Beat the Chasers

So the question was: Broadcast on radio in 1937, Britain's first quiz programme was a test of what? (a) Mental arithmetic (b) General knowledge or (c) Spelling? This was the question posed to a contestant on last night's Beat the Chasers (ITV). And the answer...

UK radio's first on-air contests were write-in affairs. The first was The Query Programme aired on 2LO on 7 May 1924. Unbilled artistes had to be listed in correct Radio Times billing, the three listeners with the closest entries being invited to the studio at Savoy Hill for the evening. Subsequent programmes, there were seven in all, generously offered five guineas to the most successful entrant and runners-up prizes of three guineas and one guinea.   

Another write-in competition was Puzzle Corner ("Hello Puzzlers") which became a feature of the show Monday Night at Seven (and later Monday Night at Eight) that had started in 1937. The show featured a number of elements such as music, comedy sketches and a short drama, Inspector Hornleigh Investigates being the best known, and, from January 1938, Puzzle Corner. With general knowledge questions, anagrams and a musical medley it proved immensely popular and ran until 1949, by which time it was part of The Family Hour. It got a TV spin-off in 1950 as part of Kaleidoscope and then as a stand-alone show (1953-55).   

But the first quiz game to be battled out on air in real time, and the subject of that Beat the Chasers question, was a Spelling Bee broadcast as part of Children's Hour on Thursday 25 November 1937. Billed as An Inter-Regional Spelling Competition the Radio Times tells us that "this is an experiment which, it is hoped, will prove amusing. Mac (Derek McCulloch aka Uncle Mac) will conduct a spelling competition for boys and girls in several different regions simultaneously, and listeners will hear how the competitors got on".

The idea obviously caught on and in January 1938 the BBC entered into a co-production with NBC in the States for an adult version called Transatlantic Spelling Bee. Teams from Harvard & Radcliffe College played Oxford University with question-masters Tommy Woodrooffe (UK) and Pail Wing (US) overseeing proceedings. The US team won by 28 points to 24. The cameras of Pathé News were there to record the event.

A further transatlantic version was held in March followed by further UK-only inter-city competitions chaired by Freddie Grisewood, some dialect versions ("none of the words will be found in the Oxford dictionary") and even a TV version on the pre-war BBC service. 

The idea on was revived on BBC radio during the war under the chairmanship of Ronnie Waldman pitting together teams such as Actors v Actresses or GIs v Tommies, and post-war with Lionel Gamlin being the most regular 'spelling-master'. UK broadcast spelling bees fizzled out in the early 50s but they remain popular in the US with the National Spelling Bee running since 1925 with TV coverage for the last 20-odd years on ESPN.    

Pause for Thought

Radio 2 has been pausing for thought for half a century now. The two or three minutes of faith-led reflection is a surprisingly enduring programme element on an increasingly pop-orientated network, like some Reithian religious hangover. On a busy, frenetic breakfast show such an item can feel anachronistic and in danger of leading to a clunky gear change. But equally it can be seen as a welcome moment to take stock, consider others, to literally pause for thought.

Pause for Thought first aired at 8.55 am on Monday 6 April 1970 and replaced the weekday editions of Five to Ten. It was just one part of the religious output on BBC Radio 2 at the time that included two services on Sunday: People's Service (1945-80) just before Family Favourites and the long-running Sunday Half-Hour (1940-2013). Generally speech-based, Pause for Thought was initially not always led by a minister or religious representative. Depending on the theme for the week actors, writers and musicians made regular appearances. In the first few months we heard from Cliff Richard, Derek Nimmo, J.B. Priestley, Larry Adler and Joyce Grenfel. The programme proved to be very popular with an audience in excess of 1 million and an anthology of talks from the series published by the BBC - available for 25p from all good bookshops.      

Schedule changes in October 1972 meant that Pause for Thought was no longer a stand-alone programme but part of the Early Show at 6.15 am and repeated during Terry Wogan's breakfast show at 8.45. By 1990 there were three daily editions with an extra slot in the wee small hours during what was then Night Ride. Whilst the talks had always been pre-recorded the overnight and early ones were now on tape but the breakfast show edition was live.

Though the times have varied over the intervening years the three weekday editions of Pause for Thought continue to this day, overnights in a pre-recorded version on OJ Borg's show and then two different editions live during Vanessa Feltz's and Zoe Ball's shows. No longer produced in-house by what is now the department of Religion and Ethics, its contracted out to TBI Media.

Over the years some of the contributors have become established radio names; I'm thinking of the likes for Rev Frank Topping, Rev. Roger Royle, Fr Brian D'Arcy and Rev. Ruth Scott. Here are a selection of recordings from the last 50 years:

This is an early example from August 1970 in which actor Peter Pacey reads from a selection of the recent translation of the Apocrypha.

From December 1984 a decidedly more light-hearted affair for Terry's final breakfast show (the first time around) from the BBC's Religious Affairs Correspondent Gerald Priestland who was a regular contributor with his Priestland's Postbag.    

Although the Pause for Thought mainly used outside contributors BBC religious department staff also appeared including producers David Winter and John Newbury. A programme favourite for many years was Roger Royle who would consider listener's letters in what was titled Royle Mail. This edition dates from  February 1985.

From January 1986 a slightly more fanciful affair from religious author Stuart Jackman.

By the 1990s the live editions had become more of a conversation between presenter and contributor to make the change of pace and topic less jarring and often adding an element of humour. From Wogan's return in January 1993 this is Rabbi Hugo Gryn.

Ruth Scott was a hugely popular contributor who sadly died last year. Here she is with Terry in April 2006.

Anglican Bishop Rob Gillion uses the fact that Wogan has just been voted the station's Ultimate Icon as the springboard for his talk in October 2007.

Bringing things up-to-date and marking the PFT's 50th anniversary last week is writer and comedian Paul Kerensa who kindly name-checked me in his opening remarks. Paul is speaking to Amol Rajan who was covering the breakfast show.

When Pause for Thought started in 1970 it was replacing the existing daily religious slot Five to Ten which, it won't surprise you to learn was on at 9.55 am. Originally billed as "a story, a hymn and a prayer" it started on the Light Programme in December 1950. The Radio Times explains that the aim "has been to provide those who are busy at work with an opportunity for a brief recollection of the great spiritual truths of Christianity - something healthy and helpful to brood on during the day". The stories were mainly but not exclusively biblical, the hymns recorded for solo and choral verses with organ accompaniment and a short prayer "short enough for a housewife to pause and join in without risking the cooking and a worker to do the same without inviting the sack." This example of Five to Ten dates from April 1958.      

I can't leave the subject without also briefly mentioning Thought for the Day over on Radio 4. It too is fifty years old this month having replaced Ten to Eight sandwiched in-between the two editions of Today, which it turn replaced Lift Up Your Hearts (1939-65), or Lift Up Your Skirts according to one episode of I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again. Thought for the Day has had more of a controversial history than Pause for Thought, and I'll cover that in a future post.  

Broadcasting in the Seventies

From today's perspective the furore over Broadcasting in the Seventies seems like a storm in a teacup. But at the time it threatened the corporation with industrial action,  the withdrawal of labour by the Musician's Union and letters from the great and good describing it as a threat to "the unique role the BBC has played in the cultural and intellectual life of the country".

It was fifty years ago this week that a number of BBC national radio programme changes came occurred brought about by the implementation of the policy document Broadcasting in the Seventies. Essentially the plan was to redefine the characteristics of each of the four radio networks: Radios 1, 2, 3 and 4 and move away from the existing mixed programming - a style of programming that had existed since Reith's day. We're now used to tightly formatted radio output but at the time this was both novel and controversial. But, if listeners expected an overnight shift in the sound of the favourite station this didn't really happen and it took years for it to pan out - the result of insufficient funds and insufficient wavelengths.

There were several factors that convinced the BBC to act and shake-up its radio services. Financially the Government was tightening the purse strings and refusing any licence fee increases, whilst at the time the BBC had ambitions to expand their services and to adopt  new technology (the roll-out of colour TV and VHF stereo for instance).  Radio listening figures, particularly those in the evening, had started to fall. There was also a notion to hive off the new Open University programmes, as well as existing schools programmes, onto a separate VHF network paid for by government - something which never happened and continued to lead to AM/FM splits and headaches for schedulers for another couple of decades. The BBC had been forced to start a new pop service in 1967 with the launch of the pirate-replacement Radio 1. And finally, with a view to what might happen, and did arrive four years later, there was the threat of commercial radio competition.

The document, published in July 1969, was part of a process that had started over a year before with a wealth of consultation and working parties during which the Corporation had, for the first time but by no means the last, used independent management consultants, in this case McKinsey and Co.

On streamlining network radio the report had this to say:

"Traditionally, broadcasting has been based on the principle of mixed programming. On a single channel, the public is offered the whole range: news, documentaries, plays, music, light entertainment, serials, sport - all types of programmes, covering all interests and all 'brow' levels.

But experience, both in this country and abroad, suggests that many listeners now expect radio to be based more on a different principle - that of the specialised network, offering a continuous stream of one particular type of programme, meeting one particular interest. One channel might offer pop, another serious music, another talk programmes, and so on". 

When the document was released on Thursday 10 July 1969 the Corporation held staff briefings, press conferences and published a special edition of the staff magazine Ariel. The proposals were discussed on air including an hour long Q&A session on the Third Programme the following Tuesday. This is how that evening's Radio Newsreel covered the news with the summary: "Radio 1 strictly pop. Radio 2 carrying light music from Sinatra to Lehar. Radio 3, perhaps only on VHF, with more classical music and Radio 4 with mostly talk".  The newsreader is Peter Barker and the reports from Brian Curtois and Jim Biddulph.

In 1969 Radio 1 and Radio 2 shared a great deal of programming but, to quote the report, "to their respective fans, Emperor Rosko and Eric Robinson barely inhabit the same planet let alone the same air waves". So Radio 1 was to be an "all-pop network". No surprises here but at the time it still carried some jazz shows. Radio 2 was to play "light music" and to shed some of its speech elements. So Any Questions? and Midweek Theatre moved over to Radio 4, and Woman's Hour would follow two years later. News Time with Derek Cooper was dropped and Your Hundred Best Tunes transferred over to Radio 2 from Radio 4. Another programme, still running to this day as part of the Radio 2 breakfast show, also started with the religious slot Pause for Thought replacing Five to Ten.       

It was the changes to the Third Programme that caused the most uproar, not unlike the protests over the 1957 cut in hours and the introduction of Network Three. Now it was such luminaries as Sir Adrian Boult, James Cameron, George Melly, Jonathan Miller and Henry Moore who supported the Campaign for Better Broadcasting and fired off letters to The Times.

Since the network shake-up in September 1967 the Third Programme title had been retained for the evening schedule of music, drama, arts and talks - the same highbrow mix that had defined the station since its launch in 1946. In addition the wavelengths carried a daytime schedule of classical music as the Music Programme, on weekday evenings there was a Study hour of further education programmes and on Saturday afternoons the Sports Service.

Under Broadcasting in the Seventies the proposal was to re-badge the whole lot as Radio 3 and to continue the music programming into the evening. The Sports Service was dropped and moved over to Radio 2 to become Sport on 2. Sport wasn't totally lost on Radio 3 however as it still carried Test Match Special.  Meanwhile some speech programming would move over to Radio 4. In addition the idea of having Radio 3 as a VHF only service was floated, with the medium wave frequencies used to supplement local radio expansion. (Radio 3 did finally become FM only in February 1992).    

What also caused upset was the decision to axe the Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the London Studio Players, the BBC Chorus, the BBC Training Orchestra and, heard only on Radio 2, the Northern Dance Orchestra. Earlier proposals from the internal Policy Study group had also put the Concert and the Northern Ireland Orchestras in the frame. In the event there was a reprieve, at least in the short-term. Writing in The Listener Director-General Charles Curran admitted that the Government basically said "You have too many orchestras but we want you to continue to employ them because somebody has to. They are needed nationally".

