The British Broadcasting Century podcast

Today, I’m at BBC Broadcasting House, with King George V’s mic.
Tomorrow, I’ll be in Leicester, performing ‘Four Monarchs & A Mic: The BBC’s Royal Engineer’ - the tale of the man who put it on air, OB Engineer Robert Wood.
Good to bring his book back to visit his 94-year-old microphone.

Oh nice - I know Vikki Stone - she knows her music. Looks marvellous.

Oh nice! I shall listen.

Calling The Shots, Director's Cut: How It All Began Episode 1 - How it all Began: In March 2020, the world stopped as human tragedy unfolded. To that backdrop, a lockdown project started small and got way out of hand, as Adam Collins…

For more about Tommy Woodrooffe's career @norcrosscricket.bsky.social and @collinsadam.bsky.social worked on a history of cricket broadcasting during the pandemic of 2020 pca.st/episode/3e17...

"The fleet's lit up..." Tommy Woodrooffe's drunken BBC commentary + behind-the-scenes panic from engineer RH Wood (20 May 1937).

For a podcast on this, see ep113: podfollow.com/bbcentury

For a live show, see Four Monarchs and a Mic at Leicester Comedy Festival, 7 Feb 2026: paulkerensa.com/tour

Ep 113 of The British Broadcasting Century Podcast is here!
The history of Radio Caroline/pirate radio with Ray Clark, author of Radio Caroline: The True Story of the Boat that Rocked.
Plus the drunken commentary of Tommy Woodroffe ("The fleet's lit up!")
Enjoy!
bbcentury.podbean.com/e/113-radio-...

Just thinking - and it happens more often than you'd think - about the uncanny, almost eldritch abilty that Forsyth and Monkhouse seemed to have that enabled them to effortlessly drive almost any game show format. I don't think anyone's come close since - except maybe Bradley, but even so...

Terry Wa'gwan?

10 years since we lost the great Terry Wogan who, if you didn't know, was the first person to play reggae music on mainstream radio in the UK. I mentioned him in this piece about Dawn Penn's No No No for the @thequietus.com a couple of years back thequietus.com/opinion-and-...

BBC Radio 4 - Daily Service, Honest to God - Honest worship Christian worship with a Bible reading, prayer and music led by Paul Kerensa.

When worlds collide... religion x radio history
On this morning's Daily Service, I mentioned it's 100yrs (ish) since BBC listener Kathleen Cordeux requested a Daily Service. Our fab producer found a 90yr old edition in the archive, so 9mins in, a hymn+prayer from 1936:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Cover of Pull to Open: The Inside Story of How the BBC Created and Launched Doctor Who.

Read about Doctor Who's conception, from first ideas to its troubled early months of production, in Pull to Open, an immersive history by @paul-hayes.bsky.social, available now from tenacrebooks.co.uk.

Upcoming live shows on ye olde BBC (2 different shows - same poster design as I'm cheap...)

AN EVENING OF (VERY) OLD RADIO:
29 Jan (tonight): HEMEL HEMPSTEAD
30 Jan: West Acre nr KINGS LYNN, Norfolk
31 Jan: Wingfield Barns, DISS, Suffolk

FOUR MONARCHS & A MIC
7 Feb: LEICESTER

paulkerensa.com/tour

Rhodri Talfan Davies to be interim BBC DG.
Now BBC Dir of Nations; before that Dir of Wales 2011-2020, a job held by his own father Geraint, 1990-2000.
Geraint's father Aneirin was a WW2 BBC newsreader, put Dylan Thomas on air, and was BBC Head of Progs Wales.
85 yrs of Talfan Davieses at the BBC!

Hi Duncan (and thanks @paulframe85.bsky.social and @dhanendran.co.uk for tagging me) - independent self-run podcast on early BBC history here...
I'm planning a podcast episode about the BBC & the General Strike (one... though daily sounds fun).
If you fancy guesting/enlightening us, you're welcome!

I'd imagine @paulkerensa.bsky.social will also doing something on the general strike (if not this year, then definitely when the @bbcentury.bsky.social gets to 1926 in the series).

YouTube video by Saturday Night Live Danny DeVito Monologue: Taxi - Saturday Night Live

When "Taxi" got cancelled after Season 4, Danny De Vito wasn't happy. He used his position as host on SNL to bring everyone out for a proper farewell, and it's really quite something. It DID get one last season after this, but I'm so glad Danny did this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5TE...

Want it at your place? Just ask!

An Evening of (Very) Old Radio The First Firsts of Broadcasting Written and performed by comedian and British Comedy Award-winning writer Paul Kerensa (Miranda, Not Going Out, Top Gear), this one-man show informs, entertains, ...

Fri 30 Jan: West Acre Theatre, KINGS LYNN
www.westacretheatre.com/events/137969

Sat 31 Jan: Wingfield Barns, DISS
wegottickets.com/event/680530/

When I say 'Libary' of course, I mean 'Library'. I can't spell, as I don't spend long enough in libaries, or libraries.
Anyway, those tickety links:
Thu - Hemel
herts.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spyd...

I hear tickets are nearly sold out for this week's 3 performances of An Evening of (Very) Old Radio.
May be a few tickets left if you're quick, and are near one of these marvellous places:
Thu 29 Jan: HEMEL HEMPSTEAD Libary
Fri 30 Jan: West Acre Theatre, KINGS LYNN
Sat 31 Jan: Wingfield Barns, DISS

Four Monarchs and a Mic: The BBC’s Royal Engineer | Leicester Comedy Festival

Near Leicester on Sat 7 Feb?
At 2pm, it'll be the first (only?!) performance of 'Four Monarchs and a Mic: The BBC's Royal Engineer'
The tale of RH Wood, the BBC engineer who started at 2ZY Manchester in the 1920s, rose to Head of OB, and became the king's favourite.
An incredible tale - join me!

To mark 100 Years of Television, they should bring back TV title sequences that play on the host channel's ident. Let's face it, often the best bit of the entire series.

Bournemouth University rebuilds John Logie Baird's first TV set Exactly one century on, a team at Bournemouth University is recreating the first receiver.

TV is (probably) a century old today. This event is happening a few miles from me but, sadly, I can’t go. I may chase up later.

May be a few tickets left …

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-future...

Cheers - an excellent article! Great interviewees in there too.

Television is 100 years old today! 🎉

100 years of fake news: the accidental radio hoax that te... A century ago, a priest’s satirical BBC broadcast convinced listeners that London was under siege. It became a global sensation, and Orson Welles was listening...

A nice article from @theobserveruk.bsky.social by @juderogers.bsky.social on 100 yrs since the first radio scare: observer.co.uk/style/featur...

...We re-enacted this lost broadcast + delved into the press coverage of the time on the latest British Broadcasting Century podcast: pod.fo/e/379c24

100 years of fake news: the accidental radio hoax that te... A century ago, a priest’s satirical BBC broadcast convinced listeners that London was under siege. It became a global sensation, and Orson Welles was listening...

Ah nice. Was it this one?
observer.co.uk/style/featur...

Thanks Alice! Very good of you. And yup, Brad's audiobook is a cracking listen. We'll have him back on the podcast soon talking about his primary enthusiasm of War of the Worlds.

This is a fantastic listen! An in-depth look at (and recreation of) the first known "radio scare", courtesy of the 1920s BBC. And my goodness, the stunt was so *very* British...

The Week's Good Cause 24 January 1926

Happy 100th birthday to the BBC's 'The Week's Good Cause', launching 24 Jan 1926.
Its first charity was the National Children's Home and Orphanage, the appeal given by Charles Wakefield - Castrol Oil entrepreneur & philanthropist, and £1,025 and sevenpence raised.
More:
www.bbc.com/historyofthe...

(As for my workday today, this morning I'm working on the biography of first radio dramatist Phyllis Twigg, and this afternoon I'm writing for BBC1's Not Going Out, on later this year. So that's both ends of the century nicely covered...)