for rehearsals with the Rackheath Players?” he asked. He even went for an interview in London with Radio 2, but realised mid-way through that he could not take the job. At one point the boy who throughout his childhood had never left Norfolk or used a telephone, was offered a job in Derby. “I picked strawberries and played cricket,” he said. I really thought he was going to clock me! I think after that he quite admired me!” said Keith.Īfter 16 years with Eastern Counties Newspapers Keith decided to take a year off. “I hadn’t got a car but I managed to get to Blackpool before the coach and stood in the foyer and asked him whether he had a good journey. Covering football is extremely difficult, to be impartial and fair you got aggro from the manager, from the supporters, from the players.”Īfter one argument with Ron, (“I used to give him a lot of Norfolk dialect he couldn’t understand!”) Keith was asked to leave the team bus en-route to Blackpool.
“He felt that reporters should be more like supporters, but people rely on reporters to give a fair account of what happened. He travelled on the team coach, and the journalistic moment he is proudest of is being thrown off it by 1969-1973 manager Ron Saunders. Keith Skipper in 1965 with the teddy bear he won while reporting on a Great Yarmouth fete - Credit: Submitted by Keith SkipperĮventually he arrived in the big city and, swapping news reporting for sport, finally began venturing out of Norfolk to cover Norwich City’s away games.
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