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South Hams Talking Newspapers
Phyllis Angliss, volunteer honorary secretary and presenter
In the basement of Kings Cinema – in one of the old prison cells – is a wonderful organisation providing a weekly news service for the blind and partially
sighted. South Hams Talking Newspapers records a weekly di- gest of news, information and features from local print media sources onto USB memory sticks, which are then posted out to their listeners. The service is totally free to the
listener and postage is paid for by the Royal Mail’s ‘articles for the blind’ concession. Phyllis Angliss, volunteer honorary
record the newspapers each week. They read from the South Hams Newspaper series, including papers from Kingsbridge, Dartmouth, Ivybridge and Totnes. The papers are read hot off the press on a Thursday afternoon, ready to be copied and sent out for arrival at listener’s homes on Saturday. Phyllis said: “We have four microphones and readers.
The papers are read hot off the press on a Thursday
secretary and presenter, said: “The South Hams group started in 1981. At the time the national president of the Rotary Club knew about talk- ing newspapers and he used it as his charity for the year. Many such groups started up around the country. “Stuart Frost, who’d worked at the BBC, was commu-
afternoon, ready to be copied and sent out for arrival at listener’s homes on Saturday.
The presenter introduces the group and reads the front-page headline and story. Then the readers take it in turn to read a story at a time to keep the voices moving. We tend to read most of the editorial in the papers. “We originally recorded onto 90
minute tapes – one 45 minute side for the newspapers and a magazine for- mat on the other. Since moving over to the USB sticks we’ve kept to the 45-minute format for the newspapers.” The magazine section runs be-
nity chairman at Kingsbridge Rotary Club at the time. Along with other local organisations he sorted the funding and set up talking newspapers in Kingsbridge. “We started off above an estate agents, which was
quite difficult for recording purposes. It was such a blessing when we came to the cinema basement because of the noise reduction. We get some noise from the corridor sometimes but the acoustics are very good in here.” A group of volunteers take it in turns to read and
tween 30 minutes up to an hour. It contains features, including articles from The Post, short stories and quizzes. Phyllis presents and records the content of the magazine. She said: “The magazine section starts with our sig-
nature tune. Ed Welch, who wrote the score for Thomas the Tank engine, composed it. We asked him to write something for us and he produced a great tune. “After the signature tune I have a chat with our
listeners. This is usually day-to-day things, and often about my cat Harry, a stray who decided to come and live with me about two years ago. He’s a very hand-
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