Radio 2 50th Birthday

Stand back as Ken Bruce wheels in the birthday cake and lights the candles for Radio 2's 50th anniversary!

In September 1967 we'd only just recovered from the long hot summer of love. Whilst BBC television experimented with a new fangled idea of colour pictures, BBC Radio closed the fader for the last time on the Light Programme and launched a broadcasting revolution. This major re-structuring brought two brand new babies to the BBC family - Radios 1 and 2.

In this special concert Ken Bruce aided and abetted by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Stephen Bell recall some of the great programmes and moments of Radio 2's long history. This covers music, comedy, religion, sport and news and current affairs. We've been waking you up, driving you home, informing, educating, entertaining and tucking you up in bed for the last half century. Presenters past and present gather at the Hackney Empire in London for a good old catch up and to remember shows such as Open House; Breakfast Special; Late Night Extra; the News Huddlines; Waggoner's Walk; Sing Something Simple and many, many more.

Our guests include Laura Wright (former Radio 2 Chorister of the Year); Tom Solomon(Radio 2 Voice of Musical Theatre) and Matilda Lloyd (Radio 2 Young Brass Soloist). Plus a singer songwriter whose pen and ink has provided classic hit songs throughout all five decades. He's written for nearly all Radio 2's mainstream artists over the years such as Diana Ross, Julio Iglesias, Tina Turner, The Hollies, Leo Sayer, The Carpenters, Celine Dion and Aretha Franklin. He is Albert Hammond - and tonight he'll perform a selection of classic Radio 2 hits with the full BBC Concert Orchestra.

First broadcast in September 2017.