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The People's Post: A Narrative History of the Post Office

The People's Post: A Narrative History of the Post Office: Episode 1: The Secret Room

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The Secret Room

Episode 1

Episode 1: The Secret Room

BBC Radio 4 Extra - The People's Post: A Narrative History of the Post Office, The Secret Room

Dominic Sandbrook investigates how the post office has shaped British society.

Dominic Sandbrook investigates how the post office has shaped British society, from literacy to free speech. From December 2011.

As Royal Mail faces an uncertain future, Dominic Sandbrook explores the social history of the post office.

Throughout its history, the Post Office has been a consistently progressive and democratising force in society. Launched in 1516 by Henry VIII, the Royal Mail was intended to support official communications and bolster intelligence. It was only a rise in literacy, trade and interest that stimulated a demand for a public service.

It became a vehicle for literacy, free speech, commerce and communications in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, before evolving into a kind of prototypical welfare state in the early twentieth century, when it was the largest employer in the world. The Post Office has become a cherished social institution, linking people together and extending their vision outward into the wider world. 

It's called Royal Mail but it should be known as the People's Post

In the paranoid era of the English Civil War the postal network became an important instrument of state control. In a secret room deep in the post office building, agents opened and copied letters from suspected dissidents on a grand scale. 

Writer and Presenter: Dominic Sandbrook

Historical Consultant: Susan Whyman

Musicians: Sam Lee, Bella Hardy, Mick Sands, Nick Hart

Actors:Morgan George, John Sessions, Simon Tcherniak, 
Malcolm Tierney, Jane Whittenshaw


Producer: Joby Waldman
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Dominic Sandbrook charts the development of the post office

As Royal Mail faces an uncertain future, Dominic Sandbrook charts the development of the post office and examines its impact on literacy, free speech, commerce and communication

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Episode 1: The Secret Room

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