Silver Jubilee – London Calling

 

In the week leading up to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations I’m taking a trip back to 1977 for the Silver anniversary to look inside the pages of London Calling, the programme magazine of the BBC World Service.

There are a number of special programmes to mark the Silver Jubilee: Orb and Sceptre, an anthology in words and music, Monarchy and the Media with long-time commentator Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, the cinema series Take One with a Jubilee Review hosted by Alexander Walker and a countdown of the Top Twenty of 25 Years with Paul Burnett.  Other programmes would also appear on the domestic services such as the BBC International Festival of Light Music on Radio 2 and My Music – Jubilee Edition on Radio 4.

On the drama pages there’s a lovely quote about the importance of the World Service from actor Richard Burton. Great to see that no matter how famous you are it’s still a thrill to hear your name on the radio, even if he seems to not know when his birthday is. During 1977 over on Radio 4 Burton was the narrator for the historic drama series Vivat Rex.

Wherever I go, I take with me a very powerful transistor radio. I carry it all over the world, and wherever I am, I listen to the BBC World Service. It’s the only truly reliable source of information one gets in the darker places of the world.

I remember once when I was in Marrakech. I tuned into the World Service and heard myself reciting a poem by Dylan Thomas. At the end the BBC announcer said: “That was Richard Burton reading Dylan Thomas’s Poem in October about his birthday – and happy birthday to you, Richard Burton, if you’re listening.”

And that was how I discovered it was my own birthday. But I didn’t care about that, it was hearing my name mentioned on the World Service that really pleased me.

I think one of the greatest thrills you can have is to hear your own name on the BBC. And to hear it on the World Service, well, that’s like being knighted.