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10th December 2006 The Kaleidoscope Christmas Event Welcomed Guest Verity Lambert in 2006 Thanks to everyone who attended our final event of 2006 which brought another fantastic year of fund-raising to a close. Everyone gathered at Stourbridge Town Hall on Saturday 9th December for Further Ghosts of Christmas Past, Kaleidoscope's traditional Christmas event and charity auction, and a great time was had by all. Our guest for the day was Verity Lambert, making her much anticipated first appearance at a Kaleidoscope event. A protegé of Sydney Newman, Verity quickly made her first mark on television history as the original producer of Doctor Who, moving on to another much-loved favourite Adam Adamant Lives! and in subsequent years rising to become one of the foremost figures in the British television and film industries, and more recently one of this country's leading independent producers. Her credits read like a roll-call of television greats and include Budgie, Minder, Reilly - Ace of Spies, Rock Follies, Quatermass, Sleepers, G.B.H., Widows and Jonathan Creek to name but a few. She joined us for an enthralling guest panel, covering her entire career and illustrated by extracts from her work with a festive theme. This kept everyone thoroughly entertained and proved to be another of Kaleidoscope's best ever guest appearances. Later in the day, the third annual Kaleidoscope Grand Charity Auction took place, with all proceeds going directly to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. A wide range of items were on offer, courtesy of our guests, television companies and private collectors who had all donated items throughout the year. Highlights included the unmade script of Shoestring - The Movie donated by Robert Banks Stewart (one of only two copies in existence), autographed items from William Smethurst and James Cellan Jones, four post-production scripts of The Beiderbecke Connection and a Jonathan Creek sweatshirt and baseball cap donated by Verity Lambert. The auction raised £360 towards our fund-raising effort - thanks to everyone who donated items, and of course to all our buyers! Programme highlights on show throughout the day included vintage Christmas reminiscences on Coronation Street, Zippy and Bungle having fun with the Christmas post in Rainbow, traditional Christmas scares at The Shop of Ghosts, an all-celebrity edition of Winner Takes All and a host of festive trailers, clips, curios, continuity and a few other surprises... after all, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a few unexpected gifts! In addition to the already impressive £574.63 raised at the event, we were able to surprise the RNLI on the day with an extra £1,000 donation from ITV, generously provided in recognition of the research work Kaleidoscope has done for ITV during the year. Sue Coombes, Honorary Secretary of RNLI Stourbridge Branch, said: "Once again the day - and especially the auction - raised an amazing amount of money for the lifeboat service for which we are truly grateful. Overall funds received amounted to £574.63 - £360 from the auction, £66.24 from Kaleidoscope Publishing, and £148.39 from donations. This brings the total amount raised since 1994 to £6,946.39 and £7,946.39 when the £1,000 from ITV has been added on - thank you so much for donating these additional funds to the RNLI - it is very generous of you and much appreciated. What an unexpected and very kind gesture on behalf of both ITV and yourselves." Many thanks to all our guests, and everyone who has attended Kaleidoscope events over the last year for their support and continuing generosity. Full details of the day are available here in the Kaleidoscope Archives section, including a full list of auction lots.
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