ALLAN RIDDELL
THE DEMISE OF A GIANT OF ADVERTISING, BROADCASTING, ENTERTAINMENT AND FUNDRAISING IN ZIMBABWE
By Tapfuma Machakaire 24/03/2023
One of the last remaining former white veteran broadcasters who transitioned from the Rhodesia Broadcasting Co-corporation (RBC) to Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) is no more. Alan Riddel died in Johannesburg, South Africa on March 17, 2023, after a long battle with cancer. He had worked as a broadcaster in several countries for about half a century.
A leading online media school for television broadcasting, Beonairnetwork describes a good broadcaster as one who is earnest and truly involved in what they are doing as this allows the broadcaster to form a connection with the audience.
These are qualities one would say sum up the description of the late Riddell. He was serious about his work, knowledgeable of the subjects he tackled and would thus keep his audience glued to the screen.
Riddell featured on so many shows on Zimbabwe television in his time. Soon after his death, a discussion erupted on social media platforms with people trying to ascertain which programmes he presented from the long list that was being thrown around. Riddell also presented TV programmes in Kenya, South Africa and on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). He has been described as a giant of advertising, broadcasting, entertainment and fundraising in Zimbabwe.
In an obituary, Stan Higgins recalled that from the 1960s to the 1990s Riddell conceived and hosted a series of programmes, one of the most popular shows being Pick-a-Box Show. Contestants had to choose between taking cash and selecting a box prize which could have something of value or just a matchstick.
Live audiences for the show were encouraged to incite the contestants by shouting ‘money or the box’. The programme became so popular that for decades members of the public would greet Riddell in the street or at functions with the phrase ‘money or the box’.
He also hosted a TV programme, Dream House where lucky winners won houses in the suburbs of Harare.
Riddell also worked in other fields of television and radio entertainment, among them a series of cooking shows. He occasionally would present news on TV but he was known to prefer the less formal atmosphere of talk shows and advertorials.
Higgins places Riddell as at one time the best-known and most professional Master of Ceremonies (MC), not only on television and radio but in live events across Zimbabwe.
He said Riddell demonstrated his unique brand of class, humour and sharpness as an MC at occasions that ranged from modelling shows, and school events to awards ceremonies and major launches to top social occasions “His mastery included the understanding that he was not the focus of the event but a link between organisers, content and audiences, something many of today’s MCs forget as they project themselves into the limelight, often at the expense of the product or activity on show,” wrote Higgins.
In 1985 Riddel reintroduced the Mayor’s Christmas Cheer Fund which had been abandoned for a decade. He would present the live shows on TV to raise funds for the Harare Mayor’s Cheer Fund which was eventually extended to cover Bulawayo, Mutare and Gweru. Riddell chaired the Fund from 1985 to 1992. He also conceived and ran many other fundraising events for a wide range of charities.
Allen Riddell was born around 1938 in Durban South Africa where he was educated from primary to university level. He majored in music. Riddell joined Lintas advertising agency in Salisbury in the mid-1960s. He left Lintas in 1980 and joined the Michael Hogg agency and was deployed to run the agency’s new branch in Kenya. He returned to Zimbabwe in 1983 to assist Peter Kirschner in overseeing the construction of Holiday Inn Harare.
He served as manager at Holiday Inn where he established a unique night spot the Inn Place, which became a mixing pot for people from all walks of life. It hosted top international stars among them Daniel Craig, whose first film, The Power of One, was shot in Harare.
The Inn Place also hosted international entertainers, arts and cultural exchanges and other initiatives linked to the United States, Britain, Russia, China and several African countries.
In 1988, when the Holiday Inn operation in Zimbabwe was taken over by the then Zimbabwe Sun hospitality group, Riddel was appointed group entertainment director. For seventeen years he ran a series of activities and events that promoted all the hotels under the sun group in Zimbabwe
One of his most successful fundraising charity events for children was the visit to Zimbabwe by Hollywood fashion giant, Bill Travilla, who was Marilyn Monroe’s favoured designer. Travilla brought a selection of Monroe’s outfits for an exhibition show including the iconic white dress that blew up over the star’s face in the film The Seven Year Itch.
Other international personalities who came to Zimbabwe through Riddell include the first female space explorer Valentina Tereshkova of Russia.
Allan also created the huge Supermodel extravaganza during the 1990s, providing a platform for Zimbabwe’s growing number of male and female models to showcase their talents for local and international guests at the Supermodel awards events.
Riddell was active in various organisations and was chairman of the Advertising and Publicity Club of Harare where he introduced a concept where visiting personalities would be invited to be a guest speaker at special luncheons.
In 2005 he relocated to Thailand where he ran an organisation that linked South African and Thai businesses. The organisation promoted products from the Southern African region in South-East Asia.
He would travel between Thailand and South Africa. In 2020 while in South Africa he was diagnosed to be suffering from, a disease which took his life on March 17, 2023.
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