The final edition of The Listener was published on 3 January 1991. The weekly magazine was launched in 1929 by Lord Reith as an intellectual counterpoint to the Radio Times. At a time when radio output was generally considered ephemeral, the magazine printed those talks that were considered to have lasting value. The Listener’s belief in its readers was exemplified by its popular but fiendishly difficult cryptic crossword, set by compilers such as Scorpio, Eel, Zag, Phi and Duck.
The list of contributors to The Listener reads like a Who’s Who of British intellectual life. The first edition included Constant Lambert and John Buchan. Over the years Dylan Thomas, Hilaire Belloc, T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf and Phillip Larkin appeared in its pages, as well as Peter Warlock, Thurston Dart, and Edmund Rubbra.
The Listener ended when a co-partnership with ITV came to an end. But although it is no more, the complete run has been digitised and preserved for posterity. Today the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ name appears on several magazines spun off from broadcast output, which continue to be popular in the changing media landscape. These include Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Music, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Good Food, Countryfile, Gardeners’ World, Wildlife and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ History Magazine. The Radio Times remains the longest running broadcast listings magazine in the world.
January anniversaries
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The Six Wives of Henry VIII
1 January 1970 -
The Brains Trust
1 January 1941 -
The Archers
1 January 1951 -
Z Cars
2 January 1962 -
Trumpton
3 January 1967 -
Open University
3 January 1971 -
Camberwick Green
3 January 1966 -
Final edition of The Listener published
3 January 1991 -
Gardeners' World
5 January 1968 -
A Question of Sport
5 January 1970 -
Forces Programme
7 January 1940 -
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
10 January 1990 -
First in-vision television weather forecaster
11 January 1954 -
The League of Gentlemen
11 January 1999 -
Goodness Gracious Me
12 January 1998 -
Listen with Mother
16 January 1950 -
Life On Earth
16 January 1979 -
First episode of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Breakfast Time
17 January 1983 -
Blankety Blank
18 January 1979 -
The Week's Good Cause
24 January 1926 -
Under Milk Wood
25 January 1954 -
Television Dancing Club
27 January 1948 -
Desert Island Discs
29 January 1942 -
Newsnight
30 January 1980 -
The State Funeral of Sir Winston Churchill
30 January 1965 -
Alas Smith and Jones
31 January 1984