Lost Karen Carpenter Interview

Billy Rees

Well-Known Member
Back in 1981 Richard & Karen came to the UK & Europe to promote their Made in America album and also appeared on UK TV for an interview on BBC's Saturday morning children's show Multi-Coloured Swap Shop.

According to the BBC archives, this episode is missing, but there is a 30 second clip of it on youtube... Thinking that's all that probably exists, I was looking through some Carpenters pictures I saved on a blank DVD from 1999 and there are a few pictures of Karen talking on the phone to callers that is taken from a TV of that appearance.

I've never seen a clip of that, so does that mean that the full interview is out there somewhere?

We should be on a mission to find it! It's a lost piece of Carpenters TV history...
 
Back in 1981 Richard & Karen came to the UK & Europe to promote their Made in America album and also appeared on UK TV for an interview on BBC's Saturday morning children's show Multi-Coloured Swap Shop.

According to the BBC archives, this episode is missing, but there is a 30 second clip of it on youtube... Thinking that's all that probably exists, I was looking through some Carpenters pictures I saved on a blank DVD from 1999 and there are a few pictures of Karen talking on the phone to callers that is taken from a TV of that appearance.

I've never seen a clip of that, so does that mean that the full interview is out there somewhere?

We should be on a mission to find it! It's a lost piece of Carpenters TV history...

All I know, Billy, is that if it CAN be found, you are the one most likely to find it!
 
This is the clip from Youtube...


Back pre-internet days, I bought that exact snippet on a video cassette from a guy in the UK. Starts and finishes in exactly the same place. Whoever he was, he may be the source of this particular snippet.

Another TV appearance that was rumoured to be lost was the 1974 Dutch or Belgium appearance but then it turned up on a Japanese DVD release in about 2014 / 2015 .....so you never know......
 
Clips like this one on Saturday Swap Shop would make wonderful bonus extras on Carpenters DVDs. ABBA have done this to great effect on many DVDs and used excerpts from TV shows, including BBC recordings, so it is definitely possible.

ABBA - Number Ones
Extras:
- Waterloo (From Top Of The Pops, BBC 1974)
- I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do, SOS & Waterloo (From Hei Sveis!, Norway 1975)
- I Have A Dream & Under Attack (From The Late Late Breakfast Show, BBC 1982)
- Number Ones Scrapbook

ABBA - The Album (Deluxe CD + DVD)
Extras:
- Eagle/Thank You For The Music (Starparade, ZDF)
- Take A Chance On Me (Am Laufenden Band, Radio Bremen)
- The Name Of The Game (ABBA Special, TBS)
- Thank You For The Music (Mike Yarwood's Christmas Show, BBC)
- Take A Chance On Me (Starparade, ZDF)
- ABBA On Tour In 1977 (Rapport, SVT)
- Recording ABBA – The Album (Gomorron Sverige, SVT)
- ABBA In London, February 1978 (Blue Peter, BBC)
- ABBA In America, May 1978 (Rapport, SVT)
- ABBA – The Album Television Commercial I (UK)
- ABBA – The Album Television Commercial II (Australia)
- International Sleeve Gallery
 
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