Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan

Radio Fun and the BBC Variety Department, 1922—67

Comedy and Popular Music on Air

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Authors:
  1. Martin Dibbs

    1. Kingsbarns, St Andrews, UK

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Focuses ?on the history and work of the BBC Variety Department from the pre-Variety period until the reorganisation of the BBC’s radio networks
  • Explores the work of the Department during the post-war period, so far a significant yet neglected period in time
  • Provides insight into key events, personalities, programmes, censorship and anti-American policy

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media (PSHM)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xx
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Martin Dibbs
    Pages 1-12

  3. 1922–1933: Variety Before Variety

    • Martin Dibbs
    Pages 13-46

  4. 1933–1939: The Show Begins

    • Martin Dibbs
    Pages 47-105

  5. 1939–1945: We Will Be Working Under Difficulties

    • Martin Dibbs
    Pages 107-170

  6. 1945–1955: A Golden Age for Radio Comedy

    • Martin Dibbs
    Pages 171-228

  7. 1956–1967: Sound into Vision; Popular into Pop

    • Martin Dibbs
    Pages 229-274

  8. Coda

    • Martin Dibbs
    Pages 275-281

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 283-298
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This book provides a narrative history of the BBC Radio Variety Department exploring, along chronological lines, the workings of, tensions within and the impact of BBC policies on the programme-making department which generated the organisation’s largest audiences. It provides an insight into key events, personalities, programmes, internal politics and trends in popular entertainment, censorship and anti-American policy as they individually or collectively affected the Department. Martin Dibbs examines how the Department's programmes became markers in the daily and weekly lives of millions of listeners, and helped shape the nation's listening habits when radio was the dominant source of domestic entertainment. The book explores events and topics which, while not directly forming part of the Variety Department’s history, nevertheless intersected with or had an impact on it. Such topics include the BBC’s attitude to jazz and rock and roll, the arrival of television with its impact on radio, the pirate radio stations, and the Popular Music and Gramophone Departments, both of whom worked closely with the Variety Department.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Kingsbarns, St Andrews, UK

    Martin Dibbs

About the author

Martin Dibbs is an independent scholar and freelance musician. His early education over the airwaves, courtesy of Lord Reith, stimulated a lifelong interest in British radio history. A Londoner by birth, he now lives in the East Neuk of Fife and is currently working on a book about jazz at the BBC.

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation