What was it like filming Mrs Thatcher in her kitchen? Or negotiating with the Vatican? How about opening the Arabic service when the presenter didn’t turn up? Did you see the class system in action in the loos at Wood Norton?
The Association has started a new project ahead of the BBC’s centenary. Called 100 Voices its aim is to collect personal stories like the examples above from those of us who worked at all levels in the BBC and not just the Boardroom or in front of the camera. We are more interested in what happened on the ‘shop floor’, Reception desks and Production offices. These are just some examples of where you, as members, have memories of but of course there were many more places and situations that we want to hear about. We would like to build up an entertaining and instructive picture of the life and culture within the BBC during yours and my time. With the active encouragement of the BBC’s historian, the British Library and BBC History, we will record lively interviews using online technology of the kind used by the BBC for broadcasting. With careful planning we will get broadcast quality interviews which will be posted to our website. We will also offer these unique interviews to the BBC historian and the BBC for archive use and possible broadcast in the future. We have made a start and some of the recordings make great listening. In some cases, we have posted a microphone to make sure the quality is good. The advantage of this is that they were Covid safe for contributors but as the pandemic recedes we hope to be able to record some face-to-face interviews.
If you’re interested in having your personal story recorded, please register an interest by sending an email to membership@bbc.pa.org.uk. It may take some time to get these done but the aim is to get 100 recordings by the time of the centenary in October 2022.
David Allen (Class of 1969)
