Madness' Suggs swaps the mic to co-host Second World War TV series
PH Suggs with archaeologist Stephen Taylor and the Covenanter tank found in a Surrey Vineyard
On a muddy marsh dissected by the Ribble Estuary, near Liverpool, a gang of men in hard hats and safety vests wait anxiously as great mounds of mud are dug up by a mechanical digger. As the machine eventually unearths a few large chunks of mud-encrusted metal, excitement levels rise significantly as the men realise they’ve found the treasure they’ve been searching 20 years for. They’re members of the Lancashire Air Investigation Team, which for decades has been looking for the remains of a German bomber that was shot down and crashed at this spot, Banks Marsh, on its way to bomb Liverpool in 1941. The one figure you wouldn’t expect to find in this group is Suggs, frontman of the pop band Madness, purveyors of snappy hits like Our House and House Of Fun. It turns out that, alongside his love of music, pop star Suggs is something of a history buff.
He’s co-hosting a new eight-part programme on the History Channel, WW2 Treasure Hunters, with archaeologist Stephen Taylor, which follows the unearthing of war relics throughout Britain and describes the events surrounding them. “I thought it was an interesting concept and a unique idea of mixing archaeology, metal detection and social history,” explains Suggs, 56, of his decision to take part. “And the idea that we were going to try to find out personal stories made it a very visceral experience.” Suggs, whose real name is Graham McPherson, knew that his late grandfather had fought in the Burma Campaign during the war, adding: “But, unfortunately, he wasn’t around long enough for me to talk to him about it.” Instead, Suggs is learning about Britain’s wartime past this way. “We often imagine World War II as fought in some foreign field, but it was here on the home front that the battle really began,” says Suggs, of the airfields, military camps and gun installations that covered the UK landscape between 1939 and 45.
We kind of know the headlines of World War II, but making this series has been understanding the detail of what really went on for the individuals Suggs
“There’s not much left on the surface today, but we went on a mission to unearth the truth of Britain’s wartime past.” They start their journey at Banks Marsh with the digging up of the Junkers Ju 88 that was shot down by a British fighter on the night of April 7, 1941. The plane had been carrying two 500kg bombs that were intended for Liverpool and Birkenhead, which endured the terror of a bombing blitz throughout 1940 and 1941. Suggs admits that he knew little of the Liverpool Blitz, which was aimed at the dockyards that were the UK’s lifeline at the time, receiving shipments of munitions and food from the US when the rest of Europe was under Nazi occupation. Merseyside sustained bombing that was second only to London in its severity, resulting in 4,000 deaths and destroying much of Liverpool city centre. “I’m a Londoner and I understand the history of the Blitz in London, which was primarily to demoralise citizens, and then the second place I think of is Coventry,” says Suggs. “Liverpool seems to have slipped under the radar somehow.”
GETTY Suggs is the frontman of Madness
He later learns that that the wartime government deliberately kept news of it quiet to prevent the Germans discovering how much damage they’d done. Over the series they dig up a Covenanter tank in Surrey, one of only three in the world; in Leicestershire, they learn how bombs and munitions were stored in the countryside before being shipped to the front line. At RAF Duxford, the pair dig up relics of the brave RAF pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain. And throughout the series, they reunite some of their finds with their owners or their descendants. Suggs’ best find was a rusty old dog tag dug up at Kings Cliffe Airfield in Northamptonshire, which was the wartime home of the American 20th Fighter Group, who flew B17 bombers into the heart of Nazi Germany. “It looked like you couldn’t possibly read the name on it, but we took it down to an X-ray specialist and it was a fantastic moment when he X-rayed it and you could see his name and his address in New York,” says Suggs.
PH A Junkers Ju 88 bomber at Banks Marsh in the Ribble Estuary National Nature Reserve
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