I often receive questions about Paddy’s appearance on the South Bank Show in 1989. There is a lot of material freely available these days, but this one remains elusive.
Today I put the question or challenge out to you all: how can we find a copy of this show so that we can all enjoy it (and legally!)?
It is Season 12, Episode 14, aired on the UK’s ITV network in 1989, and Melvyn Bragg was the host.
All suggestions very welcome.
Patrick Leigh Fermor 
Hi – a bit late with this. Have been recovering in hospital recently (home now) and was using the time to play back some old but very precious recordings over 30 years. Have always been a big fan of PLF and visit his grave at Dumbleton every 5 years or so when out that way. I have the full recording of PLF on the South Bank 1989 – must have transferred it from VHS to M4V many years ago – not a bad copy, a few fuzzy horizontal lines appear in one or two places only. Happy to help sending a copy to some central source? if needed. It maybe you all now have copies since this post started in 2013.
thanks
Sean
Hi Sean. I hope all is well after your hospital stay. Great news that you have a copy. One way might be to try a WeTransfer account but the file size for the free account is 2GB. How large is the file? https://wetransfer.com/?utm_source=pro_bywetransfer . Another methods could be to upload to a Google Drive and share the file by email to selected recipients. Happy to assist if you have challenges with this.
There is talk of Sky, who now broadcast the South Bank Show, re-showing old episodes of SBS according to its Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_South_Bank_Show). I don’t have Sky myself but it might be worth others keeping a look out, as you never know, Sky might show it to coincide with the publication of the Broken Road. One can hope!
I have a VHS video taken from the broadcast of Melvyn Bragg’s South Bank Show. Given its age, I think that it is quite good quality and it is complete. I mentioned this at Artemis Cooper’s Oxford talk, and talked to Tim Todd afterwards. Please do get in touch. Tim Todd has my phone number. Best wishes David Barker
Thank you David. I will follow this up with Tim.
Tom,
I have a DVD with it on, from a VHS tape that was Paddy’s own copy as I recall and to me via a mutual friend whose identity you will be able to guess. It has lost some quality in the copying but is a lot better than nothing! I am not sure if it complete but I’ll check and try and get a copy to you. I will leave you to explore the legalities!
Well I could not possibly comment but I guess personal use is OK. It would be nice to get this in the open. It may be possible that it finds its way onto You Tube one day.
Hi Tim. Just picked up this link. I’m trying to get a copy of the South Bank Patrick Leigh Fermor interview (for my own personal use) – would you be able to do a copy for me ? I live in Oxford and will pay for postage and/or copy as required.
Many Thanks in advance,
Mike Kyle
01865 736292
Mike,
I’ll ring you in the next few days.
Hi Tim. Thanks for the response. I will be away from home from Frid 29th to Grid 12Sept but either side of these dates I’d love to chat by phone. Regards, Mike
Hi Tim. Thanks for the response. I will be away from home from Frid 29th to Frid 12Sept but either side of these dates I’d love to chat by phone. Regards, Mike
Hello
I too live in Oxford and would adore to see a copy of this, in case I may borrow it for a viewing?
Many thanks! 07971 226989
Nicola
Hi Tom,
I think I’ve mentioned before that I used to have this on VHS and can’t think that I would have thrown it away. We should be moving house later in the year so I will keep an eye out when I go through the ‘archives’ (piles of junk in the attic).