broadcasting

Opposite Children at Birmingham’s Moor Street railway station, September 1939. Millions of British city children were evacuated to safer locations during World War II. above The series was narrated by Laurence Olivier, recorded between productions at the National Theatre, at which he was then Director. He hated the work.

Military History
134

Fifty years of The World at War

Half a century on, the most comprehensive series ever made about the Second World War is still being shown on television channels around the globe. Taylor Downing takes a critical look.

Right The popular archaeological quiz show What in the World? being filmed. From left to right we see Wilton M Krogman, Sir Mortimer Wheeler, and Schuyler V R Cammann, with host (and show creator) Froelich Rainey

World Archaeology
114

David Attenborough, What in the World? and Mortimer Wheeler

A letter in the Penn Museum archives sets Richard Hodges and Alessandro Pezzati on the trail of a memorable moment in the pioneering days of archaeological broadcasting.

ABOVE The BBC war correspondent Robin Duff reporting from the front lines during the Battle of Normandy, June 1944. One of the wartime challenges for the Corporation was to break out of the studio and broadcast vivid reports recorded on location.

Military History
129

The BBC at war

This year marks the centenary of the birth of the BBC. To celebrate, Taylor Downing looks at how the Corporation came of age during the Second World War.