Brady on to .

This is the Radio 2 Arts programme presented by me, Tony Stavere.

Tonight's edition comes live from Bristol, but not from  broadcasting House in the White Ladyad' Road.

Tonight, we're in the village of Clifton, in the BBC's Christchurch Studios, which has been the bass for radio drama and popular music in the Southwest since the 1970s.

Sadly, Christchurch is due to close its doors next week, and so we've decided to mark the occasion with a celebration of the work that's been focussed on this building over the years.

You'll meet actors, writers, programmakers and musicians who've made Christchurch Hall their creative home.

Where the sun sets in the sky , Year, flowers never dame And friends don't pass you by'Cause that's my home.

All of folks say, how do you do?

And I know they mean it too too I'm telling you'Cause that's my home That's my home.

I'm always welcome back no matter where I grow me I road Just a little shack to years Oh, sweet home Well, the streams and the rivers flow In the old city elm trees grow not say no more'Cause that's my home That's my home.

Here's I'm always welcome back No matter where I rode Where I rode And just a little shack to his home, sweet home When the springs and the rivers flow And the old side of apple flowing I need not say no'Cause that's my home.

Acabilk, that's my home.

And our home for tonight's programme is one of the most user-friendly studios in the world.

If you've never been inside a radio's studio, you might be imagining a rather soulless box divided by a glass wall.

But the space here in Christchurch Hall is huge .

It's split into many levels with bright red railings.

I'm perched on the balconycony next to the bed.

Why should a radio studio need a bed?

There are doors that lead nowhere, a staircase divided into different textures, stone and wood and carpet, a cupboard full of props and sound gadgets.

It's a place of mystery and imagination .

It even has a ghost.

Brian Miller was the senior drama producer here at Christchurch for more than 20 years.

I asked him to provide some historical and geographical references.

It's in the middle of Clifton Village.

I don't know if anyone knows what Clifton Village is.

It sounds cosy , and in fact, it is rather cosy..

Certain the heart of Clifton Village is Regency, and even earlier, Georgia, Greater Clifton, of course, is Victorian and Edwardian, but the heart of it is much older.

Indeed, the Christchurch studio itself is in the heart of the heart of Clifton, in the sense that the pub next door, the coronation tap , is the oldest structure in Clifton.

It is the original Clifton farmhouse.

Not all people know that, as Michael Caine would say, but the reason why the pub has two entrances, it has an entrance out into a street on one side of it, and an entrance out, the street on the other, is that these were two farm tracks originally, which led into the front of the house, on the side, and the back track out the back side.

And so the coronation tap actually derived from having been a farmhouse.

It was called the Coronation Tap After the Coronation of Queen Victoria in 1837.

How long it had been a pub before then, I don't know.

Christ Church Studio, which is just about three or four doors up Portland Street, Portland Street is like a little muse cobbled.

It was a cobbled muse.

It's certainly very picturesque.

A substantial stone building, rough cast, rough sort of stone, looks like built in the late Georgian Regency period, surrounded are were two courtyards on either side of it, and facing all these courtyards are tenements, which were, in fact, the flats or tenements of the workers who worked in the main building, now Christchurch Stud, which was, of course, at that time of brewery.

It was built as a brewery, and it was a brewery for the tap, the pub, next door.

And so as a building itself, it's quite an interesting piece of industrial archeology, in a funny way, because it actually was purpose built as a brewery.

Probably one of many local breweries that existed all over the place at that time.

But that's its origins and general description.

And when did the BBC acquired?

Now, that I wish I could tell you.

I do not actually know.

What I do know is that certainly it had been a musical studio, at least from 1961.

My belief is that however, the BBC Tennessee of it goes back earlier, but this would have to be checked independently.

I have seen a reference to it as having been used for Garrison Theatre and other wartime programmes.

Garrison Theatre, somelisters may recall, was how Jack Wardner got his start as a national favourite variety artist , which was running in 1940 '41.

And that came from a place, according to to a book I read, it came from Clifton Parish Hall.

But of course, Christchurch, the building we know, was itself a parish hall for the Church of Christchurch, which is just around the corner, had been a parish hall since when the 1920s, I think I've put two and two together, and I have assumed that the BBC commandeered this building like it commandeered so many other places during the war, when all these London departments were rushed down to Bristol and points outside London to continue.

And I suspect there is a wartime connection, but I have to look that up.

Do you know anything about the beginnings of radio drama in the Southwest?

How far that would go back to?

Yes, I would say that apart from the index cards I once came across in my office, which showed it to seemingly to have gone back to about 1924, but they were tantalisingly vague.

They owned only the year on the title of the play on the card.

But as the years went on, the information on the cards became a little more detailed, and I found that throughout the 1930s, for example, there was a very prolific radio drama going on.

Of course, for then it would be for what was called the regional Programme, which was like a national programme, but divided into regions for the BBC.

So the regional programme was an extremely important part of broadcasting.

It contributed to by each region and for each region.

Brian Miller, we've a live ban here in the studio tonight, making the radio debut.

The Christchurch Stud has provided a a valuable broadcasting springboard for local talent at every level.

Georgie Fame, Peter Skellen, Acabilk and the Yetis have all recorded sessions here for Radio 2, and foruclecomers, it's been a very useful door to get a foot in .

Here's the Titanic Tum Quartet.

Coquette from the Titanic Tearoom Quartet, more from them later.

Of course, broadcasting in the West region goes back some years before the opening of this studio in Clifton.

Bra,ol first became a small programme centre with a staff of three in 1931.

A young freelance broadcaster called Frank Gillard joined soon after that.

He's still going strong.

Well, I was a schoolmaster.

I graduated in 1931, I think it was.

And I was a science teacher, science master .

The schoolmaster's pay in those days wasn't very good great, and I looked around for some ways of improving my lot and thought that broadcasting, if I could get into it, particularly broadcasting to schools, would be a rather a useful way of perhaps moonlighting a little bit.

I was very fortunate.

The BBC quite soon was prepared to offer me work as a broadcaster to schools, and my local education authority were only too pleased to release me.

To do that, I think they felt it brought a little retire to their own system , that one of their staff was actually broadcasting to the whole nation, to schools.

Anyway, I was a broadcast to schools, and once, of course, you start doing that sort of thing in the BBC, you very soon graduate into other things besides, I was in doing science talks of a more popular nature children's eye before I knew where it was.

And then plenty of evening programmes as well.

What sort of programmes?

I remember particularly, for instance, a magazine programme, I suppose you call it nowadays, a talk show, called The World Goes By, which was presided over by Freddie Gcewood, who was a great broadcaster in those days.

And then I got my own talk show, so it was a big a half hour evening programme every week, which was called In Britain Now, and was a similar sort of thing, and I was the presenter of it and part editor.

This was the 1930s, was it?

Late30s, yes.

So I was, you know, I was pretty busy in broadcasting, but still as a freelance .

And then when the war broke out, remember, I was living in the West Country and the BBC concentrated its staff in and around Bristol so that I was more and more drawn into the broadcasting life, as well as trying to continue my job as a schoolmaster.

But eventually, it was the BBC, which said to me, look, you really should join the staff .

There was some discussion then about it because I wasn't happy at the thought of coming into in wartime as a man of military age, coming into a comfortable BBC desk job or producer job.

I felt that if I was going to get up schoolmastering, I ought to get into the armed forces pretty quick.

But we resolved that very neatly by the BBC saying, well, be a war correspondent for three days a week, and you can work with all the armies in training on Salisbury Plainain and so forth.

And the other three days of the week, you can be a talk producer.

Well, very soon, I may say, it turned out that there was far more demand for my services on the military side .

So I became a full time worker correspondent, and very soon, I was out in North Africa with the Eighth Army and Montgomery, and of course, I remained a war correspondent until the end of the war.

Who stole the luck?

I don't know!

Who stole the luck from the house.

Gonna find out before I go, Who stole the lock from the floor?

Down in the henhouse on my knees Thought I heard the chicken sneze.

Nothing but Ruth saying it's prayer for making love to the hens upstairs and stole the lock I don't!

Who stole the log from the henhouse Gonna find out before I go Who stole the lock from the henhouse door Down in the hen house sometimes stern Thought some cannon Got my bur Only near rooster after all Going to get his ashes hold Who stole the luck?

