#111 The Truth About The Truth About Phyllis Twigg: From the First Radio Drama to the Latest

On Christmas Eve 1922, Britain's first original radio drama The Truth About Father Christmas by Phyllis Twigg was broadcast on the early BBC.

On Christmas Eve 2025, Britain's latest radio drama The Truth About Phyllis Twigg is broadcast on BBC Radio 4, bringing back to life a little of that first radio play, the tale behind it, and fictionalising some of the quest to help give credit where credit's due.

This new drama for Radio 4 is produced by B7 Media and written by Paul Kerensa, who also hosts this podcast - so yes after 111 episodes we've finally brought some of the early BBC story (in this unofficial non-BBC podcast - for tis not made by/with/under them) to today's BBC. Thanks if you've listened to or supported the podcast in any way, as it's all helped make it happen. It takes a village! You are that village. Thanks, village!

Episode 72 of this podcast told the tale of Phyllis, and how her achievement as first radio dramatist (we can talk about the American one from a year earlier) seemed to fade from history books as Richard Hughes and his A Comedy of Danger gradually took over as 'first radio drama'. Hmm, what an oddity.

With neither a recording nor a surviving script, it was nice to discover a short story version of The Truth About Father Christmas, under Phyllis' pen name - so with that, I pitched the idea to radio drama producer Helen Quigley of B7 Media, and she pitched it to Radio 4's Drama Commissioning Editor - who gladly agreed there was a tale to tell.

So on the day this podcast lands, so does our radio drama. We're proud of it - we hope you like it. If you don't, that's fine too. It's not perfect, but it's out there! #JusticeforPhyllis - and that's the goal, hopefully via some festive entertainment for your ears.

On this accompanying podcast (unofficial - as it's not BBC), I chat to the cast, crew and descendants of Phyllis Twigg the writer and Arthur Burrows the voice behind Father Christmas, and the man who commissioned her in the first place.

So on this bumper episode, you'll hear:

Helen Quigley - director

Tamsin Greig - who plays Phyllis Twigg

Rory Kinnear - who plays Arthur Burrows

Will Harrison Wallace - who plays Mr White

Aja Dodd - who plays Jenny Adams

Carina Saner - great-granddaughter and biographer of Phyllis Twigg

Nick Heal - grandson of Arthur Burrows

Philippa Heal - great-granddaughter of Arthur Burrows

Neil Brand - composer

...Thanks to them and many more for making possible this new drama about the first drama.

Oh and you'll also hear the 7min reading of the prose version of The Truth About Father Christmas, voiced by Carina Saner, Flora Saner (great-granddaughter and great-great-granddaughter of Phyllis) and myself (no relation!).

Thanks to ME London hotel for sharing the recording with us - we recorded it for them, and they've been playing daily in their Atrium, as they're pretty much on the site of the first BBC studio, where that first radio drama began.

I advise you listen to The Truth About Phyllis Twigg first - if it's still on BBC Sounds as you find this podcast. If you can't or haven't, you'll still find plenty in this podcast. It was a joy to make.

And as I'm working on the biography of Phyllis with her great-granddaughter Carina (Publishers? Get in touch...), the quest continues...

 

SHOWNOTES:

• The Truth About Phyllis Twigg on BBC Radio 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx - it's produced by B7 Media.
• Episode 72 of this podcast has more of the Twigg tale.
• My Substack timeline of Phyllis Twigg: https://paulkerensa.substack.com/p/the-truth-about-phyllis-twigg-a-timeline
• My blog for B7 Media about the new drama: https://www.b7media.com/the-truth-about-the-truth-about-phyllis-twigg/
• Professor Tim Crook's article on Phyllis Twigg: https://kulturapress.com/2022/09/24/phyllis-m-twigg-the-bbcs-first-original-radio-dramatist/
• Dr Tina Pepler's 1988 thesis on radio drama, mentioning Phyllis: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/34496537/381402.pdf
• The BBC listings page for The Truth about Phyllis Twigg - 2:15pm, Christmas Eve 2025, Radio 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx
• An article from Downthetubes about The Truth about Phyllis Twigg: https://downthetubes.net/the-truth-about-phyllis-twigg-lifts-the-lid-on-secrets-of-early-bbc-radio/
• Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
• Our survey of what you like/don't about this podcast is here: http://tiny.cc/bbcenturysurvey
• Paul's live show on the BBC origin story visits Norfolk and Leicester in 2026 - and maybe your place? Get in touch: www.paulkerensa.com/tour
• Substack: www.paulkerensa.substack.com 
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc - it all helps support the podcast, and without that, there's no this. So thanks if you do!
• Or a one-off tip to Ko-fi.com/paulkerensa? Thanks for supporting us. I mostly use any kind £ to buy books. Then read books. Then absorb books. Then convert them into podcasts. Thanks for keeping the wheels turning.
• Please share/rate/review this podcast - it all really helps.

Next time, Episode 112: Father Ronald Knox's Broadcasting the Barricades - the BBC's Pre-War of the Worlds Radio Scare of 1926

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio