Delve Special

[sheddyian]

I have a great fondness for Delve Special, the spoof invesgative report show from Radio 4 in the mid 1980s.

I like that its played straight, it sounds real if you're not paying attention. Stephen Fry is great as David Lander, with lots of great bits from Brenda Blethyn, Tony Robinson and many others.

The point of this post though is a curiosity. The first episode of the 2nd series (Friday 6th September 1985) was billed as being "The Secret disservice" but this episode didn't actually go out until Friday 20th September 1985. The continuity announcer at the time said something about it being re-edited, and the listing in the Radio Times also plays this up. Given the topic of that episode, MI5 and spying, it adds to the mystery and a nagging doubt that it's real. There's even some clunky edits in the programme.

But was it really postponed and re-edited, or just playing with the format? Was there something in the news that might have given the programme a bad taste to be broadcast on 6th September 1985? Or something in the show that had to be excised?

When I used to listen to my tape of the broadcast I'd often wonder this, and recently relistening to a 4extra recording the clunky edits leap out, even if there's no longer a continuity announcer apologising that the show has been re-edited.

Here's the BBC Genome listing from Sept 5th :
Following last year's revelations about London's third airport being built near Birmingham, David Lander returns for another series of investigative reports
1: The Secret Dis-service
Who are the people who watch over us? Who watches over them? What is the shop in ****** really used for, and is there such a thing as censorship of the media?
Dramatic reconstructions by Mark Arden , Stephen Frost , Phil Nice , Arthur Smith and Peter Acre
Studio production by STEPHEN FRY With BRENDA BLETHYN, TONY ROBINSON, JACK KLAFF and FELICITY MONTAGU
Research by TONY SARCHET
Editor PAUL MAYHEW ARCHER

and here from 20th September :
An investigative report by David Lander
Postponed from 6 September
This 90-minute edition of Delve Special on the activities of MI5 has now been re-edited to comply with Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act
Studio production by Stephen Fry With BRENDA BLETHYN, TONY ROBINSON, JACK KLAFF and FELICITY MONTAGU
Dramatic reconstructions by STEPHEN FROST, ROBERT BATHURST and PHIL NICE
Research by TONY SARCHET
Editor PAUL MAYHEW ARCHER
(the joke here being it's only a 30 minute show)

any thoughts ?

(and, as with most things, although This Is David Lander on ch4 was good, this show was much better on the radio)

[Registering to lurk]

I haven't listened to this since it was originally broadcast but I've got a very fond memory of half-listening to a woman complaining about the Police taking away their stairs for forensic analysis (I think) and very slowly realising that I couldn't possibly be listening to Roger Cook.

It turns out Delve Special is on Fourable, https://fourble.co.uk/podcast/delve so I've downloaded them. Thanks for reminding me about the series. I'm looking forwards to listening to it properly for the first time in 35 years.

I assumed the listing was a joke about the Police raids in relation to the BBC2 series Secret Society, but that all happened in 1987; so maybe Duncan Campbell's series was actually a tribute to Delve Special.

The reference to the Official Secrets Act in the listing is fairly pointed. Earlier in the year Clive Pointing was charged with breaking Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act, and found not guilty, so it could be a reference to that.

I guess there's no way of finding out what -if anything- was broadcast on 6th September unless anyone can break into the Written Archives Centre.

[Gurke and Hare]

I'd like to believe it was all a work, intended to add a bit of realism and that the original transmission was never planned to actually go out, but I bet there would be a lot of BBC bureaucracy to go through to get permission to do that. Do we know whether the episode on Friday 13th:

An examination of the practical and ethical implications of new methods of baby production. Is AID an exciting development or does it mean the next generation will be produced by six medical students in Bristol? Is Commercial Surrogacy immoral or a form of antenatal child-minding?

went out as normal?

[sheddyian]

As far as I can tell, the episodes listed (including that baby one) did get broadcast, and I don't remember any other claimed edits or rescheduling.

The baby one was a dodgy company selling babies (no mess no fuss) enlisting surrogate mothers and after 9 months supplying hamsters instead of babies. "We did the nursery out in Muppet wallpaper and quite frankly it's wasted on a hamster"

[zomgmouse]

I remember quite enjoying the radio series, very amusing deadpan stuff. The TV adaptation was also pretty good, called This Is David Lander, which lasted one series of six episodes, after which it was renamed to This Is David Harper with Tony Slattery taking over the Fry role and doing a good job, also for six episodes.