Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Radio 4,12 May 2023,28 mins

Grace Bumbry, Don Short, Dame Rosemary Cramp, Wee Willie Harris

Last Word

Available for over a year

Matthew Bannister on The opera singer Grace Bumbry who broke down barriers by becoming the first black performer at the Bayreuth Festival. Don Short, the showbusiness journalist who coined the term “Beatlemania” and became good friends with the Fab Four. Dame Rosemary Cramp, the archaeologist who deepened our understanding of the Anglo Saxon period. And Wee Willie Harris, the flamboyant rock’n’roller name checked in Ian Dury’s song “Reasons To Be Cheerful” Interviewee: David Brewer Interviewee: Daisy Dunn Interviewee: Professor Joanna Story Interviewee: Jonathan Wingate Interviewee: Tony Thorpe Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies Archive used: Royal Visit to Kenya - First Stage of the Commonwealth Tour, British Pathe, 1952; A taste of Beatlemania in the 1960s, CBS News, CBS YouTube channel, uploaded 21/01/2014; Don Short interview about the writing of his memoir 'The Beatles and Beyond', The Surrey Edit, YouTube uploaded 24/03/2020; Rosemary Cramp interview, On Site, BBC Radio, 03/09/1967; Professor Rosemary Cramp interview, PM, BBC Radio 4, 29/05/1979; Rosemary Cramp, Professor of Archaeology at Durham University, talks to Sue Macgregor about her life and work, BBC Radio 4, 08/12/1988; Meet The Archaeologist: Rosemary Cramp, YouTube uploaded 04/07/2014; Wee Willie Harris – Still Rocking, Celluloid Tapestry, YouTube uploaded 29/06/2023.

Programme Website
More episodes