Original version

BBC Radio 4 Extra

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

The Reunion

Factual: Life Stories

Series which reunites a group of people intimately involved in a moment of modern history

BBC Radio 4 LW

BBC Radio 4 FM

The Reunion: The Dome

22/08/2010

The Dome

BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion, The Dome

Sue MacGregor reunites the key players behind the creation of the Millennium Dome.

4 Extra Debut. Sue MacGregor reunites key people who created the Millennium Dome,  including architects, designers and politicians. From August 2010.

Sue MacGregor gathers together the key people responsible for building, co-ordinating and realising the creative concepts that became The Millennium Dome at Greenwich.

Following Labour's landslide election victory in May 1997, the Prime Minister Tony Blair was determined to change the way Britain saw itself and he seized upon the idea - mooted under the outgoing Tory government - to have a major event to celebrate the forthcoming new millennium. 

After much discussion and heated argument it was decided to build a dome on the site of a disused gasworks on East London's Greenwich peninsular. It would stage a grand millennium extravaganza and house a year-long exhibition to rival the 1951 Festival of Britain.

It was a hugely controversial decision from the very start, and became a project rife with argument, sackings and constant flack from the press. 

The person who took the brunt of the criticism was Chief Executive Jennie Page, who was eventually sacked - shortly after the opening night. This is the first time she has spoken publically about her personal millennium experience. 

Sue also hears some hitherto unreported and little known stories of both the pain and the excitement of life under the Dome.

Sue is joined by:
Jennie Page, the Dome's former Chief Executive.
Mike Davies, the flamboyant architect who designed the Dome structure.
Lord Charles Falconer, the Minister for the Dome who succeeded Peter Mandelson.
Eva Jiricna, designer of the Dome's 'Spirit Zone'.
Peter Higgins, who created the 'Play Zone'.

Producer: Dilly Barlow
A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4.

BBC Radio 4

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

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Reunion

The Dome

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 Extra

About BBC Radio 4 Extra