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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Book of the Week

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Serialised book readings, featuring works from various genres

Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

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Book of the Week: Matthew Sweet - The West End Front

Book of the Week: Matthew Sweet - The West End Front: Episode 5

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The West End Front

Episode 5

Matthew Sweet - The West End Front

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Matthew Sweet - The West End Front, Episode 5

The weird and wonderful clientele of the Dorchester carries on regardless.

Cabinet ministers and spies, anti-Semites and Zionists, dowagers and showgirls - the weird and wonderful clientele of the Dorchester carries on regardless. Read by Kenneth Cranham.

Kenneth Cranham reads the final part of Matthew Sweet's history of the scandalous life above and below stairs in London's grand hotels during the Second World War. While bombs rain down on London's East End, life in the capital's glittering hotels carries on as usual, with the Ritz, the Dorchester, the Savoy and Claridge's transforming themselves into mini Casablancas. 

Today: cabinet ministers and spies, anti-Semites and zionists, dowagers and showgirls - the weird and wonderful clientele of the Dorchester carries on regardless.
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Reader: Kenneth Cranham
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Viv Beeby.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Matthew Sweet's dark history of life in London's grand hotels during WWII

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Matthew Sweet - The West End Front

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