May 26, 2023

#069 Children’s Hour to Bedtime Hour: Uncles, Aunts and Iggle Piggle

39 minutes

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin...

Episode 69 of our deep dive into British broadcasting's back-story brings us to 5th April 1923, and the hiring of Ella Fitzgerald (not that one), to organise and centralise Children's Hour.

That leads us to a packed episode with both academic insight and tales from those who were there, whether listening or programme-making.

We have more guests than you could fit on Auntie Bronwen's magic carpet - including authors and academics:

Dr Amy Holdsworth (author of On Living with Television)

Dr Kate Murphy (author of Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Women at the BBC)

Graham Stewart (author of Scotland On Air)

Programme-makers and listeners:

Nick Wilson (producer, Wide Awake Club)

Chris Jarvis (presenter, Show Me Show Me)

David Jervis (grandson of Capt H.J. Round)

Andrew Barker (Newspaper Detective)

Charles Huff (producer, The Great Egg Race)

And early uncles and aunts:

Uncle Arthur (Burrows)

Uncle (A.E.) Thompson

Auntie Bronwen (Davies)

Auntie Cyclone (Kathleen Garscadden)

Dinko, the Foreman of the Pixies (Reginald Jordan)

Uncle Humpty Dumpty (Kenneth Wright)

We cover programmes including Children's Hour, Watch with Mother, Playschool, Wide Awake Club, Sooty, Teletubbies, In the Night Garden, Old Jack's Boat, Bedtime Hour, and many more.

FURTHER READING, LINKS ETC:

On Living with Television by Dr Amy Holdsworth is available here: https://amzn.to/3C3wt0F

Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Woman at the BBC by Dr Kate Murphy is available here: https://amzn.to/3BX12oR

Scotland On Air by Graham Stewart will be out later this year. Details here: https://wiki.scotlandonair.com/wiki/Main_Page

Read more of Arthur Corbett-Smith's 1924 notes on Children's Hour on Dr Zara Healy's brilliant blog post: https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbchistoryresearch/entries/cf4a5612-fdd9-47ec-88c8-a576e4bf7bd0 (we hope to have her on the podcast soon!)

Listen to my CBeebies Radio series Granny Anne's Joke World, starring Maureen Lipman, written by me - 8 episodes are here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/curations/radio-granny-annes-joke-world

My new book, out some time, is Auntie and Uncles: The Bizarre Birth of the BBC - details here: https://paulkerensa.com/book

My live tour, 'An Evening of (Very) Early Radio' (or sometimes it's an afternoon...) visits Guildford, Romsey, Chelmsford, Kettering, Turnham Green and maybe more (it's very bookable, portable, and affordable!) - details here: https://paulkerensa.com/tour

Original music is by Will Farmer.

A reminder that this podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. We're talking about them, not via them.

Broadcasts more than 50 years old are generally out of copyright. Any BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.

Thanks for supporting on patreon.com/paulkerensa if you do - videos and writings await you there. Or one-off tips are much appreciated too! ko-fi.com/paulkerensa.

Support us for free by sharing this podcast. Or rating + reviewing where you found us. The more stars, the better... It helps our (ready for a terrible word?) discoverability. Cheers!

Next time: The Press vs BBC vs Govt: 1923 and 2023 - with Prof Patrick Barwise and Peter York. Be afraid, be very afraid...

https://www.paulkerensa.com/oldradio

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By Paul Kerensa

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