I got Who stole the luck from the henhouse door?

Gonna find out before I go Who stole the lock from the Hhouse door Who stole the lock?

Fire!

Who stole the lock from the house?

G mind up before I go Who stole the lock from the house door?

The they have every week Roosters come by every day Making chickens by the store, then coming back to make some more We stole the lock I don't know!

Who stole the lock from thehouse Gonna find her before I go Who stole the lock the store Down at the henhouse looking around Thought I heard a mellow sound Who's still singing to his very soul I'm Gonna get some of that jelly roll.

Who stole the lock?

I don't know Who stole the lock the Henn High store Gonna find it before I go Who stole the lock the high stole Who stole the lock?

I don't know Who stole the lock the Henn High store Gonna find out before I go Who stole the lock?

Who's?

Stole the lock?

Who stole the lock from the handhouse door?

Groovejuice, who stole the lock?

All our recorded music tonight comes from local bands and singers who views these studios.

Groovejuice are one of many West country bands that specialise in the music of past times.

But now, to continue the story of the early years of our West region, a key figure from the pioneer days is the actor Mauce Denham.

He arrived in radio by an unusual route.

When I left school, I became apprentice wgootis lifts and escalators and finished up servicing the lifts that were being put in the BBC building as it was being built.. Riding up and down on top of the lifts, greasing the runners, and but all the time saying, I will walk through these doors as an actor, sometimes when I pluck up courage to go for auditions and things like that.

When did you make her first broadcast?

Well, I. I did three years in weekly rep in Hull and Brighton and C Croydon and so on.

Then I did a play in London at the Comedy Theatre, Busman's honeymoon, which ran for a year .

And when we started, I wrote to the BBC and asking for an audition, they wrote back and said, " lists are full right again in six months' time."

So I did, and I got a letter back saying, "You've gone to the bottom of the list."

And it was practically a year from the time that I actually applied before I got an audition .

And after that, I got a lot of broadcasting, luckily, in both in light entertainment and drama.

The BBC All secrecy decided to have two repertory companies, one drama and one light entertainment.

And I wasn't sure whether to go into the drama or the entertainment in finally, a light entertainment, I found I thought might be more fun .

So we had sealed orders, which we carried about for about a fortnight, and were told not to open them until they changed the wavelengths.

So I was rehearsing in London, and I opened my envelope and said, "Go to Bristol as soon as possible."

So I went tooling down there, and that's where we did Edmire from.

Now, this is before the start of the war.

Yeah, well, yes, it was, about a week before, the war was before 17th September 3rd, actually.

And of course, we weren't allowed to say anything against Hitler or Goring or Goebels, or anything like that.

And once war was declared, the relief to be able to talk fat old Gry and all this was this was marvellous.

But it was a very hectic time because there were 14 of us doing all the lightly entertainment.

What other shows were you doing besides it?

I was doing situation comedies and reading the epilogue, singing solo with the BBC Men's chorus, all sorts of things, about eight or nine broadcasts a week, I suppose.

And they had these studios set up in the various church halls all round Bristol.

So you went out and night with your torch made into a little slit, trying to find these various things where you were due on next.

It was very exciting.

And the reason for the secret move out of London was what, was to have a broadcasting centre away from London?

Was that the same thing?

I think they hoped that they could keep it quiet, that it was in Bristol.

Did they keep it quiet, that it was in Bristol?

Ah, I know.

Well, I don't know, because just after I had left to go into the army, it was incredibly badly born, Bristol, wasn't it?

Yes.

It was really devastating.

Yes.

The drama reputty Company went off into the country somewhere.

I think it was Gloucestershire or something.

Evesham, probably.

Evesham, it was, that's right, yeah.

So, at the time you were broadcasting from Bristol, nobody was allowed to mention the fact that you were.

Oh, no, no, certainly not.

No.

It was somewhere in England.

And we were billeted there £7 a week.

For our younger listeners, just give me some background on Itma.

What kind of a show it was.

That was a situation called comedy, was it?

It was.

It was very bizarre.

It was vaguely took place in the office of the mayor of something.

I can't remember.

I have a script, you see, of one of the series, but I cannot find a thing.

And I mean, it's a historic document now, isn't it?

But the theme is it about bumbling authority, is it?

It was, yes, yes.

I think he was running some department of something or something.

And I was playing a Norwegian spy who ran the radio series.

And I was also playing Tommy Handley's first Char Lady, before Mrs. Mop, this was, and she was Mrs. Lola tickled.

What was used to do the best for all her gentlemen?

Why, Mr. Handley?

Gentle !

Well of you, mate there.

There's a letter for you.

A letter for me?

Yes, ma'am.

I wonder if it's from that nice Mr. Godfrey Wynne.

Oh!

It signs your loving admirer, Mr. Fum!

Romance at last!

Dearest L article.

That's me, Lola, short politicia.

Knowing as how, you always do your best for all your gentlemen.

When you meet to me in the telephone box when you've got your your Gudars on?

Oh, he must be me new crateines.

Now, hurry along because I need you.

O !

I've come over all unnecessary.

I wonder what he wants.

You'd be surprised.

Whoo!

What was it?

What was it?

Just after Christmas of the '39, beginning of 40, we went on tour of the halls with Imar.

We had a lot of fun, but of course, people had they'd only had 12 Itars. Although Fom had already been taken, you know, people were beginning to say, this is Fom speaking, then do Tumbler.

So that theatre tour was well supported.

It was well supported except a place, and I can't remember the name of the big town, where we got the bird and the second house on the Saturday night.

I don't think anybody had heard Edmar at all, so they didn't know what on earth was going on, you see.

All these characters would come on , and I unless you heard them on the radio, who were the hell were they?

But there came a time, in fact, when Ima was entered by sort of a half of the population.

Oh, yes, it is terribly popular.

And chiefly, I think, because Tommy was released from the censorship and was able to be natural and his wonderful quips and so on.

But I left in middle of May 1940, and when did the army for five and a half years.

So I bestowed almost there. And joined much binding of the marsh when I came out in '46.

Maurice Denham avoided of history.

This is the Radio 2 Arts programme, live from Bristol.

Let's take another track from the Titanic Tear Room Quartet, who are now out on the afterdeck and wearing their life jackets , a sensible precaution.

The Titanic Tear Room Quartet, Panama .

Let's pick up the postwar story of broadcastinging in the West region.

Here's Frank Gillard.

But when the war ended, I was in Germany with the armies and wondering what to do with my future, should I go back schoolmastering?

Should I go into Fleet Street because as a a work correspondent when it had a lot of exposure and great opportunities on newspapers and news agencies?

Or should I stay in broadcasting?

And the broadcasting jobs offered to me were quite interesting, but the ones that attracted me was the job of head of programmes here in Bristol, because I am a West countryman and I'm absolutely dedicated and devoted to the West Country and a great belief in regional life , and the contribution that broadcasting can make to it.

And therefore, this was a very attractive suggestion to me.

It wasn't the most highly paid of the jobs offered, but it was one that had the most attraction and I came here.

And I got the opportunity of forming my own team around me.

We started almost from scratch and built up a good production team and they all turned out to be marvellous people.

And we stuck together for 10 years, which is quite exceptional.

I mean, we didn't have a break.

Nobody went away at all for 10 whole years .

And so we were really able to build up a strong programming reputation from this region.

Broadcastcasting on the home service, were you?

The situation was this, that there was the home service network from which each of the regions and there were three English regions, North, Midlands, and ours, which was called the west and later south and west.

And then there were the three national regions, Scotland, Wales, North Ireland.

The various regions could opt out, as we used to say, that is to say, break away from the home service network and do their own programming for certain hours of the day.

We had great latitude over that.

The only things we were obliged to carry from London were the news and school broadcasts and things like party political broadcasts.

Other than that, we could opt out, as they said, from the main home service network and do our own programming to our own people.

And we were doing something like 35 to 40 hours a week of optty programmes from Bristol of all kinds, right across the spectrum.

In one area of programming, namely light entertainment , we' not a strong region.

I mean, there isn't a great deal a great variety of tradition in the West're doing, in the very strong variety of tradition in the north, some of it in the Midlands, some even in Wales.

But we had practically nothing.

We had nothing whatever of that kind to contribute to national broadcasting, and we didn't attempt to.

I did feel, however, that there was some quiet humour in West country, rural life and village life that we ought to try to reflect to our audience anyway, in our own style and in our own way.

And so we did a weekly, well, I suppose you would call it, a soap opera, although I thought it was light drama, really, because it was really high class stuff.

It was written by Dennis Constantris and performed by a wonderful band of actors using authentic dialects and all that sort of thing.

And it was a reflection in dramatic form on Saturday evenings for half an hour of village life in a mythical village .

And we called it at theuscombs, because it was based on a mythical family, they called the Luscombs, and very, very successful, indeed, with our audience.

They loved it.

I figured it out.

It might be as well for you and me to make ourselves scarce for a while.

So as dawn, your mom can have a bit of a chin wag.

Oh, yes, well, what about specially?

What about?

Well, if there's a baby in the office within 100 miles, can you hear your mom talking about anything else?

Are you suppose not.

No, I know you won't take any of this the wrong way, son, but your mom gets very fixed ideas, you know.

What sort of ideas?

Well, you know, she can't quite get used to the idea of Doreen being a tongue.

I know, Dad.

And, well. .

You see, your mum's taking this child very serious, first grandchild all all that.

Means a lot to her, you know, Ted.

Means quite a bit to us, I can tell you.

Oh, yes, of course, but, well, you know what your mom's like.

She'd like to be able to do a lot jobs for Dom her feel more in a picture, see?

Of course, I know Doe's a very capable girl and likes to do everything for herself, but you might tip her the winks, see what I mean?

Yes, of course, I know what you mean, but Do very independentependent about some things.

Anyway, she's the boss, Dad.

Of course she is.

And she's a grand girl , but just give her the we sometime.

Ah, you know what's your mom is?

She feels it a bit.

And I was thinking the other night, dear, you don't rest your legs enough.

Now, if I was to pop in of an afternoon, say from two to last hour.

No, I'm Honestly, I wouldn't hear of it.

You've got me more than enough to do.

But, my dear, you know, I love to.

I don't seem to have done anything.

Well, as I was only saying to dad the other night, I said, there's Doreen's baby nearly year, I said, and I'm sure I've done nothing, bar making a few little pilches that I'd have done for anybody else's child.

But you've been most helpful.

And anyway, Nurse says it's quite all right for me to do my own work.

In fact, she says it's good for me.

That's says maybe.

These nurses don't know everything.

I've had six with my poor Jackie that we lost in the war, and you can't tell me that you wouldn't be better off your legs.

Oh, no, really, my mother...

You know best, my dear, and I'm sure the last thing I want.

What other areas were you encouraging your programme makers to get in in those?

Well, because one saw broadcasting, and it's been intensified in more recent years , as a journalistic medium, a newspaper of the air, in other words.

And we did what we could, with limitations.

We did what we could, to develop the projection of regional news and coverage of regional affairs and regional interests and regional economic situations and so on.

The problem there, and it was a very serious problem for all of us in regions, was that our regions were so big in the north of England England, the people of Newcastle were not very interested in the domestic affairs of what was going on in Liverpool, on the opposite side of the country, and down here in the West, the people who lived in Brighton, the London commuters of Brighton, couldn't have cared less less about the problems of the fishing industry in Penzance of the English China clay industry in Cornwall.

So being so large, we were limited in our journalistic work .

Now, when it came to to what you might call the more cultural areas, here we were not so hampered.

I mean, there was still the lingerings of the tradition of the great kingdom of Wessex, and there were the lingerings of of the tradition of Hardy's Wessex.

And there was a sense that we all had.

There were ways in which the West of England and along the south coast, was a different sort of area.

It had different cultural traditions.

It had different histories and customs and so forth.

It had different approaches, even to national crises and national problems , so that in in those areas, and I'm talking about documentary and I'm talking about drama, and to some, it was certainly in literary areas, and to a degree also in music, because we had Vaughan Williams as one one of our composers, for example, but many and many others who got their opportunities of of hearing their work and getting it performed through us in this region, so that in all the cultural areas, there there was a very real sense that there was a positive job to do, which we could do without too many limitations.

As an illustration of the strength of our drama, and I'm speaking now of the productions we did for the whole Home Service network, for many years, we offered to the home service, and it was accepted, for Sunday evening, listening from nine o'clock to 10 o'clock in the evening, absolutely a pess listening time of the week, really.

This is before television came along.

Dramatisations done from here of Thomas Hardy novels.

We took each novel.

It was dramatised in 10 or 12, 16, Min segments.

The dramatisation was done by Desmond Hawkins, who was a great scholar and who was a member of the staff here and a great colleague of mine, and is still around, I'm glad to say.

And the production was by Owen Reed, who was one of the finest drama producers the BBC had, also based here in Bristol, went on subsequently to become head of staff training in the BBC .

So one year, you'd get Tesla of the d'Ubervilles in 12, one hour section, another year, you'd get far from the manding crowd and so forth.

We' very proud to have Hardy as one of our foremost playwrights, of course, novelists, and poets..

But my point is this, that I remember very well, Owen Reed, the producer coming to me over one of these dramatisations just before the series began, and he said, well, I shall want some special music for this.

And I said, "Well, that's fine.

There's enough in the bud money in the budget for music."

No, he said, " I want it specially composed.

So I said, well, you can afford that too, I should think.

And he said, "No, but I want Vaughan Williams.

Vaughan Williams, the leading, the foremost British composer of the day.

Well, and I said, "O, that's impossible.

He said, "But you know Vau Williams, don't you?

Well, I did, actually.

I was acquainted with Vau Williams.

I mean, we weren't friends, but I knew him.

I'd met him before I came into the BBC, so I knew him.

So I wrote to V Williams and I said, I don't know if you ever listened to these, these hardy things which we do from time to time.

But if you do, I wonder if I could tempt you in just writing the incidental music form on new production ?

Got an immediate reply from him, saying, my wife and I never miss these works.

And I should be only too honoured to come and do this work for you.

And so in due course, a Rolls Royce arrives here and out stepss the great Dr. Vaughan Williams, and we receive him and almost kiss his hand, you know, and lead him him in.

And I still have the picture of Vaughan Williams and Owen Reed in my office sitting with their notepads on their knees, and Owen Reed saying to the greatest composer of British music of the day, saying, no, Dr. Von Williams, I've got a sequence here in which I move, you see, from the parlour, and there are just two of them chatting together, and I'm moving from that into the r rabble out in the marketplace, and I want just 12 seconds of music just to take me from that to that.

Now, can you manage that?

Oh, yes, says Vaughan Williams, and writes it down on his noteepad, and this went on and on and on.

He wrote some lovely music for us for that production, for the whole 12 programmes.

Is it still in the archive?

Oh, sure do we, yes.

He actually turned it into a suite in the end, but I don't think it was ever commercially recorded, but it was played a lot on the air.

William's music for the mayor of Casterbridge , played there by the West of England, Light Orchestra, a bit of musical history from the archives.

Paul Rogers was in the cast for several of the Thomas Hardy serials.

As a young Devonian amateur, he got his very first acting job through BBC Radio.

I was 16, as I remember, which means that this is 1933 we're talking about.

And this was my first, if a schoolboy can in any way be a private because he isn't.

I mean, that was one of the glories.

And as an equity member, I say this, one of the glories of the Bristol setup.up. Was, of course, that wonderful reservoir that they had of local, actual, proper accents and talent, in all men manner, marvellous marvellous names.

Very few of them professional.

How would the people working at the BBC in those days, able to make those connections?

Well, this was Sarah Wood.

Did you is a name to conjure with. And he had sent round a circular to all the various secretaries of amateur dramatic companies throughout the the region.

One of the really rather good ones was the Newton Abbber one, of which I was an Hble member.

And the secretary, who was a marvellous lady called M. Wheeler, who was also responsible for teaching me history and Latin, as well as being the onsect of the Newton Abbott Rejectory Company, suggested that I might like to take part in an audition with my Devonshire accent, which God knows was genuine.

And so I did.

