Greg James, host of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show and self-confessed 'proud radio nerd', rummages through the BBC's vast archives of audio, video and documents, using current stories and your suggestions as a springboard into the vaults.

This week he begins with a request from a listener, who wants to hear about pioneering women broadcasters - especially women who weren't booked to speak about cookery or childcare. Olga Collett was the first woman to commentate on horse racing - and she was adamant that her reports from Ascot would not focus on fashion. She became a familiar voice in the 1930s, but in a later interview, she revealed what happened when she asked if she could read the news on air - and why she fell out with the Director-General of the BBC at the time.

As the police in Boston, USA, experiment with robot dogs, Greg searches for robots of the past, uncovering Ferdinand the Beast, an early American example, along with bold predictions from the 1960s from visionary writers Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke.

Angling, it was reported this week, is becoming increasingly popular among women - Greg fishes up some earlier coverage of life on the riverbank, including a theory as to why women are more successful at catching salmon.

Letters between James Bond creator Ian Fleming and wife are about to be auctioned: Fleming himself made very few appearances on the BBC - but one is very memorable: a conversation with the revered American writer Raymond Chandler. And as a new baby on EastEnders is named Peggy, in memory of the role played so successfully by Barbara Windsor, Greg finds Barbara in 1963, delighted to see her name in lights for the very first time.

Producer Paula McGinley Show less