Memories get a second hearing after twenty years

Graham Majin and the his historic radio programme tape from 1989, which was destined for the skip until he found he found it in his attic.

Back in 1989 when Graham Majin was working as a newsreader for Invicta Radio in Canterbury, he had the idea of interviewing people about their World War Two memories and making a documentary, but the radio station wasn't interested. They told Graham 'it wasn’t their cup of tea because they were a pop music station'. So Graham decided to make the programme in his own time. After he had made the documentary, the station said they liked it and paid him 'a few quid' for permission to broadcast it on Christmas Day 1989. 'They were looking for filler material because the disc jockeys had the day off. I expect one man and a dog would have been listening! Apart from that no one has ever heard these recordings' says Graham.

The one hour radio programme was a collection of twenty-four interviews with men and women from the county and included vivid eyewitness descriptions of air raids on Maidstone, Canterbury and other Kentish towns. It also features memories of rationing, the Battle of Britain, the closure of Kent’s seaside towns, The Home Guard, D Day and much more. When Graham realised the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of war was approaching he turned is home 'upside down' before finding his historic tape in the bottom of a box destined for a skip he had hired. Had he not thought about the tape when he did, it would have been lost for ever.

The good news is that you can now enjoy the hour long documentary, which also contains rare archive sound recordings and wartime music, in the form of a CD, which is available from Second World War Remembered CD, Kersh Media, Barham Court, Teston, Kent ME18 5BZ, www.second-world-war-remembered.co.uk. The CD costs £8 and all profits from the sale of the CD are being shared between the Royal British Legion and the Chart Sutton War Memorial Pavilion Fund.

22 October 2009