Sue Cook and the team answer listeners' historical queries and celebrate the way in which we all 'make' history.
Series 13
Programme 12
4 July 2006
Southall Film Studios
Making History listeners Terry Tkachuk and Bill Cooke's passion is English cinema and one film studio in particular: the Southall Film Studios. Dylan Winter went to meet them to find out more about their research. You can see the results of their work on the Southall Film Studios History Project website.
Making History also consulted Ian Christie, professor of Film and Media History at Birkbeck College.
The Jeanette Expedition
A listener in the Isle of Wight came across a gravestone at the cemetery where he works which made reference to an Alfred Sweetman who perished during the Jeanette Arctic Expedition of 1880. Making History consulted Bob Headland at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, who explained more about this failed American expedition using the British-built Jeanette.
Comprehensive accounts of the expedition (including images) can be found at the following:
The Lunar Society
A Making History listener claims a family link to the 18th-century businessman Matthew Boulton. Boulton was a founding member of the Lunar Society, a group of thinkers and businessmen who met each month in Birmingham and who were described by some as the intellectual powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution.
Making History consulted Dr Chris Upton of Newman College in Birmingham.
Vanessa has presented science and current affairs programmes for BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for BBC Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.
Contact Making History
Send your comments and questions for future programmes to: Making History BBC Radio 4 PO Box 3096 Brighton BN1 1PL
Vanessa has presented science and current affairs programmes for BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for BBC Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald. 