The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Episode 92 The First Sports Broadcasts: from 'Yachts Slowly Drifting' to MCR21   Our moment-by-moment origin story of British broadcasting reaches 6th June 1923 - and what's sometimes thought to be the BBC's first sports broadcast: author Edgar Wallace giving his 'reflections on the Derby'... ...The trouble is, it wasn't the BBC's first sports broadcast. But then... what is a sports broadcast? A live commentary? Or will a later summary do? Or how about a police radio transmission, where the Epsom Derby winner happens to be mentioned for anyone listening to hear? This episode we bring you the tales of every early landmark sports broadcast we know about, including: Special guest Nick Gilbey, trustee of the Broadcasting Television Technology Trust and one of the doer-uppers of the mighty MCR21 mobile control room van, first built in 1963, and now looking snappier than ever. The BBC's actual first sports broadcaster - forgotten for a century - Willie Clissett, on Cardiff 5WA with a weekly 'Chat on Sport of the day' from 2 April 1923. Was it rugby? Let's say yes. It was Wales. How jockey Steve Donoghue somehow became Britain's first broadcast sports champion... ion 3 occasions across 3 different years. He was on Britain's first sports broadcast, winning 1921's Epsom Derby. Edgar Wallace reported on his win at 1923's Epsom Derby. And his win was shouted on-air by a passerby, upsetting the press, at 1925's Epsom Derby. Three different horses, three landmark broadcasts, one incredible jockey. The boxing and billiards on London 2LO in 1922. Early clips of Wimbledon, the Boat Race and the Derby. And was the first sports broadcast Marconi's 1899 Morse message 'Yachts Slowly Drifting'? In which case, was the first sports broadcaster actually Guglielmo Marconi himself?! Correct us on any of the above! Seriously. Please do. We want this to be an accurate record of events! Email [email protected] with any feedback, suggestions, alterations or offers of big-screen adaptations. SHOWNOTES: Visit MCR21.org.uk for pics and words about the wonderful MCR21 mobile control room van. Click on their newsletter and subscribe to get info in your inbox. Watch Nick Gilbey's half-hour BBC tribute documentary on Peter Dimmock: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fw3c9c See the Marconi van used at the 1921 Epsom Derby broadcast - and the airship pics from above: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury/posts/966054144965706/ See the 1923 Derby - plus a little of the police use of wireless traffic tech - on this Pathe video: https://youtu.be/s-qnFvgJMFY?si=bedG3HWmyui1VNmj Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do! Rate and review the podcast where you found it? Thanks. Tell people about the podcast? Thanks again. We're a one-man operation so tis HUGELY appreciated. Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi and hear about the first firsts of broadcasting. Paul's walking tour of BBC's London landmark sites returns soon - from Broadcasting House to Savoy Hill via the home of the Electrophone! Email Paul via the Contact link on his website for more details. This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. We're talking about them, well, the only BBC, the Company. Not with or at the behest of today's Corporation... ...Although we gladly will. Corporation - call me! Next time: Summer 1923 on the BBC - music, the first whisper of television, and a cheeky pop-up station in Plymouth.  More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Episode 91 goes back over 130 years to the 'broadcasting' device that far predates radio broadcasting. But the same ideas were there: entertainment, religion, news even, brought to your home, sent one-to-many, live from West End churches and London's churches. Meet the Electrophone!  Dr Natasha Kitcher is the Electrophone expert - she's a Research Fellow at the Science Museum, formerly PhD student to Loughborough University - and has spent years researching this unusual, largely unknown pre-radio cable streaming service, used by Queen Victoria and hundreds of homes in London and Bournemouth. Or you could visit the Electrophone HQ in Soho to listen in their saloon. (More on our walking tour that visits that exact building: birthplace of the headphones!) We also talk about what broadcasting is nowadays: does streaming count as broadcasting? What about catch-up? Does it lose something when it's not live? Join the debate from this, er, pre-recorded podcast (sorry we're not live) - email your thoughts to [email protected] - the same email address for any podcast correspondence, your Airwave Memories (earliest radio you recall?) or Firsthand Memories (ever see broadcasting in action?)   We also move on our chronological tale of British broadcasting history into June 1923, with feedback from the first BBC Shakespeare and the sad demise of the first broadcast singer, Edward Cooper. Next time? The First Sports Broadcast on the BBC... or was it? Nick Gilbey joins us - expert on outside broadcasts, Peter Dimmock, and the BBC van...    