The Archive Hour
A look back at programmes and recordings from the BBC archives
Categories
Series & Episodes
102 items available
Reith at 60
Professor Laurie Taylor marks the 60th anniversary of the Reith Lectures
Stalin's Silent People
Historian Orlando Figes reveals the secret histories of family life during Stalin's reign
The Archive Hour
Exploring the work of poet and innovative radio producer, Louis Macneice.
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A look at the legacy of Walter Legge, the influential classical recording producer.
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Barry Davies looks back at 80 years of football commentary on BBC radio.
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50 Years in Europe: Where Away Goals Count Double. Football's European competitions.
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Marking 50 years of CND, Matthew Parris assesses the organisation's impact.
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The story of Edward Murrow's pioneering 1950s US radio series.
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David Vaughan explores the national radio archive in Prague to recall the events of 1938.
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Alan Dein uncovers a little known story of postwar conflict.
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Sheila McClennon revisits Jeanine McMullen's 80s Radio 4 magazine A Small Country Living.
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Judith Kampfner samples American radio archives from the recordings of the Kitchen Sisters
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Douglas Hurd uses the BBC Archives to explore the life of his predecessor Anthony Eden.
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Former head of MI5 Stella Rimington uses the BBC archives to examine the 'Cambridge spies'
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Alan Parker offers a profile of David Lean on the centenary of the director's birth.
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Alexei Sayle on his boyhood seaside holidays - at trade union conferences in their heyday.
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Barry Norman presents a special edition marking the 60th anniversary of the film festival.
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Jean Seaton explores how the BBC has coped with the nation's religious sensitivities.
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Adam Hart Davies looks at how scientists and writers have predicted future social trends.
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One hundred years after the architect's birth, Sarah Gaventa examines his legacy.
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Robert Peston investigates Britain's difficulty with the world of commerce.
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Heather Couper meets some of Britain's rocket pioneers from the 50s.
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Carolyn Quinn asks what the Carry On series of films tells us about British society.
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Libby Purves looks back at 40 years of BBC local radio stations.
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Denis Healey at 90: Elinor Goodman looks back on a long political career.
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Eyes in the Sky: Leo Enright reflects on the satellites that have changed history.
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The writer DJ Taylor asks if the era of sporting fair play has gone for ever.
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Stephanie Flanders tells the story of her father Michael, Donald Swann's comic partner.
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The story of the Cambridge University Footlights Club.
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Henry Bonsu recalls the Notting Hill riots of August 1958.
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John Sergeant and Tony Benn look back on 30 years of regular broadcasting in the Commons.
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Sean Street investigates the history of the battle between the BBC and commercial radio.
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Piers Plowright looks back at the career of the brilliant Canadian pianist Glenn Gould.
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Harry Belafonte at 80: Stephen Evans talks to the singer about his music and politics.
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Journalist Mark Paytress examines the life and career of DJ and comedian Kenny Everett.
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Sean Street introduces recordings from individuals' domestic archives.
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Nicholas Parsons explores the history of radio comedy and its impact on British life.
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Nigel Warburton looks back on the rich history of the autodidact.
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Sarfraz Manzoor chairs a debate on new ways of understanding the legacy of Partition.
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Philosopher Julian Baggini takes a personal journey through the sound archives.
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Veteran comedian Ken Dodd discusses his eventful career with actor Ricky Tomlinson.
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Angus Deayton presents a tribute to comedy producer, writer and performer Geoffrey Perkins
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Tony Staveacre presents highlights from conversations with his friend Miles Kington.
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Light at the End of the Chunnel: Sean Street explores the history of a historic project.
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Sean Street recalls the groundbreaking 50s series Radio Ballads.
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Stewart Henderson looks at the changing face of Liverpool through the years.
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Sue MacGregor explores the controversial life of Marie Stopes.
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Kit Hesketh Harvey traces the intertwined careers of Noel Coward and Ivor Novello.
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Christina Hardyment looks at life below stairs in Britain between the wars.
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Sarfraz Mansoor on how Asians were introduced to their new lives in the UK in the 1960s.
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Lars Tharp explores the changing relationship between the antiques trade and the public.
