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The home of intelligent speech, journalism, comedy and drama.

1967: Good-bye ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Service

Good-bye ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Service

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Service accompanied a nation through war, but the old network couldn’t last forever. By 1967 a younger generation was looking for something fresh. For some though, it was an agonising moment to see the death of an old friend.

Like today, the new Radio 4 audience in 1967 had an appetite for spoken word on radio, but the mood in the country was changing. People no longer wanted to be spoken ‘at’, they wanted to be involved, so at the very least the ‘feel’ of the network could never be the same again.

1967: Desert Island Discs

Desert Island Discs – too good to lose

Whilst the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Service faded away, not everything from before was lost. Desert Island Discs, created by Roy Plomley, was safe. The idea for the programme came to Plomley in 1941 when in bed. He wrote to Leslie Perowne, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Head of Popular Record Programmes, received a positive response, and a broadcasting legend was born.

The idea was simple, if you were cast away on a desert island, which eight audio tracks would you choose to have with you? The programme carried none of the old ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Service associations, and it transferred to the new Radio 4 with ease. Presenter Lauren Laverne continues the tradition to this day.

1967: Just a Minute

Without repetition, hesitation or deviation

As the sound of Chopin's Minute Waltz fades and the words ‘Welcome to Just a Minute’ are uttered, one of Radio 4’s best loved quiz programmes begins.

It’s been this way since December 1967, and its popularity has never waned. Panellists speak for a minute on a given subject without hesitating, deviating, or repeating themselves. The contest is the brainchild of Ian Messiter.

The programme has thrived with guest panellists Peter Jones, Kenneth Williams, Stephen Fry, and Graham Norton amongst others. Sadly the original chairman Nicholas Parsons died in 2020 at the age of 96.

1969: Letter From America

Letter From America – the 58 year legend

The once weekly insight into American life, still holds the record for the longest-running speech radio programme presented by one person in history.

That person was Alistair Cooke, the Blackpool born journalist who joined the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ as a film critic. He studied at Yale and Harvard in the early 1930s, and that’s where his fascination with America began. By March 1946, he had dropped the film criticism and broadcast his first ‘American Letter’, as the programme was then known.

For 58 years Cooke revealed the intimate details of American life, in his own conversational style. Again, the format was so inspired that it worked well on Radio 4.

1970: You and Yours

You and Yours – the rise of the consumer citizen

Billed as the Citizen’s Advice Bureau of the Air, You and Yours was a product of its time. It was the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ’s response to a rise in consumer activism.

Launched on the 4th October 1970, the programme promised to "tackle topics of direct concern to you". The first edition examined home ownership, and offered a guide to buying a home. Each week day edition had a theme. Monday was money, Tuesday home and family, Wednesday rights and responsibilities, Thursday health and welfare, and Friday looked forward to the weekend.

Now the programme tackles major consumer problems and investigations head on, and also issues an annual Best Food Retailer Award.

1975: Brian Redhead joins Today

Famous for its gruelling live interviews with politicians, Today continues to lead the morning news agenda.

It hasn’t always been so focussed. Presenter John Timpson once described it rather differently, suggesting it was full of ‘eccentric octogenarians, prize pumpkins, and folk who ate lightbulbs and spiders’ (Hendy, 2007).

After Timpson was joined by Brian Redhead in 1975 it changed into a more serious current affairs programme and by the 1980s had become hugely influential; the "big eight-ten" interview saw politicians of all parties grilled and PM Margaret Thatcher was a regular listener.

With presenters Mishal Hussain, Justin Webb, Nick Robinson and Martha Kearney, the programme continues this tradition to this day. 

1978: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy first landed on the Radio 4 schedule on a Wednesday night in March 1978. The idea came to writer Douglas Adams after hitchhiking around Europe in 1971, lying drunk in a field and looking at the stars.

The Vogons have destroyed Earth to make way for an intergalactic bypass, leaving hapless Englishman Arthur Dent wondering what to do next. Luckily Ford Prefect, researching the current edition of the intergalactic guidebook the "Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy" steps in, and together with president of the universe Zaphod Beeblebrox the adventures begin, but with not much help from Marvin the Paranoid Android.

The radio series was a huge success, leading to the famous series of novels, a TV adaptation, a feature film amongst other tie-ins.

1981: Lord of the Rings

A stunning 26 episodes, starring John Le Mesurier and Michael Hordern amongst others was a huge success, and has never again been attempted on radio.

This was not the first time Tolkien's epic had been adapted by the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ for radio. In 1955 a 12-part adaptation was broadcast by the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Service, but recordings were not kept. This 1981 dramatisation for adults and children surpassed anything that had gone before, both in terms of scale and ambition.

Other big cast names included Bill Nighy, Ian ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ, and Simon Cadell, and the whole run was directed by an all-woman crew. The lavish radiophonic effects, and soaring music are remembered by many, and gained many fans, including a film director called Peter Jackson.

1982: Listen with Mother ends

If you can’t recall anything about the programme then the music, Faure's Dolly Suite, would be enough to bring back happy childhood radio memories.

The gentle musical opening complemented beautifully presenter Daphne Oxenford’s question, ‘Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin’. This became something of a mantra for parents and children alike. Originally broadcast at 1.45pm, it was thought children would be ready to concentrate after their lunch, and mothers would have time to sit with them.

It was not to last, and despite a petition handed to Number 10 Downing Street to save it, the programme ended its 32 year run in 1982.

1992: Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge

To showcase his hitherto untapped talent for light chat, Radio 4 wisely provided a platform on which Alan Partridge could hobnob with the stars. That platform was Knowing Me Knowing You.

Before graduating to his own programme Alan was sports presenter with Radio 4’s On The Hour (1991), reporting on the state of Linford Christie’s groin, and making claims that racing cars were too dangerous. Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci and Patrick Marber recognised the potential in the character, and gave him his own show where he mixed with royalty, and he set up home in Vegas - whilst never forgetting his Radio Norwich roots.

But then television beckoned. Was Alan’s ego up to it? Sadly Roger Moore, guest on the first show was stuck in traffic.

1997: Gardeners' Question Time at 50

For over 30 years Alan Gemmell, Fred Loads, and Bill Sowerbutts were the expert gardeners providing answers to some very tricky gardening questions.

The programme emerged from an era of post-war privation, and was designed to answer listener queries from an audience at a local gardening club or by letter. The first edition came from the Smallshaw Garden Society in Ashton-Under-Lyne in 1947, and the first question, put by the chairman of the association Mr Hopwood, was about the merits of double digging in an area of wet soil!

The programme survived the deaths of the early panellists, celebrating its 50th birthday in 1997 and under Eric Robson (chair for 25 years) and latterly Kathy Clugston continues to delight gardeners the length of the UK.

2008: Charlotte Green gets the giggles

Charlotte Green, for many years the epitome of Radio 4 calm, shattered the illusion that nothing would phase her, when one morning disaster struck.

After reading an item about the discovery of the earliest recording of a human voice from 1860, she burst into giggles. Someone had whispered in her ear that the voice sounded like a bee buzzing in a bottle. Unable to regain her composure she struggled on, reading the next item about the death of screenwriter Abbey Mann.

At the time she said, ‘I'm afraid I just lost it.’ The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Press Office received hundreds of emails the same morning saying how much people had been cheered up by the incident.

2011: The Archers at 60

An everyday story of country folk

'A contemporary drama in a rural setting', The Archers is the longest running daily serial in the world. It all began on 1 January 1951.

Starting life the previous year on the Midlands ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Service as 'a farming Dick Barton’, and specifically intended for the farming community, it soon became clear there was a general audience eager to hear the latest village gossip from Ambridge. Initially it conveyed subtle messages about the latest methods in modern farming (it retains an Agricultural Story Advisor), but it never lost sight that it had to entertain as well as inform.

Radio 4 took it under its wing, and developed more contemporary storylines - some controversial. For its 60th anniversary in 2011, Nigel Pargetter fell from the roof of Lower Loxley Hall, and headlines were made when Helen Titchener stabbed her husband Rob in a dramatic storyline highlighting domestic abuse.

2013: Tweet of the Day

One of Radio 4’s best-loved programmes is actually one of its youngest. Tweet of the Day only began in 2013, yet has become a firm favourite.

The reference to social media is only in the title, as the delightful simplicity of the 90 second programme is a world away from cyberspace! Each edition begins with a different song of a British bird, followed by a story of fascinating ornithology inspired by the sound.

Sir David Attenborough, Steve Backshall and Michaela Strachan have all presented the series. More recently personal stories have featured, where sometimes life changing events have been triggered by the sound of a specific bird.