I did this audition, and two of us were selected, and I'm ashamed to say that I don't remember the name of the gentleman who was selected, but he, God bless him, looked after me, because this was an adventure.

At 16, I was engaged by the West Region at S Wood to play Jack Brimblecombe in a production of Westwoodhoe, which took place over the course of two evenings, two long . Episodes.

Was it broadcast live?

Over two evenings?

Oh, yes, live.

Everything was live in those days.

So how did you prepare for that?

What was the rehearsal, and so on?

Well, I mean, that's why we were there for such a long time.

We were there for, oh, I think, it was four days.

We did that.

We did the whole thing over four days. .

And that meant, of course, that you rehearsed through the first day and the second day up to transmission of the first part.

Why I'm laughing is because I will always treasure the wonderful memory, and people who remember Studio one.

I' it through all awful lot of people who actually remember this incident, but entering Studio One from the door and looking in front of you, the left hand far corner was a mountain of chairs, tables, right to the ceiling.

I have never seen such a magnificent construction of it must have been taken from all over the building.

And, at a specific moment, on cue, the ship ran on the rocks, and that lot came down wonderful.

They were wonderful days.

I mean, as I say, what an adventure, what an extraordin scenes taking place in the cabin, you had to run like a hare from the open air, upstairs, and into a not very adjacent, small studio.

I think on that occasion, and there's nobody to say meet, as far as I know, but certainly we used Stud one, and three more, I think, of the smaller studios.

It was a big production.

Then the same, of course, was for part two, rehearsal, the first day, and write up to transmission .

Actually, I learned a harsh lesson, early sad note at all in a wonderful four days.

And that is that I had the first experience of the blue pencil, because it was rather, rather long.

And I think I endeded up by having not much more than four lines , if that four sentences, that is really, not a huge part.

Paul Rogers.

It's time to cue the band again.

The angle on the deck is increasing, but they're playing valiantly on.

How can you face me?

Topical stuff from the Titanic Tear Room Quartet.

At's Andy Leggett on sacks, Bob Mleborough on Trumpet, John Gil Banjo, and Justina Under Hay on the string bass.

When this studio closes next week, the producers who've been making popular music programmes and radio plays in Bristol will take themselves and their output to the BBC and Birmingham.

Now, there's a historical precedent for such a shift.

In fact, back in 1946, it was proposed to merge the west region with the Midlands.

Frank Gillard explains. You see, the third programme had not yet been introduced.

It was impending, but the trouble was there was no wavelength available to put it on.

And the ghastly solution, which was almost implemented, almost implemented, was that our region, the west, should be merged with the Midland region so that one wavelength would serve for both and that would release a wavelength on which the third programme network, could operate.

Well, this, I mean, it really, we were within days of that happening.

But the whole body of BBC staff in Bristol were extremely, absolutely , extremely devastated by this proposal and activated to resist it to the hilt.

And we ran what I think must have been the most successful protest campaign.

And we ran it from inside the BBC.

And I went to the director general and challenged him to stop us from doing it .

He said to me, as long as you do do not reveal in the course of your campaign, matters which are concerned to the BBC, which are private, as it were, to the BBC, and should not be revealed to the public.

As long as you base your campaign on facts that are widely known and accepted, I've no power to stop you.

And it really was at the very last minute .

The Downing Street itself, it came straight from Atley's office.

An announcement came that the government was not going to proceed with this idea.

They had found a wavelength from Germany, stolen from Germany at the end of the war, you see.

And they were going to put the third programme on that.

And so we remained .

But we were very nearly extinguished.

If we had been, it would have been utterly absurd, because the combined region would have stretched from Stoke on Trent right out to the Scillies.

And if you can call that a region, you know, you really are stretching language pretty far.

Frank Gillard.

Lessons from History.

This is the Radio Two Arts programme.

After the news, we'll bring the Bristol story up to date and meet some of the writers who've been associated with this Christchurch studio, Faye Weldon, Peter T Tiniswood, and Tina Pepler.

Also, the actor Bill Wallace will be here.

For many people, he epitomises the spirit of the place.

To take us up to the news, Bristol's number one one jazz sexist, Andy Shepard, previews our final hour with Coming Second.