As the BBC celebrates turning 100, Radio 4’s Today programme presenter Martha Kearney pays tribute to a British institution.
Some of my earliest childhood memories are of the BBC: sitting on the floor in front of our large, dark brown wireless, waiting for Listen With Mother. We didn’t have a television then, so I had to go to neighbours’ to see Watch With Mother, where I was utterly transfixed by Spotty Dog and Bill and Ben. When we finally got our own set, I became a devoted fan of Blue Peter and was utterly starstruck years later to move into a flat in the same building as one of its presenters, Valerie Singleton. She’s just one of the many women who contributed so much to the BBC dating back to its earliest days.
Dame Nellie Melba was one of the first voices ever broadcast in Britain, while the BBC’s very first director of talks, Hilda Matheson, a former MI5 agent in the First World War, was a pioneering woman. She completely changed the way the BBC communicated with its audience, urging broadcasters to be more informal and conversational. It’s still a golden rule for us presenters: to think about talking to an individual listener rather than the many millions who are actually listening.
Over time, the BBC became a trusted voice in the life of the nation, especially during the Second World War. Winston Churchill delivered 33 major wartime speeches by radio, all broadcast by the BBC. The experiences of the civilian population during the Blitz were vividly brought to life by Audrey Russell, the first female war correspondent, who reported from the scene of many bombsites in London. That journalistic tradition is kept alive by my colleag
