Leicester – what springs to mind when you hear the name of our city? Premier League winners? Richard III? Curry?

Of course it’s a curry capital, with more than 400 curry restaurants and takeaways and its own annual Leicester Curry Awards, but for some reason we hadn’t capitalised on this on air.

When I first sold the idea to my team they were pretty sceptical. Is it too stereotypical for such a diverse city? Does cooking work on the radio? We came up with the idea of a radio mash-up of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ One's Saturday Kitchen and ITV's Dinner Date. Great food and recipes, fun chat and a banging playlist – what’s not to like?

We wanted to find new talent to present the show, and the exuberant Anand Bhatt certainly fits the bill. By day he's an amazing choreographer, and on Monday nights at 7pm he puts on his pinny and hosts The Curry Show. Our engineer worked his magic so that the show, which launched in March, is broadcast live from Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Leicester’s kitchen.

Every Monday the air is rich with the scent of spice and the sizzle of cooking, and a local chef from one of the city’s many curry houses shares a favourite recipe and cooks it up for two special guests.

The guests get to choose their playlist, fill up on the feast and share their stories. All sorts of folk get invited, from the local police chief to a beatboxer, and they all want to come again!

If we’re lucky we get a spicy breakfast with the leftovers on Tuesday, but it usually gets scoffed by the guests as they enjoy their curry dinner with Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Leicester.

The Curry Show podcast is on the way next!

You can listen to recent episodes of The Curry Show on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ iPlayer Radio here.

The first task was to get the song arranged so it was suitable for a choir. I’m not sure Jarvis Cocker and the rest of the band had a four part choral harmony in mind when they wrote it in the 90s, but it worked out to sound quite amazing. Once the arrangement was done we had to get a choir to record it. We appealed on air for people who could sing and were amazed with the response. We never knew we had some many tuneful listeners!

The song was recorded here at Radio Sheffield, with a 70 strong choir, none of whom had heard the arrangement before we came to record it. Three hours of rehearsal time with an amazing musical director later, and we were ready to record it. The choir worked hard that day but no one complained and the result is brilliant thanks in no small part to our lovely engineers.

The next stage was to think about the film. We wanted to feature locations around South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire so the film had a sense of the whole of our patch. So we scouted around looking for suitable locations. Film maker Marco Van Belle came up with the concept for the film which involved a big crowd of people coming together at the end – so those scenes ended up based in the – the Sheffield nightclub where Pulp played their first gig.

We wanted as many of our listeners to be involved as possible so again we took to the radio to appeal for people to come and be extras in the film. Our amazing audience didn’t let us down and soon our receptionist was inundated by calls and emails from people wanting to get involved. I have a feeling most of our listeners have a secret desire to be stars.

A Sheffield scout group, a bull dog (and its owners) plasterers, teachers, ex-miners and bus drivers all turned up on a Sunday in October to be part of the crowd scene in the film. It was a long day as filming days can be with take after take to make sure we had the right shots, but everyone was so enthusiastic about being involved, people still had big smiles on their faces by the end of the day. As the choir and hundreds of extras sang the final chorus of the song in the Leadmill the hard work all seemed worth it.

Two more days filming around South Yorkshire saw us working with listeners on the Supertram in Sheffield, a sweet shop in Rotherham, an old cutler’s workshop, the Mayors parlour in Barnsley, and Doncaster market. My colleague Dan and I will never forget singing our hearts out to Common People on the supertram to encourage the extras to sing along in the right time to the track.

I wouldn’t be surprised to find I’m banned from Supertram for life for being a noise nuisance!

Then it was over to the film maker to edit it. The whole experience was hard work but extremely rewarding. I loved how the people of South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire got themselves behind it. A real sense of everyone coming together not just to celebrate our birthday but to celebrate the local pride we have around here as well.

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Local radio quickly found its place in a local emergency.

These days our listeners expect our stations to be there when there’s a local crisis - when the snow falls or the roads shut, people know local radio will have the info they need. Back in the 60s this was all new. Our first station on air was Radio Leicester and early on in its history it covered the great flood of 1968 when over 500 houses in the city were left underwater, the service was a new local lifeline from the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ. Similarly a severe snowstorm in December 1967 forced the manager at Radio Brighton to put the station on air two months earlier than planned. 

Local radio pioneered the open plan radio office

Coming from commercial radio where programming, sales and news all tended to work in different offices I was struck by how Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Local Radio stations are usually situated in one large office with everyone from news to programmes and often (though not always) the editor all sat together. Of course open plan offices are standard these days across the industry but I discovered local radio was an early adopter. John Musgrave who opened Radio Blackburn in 1970 housed the station in a used car showroom. This meant the production area was a vast open plan space, so all the production teams had to talk to one another, and thus the idea of sharing content was born, moving towards sequence programmes. 

Local radio has always had to innovate

Our stations led the way in the use of radio cars across the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ, although they were available to network and nations it was local stations that really discovered their value in getting us out of the studio and into the communities we serve.

The use of completely 'self-op' radio studios in the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ was also largely driven through local radio and presenters have been battling with levels ever since.

Even the early local radio jingles were ground breaking. from the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radiophonic workshop, probably best known for creating the Doctor Who theme, was commissioned to create distinctively local sonic logos for our earliest stations. Steel knives and forks were used for Radio Sheffield’s music, pots and dishes for Radio Stoke and in an interesting digital reference to Robin Hood, an electronic bow and arrow featured on the station sound for Radio Nottingham. It certainly sounded different.   

Local radio has always had to improvise

Local radio marketing budgets have always been tight, so editors have often found creative ways to get noticed. My favourite example is from Phil Sidey, the first station manager at Radio Leeds, he had a feud with the Yorkshire Post, who refused to write about the station. So he bought a greyhound, called it Radio Leeds, and when it won at races, the papers had to print the name.

Gareth Roberts is Editor Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Coventry and Warwickshire and Head of Local Radio Development.

• Listen to '', a one hour documentary about the history of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Local Radio.
• Find out more about .

The Beechey family suffered unbearable loss in the First World War with five of their eight sons being killed. One hundred years on from the death of the fifth Beechey brother, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Lincolnshire's Michael Hortin follows in their footsteps telling their story and reuniting them with an act of Remembrance.

Even amongst the carnage of the First World War the story of the Beecheys stands out. At the outbreak of WWI the family was a large one with eight sons and five daughters. All the brothers saw service, with five killed and a sixth left with life-changing injuries. The family was one of three in England to suffer such loss.

What marked the Beecheys out for our project, in addition to being from our area, was the archive of letters from the brothers that survives. Reading them you get a real feel for their differing personalities, they become much more than a name on a headstone.

Telling their story we had three aims: to produce as much of the content as possible using a smartphone; to reunite the brothers in some way, 100 years on and to follow in their footsteps to tell their story.

Save for some photos and an interview the first has already been achieved, with the help of a tripod, lapel mic and iphone stand.  

The second objective was initially the hardest to pin down. However the answer was on our doorstep, and in the families’ strong Christian faith. I approached Lincoln Cathedral for support, the result was six crosses carved from the stone it is built from. These were to be laid at the graves of those killed in WWI, bringing them together with an act of Remembrance. A sixth was to be put on display at the church where the brothers’ father was once vicar. In addition to the religious significance, it is worth explaining the importance of the Cathedral to people in Lincoln, like the brothers. You only truly know you are home when you see it. As a result we felt that by taking crosses to the brothers, we were also bringing their home county to them.

After 10 weeks planning, in September and October I began a four-week journey through six countries in the brothers’ footsteps. The first week was spent in France and Belgium where the majority of the brothers’ saw action. The next in Greece and then Gallipoli, where two brothers served as Anzacs. The third week was in Tanzania where the second eldest brother Charles was killed and is now buried. The final few days were in Australia following the story of the Anzac brothers before and after the war.

By the end of the journey four of the crosses had been left at Commonwealth War Grave Cemeteries. After a short period there, the CWGC are going to remove them to them be put on permanent display at their centres. The fifth for one of the Anzac brothers, who has no known grave, is being put on permanent display from the 11 November at the military chapel in Perth, Western Australia.

