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...

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...

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...

"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 l...

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 forev...

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...

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....

#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 deliberati...

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 enquir...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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'...

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 Ra...

In October 1923, first BBC General Manager John Reith wrote to both 10 Downing Street and Buckingham Palace, inviting the Prime Minister and the King to broadcast on the near year-old BBC. Both refused. In November 2025, 17th BBC Director General Tim Davie resigned because... well we're still trying to find out exactly why. Again, politics is at play - though it's difficult to know if that's at th...

On 12 November 1925, the BBC broadcast one of its most bizarre programmes yet: 'MASS TELEPATHY: An Experiment in Thought Reading in which every Listener will be invited to assist' On 12 November 2025, we present a dramatic re-enactment, based on newspaper articles of the day, and brought to life with a cast of marvel and a guest radio drama producer. Appropriately, the one believer on the celebrit...

October 1923: The BBC's on-air critics go national... These aren't critics OF the BBC (there were - and are - plenty of those), but critics ON the BBC - a literary critic, a music critic, a drama critic, a film critic... Think Front Row, Barry Norman, The Old Grey Whistle Test, but decades earlier. These weekly shows went national via simultaneous broadcasting - SB - and the BBC's London-centric r...

"6BM Bournemouth sends hearty greetings to the world... We do hope you can smell the pines!"   On 17 October 1923 (oh and look at the date this podcast landed - 102 years apart), the BBC opened its eighth station: 6BM Bournemouth.   It was the last of the first, after the original plan for eight station. Now the map atop the Radio Times cover would be proven correct! When the magazine launched, it...

"Aberdeen Calling!"   On 10 October 1923, the BBC opened its seventh station: 2BD Aberdeen.    Its station director R.E. Jeffrey was fresh from the success of Rob Roy - a drama he'd produced and starred in - and in later years he'd head up BBC drama, with contributions arguably including radio's first sci-fi and first sitcom (not at the same time - Red Dwarf was a while away yet).   Our experts in...

On 28 September 1923, a new magazine hit news-stands.   The Radio Times was a BBC publication, born out of a listings ban seven months earlier, when the press tried to charge the Beeb advertising rates to print what was on. The BBC’s General Manager John Reith saw an opportunity: they’d just print their own.   We previously (on episodes 75 and 76) brought you the history of the Radio Times for its...

Back in 1923, between SB and RT - that's 'Simultaneous Broadcasting' (networking nationally via landline) and The Radio Times (the BBC listings mag still had the 'The' back then), a month went by... ...But did nothing happen in that month? Of course not! So between these two bigger landmarks, on this episode we bring you some smaller but notable ones. Also on the Beeb in Aug/Sept 1923: Rob Roy liv...

On 29 August 1923, the BBC officially launched SB: Simultaneous Broadcasting.  They'd been testing SB for months, via crossed lines and cross conversations with the General Post Office. It would dramatically change the shape and big idea of what broadcasting was and could be. Using landlines, they linked stations - so a Covent Garden concert could be heard nationally for the first time, as other s...

Episode 101 finds us in late August 1923...  The first government inquiry into the BBC has just finished four months of interviewing dozens of interested parties about what the Beeb should/would/could be. Should it have a competitor? How do you solve the licence problem? Did the BBC have a monopoly? And isn't it time 'listeners-in' were just called 'listeners'? We give you a potted summary of Sir...

It's The British Broadcasting Century's century! Thanks if you've joined us for the story so far, from Morse and Marconi to Reith and the Pips (before Gladys Knight took over lead vocals). This special 100th episode is for both the newcomer and the seasoned veteran - being the previous 99 episodes in summary form, BUT with lots of new bits. So this is no best-of... (alright it's a bit of a best-of...