"Sharp et al "saved" the songs from extinctinction and locked them up in CSH". Wherever did you get that idea from? They were never 'locked up' in CSH, but were published, in books, and in the FSS Journals, and were accessible through the VWM Library at CSH. Many of them were also still in existence in the mouths of the people who had always carried them - there were still many traditional performers around, certainly when MacColl's group was happening, as he and Peggy were aware.

On another point, I suspect that if Genevieve Tudor (of BBC Shropshire's Folk Show) were asked, she would be happy to explain the making of the programme, as she was instrumental in putting it on.