Everything about Third Programme totally explained
The
BBC Third Programme, which first went on air on
29 September 1946, became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces in Britain, playing a crucial role in disseminating the arts. It was the third national radio network broadcast by the
BBC, founded in
1946 and finally incorporated into
BBC Radio 3 in April
1970. The other two were the
Home Service (mainly speech based) and the
Light Programme, dedicated to light music, usually cover versions of popular music of the day played by the "in-house" BBC orchestras. The Home Service is now known as
Radio 4 and the Light Programme is
Radio 2. After the death of
Sir Henry Wood the BBC stepped in to sponsor his
Promenade concerts, carrying them live every night on the Third Programme.
Description and history
When it started in 1946, the Third Programme broadcast for six hours each evening, from 6.00 pm to midnight, although its output was cut to just 24 hours a week from October
1957, with the early part of weekday evenings being given over to educational programming (known as "Network 3"). This situation continued until the launch, on
22 March 1965, of the
BBC Music Programme, which began regular daily broadcasts of classical music between 7.00 am and 6.30 pm daily (with some interruptions for live sports coverage) on the Network 3 / Third Programme frequencies. The Third Programme itself continued as a distinct evening service, and this continued to be the case for a short while after the inception of Radio 3 in 1967 until all the elements of the BBC's "third network" were finally absorbed into Radio 3 in April 1970.
The Third's existence was controversial from the beginning, partly because of perceived "elitism" - it was sometimes criticised for broadcasting programmes of "two
dons talking" - and also for the costs of output relative to a small listener
reach. In actuality its existence went against Reithian principles, as
Reith himself had, during his time at the BBC, been against segmenting audiences by splitting programming genres across different networks. From the start though, it had prominent supporters: the
Education Secretary in the
Attlee government,
Ellen Wilkinson, spoke rather optimistically of creating a "third programme nation". When it faced those 1957 cuts, The Third Programme Defence Society was formed and its leaders included
T. S. Eliot,
Albert Camus, and
Sir Laurence Olivier.
Output and programming
The network was broadly cultural, a
Leavisite experiment dedicated to the discerning or "high-brow" listener from an educated, minority audience. Its founders' aims were seen as promoting "something fundamental to our civilisation" and as contributing to "the refinement of society". Its musical output provided a wide range of serious classical music and live concerts, as well as contemporary composers and jazz. Voice formed a much higher proportion of its output than the later Radio 3, with specially commissioned plays, poetry readings, talks and documentaries. Nationally known intellectuals like
Bertrand Russell and
Isaiah Berlin on philosophy or
Fred Hoyle on cosmology were regular contributors.
The network became a principal patron of the arts. It commissioned many music works for broadcast by the BBC Music Department, playing a crucial role in the development of the career of composers such as
Benjamin Britten. Particularly notable were its drama productions, including the radio plays of
Samuel Beckett,
Henry Reed (the
Hilda Tablet plays),
Harold Pinter,
Joe Orton and
Dylan Thomas, whose
Under Milk Wood was written specially for the Programme.
Martin Esslin, BBC Director of Drama (Radio), was associated with the network's productions of European drama, and
Douglas Cleverdon with its productions of poetry and radio plays.
The Programme's contribution to contemporary poetry and criticism was outstanding, under producers and presenters such as
John Wain,
Ludovic Kennedy,
George MacBeth and
Patrick Dickinson; here it promoted young writers such as
Philip Larkin and
Kingsley Amis, as well as the "difficult" work of
David Jones and
Laura Riding. The Third Programme was for many years the single largest source of copyright payments to poets.
The Third Programme is still much missed by older listeners, who often assert that its replacement by Radio 3 was a retrograde step.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Third Programme'.
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