麻豆社

Growing up in rural Derry, author S茅amas O鈥橰eilly and his siblings never needed to go to Blockbuster. Instead, they were enraptured by their father鈥檚 archive of hundreds of films recorded off the television.

With their snippets of old-timey adverts and local telly, the tapes contain a tantalising glimpse of Northern Ireland in the late 1980s, as well as an array of truly memorable double bills. Where else could you find Pride and Prejudice back-to-back with Commando? Or Strictly Ballroom straight into Highlander?

An indifferent filmgoer, S茅amas鈥檚 dad was an unlikely cinephile. Arguably, it was the cataloguing that mattered more, meticulously ordering the entries, both alphabetically and chronologically, for his children to browse. It鈥檚 only recently, however, that S茅amas has begun to understand what lay behind this bewilderingly specific collection.

In this edition of Illuminated, S茅amas tries to unravel the mystery of his father鈥檚 Grand North Atlantic Home Video Archive, all while trying to understand why so many of us, when faced with tragedy, have a compulsion to record.

Producer: Ant Adeane
Executive Producer: Anishka Sharma
A Small Blue production for Radio 4