The Time Machine

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Archive on 4: The Time Machine

BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, The Time Machine

Comedian Doc Brown activates the flux capacitor back to the world of 21 January 1981.

Comedian Doc Brown activates the flux capacitor back to the world of 21 January 1981, when the first DeLorean car rolled off the assembly line in Belfast.

Take a trip on a time machine, as comedian Doc Brown - Ben Bailey Smith - activates the flux capacitor and heads back to the 21st January 1981, when the first DeLorean inched its way off the assembly line at Dunmurry in Belfast.
 
Doc Brown immerses himself in that day as it unfolded and in the process learns about a time he is too young to remember.
 
Ronald Reagan had just become president, and Iran released 52 American hostages who had been held for 444 days. Back in the UK, there were concerns that some Labour MPs were going to split off to form a new political party, and fears that a fire at a party in New Cross which had killed 13 black teenagers had been racially motivated.
 
In an immersive experience, with the memories of Radio 4 listeners, music, adverts, newspaper, TV and radio archive, Doc Brown relives that day and asks what effect decisions made then had on our long term future. He is joined on the journey by guests including Shirley Williams, Gavin Esler, former Radio 1 DJ Andy Peebles - and from Belfast, the man who drove that first DeLorean off the production line.

The programme was first broadcast in October 2015, which was the month Marty McFly travelled to in Back to the Future. 
 
Producer: Clare Walker

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