broken seat back release cable

I'm sure I can't be the first person this has happened to, but I did a search and couldn't find any help on this forum.
The seat back release cable (I assume its cable operated) has broken on the drivers seat of my 1988 atmo GTA with leather seats. I think that not being able to tip the seat forward may be a MOT failure (someone in the back couldn't get out in the event of an accident) so I'll need to fix it soon.
I asked Roadspeed at Stroud (Alpine specialists) and they said it required seat out, cover off and new cable being made up, a 2-3 hour job, so quite expensive by the sound of it.
Has anyone done this job themselves? Are there any shortcuts? (I wondered whether you could get access by cutting through a little of the stitching at the base of the seat, but this may be a bit drastic). Any advice gratefully received.

It wont fail its mot for that, but seat out will take all of 15mins for a com petent garage as itas only a handful of bolts to be released.

Thanks peterg. I can probably get the seat out myself, but what then?
Has no-one out there had to do this job?
Clive

My car has the same problem i.e broken cable on the drivers side and it had this when I bought it. A previous owner has mig welded a small piece of metal to the base of the seat at the linkage, this can now be pushed down to relaese the seat, its stiff but works and does not involve stripping the seat cover off, (DIY job maybe!)

I will leave the seat like this as it works fine and is little used anyway.

Steve.