#095 Five Gold Airings: Vintage BBC Christmases 1922-42

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Episode 95 is our Christmas special for 2024 - looking back to five vintage BBC Christmases of 1922-42.

Well, I say 'five'. I mean nine. Christmas is a time for giving, so have four extra... Nine Gold Airings didn't sound as catchy.

You'll hear:

- 1922 – Rev John Mayo - the BBC's first religious broadcast for Christmas Eve

- 1926 – Christmas Overture by Coleridge-Taylor, The BBC Wireless Symphony Orchestra conducted by Percy Pitt

- 1926-34 - Bethlehem, the BBC's first on-location radio drama, live from St Hilary's church in west Cornwall

- 1932 – The first royal Christmas message from George V

- 1934 – The bells of Armagh Cathedral, and Christmas on the Aran Islands

- 1936 – A Cornish Christmas Carol by the BBC Chorus

- 1936 – The Wassail Song by the BBC Chorus

- 1941 – Refugee children and their parents reunited across the Atlantic via BBC and NBC

- 1942 – Carols in the Desert, Godfrey Talbot, BBC Correspondent with the 8th Army in Tripolitania

SHOWNOTES:

- Paul's book Hark! The Biography of Christmas is available in paperback (https://amzn.to/4iuULoB) and audiobook read by the author (https://amzn.to/4gdlYud)

- Hear the full recording of 1934's Bethlehem play: https://youtu.be/WwC8BemyBtI?si=_m-p_5y3rHPKkrIX

- Hear the voices behind the Bethlehem play, on this wonderful 1986 BBC Radio Cornwall documentary: https://youtu.be/HqCO_0uSBFk?si=3AoPR2Gt3We_wgSn

- For more on Godfrey Talbot and his BBC career shadowing the 8th army in WW2, see this marvellous detailed biographical blog post:

https://war-experience.org/events/godfrey-talbot-voice-of-the-desert-and-8th-army/

- Episode 60 of this podcast has more on Rev John Mayo's first BBC religious broadcast, and other landmarks of the genre: https://pod.fo/e/160bd7

- Episode 72 of this podcast is on the first radio drama, on Christmas Eve 1922 - Phyllis Twigg's The Truth about Father Christmas: https://pod.fo/e/1d6747 - and I'll be writing more about her and this landmark radioplay very soon. Keep an eye out for it!

- Original music is by Will Farmer.

- Support us on Patreon (£5/mth), for bonus videos and things - and thanks if you do!

- A Christmas present, for us? Well if you'd rate and review the podcast where you found it... Thanks! You shouldn't have.

- Paul's on tour: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits these places: www.paulkerensa.com/tour - come and hear about the first firsts of broadcasting, live.

- This podcast is nothing to do with the BBC.

- Old clips are likely beyond copyright as they're so old. Newer clips may be BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.

Next time: August 1923 on the BBC - new radio HQs in Birmingham and Manchester, developments in Scotland and Dublin, and the first radio gardener, Marion Cran.

More info on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio