Flying Doctor calling Wallamboola base

Australia's Royal Flying Doctor Service owes its existence to a forward thinking Presbyterian minister, a young airman and the inventor of the first commercial combine harvester. The service, now in its 91st year, has stimulated writers and film producers to tell stories of medical emergencies but with the added bonus of aeroplanes rather than ambulances and set against the backdrop of the Australian Outback.   

It was the Reverend John Flynn (pictured left) who, in 1911, on a posting to a remote mission in South Australia, was struck by the lack of nearby medical facilities. The inspiration for a medical service of the air came in the form of a letter to Flynn sent in 1917 by a Lieutenant Clifford Peel, a former medical student and at that time a pilot for the Australian Flying Corps. His proposal was to use aeroplanes to ferry the sick and injured. 

The Rev Flynn continued to campaign for an airborne service for the next decade but it didn't become a reality until he received a generous bequest to be used for "an aerial experiment" from the Australian industrialist and inventor Hugh McKay. McKay is credited with inventing and manufacturing the first commercially viable mechanical combine harvester and he set up the Sunshine Harvester Company to produce this and other machinery. Flynn had already teamed up with QANTAS founder Hudson Fysh to get his idea off the ground, so to speak, but the influx of  funds allowed him to properly establish the Australian Inland Mission Aerial Medical Service. By 1942 it was known as the Flying Doctor Service and received the Royal prefix in 1955 following a tour of Australia the previous year by Queen Elizabeth II.

When it came to stories based on the service first out of the hangar was a 1936 Australia/UK co-production film The Flying Doctor starring Charles Farrell and Mary Maguire. It was shot at the short-lived Pagewood studios in Sydney by National Productions with financial and technical support from Gaumont-British Pictures. For many years the  film was considered to be lost, or at least missing its final reel, until it was unearthed during the demolition of the Figtree Film Studios.           

It was two decades later that BBC radio decided commission a series set around the Flying Doctor service, more on that in a moment.

Meanwhile, inspired by the radio programme, British television got in on the act with a Sunday night series of 39 programmes airing on ITV in 1959 and 1960. The Flying Doctor was an Associated British Picture Corporation production for ATV filmed at Elstree and on location in Australia. It starred American actor Richard Denning as Dr Greg Graham, a US medic on leave from a San Francisco research institute who takes over the duties of a blind doctor colleague (played by Peter Maddern).On hand was nurse Mary Meredith, played by Jill Adams and pilot Charley Wood played by the only Australian in the main cast, Alan White.     

The story of the Reverend John Flynn himself was told in an 8-part series on the Light Programme in 1963. Simply titled Flynn, the dramatised account by Rex Rienits starred New Zealand actor Walter Brown.

BBC television took up the story of Flynn and the Flying Doctor service in two series of 5-minute readings that went out on Sunday teatime in November/December 1967 and April/May 1968. Read by Aussie actor Vincent Ball as part of the Sunday Story strand, the first four episodes titled Flynn of the Inland told Flynn's story whilst the second five, Tales of the Inland, looked at other pioneers of the service.

It was the mid-80s before medical tales of the Outback resurfaced in the form of a long running (over 200 episodes from 1986 to 1993) series from Crawford Productions titled The Flying Doctors. It was headed by an all-Australian main cast that included Andrew MacFarlane, Liz Burch, Lenore Smith, Robert Grubb, Lewis Fitz-Gerald and Peter O'Brien. Set in the fictional town of Cooper's Crossing the programme had a more soap opera feel to it, romance amongst the medics was just as important as the medical emergencies. The series cashed in on a boom in Australian produced soaps such as Neighbours, Sons and Daughters, The Young Doctors and A Country Practice.    

In the UK the initial mini-series was shown on Channel 4 but BBC1 picked up the main ongoing series in 1988 and continued to show it until 1997, some four years after production had ceased. All the episodes are available on DVD.

"Flying Doctor calling Wallamboola base" became something of a catchphrase for anyone listening to the BBC Light Programme series that ran from 1958 to 1963. The Flying Doctor was written by the Australian writer Rex Rex Rienits and proved to be a very popular show, clocking up six series and over 120 episodes.

Rex Rientis had arrived in the UK on the back of some research work he undertaken for the 1949 Ealing Films production of Eureka Stockade, the story of a rebellion in 1854 by old miners in Victoria, Australia. Rex wrote or adapted a number of radio drama serials for BBC radio during the 1950s before being asked to pull together a series set around the Flying Doctor service.

Set in the fictional town of Wallamboola the main character was an English doctor, Chris Rogers, played by Scottish actor James McKechnie. Writing in the Radio Times ahead of the second series Rientis described the lead character as "the son of a small suburban shopkeeper, which means he has had to learn his job the hard way, through scholarship, part-time work and countless hours of sheer hard study. On first impact, most Australians found Chris a little too dedicated and serious-minded; and he found most Australians a little too casual and easy-going. But all that is straightening out now. Mutual understanding has brought mutual liking and respect, and discerning listeners may even note that nowadays a slight touch of Australian slang is apt to creep into Chris's speech." 

Assisting Rogers was nurse Jane Hudson, the daughter of a wealthy Sydney industrialist. "Jane likes to dance, she dresses better than most nurses can afford, she is good at sports - particularly tennis - and her fast, red sports car is the pride and terror of the district". Nurse Hudson was played by June Brunell, who like most of the cast apart from the lead, were all from Oz. However, from the third series in 1960 the main nurse role went to New Zealand actress Rosemary Miller as Mary West. Miller was already well-known as playing Nurse Pat Roberts in ATV's Emergency Ward 10 and by the time she left the soap and joined The Flying Doctor was married to actor Peter Hawkins of Bill and Ben fame.   

The pilot for the Flying Doctor service was Tommy O'Donnell played by Bill Kerr, at the time still acting as Hancock's dim-witted sidekick in Hancock's Half-Hour. O'Donnell learnt to fly as part of the R.A.A.F as a sergeant pilot. His sense of humour is "irrepressible, his conversation is racy, and he admits to two weaknesses - girls and very cold beer."

The series gave plenty of work to many Australian actors, some long resident in the UK, including Bettina Dickson (as radio operator Sally MacAndrew), Ed Devereaux, Lloyd Lamble, Russell Napier, Ray Barrett, Kenneth J. Warren, Maurice Travers, Trader Faulkner, Brenda Dunrich, Shirley Cameron, John Warwick, Charles Rolfe, Aileen Britton and Gwen Burroughs. Some parts were picked up by members of the BBC Drama Repertory Company such as Harry Towb, Norman Shelley, Mary Wimbush and Brewster Mason.

Rientis continued to work for BBC radio during the 1960s writing more drama serials for the Light Programme and then Radio 2 including Pride of the Pacific (starring Bill Kerr as Johnny Pride, skipper of the cargo ship Cleo), Agent X09, Charter Pilot (more Bill Kerr, this time as pilot Steve McFarlane) and The Man from Snowy River. 

The Flying Doctor series, popular though it was - the "Flying Doctor calling Wallamboola base" line even appeared in The Radio Ham episode of Hancock's TV series and there was at least one Flying Doctor annual- it has never been repeated since the early 60s. BBC Sound Archives retained just five programmes in the rather random way they were prone to do. It seems that the BBC Transcription Service issued a grand total of 54 episodes, just under half the total output, of which about 30 are known to have survived. However, no copies are known to be circulating amongst collectors and old-time radio enthusiasts.

So here is a plea. If you chance upon this blog post and you have in your possession, or know of any, off-air recordings of The Flying Doctor radio series please let me know. Alternatively see this post on the Missing Episodes forum, link here.   

The Flying Doctor

All broadcast on BBC Light Programme with some repeats on BBC Home Service

Series 1: 11 episodes July-September 1958

Series 2: 26 episodes March-September 1959 

Series 3: 27 episodes March-September 1960

Christmas Special: December 1960

Series 4: 23 episodes January-June 1961

Christmas Special: December 1961

Series 5: 20 episodes March-July 1962

Series 6: 13 episodes October-November 1963

Retained in BBC Sound Archives: s02e02 The City Orchid, s02e03 SOS for Baldy, s03e10 The Comeback, s03e15 The Rat Trap and s05e02 The Filibuster

 

London Calling - December 1983

A glimpse into the past to a time when the BBC World Service provided a full schedule of news, current affairs, sport, comedy, music and drama. These are the pages from the monthly magazine London Calling for December 1983 complete with listings and frequency guides.

There are some much missed music shows here: Anything Goes with Bob Holness, John Peel, Jazz for the Asking with Peter Clayton, classical music with Edward Greenfield and Gordon Clyde, and DLT's A Jolly Good Show.

The drama on offer includes productions under the Play of the Week and Radio Theatre banner specially commissioned for the World Service under the head of drama Gordon House. Some such as Puss in Boots and Detective had previously been heard on Radio 4. Some ex-Radio 3 programmes also surface: A Closer Look with poet Vernon Scannell and David Munrow's landmark series Pied Piper.

You could also learn English through the lyrics of pop songs in the frankly bizarre Pedagogical Pop. Sadly there are few examples of the programme floating around the web but they're well worth a listen.

Remarkably some programmes from this month are available to 'listen again' on the World Service website. There are about a dozen December 1983 editions of the arts magazine Meridian (over 2,000 in total), with this one presented by Jim Hiley looking at the music of Abba and the latest Bond film. The theme tune for Meridian by the way is Dave Grusin's Mountain Dance. I know this as a couple of years ago I received a query about it from a chap in Seattle. Correspondence from the States about World Service programmes. It's like being Margaret Howard on Letterbox!       

Happiness and Tears

I only saw Ken Dodd live on stage once. It was the early seventies on a family holiday in Scarborough. The Futurist Theatre was full of laughter that evening. I'm not sure that I'd ever seen my parents laugh so much before or since. Doddy was certainly building his much-famed bridge to his audience that night. Even at that tender age I still recall that certain frisson amongst the audience when they realised they were in for a long session. Would we be able to get back into our holiday apartment in Chatsworth Gardens before the front door was locked? The Yorkshire audience got value for money that night.

At the time for us kids in the audience Ken Dodd was best known for performing with his Diddymen and as a souvenir of the show and that holiday my sister Vanessa and were each treated to a model of a Diddyman. Could've been Dickie Mint, but I'm hazy on that detail. It remained on my bedroom window sill until one day he got knocked off and lost his foot. Even glued back together again his appeal soon faded and he was, more than likely, consigned to the loft.   

Live performances were the lifeblood of Ken Dodd. Though he made hundreds or radio and TV broadcasts from the mid-50s onwards it was his tours of the nation's theatres that kept him coming back year after year long after the regular broadcast work had all but dried up.

Ken got his first radio break, as so many did at that time, on Workers' Playtime. Touring the nation's workplaces every weekday meant the programme had a voracious appetite for seasoned and novice comedians, singers and musicians. That first show on 23 December 1954 came from the canteen of the now demolished Barton power station near Eccles with 'Cheerful' Charlie Chester, singer Carole Carr and the Jimmy Leach Organolian Quartet. He made over 20 appearances on the show as well as other guest spots on Blackpool Night and Midday Music Hall.

First starring vehicle on the North Home Service
on 16 April 1957

By 1957 Ken got his first starring show for the North Home Service in a Northern Variety Parade broadcast called What a Life. It was the start of a long association with the BBC in Manchester with producer James Casey, and later Mike Craig and Ron McDonnell. Over a dozen regular series were commissioned at intervals throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s under a variety of titles from It's Great to be Young to Doddy' Daft Half-Hour or just plain old The Ken Dodd Show.

Doddy's TV shows started in 1959 initially on the BBC and then on ABC with 'Diddy' David Hamilton as his straight man. A Sunday teatime run of Ken Dodd and the Diddymen (1969-70) is probably where I first saw him before that Scarborough show. Although regular series ended after 1977 he continued to guest star on chat shows, panel games, The Good Old Days as well as the oft-repeated An Audience with ... shows in 1994 and 2002.      

As an audio treat here's an edition of Doddy's Different Show, a 6-part Radio 2 series from 1981. Ken is back with his old producer James Casey. In the cast are Peter Wheeler, brother of Geoffrey who'd been the producer on that first Workers' Playtime show; ace impressionist Peter Goodwright who'd starred in Ken's first radio series in 1958; Welsh actor Talfryn Thomas ("Dodd's brother in denistry") a co-star in Ken's TV series for ATV and BBC1 in the early 70s and actress Marlene Sidaway who Casey had already used to work alongside Les Dawson (Our Les), Tony Brandon (The Family Brandon) and Roy Castle (Castle's on the Air). First heard on Sunday 8 November 1981 this is a recording of the Friday 13 November repeat. It's not been heard since.

Of an earlier vintage, and cropping up on Radio 4 Extra now and again, is this show from the Star Parade series. First broadcast in April 1963 it features BBC staff announcer Judith Chalmers as well as John Laurie, Cardew Robinson, Harold Berens and music from The Springfields and the BBC Revue Orchestra.     

In 2006 Doddy spoke to Ed Doolan about his life and career.

To read more about Ken Dodd I can thoroughly recommend the latest tome from Louis Barfe, a man with a deep passion and a great knowledge of 'light' entertainment. Louis's book Happiness and Tears: The Ken Dodd Story is available in hardback from all the usual outlets.            

Ken Dodd 1927-2018

The Week in Westminster

On 6 November 1929 listeners to BBC radio heard the first ever programme to analyse the workings of Parliament. The 15-minute scripted talk billed as The Week in Parliament was the first in a new series to be presented by woman MPs and aimed at women voters. In the words of its producer Marjorie Wace the notion was to have "a woman MP to give a simple explanatory talk on the week in parliament, every Wednesday morning at 10.45; a time we find most busy woman can listen best when they have their cup of tea." 

The Director of Talks, Hilda Matheson, outlined the idea behind the series: "It occurred to me that it might help to stimulate a greater interest in parliament if during the session weekly talks were given by one or two women members of Parliament who would give a simple account of the week in Westminster. I believe that this would help perhaps to bring home to listeners that they had a stake in the Government of the country and that what was done there did concern their lives and futures."

From those humble beginnings the programme, re-titled The Week in Westminster in 1930 has been running during parliamentary sessions ever since making it the world's longest running political programme.

Billing for the first talk on 6 November 1929

That first talk was given by Labour M.P. Mary Hamilton in a programme billed as "the first of a series of weekly talks on the week's proceedings in Parliament, to be given by women M.P.s. Mrs. Mary Agnes Hamilton is, of course, M.P. for Blackburn. Many listeners will remember her talks when she was the B.B.C. book critic".

Further talks in the series in the 6 week series were given by Scottish Unionist M.P. Katherine Stewart-Murray, The Duchess of Atholl and Independent M.P. Eleanor Rathbone as well as Mary Hamilton.

The series returned to the air on 5 February 1930 as The Week in Westminster again with women M.P.s Ellen Wilkinson, Lady Astor and the first Welsh woman M.P. Megan Lloyd George (who appeared on the programme up until the mid-60s) and later Gwendolen Guinness, the Countess of Iveagh, Edith Picton-Turberville and controversially, at least in retrospect, Lady Cynthia Mosley. 

Megan Lloyd George  MP was a regular for 30 years

The talks continued to be heard mid-week in the late morning with the Radio Times advocating them as primarily intended for " unemployed groups" but also commanding  "wide attention among other listeners because of its topical interest".

Throughout the thirties male MPs were increasingly heard with only Megan Lloyd-George now offering the female perspective. Amongst those appearing were William Morrison, Clement Atlee, Robert Boothby, later a stalwart of the post-war Any Questions? panel, Frederick Watkins, Richard Acland, Ronald Cartland, Wilfrid Roberts, Fred Marshall and Quintin Hogg.

With the outbreak of the Second World War The Week in Westminster took a break until May 1941 when it was re-scheduled to Saturday evenings. Lloyd-George was told to keep the programme lively as it came at "a favourite listening time immediately preceding a highspot variety programme known as Oi". [A Flanagan and Allen variety show]. One of the programmes' producers during the war was Guy Burgess who used the contacts he made with politicians and journalists to secure a job at the Foreign Office and further his Soviet spying activities.

The Week in Westminster continued on Saturday evenings for the next 25 years with over 100 MPs appearing in the studio. The pre-war rota system which limited the number of speakers in any session was abandoned after 1945 "in order to infuse new blood". However, few woman MPs were given the opportunity to broadcast with perhaps Barbara Castle being the best known of the handful that did make it. Other noteworthy names from the post-war era include Woodrow Wyatt, James Callaghan, Peter Thorneycroft, Manny Shindwell, Richard Crossman, Enoch Powell, John Profumo, Denis Healey, Tony Benn, Bill Deedes, Jeremy Thorpe, Chris Chataway, Brian Walden and Roy Hattersley.

Marking the 40th anniversary in 1969 with a special Radio 4 feature
Parliament Through the Microphone

From January 1967 producer Bernard Tate had determined a different approach "to fit in with the modern developments in current affairs reporting", probably alluding to the more rigorous reporting on programmes such as The World at One on the Home Service and BBC1's 24 Hours, both of which had started in 1965. Now the programme would, instead of a single speaker,  have "interviews and discussions by several MPs under the guidance of a political journalist or presenter". The aim remained to "give a balanced account of the week's events in Parliament" and to still be "primarily the backbenchers' programme." 

The other major change was the shift to Saturday mornings, were the programme has remained ever since. Well almost. It was shunted off to Thursday nights from April 1998 to July 1999 at the behest of incoming controller James Boyle. The proposed change of day was even mentioned in the House of Commons with a motion tabled expressing dismay and that the "change would cut the number of listeners by half and reduce the value of the programme as an over-view of the whole Parliamentary week." After further pressure from MPs and listeners alike it was moved back to Saturday.

Robert Carvel with the Rt Hon Denis Healey MP photographed for the
1988 series Carvel in Conversation. (Photo credit Getty Images)

The first presenter under the new format was Ian Waller, political correspondent at the Sunday Telegraph followed by Robert Carvel of the Evening Standard who remained the main chairman for the next 20 years. Carvel, a newspaper journalist since the fifties, has already made regular broadcasts on The World at One and was seen as a potential replacement for William Hardcastle but he remained with the Standard until his death in 1990.

A large number of political correspondents have appeared since, mostly drawn from the heavyweight newspapers and the New Statesman. (Complete list below). From late 1970 and 1977 the programme was sequenced together with From Our Own Correspondent and The Weekly World under the title Saturday Briefing. Only after the start of radio broadcasting of Parliamentary proceedings in April 1978 could the programme include any actuality of what was under discussion.

A Peter Brookes cartoon for the Radio Times
marking the 50th anniversary

The two longest serving presenters are Peter Riddell originally working for the Financial Times and then The Times who was regularly heard between 1983 and 2011. His final edition is available here.

Next is Steve Richards of the New Statesman and later The Independent who's been on the programme since 1997. The pool of potential presenters has shrunk in recent years and the current team includes Peter Oborne, George Parker, Anne McElvoy, Paul Waugh, Tom Newton Dunn, Isabel Hardman and Anushka Asthana. Online news sources are now represented with Paul Waugh working for the HuffPost UK and previously Jim Waterson of Buzzfeed (now at The Guardian).

Week in Westminster (the definite article was dropped from the title in 2003) continues today, though it'll be taking a short break for yet another general election.  Never has Westminster being more in focus; I'm not sure I've ever watched or heard as much coverage from the House of Commons as in the last two years. The political turmoil and the polarising of the political debate means the programme is as important as ever, offering a more considered, less frenetic reflection on events in Westminster than the rolling news services provide.    

In 2009 Peter Oborne marked the 80th anniversary of Week in Westminster

Apart from Ian Waller, Robert Carvel and Peter Riddell the following political journalists have presented the programme.

Andrew Alexander (Daily Telegraph)

Terence Lancaster (Daily Mirror)

David Watt (FT)

Alan Watkins (New Statesman)

George Gardiner (Thomson regional press)

Patrick Coggrave (Spectator)

David Wood (Times)

Peter Jenkins (Guardian later Independent)

Vic tor Knight (Sunday Mirror)

Hugo Young (Sunday Times)

Matthew Coady (New Statesman)

Andrew Neil (Sunday Times)

Elinor Goodman (FT later Channel 4 News)

John Harrison (Daily Mail)

Adam Raphael (Observer)

Simon Jenkins (Economist)

Peter Kellner (New Statesman)

Michael Elliott (Economist)

James Naughtie (Guardian)

