Nostalgia Interviews with Chris Deacy

In the second part of my interview with Irene Williams, Irene talks about how the family moved to Cardiff, and how to begin with they had neither a house nor any money. Her father helped them with a deposit and Irene decided to go out to work, managing to secure the first job for which she applied. We also find out about what was the hardest nine years of Irene’s life.

We learn whether their son Martyn was able to get a scholarship to study at Atlantic College. Irene recounts in detail what she heard about the interview experience and about the unexpected occasion when he brought his friends over to stay the night after missing the bus.

We hear about how Irene and Cyril ended up in Lampeter. The journey started in Canada when Cyril was asked to start up a department of Religious Studies at Aberystwyth. Irene talks about the importance of studying more than Christianity and how Cyril managed to get a colleague down from Bangor to Aberystwyth. They ate at home and with the money saved Cyril was able to buy books.

In due course Cyril was asked if he could come to Lampeter where he lived in the decades that followed. Irene did up the garden of their home so well students would call it The Embassy, and we learn that she would make the students Welsh Cawl.

Then, towards the end of the interview we hear about Irene’s work with Amnesty International and how Cyril encouraged her to travel. Irene talks about their invitation to Japan, her time in Cuba and the work of the Missions of Charity.

It was such a privilege to spend time with Irene in July 2022 to record both instalments of this interview.

My very special guest this week is Mrs. Irene Williams, a centenarian. Irene is an inspiring lady with a wealth of history and experience in terms of the development of Religious Studies at Lampeter and a considerable amount of international humanitarian work over many decades. We will hear more about these dynamics in the second part of this interview, to be broadcast in the next episode.

In this first instalment, we learn about Irene’s early years. She was born in October 1921, she talks about her father who had been in France in the First World War, and we discover that Irene is the eldest of four sisters, one of whom is still living in the same house.

We hear about Sunday School and her father’s pacifism and how he became the Baptist Church organist for 44 years. Irene met her future husband, Professor Cyril Williams, when they were both at school, and Irene talks about his brilliance.

Irene reflects upon her mother’s legacy and values – cleanliness and cooking. We hear about her and Cyril’s courtship and how Irene never got to meet Cyril’s father, and we learn about the time when her parents got to meet Cyril and how Irene’s father was keen for her to pass her driving test.

We find out about Irene’s time in London training for nursing and helping refugees and how she didn’t want to wait before she got married on 9 August 1945 – the day war ended. We also hear about Irene’s wedding dress experience and the birth of her son and Cyril’s appendix operation.

Then, at the end of this instalment, we learn about a refugee from Holland and the resulting ‘nutmeg’ experience, and why she and her family didn’t want to leave London. We also find out that their daughter, Anne, contracted polio on the train back from London.

Part 2 follows…

My guest this week is Anne Watkins, who came to Lampeter in 1985, after originally expecting to work for the Civil Service, where she studied Philosophy and Ethics in Western Thought. Anne recalls hearing the sheep bleating on the hills and knowing that Lampeter was the place for her.

We talk about long friendships especially with the overseas students and about how Philosophy helped her to think carefully. Anne also did an MA in Interfaith Relations.

Anne talks about growing up in Cardiff and her earliest memories and her traumatic transition to high school. She remembers her Catholic education and the Corpus Christi procession.

She remembers listening to the charts when growing up and discusses how her dreams have changed over the years.  We find out why Anne couldn’t join the Merchant Navy and how she always wanted to travel. Anne failed her ‘O’ levels but ended up staying and working in Higher Education and made it her mission to improve education for others.

Anne is a fanatical record keeper by way of diaries and photograph albums. She started keeping a diary in 1974 and reflects on how the photo interest in the early days, pre-digital, was expensive.

Anne talks about the teachers who inspired her, and remembers dancing around a cauldron at school and being given animals to look after. She also remembers some of the gigs she went to see when growing up.

Anne then talks about what has changed in recent years in terms of going out vs. staying at home due to lockdown. We get to hear her lockdown story which involved her having to change her routine. She returned to letter writing and encouraged others to do so. Anne talks about why she found coming out of lockdown difficult, and how she spent much of lockdown without internet.

Towards the end of the interview, Anne talks about how she would live her life again in the same way and how she tries not to dwell too much on what is negative. She considers whether she maybe has been living too much in the past, discusses why friendships are crucially important and why her home has been referred to as a shrine.

Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Anne Watkins and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

My guest this week is Jonty Stern, who works at the Sir John Soane’s Museum in London. Jonty ran the Doctor Who Society at Lampeter and we learn about his encyclopaedic knowledge of the series and the impact it has had on him over the years.

Jonty did Welsh Studies at Lampeter and focused on Celtic languages. He was the only student in the UK doing Middle Breton at the time, and we find out how he became interested in languages. His ‘A’ levels didn’t work out for him – and we learn how Lampeter beckoned.

Jonty is obsessed with diaries and history and has been keeping a diary since 1986. He even brought along his 1990-93 Lampeter diaries to our interview which took place at the O2 in Greenwich on one of the hottest days of the year in July 2022. Jonty explains how some of his entries were written up many years later and we have a discussion about who his diaries are written for, and how some of the topics on which he writes only exist in his diary – there is no other, say, internet reference to the events described.

Diaries are connected to his photos and tax returns, and during lockdown Jonty interviewed elderly relatives and friends. We find out how they were able to connect what happened, say, on VE Day with their experiences of lockdown.

We talk about the LBGT community, freedom of speech, RP accents on TV, and how diversity changes were not predicted accurately in, say, sci-fi. We also learn about Jonty’s work in market research and his love of museums.

Then, towards the end of the interview we find out about Jonty’s stint on the Channel 4 series Big Brother in 2007, what made him apply, how it was a break from his life up to that point, and how he made it through to finale night. He talks about being both an extrovert and an introvert, how he feels about Channel 4 following doing the programme and what it was like being a celebrity and then no longer being famous. We also discuss how he wasn’t allowed to take his diary with him into the Big Brother house.

Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Jonty Stern and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

My guest this week is Craig Braddick, a British born race caller from Arizona who I have interviewed previously in this podcast series. Craig is a specialist on the history of TV sport and here we focus on various sporting events in the monochrome era from 1948-1966.

We begin by discussing the way in which sport has always been on demand and has united people in a community. Craig talks about pre-Second World War women’s amateur sport which came to prominence in the 1948 London Olympics. There is very little of the 1948 Olympics in the archives and it is important for giving us the genesis of what we are used to in TV sport coverage today.

We then look at the 1953 FA Cup Final, the oldest soccer broadcast in the archives, and how it is atmospheric of a different era. This is when TV for the first time became the first choice over radio for experiencing sport.

We discuss Roger Bannister and the 4 minute mile, and how it was broadcast on a programme called Sportsview which was the first show in the UK to use an autocue.

Then we have the launch of Grandstand in 1958 and (later) its football results teleprinter. It introduced people to regional sports events. Craig talks about its presenter David Colman’s expertise and how the programme covered the Grand National for the first time in 1960 which again united people around television.

We look at the 1964 Olympics which was broadcast by satellite and the 1966 World Cup final when BBC and ITV worked together to share facilities. It was the first time slow motion was used in real time in football coverage and gave other countries the chance to develop their own coverage of football. It was also a time when football and politics came together, epitomized by Harold Wilson, and we learn why Tony Benn scuppered the chance for the BBC to screen the World Cup in colour.

At the end of the interview we find out how Craig plans to draw on all of this knowledge and expertise in the future.

Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Craig Braddick and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

My guest this week is Ben Marsh, Reader in History at the University of Kent, and very well known for the Marsh Family musical videos which inspired so many people during and since lockdown. Ben talks about how people have been craving something authentic and we learn what it was like to perform live on Comic Relief, meeting (nearly) Richard Curtis and being watched by people one has constructed one’s world around.

Ben reflects on how some people will see in the videos whatever it is that reinforces their cultural world and how the videos have endeavoured to bring people together. Music can reach people and enable us to escape tribalism. We talk about copyright issues and find out about the inspiration for some of the music.

We learn about Ben’s research on histories of failure and how he very nearly didn’t become an academic. He couldn’t study History at school, but we learn that something about colonial America clicked for him. We talk about going back to the music or films that mattered to us when young, and how we need people to validate our passions.

Ben talks about ornaments that his late grandmother hoarded and how much we tend to value an archive. We discuss keeping records relating to the pasts, and misremembering the past, and the significance of blurry pictures of a Labrador on a school trip to the Isle of Wight.

We discover how Ben got into academia and the art of retro-articulating one’s life and how he feels differently about his research post-2016. Ben also speaks about how most people are historians more than they perhaps realize.

Then, at the end of the interview, we talk about the selection of positive memories and what we do with negativity and positivity, and how we share our journey with other people. We also learn that Ben gets to look back professionally but otherwise is a looking forward person.

Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Ben Marsh and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

My guest this week is Rianna Patterson, an accredited coach, social entrepreneur, TEDx speaker, mental health advocate and founder of the Dominica Dementia Foundation.

She has also done film work for an NHS client on the importance of music for people with dementia, and in the interview Rianna talks about the importance of celebrating older people.

We find out why Rianna became involved in this research and the stigma around it, and she discusses how we have come a long way in terms of how we deal with grief.

Born in Hackey and raised in Dominica, Rianna came to the University of Kent to study Psychology and graduated in 2020. She talks about how she has retraced the timeline and story of her grandparents. We talk about how there is so much more to a person than, say, their job, and why it is important to have human conversations.

Rianna’s earliest memories include going to the beach with her grandparents, and we learn that from a young age Rianna perfected the art of video editing. She talks about how her music tastes have changed and the live acts she has seen, and we find out about the time she played football with GoldLink. She also reveals that she would love to meet her namesake Rihanna.

We learn what prompted Rianna to study Psychology and why coming to Kent was such a shock because of the traditions she was leaving behind. She was involved in the Caribbean Union, and we find out about the lecturers who inspired Rianna and why the Kent Pole Fitness Society was especially important.

We also learn about the values that Rianna is keen to uphold and about the log she keeps of what she does and her goals, as well as why her 15 year old self would be floored if she saw what Rianna is doing now, and why if Rianna looks back it is in order to look forward.

Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Rianna Patterson and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

It was a great pleasure to meet José Moreno Carbonell for my latest Nostalgia Interview. Our paths may have once crossed in Lampeter where we were both students in the 1990s. José lives in France but comes from Spain and works as a high school Spanish teacher.

José has just had a novel published called A la sombra de la glicinia - https://www.amazon.es/sombra-glicinia-Antonio-Moreno-Carbonell/dp/B09W7FLQ49 - which is a recreation of oral tradition from his home village mixed with classical mythology and 20th century Spanish history. It was written during lockdown and José talks about how it came about and the way in which writing was a survival strategy.

We learn about José’s earliest memories from growing up in Spain and how he comes from a family of school teachers. He always wanted to be a writer and we find out how José couldn’t have been a writer if he hadn’t become a teacher.

We learn about José’s TV influences when growing up in Spain in the days when there was just one channel, and we talk about the music our children listen to and how José started liking his father’s classical music when a teenager. We also discuss the musical accomplishments that our children inherit.

We find out about the teachers who made an impression as well as about José’s time in Lampeter and the benefits from living there compared to a city life. We also discover why he would never keep a diary of his own. José then tells me a story from the time he was 12 years of age involving a Nobel Prize for Literature winner, The Three Musketeers and false memories.

At the end of the interview we talk about what he wanted to be as a teenager, the advantage sometimes in not being paid for the things we love doing, why José is a looking forward person and why ‘this year’s Christmas will be next year’s nostalgia’.

Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and José Moreno Carbonell and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

Marion Stuart turns the tables on me for this week’s Nostalgia Interview. I talk about my earliest memories which involve having my hair washed as a baby and listening to Pinky and Perky at nursery (obsessively) and how my children don’t have the same musical tastes as me.

I talk about what I was interested in outside of music, and my obsession with TV or radio schedules. This helped me at university in terms of having a copious record of all my lecture notes and being organized with essay writing. Looking back I wonder if I would be labelled today as having OCD.

We talk about what experiences have moulded me the most, as well as my relationship with my parents and the notion of protectiveness.

Marion asks me why movies are such a significant part of my life and how I came to film relatively late on, and we talk about what it is like to see a film many years after the first viewing - and the way in which my diary gives me a record of that film.

She asks about my theology and about my interest in Near Death Experiences and their relationships to the movies I watch, and to how indebted I was to the likes of Paul Badham and Chris Arthur at university. She asks about my religious background. I talk about the limited religion I received from my Church school and how in later years I channelled religious interests through academic study. I explain why I didn’t go to chapel at university.

We move on to talk about relationships and whether I am in a better place now than I was in the past, and how we can get caught up in relationships that are not genuine (leading to a discussion about gaslighting). I talk about a particularly debilitating relationship experience and how this became a creative writing project for me. I turned my personal life into an analogous project to my PhD, trying to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Marion asks me how I have moved on and whether I will make the same mistakes again, and I talk about the importance of the integrity of character in answer to Marion’s question of who I am. I conclude by referring to the importance of always being the student, and always being in a state of change, of growth, of transformation.

Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Marion Stuart and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

My guest this week is legendary broadcaster David Hamilton. David’s career goes back to 1959 when he joined the British Forces Network radio station in Germany and was there at the same time as Elvis Presley.

He was the last person to present Housewives’ Choice and did one of the first TV interviews with The Beatles. David talks about his stint on Radio 1 and how the station evolved from the pirate days, and discusses in particular the camaraderie with the Radio 1 football team.

We talk about the latest RAJAR radio industry data figures and how Boom Radio, where David currently works, is rising and how it taps into the gap created by national radio stations. David talks about how lockdown has changed our working patterns, and why he likes being in his cocoon in Sussex.

David reflects on his time presenting Top of the Pops in an age when whole families would congregate around the TV, and he talks about how change is happening more quickly now than has been the case in previous decades.

Radio was David’s first love and he speaks about it as being his window to the world. Pete Murray was his broadcasting hero, and we find out how he managed to talk Pete out of retirement last Christmas. 

David talks about how he got rid of the rough edges of his South London accent in order to get on radio and about the time he was offered the chance to present Wish You Were Here with Judith Chalmers but prioritized his radio commitments.

David also talks about how he started out as a journalist, how he has sung on cruise ships and how, thanks to Ken Dodd, he came to be known as ‘Diddy’ David Hamilton.

We finish by talking about his friend (and my own radio hero) Ed Stewart who died while David was doing his rock n roll tour in 2016.

Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and David Hamilton and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.