#112 The First Radio Hoax: Broadcasting the Barricades - A Centenary Re-enactment

100 years ago from this podcast's release, the BBC broadcast the first known radio scare - 12 years before Orson Welles's famous War of the Worlds, and possibly inspiring it.

It was hoax - although arguably it's only a hoax if the hoaxer intends to fool the hoaxee... and Father Ronald Knox seemingly thought he was just providing some entertainment in his radio pastiche: Broadcasting the Barricades.

But when it's a spoof news report about the House of Commons being destroyed with trench mortars, the felling of Big Ben, the destruction of the Savoy Hotel and reports of a mob hanging or roasting alive various people... well no wonder some listeners fled their homes.

Others phoned the Savoy Hotel, the BBC, the newspapers, the Admiralty. It was chaos. But was it as chaotic as the newspapers implied?

Joining us to dig into this bizarre and wonderful tale is Dr A Brad Schwartz, author of Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles's War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News - a highly recommended read (and fear not, Brad will return to the podcast for a special on 1938's War of the Worlds another time).

And of course, as we love a centenary re-enactment, we'll bring back to life this unrecorded broadcast, thanks to the script and a couple of sound effects (for the full works, in video form, join us Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/vid-first-radio-147890189)

Cheers to Father Ronald Knox, who panicked Britain 100 years ago today! Listen to hear how...

 

SHOWNOTES:

• Thanks to Jonathan Mayo, Andrew Barker, Andy Walmsley and Paul Slade for titbits, trivia and newspaper cuttings about Broadcasting the Barricades.
• Paul's latest blog post about Broadcasting the Barricades and the birth of fake(d) news is on Substack: www.paulkerensa.substack.com - do subscribe there.
• Dr A Brad Schwartz's book Broadcast Hysteria is a must-read. The audiobook's great too.
• Andy Walmsley's blog on Broadcasting the Barricades is at https://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2023/12/broadcasting-barricades.html
• Paul Slade's website about Broadcasting the Barricades is at https://www.planetslade.com/ronald-knox1.html
• My Radio 4 drama about the first radio drama The Truth About Phyllis Twigg is very much still on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntmx - thanks if you listened!
• Original podcast music is by Will Farmer. 
• Our survey of what you like/don't about this podcast is here: http://tiny.cc/bbcenturysurvey
• Paul has 2 different upcoming live shows about the early BBC: An Evening of (Very) Old Radio visits Norfolk and Suffolk, while new show Four Monarchs and a Mic: The BBC's Royal Engineer is at Leicester Comedy Festival on Sat 7 Feb. If it goes well, I may do it elsewhere. Let's see. www.paulkerensa.com/tour
• This podcast is not made by today's BBC. It's just about the old BBC.
• Support us on Patreon (£5/mth - thanks if you do!), for bonus videos, writings, readings etc - including the full video re-enactment of Broadcasting the Barricades. In evening dress!
• Please share/rate/review this podcast - it all really helps.

Next time, Episode 113: The First BBC Armistice Broadcast of 1923

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio