00:00 The funeral has taken place today of Rex Ripley, a wonderful man, 93 years old.
00:06 He was the man that designed the iconic yellow Yorkshire television chevron back in 1968 when
00:12 the channel launched. He got £370 and 10 shillings for his efforts, which was probably quite a lot
00:18 then back in the day. But I met him and I was lucky enough to meet him with John and Duncan
00:23 in 2018 on our 50th anniversary programme when he came into the Calendar Studio and
00:29 stayed in touch ever since. But one of the amazing things I've been finding out today
00:33 at his funeral, meeting all his family and friends, is what a positive, friendly, happy man
00:40 he was who everybody loved. He made friends wherever he went, he would meet someone in a cafe,
00:45 just get chatting to them, have breakfast with them and apparently walking down the streets of
00:50 Garforth where he lived, everyone would shout out "it's Mr Yorkshire Television" and he was
00:55 very proud of his links with the channel and the channel is very proud of its links with him. So
01:01 a life very well lived. Rest in peace, Rex Ripley.
01:05 So I'm joined now by Michael Ripley and Katie Wilkinson who are the son and daughter of Rex
01:13 Ripley and we've had his funeral this afternoon, the man that designed the iconic ITV, Yorkshire
01:19 Television chevron that was on our screens for over 30 years. What an amazing man your dad was.
01:26 How do you think he would like to be remembered? He was 93 when he sadly passed so our beloved
01:32 father had a lot of connections in Yorkshire so I think he'd like to be remembered for being a good
01:39 teacher, which he was, with lots of people who went on to do great things and he just had an
01:46 incredible long happy life. He was well known in Garforth as well, he was a bit of a celebrity in
01:51 Garforth for designing the Yorkshire TV logo so everybody knew him. We used to go to Wetherspoons,
01:57 Cookloons, Co-op and he used to always say "oh hello Rex" and that's it, he's a lovely man,
02:03 very lovely man and he was really smiling everywhere he went, he smiled. He was absolutely
02:07 brilliant, brilliant father to his own. Yeah he's very happy. Very happy, very happy man, lovely.
02:11 And I believe he was known by everyone as Mr Yorkshire Television. Yes he was, he was his tagline.
02:18 I know he designed it from a competition didn't he but he was a prolific graphic designer wasn't
02:25 he? Yeah. Tell us about his career because he designed many cards that we now see still in
02:30 our shops. Well he's got the, we found when we've been going to his studio about 300 or 400 cards,
02:36 different designs of everything and he had a couple of bestsellers and then he's just done
02:44 loads and loads of like Schofields and stuff like that for everybody like that. It's unbelievable
02:49 what he's been doing. And always a sense of humour. Yes, all the humourous cards, everything he did.
02:54 The iconic Chevron, it's a very simple idea, what was it though about it do you think that
03:01 captured everybody's imagination? Well my dad said when he was doing it, he said he was going
03:06 to do the Yorkshire White Rose but then he thought that was, everyone's going to do that but he just
03:12 thought this Y like for Yorkshire and he thought that would be more iconic to everything and also
03:17 it could do everything to it like in 321, like a Chevron going through like that. They could do it
03:24 in wood, in sculpture, metal, you know you can sort of design it. It's just a simple design,
03:28 simple design that could be created in any kind of format. Yeah, what a special one. It's something
03:34 everybody still remembers don't they? To this very day. But one of the great things is that he was
03:41 so proud of his links with Yorkshire Television. I remember meeting him when he came in for the 50th
03:46 anniversary and he was a joy to be with wasn't he? He was, he certainly was. And you paid tribute to
03:52 his links to Yorkshire Television today at his funeral, can you tell me how you did that?
03:55 Well we wrote to you as well, we wrote to Ian White and we just asked for a real good thing
04:03 for the end of the show and on the Monday he died, Ian White did a tribute to my dad at the end and
04:09 that was absolutely brilliant. It was only about a minute and a half or something like that but it
04:12 was so special, absolutely super. I was really touched by that one, what he did to us. But yeah,
04:17 it was just absolutely superb. And you had the Chevron on the funeral card didn't you? Yes,
04:20 that's right. Well I did that. The funeral card came up, I had a spare vinyl that I'd done for
04:25 the flowers and they said to me you can put it on the front of the vehicle so I did it. I put it on
04:30 the front of the vehicle, it took me two minutes but then they just said to me that's brilliant,
04:34 that'd be really iconic and people will stop and look at it and say that's brilliant. Well Michael
04:40 and Katie I'll get back to your guests here because everybody here is celebrating the life
04:45 of a wonderful man, a very positive, sunny man who brought such joy to all of us in our homes
04:50 for so many years. Well that sadly missed his funeral. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you very much.
04:55 Thank you. Thank you.
