Off the Wireless and on the Box

Friday Night is Music Night - On the Wireless and Off the Box - Ken Bruce presents a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the BBC Light Programme.
When peace came to Europe in 1945 the BBC set about fulfilling a promise to its listeners that within 90 days of VE day they would return the airwaves to near normal and introduce improved services. On the Radio Times cover of 27th July the then Director General - William Haley - announced the roll out of 6 regional Home Services and a brand new venture, The Light Programme.

Haley said "It will be built for the civilian listener. Developing its own special character it will, we hope, be one of the most successful ventures the BBC has undertaken. It is necessary to stress this idea of development. ....the way must always be open for something better and something new. ... The BBC must not cease to innovate. Listeners will be tolerant towards experiment (even though not always successful) for it is only out of ceaseless experiment that still better broadcasting will come. Radio is still a new art"

The Light Programme was launched on 29th July 1945 . The first sound on the network was an arrangement of Oranges and Lemons by the BBC Theatre Orchestra - an ensemble of BBC musicians who would later be re-named and re-grouped as the BBC Concert Orchestra . The Light Programme - much loved, much missed, though often derided for being ... well... "light"... but during its 22 years on air its schedules were crammed with talented musicians, writers, actors and comedians. It was here we first Listened with Mother, Journeyed Into Space, took our Pick of the Pops asked Twenty Questions and passed the odd 30 minutes with one Antony Aloysius St John Hancock.

The Light Programme was to last until September 1967 when it split to form the brand new Radios 1 and 2. In our concert tonight Ken Bruce curates us through the Light Programme archives with the help of the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Gavin Sutherland with guests Roy Hudd, Kitty Whately(mezzo soprano), Simon Butteriss(baritone) and Tim Fitzhigham and Duncan Walsh-Atkins .

The concert was first broadcast in January 2015 as part of the London Southbank's Changing Britain season - looking at British History of the last 70 years.