Offspring

Offspring was a BBC Radio 4 series, predecessor to Home Truths that was broadcast between 1995 and 1997. The series was hosted by John Peel and involved him interviewing families about their social lives. Offspring came to an end in 1997 at the same time as the introduction of new Radio 4 schedules and a new Controller, James Boyle.

Links To Peel
Peel on his 30 September 1995 (BFBS) programme talked about his experiences recording the show:

'' 'Busy week this week, because I'm doing another programme for one of the domestic services here, which is....it's one of those things you get talked into, in a way. They phone you up and ask you to do something, and you're kind of flattered that they want you at all, and so you go along, and the more you get into it, the better it is and yet the worse it is, because you realise it's going to take up an awful lot of time, and time is one thing you don't really have much of when you've got mountains of CDs and vinyl and so forth to listen to that you've not heard as yet. This week it involved me amongst other things going up to Halifax to interview a family who started a brewery and opened a pub there, entirely on their own initiative, on money that the son had got as a result of being run over at work. It's one of those things, you go up there, I was very tired when I went up there, awful drive up there, you have to drive there and stick your head out of the window to keep yourself awake. On the way back, I felt so uplifted. They were such great people, and great beer as well.'''

Peel mentioned on his 28 October 1995 (BFBS) show that Offspring was taking up too much of his time, as he had to go into London one extra day a week.