BBC Schools Music Time/ Ben Clarke

Hi all, i'm wondering if anyone can help.

I know this is a bit beyond the subject matter of the site, but i'm searching for some specific episodes from the old BBC SCHOOLS programme Music Time from 1984.

I had tried to get hold of Ben Clarke (of Broadcasts for schools and colleges.co.uk) but have had no luck. His website hasn't been updated since 2014.

Just wondered if anybody out there has/ knows of where i can find any Music Time episodes from 1980's.

Or if you know of Ben Clarke's contact details i would be very grateful. Many thanks,

Daniel H.

email: circuserrands@gmail.com

It's a very specfic request, if you or a relative were featured then you may be able to approach the BBC directly.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/informationandarchives/access_archives
http://www.bbc.co.uk/faqs/contributor_access_process

Or if you have further info about the epsidoes in question perhaps contact the BFI archives and see if they hold a copy. Best of luck.

Thanks Bail, unfortunately i wasn't featured. And both BBC and bfi are very strict about not sending copies of anything directly to the general public. Funnily enough back in 1997 - before i had the internet at home, i wrote to the BBC asking for footage of old BBC1/2 idents which they refused! A couple of years later i found them all online...so here's hoping.

Cheers.

Dan.

I'm presuming you're asking because if you weren't featured, then maybe your organisation or school or something like that was featured? If that's the case they may have to apply. Whether a school would do this for something going back over 30 years ago I doubt it, and its more likely they just recorded it at the time of broadcast. An organisation may be more willing if its been around a long while but not guaranteed and again they may have just recorded off-air.

However if you're asking because you're just generally interested in the episodes, your best chance is, as you say, to hope somebody uploads them to YouTube and then further hope you find them before the bots do.

Cheers Neil.

The reason i want to see them again is we used to watch them at my playgroup/ infant school when i was aged 3-5 (I'm now 34). Many of the songs got stuck in my head and i haven't heard the actual recordings of them for 30 odd years. Unfortunately i wasn't old enough to tape any myself at the time. If anybody manages to find an alternative email for Ben Clarke, i think he would be my best bet for now.

Thanks again.

Ben Clarke is on Facebook. His public profile mentions his workplaces and university (all in Birmingham) and also the BFS website. Shouldn’t be too hard to find.

Thanks so much Si-Co

You’re welcome. Good luck!