Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Podcast Round Up - Easy Guide to Listening Vol. 1

I have been getting a lot of people wondering where to listen to the From the Archive: A British Television Podcast. I thought I would put the first handful of episodes here in an easy to find list. 

First off, anyone could always subscribe to the podcast though iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fromthearchives-podcast/id1182742747

or catch it through the RSS feed: http://fromthearchive.libsyn.com/rss

BUT here is direct links to the episodes:

Episode 1:

Introducing the new British television podcast, From the Archive! We celebrate all things British television with an emphasis of television preservation, locating missing material and restoration. Our first episode is the first part of an interview with Chris Perry, CEO of Kaleidoscope. We talk about Kaleidoscope’s inception but really focus on their role as a preservationists of British television plus their role in finding missing material. There is a lot of discussion about missing material plus so much more which is why it can’t be contained in one episode! We hope you enjoy! 




Episode 2:

Episode 2 of our podcast, From the Archive, picks up with the second part of our interview with Kaleidoscope CEO Chris Perry. In the previous episode, we talked at great lengths about missing episodes, television preservation and archives. This episode is no different! We talk a lot about the finds that Kaleidoscope announced this year including a streak of ABC/BBC material announced in October, we talk a little about the double-edge sword a prominent series like DOCTOR WHO does to the overall publicity of missing episodes and we talk a lot about the famous Bob Monkhouse archive. We have a lively and controversial discussion about TILL DEATH US DO PART that may go against the norm. There may be some language used in historical context on this program. The views and opinions of this conversation are those of people on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect those of Kaleidoscope or From the Archive. After the interview, there is reflection about 80 years of BBC television and some letters are read from the RADIO TIMES regarding the public taking to the new Doctor Patrick Troughton during the broadcast run of POWER OF THE DALEKS.


Episode 3:

We celebrate one of the most influential comedies that has ever come out of the BBC, HANCOCK’S HALF HOUR but even more so we celebrate Tony Hancock himself. This episode features the first of a two part interview with the Archivist of the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society, Tristan Brittain-Dissont. He brought some incredible audio to share over the course of the two episodes. This episode we hear a recently discovered crystal clear clip from THE HORROR SERIAL that has only previously existed as a very poor audio copy and an audio clip from the recently found soundtrack to THE ITALIAN MAID. Plus information of how it was found.

We then catch up with Chris Perry over the recently announced discoveries that have been announced by Kaleidoscope including some exclusive audio clips to the recently recovered Z CARS episode TRUTH OR DARE and a clip from MY PAL BOB. We also talk about Kaleidoscope’s new online research tool culminating in over 30 years of research into British television, TV Brain and how everyone can have access to this powerful database.


Episode 4:

We are very excited to present an EXTENDED LENGTH edition of this podcast. We have many rare clips included in it that we are proud to be able to present here. First and foremost, we continue our conversation with Tristan Brittain-Dissont. Tristan is the archivist for the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society. He brought a ton of wonderful and rare Tony Hancock audio clips that put some perspective not only on his career and his work habits but also the rise of the comedy writing legend duo Galton & Simpson. Some of the clips included are bits cut out of HANCOCK HALF HOUR radio episodes such as “Fred’s Pie Stall”, we have audio recorded by Tony himself that he used for learning his lines and we include a wonderfully long segment clocking in over 7 minutes from the rare radio series CALLING ALL FORCES that features Tony in this clip. There are some great clips from the series HAPPY GO LUCKY featured too.

Just as we were working on this episode, we got call from Tristan who told us more material of interest had been found and would we mind talking about them on this podcast? The answer was, of course, YES! So, we have a quick conversation with Martin Gibbons who is the Social Media Manager for the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society. He dazzled us with audio clips recorded from the original transmission of the first broadcast episode of THE BLACKPOOL SHOW from June 1966 where Tony does a little singing and then forgets the first act he is supposed to introduce! We share an audio clip from another recently found domestic audio recording of COMEDY PLAYHOUSE starring Harry H. Corbett. Perhaps the most baffling is the material discovered from off-air audio recordings of STEPTOE AND SON from 1963. This is really worth listening to and makes you wonder about the completeness of the versions released on DVD.

Finally we say farewell to Alan Simpson who has given many of us so many laughs over the years with his writing partner Ray Galton. We put together a little tribute to him using audio in his own words along with audio from Ray Galton and even Dennis Main Wilson. Equally exciting is we tie it all back to where their career started by playing a recording of the first joke they ever sold to the BBC. We are extremely proud to present this episode and we hope you enjoy it! It may not be able to all be heard in one sitting and it certainly needs listening to more than once! 


Episode 5:

We are pleased as punch in this episode of our podcast as we are able to have a conversation with Sue Malden! Sue was named the first BBC Archive Selector back in 1978 and her work revolutionised the way programs have been selected and kept in archives for not only the BBC but the UK and beyond. Our conversation goes a lot into the archive selection process she put together plus we talk about the work she is doing in the field now. Of course we touch on her project she initiated to track down what might have happened to episodes of lost BBC series. She eventually chose DOCTOR WHO but she talks about some of the other series she considered looking into first. It’s a not only a great conversation about archive television but it’s a great conversation about television archiving.

We next move onto a quick conversation with BBC South Producer Richard Latto who recently returned an episode of HUGH AND I called “The Girl on the Poster” from 1964. He talks about where the print has been and how this isn’t the first time the film collector who owns this print has helped out the BBC Archives. We talk with Oliver Crocker who wrote “All Memories Great & Small” from Miwk Publishing about the passing of Robert Hardy. He not only shares great memories of interviewing Robert Hardy for his book but also shares some personal audio of the two talking. Finally, we check in with Chris Perry who gives us all the information for the upcoming Kaleidoscope event on 2/9/17 at Birmingham City University. It’s going to be a fantastic event with great guests and rare material. We share all the information!


If you have feedback or questions you would like to have read on the podcast or general inquiries, please contact us at feedback@fromthearchive.co.uk. We would love to hear from you! This podcast is a co-production between From the Archive: A British Television Blog and Kaleidoscope. Thank you for listening.