Hidden Treasures: BBC Radio celebrates rediscovery of historic ...

Over 1,000 radio plays have been returned to the BBC Archives by the Radio Circle, a group of radio enthusiasts and collectors, made up of reels and home recordings sent in by members of the public. BBC Radio 4, 4 Extra and Radio 3 will celebrate their return to the Archive with a season of special broadcasts of the recordings, including Macbeth, which when it was first broadcast in 1971 was the first ever stereo production of the play. The season also includes adaptations of works by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Edgar Wallace, Kingsley Amis and JM Barrie. Radio 4 will also celebrate the BBC Archives by broadcasting two plays by giants of twentieth-century literature, Harold Pinter and Dennis Potter, which have not been heard on BBC Radio since their original broadcasts in the early 1980s.

The collection of plays has been gathered by the Radio Circle, who have identified and restored recordings belonging to members of the public. Most recordings in the collection are of programmes which were not already held by the BBC Archives, making this a particularly special discovery.

The BBC Archives have evolved significantly over the course of the BBC’s history. In its early days, there were significant obstacles to keeping permanent recordings – including cost, copyright issues, and a culture that saw radio as a ‘live’ medium – but much progress has been made. The BBC now archives all output from its network stations, and the Archive currently spans multiple collections. The focus is now on bringing these collections together into one unified back catalogue, and the discovery of these additional recordings by the Radio Circle is an excellent addition to this resource.

Alison Hindell, Commissioning Editor for Drama and Fiction, BBC Radio 4, says, ‘I’m delighted to be bringing these rediscovered gems to listeners – there are some very special dramas which I’m sure listeners will love, with great actors such as Denholm Elliott, Bob Hoskins and Roy Kinnear. The BBC has always been at the forefront of audio drama and we’re in a unique position to preserve and celebrate the rich history of this very special art form. Many thanks to the Radio Circle and the BBC Archives team for their work on this.’

Carl Davies, Senior Curator, BBC Archives, says, “The Radio Archive is a vast and diverse series of collections with millions of recordings from the 1930s to the current day from all the BBC radio services. When new discoveries are found it’s a wonderful opportunity to add to the archive. The Hidden Treasure season is a great moment to highlight the hard work we undertake to curate, catalogue and preserve the BBC’s archive holdings, ensuring they are accessible for our audiences via radio output and BBC Sounds in the months and years to come.”

Steve Arnold from the Radio Circle says, 'We at the Radio Circle are so glad to have been able to return these cultural treasures to the BBC Archives and hope that listeners enjoy hearing these slices of audio history. Many thanks to all the members of the public who contributed to this project.’

Sunday 24 March

Hidden Treasures: The Dumb Waiter

15:00 - 15:45 (Original TX 31.7.81)

Gus and Ben are on the job, waiting and listening. Into the waiting silence rattles the dumb waiter with extraordinary demands for dishes they cannot supply - and who is operating the dumb waiter in an empty house? In a while their victim will come….

Pinter's writing in The Dumb Waiter combines "the staccato rhythms of music-hall cross-talk and the urban thriller." This production stars Bob Hoskins and Roy Kinnear and is an absolute tour de force.

Followed by a short feature about the Hidden Treasures collection.

Monday 25 March

Hidden Treasures: Traitor

14:15 - 15:00 (original TX 2.12.80)

Western journalists visit Moscow to interview Adrian Harris, a former controller in British Intelligence, who was also a double agent for the Soviets. Harris believes in both Communism and Englishness, believing himself to have betrayed his class, but not his country. The press find these beliefs incompatible and want to find out why he became a ‘traitor’. Harris is plagued by anxieties over both his actions and his childhood history.

Starring Denholm Elliott as Harris and Ian Ogilvy as James. Adapted and directed by Derek Hoddinott.

Radio 4 Extra will broadcast more Hidden Treasures plays in May, July and September. More info to follow.

Tuesday 26

No Thoroughfare

10:00 – 11:30 (original TX 18/7/64)

Written by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, adapted by Mollie Hardwick. In 1867 Dickens and Collins collaborated to produce a stage play. Two boys from the Foundling Hospital are given the same name, Walter Wilding, with disastrous consequences. After the death of one in adulthood, executors are commissioned to find a missing heir – leading to danger and treachery.

Wednesday 27

On the Spot

10:00 – 11:30 (original TX 27/3/76)

Edgar Wallace’s most famous play. A bleak story of gangland life in Prohibition Chicago. Gang boss Tony Perelli, recruits men for his gang and women for his bed with the same ruthlessness - and arranges for their disposal when they become a nuisance. But Minn Lee, the widow, is a little too much for him…

Thursday 28

The Riverside Villas Murder

10:00 – 11:30 original TX 26/7/76

By Kingsley Amis, dramatised by Frederick Bradnum. A mummy is stolen from a small-town museum along with some Roman coins, and a soaking wet man collapses in fourteen-year-old Peter Furneaux's living room, bleeding from the head. What was a suspected student prank is followed by murder.

Friday 29

What Every Woman Knows

10:00 – 11:30 original TX 29/10/83

By JM Barrie, adapted for radio by Stewart Conn, with Phyllis Logan and David Hayman. A social satire set in England and Scotland during the early 20th century, What Every Woman Knows centres around plain, spinsterish Maggie Wylie and John Shand, an ambitious young student, who promises to marry Maggie after five years if she agrees and if her family pays for his education. Written before suffrage, the play posits that "every woman knows she is the invisible power responsible for the successes of the men in her life”.

Sunday 5 May

Drama on 3: The Tragedy of Macbeth

20:00 – 22:25 (original TX 1971)

When it was originally broadcast in 1971 on BBC Radio 3, this was the first ever stereo production of Shakespeare’s Scottish play. Radio 3’s predecessor the Third Programme had been the pioneer of stereo on BBC Radio in the early 1960s while other BBC stations did not go stereo till two years after this production in 1973.

Macbeth is played by the TV and film actor Joss Ackland, who died less than four months ago at the end of 2023 aged 96. Lady Macbeth is played by the veteran star of British film and TV Googie Withers, and Robert Hardy, subsequently famous for his role in TV’s All Creatures Great and Small, plays MacDuff.

The production has a specially composed score by Stephen Dodgson and was produced by Raymond Raikes.

More information about wiped, missing or lost recordings, and a form to fill in if you think you may have a copy of a lost recording, can be found on the BBC Archives website.

Find out more about the Radio Circle, or discover more information about the history of radio drama.

FK