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1963 In British Radio
This is a list of events from British radio in 1963. Events *6 January – Alan Freeman takes over as presenter of ''Pick of the Pops''; he remains with the programme until the BBC ceases to broadcast it in 1972, and then with revivals. *19 February – Actress Ellis Powell is dismissed from the leading role of Mrs Dale in the BBC Light Programme soap opera '' The Dales'', which she has played since the first episode as ''Mrs Dale's Diary'' in 1948, and it is given to former musical actress Jessie Matthews; Powell dies 3 months later aged 57. *29 September–December – Don Moss joins Alan Freeman to host ''Pick of the Pops''. *23 November – 20th anniversary of the first broadcast of the British Forces Broadcasting Service. *Martin Esslin is appointed Head of Radio Drama at the BBC, a position he holds until 1977. *Richard Imison is appointed Script Editor for BBC Radio Drama, a position he holds until 1991. Programme debuts *4 June – ''Pop Go The Beatles'' on the BBC Lig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Freeman
Alan Leslie Freeman, MBE (6 July 1927 – 27 November 2006), nicknamed "Fluff", was an Australian-born British disc jockey and radio personality in the United Kingdom for 40 years, best known for presenting ''Pick of the Pops'' from 1961 to 2000. Early life Born and educated in Melbourne, Australia, Freeman worked as an assistant paymaster/accountant for one of Australia's largest timber companies after leaving school. He wanted to be an opera singer, but decided his voice was not strong enough. Career Radio and television Freeman was invited to audition as a radio announcer in 1952, and began work for 7LA in Tasmania, known as the teenager's station. Freeman's duties included continuity announcer, presenter of musical programmes incorporating opera, ballet and classical music, DJ for the top 100, news reader, quiz master and commercials reader. After moving to radio station 3KZ in Melbourne, he took a nine-month trip around the world in 1957, with the promise to return ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woman's Hour
''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by Alan Ivimey, ''Woman's Hour'' was first broadcast on 7 October 1946 on the BBC's Light Programme. Janet Quigley, who was also involved with the birth of the UK radio programme ''Today'', has been credited with "virtually creating" the programme. The programme was transferred to its current home in 1973. Over the years it has been presented by Mary Hill (19461963), Joan Griffiths (19471949), Olive Shapley (19491953), Jean Metcalfe (19501968), Violet Carson (19521956), Marjorie Anderson (19581972), Teresa McGonagle (19581976), Judith Chalmers (19661970), Sue MacGregor (19721987), Jenni Murray (1987–2020), Martha Kearney (1998 to March 2007), and Jane Garvey (8 October 2007 to December 2020). Fill-in presenters have included Andrea Cather ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sing Something Simple
''Sing Something Simple'' was a half-hour radio programme, which featured Cliff Adams and The Cliff Adams Singers, with Jack Emblow on accordion. The programme ran for 42 years from 1959 until 2001, initially on the BBC Light Programme and later on BBC Radio 2, and earning itself the title of the longest-running continuous music programme in the world. Format The lyrics to its main theme began as follows: ''Sing something simple'' ''As cares go by'' ''Sing something simple'' ''Just you and I'' When ''Sing Something Simple'' was broadcast by Radio 2, this song would be followed by an announcer (in latter years, Alan Dedicoat Alan Dedicoat (born 1 December 1954) is an English announcer for programmes on BBC One. He is known as the "Voice of the Balls" on the National Lottery programmes, providing a voiceover for the draws since 1995. He was a BBC Radio 2 newsreade ...) who would say: "''We invite you to Sing Something Simple, a collection of favourite songs, old and new, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Navy Lark
''The Navy Lark'' is a radio sitcom about life aboard a British Royal Navy frigate named HMS ''Troutbridge'' (a play on HMS ''Troubridge'', a Royal Navy destroyer) based in HMNB Portsmouth. In series 1 and 2, the ship and crew were stationed offshore at an unnamed location known simply as "The Island". In series 2 this island was revealed to be owned by Lt. Cdr. Stanton. The programme was transmitted on the BBC Light Programme and subsequently BBC Radio 2. It was produced by Alastair Scott Johnston. Jon Pertwee is frequently quoted as having suggested the idea of a forces comedy based on the Royal Navy, but Alastair Scott Johnston and writer Lawrie Wyman both contemplated an Air Force- and an Army-themed sitcom before going to the BBC with ''The Navy Lark''. Wyman included ideas based on excuses for late return from leave and other misdemeanours from HMS ''Troubridge'' bulletins. He worked with George Evans (Pertwee's personal scriptwriter) from quite early on, but Alastair ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Today (BBC Radio 4)
''Today'', colloquially known as ''the Today programme'', is a long-running British morning news and current-affairs radio programme on BBC Radio 4. Broadcast on Monday to Saturday from 6:00 am to 9:00 am, it is produced by BBC News and is the highest-rated programme on Radio 4 and one of the BBC's most popular programmes across its radio networks. In-depth political interviews and reports are interspersed with regular news bulletins, as well as ''Thought for the Day''. It has been voted the most influential news programme in Britain in setting the political agenda, with an average weekly listening audience around 7 million. History ''Today'' was launched on the BBC's Home Service on 28 October 1957 as a programme of "topical talks" to give listeners an alternative to listening to light music. The programme's founders were Isa Benzie and Janet Quigley. Benzie gave the programme its name, and served as its first ''de facto'' editor. It was initially broadcast as two 20-minute ed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Test Match Special
''Test Match Special'' (also known as ''TMS'') is a British sports radio programme, originally, as its name implies, dealing exclusively with Test cricket matches, but currently covering any professional cricket. It broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 LW (long wave) and local MW ( medium wave) frequencies, BBC Radio Five Sports Extra ( digital) and via the internet to the United Kingdom and (where broadcasting rights permit) the rest of the world. TMS provides ball-by-ball coverage of most Test cricket, One Day International, and Twenty20 matches and tournaments involving the England cricket team. History BBC Radio was the first broadcaster to cover every ball of a Test match. Live cricket had been broadcast since 1927, but originally it was thought that Test match cricket was too slow for ball-by-ball commentary to work. However, Seymour de Lotbiniere, who was responsible for live sports coverage and who went on to become head of outside broadcasts at the BBC, realised that ball-by-ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
My Word!