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Phil Daniels presents a look back at the Mod movement of the 1960s.
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Jeremy Summerly explores the archive of composer and broadcaster David Munrow.
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Michael Crick recalls the Munich air disaster of February 6, 1958.
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Julian Worricker looks back at 60 years of BBC masterclasses featuring great musicians.
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Mark Lawson reassesses Laurence Olivier's reputation, 100 years after his birth.
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Jancis Robinson looks at how the British wine trade has changed within the last 50 years.
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The rise and fall of gay radio; how homosexuality went from taboo to mainstream.
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Mark Stephen explores Piper Alpha's legacy, for individuals and for the oil industry.
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Gerry Northam charts the rise and fall of Oswald Mosley.
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Kathy Sykes charts the way that science has been seen and heard on radio and television.
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Naturalist Bridget Nicholls reflects on the life of conservationist Gerald Durrell.
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The story of an American general's musical plan to win 'hearts and minds' in Vietnam.
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Malcolm Taylor and archivist Doc Rowe record annual events in British folk culture.
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The remarkable story of the birth of the SAS, told by the men who were there.
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Sean Street tells the story of Marie Slocombe and the BBC Sound Archive.
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Martin Sixsmith explores the lives of artists and writers who fled the former Eastern Bloc
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Michael Nicholson recalls the night of the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands.
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Alan Dein looks back at the life of the late American oral historian Studs Terkel.
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Rory Bremner looks back at fifty years of BBC Radio coverage of test match cricket.
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A look at the history and evolution of the radio documentary feature.
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Joan Bakewell revisits the debates that took place in a London church in the 1960s and 70s
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As the nation celebrates 50 years of independence, Radio 4 explores the 1966 coup in Ghana
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Steve Cram talks to Ben Johnson about the men's 100 metres race at the 1988 Seoul Olympics
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Francine Stock tells the story of five film makers, all born in 1907.
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Marybeth Hamilton recalls an extraordinary 1938 interview with Jelly Roll Morton.
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Andrew Neil celebrates the characters of Fleet Street, from CP Scott to Kelvin McKenzie.
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Sean Stowell tells the story of a yogic doctor's role in the Edward VIII abdication crisis
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Paul Farley tells the extraordinary story of two tapes by poet Philip Larkin.
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Martin Shankleman profiles Alan Blumlein, an unsung but remarkable inventor.
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The Mantovani Sound: Catherine Bott recalls the music of Annunzio Mantovani.
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Robert Hodierne reveals the truth about the infamous My Lai massacre of 16 March 1968.
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An exploration of the blackout on 13 July 1977 that plunged New York City into chaos.
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David Cannadine traces 75 years of the BBC's relationship with the Royal Family.
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Harry Enfield explores the history of the Royal Festival Hall through music and anecdotes.
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How a huge concrete housing estate became a lawless but creative slum - and what followed.
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Clare Balding recalls the last time the Olympic Games came to London in 1948.
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Ivan Howlett tells the story of the Chinese who served in the merchant navy during WW2.
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Ray Gosling revisits Northampton, once the home of the British shoemaking industry.
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Tom Robinson examines the seemingly inevitable anger greeting any musical innovation.
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Commentator and satirist Joe Queenan takes a look at the past 35 years of American history
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Frank Gardner discovers a collection of First World War propaganda recordings.
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The Stone of Destiny: James Naughtie tells the history of a symbol of Scottish pride.
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Tom Robinson looks at the public service educational publications of the 50s, 60s and 70s.
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Julian Rhind-Tutt explores how actors archive the sounds of their own voices.
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The Women Left on the Shore: Archives from the fishing communities around Morecambe Bay.
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Anne Perkins recalls the wave of strikes across Britain during the winter of 1978/9.
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John Cole tells the story of the General Election of 1945, when Attlee beat Churchill.
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Peggy Reynolds takes a look at the history of the virtuoso, from Paganini to Eric Clapton.
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Bryan Cooney chronicles the souring of the love affair between sports stars and the media.
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Lee Hurst looks back at a century of cockney comics from Albert Chevalier to Ricky Grover.
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Mark Lawson celebrates the centenary of the great conductor Herbert von Karajan.