Archives for April 2011

[L to R] Barry Letts as Joseph and Frazer Hines as Jan in the 1957 BBC serialisation of The Silver Sword

The first time I saw my father's book The Silver Sword being transferred to another medium was in 1957. I was 7, and Dad took me and my older sister Helen up to Shepherd's Bush, where a black-and-white television version was being filmed. We watched the young actors scrabbling through the studio rubble, and I remember being completely astonished that the producer called everybody "Darling".

Over 50 years later, a question was sent to the Daily Mail's 'Answers to Correspondents' page: "Does anyone remember a TV programme from the Fifties about children looking for their parents in war-torn Europe? I think it was called The Silver Sword". One of the excellent replies came from Frazer Hines, who wrote, "I played Jan, a ten-year-old Polish tearaway. This was in the days when families sat down together for Sunday lunch then watched the afternoon serial. The Silver Sword was a popular show, and even today people will come up to me and say, 'Aren't you off the TV?' When I say, 'What, Emmerdale?', they say, 'No, that thing about the sword.'"

So I was excited when I and my brother Andrew were invited to Manchester to watch the recording of a new radio adaptation by Chris Wallis. "You probably know the book better than anyone else," said Charlotte Riches, the producer. "We want you to tell us if anything doesn't ring true."

I watched fascinated as the group worked fast to get the three episodes recorded in three days. Stage Managers hunted for - or created - sounds of houses being blown up, dogs barking, dustbin lids banging, a silver sword falling to the ground. In any scene involving the youngest child 'Bronia', Charlotte ran quickly between the actors by their microphone and her chair in the darkened studio (the number of minutes children can work without a break are strictly timed). Accuracy was a priority: the Polish children called their father "Tatush", and Jimpy the cockerel was "Yimpy".

In the small actors' room I met the cast and discovered that when not acting, 'Edek' is a carpenter and 'Ruth' a writer; 'Jan', who had starred in West is West, had just got off a plane from America, and 'Bronia' (always accompanied by one parent) much preferred a day at the studio to a day in school. I even got to act one line where a 'woman' was needed! - while my brother became a lorry driver and then provided his beautiful warm voice as the announcer at the beginning and end of each episode.

But all was not straightforward. I felt that one scene in Chris's script clashed badly with the spirit of the book. Chris had inserted a very explicit scene where Ivan takes the children, who need shoes for the next stage of their journey, to a huge dark warehouse, containing 'a mountain of shoes' next to a 'mountain of teeth' and 'a mountain of spectacles.' I felt that this graphic concentration camp image had no place in a play that was otherwise very faithful to the gentle spirit of the original. I wonder what you will think of the compromise we reached in Episode 2.

There seems to be much interest in The Silver Sword at the moment - a year before the centenary of Dad's birth. Perhaps this story about refugees, and the courage of children in perilous circumstances they cannot control, is as relevant as ever. Options are out for a stage version and a TV film, and it is currently featured as one of five classic war stories for children in Once Upon a Wartime, an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum.

It could be that this new radio version will bring the story to new young listeners, and will remind their parents of a book they may remember as having been important to them in their own childhood. Oh - and during the making of this version, nobody called anybody "Darling"!

Jane Serraillier is the daughter of Ian Serraillier, author of The Silver Sword

• The Silver Sword starts on Radio 4 Extra on Sunday 1 May.

The wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten was broadcast live on BBC Radio and highlights were also screened on television later that day. A mute film showing the royal couple leaving Westminster Abbey and their appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, was originally broadcast with narration delivered live from the TV studios.

Paul Murphy is the acting editor of the Radio 4 blog

• The picture above is from the BBC Archive. The caption reads: "Royal Wedding: 1947 20/11/1947 © BBC picture shows - Frank Gillard and Brian Johnston at the wedding of HM Princess Elizabeth to the Duke of Edinburgh."
• James Naughtie leads BBC Radio's live coverage of the Marriage of HRH Prince William of Wales to Catherine Middleton, with Edward Stourton in Westminster Abbey.

With Union Jack flags fluttering the length of Regent Street, London, you can certainly tell that there's some sort of celebration in the air.

At Radio 4 Extra, we aren't planning to broadcast any weddings, royal or otherwise, but as an archive network on which comedy is a high proportion of our output, we do like to fly the flag to celebrate the lives of great entertainers. Throughout May there are several anniversaries which we will be marking:

On 16th May, it will be the 75th birthday of comedian Roy Hudd, and in a tribute to Roy, we have scheduled a 3 hour Roy Hudd special, I Did It My Way, in which Roy chooses six of his own radio comedy programmes. These include: The News Huddlines, The Newly Discovered Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, Huddwinks, It's a Funny Business and Like They've Never Been Gone.

The brilliant humorist/writer/musician Miles Kington died 3 years ago. On 13th May this year, it will be the 70th anniversary of Miles's birth. To commemorate his contribution to entertainment, we will be broadcasting a selection of his radio work: Instant Sunshine, Playing a Dangerous Game and Kington's Last Tapes (poignant recordings of Miles made only days before he died).

There are two centenaries to celebrate in May:

28th May is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Thora Hird and 27th May is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vincent Price. On Radio 4 Extra, you'll be able to hear work from both of these great entertainers.

And finally, the last of our May celebrations - on Saturday 28th, it will be the 60th anniversary of The Goon Show.

The Goon Show Preservation Society has planned a "Grand Day Out" to celebrate the first ever broadcast of The Goon Show. This will be held at the pub known as Grafton's which, in the post-war days, was a watering-hole for the younger generation of comedians and comedy writers. And it was in Grafton's that "The Goons" were born. The pub is now re-named The Strutton Arms, and there, on 28th May, a commemorative Goons plaque will be unveiled. Goons fans will mingle, share Goons anecdotes, read scripts, and apparently a message from possibly the best-known Goons fan, HRH The Prince of Wales, will be read out.

Radio 4 Extra's celebration will be more modest: on the actual day, we will be broadcasting Goon Again, a 2001 re-recording of Spike Milligan scripts broadcast to mark the 50th anniversary of The Goon Show. Harry Secombe's part was played by his son Andrew; Jon Glover and Jeffrey Holland took on the parts played by Peter Sellers and Spike; vocals were performed by Ray Ellington's son, Lance, and the announcer was Andrew Timothy's son, Christopher. All very much kept in the family. This will be followed by Eric Sykes introducing The Affair of the Lone Banana, and the 3 hour special will end on The Last Goon Show of All, which, as part of the 50th anniversary of the BBC, was simulcast on radio and television in 1972. Sadly, it was indeed the last time those three comedy geniuses were to work together.

The Goon Show is one of what I call The Big Five classic comedies we regularly broadcast; the others are Hancock's Half Hour, Round the Horne, The Navy Lark and Take It From Here. These shows are regularly scheduled alongside many other classic comedies, which on Radio 4 Extra, we have kept in the same comedy zone, and at the same time as they were on Radio 7: 8.00am, 12 noon and 7.00pm.

Unsurprisingly, these are our peak listening times. I hope you enjoy the shows.

Mary Kalemkerian is Head of Programmes at BBC Radio 4 Extra

At Radio 4, we've been trying to make the experience of listening to programmes on the internet as comfortable as listening live on a radio set. For far too long, listening online has meant things like retreating to a dark home office where your computer lives, or precariously balancing your laptop on a kitchen table to catch up on The Archers.

You've been able to listen on the move with our ever-growing set of podcasts, but that normally requires you to transfer files from a computer to a gadget.

So, we're delighted that we can now offer the huge Desert Island Discs archive to listen in an easier and more portable way: on your mobile phone.

You can listen to more than 500 programmes (as podcasts if you prefer) and can even search for particular types of people: all the politicians who have appeared on the programme, all the novelists or just comedians.

We're hearing, from your comments on Twitter and Facebook, that once you start exploring the website it becomes very addictive, and that's what we have been aiming for!

There's something particularly magical about exploring the archive on your phone, however. All that history - pardon the cliché - in the palm of your hand! Whether you're at home, waiting for a bus or relaxing in the long-awaited spring sunshine, you can listen to the full interview* with one of your favourite public figures - Kathy Burke, Rolf Harris, Sir David Frost...

To use the mobile version of the Desert Island Discs archive, you'll need a phone with a web browser and reasonably large screen. It's compatible with almost all "smartphones" (to be technical, it works on Android, Blackberry, iPhone and N-series Nokia devices among many others). Just open the web browser on your phone, and use this address: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/desertislanddiscs

I hope you enjoy it!

David Jones is a senior producer, Audio & Music Interactive, BBC Radio 4

James Simcock, the executive producer for DID on mobile adds:

"As the BBC works hard to embrace the explosion in mobile internet use, some gems such as Desert Island Discs really come into their own. The enforced simplicity of making something work smoothly across a variety of mobile screens is no bad thing and in this instance, it's the breadth of outstanding audio content that is bought to the fore.

As David explains in his post, you no longer need to be confined to any particular space or context to explore these archives - just make sure your battery is well-charged, as it's seriously addictive listening. And a tip for Android users: Long-click to access option to 'download' rather than 'play' file for listening when offline."

Hello again,

I've been reading your comments and feedback on the blog and elsewhere and wanted to respond to some of the points that people have made. I commented last week on the blog and Streetlight2 has identified some of the other things many of you are asking about so I've based my answers around them:

The presenters on 4Extra - what's the thinking behind changing them from the R7 team?

Now that Radio 4 Extra is aligned with Radio 4, the presentation teams are working together. Some of the Radio 4 presenters were keen to work on Radio 4 Extra, which is very different from reading the news on Radio 4! Of course Jim Lee, a stalwart of Radio 7/4Extra, has worked on both networks for over 8 years and Alan Smith, who was with Radio 7 in the early days, is now back with us again. Former Radio 7 presenters will have the occasional presence on 4Extra; in fact you can hear Helen Aitken in a couple of weeks interviewing a comedy troupe performing a Sherlock Holmes spoof.

All of the presenters have other work of course, both on radio and television, and fans of Alex Riley can see him popping up regularly on BBC Three.

What about the lack of drama programming?

The drama remit for Radio 7 was originally to broadcast a minimum of 50 hours per week. As Radio 4 Extra, we committed to a minimum of 55 hours of drama per week, and we actually broadcast more than that. You might be surprised to know that on Radio 4Extra, we broadcast on average of 68 hours per week, including of course the 24-hour overnight repeats.

As Head of Programmes launching Radio 7 over 8 years ago, and faced with a blank sheet of paper, I was keen to schedule longer drama on the archive station, and introduced two 90 minute plays at weekends, plus a 75-minute Woman's Hour archive omnibus on Sundays. The omnibus has been popular, and to build on that we have introduced a second 75 minute omnibus on Saturdays, made up of the previous week's Radio 4 Woman's Hour serial. With adding some new elements to the schedule, we stopped broadcasting the 90 minute drama on Sundays, but brought in the 60 minute children's/family drama slot, commissioning 8 new dramas in the process.

But of course, radio stations evolve and as with any radio station we will continue to review our output.

On Radio 4 Extra I was also keen to retain the 60 minute dramas, daily from Monday to Friday, plus the daily 45 minute dramas. These have included Fortunes of War, Howard's End and Ben Hur, three terrific and substantial dramas, plus currently for Easter, the landmark Dorothy L Sayer's production, The Man Who Would be King, in twelve 45 minute episodes. We have had good feedback on these productions, and are planning to follow-up with the Complete Smiley dramatisations, beginning in May.

The 7th Dimension and Crime and Thriller hours have remained the same, with the 1.00am repeat of the Crime and Thriller Hour being re-instated for the night owls from the week beginning 16 May.

Complaints about broadcasting The Archers, Ambridge Extra and Desert Island Discs. If some of these programs are available on Radio 4, then why put them on Radio 4 Extra?

Following the research and consultation we undertook, the BBC Trust wanted to ensure that there wouldn't be too many changes in the re-branding and in fact 85% of the Radio 4 Extra schedule has remained unchanged.

The Archers and Desert Island Discs are very popular strands, so we decided to build on these strengths to attract Radio 4 listeners (many of whom were/are unaware of the existence of Radio 7).

Regarding The Archers, we considered some archive programming, but with some missing programmes this would be difficult to sustain; we also felt that a repeat of the omnibus was not quite right, so the decision was made to commission a short, new Archers serial - Ambridge Extra. This will be running until the end of June, followed by a summer break.

I was interested to note that in the most recent podcast chart, Ambridge Extra came in at number 2 - just behind Adam and Joe.

When I started Radio 7, archive Desert Island Discs was on my shopping list, and I was keen to group the DID programmes in batches featuring The Comedians, The Actors, The Musicians etc. I have always thought that listeners would value the opportunity to hear archive editions of DID and the launch of 4Extra provides this as does the new DID website, updating information on the castaway, linking into the schedule when possible. For example, we began with children's authors, and when Jacqueline Wilson was last week's castaway, we broadcast one of her readings on the 4 0'Clock Show.

We will be following up with The Authors and The Comedians.

Any change to a network can be difficult to accept, and when the idea was initially mooted to change Radio 7, I admit I had my reservations.

Like some listeners, I was concerned that the station might become too serious.

However, I truly believe that there are many benefits in being so closely aligned with Radio 4. Some fresh ideas have been introduced, but at the same time I feel that we have managed to retain the entertainment essence that launched Radio 7 eight years ago - we continue to bring you great radio comedy and drama.

It would be impossible to please all of our listeners all of the time, but I hope that all of you manage to find entertaining programmes to listen to on Radio 4 Extra most of the time,

Best wishes

Mary

Mary Kalemkerian is Head of Programmes at BBC Radio 4 Extra

• The photograph is from the BBC picture library. The caption reads "Picture shows (l-r) Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Jo Kendall, David Hatch and Bill Oddie, five young comedians from the world-travelled 'Footlights Revue' Cambridge Circus, who star in the new comedy revue series I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, which begins in the BBC Light Programme on Monday 4th October, 1965."

Building on the runaway success of the Friday Night Comedy podcast (featuring The Now Show and The News Quiz), there are now three comedy podcasts on offer from Radio 4.

Yes, the Friday Night Comedy podcast is now being downloaded over a million times each month, putting it at the top of the iTunes podcast charts on a regular basis. You told us you want yet more comedy, so in January we launched Radio 4's Comedy of the Week, featuring a different comedy from the Radio 4 schedule each week.

And a fortnight ago, we made What's So Funny? with Rufus Hound available as a Radio 4 Extra podcast. We think this might be the first ever magazine show about comedy, bringing you up to date with some of the latest programmes, films, tours, gags and comedy gossip.

Wherever you are in the world, you now have 90 minutes of Radio 4 comedy to download and keep every week.

Jane Berthoud is Head of BBC Radio Comedy

• Visit the Radio 4 Comedy homepage
• These are the Radio 4 podcasts
• And these are Radio 4 Extra's podcasts
• And finally, have a look at all of the BBC's podcasts

Awkward legend, vegetarian curmudgeon, my generation's Proust: Morrissey is on Front Row tonight at 1915. It's not his first time on the programme (listen to his previous appearance from February 2009) but it's no less dramatic for that. Broadcasting House was all aquiver this afternoon and presenter John Wilson tweeted excitedly:

and

Morrissey has just been confirmed for Glastonbury in June and the Hop Farm Festival in July.

Steve Bowbrick used to edit the Radio 4 blog and now edits 'About the BBC'

• Front Row, Radio 4's live arts magazine programme is on at 1915 weekdays, right after The Archers.
• Follow @BBCFrontRow and @JohnWilson14 on Twitter.

We reported briefly at the weekend about the cancellation of Any Questions (and, as a consequence, of Any Answers). Just as the blog was wondering what happens in these situations (is there, for example, a whole alternative universe of programmes in reserve for every eventuality?) Katy Hubbard, Presentation Editor for 4 and 4Extra, popped up on PM with the answers.

Paul Murphy is the acting editor of the Radio 4 blog

• The picture is from the BBC archive and the caption reads: "Picture shows - European Presentation Department, which is responsible for studio and transmission arrangements.Mr J Foreman gives instructions to a studio manager. 1943"
• Transport allowing, Any Questions will be back on Friday at 2000 (and again on Saturday at 1310, followed by Any Answers at 1400).

The Radio 4 blog popped over to the Woman's Hour studio to grab a few pictures of the chocolate brownies that Claire Burnet made on the programme this morning. The blog is pleased to be able to report that the brownies were truly delicious.

Paul Murphy is the acting editor of the Radio 4 blog

• The recipe for Claire Burnet's chocolate brownies
• The next Cook The Perfect feature is on Easter Monday when Shepherd's Pie with Lindsay Bareham takes centre stage. You can send in questions for Lindsay or share your tips via the Woman's Hour website.
• Previous features on Cook The Perfect...
• The BBC Radio 4 photo group on Flickr

'Any Question' from Taunton. Major Lewis Hastings, Lady Violet Bonham-Carter, Ralph Wightman and St. John Ervine, the team of experts answering questions put to them by members of the audience during the broadcast from the Corfield Hall, Taunton. 1 October 1948.

You'll have noticed that this week's Any Questions (and, as a consequence, Any Answers) was cancelled and replaced by a programme of material from the archive (and an extra Bookclub). So I thought I'd bring you some Any Questions pictures from the BBC picture library.

The captions are the originals and you'll notice that the third is from 1941 and thus precedes the first transmission of Any Questions by some years - it must be from a predecessor programme, although it's not clear which one. All three pictures are from before Radio 4 itself came into being in 1967. It's fun to look up the great and the good of their era - and you'll notice that Ralph Wightman ('wildlife expert') appears twice - clearly a man of substance.

Rt Hon Gaitskell, M.P., talking to Mr C.T. Melling, CBE, M.Sc. Tech., (President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers) and Mrs. Melling; Mr. R.D.A Marriott, Assistant Director of Sound Broadcasting talks to Ralph Wightman. One of the events to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the BBC was the production of 'Any Questions' on Friday 16th November 1962 from former home of the BBC in Savoy Hill.

Margery Fry, Julian Huxley, Commander Campbell, Robert Graves, CEM Joad and WDH McCullough, 20 June 1941.

Paul Murphy is acting editor of the Radio 4 blog

• Transport allowing, Any Questions will be back next Friday at 2000 (and again on Saturday at 1310, followed by Any Answers at 1400).

Front Row reports on The Pale King by American writer David Foster Wallace which is being published posthumously today, following the 46-year-old American author's long battle with depression and eventual suicide in 2008.

Arts editor Will Gompertz on what made Wallace's writing so special, and why many credit him with reinventing the great American novel.

Paul Murphy is the acting editor of the Radio 4 blog

• Kirsty Lang reports on the publication of The Pale King on Front Row tonight at 19:15 on BBC Radio 4
• The pitfalls of posthumous publishing
• The photo of David Foster Wallace is by Steve Rhodes taken in 2006 in San Francisco. Some rights reserved.

Jack de Manio, 1967: "Radio's breakfast-time look at life around the country and across the world, introduced by Jack de Manio."

You've read those stories about children brought up by wolves (sometimes monkeys). Children shaped by the most unorthodox of upbringings.

I was brought up by Radio 4. I tell people this and they laugh. But I mean it.

I was four when Radio 4 was founded and seven when it was overhauled by Tony Whitby (a man I'd love to have met) and became essentially the station we listen to today. By then I was already a pretty solid listener. The voices of that era - Ebdon, De Manio, Robinson - fill my early memories, triggering regular Pavlovian twitches. Radio 4 is the sound of my childhood.

And as I get older, the evidence that I really wasn't paying attention to anything else is accumulating. I squeaked through school and I didn't so much attend the Polytechnic of Central London as glance off it, leaving hardly a trace.

Radio 4 was with me throughout: standing in for what others were acquiring more formally in lecture halls and libraries, providing the framework for what I now laughingly call my intellect. What I know is Radio 4-shaped.

Consequently I know a bit about almost everything. And the layout of the world in my head came from Analysis, The World Tonight, You & Yours, The Afternoon Play, From Our Own Correspondent, The Week in Westminster. Today of course, but also Week Ending, Stop the Week, The Hitchhikers Guide, King Street Junior, The Archers and the unnumbered documentary features (I believe Radio 4's documentary features to be the secret, intellectual backbone of Britain). Radio 4 is an education in a box, a correspondence course in everything.

For forty years I've soaked up the humane, broadminded, curious, generous, always surprising (and hardly ever pompous, snooty or humourless) chatter of Radio 4, so when I fell into the job of editing the station's blog, I could hardly have been happier. It was like going home. And now that I'm moving on - to edit 'About the BBC' and the blog that goes with it - I'm going to indulge myself and pick out some of my favourite posts from the 437 published here since February 2009.

Right at the very beginning, Mark Damazer used the blog to highlight Jenni Murray's compelling Woman's Hour interview with Sharon Shoesmith, the head of social services at the centre of the Baby P case. It got people talking. It was just what I hoped for from the new blog.

I loved the three posts John Dryden wrote about his amazing location drama production Six Suspects. Between the Spring and Autumn of 2009, the Farming Today bees settled on the blog for a few months and we were all transfixed.

The radio drama team behind Radio 4's awesome Our Mutual Friend lovingly documented the process for the blog. Archers Week was a high point. Sixteen blog posts by actors, writers, producers and engineers. Scriptwriter Tim Stimpson's narrative graph was especially cool.

Our friends at the Radio 4 Appeal made many appearances on the blog and, although I don't have the brass neck to claim the credit, the amount raised by the Christmas Appeal went up by 50% during the period. Draw your own conclusions.

There was the time I hung out in a BH lift with David Cameron and when 6 Music crashed Radio 4 and Lisa Jardine's chocolate cake recipe.

Mark Damazer's departure (and his exit interview with Paddy O'Connell) and Gwyneth Williams' arrival.

The Reith Lectures were always a big deal on the blog, we published Roger Bolton's lead interview from Feedback every week, including unedited versions like this on the departure of Sir Michael Lyons as chair of the BBC Trust. There were many live events - like Eddie Mair's Taliban debate and this Woman's Hour balloon debate (Margaret Thatcher, Barbara Castle and Mary Wollstonecraft were thrown from the basket).

We had cage fighting, A History of the World in 100 Objects (of course), the funkiest documentary in Radio 4 history, Melvyn Bragg's dog Marcel and many bulletins from the management, like this one from Mark Friend about keeping podcasts available for longer.

Ed Reardon gave us his four-part journal of a most miserable Christmas (in character), Thought for the Day's editor told us how she secured The Pope, we heard some brand new skiffle, and learnt the height of Loxley Hall. There were many amazing pictures from the archive.

The Radio 4 blog is a collection of writing about Britain's most amazing radio station - by the people that make it - and I am hugely proud to have had a part in creating it. Please stay tuned under the new proprietor and, if you have been, thanks for listening.

Steve Bowbrick is the editor of About the BBC

The Afternoon Play, Titanium, marks the 50th anniversary of Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's first manned spaceflight. The story is told through the eyes of Gagarin's training partner Gherman Titov, the man who so nearly could have been the first man into space.

Peter Snow brings the events around Gagarin's historic flight to life through the pages of the Daily Telegraph for April 13th 1961 in Random Edition.

Paul Murphy is acting editor of the Radio 4 blog.

• Listen to Titamium at 14:15 today and for seven days after that on the on the Radio 4 website
• George Carey's documentary Knocking on Heaven's Door tells the bizarre story and motivation behind the Russian space programme. You can see it on BBC Four this week
• Caption info image: "12 Apr 1961: RUSSIA - APRIL 12: Portrait of Yuri GAGARIN before his departure in the spaceship VOSTOK 1 for the first manned flight to space."
• Elisabeth Mahoney's Guardian radio review of Random Edition praises the programme's use of archive as "neat and clever" and presenter Peter Snow's obvious enthusiasm for the subject.
• The cosmonaut training centre outside Moscow where Major Gagarin prepared for his flight is still in use today and featured in Steve Rosenberg's report this morning. Listen to Gagarin's glory remembered on the Today website.

Radio 4 Extra is almost one week old - and we've all been delighted to read far more publicity for the network than we ever expected. Our notice boards are groaning with press cuttings of previews and reviews from a wide variety of newspapers across the UK. We also made a number of feature pages too - which has all helped to raise awareness of the rebranded network.

On our launch day. Russell Davies took us on fascinating journey through the history of radio panel games. Let's Get Quizzical was very well-received, and those of you who enjoyed it can look forward to the second part of this entertaining series on Saturday.

The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang dramatisation also proved to be popular, and I notice that our next new children's drama commission, Elidor, is one of next week's Radio Choices in the Radio Times. Alan Garner's magical novel and the dark world of Elidor is a definite pick of the week for me...

Old favourites - like Hancock and Garrison Keillor's Radio Show - got favourable mentions in the press too.

So now it's on to our second week of broadcasting, when lovers of radio drama can look forward to My Cousin Rachel (Daphne Du Maurier), Howard's End and Torchwood.

Amongst the 10 hours-plus of comedy per day you can enjoy Ed Reardon's Week, Arthur Smith's Balham Bash, up and coming comedy group The Penny Dreadfuls, Hancock's War - and for fans of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue there's a treat from 1982 - a programme which includes the late and much-missed Willie Rushton in the panel.

Mary Kalemkerian is Head of Programmes at BBC Radio 4 Extra

• The photograph is from the BBC picture library. The caption reads: "Picture shows (front) Hugh Lloyd, Jack Watling, Tony Hancock. (back) Jose Read, John Le Mesurier, Noel Howlett, Diana King and Charles Lloyd Pack Tony Hanock suffers his indignity of being stuck for rather along time in a lift at the BBC Televsion Centre. Stuck with him are a number of visitors to the Centre and one or two employees including of course, the lift attendant plyed by Hugh Lloyd."
• Sign up to have Mary's weekly newsletter delivered to your email inbox free of charge here.

Many A Slip: Eleanor Summerfield (left) and Isobel Barnett

Part 2 of Russell Davies's history of radio quizzes and panel games, Let's Get Quizzical - Brains, Pickles and Slips cries out for one of those showbiz family trees that Pete Frame created for the world of rock music in the 1970s.

This pot-pourri of wireless rivalry includes full-length episodes of such classics as 'Many A Slip' (with Eleanor Summerfield and Isobel Barnett, pictured above), 'Have A Go', 'The News Quiz' (the never previously broadcast pilot) and 'Twenty Questions', plus extracts from 'Top Of The Form', 'My Word', 'The Law Game' and 'Round Britain Quiz'.

The family tree would be revealing because of the various intriguing connections between performers, producers and creators. Take 'Many A Slip', for example. In this programme, contestants had to spot mistakes in passages written by its inventor, Ian Messiter, best known for creating 'Just A Minute'. Panellist Eleanor Summerfield was an actress and the wife of Leonard Sachs, host of what to 21st century eyes and ears now seems an odd hybrid of television and music hall, 'The Good Old Days'. That was produced by Barney Colehan, who worked on 'Have A Go' with Wilfred Pickles and was immortalised in the catchphrase, "Give him the money, Barney!"

Eleanor's 'Slip' cohort, Lady Isobel Barnett, made her name in the TV panel game 'What's My Line?' (chaired by Gilbert Harding - see 'Twenty Questions') alongside magician David Nixon, who also starred in 'Many A Slip'. That show's Musical Mistakes Man Steve Race went on to host 'My Music' with Denis Norden and Frank Muir, both of whom also turn up in 'My Word'... and so on... and so on...

Wilfred Pickles in a 1946 recording of Have A Go

'Have a Go' was something of a phenomenon in its time. Part quiz, part chat show, one-time newsreader Pickles would tour the country meeting the locals and "presenting the people to the people". It started in 1946 - long before Local Radio, before phone-ins, before anyone had ever heard of "audience interaction" - when everyday voices were still only rarely heard on the wireless. The show ran for 21 years and at its peak had some twenty million listeners. How many limbs would a station controller sacrifice for those sort of figures now?

In Part 1 of 'Quizzical' Russell referred to mild-mannered Wilfred Pickles as a herbivore, while the more irascible Gilbert Harding was described as a carnivore. And it is perhaps difficult to envisage Harding getting the best out of the good people of Ramsbottom. But with the more media-savvy panellists on 'Twenty Questions' his inability to suffer fools gladly worked well. And, with the benefit of hindsight, he can be seen as the pioneer of a more abrasive era of broadcasting. Harding gave a famous interview to John Freeman in the TV series 'Face To Face' during which the gruff mask melted away as he wept while recalling the recent death of his mother. We are rarely as one-dimensional as Received Wisdom suggests.

Drawing of Gilbert Harding by Feliks Topolski

But what ultimately is the appeal of the quiz/panel game? Why do they endure? It seems to be less about who wins and loses, about how many points are gained or questions answered correctly and more about the relationship between the participants and listeners. Paul Mayhew-Archer, who went on to co-write 'The Vicar of Dibley', worked on 'I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue', 'Many A Slip' and 'Top Of The Form' during his time as a radio producer. He says in Brains, Pickles and Slips that success in this genre "isn't about knowledge or information ... you feel you know these people like friends ... it's like a warm bath".

So dust down the loofah and join us for a nice, long wallow on BBC Radio 4 Extra at 9am and 7pm on Saturday 9th April.

Nick St George is the co-producer of Let's Get Quizzical.

• Listen to part one of Let's Get Quizzical, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Minute until Saturday on the Radio 4 Extra web site. Part two - Brains, Pickles and Slips, is on Radio 4 Extra, Saturday 9th April at 0900 and 1900 and is available online for seven days after that.

One of the most enjoyable days in my tenure as Radio 4 blogger was spent in a Sauchiehall Street studio in Glasgow with the team behind Lenzie's best-known radio sitcom Fags, Mags and Bags. They were there to record episode four of the new series - which starts today at 1130 - and I was there to sit on a sofa and eat doughnuts purchased from the Greggs round the corner.

While there I also took a lot of photographs and recorded an interview with creators (and lead actors) Donald McLeary and Sanjeev Kohli. Mina Anwar, who plays a character called Malcolm (for reasons that will become clear) in the new series, was on hand to ask the questions so I was able to concentrate on the doughnuts. Listen to the result here:

Steve Bowbrick is editor of the Radio 4 blog

• Listen to the first episode of series four of Fags, Mags and Bags, produced by Gus Beattie, on Radio 4 at 1130 today and, for seven days after that, on the Radio 4 web site.
• Fags, Mags and Bags has a Facebook page and a Twitter account.
• The picture shows Susheel Kumar (Alok), Omar Raza (Sanjay), Sanjeev Kohli (Ramesh) and Donald McCleary (Dave) at the mic in Sauchiehall Street.

I'm standing in a large conference room - devoid of furniture, carpet pulled back - in an ordinary well-known branded hotel in Kent. The room reverberates with shouts and cries:

"Give me your money!"

I've got a gun and I'll use it if you don't give me your valuables! Get down! Get down!

Aaaaaarrrrggghhhhhhhhhh!

This last one is followed by a loud THUMP and a lot of laughter. In the room in front of me... and my microphone... are three trainee close-protection officers a.k.a bodyguards. Two are men whilst the third is a young woman. Along with them is the training officer, a deceptively young looking chap who is teaching the class how to disarm an assailant who has a gun, and a Task manager, an experienced bodyguard. Why the laughter? Because the young woman has not only disarmed her taller, more experienced male counterpart, but has taken control of the gun and thrown him to the ground... hard!

I'm here, in my role as co-producer and 'bloke who knows how to use the recording kit' with my colleague (presenter and co-producer) Yasmeen Khan, to meet and interview the staff and trainees at Task International's latest Close-Protection/Bodyguard Training course. We are making a half hour documentary for BBC Radio 4 titled "The Protection Game". We are on another of our 'quests' to discover the state of the nation of a unique and little-known British industry (previously we have studied the soap and suds of the launderette business, the glass ceiling of British Asian comedy, and kicked around the issues facing aspiring footballers from ethnic backgrounds). We want to learn what it means to be a bodyguard, what the job entails, what the real risks are and who chooses to do it. We've all seen 'The Bodyguard' film (me, I've seen it almost 500 times, as I worked at a cinema the Christmas it was released... oh how I shudder whenever I hear that song!), and TV shows regularly have security officers in them (from all the President's men & women in 'The West Wing', to the former-boxer who wrote the theme tune and sung the theme tune and became Arthur Daley's Minder) but these idealised characterisations can't be true, can they?

