Friday 25 October 2024

Home Truths


While playing ‘ground-breakers, obscurities and session tracks’ on BBC Radio 1 by night, John Peel was taking a ‘wry look at the foibles of family life’ on BBC Radio 4 by day. That Radio 4 programme was Home Truths which Peel was to present each Saturday morning for six years.

Home Truths was, in fact, the offspring of an earlier series called Offspring that Peel had hosted for four series between 1995 and 1997. It had, according to Radio 4 controller Michael Green, been “an unlikely booking”. Perhaps what swayed him was that John had already been writing, since September 1993, about family life, his work, whatever was on the tv or radio or indeed anything however inconsequential, in a weekly column for the Radio Times titled John Peel’s Family Album; a column initially dismissed as “toe-curlingly folksy” by the Daily Telegraph.     


Offspring
was first broadcast on Saturday 7 October 1995 with a promise that John Peel would drag listeners on to “the wreckage strewn battlefield of family life” in a new exploration of families of every size, type and background.

Writing in that week’s Family Album column, John gave us an idea about what he might hear:

Essentially it’s all about the family, but, as almost everyone at some time or other, has been part of something that could be described as a family, this gives us considerable licence.  

So far I have travelled to Lancaster to talk and walk along the beach with two widowed women who chose, for a range of sound reasons, to buy a house together; driven to Sowerby Bridge to sample the wares of a father and mother, son and daughter who run a brewery and pub, and sped through torrential rain to the southern tip of the area covered by the Birmingham A-Z to watch triplets being put to bed by their parents. Not very rock ‘n’ roll but, in each case, strangely uplifting.

When Michael Green left the BBC in 1996 his replacement in the top job, James Boyle, would introduce his revamped schedule in April 1998. On Saturday mornings between 9 and 10 am out went Sport on 4 and Breakaway and in came a new vehicle for John Peel, Home Truths.

Ahead of the new schedule Peel wrote: “We haven’t quite worked out what’s going to be in Home Truths; there’ll be a sports element, definitely, but for the rest it’ll be family-orientated without being too sentimental. I always viewed Radio 4 as the senior service, and I used to get very excited when I was the only Radio 1 DJ to get invited to Radio 4 parties – though I think that was more to do with my having been to public school than anything else”.  (Radio Times 4 April 1998)


The first Home Truths aired on Saturday 11 April 1998. Writing, again in the Radio Times (see above), Peel explained something of the programme’s ethos, and again there was that mention of ‘sentiment’.

The programme’s producers decided on this name only when it became an administrative imperative that it was called something. I could fill this page with a list of the suggestions that were made. One of these was Scouse...no, I mustn’t go on. So Home Truths it is and I lurch towards the first programme with a certain trepidation. The things is, as with the hard-hitting, rigorously unsentimental Offspring, the precursor of Home Truths, we need listeners to phone, fax and e-mail their responses to the things they hear, and you can’t really engineer that entirely successfully for a first programme.

John opened the show like this:

“Hello, and welcome to Home Truths, a name chosen only when it became an administrative impossibility for programme planning to continue without a name. We're still getting to know each other in the Home Truths office: shy glances, apologetic dances like courtship rituals of some endangered species, that sort of thing. But we think that we've got a pretty neat programme for you nevertheless. Saturdays mean doing it yourself, or getting out into the country and maybe killing something, or going to work, or lying in bed, or going to the match (it's Ipswich versus Tranmere Rovers for us this afternoon). Until this morning, Saturdays to me would involve my getting up ahead of Sheila, and feeling insanely virtuous, walking the dogs, feeding the cats, and emptying the dishwasher. I once made the mistake of saying to her later, with insufferable smugness, 'Well, darling, I've done your jobs for you.' 'My jobs?', she started. 'My jobs???' Well, you can imagine."  (As quoted on the John Peel Wiki site)

Despite this early trepidation the programme would, eventually, prove to be an enormous success. At first it met with some criticism: “inconsequential”, “infantile rubbish” or “droning nonsense”. But in time it would secure one and a half million listeners, garner four Sony Awards (three gold and one silver) and landed a Broadcaster of the Year award for John. His “predilection for a kind of gently self-mocking world view” ensured it remained a Radio 4 fixture until Peel’s death in 2004 (and then continuing on for a further couple of years until 2006).

There are a number of editions of Home Truths from 2003-2006 available via the John Peel wiki site but here’s an earlier edition, or at least part of one, from 22 July 2000. The recording was kindly sent to me by Richard Tucker and is the first 45 minutes of what was a 57 minute programme.

John is back after two weeks away during which he was part of a Radio Times sponsored trans-Atlantic cruise in the company of Alan Hansen, Delia Smith, Barry Norman and about 100 of the magazine’s lucky readers. As usual it strikes the balance between “absurdity and weightiness” from ‘what colour is John Peel?’ to cerebral palsy. John would become adept at ‘the handbrake turns in tone and pace’ the format demanded.

In this Family Album column John writes about that cruise and the trip to New York that he and Sheila made the week before.

John’s last Home Truths turned out to be the one on 16 October 2004 just before taking a two week break to “recharge the batteries, getting on with the book, that sort of thing”. Covering for John was David Stafford. Just over a week later came the shocking news that John had died on a working holiday in Peru.

On Saturday 30 October BBC Radio 4 broadcast this tribute to John and his time on Home Truths. It’s presented by Roger McGough (who had previously deputised for John). As well as clips from the programme there’s a tribute from regular contributor Bryan Gallagher and an update on Tom Ray. A 30-minute version also aired at 11 pm that day.

Offspring

Series 1: 7 October to 25 November 1995 (8 episodes)

Series 2: 10 August to 28 September 1996 (8)

Special: 24 December 1996 Offspring Christmas Special

Series 3: 26 April to 14 June 1997 (8)

Series 4: 4 October to 22 November 1997 (8)

Special: 25 December 1997 Offspring Christmas Morning

The first series won a Sony Award in the Magazine category

Home Truths

Presented by John Peel from 11 April 1998 to 16 October 2004 on Saturdays at 9 am

Christmas Specials on 25 December 2000, 25 December 2001 and 25 December 2002

Providing holiday cover for John were Roger McGough (1999, 2000 & 2002), David Stafford (2001-04), Maureen Lipman (2002) and Benjamin Zephaniah (2004).

The series continued from 23 October 2004 to 24 June 2006 with presenters David Stafford (who presented the majority of the programmes), Tom Robinson, Paul Heiney, Linda Smith, Michael Rosen, Jo Brand and Jenny Eclair

Some quotes come from And now on Radio 4 by Simon Elmes, Life on Air by David Hendy and  Margrave of the Marshes by John Peel & Sheila Ravesnscroft

Saturday 5 October 2024

The Monday Movie Quiz


In my previous post I presented some recordings of Ray Moore during his Radio 2 early show years. But there’s another programme that Ray was associated with for just over a decade and that’s The Monday Movie Quiz. Radio 2’s movie quiz provided the opportunity for listeners to answer about five mostly multi-part questions, usually posed with accompanying film music, songs or dialogue, and to send off their postcards in the hope of winning a cash prize, usually about a tenner. This at least kept up the listening figures across the series as you always had to wait a week for the answers. How this was dealt with for the last programme in the series I can’t now remember; I can only assume a continuity announcer read them out the following Monday night.

The programme was the idea of producer Martin Fisher, who would also research and set the questions for the first nine series, after which he was promoted to Head of Light Entertainment, Radio. Following Ray’s forced retirement from the microphone in January 1988, Chris Serle took over the role of question master. By this time David Rider was tasked with writing the questions.  

In late 1990 the programme moved to a Saturday night at 5.30 pm coupled with Cinema 2 at 5.00 pm in a timeslot that had previously been the home for Sports Report until that, and all Radio 2’s sports coverage, had been shifted over to the new Radio 5. Of course the Monday bit of the title was dropped in the process. For the 1991 series Chris Stuart became the new host for the remainder of the run of The Movie Quiz.  

The final two series in 1993 and 1994 moved to Friday nights at 7 pm by which time contestants were also invited to take part over the phone in addition to just one write-in round. Upping the budget, any winners now pocketed £20.

Later in 1994 Radio 2 would also drop Cinema 2, with any movie news now covered by the Arts Programme. Film aficionados could still test their knowledge against that of a celebrity panel on Radio 4’s Screenplay, which had been running since 1987, but that too ended in December 1994.


I’ve posted these first two editions of The Monday Movie Quiz before but they’re now on YouTube. First, from series 8 is the third programme on 28 February 1983. The theme tune, in case you’re wondering is Showtime by Neal Hefti from the 1965 film Harlow.

At least you can hear the answers to that last edition as here’s the quiz as heard the following week on 7 March 1983. Incidentally the opening and closing announcements are by Len Jackson.

Forward three years for an edition from the eleventh series and a programme broadcast on 27 January 1986. The announcer is Robin Boyle.

The final edition of the 18th series from 23 July 1993 is also on YouTube posted by Radio Recollections.

The Monday Movie Quiz series details

Series 1 to 12 presented by Ray Moore

Series 13 and 14 presented by Chris Serle

Series 1 to 9 were devised and produced by Martin Fisher. Series 10 to 14 written by David Rider and the producers were Mark Robson (s10 & s12), Harry Thompson (s11) and Lissa Evans (s13 & s14).

Series 1: 5 April to 28 June 1976 (13 programmes)

Series 2: 14 March to 30 May 1977 (12)

Series 3: 6 March to 22 May 1978 (12)

Series 4: 22 January to 9 April 1979 (12)

Series 5: 25 February to 12 May 1980 (12)

Series 6: 5 January to 4 May 1981 (18)

Series 7: 25 January to 31 May 1982 (except 3 May) (18)

Series 8: 14 February to 13 June 1983 (18)

Series 9: 23 January to 2 April 1984 (11)

Series 10: 13 May to 24 June 1985 (7)

Series 11: 20 January to 31 March 1986 (11)

Series 12: 1 June to 3 August 1987 (10)

Series 13: 25 April to 27 June 1988 (10)

Series 14: 15 May to 17 July 1989 (10)

The Movie Quiz series details

Series 15 to 17 on Saturday night. Series 18 and 19 on Friday night.

Series 15 presented by Chris Serle and the remainder by Chris Stuart.

Producers: Paul Schlesinger (15), Philip Clarke (16-17) and Barry Littlechild (18-19)

Series 15: 10 November 1990 to 19 January 1991 (except 29 December) (10)

Series 16: 29 June to 17 August 1991 (8)

The Christmas Movie Quiz: 21 December 1991

The New Year Movie Quiz: 28 December 1991

Series 17: 8 August to 26 September 1992 (8)

Series 18: 4 June to 23 July 1993 (8)

Series 19: 25 March to 13 May 1994 (8)

Saturday 21 September 2024

More More Moore


It’s now more than 30 years ago since Ray Moore’s passing but he remains fondly remembered by listeners and fellow broadcasters alike. Comments such as “the best presenter Radio 2 ever had... still much missed” have been made to my YouTube posting of Ray’s last show from January 1988. “I don't think Ray ever realised how good he really was.  He just loved doing the job!” reads another, and “Ray made getting up for work a fun experience. Sadly missed”. Radio 3’s Ian Skelly told me he thought Ray “a genius broadcaster who really knew how to burnish a phrase to make it stick. I learnt so much from him about how to properly talk to the one person I know is listening. So few seem to clock that’s what it’s all about. You’ve got to look them in the eye, as Ray put it”. One-time BBC Light Entertainment producer Dirk Maggs said that “Ray Moore was one of the sweetest, poetic and bravest (in the face of terminal illness) people I’ve had the privilege of working with”. The technical operators working for Radio 2 at the time loved working with him, Richard Murrell (now a BBC news senior director) recalls that the TOs  would offer to get the teas and he’d reply “Thank you, I’ll have a cup of brown and filthy thanks” and that “Joyce the resident tea lady loved him!”  

Thankfully recordings of Ray’s shows still surface from time to time. So I’m grateful to Nancy Sandoval who contacted me to tell me that she’d taped some of his mid-80s morning shows to take with her when she moved to the USA, taking a little bit of home with her as it were.

In this post I’m presenting most of this treasure trove of recordings which have kindly been digitised by Stacey Harris.

Listening back to these shows you can hear how Ray weaves some real magic despite, let’s be honest, a paucity of material. There are letters from listeners offering light-hearted abuse or telling of their many ailments. The music playlist has few highlights, seemingly mainly consisting of recorded sessions and country music tracks you’ve never heard before.

The earliest recording dates from Wednesday 24 July 1985. At this point Ray’s show ran from 6 to 8 am, between an early show usually presented by his mate Colin Berry – though this particular week it was Martin Kelner – and Ken Bruce at breakfast.

Here’s the first hour. How many DJs would come out of the news quoting a hymn “When morning gilds the skies, my heart awaking cries” into The Hollies with Here I Go Again? The music selection includes such corkers as Perry Como’s Weave Me the Sunshine from a “slightly shop-soiled LP” (it was actually from 1974) and The Adventures with Feel the Raindrops that reached the dizzy heights of number 58. Needletime restrictions were still in force so we get recorded sessions by Iain Sutherland and his Orchestra and former NDO pianist Tom Steer with his Orchestra.   

Show two is two sections from Tuesday 27 August 1985. A listener has spotted a brief tv appearance from Ray on In at the Deep End, “you didn’t half sound posh”. These programmes do throw up some rare tracks including yet another record by that prolific session musician Tony Burrows, this time as part of West End Boys with Summertime. We also hear Maxine by Raf Ravesnscroft whose best-known contribution to pop music is of course playing sax on Baker Street. In session this week is Ronnie Aldrich and his Orchestra and Tony Barrett and his Swing Band.

We move onto October 1985 for the first of four recordings all from the same week. From Monday 21 October Ray is back “full of vigour and vim... and a little drop of scotch as well” after being unwell the previous Friday. There’s a reminder that the early Pause for Thought slot was sometimes just a hymn rather than a spoken contribution. Especially recorded for the show this week is Johnny Arthey and his Orchestra who first started broadcasting on the Light Programme in 1963. The uncredited newsreader is Paul Leighton. If the version of America after the 6.30 bulletin sounds familiar that because it’s played by an outfit going by the name of The Sunshine Steel Band which includes our old friend Tom Steer. Their recording of Coconut Woman was used as the theme for Radio 4’s Trivia Test Match – listen out for it on Thursday’s show.    

On to Tuesday 22 October where the recording – running at just over 20 minutes -starts with a Godley and Creme track Golden Boy that totally failed to trouble the chart compilers. Irish singer Mary O’Hara speaks and sings in Pause for Thought. The comments about ‘licking the other side of Peter Sellers’ are about the Royal Mail stamps featuring some famous faces from British cinema history. Sellers was on the 17 pence stamp.  

Skipping a day it’s now Thursday 24 October and the recording starts with the unmistakable sound of the Pink Panther theme, here played by Johnny Arthey’s lot. Then it’s Pause for Thought regular, Frank Topping, talking about the Biblical character of Onesiphorus who “cheered people up”. There’s some banter about operations in “the knicker area” and the whereabouts of the Donkey Islands (they’re in Greece but I had to Google that one).  Reading the 6.30 am headlines is David Geary. If you’re wondering what on earth the “concrete doughnut” is, it’s Ray term for Television Centre where he would do the odd shift pre-recording those BBC tv trailers – “programmes for Tuesday evening on BBC1”.

Reaching the end of the week with the show for Friday 25 October.  Reading the trailer for Radio 2’s Humoresque is Steve Madden. There’s also a reminder that Su Pollard enjoyed a brief career as a singer as Ray plays her first single Come to Me (I Am Woman), though she gets cut off in her prime on this recording.

And finally a generous chunk of the show from Friday 9 May 1986 in the week after Ray has presented Radio 2’s coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest in Bergen. By now Ray’s timeslot has changed to a 5.30 am start running through to 7.30 am when Derek Jameson hosts the breakfast show, having taken over from Ken Bruce the previous month.  The music is interspersed with news of counts at two by-elections in Ryedale and in West Derbyshire where it was triggered by the resignation of Matthew Parris when he joined ITV’s Weekend World (so an era when MPs weren’t also expected to present current affairs programmes!). With Ray in the studio is political correspondent Noel Lewis.

Ray would often mention what was going on in the other studios and there’s a nod to his Radio 3 colleagues who announce This Week’s Composer (who happens to be Johannes Ockeghem). Listen out for Peter Barker “with the Black and Decker hairstyle”, “talcum Malcolm with the shiny apple face” (Malcolm Ruthven) and “old Holmstrom sewn up for the duration in his Fair isle woolly and National Health glasses” (John Holmstrom). Another Radio 3 announcer from that period, Donald Macleod – now of course the long-time host of Composer of the Week – remembers Ray would kid listeners that  he was “always kilted and carrying with me a sgian dubh to pick lumps of Smetana out of the studio carpet”.

Saturday 10 August 2024

Hello, Hull Relay Station Calling

 


Radio broadcasting from Hull is one hundred years old this week. Now that may come as a surprise to listeners of BBC Radio Humberside who probably thought the station was about half that age. This anniversary marks the opening of the BBC’s relay station in Hull on Friday 15 August 1924. But its life was short, closing just over six years later when it became part of the Northern Region based in Manchester.  Here is its story.

In 1924 the BBC was operating main stations such as 2LO in London, 5IT Birmingham, 2ZY Manchester and 5WA Cardiff (eight in total with 2BE Belfast joining in October). It supplemented these with low-powered relay stations designed to fill in some of the gaps in coverage of the main stations. Receiving the broadcast signal via Post Office lines they would then transmit them on to wireless listeners in the locality. In the main they carried the London-based programmes from 2LO but could simultaneously broadcast the output from any other station (radio schedules of the time would often list ‘SB from.....’ to show these simultaneous broadcasts). The Sheffield relay station opened in November 1923 followed by a further nine in 1924 of which Hull was one.

The relay station for Hull was given the call sign 2HU in February 1924 with a planned operational date sometime in May. By the summer the launch was now earmarked for 1 August and just a fortnight before going live the call sign was now 6KH. (1) In the event the start date slipped on a fortnight, probably due to the BBC’s ambitious timetable for opening all the relay sites.

The Bishop Lane building that housed 6KH (photographed in 2018)

A studio base was sought initially in Albion Street but they settled on 26-27 Bishop Lane, part of a Georgian terrace in Hull’s Old Town. (2) The transmitting station was about a mile north at Lion Mills on Wincolmlee with an aerial slung between the building and the chimney of the oil seed mill. (3) Like all the relay stations power was restricted to 200W and initially it radiated on 320 metres.(4) The station’s first director, Leslie Page (5), explained how it worked: “the sounds pass through the microphone, then the amplifier in the control room, and then an ordinary land line down to transmitter, where they are radiated. The transmitter generates the carrier wave, and the sound wave comes from the studio”.

At Bishop Lane the control room and studio was on the first floor, sound- proofed with thick carpet and heavy mauve and grey-fawn coloured curtains. The ground floor comprised four rooms used for offices and accommodation for artistes and callers, with a yard to the rear. The construction work was done by Messrs J. T. Taylor and Sons, of Saner Street.     

Opening ceremony billing from the Radio Times

The opening night of 6KH on Friday 15 August 1924 was a live relay of a concert from Hull City Hall between 8 pm and 10.30 pm. Aside from the speeches from the BBC chiefs and local dignitaries the entertainment was provided by the Band of the 1st battalion of the Durham Light Infantry, soprano Miriam Licette, bass Norman Allin and ‘mirth-maker’ Charles Penrose, best known for his rendition of The Laughing Policeman. There was also an unbilled performance by pianist Edward Stubbs, making him the first local artist to appear on the station. All the other BBC stations broadcast the speeches that were given around 9.30 pm.

The report in the following days Hull Daily Mail is positively effusive in its praise of the concert, though it notes some technical issues on the broadcast including the acoustics of the hall leading to an echo and a hum on the signal probably caused by the dynamo at the transmitter. It waxes lyrically about those that were listening-in whether in their parlour or in a garret. The paper also takes great delight that it coined the term ‘Prince of Broadcast’ for the BBC chief engineer Peter Eckersley, so much so that it repeats this fact at the end of the report.       


With the front page boldly proclaiming Hull’s Hullo to England the station opening was hailed as an “epoch making event in city life” as four million and three thousand people heard the ceremony. The four million were “listening in” whilst the odd three thousand were inside the building.  

Here’s what it had to say about the opening concert:

On the stroke of 8 o’clock Mr Leslie Page, the Director of Broadcasting for the Hull Relay Station, stepped towards the front of the platform and, in a quiet voice, which was probably more audible to people listening-in  in their own parlours than to those at the back of the City Hall, announced:

“Hello, Hull Relay Station calling. Just commencing. The first items will be the Imperial March (Elgar) and the overture William Tell (Rossini), by the Band of the 1st Durham Light Infantry.

These words carried in all directions for a five-mile radius around the City Hall, announced the commencement of the serious work of 6KH.

The playing of the band was full of enjoyment, a fact that was testified to by the loud applause.

What strange visions passed through our minds as that thunder of applause burst forth.

We saw listeners-in all over Hull saying excitedly, “Listen to that applause. Isn’t it remarkable?”

We saw the man with his £25 set, in a beautiful cabinet, seated in a comfortably furnished room, “listening-in”.

We saw the garret listener on the top floor back with “the set that cost 4s 2d, plus 1s 6d aerial, a pair of ‘phones which cost 12s 6d and wire wrapped round a goal post arrangement in the attic – “listening-in”. Both, no doubt, heard the same band and marvelled at the same applause. As both paid precisely the same price to hear the concert, we hoped they both enjoyed it equally well.   

We were aroused from this dream of listening-in, both great and small, by the voice of Mr Leslie Page. “Hello, Hull Relay Station Calling!”. Mr Norman Allin, the well-known bass was announced. He sang with a beauty of expression and tone, the recit and air She alone charmeth my sadness from The Queen of Sheba (Gaunod), Old cloths and fine cloths (Martin Shaw) and The Yeoman of the Guard from German’s Merrie England.

Mr Charles Penrose, the ‘mirth-maker’, came to the stage in a tornado of laughter. He explained that he was suffering from “laughteritis”, the most awful of all the “itises”, and proceeded to demonstrate its contagious character. He laughed so heartily and so loudly that the audience could not help but join in.

Again our vision of the “listener-in” returned. Again we saw the laughing listener in the lavish parlour. Again we saw the excited enthusiast on the end of the wire in the garret. It was good that somebody not able to get to this great concert was able to enjoy the great fun that we were enjoying. What they missed, however, was the face of Charles Penrose, and, quite candidly it was a lot to miss”

“Hull Relay Station calling – “

The band of the 1st Durham had just finished Tchaikovsky’s broad strains of the Marche Slave and the voice of the director brought us back to the scenes around us. Miss Miriam Licette was announced. Her first item was the Aria Vissi d’Arte (Tosca), which was one of the test pieces at this year’s Hull Musical Festival. Miss Licette’s singing was full of interest, her voice being one of exceptional purity and charm. Go not, happy day (Frank Bridge) and Sometimes in my dreams (Guy d’Hardelot) were other items which afforded considerable pleasure.

After the band had played other items the Director announced that there was still some time in hand. That was about 9.15 and the next item was scheduled for 9.30 pm. Accordingly Mr Penrose gave other humorous items, and a pianoforte sole was given by Mr E Stubbs, who is thus the first local artist to be broadcast by 6KH.

The opening speeches of Rear-Admiral C.D. Carpendale, CB (Controller of the BBC) and the Lord Mayor of Hull [Councillor E.E. Keighley, JP] who performed the opening ceremony, were broadcast to all stations in the British Isles.

“Hull Relay Station calling the British Isles”, commenced the Rear-Admiral. “I open our new station in this city. It may be peculiar that I, as a stranger, should come here to introduce your own Lord Mayor, but I hope you will forgive me what I say that besides this vast audience here, there are about four million people listening to these speeches.”

Proceeding, he said that on this very day, August 15th, he was in Hull as a mid-shipman in HMS Ruby, the old sailing ship, barque-rigged, with auxiliary steam. He was then 15 years of age. This was the 15th broadcast station the BBC had opened. (Applause).

“For the benefit of those listening in outside,” he remarked, “i would like to describe the scene or, so to speak, ring up the curtain. I am speaking in the City Hall, Hull. Before me is a vast audience. The house is packed. There is standing room only. On the stage, behind artistic floral decorations, are the band of the 1st Durham Light Infantry, seated beneath the huge organ pipes. On the platform beside me is the Lord Mayor, the Lady Mayoress, and other prominent citizens of Hull.“

He went on to speak of the unavoidable absence of Mr Reith (BBC managing director) and Capt. Eckersley, the chief engineer, whom the Hull Daily Mail had properly christened ‘The Prince of Broadcast’. The latter had gone on a holiday on the moors, taking a gun, ostensibly to shoot grouse, but he (the speaker) believed he was after some of the oscillators in the neighbourhood of the northern stations (laughter). 

These relay stations would normally take the whole of the London evening programmes except one night a week when they would take a local programme. There would also, locally, be the children’s hour daily, and the Hull station would be in a position to broadcast any local or civic events of particular interest to Hull and the neighbourhood, and it would take from any other station in the country any events considered of sufficient interest to be broadcast. It was the object of the BBC to bring to the people of Hull and district entertainment, interest and information.

Mr Page, as the Station Director, would remain in Hull, and he hoped he would have their sincere and helpful co-operation (applause).

The Lord Mayor said he thought that for the first time in his life he was suffering from stage fright. It was not the audience he saw, but the millions of people outside who were frightening him (laughter).

His Lordship referred to the death of Lord Nunburnholme, and, at his request, the audience stood in memory.

The Lord Mayor went on to congratulate the BBC on opening a station at Hull, and in bearing in mind that it was really Kingston-upon-Hull. He was glad, he said, that they realised the present and future importance of the city and port, the merits of which, for the benefit of “listeners-in”, he went on to describe.

His lordship struck a novel note when he addressed a few remarks to friends in various towns he named whom, he said, he knew would be listening-in.

“This is Ernest Keighley speaking,” he remarked, “and for the moment and the next two months I am honoured by holding the position of Lord Mayor of Kingston-upon-Hull. When Relay Station 6KH is calling you, you will know it means Hull. Will the lady “listeners-in” accept my loving and respectful greetings.”

His lordship concluded by declaring the Relay Station opened and thanked the BBC for devoting the proceeds of the opening concert to the local Hospitals Fund.

The band gave several other items before “closing down” time.

Owing to a slight fault the London signals were not received at the City hall, but private listeners-in received them perfectly through the Hull Relay Station. Much pleasure was caused by the announcement.

General opinion amongst those who were listening-in in Hull is that while reception was good, it could have been better. It was not that anything was missed, but that over all there was a buzzing singing hum, which many wireless enthusiast declared was the noise of the dynamo at the Hull Relay Station, whilst there was also an echo effect from the hall which will not cause any trouble, of course, when transmission is made from the studio. Where the London items were relayed shortly after ten o’clock, there was a marked clarity of reception as compared to the Hull broadcast.

Apart from this slight fault, which it may be possible to rectify, listeners-in were perfectly satisfied with the strength of signals, and thoroughly enjoyed the programme.

Many people not fortunate enough to possess sets of their own clustered round wireless dealers’ shops to hear the demonstrations on the loud speaker and today every other person in Hull is talking wireless.

In apologising to the vast audience in the City Hall, on Friday night, at the official opening of 6KH, the Hull Relay Station, for the absence of Mr J.C.W. Reith (the managing director of the British Broadcasting Company) and of Capt. P.P. Eckersley, M.I.E.E. (the chief engineer), Rear-Admiral Carpendale, C.B. spoke of Capt. Eckersley (to the accompaniment of tumultuous applause) as he “whom Hull has recently and most properly christened ‘The Prince of Broadcast’.

This was a reference to the Mail Leading Article commenting on the reception accorded to the famous and illustrious wireless engineer and pioneer, which was published on the day following his lecture to the Hull and District Wireless Society in the Owen Hall, a little more than a fortnight ago.        

In addition to the front page article the paper’s editorial article was headed ‘The Romance of Broadcast’, a somewhat self-congratulatory piece which gave a history of wireless broadcasting in the UK and talked about how the Hull Daily Mail had “with pardonable pride .... exerted no inconsiderable amount of influence in obtaining for local patrons of the science a Relay Station”. The newspaper had for some time ran a regular Radio Remarks column written by ‘Valve’ and, it claimed, it had “consistently adopted the policy of fostering wireless and encouraging the local amateurs”.

Amongst that estimated four million listeners-in it’s hard to know how many Hull folk tuned in. We do know that some of them were listening were doing so without a 10s licence. A couple of weeks after the launch about 7,000 licences had been issued but, according to local dealers, about 10,000 sets had been sold.  

At the same time those tuning-in were also advised to ensure that their “houses are securely fastened up” before the evening broadcasts. After the opening weekend “a crop of burglaries in the better-class districts of Hull” was reported with burglars realising that people were concentrating on the wireless.

Uncle Gerry Kaye (not Jerry), Aunty Ida Edwards & Uncle Leslie Page
(Popular Wireless 4 October 1924)

So what could listeners to 6KH hear? Aside from the simultaneous broadcast of London programmes for the first few weeks of its existence locally produced broadcasts were confined to a daily Children’s Corner and, on Friday nights, a concert or orchestral performance.

All the BBC stations had their own version of Children’s Hour, or Children’s Corner in Hull, and it was always seen as one of the key programme and a means of engaging with a young audience who were encouraged to write in, join the Radio Circle (6) and even come into the studio to read a story or sing a song. At 6KH Children’s Corner was the both the first regular programme to be broadcast (on Saturday 16 August) and the last one when regular programmes ended in October 1928. The presenters were always referred to as ‘Aunty’ or ‘Uncle’ with many of the staff roped in to present, read or sing. So, for example, we have the station director as Uncle Leslie, the assistant director Gerald Kaye as Uncle Gerry, station accompanist Ida Edwards as Aunty Ida and, organising the Radio Circle, former Army Chaplain Rev. Reginald Newcombe as Uncle Reg.  (7)

The Radio Circle for Hull was divided into five districts, each one having an area committee of ten children, with a secretary. The Circle espoused the “spirit of usefulness, service, and social responsibility” and to help good causes such as the Children’s Hospital.  Apparently to help them get to know each other they were told to form 'chummy circles’.

A typical Children’s Corner would include the following (this from 23 September 1925);

Nursery Rhymes for the Little Ones

Uncle Morris’s Talk on Gardens

Two Little Sons – Aunty Miriam

Radio Circle Talk

A Funny Song by Uncle Tom

A Suite of Olden Time Songs

Letters    

From late September 1924 6KH’s hours were extended with Woman’s Half-Hour and afternoon music relayed from the Majestic Picture House featuring Robert Jackson and his Orchestra or from the City Hotel with Claude Duval’s Dance Orchestra. By February 1925 some of the broadcasts were replaced by what is simply billed as Gramophone Records.

The 1st floor studio in Bishop Lane
(Popular Wireless 18 October 1924)

Short talks were added in November 1924 though at first they mainly seemed to consist of Boy Scouts Talks. Friday evening weekly football talks started in October 1925, often given by J. G. Stephens. There were also occasional broadcasts of comedic sketches written by John Birch with the fictional character of Mrs Thirtlewhistle who spoke with a West Riding dialect and her husband Joshua Thirtlewhistle who spoke with an East Riding dialect. .

The Friday night locally produced programmes started to include short drama adaptations (some performed by the acting duo of William Macready and Edna Godfrey-Turner), comedy routines, vocal groups such as The Chromatiques quartet and local singers Winifred Ransom (soprano), Phyllis Hutchinson (contralto) and Edwin Draper (bass) who would also sometimes perform together as the 6KH Wireless Singers.  

Memories of appearing on 6KH recalled by Mira B. Johnson for a 
BBC Radio Humberside programme broadcast in August 1978

By April 1925 a half hour schools programme was broadcast, scheduled at 3.30 pm on a Friday afternoon. The first series of talks, on local history, was given by Thomas Sheppard curator of the Hull Museum. That month also an impromptu broadcast of the opening of the Hull Daily Mail sponsored Wireless and Electrical Exhibition at Hull City Hall (a “Mecca for Wireless Lovers” with admission at 6d a ticket).  

By the summer of 1925, as well as music from Hull’s Majestic Picture House (8) there were afternoon performances by Herman Darewski and his Band from The Spa, Bridlington (Darewski  was the resident musical director at The Spa) and, through until October 1926, from Powolny’s Restaurant Bijou Orchestra under the direction of Edward Stubbs.(9)  Later that year the regular contributors were the Hammond Cafe Trio and, from the cafe on King Edward Street, the Field’s Octagon Quartet. For a broadcast to mark the station’s second anniversary one of the guests was comedian Tommy Handley, some 13 years before the success of I.T.M.A.   

There were no local programmes on Sundays though the Radio Times schedules show the occasional monthly religious service on that day, billed as Studio Service, at 8.30 pm.


Perhaps one of the most unusual programmes were the Radiosities competitions on Children’s Corner. The idea was that Uncle Ern, who was Hull-born cartoonist Ernest Shaw (pictured above), would broadcast “simple instructions which, carried out on a specially prepared chart, will result in a humorous drawing appearing on the squared design”.  On the evening of 1 December 1926 there was even a Radiosities Competition for the adult audience with the addition that the entries should add the missing line for a limerick referring to the cartoon. Each entry needed a 6d postal order with the proceeds going to the Christmas Dinner for the Poor Bairns’ Fund    

If Peter Eckersley was the ‘Prince of Broadcast’ he was also the architect of the demise of the relay stations with the implementation of the Regional scheme. The Regional programme was seen to offer listeners an alternative to what would become the National programme and “for building five high-powered twin-wave stations...to supersede the older system of nine main transmitting stations and eleven subsidiary relay stations of low power”. It was Eckersley’s brother Roger, then the Assistant Controller of Programmes, who axed the ‘local nights’ at the relay stations and followed a policy of centralization and advocating the supremacy of programming from London.

So by early 1927 the BBC was scaling back the local programming on its relay stations. Hull’s full evening of local entertainment programmes was dropped and live music seemed confined to the Field’s Quartet. (10) More talks were in the schedule at this time including the Afternoon Topics, Country Topics, the Hull Wireless Society (given by Secretary of the society J.G. Brazendale), the Beverley and District Bee-Keepers’ Association as well as the Weekly Football Talk. 

Hull Daily Mail cartoon for 6KH's 2nd birthday.
(1) Ida Edwards (2) station orchestra conductor Edwin Stubbs(3) chief engineer F.N. Calver (4) Leslie Page (5) guest comedian Tommy Handley (6) Gerald Kaye

There was a major broadcast from 6KH that was heard across the country on 28 April 1928 on the occasion of the visit by the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother) to lay the Foundation Stone at Hull University. The BBC sent up their director of education, J.C. Stobart, to provide the commentary.

Regular programmes from 6KH ended in October 1928. Earlier that year control of the programmes had already transferred to the new northern regional centre at Manchester. In June the Radio Times stopped listings for the station by which time the only regular locally produced programmes was Children’s Corner, one series of talks and the local announcements and news. Children’s Corner continued from the Bishop Lane studio until Wednesday 31 October. Any remaining ‘Aunties’ and ‘Uncles’ were offered jobs at Leeds and the station director Captain Shewen left for Manchester.   

6KH Staff include engineer RH Lyne, chief engineer FN Calver (not Carver) and
station boss Leslie Page. (Unable to trace who Bulov and Howie are)  

But that wasn’t the end of 6KH. The transmitter continued to relay programmes from London, Leeds or Manchester until 17 May 1931, by which time the new northern region site at Moorside Edge was operational.  The studio at Bishop Lane also continued to be used, if only occasionally, but appears to have been dismantled, reverting back to solicitor’s offices, sometime in late 1930.

Programmes from Hull in this period included a section of the Northern Bands and Choirs (November 1928), a play for Boy Scouts (December 1928), a number of concerts in early 1929, a comedy in three acts that included music from the ‘Hull Station Trio’, a visit to Hull Guildhall by the High Commissioner for New Zealand (March 1928), a service from Holy Trinity Church (April 1929), and summer music broadcasts from the Spa Theatre in Scarborough in the Famous Northern Resorts series.

In October 1929 there was an ‘eye-witness account’ of the International Rugby League match between England and Australia played at Craven Park with commentary by former England manager Edmund Osborne. (11) That same month saw the last major broadcast from Hull when they covered the city’s Civic and Empire Week, opened by HRH Prince George, of which the speeches at the Lord Mayor’s banquet were carried by all stations.    

The aerial at Lion Mills on Wincolmlee

With the introduction of the Regional Programme for the north in May 1931 that was the end of local broadcasting, at least by the BBC, from Hull for forty years until BBC Radio Humberside launched on 25 February 1971.

But there’s a postscript to this story because with the closure of 6KH Hull still had another relay station. In October 1928 the City Council gave approval to the Broadcast Relay Service Ltd to “convey wires across roads where it is necessary to do so.” The following January the company started to roll-out what would be their Rediffusion service. Initially it was just one channel carrying BBC radio but it also added some continental stations, usually Hilversum and a second channel, with customer advised to ‘switch up’ for Programme A and ‘switch down’ for Programme B. The service, at the time based on Anlaby Road, was said to offer “the same clarity as if you were sitting in the front row of the audience of a BBC studio” and to have “no fadeouts, no crackling or whistling”. (12)

Post-war the number of channels gradually increased to include not only the BBC networks but Radio Eireann and Radio Luxembourg and, from 1956 by which time it was based at Rediffusion House on Beverley Road , BBC and ITV television.

Mainly Rediffusion was just relaying other broadcasts but it did also originate some of its own output though this was limited to local announcements including some rather ominous sounding flood warnings.  The Rediffusion channel rotary switches would become a familiar sight in Hull households, and no doubt many still exist but the plug was pulled on the service in 1986 at which time Hull had 48,000 subscribers.   

26-27 Bishop Lane in 2024 after a recent refurb and the 6KH plaque
seems to have been removed. (Photo credit Richard Stead)

Notes

(1) It’s not clear why the call sign was changed from 2HU just weeks before the start. 2HU was at one point assigned to F. Sargent of Wellington Street in Grimsby.

(2) The BBC leased the premises at 26-27 Bishop Lane on a yearly rental of £150 plus rates. There was also a second floor with a large room to the front. Other than that it seems to have been favoured by solicitors, occupied by F.C. Manley  before the BBC came in and Martinson & Stow  when they left in the early 1930s and then Wright & Stow in the 1970s.

(3) The chimney has long since gone and all that remains of the oil seed crushing mill is the Lion Wharf building on Wincolmlee

(4) Reception for 6KH always seemed to be problematic. When it closed in 1931 the Hull Daily Mail noted that “the present Hull wavelength being common one is only effective within a radius of two to three miles for crystal sets, while to valve sets it is somewhat of nuisance because of the noisy background and dynamo hum.

(5) In 6KH’s short life there were three station directors. Appointed in July 1924 was Leslie Page who’d been the assistant director at the Bournemouth station. He’d joined the BBC in March 1923 as assistant station director at 2LO, moving to Cardiff in July as assistant to Arthur Corbett-Smith and then Bournemouth in January 1924. Page left Hull in February 1927 to work for the Indian Broadcasting Company.

Second, and showing how the early BBC liked to employ ex-military types, was New Zealander Captain George Dailey who joined Hull from Newcastle. Finally, Captain William Mansel Shewan who’d been the 6KH assistant director from February 1926 to March 1928 before taking up a job at the Manchester station. He was back at Hull as director in August 1928 but by the November it was off back to Manchester.

(6) The Radio Circle was described in the press at the time as “a wireless organisation for children, at the back which lies the excellent principle of encouraging spirit of usefulness, service, and social responsibility”. The BBC’s 1928 Year Book says that “Membership of a Radio Circle carries with it the right to wear a special badge, and in some cases it confers the privilege of receiving Broadcast birthday greetings”.

(7) Other Aunts and Uncles included Uncle Tom (Tom Witty), Aunty Miriam (Miriam Ditchburn), Uncle George (George Dailey), Uncle Morris, Aunty Connie (Constance Richards, later Arregger), Aunty Grace and Uncle Toby (Harvey John Dunkerley, assistant director at the Liverpool station who briefly worked at 6KH in 1925. In the 1950s he was the BBC's Midland Region Controller). Gerald Kaye moved on to 6BM in Bournemouth.  

(8) The Majestic Picture House on George Street opened in 1915. After a sound system refit in 1935 it became the Criterion Picture Theatre. It was demolished in 1969.

(9) Powolny’s Restaurant had opened in Hull in 1903. It was named after German émigré Ernst Adolf Powolny who established a restaurant in Leeds. The Hull branch was in King Edward Street and by the 1920s had a ballroom on the first floor from where the broadcasts were made. Polly’s, as it became known, came to an end when it suffered a direct hit from a bomb on 8 May 1941. A Powolny’s Restaurant did re-open at the White House Hotel on Jameson Street the following year.  

(10) The Friday night local programmes shifted to a Wednesday in January 1926.

 (11) This seems to be the first international Rugby League commentary on the BBC. The only previous ones were of the Challenge Cup Final.

(12) Rediffusion started 157 Anlaby Road – where by 1934 they had 70,000 subscribers - then 94 Spring Bank and from January 1946 Paragon Buildings, Jameson Street with showroom at Spring Bank. They moved to 151/159 Beverley Road in 1953. By this time the company also rented television sets as well as offering BBC programmes by ‘private wire’. The number of showrooms expanded mainly to satisfy the demand for rental sets.   

Sources: Hull Daily Mail back issues at The British Newspaper Archive. Radio Times listings on the BBC Programme Index. BBC Engineering 1922-1972 by Edward Pawley. The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume 1 The Birth of Broadcasting 1986-1927 by Asa Briggs

Thursday 4 July 2024

Elections on the Third

Aside from the news bulletins you can pretty much escape the General Election ballyhoo on BBC Radio 3. But that wasn’t always the case.

One of the now forgotten pieces of radio broadcasting is, I suspect, the full reading of all the election results, aside from a few stragglers or recounts, on the Third Programme and Radio 3. Over two or three hours a couple or so continuity announcers would read out the results in alphabetic order of constituency. This service was a feature of BBC radio election coverage in the 1960s and 1970s. It ended with the 1979 election after which time if you wanted to know the full list of results you could check out CEEFAX. (1)   

In the 1950s any BBC radio election programmes were shared between the Home Service and Light Programme. But for the 1959 election the BBC also used the daytime wavelengths of the Third Programme, known as Network Three, from 10 am on the Friday to carry “results as they become available with summaries of the state of the parties every fifteen minutes”.

For the October 1964 election all three national networks offered something different overnight. On the Home Service How the Nation Polled presented by Hardiman Scott, on the Light Election Night Music Till Dawn with Tim Gudgin and on the Third Programme from 11.10 pm to about 3.30 am the Election Results in Full. This was just a straight reporting service read by announcers David Broomfield, Andrew Gemmill and John Spurling.


The March 1966 election saw the same arrangement with the same presenters and this time David Broomfield, Andrew Gemmill and Roy Williamson reading the full results. As the Radio Times described it the Home was ‘fastest’, the Light ‘gayest’ and the Third ‘fullest’.

June 1970 and Hardiman Scott, now promoted to be the BBC’s first Political Editor, was back on Radio 4 but with Ray Moore and Peter Donaldson doing the honours on Radio 2 with Night Ride to Westminster. Meanwhile over on Radio 3 the overnight service had been dropped in favour of a full reading of the results between 7 and 9 am the following morning, this time read by Peter Latham and Peter Barker. This made it a little easier for listeners to know when their own constituency was coming up. The Radio Times explained: ‘for easy reference, Radio 3 offers this special service of all the overnight election results, broadcast in alphabetical order, and divided into approximate time-sequences. Listeners wishing to know particular results can thus tell roughly when they will be coming up. While unavoidably a particular sequence may run beyond its time allotment, for listeners' convenience none will start before the times given.’

In February 1974 it was yet again Hardiman Scott on Radio 4 whilst Radio 2’s Night Ride was hosted by Len Jackson, Eugene Fraser and Jimmy Kingsbury. Reading the results on Radio 3 on Friday morning were Peter Barker and Patricia Hughes.

1974 was the year of two elections so in October it was, for the final time, Hardiman Scott and then Len Jackson and Don Durbridge doing the Radio2 honours.  The task of reading the Radio 3 results fell to Peter Barker, Patricia Hughes and John Holmstrom. 


And finally in May 1979 it was all change. Radio 4’s Countdown to Number Ten was presented by Brian Redhead and Radio 2’s by Jimmy Young.(2) Meanwhile the morning results service was now extended to three hours and on Radio 3 medium wave only. The Radio Times doesn’t bill the announcers but my notes list Peter Barker, Patricia Hughes and John Holmstrom. That 10 am end time was something of an approximation as the broadcast didn’t actually end until 11.10 am. (3)

(1) CEEFAX was available in 1979 but only for an estimated 50,000 viewers. For many sets it was still necessary to buy a decoder costing over £200. From 1974 the results started to be shown on BBC2 on the Friday morning. From 1987 BBC2 showed the CEEFAX results service.  

(2) Brian Redhead would present the Radio 4 overnight coverage again in 1983, 1987 and 1992 before James Naughtie assumed the role in 1997. Jimmy Young, often paired with Brian Curtois, was in charge of Radio 2’s service until his final election duty in June 2001.

(3) I didn’t record any of this final results reading though I’m pretty sure I’ve heard a clip from either it or one of the earlier programmes so I’m guessing some of it must exist in Sound Archives.

Monday 1 July 2024

Election Night with Arthur

 


If you watching what is sure to be an exciting night of election results coverage this week and you opt for BBC One, then you might like to know that Arthur is back. I am at this point obliged to say that other election night programmes are available on television and radio (see note).

So who or what is Arthur? It’s the track that’s been used as the opening theme for the Beeb’s election results programmes since 1979. Written by Rick Wakeman it’s the first track on his 1975 album The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

The BBC first used Arthur for their Decision 79 programme with David Dimbleby on 3 May 1979. It cropped up again in 1983, 1987, 1992, 1997 and 2005 but was dropped in 2001, 2010, 2015 and 2017. Arthur was back in 2019 with a David Lowe make-over and David has arranged it again for the 2024 version.


Needless to say, as this is a radio blog, there is also a radio connection and that’s because Arthur falls into that rare category of theme tune, one that has done double duty and been used for more than one programme. In the case of Arthur it was also the theme for the four-part radio comedy Hordes of the Things, a 1980 parody of Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings written by Andrew Marshall and John Lloyd.

Here’s how it started:


There are some other notable pieces of music that fall into this category. Off the top of my head I came up with these:

The Alan Hawkshaw library track Chicken Man for both Grange Hill and Give Us a Clue

John Dankworth’s Beefeaters for Rediffusion TV’s 1964  series Search for a Star was later appropriated by Tony Blackburn

More library music, this time Bell Hop which has done double sitcom duty for both Terry and June (BBC1) and Never Too Late (Radio 4)

The wonderful The Hell Raisers by Syd Dale was originally used for Rediffusion’s Orlando (1965-68) and, in the 1970s for the World Service news programme Outlook

Note

The radio election night coverage includes:

BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live with Rachel Burden and Nick Robinson

LBC with Andrew Marr, Shelagh Fogarty, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall

Times Radio with Matt Chorley, Andrew Neil, Kate McCann, William Hague, Ayesha Hazarika, Ed Vaizey and Calum Macdonald

Radio News Hub with Jonathan Charles via NewsRadioUK.com

Saturday 1 June 2024

A Sideways Look at D-Day

 


For the duration of the Second World War the teenage Anthony Smith looked upon the unfolding events with “belligerent glee”. He recalls how they never questioned the “unity of purpose” or “the rightness of the cause”. It was only a post-war visit to Germany that brought him to the realization that the war demonstrated how easy it was for “one bunch of people to be fired headlong at another bunch of people even though each of them knows next to nothing about the other”.

Between 1977 and 1989 writer, broadcaster, adventurer and balloonist Anthony Smith gave over 200 talks for BBC Radio 4 under the title A Sideways Look. These were 15 minute single-authored talks, a radio form that pretty much disappeared when Letter from America ended.  They were on a whole variety of subjects, some such as this D-Day broadcast were serious in tone, others more frivolous. The series was described as “a new look at issues, topics and everyday happenings that we tend to take for granted”.


After Anthony Smith’s service with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve that he refers to in this talk, he continued his education at Oxford before working as a reporter for The Guardian and later The Daily Telegraph. From 1953 he also appeared on dozens of radio and tv programmes including The World of Books (Home Service) and Tomorrow’s World (BBC1). Smith wrote 31 books on subjects ranging from human anatomy, natural history and exploration. His best-selling book was The Body which led to a 1970 film and later the 1998 BBC series The Human Body.

He travelled widely and listed amongst his exploits the claim to be the first to fly a balloon in East Africa (1962) and, the following year, the first Briton to fly over the European Alps. His name turns up in film credits including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang where he is listed as the consultant for the Ken Adam designed Vulgarian airship which Smith flew for the film. In this eighties he decided to build a raft out of pipes and sail it across the Atlantic. He died in 2014 aged 88.

This edition of A Sideways Look on the subject of the 40th anniversary of D-Day was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 5 June 1984.

 A Sideways Look at ...

First broadcast: Tuesday 10 May 1977

Last broadcast: Saturday 11 March 1989

For the first year the editions were billed in the Radio Times with the subject matter of the talk. They were: Dangerous Animals, British Genius, Smoking, Peking Zoo, Safety, Birds, Europlugs, NHS, Age, Forests, VAT, Women, Athletics, Talking to Strangers, the Price of Life and Limb, the Tower of Babel, Notice Boards,

29 of the talks were published in 1983 by Unwin Paperbacks

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