Writing to Eddy on 12 January 1984, Olly is excited about his new sandwich toaster and anticipating his debut performance at the upcoming Chaotic Cabaret. This leads him to dig out an old portfolio which contains the script he wrote for that, a piece of dubious comic quality called “Eric Tory, the Mad Monetarist” – and perform it for the microphone over forty years after writing it. Then it’s time for a root around in the Family History Box, where Olly finds a letter from Jesus College, Cambridge with the bill for Eddy’s interview there in April 1950. This leads to some old audio of Eddy telling a story about an ill-fated money making scheme by his Uncle Bob, which involved dying a greyhound’s fur.

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Episode 5 begins with Olly reading a letter he wrote to his Dad on 30 November 1983. It’s a bulky missive, with updates about his ultra short lived college punk band Vile Style, seeing theatre from Spare Tyre and music from Killing Joke, learning African and Caribbean students from mature student Cyril, and researching Australian First Nation performance. This sets the pebbles of memory skimming across the surface of time, as Olly thinks about his lifelong love of music and obsession with comedy – and he comes across a firsthand account from the late pioneering alternative comedian Tony Allen supporting Killing Joke at the Lyceum in 1981. Olly records a new version of one of the songs he wrote for Vile Style, before dipping into the Family History Box. There he finds an adorable letter his Dad received from his Jamaican penfriend Lloyd back in August 1949. Not only that, but he also finds a photo of the teenage Eddy playing drums with an unnamed jazz band. The episode ends with a clip of Olly talking to his Dad about his love of jazz and his hatred of racism.

You’ll find all the historic items discussed in this episode on our Instagram account: @letterstomydeaddadpod

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Episode 4 begins with another look in the Family History Box, where Olly finds a family photo from 1938 showing his Dad as a little boy standing slightly awkwardly next to his parents, Gladys and Harold. There’s a clip of Eddy talking about his Mum and Dad, and we get a glimpse of his upbringing in a working-class district of Ipswich. It’s a world away from the drama degree Olly did in the 1980s, and the letter he wrote to Eddy on 10 November 1983 sees him using his Moog synthesizer to create a soundtrack for a happening. The episode ends with a clip of a wonky song that Olly recorded in his bedroom on that very synth shortly before heading off for university.

You’ll find all the historic items discussed in this episode on our Instagram account: @letterstomydeaddadpod

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