So here we are, in this innocuous conference room in Kent, watching three people learn how to deal with guns and knives. The trainer clearly has a lot of military training and experience, as does the senior Task manager who is standing in for one of the trainees who has had to pop off to the local A&E after landing a little too hard on his knee. Yasmeen is off in one corner getting background information from another Task member, and I am moving carefully around the room, microphone in hand, recording the trainer's wise words, and then the shouts and cries of the trainees as they practise, one against the other. I have to be fleet-of-foot as they lung and attack, parry and disarm from one side of the room to the other. They aren't holding back!

And then the trainer pops over:

Yasmeen, do you want to learn how to disarm someone with a gun?

I immediately jump in as Mr Producer and say, "Yes, she does!" to which I get a rather stern look from Yasmeen, but like the pro she is, she dives right in.

And so, radio magic time, I stand there recording as Yasmeen is taught the three steps to disarm a gunman. Within a few minutes of practice she is really getting the hang of it... although the laughter (from her and the trainer, not me!) does detract a little from the sense of potential danger! I get the impression that making this programme about the world of bodyguards and close-protection officers is going to be an unusual and unique experience for us both.

Neil Gardner is the owner/MD of Ladbroke Productions, makers of The Protection Game

• You can hear the The Protection Game, at 1100 today on BBC Radio 4.

Some radio programmes seem to appear on air fully-formed, almost overnight - others have a somewhat longer gestation period. Let's Get Quizzical - Russell Davies's two-part history of the radio panel game and quiz show - falls most definitely into the latter camp.

If you've come to 4 Extra from Radio 7, you may already know of the trials and tribulations of copyright clearance that our long-suffering team of Broadcast Assistants wrestle with each day. "Why can't we hear again that hilarious (if somewhat politically incorrect) sitcom from 1969 starring Dame Jenny Juice-Extractor and Sir Frederick Food-Mixer?", our listener will clamour. Quite frequently the reason is that we cannot clear the rights - the BBC may own the programmes, but they do not always have the right to re-broadcast the performances or the scripts as they see fit. Let's Get Quizzical was a case in point. Programmes that would have been perfect to include had to be sacrificed at the Altar of Contractual Intransigence. Others - often featuring performers who are sadly no longer with us - were finally given the green light only after many months of patient negotiation.

Shows like 'Have A Go' and 'Twenty Questions' were produced when such modern wonders as digital radio was not even a glimmer in a BBC executive's eye. Contracts were drawn up for a contribution to the 'wireless' - and that was it. Web broadcasting? DAB? DTV? Listening to the radio on your phone? The stuff of science fiction! So the challenge of re-clearing dusty old analogue material for the shiny new Digital Age is one that constantly occupies the 4 Extra team.

Could this be Samantha?

But, despite these little things that are sent to try us, I'm delighted to say that we managed to pull together a cracking line-up across the two editions. Part 1 - I'm Sorry I Haven't A Minute - concentrates on those two icons of the genre - I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and Just a Minute, plus what Russell calls "a newer kid on the block", comedy quiz show 'Jest A Minute' from Radio Wales (despite our close relationship with our sister station, 4 Extra will scour the entire wireless waterfront for the best in comedy and drama). Part 2 - Brains, Pickles and Slips - is more of a pot pourri including 'Have a Go', 'Many A Slip', 'Twenty Questions' and the never-previously broadcast pilot of 'The News Quiz'.

Paul Mayhew-Archer (a one-time BBC radio producer who went on to co-write The Vicar of Dibley) also offers his thoughts on the quiz/panel game phenomenon, including how he introduced 'the lovely Samantha' to Clue. As he confesses in Part 1, "that was one lap dancing club I don't regret visiting". It amazes me that there are people who continue to question this multi-talented young woman's very existence. Next thing, they'll be saying that Ambridge is just a figment of someone's warped imagination.

Nick St George produces Let's Get Quizzical

• Listen to part one of Let's Get Quizzical, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Minute, at 1900 today or, for seven days after transmission, on the Radio 4 Extra web site. Part two, Brains, Pickles and Slips, is on Radio 4 Extra next Saturday at 0900 and 1900.
• The picture shows Rhod Gilbert, who presents 'Jest a Minute'.

After we bid a fond farewell to BBC Radio 7 after over 8 years on-air - what a delight to be able instead to welcome you to the world of BBC Radio 4 Extra.

Whether you're a newbie or one of our loyal band of followers - I can promise you plenty to enjoy in our new schedule, which kicks off tomorrow at 6am.

In keeping with the joys of spring, and the romance of weddings in the air, we are delivering the traditional 'Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue' in our new line-up for the rebranded digital radio station.

For Something Old, Radio 4 Extra will open with a 90' production of George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man, starring Andrew Sachs and directed in 1984 by former Head of BBC Radio Drama, John Tydeman.

John e-mailed us with the following message:

Seven was Heaven! Since the same team are now scheduling Extra, I have every hope that it too will be something Extra good! There's a gold-mine to be mined of nuggets from the BBC's speech archive, and all programmes in the archive are there because of excellence or because they are of exceptional interest. Gold does not tarnish and often grows in value with age. Listeners are sure to be in for a rich experience for many years to come

Very well expressed, John.

For Something New, we have commissioned new children's dramas, beginning with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a family friendly magazine series, The Four O' Clock Show and an excellent archive drama new to the network, Fortunes of War. There's also plenty of new comedy, including a comedy magazine What's So Funny? presented by Rufus Hound.

Something Borrowed: well, the bulk of our programmes are already borrowed from the archive, but for 4 Extra, in addition to 'borrowing' Desert Island Discs and Ambridge from our sister station Radio 4, we've also borrowed some of the Radio 4 announcers to present some of our programmes. Alan, Kathy, Neil, Rory and Susan Alan and will be joining our presentation team over the coming weeks.

Something Blue? - certainly not our comedy, classic or contemporary! But blue is the colour of the Radio 4 logo, and we've moved a shade away from blue to the lovely, warm colour purple for Radio 4 Extra, as you can see on our website.

If we've managed to tempt you - BBC Radio 4 Extra is available to enjoy on digital radio, digital television and online.

Mary Kalemkerian is Head of Programmes at BBC Radio 4 Extra

• The picture, from the BBC picture archive, shows George Bernard Shaw at the microphone in 1931. John Tydeman's production of Shaw's Arms and the Man opens broadcasting for 4 Extra tomorrow morning at 0600.
• These words are from Mary's hugely popular weekly newsletter. Sign up to have it delivered to your email inbox free of charge here.

Looking through the list of Bookclub recordings brings back some extraordinary memories... of Joseph Heller talking about Catch 22, Wendy Cope reading poetry in a basement studio in Broadcasting House while the story from New York was coming in on September 11, 2001, Muriel Spark reading from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, having driven from Italy across the Alps in an old car to be with us. It's wonderful that, thanks to the Radio 4 archive, all 156 programmes can be listened to: they're a journey across our literary landscape.

Each year, with Dymphna Flynn, my producer, we look back on the previous twelve months and - without exception - surprise ourselves at the range and the quality of the authors who've come along to sit with a couple of dozen readers (we never have more, because we know the difference between a reading group and an audience...). Take the first five months of 2003. Alan Bennett, Salman Rushdie, William Trevor, Beryl Bainbridge and P.D.James. Beat that. Or the autumn of 2008. Colm Toibin, Gore Vidal, Michael Morpurgo, Fay Weldon and Amitav Ghosh.

The memories come flooding back from so many of them. I've been lucky enough to be able to record each edition since we started in 1998, though there have been some hairy moments when events conspired to intervene. Overwhelmingly, authors have been more open that we might have expected. Even some with a reputation for reticence - John Irving comes to mind - opened up when faced with readers who had come because they wanted to discuss that month's book. The questions have, from time to time, been astonishingly acute. Both the Israeli novelist David Grossman and the Canadian Anne Michaels were taken aback by the directness (and intelligence) of our readers, and there were uncomfortable moments.

But usually there's a good deal of hilarity as well as high seriousness. Jilly Cooper's lurchers insisted on snoring through a recording in a polo club in Gloucestershire; the floor in Dr Johnson's House creaked all the way through our programme with William Trevor; and one author - only one - forgot to turn up. Sometimes there have been confessional moments (Douglas Coupland found himself revealing more than he intended...) and often an electricity that was unexpected, as when Tony Parsons discussed Man and Boy in a prison, after which one of the readers (who had asked a series of highly intelligent questions) told me: "I was once the most wanted teenager in the country."

The reason why the archive matters is that it reveals how resilient the reading habit is in our culture. Death of the book? Forget it. The phenomenon of the reading group/bookclub that's been so remarkable in our time, which the programme has been able to celebrate, is evidence of something more profound: the extent to which fiction still sustains and excites people of all ages. The Radio 4 experience, through the programme and particularly with this archive, makes that point, simply and incontrovertibly.

Of course we've talked about lots of non-fiction, too - history and biography have produced some of our most memorable recordings. I can't count the number of times after a recording that it's been one of our best programmes - William Hague on William Pitt, Clive James on his Unreliable Memoirs (in which he spoke about his relationship with his mother in a way he has never done anywhere else), Alan Bennett on Writing Home.

This archive is a treasure trove. I only wish the unedited versions were available too...Untold riches. But that's for another day.

Jim Naughtie presents Bookclub

• The next episode of Bookclub, produced by Dymphna Flynn, on Sunday at 1600, features Jennifer Johnston.
• The Bookclub interview archive is on the Radio 4 web site. There's another remarkable archive of author interviews on the BBC Archives web site.
• The picture shows Tony Parsons recording his Bookclub in prison.

The census is all well and good. (Unless you think it a gross violation of your privacy, of course, or a colossal waste of public money - as a programme about statistics, however, we on More or Less quite like it).

It will tell us how many we are, where we live, with whom, and more. Good, hard facts. But, we wondered, could we yield some surprising data by asking less obvious questions? Are we, for example, a selfish lot? Are we lonely? Do we think we have a better or worse quality of life than our parents had when they were our age?

The Government is increasingly interested in this softer stuff. The Office for National Statistics is developing a wellbeing index and will include questions on 'life satisfaction' in next month's household survey. Some hope a wellbeing index might one day rival GDP as a measure of national progress.

But there are no such questions in the 2011 census. That's why we have created our own.

While the ONS had 10 years and £482 million to throw at their census, we had a few days and no money to throw at ours. So we are not sampling the nation, but the Today and More or Less audiences. Even then, we're only sampling those who decide to fill in the form.

We will have to treat our findings with appropriate caution. But we do have some statistical tricks up our sleeve which - we hope - will allow us to discern something of interest. We are grateful to Peter Lynn, a professor of survey methodology at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at Essex University, for designing the questions with us.

The Other Census is open for two weeks from April 1. Tim Harford will present the results on Today and More or Less on April 22.

Richard Knight is Series Editor of More or Less

• Listen to the first in the new series of More or Less on BBC Radio 4 at 1330 today and sign up for the free podcast.
• Complete the More or Less other census on the Today web site.
• There's a press release about the Household Survey on the ONS web site (PDF).
• Peter Lynn's homepage on the University of Essex web site.
• Picture by Aditya. Some rights reserved.