The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

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 it from his website or where you get books (link below). Plus, as host Paul prepares for a new live show (Four Monarchs and a Mic: The BBC's Royal Engineer) on influential Outside Broadcast engineer RH Wood, this episode's bookended with some classic clips of Woody's broadcasts - coronations, state funerals, Churchill's war speeches, the Crystal Palace fire, the Boat Race, the first rugby commentary (re-enactment!)... Oh and a certain drunken commentary - Tommy Woodroffe on how 'The Fleet's Lit Up'. Hear it as you've never heard it before, with the engineer's commentary of what came before and after - how and why Tommy ended up inebriated on air, and where he went next... What a tale. Rebellion and rogueishness in the air then, and on it. Enjoy! (And if you like it, share it? Thanks, pals)   SHOWNOTES: Ray Clark's website is rayradio.co.uk - get his Radio Caroline book there For more on pirate radio history, see offshoreradio.co.uk or offshoreechos.com Paul's new live show on OB engineer RH Wood - if you're quick - is on at Leicester Comedy Festival on Sat 7 Feb - Four Monarchs and a Mic: The BBC's Royal Engineer. If you're not quick, would you like it performed near you? Get in touch with Paul. Details of this and other shows at www.paulkerensa.com/tour Paul's Radio 4 drama about the first radio drama The Truth About Phyllis Twigg is very much still on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx  Original podcast music is by Will Farmer.  This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc. All keeps Paul in books and web hostings - so this podcast is what it is thanks to kinds patrons there. Thanks! Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps. Next time, Episode 114: The First BBC Armistice Broadcast of 1923 More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio  

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. But when it's a spoof news report about the House of Commons being destroyed with trench mortars, the felling of Big Ben, the destruction of the Savoy Hotel and reports of a mob hanging or roasting alive various people... well no wonder some listeners fled their homes. Others phoned the Savoy Hotel, the BBC, the newspapers, the Admiralty. It was chaos. But was it as chaotic as the newspapers implied? Joining us to dig into this bizarre and wonderful tale is Dr A Brad Schwartz, author of Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles's War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News - a highly recommended read (and fear not, Brad will return to the podcast for a special on 1938's War of the Worlds another time). And of course, as we love a centenary re-enactment, we'll bring back to life this unrecorded broadcast, thanks to the script and a couple of sound effects (for the full works, in video form, join us Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/vid-first-radio-147890189) Cheers to Father Ronald Knox, who panicked Britain 100 years ago today! Listen to hear how...   SHOWNOTES: Thanks to Jonathan Mayo, Andrew Barker, Andy Walmsley and Paul Slade for titbits, trivia and newspaper cuttings about Broadcasting the Barricades. Paul's latest blog post about Broadcasting the Barricades and the birth of fake(d) news is on Substack: www.paulkerensa.substack.com - do subscribe there. Dr A Brad Schwartz's book Broadcast Hysteria is a must-read. The audiobook's great too. Andy Walmsley's blog on Broadcasting the Barricades is at https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2023/12/broadcasting-barricades.html Paul Slade's website about Broadcasting the Barricades is at https://www.planetslade.com/ronald-knox1.html My Radio 4 drama about the first radio drama The Truth About Phyllis Twigg is very much still on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx - thanks if you listened! Original podcast music is by Will Farmer.  Our survey of what you like/don't about this podcast is here: http://tiny.cc/bbcenturysurvey Paul has 2 different upcoming live shows about the early BBC: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits Norfolk and Suffolk, while new show Four Monarchs and a Mic: The BBC's Royal Engineer is at Leicester Comedy Festival on Sat 7 Feb. If it goes well, I may do it elsewhere. Let's see. www.paulkerensa.com/tour This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc - including the full video re-enactment of Broadcasting the Barricades. In evening dress! Please share/rate/review this podcast - it all really helps. Next time, Episode 113: The First BBC Armistice Broadcast of 1923 More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio  

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's due. This new drama for Radio 4 is produced by B7 Media and written by Paul Kerensa, who also hosts this podcast - so yes after 111 episodes we've finally brought some of the early BBC story (in this unofficial non-BBC podcast - for tis not made by/with/under them) to today's BBC. Thanks if you've listened to or supported the podcast in any way, as it's all helped make it happen. It takes a village! You are that village. Thanks, village! Episode 72 of this podcast told the tale of Phyllis, and how her achievement as first radio dramatist (we can talk about the American one from a year earlier) seemed to fade from history books as Richard Hughes and his A Comedy of Danger gradually took over as 'first radio drama'. Hmm, what an oddity. With neither a recording nor a surviving script, it was nice to discover a short story version of The Truth About Father Christmas, under Phyllis' pen name - so with that, I pitched the idea to radio drama producer Helen Quigley of B7 Media, and she pitched it to Radio 4's Drama Commissioning Editor - who gladly agreed there was a tale to tell. So on the day this podcast lands, so does our radio drama. We're proud of it - we hope you like it. If you don't, that's fine too. It's not perfect, but it's out there! #JusticeforPhyllis - and that's the goal, hopefully via some festive entertainment for your ears. On this accompanying podcast (unofficial - as it's not BBC), I chat to the cast, crew and descendants of Phyllis Twigg the writer and Arthur Burrows the voice behind Father Christmas, and the man who commissioned her in the first place. So on this bumper episode, you'll hear: Helen Quigley - director Tamsin Greig - who plays Phyllis Twigg Rory Kinnear - who plays Arthur Burrows Will Harrison Wallace - who plays Mr White Aja Dodd - who plays Jenny Adams Carina Saner - great-granddaughter and biographer of Phyllis Twigg Nick Heal - grandson of Arthur Burrows Philippa Heal - great-granddaughter of Arthur Burrows Neil Brand - composer ...Thanks to them and many more for making possible this new drama about the first drama. Oh and you'll also hear the 7min reading of the prose version of The Truth About Father Christmas, voiced by Carina Saner, Flora Saner (great-granddaughter and great-great-granddaughter of Phyllis) and myself (no relation!). Thanks to ME London hotel for sharing the recording with us - we recorded it for them, and they've been playing daily in their Atrium, as they're pretty much on the site of the first BBC studio, where that first radio drama began. I advise you listen to The Truth About Phyllis Twigg first - if it's still on BBC Sounds as you find this podcast. If you can't or haven't, you'll still find plenty in this podcast. It was a joy to make. And as I'm working on the biography of Phyllis with her great-granddaughter Carina (Publishers? Get in touch...), the quest continues...   SHOWNOTES: The Truth About Phyllis Twigg on BBC Radio 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx - it's produced by B7 Media. Episode 72 of this podcast has more of the Twigg tale. My Substack timeline of Phyllis Twigg: https://paulkerensa.substack.com/p/the-truth-about-phyllis-twigg-a-timeline My blog for B7 Media about the new drama: https://www.b7media.com/the-truth-about-the-truth-about-phyllis-twigg/ Professor Tim Crook's article on Phyllis Twigg: https://kulturapress.com/2022/09/24/phyllis-m-twigg-the-bbcs-first-original-radio-dramatist/ Dr Tina Pepler's 1988 thesis on radio drama, mentioning Phyllis: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/34496537/381402.pdf

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 Radio 2 boss, and today's Breakfast Show host Scott Mills. So a version of that is on this episode, with some golden oldie clips, including Ray Moore and Derek Jameson. And even a bit of Steve Wright, because why not. It's a mini-sode ahead of our Christmas special, so we look ahead to that, with a little more info on Paul's upcoming Radio 4 drama about the first radio drama, The Truth About Phyllis Twigg. The companion episode will be next time on the podcast, but for now there's info on where in London you can go to listen to the story version of that original radio drama - ME London, the hotel on the site of Marconi House and the BBC's first studio. You can go this December, and listen to our exclusive recording, by, Paul, Carina Saner (Phyllis' great-granddaughter) and Flora Saner (Phyllis' great-great-granddaughter). ...And if you can't make it to London, we'll play it for you on the next episode.  A little too on our moment-by-moment timeline of British broadcasting - we're in November 1923 and it's GK Chesterton from Manchester, a Welsh talk from Wales, the first radio novel, and some comments in the Radio Times on the benefits of radio opera. (This WAS going to be an episode about the first BBC Armistice broadcast - but with all the above to tell more immediately, I decided to hold back the Armistice episode till the New Year. I know - it's not November - but we have a timeline to follow. In early 2026)   SHOWNOTES: Random Radio Jottings’ blog post on Pause for Thought’s history - with clips! https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2020/04/pause-for-thought.html ME London hotel host our recording of The Truth about Father Christmas, Dec 2025 only! Some more details from the manager: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mattba_melondon-takemetothemoon-activity-7402369630956326913-n1OS/ ...Pop by the hotel, have a listen! Get in touch with them first to be sure: https://www.melia.com/en/hotels/united-kingdom/london/me-london The BBC listings page for The Truth about Phyllis Twigg - 2:15pm, Christmas Eve 2025, Radio 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx An article from Downthetubes about The Truth about Phyllis Twigg: https://downthetubes.net/the-truth-about-phyllis-twigg-lifts-the-lid-on-secrets-of-early-bbc-radio/ Paul on Radio 4 Extra's Daily Service, inc a little on The Truth about Father Christmas: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002n6kc A few selected highlights of Paul's History of Pause for Thought slide show at Broadcasting House: https://bsky.app/profile/paulkerensa.bsky.social/post/3m6orjdhkxs2m Original podcast music is by Will Farmer.  Any clips are other oooooold and out of copyright, or recent and the copyright is the BBC's - tiny excerpts hopefully qualify as fair use. Right? Right. Our survey of what you like/don't about this podcast is here: http://tiny.cc/bbcenturysurvey Paul's live show on the BBC origin story visits Norfolk and Leicester in 2026 - and maybe your place? Get in touch: www.paulkerensa.com/tour Substack: www.paulkerensa.substack.com  This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc - it all helps support the podcast, and without that, there's no this. So thanks if you do! Or a one-off tip to Ko-fi.com/paulkerensa? Thanks for supporting us. I mostly use any kind £ to buy books. Then read books. Then absorb books. Then convert them into podcasts. Thanks for keeping the wheels turning. Please share/rate/review this podcast - it all really helps. Next time: Episode 111: The Truth

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 the White House, the House of Commons or Broadcasting House. Dr Tom Mills, sociologist at Aston University and author of The BBC: Myth of a Public Service, joins us to whizz through 17 Directors General, their own politics and their battles with politics. Meet: John Reith, Frederick Ogilvie, Cecil Graves, Robert Foot, William Haley, Ian Jacob, Hugh Greene, Charles Curran, Ian Trethowan, Alasdair Milne, Michael Checkland, John Birt, Greg Dyke, Mark Thompson, George Entwistle, Tony Hall and Tim Davie. (Add some 'sirs' and 'lords' in there - I've only de-titled them here as we're often talking about them while they were DG, and it's confusing who was appointed what and when. No disrespect intended) All men, you may notice. There are a few women in this tale too - though not many, and usually by such names as Margaret Thatcher and Mary Whitehouse. It's a complex tale - I hope we make it less so for you. Oh and we have news of your festive audio treat - coming soon (to Radio 4!)   SHOWNOTES: Dr Tom Mills' book is The BBC: Myth of a Public Service Tom has co-written this article on a potential future for the BBC: https://www.common-wealth.org/publications/our-mutual-friend-the-bbc-in-the-digital-age Paul's Substack article on the 17 Directors General: https://paulkerensa.substack.com/p/who-let-the-dgs-out-the-17-bbc-directors Paul's Substack on last episode's Mass Telepathy broadcast re-enactment: https://paulkerensa.substack.com/p/the-bbcs-mass-telepathy-broadcast Apply to be BBC Director General! The job ad: https://careers.bbc.co.uk/job/Director-General/34415-en_GB/ Details of your audio festive treat - my new Radio 4 drama, about the first radio drama: https://www.facebook.com/paul.kerensa/posts/pfbid0MKWEGmjSgXaBGJqMS6FPpbga8XcRaDdqMkAqb6GT6ZNYcW65yfQKKnbrF6B7J4jal The BBC listings page for The Truth about Phyllis Twigg - 2:15pm, Christmas Eve 2025, Radio 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx Original music is by Will Farmer.  Our survey of what you like/don't about this podcast is here - because like the 1925 panel, we can't read your mind: http://tiny.cc/bbcenturysurvey Paul's live show on the BBC origin story visits a variety of tour stops: www.paulkerensa.com/tour. This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc - it all helps support the podcast, and without that, there's no this. So thanks if you do! Or a one-off tip to Ko-fi.com/paulkerensa? Thanks for supporting us. I mostly use any kind £ to buy books. Then read books. Then absorb books. Then convert them into podcasts. Thanks for keeping the wheels turning. Please share/rate/review this podcast - it all really helps. Next time: Episode 110: The first BBC Armistice broadcast. More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio