Podcast of the Week: ‘From The Archive’

This week: From the Archive: A British Television Podcast!

We’re big fans of podcasts here at We Are Cult, and we’re always looking for more shows to subscribe to. So if you’re looking for ear candy, we’re here to help!

This week: Greg Bakun tells us all about podcast From The Archive, a British television podcast, From the Archive: A British Television Podcast, celebrating all things British television with an emphasis of television preservation, locating missing material and restoration.

What’s your podcast about?

From the Archive: A British Television Podcast is a co-produced podcast between Kaleidoscope, The British Television Preservation Society and my blog From the Archive: A British Television Blog. The podcast is about British television mainly from the dawn of the medium to around the end of the 1990s. I am a fan of this history around missing episodes, why and how it happened, so I wanted to bring that in as well as we try to either talk to the people or play clips of some of the missing material recently discovered. I wanted to try an build that dialogue of what happens after missing material is found and can we talk to someone who played a part in finding it?

If you had to describe your show in 10 words or less, what would you say?

Discussion of archive television with the people who know about it. (11 words!)

Which episode would you recommend for a first-time listener? Do you have a favourite episode?

That’s tough because the each episode can have its own specific audience. For example, if you are a fan of Tony Hancock, episodes 3 &4 are great with Tristan Brittain-Dissont and Marrtin Gibbons from the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society who gives so much information on the subject and so many rare clips. The most recent episode 5 is a great one too with our interview with Sue Malden because she is very closely associated with Doctor Who in how she championed to find material and took it upon herself to find a way to do so. Yet, I wanted to talk to her about everything other than Doctor Who also because her knowledge was so much more than Doctor Who.

My favourite so far is episode 4 with Tristan & Martin. I wanted this podcast (overall) to get deep into information about shows people know about but also present rare clips and talk about them from those shows. That is what happens with this episode. Martin tells us about how some of the 1960s episodes of Steptoe and Son are edited on the DVDs and provides audio examples to prove it. That was fun to listen to and put together.

What inspired you to create this podcast?

I have kicked around the idea of doing a podcast for years just about British television but wanted to make sure that I could create something of high enough quality that I would be satisfied with it. I want my stuff to sound really good and if it doesn’t I get disappointed. Just when I told Chris Perry I was going to make the podcast, he asked if I would be interested doing it as a joint venture between Kaleidoscope and myself. It didn’t take me long to answer. Almost immediately, Chris sent me a list of potential guests he thought of, all amazing and none that I could probably have gotten on my own. I also have a set of guests I want to bring in so I think we have enough ideas for guests and topics to keep us going as long as we like. Also, talking about things like television archives and specifically about missing material recoveries from programmes other than Doctor Who was missing, as far as I could tell, from the podcast realm and I wanted to see if I could fix that with my podcast.

Which guests have you had on your podcast so far?

I’ve had Chris Perry from Kaleidoscope as I thought it made sense to do the first one with him to set the whole thing up in regards to how Kaleidoscope works, Tristan Brittain-Dissont and Marrtin Gibbons from the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society, Richard Latto, BBC South Producer, Oliver Crocker author of “All Memories Great & Small” and of course Sue Malden.

Who would be your dream guest?

I wanted to get Galton & Simpson and were checking into it prior to Alan’s death. I have talked with Biddy Baxter to talk about Blue Peter and she was thinking it over.

Which equipment do you use for your podcast set-up?

I record via Skype. All the post work I do such as audio mix and levels + clips I do in Adobe Audition.

What would you say is the best length of time for a podcast episode?

I personally think 1 hour is the best but I have broken it twice including the Sue Malden episode.

Which podcasts (other than yours) would you recommend we listen to?

I generally don’t listen to other podcasts as I make this podcast, co-host a national radio show for iHeart Radio and work on a web series plus my day job. I do like Radio Free Skaro, Whosround, stuff like that. I have listened to Whocast when they talk about missing episodes.

Where is your podcast available to listen to?

The best place to get it is probably iTunes and please subscribe: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fromthearchives-podcast/id1182742747

RSS Feed: http://fromthearchive.libsyn.com/rss

I also post it on my blog: www.from-the-archive.co.uk

We also have it on our Facebook and Twitter pages:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kaleidoscopearchive/  and  https://www.facebook.com/FromtheArchiveMN/

Twitter: @FromtheArchive or @kaleidoscopetv

What is the future of podcasting as a creative medium?

I think it is really healthy. The neat thing about Podcasts is that they can be about literally anything and be as fancy or “unfancy” as you want. It is such a versatile medium to get a message out that I think this is going to be around for a very long time.

Follow From The Archive on Twitter:  @FromtheArchive 

Download or stream past episodes of From The Archive on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fromthearchives-podcast/id1182742747


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