George Jones (Daily Telegraph)

Julia Langdon (Daily Mirror)

Robin Oakley (Times)

Andrew Marr (Scotsman later Economist)

James Carvel (Guardian)

Michael White (Guardian)

Andrew Rawnsley (Guardian)

Philip Stephens (FT)

Alastair Campbell (Daily Mirror later Today)

Simon Heffner (Spectator then Daily Telegraph)

Sarah Baxter (Observer)

Boris Johnson (Daily Telegraph)

Anne Applebaum (Evening Standard)

Donald MacIntyre (Independent)

David Aaronovitch (Independent)

Trevor Kavanagh (Sun)

Ian Hargreaves (New Statesman)

Kirsty Milne (New Statesman)

Steve Richards (New Statesman then Independent) 1997 -

John Sergeant (BBC)

Kirsty Young (New Statesman)

Mary Ann Sieghart (Times)

Jonathan Freedland (Guardian)

Michael Crick (BBC)

Michael Gove (Times)

Sheena Macdonald (BBC)

Robert Shrimsley (FT)

Simon Water (Mail on Sunday)

Peter Oborne (Spectator) 2002 -

Jackie Ashley (New Statesman and Guardian) 2000-2014

George Pascoe-Watson (Sun)

Matthew D'Ancona (Spectator)

Andrew Pierce (Daily Mail)

Ben Brogan (Daily Telegraph)

George Parker (FT) 2010 -

Fraser Nelson (Spectator)

Sue Cameron (FT then Daily Telegraph)

Anne McElvoy (Economist) 2013 -

Iain Martin (Daily Telegraph then Times)

Isobel Hardman (Spectator) 2014 -

Helen Lewis (New Statesman) 2014 -

Paul Waugh (Huffington Post) 2014 -

Tom Newton Dunn (Sun) 2014 -

Jim Waterson (BuzzFeed) 2014 -

Beth Rigby (FT)

Anushka Asthama (Guardian)

Sam Coates (Times)

Kate McCann (Daily Telegraph)

Matt Chorley (Times)

One Million Thank Yous

When I started this blog in 2010 I had no notion that it would take the direction that it did. From a few ramblings about radio shows that I used to listen to I now research and write about the less explored corners of UK radio history. I receive questions and contributions from listeners and broadcasters around the globe. I've written over 500 posts, tens of thousands of words and uploaded hundreds of audio clips.

Fortunately there are people out there that read all this, thank you.

If my blog stats are to be believed I've hit one million page views this month.  So I've dug into the stats to see what has most caught your attention.  Here's the top 10, in reverse order.

10: The Not So FamousFive

This was scheduled to mark the 25th anniversary of the launch of the largely overlooked national service, BBC Radio Five. This mash-up of news, sport, music, education, schools and children's  programmes enjoyed a short life of just under four years before Radio 5 live came along. Fortunately I'd taped some of the opening and closing shows so there's plenty of audio. The nature of the programmes means that little gets repeated, though some dramas have turned up on Radio 4 Extra.

9: Choral Evensong

I can't really explain why this appears in the top 10 but presumably someone linked to it on a website or Facebook group. Written to mark 90 years of the programme  that in truth I've hardly ever listened to. If you like this kind of thing try out the YouTube channel Archive of Recorded Church Music.

8: Wake Up Easy

This was one of my first posts that required a fair bit of research. I chose the Radio 2's early show rather than the breakfast show as that show gets plenty of coverage elsewhere, though I eventually wrote about that in January this year. I was grateful to hear from three presenters who'd worked on those early morning shows: Tom Edwards, Colin Berry and Paul Hollingdale and they've continued to field my radio questions since, though sadly Paul died a couple of years ago.   

7: And Now on Radio 4- Part 1

Of all the posts I've written this, including part two, involved the most work. An attempt to list all the announcers and newsreaders on Radio 4 since 1967 I started pulling together names, audio and photos in late 2014, some three years before it went live.

As I mention in the post this exercise wouldn't have been possible without the help of David Mitchell, a fellow enthusiast who'd religiously been noting names since the mid-60s. David and I exchanged countless emails swapping names and dates. I heard from a number of former and current announcers who were, quite frankly, surprised, and pleased, that someone was marking their on-air efforts. Chief announcer Chris Aldridge couldn't have been more helpful in explaining what he and his team did and passed my draft list on to his colleagues for comment and additions.  

6: Memories Are NotMade of This

If this previous post took the longest to research this one must have taken less than an hour. It was written in response to an interview on Alison Butterworth's late-night Radio Lancashire show with a 'Mark Dean' who purported to be a former Radio Caroline DJ. His story was already beginning to unravel when Paul Rowley. the BBC local radio Political Correspondent and pirate radio nut, challenged his grasp of the facts. This story was picked up by a number of websites and forums who linked to this post. Back in 2013 BBC radio output was only available to listen again for 7 days so my recording was the only place to hear what had occurred.

As a postscript to this it transpired that 'Mark Dean' was in fact Malcolm Coward and his only connection to the station was as a driver for the Radio Caroline Roadshow, a mobile disco run by fans in the 1970s. More on that story here.      

5: It's Five o'Clock,Time for Sports Report

The sound of Out of the Blue on Saturday afternoons has been part of the broadcasting landscape for over seven decades and this post was my nod to the long history of Sports Report. Various Sports Reports books issued over the years helped immensely and fortunately I'd kept most of the recent anniversary specials. The voices of Peter Jones, Bryon Butler et al always seem to evoke warm memories.

4: The Third at 70 -Part the Third: The Intelligent Chuckle

You'll have gathered that I like to mark programme anniversaries, it helps to generate blog views if nothing else. This one was part of a series to celebrate the 70th anniversary since the start of the Third Programme in 1946. Inspired by the fact that one of my favourite radio comedies, Patterson, was first heard on Radio 3, I decided to explore other comedies heard on that station that, unexpectedly, used to schedule occasional sitcoms and comic plays.

The story was taken up by Tim Worthington in his exhaustive study The Larks Ascending  

3: Radio 2 AnnouncersA-K

Another common theme here is that of radio announcers. This 2011 was my attempt to list those I'd heard on Radio 2 from the mid-70s to the early 80s. This and the related post probably attract views simply because of the sheer number of names that they contain.

Sadly a number of once familiar voices have passed away since I wrote this post and a linked post:  Liz Allen, Don Durbridge, Len Jackson, Tim Gudgin, James Alexander Gordon, Paddy O'Byrne and Sheila Tracy.

2: Radio 3 Announcers

More announcers in a post that found an appreciative audience on the Friends of Radio 3 forum, hence, I suspect, its appearance on this list. Audio of the bits in between programmes rarely survive in the official archive so these voices represent what is now a bygone age.  

1: News on 2

In the top spot is this post published in September 2012 that attempted to fill in the gaps of the names of Radio 2 announcers and newsreaders with another 60 voices that hadn't featured in my 2011 round-up. It was timed coincide with the phasing out of the separate newsreader role in favour of broadcast journalists who also read the bulletins. Fortunately I'd had some insider knowledge of this plan which gave me a few months to pull this lot together. From the feedback I received I know this acknowledgment was welcomed in Western House.     

Other popular ones are anything to do with the late Ray Moore, my David Symonds article, the Shipping Forecast, World Service memories, Alan Freeman and some of the ILR Down Your Local posts.

The Day War Broke Out

It was a day like any other Sunday. A cloudless late summer day. The sound of lawns being mowed. The smell of cooking drifting out of the kitchen. People in their finery attending church. Couples getting ready for afternoon wedding ceremonies.

It was a day unlike any other. A day of apprehension as families settled round the wireless set to listen to the expected announcement. The announcement of the outbreak of the second world war. Almost immediately after, in parts of the country, air-raid sirens sent folk scurrying off to the Anderson shelters. People looked east expecting German bombers to fill the skies at any minute. A young lad is sent off to buy 400 fags for fear they be put on ration. Gas masks and blackout material were brought out. Meanwhile for the rest of the day the radio broadcasts were filled with extra news bulletins and endless official announcements about the closure of theatres and cinemas, air raid sirens and the mass evacuation of children.

That day, Sunday 3 September 1939, is recalled in this 50th anniversary broadcast called The Day War Broke Out. Former war correspondent Frank Gillard sets the scene for Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's fateful announcement that "this country is at war with Germany", replayed in full. And then we hear from those that lived through that day, their memories and feelings as to what the war would bring.

The Day War Broke Out was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday 3 September 1989 and was produced by Peter Griffiths. This is an edited version.

For the BBC war preparations, months in the planning, had come into effect on Friday the 1st when the orders went out to all the studios and transmitter sites. By six o'clock that evening announcer Robert MacDermott was playing records and telling listeners to tune in to either 391 or 449 metres, the wavelengths of the Scottish and North regions and at 8.15 pm it was announced, for the very first time "This is the BBC Home Service." Additional daytime news bulletins were introduced, breaching the long-standing agreement with newspaper proprietors not to broadcast any news before 6 pm for fear of affecting sales of the evening papers. Any major announcements made overnight would be preceded by a 5-minute Bow Bells interval signal.

On the morning of Sunday the 3rd announcer Alvar Lidell was on duty at 10 o'clock to prepare the country for Chamberlain's announcement: "Following the midnight meeting of the Cabinet, the British ambassador at 9 a.m. this morning gave the German government two further hours in which to decide whether they would at once withdraw their troops from Poland. This ultimatum expires at 11 a.m. The Prime Minister will broadcast to the nation at 11.15 a.m."         

Home Service programmes for Monday 4 September 1939 as listed in the
Daily Telegraph with little offered beyond news, announcements, records and
Sandy MacPherson

It was Lidell who was introduced Neville Chamberlain's broadcast from the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street and was the only other person with him in the room whilst he made it. Hourly bulletins followed throughout the day read by Stuart Hibberd and Lionel Marson with the King speaking at 6 p.m. All this was interspersed with intervals of gramophone records, Sandy MacPherson at the console of the BBC Theatre Organ and, one scheduled programme which did make it to air, the first instalment of a reading of J.B. Priestley's new novel Let the People Sing.

The Home Service closed down for the night at 12.15 a.m. The day war broke out was over.    

Read and hear more about the early days of World War II on the BBC's archive pages.

Not the A to Z of Radio Comedy: H is for Hot Club

The Hot Club was a blink and you'll miss it 6-part series broadcast on Radio 2 in 1990 and not heard again since.

Billed as "wit, spit, music and madness" it starred Arthur Smith, at the time familiar face at the Edinburgh Fringe and on Channel 4 and a familiar voice on radio's The Good Human Guide and Peter Dickson's Nightcap. With Smith were Comedy Store alumni musician and comedian Ronnie Golden with Josie Lawrence and Richard Vranch, both regulars on Channel 4's improv show Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Previewing the series for the Radio Times in January 1990 David Gillard wrote:

Putting the heat on in Radio 2's newly opened Hot Club are compere Arthur Smith and singing comics Ronnie Golden, Richard Vranch and Josie Lawrence. each week they'll be bringing their wit to bear on a different topic - from Romance and War to Holidays and Horror. There'll be pastiche musicals among the gags and sketches - 'all in a variety of styles: heavy metal , protest, flamenco, Mowtown, that sort of thing' explains Richard. There'll also be original numbers by the cast - like Josie's off-beat antidote to all those gushily Gallic songs of springtime sentimentality, Paris in March.   

Both she and Richard came to comic prominence through TV's Whose Line Is It Anyway? and London's Comedy Store. Richard has been the music director of the Cambridge Footlights revue whilst Josie has appeared on TV as an ad-woman in Campaign and a murder victim in Poirot before moving  on to the comic road. Wary of being pigeonholed, she insists: 'I'm an actress who happens to be doing comedy, not a comedienne.'

Meanwhile it's sizzling songs and sketches that are keeping both on the boil. Hot stuff, indeed.

There are some now familiar names amongst the writing credits: Mark Burton and John O'Farrell who jointly received the BBC Radio Comedy Writers Bursary in 1988 and worked on Week Ending and Spitting Image. Also from the Week Ending writer's room are Mark Brissenden, Simon Bullivant, Michael Dines,  Alan Whiting and Bill Matthews.

The producer is Lissa Evans.

I only have the third episode in my collection, taking war as its theme. This was broadcast on Radio2 on Tuesday 30 January 1990 and gets its first airing in 29 years.