Ditchfield gears on

Imagine being able to watch your grandparents answer questions you would have loved to ask them but never had a chance to.

Following a lifetime in the limelight, Paul Ditchfield is devising a hot new project that aims to make such a wish a reality.

“I am very excited by this new venture,” says the 76-year-old.

Ditchfield aims to reconnect family memories through video recordings by capturing their thoughts and memories on DVD. The project is called A life to remember.

“I will be going to people’s homes and take videos for their grand kids and great grandkids to see and these will be stored on cloud,” he says.

“A friend of mine told me that this was a good idea and I decided to pursue it and have made four of these to date,” he says.

As old age catches up with him, Ditchfield books far less jobs than he used to.

“I am done presenting and acting because I am old now and I get booked less, but this is what I was born to do, it is what I do best because I am a people person,” he says.

Ditchfield has had an exceptional career spanning 50 years in the entertainment industry.

Having started out in the music industry at 13, playing for a tap dancing studio, Paul became a household name as a popular and well-loved member of the singing group The Bats who took the number one position at the top of the pop charts time and again.

“When we first started the group, it was like being in a family, it was fantastic because we were close and got to travel around the world doing what we love,” he says.

Many of their hits have been written by Paul himself – a highly respected icon in the music industry. He plays piano, keyboards, bass guitar and sings. The Bats are still being booked and performing due to popular demand – nearly 50 years after they first started. Their next show is in Pretoria on 9 August.

Ditchfield’s vibrant bubbly outgoing personality has always been his trademark and when television hit South African shores, he was embraced very quickly as one of its stars across all genres – a popular TV presenter, an award-winning actor and a well-recognised face on many music shows as well.

Ditchfield was a presenter of a variety of entertainment shows, with his unique, dynamic, vibrant and easy presentation style in Basha Ke Nako, It’s a Knockout, Simba Small Talk, Gilette Numbers Jackpot, Liquifruit ,Chit Chat, Telegames, Escapad, MNET Shopping Basket and Kellogg’s Jackpot.

This multi-faceted performer did not just stop here.

He went on to have a highly successful career as a dramatic and comedic actor as well, performing in television shows as diverse as Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice in the ‘80s through to many other popular series and dramas such as Professional Foul, The Valley of the Vines, Rhodes, Suburban Bliss, 7de Laan, Isidingo Binnelanders, Scandal, Donkerland to mention but a few.