From the Archive: A British Television Podcast

Greg Bakun
  • 4.9 (8)
  • TV & FILM
  • UPDATED BIMONTHLY
From the Archive: A British Television Podcast Podcast

From the Archive is a British television blog that has an emphasis on British television preservation, restoration, archiving, and missing episodes of our favourite series. The podcast focuses on series generally from the 1950s to 1990s. 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. This podcast is a co-production between From the Archive: A British Television Blog and Kaleidoscope. Thank you for listening to it.

  1. From the Archive Ep 15: Blue Peter

    08/08/2021

    From the Archive Ep 15: Blue Peter

    Blue Peter was such a facet of BBC television for so many years. Although still on CBBC, the good ol’ days come from when it was on BBC1. We wanted to celebrate the golden era of Blue Peter and talk to some folks involved with the programme! Peter Purves was a presenter Blue Peter from 1967-1978. His love and knowledge of the program is immense. We decided not to talk about Doctor Who but focus on his time on Blue Peter, talk about the good times and also the times that were frustrating. In another interview with speak with Gethin Jones. Gethin had been a Blue Peter presenter from 2005-2007. These two gentlemen did the same role at very different times. Peter was a presenter during the glorious 70’s while Gethin was a presenter just as the series made a very serious change that would forever change the lineage of the program! What holds these two interviews together is Richard Marson. Richard had been working on the show for years with finally taking over the show in 2003. He knows Peter very well as well as Gethin, being that he hired Gethin! Richard is the one who interviews these brilliant men but also parts of Richard’s story is weaved into the narrative too. Listening to Gethin’s loves and respect to the legacy of Blue Peter is incredible just as it is heartbreaking to hear what happened to the show once Richard left. This episode has some downs but a lot of ups as we celebrate on of the greatest series the BBC ever made! 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.

    2h 7m
  2. 14-From the Archive-Are You Being Served Special

    01/30/2021

    14-From the Archive-Are You Being Served Special

    Are You Being Served? is one of those great series and I wanted to have at least one episode that featured it. I interview Mike Berry, who played Mr. Spooner. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more in depth interview with him as we talk about all things from his early career starting out as a musician in the 1960s, modeling, Worzel Gummidge and of course Are You Being Served? I think it is a real fascinating look at the music business in the 1960s with how hits were made and hits were not made. He talks about knowing The Beatles and The Rolling Stones during those early days too. 2021 is the 100th anniversary of Frank Thornton’s birth. I had the great opportunity to interview Frank’s daughter, Jane. Jane has been working with her son to catalogue and preserve Frank’s scrapbooks, notes and general archive he had kept from the time of his very first acting job until much later. You will hear some of the private comments he has written over the years about different things and it is really fun to see how Frank loved to use words. This is a very unique perspective on a much loved actor.

    2h 40m

  3. 12/21/2019

    From the Archive Ep. 13: The Box of Delights with Renny Rye

    For many of us, our festive viewing includes the groundbreaking 1984 BBC television adaptation of The Box Of Delights. This has enthralled viewers for 35 years. We have decided that we needed to celebrate this milestone by having a conversation with the director of this incredible serial, Renny Rye. Take a listen as we talk with Renny about his career and how he got connected with The Box of Delights. It’s a fun conversation that spans not only that series but some of his other work too. We are also happy to finally bring everyone the second part of our interview with Richard Marson. If you recall way back to Episode 10, we talked with Richard about the his documentary, Tales of Television Centre but this time we talk about what it actually was like to work within BBC Television Centre and how fun and how difficult it could be working there. This is a great conversation with some really smart analysis on how the BBC works. Sprinkled into the episode is some clips from the missing 1971 Boxing Day edition of The Golden Shot. Clips include Bob Monkhouse, Alfie Bass, Stephen Lewis, and a performance from Mary Hopkin.  These are some wonderful archive clips that haven’t been heard in nearly 50 years! 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.

    2h 33m
  4. From the Archive ep 12: DW Randolph Tapes and The Beatles

    08/04/2019

    From the Archive ep 12: DW Randolph Tapes and The Beatles

    It’s a pretty special episode of the podcast to have both Doctor Who and The Beatles in the same episode and generally talking about the same subject: off-air audio recordings from television broadcasts! Back in December of 2018, Kaleidoscope announced that they were given a number of off-air audio recordings of Doctor Who episodes from the 1960s. These were given to us by Robert Wyn and have since been dubbed “The Randolph Tapes” as the name Randolph appears on the tapes themselves. Mark Ayres kindly stepped in and had a listen and was impressed by the quality. We wanted to share the background and analysis of these recordings by talking to Doctor Who Researcher Robert Franks about what he thought of them. Of course, we include clips so you can hear them yourself plus some rarities from the tapes you may never have heard before unless you were watching at the time of broadcast. We move onto that unknown Liverpudlian group known as The Beatles. Of course we jest but we have a great conversation with author and Beatles expert Keith Badman about off-air audio recordings of missing television appearances by the Fab Four plus so much more. The idea of missing music programs (apart from Top of the Pops) sometimes gets overlooked in favour of other series but Keith’s knowledge of the subject is very intriguing! Plus, we are happy to include some very rare clips of The Beatles from the Kaleidoscope archives. If that wasn’t enough, how about a brand-new missing off-air audio discovery of a television broadcast featuring The Rolling Stones? You want to know what it is? Well, you’ll have to listen and let Neil Ingoe tell you! 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.

