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THE REUNION - ISLAND RECORDS (320kbs-m4a/94mb/41mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 4th September 2022
Chris Blackwell first started Island Records in Jamaica in 1959 and launched some of the biggest and most influential artists across the musical spectrum. U2, Cat Stevens, Roxy Music, Fairport Convention and Free were all signed to Island, but it was the label's unique connection to Jamaica that helped popularise ska and reggae music throughout the world, as well as Jamaican born artists like Grace Jones, and British bands with links to the Caribbean such as Steel Pulse and Aswad.
Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, Burning Spear, and Sly and Robbie, all took refuge on Island - a record label that catered proudly for those who wanted to explore their creativity in an independent way.
Joining Kirsty Wark are Island Records founder, Chris Blackwell; Grammy winning Jimmy Cliff, the singer who became a star after the landmark film The Harder They Come; Mykaell Riley who was a founder member of British reggae act Steel Pulse; pioneer Jamaican ska musician Owen Gray; and Marcia Griffiths, a member of the I Threes who supported Bob Marley and the Wailers for many years, and whose hit Young, Gifted and Black, with Bob Andy, became an anthem for young Jamaicans.
Producer: Charlotte North
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
THE REUNION - GRANGE HILL (320kbs-m4a/95mb/42mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 14th August 2022
The most popular faces from the early days of pioneering children's drama Grange Hill are reunited. Todd Carty, Susan Tully and Lee MacDonald take Kirsty Wark back to school.
When Grange Hill hit our screens in 1978 it was the first time ordinary British schoolchildren had seen characters like themselves reflected on screen. Phil Redmond's pioneering drama, set in a fictional north London comprehensive school, ran for 30 years, making it one of the longest-running programmes on British television.
Controversial storylines included racism, periods, bullying and drugs. Inevitably there were complaints. Teachers and parents were scandalised by the upstart pupils who spoke back to teachers and agitated to ban school uniform. It didn't stop the BBC instantly commissioning a second series with double the number of episodes.
Todd Carty, who played heartthrob Tucker Jenkins, got fan mail by the sack-load and won his own spin-off series Tucker's Luck. Susan Tully, who played the bright but troubled Suzanne Ross, nearly left the series early after her Dad lost his job.
Lee MacDonald played Zammo McGuire who famously got hooked on heroin. The plotline sparked the recording of the hit anti-drugs single Just Say No by cast members and prompted an invite to the White House.
Also joining Kirsty is Erkan Mustafa whose character Roland Browning was bullied for his size, and Simone Nylander whose famous line; "I just want to help you Ro-land" became a national catchphrase.
Many of the cast went on to find fame in other long-running British dramas, most famously Tully and Carty who played siblings Michelle and Mark Fowler in Eastenders. For others though, the mass adulation ended once they walked through the gates of Grange Hill for the last time and back to real life.
Producer: Karen Pirie
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
THE REUNION - THE DAY TODAY (320kbs-m4a/94mb/41mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 15th August 2021
Kirsty Wark brings together the cast of comedy show The Day Today. First broadcast in 1994, this six-part series savaged the business of TV news.
Coming off the back of the hugely successful and award-winning Radio 4 comedy On the Hour, Armando Iannucci, Chris Morris and cast brought their characters into the living rooms of millions. There was hapless sports reporter Alan Partridge, Peter O'Hanraha-hanrahan, Rosy May and the eponymous newsreader and host Chris Morris.
Satirising the form of news presentation, with a groundbreaking use of comedic graphics and music that always went on slightly too long, the joke was always on the pomposity of news and how it was presented.
Armando Iannucci, co-creator (with Chris Morris) and series producer, came up with the concept while on a BBC training course.
Patrick Marber played hapless reporter Peter O'Hanraha-hanrahan among other characters.
David Schneider, who was in a double act at university with Armando, contrived the very first early demos and was a regular cast member throughout.
Steve Coogan was drafted in after the initial pilot for On The Hour to help create a realistic sports reporter, who later morphed into Alan Partridge.
Doon Mackichan played multiple characters in The Day Today, as well as shows that followed, such as Brass Eye and Alan Partridge.
Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Simon Jarvis
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
THE REUNION - THE GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL (320kbs-m4a/96mb/42mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 28th August 2016
Billed acts bailed out, naked hippies horrified locals, and Hells Angels provided the security. But even then, Michael Eavis knew that the first Glastonbury Festival, held at his dairy farm in Pilton in 1970, was the start of something that would change his life. Sue MacGregor reunites key players from the early days of the festival.
Now Glastonbury is a British institution and the biggest festival of its kind in the world. It's a rite of passage for any self-respecting teenage music fan and the acme of many musicians' careers.
At the first Pilton Pop, Blues & Folk Festival, The Kinks were booked to headline but cancelled in disgust after reading that they were to appear at "a mini festival". Eavis was delighted when a band called T Rex stepped in to replace them. But a disappointing turn-out left him in the red.
Winston Churchill's debutant turned peacenik granddaughter bankrolled the 1971 "Glastonbury Fayre". Her entourage of Notting Hill hippies lent it a glamorous air, although the organisers still lost money!
Acts in 1971, included Melanie, veteran of Woodstock and the Isle of Wight festivals, the incendiary Arthur Brown whose dark and theatrical stage act countered the hippies' peace and love aesthetic, and flautist Jessica Stanley Clarke's prog band Marsupilami. Jessica's home in Pilton became the negotiating ground between festival organisers and incensed villagers. Jessica, now Jekka McVicar, is an organic herb grower recently appointed vice-president of the Royal Horticultural Society.
Arthur, Jekka and Melanie are reunited with Michael Eavis and Chris Church, who bunked off school to go to the early festivals.
Producer: Karen Pirie
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
THE REUNION - THE YOUNG ONES (320kbs-m4a/96mb/42mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 29th April 2018
Sue MacGregor reunites five people who made their names in the ground-breaking TV comedy The Young Ones.
In the early 1980s, the most popular TV comedies were cosy sitcoms like To The Manor Born and Last of the Summer Wine. Live stand-up comedy was largely confined to working men's clubs and seaside resorts. Mother-in-law and Irish gags were still a staple.
But, in the backroom of a Soho strip club, an underground venue called The Comic Strip emerged. The non-sexist, anti-racist but violent and bolshy acts drew a fashionable crowd. Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman were among the stars in the audience.
TV producers drew from the performers they saw there for the casting of The Young Ones. The bunch of loud-mouthed scruff bags thrown together as housemates in grotty, tumbledown digs, really broke the mould.
When The Young Ones was first aired in November 1982, ratings were pitiful. But before long, the show, with its wild slapstick and surreal twists, soon won a dedicated following. Within six months, a second series was on TV and the team had a BAFTA award for their mantelpiece.
Like the British classic Fawlty Towers, the team decided that The Young Ones should only run for 12 episodes. By then, everyone involved had made their name and alternative comedy became the TV phenomenon of the decade.
Sue MacGregor is joined by original Young One Nigel Planer who played depressed musician Neil; Chris Ryan who played Mike "The Cool Person"; Alexei Sayle who played members of the Balowski family; Lise Mayer who co-wrote the series with Ben Elton and her then partner actor Rik Mayall; and Stephen Frost who played a number of roles across both series.
Producer: Karen Pirie
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
THE REUNION - BOYS FROM THE BLACKSTUFF (128kbs-m4a/38mb/41mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 28th July 2014
In this edition of The Reunion, Sue MacGregor reunites Julie Walters, Alan Bleasdale, Tom Georgeson, Michael Angelis and producer Michael Wearing to talk about their roles in the landmark 1980s drama series Boys from the Blackstuff.
Writer Alan Bleasdale's hard-hitting drama series was set against the harsh backdrop of struggle and bleak unemployment in the Liverpool of Thatcher's Britain. It chronicled the lives of a group of men as they sought to find work, whilst suffering the despair and indignity of life on the scrapheap. First transmitted in October 1982, it received widespread critical acclaim and became a 'television event'.
Boys from the Blackstuff had an immediate and startling impact, thanks to the sheer heartfelt emotional power of Bleasdale's uncompromising writing and an extraordinarily gifted ensemble cast. It painted an uncomfortable, but warranted portrait of a city and a country teetering precariously on the brink of social and economic disaster, where the only real victims were those who were prevented by circumstances from leading fulfilling and productive lives.
The original team join Sue MacGregor to talk about their experiences of the making of the series and its widespread resonance across the nation.
Producer: Christina Captieux
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4.