Top Ten Dreamers by Fiona Gow

This is Radio Bedfordshire, and it’s nearly midnight. Time for the moment you’ve all been waiting for, when we announce our all-time Top Ten Dreamers, as chosen by you, the listeners.

And coming in at Number Ten is – Mary Shelley. Back in 1815 she was looking for inspiration for a ghost story, and she had a strange dream in which she saw a monstrous creature coming to life. From that dream came her famous story, Frankenstein, and all those scary films.

You may not have heard of dreamer Number Nine – Frederick Banting, but our diabetic listeners have. In the 1920s he was looking for a cure for diabetes, the disease which had killed his mother. He knew insulin was involved, but couldn’t see exactly how. He went
to bed thinking about the problem, and dreamt the solution. When he woke, he knew what experiment he had to do.

And who’s at Number Eight? I think our golfing listeners have been voting here, because it’s Jack Nicklaus. One of the world’s best golfers, but he had a bad patch in the 60s. Then one night he dreamt he was hitting the ball really well. When he remembered the dream , he realised he had been holding the club slightly differently. So he did that for real, and he was back on form!

Now at Number Seven we have some Christmassy dreamers – it’s Joseph and the Wise Men. An angel tells Joseph in a dream not to send Mary away when she’s pregnant, and the Wise Men dream that an angel tells them not to return to Herod. And I’m told there are 3 more dreams in that story!

And who is at Number Six? It’s Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine. He couldn’t work out where the hole in the needle should be. Then one night he had a nightmare when he was taken prisoner by a group of natives. They were dancing around him with spears,and he noticed that their spears all had holes near their tips. When he woke up he realized that his problem was solved!

Now we’re down to Number Five and it’s Paul McCartney. Did you know that he dreamt the tune for Yesterday? He woke up with the melody in his head, tried it out on the piano, and liked it. But he couldn’t believe he had composed it in his sleep- he thought he must have heard it somewhere, so he went around for weeks asking his friends if they knew the tune!

And at Number Four we have another famous name. It’s Albert Einstein, who had a dream where he was hurtling downhill at the speed of light, and this helped him fit in the final bits of his theory of relativity. Just don’t ask me for details!

Now we’re at Number Three and this is our youngest dreamer, Alice in Wonderland. She was a bit drowsy at the start of the book. So all those characters we know so well, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts are part of her amazing dream.

And our last two dreamers both had a dream with a Christmas message. Number Two is Martin Luther King with his “I have a dream” speech, and his vision of racial harmony. He’d heard a lot about the American dream, but it didn’t seem to include black people, so he spoke of his dream that one day black and white Americans would all work together in peace and friendship.

And at Number One it’s Simon and Garfunkel, and we would all like to see their dream come true:

Last night I had the strangest dream
I ever dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war.

So there we have them folks, your Top Ten Dreamers, and as you climb the stairs to Bedfordshire, may I wish you all Sweet Dreams.

Fiona Gow -Aynho Writers