''My Word!'' is a British radio quiz panel game broadcast by the BBC on the Home Service (1956–67) and Radio 4 (1967–88). It was created by Edward J. Mason and Tony Shryane, and featured the humorous writers Frank Muir and Denis Norden, known in Britain for the series ''Take It From Here''. The show was piloted in June 1956 on the Midland Home Service and broadcast as a series on the national Home Service network from 1 January 1957. The series also ran on BBC Television for one series from July–September 1960. For decades the programme was also broadcast worldwide via BBC World Service and was relayed to an international audience though the BBC Transcription Services. A companion programme, '' My Music'', ran from 1967 to 1993. Background and first broadcasts In 1956, Edward J. Mason and Tony Shryane, respectively the writer and producer of the popular radio soap opera ''The Archers'', decided that by way of a change they would devise and produce what Frank Muir called ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Clitheroe Kid
''The Clitheroe Kid'' was a BBC Radio comedy show featuring diminutive Northern comic Jimmy Clitheroe in the role of a cheeky schoolboy, who lived with his family at Lilac Avenue in an unnamed town in the North of England. The pilot show, pilot series, and 16 subsequent series, totalling 290 episodes in all, were originally broadcast between April 1957 and August 1972. Cast In addition to Clitheroe himself, the show's stars included Peter Sinclair playing his Scottish granddad, Patricia Burke as his mother (in some early shows the part was played by Renée Houston), and Diana Day as his long-suffering sister, Susan (the sister, originally called Judith Clitheroe, was played in the earliest episodes by Judith Chalmers). Jimmy's father never appeared, and his absence was never addressed. Oldham comedian Danny Ross played Alfie Hall, Susan's half-witted, tongue-tied boyfriend, who was often drawn into Jimmy's reckless schemes. He joined the show in 1960, replacing Susan's origi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
From Our Own Correspondent
''From Our Own Correspondent'' is a weekly BBC radio programme in which BBC foreign correspondents deliver a sequence of short talks reflecting on current events and topical themes in the countries outside the UK in which they are based. The programme offers the BBC's correspondents around the world a chance to give a personal account of events from the epoch-making to the inconsequential. ''From Our Own Correspondent'' is broadcast in two editions – one on the BBC World Service and one on BBC Radio 4 – and the programme was one of the first to be made available by the BBC as a podcast. The programme was first commissioned in 1955. A book entitled ''From Our Own Correspondent: A celebration of 50 years of the BBC Radio Programme'' was published in 2005 with a selection of the show's reports for each continent. A related series, ''From Our Home Correspondent'', was presented by Mishal Husain and focussed on stories by British domestic correspondents and was broadcast between ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Listen With Mother
''Listen with Mother'' was a BBC radio programme for children which ran between 16 January 1950 to 10 September 1982. It was originally produced by Freda Lingstrom and was presented over the years by Daphne Oxenford, Julia Lang, Eileen Browne, Dorothy Smith and others. History It was first broadcast on 16 January 1950 on the BBC Light Programme in a fifteen-minute slot every weekday afternoon at 1.45, just before ''Woman's Hour''. Consisting of stories, songs and nursery rhymes (often sung by Eileen Browne and George Dixon) for “mothers and children at home”, at its peak it had an audience of more than a million listeners. Roger Fiske assisted with the music. From 7 September 1964 the programme moved to the BBC Home Service (later BBC Radio 4). ''Listen with Mother''s final week's programmes (widely reported in the press) featured Wriggly Worm stories, presented by Nerys Hughes and Tony Aitken and directed by David Bell. These stories were broadcast on the ''Listen wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Archers
''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural setting". Having aired over 19,500 episodes, it is the world's longest-running drama by number of episodes. Five pilot episodes were aired in 1950, and the first episode was broadcast nationally on New Year's Day 1951. A significant show in British popular culture, and with over five million listeners, it is Radio 4's most listened-to non-news programme, and with over one million listeners via the internet, the programme holds the record for BBC Radio online listening figures. In February 2019, a panel of 46 broadcasting industry experts, of which 42 had a professional connection to the BBC, listed ''The Archers'' as the second-greatest radio programme of all time. Partly established with the aim towards educating farmers following World War II, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book At Bedtime
''Book at Bedtime'' (''A Book at Bedtime'' until 9 July 1993) is a long-running radio programme that is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 each weekday evening between 22.45 and 23.00. The programme presents readings of fiction, including modern classics, new works by leading writers, and literature from around the world. Books are abridged and typically serialised over one or two weeks and occasionally three, usually read by well-known actors. Occasionally, from a collection of short stories, five stories from the book will be selected and one broadcast each evening. History The series began on the BBC Light Programme on 31 January 1949, billed for the first week only as "Late-Night Serial", with the first instalment of a 15-part reading of the John Buchan novel ''The Three Hostages'', read by Arthur Bush. There was a break after 29 March 1957, but the programme returned under its old title, now on the BBC Home Service The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio statio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |