When Britain went to war, the BBC went to war along with it. The Corporation struggled to find its proper role in wartime.
The singer Vera Lynn became the most prominent entertainer in Britain and the most familiar voice on the radio, after Winston Churchill’s.
- Listen now:
Playlist:
Fanfare
Opening War Theme
“Stardust.”
Performed by the U.S. Army Blues. Public domain. Source.
Closing War Theme
Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.
My father was a radar operator in the New Zealand Navy. He developed an aversion for Vera Lynn. He was close to loudspeakers on the bridge of ship and had to constantly listen to her singing blasting in his ear.
Hey i just heard you say hammond made the first synthesizer!
But that would be the German trautonium from the 20s.
Was waiting in your “oh, and one more thing” segment for you to at least mention the reference to Vera Lynn in Pink Floyd’s The Wall album… alas… not everyone is an obsessive fan, apparently… lol…
William Joyce, the best known Lord Haw-Haw, was hanged for treason after the war by the British. He was born in Brooklyn(!), but insisted on acquiring a British passport based on his parents’ original nationality. He then traveled to Germany with it after the UK and Germany were already at war. If he’d traveled on the American passport he could have gotten by birthright, the British couldn’t have charged him with treason, and neither could the US because the US and Germany were then still at peace. Joyce became a naturalized German citizen after arriving in Germany. He might have had to deal with a German de-Nazification court after the war, but was unlikely to have been hanged. The whole bizarre tale is in Rebecca West, _The New Meaning of Treason_.
Maybe a possibility if you’re looking for subjects for “One More Thing.”