Dame Emma Thompson has been surprised on live TV with a letter written by her late father, which was discovered in the BBC’s archive.
The British actress’s father, Eric Thompson, was responsible for creating and performing the narration for the English adaptation of children’s television programme The Magic Roundabout.
During an appearance on The One Show, Dame Emma was given a letter written to the BBC by her father, in which he asked for an audition for a chance to work at the broadcasting corporation, as well as an audition report written by BBC producers and accompanying pictures of her father.
"OH MY GOODNESS!" 💙
We surprised Dame Emma Thompson with her father's BBC audition letter from 1950! 🥲
Thanks for the help from the excellent @BBCArchive team! 👏#TheOneShow 👉 https://t.co/SYDD4c3Rml #BBC100 pic.twitter.com/Nw0q6cDqj5
— BBC The 100 Show (@BBCTheOneShow) October 25, 2022
After being handed the items by presenters Zoe Ball and Jermaine Jenas, Dame Emma appeared surprised and delighted, saying: “My mother, who is 90, is watching this!
“‘Mum! I mean honestly, look!’”
After looking at the old photographs of her father, Dame Emma jokingly added: “Check him out! He was a bit of alright wasn’t he really!”
Jenas, 39, explained the story behind the items, saying: “There’s this letter from your dad to the BBC.
“So he says he’s just left the army and that he’s been advised to write a letter to ask for an audition with the BBC.
“And I’ll tell you what it says, so it says: ‘I have no broadcasting experience apart from an audition in Birmingham some years ago, but I have had stage experience both amateur and repertory.”
To which 51-year-old Ball added: “And the good news is, Emma, he did get an audition, three years later.
“The producers wrote a positive report on him, which you can have a look at now, so good isn’t it.
“And you can see there, they noted that he had a ‘quiet charm and a twinkle and an obvious sense of humour’.”
After studying the items Dame Emma removed her glasses and became visibly emotional.
Eric was an English actor, scriptwriter and stage director who trained to be an actor before joining the Old Vic theatre company in 1952.
He went on to become best known for his adaptation of The Magic Roundabout from the original French version Le Manege enchante.
The English version, which was broadcast on the BBC between 1965 and 1977, used the footage of the French stop motion animation show but with new scripts and characters.
Eric died at the age of 53 in 1982.
The One Show airs every weekday on BBC One.