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

BBC Radio 2

Sarah Kennedy

The show for early risers - Pause for Thought, Swing Time, Showtune,& entertainment news.

The show for Dawn Patrollers with Pause for Thought, Swing Time, the Showtune,& entertainment news.

The show for Dawn Patrollers with news, Pause for Thought, Swing Time, the Showtune, your comments, travel and entertainment news.

Sarah Kennedy: 19/10/2009

19/10/2009

BBC Radio 2 - Sarah Kennedy, 19/10/2009

On the Dawn Patrol. With a review of the newspapers and Pause for Thought.

Amazing music. Played by an amazing line up.

Radio 2: Amazing music. Played by an amazing line-up. The home of great music, entertainment and documentaries

Wake Up to Wogan

Terry Wogan's regular morning broadcast, featuring music, news and chat

Wake Up to Wogan: 19/10/2009

BBC Radio 2 - Wake Up to Wogan, 19/10/2009

Johnnie Walker sits in for Terry Wogan with the news, sport, travel and music.

Johnnie Walker sits in for Terry Wogan with the latest news, sport and travel, mixed in with a selection of breakfast-time music.

Johnnie Walker and the team with the latest news, sport and travel, mixed in with a great selection of breakfast-time music, on Day 1 of a week-long stint.

Johnnie Walker

Ken Bruce

The best in music every weekday with Ken Bruce, with live sessions.

Ken Bruce: 19/10/2009

BBC Radio 2 - Ken Bruce, 19/10/2009

Yoko Ono chooses her Tracks of My Years. Plus the Record and the Album of the Week.

Yoko Ono chooses her Tracks of My Years. Plus the Album of the Week from Whitney Houston and pop quiz PopMaster.

Ken Bruce redefines the astrophysics of radio as he fuses music atoms with pithy banter particles in Radio 2's Big Bang. Featuring Tracks Of My Years chosen by Yoko Ono, whose choices today come from Ike & Tina Turner and Nina Simone.

Jeremy Vine

Jeremy Vine and guests discuss the news headlines and talk to the people making them

Jeremy Vine: 19/10/2009

BBC Radio 2 - Jeremy Vine, 19/10/2009

Jeremy discusses postal strikes, mortgages, bedtime stories and obesity.

Jeremy discusses postal strikes and obese people seeking legal protection. He asks should people have a mortgage if they can't afford it and what is your favourite bedtime story?

Steve Wright in the Afternoon

Steve Wright's afternoon show with special guests, music and a host of other features

Steve Wright in the Afternoon: 19/10/2009

BBC Radio 2 - Steve Wright in the Afternoon, 19/10/2009

Actor John Hurt, Taio Cruz, Factoids, astrological predictions and the Non-Stop Oldies.

Steve Wright digs out the most fascinating Factoids, has the non stop Oldies, and talks to actor John Hurt and singer Taio Cruz. Plus horoscope predictions and the coolest music.

Steve Wright digs out the most fascinating Factoids and hears the latest pearls of wisdom from The Old Woman. He also talks to the actor John Hurt and the singer Taio Cruz, and has your horoscope predictions with Debbie Frank... and has the non stop Oldies too!

Steve Wright

Chris Evans

Chris Evans' drivetime slot, with laughter-inducing chat and music

Chris Evans: 19/10/2009

BBC Radio 2 - Chris Evans, 19/10/2009

Chris phones a friend for some exciting Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? news.

Chris phones a friend for some exciting Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? news! And Chris has started to Tweet.

Chris is back and tonight he'll be phoning a friend to bring us some very exciting 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?' news! And Twitter ye not - Chris has started to Tweet!

The Blues Show with Paul Jones

The weekly dose of rhythm and blues tunes from Paul Jones.

The weekly dose of rhythm and blues tunes from Paul Jones, combining classics, new releases, sessions and occasional interviews.

Paul Jones

The Blues Show with Paul Jones: 19/10/2009

BBC Radio 2 - The Blues Show with Paul Jones, 19/10/2009

Featuring Dave Kelly from The Blues Band in a solo session.

Latest blues releases and classic cuts, plus Dave Kelly from The Blues Band in a solo session.

The Radcliffe & Maconie Show

BBC Radio 6 Music

A late-night mix of live sessions, celebrity guests and listener interaction

Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie with a late-night mix of live sessions, celebrity guests and listener interaction

The Radcliffe and Maconie Show

The Radcliffe & Maconie Show: 19/10/2009

BBC Radio 6 Music - The Radcliffe & Maconie Show, 19/10/2009

With music, guests, banter and live sessions.

Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie

With a discussion of the new boxed set of works by inspired Dusseldorf electro-pop mavericks Kraftwerk. Asking the difficult question: p33

Big Band Special

The very best big band music, from the 1930s to the present day

Big Band Special: 19/10/2009

BBC Radio 2 - Big Band Special, 19/10/2009

Clare Teal presents the BBC Big Band in session and in concert.

Clare Teal presents the BBC Big Band in session with conductor Jay Craig and in concert at the Town Hall Birmingham with singer Matthew Ford.

Jools Holland

Join Jools and his Rhythm Section as he plays tracks from his eclectic record collection.

Jools Holland: 19/10/2009

BBC Radio 2 - Jools Holland, 19/10/2009

Jools Holland and his band are joined by Chris Rea.

Jools Holland and his band are joined by Chris Rea, who talks about his album Still So Far to Go and joins Jools and the band on an impromptu version of one of his songs.

