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The BBC South region started on 5th January 1961 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One South.

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Simulcast of network BBC One in high definition. From 03/11/2010

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The BBC West region started on 1st September 1957 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One West.

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The BBC South West region started on 20th April 1961 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One South West.

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The BBC North East & Cumbria region started in 1959 (tbc) as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One North East & Cumbria.

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Formerly part of a wider BBC One South East region that included London and part of the South region. Separated from BBC One London 2001-09-03 following reorganisation of the South East region.

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Fry's Planet Word

Stephen Fry

Simon Ffrench

Adam Toy

Tim Hodge

Sean O'Neil

Debbie Wiseman

Andy Hopkins

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Fry's Planet Word: Episode 4: Spreading the Word

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Spreading the Word

Episode 4

Episode 4: Spreading the Word

BBC Two - Fry's Planet Word, Spreading the WordClose menu

Stephen looks at the written word, from the earliest writing to blogging and twittering.

Stephen Fry looks at the written word, starting with the earliest form of writing - cuneiform, and ending with the modern inventions of blogging and twittering.

In this programme, Stephen Fry explores 'the written word'. Writing is a great invention - making it possible to communicate across space and time. Without writing we would have no history and very little technology.

Stephen discovers the earliest writing - cuneiform - at the British Museum, and learns how our alphabet came from the Phoenicians. As part of his exploration of the diversity of scripts, Stephen visits 106-year-old Mr Zhou, the inventor of the Chinese phonetic writing system called Pinyin, who relates how literacy increased four-fold after its introduction under Mao.

After the written word came the printed word, and Stephen looks at how this has shaped our relationship with writing, giving us libraries, dictionaries and encyclopaedias. From the Bodleian to Diderot's favourite café to the cutting-edge research at MIT, Stephen explores how the written word evolved into printing, then libraries, encyclopaedias and computer code. Blogging and twittering is just the tip of a brave new future which no one dares predict.

BBC Two

BBC Two is a TV channel that started broadcasting on the 20th April 1964.

BBC 2

BBC2

BBC Two is a lively channel of depth and substance, carrying a range of knowledge-building programming complemented by great drama, comedy and arts.

A five-part series in which Stephen Fry explores language

A five-part series in which Stephen Fry explores language, coming to understand how we learn it, write it and sometimes lose it, and why it defines us

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Episode 4: Spreading the Word

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