'Gift of the Gab'

Actuality tapes, arranged in the order in which they were originally numbered, although this may not be the order in which they were originally recorded.

Assemblies, inserts reels and versions of the final broadcast programmes.

Copyright: BBC

See MS 4000/2/133 for related papers, such as production papers and scripts.

'Gift of the Gab' was a two part radio documentary by Dr Sheila Smith.

The programmes concerned the 'power of the spoken word'. The two programmes were intially intended to be broadcast in the reverse order to the final broadcast order. They were:

1: 'That's Another Story'2: 'You Must Just Tell Queen Victoria'

The first programme focuses on the power of the spoken voice and compares traditional folk tales with famous storytellers and their tales. There are extracts from archived stories broadcast on the BBC such as reading by Somerset Maughan and Algernon Blackwood. Extracts of recordings of traditional tales told by non-famous people such as Belle Stewart a traveller are included. For original recordings of the stories told by Scottish travelling people including Belle Stewart, please see MS 4000/6/1/33.

The majority of actuality tapes collected here are, however for the second programme: 'You Must Just Tell Queen Victoria'. This second programme was a comparison of the evidence given by children to the Child Employment Commission of 1842 and the language of Disraeli and Lord Ashley reporting it to Parliament. The original evidence was re-written and spoken by young people and adults from Northern England living in the same coal-mining areas as those who gave the original evidence. These actuality tapes also contain additional interviews conducted by Charles Parker about folk traditions and songs in the areas that he was visiting for the 'Gift of the Gab' recordings.

The programmes were broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and went through numerous names in the production stage such as 'Spell Binders' and 'Ring of Words'.