    1h 48m
  5. From the Archive Episode 11: Dad’s Army 50th Anniversary

    12/02/2018

    From the Archive Episode 11: Dad’s Army 50th Anniversary

    Permission to upload a new episode of the podcast Sir! We could litter the description of this episode with loads of famous Dad’s Army catchphrases but this series is so much more than that. Now, 50 years after its first broadcast, it is still entertaining people around the world with a very healthy following. We wanted to celebrate this series! First off, we wanted to talk with someone from the cast of the show and immediately Frank Williams came to mind! Frank perfectly played the role of the Vicar from Series 3 onwards. He graciously gave us his time to talk with him and he didn’t disappoint! He talked extensively about his time on Dad’s Army, The Army Game, writing and acting in general! In keeping with the archive theme to this podcast, we had wonderful conversation with Martin Geraghty. Martin worked on the animated Dad’s Army episode “A Stripe for Frazer” as well as on the animated Doctor Who stories “The Power of the Daleks” and “Shada”. We talk about all of it. Finally, you may hear some Dad’s Army rarities. We just wanted to sprinkle some stuff in the episode that maybe most of you have not heard before that might make this episode just a little extra special! 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.

    1h 24m
  6. From the Archive Episode 10: Tales of Television Centre & ITV Archives

    11/11/2018

    From the Archive Episode 10: Tales of Television Centre & ITV Archives

    BBC Television Centre has a place in many of hearts that adore British television. When news came about its closure, it upset many that the BBC would leave such an iconic location. A wonderful documentary was produced before it closed. Directed by Richard Marson, Tales of Television Centre, brought together a wide spectrum of people who worked most of their careers there to bring us some of the warmest memories of our “concrete donut”. We talk with Richard about the making of this documentary and what it was like making it, creating the tone of the piece and an insight on what the BBC wanted to name it just prior to transmission! This is the first of a few conversations with will have with Richard and this is a fun one to listen to about Television Centre! We also talk to Andrew Gavaghan who is the Archive Manager to the ITV archives. Conducted on location at the ITV Archive in Leeds in December of 2017, Andrew gives is an insight into the workings of the archives. It’s a great conversation! 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.

    1h 11m
  7. From the Archive Episode 9: Doctor Who Season 12 Blu-ray Set Edition

    06/23/2018

    From the Archive Episode 9: Doctor Who Season 12 Blu-ray Set Edition

    Doctor Who has an established history of DVD sets chocked full of amazing extras and interesting documentaries about the series’ past. Now, as classic Doctor Who enters the realm of Blu-ray sets by season, how do they top themselves? This episode of From the Archive: A British Television Podcast, takes a look at how the team lead by Russell Minton decided to evolve the range to not only make it more appealing to fans but unleash the floodgates of archive material never made available to the public before now. We talk with Russell Minton about his vision for these sets, Richard Bignell about the research and work that went into providing the loads of archive material to this set that has never been available to fans before now, Ed Stradling about updating old documentaries and making new ones for this set, and Derek Handley who not only talks about the work that goes into the photo galleries but also the BBC Photographic Library and his work tracking down photos we have not seen before for the sets. We also talk to Stephen Cranford who was a close friend to Graham Strong who recently passed away. Graham gave us the gift of crystal clear audio recordings to many missing Doctor Who episodes and we pay tribute to his legacy and find out more about who Graham was. It’s a very interesting episode that shows off the sheer amount of work that goes into some of our favourite extras on the classic Doctor Who DVD & Blu-ray range. 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.

    2h 30m
  8. From the Archive Episode 8: The Top 100 Lost TV Shows/BBC Genome

    04/30/2018

    From the Archive Episode 8: The Top 100 Lost TV Shows/BBC Genome

    When we think of Lost TV Shows, it’s possible that the same 10 to 15 series may come to mind. Different series are important to different people. That is why this Kaleidoscope initiative led by Ray Langstone is so unique. He tallied from anyone who responded to his request to name their top lost TV shows. What did he do with this information and how did he acquire it? It’s fascinating and also interesting to see where some of our favourite series landed on the list! Just to make it even more interesting, we added some audio from missing programs to illustrate some of the choices made for the list. Next, we have an incredible conversation with Jake Berger of the BBC Archive Development Team. I interviewed him while I was in the UK at the BBC Broadcast Centre. There, we spoke in-depth about the wonderful BBC Genome Project and also some other things that have been going on in that group. This is very much worth a listen; there is some truly remarkable information in this interview. So much content, this is a long episode! Please enjoy! 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.

    1h 55m
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About

From the Archive is a British television blog that has an emphasis on British television preservation, restoration, archiving, and missing episodes of our favourite series. The podcast focuses on series generally from the 1950s to 1990s. 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. This podcast is a co-production between From the Archive: A British Television Blog and Kaleidoscope. Thank you for listening to it.

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