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Scrapbook: What was on TV in 2001?

2017-08-09T16:13:14+00:00

The Office started in 2001, but it wasn't until the second series that Ricky Gervais performed this now infamous dance routine

�� Genome's occasional Scrapbook series looks back at a past year in broadcasting.

With a new millennium in full swing, 2001 was a fascinating year for television. Reality TV was still in its early stages - the participants in Castaway 2000 returned to society and the first series of Celebrity Big Brother was broadcast as part of Comic Relief. Political change was afoot with a UK general election (in the days before national voting became an annual event) and a new US president was inaugurated. In light entertainment, some seminal sitcoms launched (and ended), and soap fans waited with bated breath to find out who shot Phil Mitchell.

Comedy

A new high point for Slough-based sitcoms was set when Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant unleashed David Brent onto our screens with the first series of The Office, broadcast on 9 July. The mockumentary-style programme focused on the day-to-day lives of its characters, in a fictitious office environment. As part of the �� Two Comedy Night strand the episodes were sandwiched between The Fast Show and Have I Got News For You (then presented by Angus Deayton). From these humble beginnings, the programme went on to launch some glittering careers: alongside Gervais and Merchant, Martin Freeman and McKenzie Crook went on to star in Sherlock and Pirates of the Caribbean respectively.

The Kumars - alongside Gareth Gates - had a charity hit single for Comic Relief in 2003

Another comedy that leant on mockumentary genre was The Kumars at No. 42, which added a surreal element to the chat-show formula. The nominal premise was that the family of Sanjeev Kumar (played by Sanjeev Bhaskar) had built a television studio in their back garden to help his television career. After the success writers Bhaskar, Richard Pinto and Sharat Sardana had had with Goodness Gracious Me, the show was given a big build up: four pages of that week’s Radio Times were dedicated to it. The first episode was broadcast on 12 November 2001 and the programme was an instant hit. Guests, including Graham Norton and Davina McCall were invited to answer the peculiar and invasive questions of the pretend-family. The show ran for seven series on the ��, switching from �� Two to �� One midway through, until the final episode on the �� in August 2006.

The highest television viewing figures of the year - and indeed the decade - went to the hit comedy Only Fools and Horses, which returned to the screens for a Christmas special. If Only They Could See Us Now centres on Del Boy and Rodney having to start again after going bankrupt. It had over 20 million viewers in the prime Christmas day slot. If anyone could produce a programme with those viewing figures these days, then this time next year they’d be millionaires.

Reality TV

Although Reality TV now seems ubiquitous across the schedules it was still a fairly new phenomenon back in 2001. Throughout 2000, the ��’s experimental programme Castaway 2000 had followed 36 people cast adrift on a secluded Scottish island for a year. Early in 2001, when the Castaways returned to civilisation, there was a clutch of programmes showing how the participants readapted to normality and reflecting on their year away. Later on in the year the programme's breakout star Ben Fogle took part in the national hedge-laying championships for Countryfile.

Celebrity Big Brother first appeared on our screens in 2001. Although for its first 10 years on British TV, Big Brother was on Channel 4, the first Celebrity-version of the series was tied to Comic Relief and was partly broadcast on ��. The programme saw six celebrities including Vanessa Feltz and Chris Eubank enter the Big Brother House for a week and Jack Dee was named champion on the night of Red Nose Day.

Ben Fogle on the Scottish island of Taransay

Politics

In January the �� covered the inauguration of George W Bush. (It was an international evening for �� Two - they followed up with World Indoor Bowls.) It was also a big year domestically, with a general election dominating the spring schedules. In the lead-up to the election, leaders from the major parties took part in separate Question Time specials, facing questions from a live audience. The nation at large seemed less engaged, with voter turnout at just 59.4% - the lowest in the UK’s democratic history. �� coverage of the results on the night of 7 June was presented by David Dimbleby, Jeremy Paxman and Fiona Bruce. Peter Snow was on hand with the swingometer, in his penultimate general election as presenter.

Peter Snow covered every general election from 1983 till 2005

The most challenging event of 2001 was the devastating 9/11 attacks in the US. The �� Genome schedules show what was due to be broadcast on that day. After the attacks, this was abandoned for blanket coverage from the events in New York. The following Thursday a special Question Time was dedicated to the political implications of the attacks. The episode received complaints about strong anti-American sentiments being expressed by members of the studio audience and a few days later Director General Greg Dyke issued an apology.

Soaps

The big soap story of the year came from Albert Square and the mystery of who shot Phil Mitchell. In the 1 March episode Phil (played by Steve McFadden) was wounded by a mystery shooter outside his house. The episode had 17 million viewers and the culprit remained unknown for more than a month. The �� even had to provide security for scriptwriters following the theft of a computer containing future EastEnders plotlines. On the morning of 5 April, Gaby Roslin presented a programme live in Albert Square profiling the suspects. That evening nearly 20 million viewers discovered that Phil’s former girlfriend Lisa Shaw was the guilty party. It was the most-watched EastEnders episode of the decade and to allow for the big reveal, the episode was extended to 40 minutes. The listings show that to accommodate this, the Uefa Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Barcelona had to have a delayed kick-off (We don’t know if Steven Gerrard was watching pre-match.)

What did you think of the programmes mentioned above? Or have we missed one that you liked? Let us know in the comments section below:

Marconi - the Sound of Silence

2017-07-20T15:25:53+00:00

Giulielmo Marconi (1874-1937), pioneer of radio, giving a broadcast from a �� studio in the 1920s (in those days they believed in making you feel at home)

It is 80 years since the death of Guglielmo Marconi, the pioneer of wireless telegraphy – in other words, radio.

Born in Bologna, Italy, in 1874, Marconi had a comparatively privileged upbringing, with expectations that he would go into the family business or another respectable profession. He did neither, but made the family name world famous.

Marconi was not conventionally academic, and never completed a formal programme of study, but he showed an early aptitude for science, especially physics. One new aspect of the science that was attracting attention in the late 19th Century was the phenomenon of Hertzian waves: what we now know as radio waves. This electromagnetic radiation had yet to be harnessed into any practical application, but it became Marconi's obsession to achieve this.

He was something of a prodigy, developing a basic system of wireless transmission while still in his early 20s. Thereafter he worked continually on it until he was able to convince institutions, such as the British Post Office, of its efficacy. With his lack of scientific education his work was practical rather than theoretical, but this was the key to his success. Conventional scientific wisdom, as espoused by the likes of Sir Oliver Lodge and other leading scientists of the time, had concluded that wireless communication was impossible.

The memorial at Poldhu, Cornwall, to commemorate Marconi's sending of the first radio signal across the Atlantic on 12 December 1901. It was the letter 'S' - three dots in Morse code

It was not until the 1920s that it was established that radio waves were able to bounce off different layers of the atmosphere, making communication across the oceans possible – but this was many years after Marconi had achieved the feat, without actually understanding how it worked, only that it did. It was previously thought that radio signals needed line-of-sight between the transmitter and receiver, but it was then also thought that there was a substance called “the ether” through which electromagnetic waves had to travel, as it was thought that nothing could travel through a true vacuum.

As with many inventions, it was the interest of the armed forces, and in particular the use the technology was put to during the World War One, which gave the impetus to the full development of what we now think of as radio. Although the military authorities in many countries worried that private use of radio would interfere with their communications, it was soon inevitable that the demand for other uses, such as broadcasting, would have to be acknowledged.

Marconi, like that other maverick pioneer, John Logie Baird, took others’ inventions and made something new out of them, but did not devise every component himself. Marconi is generally known as the inventor of radio, and shared the 1909 Nobel Prize for Physics for his work (with Karl Ferdinand Braun, whose inventions included the cathode-ray tube, a tuning circuit for radio transmitters and the use of crystals for receiving sets), but many others, from James Clark Maxwell to Heinrich Hertz, Nikola Tesla and Reginald Fessenden, played a part in the development of broadcast radio.

The original �� transmitter, call sign 2LO, from 1922. The first �� broadcasts were from Marconi House in the Strand, home of the Marconi Company who built the transmitter

Marconi however discovered a means of realising the new technology of radio and got it to work. He also publicised it and made it into a commercial concern, paving the way for the radio industry. But curiously he was not particularly interested in broadcasting, and left it to others to develop means of transmitting sound, which led to modern radio. All his work was on technology to transmit messages using Morse code, and it was with this technique that his fame rested during his active research period. Wireless telegraphy became the wonder of the early 20th Century, with crucial roles in events like the capture of the murderer Dr Crippen, the sinking of the Titanic – but also with the Marconi shares scandal of 1911.

As with Baird, the company that bore Marconi’s name continued long after he was no longer its chief asset and driving force, and indeed after his death. In 1920, the Marconi Company broadcast the first UK radio programme, with the famous singer Dame Nellie Melba, from its Chelmsford premises. Within two years, Marconi and the other major firms, with representatives of smaller companies, came together in a consortium to provide content for a national radio broadcasting service. The British Broadcasting Company was born.

The Marconi Company was responsible for some of the most important technology used by the �� and other broadcasters, from the original 2LO transmitter to the Marconi-Stille sound tape recorder of the 1930s; Marconi joined forces with EMI in the early 1930s to develop a system of electronic television, and it was their 405-line system which became the main television format in the UK from 1937 until the late 1960s.

The �� paperwork showing the 2 minutes' silence in tribute to Marconi, on 21 July 1937, the day after he died. Marconi was ennobled as a Marchese (Marquis) by the King of Italy in 1929

Marconi himself was not a frequent presence on the ��, but nonetheless, like many prominent figures of the time, he was persuaded to broadcast on occasion. On the ��’s first anniversary in November 1923 he gave a talk in a sequence of programmes called The �� Birthday, and in 1931 he spoke on The Beginnings of Wireless. Marconi was a fluent English speaker through his mother’s influence (she was born Anne Jameson, of the Irish whiskey dynasty), and reportedly spoke it without a strong accent, doubtless confounding some people’s expectations based on his nationality.

The last 15 years of Marconi’s life saw the rise of Fascism in his home country. He had been appointed a Senator in the Italian parliament in 1914, and he became a friend of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who appointed him to his ruling council, and accorded him a state funeral when he died.

The day after Marconi’s death, 21 July 1937, broadcasters everywhere joined in turning off all radio transmissions for two minutes (his homeland, Italy, observed five minutes’ silence). In Great Britain this radio silence was at 6pm, and included all �� stations then broadcasting – except television, as it was not transmitting at that time of day anyway. It was still a fitting tribute to the man who first achieved this new method of communication, and changed the world.

The Sunday Post: The 1947 Fuel Crisis and the ��

2017-03-05T10:00:00+00:00

The television mast on Alexandra Palace was erected in 1936. During World War 2 it was used to send out fake homing signals to German bombers, but in February/March 1947 it was out of action when television was closed down to conserve fuel

It now seems like an incredible tale from the dim and distant past, but because of a national fuel shortage during the harsh winter of early 1947, the �� Television Service and the Third Programme, precursor to Radio 3, closed down for several weeks to conserve electricity.

