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THIS year's Andover History and Archaeology Society's Dacre Lecture, held at The Lights, was given by Dr Nick Barratt whose recent work for television has included the programmes Who Do You Think You Are?, History Mysteries, House Detec-tives and Hidden House History.

His talk, entitled History and the Media, opened by highlighting the supposed conflict between the presentation of detailed research and the concentration level of the average television viewer.

Until recently, most investigative television had comprised 30-second snatches of information, followed by the views of so-called experts and perhaps a celebrity-type presenter to string everything together.

This, it was assumed, was what the public wanted and such formats were a convenient means for researchers, producers, directors and presenters, who did not then need to be academically trained, to produce programmes.

Budgets were always an over-riding factor and the BBC and other programme makers were very reluctant to commission work that required time-consuming research into parish records, censuses and wills in order to unearth what they saw as inconsequential family and social history.

Things began to change after the first series of House Detectives when it was realised that the format of walking round a house and commenting on what could be seen was insufficient.

It was necessary to look at historical archives relating to the house, the street, the surrounding area and the people who lived there.

As a result, Dr Barratt was first offered a job at the BBC when he was asked to interpret these family and local records for the programme editors who either saw such archives as dry and dusty or did not consider them academic enough for a specialist high-brow audience.

The programme Who Do You Think You Are? was ground-breaking in using celebrities to illustrate how to unravel family history through use of archives.

Such celebrities had little knowledge of their family history and genuinely did not know what was going to be found out.

Those who agreed to be researched had committed themselves to a process that was out of their customary comfort zone.

Many of the programmes had moments of drama as each week's subject discovered a heart-rending detail that explained an ancestor's behaviour or actions.

Through tracing a celebrity's family tree, the programme was also able to illustrate social history, showing where these people had lived, what they had seen and what they had experienced. It was history, real and gritty, through the use of archives and, contrary to initial expectations, the viewing figures soared.

Finally, Dr Barratt drew attention to the dangers of modern communications and how its ephemeral nature prevented much of value from being preserved. Whereas our ancestors wrote letters and kept diaries, the contents of telephone calls, texts and e-mails are all lost as soon as they are made.

A poll of the audience showed that only two people out of 200 wrote letters to their family regularly and he urged all to write down their own histories for the benefit of posterity. A salutary warning was given: take steps to preserve personal knowledge or risk losing it forever.

The meeting on 23 May at the museum will be the annual meeting, followed by members' talks.

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