Cartoonist from Norbury teams up with the Antiques Road Show to fight dementia

BY WESLEY HUDSON
calum@slpmedia.co.uk

An artist has teamed up with the TV’s Antiques Roadshow in a bid to help fight dementia.

Robin Ollington is a cartoonist and has put together a new book called An Antique Rogue’s Show to help raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Society.

The Norbury resident self-funded the book which has already raised £3,000 for the dementia charity.

Mr Ollington, who’s career spans more than 60 years, was inspired to draw his latest cartoons by some of the unusual moments seen on the BBC show.

He said: “I kept seeing more situations, like when people go to auction they hold up their cards, and well some dealers are pretty dodgy, so I thought why not make a cartoon where a policeman is holding up a card saying ‘you’re nicked’.”

Mr Ollington thought that his artwork would be a perfect fit to raise money for the charity.

He said: “I thought what I really ought to do is get the drawings together and make a book for charity.

“Memory for antique dealers is their livelihood, which made me think of the Alzheimer’s Society.”

Around 850,000 people in the UK have a form of dementia, 72,000 of which live in London.

The artist is very close friends with John Bly from Antiques Roadshow fame and the pair have known each other for 50 years.

Mr Ollington said: “I immediately thought of John, I’ve known him forever and I know that his father had dementia so I sent him my cartoons and he fell about laughing.

He said ‘let’s do it’ and that’s how it happened.

“Myself and John are very aware of the problems caused by Alzheimer’s and felt that our talents could be used to help raise funds in the battle against the disease.”

Mr Bly, who wrote the foreword of the book, said: “By buying the book you will gain a laugh with every page and know at the same time you will indeed be helping to find a remedy for Alzheimer’s.”

Fiona Bruce is the subject of one of the cartoons in Antiques Rogue’s Show and Mr Ollington sent her a copy, which she returned to him signed.

Other famous faces that feature in the book include Tracy Emin and Grayson Perry.

This isn’t the first time Mr Ollington has raised money for charity, he previously raised funds for Macmillan after being inspired by a brief stay in hospital.

The exhibition began with an invite only reception on the opening night on October 25 where there was an auction for the signed Fiona Bruce piece.

The exhibition will be open to the public from today until Thursday, November 1 at John Bly’s antiques showroom in Chelsea.