From the start of this project, rather than having a long list of links, I've been attempting to corral them under subheadings to make them easier to read. But during this war period, so much is happening all the time, that it's nearly impossible. The links below under the "Home Front" demonstrate how, by the 1940s even with its limited number of channels domestically, the BBC had become a multifaceted organisation catering for a number of different audiences.
If you only watch/read one of the pieces, it has to be 19 Metre Band, which in its 13 mins gives offers an atmospheric portrayal of Broadcasting House and some of the people who worked there including essayist Z.A. Bukhari (pictured above). At around the 6th minute there are some brilliant shots of the canteen and elsewhere within the margins you get a real sense of the hierarchies which existed in the corporation at the time, even in the services catering for overseas audiences.
Behind The Scenes
"Go behind the scenes of Indian programmes on the BBC General Overseas Service (later the World Service)."
[BFI]
"The BBC has featured entertainers of colour from its inception, but more as an attraction than a celebration of other cultures. In part four of our 13-part series on the history of the BBC, David Hendy explores how the corporation tried to include diverse voices, from the 1930s to the postwar years..."
[History Extra]
"This thesis focuses attention on the two years that George Orwell spent, between August 1941 and November 1943, at the Indian Section of the B.B.C., producing propaganda talks for listeners in India and elsewhere."
[Edinburgh Research Archive]
"A man with the name of Wilfred Pickles brought regional dialect to the BBC as part of an anti-Nazi-propaganda strategy."
[Smithsonian]
"THIS IS London Calling! Night after night all through Canada, people sit and listen to the voice of a British Broadcasting Corporation announcer, thousands of miles away in London, bringing the day’s news to them from a city deluged in war."
[MacLeans]
Includes BBC News broadcast.
[Pathe]
"During the Second World War the shortage of manpower for industry meant that women were employed in many jobs previously thought to be the preserve of men. The BBC was not exempt from the problem of finding sufficient staff."
[Orbem]
"There is a connection between Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and the Morse code. Although approximately 30 years separated the creation of this particular symphony and the telegraph code, the link played a role in Allied broadcasts during World War II."
[CMUSE]
"Women of the Royal Armed Forces compete in a 1941 quiz show on the BBC."
Note: From the show Women at War broadcast 24th November (this film was issued on the 27th). The section filmed here is "the Brainteaser's Trust".
[Pathe][BBC Programme Index]
"21 March 1941: ‘Anything in the nature of persecution, victimisation, or man-hunting is odious to the British people’ - Churchill"
[The Guardian]
"In this recording of the proceedings at a Foyles Literary Luncheon, guest of honour Lynton Fletcher, who ran the BBC Recorded Programmes Department, exhibits some of the items preserved for posterity."
[BBC Archive]
"Deputy Prime Minster Clement Attlee speaking to the nation on B.B.C. (British Broadcasting Corporation). Tells of the eight points agreed on at the Atlantic Charter meeting between Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Churchill and Roosevelt representing Britain and the U.S.A. (Recorded from B.B.C. broadcast)."
[Pathe]
"Merchant seaman Frank Laskier talks about the postscript he gave at the B.B.C."
[Pathe][BBC Programme Index]
"In the year 1941, the range and penetrating power of British broadcasting were formidably increased."
[World Radio History]
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