by John Glover

PRESS COVERAGE OF 'COLLY' - (Updated March '06)

In The Beginning

Since Cauliflower Drove first went on-line in Setember 1998, it has reached into the far corners of the media. Mostly the dusty bits that only get a flick with a duster every spring, but on occasions it has been dragged out into the sunlight and given a good hose down.

Here is the list of papers, radio/tv stations and web-sites that have covered my humble offering since I first started to bash out the story:

BBC Radio Cambridgeshire: In November '98 Gerald Main's morning show did a two minute feature on Colly. They asked members of the public to read some of the Fen dialogue to test its authenticity. Luckily, they all seemed to agree that, yes, this was the real stuff. Thank Yew !!

BBC Look East: Amazingly, the telly people got in touch on the same afternoon that Radio Cambridgeshire had broadcast their little 'bit'. A hurried phone call to Lee Gillet, an email to me at work and we were off for an interview and some filming. It was shown on Look East the following Monday.

The Eastern Daily Press: The EDP went to town with a double centre page spread.

Searchlight: Strangely enough, even the Police were interested. In December 2000 an article was published in the Cambridgeshire Constabulary magazine.

BBC Country File: I never got to see this, but I was reliably informed by my sister in law in Burnley that Colly went nationwide, courtesy of John Craven's wellies 'n' tractors show.

BBC Radio Norfolk: Same again. I never heard this but according to my mum (a huge Roy Waller fan), they had callers reading out pieces of dialogue from Colly and deciding whether it passed muster.

The Guardian: Yup, now even the big papers had heard of my Lil' web-soap. I'm still not entirely sure how it came to their attention, but I suspect a stringer had told them of the EDP's copyright bustin' story and they picked up on that. 'Ely Is The New Hollwood' was the headline in the Arts Diary in December '98 and Colly was deemed to be funnier than 'Stella Street' (which ain't difficult) and they commented that Keanu Reeves had given his best performance in years. In my cyber-casting world, Keanu plays Darren Worthington - tractor driver and boy band drummer. Read the full story here .

The Guardian Unlimited: Colly received a mention on the paper's web-site in April 2000. Read the article here

BBC Radio Four: I received an email from the producer of 'Open Country' asking for some details in March '99. A couple of weeks later, I was interviewed by Richard Uridge and the five minute chat went out on the following Saturday morning and was repeated on the following Thursday. Read the transcript of the interview here .

The Sunday Times: In November 2000, Bryan Appleyard wrote an article 'celebrating' the 40th Birthday of Coronation Street. Cauliflower Drove was mentioned as an example of the new-wave of Internet based soaps that are springing up. I'm reliably informed that he read all of Colly and had this to say:

Now, of course, the soaps have invaded the internet. Not only are there discussion groups, chat rooms and huge sites devoted to the main soaps, there are also attempts to start bespoke web soaps - at the moment they are text-based, but soon, doubtless, they will have moving pictures. As the Mouse Moves is a New York saga of a single woman, a party planner and an international spa owner. Subscribe to Online Caroline and Caroline will actually e-mail you with her latest news, and a few hundred wired citizens of Ely have been gripped by the 100 episodes of Cauliflower Drove - www.collydrove.com - a wild, murderous tale of, as described by its writer, John Glover, "real ale, death, rock, tractors, beef burgers, cake and love in the Fens at the arse end of the 20th century".

BBC Radio Cambridgeshire:

So - who's next?

Comments and offers of turning Colly into a Hollywood film to: Johnny Glover