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Ian Wilder and US newsreader Shara Fryer |
US news star pays tribute to Wilder
American TV journalist tells of friendship with the councillor who fought for the West End
MUCH has been written about Conservative councillor Ian Wilder since his death last month. Among the more unusual tales were his unlikely friendship with music impresario Harvey Goldsmith, and an audacious attempt to rattle Bob Dylan by forcing him to listen to his own songs.
Now another hidden chapter has emerged from Mr Wilder’s time in Houston after a famous American television news presenter, who approached him for help producing a programme about the aftermath of the July 7 bombings, paid tribute to her friend.
Shara Fryer, the primetime news anchor for KTRK-TV, the ABC-owned station in Houston for more than 25 years, met Cllr Wilder before she came to the UK to shoot the programme. The pair struck up a close friendship, spending long afternoons with their respective families debating American foreign policy, the war in Afghanistan and British colonial history.
Councillor Wilder, who led a swashbuckling fight to clean up the West End from drunks and drug dealers for more than 15 years, died aged 62 in the Texan city where he was receiving cancer treatment in July.
Ms Fryer described the one-time accountant as a “lightning bolt”, telling of how he co-ordinated her trip from his hospital bed, arranging meetings and trips to help her shoot the documentary. During her trip, Ms Fryer also filmed a documentary about the late Princess Diana, which won her numerous awards back in the States.
While in London, she attended a civic ceremony for Duncan Sandys, the new Lord Mayor of Westminster, acting as Cllr Wilder’s “emissary”, returning with photos and video greetings of support from his colleagues. “I met Ian through a mutual friend here in Houston in 2005,” she said. “Ian was an extraordinarily good contact for those reports and just happened to be in Houston the week I was departing for England.
“He directed my sense of story, promoted the West End endlessly and started ‘managing my trip’ and subsequently over the years my view of Great Britain and the world. Ian arranged for me to meet with [Councillor] Glenys Roberts while in London. I shot with her at the 9/11 memorial in Grosvenor Square in advance of our own disaster anniversary,” she said.
In another role, as President of the World Affairs Council of Houston, Ms Fryer invited Cllr Wilder to talk about the war in Afghanistan. She remembers a “rousing” speech on the futility of trying to back a government which he said sponsored misogyny.
She added: “While he appreciated Texas and the US, his sense of our history on target, his heart and efforts remained English and in the West End. I will always miss the intensity and depth of his political and historical knowledge and his patriotism, not to mention his uncanny ability to identify the weaknesses in anyone’s argument contrary to his.” |
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