Voices from the past

While away covering a trade show this week, I had the opportunity to visit my parents’ house, and to go through some of my old things there.

To my surprise I stumbled across the original cassette tape recordings of my interviews with John Inman (Are You Being Served), John Mortimer (creator of Rumpole of the Bailey), Stephanie Cole (Waiting For God), Blythe Duff (Taggart), and one or two other British television stars who appear in 30 Years of British Television. I had long thought these items lost.

Now that I know I have access to them (I didn’t risk taking them back on the plane through the X-ray machines lest they be damaged), I would very much like to have these historic recordings — all of which took place in the 1990s — transfered to a digital format and posted on the 30 Years of British Television Web site. The John Inman recording is especially prized, of course, since that wonderful entertainer passed away last March.

Would any British television fans out there be interested in downloading these interviews in the form of a podcast, or would you be more interested in listening to a few short interview sound bites on the Web site itself? Though I haven’t had the chance to listen to them recently, I’m sure the audio quality isn’t going to be brilliant, but it is still an opportunity to listen to these great personalities.