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BBC Radio 4 FM

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

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Greg James digs into the BBC's archives, using current stories as a portal to the past.

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Rewinder: Cher and Other Things to Believe In at Christmas

Cher and Other Things to Believe In at Christmas

BBC Radio 4 - Rewinder, Cher and Other Things to Believe In at Christmas

Greg James with some festive treats from the BBC archive.

Greg James heads into the BBC archives using stories of the week and listener requests to guide the way. This week: Cher, Nativities and messages of forgiveness.

Greg James dives into the BBC Archive to track down audio gems, using listener requests, overlooked anniversaries and current stories to guide the way. 

It’s 25 years since Cher’s pop classic Believe topped the charts, so Greg goes looking for the idol herself in the archives. Where did she choose to debut the single? The National Lottery of course. She returned to the programme a few years later to talk to Dale Winton about her Christmas cookie traditions.

As children up and down the country put tea towels on their heads, Greg heads to a nativity play in Sunderland in 1962 to hear about the showbiz drama behind the scenes. In Gelligaer in Wales he discovers a presenter obsessed with his own childhood appearance as Herod.

And he uncovers some touching transatlantic conversations between refugee children and their parents, broadcast live on Christmas Day during the Second World War.

Producer: Tim Bano

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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