BY PHIL SCOBLE
MONTY HALLS LONG ROAD TO DARTMOUTH
MONTY HALLS SITS IN HIS NEW SHOP, HOLDING HIS NEW BABY GIRL ISLA, CHATTING CASUALLY ABOUT THE PLACES HE’S BEEN IN THE WORLD, HIS AMAZING EXPERIENCES, AND HOW HE ENDED UP IN DARTMOUTH.
He moved to the town in January this year, and could be forgiven for taking a while to settle here, as he is immensely busy with a new baby, business and a series on national TV. Not a bit of it. The main interruption to our conversation is not Isla – and there are few more welcome interruptions – but the people walking past the window waving and saying hello. I comment that Monty, his partner Tamsyn, Isla and the famous dog Reuben seem to have settled in quite well. “The welcome we have received has been nothing short of phenomenal,” he said. “We have been overwhelmed with the kindness, generosity and friendliness the community has shown us. It’s more than we ever could have hoped for and we are incredibly grateful.” Monty and his family move here as he is on the crest of a wave: his most recent TV series, The Fisherman’s Apprentice, has just finished going out on BBC2 – his eighth TV series and one which has seen him shift into the national consciousness more than ever. Born in Wakefield – but brought up in the South West – Monty is the son of a RAF navigator father and a mother who was a teacher. The peripatetic life of the services’ family saw him move all over the country and the world in his early life – and this is where he gained his love of the sea. “We moved around a lot,” he said, “but when we were
found his life’s true passion: diving. He got a job at a dive centre down under and learned how to dive, showing such talent that he was soon an instructor at another centre in Cyprus.
The shop is a base for us,” he says. “We hope to have a successful busi- ness which allow us to have some- where to bring up Isla and make a lot of friends.
grins.
in Malta - I can’t have been more than three - I remember being on the beach with my big sister and loving being in the sea and discovering things in rock pools. Since then I’ve just loved being around the sea and sea creatures. It was an amazing environment and it inspired me in a way nothing else did. I think that’s why I dive and why I’m a marine biologist.” Sent to boarding school at Bedstone College in Shropshire at the age of seven, Monty thrived and spent ten happy years there.
“People think going to boarding school must be horrible,” he said, “but I loved every moment – with my dad’s services job it actually gave me the stability I hadn’t had before.” When he left the school he went travelling in Australia, and
But he soon realized that the three years he would need to wait to become a navy diver was not for him – so he transferred to the Royal Marines. “I fitted into the marines very well,” he said. “I loved the challenges and opportunities it gave. I was never wild as a young man, but I think I was a bit rudderless and didn’t know what to do with myself. It gave me a focus and a target. I did ok, enjoyed the physical and professional aspects of it very well. I also got to mess around in very fast boats which was fun!” He was hand picked to become part of a special British forces group that helped the transition to a new regime for Nelson Mandela’s ANC party in South Africa between 1993- 94.
“It was a real honour to be there at that time, and I found a deep and abiding love for the country of South Africa,” he said. “I still return once a year. The shark diving there is the best in the world, and the people are very welcoming.” His last years as a Marine were spent in Dartmouth as a
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After this he joined the Royal Navy with the aim of becoming a mine clearance diver. This was when he first came to
Dartmouth.
“I really loved the town as soon as I arrived – and had great fun here,” he
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