You Have Been Listening to a Recording | Part 3

In this programme, which was made to explain the work of the Recorded Programmes Department, Lynton Fletcher and Marie Slocombe give the audience a guided tour of some of the items they have collected in the Library of Historical Recordings. These include the voices of radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi and RMS Titanic survivor Charles Lightoller (the full recording of which is available in our Survivors of the Titanic collection), and a recording (believed to be from 1907) of music hall star Vesta Tilley. Slocombe also explains that, in addition to these well-known figures, the library is preserving the voices of ordinary people for future generations.

The archive pioneers aimed to record local traditions that they thought might soon die out. Included in this programme is a 1935 recording of the Dunmow Flitch Trial, in which an Essex jury questions young married couples and awards a side of bacon (the 'flitch') to the pair judged to be the happiest.