Radio Fun and the BBC Variety Department, 1922—67 [electronic resource] : Comedy and Popular Music on Air /
Dibbs, Martin.author.
This book provides a narrative history of the BBC Radio Variety Department exploring, along chronological lines, the workings of, tensions within and the impact of BBC policies on the programme-making department which generated the organisation’s largest audiences. It provides an insight into key events, personalities, programmes, internal politics and trends in popular entertainment, censorship and anti-American policy as they individually or collectively affected the Department. Martin Dibbs examines how the Department's programmes became markers in the daily and weekly lives of millions of listeners, and helped shape the nation's listening habits when radio was the dominant source of domestic entertainment. The book explores events and topics which, while not directly forming part of the Variety Department’s history, nevertheless intersected with or had an impact on it. Such topics include the BBC’s attitude to jazz and rock and roll, the arrival of television with its impact on radio, the pirate radio stations, and the Popular Music and Gramophone Departments, both of whom worked closely with the Variety Department.
Chapter One: Introduction -- Chapter Two: 1922-1933: Variety before Variety -- Chapter Three: 1933-1939: The Show Begins -- Chapter Four: 1939-1945: ‘We will be working under difficulties’ -- Chapter Five: 1945-1955: A Golden Age for Radio Comedy -- Chapter Six: 1956-1967: Sound Into Vision: Popular Into Pop -- Chapter Seven: Coda -- Sources and Further Reading -- Index.
This book provides a narrative history of the BBC Radio Variety Department exploring, along chronological lines, the workings of, tensions within and the impact of BBC policies on the programme-making department which generated the organisation’s largest audiences. It provides an insight into key events, personalities, programmes, internal politics and trends in popular entertainment, censorship and anti-American policy as they individually or collectively affected the Department. Martin Dibbs examines how the Department's programmes became markers in the daily and weekly lives of millions of listeners, and helped shape the nation's listening habits when radio was the dominant source of domestic entertainment. The book explores events and topics which, while not directly forming part of the Variety Department’s history, nevertheless intersected with or had an impact on it. Such topics include the BBC’s attitude to jazz and rock and roll, the arrival of television with its impact on radio, the pirate radio stations, and the Popular Music and Gramophone Departments, both of whom worked closely with the Variety Department.
Great Britain-History.
Social history.
World War, 1939-1945.
Civilization-History.
Journalism.
History of Britain and Ireland.
Social History.
History of World War II and the Holocaust.
Cultural History.
Journalism.