X-Nico

100 unusual facts about BBC


1989 Australian Grand Prix

The four that failed to qualify were Jonathan Palmer in his Tyrrell, which proved to be his last Grand Prix before being a pit lane reporter for the BBC.

57424 Caelumnoctu

It was named Caelumnoctu (Latin for The Sky at Night) in honour of the BBC television program which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007.

A Capitalism for the People

Zingales has answered questions on his book during the Business Daily programme on World Service BBC.

A Musical Joke

In a modernised version by Waldo de los Rios, the opening of the finale of A Musical Joke was used for many years as the theme tune to the BBC's Horse of the Year Show.

A Shot of Rhythm and Blues

The Beatles recorded "A Shot of Rhythm and Blues" three times for the BBC in 1963, with John Lennon on lead vocals each time.

A. L. Lloyd

In 1938 the BBC hired him to write a radio documentary about seafaring life, and from then on he worked as a journalist and singer.

Acton, Suffolk

According to the BBC QI series, Jennens vs Jennens commenced in 1798 and was abandoned in 1915 (117 years later) when the legal fees had exhausted the Jennens estate of funds (worth c. £2 million).

AdapTV

Sign-language intrepretation has been available on news broadcasts internationally for years including a special programming block on the BBC which AdapTV also carries.

Adolphe Vorderman

In a 2007 episode of the BBC genealogical documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?, Carol Vorderman researched her great grandfather Adolphe.

AJS

In 1922, following the launch of Britain’s first radio stations and the formation of the BBC he convinced the rest of the AJS board that radio receivers had a big future.

Al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya

The town's many enormous, elaborate mansions has, according to the BBC led it to be called the Miami of the West Bank.

Anti-nuclear movement in Canada

According to a 2006 opinion poll commissioned by the BBC, 91 per cent

Astro Boy

While the 2003 anime did poorly in North America, having received poor distribution and having been heavily edited, including the removal of its orchestrated soundtrack and much of Astro's childlike innocence, it was better received in the UK on the BBC, where it ran in syndication for almost three years as well as other parts of the world such as Dubai based MBC 3.

Auroville

In May 2008, the BBC produced a 10-minute Newsnight film about Auroville, which was aired on TV.

Bankura Sammilani College

The college provides opportunity for Spoken English classes with the help of BBC Bankura Branch.

Banner Theatre

A founder member of the company was former BBC radio producer Charles Parker, who with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, created the radio ballads, award-winning musical documentaries broadcast by the BBC in the 1960s and now available via Listen Again on

Ben Bartlett

He is mainly celebrated for having been the creator of the background music in BBC nature documentary series Walking with Dinosaurs (1999), Walking with Beasts (2001), Chased by Dinosaurs (2002) or Walking with Monsters (2005), among others.

Bioresonance therapy

Ben Goldacre ridiculed the BBC when it reported as fact a clinic's claim that the treatment had the ability to stop 70% of clients smoking, a better result than any conventional therapy.

Bittersweet Memories

"Bittersweet Memories" did not seemed to be as welcomed as the other tracks off Fever; critics like BBC classified it as a song "... with lyrics of childish despair and forlorn desire, the weakest track here".

Blackbird Leys Choir

This performance was recorded for broadcast on BBC local radio, and filmed for inclusion in a 'one year on' documentary by the makers of The Singing Estate.

Borneo Orangutan Survival

Willie Smits appeared in Dying for a Biscuit, a 2010 BBC Panorama investigation which looked into the causes of deforestation, focusing particularly on illegal logging and the palm oil industry.

Buttered toast phenomenon

A study by the BBC's television series Q.E.D. found that when toast is thrown in the air, it lands butter-side down just one-half of the time (as would be predicted by chance).

Cameroceras

It was featured in the Ordovician section of the BBC series Sea Monsters (a spin-off to the successful Walking with Dinosaurs) as a nearly blind, feeble-eyed apex predator, and also had a brief cameo in Walking with Monsters, bobbing in the water.

Claw of Archimedes

The plausibility of this invention was tested in 1999 in the BBC series Secrets of the Ancients and again in early 2005 in the Discovery Channel series Superweapons of the Ancient World.

CooperVision

This study was published in the Science Translational Medicine and reported on the BBC.

David Chan Yuk-cheung

After graduation, he worked for the Hong Kong government's radio and TV station RTHK and the Cantonese broadcasting section of the BBC.

Deerstalker

In the second season of the BBC television series Sherlock, which places Holmes and Watson (portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, respectively) in contemporary London, the deerstalker cap is a recurring gag; here, Sherlock Holmes gains the iconic look by trying to hide his face from paparazzi by wearing the deerstalker, which he personally despises.

Dembo Konte and Kausu Kuyateh

In 1989 they toured the UK and, on 5 September recorded a session for the John Peel show on BBC radio.

Des Moines Art Center

These include Edward Hopper's "Automat", which was reproduced on a postage stamp as well as used for a cover of Time magazine, Stanton MacDonald Wright's "Synchromy" which has been reproduced in numerous texts about the artist/movement, Francis Bacon's "Portrait of Pope Innocent" which likewise is considered a signature work by the artist and appeared in Robert Hughes "Shock of the New" BBC series in the early 1980s.

Desmond Hawkins

Desmond also had programme ideas accepted by the BBC and 1936 saw his first appearance in Radio Times with a programme called A Nest of Singing Birds – an anthology he compiled of English poets on English birds.

Devon County Council

In 2002, the BBC Devon website held a poll in response to a discussion for a flag of Devon.

Dimitri Fampas

He lectured on the history of the classical guitar over the Greek National Radio and TV, the BBC, and on several stations in Hungary, in Czechoslovakia, in the US and elsewhere.

Don't Leave Me This Way

Episode 6 of the 2004 BBC miniseries Blackpool featured the Communards version, accompanied on screen by the singing and dancing of the characters, as part of the story.

Double-headed serpent

This sculpture featured in A History of the World in 100 Objects, a series of radio programmes that started in 2010 as a collaboration between the BBC and the British Museum.

Esthesioneuroblastoma

According to the BBC, only 200 cases of the disease have been recorded worldwide in the past two decades.

Fantasia on British Sea Songs

It is a medley of British sea songs and for many years was seen as an indispensable item at the BBC's Last Night of the Proms concert.

Fernando Pessa

He joined Portugal's state radio in 1934, and covered World War II for BBC radio, for which he was subsequently appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by King George VI.

Forward Music

In 2007, one of Forward’s artists, Ghada Shbeir, received The BBC Awards for world music for the region of North Africa and the Middle East for her album Al Muwashahat.

Gas Mark

The term "gas mark" was a subject of the joint BBC/OED TV series Balderdash & Piffle, in May 2005, which sought to establish the history of the term.

Gozu

The film received mostly positive reviews from the New York Times, BBC, Washington Post and internet sites Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB, with most critics commenting on the deeply surreal and disjointed nature of the film.

Greenlaw

Greenlaw's impressive town hall, completed in 1831, is a listed building from its county town era and was one of the buildings shortlisted in the 2006 BBC television series Restoration Village.

Hardnoise

The group are due to host an event in aide of DJ Swing (subject of a recent BBC documentary, Brian Daley aka DJ Swing is suffering from Multiple Myeloma and desperately in need of a bone marrow transplant) at the Rococo Club in Leicester Square in October 2005.

Havering College of Further and Higher Education

Last year's panel was chaired by veteran BBC broadcaster Michael Cockerell and included panellists: the political commentator and author of Owen Jones, the Leader of Havering Council Cllr. Michael White, Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate Bridget Fox and X-factor finalist Danyl Johnson.

Hull Blokes

The project was actually part of the BBC’s Northern Exposure ‘Writing in the Margins’ initiative, spearheaded by the Corporation’s then creative director of new writing, Kate Rowland.

Human rights in Sri Lanka

One specific link to a formal government program investigated by the BBC found numerous people who say they were tortured at government rehabilitation camps, run for suspected former rebels.

I Need Air

Fraser McAlpine from BBC felt that the song was simply too good, giving it a five-star rating and complimenting its ability to make the sensation of being overwhelmed by feelings in the presence of someone you really like sound like the most solitary experience a human heart can endure.

Incarnation Children's Center

In early 2007 a group of scientists and AIDS activists, including Mark Wainberg, demanded a retraction and apology from the BBC, charging that the BBC documentary Guinea Pig Kids was "inflammatory, deceptive, error-filled and dangerous".

Irish dance

The BBC documentary film Jig provided an insight into championship level dancers competing in the 2010 World Championships held in Glasgow.

James Furman

He was also choral director for both the BBC documentary film on the life of Charles Ives, and the Leonard Bernstein American Symphony Orchestra Ives Centennial Concert held at the Danbury State Fairgrounds in Danbury, Connecticut on July 4, 1974.

Japanese lates

In February 2010, the first video of the akame living in its natural surroundings was broadcast on the BBC, in a report on the University of Tokyo's research project where akame are fitted with ultrasound tracking devices.

Joseph Reeves

Whilst in Parliament, Reeves was a member of the Party's National Executive Committee 1946-53 and of the committee of inquiry into the BBC.

Justice?

received mainstream attention during the 1990s — including coverage on the BBC Newsnight programme — when they launched their "Squatters' Estate Agents" in squatted retail premises.

Kaya Wittenburg

This included the BBC documentary “The Hollywood Stories Documentary” and ITV’s GMTV.

Khalil Gibran International Academy

The BBC reported that in searching the Internet they found many hateful messages about the school that conflate the Arabic language, Islam, and terrorism.

Kozarac

In the BBC drama series New Tricks episode 84 "Things Can Only Get Better", Hana Koranović, a suspect in the case, comes from Kozarac.

Lar Lubovitch Dance Company

In Great Britain the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company was featured on television as part of an hour-long program produced by the BBC, in which the company performed Concerto Six Twenty-Two (1986) and North Star (1978).

Larry Martyn

He was famous as Mr. Mash in the BBC comedy series Are You Being Served?, appearing in the first three series before being replaced by Arthur English.

Lucid dream

A 2012 report by the BBC claimed that "interest in lucid dreaming has grown in recent years", and corroborated this with examples of the many telephone apps that exist to help people experience the phenomenon.

Martha's Harbour

The song is also well-known for an incident on the popular BBC UK music show Top of the Pops, when the group, ready to do a mimed (as was BBC policy at the time) performance of their hit, were not played the backing track through their monitors, and so sat motionless while the television and studio audience could hear the song.

Media of Iraq

Immediately, the ban on satellite dishes was no longer in place, and by mid-2003, according to a BBC report, there were 20 radio stations, 15-17 Iraqi-owned television stations, and 200 Iraqi-owned and operated newspapers.

Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid

Life Story (tv film) a BBC dramatization about the scientific race to discover the DNA double-helix.

My Boomerang Won't Come Back

After the BBC refused to play the tune (despite its popularity in record shops), a new version was recorded, substituting "blue in the face"; this version (on Parlophone Records) entered the UK charts in October and eventually peaked at #14.

My Legendary Girlfriend

There is a 7" vinyl limited edition of 500 copies version of the single released in 1992 on Bob Stanley's label Caff Records. The new A-side "My Legendary Girlfriend" was taken from 11 September 1991 live BBC soundcheck. "Sickly Grin" and "Back in L.A." are 1982 and 1984 demos accordingly.

My Life as a Turkey

My Life as a Turkey is a television episode that premiered in 2011 in the UK on BBC (season 30 of the series Nature World, August 1) and in the US on PBS (season 30 of the series Nature, November 16).

Nairne baronets

He was later a director of the Bank, and a Governor of the BBC.

New Life Russian Radio

New Life has the exclusive rights to rebroadcast the audio from the Russian Division of the BBC and several radio stations in Russia including: 'Echo of Moscow', 'Russian Radio', 'Radio Retro' and more.

NHK Tokyo Children's Choir

It also toured extensively throughout the world and has won important awards, such as in BBC World Amateur Chorus Competition (No. 2 in the children's area), the Centennial of Zoltán Kodály's Birth Competition (No. 1 in the children's area), EBU World Chorus Competition (No. 1 in the children's area), etc.

Pavel Tigrid

In Great Britain, he adopted the pseudonym Tigrid (after Tigris) when he worked as a broadcaster of anti-fascist propaganda in BBC, and kept it for the rest of his life.

Phil Noble

After retiring from campaign politics in the 1990s, Noble began focusing on developing major interactive civic engagement technology projects with clients such as the BBC, European Union, United Nations, Amnesty International, and The Aspen Institute.

Pratibha Patil

The BBC has described Patil's political career prior to assuming Presidential office as "long and largely low-key".

Psathyrella

In the BBC series "Wild Food", Gordon Hillman related an incident where he was accidentally given a sample of Psathyrella instead of edible mushrooms.

QatarDebate

The first Qatar National Schools Debating Team (2008) are the subject of an independent documentary film, 'Team Qatar', directed by Liz Mermin, which premiered in New York at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival and broadcast in the UK on the BBC.

Raphael Montañez Ortiz

During the course of the symposium, Ortiz performed a series of seven public destruction events, including his piano destruction concerts, which were filmed by both American Broadcasting Company and the BBC.

Rich tea

In 2004, Terry Wogan, a radio presenter for the BBC, described the Rich Tea as the "Lord of all Biscuits" on his Radio 2 breakfast show.

Roger de Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury

On screen, Roger was portrayed by actor John Greenwood in the two-part BBC TV play Conquest (1966), part of the series Theatre 625.

S Club Search

S Club Search is a CBBC reality television show that documents the audition process and formation for the pop group S Club Juniors in 2001.

Sanabal Charitable Committee

The BBC reports that these raids are linked to the support the insurgency in Iraq.

She's Not You

Episode 1 of the 2004 BBC miniseries Blackpool featured the Presley recording, accompanied on screen by the singing and dancing of the characters, as part of the story.

Sheeep

Sheeep was a short lived animated television series that aired on CBBC, within the United Kingdom.

Sikter

During that time the team of journalists from BBC came to Sarajevo and started to hang out with the band members.

Some Other Guy

The song was part of The Beatles' live repertoire in 1962-63, and a recording was made on 19 June 1963 during a live BBC radio performance by the band at The Playhouse Theatre, London.

South Korea–United States relations

According to a 2013 BBC World Service Poll, 58% of South Koreans view U.S. influence positively, the highest rating for any surveyed Asian country.

Standardwing

The Standardwing was filmed for the first time in 1986 for the BBC nature documentary Birds for all Seasons, when a cameraman stationed in the canopy captured footage of a male bird displaying.

Thanks for the Night

The B-side, "Nasty", was recorded for the BBC comedy series The Young Ones, which was performed during the episode of the same name in 1984.

The Billion Dollar Bubble

The Billion Dollar Bubble is a 1976 film made for the BBC series Horizon and directed by Brian Gibson about the story of the two billion dollar insurance embezzlement scheme involving Equity Funding Corporation of America.

The Brain Drain

The Brain Drain was a BBC comedy panel show that ran for 2 seasons in the early 1990s.

The O-Zone

The O-Zone was a weekly music magazine show broadcast on BBC from 1989–2000.

There Goes the Groom

"There Goes The Groom" is a 1997 Christmas special of the BBC sitcom Last of the Summer Wine first shown on 28 December 1997.

Theresa Poh Lin Chan

She is the subject of a 1964 BBC radio documentary, "Child of the Silent Night: The story of Chan Poh Lin" by Stephen Grenfell.

Therocephalia

A pack of unspecified therocephalians appeared in the third episode of the BBC series, Walking with Monsters (which look similar to the Thrinaxodons from Walking with Dinosaurs).

Turner Museum of Glass

This has been selected as one of the items in the BBC's A History of the World in 100 Objects.

TVN Turbo

It broadcasts original programming as well as foreign series such as popular BBC series Top Gear and Motorvision.

Utah Shakespearean Festival

Designed by Douglas N. Cook, it is world-renowned for its accuracy in duplicating Shakespeare's Globe; the BBC used it as a filming location in 1981 for a documentary series on Shakespeare.

Vision Aid Overseas

The BBC followed this story on their Inside Out programme, which was broadcast on 19 September 2007.

Vjerujem u ljubav

Given the difference in age between the two singers, the effect appeared somewhat incongruous on camera, with the BBC commentary remarking on this fact at the end of the performance.

Vladimir K. Zworykin

This electronic system was officially adopted by the BBC whose experimental public broadcasts began in England in November 1936 and initially included the Baird-system.

Volvo B8444S engine

As revealed in BBC's Top Gear show (Series 14 Episode 5) this basic engine is also used in the Noble M600, albeit longitudinally mounted, developing some 650 horsepower with the addition of 2 turbochargers.

Vorkuta uprising

According to inmate Leonid Markizov, Voice of America and the BBC broadcast regular news about the events in Rechlag, with correct names, ranks and numbers.

WUKY

Owned by the University of Kentucky, it is an Adult Album Alternative (Indie Rock) station that airs over 100 hours of music a week, in addition to programming from NPR, Public Radio International, the BBC, and American Public Media.

Ziad Asali

He has provided television commentary and interviews for CNN, CBS, Charlie Rose, MSNBC, Fox News, BBC, C-SPAN, Voice of America and numerous syndicated cable programs.


2009 in Scottish television

28 August – At the Edinburgh International Television Festival News Corporation Chairman James Murdoch delivers the MacTaggart Memorial Lecture in which he launches an attack on the BBC and UK media regulator Ofcom.

2BD

After being appointed managing director of the BBC in 1922, John Reith instigated a programme of expansion of the radio network in the United Kingdom, increasing the number of local stations from three to twenty in a relatively short space of time.

Amiriyah shelter bombing

Jeremy Bowen, a BBC correspondent, was one of the first television reporters on the scene.

Bart Dickon

This nods in the direction of the original daily Dick Barton radio series on the BBC Light Programme from 1946-1951 (later in novels and a trio of low budget feature films), although the spelling of the original character, Snowey, has been changed - as has his gender from time to time.

Big Book

The Big Read, a 2003 survey carried out by the BBC, with the goal of finding the "Nation's Best-loved Book" by way of a viewer vote via the Web, SMS and telephone

Boxford, Suffolk

This drew attention from the media: the Evening Standard incorporated a photograph of the villagers in a centre-page spread in one of their November 1975 editions, and a TV crew led by the late Bernard Falk for the BBC Nationwide programme accompanied the villagers when they left for a two-week stay on 23 July 1976.

Caroline Wilkinson

Wilkinson holds a PhD in Facial Anthropology from the University of Manchester (2000) and first became known to television audiences as a result of her regular appearances in the BBC series Meet the Ancestors.

Charters and Caldicott

They proved popular with audiences and returned in the Gilliat-and-Launder films Night Train to Munich (1940, also starring Margaret Lockwood) and Millions Like Us (1943), and in the BBC radio serials Crook's Tour (1941, made into a film later that year) and Secret Mission 609 (1942).

Conway Publishing

Conway produced the books to accompany James May's Toy Stories and the Dan Snow presented 'Empire of the Seas', both aired on the BBC.

Corrinne Wicks

As well as playing her role in Emmerdale for ITV, Wicks acted in the BBC's adaptation of Nigel Slater's best selling memoir Toast (January 2011); she played young Nigel's lusty secondary school teacher.

Damon Scott

Following Damon’s success he was “spotted” when the head cameraman from the BBC attended the Southern Daily Echo Star Trail semi-final and he suggested to fellow programme makers that Damon would be a perfect subject for the BBC2 real life series which profiles the lives and careers of people aged 18–25.

Dublin Gospel Choir

The choir also featured (along with Chris de Burgh) on a special New Year's Day BBC Songs of Praise programme which was broadcast to over 35 million viewers worldwide.

Firdaus Kanga

Trying to Grow was later turned into an award-winning BBC-BFI film, Sixth Happiness, for which Kanga wrote the screenplay, and in which he starred.

Human trafficking in Eritrea

In late 2013, the BBC reported the results of a study by activist Ms. Meron Estefanos and Dutch educators from Tilburg University.

Iain Sutherland

Between 1973 and 1987 Sutherland was regularly invited by BBC Radio 2 in central London as guest conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra for the "Friday Night Is Music Night" programme.

Il Popolo del Blues

Il Popolo del Blues is an Italian radio program founded in 1995, created and led by the Italian journalist Ernesto De Pascale (RAI, Jam, La Nazione, Rolling Stone Italia, Record Collector, Popolare Network), named by the BBC “the Italian John Peel”.

James Kenelm Clarke

In 1967 he joined BBC Television in London as a producer on the award-winning progmme Man Alive, edited by Desmond Wilcox.

Jamie Reeves

When Reeves saw Bill Kazmaier win his third World's Strongest Man title in 1982, on BBC television, he decided that would be his aim, and took up weights.

Jason Latimer's Perfect Picture

As performed on the BBC One’s TV special “The Magicians, Episode 3,” Latimer levitated former Pussy Cat Dolls and Got to Dance Host’s Kimberly Wyatt then the entire scene rotates, stage, girl in the air, rotate 360 degrees to give the visual effect of Bullet Time on stage.

Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine

In 2005 the BBC used a report published by the journal as the basis of a story claiming that the pseudoscientific practice of homeopathy was effective for some patients.

Kate Atkinson

All four Jackson Brodie novels have been adapted by other writers for the BBC under the series title Case Histories, featuring Jason Isaacs as Brodie.

Kieran Prendiville

He was BBC television's choice for on-site commentator of the first space shuttle mission, reporting from Cape Canaveral and Edwards Air Force Base.

Larry Grayson

He initially used the stage-name Billy Breen, but changed it to Larry Grayson in the 1950s on the advice of his agent; (He was still performing as Billy Breen in August 1962) BBC TV's "The One Show" reported on 27 November, 2012 that the name "Grayson" was taken from the American singer Kathryn Grayson, but the origin of the name "Larry" is unknown.

Lauderdale Mansions South

More recent former residents of Lauderdale Mansions South have included Kathryn Flett, Observer TV critic and star of the BBC’s ‘Grumpy Old Women’ series, and Mary McCartney, celebrity photographer and daughter of Paul and Linda McCartney.

Llanddewi Brefi

Llanddewi Brefi was made famous by the BBC television series Little Britain, where the character Daffyd Thomas (a variation of the original Welsh name Dafydd; played by Matt Lucas) lives in the fictional village of Llandewi Breffi.

Luke Booth

Booth, and his uncle Christopher Eves, successfully participated in the BBC television show, Dragons' Den and received investment to launch their packaging solutions for the FMCG, Retail & Leisure markets.

Lydia Leonard

On television she had an ongoing role in 1950s-set detective series Jericho starring Robert Lindsay, and appeared in True True Lie (2006) and The Long Walk to Finchley (2008), along with a cameo in Rome (2006, "The Stolen Eagle"), and as a nurse in the BBC's Casualty 1909.

Madge Hindle

Hindle's big break came when her good friend, playwright Alan Bennett, asked her to appear in his 1966 BBC comedy series On the Margin.

Mason Neely

He is a member of sacred music collective Bifrost Arts and has served as a composer, arranger and musical director for the BBC, RTÉ and S4C networks and scored advertisements for Best Buy, Cisco Systems, Domino's Pizza and Crispin, Porter and Bogusky, as well as the award winning 2007 feature Low and Behold.

Media coverage of the Gulf War

In Britain, the BBC devoted the FM portion of its national speech radio station BBC Radio 4 to a 18h rolling news format creating Radio 4 News FM.

Peter Andrew Jones

He has also produced images for film publicity, creating the movie posters for The Sword and The Sorceror and Alligator, contributed during the early 1980s to television shows including BBC comedy The Two Ronnies Show and the BBC's '80s sci-fi adaptation of The Tripods, and has produced cover illustrations for video game publishers such as US Gold, Psygnosis and Virgin Interactive.

Robert Hughes, Baron Hughes of Woodside

Under his chairmanship the Anti-Apartheid Movement campaigned against the Thatcher government’s refusal to impose sanctions against South Africa in the 1980s and organised the 1988 ‘Free Mandela’ concert at Wembley Stadium which was televised by the BBC and broadcast around the world.

Robert James Clayton

When the BBC resumed television service from Alexandra Palace after the war GEC won the important contract to implement the first link to another transmitter at Birmingham.

Sandra Mackey

In addition to appearing on NPR, Nightline, BBC, and ABC News with Peter Jennings, Mackey also served as a commentator on the first Gulf War for CNN.

Suzanne Virdee

She returned to Central News West as a reporter, presenter & producer before joining the BBC's Midlands Today programme in April 2001, presenting late night bulletins before becoming a main presenter a year later, alongside Nick Owen.

Syed Talha Ahsan

In a BBC interview aired on 5 April 2012 Evan Kohlmann an American internet extremism expert, said of the websites to which the men are allegedly linked that '"Even today there are very few websites out there that have the credibility that Azzam publications still has now."'.

The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion

In 2002, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, chose "The Hedgehog's Song" for his appearance on the BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs.

The Daily Service

When the Religion and Ethics department of the BBC moved to Manchester, its new base became Emmanuel Church, Didsbury.

The Lana Sisters

They appeared on the BBC's Drumbeat with Adam Faith and John Barry, and later took part in a Christmas special "Tommy Steele’s Spectacular" with the song "Seven Little Girls Sitting in the Back Seat".

The Yorkshire Musical Saw Player

As well as taking part in the "BBC music live" festival he has also played in a skip outside Belfast City Hall for a "Catalyst Arts" Festival, in a folk festival at Broadstairs and as part of the International Gilbert and Sullivan festival in Buxton.

This is Jinsy

Although the pilot episode was made for the BBC, the full series of eight episodes was picked up by Sky Atlantic.

Time's Champion

The BBC, who hold the copyright in Doctor Who and had rejected Hinton's original proposal in 2004, were not involved.

Trish Williamson

After leaving TV-am, she worked as a producer, presenter, and reporter on BBC regional television, including BBC Look North, London Tonight, and BBC1’s current affairs series Inside Out.

Two in a Million/You're My Number One

The album version of "Two in a Million" and the Boyfriends & Birthdays version (so named as it was the theme song of their BBC TV movie) are almost exactly the same, except the Boyfriends & Birthdays version has a slightly more robust instrumentation, taking on a more orchestral and R'n'B approach, and pauses the music during the last line of each verse right before the chorus.