Radio Lives - Brian Johnston

If ever there was a broadcaster who you knew was simply having fun on air it was Brian Johnston. With a broadcasting innings in which he clocked up nearly a half century I recall the radio highlights of Brian’s career.

Brian’s start in broadcasting owes much to that old adage “it’s not what you know but who you know”. Kicking his heels after the war and hoping to do something in the entertainment world rather than join the family coffee business, he was invited to dinner by an old guards officer friend where he met former BBC war correspondents Wynford Vaughan-Thomas and Stewart MacPherson whom he’d previously met in 1943 during manoeuvres in Norfolk. Mentioning his ambitions he got a call the following day from ‘Stew’ asking him to report for an interview with the Head of Outside Broadcasts.

Writing in the Radio Times in 1955 Vaughan-Thomas recalled how MacPherson got Brian the job:

Brian was given a couple of tests one of which was to go down to Oxford Street and record some vox pops under the guidance of Wynford, who takes up the story:

He met Brian during the war when ‘Stew’ was a War Correspondent and ‘B.J.’ was Technical Adjutant in a Grenadier Guards Battalion of the Guards Armoured Division.  ‘Stew’ remembered this unusual Guards Officer when the war ended. He mentioned him to S.J. de Lobiniere then the Head of Outside Broadcasts. “What are his qualifications?” asked ‘Lobby’. ‘Stew’ summed them up in one sentence, “He’s game for anything!”

Brain passed with flying colours and joined the BBC on 13 January 1946.

I was the man who was given the job of testing Brian Johnston as a broadcaster in a street interview. On a cold winter’s night I took him out into a crowded Oxford Street and flung him for the first time against the astonished passers-by. The result was rather like an atomic explosion-slow to start but ending in the crowd mushrooming to gigantic proportions. In the centre of the disturbance stood a tall and voluble figure. He wasn’t just interviewing-he was talking a three-volume novel to his victim. It was a gloriously uninhibited conversation which would have gone on for ever if I had not cut it suddenly short with my stop-watch. An admiring onlooker murmured to me “that fellow’s got the gift of the gab, hasn’t he? – has he been long at the BBC?” I murmured back, dazed by Brian’s performance, “He joined us five minutes ago!”

In those days the OB team would send out reporters to cover whatever events they could just for the excitement and novelty of live broadcasting. Brian’s first job was to report on the blowing up of an unexploded bomb discovered in the lake at James’ Park. Taking up position to commentate Brian was moved on by the police and ended up standing on a loo in the ladies peering through a small window as he described the explosion and the aftermath.

Some of Brian’s early broadcasts saw him working as assistant to John Ellison with live relays from theatres and music halls in Round the Halls which might feature a singer, a comedian and then a speciality act that would make good radio like an impressionist, instrumentalist or animal impersonator.  Another early show was Work’s Wonders, a variety show akin to Worker’s Playtime but featuring the amateur talents of workers from the factory.  

It is, of course, for cricket commentary that Johnners is best known. His involvement started in his first year with the BBC when an old cricketing chum Ian Orr-Ewing, then the Outside Broadcasts Manager for the TV service (he organised the coverage for the 1948 London Olympics), asked him to join the newly formed commentary team alongside Aidan Crawley, Percy Fender, Walter Franklin and R.C. Robertson-Glasgow, beginning a 24-year span covering the sport on the box.

Home Service 11 June 1949

Brian’s big radio break came in 1948 when he started a four year association with the long-running Saturday night Home Service show In Town Tonight. Initially taking over the On the Job slot from John Ellison he then revived an old feature that John Snagge had presented in the 30s called Let’s Go Somewhere. Each week the game for anything Brian would, live on air, take part in some unusual or daredevil experience: riding bareback at the circus, attempting to swim the Channel, riding a penny farthing and so on.

Light Programme 9 June 1949

Thus began an extremely varied period in Brian’s career alternating between radio and TV, outside broadcasts and entertainment shows. In the 50s and 60s he was the man on the spot for the Royal Variety Performance, Trooping the Colour, Brass Band Championships, the Funeral of King George VI, the Boxing Day Circus, Sunday Night at the London Palladium and the Monte Carlo Rally (hurtling round France with Richard Dimbleby in his touring Allard). On TV he provided the cricket commentary for Television Newsreel, presented Sportsview, was the stooge for Terry-Thomas in How Do You View?, commentated on the Boat Race (he’d later join the radio team) and sat alongside Bernard Braden at Grosvenor Gate to cover the Queen’s Coronation.

In 1953 Johnners joined the panel, in place of the absent Kenneth Horne, of the perennial favourite Twenty Questions and also chaired What’s It All About? that featured a panel of Horne, Celia Johnson and Dilys Powell.  Let’s Go Somewhere returned to the airwaves as a stand-alone show in 1955 but this time they would also play tricks on the public with Brian often having to wear some form of disguise (amazingly this seemed to work on the radio!).

Quizzes and panel games proved an interesting, though not necessarily lucrative, sideline for Brian as he was often asked to stand-in at the last moment because there was “an added incentive for the BBC to use me. Against my name in the final accounts for the programme were the letters ‘SNF’ in brackets. They stood for ‘staff no fee’, so that in place of the fee that some of the others got I cost the BBC nothing!” Those quizzes included Spot the Headliner, Sporting Chance (an early version of A Question of Sport that then transferred to TV) and Treble Chance, a touring general knowledge quiz that featured Nan Winton, Charles Gardner and his broadcasting mentor Wynford Vaughan-Thomas.  

Contributing OBs into the Saturday afternoon Out and About programme Brian recalls “the tandem I rode with the announcer Patricia Hughes on a trip to Le Touquet, but we found it very difficult. It’s essential for both partners to do the same thing at the same time, especially starting and stopping, and we seldom did!”  This conjures up a lovely image for anyone who remembers the plumy-voiced Patricia in her Radio 3 announcing days.

Brian was also an adept interviewer and talked to the famous in Meet a Sportsman (1959-62) and those related to the famous in Married to Fame (1962). He was also contributing a feature called Many Happy Returns to the Today programme and would eventually become one of the regular stand-ins for Jack de Manio between 1963 and 1967.

In the early 60s Brian was still popping up on a variety of TV shows: taking over from Huw Wheldon on All Your Own, working alongside Peter West, Polly Elwes and David Dimbleby on the forerunner to Tomorrow’s World, What’s New and providing commentary for Princess Margaret’s Wedding, Miss World and the International Ballroom Championships. But his non-sporting work lessened a little as Brian became the BBC’s first cricket correspondent in 1963 and would accompany England on their world tours.

16 February 1959

During the 1960s whilst providing the BBC’s television cricket commentary Brian was also appearing with his radio colleagues on Test Match Special as well as being the occasional anchor of the Saturday afternoon Sports Session. But in 1970, and in typical BBC fashion, i.e. dropped with no explanation or thanks, Brian was no longer considered right for the TV – too jokey one suspects – and so became a permanent member of the TMS team, staying with the programme for a further 24 years until his death in 1994.

Brian Johnston with Henry Blofed, Fred
Trueman and Peter Baxter

In this era Test Match Special would become something of a national institution a “comedy and cricket revue…fuelled by appalling puns, chocolate cake and an abiding love for the world’s greatest game.” (You Magazine 14.7.85)  On the retirement of John Arlott in 1980 Brian became the senior commentator alongside ARL (Tony Lewis), The Alderman (Don Mosey), Old Bloers (Henry Blofeld), The Bearded Wonder (Bill Frindall), Truers (Fred Trueman), The Boil (Trevor Bailey), Jenkers (Chris Martin-Jenkins) and later Aggers (Jonathan Agnew) under the control of producer Peter Baxter. It was Johnners and Aggers who would, in 1991, provide one of radio’s most famous fits of on-air giggling – the “leg-over” incident.

Fate intervened in March 1972 when Franklin Engelmann, presenter of the long-running show Down Your Way, died suddenly and Brian was drafted in at extremely short notice, there being no back-up programmes being ‘in the can’.  Like his predecessor, affectionately known as Jingle, Brian would also clock up 733 shows between 1972 and 1992. 

The premise of Down Your Way was simple, the programme toured by highways and byways of the UK interviewing lots of “jolly nice” interesting and colourful characters who would then choose their favourite piece of music. It did eventually run out of steam in 1987, sounding a little dated. Plus there are only so many times you can hear people request Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus or the sig tune from The Onedin Line. This is one of the final editions from April 1987 with a visit to the city of Durham.

