Margaret Minhinnick

This audio clip is from a series of 100 life history interviews with environmental campaigners in the UK, 1970-2020. A quotation from this recording features in the book Voices for Change, published by UCL Press in November 2026 (available in print as well as a free PDF download). The full interview, along with the summaries, transcripts and recordings for this and the rest of the interview collection, is available at the British Library (Sound and Moving Image Collection, under the shelf-mark C2037). For more information, including educational materials and other resources, visit the Oral History of the Environmental Movement project website at www.royalholloway.ac.uk/ohemQuotation:so getting on the media enabled the development of Friends of the Earth Cymru, getting on the media loads. And then when I left, or one of the producers in HTV got in touch with me, David Hammond-Williams. And he said, ‘We’ve got an environmental programme we want to develop called Grass Roots. And we wondered if you’d be interested in taking part in it, being the anchor person,’ or whatever they call it. Anyway, and so, yes, I went to see him and eventually, yes, we had to get through the establishment of HTV [laughing] and got the job. Yes, I got the job to do- And in the end over a couple of years I did eighteen programmes, they were- They were magazine style programmes, as I said, called Grass Roots. And each item was eight, nine minutes. And but during it you were able to suggest other contributors for the other pieces that I didn’t lead. And so I contributed loads. And able to- And was also able to help the editor who had the technical skills but I knew, I knew what I want said, wanted said, you know, what we needed to convey. And so also when I was interviewing whoever, I managed to- Well I kind of knew who to ask and most people did it, I used to be able to say, ‘But didn’t you mean this?’ And then they’d, I didn’t put words into their mouths but they said more accurately for the message you were trying to get across. And so it went really well and I really enjoyed it for a while. But we ended up being a bit controversial in a few ways for HTV establishment. [laughing] Like, oh yes, the road- The swampy guys types, digging tunnels to stop the road building programme.British Library catalogue number: C2037/22 Project clip number: 54