The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Broadcasting House, 1932: The BBC's first purpose-built home. 
When it first opened, some likened it to a ship, others to a New York skyscraper. And it was once called a Palace of the Ether...
That's the title of a new book by architectural historian Dr Elizabeth Darling, who joins us this episode for an audio tour of the building's earliest incarnation - from the outside design and sculptures to the Concert Hall/Radio Theatre, via the unique studios and the art deco reception, complete with Latin motto and statute of The Sower, still there today.
It's an incredible building, and whether you know a lot or a little, I'm sure you'll learn something new about BH - whether it's the bomb that didn't bother the newsreader, the WW2 dormitory, or the only studio you could smoke in, surrounded by fake books.
For the last couple of years, I've given walking tours of central London via spots linked with broadcasting history. Not this year alas, so this audio tour of the building we usually start with will be just what you need instead.
Plus one of your reviews gets chosen to 'win' a pretend piece of broadcasting history, and we look at how the BBC might change going forward, if you were in charge...
Look out for Elizabeth Darling's book - see link below - and stay subscribed to the podcast for more tales of early British broadcasting. Next time, we're back in November 1923 for the BBC's ninth station, and its first relay station: 6FL Sheffield. And we've got some rare clips for you...
 
SHOWNOTES:
Palace of the Ether by Elizabeth Darling is published by Lund Humphries - it's a beaut: https://www.lundhumphries.com/products/palace-of-the-ether
Paul's show is An Evening of (Very) Old Radio: The BBC Then and Now - and this summer it plays Westbury in Wiltshire and Weston-super-Mare in Somerset: paulkerensa.com/tour
Email the show at: https://paulkerensa.com/contact.php
Paul's latest Substack, on the BBC cuts: paulkerensa.substack.com
Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/groups/bbcentury
Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social
Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa
Join Paul's mailing list
This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
Support us on Patreon? £5/mth, and get extra videos, writings, readings etc: patreon.com/paulkerensa - thanks!
Or support this project with a one-off tip: ko-fi.com/paulkerensa - thanks too!
Please share/rate/review this podcast if you like - it all helps.
Next time, Episode 125: We're back in our timeline in Nov 1923 for the first BBC relay station, Sheffield 6FL.
More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

On 1 January 1951, the BBC broadcast "a farming Dick Barton", aka "an everyday story of country folk", aka The Archers - the world's longest running broadcast drama.
Approximately 21,000 episodes later, it celebrates its diamond anniversary with a national tour of theatres, hosted by comedian and Archers fan Angela Barnes - who joins us this episode to tell us all about the show, and the show.
The live tribute features Archers cast members, a Q&A, an Ambridge-style pub quiz, and of course its iconic theme. It plays from Liverpool to London, Glasgow to Swansea. Enjoy!
Also this episode, less gladly, we consider the upcoming BBC cuts - and while we may not welcome news that Radio 4's The World Tonight or Midnight News are to go (and that's just the start), what would you cut, if you were DG?
I asked online, I wrote a Substack about it, and this episode we look at a few of the more frequent suggestions, from some of you. If you have further thoughts, do email the show and we might feature you next time.
We're also featuring your kind reviews of this podcast, if you've posted to Apple Podcasts. Thanks if so! If you haven't and would consider such a thing, please do and next time you-yes-you could be the proud winner of a fictitious piece of British broadcasting history...
 
 
SHOWNOTES:
The Archers Live at 75, on tour around the UK. More next time... https://www.fane.co.uk/the-archers
Listen to the earliest Archers there is: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p03nshmg
Paul's show is An Evening of (Very) Old Radio: The BBC Then and Now - and this summer it plays Westbury in Wiltshire and Weston-super-Mare in Somerset: paulkerensa.com/tour
We mention Watchet's fabulous Radio Museum - do go: https://www.radiomuseum.uk/
Email the show at: https://paulkerensa.com/contact.php
Paul's latest Substack, on the BBC cuts: paulkerensa.substack.com
Our Facebook group: facebook.com/groups/bbcentury
Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social
Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa
Join Paul's mailing list
This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
Support us on Patreon? £5/mth, and get extra videos, writings, readings etc: patreon.com/paulkerensa - thanks!
Or support this project with a one-off tip: ko-fi.com/paulkerensa - thanks too!
Please share/rate/review this podcast if you like - it all helps.
Next time, Episode 124: We're back in our timeline in Nov 1923 for the first BBC relay station, Sheffield 6FL.
More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

On this special episode, we delve into early television with Professor John Wyver, whose book and conference is all about those overlooked decades of Stooky Bill, I think that's a pen, and vertical screens no bigger than a postcard. Sound familiar?
2026 is a big television centenary. On 26 January 1926, John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of television, showing moving images to a small gathering of scientists at his Frith Street laboratory in central London.
To celebrate, Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of Television in Britain is a new book by Professor John Wyver - writer, producer and Professor of the Arts on Screen at the University of Westminster.
That university will soon be hosting a live in-person conference, The Cultures of Early Television, on 2 and 3 July at London's Portland Hall, not too far from today's BBC Broadcasting House. John Wyver is organising this, and joins us to talk us through the early years of television, the programmes available, the people behind it, what cinema made of TV, whether John Reith was a fan, how well-off were its first viewers, and much more.
Plus 27 June 2026 sees the end of longwave in the UK, so we take a quick look at how it developed, and herald an event by Cray Valley Radio Society that you can listen to or go to (if you're near Eltham).
It's all part of a few episodes themed on things you can go to this summer, from last episode's Asking Elvis show to next episode's Archers retrospective, via my own show An Evening of (Very) Old Radio and John Wyver's early television conference. Details of all of these in the shownotes, so read on...
 
 
SHOWNOTES:
Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
Professor John Wyver's book is Magic Rays of Light: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/magic-rays-of-light-9781839028205/
His conference The Cultures of Early Television is on 2-3 July 2026 at Portland Hall, London - and registration is free: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/events/the-cultures-of-early-television
Paul's show is An Evening of (Very) Old Radio: The BBC Then and Now - and this summer it plays Westbury in Wiltshire and Weston-super-Mare in Somerset: paulkerensa.com/tour
Mitch Benn's show is Asking Elvis. Details of where/when and how to submit a question to Elvis on Mitch's website: https://www.mitchbenn.com/asking-elvis
We also mention The Archers Live at 75, on tour around the UK. More next time... https://www.fane.co.uk/the-archers
A final event to mention: Cray Valley Radio Society's event you can visit - and details of their special stations - in tribute to the closure of BBC Longwave on 27 June 2026: https://cvrs.uk/event/gb198lw-radio-4-long-wave-closure/ 
Those blogs on the closure of R4 Longwave include this by Random Radio Jottings: https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2026/06/so-long-long-wave.html
...and this by the Radio Society of Great Britain: https://rsgb.org/main/radio-sport/rsgb-contest-club/bbc-long-wave-shutdown/
...and one last longwave article: https://radioatlanticodelsur.blogspot.com/2025/06/
Our latest Substack: paulkerensa.substack.com
Our Facebook group: facebook.com/groups/bbcentury
Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social
Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa
Join Paul's mailing list
This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
With the loss of Paul's recent live work (blame strokes - not the band...), Patreon has become even more helpful and significant! Help keep this podcast afloat by supporting for £5/mth, and in return get extra videos, writings, readings etc: patreon.com/paulkerensa - thanks!
Or support this project with a one-off tip: ko-fi.com/paulkerensa - thanks too!
Please share/rate/review this podcast if you like - it all helps.
Next time, Episode 123: The Archers Live at 75 with comedian and broadcaster Angela Barnes. Then we're back in our timeline in Nov 1923 for the first BBC relay station, Sheffield 6FL.
More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

"Thank you very much..."
Ask Elvis was one of the most popular features on one of the most popular radio shows - Steve Wright in the Afternoon on BBC Radio 2.
Running from about 2005-14, a mystery voice brought back the omniscient Elvis to solve listeners' ailments, questions on quantum physics, advanced cookery, language issues... It was Encyclopaedia Brittanica meets the King.
Well, mystery no longer, as comedian and musician Mitch Benn lifts the quiff and the sunglasses to reveal the true identity behind Ask Elvis, readying for an Edinburgh Fringe show (and previews across the country through June and July) called Asking Elvis, with tales, revelations and re-enactments of those halcyon days when Elvis knew all.
In this extensive chat, we also look at Mitch's time on The Now Show and his involvement with The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
And your host Paul on his medical ups and downs - a stroke - that's delayed some of the research, but not for long. We're back in our 1920s timeline soon, or perhaps next time there'll be other events you can go to this year, from The Archers Live at 75 with Angela Barnes, to Prof John Wyver's early television conference in July, to Paul Kerensa's An Evening of (Very) Old Radio hitting Weston-super-Mare and other places. Links in the shownotes to these and more - do browse,
Now is a better time than usual to join our Patreon page. Why better? Well better for this podcast! Post-stroke, Paul's had to cancel  a lot of live events - the bread-and-butter of his work. One thing he can switch to is this podcast. So if you're on the fence about joining for £5/month, you'll help fund future episodes and keep Paul from having to retrain as a stick insect keeper (or something). Link in notes below - do consider joining us, and writings/videos/warmy fuzzy feeling of supporting this podcast and its research will all be yours!
And go and see Mitch this June-August 2026...
 
SHOWNOTES:
Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
Mitch Benn's show is Asking Elvis. Details of where/when and how to submit a question to Elvis on Mitch's website: https://www.mitchbenn.com/asking-elvis
We don't include Ask Elvis clips, as it's the BBC's and it's recent. But I highly recommend you hear a bit, in clips like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FF3pn3YtKc&list=PLVp7MOaNulw5ROdpiC41yN4dL3BikL8OA
Here's when your host Paul was a guest on Steve Wright in the Afternoon - it's Christmassy: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p06vzj2c
We also mention The Archers Live at 75, on tour around the UK this year: https://www.fane.co.uk/the-archers
And we mention Prof John Wyver's conference on early television, 2-3 July 2026 in central London: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/events/the-cultures-of-early-television
See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio (inc Westbury Festival on Thu 23 July and Blakehay Theatre, Weston-super-Mare on Wed 29 July) - or book it: paulkerensa.com/tour
Our latest Substack: paulkerensa.substack.com
Our Facebook group: facebook.com/groups/bbcentury
Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social
Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa
Join Paul's mailing list
This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
Support the podcast by joining as a Patreon subscriber - for extra videos, writings, readings etc: patreon.com/paulkerensa - £5/month, cancel whenever.
Or support this project without that regularity, with a one-off tip: ko-fi.com/paulkerensa
Please share/rate/review this podcast if you have a mo - it all helps.
Next time, Episode 122: We MIGHT be back in our chronological retelling in Nov 1923, launching the BBC's first relay station, Sheffield 6FL. Pending stroke recovery. Doing ok. But let's see. Or hear, next time on the podcast.
 
More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

And did the Beeb, in ancient times, broadcast to England's* mountains green?...
...Till Reith has built Jerusalem, transmitting to England's* green and pleasant** land.
 
*and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland's**and the less green and unpleasant bits too
===
In the third and final part of our General Strike special, 100 years on, we look at 10-12 May 1926, in a week that changed the BBC forever - as John Reith walked a tightrope of independence and impartiality.
Plus the legacy of the strike, how it changed the BBC, and of course we couldn't resist bringing you the iconic moment of Reith announcing the strike's end, by reading Jerusalem with accompanying orchestra and choir. While there was no recording at the time, Reith re-enacted it in 1932.
The newspapers, the bulletins, the occasional later reminiscence (Peter Eckersley, Stuart Hibberd...), this aims to be the most thorough - and yet I hope entertaining - retelling of the BBC and the General Strike. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I did putting it together.
 
With thanks to these excellent resources...
Radicalstroud.co.uk
Warwick Digital Collections at the University of Warwick
The Trades Union Congress
The BBC Written Archive Centre
1926 The General Strike edited by Jeffrey Skelley
Into the Wind by John Reith
Asa Briggs’ The Birth of Broadcasting
Ian McIntyre’s Expense of Glory
Peter Eckersley’s The Power Behind the Microphone
The BBC A People’s History by David Hendy
Our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker - and the various newspaper articles
Trevor Howard and his article Immovable object, irresistible force: Reith, Churchill and BBC ‘impartiality’
Nine Days in May – radio drama by Robin Glendinning
Churchill vs Reith – radio drama by Mike Harris
Random Radio Jottings: https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2025/01/churchill-and-bbc.html
 
SHOWNOTES:
Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
Broadcasts over 50 years old are beyond copyright, but anything that is BBC copyright content is reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. 
See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - or book it: paulkerensa.com/tour
Our latest Substack summarises these 5 over-steps of the BBC in the General Strike: paulkerensa.substack.com
Our Facebook group has ample marvellous photos and newspaper articles - thanks to Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker: facebook.com/groups/bbcentury
Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social
Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa
Join Paul's mailing list
This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
Support the podcast by joining as a Patreon subscriber - for extra videos, writings, readings etc: patreon.com/paulkerensa - £5/month, cancel whenever.
Or support this project without that regularity, with a one-off tip: ko-fi.com/paulkerensa
Please share/rate/review this podcast if you have a mo - it all helps.
Next time, Episode 121: Ask Elvis, The Archers, The Cultures of Early Television conference, and An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - all live events you come to this summer. We'll chat to those behind these do-please-come-along happenings.
Then on Episode 122, we're back in our chronological retelling in Nov 1923, for the launch of the first relay station, Sheffield 6FL.
 
More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

6-9 May 1926, in a week that changed the BBC forever... this is part 2 of our 3-part special on the BBC and the General Strike
100 years ago this week (at time of podcast release), two million strikers were out in solidarity with the miners. It brought unique challenges to the BBC - with Winston Churchill trying to take it over, a tightrope of independence and impartiality, and broadcast requests from the Archbishop of Canterbury (no), the Leader of the Opposition (no), the TUC (no) and the Prime Minister (come on in sir!).
John Reith welcomes the PM to his own home, even rewriting his speech for him while he's on air. It's all part of what we're calling The BBC and the General Strike in 5 (Over-)Steps.
This episode, we'll discover over-reaching editorialising of the news, Reith the rewriter and those notably absent voices of opposition. Hmm. But then again, what would you do differently... and would that hand to Churchill the BBC on a plate?
All will become clear, in our day-to-day guide through the middle of the General Strike during those nine days in May 1926.
This episode looks at 6-9 May. Last episode we looked at 3-5 May. Next episode we'll look at 10-14 May plus the General Strike's legacy (and Reith's apologies).
I hope you'll agree it's a fascinating tale, worth us taking the long way round. The details - from the role played by Reith's creaky office chair to his mum listening to the PM through the study door, and from Earl Grey's doorstep duel to Peter Eckersley's shock when he discovers imbalanced news - are deserving of retelling. So thanks for listening, if you do. And you should. Join us! 
Part 3 follows on 10 May 2026 - 100 years on from the moments featured. Be subscribed to get the episodes when they land.
 
With thanks to these excellent resources...
Radicalstroud.co.uk
Warwick Digital Collections at the University of Warwick
The Trades Union Congress
The BBC Written Archive Centre
1926 The General Strike edited by Jeffrey Skelley
Into the Wind by John Reith
Asa Briggs’ The Birth of Broadcasting
Ian McIntyre’s Expense of Glory
Peter Eckersley’s The Power Behind the Microphone
The BBC A People’s History by David Hendy
Our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker - and the various newspaper articles
Trevor Howard and his article Immovable object, irresistible force: Reith, Churchill and BBC ‘impartiality’
Nine Days in May – radio drama by Robin Glendinning
Churchill vs Reith – radio drama by Mike Harris
Random Radio Jottings: https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2025/01/churchill-and-bbc.html
 
SHOWNOTES:
Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
Broadcasts over 50 years old are beyond copyright, but anything that is BBC copyright content is reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. 
See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - or book it: paulkerensa.com/tour
Our latest Substack summarises these 5 over-steps of the BBC in the General Strike: paulkerensa.substack.com
Our Facebook group has ample marvellous photos and newspaper articles - thanks to Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker: facebook.com/groups/bbcentury
Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social
Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa
Join Paul's mailing list
This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
Support the podcast by joining as a Patreon subscriber - for extra videos, writings, readings etc: patreon.com/paulkerensa - £5/month, cancel whenever.
Or support this project without that regularity, with a one-off tip: ko-fi.com/paulkerensa
Please share/rate/review this podcast if you have a mo - it all helps.
Next time, Episode 120: The General Strike at 100, part 3: Reith wins?
More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio
 

100 years ago to the day (at time of podcast release), Britain began to grind to a halt. Our first and only General Strike.
But while it was a time of national crisis, it was also an opportunity for the BBC - and particularly John Reith.
With most newspapers ceasing publication, the BBC gained a news division, and a reputation, for independence and impartiality - at least, that's what Reith hoped. But it meant opponents and critics at every turn - from strikers believing they were being unfairly ignored, to Winston Churchill thinking the BBC were too generous to the strikers. Surely, thought Churchill, it was better for the government to commandeer the BBC, and become an audio version of his pop-up partisan paper The British Gazette?
There's a lot to this tale. So to do it justice, we're breaking it into four podcasts. This is part 1 - with the birth of the BBC's news-gathering squad, and Reith locking horns with Churchill, though cosying up to the PM. And he announces the strike - and other interruptions - from his own home studio.
Our guest is Professor Michael Tracey, of the University of Colorado at Boulder, and former head of the Broadcasting Research Unit.
Part 2 follows in a few days' time - 100 years on from the moments featured. Be subscribed to ensure you get the episodes when they land.
 
With thanks to these excellent resources...
Radicalstroud.co.uk
Warwick Digital Collections at the University of Warwick
The Trades Union Congress
The BBC Written Archive Centre
1926 The General Strike edited by Jeffrey Skelley
Into the Wind by John Reith
Asa Briggs’ The Birth of Broadcasting
Ian McIntyre’s Expense of Glory
Peter Eckersley’s The Power Behind the Microphone
The BBC A People’s History by David Hendy
Our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker - and the various newspaper articles
Trevor Howard and his article Immovable object, irresistible force: Reith, Churchill and BBC ‘impartiality’
Nine Days in May – radio drama by Robin Glendinning
Churchill vs Reith – radio drama by Mike Harris
Random Radio Jottings: https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2025/01/churchill-and-bbc.html
 
SHOWNOTES:
Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
Support the podcast by joining as a Patreon subscriber - for extra videos, writings, readings etc: patreon.com/paulkerensa - £5/month, cancel whenever.
See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - or book it: paulkerensa.com/tour
Read Paul's Substack: paulkerensa.substack.com
Find our Facebook page: facebook.com/bbcentury
Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social
Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa
Join Paul's mailing list
This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps.
Next time, Episode 119: The General Strike at 100, part 2: Reith v The Archbishop
More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio
 

#117 The BBC's First Homosexual: a new play - with Dr Stephen Hornby and Professor Marcus Collins
A special episode about a new play about on the true tale of Britain's first broadcast debate on homosexuality. We're outside of our moment-by-moment timeline (currently anchored in November 1923 - we return there soon) to highlight this under-appreciated moment at the 1950s BBC.
After much deliberation, BBC producers planned and recorded an experimental discussion programme, but it wasn't broadcast until three years later, as an edited version called 'The Homosexual Condition'. The content may be rather shocking to today's ears, but progressive as far as its producers were concerned.
The recordings are long lost, but the transcript survives and was discovered by Professor Marcus Collins (Professor of British History at Loughborough University) at the BBC Written Archives Centre.
Marcus brought it to Dr Stephen Hornby (Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Practice at the University of Salford) who put pen to paper. They both join us this episode tell us how history met drama in this new play: The BBC's First Homosexual.
It's on tour this year to Dublin and Edinburgh after a sell-out five-star-reviewed tour of England. Find it at:
11-16 May - Teachers Club, Dublin
5-16 August - Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh
Details: linktr.ee/inkbrewtheatre
 
SHOWNOTES:
Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - next stops Corsham (Wilts), Weston-super-Mare, Gloucester... paulkerensa.com/tour
Read Paul's Substack - the latest one is on early media predictions - paulkerensa.substack.com
Find our Facebook page: facebook.com/bbcentury
Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social
Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa
Join Paul's mailing list
This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps.
Next time, Episode 118: The BBC and the General Strike: Reith v Churchill v PM v TUC... A centenary special!
More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio
 

Our moment-by-moment retrospective of British broadcasting has reached the BBC's first birthday - 14 November 1923.
We started covering that first year back on episode 18! It's taken a while to get here - but what a year it was. From the first BBC news bulletin, songs and children's programmes to outside broadcasts, simultaneous broadcasting, new stations in Scotland and Wales, a government enquiry, new premises, wireless manhunts, the Radio Times and so much more, we've covered the lot across nearly 100 episodes.
This episode we lead up to the first birthday with plans for the pips, a Shakespearean anniversary, and a raucous farewell do for Marconi boss Godfrey Isaacs.
Then the birthday broadcast features speeches from John Reith and Guglielmo Marconi - hear some of that this episode, as well as reflections from Birmingham station chief Percy Edgar.
Some lovely voices from the archive here - including Reith, Edgar and Peter Eckersley, who wrote all of the early BBC birthday broadcast shows, achieving the impossible: making John Reith laugh.
 
SHOWNOTES:
This podcast contains an excerpt from Marconi's BBC debut - his speech about the origins of broadcasting. Hear Paul read the full text of the speech on this Patreon video (£5/month - all supports the podcast, thanks if you support us there!): https://www.patreon.com/posts/vid-marconis-bbc-155370052 (also on that video: thoughts on Romany at the BBC, and Paul's latest (failed) Radio 4 pitches)
Read Marconi's speech on this Facebook post by our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury/posts/854152096155912 (and do join the group, if you're on Facebook...)
We mention the campaign against access changes at the BBC Written Archives Centre - more info on this open letter.  
Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - next stops Chelmsford, Weston-super-Mare, Corsham Wilts... paulkerensa.com/tour
Read Paul's Substack - the latest one is on early prophecies of what broadcasting might become - paulkerensa.substack.com
Find our Facebook page: facebook.com/bbcentury
Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social
Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa
Join Paul's mailing list
Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps.
Next time, Episode 117: The BBC's First Homosexual - a new play bringing a lost controversial BBC documentary to light... and then it's the centenary of the General Strike - a key moment in the making of the BBC.
More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio
 

Our timeline has reached the end of the BBC's first year in November 1923. So we're looking back at music broadcast in that period, with gramophone enthusiast, expert and entertainer Earl Okin.
From the BBC's first song (Kreisler's Liebesleid, played 15 November 1922) to the last in the listings of its first year (John Ireland's Phantasie Trio in A Minor), it was a pre-jazz era of light opera and the odd dose of music hall.
Guiding us through songs that were on air, plus a few other favourites from that era, musician and comedian Earl Okin handpicks from his collection of over 10,000 78s, along with a few of Auntie's early favourites from elsewhere.
You'll hear the music and tales behind:
Liebesleid – Fritz Kreisler
Annie Laurie – Clara Butt
Lemare’s Andantino – Cecil Dixon
Abide With Me – Rex Palmer
Piccadilly Trot – Mari Lloyd
Softly Awakes My Heart – Marian Anderson
The Blind Ploughman – Feodor Chaliapin
if it Wasn’t the House In Between – Gus Elen 
On with the Motley/Vesti La Giubba – Enrico Caruso
John Willie Come on – George Formby Sr
Five Foot Two – The Savoy Orpheans
Passing By – Paul Robeson
Phantasie Trio in A Minor – John Ireland
 
SHOWNOTES:
Earl Okin's Gramophone Show podcast is available wherever you get podcasts, eg http://earlokin.blogspot.com;  https://www.earlokin.net/podcast
John Hannon's Facebook post about Richard H White is here on our Facebook group.
Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc. The more patrons, the more work Paul can turn down elsewhere, the more podcasts you get. Simple maths! Thanks if you support us (me) there.
See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - next stop Chelmsford! paulkerensa.com/tour
Read Paul's Substack - paulkerensa.substack.com
Join our Facebook group: facebook.com/groups/bbcentury
Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social
Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa
Join Paul's mailing list
Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps.
Next time, Episode 116: The BBC's First Birthday
More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio
 

