21 Dec 2011

"Down Your Way" 1. Richard Knight


http://youtu.be/LzNB32uhQQc

At some time in the mid-seventies Brian Johnston brought his radio programme Down Your Way to Midhurst. The format of the show, which had been running since 1946, was an interview with a local person followed by a piece of music chosen by them, repeated six times. A set of mini Desert Island Discs for ordinary people.


This first interview was with Richard Knight who had lived all his life in Midhurst and had served as a page boy during the visit of King Edward VII in 1906.

As recounted in the book "Midhurst in Living Memory", Richard sadly died after the recording and before the programme was broadcast.


This recording of the broadcast was made on a reel-to-reel tape recorder (bought appropriately at one of G. Knight & Son's auctions) and the sound quality is quite poor due to the levels being set too high. This was luckily fixed during the first piece of music so the subsequent clips are much more audible. For this one a transcription has been made and I think it is accurate, but I still have some doubts about who or what is got in from the common (at 4:01) or exactly where the curfew is rung (4:14).

The exact date of the recording is not known but it must have been made in either 1974 or 1975.

5 comments:

  1. The broadcast date of this edition was Sunday 1st February 1976, with a repeat on Tuesday 3rd February. Of course you posted this before Genome ...

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  2. My Grandfather, RC 'Dick' Knight died in early 1976 before the programme aired, so it must have been recorded in 1975..this ties in exactly with Robin Carmody's reply.

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  3. apologies, did not notice I was 'anon', Andrew Berry

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  4. Andrew, yes you are correct. Sadly your grandfather had passed away by the time the programme was aired so he never heard his own contribution.

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