The BBC began broadcasting wireless programmes in 1922 and by the following year had started publishing a magazine, Radio Times, to tell listeners what was on. From this we can find out what the fairly few fortunate households heard through the whistles and crackles of the early sets at Christmas one hundred years ago.
The issue for 23 December 1923 included introductory columns by the BBC’s luminaries, a note on ‘My Christmas in Burma – The British Spirit Abroad’, and ‘Yuletide Customs – How They Arose’ by Arthur Burrows, Director of Programmes. Lord Riddell marvels at this exciting new invention, the radio, under the heading ‘Modern Witchcraft’, and the prolific thriller writer William Le Queux, M.I.R.E., is soon in on the act with ‘Early Adventures in Wireless’, an account of his ‘pioneer experiments’. An unsigned column imagines Sam Weller making a broadcast for the benefit of ‘Cook’, and there are other light sketches and cartoons. There are also numerous adverts for the thrilling new equipment, with its mysterious terminology of valves and aerials and loops.
The broadcasts were relayed from several different stations: 2LO London and seven others in Scotland, Wales and the provinces. From the capital, on Sunday 23 December listeners-in were offered The Band of His Majesty’s Irish Guards, a talk on St Dunstan’s, music by St Pauls Cathedral Choir, an address by the Bishop of Southwark, a hymn, and Handel’s Messiah from The Wireless Orchestra and Chorus under L.Stanton Jefferies, before the time signal, news, and closedown at 10.30pm.
On Monday 24 December there was, among things, Children’s Stories featuring a talk on ‘The Mistletoe Bough’ by Mr John Kirkham Hamilton, which is also featured in the magazine. This chilling old tale of the young bride who gets locked in a chest during a game of hide-and-seek, must have kept the children suitably agog, and no wonder they were next offered the soothing tones of ‘Auntie Sophie on the Piano’.
There was lighter fare for the adults, with Captain Grierson offering ‘Readings from Punch’ followed by music by the 2LO Octette, including ‘Careless Cuckoo’, ‘Lancers’ and ‘The Arcadians’. During an interlude, we are told, ‘Hector Gordon will entertain’. The 2LO Dance Band takes to the airwaves just before 10pm, with valses and fox-trots. In case things got a bit too hectic, though, closedown was again at 10.30pm.
On Christmas Day, Tuesday 25 December, the children were offered a nativity play, then The Wireless Orchestra performed a Christmas Programme and there was Wit and Humour by The Revd G W Kerr, a phrase which vaguely suggests the air of dread that descends when the curate volunteers to tell a funny story at the parish treat. But things soon hot up with The Savoy Orpheans and The Savoy Havana Band live from the Savoy Hotel until midnight: a sizzling syncopated Christmas indeed.
The provincial stations offered further
variety. On Christmas Eve, for example, most of them broadcast Arthur Machen’s old
theatrical mentor Sir Frank Benson with readings from Shakespeare. Cardiff offered
A Dramatic Recital by Cyril Estcourt of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol,
with ‘Carol Interludes by the Star Street Congregational Church Choir’, one of
the earliest examples of the BBC Ghost Story for Christmas tradition. At
Bournemouth, however, there was also ‘Scholar’s Half Hour: A Mediaeval
Christmas’, a talk by Miss M.R. Dacombe, M.A. She was later to be the author of Mediaeval History (1927) and Dorset, up along and down along : a collection of history,
tradition, folk lore, flower names and herbal lore, gathered together by
members of women's institutes (1935), among other works.
On Christmas Day, Aberdeen presented programmes under the theme of ‘From Grave to Gay’, including music and ‘a few stories’. Manchester presented its own adaptation of A Christmas Carol read by R J Hever, with incidental music by Eric Fogg, a musical prodigy from the city then only in his twenties. Bournemouth were once again determined to inform and educate, with a talk by J.C.B. Carter B.A. on ‘Christmas Customs’. But apart from the Sunday before Christmas, the BBC seasonal broadcasts across all stations were surprisingly modern and secular, with jolly and rollicking fare of drollery and dance bands, yarns and jests and jazz.
(Mark Valentine)
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