Nostalgia Interviews with Chris Deacy

It was terrific for this week’s Nostalgia Interview to meet Lyle Young. Lyle is a research and innovation coordinator for the University of Kent and was formerly a student at Kent where he studied English for his degree. Originally from Hertfordshire, Lyle talks about Canterbury being his adopted home and we learn about his love of literature and of being a novelist.

We learn how he came to work in event organization and comms and about two novels he has written. Lyle wrote for 30 minutes a day on his most recent book which he explains is a work of sci-fi that’s similar to the world of Ready Player One about someone who wants to be a video game streamer. He enjoys writing about young people.

Lyle talks about how his girlfriend has been really good at helping him and he discusses one’s motivations for doing things and whether we ultimately do them for ourselves.

We learn about Lyle’s influences which include Philip K. Dick and Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days and how they’re not about the future but about now. We talk about how we can adapt with the aid of technology and how this applied during lockdown.

Lyle has been playing the guitar since he was 10, and he remembers his dad playing ELO in the car. Lyle reflects on how music can be so tribal especially between indie and metal and how for his generation it will be more common to listen to music on the internet rather than the radio. We find out, too, about the music that Lyle himself puts out.

At the end of the interview, Lyle talks about how his memories are positive and we discuss the nature of the banal as well as why neither looking back nor forward have done him much good.

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

It was a huge privilege for this week’s Nostalgia Interview to meet Nigel Nelson, the longest serving political editor in Fleet Street. Nigel works for the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People. We recorded our interview on the afternoon that the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer received fines from the Metropolitan Police for attending a party in Downing Street during lockdown. Nigel gives us his take on whether they should have resigned and how the removal of the Prime Minister affects the country’s command structure.

Nigel has worked with seven Prime Ministers, and he explains that he still has a frisson of excitement every time he walks into the House of Commons. He talks about how history can teach you lessons but that it can’t tell you what will happen next. We discuss how the nature of news and politics has changed over the years and how it is now a 24/7 operation.

Nigel talks about the things he sometimes can’t publish and why he is irritated by political biographies, and how facts don’t always tell the full story.

From his teenage years Nigel has had an interest in politics and a talent for writing and he reveals how he has done things which he could only have dreamed about when he was young, including writing a political novel.

I ask Nigel if he ever thought about being on the other side of the fence and he recounts the time he did toy with that idea at the time of the SDP in the 1980s. We learn why he would rather be on the sidelines than becoming one of the players.

We find out about the events that Nigel has influenced through his work on The People, and we talk about why he admires Ken Clarke and Nigel Farage from the other side of the political spectrum and the importance for a political journalist of not becoming too friendly with politicians. Nigel shares his thoughts on how Prime Minister’s Questions is really theatre and we learn that politicians often don’t get along with politicians on their own side.

We learn that Nigel’s favourite film is Zulu and we discover why Muhammad Ali is such a pivotal figure and why Nigel has an interest in Gregorian chants. Nigel expresses his thoughts on organized religion, and we discuss whether politics and religion are similar.

His mother was a spy and Nigel reveals his own experience of when the intelligence agencies tried to recruit him, too. Nigel explains that he would rather reveal than keep secrets. We also learn why he turned his back on university.

Being a journalist, Nigel has a ringside view on history and he talks about his experience of being under fire at the time of war, how he and his wife have diametrically opposite political positions, and we learn why Nigel favours coalition as the best form of government.

Then, at the end of the interview, Nigel reflects on his life and career and explains why he is a forward looking person.

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

My guest this week is Heide Kunzelmann, German Culture & Language Coach for International Knowledge Workers - largely qualified migrants and expats - based in Vienna. Heide left the University of Kent in 2020 and she discusses transferable skills and how to use them to make a living.

Heide talks about her Austrian background and how she left home to study at the age of 18. She talks about memories that stretch back to moving at the age of four, including a home with no electricity, and she remembers the quiet and having lots to do as an only child.

Heide reveals the importance of her Walkman when she was young and how she would take long walks and listen to Rick Astley. We talk about the notion of instant gratification and of retro and the role of nostalgia as well as how film can be a portal into our pasts that opens up an emotional landscape.

Heide talks about the relationship between the uncanny and nostalgia, and we learn why Top Gun was the coolest film ever when she was growing up, but that she doesn’t necessarily feel the same way now. Things that matter to us now we are bound to think differently about when we are our parents’ age.

Heide studied English and German at university, but wanted to be a musician, and we learn why she didn’t follow that dream.

We learn about her present job for which she draws on texts and helping people understand her culture better, and working with people coming to Austria in search of jobs. She has the freedom to create programmes and concerts in her self-employed capacity.

Heide is doing many of the same things her mother did and she talks about the influence of her parents in her life.

Then, at the end of the interview, Heide talks about why nostalgia can be like a drug and why we glorify the past. She discloses that her younger self wanted to work on an English university campus, and we find out about the novelette she wrote when she was 16.

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

My guest this week is Dan Clark, e-Learning Manager at the University of Kent who begins the interview by talking about the power that technology has in learning and teaching. We talk about our experiences during lockdown of rapid change and how technology can make things happen.

Dan discusses how and when he is able to stay away from technology because it is a massive part of his day job. We talk about the days before the internet when we would find things via a paper trail and the important role of physical products.

Dan is from Cheshire and he talks about his Lake District connection and why it is such a magical place for him. Cornwall was his ‘go to’ place as a child where there was a different pace of life, and this leads to us discussing the notion of counterpoint.

We learn why music is important to Dan. He talks about his earliest musical memories relating to travelling to Oban, Scotland, in 1987, including ‘Brothers in Arms’ by Dire Straits. He was given an electric guitar on his 15th birthday and has since played his own music. Dan formed a band at the end of secondary school and grew up at a time when the Manchester music scene was huge.

We talk about school reunions and the rose tinted view of past experiences and how our perceptions of the past are shaped by our experiences.

We learn how Dan entered his current profession as a learning technologist. He studied Media and Cultural Studies for his degree at Manchester, is presently doing a PhD and is fascinated to find those threads in his journey from having done ‘A’ level Sociology.

Dan reveals that he has never had a fixed career plan and we speak about the difference between personal, academic and career goals. He talks about the tutors at Manchester who inspired him in terms of how the past is represented. Dan talks about his running predilections, too, which started in later years and how it is good from a wellbeing sense.

Dan talks about always having had a nostalgic disposition and how he looks back to think about how he got to where he is now. He talks about health anxieties and how they can be turned to a positive outcome, and how the past makes us who we are.

Towards the end of the interview, Dan brings up his interest in abandoned buildings which he photographs, including a TB sanatorium in Cheshire. It led him to appear on Ghost Hunting with Girls Aloud in 2005 – and we learn what the band thought about Dan’s obsession.

Finally, Dan discusses what his older self would tell his younger self and he tells us about his recurring dream. At the end, Dan reveals why he looks back more than he looks forward.

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

My guest this week is Iain Dale, radio presenter, commentator, blogger, publisher, author and former Parliamentary candidate. Iain talks about why he turns down many TV invitations these days, why he hates the ‘gotcha’ style of interviewing and why the long form interview is back in vogue. He also reveals how he has gotten people to open up to him in a way that they haven’t to other interviewers.

Iain reflects on how it used to be a challenge for him to interview people he knew well, e.g. David Davis, but that that isn’t the case now. He says he can get more out of someone through the soft form, non-confrontational interview, and he likens David Frost’s interview style to that of Lt. Columbo.

Iain reflects on his recent LBC interview with former House of Commons Speaker John Bercow and the interview he conducted with David Amess, six months before he was murdered. We talk about the difference between a radio and a podcast interview and find out which former Prime Minister Iain is waiting to interview and why he wishes he had had the chance to interview Douglas Hurd.

At University, Iain studied German, Linguistics and Teaching English as a Foreign Language, and Iain discusses how he got into the media, and how he has a lot of freedom in the type of radio he does. On LBC he gets to give his opinions, but Iain explains why he isn’t a ‘shock jock’.

Iain discloses why he doesn’t like wishy washy centrist elections, why the Falklands War was the big ‘sliding doors’ moment of his life and how setting up a Conservative Association at UEA was a defining moment for him.

Iain talks about ‘shy Tory syndrome’ at British universities, why Labour has lost the last four elections and why he has been called ‘the thinking man’s Brexiteer’. Iain also reveals how his time at LBC has knocked off the harder edges of his views on social issues, and Iain reflects on what would have happened if he had been elected as an MP.

We find out how he came to do a podcast with Jacqui Smith who he thought was shabbily treated in her time as Home Secretary, and why on Twitter people still see Iain as a die hard Tory. Iain has, though, voted for other parties, and has recently called for the nationalization of P&O.

At the end of the interview Iain discusses Brexit derangement syndrome (on both sides), and we learn that Iain is a naturally nostalgic person. He also explains what the test is of a good friendship.

My guest this week is a playwright Lance Woodman, who has written for Radio 4 and is a theatre tour guide for the Royal Shakespeare Company. 

Lance was born in Hereford but moved quite a bit while young and now lives in Stratford-upon-Avon. He has undertaken research into his family tree (Lance’s great uncle was my maternal grandfather), including most recently the 1921 census. He talks about how this has been a source of stories for his playwriting, and we learn about the rabbit holes he has found himself going down.

