Darren Wingham, creator of Overton TV, has called Overton home for close to twenty years and speaks highly of a community that he clearly enjoys being part of. “You know you are in a great place to live when everyone will say “Good Morning” or “Good Afternoon” in the street.”
“People help each other, there’s a real neighbourhood spirit here. I feel the village has a practical “can-do” approach”. That can-do approach applies to the last year we’ve all endured; during the early days of the pandemic, Darren, who is very video savvy to say the least, set up a Facebook page titled Overton TV.
CommunityAd had the pleasure of quizzing him about it.
Remind us why Overton TV was started and how the community responded?
I saw that, as the pandemic spread across the world and closer to home, people were asking questions and wanted to know how we were affected here in Overton. In lockdown, were we still able to buy food at the Co-op? Could we visit the GP surgery as normal? How could we help those shielding at home? I set up Overton.TV to help alleviate those services from being inundated by calls and get the information out. With lockdown looming I wanted to keep that community spirit going. Through the regular interviews, we could still keep in touch with the familiar faces around the village. We spoke to everyone from our local doctors, charities helping people who were shielding, businesses who were giving away food for free and showcasing some amazing musical talents hidden away in Overton. Plus, a weekly Pub Quiz from our local Quiz Supremo! I’ve not named anyone as I would hate to miss anyone out. Very quickly, over one third of the population of Overton had joined our Facebook page. People in Overton have been amazing and the silver lining to this very difficult 12 months is that friendships and the community bond is closer than before. Overton should pat itself on the back for that!
There are a lot of talented people in the area, isn’t there?
Yes, so many wonderful musicians came out of the woodwork! We were able to have a month of “Music Saturdays” where villagers would submit recordings and we would play them out across the day. It was extremely popular!
What will the use of Overton TV be going forward?
It was put there for the village and I’m glad to say that villagers regularly contribute articles to it. We also cross-share information with other Overton community Facebook pages. Its main purpose was to get COVID related information out into the community and provide some cheer in uncertain times. To be honest, that’s as far as I’ve got. There’s only so much you can do as a one-person operation. Ideas, anyone?
How pleasant is it to see the world opening back up again and a buzz in the Overton air?
It’s lovely to see people being able to get on with their lives once again! It’s lovely to see locals being able to sit round a table in a pub garden and chew the fat once again.