Jools Holland and his band are joined by Chris Rea. Chris talks about his new Best Of album, 'Still So Far To Go' and joins Jools and the band on an impromptu version of his current single, 'Come So Far, Yet Still So Far To Go'.

Benny Goodman: King of Swing

Benny Goodman: King of Swing: Episode 1

Episode 1

BBC Radio 2 - Benny Goodman: King of Swing, Episode 1

Curtis Stigers remembers clarinettist and bandleader Benny Goodman in his centenary year.

Curtis Stigers remembers the clarinet virtuoso and bandleader Benny Goodman, who was born in Chicago on 30th May 1909 and became known as the King of Swing.

Curtis Stigers remembers the clarinettist and bandleader Benny Goodman. 

One of the finest clarinet players in the world, Goodman practised his art at the highest levels in both jazz and classical music. He was a bandleader who strove for, and achieved, perfection through tireless rehearsals of the jazz ensembles he created over the decades. He was also a complex man, prone to unpredictability, who overcame an impoverished upbringing and the early death of his father to become "The King Of Swing."

Benny's story begins in Chicago, 100 years ago on 30 May 1909, where the Goodman family lived in the Maxwell Street ghetto. There wasn't enough work to sustain Benny's father in his original trade as a tailor but he saw an opportunity for his children and, at the age of 10, Benny was enrolled for music lessons at the local synagogue. What happened then was remarkable. Benny practised all the time and, in a matter of 8 or 9 years, he progressed to being one of the best clarinettists anywhere. 

He was hired by the drummer and bandleader Ben Pollack and his first official recording, When I First Met Mary, was made with Pollack's band on 9th December 1926. Tragically, that same evening, Benny's father was struck by an automobile when alighting from a Chicago streetcar. His skull was fractured, and he died the next day. 

Benny became the family's chief breadwinner at the age of 17 but through this emotional crisis, he carried on building a local reputation. When he was still in his teens, before anybody knew him outside of Chicago, the Melrose company published a collection of Goodman exercises. The only instrumentalist they'd ever published that way before was Louis Armstrong.

Episode one takes us up to 1928, as Benny is about to leave for New York, and is interspersed with his music. This includes a seldom-heard recording of Five Foot Two, the first opportunity to hear Benny himself, which was made privately in the kitchen of his friend Earl Baker. 

The series features brand new interviews with jazz critic Gary Giddins; Prof. Dan Morgenstern (of the Institute for Jazz Studies at Rutgers University); clarinettist and saxophonist Ken Peplowski; Loren Schoenberg (of the Jazz Museum in Harlem); singer Louise Tobin; Sir John Dankworth and writer John Hancock.

There are also rare archive contributions from Benny Goodman himself; Peggy Lee; Buddy Greco; his daughter Rachel Goodman; boyhood friend Jim Maher; biographer Ross Firestone; record executives John Hammond; bandleaders Artie Shaw, Teddy Wilson and Lionel Hampton; and the musicians Bob Wilber, Jerry Jerome, Louis Bellson, Nick Fatool, Jimmy Maxwell; Milt Bernhart and singer Helen Forrest.

This series first broadcast on Radio 2 in 2009, to mark Benny's centenary year.

Curtis Stigers celebrates the life and music of clarinettist and bandleader Benny Goodman

Curtis Stigers celebrates the life and music of the virtuoso clarinettist and bandleader Benny Goodman, who became known as the 'king of swing'

Benny Goodman:King of Swing

J New series. 1/6. Curtis Stigers celebrates the centenary of clarinettist and bandleader Benny Goodman (1909-86), one of the giants of the big-band and swing era, who played both jazz and classical music. Between 1931 and 1953 the Chicago-born perfectionist charted in America with 164 discs, including 16 number ones. Defining recordings include King Porter Stomp (1935), Stompin' at the Savoy (1936), Goody-Goody (1936), (1937), Don't Be That Way (1938), And the Angels Sing (1939), Jersey Bounce (1942) and his signature 1937 hit Sing, Sing, Sing. Featuring new interviews with clarinettist Ken Peplowski , Louise Tobin (who sang with Goodman's band) and John Dankworth. Plus archive input by Benny Goodman , Artie Shaw , Helen Forrest , Peggy Lee , Buddy Greco and many others. Producer Graham Pass

Janice Long

Great music and chat, with a weekly interview and Spoken Word Session every Wednesday

Music you love, plus great guests and a weekly Spoken Word Session that you won't hear anywhere else

Janice Long: 19/10/2009

BBC Radio 2 - Janice Long, 19/10/2009

With a broad mix of music, including Tunes of The Unexpected.

With a broad mix of music, including Tunes of the Unexpected and Radio 2's Record and Album of the Week.

With Janice's excellent array mix of music, including some Tunes Of The Unexpected and Radio 2's Record and Album Of The Week.

Alex Lester

Weekday morning music and entertainment with Alex Lester

Alex Lester: 20/10/2009

20/10/2009

BBC Radio 2 - Alex Lester, 20/10/2009

With conversation and music on The Best Time of Day Show.

The Best Time of the Day Show. With Pause for Thought, Lester's Library and the Listeners' Library features.

Alex brings his own combination of music and conversation to early weekday mornings, making this The Best Time Of The Day Show. Popular features include the Listeners' Library, where you choose the music, and a double-selection from Alex's own collection in Lester's Library.

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Chris Evans

Chris Evans

19/10/2009

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