A 60-Year Love Affair Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jack de Manio

BBC Radio Four's 'Today Programme' continued to be broadcast in 2009. It was the most popular programme broadcast by this channel. It was a current affairs series which was originally launched on the BBC's Home Service on 28 October 1957.

In the year 2009 it continued to be scheduled as a daily programme from 6am to 9am from Monday to Friday and from 7am to 9am on Saturdays.'

The much-loved presenter called Jack de Manio became its main presenter in 1958 and lasted until 1971. He became notorious for on-air gaffes including getting the time wrong so frequently.

Answer: 'Mrs Dale's Diary'

'Mrs Dale's Diary' was first broadcast on the BBC Radio Light Programme in 1948. My mother was an avid fan as were many millions of others around Britain. When I was old enough to behave quietly I, too, was able to listen in to the soap drama concerning the lives of a post war London doctor and his middle class family. They lived in Virginia Lodge, Middlesex.

Answer: 'Twenty Questions'

When it first appeared in 1947 the BBC Radio quiz series 'Twenty Questions' was simply subtitled in the Radio Times as a 'a radio parlour game'. It was based on the popular parlour game called 'Animal, Vegetable or Mineral' .

The BBC radio version added the concept of 'Abstract' to the clues.

It was first broadcast in March 1947 (and finished in 1976) when it was chaired by Stewart MacPherson. Later chair people included Gilbert Harding and Kenneth Horne.

Norman Hackforth was the 'Mystery Voice' who informed the audience of the next object to be guessed, in a whisper close to the microphone, so that the panel could not hear.

Answer: 'Any Questions'

This BBC Radio series has been broadcast by a variety of different services including Radio One, The Light Programme and the Home Service. For many years it has been firmly ensconced in the BBC Radio Four schedules occupying a Friday evening broadcast slot.

It was first broadcast in 1948 and is still broadcast currently (2009).

Over the years the programme has only had four 'permanent chairmen' although others have occasionally sat in the chair. The permanent chairmen were:

Freddie Grisewood (1948 to December 1967)

David Jacobs (December 1967 to July 27 1984)

John Timpson (August 1984 to July 1987)

Jonathan Dimbleby (July 1987 onwards)

Answer: Andrew "Jet" Morgan

'Journey Into Space' was a BBC Radio science fiction programme produced first in 1953 and subsequently through the 1950s. The series had several claims to fame including the large variety of languages(17 at least!) into which the programmes were translated. It also was able to boast larger audiences than for many television programmes at that time.

The first actor to play Captain Andrew (Jet) Morgan was Andrew Faulds who was later to become an outspoken Labour MP.

Answer: Archie

It does seem very odd today in a much more cynical world to appreciate that huge audience numbers tuned in to listen to a ventriloquist on the radio enacting the life story of his dummy with the help of old stagers like Jimmy Edwards, Kenneth Williams and others.

The BBC Radio programme was called 'Educating Archie'.

Answer: Kenneth Horne

Kenneth Horne (1907 to 1969) was the much loved star of this and several other radio comedy series all of which I loved. If you're minded to do further research then look out for BBC Radio programmes such as 'Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh' and 'Beyond Our Ken'.

He played an urbane well-mannered English gentleman who was the central character in an at times grotesquely comic fantasy with a range of far out characters played brilliantly by actors such as Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Bill Pertwee.

'Round the Horne' ran from 1965 until 1968.

Answer: Correspondents

Many of these early reporters had been war correspondents during the Second World War and conflicts in Korea and Vietnam. To me their measured words and graphically phrased reports were very evocative and informative.

Just to list some of the names of those inspiring journalists who have contributed to this series is enough to demonstrate an understanding of the BBC gravitas and kudos in the world of considered and reflective reporting.

In this series correspondents were encouraged to write about what was going on in the countries where they were reporting the news in a far more detailed and reflective way than was possible in the normal highly compressed language of the news reports which appeared on Radio or television national news.

Sometimes and academic study of the economic and social forces which had brought say say Beiruit to near collapse, another might be a whimsical examination of say the British ex patriot struggling to keep up long dead colonial values.

All were fascinating.

That list I mentioned: Kate Adie, Martin Bell, Richard Dimbleby, Charles Wheeler and many others.

Answer: Robert Robinson

The quiz began as a part of a larger radio programme called 'What Do You Know? ' in 1953. It became 'Brain of Britain' in 1967 and was chaired by Franklin Engelman until his death in 1972.

From 1972 'Brain of Britain' was hosted by Robert Robinson until his illness in 2004. Mr Robinson had a very polite if stern manner and addressed contestants by using the correct honorific and this was one of trademark styles.

In 2008 Robert Robinson returned to take over chairmanship of the series.

Answer: 'Round Britain Quiz'

BBC Radio Four's longest running quiz series is 'Round Britain Quiz' and was first broadcast in 1947. It is still running today.

The original quiz hosts were the distinguished broadcasters Gilbert Harding and Lionel Hale.

The presenters whom I remember with the greatest pleasure were Roy Plomley and Anthony Quinton. The brilliance of the teams always impressed me especially the likes of Irene Thomas, John Julius Norwich and Fred Housego.