From the Archive Ep. 13: The Box of Delights with Renny Rye

For many of us, our festive viewing includes the groundbreaking 1984 BBC television adaptation of The Box Of Delights. This has enthralled viewers for 35 years. We have decided that we needed to celebrate this milestone by having a conversation with the director of this incredible serial, Renny Rye. Take a listen as we talk with Renny about his career and how he got connected with The Box of Delights. It’s a fun conversation that spans not only that series but some of his other work too.

We are also happy to finally bring everyone the second part of our interview with Richard Marson. If you recall way back to Episode 10, we talked with Richard about the his documentary, Tales of Television Centre but this time we talk about what it actually was like to work within BBC Television Centre and how fun and how difficult it could be working there. This is a great conversation with some really smart analysis on how the BBC works.

Sprinkled into the episode is some clips from the missing 1971 Boxing Day edition of The Golden Shot. Clips include Bob Monkhouse, Alfie Bass, Stephen Lewis, and a performance from Mary Hopkin.  These are some wonderful archive clips that haven’t been heard in nearly 50 years!

If you have feedback or questions you would like to have read on the podcast or general inquiries, please contact us at feedback@fromthearchive.co.uk. We would love to hear from you! This podcast is a co-production between From the Archive: A British Television Blog and Kaleidoscope. Thank you for listening.