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17 unusual facts about BBC Radio


Alun Owen

By the late 1950s, however, Owen was beginning to realise that his real ambitions lay in writing rather than performing, and he began to submit scripts to BBC Radio.

BBC Sessions 1968–1970

BBC Sessions 1968–1970 is a 2011 compilation album featuring performances by Deep Purple that were originally broadcast on various BBC Radio shows from 1968 through 1970.

Don Estelle

He later joined a charity group, the Manchester Kentucky Minstrels, and performed with them the Mario Lanza hit "Granada" in the talent show What Makes a Star? in 1954 at BBC Radio's northern studios in Manchester.

Douglas Adams's Guide to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams's Guide to The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a BBC Radio production sold as an audio book on two cassette tapes.

Fehim Zavalani

He started in 1940 the BBC Radio service in the Albanian language where he was the speaker for 26 years until his death in 1966.

Gregory Whitehead

Since 2000, Whitehead has produced numerous plays and documentary essays for BBC Radio, including The Marilyn Room (2000), American Heavy (2001), The Loneliest Road (2003), On One Lost Hair (2004), No Background Music (2005), The Day King Hammer Fell From The Sky (2007) and Bring Me The Head of Philip K. Dick (2009).

Jeremy Young

Young also works for BBC Radio and teaches for the Court Theatre Training Company which is part of the Courtyard, London.

Jonathan Bardon

Most recently in he was commissioned by BBC Radio to create a two hundred and forty-episode series entitled A Short History of Ireland.

Let Love Lead the Way

In March 2000, BBC Radio announced that the first single from their forthcoming third album will be "Holler".

Mainly on the Air

It was published in 1946 by Heinemann and is a collection of the texts of a series of six BBC Radio broadcasts from 1935 to 1945 and six essays.

Matthew Lorenzo

Lorenzo was the first sports presenter to appear on Sky TV when it launched in 1989, after a career in newspapers, BBC TV and BBC Radio.

One Ring

In the 1981 BBC Radio serial of The Lord of the Rings, the Nazgûl chant the Ring-inscription.

Peter Hildreth

Following his retirement from athletics, he served as an athletics journalist, writing for the Sunday Telegraph and commentating on events for BBC Radio.

Round Britain Quiz

Round Britain Quiz (or RBQ for short) is a panel game that has been broadcast on BBC Radio since 1947, making it the oldest quiz still broadcast on British radio.

The Blackout Crew

The lines "You know what you wanna do with that, right? You wanna put a bangin' donk on it", sampled from the song "Put A Donk On It", has frequently been used in the opening of the BBC Radio programme Radcliffe & Maconie, being generally favoured by Mark Radcliffe.

The Cover of Rolling Stone

BBC Radio refused to play the song, as it contained the name of a commercial publication (Rolling Stone) and could therefore be considered advertising.

Where's Captain Kirk?

BBC Radio DJ John Peel said that "Spizzenergi went on to record the only Star Trek tribute worthy of the Enterprise's jukebox" in reference to "Where's Captain Kirk?" on a Star Trek television special.


1960 FA Cup Final

As well as television the game was also broadcast live on BBC Radio while black and white newsreel footage from both Pathé and Movietone was screened in cinemas that evening.

Age UK

Featuring Graham Dene (ex-Capital Radio and Virgin Radio) and David Hamilton (ex-BBC Radio, Capital Gold and Saga Radio) as the lead presenters, The Wireless provides "a mix of music, entertainment, and information to improve later life in the UK".

Alternative Ulster

It also occasionally features writing by musicians and others, for example Jetplane Landing frontman Andrew Ferris and BBC Radio presenter Rigsy.

Anthony Buckeridge

The novels usually followed a format of three major subplots per 16-chapter novel, the early books being derived from the popular BBC radio series on Children's Hour.

Anthony Thwaite

He has worked for BBC Radio, the New Statesman as literary editor, and from 1973 to 1985 as editor of Encounter with Melvin J. Lasky.

Appeal of 18 June

Three days later, de Gaulle obtained special permission from Winston Churchill to broadcast a speech via BBC Radio from Broadcasting House over France, despite the British Cabinet's objections that such a broadcast could provoke the Pétain government into a closer allegiance with Germany.

Barliman Butterbur

James Grout played Butterbur in BBC Radio's 1981 serialization of The Lord of the Rings.

Bondax

Bondax gained prominence primarily as a result of BBC Radio, initially through BBC Introducing Lancashire before receiving BBC Radio 1 airtime from the a range of DJs including Nick Grimshaw and Annie Mac.

Carter-Lewis and the Southerners

The early 1960s saw the rise of the Liverpool Sound, and Carter and Lewis recorded copies of the latest group hits and performed them for the BBC Light Programme's shows Easy Beat and Saturday Club; working with jazz musicians such as Marion Montgomery, Marion Ryan and session musicians such as Kenny Clare (drums) and Roy Deltrice (bass), under the direction of their music publisher Freddy Webb of Southern Music.

Chalk Farm Salvation Army Band

The Band has appeared annually on the BBC TV Show Blue Peter throughout most of its record 50-year run, and has also made a number of appearances on Songs of Praise at the Royal Albert Hall and on BBC Radio shows such as Gloria Hunniford and Owen Spencer-Thomas's Sounding Brass and Listen to the Band.

Denethor

Denethor was voiced by William Conrad in Rankin/Bass's 1980 animated adaptation of The Return of the King, and by Peter Vaughan in BBC Radio's 1981 serialization.

Frank Crumit

His song "Donald the Dub" was used as the theme music to the BBC radio adaptation of P. G. Wodehouse's The Oldest Member.

Franko Božac

With 10/10 Ensemble (Chamber Orchestra – part of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra), he recorded for BBC Radio 3 the works of contemporary British composer Gary Carpenter.

Hugh Johns

He continued working for ATV, and subsequently Central Television until the summer of 1982 when he was replaced by a new recruit from BBC Radio Sport, Peter Brackley.

Ian Peacock

After graduating with a first in English Literature, he presented and produced for BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and went on to make documentaries and features for BBC network radio.

John M. MacKenzie

He has given BBC radio talks, has appeared on television programmes relating to the British Empire, and has written for The Scotsman.

Joseph Clough

Since then he has appeared on BBC Radio, Kerrang, Daily Mail and worked with United Kingdoms chart topping singer songwriter Sandi Thom.

Mark Ellen

He also has a long broadcasting career which includes contributions to BBC Radio 1 as stand-ins for David "Kid" Jensen and John Peel.

Mark Power

Between 1992 and 1996, Power embarked on The Shipping Forecast — a project that involved travelling to and photographing all 31 areas covered by the Shipping Forecast broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes

The 1950s BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show often made reference to the NAAFI in scripts, mostly by Peter Sellers' character, Major Dennis Bloodnok.

Northern Star Records

Tracks from the Psychedelica series have been aired on numerous radio shows around the world, and have been played by prominent DJs such as Bob Harris, Tom Robinson, Adam Walton and Huw Stephens on their BBC Radio shows.

Phil Tanner

Renowned locally as "the Gower Nightingale", he reached a national audience in his seventies with recordings for Columbia and the BBC and an appearance on the BBC radio programme In Town Tonight.

Philip Mitchell

Born in Manchester, England he is an established author with BBC Radio Drama and was a question-setter on the UK game show Bacha Hi O'Ma! (the Welsh equivalent of Blind Date) but is perhaps best known for his acclaimed translation of Caradog Prichard's Welsh language novel Un Nos Ola Leuad, as One Moonlit Night (ISBN 0-8112-1342-0).

Piano Red

Perryman continued to be a popular performer in Underground Atlanta, and had several European tours late in his career, including appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Berlin Jazz Festival, Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's inauguration, and on BBC Radio.

The ONE Group

The ONE Group's European locations, STK and Cucina Aselina, are now open in the ME Hotel London, the Foster and Partners-designed property in the Strand in the original home of BBC Radio.

The Toff

Two films have been made from Toff adventures: Salute the Toff and Hammer the Toff (both 1952); as well as BBC Radio adaptations starring Terence Alexander, The Toff and the Runaway Bride (1975) and The Toff on the Farm (1977).

The Winkies

In March 1974 the John Peel BBC radio show broadcast four songs from the 19 February 1974 performance - "The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch", "Totalled", "Baby's on Fire" and a cover version of "Fever".

Tor-Kristian Karlsen

In addition to his scouting engagement, Karlsen have been working freelance for TV 2 (Norway), BBC Radio, FIFA Magazine, SportBild, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, The Independent, The Times and Four Four Two as an football expert and analyzer.