The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

Episode 70 is a biggie. In April 1923, the five-month-old BBC faced a two-pronged attack. The Daily Express ran an anti-BBC campaign, with front page stories questioning its existence, and even offering to take over broadcasting themselves. Over the course of one week, the Express applied to the government for a broadcast licence (and were turned down). Meanwhile the Postmaster General's chance encounter with Reith in the street brought to a head 'the licence problem'. Reith wanted more £ for the BBC; the govt wanted more £ for themselves. It's a hundred years' war that's still raging, so it's the ideal episode to bring in Prof Patrick Barwise and Peter York, authors of The War Against the BBC: How an Unprecedented Combination of Hostile Forces is Destroying Britain's Greatest Cultural Institution... And Why You Should Care. Their insight in 2023's BBC battles tell us of right-wing press ('SMET': Sun, Mail, Express, Telegraph), now joined by GB News and Talk TV, plus think tanks galore doing down Auntie Beeb. This is all coupled with cuts in funding that is starting to affect output, from local radio to orchestras to the merged news channel. April 5th-15th 1923 is perhaps just the beginning then... Buy Patrick Barwise and Peter's York book The War Against the BBC: https://amzn.to/3qX6bLB Read their article for Prospect Magazine: 'We have bad news for the right-wing BBC haters: most of the public just don't agree with you.' https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/60479/attention-bbc-haters-the-public-arent-behind-you See Paul Kerensa on tour with 'An Evening of (Very) Old Radio': www.paulkerensa.com/tour More info on Paul's forthcoming novel Auntie and Uncles: www.paulkerensa.com/book Original music is by Will Farmer. Broadcasts more than 50 years old are generally out of copyright. Any BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Thanks for supporting on www.patreon.com/paulkerensa if you do - videos and writings await you there. Or one-off tips are much appreciated too! www.ko-fi.com/paulkerensa. Do rate and review us - 5 stars would be lovely, thanks! We're here to inform, educate and entertain - though as ever we are nothing to do with the present-day BBC. We're just talking about them, not made by them. Next time... Episode 71 - Today in Parliament: The BBC Debates of April 1923, plus Dr Martin Cooper on radio in popular culture. www.paulkerensa.com/oldradio  

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin...   Episode 69 of our deep dive into British broadcasting's back-story brings us to 5th April 1923, and the hiring of Ella Fitzgerald (not that one), to organise and centralise Children's Hour.   That leads us to a packed episode with both academic insight and tales from those who were there, whether listening or programme-making.   We have more guests than you could fit on Auntie Bronwen's magic carpet - including authors and academics: Dr Amy Holdsworth (author of On Living with Television) Dr Kate Murphy (author of Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Women at the BBC) Graham Stewart (author of Scotland On Air) Programme-makers and listeners: Nick Wilson (producer, Wide Awake Club) Chris Jarvis (presenter, Show Me Show Me) David Jervis (grandson of Capt H.J. Round) Andrew Barker (Newspaper Detective) Charles Huff (producer, The Great Egg Race) And early uncles and aunts:  Uncle Arthur (Burrows) Uncle (A.E.) Thompson Auntie Bronwen (Davies) Auntie Cyclone (Kathleen Garscadden) Dinko, the Foreman of the Pixies (Reginald Jordan) Uncle Humpty Dumpty (Kenneth Wright) We cover programmes including Children's Hour, Watch with Mother, Playschool, Wide Awake Club, Sooty, Teletubbies, In the Night Garden, Old Jack's Boat, Bedtime Hour, and many more.     FURTHER READING, LINKS ETC: On Living with Television by Dr Amy Holdsworth is available here: https://amzn.to/3C3wt0F Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Woman at the BBC by Dr Kate Murphy is available here: https://amzn.to/3BX12oR  Scotland On Air by Graham Stewart will be out later this year. Details here: https://wiki.scotlandonair.com/wiki/Main_Page Read more of Arthur Corbett-Smith's 1924 notes on Children's Hour on Dr Zara Healy's brilliant blog post: https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbchistoryresearch/entries/cf4a5612-fdd9-47ec-88c8-a576e4bf7bd0 (we hope to have her on the podcast soon!) Listen to my CBeebies Radio series Granny Anne's Joke World, starring Maureen Lipman, written by me - 8 episodes are here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/curations/radio-granny-annes-joke-world My new book, out some time, is Auntie and Uncles: The Bizarre Birth of the BBC - details here: https://paulkerensa.com/book My live tour, 'An Evening of (Very) Early Radio' (or sometimes it's an afternoon...) visits Guildford, Romsey, Chelmsford, Kettering, Turnham Green and maybe more (it's very bookable, portable, and affordable!) - details here: https://paulkerensa.com/tour Original music is by Will Farmer. A reminder that this podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. We're talking about them, not via them. Broadcasts more than 50 years old are generally out of copyright. Any BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Thanks for supporting on patreon.com/paulkerensa if you do - videos and writings await you there. Or one-off tips are much appreciated too! ko-fi.com/paulkerensa. Support us for free by sharing this podcast. Or rating + reviewing where you found us. The more stars, the better... It helps our (ready for a terrible word?) discoverability. Cheers! Next time: The Press vs BBC vs Govt: 1923 and 2023 - with Prof Patrick Barwise and Peter York. Be afraid, be very afraid... https://www.paulkerensa.com/oldradio  

Episode 68 and STILL in March 1923 - March 26th to be precise, as Major Arthur Corbett-Smith is hired to be the 5th Cardiff station director in about as many weeks. It's not going well there... ...Corbett-Smith to the rescue? Trouble is, he's a little divisive. Some say he's the greatest gift to broadcasting (well, he does - he wrote his memoir in the third person), others say he's best out of the BBC (Reith, some newspaper correspondents). Listen - make your own mind up. To help you decide, two fab guests - Shakespeare-on-the-air expert DR ANDREA SMITH of the University of Suffolk (as Corbett-Smith aimed to be first to broadcast all his complete works) and GARETH GWYNN (writer of sitcom The Ministry of Happiness, all about Corbett-Smith and Cardiff 5WA). Plus the first National Anthem on the BBC... the first time signals... and an early Newcastle station director so popular that when he moved to Bournemouth, Geordies bought more powerful radio sets just to hear him from the south coast. Enjoy! Original music is by Will Farmer. A reminder that this podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. We're talking about them, not via them.  Broadcasts more than 50 years old are generally out of copyright. Any BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Thanks for supporting on patreon.com/paulkerensa if you do - videos and writings await you there. Or one-off tips are much appreciated too! ko-fi.com/paulkerensa. Support us for free by sharing this podcast. Or rating + reviewing where you found us. The more stars, the better... It helps our (ready for a terrible word?) discoverability. Cheers! https://www.paulkerensa.com/oldradio  

Episode 67 is a special: A Brief History of Coronation Broadcasts (or Broadcast Coronations) How the BBC has brought two such ceremonies to the air, as they (and others) now tackle a third, for King Charles III. We'll tell you all about the two previous on-air crownings, of George VI and Elizabeth II, both on radio and TV - but first we'll go back to the four monarchs before them: Queen Victoria's (1938) used a certain technological advancement to bring more eyes than ever before to a coronation procession. Edward VII's (1902) had a film made of it, though a simulation using actors. (Had director Georges Méliès got his way, it would have included Queen Victoria's ghost!). Edward's wife Princess Alexandra had a few links to broadcasting too. Watch Georges Méliès' film The Coronation of Edward VII (1902): https://youtu.be/ME6z810Zre8 George V's (1911) was filmed for newsreel. That newsreel footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8SoUPxIkZ8  Edward VIII's (1937) was planned then canned after his (broadcast) abdication. George VI's (1937) took the same coronation day, same plans, changed the name etched onto the crown (I think that's how they do it), and his state occasion made it to radio and TV: the first broadcast coronation. We'll meet the engineer who taught him to conquer his stammer for the microphone, but had to sleep in Westminster Abbey. And learn how many (or how few) cameras were available to use. You probably have more in your house right now... BBC radio's coronation broadcast - Stuart Hibberd, John Snagge etc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWPE4GIp9kE - thanks to Random Radio Jottings blog BBC website inc making-of film: https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/birth-of-tv/two-coronations/ George VI's coronation speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfD14kL2XAk Elizabeth II's (1953) was "the OB of all OBs", aka "C-Day". Hear from Richard Dimbleby, John Snagge... and learn why we should toast him at hymn 9 (don't worry - there aren't that many)  The complete ceremony, televised: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NTjasbmgw Coronation Day Across the World, courtesy of Random Radio Jottings/Andy Walmsley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jg4uK2DGFA BBC website on Elizabeth II's coronation, inc behind-the-scenes film: https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/june/coronation-of-queen-elizabeth-ii/ Charles III's (2023): Well that's not history enough yet for our liking... Here's a nice guide to the televised coronation, past and present: https://news.sky.com/story/the-kings-coronation-will-be-televised-and-much-more-how-ways-to-watch-have-changed-since-the-queen-was-crowned-12848891 === Like this episode? Do share it. Or rate and review us. Or chip in on patreon.com/paulkerensa (or ko-fi.com/paulkerensa) to help fund like this. Thanks! === This podcast is nothing whatsoever to do with the BBC. We believe the clips used are no longer in copyright due to age. It is possible that some somehow retain BBC or Crown copyright, in which case the content belongs to them, and certainly not us. It's all here purely to inform, educate and entertain. For more on this deep dive project into broadcasting's back-story, see paulkerensa.com/oldradio, including details of the live show and novel. Subscribe to get each episode when it lands. NEXT TIME: Major Arthur Corbett-Smith - Reith's maverick rival of 1923. Please stand for the National Anthem. paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Here is the news. And the weather. And the SOS messages... Our timeline continues into late March 1923 - which means that as well as news, we now have daily weather forecasts on the early BBC. It's just in time for the end of the Ideal Home Exhibition - selling radio to the masses, and oh look how useful it is. Also that month, SOS messages began in Birmingham: brief broadcasts trying to reach relatives of those critically ill, or missing persons, or even missing pelicans. Joining us to talk about yesterday's news is former news editor at Pebble Mill, Breakfast News and many more BBC news programmes MAURICE BLISSON. To talk about today's BBC news, and the war against it, we have Prof PATRICK BARWISE and Peter York (see their book below - and hear more of them in 3 episodes' time), and on the SOS origins of broadcasting, Prof GABRIELE BALBI. Plus other on-air quirks and remnants from March 1923, such as the first broadcast from a church, the first educational broadcasts, and Peter Eckersley telling us not to oscillate. Episode 66 is packed as ever then... Next time: meet Arthur Corbett-Smith, the unorthodox Cardiff station director.   SHOWNOTES: Listen to Radio 4 documentary 'And Now An Urgent SOS Message' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRI8DO8QAwg Buy Patrick Barwise and Peter York's book The War Against the BBC - https://amzn.to/40axAp8 Read Patrick Barwise and Peter York's article in Prospect Magazine - https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/60479/we-have-bad-news-for-the-right-wing-bbc-haters-most-of-the-public-just-dont-agree-with-you Original music is by Will Farmer. A reminder that this podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. We're talking about them, not via them.  Broadcasts more than 50 years old are generally out of copyright. Any BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Thanks for supporting on patreon.com/paulkerensa if you do - videos and writings await you there. Or one-off tips are much appreciated too! ko-fi.com/paulkerensa. Support us for free by sharing this podcast. Or rating + reviewing where you found us. The more stars, the better... It helps our (ready for a terrible word?) discoverability. Cheers! https://www.paulkerensa.com/oldradio  

Episode 65 welcomes the BBC's only ever Sound Archivist (the title changed a few times), Simon Rooks. For 33 years he was lost in the archives and now he's found his way out, he's here to tell us the way. This episode is more interview than usual, including a whizzthrough 100 years of the BBC Sound Archive - from no recordings to the first recordings, Lance Sieveking's re-enactments and Leslie Baily's archive gathering, Marie Slocombe and Lynton Fletcher's channelling of Marie Kondo, location actuality recordings, the first retake and recording from a WW2 bombing mission... and that's all just in the first two decades! Simon guides us all the way through to BBC7 and the present day - if you love old radio, it's a fascinating insight. Thanks Simon - and thanks to you and the team for looking after it for all these years. Elsewhere, our timeline of British broadcasting's origin story continues, covering March 16th-26th 1923 - which happens to include the first BBC music library under Frank Hook. And the archive is off... So as we traverse the early tale of the Beeb, this is the perfect episode to go deeper into the tale of the archive than you've probably ever gone before (I should add we're mostly talking about the Sound Archive here. As for the Written Archives, the Television Archive - one day...)  Plus one of my favourite stories about the early BBC, involving an Archbishop, a bit of Schubert and All-Request Monday. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did putting it together. Happy listening! SHOWNOTES: LOTS of extra things you could listen to if you hunger for more... Hear the Radio 4 Archive Hour that Simon made with Sean Street on the first Sound Archives Librarian Marie Slocombe: https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/archive-hour--marie-slocombe-and-the-bbc-sound-archive/zvrf7nb Simon mentions this 1942 programme, 'You Have Been Listening to a Recording' featuring Lynton Fletcher and Marie Slocombe: https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/you-have-been-listening-to-a-recording--part-3/znsm47h Hear even more of Lynton Fletcher on this 1941 literary lunch talk: https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/foyles-literary-luncheon--the-bbc-recorded-programmes-department/z72kf4j Hear an extended interview with Marie Slocombe here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/marie-slocombe--sound-archives-librarian-1937-1972/zr4vmfr  The London Sound Survey is quite something - the late Ian Rawes curated it, from BBC discs including the first location recordings. See the dates down the left, and have a listen to the everyday 1930s: https://www.soundsurvey.org.uk/index.php/survey/radio_actuality_recordings A reminder that this podcast is nothing to do with the BBC. We're talking about them, not with their permission. And in fact the BBC we're talking about isn't today's BBC - it's the British Broadcasting Company. The Corporation is not behind this in any way. It's a one-man operation - so thanks for supporting on patreon.com/paulkerensa if you do. Or one-off tips if you prefer are much appreciated too! ko-fi.com/paulkerensa.  But the free way to support us is to share this podcast with others. Help it grow by helping others find us. That will keep us going as long as... well maybe not quite as long as the BBC's archives, but we can make a start. Original music by Will Farmer. Archive material is so old it’s generally out of copyright. BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Thanks for listening. Do rate/review if you like, if you like it. And subscribe so that you get future episodes, including... NEXT TIME: News, the first daily weather and SOS broadcasts in late March 1923 - with more great guests. https://www.paulkerensa.com/oldradio

Episode 64 dwells in 1st-16th March 1923: the last days of the first BBC HQ of Magnet House. So this packed show takes a walk from Magnet House to the studios at Marconi House, just as the early broadcasters would have done. We take a look at the early broadcasting philosophy of first staff - "the upper side of taste" (no grizzly murders or divorce cases). We revisit broadcasts from the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition and head on tour with a laundry basket packed with sheet music (just don't send it to the laundrette like they did). Hear the voices of a few who were there: Rex Palmer, Peter Eckersley, Arthur Burrows, Cecil Lewis, A.E. Thompson, Percy Edgar, Leonard Crocombe... that's about 10% of the entire BBC workforce at the time! You'll also hear a bit from Radio 4's Justin Webb... ...our main special guest is JEFFREY HOLLAND, star of Hi-de-Hi, You Rang M'Lord, Oh Doctor Beeching... and he tells how he even played Private Pike AND Private Walker onstage with the original Dad's Army cast of Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier and Clive Dunn. It's a packed episode, but then a lot happened in early March 1923! Next time, late March 1923... Stay tuned to this frequency.   LINKS: Find out more about Jeffrey Holland's tour as Stan Laurel at https://www.jeffreyholland.co.uk/   For more on Leonard Crocombe/Justin Webb, here's our previous episode of the podcast about grandfather and grandson, both BBC stars 100 years apart: https://pod.fo/e/120761     The complete Leonard Crocombe record can be heard on AusRadioHistorian's Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/6N1-hGjP_2M   London Calling, Jimmy Perry's 1922-set sitcom about the early BBC starring Jeffrey Holland, can be heard on Youtube: https://youtu.be/qFSTtd69U_0 For the full video of my walk from Magnet House to Marconi House (as was), join us on Patreon - join then cancel if you like! Here's the video: https://www.patreon.com/posts/magnet-house-to-68777192 ...that all helps support the podcast and keeps us in books and web hosting. One-off tips delightfully welcomed too! At http://ko-fi.com/paulkerensa I'm booking in a mini-tour this year recreating the first religious broadcast, and/or a more general talk/show/presentation An Evening of (Very) Old Radio. More info at https://www.paulkerensa.com/tour or just email me on https://www.paulkerensa.com/contact.php - you can use that for any podcast comments, heckles, anecdotes etc too. We must bring back Airwave Memories/Firsthand Memories too. Record a thing or write some words about your early broadcast memories, if you like. Get in touch! Oh and we're nothing to do with the BBC. Did I mention that? BBC content is used with kind permission, BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Original music is by Will Farmer.   Next time we'll have the tale of late March with the first daily weather broadcasts, SOSs and an interview with a former BBC archivist. ...Subscribe so you don't miss it! www.podfollow.com/bbcentury

On episode 63, we've reached 6th March 1923: Glasgow 5SC launches - the BBC's first station in Scotland. It's not Scotland's first radio station (see episode 48 for the tale of how Daimler, Glasgow Motor Show and a couple of electrical shop owners made a couple of pre-BBC pop-up stations). But this sixth BBC station mattered to John Reith more than any other. He'd grown up in Glasgow. His mum came to visit the radio station. He opened the station himself - apart from the bagpipes playing Hey Johnny Cope. You have two fantastic guides through this episode: GRAHAM STEWART, a BBC journalist whose new book Scotland On-Air is out very soon. Details at https://wiki.scotlandonair.com/wiki/Main_Page + TONY CURRIE, of Radio Six International, and author of The Radio Times Story. Details at https://www.radiosix.com/   SHOWNOTES: - I mention an early 1980s children's retrospective that Kathleen Garscadden appears on. It's called Jubilee! 60 Years of Children's Programmes, it's from 1983, it's got Floella Benjamin, Sarah Greene, Mike Read, Keith Chegwin. Tony Hart and many more, including Auntie Cyclone herself, it's fab, and it's here to watch: https://youtu.be/tNZD70HiFsw  - My novel on all this, Auntie and Uncles, is out soon! But not yet. Depending when you read this. More info may be here, unless I've missed Amazon's deadline to upload it, in which case Jeff Bezos might delete this from sale. But it will return! When ready. It's going to be great... https://amzn.to/3EODANc - Support us on www.patreon.com/paulkerensa to keep us afloat and in return get extra writings, videos and ample more! Thanks to all who support us there.  - We're on www.facebook.com/groups/bbcentury, where our Newspaper Detective Andrew Barker is chronicling newspapers on this day 100 years ago. - Follow us on www.twitter.com/bbcentury, where I post LOTS of old radio things. - More on this entire project at www.paulkerensa.com/oldradio - This is not a BBC podcast - we're talking about them (though very much from a favourable viewpoint), not with them. - BBC content is used with kind permission of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved... - ...and preserved. This podcast is the origin story of British broadcasting, told the very slow way - but hopefully in a way that informs, educates and (winks, clicks fingers like the Fonz) entertains. Next time: We're still in March 1923 (a lot happened in March 1923) with broadcasts from the Ideal Home Exhibition, tales of touring variety acts around the early BBC stations, and a fab guest in Hi-de-Hi's Jeffrey Holland. Subscribe to get this podcast as soon as one's uploaded - we plan on being here a while yet: www.podfollow.com/bbcentury  

On 22 February 1923, the BBC tried something new: the first broadcast political debate. What could possibly go wrong? Let's find out! And we chat to Reeta Chakrabarti - a mainstay of BBC news for over 30 years. She's anchored news from the studio, broadcast from Ukraine, and recently voiced radio pioneer Hilda Matheson on the BBC100 Prom. We talk about her career highlights and the place of BBC journalism in the world today. Back in 1923, we're telling the origin story of British broadcasting, landmark moment by landmark moment, so this episode includes: That first political debate: Sir Ernest Benn and J.T. Walton Newbold MP on "That Communism would be a Danger to the Good of the People” - but the audience are a little one-sided, and bring not only heckles but a rousing musical finale - The Red Flag. There are complaints... Thanks to the press of the day, we recreate the key moments of that first political debate for (we presume) the first time ever. Back at HQ, Caroline Banks joins to head up the female clerical staff. The BBC listings ban continues in the press. Pip, Squeak and Wilfred make the jump from a Daily Mirror cartoon strip to on-air children's programme. The launch of Musical, Dramatic, Literary and Film Talks. The first broadcast in Welsh (hear Rev Gwilym Davies). The first daytime programmes... and more. It was quite a week! Next time: Early March 1923, the BBC gains its sixth station and Scotland gains official broadcasting, as Glasgow 5SC launches. We'll bring the speeches and juicy details. Support us? £5/mth on Patreon.com/paulkerensa keeps us going. And/or share this if you like it - find us fresh ears! We're on Facebook and Twitter, and a reminder that this is nothing to do with the BBC. It's a one-man non-BBC project. Part of that also includes Paul's new novel, Auntie and Uncles: The Bizarre Birth of the BBC (out this spring, ish): https://amzn.to/3ZsF335 Another part is Paul's live show on early radio: this year that includes 'The Beeb: Year 1 - 1923 Repeated' (a stand-up history show whizzing through that first year) + a re-enactment of the first religious broadcast. To book either, or with any comments on the podcast, get in touch. Subscribte/Rate/Review if you like this episode - thanks! paulkerensa.com

Welcome to Season 5! Centenary specials behind us, we deep-dive back into mid-Feb 1923, in our moment-by-moment story of British broadcasting's birth. On episode 61, we hear from: GARETH GWYNN on his new sitcom on the launch of broadcasting in Wales, The Ministry of Happiness (catch it on BBC Sounds)... ANDREW BARKER on the BBC listings ban... and DAVID JERVIS on his grandfather 'The Tame Wizard', Capt H.J. Round. Hear an excerpt here, or the full section in David's recording on Youtube. And some of the landmark moments we cover include: Feb 13th: Cardiff 5WA launches - hear clips from The Ministry of Happiness, including a sneak-peek of episode 2. Feb 14th: The Pall Mall Gazette stops printing BBC listings, after a feud between press + broadcasters. Our Newspaper Detective will tell you what, why and when. Feb 15th: The listings ban comes in... Feb 16th: As Shakespeare is first broadcast, one of The Pall Mall Gazette's most famous advertisers comes to the rescue. Feb 17th: The first broadcast appeal, for the Winter Distress League. Feb 20th: Sir Oliver Lodge broadcasts... and John Reith battles the press, and gets an idea in the process. The Radio Times idea is born.  Subscribe, share, rate, review, tell your friends, join us on Facebook, Twitter and Patreon - and thanks if you support us there. ...There on Patreon you can have Cecil Lewis' Broadcasting from Within read to you (with explanatory interruptions). Hear an extract this episode from the grandson of the chap being mentioned.   FINAL THINGS: - Paul's new novel Auntie and Uncles will be out this Spring. Hopefully. That date may shift. Still writing it. Details: https://amzn.to/3zIY9Hq - Paul's got two touring showatunities this year - dates TBC but for now we want BOOKINGS! The First Religious Broadcast: Re-enacted... AND The Beeb: Year 1 are both available. Fancy either at your place? A village hall? A church? A club/group/society? Get in touch: https://www.paulkerensa.com/contact.php - Oh and we're nothing to do with the BBC. Never heard of them.   Next time we'll pick up the tale on February 22nd, for the BBC's first political debate (it doesn't go to plan), and guest Reeta Chakrabarti. Don't miss it. podfollow.com/bbcentury