A RARE TV interview with Cider with Rosie author Laurie Lee, who hated being in front of the camera, has been tracked down in an archive library and is to be shown next weekend at a history festival in Gloucester.

The Stroud author had been grudgingly persuaded in 1994 to be interviewed at his favourite spots in his beloved Cotswold valleys for an ITV programme to mark his 80th birthday, three years before he died.

The programme, which included him visiting the spot where he first drank cider with Rosie, was broadcast on HTV and then forgotten about.

But recently producer David Parker has sought out his original film rushes at the Bristol City Archive and put together the thirty minute documentary to show to an audience at Gloucester History Festival on Sunday, Sept 8.

He has also written a book for publishers Penguin called 'Laurie Lee: Down in the Valley, a writer's landscape', which will be published in November.

A Gloucester History Festival spokeswoman said "This film has recently been rediscovered and, as Laurie rarely did television, it's quite a rare find.

"Appropriately, this year also marks 60 years since Cider with Rosie was published."

In the film Laurie talks about his childhood in Slad, nr Stroud, scrogging apples, swimming in frozen ponds, roaming freely in the countryside and irritating the 'waspish' teachers and headmistress of the village school.

He also recalls during the interview his encounter with 'Rosie' when he was at work in the fields during haymaking season.

The film also shows Laurie visiting the grave of his old friend, poet Frank Mansell, at Miserden, near Stroud, and relating how they used to meet in the pub - his beloved Woolpack in Slad - to go through each other's poems.

But the fascinating film would never have been made if it had not been for the tenacity of David Parker - firstly in persuading Laurie to do the interview at all and then 25 years later in finding the footage.

He recalled how he had pitched the idea of an interview with Laurie for a series called 'Great Westerners' on HTV and then phoned the author's agent to ask if he would do it.

"His agent told me he wasn't interested and said I said it would be a great shame if Laurie died and no-one had heard from him directly about what had inspired his writing. The agent said I should put it all in a letter to Laurie. About three weeks later he left a message on my answer machine. He said he wasn't interested in being in the film but to come and see him and talk about it."

David said initially Laurie only agreed to an audio interview, not on camera, and they visited all his favourite spots to record his 'mesmeric' memories.

The TV breakthrough only came when they visited Frank Mansell's grave together and Laurie agreed to talk on camera about his memories of his old friend. Then Laurie finally relented and agreed to spend the next five to six days being filmed at all the places they had already visited and recorded on sound only.

The programme duly went out on TV and into the archives of history.

"Like all TV generally it just got forgotten," said David.

But a couple of years ago David found himself without any pressing work commitments and thought about digging out the rushes and making a new version of the film. For weeks he could not recall where they were - but his wife recalled they were at Bristol City Archive, from where he retrieved them to work on for the next couple of years.

"I realised then how incredibly rare this recording is because he did very little TV - a couple of interviews for Thames TV and five minutes oin Wogan and that was it," David added.

*Laurie Lee- The Lost Recordings, tickets £5 a person, will be shown as part of the Gloucester History Festival at the Sherborne Cinema, Gloucester, with an accompanying talk by David Parker, on September 8 at 6pm.