This is just lovely. I tweeted about this piece of news yesterday afternoon after hearing it briefly mentioned on the BBC News Channel. A long lost interview with Carry On legend Sidney James has been discovered in a loft after 42 years.
The interview with Sid was recorded during the star's UK theatre tour of The Mating Season in 1976 and experts have confirmed this is the last-known recording of our wonderful Sid before he passed away. The clip below shows a brief snippet of interview with both the man who kept the tape all these years and some precious brief moments of the man himself. The Sid recorded in 1976 sounds gentle, charming and relaxed, discussing his love of fishing, keeping fit and his love of making so many Carry On films!
Rather sweetly, the tape has been played to both Sid's daughters for the very first time. It's a delightful, very emotional story of one of our very favourite comedy stars. I understand the full report will be broadcast on BBC South Today this evening. And if you don't have access to that programme live, I'm sure it will be available on the BBC iPlayer.
You can watch a segment of the report and hear some of the lost interview here
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The BBC iPlayer service has some great little treats from the bulging BBC archive. I've shared some of these before - they have Kenneth Williams' episode of Comic Roots from 1983 and Hattie Jacques' appearance on This Is Your Life from two decades earlier- but today I'm featuring something a little more recent.
In 1998, Barbara Windsor was probably at the height of her fame, reignited by her starring role as Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders. So the Beeb produced this special "Best of British" tribute to the evergreen star. Featuring an interview with Barbara herself and loads of classic clips, this documentary special treads familiar ground but it's always worth a watch.
Barbara's story is a familiar one, from her days in the clubs of Soho doing cabaret to her big break in West End musical theatre, the programme also looks back at Barbara's lasting fame in the classic Carry On films. It also touches on some of the more infamous aspects of her tumultuous private life.
You'll probably not learn anything new here but it's an entertaining romp. You can watch it here: Best of British - Barbara Windsor
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Another little treat has surfaced on the fantabulosa BBC iPlayer. I am always missing gems like this when they are first broadcast and that's why I love the iPlayer so much. For the next month or so you can catch this wonderful show, "Talking Comedy" featuring the late, great Kenneth Williams.
Basically a clip show featuring loads of brilliant Kenneth Williams anecdotes from the archives, Talking Comedy focuses on the legion of appearances Kenneth made on BBC talk shows during his career. With the end of the Carry Ons in the late 1970s and Kenneth's decision to move away from stage work, Williams increasingly relied on BBC radio as a source of employment. He added to this with frequent turns on chat shows, becoming much more of a personality than a serious actor.
Kenneth's diaries display a bubbling hatred of these performances as he felt he was eating away at himself and either telling the same old tales or becoming more and more outrageous in search of a laugh. I hate to think of him feeling so low but I also can't help but relish these appearances as he was a gift to the talk show and the master of the anecdote. He was quite simply never "off".
During the 1970s and 80s he was a regular guest on the Parkinson show and also appeared regularly with the likes of Terry Wogan, Gloria Hunniford, Russell Harty and Michael Aspel. He even temporarily became the host of Wogan himself when Terry took a break in the mid-1980s. Those shows are described in more detail in the diaries and it makes for fascinating reading.
Anyway, do check out Talking Comedy on the iPlayer. You can watch it here
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