BBC Monitoring

Image: The Listening Room at Wood Norton in February 1941.

Created in 1939 on the outset of WW2, its purpose was, and still is, to gather and interpret international news as rapidly and economically as possible.

Initially employing several hundred 'monitors', many of them refugees, the service rapidly expanded so that it could 'listen' 24 hours a day to all the European languages likely to be of wartime use. The BBC and wider world quickly recognised the uniqueness and value of BBC Monitoring, calling it in 1940 'a modern Tower of Babel'. Churchill was an avid customer of the service, and would ring up in the middle of the night and ask (of Hitler) 'What's that fellow been saying?'

The organisation played an important role in helping observers keep track of developments post WW2, including the Cold War, the disintegration of the Iron Curtain and collapse of the Soviet Union. Also monitored were the Falklands conflict, Yugoslav wars and Middle East hostilities. Over the years, BBC Monitoring has innovated and developed, now monitoring over 3,000 sources (across radio, TV, press, internet and news agencies), in 100 languages and across 150 countries. Its purpose remains to observe, understand and explain the world's media, and so help Britain and international audiences follow and interpret key events.

Initially based in London then Evesham, BBC Monitoring moved in 1943 to Caversham Park near Reading, where it was based until moving to Broadcasting House London in 2018.