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Organiser and series founder Marilyn Humphrey is delighted to be able to get back to business with the series which she founded in 2016. Between then and the first national lockdown she was able to stage around 80 talks raising more than £25,000 for more than 60 different charities.

The series works on the basis that admission is free but that people attending are encouraged to make a donation to the speaker’s choice of charity. One of the innovations post pandemic will be that people can now make card donations. They will still be able to make cash donations if they prefer.

“Our last talk was in March 2020,” Marilyn said, “and our next talk is going to be April 2022. Obviously there was no way we were going to be able to do it when everything was shut down but I was really waiting to restart until we could be sure that everything would be OK. All the cinemas and theatres are now fully operational. I’ve been to lots of theatres and cinemas so far, so I am quite confident.

“I was always wanting the series to return. The series had been fun and it had been successful and it had raised a lot of money for charity. The hard work was getting it known and up and running and that had already been done. It was just whether people had gone to sleep so much that they won’t remember it when we come back but I do feel the reaction from people has been good. I’ve sent out the programme until July to the people on our database, and the reaction has been full of ‘Oh thank goodness, you’re coming back!’ and just lots of people saying how pleased they are to see us again. Now it’s a question just making sure everyone knows we’re coming back and also perhaps reaching some people who had never known about us or been to one of our talks before. Ideally I need an audience about 50 to make it worthwhile and before the lockdowns we were getting 40 to 60 people.”

The series is based at the Bassil Shippam Centre, Tozer Way, St Pancras, Chichester, PO19 7L on Thursdays at 6pm, with talk and discussion running from 6.05-7pm.

“The venue is just the job because it has got good entrances, a hatch through to the kitchen, all on the ground floor and all very accessible. It suits us perfectly. So it will be good when we resume. We’ve got to get the right talks and we’ve got to get the set-up right but it’s not like we’re starting from scratch. But I’m not going to do refreshments as I did before. That would just be an added complication and I hope that everybody will forgive me for that!”

Marilyn is aiming for generally two talks a month. Coming up: April 7, Jubilee Celebrations by Graeme Payne; April 28, Lord Woolton by Patrick Dealtry; May 28, Charles Crocker by Alan Green; June 30, Brief History of Plagues by Craig Gershatter.

talksatsix.co.uk.

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