The ‘dullest man in Britain’ has dug deep to produce a bizarre calendar for 2024 – celebrating his favourite allotments.
Kevin Beresford spent months travelling around his hometown of Redditch, Worcs., to find the best green spaces on offer for gardening fans.
The 71-year-old compiled his 12 favourites into a contender for the most boring calendar of 2024 – devoted entirely to public allotments.
Kevin, who admits he could be ‘Britain’s dullest man’, says he dug up some surprising discoveries during his allotment tour.
He said: “I used to think people who do allotments were weird and dull people, but when you get talking to them it’s pretty good.
“They're eco-warriors, they’re resourceful people. Whatever is going round, that’s been discarded, they’ll use.
“They don’t just grow plants, they’re into bee hives. They’re digging for victory. They're very relaxing places.
“There's one in Astwood Bank that’s very peaceful. I always put my favourite in the December page and that made it.
“The security for them is quite tight for them because of the veg prices. You do get the guys who call themself in charge.
“You always get someone who wants to know what you’re doing.”
Kevin has previously produced calendars featuring car parks, village notice boards, roundabouts and even one dedicated to footballer Jack Grealish’s calves.
Kevin said: “These calendars don’t sell for the thousands, but it covers the cost for the printing. It gets me out. I do all the design, I make them.
“It's fun coming up with different content. I like to capture slice of English life and put that into a format.
“Artists have always focused on the mundane. Van Gough would paint his pipe on the chair. I am the ambassador of the mundane.
“I’m the dullest man in Britain.”
The pensioner is part of the Dull Men’s Club and says he takes inspiration from the unassuming and dull aspects of life and turns them into art.
One of Kevin’s favourite allotments is one on Astwood Bank which boasts stunning views of the picturesque Malvern Hills.
Another one of his top picks was the Dolphin Road allotments, which took the May spot, where people had turned old bathtubs and toilets into planters.
Other highlights include Walkwood Road allotments for its oasis-like atmosphere and Sandpits allotments on Bendy Close.
Kevin added: “Astwood bank is the best, on the most coveted page. Got to be finest in Redditch, it’s like a park.
“It has the beautiful back drop of Malvern hills. You do become a bit of an expert.
“Dolphin Road allotments, this is a sight that is broken into twice a week.
“An amazing array of produce grown here. Even flowers. This had bathtub and toilets.
“Anything that can hold bits, as long as it has drainage. These resourceful diggers use anything.
“Then there’s Church Hill which is broken into twice a week as well. Sturdy gates with huge bits of razor wire to stop people climbing over. This is the sign of the times.”
Kevin said he hopes to fight the negative image of Redditch after it was voted the worst place to live in the UK in one poll.
He added: “Some say Redditch is the worst place in England. We can combat that horrible moniker.
“I think with allotments there’s a lot of people involved in allotments.
“The British have always been gardeners, it’s intrinsic in our psyche. They're wind up gifts at the moment.”
Kevin Beresford spent months travelling around his hometown of Redditch, Worcs., to find the best green spaces on offer for gardening fans.
The 71-year-old compiled his 12 favourites into a contender for the most boring calendar of 2024 – devoted entirely to public allotments.
Kevin, who admits he could be ‘Britain’s dullest man’, says he dug up some surprising discoveries during his allotment tour.
He said: “I used to think people who do allotments were weird and dull people, but when you get talking to them it’s pretty good.
“They're eco-warriors, they’re resourceful people. Whatever is going round, that’s been discarded, they’ll use.
“They don’t just grow plants, they’re into bee hives. They’re digging for victory. They're very relaxing places.
“There's one in Astwood Bank that’s very peaceful. I always put my favourite in the December page and that made it.
“The security for them is quite tight for them because of the veg prices. You do get the guys who call themself in charge.
“You always get someone who wants to know what you’re doing.”
Kevin has previously produced calendars featuring car parks, village notice boards, roundabouts and even one dedicated to footballer Jack Grealish’s calves.
Kevin said: “These calendars don’t sell for the thousands, but it covers the cost for the printing. It gets me out. I do all the design, I make them.
“It's fun coming up with different content. I like to capture slice of English life and put that into a format.
“Artists have always focused on the mundane. Van Gough would paint his pipe on the chair. I am the ambassador of the mundane.
“I’m the dullest man in Britain.”
The pensioner is part of the Dull Men’s Club and says he takes inspiration from the unassuming and dull aspects of life and turns them into art.
One of Kevin’s favourite allotments is one on Astwood Bank which boasts stunning views of the picturesque Malvern Hills.
Another one of his top picks was the Dolphin Road allotments, which took the May spot, where people had turned old bathtubs and toilets into planters.
Other highlights include Walkwood Road allotments for its oasis-like atmosphere and Sandpits allotments on Bendy Close.
Kevin added: “Astwood bank is the best, on the most coveted page. Got to be finest in Redditch, it’s like a park.
“It has the beautiful back drop of Malvern hills. You do become a bit of an expert.
“Dolphin Road allotments, this is a sight that is broken into twice a week.
“An amazing array of produce grown here. Even flowers. This had bathtub and toilets.
“Anything that can hold bits, as long as it has drainage. These resourceful diggers use anything.
“Then there’s Church Hill which is broken into twice a week as well. Sturdy gates with huge bits of razor wire to stop people climbing over. This is the sign of the times.”
Kevin said he hopes to fight the negative image of Redditch after it was voted the worst place to live in the UK in one poll.
He added: “Some say Redditch is the worst place in England. We can combat that horrible moniker.
“I think with allotments there’s a lot of people involved in allotments.
“The British have always been gardeners, it’s intrinsic in our psyche. They're wind up gifts at the moment.”
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FunTranscript
00:00 Hi, my name's Kevin Beresford and I'm the creator of Mundane Calendars
00:05 and this one in particular is the allotments of Redwich.
00:08 I like to take shots of English life that no one else would bother with
00:17 and I turn them into calendar formats.
00:20 I do roundabouts, prisons, allotments, all sorts of things.
00:26 I always feel that artists focus on the mundane.
00:30 You've got Tracey Hemings on Made Bed and Andy Warhol would do a can of soup,
00:34 things like that.
00:36 Even Van Gogh would just paint his chair with a pipe on it.
00:39 So I like to capture the mundane.
00:43 People have called me the dullest man in Britain.
00:45 I've got no objection to that.
00:47 It's a badge of honour for me to be named dull.
00:49 Dull is the new black.
00:51 It's sexy being dull.
00:52 [Pause]
01:10 Yeah, I did this calendar in just one day.
01:13 It took me one day.
01:14 Redwich isn't a big town so it was easy to get round to all these allotments.
01:18 The only problem I endured was the security is quite tight with allotments these days.
01:24 Because vegetables are so expensive now.
01:27 Tomatoes are the class A of veg, aren't they, at the moment.
01:31 So a lot of these allotments get broken into.
01:34 So I had to go up and ask permission to a lot of them
01:38 because they wanted to know what I'm taking photographs in an allotment for.
01:41 They thought I was casing the giant, so to speak.
01:45 So that was the only problem I had.
01:46 But I always thought allotment people were dull.
01:52 That's their hobby.
01:55 But I found out they're eco-warriors, really.
01:58 I mean, you get things like beehives now in allotments.
02:01 So that's their little bit of saving the planet if bees attract the flowers and they pollinate.
02:07 So these guys, to me, they're eco-warriors.
02:10 These diggers, digging for victory.
02:12 [BIRDS CHIRPING]
02:25 My calendars, they don't really sell in their thousands, perhaps hundreds.
02:30 And it all depends on people's mood.
02:32 And I don't know, the first time we did it was roundabouts of Redwich.
02:38 I just took photographs of traffic highways in Redwich.
02:42 And Graham Norton showed it on his show, the calendar.
02:46 And it went, you'd call it viral now.
02:49 We sold something like 20,000 copies.
02:51 I'm talking about 2003, this was.
02:54 So it's always tricky to predict which one's going to be the best seller.
03:00 At the moment, it's rubbish dumps of England that's selling well.
03:03 But I've got a good feeling about the allotments here.
03:06 Because you get a lot of people who are into this sort of thing, gardening,
03:10 growing vegetables.
03:11 And it's a good way of saving money, isn't it,
03:13 if you've got all these vegetables stacked up for the winter.
03:16 I have been voted the dullest man in Britain.
03:31 And I'm a member of the Dung Men's Club.
03:34 It started off in America by a guy called Leland Carson.
03:38 And he brought it over to England.
03:40 He lives in America and England.
03:42 So he decided to do the Dung Men's Club here.
03:44 And I'm the deputy assistant vice president of the Dung Men's Club.
03:50 He's the assistant vice president of the Dung Men's Club.
03:54 We can't hold an higher office than that, because it's too exciting.
03:58 So it's always got to be a vice president, never a president.
04:02 So yeah, I'm quite proud to be in the Dung Men's Club.
04:07 Oh, yeah.
04:09 [INAUDIBLE]
04:11 [INAUDIBLE]