The Story of Children's Hour
Between the dark and the daylight
When the night is beginning to lower
Comes a pause in the day's occupation
That is known as the Children's Hour.
(LONGFELLOW)
The British Broadcasting Company was only 11 days old when the first Children's Corner was broadcast in 1922. To children of a pre-television age, the programme was an institution: ' tea and toast and Children's Hour ' was a daily ritual. When the programme was axed in 1964 legions of protesters besieged Broadcasting House and questions were asked in Parliament.
With the help of the BBC Sound Archives, Tom Vernon looks back at 40 years of the programme which Lord Reith hoped would provide ' a happy alternative to the squalor of the streets and back-yards
With the voices of DILYS BREESE , DAVID DAVIS , URSULA KASON , GLYN DEARMAN ,
FRANK GILLARD , TREVOR BILL , MAY JENKIN NORMAN SHELLEY Producer
ALASTAIR WILSON
Preview: p19