The Scottish SO continues to this day, the London Studio Players stayed playing until 1984, the BBC Chorus went back to its original name of the BBC Singers in 1972, the Training Orchestra was finally wound up in 1977, the Northern Ireland Orchestra was subsumed into the Ulster Orchestra in 1981 and the NDO became the Northern Radio Orchestra in 1975 but was disbanded in 1980.  

The longer lasting changes were seen on Radio 4 this week in 1970. As well as inheriting some speech programmes from Radios 2 and 3 the proposals saw an increase in news and current affairs coverage and plans to "develop the four main news and magazine periods - breakfast time, lunch time, early evening, and late evening". Today with Jack de Manio and The World at One with William Hardcastle already existed but new to the schedules were the teatime PM "the news magazine that sums up your day and starts off your evening." Replacing Home This Afternoon (a magazine show aimed a older listeners)  and produced by the WATO team, PM was presented by William Hardcastle to cover the hard news and either Derek Cooper or Steve Race (who also regularly hosted Home This Afternoon), who would look after the lighter elements.

There was another half-hour news programme at 7 pm, News Desk with former US correspondent Gerald Priestland and newsreader Meryl O'Keeffe. Priestland describing the programme as "news with a human voice". Finally, taking a more serious tone and a more international outlook was The World Tonight with Douglas Stuart, which replaced Ten O'Clock. Though News Desk was dropped in 1976 - replaced by The World in Focus which itself ended in July 1977 when the Six O'Clock News was extended from 15 to 30 minutes - PM and The World Tonight remain key programmes.

Elsewhere on Radio 4 some other equally long-lasting programmes were launched: Week Ending (1970-98), Start the Week with Richard Baker and Analysis with Ian McIntyre who said of the programme that "our business was to get behind the news and dig and illuminate and go a bit further." You and Yours would follow in October 1970. Music shows didn't completely disappear, there was Steve Race's daily Invitation to Music for instance and occasional classical concerts. 

The report also covered local radio and expected the network to expand to 40 stations, though financial restrictions saw this stall at 20 until 1980. On regional production the idea was the phase out the opt-outs from Radio 4, apart from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales and to restructure the BBC English regional map around eight production centres rather than the old Regional and Home Service ones determined by transmitter range.

In the lead-up to the on-air changes for the week commencing 4 April 1970 the Radio Times printed a series of Q&As with BBC management. Here's the final set with Ian Trethowan, MD Radio and Gerard Mansell, Director of Programmes, Radio.

The magazine also published this example weekday schedule to summarise to give listeners an idea of what to expect. 

So did Broadcasting in the Seventies make a difference. It's an unequivocal yes. Station controllers had inherited  mishmash schedules from the old Home, Light and Third. Listening habits had changed; there was TV to divert you, particularly in the evening, more folk listened in the car and on their transistor radios. No longer would the family sit round the wireless to enjoy an evening of mixed entertainment. In the era of increasing consumer choice radio schedulers had to make it easier for listeners to find what they wanted. Having said that the sound of the networks didn't totally change overnight, it was more of a gradual shift. As Trethowan admitted " the changes were not nearly as dramatic as we made out in public." There was still music on Radio 4, drama serials on Radio2 and current affairs on Radio 3.

But the real issue was financial. Although the final report put such considerations well down the list it still talked of predicted annual deficit in the radio budget of £4.5 million by 1974. The figure in the earlier McKinsey report was worse with an £8m deficit forecast by 1972. The Corporation had been frustrated in its attempts to get an increase in the licence fee by Wilson's government which was too embroiled in devaluation issues and cabinet in-fighting. At a Downing Street meeting in 1966 the PM had told the BBC  "drastically to prune its expenditure".    

Typically the BBC fudged and delayed any economies but by the time of the 3-day week and the oil crisis it was squeezed even further and broadcasting hours were trimmed back and programme sharing invoked between Radios 1 and 2 and between Radios 3 and 4.    

I'll leave the final word on this to listener Frederick Chamberlain who sent in his A Listeners Prayer to the BBC in 1968:

Were I in charge of the BBC,

The Radio Programmes - they would be-

Channel 1 - Pop all day; low brow sounds, to some quite gay.

Channel 2- that would go-harmonic music for the medium brow.

Channel 3-Symphonic noise, for the high brow girls and boys, Prose and Poetry, Opera too, not for the many but just for the few.

Channel 4-Would surely be -talks-religion-plays and views-odds and ends and of course the News.

And so-all-would be satisfied-

Not one listener ere denied.

The full document and an article on the evolution of BBC radio post 1967 by Dr Alban Webb is on the History of the BBC website.

Can I Take That Again? - Part 5

Yesterday broadcaster Steve Martin tweeted "BBC colleagues - recreate the NBH experience at home by randomly changing the thermometer (thermostat) and releasing some pet mice".

A mouse you say? In the studio? Yes, unexpected rodent sightings did seem to be commonplace around the BBC and I've dug out audio evidence of a couple of incidences.

First, the now infamous mouse-related episode up at Media City in January 2013 during Shelagh Fogarty's 5 live show. As guest Mike Linnell spots the unwelcome intruder there are girlie screams from Shelagh as she hops onto her chair in a scene reminiscent of an old Tom and Jerry cartoon. "It's on the bloody table," she exclaims.

This all happened just a month after another mouse had popped up during Kate Kinsella's weather forecast, presumably from a London weather studio, during Iain Lee's BBC Three Counties morning show. This one is "quite sweet actually" as Kate rejects Iain's suggestion to despatch it with a book or a block of wood.   

The Village Loudspeaker

Local radio is under the cosh at the moment. Commercial stations dominated by the Global/Bauer duopoly relentlessly head towards networked shows and centralised production. In my home town the Viking FM breakfast show comes from Sheffield, 70 miles away, and just last week the rockin' church in Preston closed its doors.  That said the number of stations on offer, on DAB and online, continues apace. Last year hardly a month passed without yet another fresh addition to one of the existing brands.  Localness hasn't been totally abandoned as this year OFCOM are expected to announce further community radio licences this month.  

Meanwhile the BBC is feeling particularly unloved both by the Government and the public whose perception of the Corporation barely extends beyond Question Time and the Today programme. Calls to 'scrap the licence fee' always overlook the funding model for radio in general, and BBC local radio in particular. But BBC local stations continue to demonstrate their worth. Consider the coverage of the flooding in the last three weeks - and how often is it that adverse weather shows the strength of a truly local service? - with some commendable reporting on many stations.  And only last week Radio Cornwall's Donna Birrell wrote of the important personal connections that radio makes when relating the story of 'Clara from Bude'.

Local radio did enjoy something of a golden age in the 1980s and 90s when new stations were coming on stream, AM and FM services were splitting, broadcast hours expanding and budgets increasing. But it wasn't always like this. The birth of a BBC local radio network was years in development with co-funded experimental stations run of shoestring budgets and reliant on Radio 2 and Radio 4 programmes to fill the holes in the schedule. Independent local radio, when it finally arrived, offered a true livelier alternative to those lucky enough to have a station in their area but, hamstrung by regulatory restrictions , struggled to make a profit and was not averse to some BBC-style programming like Swops and Trades and Late Chemists Rotas. 

This weekend the documentary The Village Loudspeaker - the nickname Dave Bassett gave Plymouth Sound when it started - reflects on the evolution of local radio. It's a bi-media effort with a half-hour television version on the BBC News Channel and an hour long radio version on Radio Solent on Sunday afternoon.

Here's the TV documentary:

Producer Richard Latto has been digging around in the archives and sourcing material from private collections  to uncover video that's not been seen since its first broadcast. There are also newly-recorded interviews with the likes of Martin Kelner, Johnnie Walker, Les Ross, Graham Dene, Louise Churchill,  Darren Lethem, Tony Gillham, Duncan Warren, Stephanie Hurst, Chris Burns,  John Foster and Graham Mack.  There are over 40 video clips to support this programme on the BBC Radio Solent website here.  

Richard says “This isn’t a definitive history of local radio, it’s a flavour of local radio and a chance to reflect on how it has changed and evolved over the years. With all the recent changes, especially in the commercial sector, local radio has generated a lot of discussion from both industry insiders and listeners, who have heard it evolve at great pace.” 

This is the radio version of The Village Loudspeaker:

Further reading:

Last year David Lloyd asked is there a Future for Local Radio.

On this blog I've written about the first 19 ILR stations and many of the early BBC local stations as they hit their 50th anniversaries. See under the 'Down Your Local' label. See also The People's Radio blog post.

Matthew Linfoot's PhD thesis on the history of BBC local radio (1960-80) is online here.    

Not the A to Z of Radio Comedy: K is for Keep It Maclean

I see that Crackerjack (CRACKERJACK!!!) is back on television with Sam and Mark breathing life into the 60-odd year old brand. Amongst the faces popping up on the first show from its earlier incarnation was Don Maclean (pictured above).

During the 70s Maclean was partnered with Peter Glaze doing those Crackerjack comedy routines and song parodies as well as providing the comic relief on The Black and White Minstrel Show. By 1977 he was appearing on Radio 2, first on the comedy panel show Wit's End and then with his own sketch show Maclean Up Britain. Here he teamed up with one of his Crackerjack co-stars Jan Hunt, that man of voices Chris Emmett (Week Ending, The News Huddlines and The Burkiss Way), Bob Todd (stooge to Benny Hill and Spike Milligan on the Q series) and Gordon Clyde (the interviewer on The Dick Emery Show and presenter of The Pleasure's Yours on the World Service).     

Don's show made a return in 1980 for a further three series but now re-titled Keep It Maclean. The cast, apart from Todd all returned with scripts provided by Tony Hare who had also written for Crackerjack and would go on to be one of the chief writers on The News Huddlines. The other writers were Howard Imber who'd contributed to Week Ending, TISWAS and Bullseye and later a comedy quiz vehicle for Maclean called The Clever Dick-athlon, as well as Jimmy Mulville and Rory McGrath just before they went off to write and perform on the telly.

From the start of the third series on 5 September 1982 comes this edition of Keep It Maclean. The comedy does, as those programme warnings on Talking Pictures TV sometimes say reflect "the prevailing attitudes of the time". Listen out though for a delightful musical tribute to radio stars of the past sung by Don to the tune of In Party Mood and with lyrics by Frankie Desmond.

Don Maclean continued to appear on Radio 2 comedy shows such as The Press Gang and The Name's the Game before taking over the Sunday morning religious slot Good Morning Sunday in 1990 where he was heard each week for the next 16 years.  

Are You Sitting Comfortably? (Again)

From the earliest days of British radio the BBC  was keen to keep the children of Britain entertained (and informed and educated too of course). Each of the regional stations had their version of Children's Hour presented by one of the radio uncles and aunts, from 'Uncle Rex' Palmer in London to Kathleen Garscadden as Auntie Cyclone (yes, really) in Glasgow. For ninepence a year those young listeners could join the Radio Circle and receive their membership card and enamelled badge.

Children's Hour was aimed at those of school age and it wasn't until 16 January 1950 that the Light Programme schedules listed, for the first time, Listen with Mother a new programme for the under-fives. The notion for such a programme was imported from Australian radio where the BBC's Controller of Talks, and former Director of School Broadcasting, Mary Somerville had heard Kindergarten of the Air, which had been running since 1942.

Broadcast on weekdays at 1.45 pm Listen with Mother was "primarily for the three- to five-year-olds" and consisted of "stories, songs and nursery rhymes and will be opened and rounded off with music". The nursery rhymes were set to music by Ann Driver, presenter of Music and Movement  since 1934 and sung by George Dixon and Eileen Browne, both schools programme producers and broadcasters. It was Eileen who became one of the main presenters of Listen with Mother for the next two decades.

The other main voice on the programme was that of the storyteller who initially would appear on a monthly rotation so that "continuity will grow through hearing a familiar friendly voice each day." Within the first few weeks the actresses Julia Lang and Daphne Oxenford both took turns as the "story lady", joined later by Dorothy Smith. All three stayed with the programme for years.

Those stories, whether it was Roderick, the Little Red Roller, Lambkin and the Butterfly or The Little Cat in the Haystack, were prefaced by the opening words "Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin." Now synonymous with the programme and having long since entered the British consciousness they were supposedly ad-libbed by Julia Lang; but given this was the era when even live programmes were scripted, timed and rehearsed to the second this seems unlikely.   

The other element was music, and it was soothing music designed to let the toddlers nod off whilst mother would put aside her housework and listen to Woman's Hour that followed. In time the soothing music became a regular closing theme, the rather wistful cradle song or Berceuse from the Dolly Suite by French composer Gabriel Fauré.

Listen with Mother tended to use actors, and occasionally singers, as the presenters and storytellers. The list includes Maureen Morris, Catherine Edwards, Lorna Pegram, Sean Barrett, Gladys Whitred (who sang Time To Go Home at the end of Andy Pandy), Auriol Smith (founder of Orange Tree Theatre), Scottish singer Alison McMorland, Sam Kelly ('Allo 'Allo, Porridge etc), Patricia Gallimore (Pat Archer in The Archers), Jean Rogers (Emmerdale's Dolly Skillbeck), Lucie Skeaping (now presenter of Radio 3's The Early Music Show) and, presenting the programme in its closing weeks Tony Aitken and Nerys Hughes (The Liver Birds and The District Nurse).     

This recording dates from 16 June 1965 with Eileen Browne presenting, Julia Lang reading the story of Big Fat Puss-Cat. The continuity announcer is John Dunn. At the time the programme opened with an tune played on the celesta.       

When Listen with Mother started the majority of children's programmes on the radio came within the remit of the BBC's Entertainment Division under the control of R.J.F. Howgill and later Michael Standing. However, Listen with Mother was produced by the School Broadcasting division under Richmond Postgate (who in 1950, on a 9 month attachment, was the first Head of Television Children's Programmes) and then John Scupham. Following the axing of Children's Hour in 1964 Listen with Mother moved over from the Light to the Home Service (later Radio 4 ) where it remained for the rest of its run. In its new berth on the Home it was now followed by schools programmes in term-time or various musical concerts the rest of the year.

Increasingly competition from television meant that Listen with Mother sadly became an unwanted infant, more likely to be heard by 55-years olds rather than 5-year olds and eventually, and inevitably, got shunted around the schedules. In July 1973 it moved on an hour to 2.45 pm to follow Woman's Hour which itself had been shifted over from Radio 2.

When Radio 4 moved over to long wave in November 1978 Listen with Mother now went out at 11.45 am, an odd bit of scheduling just before lunchtime. By October 1979 it was back in the afternoon just after the 3.00 pm news and before Afternoon Theatre. Finally in September 1980 it was back again to mornings at 10.30 am and on VHF only, whilst the Daily Service was on long wave. Radio 4 controller Monica Sims, herself a former children's television executive, saw the programme as "a frightful nuisance" and that it "made the audience, or a lot of the audience, switch off".

Time was called on Listen with Mother in September 1982 and led to much "nostalgic wailing" with letters of protest and a petition handed in at 10 Downing Street, though it's doubtful that Mrs Thatcher was much of a fan. As a report in this sequence shows even Roy Hudd and Christopher Timothy were on hand to raise their objections and Chris Rowe - a song for every occasion - lamented its passing. These clips come from The World this Weekend and Today.  
       

The final edition presented by Nerys Hughes and Tony Aitken was broadcast on Friday 10 September 1982 ending with a round of goodbyes from the recent presenters.

But Radio 4 didn't totally neglect the under-fives. The following Monday, 13 September 1982 again on VHF only, the five-minute Listening Corner started, offering just enough time for a story. It was a familiar voice too for that first week, that of Tony Aitken.

Listening Corner ran for eight years with stories read by some former Listen with Mother storytellers such as Nerys Hughes and Carole Boyd, some from Play School like Toni Arthur and Fred Harris and guest readers that included Roy Kinnear, Willie Rushton, Kenneth Williams and even Alvin Stardust.

The last edition of Listening Corner aired on Radio 4 on 24 August 1990, though by then it running on repeats. On Monday 27 August Radio 5 launched and scooped up all the children's and school's programmes with the toddlers catered for by Andrew Sachs on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.      

"Goodbye until tomorrow....goodbye."