Interview with Tod Cody

In the early 1970s, Tod met with Cindy Hargate. By then, he was very much involved in local entertainment & activities. Cindy invited him to establish some drama for youth clubs. He also decided to run an his own event, ‘The New City Show’ at Great Linford: this was a great success both for local talent – and his income. MKDC funded continuation of the show at Mount Farm, and gave him an entertainment consultancy which lasted for 7 or 8 years. The Show continued for several years during Tod’s consultancy, changing its name to Milton Keynes County Fair after inclusion of a horse show proved unpopular. Tod then became Bowl Events Manager, working with John Sharkey to organise the first concert: ‘Soul in the Bowl’. He recalls anecdotes about various events. Tod describes setting up aspects of the famous MKDC Red Balloon advert, as Event Manager of the entertainments at the City Centre. Asked to provide three stilt walkers, he engaged himself and his girlfriend as two of them and recalls that he ‘got into trouble’ for effectively being paid twice! He believes the advert really got attention for MKDC.

Tod expresses his gratitude to MKDC staff for their support, in particular Sue Malleson, John Sharkey, John Doggett and Cindy Hargate, creative people, from different departments. MKDC also provided a mobile unit for him to work in (and live in during events there) because of his dislike of normal offices; they also kept him on the payroll during convalescence from a very serious fall he had, while: ‘escaping from a straightjacket…’ Tod really enjoyed his role for MKDC, saying: ‘it was really what I wanted to do …I had a wonderful opportunity.’ But with changing tastes in the 1980s, MKDC work tailed off, as people had big screen TVs and concert audiences decreased. He had operated the City Centre firework displays from the start, with Rev Ron Lancaster, but recalls that: ‘…the fireworks got hairier’, and he sold the business in the 1980s. Finally, he comments that MK today is: ‘not quite what I expected it to be… I just think it’s too big.’ Tod is most proud of the first Bowl events he managed, and of establishing the County Fair – ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’. He also enjoyed his circus at Bletchley Leisure Centre for underprivileged kids and a riotous MKDC Christmas party at Wavendon Tower ‘with a few surprises’, which made its way into the News of the World!