Waggoners' Walk
Waggoners' Walk was a daily radio soap opera, set in the fictional cul-de-sac of Waggoners' Walk and its environs in Hampstead, north London. It was broadcast daily on BBC Radio 2 from 1969 to 1980, in the form of 15-minute episodes on weekday afternoons with a repeat the following weekday morning. The programme came to a sudden end in May 1980 as part of a number of economies made by the BBC. History. "Waggoners' Walk" was introduced as a successor to the long-running "The Dales" (1948-1969) which had been cancelled due to the  illness of the lead actress Jessie Matthews. The programme was created by writers Jill Hyem and Alan Downer; its origins lay in their "Saturday Night Theatre" production of "The Ropewalk", broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1969. This play featured some of the same characters, actors and theme tune of "Waggoners' Walk" with the story centring on three women who share a flat in Hampstead. "Waggoners' Walk" was designed to move away from the "cosy" world of "The Dales" and feature "fast-moving stories" and have "few taboo subjects". During its run, the storylines tackled issues such as illegitimacy , homosexuality, abortion, child custody and murder. The first edition was broadcast on the afternoon of 28 April 1969 with a repeat the following morning. Early editions were given a title, the first edition billed as "Moving Pictures" for instance, but this was dropped after just three weeks. Initially the programme had an audience of two million listeners but by 1974 was achieving four million. Most of the storylines involved the tenants of No. 1 Waggoners' Walk, a large townhouse divided into several flats. Other settings included the local pub "The Waggoners", the offices of the "Hampstead Herald", Minden Road and  the nearby Belsize Park. Hyem and Downer continued to produce scripts for the programme throughout its run and were joined by other writers including Peter Ling, Barbara Clegg and Terry James. The directors included Piers Plowright, who later became the programme's executive producer, David Spenser, Glyn Dearman, Anton Gill, David Johnston and Kay Patrick. In 1974, listeners were invited to submit their own plots in a "Write Your Own Storyline Competition" with the winning story submitted by Albert Kenyon broadcast in November 1974. A Sunday afternoon omnibus edition was added to the schedule in January 1980, though heard only  on Radio 2's medium wave transmitters. As part of a series of cost-cutting initiatives by the BBC in 1980, "Waggoners' Walk" came to an abrupt end on 30 May 1980 with a cliffhanger ending in which George Underdown proposes marriage to Sophie Richmond and assures her that "you have all the time in the world" before the closing theme comes in. The Corporation received over 1,000 letters of protest about the ending of the programme, It rejected a request from Capital Radio to take it over. Cameo appearances. A number of famous people made cameo appearances on the  programme: Principal characters. This is a list of some of the main characters that appeared over the eleven year run. In some cases more than one actor played the part. Other actors appearing in the programme included Peter Tuddenham, Michael Troughton, Norma Ronald, Barry Creyton, Jeffrey Segal, Harry Fowler, Patrick Allen, Hattie Jacques (appearing briefly in 1969 as sisters Harriet and Tilly Gibbon), Nigel Lambert, Christian Rodska, Robert Beatty, Saeed Jaffrey, Bruce Alexander, Gillian McCutcheon, Pik-Sen Lim, Harry Towb and Elaine Stritch. Theme music. The original theme tune, titled "Bees and Honey", was composed by Derek Hilton under the  pseudonym of John Snow. Several arrangements of the theme were used throughout the programme's run. In 1971, an EP of songs featured in the programme, including one called "Waggoners' Walk", and credited to Trane, was issued by BBC Records.