Lance talks about how it’s a working class history that is not widely covered, involving no dukes, kings or earls. He found an example of a family member, for example, who was deported due to Poor Law legislation. He reflects on how in such a scenario existence is tenuous and that very few people broke out of the cycle until more recent times.

We discuss whether and how Lance uses the raw materials of such research as data for writing plays, and we discover that he uses ghosts as a dramatic device for bringing the past into the present.

In terms of his earliest memories, Lance reflects on how there were not many constants. He became an enthusiastic cyclist, and Lance talks about how he messed up school and didn’t go to university until he was in his late 30s.

For his 21st birthday Lance went to see Ian Dury and the Blockheads in concert, and he talks about being a cataloguer of cycling records and medical information.

We discuss how names are often changed for census purposes and about the advantages of going to university in one’s 30s. Lance had been an IT professional for many years and we find out how he ended up doing a degree in Drama and then a Masters in Playwriting Studies at Birmingham. He reflects on how going to university was like coming to life. He has also lectured in universities.

He discusses his hobbyist interest in theatre and how as a playwright he tends to watch audiences as much as he does the shows. Lance also talks about the different forms that theatre has taken due to lockdown, e.g. various online manifestations.

Then, towards the end of the interview, we talk about how memories are not fixed and the way in which the past impacts on the present. We learn that Lance has fulfilled many of his dreams and he reflects on how his life is coloured by his past.

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

My guest this week is Vera da Silva Sinha who works as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of York, looking at time, number and space in indigenous minority language communities of Brazil. We begin by talking about Vera’s experience of lockdown and of Christmases spent growing up in Brazil. Vera is from a small village in the south of Brazil where her father was a lorry driver.

Vera was 29 when she left Brazil, where she was a police officer, and was doing a PhD at the time that she met her husband. She ended up moving to Europe and Vera talks about the stereotypes involved when comparing different countries.

Vera talks about how she didn’t have much money when growing up but that this was offset by the chance to meet many people in different places. She talks about how she became an anthropologist and how she came across two Bibles in different languages which had a big effect on her. She isn’t someone who tends to remember dates but she does remember the images of those moments from her past.

Vera talks about classical music and how she used to listen to the BBC World Service on Short Wave, and she reveals why she needs to have music on in the background when trying to sleep.

She talks about working with vulnerable and abused people both as a policewoman in Brazil and, today, as an academic where she does work with different communities and deals with exactly the same areas.

Vera discusses something very tragic that happened in her family for which the pain never goes away and how she kept her family together and tried to be the best researcher as a result.

She is so proud of her parents for what they taught her, and Vera reflects on how the chances of her going to university from her background was very small.

We talk about the things that motivate us and about social class and how Vera was the object of prejudice because of her accent while she was at school. She talks about an episode which turned her into a writer and about the responsibility of a teacher to empower, rather than crush, people.

Then, towards the end of the interview, Vera discloses what her younger self imagined she would end up doing with her life and about how if you do something you like to do then the outcome will be fine. She has a life story which can resonate with many people and Vera talks about how lucky she feels to have had the life she has led.

Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Vera da Silva Sinha and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

It was a great pleasure to meet award-winning journalist Jo Phillips for my latest Nostalgia Interview. Jo is a political commentator and has worked as a political editor and broadcaster and was press secretary and policy adviser to Paddy Ashdown and has stood for Parliament. She also worked for Bob Geldof for 10 years. Jo is a sailor and gardener and she explains why she sees herself primarily as a journalist.

Jo talks about the importance of being curious, and we learn that radio has been her first love. She explains why it sparks the imagination. We also learn about her political interests and leanings, and why politics is not just about Westminster. She has written a book called Why Vote? A guide for those who can’t be bothered – which details the work she has done to get people who wouldn’t normally vote to do so – and talks about why local engagement matters.

Jo then reveals how she got to work with Paddy Ashdown and she talks about the importance of his diaries. This was a time when Labour and the Lib Dems discussed working together, and Jo discusses why he was so good to work for and with during his time as Lib Dem leader and when he was High Representative for Bosnia. We talk about the Lib Dems punching above their weight in the 1990s. She talks about the preparation that Paddy Ashdown made for PMQs and the anguish they went through (she was his spinner) before going into the bear pit.

Jo recalls Paddy’s reaction when Tony Blair gave his first speech as Labour leader – ‘he’s bloody good, isn’t he?’ She talks about the price the Lib Dems paid in later years for the coalition with the Conservatives and she discusses why one can’t talk about right and left any more and why Britain’s influence in the world has diminished due to Brexit.

Jo is a farmer’s daughter and we find out where she got her interest in politics from. We move on to talk about the televising of Parliament and why she thinks the select committee system is so important.

Jo talks about how Boris Johnson’s motive for going into Parliament is different from that of most MPs, and we learn that Paddy Ashdown and Sir John Major became friends in later years. I ask her what happened behind the scenes between the party leaders, and she talks about how politicians were more human in those days. We talk about those unlikely friendships.

Jo studied English and Philosophy at the University of Kent and designed the artwork for the Freshers Handbook in 1973/4. She talks about the bands that came to campus in those days, including Captain Beefheart (there’s an hilarious story involving a bottle of Drambuie), Led Zeppelin and 10CC.

We find out how she ended up in journalism, and we discover that she was Michael Parkinson’s editor on LBC – or ‘Narky Parky’ as she called him. She talks about the guests who would come on the programme, including Anthony Burgess and Gore Vidal, and we learn why she calls Michael Parkinson the supreme interviewer.

Towards the end of the interview Jo talks about the challenge of being a commentator and we find out about the 11.31 Club. She discusses the importance of using one’s brain and why she always says yes when an opportunity arises.

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

My guest this week is Craig Braddick, a horse racing commentator based in the US where he has been living since 2001. Originally from Cambridge, England, Craig works mainly at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Arizona, where the new film Jockey (Clint Bentley, 2021) was filmed.

We find out why Craig made the journey and about how he has worked in around 18 different states largely doing media work. Race calling is a specialized field and we hear about his passion for that. His father was a professional pundit and Craig has been around horseracing since a young age. He talks about how he overcame a speech impediment by emulating TV commentators as a boy.

We learn that Peter O’Sullevan and other commentators were very encouraging, and we reflect on the skills that previous generations of broadcasters had. As a commentator the job is to tell a story, like a novel – there are protagonists and antagonists – and Craig explains that although you can see more through binoculars than you can on a TV screen you have to know what the viewers are seeing to do the job properly.

We discover that the nightmare scenario in Craig’s profession is when you can’t see the jockey silks. He talks about why it is hard to judge yourself as a commentator, why he listens back to every race he calls and why it is normal to cringe when you hear the sound of your own voice. Craig explains that he has a book containing 1200 phrases which he can use in a race call, and he discusses the importance of not being complacent and the need to do better.

We talk about his archive television interest, which he traces back to watching Dr. Who at the age of 5. He’d be watching TV from a technical viewpoint, concerning where the cameras were positioned, at the age of 6 or 7, and has developed a voracious interest in TV history.

He talks about the TV commentators he got to know, and he talks about the regret he feels regarding people with whom his paths didn’t cross, e.g. David Coleman. He refers to the history of sport on TV and the allure of monochrome TV.             

Craig discusses the challenges of getting to this point in his life and recovering from a health challenge and about how he thinks more of the struggles than the successes. Success is fleeting but the work he puts in lasts forever. 

Then, at the end of the interview, Craig talks about the TV shows that most influenced him and we find out why he doesn’t still have an archive of some of the reviews he wrote back in his school days. He looks forward from a professional viewpoint but in his heart Craig is a looking back person.

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 Malcolm Dixon, Head of Quality Assurance at the University of Kent who has just published his first novel, The Little House on Everywhere Street. We learn writing fiction is more indicative of who Malcolm is than his day job, and he tells me why good writing is an exercise in misdirection.

Malcolm has written short stories in the past, and his novel is about a house with doors that lead on to different cities. It’s all about what makes a happy family, in which the family members have misadventures and go missing in time.

He grew up in Liverpool in a different time when it was a deprived city, and Malcolm reveals that he has a prodigious memory and can remember the great Winter of 1963 and going to see the Beatles in 1965, as well as being able to remember learning to walk. He would listen to the charts on a Tuesday lunchtime and to football matches on the radio.

Malcolm did his first degree in Sunderland and went to graduate school at the University of Minnesota on a sports scholarship. We learn that football is the lingua franca of his family. He also tells me his Ed Stewart story. Stewpot was a genuine football (Everton) fan and even corrected Malcolm on a football fact.

His parents were born in the early 1920s and his father kept a seaman’s log. We hear about his being attacked by enemy fire and about his grandmothers who were widowed early.

We learn about how Malcolm ended up doing his present role and how it isn’t who he is and we learn what his wife thinks his superpower is (letting people underestimate him). I ask Malcolm if he watches other people watching him.

With his new book he knew ‘this was it’, and he talks about how people believed in the project. He has other books in the pipeline – and indeed he has written a trilogy.

Then, at the end of the interview, we find out that Malcolm’s memories are mainly positive and that there isn’t much that he is nostalgic about, other than his children’s childhood, and he says why children are like Woody and Buzz from Toy Story.

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