Forest farmer tickles the nation with Dickies Dribble on Radio 1

BRANSGORE farmer-turned-cider maker Richard Frampton has been tickling the nation after becoming the unlikely star of a new feature on BBC Radio 1’s Scott Mills show.

The former district councillor, who began making Dickies Dribble cider three years ago, says he has been overwhelmed by orders from around the world after appearing on the prime-time programme.

The fun began on Monday when Scott Mills contacted Richard for a feature on firms with unusual names.

Richard said: “We were chatting away and he was asking some questions about the business – I started laughing and he thought it was absolutely hilarious.”

Scott rang Richard back to appear again on Tuesday – after being told it was his birthday.

The show was then flooded with messages of love for Richard and his bellowing laugh with listeners commenting that they “needed more Dickie in their lives”.

Yesterday (Wednesday) the show had come up with a new feature called ‘Tickle Dickie’, which involved listeners ringing in with gags in a bid to make Richard chuckle.

“The whole thing is just about me basically laughing but people seem to love it,” said Richard. “It’s a lot of fun and I dare say if it spreads a bit of happiness then that’s great.

“It has been a strange few days but the sales of my cider have gone absolutely bonkers! I have one chap contacting me to see if I could export it to Japan!”

He concluded: “I dare say it will all go quiet again but everyone seems to be loving my laugh right now.”

Richard was previously in the news locally after he quit the Conservative party in 2018 in protest at cuts to public services, and again last month when he towed a vehicle out of a flooded lane in Bransgore.