11 November 1923: The BBC's first Armistice broadcast.
Back in our moment-by-moment timeline of what happened on the early BBC, it's three days short of its first anniversary.
The BBC aired 'The Great Silence', speeches including the Prime Minister... and then the questions began regarding the soundtrack to the Armistice commemorations. Foulds' A World Requiem, even if the Church might not like it? Elgar? Jerusalem? It's A Long Way To Tipperary? Classical or songs from the troops? And how do you broadcast a silence?
Guiding us through the music and lack of it throughout the decade, Professor Rachel Cowgill, cultural-historical musicologist, Professor of Music at the University of York. Her article is in the show-notes...
...as are details of some of the earliest recordings of a BBC broadcast - well, a recording of an event that was also broadcast on the BBC. That surely counts. We found some this episode - I think taking the number of 1920s recordings of the BBC to five. (We'll do an episode about them soon, I'm sure...)  
And Trayce Arssow's research into how 1920's Funeral of the Unknown Warrior became the world's first electrical recording - despite claims it took till 1925.
 
SHOWNOTES:
Prof Rachel Cowgill's article is Canonizing remembrance: Music for Armistice Day at the BBC, 1922-7 
Trayce Arssow's article is Pioneers in the Evolution of Electrical Sound Recording: The Guest-Merriman Electrical Recording System, 1918-1922
1920's gramophone record of the Funeral of the Unknown Warrior, thanks to WW1Recordings on Youtube.
1927's Remembrance Festival at the Albert Hall - one of the earliest recordings of something broadcast on the BBC, thanks to Vintage Sounds on Youtube.
1928's Remembrance Festival at the Albert Hall, thanks to EMGColonel on Youtube.
1928's Remembrance Festival, as above, but a great tale behind its recording, thanks to Revolutions in Sound on Youtube.
Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc. All keeps Paul in books and web hostings - so this podcast is what it is thanks to kinds patrons there. Thanks!
See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - paulkerensa.com/tour
Read Paul's Substack - paulkerensa.substack.com
Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps.
Next time, Episode 115: Music from the BBC's first year, with musician, comedian and gramophone record enthusiast Earl Okin
More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio
 

This special episode jumps out of our usual chronological retelling of British broadcasting's back-story, for the tale of pirate radio, especially Radio Caroline, courtesy of broadcaster, author and radio expert Ray Clark.
Ray's book Radio Caroline: The True Story of the Boat that Rocked is highly recommended - a fascinating part of cultural history that he's brilliantly researched and retold. Get it from his website or where you get books (link below).
Plus, as host Paul prepares for a new live show (Four Monarchs and a Mic: The BBC's Royal Engineer) on influential Outside Broadcast engineer RH Wood, this episode's bookended with some classic clips of Woody's broadcasts - coronations, state funerals, Churchill's war speeches, the Crystal Palace fire, the Boat Race, the first rugby commentary (re-enactment!)...
Oh and a certain drunken commentary - Tommy Woodroffe on how 'The Fleet's Lit Up'. Hear it as you've never heard it before, with the engineer's commentary of what came before and after - how and why Tommy ended up inebriated on air, and where he went next... What a tale.
Rebellion and rogueishness in the air then, and on it. Enjoy!
(And if you like it, share it? Thanks, pals)
 
SHOWNOTES:
Ray Clark's website is rayradio.co.uk - get his Radio Caroline book there
For more on pirate radio history, see offshoreradio.co.uk or offshoreechos.com
Paul's new live show on OB engineer RH Wood - if you're quick - is on at Leicester Comedy Festival on Sat 7 Feb - Four Monarchs and a Mic: The BBC's Royal Engineer. If you're not quick, would you like it performed near you? Get in touch with Paul. Details of this and other shows at www.paulkerensa.com/tour
Paul's Radio 4 drama about the first radio drama The Truth About Phyllis Twigg is very much still on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx 
Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc. All keeps Paul in books and web hostings - so this podcast is what it is thanks to kinds patrons there. Thanks!
Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps.
Next time, Episode 114: The First BBC Armistice Broadcast of 1923
More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio
 

100 years ago from this podcast's release, the BBC broadcast the first known radio scare - 12 years before Orson Welles's famous War of the Worlds, and possibly inspiring it.
It was hoax - although arguably it's only a hoax if the hoaxer intends to fool the hoaxee... and Father Ronald Knox seemingly thought he was just providing some entertainment in his radio pastiche: Broadcasting the Barricades.
But when it's a spoof news report about the House of Commons being destroyed with trench mortars, the felling of Big Ben, the destruction of the Savoy Hotel and reports of a mob hanging or roasting alive various people... well no wonder some listeners fled their homes.
Others phoned the Savoy Hotel, the BBC, the newspapers, the Admiralty. It was chaos. But was it as chaotic as the newspapers implied?
Joining us to dig into this bizarre and wonderful tale is Dr A Brad Schwartz, author of Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles's War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News - a highly recommended read (and fear not, Brad will return to the podcast for a special on 1938's War of the Worlds another time).
And of course, as we love a centenary re-enactment, we'll bring back to life this unrecorded broadcast, thanks to the script and a couple of sound effects (for the full works, in video form, join us Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/vid-first-radio-147890189)
Cheers to Father Ronald Knox, who panicked Britain 100 years ago today! Listen to hear how...
 
SHOWNOTES:
Thanks to Jonathan Mayo, Andrew Barker, Andy Walmsley and Paul Slade for titbits, trivia and newspaper cuttings about Broadcasting the Barricades.
Paul's latest blog post about Broadcasting the Barricades and the birth of fake(d) news is on Substack: www.paulkerensa.substack.com - do subscribe there.
Dr A Brad Schwartz's book Broadcast Hysteria is a must-read. The audiobook's great too.
Andy Walmsley's blog on Broadcasting the Barricades is at https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2023/12/broadcasting-barricades.html
Paul Slade's website about Broadcasting the Barricades is at https://www.planetslade.com/ronald-knox1.html
My Radio 4 drama about the first radio drama The Truth About Phyllis Twigg is very much still on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx - thanks if you listened!
Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
Our survey of what you like/don't about this podcast is here: http://tiny.cc/bbcenturysurvey
Paul has 2 different upcoming live shows about the early BBC: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits Norfolk and Suffolk, while new show Four Monarchs and a Mic: The BBC's Royal Engineer is at Leicester Comedy Festival on Sat 7 Feb. If it goes well, I may do it elsewhere. Let's see. www.paulkerensa.com/tour
This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc - including the full video re-enactment of Broadcasting the Barricades. In evening dress!
Please share/rate/review this podcast - it all really helps.
Next time, Episode 113: The First BBC Armistice Broadcast of 1923
More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio
 

On Christmas Eve 1922, Britain's first original radio drama The Truth About Father Christmas by Phyllis Twigg was broadcast on the early BBC.
On Christmas Eve 2025, Britain's latest radio drama The Truth About Phyllis Twigg is broadcast on BBC Radio 4, bringing back to life a little of that first radio play, the tale behind it, and fictionalising some of the quest to help give credit where credit's due.
This new drama for Radio 4 is produced by B7 Media and written by Paul Kerensa, who also hosts this podcast - so yes after 111 episodes we've finally brought some of the early BBC story (in this unofficial non-BBC podcast - for tis not made by/with/under them) to today's BBC. Thanks if you've listened to or supported the podcast in any way, as it's all helped make it happen. It takes a village! You are that village. Thanks, village!
Episode 72 of this podcast told the tale of Phyllis, and how her achievement as first radio dramatist (we can talk about the American one from a year earlier) seemed to fade from history books as Richard Hughes and his A Comedy of Danger gradually took over as 'first radio drama'. Hmm, what an oddity.
With neither a recording nor a surviving script, it was nice to discover a short story version of The Truth About Father Christmas, under Phyllis' pen name - so with that, I pitched the idea to radio drama producer Helen Quigley of B7 Media, and she pitched it to Radio 4's Drama Commissioning Editor - who gladly agreed there was a tale to tell.
So on the day this podcast lands, so does our radio drama. We're proud of it - we hope you like it. If you don't, that's fine too. It's not perfect, but it's out there! #JusticeforPhyllis - and that's the goal, hopefully via some festive entertainment for your ears.
On this accompanying podcast (unofficial - as it's not BBC), I chat to the cast, crew and descendants of Phyllis Twigg the writer and Arthur Burrows the voice behind Father Christmas, and the man who commissioned her in the first place.
So on this bumper episode, you'll hear:
Helen Quigley - director
Tamsin Greig - who plays Phyllis Twigg
Rory Kinnear - who plays Arthur Burrows
Will Harrison Wallace - who plays Mr White
Aja Dodd - who plays Jenny Adams
Carina Saner - great-granddaughter and biographer of Phyllis Twigg
Nick Heal - grandson of Arthur Burrows
Philippa Heal - great-granddaughter of Arthur Burrows
Neil Brand - composer
...Thanks to them and many more for making possible this new drama about the first drama.
Oh and you'll also hear the 7min reading of the prose version of The Truth About Father Christmas, voiced by Carina Saner, Flora Saner (great-granddaughter and great-great-granddaughter of Phyllis) and myself (no relation!).
Thanks to ME London hotel for sharing the recording with us - we recorded it for them, and they've been playing daily in their Atrium, as they're pretty much on the site of the first BBC studio, where that first radio drama began.
I advise you listen to The Truth About Phyllis Twigg first - if it's still on BBC Sounds as you find this podcast. If you can't or haven't, you'll still find plenty in this podcast. It was a joy to make.
And as I'm working on the biography of Phyllis with her great-granddaughter Carina (Publishers? Get in touch...), the quest continues...
 
SHOWNOTES:
The Truth About Phyllis Twigg on BBC Radio 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx - it's produced by B7 Media.
Episode 72 of this podcast has more of the Twigg tale.
My Substack timeline of Phyllis Twigg: https://paulkerensa.substack.com/p/the-truth-about-phyllis-twigg-a-timeline
My blog for B7 Media about the new drama: https://www.b7media.com/the-truth-about-the-truth-about-phyllis-twigg/
Professor Tim Crook's article on Phyllis Twigg: https://kulturapress.com/2022/09/24/phyllis-m-twigg-the-bbcs-first-original-radio-dramatist/
Dr Tina Pepler's 1988 thesis on radio drama, mentioning Phyllis: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/34496537/381402.pdf
The BBC listings page for The Truth about Phyllis Twigg - 2:15pm, Christmas Eve 2025, Radio 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx
An article from Downthetubes about The Truth about Phyllis Twigg: https://downthetubes.net/the-truth-about-phyllis-twigg-lifts-the-lid-on-secrets-of-early-bbc-radio/
Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
Our survey of what you like/don't about this podcast is here: http://tiny.cc/bbcenturysurvey
Paul's live show on the BBC origin story visits Norfolk and Leicester in 2026 - and maybe your place? Get in touch: www.paulkerensa.com/tour
Substack: www.paulkerensa.substack.com 
This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc - it all helps support the podcast, and without that, there's no this. So thanks if you do!
Or a one-off tip to Ko-fi.com/paulkerensa? Thanks for supporting us. I mostly use any kind £ to buy books. Then read books. Then absorb books. Then convert them into podcasts. Thanks for keeping the wheels turning.
Please share/rate/review this podcast - it all really helps.
Next time, Episode 112: Father Ronald Knox's Broadcasting the Barricades - the BBC's Pre-War of the Worlds Radio Scare of 1926
More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio
 

As this podcast lands, it's 75 years to the day since the first 'God slot' on the BBC Light Programme. It was first called Five to Ten, and is now Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2.
Podcast host Paul has been Pausing for Thought for over a decade, with Chris Evans, Zoe Ball and Scott Mills, and was recently asked to present a history of Pause for Thought to a roomful of Pause for Thoughters, the Radio 2 boss, and today's Breakfast Show host Scott Mills. So a version of that is on this episode, with some golden oldie clips, including Ray Moore and Derek Jameson. And even a bit of Steve Wright, because why not.
It's a mini-sode ahead of our Christmas special, so we look ahead to that, with a little more info on Paul's upcoming Radio 4 drama about the first radio drama, The Truth About Phyllis Twigg.
The companion episode will be next time on the podcast, but for now there's info on where in London you can go to listen to the story version of that original radio drama - ME London, the hotel on the site of Marconi House and the BBC's first studio. You can go this December, and listen to our exclusive recording, by, Paul, Carina Saner (Phyllis' great-granddaughter) and Flora Saner (Phyllis' great-great-granddaughter).
...And if you can't make it to London, we'll play it for you on the next episode. 
A little too on our moment-by-moment timeline of British broadcasting - we're in November 1923 and it's GK Chesterton from Manchester, a Welsh talk from Wales, the first radio novel, and some comments in the Radio Times on the benefits of radio opera.
(This WAS going to be an episode about the first BBC Armistice broadcast - but with all the above to tell more immediately, I decided to hold back the Armistice episode till the New Year. I know - it's not November - but we have a timeline to follow. In early 2026)
 
SHOWNOTES:
Random Radio Jottings’ blog post on Pause for Thought’s history - with clips! https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2020/04/pause-for-thought.html
ME London hotel host our recording of The Truth about Father Christmas, Dec 2025 only! Some more details from the manager: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mattba_melondon-takemetothemoon-activity-7402369630956326913-n1OS/ ...Pop by the hotel, have a listen! Get in touch with them first to be sure: https://www.melia.com/en/hotels/united-kingdom/london/me-london
The BBC listings page for The Truth about Phyllis Twigg - 2:15pm, Christmas Eve 2025, Radio 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx
An article from Downthetubes about The Truth about Phyllis Twigg: https://downthetubes.net/the-truth-about-phyllis-twigg-lifts-the-lid-on-secrets-of-early-bbc-radio/
Paul on Radio 4 Extra's Daily Service, inc a little on The Truth about Father Christmas: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002n6kc
A few selected highlights of Paul's History of Pause for Thought slide show at Broadcasting House: https://bsky.app/profile/paulkerensa.bsky.social/post/3m6orjdhkxs2m
Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
Any clips are other oooooold and out of copyright, or recent and the copyright is the BBC's - tiny excerpts hopefully qualify as fair use. Right? Right.
Our survey of what you like/don't about this podcast is here: http://tiny.cc/bbcenturysurvey
Paul's live show on the BBC origin story visits Norfolk and Leicester in 2026 - and maybe your place? Get in touch: www.paulkerensa.com/tour
Substack: www.paulkerensa.substack.com 
This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc - it all helps support the podcast, and without that, there's no this. So thanks if you do!
Or a one-off tip to Ko-fi.com/paulkerensa? Thanks for supporting us. I mostly use any kind £ to buy books. Then read books. Then absorb books. Then convert them into podcasts. Thanks for keeping the wheels turning.
Please share/rate/review this podcast - it all really helps.
Next time: Episode 111: The Truth About The Truth About Phyllis Twigg - our new radio drama about the first radio drama.
More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio