| Description | An interview with Barry LANKESTER, a married man with one son, I daughter, who is a Broadcaster, born in Coventry and now living in Solihull. Barry LANKESTER’s father was a Clerk, born in England and his mother a Housewife born in England. In the interview, he talks about …
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2” My name is Barry Lankester…and I was born on the 24th December 1933 in the back room of 29 Medina Road, Coventry…that was the only room my parents had…
45” …my mother always said that I was born…at a quarter to twelve midnight as the bells of Bethlehem were first broadcast by the BBC...
1.15” …I remember walking to our new house, this must have been in 1935, pushing my little wheel barrow, I was 2 and a half…
1.47” …in the advent of war in 1939 I was still there in Coventry…she was born in ’38…
2.00” Lived through the Blitz, story about a bomb crater between his school and the cake shop.
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34” …then in 1943 we came back to Coventry…
51” School, sang solos in assembly.
1.23” …and then in 1944…when I was 10…the Education Act of 1944…made Grammar school education more available to ordinary working class people…I was in a class of 63 in 1945 at Junior School…
2.05” School memories, learning Latin.
3.23” Then we come to 1948. By this time I’ve joined St Paul’s Choir…in Coventry…
4.10” …in 1947 I paid my first visit to London…
4.56” …in 1947 they had a festival at Westminster Abbey…I represented St Paul’s Choir in Coventry…
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34” …so we go back to school and 1948 comes up and it’s school Cert. Year…
48” Memories of Sixth Form.
1.05” …then we came to High School Cert., 1950…I took the last Higher and the first ‘A’ Level…
1.23” Got a Coventry Miners scholarship to go to University.
2.45” …so at 17 I went into the army…National Service.
3.34” …I came in 1951, that was my second visit to Birmingham. I came to Five Ways…
4.04” Story about having a cup of tea on Broad Street.
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3” I was posted…near Aldershot…the first six weeks…it is quite mind-bending, you’re thrown in with everybody…
2.13” Took a clerk’s typing course in the army. Helped someone pass exam, offered him his girlfriend out of gratitude.
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Posted to Hanover, Germany. Joined a Rugby Club.
1.45” Driving various army vehicles.
2.52” …so that’s 1953 and I come out and I go to Birmingham University…
3.03” Joined the University drama group.
4.40” We went to the Edinburgh Festival in 1955…
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25” …I left University in 1953 and…I had to continue the National Service…
1.54” …we had camps…two weeks during the summer, ’53, ’54 and ’55….
2.36” Taking part in various productions, story about no one wanting to play the African slave because no showers and had to go home on the bus ‘blacked up.’
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48” The worst thing that, from my point of view, that happened to Birmingham in the ‘50’s was the fact that the Theatre Royal was knocked down…
1.01” Story about a deal between a big entrepreneur (Jack Cotton) and leader of the council (Frank Price).
1.32” …and the thing was pulled down and Woolworths was built instead, utter disgrace, been there for 200 years…
2.34” He was living in Chancellor Hall, now pulled down. Memories of two friends and their army experiences.
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21” …when we’d come back from Edinburgh…August, ’53…I worked nights at Cadburys…
1.07” Memories of working in Cadburys, surprise at lack of cleanliness.
3.00” During that time I learnt that there was a job going at the BBC…as Asst. Studio Manager of The Archers and I applied for this and was interviewed…this is where the army came into it because I was interviewed by…Pat Casey…one of the first two people who started broadcasting from Birmingham in 1922…an ex-Sgt…by this time I was a full Lft you see, so I got in…in the same way that rugby got me past the Colonel to get a commission…got me into the BBC.
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Scholarship to Birmingham Music Institute. Various performances.
3.57” …back to the BBC. I started opening and shutting doors behind Dan and Doris Archer…
4.09” Working on The Archers.
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Story about the discipline of the BBC.
56” Went for a drink with Enoch Powell.
1.35” Went for breakfast with Marjory Westbury.
2.40” Did spot effects for an Oxford play production which Prunella Scales was in.
3.06” …that was the time when television was starting…I did…the first performance of ‘A Man For All Seasons’ with Bernard Hepton playing Sir Thomas Moore…
3.42” Story about not having any music for the play, so went to Vincents Record shop.
4.33” Floor managed a play with Geoffrey Keen in it, performed live for television.
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56” Had been a Floor Manager and Studio Manager, effects and microphone work.
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1.33” …about 1958…there was an announcer's job going in Birmingham…I didn’t get it but…we don’t like certain Coventry vowel sounds that you produce, so I …eventually got rid of it to their satisfaction.
2.39” …from then on, 1958…I was full time announcing from 1958…my first job was…July, ’58…to do the opening announcement for the morning service…from Northampton…
3.48” Technical fault story.
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26” Explains briefly how he did the introduction for the Archers programme.
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18” …because I looked all right…I started doing television news… Midlands At Six, that was 1959 and I did the first one…then about two years later, it was called Midlands Today.
1.37” Other programmes, introduction of new recording device (Ampex). Midlands Today was always live because film was so expensive.
2.38” …when I look back on it, I joined when the BBC was run by broadcasters. Then it was run by journalists…and now it’s run by accountants and I’m glad I’m not with it…that’s sad.
3.03” Story about the venues the BBC used to broadcast from; schools etc.
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2.25” …that was the difference between announcers in Birmingham and announcers in London, because we were providing material for the Third Programme, the Light Programme and the Home Service, so we were used to all sorts of things.
3.10” Story about Friday Music Night voice-over practice.
3.55” Story about being made redundant and moving to Radio Birmingham.
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1.14” …in 1980…those people who were in the BBC were either retired, or moved on or …were constructively dismissed…
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…nobody was bothered about standards any more…
1.02” …I think that …one thing the BBC will be remembered for is received pronunciation which is not snobbish, which is not…upper class…nobody listening to me can tell where I come from, or my background…there has to be a benchmark…somebody learning English in China wants to know about how you pronounce a particular word…
1.59” Story about mispronouncing ‘Marlborough.’
3.16” …so I left the BBC and funnily enough, I’ve had a super life since then.
3.25” Immediately got work doing adverts for BRMB, auditioned for Aida and got in the chorus.
4.43” This was 1991…
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30” First marriage and divorce.
1.17” …in those days, we’re talking about the ‘50’s, whatever they say…most of the people…were virgins…I wasn’t because I’d been in National Service, I’d been in Germany…
2.07” Story about sharing flat in Edgbaston.
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8” …I knew who I was going to marry even before I left my first wife because Marigold was working…as a studio manager at the BBC…
56” …that was in 1963 we were married. Our first child…was born…1964…my daughter was born two years later…
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Interest in Rugby, Cricket and singing. |