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Archive Pioneers

The BBC was nearly ten years old when it installed its first recording machine, but tapes and discs soon began to pile up in Broadcasting House.

Through broadcasts, internal BBC interviews and recordings never before released in full, some of the BBC's archive pioneers explain how - and why - they set about collecting, selecting and organising voices and sounds in the 1930s and 40s. The department was variously named over the years, as its role in preserving the BBC's output grew and evolved, but today it is best known as the BBC Sound Archive.

Foyles Literary Luncheon - The BBC Recorded Programmes Department
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Foyles Literary Luncheon - The BBC Recorded Programmes Department

Lynton Fletcher shows off the BBC Sound Library to a literary audience.

You Have Been Listening to a Recording - Part 3
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You Have Been Listening to a Recording - Part 3

Lynton Fletcher & Marie Slocombe on the BBC's growing collection of historic recordings.

Marie Slocombe - Sound Archives Librarian 1937-1972
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Marie Slocombe - Sound Archives Librarian 1937-1972

In conversation with the first BBC Sound Archive librarian.

Arthur Phillips - BBC Memories 1929-1974
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Arthur Phillips - BBC Memories 1929-1974

From page boy to chief producer over 45 years at the BBC.

Archive Hour - Marie Slocombe and the BBC Sound Archive
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Archive Hour - Marie Slocombe and the BBC Sound Archive

The story of the temp who started the BBC Sound Archive.

Ludwig Koch and the Music of Nature
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Ludwig Koch and the Music of Nature

How a boyhood hobby led to pioneering recordings of the natural world.