Biff's take on Down Your Way from The Guardian 23 May 1987

Aside from the cricket commentary and travels with Down Your Way, Brain (having officially retired from the BBC in late ’72) remained a regular on panel games and quizzes, popping up on Just a Minute, Quote…Unquote, On the Air, The Year in Question, Funny Peculiar and The Law Game before taking up the role of ‘umpire’ in Radio 4’s Trivia Test Match (1986-93), general knowledge played to the rules of cricket.

In 1992 Peter Baxter recalled Brian’s broadcasting career in a Test Match Special tribute, Johnners at 80.

A year later Brian was undertaking the opportunity to entertain an audience with his anecdotes and reminiscences in his An Hour of Johnners theatre tour when he was taken ill in the December, he dies just a month later. He’d had, as he might have said, “a jolly good innings”.

Brian Alexander Johnston 1912-1994

Hear more about Brian's early career tomorrow on BBC Radio 4 in Staff No Fee:The Other Life of Brian and this weekend on BBC Radio4 Extra Brian Johnston-A Innings with Johnners

Portrait of Brian Johnston courtesy of Roger Clark. See more photos of the BBC's Boat Race coverage on Roger's website

Victor Spinetti

Actor Victor Spinetti died yesterday. With a long and distinguished list of theatre, film and TV credits Victor’s radio appearances were less frequent. He did, however, star in Jim Eldridge’s radio comedy Tony’s.

Set in a corner shop barber (could it have been the inspiration for Desmond’s?) Tony’s played to Victor’s Italian heritage.

Here’s an episode from series two broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in 1981. Playing alongside Victor were cast regulars Deryck Guyler as Stanley and Deborah Watling as Maisie. In Court in the Act you’ll also hear Dilys Laye, Douglas Blackwell, Royce Mills and Leonard Fenton.

In memory of Victor Spinetti 1929-2012

Radio Lives - Don Durbridge

Former BFBS and BBC broadcaster Don Durbridge died last weekend. Don became a regular voice on Radio 2 during the late 70s/early 80s and lived and worked in Kent for many years.

Don was born in Glasgow in 1939 at a time when his father was in the Army (he died in a Japanese POW camp in 1945) but educated down in Clapham. His first job was with the Jack Hylton Entertainment Organisation but he also worked on various local newspapers in London before becoming a reporter on the Sunday Citizen. 

His first broadcast was as a teenager in 1955 on the Light Programme show The Younger Generation (“young people discussing the current films, books, plays and tunes they like”), having answered an ad in the Radio Times. He made over 200 appearances before receiving his National Service call-up.

In 1962 Don married his first wife Yvonne, whom he'd know for eight years.  Four years later he started to broadcast for the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) in Aden, Cologne and finally Gibraltar. In Germany he worked on the Six-Thirty and Time Out shows and in 1969/1970 co-presented Family Favourites with Michael Aspel, first from Cologne and then Gibraltar.

In 1972 Don was one of the BFBS team assigned to cover the Munich Olympics and he achieved something of a worldwide scoop in gaining, with some subterfuge, an exclusive interview with multi-gold winning swimmer Mark Spitz.

Don joined the Radio 2 Presentation Team in 1974 as announcer and newsreader as well as presenting a whole host of shows such as Night Ride, Music through Midnight, Music to Midnight, The Late Show, The Early Show and Saturday Night with the BBC Radio Orchestra. He also deputised for Terry Wogan, John Dunn, Ed Stewart, David Hamilton and Joe Henderson.

As well as his national work Don was also presenting on BBC Radio Medway and still providing boxing and football commentaries for the BFBS. Such was his love of sport he was the matchday announcer at Gillingham FC for many years.  

It was whilst working at BBC Radio Kent that Don met Ian McGregor. Ian takes up the story:

It was 10:28 on a Saturday morning in 1988.  I was the 'phone flicker at BBC Radio Kent's Sun Pier studio back then, and the new boy at the time. But the next programme was due to start in two minutes and there was no sign of the presenter.  I'd already slipped into the studio and lined up his name check jingle and first record (yes, record!), but, as the clock ticked seemingly more furiously towards the bottom of the hour, a feeling of mild panic was coming over me.....

And then Don appeared, 'Durbers' as I was soon to know him.  If truth be told, he looked like he'd just got out of bed - and that wasn't so far from the truth.  He'd already completed a gruelling newsreading night shift at the forces radio station BFBS, driven home for a couple of hours 'kip' and, after a cruelly short period of shut eye, raced to the BBC's Chatham studio to present his popular Saturday morning show Remember When.  I asked Don if there was anything I needed to arrange, and he calmly replied "let's just busk it mate".

And busk it is what Don did, brilliantly well.  A few records, seemingly endless reminiscences about the artists performing them, a massive pile of postcards from his adoring fans (his pigeon hole was always the fullest) and a continuous stream of anecdotes from callers was all he needed to make an entertaining radio programme; and the phone lines didn't stop flashing for the entire show, it was easily the busiest programme I ever worked on.  Don was old school, he didn't need scripts and running orders to keep his listeners' spellbound; his knowledge was in his head, his autocue in his brain, he was a born communicator and knew how to 'work' an audience, how to make the show feel like theirs and how to keep them sitting on the edge of their seats - and the listeners loved him.

Don continued his broadcasting career at Invicta Sound, Channel Travel Radio, LBC, Saga, Prime Time and REM-FM. In his tribute to Don, Ian continues:

 

After a short spell living and working in Malta in the nineties where he married his second wife Cheryl, they returned to Minster on the Isle of Sheppey in the beautiful county of Kent, as he referred to his adopted home, in 1997, and from there re-launched his broadcasting career, tossing out the gramophone decks and needles to embrace the digital broadcasting age.

He was soon back behind the microphone at Channel Travel Radio in Folkestone giving out cross channel information to motorists on the M20. It was the first time he'd presented a computerised radio programme, it may even have been the first time he'd used a computer, but he took to it like a duck to water.

A stint as weekend newsreader for London talk station LBC followed, but his re-launch ship finally came steaming into harbour with the arrival of the new over fifties national digital service, Primetime Radio and its DAB sister station, Saga Radio. Don was back amongst the golden oldies doing what he enjoyed most, and with not a vinyl disc or a CD in sight!

When Saga Radio finally ceased broadcasting in 2006, Don emigrated to Estepona on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain. His final radio stop was with REM FM (now Talk Radio Europe), where he presented weekend shows with a mix of music, chat and celebrity guests as diverse as the entertainer Max Bygraves and the jazz loving politician Ken Clarke.

Don passed away in Spain on June 9, 2012.  He was a friend as well as a colleague in an industry that has many colleagues but few real friends.  He will be much missed but fondly remembered. 

He is survived by his first wife, Yvonne, and also leaves a daughter, Moira, and a grandson, Teddy.

Don Durbridge 13 January 1939 - 9 June 2012

 

Ian McGregor runs Just Talking and you can read his full tribute here.

With thanks to Who’s Who in Radio by Sheila Tracy.

Sunday Dinner

More evocative recollections of Sunday’s past with this film recalling “memories of a ritual around the radio”.  

This was first broadcast in 1992 as part of the Arena Radio Night, a simulcast on BBC2 TV and Radio 4. The idea was to listen with both the TV and radio sound on as they either carried the same soundtrack or a complimentary one. On TV this film was accompanied by the sounds of Sunday dinner (or lunch, depending where you come from) so with a bit of editing I’ve added the radio programme to the pictures.

Share and Enjoy – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

I first stumbled across The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on one of those early repeats in 1978. The series had first aired in March of that year in a late-night slot on Radio 4 with no fanfare or editorial in that week’s Radio Times. Did radio bosses know the comedy gold they’d unleashed? They soon did when an overwhelming listener response led to a swift repeat, and another one, and another one.

The original Radio Times listing illustration March 1978

By the time the second series was ready to air (well nearly ready, Douglas Adams was still writing when the cast were in the studio) the BBC knew the value of what it had and a Radio Times cover let everyone know that. More books, a stage show, a TV series, LPs, tee shirts and towels followed. Never has a radio series before or since led to so many merchandising deals.

I’d like to say that HitchHikers changed the face of radio comedy. But it didn’t. In truth it was a one-off, well one that lasted five series. The mix of comedy and drama, music and effects, Goon-esque logic and techno-speak, that notion that it’s ideas of the universe were both ludicrously funny but might somehow also be true (is planet earth an experiment run by white mice?) was unique. It didn’t even lead to a slew of space-inspired radio comedy shows; Star Terk II doesn’t really count and Space Hacks came thirty years later.  

By 1980 Douglas Adams was on the chat show circuit. Here he is on John Dunn’s Radio 2 show talking about Arab royal families, biscuits and towels.

The interview with Douglas mentions the forthcoming BBC TV series. This had a certain charm though the effects couldn’t do justice to Adams’s more fanciful ideas. Zaphod Beeblebrox’s second head looked like it was fashioned out of papier-mâché in a school art lesson. Reviewing the series for Radio 4’s Kaleidoscope was Rob Buckman, here speaking to the programme’s presenter Colin Ford and commending the show for having entered “the Teletext era”. How quaint.

That edition of Kaleidoscope was broadcast on 13 March 1981.

I referred to Douglas still typing the script for the second series as it was still being recorded – an interview with The Observer Magazine in 1979 reported that “Adams does not find it easy to write, indeed he describes it as ‘a desperately difficult process fraught with all kinds of mental blocks and worries’ - this lead to some fairly frantic last minute decisions. In subsequent repeats and commercially released versions of the show the production team took the opportunity to re-do some of the scenes. The differences between the initial broadcast and later ones are listed in some detail on this fascinating site.

Most altered was the final programme of series two. Writing in the book of the radio scripts producer Geoffrey Perkins recalled that the show “very nearly didn’t make it on the air. Although the actors were recorded on 13 January the actual mixing of the show was all done on the day of transmission, completed some twenty minutes before it was due to go out and then spirited in a fast car down one of London’s busiest roads, the Edgware Road, the three miles to BBC Broadcasting House, where it arrived just a few minutes before transmission. In fact half an hour before the programme went out the last five minutes of the show were wrapped round the capstan head of a tape recorder and being hacked off in little bits by three people all furiously slashing at it with razor blades. Keen eared listeners might have noticed that some scenes were remixed for the subsequent repeats, since at the time we had no time to do anything on the last scene but add a little rain and some cat impersonations”.  So here’s another chance to enjoy it as it was originally heard on 25 January 1980. (Note Moira Stuart on Radio 4 continuity duty).

And still the HitchHikers band wagon rolls on. A 2005 film was OK, if slightly miscast. In fact I deliberately avoided watching it until a BBC2 showing earlier this year for fear it would somehow taint my memories of the original radio series. And now this month it returns as a touring stage show, presumably without the audience sitting on a hovercraft, with some of the original cast. 

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Show Live!

More on HitchHikers here: http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A943184

Silver Jubilee

Radio Times cover design by Candace Bahouth

As Britain celebrates the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with street parties, beacons and a Thames river procession I recall how national radio covered the 1977 Silver Jubilee, at a time when the nation commemorated with, yes, street parties, beacons and a Thames river procession.

In ’77 the big day was Tuesday 7 June, the Silver Jubilee Bank Holiday. Radio 4 got into Jubilee mode at 9 a.m. with, somewhat surprisingly, a musical offering recalling Edward German and Basil Hood’s comic opera Merrie England, with Tim Rice presenting the story and songs from “gramophone records”. At the time it was not uncommon for Radio 4 to broadcast music programmes, that week also saw record shows from Richard Baker and Robin Ray and on Jubilee Day there was a Beethoven Concert simulcast with Radio 3. Partly this was a throwback to the more mixed fare of the old Home Service and partly a cost-cutting exercise – the Robin Ray programme also went out on Radio 3.

The main event, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (with breaks for The Archers and The World at One) was introduced by Des Lynam and included a Service of Thanksgiving from St Paul’s Cathedral, a Royal Walkabout and The Queen’s Speech to the Commonwealth from The Guildhall. Providing the commentary were Robert Hudson (former Head of Radio OB), Alun Williams, John Snagge, Brian Johnston, Don Mosey and Judith Chalmers. In the studio with Des were veteran royal experts Godfrey Talbot (the BBC’s first Court Correspondent) and Audrey Russell. Four of the team had also commentated at the Queen’s Coronation in 1953: John Snagge, Alun Williams and Audrey Russell on the radio and Brian Johnston on the TV. 

Here's part of the commentary from an excited Brian Johnston and Robert Hudson.

And this is part of the Queen's speech.

In the afternoon Radio 4 broadcast part 17 of its 26 part epic series narrated by Richard Burton, Vivat Rex. Currently enjoying a repeat on BBC Radio 4 Extra the series provided a “dramatic chronicle of the English Crown through 200 years of its history by the Elizabethan playwrights Shakespeare, Marlowe and their contemporaries”.

On Radio 3 announcer Victor Hallam opened the day with a Jubilee Overture, with the first piece being Handel’s Coronation Anthem: Zadok the Priest. This Week’s Composer was Haydn who, by coincidence (or good planning) is also the featured composer in the Diamond Jubilee week.

There was another programme celebrating the first Queen Elizabeth in The Ride to Triumph (Radio 3 9.25 p.m.) all linked by Roy Strong and with narration from Denys Hawthorne. The Radio Times described it as “the entertainments and masques in honour of Elizabeth I and her successors contained in music, poetry and marvellous effects”.

Over on Radio 1 the main event of the day was a 6-hour show featuring The Nation’s All-Time Top 100, the whole jointly presented by Noel Edmonds, Tony Blackburn and Paul Burnett. This chart was based on a poll conducted in late 1976 in which listeners were invited to forecast the Top 3 for the following week and also to write on their postcard the name of their all-time favourite track. The chart aired just before Christmas, with Tony Blackburn, and got this Jubilee Day repeat. The Top 10 was:

1 I’m Not in Love – 10CC

2 Maggie May – Rod Stewart

3 Without You – Nilsson

4 Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen

5 Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon and Garfunkel

6 Hey Jude – The Beatles

7 Sailing – Rod Stewart

8 Seasons in the Sun – Terry Jacks

9 Alright Now – Free

10 I’m Still Waiting – Diana Ross

Tony is back for the Diamond Jubilee with Radio 2’s countdown of the 60 best-selling single artists of the last six decades.

Here's Adrian Juste trailing the Radio 1 schedule.

This is part of that Top 100 chart.

During the afternoon of Tuesday 7 June it was David Hamilton, normally a simulcast with Radio 2 but going its own way today on 247 metres, and It’s DLT OK! Between 7 and 10 p.m. there was a rare link-up between Radio 1 and the BBC’s local radio stations in a Jubilee Special under the control of Simon Bates. Rounding off the day was John Peel, presumably not featuring The Sex Pistol’s God Save the Queen, though he had played it a couple of times the previous month.  

Radio Times illustration by Eric Gill

Radio 2 offered alternative coverage to Radio 4’s more formal output of the royal events. The day kicked off with Colin Berry and then Brian Matthew playing 25 years of hits. Wogan was on holiday this week so Brian was covering the breakfast slot. The main programme between 10 am. and 1 p.m. provided commentary from Pete “Open House” Murray and Jimmy Young with Ray Moore holding the fort and playing the odd record at Broadcasting House. 

 

Back on air for an hour at 1 p.m. was another veteran of the Coronation radio coverage Jean Metcalfe with Jubilee Requests. Hosting the afternoon show in place of Diddy David was Wally Whyton. As Radio 2 was the main sports channel Wally’s show also included racing from Sandown and Redcar, county cricket, the John Player tennis tournament and the Tour of Britain Milk Race. The Queen’s Speech to the Commonwealth was carried by both Radio 1 and 2 and chief announcer Jimmy Kingsbury provided the links.

It was pretty much a normal Radio 2 schedule for rest of the day though I note that Esther Rantzen made a guest appearance on Waggoners’ Walk. Des Lynam was back just after midnight with a 10-minute round-up of A Right Royal Day.    

The Queen’s River Progress took place on Thursday 9 June and was carried by Radio 2 with Ray Moore commentating, a special afternoon show with Jean Challis and then coverage of the Beating Retreat during John Dunn’s show with Chris Martin-Jenkins at Horse Guard’s Parade.

Other voices heard on-air on the Jubilee Bank Holiday included a brief return to news reading duties on Radios 1 and 2 for Bruce Wyndham who’d retired from the BBC the previous year. You’d have also heard James Alexander Gordon, David Bellan, Tom Edwards and Ruth Cubbin reading the news and Tim Gudgin announcing. On Radio 4 the continuity/news reading team was Harriet Cass (the only one still with the station), Pauline Bushnell, Edward Cole, Bryan Martin and David Willmott.