Main content
This programme is not currently available

Auntie's War by Edward Stourton (Omnibus)

Ed Stourton describes the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½â€™s wartime journey, the boredom of the Phoney War and the reporter’s experiences. From 2018.

The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ is a British institution unlike any other, and its story during the Second World War is also the story of Britain's people.

Writer and presenter Edward Stourton is a sharp-eyed and affectionate companion on the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s wartime journey, investigating archives, diaries, letters and memoirs to examine what the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ was and what it stood for.

Ed describes how the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ adapted to being on a war footing, the boredom of the Phoney War and the experiences of reporters sent to France.

These were the years when Auntie (the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s enduring nickname) earned a reputation for bossiness. It was also a period of remarkable voices - Churchill's fighting speeches, de Gaulle's broadcasts from exile, George Orwell, Ed Murrow, Richard Dimbleby and Vera Lynn.

During these extraordinary times, eyewitness testimonies gave a voice to everyone, securing the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s reputation as a reliable purveyor of the truth.

Auntie's War is more than a portrait of an institution at a critical time, it is also a portrayal of the British in wartime and an insight into why we have our broadcast culture today.

Omnibus of five parts abridged by Anna Magnusson.

Read by Edward Stourton.

Producer: Pippa Vaughan

A Loftus production for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4, first broadcast in January 2018.

1 hour, 10 minutes

Last on

Sun 13 Nov 2022 06:00

Broadcasts

  • Sun 14 Jan 2018 09:00
  • Sun 14 Jan 2018 20:00
  • Sun 13 Nov 2022 06:00