Today’s Sunday Post looks at the changes to the planned schedules at this time. Another notable aspect of the crisis was that for two weeks, Radio Times was not printed, so listings of what did go out are missing from the database – and some of the programmes billed were not actually transmitted.

During the war, there was a constant need to economise on fuel, including to maintain the electricity supply that was vital for armament production. Campaigns encouraged people to save fuel, because other than coal and gas produced at home, all other fuel was imported by sea, and the danger of U-Boat attacks meant it was vital not to waste resources.

Post-war, conditions actually worsened in Britain in many ways. There was no longer the same danger to shipping, but the British economy had suffered greatly. The country was almost bankrupt from the cost of fighting the war, and its infrastructure took years to recover.

Fuel shortages

There was increasing concern about fuel shortages by the autumn of 1946. A �� memo in November that year talked about the electricity authorities' anxiety about the coming winter. Defence priorities during the war meant that worn out electricity generating machinery had not been replaced, and work on this now required some plant to be taken out of service. Power cuts were anticipated especially if the winter was severe, which turned out to be the case.

By the second month of the new year, the situation was getting critical. A memo of 8 February from the DG’s office proposed that the Light and Third programmes could close down each day at 11 pm, with the �� Service closing, after the news, three minutes later. Evening television would continue, but the morning demonstration film, and afternoon programmes, would cease. The memo also noted that electricity cuts might result in certain �� studios or outside broadcasts being left without power, so contingency plans were put in place for this possibility.

The fateful �� document recording the closedown of the television service

In the event, this was not quite how things happened: both the Third and television were shut down completely for some time. Television programmes continued as normal until Sunday 9 February, with the usual announcement of the programmes scheduled for the next day, followed by the sound-only news, and closedown.

However, the following day, Monday 10 February, there were no transmissions until 8.25pm, when the usual tuning signals and identifying shot of the Alexandra Palace mast was followed by an announcement (by Gillian Webb, one of a number of contract announcers in early post-war television) that the service would be suspended during the emergency. At 8.30pm and 54 seconds, the service closed again.

Nothing on the box...

For a few days the �� paperwork faithfully reports "no transmission" on the television service, until that too was abandoned on 18 February with the note "no transmission until further notice". For once, �� officialdom’s obsession with recording what has happened, even if nothing had actually happened, ran out of steam.

The other minority service, the Third Programme, also ceased during the crisis. On 10 February a memo advised that it would close down following an announcement at 6pm that evening, although some programmes scheduled during the suspension period could be recorded for later transmission, in order to honour �� contracts – although in the case of talks, only if the speaker would be unavailable when the emergency was expected to be over in two to three weeks' time.

It gradually dawns on Edmundo Ros and his band that the �� Television Service has closed down and they are wasting their time...

In the event, the Third Programme only remained off the air until 26 February. This might look like favouritism, as television took far longer to return, but both production and consumption of television used far more power than radio. Also, the Third Programme was available nationwide, while television was confined to the south east of England within range of the Alexandra Palace transmitter, and sets were expensive – so the potential audience affected was much smaller.

However radio overall played its part in the economy drive. Additional savings were achieved by amalgamating the �� Service and Light Programme schedules from 15 February to 15 March, although just during the day; the evening schedules retained separate services. Radio Times printed separate schedules when it resumed publication on 7 March, but with a box-out showing a combined schedule in case the restrictions had not been lifted.

On Tuesday 11 March, television returned. After the tuning signals and the filmed shot of the television mast, accompanied by Eric Coates’ Television March (this being the earliest de facto television ident), broadcasting resumed with a production of the play Outward Bound, postponed from exactly a month before. Even then the gremlins stepped in – there was a breakdown after 5 minutes and the play, after a brief return, did not start again fully until 8.54pm. Gillian Webb was again the announcer.

Here comes Muffin

Although the service was back, for a while programmes were confined to the evenings only. After a week, the morning transmission of the demonstration film, Television is Here Again recommenced. Afternoon programmes returned at weekends only from 22 March, including live sport and children’s programmes like Muffin the Mule.

Radio Times too was affected by the fuel shortage. As will be apparent from studying the Genome listings, and as is described in the FAQs, there were two weeks in which Radio Times did not appear, the editions which would have been published on 21 and 28 February.

For this reason, Genome is not just missing the television and Third Programme listings in Genome, as they were not transmitted, but also the �� Service and Light Programme billings, as there was no magazine to take them from. As with other occasions when there is no Radio Times, it is intended eventually to add these from �� records.

Television in fact did not even return exactly when Radio Times said it would, though the magazine admitted that it might not: programme pages for the first two editions after the magazine resumed warned that programmes were liable to change if circumstances demanded. In fact, though television listings appear for 9 March, it was another two days before any programmes were actually broadcast.

The planned 1947 outside broadcast of busmen's training at Chiswick depot was delayed until 1949 - which is about average where buses are concerned

So what programmes did listeners and viewers miss out on while the Third Programme and Television were suspended?

Highlights on the Third Programme included Sound on the Air, a studio discussion about "the relation between the actual sounds made in the studio and those that the listener is likely to hear" (ironically, given that they didn't hear anything in the event); Cupid and Psyche, a drama written and produced by the poet (and �� producer) Louis MacNeice, based on an ancient Greek story by Apuleis; and Aristophanes’s The Frogs, given consecutively in translation and then in the original Greek – along with the customary diet of "serious" music.

Television programmes cancelled or postponed ranged from Forecast of Fashion, plays like the repertory staple Outward Bound (as mentioned above), outside broadcasts from Chiswick showing bus drivers’ training and the behaviour of pedestrians, some ballet, and the rugby union international between England and France.

Normal service resumed

Full �� programmes were finally restored by the end of April. There were further fuel scares in 1950 and 1951 (and rationing of coal would continue until 1958), but in the event there were no further interruptions or restrictions to broadcasting – at least not until the 1970s. In 1972-74, disputes in the mining industry resulted in the three-day week, power cuts, and curtailed hours of broadcasting to save power, but no actual closure of services.

Genome scrapbook: 1997

2017-02-24T14:22:16+00:00

Samantha Morton as Sophia Western and Kathy Burke as Honour in Tom Jones

Twenty years ago Labour won the election after 18 years in opposition, Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris and Arsene Wenger was confirmed as Arsenal’s new manager. In 1997 I was doing my GCSE’s, so it won’t surprise you to learn that I remember a lot about what was on TV…

Drama got off to a grand start on ��2, with an epic adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Nostromo running throughout February. Just over a year after he appeared in Pride and Prejudice, Colin Firth played Englishman Charles Gould, who returns to his South American birthplace to reopen an old mine (sound familiar?) The adaptation of this tale of social and political corruption was a huge undertaking. It was filmed in Colombia, and involved no fewer than 15,000 extras. The Radio Times reported that the actors, who included Albert Finney, Serena Scott-Thomas and Claudio Amendola, had to perform in 95% humidity.

Meanwhile, there was mystery afoot on home-turf; mystery of an unusual and somewhat spooky kind… Enter magician Jonathan Creek (played by comedian and actor Alan Davies). Helped by journalist Madeline Magellan (Caroline Quentin), he set to work solving crime, with an approach that could only be described as inimitable. Episode titles such as The Reconstituted Corpse gave some augury of the macabre crime-solving missions that were to follow. The programme has run on-and-off for the last 20 years and has clocked up 32 episodes, notably all written by the same man – David Renwick.

Caroline Quentin, Annette Crosbie and Alan Davies in Jonathan Creek

Psychological thriller Bright Hair hit our screens later in the year, starring another former Pride and Prejudice star, Emilia Fox. The then-23 year old was a convincing teenage schoolgirl, haunted after witnessing the aftermath of a murder. And on the subject of crime - although this blog focuses on �� programmes - it would be an oversight not to mention that Midsomer Murders also debuted on ITV in 1997. The series, which launched with John Nettles starring as DCI Barnaby, is now in its 21st season and has probably solved more TV murder cases than all other crime series put together.

Later in the year on the ��, Max Beesley smouldered in period drama The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. Billed as a “rollicking” tale, this five-parter also starred Samantha Morton, Frances de la Tour and Kathy Burke. It was racier than the recent Pride and Prejudice and Middlemarch adaptations, and Radio Times even flagged up some of the more controversial content. I certainly had to resort to some subterfuge to watch the third episode.

Back to pre-watershed, the “will-he-won't-he?” plotline continued in the Irish town of Ballykissangel, as the nation’s prime-time audience willed Father Peter (Stephen Tompkinson) to do something un-priestlike and elope with love interest Dervla Kirwan.

Just kiss her! Stephen Tompkinson and Dervla Kirwan in Ballykissangel

Soap fans were treated to two exciting plotlines in Eastenders, as Bianca and Ricky tied the knot (for the first time) and the tempestuous relationship between Grant (Ross Kemp) and Tiffany (Martine McCutcheon) culminated in a paternity row over baby Courtenay.

Now for something a bit more serious…

On factual TV, psychologist Oliver James put some of the famous faces of the day on the couch in The Chair, showing that psychotherapy really had gone mainstream in the UK. And there were plenty of white knuckles over on �� Two, with fly-on-the-wall docu-drama Driving School, which followed the experiences of learner drivers. The programme is best remembered for bringing cleaning lady Maureen Rees to fame as an early “reality TV star” (and for helping her to pass her driving test on the 7th attempt).

Meanwhile in my household, as Radio 4 celebrated 12,000 episodes of The Archers, an obligatory silence was imposed in the kitchen each evening so that my mum could tune into the latest from Ambridge. And comedy To The Manor Born had an outing on �� Radio 2, with Penelope Keith reprising her role as Audrey fforbes-Hamilton.

Say Hello!

It was also an important year for children’s TV, with the launch of Teletubbies on ��2. Within months, that theme tune had become every parent’s earworm, and a debate was set off about whether the Teletubbies’ gibberish would harm children’s speech development (shades of Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men in the 1950s). There was also an important moment for children’s news programme Newsround, which celebrated its 25th anniversary. In its honour, ��1 hosted a nostalgic retrospective, Newsround’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Years.

Alan Partridge first appeared on the radio, in �� Radio 4's On The Hour in 1991

A-haaa!

We all had a bit of a laugh when Steve Coogan reprised his role as an inept presenter in I’m Alan Partridge. The 1997 series saw Partridge demoted to a role in local radio ("Good morning, Norwich"), but still dreaming of the "glory" days. Could he get his television show re-commissioned? His frantic attempts to pitch new formats to a �� commissioning editor are classic moments of television comedy.

And after a three-year absence, fans were thrilled when Red Dwarf reappeared for its seventh series. Episode 6, written by Kryten actor Robert Llewellyn, saw the crew being transported back to a virtual reality land - based on Pride and Prejudice. And what happened when Red Dwarf met period drama? Answer, Kryten’s head exploded…

Over to you chaps… did you enjoy the programmes mentioned above? Or have we missed one that you liked? Let us know in the space below:

The following programmes are available to purchase from �� Store and other providers: Jonathan Creek, Red Dwarf, I'm Alan Partridge, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling and Teletubbies.

The Sunday Post: 75 Years of Desert Island Discs

2017-01-29T10:00:00+00:00

Living on an Island - Roy Plomley, creator of Desert Island Discs, and its presenter from 1942 to 1985, pictured on the imaginary island in the 1982 Arena documentary about the show

Among the many long running series which �� Radio 4 is home to, one of the longest running is Desert Island Discs, which celebrates its 75th birthday today. Created by Roy Plomley in 1941 as a new way of combining interviews with music, it has now clocked up over 3,000 editions. It remains as popular as ever, often creating headlines with high profile ‘castaways’ such as the guest for the current anniversary, footballer David Beckham.

The format of the show imagines that the castaway finds his or herself on a desert island with only eight records for company. This was later added to by allowing a luxury item, which must be of no practical use (or a living thing), and a book, though the Bible – or equivalent – and the Complete Works of Shakespeare are automatically provided. The castaway discusses his or her life, and how the musical tracks chosen relate to it. At the end, they decide which of the eight songs they would take if only one was allowed.

Over 75 years the programme has included a huge cross section of the great and the good from all shades of celebrity, from actors, comedians and musicians, to scientists, religious and political figures, and those who come under the heading of miscellaneous.

Particularly notable figures are often invited for milestones in the programme’s history, such as Alec Guinness for the 500th show (though it turned out, when it was re-checked, to only be the 498th). Field Marshal Montgomery was the castaway for the 1000th edition, and Paul McCartney appeared for the 40th anniversary of the show in 1982. Several holders of the office of Prime Minister have appeared, and even Princess Margaret.

Some castaways have been chosen twice, and some three or even four times (for example Arthur Askey and David Attenborough). Occasionally two people share an edition, such as Morecambe and Wise, or the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. Looking back over the years, some of the names are now obscure, but the fact that they appeared on the show, especially once it had become a broadcasting institution, shows that they were an eminent person at the time.

Is Vic There? Radio Times publicises the first edition of Desert Island Discs, where the castaway was Winston Churchill's son-in-law

Roy Plomley was born in 1914. Before the war he was an actor, and an announcer on commercial broadcasts from Europe, but after the fall of France in 1940 he joined the ��. Leslie Perowne, head of the �� Gramophone Department, asked him to come up with an idea for a new programme. Plomley admitted in his eponymous 1975 book about the show that choosing a list of books or music to take to a desert island was a popular parlour game, but he was the first to create a radio format around it.

Like almost all broadcasting in that era (especially during the war, due to the need for censorship), the early programmes were fully scripted. The first ever edition, with comedian Vic Oliver, only exists as a transcript, but it is like a comedy routine, with Plomley as the straight man. After the war, with security no longer an issue, and as people became less afraid of someone saying something untoward, scripting was phased out.

Technology also helped: the early programmes were recorded onto acetate discs, the standard medium at the time. These were fragile and could not withstand repeated playing, which is why none of the earliest editions survive. By the 1950s audio tape had replaced discs, which was easy to edit, so there wasn’t the same need to take care what was said.

Despite this, the programme was unrehearsed, and unless there was a problem with a particular thing the castaway said, it was usually pre-recorded in one take. The comic writer Basil Boothroyd thought his show’s recording was just a rehearsal, and asked to do it again when he realised his mistake. However the result was less satisfactory the second time, because the relaxed atmosphere was missing.

Plomley stresses in his book that the selection of tracks would not simply be the subject’s favourite music, but those pieces which could stand repeated playing if they were really stranded on an island. During his time as presenter, Plomley was strict about adhering to his own rules, although he did once allow the luxury to be animate (a cat, asked for by Princess Michael of Kent).

Some castaways were vague about the music they wanted. One confessed to being tone deaf, and needed much coaxing to make his selections. Anyone who needed it was given as much help as possible, though Plomley was careful to try never to influence them. However he was not a fan of pop, and in his book rarely mentions the name of any piece of music other than classical pieces.

So Lonely - Sue Lawley interviews Prime Minister John Major for Desert Island Discs' half century, whose music choices appropriately included Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue

The selections made could be eclectic or highly limited. There was a tendency with certain musicians to choose a majority of tracks on which they themselves featured, one celebrated example being the soprano Elizabeth Schwarzkopf who chose nothing but her own records (including a single orchestral piece, which, according to Plomley, dated from her early career as a viola player).

Some zealous listeners noticed that the sound effect of seabirds played over the title theme (By the Sleepy Lagoon, by the prolific Eric Coates) was of herring gulls, unlikely to be heard on a tropical isle. More authentic bird cries were experimented with in the early 60s, but never sounded right, so the gulls returned. Other correspondents pointed out that the title should be ‘Deserted Island Discs’ rather than ‘Desert’, but Plomley responded that it was a bit late to change.

Plomley’s approach to the interview, beginning with lunch to get to know the subject, reflected his clubbable and avuncular personality. For most of his time on the show, the interview was recorded separately, and the records edited in later. Recording was normally in a �� studio, though occasional exceptions were made for reasons of eminence or infirmity. Some accused the programme of being too cosy, but it was intended to gently get under the skin of the castaway, rather than be psychologically challenging, like Face to Face.

Not every programme went smoothly. One contributor, film director Otto Preminger, appeared to take issue with some of Plomley’s remarks, although Plomley insisted afterwards it was all a joke, and Preminger had a twinkle in his eye. The programme once secured an interview with Alastair MacLean, but it turned out they had booked someone else with the same name, not the famous author. The recording went ahead anyway, but was not transmitted.

A 1961 programme with the author and critic E Arnot Robertson was also dropped, although scheduled, because she died suddenly between recording it and the projected transmission date. However the 1980 interview with Cecil Beaton was broadcast despite his having died before the programme was aired.

Wild Thing - David Attenborough's fourth appearance as castaway was in 2012. Sir David is seen here with presenter Kirsty Young and the production team

There was one major break in the run of Desert Island Discs, in 1946, when Plomley decided he wanted to do other things. An edition with the actress Barbara Mullen was intended to be the last programme, however after five years it was decided to bring it back. On 3 January 1951, actor Eric Portman was the first castaway on the revived series, which has been going ever since.

Plomley himself was twice the castaway, in the last episode of the first series in May 1942, and again in 1958. He was interviewed respectively by Leslie Perowne, and by Eamonn Andrews. In the latter case, two weeks later the roles were reversed to their normal order.

Roy Plomley guided the show through nearly 1,800 episodes, until his death at the age of 71 in 1985, with his last castaway the actress Sheila Steafel. The programme was so identified with him that there was doubt whether it could continue, but the �� was keen for it to go on, and vitally Plomley’s widow Diana, who now owned the format, agreed.

After much discussion on possible hosts, Michael Parkinson was appointed, and his first show was broadcast in January 1986. However after two years he left, to be replaced by Sue Lawley, who saw the show through the next 18 years. Kirsty Young was appointed as the fourth and current host of Desert Island Discs in 2006.

Throughout these many years, while some have detected subtle changes in the format (overall, less classical music is chosen now than in former times) the show is essentially the same one that Roy Plomley devised during the war. It has survived the vicissitudes of broadcasting fads and fashions, and the advent of dozens of programmes which have adopted variations on the same basic idea (sufficiently different to avoid copyright problems).

Desert Island Discs is a simple format, but one that is self-evidently successful, as it has survived largely unchanged for three-quarters of a century. It would surprise no-one if it lasted the other quarter, as one of the great and enduring classic radio programmes.

The Monday Post: Scottish Programmes

2017-01-23T17:30:00+00:00

Billy Connolly pictured in the 1970s, attempting to deflect attention from his sometimes controversial comedy by use of a particularly garish shirt

As Wednesday, 25 January, is Burns Night, the annual celebration of the birth of Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns (1759-1796), we're commemorating the day by examining all things Scottish on the ��. Well, some of them anyway…

When the �� began in 1922, all broadcasting was local, with separate establishments in the major population centres. The main Scottish broadcasting centre was in Glasgow, although Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and to some extent Dundee, had their own programmes as well.

As it became possible to network programmes, regional identity and independence lessened. Bringing homogeneity to the UK has been one of broadcasting’s achievements – though it has not come without some corresponding sacrifices. Until 1939 however there was still a Scottish Regional Programme, and after the war there was a Scottish �� Service. When Radio 4 was set up in 1967 as part of the reorganisation of �� radio services, Scotland instead got its own service, Radio Scotland, which was a mix of Radio 4 output and home-grown material.

�� Scotland's television service began in 1957 when �� regional television started in earnest throughout the UK. Scotland's identity was established both sides of the border with a range of programmes - perhaps most memorably at first with the Scottish traditional music series The White Heather Club. A similar series, The Kilt is My Delight, had started nationwide in 1956. New Year's Eve, or Hogmanay, for many years came courtesy of �� Scotland, which provided ��’s networked celebrations - but since the end of the 1970s these were split between the nations again.

Scottish music has been represented by personality singers who have gained a UK-wide reputation, from Andy Stewart to Moira Anderson, Calum Kennedy and Isla St Clair (later better known for appearing on Larry Grayson’s version of The Generation Game). In the rock genre there have of course been numerous performers who have been in the limelight, from Donovan and Gerry Rafferty to Lulu, The Proclaimers, Simple Minds, Deacon Blue and many more.

Dr Finlay (Bill Simpson), Janet (Barbara Mullen) and Dr Cameron (Andrew Cruickshank) check the result of the 3.30 at Ayr before embarking on some more 1920s/30s medical drama in Dr Finlay's Casebook (a book we never actually got to see)

In the field of drama, there have been many Scottish-based series, from Dr Finlay’s Casebook to Monarch of the Glen, as well as serials and single plays. Some less well-known drama series from Scotland, or at least set there, have included two based around the oil industry, Oil Strike North and Roughnecks, the latter created by Kieran Prendiville, the former That’s Life and Tomorrow's World presenter who went on to create Ballykissangel.

Classic fiction adaptations have perhaps been overshadowed by the influence of Dr Finlay’s Casebook, which although starring many Scottish actors (though Janet, the housekeeper, was played by Barbara Mullen, who while of Irish descent was born in the United States) was, until its last series, recorded in London. It began in 1962, with many early episodes transmitted live. On television it ran until 1971, but it had an afterlife in a long-running radio adaptation with the same stars, Bill Simpson, Andrew Cruickshank playing the titular character and his partner in the practice, Dr Cameron.

Other notable adaptations of Scottish fiction have included adaptations of John Buchan’s Huntingtower (in the 50s and 70s on television), among several other of his novels, and the well-remembered production of Sunset Song from 1971.

Roddy McMillan, a great Scottish actor, was the lead in the 1960s and 1970s versions of The Vital Spark, the comedy about a small steamship or ‘Puffer’ which plied the waters of the Clyde. McMillan also played the lead in private eye series The View from Daniel Pike, based on an episode of the anthology strand Menace, which then ran for two years. Among his many other roles was his own script The Bevellers, about workers in a glass factory, in the Play for Today strand.

Another well-known Scots character actor was Iain Cuthbertson, who became famous as a Soho-based Glasgow gangster in the ITV series Budgie. Cuthbertson then played someone on the right side of legality in Sutherland’s Law, which ran for several series in the mid 1970s. It concerned the activities of a Procurator Fiscal, a Scottish law officer who has no equivalent in England, who can investigate the background to crimes, as well as prosecuting them in court.

The separate Scottish education system was examined in This Man Craig, about an idealistic secondary school teacher. Made in Scotland for showing on ��2 at a time when the channel was not available there, it was given an opt-out broadcast on ��1 Scotland as well.

The actor Maurice Roëves was the star of Scobie in September, first shown in Scotland in 1968 and repeated nationally the next year, and its sequel The Scobie Man, about an artist who gets caught up in nefarious goings-on. Roëves was also one of the stars of the brilliant four-part horror serial The Nightmare Man, in which a Scottish island, cut off by fog, is threatened by a serial killer – or is it an alien creature?

Tutti Frutti, John Byrne's celebrated 1987 drama starring Robbie Coltrane, Emma Thompson and Maurice Roëves. Byrne also designed album covers for Stealers Wheel and Gerry Rafferty, and Billy Connolly's 'banana boots'

In 1987, artist and writer John Byrne scored a major hit with Tutti Frutti, in which Roëves also appeared alongside Robbie Coltrane, Emma Thompson and Richard Wilson, a comedy drama about a Scottish rock and roll group that has seen better days. He followed it up with Your Cheatin’ Heart, set in the little-known milieu of the Scottish country music scene.

Something of a similar feel to Byrne’s work was noticeable in Donna Franceschild’s Takin’ Over the Asylum in 1994, in which Ken Stott played a disillusioned salesman who finds a release working as a DJ for the radio station of a psychiatric hospital. Among the impressive cast was a young David Tennant, who has gone one to be one of three Scots actors to play the lead role in Doctor Who – along with Sylvester McCoy and Peter Capaldi.

There have also been a number of interesting thriller serials from Scotland. For example, in the 60s there was The Dark Number by Eddie Boyd, a Glasgow-set thriller. In 1973 the controversial adaptation of Douglas Hurd and Andrew Osmond’s novel Scotch on the Rocks looked at a violent attempt to secure Scottish independence. The late 70s saw the paranormal drama The Omega Factor, which again ran for only one series but became a favourite of cult tv fans.

Scottish comedy is a fruitful source of talent, with solo performers such as Jimmy Logan, Rikki Fulton, Stanley Baxter, Chic Murray, and of course Billy Connolly. Billy Connolly, though firstly a musician, and latterly a television presenter as well as a stand-up, has mostly acted on television in straight roles, from plays like The Elephant’s Graveyard to the �� Films production Mrs Brown. An early attempt at a sitcom featuring him, The Highland Queen, didn’t make it past an unscreened pilot in 1976. Connolly never attempted the genre again, though he made a number of sketch comedy appearances in Not the Nine O'Clock News alongside future wife Pamela Stephenson, and with Kenny Everett.

Many of the other comedians have had their own series, and occasionally appeared in situation comedies. Of the latter genre, perhaps the best known (after The Vital Spark) is Rab C. Nesbitt, in which Gregor Fisher plays the dissolutely garrulous Glaswegian, who had first appeared in sketches in the series Naked Video (itself based on the radio series Naked Radio). Fisher also starred in the 1990s remake of The Vital Spark, called (after the lead character) The Tales of Para Handy.

Other influential sketch series have included Between the Lines, Scotch and Wry (a Hogmanay tradition for many years, but one episode was networked!) and A Kick Up the Eighties.

Lulu, born Marie Lawrie, was one of Scotland's biggest pop stars, and got her own �� variety show in 1968, Lulu's Back in Town

One of the many personalities who came to prominence from the �� current affairs series Tonight was the eccentric journalist and presenter Fyfe Robertson, whose distinctive accent was instantly recognisable, and made him a gift to impressionists. He continued in Tonight’s successor 24 Hours, and rather than just concentrate on soft subjects he could approach any topic with his common sense approach. His later solo series Robbie allowed him more time to tackle subjects that interested him.

With the exception of Fyfe Robertson, I've concentrated in this piece on the many drama and comedy offerings from the �� in Scotland, with a brief mention of music. Of course, there are many many programmes with either Scottish roots, Scottish productions, or employing the talents of Scottish actors, writers, musicians and others from all parts of the broadcasting spectrum - as there are with the other regions of the UK.

One of the great things about Genome (if we say so ourselves) is that it gives the ability to search through the whole career of performers and others, to look for mentions of a keyword or subject. Admittedly, searches for anything regionally based are slightly hampered at this stage of the project because we don't yet have the full range of �� regional and national opt-outs. We do plan to add those in future, but the links in this brief overview show that it is possible to get quite a wide range of material on Scottish content (and the same applies to Welsh, Irish and English regional programmes) even at this comparatively early stage.

That Was the Year That Was - The Answers

2017-01-07T10:00:00+00:00

Dennis Waterman as William Brown in the �� adaptations of Richmal Crompton's stories - he was succeeded in the role by Denis Gilmore

For the benefit of anyone bamboozled by last Sunday's Genome quiz, here are the answers you're been waiting for:

JANUARY - Dennis Waterman played the lead in schools drama Terry, and had earlier played William (aka Just William) in the children's series.

FEBRUARY - Peter Cook and Dudley Moore rose to fame after the success of Beyond the Fringe, which also starred Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller.

MARCH - The last composer to work at the Radiophonic Workshop was Elizabeth Parker. The Workshop was located at the �� sound studios in Maida Vale.

APRIL - The star of A for Andromeda was Julie Christie, and Susan Hampshire replaced her in The Andromeda Breakthrough a year later.

MAY - Angela Rippon and Tom Coyne presented the original, Midlands-only version of Top Gear.

JUNE - Jessie Matthews took over the lead role in The Dales (formerly Mrs Dale's Diary), which was replaced in 1969 by Waggoners Walk NW.

Annette Mills and brother John on the set of Muffin the Mule, plus cameraman's elbow (not a recognised medical condition)

JULY - ITMA stood for It's That Man Again, originally a newspaper reference to Hitler, but in this context referring to Tommy Handley. Band Waggon starred Arthur Askey and Richard Murdoch.

AUGUST - Jeremy Lloyd was co-writer of Are You Being Served? with David Croft. The sequel was Grace and Favour, unless you're American in which case it was Are You Being Served? Again!

SEPTEMBER - The emperors in I, Claudius were Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius (of course). There was also a cameo appearance by Nero in the last episode, played by Christopher Biggins. The actors (but not Biggins!) have all appeared in Doctor Who at one time or another.

OCTOBER - Sir John Reith left the �� in 1938. The questioner in the original version of Face to Face was John Freeman.

NOVEMBER - Ray Alan's alien character was Mikki the Martian, while the host of Pops and Lenny and other shows featuring Lenny the Lion was Terry Hall.

DECEMBER - Professor Quatermass was called Bernard, in tribute to astronomer Bernard Lovell. The link between Quatermass and Muffin the Mule, as seen above, is that the last television Quatermass, John Mills, was the brother of Muffin's friend Annette Mills.

More Genome blog larks in the Sunday Post on The Forsyte Saga - coming soon to a computer near you.

The Sunday Post: That Was the Year That Was

2017-01-01T10:00:00+00:00

In a 1970 episode of Not Only... But Also, Dud (Dudley Moore) and Pete (Peter Cook) discuss eternal verities - lovely girl Verity...

And what a year it was… Anyway, as Millicent Martin would sing, it’s over, let it go!

To celebrate the New Year, we’re taking a quick look back at the year just gone, in the form of a quiz – because I know you were all paying attention – based on some of the things I’ve talked about in the Genome Sunday Post through 2016. The relevant blog appeared in the month named above each question.

Pens at the ready – no cheating now…

JANUARY

Which future star of New Tricks had an early role as the title character, Terry, in a schools broadcast in 1969? Even earlier in his career, he played the lead in which �� children’s series?

FEBRUARY

1960s comedy giants Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, stars of Not Only… But Also, first came to fame in which revue, originally presented at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival and televised in 1964? Who were their famous co-stars in that revue?

MARCH

The �� Radiophonic Workshop provided electronic music and special sound for �� programmes from 1958 to 1998. Which female composer was the last person to be employed at the Workshop? And where in London was the Workshop based?

Early Top Gear presenter Brendan Coogan prepares to blow up a car - but he wasn't the first host of the show...

APRIL

Our guest blogger Greg Bakun talked about his love for British television – one series he has been able to enjoy on DVD (albeit in truncated form as it is not complete in the archives) is A for Andromeda. Which famous film star’s career was launched by the series, and who replaced her in the follow up, The Andromeda Breakthrough?

MAY

Top Gear was one of the motoring programmes discussed in our blog on all things automotive. But who was the original lead presenter, and in what English region was the programme first shown, before it was networked?

JUNE

Jessie Matthews took over the lead of which radio soap in 1963 – and what was the name of the new soap, set in North London, that replaced it six years later?

The cast of Are You Being Served? have probably served themselves this time, in the staff canteen of Grace Brothers' department store

JULY

Tommy Handley starred from 1939 to 1949 in ITMA, the great wartime comedy – but what did the initials stand for? And who were the two comic stars of rival show Band Waggon?

AUGUST

Are You Being Served? was one of the most popular comedy series of the 1970s, but who co-wrote it with producer David Croft? What was the 1990s sequel that reunited many of the cast?

SEPTEMBER

I, Claudius featured Brian Blessed, George Baker, John Hurt and Derek Jacobi as successive Roman emperors – what were their names, and in which other drama series have all four actors appeared at different times?

Lord Reith, formerly Sir John, late of the �� - seen here while being interviewed by Malcolm Muggeridge in 1967 for Lord Reith Looks Back

OCTOBER

Sir John Reith was the first Director General of the ��. In which year did he leave the Corporation? He was interviewed on �� television’s Face to Face in 1960 but who was the unseen questioner in that series?

NOVEMBER

Ventriloquist Ray Alan's best-known character was the aristocratic Lord Charles. But who was his earlier extra-terrestrial dummy who often appeared in children’s television? And which other ventriloquist’s show, Pops and Lenny, once featured the Beatles?

DECEMBER

Writer Nigel Kneale was celebrated as a pioneer of television writing, and of the genre of science fiction. What is the first name of his recurring hero, Professor Quatermass? And a final, trickier question – what is the connection between Quatermass and Muffin the Mule – apart from their both appearing on �� television in the 1950s?

No prize for the first set of correct answers I’m afraid – �� Genome has an even lower budget than Blankety Blank! Back to the usual style of blog next week, when we celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Forsyte Saga.

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