The final cross will be put on permanent display at the family church, where the brothers’ father preached until his death in 1912. At that moment I will have a feeling that in some ways the brothers have been bought a little closer.

From this journey we will produce a series and documentary for radio for both Remembrance Week and Christmas, short films about each brother and a vlog of the journey and supporting article.

It goes without saying  all the above would not have been possible without the support of many people and organisations inside and outside the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ and across the countries visited.

When I reflect on the family’s story my mind always returns to the mother Amy, who must have opened letters from her sons with a mixture of hope and fear. Sadly her voice, save for one letter, is largely silent. However in April 1918 we get a window to her world as she met King George and Queen Mary. When Queen Mary expressed sympathy for the families sacrifice she replied “It was no sacrifice Ma’am, I did not give them willingly”.

Michael Hortin is a producer for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Lincolnshire

We know how much you love your local radio services, with more and more of you listening in different ways: using FM, DAB or internet-based services such as Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ iPlayer Radio.

We regularly review the value for money of our distribution our services across all platforms to ensure we’re spending the licence fee as efficiently as possible. And back in 2011, as part of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s plans to save around £700m, we announced we would be closing some medium wave transmitters to save millions of pounds.

Since then, we have carefully looked at the range of services we deliver on medium wave, and the range of analogue and digital alternative options for audiences. We have also been investing too - funding local DAB expansion, making all local radio stations available on Digital Terrestrial TV (such as Freeview), and enhancing the sound quality of our online output.

But on changes to medium wave coverage specifically, to identify areas where the impact would be felt the least, we conducted detailed assessments of the coverage of each Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ local radio station on FM, MW and DAB. Following this process, we trialled the switch-off of a number of medium-wave transmitters and asked for audience feedback. Taken together, the audience feedback and the coverage data have informed which medium wave transmitters are unlikely to represent value for money in the longer term.

As a result, we will be closing 13 medium wave transmitters in January 2018.

So what does this mean? Once the changes take effect, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Sussex, Surrey, Humberside, Wiltshire, Nottingham, Kent, and Lincolnshire will no longer be accessible on medium wave. And, there will be reduced medium-wave coverage for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Devon, Lancashire and Essex.

We know these changes will have an impact on some listeners. For the majority, re-tuning to FM or DAB is likely to be the simplest solution - and any listeners who have trouble receiving FM or DAB signals can find Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ local radio stations on Freeview or the internet.

These changes are still some months away, but we will be talking about them on air, on the stations affected to make sure listeners are ready. We’ll also be making more information available through our usual channels.

Kieran Clifton is Director, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Distribution & Business Development

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Cumbria Managing Editor Mark Elliott remembers Storm Desmond and the lasting damage it caused, and considers the importance of local radio in times of flooding.

The images of raging rivers, broken bridges and streets underwater still send a shiver down the spine. The lives of thousands thrown into turmoil. But those situations are when Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Local Radio comes into its own – another “emergency service”, mobilising to broadcast around the clock to keep our communities informed in the most difficult of circumstances. When the flooding is so severe and so widespread, it’s tough to keep going, but when the storms and weather warnings continue for six weeks as they did in Cumbria last winter, it becomes a monumental logistical challenge. Add to the mix numerous members of staff having to deal with their own homes being flooded and you’ll understand why I have the utmost admiration for my team for showing great stamina as well as professional skill when responding to Storm Desmond and its aftermath.

But the flooding story doesn’t stop when the waters recede. There’s the clean-up, the rebuilding, the insurance, the health issues – it goes on and on. Even now, there are many hundreds of people in Cumbria who are still not back in their homes or businesses. So marking the anniversary of the floods over the coming week is a difficult thing to do.

There are so many different angles and so many people affected that you can’t focus on them all. But, as ever, we tell the story through the people involved. We follow the struggles of four generations of a family living in one small house after being forced out of their home, the children who’ve spent a full year away from their school which will now have to be rebuilt on a new site, the staff at a Lakeland hotel which is only just receiving guests after being flooded four times last December, the helicopter crew nominated for a global award for rescuing people in what they describe as the worst conditions they’ve ever flown in.

Listening back to the archive material is a stark reminder of the heartbreak and the misery endured by thousands, but also the multiple acts of courage and kindness in the face of adversity - branded “The Spirit of Cumbria” by those communities pulling together in the darkest of times. And there’s pride – pride in my team and the way we responded when it really mattered to our audience. That’s real public service broadcasting.

Mark Elliott is Managing Editor, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Cumbria 

Tony Bullimore is someone who would occasionally crop-up in the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Bristol newsroom. His name is synonymous with sailing, exploration, and of course a lucky escape. Every once in a while he would come on-air to comment about sea-faring stories, but it wasn’t until an exhibition came to Bristol in the summer of 2015 that I realised his life before ocean exploration was equally, if not more fascinating.

The exhibition was called “Sound-System Culture,” it documented the rise of the West Indian Sound Systems and the part they played in influencing music in cities across the UK. In Bristol, I learnt that Sound Systems had found a home in the Bamboo Club in the 1970’s, and that the club was run by one Mr Tony Bullimore.

I had heard of the Bamboo Club before. Its name had come up in conversation several times, and for me, like many Bristolians, it had an almost mythical status. I knew it was a small club just-off Portland Square, and I knew it was famous in Reggae circles, but I was about to learn it was much, much more than this.

As a newsroom journalist, I’m able to pitch ideas and cover stories. So, last summer I suggested we do a piece on the “Sound System” exhibition. It was from there I started to do more research on the Bamboo Club.

Instantly two things struck me. One, there was (by modern standards) very little about the club on the internet. Yes there was the odd blog and article mentioning it as former nightspot, with a scattering of photos, but in the main it was a story that remained largely untold. Two, the Club had opened its doors in 1966, therefore there was a 50th anniversary approaching.

Having spoken to Tony (a great character) it didn't take long to realise that the influence of the Bamboo Club was so huge, and it was such an important piece of Bristol’s social history, that it needed a proper, in-depth treatment. This is where my colleague Tom Ryan comes into play. Tom is one of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s hidden treasures; his day-to-day role is the station sound producer for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Bristol. He’s also produced several quite brilliant long-form documentaries which have been broadcast not just here but across Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio too. I suggested to Tom that the Bamboo Club would make a great topic for a larger piece of work, and together we worked on a pitch for special funding.

Along the way we learnt that: Bob Marley played his first ever UK gig in Bristol at The Bamboo Club; that Desmond Dekker played there the weekend after becoming the first Reggae artist to reach number one; that Ben E King, Jimmy Cliff, Martha Reeves and many, many, more icons had played there. We met living musical legends such as Toots Hibbert and Derrick Morgan, who both happily agreed to contribute.

We discovered the former Mayor of Bristol, a prominent MP’s Mum, and the famous West Indian Cricket teams of the 60’s and 70’s used to go there regularly. But most importantly, we learnt that the club was the beating heart of the West Indian community. Yes it was a business, but it was also a gathering point for all manner of other clubs, sports teams, societies, charity events, families and friends.

Finally we learnt that Tony and his wife Lalel are revered amongst Bristol West Indians, and they clearly deserve more recognition for the part they have played in the City’s race relations. When the club tragically burnt down in 1977, this beating heart was ripped out of St Pauls with devastating consequences.

What Tom and I hope we’ve finally produced together is a story of racial struggle, of Bristol’s recent past, a story about music, laughter, friendship and family. And we hope as many people as possible hear it, see it, understand and enjoy it.

Pete Simson is a journalist at Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Bristol.

Like many successful relationships – this one started with a brew and a natter. New to the Editor role at Radio Sheffield in the Spring, I was aware that The Star, the biggest local paper in our area, had also got a new boss - Nancy Fielder. We met for a coffee and found that we had a lot in common. We both felt strongly about the roles our newsrooms can play in facilitating local debate, engaging people in local democracy and highlighting local conversation.

Traditionally seen as rivals, our newsrooms will always have some different priorities but there is arguably more that unites us than divides us. Fundamentally, we both believe in championing our local communities. So we asked the question - "could we have more impact with our journalism if we worked together more often?".

Several coffees later and here we are. The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Sheffield Open Centre - a room full of Radio Sheffield listeners, Star readers and a panel of guests debating the future of South Yorkshire Police. With the high profile cases of CSE in Rotherham, the fallout from the Hillsborough enquiry and the focus on Orgreave - it's been a turbulent time for the local force and public confidence has been at an all-time-low. With a new Chief Constable now at the helm, it's the perfect opportunity to look ahead. 'A Force for The Future?' is a public debate our two newsrooms produced together to give our audiences a say on what they want from their police in the future.

Hosted by Breakfast Presenter, Toby Foster, it's the first chance for listeners and readers to quiz the new Chief - Stephen Watson.  Alongside him on the panel are the Police and Crime Commissioner, Dr Alan Billings and Jim Lucas, the secretary of the Police Federation.  There are former police officers in the crowd, local councillors, community leaders and representatives of local voluntary groups.  Naturally, there are lots of questions about lessons learned from recent, and not so recent, events.  There is also a lot of looking ahead.  How will the new Chief deal with more cuts to funding?  How will he reshape the Force so it has a stronger presence in neighbourhoods?  How will police work alongside community groups and how will the Force regain public confidence?  The debate aired on Radio Sheffield on Wednesday, 19th October at 9am, and The Star published their coverage on the same day.

It's early days for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Sheffield and The Star working together - but day one has gone well and our plan is to work together on 3-4 other big moments like this across a year. Co-ordinated coverage on air, online and in the paper means we'll make more of a splash with our local journalism and hopefully raise the profile of both newsrooms. And this joint approach has certainly got people talking.  Should the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ and local newspapers be working together like this? Does it impact on the editorial integrity of both newsrooms? Is it just a front for stretched resources? 

All comments I’ve read online in response to us working together, all interesting and all valid questions to ask. Whatever your view, it’s clear that The Star and Radio Sheffield will have to work together with ongoing care and thought for each other and our different remits. Ultimately, there will always be healthy rivalry between local newsrooms, especially when it comes to chasing a scoop – and long may that continue!  But when it comes to championing communities, giving local people a voice on the major themes that unite them - we just might have a bigger, better and louder conversation if we have it together.

Today (Thursday 6 October) is National Poetry Day, and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Local Radio has celebrated in style, featuring specially written poems about different parts of the country. The poems, read by the poets who wrote them, have featured on regional radio programmes throughout the day.

The inspiration for the initiative came from Becca Bryers at Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Leicester who commissioned each of the individual poems with the support of National Poetry Day and National Poetry Day partner Apples and Snakes. She said of the project "I’ve been so impressed with the poets passionate approach to the project and the calibre of their finished pieces. There’s such a brilliant variety of poem subjects too". All 40 of the were asked to write a poem from the viewpoint of a local landmark or iconic object. It's been no mean feat to organise as David Holdsworth, Controller of English Regions explains:

"40 poems from our 40 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Local Radio stations to support National Poetry Day is an incredibly ambitious undertaking. I am pleased that we have been able to achieve it and thank the poets who have contributed to the project. The standard of poems is incredibly high and I think there’s something for every single one of our listeners in the mix. But we couldn’t stop at 40, we had to go one further and the is exceptional and really brings together the ambition of the day."

You can , but we've picked out a few, who, grew on us:

"Growing up by the ocean, it’s impossible not to let it at some level, permeate your poetry,
there's some essence of it that clings to you like sea spray. I moved to Jersey from a big city as a child and this transition shaped my work. Corbiere Lighthouse is the scene of one my earliest memories" - Christian Foley

"‘Women of Steel’, is inspired by the new statue that was put up in Barker’s Pool in the summer. The statue commemorates the work that women did in the war, particularly in the munitions factories, which has only recently begun to be properly recognised. My poem is inspired by the work of these women, by recovering histories and by telling stories that we often don’t hear...it’s about celebrating our diversity and solidarity, creating sisterhood and remembering the work and stories of women" - Rachel Bower

"The Devonshire Cream Tea is not only quintessentially Devon, but also an important aspect of the British identity, so closely associated with the county. Therefore, to adopt the voice of a scone seemed the only sensible thing to do!"

• throughout

It’s not often the story comes to you, but today it has. HRH The Duchess of Cornwall is stopping by for a tour of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s new multi-million pound broadcast centre here in Plymouth. Local dignitaries are camped out in our conference room, and they’re all looking through the window into the radio studios where I am about to spend 10 minutes with HRH showing her the studio. No pressure.

Our new centre has been designed as a mini New Broadcasting House (very close to the design principals used in London – but with an added view of the sea). The centre is home to , and ; (the most watched regional TV news programme in England) and it’s also a regional hub which connects our sister stations Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Cornwall and outlying Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio’s Jersey and Guernsey – in the Channel Islands.

So my part of the mission today is to tell HRH all about Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Devon. We are a bit proud of our new radio studios, they’re cutting edge. And a bit of a leap of faith, because all the audio we play isn’t stored in our new building, it’s not even in Plymouth, or in fact Devon. Birmingham and London host the audio for us, and also for four other radio stations which the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ has refurbished using the latest playout technology. The aim is to ultimately refurb all 39 of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Local Radio stations in the network.

So - think of us as a big iPod – the technology (home grown – created by Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ engineers in the finest traditions of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ) is a system called ViLoR, it stands for ‘virtualised local radio’. When our presenters press PLAY in the studio, the audio content (all the music and interviews we record) is being played hundreds of miles away. We’ve been on-air with ViLoR for six months, and the system has been so robust it’s a rare thing for us to have an on-air technical problem. In fact, on the one occasion when we did have a technical issue in our new studios, it was such a rare occurrence; it took us ages to work out what to do. Contrast this with 12 months ago, where we were working from ageing studios with playout technology which crashed regularly and often took us off-air.

But the real reason I’m loving our new building is not the environmental award that it’s won, not the fact that we’ve got air con throughout for the first time (!) and it is not that the new headquarters is home to cutting edge news-gathering and broadcasting technology; these are all brilliant – but the reason I’m really loving the new building is because it future-proofs the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s commitment to the South West. A commitment that began in 1924 when the first Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ offices in Plymouth were built. And that’s good for the region but also for the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ.

At the Devon County Show recently (Devon’s biggest ‘day out’ with hundreds of thousands of Devonian’s going through the gates) I lost count of the amount of listeners and viewers I chatted to. They don’t distinguish between the brands or platforms we have locally or nationally, they connect with the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ as one organisation. They expected answers from us as much about Strictly as Spotlight; because for our audience, we’re the ‘way in’ to the wider Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ – because we’re the face of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ in their city, town or village and it’s us they turn to both for praise and questions. And that’s why we’re here because we’re rooted in the community we serve. That’s not a mission on the wall or a brand statement – it’s just what we do.

Here are some fun facts about the new Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ South West HQ:

• The investment makes us the most high-tech news production operation in English Regions
• 70km -There’s enough cabling in the new building to go the distance between Plymouth and Exeter
• 17 - The total number of TV studios, radio studios, galleries, graphics suites and edit suites in the new building
• I can see the sea from my office window.

Mark Grinnell is the Editor of

Euan Doak recalls the day the 1996 Manchester Bomb exploded in the centre of the city, ahead of a special day of broadcasts on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Manchester marking 20 years since the blast.

Tell us about what you were doing the day the bomb went off.

I was on a production shift. I’d gone into work as usual, rota’d for the bulletin shift. We received a phone call from a colleague telling us that the police were closing off Market Street, and that there was something going on. Another colleague - Victoria Derbyshire - was in town as well. She did the same thing, telling us that the police were closing off the centre of town. The police confirmed with us that there was a suspicious device in the centre of Manchester and that they were evacuating the area. They asked us to put out a message saying 'don’t come in to town'. That’s when we put out a news flash.

From then on we just waited. We used to have a reporter in those days who worked Saturdays, so we sent him out with his - his reel to reel tape machine - and he walked into town from Oxford Road. He got to about half a mile away when the bomb actually exploded. I think he may have actually been able to switch on his tape recorder because he felt the blast first, it sort of went through him before he heard it. I think he managed to capture the explosion on tape. He certainly captured the aftermath with all the glass breaking. We waited back in in Oxford Road Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ. When the bomb went off it was a little weird for us in Oxford Road. The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ building we were in was quite well protected, so you felt the blast but not all that much. For people in the city however, they could hear it - even as far away as Oldham and Stockport.

A massive blast then … ?

Yes it was. You could see that from the debris afterwards. It’s funny now when you look back because we didn’t have rolling news then - our normal programmes carried on. That day, I think we were doing an OB from the Ideal Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Show in Birmingham. Bizarrely that just carried on. We covered the bomb blast in the bulletins, and then did a special programme at 5 o’clock that night. That sounds crazy now, but that’s the way it used to be.

The news bulletins was where the instant reaction went, so the reporter was on the phone filing phone clips. But those reports were more reflective - a round-up.

What effect did the moment of the blast have on you?

As a journalist you just knew it was the biggest story - it was massive, it couldn’t be any bigger. Everyone came in on the weekend to cover. People who were down in London came back up to Manchester to report on it. People who were all over the place came back because journalistically it was the biggest story.

I went out reporting on the day. The police had cordoned off the whole city centre. We couldn’t get near it. I remember going up to the cordon and seeing the glass and rubble and dust - it was still all in the air. But I actually got through the cordon a couple of days later when Tony Blair - leader of the opposition at the time - came up to visit. He was doing a tour of the area, and we walked across where the bomb had gone off. The destruction was unbelievable – all the rubble and the dirt. It was mind-blowing. It was the radius of the damage that was the most striking.

How did the bomb shape Manchester and its inhabitants from then on?

There’s a bit of a myth that Manchester was better place after the blast, as though the bomb did the city a favour. Personally, I don’t think that’s fair or true really because Manchester had already bid for the 1996 Olympic games, so there was already a sense in the city that it ought to be punching higher than it was.

There was some redevelopment going on. Old unwanted buildings from the sixties got knocked down. The Royal Exchange was damaged - that took two, three years to get repaired. The Corn Exchange was another old building turned into a shopping centre.

I think the blast was certainly a catalyst for redeveloping the city, probably on the back of that there’s been a lot more redevelopment. In some senses the redevelopment hasn’t stopped. You could say in those 20 years there hasn’t been a month where building work hasn’t been going on. That’s probably the same with any city but, you know, it does feel like the blast was a catalyst for ongoing redevelopment. That said, I don’t think the bomb was the cause of it.

What effect do you think it had on the people of Manchester?

It’s very hard to judge, I think the indiscriminate nature of the blast made it a massive shock, because Manchester’s got such a big Irish population. But after the blast, the Saint Patrick’s day Parade continued to be an important occasion in Manchester. I don’t think the bomb has had a lasting negative racial effect. I think in some ways it’s brought the city closer. Manchester is a very multicultural city.

There’s a very strong community spirit in Manchester, and a get up and go attitude too. It's an attitude that you can do better than you’re doing. There’s definitely a feeling that Manchester is going somewhere. I don’t know if the bomb stimulated that or not, but it definitely feels like from that moment on there’s been a real momentum to try and drive the city forward.

What will people remember on 15^th?

There’s also a myth that nobody was hurt. There were 200 people injured, some of them seriously. Some were paralysed. People had huge psychological traumas afterwards because going in to the city really worried them. Nobody died but people were injured. Loads of businesses went under too. So there was a lot of damage. And I think that’s often forgotten about. People look at it quite rosily, and say it was kind of a great thing for the city - look where it is now - but it wasn’t. It was hugely traumatic experience. So I hope people remember those who were badly affected by it as well.

What will people hear in the programming for that day?

We’ve got recollections of people on the day - people who were injured, like the couple who were getting married that day. We've traced them and they've shared their stories with us. We’ve also been over to Belfast and talked to Sinn Fein. There will be a lot of recollections of the day on the radio and lots memories of what happened to people after the blast.

There were no major incidents. It was just a typical day and demonstrated just how hard these men and women work to keep Lancashire safe every day. It seems the idea even inspired people outside the county with police officers as far away as Cornwall joining in with our hashtag #bluelightday.

We’re already planning to do it all again next year, but even bigger and better and who knows…it could be something for our sister stations to join in.

John Clayton is Managing Editor, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Lancashire.

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Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Merseyside will be delving into the story of actress Sarah Siddons who played Hamlet in Liverpool in 1778. At a time when actresses were still associated with prostitutes, Siddons took pains to lead an exemplary life as a respectable married woman.

Although her husband was a respected actor, she was really the family’s breadwinner, the brighter talent and the bigger draw at the box office.

Siddons’ ground-breaking Hamlet extended the possibilities for actresses on stage and paved the way for a flock of others to follow suit. 

Frances De La Tour and Maxine Peake are just two of the actresses who’ve tackled the role of Hamlet while Fiona Shaw and Frances Barber have played other male roles.

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Newcastle recounts the child prodigy actor who prepared to retire at the age of 11 as he headlined in Newcastle in 1830.

The phenomenon of young actors playing Shakespeare was sweeping across the country and audiences eagerly sought out the latest child sensation. These entertainers made a fortune for their families until the novelty of their performances wore off and they were usurped by younger rivals.

Master W.R Grossmith was one of a number of 19th century children playing prominent acting roles in Shakespeare and other plays across the country. Here we see him saying farewell as he prepares to step down from the stage, aged just 11.

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Devon tells the story of the first professional black Shakespearean actor, who starred in a play in Devonport.  Ira Aldridge was an African-American who played Shylock, Richard the Third and Macbeth.  But he was best-known for his Othello, for which he received mixed reviews in London, but was a huge success in the English provinces.  This playbill dated 1846 from the British Library collection promotes Ira’s range of characters.

To help bring these stories to life we worked closely with two fantastic organisations – Records of Early English Drama (REED) and the British Library.

Records of Early English Drama (REED)

The details of Shakespeare’s touring have been brought to light partly thanks to a forty-year academic research project which painstakingly delves into the records kept in town halls or other civic places – documents which tell us which acting groups performed in the town, when, and even how much they were paid.

This piece of work identifies acting groups to which Shakespeare was most closely associated performing towns across the country. Among the references in town records are visits from acting companies such as Pembroke’s Men, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, and finally the company for which Shakespeare wrote most of his plays, ….the King’s Men.

Not only do some records reveal how much such troupes were paid, they can also start to explain why they happened to be there – hints at how they were treated by the town authorities. Academics can also speculate about which plays they might have performed, and – most tantalisingly of all – whether Shakespeare himself was with the company, perhaps himself performing.

This gives rise to some amazing stories…how Shakespeare’s company the King’s Men were turned away from his home town of Stratford…how the plague would have had an influence on the players hitting the road to go on a massive regional tour…how his players trod established routes and seem to return again and again to certain places (Ipswich, ten times!)

British Library Playbills

We also tracked how Shakespeare was embraced during subsequent centuries…by the Victorians…and through more modern interpretations.

These performances out in the ‘provinces of England’ as they were then called, show Shakespeare becoming increasingly revered by the emerging theatre network across the country. And how do we know this? Because thousands upon thousands of theatre playbills have been kept and preserved from the 18th and 19th centuries by the British Library.

These playbills reveal how fame was the prize for those gaining a reputation for brilliance as a Shakespearean actor, particularly in London. But we also see Shakespeare reaching different communities outside of the star-spangled capital. Some performances are especially for farming communities…others for masonic lodges…and in other playbills we see Shakespeare scenes performed almost as a variety night for the masses.

Using these fantastic twin sources of the REED project and the British Library playbills, Shakespeare on Tour is able to tease out for audiences some of the iconic moments in the performance of Shakespeare from his day and on into the late 19th century.

All the stories are illustrated with some amazing images from the time - with thanks to the many partner organisations helping us to overcome the huge challenge of illustrating these stories with pictures.

We hope you enjoy the tour.

Craig Henderson is Head of Programming, English Regions.

• Read Shakespeare on Tour stories online from Monday 21 March  
• Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ English Regions will also be covering the RSC’s current tour of the country performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream, using amateur performers in key roles as they tour the country
• Discover more about our Shakespeare season at
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