Like many people my age, my first 主播大秀 memories are of the radio: Uncle Mac on Children鈥檚 Hour in the 1930s. So I was pleased to see radio well represented in the Collection. It鈥檚 also what brought me to the 主播大秀 in the first place 鈥� I鈥檇 been working in radio manufacturing in the 1930s, and thought a career in the 主播大秀 sounded like a bright future.
Many objects in the collection triggered very specific memories for me, of a 主播大秀 career that took me from my early days as a junior maintenance engineer in 主播大秀 Birmingham through the Monitoring service at Caversham Park where I was promoted to senior engineer, and then on secondment to the Foreign Office going all round the world (looking after the short wave network).
So Broadcasting House was an obvious choice 鈥� for the people as well as the building itself. I loved the range of personalities who worked there: production staff, artists, reporters, technicians and managers. Their open minds, and the richness of the culture within the walls.
The same for Television Centre. I worked there for a spell on the development of Breakfast TV, in an office on the 6th floor overlooking the car park so I saw all the comings and goings. And I absolutely felt part of a powerhouse of ideas and viewpoints.
I knew David Attenborough a little when he was working there in a managerial capacity 鈥� before he went back to his first love, natural history programme making. So I was amused to see David鈥檚 initial application letter to the 主播大秀, stamped with its red rejection mark.
As to what I would add? Another building, I鈥檓 afraid! Caversham Park, home of 主播大秀 Monitoring, so vital during the WW2 years and a melting pot of emigres and exiles 鈥� there were even a couple of princes, I recall? I think what I took away from Caversham 鈥� and all my time at the 主播大秀 鈥� was that as a society we should make good use of all the changes in communication. It gave everyone who worked there a common mission, a real sense of belonging that I loved,and a set of values that I still feel are as relevant now as then.
My first 主播大秀 encounter was with Terry Wogan. I am getting ready for school, my mum is brushing my hair, and Terry 鈥� whom I envisaged as blond haired and in a cream arran sweater 鈥� is on the radio. It was my first experience of a radio person: just the voice, and you fill in the rest (often wrongly).
I鈥檝e been thinking a lot about collections recently, so leapt at the chance to pick a few objects from the 主播大秀 100 collection. First up is the Testcard. Like many people, I found it very scary as a kid. The girl was looking directly at me, and there鈥檚 a funny collision of things going on: the natural and ordinary caught in that frame of technical geometry. When I was an art student at Central St Martins, I made a video recreation of the testcard, called Sweet Exorcist: Testone, where the girl gets to escape.
Next, it had to be something music-related, and I chose the extraordinary Lip Mic. I like the simple ingenuity of it: there鈥檚 the problem of how to commentate in a noisy environment and some engineer comes up with this clever object. It took me back to Morocco when I was recording a programme for R4 Wireless Nights with the Master Musicians of Joujouka. The only way I could exist inside that extraordinary music but also offer a clear commentary was with that ingenious lip mic.
My last object is 主播大秀 Television Centre itself, in West London. Now I live round the corner from it, but I first went there in 1993 to be on a pop quiz show. In a break from filming, I went with some friends in search of the Blue Peter garden. And there we sat, reflecting on the place where all those formative shows had come from. I really credit the 主播大秀 for giving me so much of my cultural education, for giving me access to things I would never ordinarily have come in contact with. And no ads!
One thing to add 鈥� and it鈥檚 a glaring omission 鈥� is the original Top of the Pops sign. That show had an incalculable influence on what I ended up trying to do. I saw all the great pop performers, every Thursday, in one place. It was formative.
My 主播大秀 story began with Play School and my Mam sewing me my very own Humpty. I remembered that when I interviewed the wonderful Floella Benjamin on Desert Island Discs, and all those early memories came flooding back. Then jump forward, it was all the family laughing at The Young Ones, the alternative comics of the 80s, and Radio 4 always there in the background鈥�
Which leads me to my first object from your 100 Objects: the 2LO Transmitter, where 主播大秀 radio really began. George Orwell talked about 鈥榯he audience of one鈥� in his essay 鈥楶oetry and the Microphone鈥�, and that鈥檚 the thing I really love about it as a medium. It鈥檚 intimate, personal. So I鈥檇 have to choose that. Of course, I couldn鈥檛 overlook Roy Plomley鈥檚 Desert Island Discs proposal letter. It鈥檚 just a genius format, a treasure that belongs to all of us, and it鈥檚 a huge honour for me to take it forward into its next 80 years
Music is a huge part of my life, and the studios at Maida Vale in particular, so I loved seeing the everyday objects that were part of the Radiophonic Workshop, and thinking about the men and women 鈥揵ut especially the women, Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire - who made a new form of music out of them. Contemporary electronic music owes such a debt to those pioneers.
And I was absolutely intrigued to read about the press around first female TV announcers in 1936. As a female presenter myself, it reminded me how a big part of what we do as presenters is to represent the audience. And of course it鈥檚 not just gender, it鈥檚 also representing other groups in society 鈥� region, race, sexuality. When I grew up I didn鈥檛 hear anyone speaking like me on the radio, now I鈥檓 one of many diverse voices and I think that鈥檚 one of the best things about this country.
And the object I鈥檇 like to add to the collection? It would be a canister from the very first Peel Session back in 1967. John Peel provided a launchpad for so many brilliant contemporary musicians 鈥� I even recorded a session with him with my band when I was 16! - so I鈥檇 love to have him included here.
My standout past 主播大秀 moment is being a 主播大秀 Young Reporter Competition winner and being invited to London. Growing up, I constantly wanted to read the news at lunchtime like the people I saw on the TV so meeting Newsround鈥檚 Ricky Boleto and listening to him talk about his work further spurred me to pursue my childhood ambition!
Coming from rural Wales - which is sometimes regarded as the middle of nowhere - seeing London for the first time was incredible. And participating in interviews really was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me.
So 主播大秀 Broadcasting House is my most adored object 鈥� it felt like the heart of the 主播大秀. Visiting there was particularly memorable for me since it was THE site I had never expected to see with my own eyes, just on television in the background of news programmes! It never occurred to me how massive the place is or its history.
If I could only add one thing to the collection, it would be a person rather than an object: Mr Huw Edwards. He is a 主播大秀 reporting legend who's not only a Welsh broadcast star, but also has been doing it for over 30 years. So especially for Wales, I salute you Huw!
You can see some of Elen鈥檚 reporting here.
We are delighted to be working with the 主播大秀, bringing our collections together in their centenary year.
Here are 100 highlight objects with 100 different broadcasting stories, each lifting the lid on how the iconic sights and sounds of the 主播大秀 were created.
The list features some really unique objects from the Science Museum Group collection 鈥� a personal favourite of mine is the Mirror Globe Ident, a glorious DIY mechanical device that the broadcast wizards turned into colour on screen. Another is the Vision Electronic Recording Apparatus (V.E.R.A.), a 主播大秀-original prototype videotape format that recorded a whole 15 minutes of television onto 5 km of tape.
But as well as the technological milestones are the icons of visual and sound design, from the mould used to create the original Dalek to the Radiophonic Workshop instruments improvised to create the mesmerizing (and occasionally terrifying!) music for Doctor Who and so much more.
On the horizon in Spring 2022 is the digitisation of the 1000 objects that make up the wider 主播大秀 Heritage collection, to be made publicly accessible for the very first time. And across the whole year we will launch our Broadcast 100 programme of events and exhibitions covering the Science Museum Group in London, Manchester and Bradford.
This will include 鈥楽witched On鈥�, our special exhibition at the National Science and Media Museum from July, which will explore the fascinating past of broadcast technologies as well as future possibilities.
My earliest memories of the 主播大秀 go way back 鈥� I am watching Andy Pandy with my grandmother from Plymouth, who thought Teddy was far too badly behaved for her liking. She called him something more explicit! Growing up, it was history I loved, and especially I Claudius, which gripped me. I told Derek Jacobi that the day I met him, and he gave me the 鈥楥laudius鈥� face there and then. What an actor!
So I loved this collection. I wanted it all. But especially the Orwell statue, as I鈥檓 a big fan of his writing, and the last time I walked into Broadcasting House I was delighted to see his statue there next to the entrance and to give him a passing nod. Those books 鈥� 1984, Animal Farm, Keep the Aspidistra Flying 鈥� are ones I read and reread.
The other object I loved in particular was The Beatles record, All You Need is Love. I鈥檓 mad about their music, though it came to me second hand as I was too young for their early songs. But I had no idea that the 主播大秀 had commissioned that song as part of Our World, the first international satellite link up. What a great idea!
If I could add just one object to this collection, it would be this: the all-day breakfast they used to serve in the canteen at Broadcasting House, when I was doing Veg Talk with Charlie Hicks鈥� It never arrived till lunchtime but it was worth the wait!