SHOWNOTES: Dr Natasha Kitcher's articles on the Electrophone include this Science Museum blog and Museum Crush. There are some marvellous old pics of the Electrophone, its HQ and its flyers on the British Telephones site. Watch Paul Kerensa on BBC1's Songs of Praise (while it's on iPlayer!) on 1922's first religious broadcast... er, via radio. Not including the Electrophone, obvs. Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do! Rate and review the podcast where you found it? Thanks. Tell people about the podcast? Thanks again. We're a one-man operation so tis HUGELY appreciated. Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi. Paul's walking tour of BBC's London landmark sites returns soon - from Broadcasting House to Savoy Hill via the home of the Electrophone! Email Paul via the Contact link on his website for more details. More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Is this the first full-length Shakespeare on the BBC I see before me? Yes it is. And the first radio comedy personality, in John Henry.  We're in late May 1923 - 28th to 31st to be precise - and the BBC has suffering from a boycott of theatre producers. Performers are hard to come by, so the Beeb brings drama and comedy in-house. The result? Cathleen Nesbitt (later from Upstairs Downstairs, An Affair to Remember and The Parent Trap) produces and stars in the first of many full-length Shakespeare plays, Twelfth Night on 28th May 1923. Prior to this, there had been scenes and Shakespeare nights. But this was a chance to broadcast the longest and most ambitious play of this new medium. Illuminating us on this, the return of Dr Andrea Smith of the University of Suffolk - the expert on the BBC and Shakespeare. She'll tell us all about the legacy of Auntie and Shakey, including the only one of his plays that to date has still not been adapted for BBC radio. And three days after that first Shakespeare, another BBC debut: comedian John Henry, set to become broadcasting's first comedy personality. His comic monologues, often surreal and downbeat, evolved into tales of his family life, then a dialogue with his beloved Blossom... while off-air, their domestic life became more tragedy than comedy. Comedy historian Alan Stafford tells all. It's quite a tale. John Henry surely deserves mention in the history books... ...on which, both Andrea and Alan have books out soon. See below shownotes for details - and we'll mention more of them on the podcast and on our social mediums when they're published.     SHOWNOTES: Look out for Dr Andrea Smith's book 'Shakespeare on the Radio: A Century of BBC Plays', published by Edinburgh University Press in 2025. Look out for Alan Stafford's book 'Bigamy Killed the Radio Star - John Henry: BBC Comedy Pioneer', published by Fantom Publications in late 2024. Clips are generally so old they're beyond copyright, or rights may be owned by, er, someone. If that's you, let us know. We can talk. We're friendly. We're just to inform, educate and entertain.  Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do! Rate and review the podcast where you found it? Thanks. Tell people about the podcast? Thanks again. We're a one-man operation so tis HUGELY appreciated. Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi. Paul's book Auntie and Uncles is coming soon too. A walking tour of BBC's London landmark sites is coming soon - from Broadcasting House to Savoy Hill via Marconi House and Bush House. Email Paul via the Contact link on his website for more details. NEXT TIME: The Electrophone: Queen Victoria's Streaming Device of the 1890s.  There may be some delay between episodes at the moment, due to summer holidays, and life throwing things at us. More soon, ASAP. Thanks for bearing with us. More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Vote The British Broadcasting Century!  Episode 89 is our Election Night Special special, covering Britain's 28 general election results broadcasts over 102 years.  Broadcasting in both USA and UK have both launched were pretty much launched with election results. On 2 November 1920, KDKA Pittsburgh launched regular commercial broadcasting with the presidential election results, giving listeners-in the latest at the same time as journalists. Revolutionary! On 15 November 1922, the BBC went national with London, Birmingham and Manchester announcing the election results and Bonar Law as PM.  Joining us to tell the tale from here, dropping in at every election night special in Britain since, we have Gary Rodger (author of Swing: A Brief History of British General Election Night Broadcasting) and Harry White (host of The Modern British History Podcast). ...Hear first female liberal MP Margaret Wintringham on her gramophone election message... ...Discover the only person to have announced election results AND served as an MP... ...Find out how black-and-white TV converted the blues, reds and yellows of parties to the small screen... ...Meet pioneering producer Grace Wyndham Goldie, who created the TV election night special... ...Discover the origins of the swingometer... ...Oh and Dimblebys. There are many Dimblebys. Vote with your ears by listening to this podcast - and vote with your vote by voting.   SHOWNOTES: Buy Gary Rodger's book Swing: A Brief History of British General Election Night Broadcasting.  Listen to Harry White's Modern British History Podcast. The clips used are, we believe, beyond copyright due to age - but any BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do! Rate and review the podcast where you found it? Thanks. Tell people about the podcast? Thanks again. We're a one-man operation so tis HUGELY appreciated. Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi. A walking tour of BBC's London landmark sites is coming this summer - from Broadcasting House to Savoy Hill via Marconi House and Bush House. Email Paul via the Contact link on his website for more details. NEXT TIME: The first full-length Shakespeare on the BBC - and comedian John Henry.  More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

On episode 88, it's May 1923, and the six-month-old BBC is settling into its new home at Savoy Hill. But it's not all plain sailing. This time, 2-24 May 1923 is retold via press cuttings (thanks to our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker), showing us that: Some corners of the press were mounting an anti-BBC campaign, complaining it was offering "poor fare". A few days later, other articles refuted that claim.  Some corners of the government were eager to renegotiate the BBC agreement, with the Sykes Inquiry under way to look at licences and obligations. Some corners of the live arts scene were worried their box office takings would be hit by radio entertainment, so decided to boycott Auntie Beeb. ...A few too many opponents! There are also bands (first Birmingham station director Percy Edgar tells of the Grenadier Guards, a small studio and not much ventilation), simultaneous broadcast tests and plans for new stations (first chief engineer Peter Eckersley tells of his ambitions for the signal-to-noise ratio), and Reith's plans for the Sunday Committee to determine the future of, well, Sundays. Plus our guest is ITV's first head of technology Norman Green. He tells us about his innovations in colour film and Teletext (he's the double-height guy!). Norman will return on a future episode too...   SHOWNOTES: The clips used should be far beyond copyright - but any BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Original music is by Will Farmer. Hear more of Percy Edgar, inc his memoir read by his grandson David Edgar, in this episode: https://pod.fo/e/c6b86 Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do! Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi A walking tour of BBC's London landmark sites coming this summer - from Broadcasting House to Savoy Hill via Marconi House and Bush House. Email Paul via the Contact link on his website for more details. NEXT TIME: We break from May 1923 for A Brief History of Election Night Specials. THE TIME AFTER THAT: The first full-length Shakespeare on the BBC! May 1923 continues...  More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

100 years ago the weekend of this podcast, the Cello and the Nightingale became one of the most cherished broadcasts in radio history. It first took place on 19 May 1924, live from the Surrey garden of cellist Beatrice Harrison. In this centenary special, we celebrate the musician, the muse and the microphone that made this incredible feat possible: the first major outside broadcast of nature. The renowned cellist petitioned the BBC for some time to broadcast this unusual duet, and while John Reith at first thought it wouldn't work, new microphones developed by Captain H.J. Round ensured that the birdsong would carry... so long as they sang. Did they sing? (Yes.) Was it faked? (No.) Was it the first broadcast birdsong? (Not quite.) All of this and more will be answered and delved into this episode, with an interview with Patricia Cleveland-Peck, author of The Cello and the Nightingales: The Life of Beatrice Harrison - new edition just released. We look at the scandalous rumours of fakery, the technical developments that meant the BBC's first fading, the Cardiff broadcast that just beat them to it, the bleak wartime duet between The Nightingale and the Bomber, and even John Reith's odd nightingale impersonation, the very same day he first heard radio in 1917.   SHOWNOTES: Iain Baird's excellent article on the technology and legacy of The Cello and the Nightingale is at https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/song-of-the-nightingale/ Buy The Cello and the Nightingales: The Life of Beatrice Harrison by Patricia Cleveland-Peck (NB: I get several pence commission if you click that affiliate link! I ambitously expect to retire on this money) More on Patricia's books and career on her website: https://patriciaclevelandpeck.com/ A video version of Paul's interview with Patricia can be seen here on Youtube: https://youtu.be/CjaNILDlmZ0?si=Dp6fbbLbS-gZKVJu We try to only use clips long beyond copyright - but any BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do! Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and say hi Walking tours of BBC's London sites coming this summer. Email Paul via the Contact link on his website for more details. NEXT TIME: We're back in May 1923 for bands and boycotts on the early BBC. More info on this radio history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio  

