Please, Mr Postman

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Alan Johnson

David Roper

Book of the Week: Alan Johnson - Please, Mr Postman: Episode 3

Episode 3

Alan Johnson - Please, Mr Postman

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Alan Johnson - Please, Mr Postman, Episode 3

1974 and Alan Johnson - now a union activist -  joins the Labour Party.

In 1974 union activist Alan Johnson has joined the Labour Party, but with unlikely political inspiration. Read by the author.

In July 1969, while the Rolling Stones played a free concert in Hyde Park, future Cabinet Minister Alan Johnson and his young family left West London to start a new life. The Britwell Estate in Slough, notorious among the locals, came as a blessed relief after the tensions of London's troubled Notting Hill, and the local community welcomed them with open arms.

Alan Johnson had become a postman the previous year and, in order to support his growing family, took on every bit of overtime he could, often working twelve-hour shifts six days a week. It was hard work, but not without its compensations – the crafty fag snatched in a country lane, the farmer's wife offering a hearty breakfast and even the mysterious lady on Glebe Road who appeared daily, topless, at her window as the postman passed by.

Please, Mister Postman paints a vivid picture of England in the 1970s, where no celebration was complete without a Party Seven of Watney's Red Barrel, smoking was the norm rather than the exception, and Sunday lunchtime was about beer and bingo. But as Alan Johnson's life appears to be settling down and his career in the Union of Postal Workers begins to take off, his close-knit family is struck once again by tragedy.

Epsiode 3:
Alan Johnson becomes more active in his union and joins the Labour Party. But his political inspiration comes from unlikely sources - Glasgow communist Jimmy Reid and his Tory-supporting brother-in-law Mike.
 
 
Read by Alan Johnson
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4

Book of the Week: Alan Johnson - Please, Mr Postman

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

Factual: Life Stories

The former home secretary Alan Johnson's memoir, read by the author.

The former home secretary Alan Johnson's memoir begins in 1969 as a 17-year-old Alan dreams of pop stardom. Read by the author.

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