Flag, what flag?

"What a sad, sad sight is a tree mutilated long before it reaches its prime.

Yet, it did have its hour of glory. Walking past the tree some four years ago with my late brother, he asked me "Do you remember VE day?" "No", I replied, I was too young.

He said at that time, flown from that tree, were the flags of the allies. The next day passers by noticed the hammer and sickle was nowhere to be seen. It was reported as stolen - it even made the headlines of the local paper with headlines like "Who has insulted our gallant allies?"

Everyone in Blackwood looked sideways at each other and asked Was it you? and commented to one another. It could have been him or it could have been them. But they never looked at or asked my brother, who always looked as if butter would be safe from melting in his mouth.

And what happened to the hammer and sickle flag?

Well in those days is was almost obligatory for households to have a red chenille tablecloth. Must be admitted, there was something a little bit different in ours it was amber in colour!"

Could you tell us something about yourself?
I am 60 years of age, I was married for a very short time many years ago. I have been in my time a commercial apprentice in a steelworks; civil servant; bank cashier; part-time college lecturer; catering student; chef; waiter; brickwork labourer and lorry driver. I am now considered too old to take to the employment battlefield.

So is the story true?
The story I told occurred just as I told it - with the addition of the table cloth bit. I neglected to ask my late brother what happened to the flag and now neither I nor anyone else will know.

How did you find the workshop?
The preliminary exercise of the practice of telling stories was quite fascinating with some quite unexpected results. The process of transferring a story with images, music and sound to computer was a bit beyond me but I would not be unwilling to have another stab at it. The sound track construction was the most interesting part, perhaps I found it the easiest. It might be easier and interesting to try an exercise like this for radio.