I have been told and since viewed on iPlayer that the Flog It program ‘featured’ the Dambuster book that my father had LENT to the landlord of a hotel/public house in Newtownards Northern Ireland.

My father was Brian (Concave) Goodale who flew with Dave Shannon in the raid.


In the program Vanessa Farnham stated that she had come about the book because my father stayed in her father’s hotel in Northern Ireland and that he had vanished without paying the bill but had left the book.


My father (Brain Goodale) did stay in the Devonshire Hotel while he was waiting for a house that he had bought to be ready. Indeed my mother and I stayed there while we waiting for the furniture to arrive from England. We did not ‘vanish’ as we lived in Newtownards for the next 6 years and the Bill I can assure you would have been paid in full. My father was the most honest and respectable man I have known.
Surely somebody with half a brain would have asked Mrs Farnham why her father not go to the police? After all somebody that goes missing from a hotel and leaves their belongings including a personally valuable book should be reported missing as they may be dead in a ditch somewhere!
My father leant the book to the landlord who when asked for it back initially said he had leant it to somebody else, he later on the many times my father went back was told that the book was simply lost.
In effect this book was STOLEN and I believe that the BBC and the local Kent newspapers should have done some research before allowing here to sell what was not hers to sell, and publish a despicable story that trashes my father’s good name.
I have been in touch with the Flog It producers and while they were ‘happy’ to remove the program from iplayer and promise never to repeat the broadcast, they are however being reticent in issuing an apology. I have also contacted the Chief Executive of the publishing company who published most of the regional papers who covered the story; he is also looking into it.
The program and the papers portrayed my father as some sort of down on his luck salesman who could not pay his bill, so did a bunk – THIS IS COMPLETE FANTASY made up to justify the book being in Mrs Farnhams hands.
I can provide proof that my father and his family lived in Newtownards for 6 years after this so called event and that I when to school there. I can also prove that my father was actually the Export Manager of the armoured car division of Short Bros and Harland responsible for the sale of the Shorland armoured car throughout the world. I even have a cutting from a Newtownards paper saying that my father had joined the company. This is hardly the sort of person who leaves a hotel without paying the bill.
I need to clear my father’s name and to do this I need to put pressure on the BBC to publically apologise for their use of this fictitious story, all in the name of entertainment. So if you care about the name of an ex Dambusters name being severely tarnished, please write or email the BBC. All help in this matter will be much appreciated.
Regards,
Simon Goodale
Son of the late Squadron Leader Brian ‘Concave’ Goodale