On the previous episode we explored the only 1920s BBC recording (that we know of), recorded off-air by Mr Jones of Croydon.  This time on episode 86, we encounter the only other off-air radio recordings of the interwar years (that I know of): the 1932 recordings by Mr F.O. Brown of Greenbank. His grandson Alex cleared out the family attic as recently as 2016, discovering these bizarre metal discs with no idea what they contained, or how to listen to them. Alex consulted the British Sound Library, the internet, and wherever else he could find knowhow on playing these records to preserve the sounds. What he found was several dozen 1930s recordings, from BBC jazz bands to radio royalty, from George Bernard Shaw to his own grandfather giving a spoof tour of Edinburgh.  This episode we chat to Alex about his painstaking work preserving these recordings, and we hear a few. Enjoy Henry Hall opening Broadcasting House, extracts from the 1932 Royal Command Performance, and Reginald Foort and his big organ (stop it). Then head to http://greenbank-records.com/1930s-recordings#/samples/ to hear the rest! You'll also find Alex's illuminating blog at http://greenbank-records.com/blog 1932 was the year the BBC started recording themselves, but only very sparingly. Most of these recordings are the only surviving copy of each broadcast - and there aren't many more pre-WW2 recorded broadcasts at all. Thanks to Alex for sharing his story and the recordings, and thanks to F.O. Brown for using his EKCO Radiocorder to do what so many of us have done over the years: in my case, push the record and play buttons on a cassette recorder while Steve Wright was on Radio 1... or in my children's case, recording themselves playing Radio 2 jingles on the Wise Buddah website... but in this case, assembling a recording device from scratch to preserve monarchs and music on disc, so we can still hear them today.   SHOWNOTES: Head to Greenbank Records for the full works. We try to only use clips long beyond copyright - but any BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do! Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - any near you? NEXT TIME: The Centenary of the Cello and the Nightingale More info on this radio history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

On 23 April 1924, a landmark broadcast took place - the biggest so far. And on day of podcast release, it's the centenary! 100 years ago at time of writing, King George V opened the Empire Exhibition at Wembley, becoming the first monarch to broadcast. It also stands as the oldest surviving recording of a BBC broadcast - and the only excerpt of the BBC from the 1920s.  The BBC couldn't record anything until 1932, when the Blattnerphone came along. So how did this 1924 broadcast manage to be retained? For decades, it wasn't. A 1964 episode of Desert Island Discs tells the tale, of how their 1936/1955 Scrapbook for 1924 programme aired without the recording, but with a sad admission that there was none... till a listener got in touch. Dorothy Jones' husband had recorded the king off-air via a home-made device. Thanks to him, and her, and Scrapbook producer Leslie Baily, we have this sole recording of the 20s' Beeb. It's quite a tale. The broadcast alone was revolutionary - with 10 million people listening via loudspeakers on street corners, brand new radio sets for their homes... even Downton Abbey hired in its first wireless set (but will Lord Grantham keep it? Oh go on then...) Hear all about the momentous exhibition, the broadcast, the recording, and a rundown of royals who ruled the airwaves - and it goes back further than you might think. Hear too of brand new research into an unheralded royal radio encounter from 1906 - before even 'the world's first broadcast' took place, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra (Palace) were enjoying a 'radio' whistling solo and a personalised greeting. Thanks for listening. Do share, rate, review, rant, rave, tell people about the podcast. It's a solo operation - not made by the BBC, just by comedian & writer Paul Kerensa. So thanks!   SHOWNOTES: If you enjoyed this, make sure you've listened to our episode on The History of Coronation Broadcasts and A Brief History of the BBC Archives. Listen to the 1924 recording of the Prince of Wales and King George V. Listen to the 1923 gramophone record of King George V and Queen Mary. Listen to the 1923 recording of President Woodrow Wilson - the world's earliest recording of broadcast radio. See the picture of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra encounter 'the talking arc' via our Facebook group or on Twitter. (search for 'talking arc') We try to only use clips long beyond copyright - but any BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), and gain bonus videos and writings in return - we're reading the first book on radio, Cecil Lewis' Broadcasting from Within, for example. Hear all instalments read to you: patreon.com/posts/patron-vid-savoy-75950901 ...Interested in joining a live actual walking tour around those first BBC landmarks? I'm thinking of running one, summer 2024. Email paul at paulkerensa dot com for details of when. Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio could be playing in your town. If not (likely), book it! Details: www.paulkerensa.com/tour More info on this radio history project at:  paulkerensa.com/oldradio

When Dr Kate Murphy became a BBC's Woman's Hour producer in 1993, the received wisdom was that women's programming began in 1946, when Woman's Hour launched.  Kate did some digging in the archives, and discovered the long lost tale of the early BBC's Women's Hour (rather than Woman's Hour), which ran from 1923-24. Why so brief? What impact did it make? Which listeners did it cater for? She's here to tell us everything. Hear the topics, the tales, some of the voices, how the regional stations nipped in first, how Men's Talk didn't last quite as long, and how it Women's Hour had one of the first examples of listener feedback.  Next time: The earliest BBC recording, as we leap forward a year for one episode, for the centenary of King George V's landmark broadcast - plus the bizarre tale of how we now get to hear it.    SHOWNOTES: Dr Kate Murphy's books are a must if you're interested in this area (and if you're reading this, sorry to break it to you, but you're interested). Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Women at the BBC and Hilda Matheson: A Life of Secrets and Broadcasts. Buy them both - I did.  This is an independent podcast, nothing to do with the BBC. Any BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Original music is by Will Farmer. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), and bonus bits include this video meander around (the outside of) Savoy Hill: patreon.com/posts/patron-vid-savoy-75950901 ...Interested in joining a live actual walking tour around those first BBC landmarks? I'm thinking of running one, early 2024. Email paul at paulkerensa dot com for details of when. These recently uploaded plans of Savoy Hill show you everything from Reith's Thames view to the office of Women's Hour boss Ella Fitzgerald: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury/posts/932696548301466/   Catch Paul on tour with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - for where/when, see www.paulkerensa.com/tour Find us on Facebook or Twitter, or Ex-Twitter. Your ratings/reviewings of this podcast REALLY help get the podcast noticed. It's solo-run, so thanks! More info on this radio history project at:  paulkerensa.com/oldradio Thanks for listening (-in).

Welcome to the Savoy Hill era of the BBC! Episode 83 opens the doors to the first permanent home of Auntie Beeb, with a grand launch night on 1 May 1923. I think it's one of the most crucial - and funniest - 24 hours in the BBC's history.  So we recreate as much as we can of that one day: A last-minute dress code sees senior management in far-too-big suits... John Reith's tee-total buffet goes terribly wrong.... The closing speaker goes missing - and is found, sozzled. Will Reith let the drunken lord on the air, and will he string a sentence together?  All will be revealed, plus the music, the speeches (from Lord Gainford, Sir William Bull and Lord Birkenhead), the first Men's Talk (next time, it's Women's Hour, the next day) and the launch of the Sykes Inquiry - just that minor thing of the govt and the press loathing the BBC. A reminder: this was 1923.  Our guest too covers more recent years of broadcasting - Charles Huff, producer of Tomorrow's World and The Great Egg Race, tell us about radio days of his youth, from Educating Archie to Eastern Bloc jamming.  Next time: Dr Kate Murphy joins us to talk about the first Women's Hour progamme, as well as other 1920s women's broadcasting - and why it stopped.   SHOWNOTES: This is an independent podcast, nothing to do with the BBC. Original music by Will Farmer. We're hugely grateful to the BBC Written Archives Centre for access and permission to recreate the Savoy Hill launch speeches. BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Books consulted include Sir John Reith by Garry Allighan, The Emergence of Broadcasting in Britain by Brian Hennessey, Savoy Hill by Brian Hennessey, and Never Look Back by Cecil Lewis. Among others. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), and bonus bits include this video meander around (the outside of) Savoy Hill: patreon.com/posts/patron-vid-savoy-75950901 ...Interested in joining a live actual walking tour around those first BBC landmarks? I'm thinking of running one, early 2024. Email paul at paulkerensa dot com for details of when. Paul's on tour with An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - for where/when, see www.paulkerensa.com/tour Find us on Facebook or Twitter, or Ex-Twitter. Your ratings/reviewings of this podcast REALLY help get the podcast noticed. It's solo-run, so thanks! More info on this radio history project at:  paulkerensa.com/oldradio