Wonderful Photos and Films from the Golden Age of BBC Radio (1922-1963)

Derby County captain 36 year old Jack Nicholas (second left) steps up to the microphone with the FA Cup to give his opinion on his team’s extra time 4-1 victory 27/04/1946 – The players in the 1946 Cup final were awarded two medals each. Due to a shortage of gold following the Second World War, the two teams were initially presented with bronze medals (winners and runners-up) on the day, and subsequently awarded the gold versions when gold became more readily available later that year.

 

London Olympic Games 1948. A radio outside-broadcaster prepares his equipment.

 

The popular radio and stage comedian Arthur Askey at the microphone to sing ‘Ev’ry Piggy’s Got a Curly Tail’ at the EMI Studios in Abbey Road, north west London.

 

From left to right: Fred Yule, Joan Harben, Hugh Morton, Lind Joyce, Tommy Handley, Diana Morrison, Derek Gyler, Hattie Jackes and Jack Train during rehearsals for the radio show “ITMA” in London. The title ITMA (It’s That Man Again) referred to a contemporary phrase concerning the ever more frequent news-stories about Hitler in the lead up to the Second World War and specifically a headline in the Daily Express written by Bert Gunn. 

 

Tommy Handley and Hattie Jacques, during rehearsals for the radio show “ITMA” in London, 25th September 1947. Handley would die of a cerebral haemorrhage two years later.

 

 

King Edward VIII at the microphone after telling Prime Minsiter Satnley baldwin that he intends to marry the American divorcee Wallace Simpson in 1936.

 

Vera Lynn on stage at Grosvenor House, London, for the 1949 National Radio Awards presented to popular broadcasters.

Microphone and umbrella in hand, Manchester born broadcaster Jessica Dunning makes an outside broadcast (from a position near Buckingham Palace) in an audition for commentators for the Coronation. It is thought women may be better able to handle some aspects of the day’s ceremonies.

 

A wartime picture of Princess Elizabeth (right) and Princess Margaret after they broadcast on “Children’s Hour” from Buckingham Palace.

 

1931: A view of the newly-built BBC Broadcasting House in a wet central London.

 

1933: A scene in a 1930s BBC recording studio showing Christopher Stone, wearing a dinner jacket, bidding listeners ‘Good Evening’.

 

The Beatles singing together during a recording session for the BBC radio programme ‘Easy Beat’ 

 

British music hall stars George Robey and Alma Adair giving a wireless rehearsal from the Covent Garden Review “You’d be surprised”. 18/10/1922

 

Sydney and Lesley Piddington, at their London home, who now have 20 million British radio listeners tuned in to their thought transference act. 25/08/1949

 

A portrait of a Miss Partridge who Assembles wireless radios in her home in Exeter.

 

Golf – Ryder Cup 1949 – Ganton Golf Club

Deryck Guyler, Hattie Jacques and Tony Hancock – BBC Radio – 1956

 

Working with smiles are Moira Lister and Tony Hancock, rehearsing together for the new radio show ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’. 30/10/1954

 

Singer Carole Carr takes over as disc jockey on the radio programme linking Britons with their relatives and friends in the forces overseas. Carole is pictured making a selection of records at her London flat. 16/10/1959

Miss Margaret Bondfield at Broadcasting House with actress Deborah Kerr and Mrs Elsie May Crump , a housewife from Chorlton-Cum-Hardy to take part in the first broadcast of the new radio series ” Woman’s Hour “. 07/10/1946

 

A view of the commentators box at Lord’s. 22/06/1957

 

General view of the Great Radio Show at London’s Earl’s Court. The show opens tomorrow 25/08/1959

 

Eamonn Andrews at the Paris Cinema, London, the new quiz-master of ‘Ignorance is Bliss’. With him are Harold Behrens, left and right is Gladys Hay and Michael Moore. 27/02/1950

 

American actress Tallulah Bankhead recording a show at the London Palladium for BBC Radio and the American Radio Station NBC 16/09/1951

 

The ‘Much Binding in the Marsh’ radio comic team, left to right; Patricia Hughes, Richard Murdoch, and Kenneth Horne, at the Winter Garden Theatre, London. 02/10/1950

 

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