The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Paul Kerensa

100 Years of the BBC, Radio and Life as We Know It. Be informed, educated and entertained by the amazing true story of radio’s forgotten pioneers. With host Paul Kerensa, great guests and rare archive from broadcasting’s golden era. Original music by Will Farmer. www.paulkerensa.com/oldradio

  1. May 28

    #121 Asking Elvis with Mitch Benn

    "Thank you very much..." Ask Elvis was one of the most popular features on one of the most popular radio shows - Steve Wright in the Afternoon on BBC Radio 2. Running from about 2005-14, a mystery voice brought back the omniscient Elvis to solve listeners' ailments, questions on quantum physics, advanced cookery, language issues... It was Encyclopaedia Brittanica meets the King. Well, mystery no longer, as comedian and musician Mitch Benn lifts the quiff and the sunglasses to reveal the true identity behind Ask Elvis, readying for an Edinburgh Fringe show (and previews across the country through June and July) called Asking Elvis, with tales, revelations and re-enactments of those halcyon days when Elvis knew all. In this extensive chat, we also look at Mitch's time on The Now Show and his involvement with The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And your host Paul on his medical ups and downs - a stroke - that's delayed some of the research, but not for long. We're back in our 1920s timeline soon, or perhaps next time there'll be other events you can go to this year, from The Archers Live at 75 with Angela Barnes, to Prof John Wyver's early television conference in July, to Paul Kerensa's An Evening of (Very) Old Radio hitting Weston-super-Mare and other places. Links in the shownotes to these and more - do browse, Now is a better time than usual to join our Patreon page. Why better? Well better for this podcast! Post-stroke, Paul's had to cancel  a lot of live events - the bread-and-butter of his work. One thing he can switch to is this podcast. So if you're on the fence about joining for £5/month, you'll help fund future episodes and keep Paul from having to retrain as a stick insect keeper (or something). Link in notes below - do consider joining us, and writings/videos/warmy fuzzy feeling of supporting this podcast and its research will all be yours! And go and see Mitch this June-August 2026...   SHOWNOTES: Original podcast music is by Will Farmer.  Mitch Benn's show is Asking Elvis. Details of where/when and how to submit a question to Elvis on Mitch's website: https://www.mitchbenn.com/asking-elvis We don't include Ask Elvis clips, as it's the BBC's and it's recent. But I highly recommend you hear a bit, in clips like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FF3pn3YtKc&list=PLVp7MOaNulw5ROdpiC41yN4dL3BikL8OA Here's when your host Paul was a guest on Steve Wright in the Afternoon - it's Christmassy: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p06vzj2c We also mention The Archers Live at 75, on tour around the UK this year: https://www.fane.co.uk/the-archers And we mention Prof John Wyver's conference on early television, 2-3 July 2026 in central London: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/events/the-cultures-of-early-television See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio (inc Westbury Festival on Thu 23 July and Blakehay Theatre, Weston-super-Mare on Wed 29 July) - or book it: paulkerensa.com/tour Our latest Substack: paulkerensa.substack.com Our Facebook group: facebook.com/groups/bbcentury Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa Join Paul's mailing list This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC. Support the podcast by joining as a Patreon subscriber - for extra videos, writings, readings etc: patreon.com/paulkerensa - £5/month, cancel whenever. Or support this project without that regularity, with a one-off tip: ko-fi.com/paulkerensa Please share/rate/review this podcast if you have a mo - it all helps. Next time, Episode 122: We MIGHT be back in our chronological retelling in Nov 1923, launching the BBC's first relay station, Sheffield 6FL. Pending stroke recovery. Doing ok. But let's see. Or hear, next time on the podcast.   More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

    35 min

  2. May 9

    #120 The General Strike at 100, part 3: Reith's Jerusalem

    And did the Beeb, in ancient times, broadcast to England's* mountains green?... ...Till Reith has built Jerusalem, transmitting to England's* green and pleasant** land.   *and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland's **and the less green and unpleasant bits too === In the third and final part of our General Strike special, 100 years on, we look at 10-12 May 1926, in a week that changed the BBC forever - as John Reith walked a tightrope of independence and impartiality. Plus the legacy of the strike, how it changed the BBC, and of course we couldn't resist bringing you the iconic moment of Reith announcing the strike's end, by reading Jerusalem with accompanying orchestra and choir. While there was no recording at the time, Reith re-enacted it in 1932. The newspapers, the bulletins, the occasional later reminiscence (Peter Eckersley, Stuart Hibberd...), this aims to be the most thorough - and yet I hope entertaining - retelling of the BBC and the General Strike. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I did putting it together.   With thanks to these excellent resources... Radicalstroud.co.uk Warwick Digital Collections at the University of Warwick The Trades Union Congress The BBC Written Archive Centre 1926 The General Strike edited by Jeffrey Skelley Into the Wind by John Reith Asa Briggs’ The Birth of Broadcasting Ian McIntyre’s Expense of Glory Peter Eckersley’s The Power Behind the Microphone The BBC A People’s History by David Hendy Our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker - and the various newspaper articles Trevor Howard and his article Immovable object, irresistible force: Reith, Churchill and BBC ‘impartiality’ Nine Days in May – radio drama by Robin Glendinning Churchill vs Reith – radio drama by Mike Harris Random Radio Jottings: https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2025/01/churchill-and-bbc.html   SHOWNOTES: Original podcast music is by Will Farmer.  Broadcasts over 50 years old are beyond copyright, but anything that is BBC copyright content is reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.  See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - or book it: paulkerensa.com/tour Our latest Substack summarises these 5 over-steps of the BBC in the General Strike: paulkerensa.substack.com Our Facebook group has ample marvellous photos and newspaper articles - thanks to Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker: facebook.com/groups/bbcentury Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa Join Paul's mailing list This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC. Support the podcast by joining as a Patreon subscriber - for extra videos, writings, readings etc: patreon.com/paulkerensa - £5/month, cancel whenever. Or support this project without that regularity, with a one-off tip: ko-fi.com/paulkerensa Please share/rate/review this podcast if you have a mo - it all helps. Next time, Episode 121: Ask Elvis, The Archers, The Cultures of Early Television conference, and An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - all live events you come to this summer. We'll chat to those behind these do-please-come-along happenings. Then on Episode 122, we're back in our chronological retelling in Nov 1923, for the launch of the first relay station, Sheffield 6FL.   More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

    41 min

  3. May 6

    #119 The General Strike at 100, part 2: The Archbishop and the PM

    6-9 May 1926, in a week that changed the BBC forever... this is part 2 of our 3-part special on the BBC and the General Strike 100 years ago this week (at time of podcast release), two million strikers were out in solidarity with the miners. It brought unique challenges to the BBC - with Winston Churchill trying to take it over, a tightrope of independence and impartiality, and broadcast requests from the Archbishop of Canterbury (no), the Leader of the Opposition (no), the TUC (no) and the Prime Minister (come on in sir!). John Reith welcomes the PM to his own home, even rewriting his speech for him while he's on air. It's all part of what we're calling The BBC and the General Strike in 5 (Over-)Steps. This episode, we'll discover over-reaching editorialising of the news, Reith the rewriter and those notably absent voices of opposition. Hmm. But then again, what would you do differently... and would that hand to Churchill the BBC on a plate? All will become clear, in our day-to-day guide through the middle of the General Strike during those nine days in May 1926. This episode looks at 6-9 May. Last episode we looked at 3-5 May. Next episode we'll look at 10-14 May plus the General Strike's legacy (and Reith's apologies). I hope you'll agree it's a fascinating tale, worth us taking the long way round. The details - from the role played by Reith's creaky office chair to his mum listening to the PM through the study door, and from Earl Grey's doorstep duel to Peter Eckersley's shock when he discovers imbalanced news - are deserving of retelling. So thanks for listening, if you do. And you should. Join us!  Part 3 follows on 10 May 2026 - 100 years on from the moments featured. Be subscribed to get the episodes when they land.   With thanks to these excellent resources... Radicalstroud.co.uk Warwick Digital Collections at the University of Warwick The Trades Union Congress The BBC Written Archive Centre 1926 The General Strike edited by Jeffrey Skelley Into the Wind by John Reith Asa Briggs’ The Birth of Broadcasting Ian McIntyre’s Expense of Glory Peter Eckersley’s The Power Behind the Microphone The BBC A People’s History by David Hendy Our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker - and the various newspaper articles Trevor Howard and his article Immovable object, irresistible force: Reith, Churchill and BBC ‘impartiality’ Nine Days in May – radio drama by Robin Glendinning Churchill vs Reith – radio drama by Mike Harris Random Radio Jottings: https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2025/01/churchill-and-bbc.html   SHOWNOTES: Original podcast music is by Will Farmer.  Broadcasts over 50 years old are beyond copyright, but anything that is BBC copyright content is reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.  See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - or book it: paulkerensa.com/tour Our latest Substack summarises these 5 over-steps of the BBC in the General Strike: paulkerensa.substack.com Our Facebook group has ample marvellous photos and newspaper articles - thanks to Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker: facebook.com/groups/bbcentury Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa Join Paul's mailing list This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC. Support the podcast by joining as a Patreon subscriber - for extra videos, writings, readings etc: patreon.com/paulkerensa - £5/month, cancel whenever. Or support this project without that regularity, with a one-off tip: ko-fi.com/paulkerensa Please share/rate/review this podcast if you have a mo - it all helps. Next time, Episode 120: The General Strike at 100, part 3: Reith wins? More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

    27 min

  4. May 2

    #118 The General Strike at 100, part 1: Reith, Churchill and the Birth of BBC News

    100 years ago to the day (at time of podcast release), Britain began to grind to a halt. Our first and only General Strike. But while it was a time of national crisis, it was also an opportunity for the BBC - and particularly John Reith. With most newspapers ceasing publication, the BBC gained a news division, and a reputation, for independence and impartiality - at least, that's what Reith hoped. But it meant opponents and critics at every turn - from strikers believing they were being unfairly ignored, to Winston Churchill thinking the BBC were too generous to the strikers. Surely, thought Churchill, it was better for the government to commandeer the BBC, and become an audio version of his pop-up partisan paper The British Gazette? There's a lot to this tale. So to do it justice, we're breaking it into four podcasts. This is part 1 - with the birth of the BBC's news-gathering squad, and Reith locking horns with Churchill, though cosying up to the PM. And he announces the strike - and other interruptions - from his own home studio. Our guest is Professor Michael Tracey, of the University of Colorado at Boulder, and former head of the Broadcasting Research Unit. Part 2 follows in a few days' time - 100 years on from the moments featured. Be subscribed to ensure you get the episodes when they land.   With thanks to these excellent resources... Radicalstroud.co.uk Warwick Digital Collections at the University of Warwick The Trades Union Congress The BBC Written Archive Centre 1926 The General Strike edited by Jeffrey Skelley Into the Wind by John Reith Asa Briggs’ The Birth of Broadcasting Ian McIntyre’s Expense of Glory Peter Eckersley’s The Power Behind the Microphone The BBC A People’s History by David Hendy Our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker - and the various newspaper articles Trevor Howard and his article Immovable object, irresistible force: Reith, Churchill and BBC ‘impartiality’ Nine Days in May – radio drama by Robin Glendinning Churchill vs Reith – radio drama by Mike Harris Random Radio Jottings: https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2025/01/churchill-and-bbc.html   SHOWNOTES: Original podcast music is by Will Farmer.  Support the podcast by joining as a Patreon subscriber - for extra videos, writings, readings etc: patreon.com/paulkerensa - £5/month, cancel whenever. See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - or book it: paulkerensa.com/tour Read Paul's Substack: paulkerensa.substack.com Find our Facebook page: facebook.com/bbcentury Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa Join Paul's mailing list This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC. BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps. Next time, Episode 119: The General Strike at 100, part 2: Reith v The Archbishop More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

    41 min

  5. Apr 26

    #117 The BBC's First Homosexual: a new play - with Dr Stephen Hornby and Professor Marcus Collins

    #117 The BBC's First Homosexual: a new play - with Dr Stephen Hornby and Professor Marcus Collins A special episode about a new play about on the true tale of Britain's first broadcast debate on homosexuality. We're outside of our moment-by-moment timeline (currently anchored in November 1923 - we return there soon) to highlight this under-appreciated moment at the 1950s BBC. After much deliberation, BBC producers planned and recorded an experimental discussion programme, but it wasn't broadcast until three years later, as an edited version called 'The Homosexual Condition'. The content may be rather shocking to today's ears, but progressive as far as its producers were concerned. The recordings are long lost, but the transcript survives and was discovered by Professor Marcus Collins (Professor of British History at Loughborough University) at the BBC Written Archives Centre. Marcus brought it to Dr Stephen Hornby (Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Practice at the University of Salford) who put pen to paper. They both join us this episode tell us how history met drama in this new play: The BBC's First Homosexual. It's on tour this year to Dublin and Edinburgh after a sell-out five-star-reviewed tour of England. Find it at: 11-16 May - Teachers Club, Dublin 5-16 August - Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Details: linktr.ee/inkbrewtheatre   SHOWNOTES: Original podcast music is by Will Farmer.  See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - next stops Corsham (Wilts), Weston-super-Mare, Gloucester... paulkerensa.com/tour Read Paul's Substack - the latest one is on early media predictions - paulkerensa.substack.com Find our Facebook page: facebook.com/bbcentury Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa Join Paul's mailing list This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC. Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps. Next time, Episode 118: The BBC and the General Strike: Reith v Churchill v PM v TUC... A centenary special! More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

    27 min

  6. Apr 12

    #116 The BBC's First Birthday - 14 November 1923

    Our moment-by-moment retrospective of British broadcasting has reached the BBC's first birthday - 14 November 1923. We started covering that first year back on episode 18! It's taken a while to get here - but what a year it was. From the first BBC news bulletin, songs and children's programmes to outside broadcasts, simultaneous broadcasting, new stations in Scotland and Wales, a government enquiry, new premises, wireless manhunts, the Radio Times and so much more, we've covered the lot across nearly 100 episodes. This episode we lead up to the first birthday with plans for the pips, a Shakespearean anniversary, and a raucous farewell do for Marconi boss Godfrey Isaacs. Then the birthday broadcast features speeches from John Reith and Guglielmo Marconi - hear some of that this episode, as well as reflections from Birmingham station chief Percy Edgar. Some lovely voices from the archive here - including Reith, Edgar and Peter Eckersley, who wrote all of the early BBC birthday broadcast shows, achieving the impossible: making John Reith laugh.   SHOWNOTES: This podcast contains an excerpt from Marconi's BBC debut - his speech about the origins of broadcasting. Hear Paul read the full text of the speech on this Patreon video (£5/month - all supports the podcast, thanks if you support us there!): https://www.patreon.com/posts/vid-marconis-bbc-155370052 (also on that video: thoughts on Romany at the BBC, and Paul's latest (failed) Radio 4 pitches) Read Marconi's speech on this Facebook post by our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury/posts/854152096155912 (and do join the group, if you're on Facebook...) We mention the campaign against access changes at the BBC Written Archives Centre - more info on this open letter.   Original podcast music is by Will Farmer.  This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC. See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - next stops Chelmsford, Weston-super-Mare, Corsham Wilts... paulkerensa.com/tour Read Paul's Substack - the latest one is on early prophecies of what broadcasting might become - paulkerensa.substack.com Find our Facebook page: facebook.com/bbcentury Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa Join Paul's mailing list Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps. Next time, Episode 117: The BBC's First Homosexual - a new play bringing a lost controversial BBC documentary to light... and then it's the centenary of the General Strike - a key moment in the making of the BBC. More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

    24 min

  7. Mar 17

    #115 Early BBC Music and Gramophone Records with Earl Okin

    Our timeline has reached the end of the BBC's first year in November 1923. So we're looking back at music broadcast in that period, with gramophone enthusiast, expert and entertainer Earl Okin. From the BBC's first song (Kreisler's Liebesleid, played 15 November 1922) to the last in the listings of its first year (John Ireland's Phantasie Trio in A Minor), it was a pre-jazz era of light opera and the odd dose of music hall. Guiding us through songs that were on air, plus a few other favourites from that era, musician and comedian Earl Okin handpicks from his collection of over 10,000 78s, along with a few of Auntie's early favourites from elsewhere. You'll hear the music and tales behind: Liebesleid – Fritz Kreisler Annie Laurie – Clara Butt Lemare’s Andantino – Cecil Dixon Abide With Me – Rex Palmer Piccadilly Trot – Mari Lloyd Softly Awakes My Heart – Marian Anderson The Blind Ploughman – Feodor Chaliapin if it Wasn’t the House In Between – Gus Elen  On with the Motley/Vesti La Giubba – Enrico Caruso John Willie Come on – George Formby Sr Five Foot Two – The Savoy Orpheans Passing By – Paul Robeson Phantasie Trio in A Minor – John Ireland   SHOWNOTES: Earl Okin's Gramophone Show podcast is available wherever you get podcasts, eg http://earlokin.blogspot.com;  https://www.earlokin.net/podcast John Hannon's Facebook post about Richard H White is here on our Facebook group. Original podcast music is by Will Farmer.  This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc. The more patrons, the more work Paul can turn down elsewhere, the more podcasts you get. Simple maths! Thanks if you support us (me) there. See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - next stop Chelmsford! paulkerensa.com/tour Read Paul's Substack - paulkerensa.substack.com Join our Facebook group: facebook.com/groups/bbcentury Find us on BlueSky: bsky.bbcentury.social Find Paul on Instagram: instagram.com/paulkerensa Join Paul's mailing list Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps. Next time, Episode 116: The BBC's First Birthday More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

    40 min

  8. Mar 1

    #114 BBC Armistice Broadcasts in the 1920s - with Professor Rachel Cowgill

    11 November 1923: The BBC's first Armistice broadcast. Back in our moment-by-moment timeline of what happened on the early BBC, it's three days short of its first anniversary. The BBC aired 'The Great Silence', speeches including the Prime Minister... and then the questions began regarding the soundtrack to the Armistice commemorations. Foulds' A World Requiem, even if the Church might not like it? Elgar? Jerusalem? It's A Long Way To Tipperary? Classical or songs from the troops? And how do you broadcast a silence? Guiding us through the music and lack of it throughout the decade, Professor Rachel Cowgill, cultural-historical musicologist, Professor of Music at the University of York. Her article is in the show-notes... ...as are details of some of the earliest recordings of a BBC broadcast - well, a recording of an event that was also broadcast on the BBC. That surely counts. We found some this episode - I think taking the number of 1920s recordings of the BBC to five. (We'll do an episode about them soon, I'm sure...)   And Trayce Arssow's research into how 1920's Funeral of the Unknown Warrior became the world's first electrical recording - despite claims it took till 1925.   SHOWNOTES: Prof Rachel Cowgill's article is Canonizing remembrance: Music for Armistice Day at the BBC, 1922-7  Trayce Arssow's article is Pioneers in the Evolution of Electrical Sound Recording: The Guest-Merriman Electrical Recording System, 1918-1922 1920's gramophone record of the Funeral of the Unknown Warrior, thanks to WW1Recordings on Youtube. 1927's Remembrance Festival at the Albert Hall - one of the earliest recordings of something broadcast on the BBC, thanks to Vintage Sounds on Youtube. 1928's Remembrance Festival at the Albert Hall, thanks to EMGColonel on Youtube. 1928's Remembrance Festival, as above, but a great tale behind its recording, thanks to Revolutions in Sound on Youtube. Original podcast music is by Will Farmer.  This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC. Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc. All keeps Paul in books and web hostings - so this podcast is what it is thanks to kinds patrons there. Thanks! See Paul on tour in An Evening of (Very) Old Radio - paulkerensa.com/tour Read Paul's Substack - paulkerensa.substack.com Share/rate/review this podcast if you have a spare 5mins - it all helps. Next time, Episode 115: Music from the BBC's first year, with musician, comedian and gramophone record enthusiast Earl Okin More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

    34 min
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100 Years of the BBC, Radio and Life as We Know It. Be informed, educated and entertained by the amazing true story of radio’s forgotten pioneers. With host Paul Kerensa, great guests and rare archive from broadcasting’s golden era. Original music by Will Farmer. www.paulkerensa.com/oldradio

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