Â鶹Éç

Barry Humphries celebrates the centenary of the Â鶹Éç with his personal selection of music by artists, who were big stars during the earliest days of British broadcasting. In episode 2, Barry looks back at the era of John Reith, who was in charge of the Â鶹Éç from 1922 to 1938. Musical highlights in this episode include the songs: 'What it Feels Like to Broadcast' by Gert & Daisy, ‘We Can’t Let You Broadcast That’ and ‘All for Ten Shillings A Year (about the wonders of the Licence Fee) by Norman Long, ‘Old King Tut' (inspired by the discovery of Tutankhamun’s Tomb in 1923) by Billy Jones & Ernest Hare and ‘We’re Frightfully Â鶹Éç’ by the Western Brothers.

The Â鶹Éç was formed in the autumn of 1922. Back then, that combination of letters meant little to most people. Also, until 1927 the ‘C’ in ‘Â鶹Éç’ actually stood for ‘Company’ rather than ‘Corporation’. ‘Listening in’ to the wireless quickly became a social and cultural phenomenon. John Reith wanted the national broadcaster to bring the best of everything into the greatest number of homes. Later, the Cabinet Secretary, Maurice Hankey, told Reith that he had, 'created one of the greatest organisations in the world which will continue on your lines for centuries.'

The task of reading the very first Â鶹Éç news bulletin at 6pm on 14th November 1922 fell to Arthur Burrows and the headlines covered a train robbery, a rowdy meeting involving Winston Churchill, the sale of a Shakespeare ‘First Folio’ and it ended, naturally, with the billiard scores. The second day’s Â鶹Éç news bulletins brought results of the 1922 General Election.

Barry also mentions the British broadcasting debut of the legendary George Gershwin, whose performance of 'Rhapsody in Blue' as piano soloist was broadcast live from a London hotel in 1925.

Barry Humphries says:

'Making each series of ‘Forgotten Musical Masterpieces’ for Â鶹Éç Radio over recent years has given me the opportunity to discover artists, I’d never heard of before. Norman Long is one of my best discoveries. He made his British broadcasting debut on the radio station ‘2LO’ in London, as early as 1922 and described himself as ‘all teeth and trousers.' Norman Long gave his farewell performance in 1945 and died, in nursing home in Torquay, six years later, so I never got the chance to meet him. I didn’t arrive in Britain until 1959. I also don’t recall hearing him on the radio in Australia when I was a child. He was a star of the 1920s, the decade before I was born. ‘We Can’t Let You Broadcast That!’ pokes fun at the early Â鶹Éç censors, whom Norman Long clearly had regular dealings with. I'm sure you won't be surprised to know that, on occasion, I've shared Norman’s frustrations. ‘We Can’t Let You Broadcast That!’ has been said to me by Â鶹Éç producers occasions times over the years.

'One hundred years ago, when the system of broadcasting in Britain was first conceived, it was designed to be very different from the radio chaos that had sprung up on the other side of the Atlantic, after the end of the First World War. In America, anyone could set up a radio station and it was decided that the USA’s disorganised, overcrowded airways were not to be repeated here. British Officials felt that the new method of mass communication had to be carefully regulated, to ensure that it didn’t fall into the wrong hands and wasn’t put to sinister purposes.'