BBC Radio 2 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Light Programme.

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The People's Songs

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Stuart Maconie tells the story of modern Britain via the songs that provided a soundtrack.

Featuring memories contributed by Radio 2 listeners, Stuart Maconie narrates the story of post-war Britain via 50 records that soundtracked this dramatic and kaleidoscopic period.

The People's Songs: Two Tribes - The Threat of Nuclear War

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Factual: History

Two Tribes - The Threat of Nuclear War

09/01/2013

BBC Radio 2 - The People's Songs, Two Tribes - The Threat of Nuclear War

Stuart Maconie reflects on Britain in the shadow of the mushroom cloud in the Cold War age

Stuart Maconie on the history of modern Britain in 50 records. He reflects on Britain in the shadow of the mushroom cloud, and hears about the paranoia of the Cold War age.

Following the end of WW2 there came a longer and a colder kind of war. The two global superpowers had gone from allies to sworn enemies, each armed to the teeth with weapons that could destroy the world many times over.

Although the two nations had already come close to war over the botched invasion at the Bay Of Pigs in 1961, it was during the 1980s that the Cold War reached its chilly apex. Under the respective reigns of Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, nuclear paranoia was omnipresent.

Capturing the mood of the times, films like Mad Max, Threads and The Day After all portrayed the threat of global apocalypse with varying degrees of horror. And musically, acts as diverse as from Kate Bush, Sting, Iron Maiden, Prince and Ultravox all recorded anti-nuclear tracks. Almost literally, the threat of nuclear war was in the air.

This mood of rampant paranoia was even apparent in this episode's epic dancefloor filler, a colossal number one single about global destruction and political insanity. And like the nuclear threat itself, Frankie Goes To Hollywood seemed to be everywhere one looked in 1984. Their music, their controversial videos and their "Frankie Say" t-shirts were ubiquitous.

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