REDDITCH was selected as the place to launch a massive search to find the most dullest men in Europe yesterday (Wednesday).
Irish-based production company Venom headed to The Black Tap pub in the town to film renowned Redditch dull man Kevin Beresford and American Grover Click, who is the assistant vice-president of the Dull Men’s Club.
They were filming a taster for a ‘Dull Men of Europe’ documentary where they will scour the continent, looking for dull men.
Kevin became famous for his ‘Roundabouts of Redditch’ calendar and since then has created many others including ‘Roadworks of Redditch’ and ‘Allotments of Redditch’.
Picture by Marcus Mingins 2425005MMR2
Producer Ken Wardrop said: “Kevin is Redditch and Redditch is middle England.
“He and Grover brought the dullness concept to the forefront.
“And, we thought, if there are people like Kevin and Grover in the UK, there must be many more across Europe.”
Director Andy Oxley added: “There are dull men hidden away in garden sheds all over Europe – it’s a hidden sub-culture – and we are trying to unearth and celebrate these ‘Gurus of Dull-dom’.”
Dullness ‘across the pond’
It all started for Grover, who now splits his time between America and his UK home in Winchester, back in New York.
He and others were in New York Athletics Club and picked up a magazine while they were sitting in the bar.
He said: “We were flicking through it and there was so much information about so many different clubs we could join and we realised we did not do any of these things which made us seem quite dull.”
He pitched an idea to the magazine’s editor about a tongue-in-cheek feature relating to dull men and it became a monthly column.
He then moved to Washington DC and to England and launched a ‘Dull Men’s Club’ website which strove to highlight the ordinary.
It took off and then ten years ago there was a ‘Dull Men of Great Britain’ calendar created which gained worldwide acclaim.
Picture by Marcus Mingins 2425005MMR3
Grover added: “Most of our members are from England and we had one from Scotland and one from Wales – all middle-aged or older white men.
“We then thought ‘it can’t just be all these types of men’ so we searched for others and people put themselves forward – we got men and women of a variety of ages – from 20 to 97.
“And we want to recruit many more.”
A feature followed in the Wall Street Journal and a Facebook page has 2million followers, growing by another 1,000 every day.
And now the search has been extended to Europe, there are high hopes of finding dull men and women from countries including Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and others.
Kevin added: “Whether they are train-spotters, drain-spotters or collectors of ordinary everyday items, we want to hear from them.”
And Susan Rooms, the landlady of the Black Tap, said it was fantastic for the venue to help launch the Europe-wide search.
“Kevin is one of our regulars and asked if we could host a reception.
“We always like to do what we can to help the community and he and this project will also put Redditch on the map.”
Mobility Scooter fame awaits….
Kevin produced a ‘Mobility Scooter Riders of Benidorm 2025’ calendar inspired by the hit sitcom and for his next project he wants to create a ‘Mobility Scooter Riders of Redditch’ 2026 one.
Anyone in Redditch who wants to be featured should contact Kevin at: dullkev.com his ‘Dull Kev’ website.
