Thursday 28 June 2012

Dad's Last Tape

Following on from The House That Fall Into The Sea, I worked with Clare Jenkins from Pennine Productions again, this time on a BBC Radio 4 documentary entitled Dad's Last Tape.
Clare Jenkins explores why people record their life stories and what impact those stories have on other people when the interviewee is no longer themselves, or no longer alive. Twenty-five years ago, Clare recorded her father talking about his life: growing up in a Scottish tenement, being 'sold' as a farmer's boy at a hiring fair, a wartime stint in the RAF, working as a gardener to the wealthy, amateur poet. Jack Jenkins died 18 years ago, and Clare never listened back to the tapes - until making this programme. Broadcaster Rony Robinson never listened back to recordings he had done with his mother until Clare asked him to. Nor had singer-songwriter Sally Goldsmith listened to her mother, who died two years ago, singing May Day songs recalled from childhood. This programme explores the different circumstances in which people's life stories are recorded, and the memories and emotions that come flooding back when the tapes are eventually heard. We hear from the wife of a man suffering from dementia about her bitter-sweet feelings when listening to tapes of his voice. "They really calmed him and made him smile. And it was amazing for me, because I'd forgotten how funny he was." Another woman, terminally ill with cancer, has made a series of recordings for her newborn granddaughter as part of a hospice project in Sheffield. "I want her to hear about my life - and to know that I don't have a Yorkshire accent!" she says. We also hear from Mary Stewart of the British Library, who has been studying the way recorded interviews are used by and for those most intimately involved. Along the way, we discover the power of the beloved voice.

I needed to restore some of the recording but by and large they well remarkably good. Radio Times have chosen Dad's Last Tape as one of their recommendations for the week. This is what their reviewer Jane Anderson had to say...

There is nothing so effective in recalling the very essence of a dead loved one than hearing a recording of their voice. This gently edited programme mixes old recordings of elderly mothers and fathers with deeply moving stories of people facing death in the near future and their reasons for wanting to leave part of themselves behind for their families. Hankies at the ready.

"Gently edited", I'll settle for that. Once again it was a pleasure to work with Clare on what was for her a very personal programme. So if you can get to a radio at Monday 2d July you can enjoy it then otherwise take advantage of the BBC iPlayer for 7 days after that.


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