³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Archive: The outbreak of WWII
As well as the key contemporary broadcasts such as Chamberlain's declaration of war and Richard Dimbleby at the scene of Chamberlain's return from Bad Godesberg a year earlier (pictured) the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Archive collection "World War II: the Outbreak of War" includes a set of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ documents. Made up of internal memos, staff guidelines and the covers of Radio Times the week before and the week after the start of war, they give us unique insights into the Corporation at the time.
There are discussions around planned programme changes ("Variety programmes will be of great value in the maintenance of the civilian morale in war time...") and also the role that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ should adopt in wartime.
You've also got until this Sunday to listen to Radio 4's Broadcasting House's piece on the collection.
Comment number 1.
At 3rd Sep 2009, TV Licence fee payer against ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ censorship wrote:Thank you for the URL to a very useful ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ resource by the looks of things.
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Comment number 2.
At 3rd Sep 2009, break02 wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 3.
At 3rd Sep 2009, dennisjunior1 wrote:Thanks, Paul for the excellent URL (Link) for this useful resource....and, for allowing for the time given to learned about the outbreak of World War II....
=Dennis Junior=
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Comment number 4.
At 4th Sep 2009, Greatest_Valentines_Day_Ever_2009 wrote:I think there is some great audio in that collection. The report on the evacuation of children from London was inciteful and I was amazed and surprised by what I heard in that report. It would be great if the morning broadcast, from 10:00-12:00 on September 3rd 1939 could be added, with the PM's announcement included.
I think that the On This Day section for World War 2 should be updated with more audio, and news items from before and after the war.
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Comment number 5.
At 6th Sep 2009, TV Licence fee payer against ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ censorship wrote:From a internal planning document;The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 'War Book': Variety Programmes.
"Immediately following the outbreak of war, all existing arrangements will be cancelled and the lighter side of broadcasting will consist entirely of commercial records, e.g. dance music, as for reasons of copyright it is unlikely that it will be possible to use recordings of past programmes."
What an extraordinary situation for the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ to be worried about, at the out-break of war... Even in a crisis 'Auntie' was the perfect Gentleman!
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Comment number 6.
At 16th Sep 2009, TV Licence fee payer against ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ censorship wrote:Just been reading the document "The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 'War Book': Defence" which makes mention of 'Document C', the Synopsis states that this document was "a 22 pages long and contained detailed instructions for each department on what to do in the event of air raids or loss of specific transmitters.", does this document still exist in the records and if so is it (or is there any plans to make it) available online - assuming that it's not still classified of course!
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Comment number 7.
At 8th Nov 2009, ferhat wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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At 30th Mar 2010, U14402580 wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 9.
At 12th May 2010, U14460911 wrote:All this user's posts have been removed.Why?
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