³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Archive takes a trip to the moon
This week sees the start of a month of activities commemorating the first moon landings. You might have already caught James May on the Moon and there are more programmes lined up over the next few weeks. Tying in with this, I've just finished curating a collection of programmes for the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Archive site about how our relationship with the moon has developed in the last 50 years. 
Growing up in the 1970s and '80s, space was part of my childhood. I never knew a time when astronauts hadn't been on the moon. We had Doctor Who, and The Clangers and everyone knew the sound of a spaceman speaking to their guy in mission control. ('Beep!'). I'm a few years younger than the Apollo moon missions; by the time I was old enough to know what was going on, they'd already come to an end. It's something James May addresses in James May on the Moon, and it's one that nags away at all of the surviving astronauts too - when are we going back there?
I first spoke to Paul King, the producer / director of James May on the Moon, back in April when I was beginning to compile a list of older archive gems for our Moon Landings collection. Paul had suggested some of the programmes we were looking at, and happened to mention that he'd recorded interviews with three of the Apollo astronauts, but that as he'd had to cut most of the material out of his final programme, he might be able to give us his off-cuts. 'Did you speak to Neil Armstrong?' I asked. 'No, but we got Charlie Duke,' said Paul. I wasn't really sure which one Charlie was to be honest, but that was before I spent a week wading through the footage and getting to know him, and Alan Bean and 'second-to-last-man-on-the-moon' Harrison 'Jack' Schmitt. I'm now a bit of a fan.
The three astronauts each have a different approach to their experiences, and each of them had a compelling story to tell.
Alan Bean was already an amateur painter when he went to the moon, and has dedicated the rest of his life to documenting his experiences in paint. He's passionate about his art - both in the way he compiles his pieces through the addition of bits of moon dust and scraps of spacesuit as well as his unique boast that he's the only artist in human history to go to the moon.
Harrison Schmitt, as one of the final two Apollo astronauts, feels he's something of a custodian. Through his calm, considered, statesmanlike persona, you can sense an impatience in him to see the next generation of lunar astronauts, in which he hopes NASA will continue to play an integral role.
And then there's Charlie Duke, who, despite being in his seventies now, still has a youthful enthusiasm. It's lovely to see him illustrate his lunar journey with a model lunar module, unconsciously mirroring the actions of generations of children back on Earth who played with toy replicas and dreamed of being astronauts themselves.
I never got to be an astronaut, but I never lost my admiration for the real ones. In this collection, I wanted to represent some of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ people who I found so fascinating as a child. There's of course. We've been able to include a few editions of The Sky at Night, including one from 1960 where Patrick announces, with almost palpable disappointment, that there's no life on that rock up there. Patrick joins another TV hero, James Burke, for the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's coverage of the Apollo 11 mission, represented here thanks to a compilation of various surviving assets edited together by my colleague Paul Vanezis. Now, thanks to the three interviews from James May on the Moon, we managed to combine the old and the new, bringing the collection completely up to date.
The archive continues to help us make historical events immediate and relevant, and occasionally it gives us the chance to consort with people we've personally regarded as broadcasting heroes. Three days after the Moon Landings collection was released, we received a call from Reg Turnill. He worked for the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ for nearly 50 years as correspondent on all things space. Anyone who grew up watching or would recognise him from his various reports over the years. He had a skill in making the incomprehensible instantly accessible. I'd wager it's his voice we hear in our minds every time we hear the word . Reg had stumbled across our collection thanks to three news reports of his that we'd included, and wanted to offer a small correction as I'd misspelled the name of the astronaut Don Lind. Don's name didn't appear in the original paperwork for the item, nor in our programme database, so thanks to Reg, I was able to amend that programme page and our database. He's 94 years old, he's still contributing to the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ archive.
Comment number 1.
At 24th Jun 2009, Frankie Roberto wrote:Wow, this is great. I'm loving the Panorama programme. How did they get the footage at the beginning though (of the lunar lander taking off from the moon). That must be a model, surely?
I love the way he picks up the phone at the beginning too. :-)
A great collection. Pity the videos aren't externally-editable (or re-mixable).
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)
Comment number 2.
At 24th Jun 2009, DaveC wrote:Big fan of space exploration in general and the achievements of Apollo in particular (even though I can't remember sitting on my Mother's knee to watch the Apollo 11 landing as I was only 7 months old).
My problem is ... there is so much on the archive site to look at, how the heck am I going to get the time?
Thank you ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ!
:o)
Complain about this comment (Comment number 2)
Comment number 3.
At 24th Jun 2009, Jim Sangster wrote:The good news is, the programmes in the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Archive Collections aren't limited to a seven day window. They're up here indefinitely now, so you should be able to take your time and enjoy them at your leisure. Glad you're enjoying them!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 3)
Comment number 4.
At 25th Jun 2009, bravegannett wrote:Sounds really interesting. Shame I'm unlucky enough to be an ex-pat who can't access this fascinating material in my area! :(
Complain about this comment (Comment number 4)
Comment number 5.
At 25th Jun 2009, Jim Sangster wrote:Sadly, the UK-only thing is something we have to do most of the time for rights reasons (although it's not unique to us: many North American broadcasters exclude overseas audiences, presumably to prevent us from being spoilered for episodes of 'Lost' we won't see for months here).
However, you should still be able to see all of the documents and photo galleries in other collections, and we were able to make our recent 'Princess Elizabeth' collection available outside of the UK.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 5)
Comment number 6.
At 25th Jun 2009, Jim Sangster wrote:Eamonn at the Panorama blog has also been looking up at the Moon today - take a look here:
/blogs/panorama/2009/06/panorama_moonwalking_and_muckr.html
Complain about this comment (Comment number 6)
Comment number 7.
At 25th Jun 2009, Michael Walsh wrote:Jim,
All the video in your "Meet The Experts" area is geo-IP restricted:
/archive/tv_archive.shtml
Surely these can't be UK-only?
The irony of this is that the section explaining "Contributor Rights" is itself restricted:
/archive/contributor_rights.shtml
Pre-iPlayer integration these were available worlwide.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 7)
Comment number 8.
At 30th Mar 2010, U14402580 wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 8)