Past Forward: A Century of Sound

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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Greg Jenner dives deep into the BBC archive to explore what it says about who we are now.

Greg Jenner takes a deep dive into the BBC archive to explore what it can tell us about who we are now.

Marking the Centenary, Past Forward uses a random date generator to alight somewhere in the BBC's vast archive over the past 100 years. Historian Greg Jenner hears an archive clip for the first time at the top of the programme, and uses it as a starting point in a journey towards the present day. The archive captures a century of British life in a unique way -  a history of ordinary people's lives, as well as news of the great events.  Greg uncovers connections through people, places and ideas that link the archive fragment to Britain in 2022, pulling in help from experts and those who remember the time - and sometimes the speakers themselves, decades later - along the way. What he discovers are stories, big and small, that reveal how the people we were have shaped the people we have become.

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Past Forward: A Century of Sound: Match Point

Match Point

BBC Radio 4 - Past Forward: A Century of Sound, Match Point

Greg Jenner hears a clip from 1935 featuring Fred Perry.

Public historian Greg Jenner hears a clip from 1935 featuring triple Wimbledon champion Fred Perry.

Today's jumping off point is a slither of audio from 1935. 

A sports commentator, a tennis match. 

Greg Jenner seeks guidance from writer and inveterate tennis fan Geoff Dyer, and then turns to Angela Carroll of Leeds University Business School, an expert on celebrity endorsement.

Marking the centenary of the BBC, Past Forward alights somewhere in the BBC's vast archive over the past 100 years. Public historian Greg Jenner hears an archive clip for the first time at the top of the programme, and uses it as a starting point in a journey towards the present day. The archive captures a century of British life in a unique way - a history of ordinary people’s lives, as well as news of the great events. Greg uncovers connections through people, places and ideas that link the archive fragment to Britain in 2022, pulling in help from experts and those who remember the time – and sometimes the speakers themselves, decades later - along the way. What he discovers are stories, big and small, that reveal how the people we were have shaped the people we have become.

Producer: Martin Williams

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

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Past Forward: A Century of Sound

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