Children Calling Home was an English-language radio programme, with the first episode on Christmas Day, 25 December 1940 as a collaboration between the United Kingdom's BBC's Home Service, CBC of Canada, and NBC of the United States, and broadcast simultaneously in all three countries.[1] The following day, an episode made by the BBC in collaboration with the Australian Broadcasting Commission, the New Zealand Broadcasting Service and the South African Broadcasting Corporation, was broadcast simultaneously in all four of their countries.[1] The presenter for the BBC was Roy Rich; their producer was Enid Maxwell.[2][3]
| Country of origin |
|
|---|---|
| Home station | |
| Original release | 25 December 1940 – 24 May 1944 |
The programme allowed children evacuated to the host countries from the UK, due to bombing during World War II, to talk with their parents.[4]
The series continued, with various permutations of the involved networks, until at least 31 May 1944.[5]
The journalist Mark Lawson identifies it as the first example of co-production.[4]
References
edit- ^ a b "Children Calling Home". The Radio Times. No. 899. 20 December 1940. p. 20,23.
- ^ White, Antonia (1946). BBC at War.
- ^ "Children's Two-Way Radio Talks". Sydney Morning Herald. 20 May 1941.
- ^ a b Lawson, Mark (27 September 2022). "A commie witch-hunt, a live abdication and a military invasion of sport: 100 years of the BBC, part two". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
- ^ "Children Calling Home". The Radio Times. No. 899. 26 May 1944. p. 12.
External links
edit- 25 December 1942 episode in the BBC archives. Featuring children in New York, Capetown and Toronto.
- 1941 newsreel footage from Pathé News, showing guests in the radio studio.