BBC Third Programme

The BBC Third Programme was the third national radio network broadcast by the BBC, founded in 1946 and subsequently incorporated, in 1967, into BBC Radio 3. The other two were the Home Service (mainly speech based) and the Light Programme, dedicated to light music, usually cover versions of popular music of the day played by the "in-house" BBC orchestras. The Home Service is now known as Radio 4 and the Light Programme is Radio 2. After the death of Sir Henry Wood the BBC stepped in to sponsor his Promenade concerts, carrying them live every night on the Third Programme.

Description and history

When it started on 29 September 1946 the Third Programme broadcast for six hours a night, from 6.00 pm to midnight, although its output was cut to just 24 hours a week from October 1957, with the early part of weekday evenings being given over to educational programming (known as "Network 3"). This situation continued until the launch, on 22 March 1965, of the BBC Music Programme, which began regular daily broadcasts of classical music between 7.00 am and 6.30 pm daily (with some interruptions for live sports coverage) on the Network 3 / Third Programme frequencies. The Third Programme itself continued as a distinct evening service, and this continued to be the case for a short while after the inception of Radio 3 in 1967 until all the elements of the BBC's "third network" were finally absorbed into Radio 3 in April 1970.

The Third's existence was controversial from the start, partly because of perceived "elitism" - it was sometimes criticised for programmes of "two dons talking" and also for the costs of output relative to a small listener reach. In actuality its existence went against Reithian principles, as Reith himself had, during his time at the BBC, been against segmenting audiences by splitting programming genres across different networks. From the first it did have some prominent supporters; the Education Secretary in the Attlee government, Ellen Wilkinson, spoke rather optimistically of creating a "third programme nation." When it faced cuts in 1957, The Third Programme Defence Society was formed and its leaders included T. S. Eliot, Albert Camus, and Sir Laurence Olivier.

The network was dedicated to the discerning or "high-brow" listener providing serious classical music, concerts and plays as well as room for modern composers, and jazz. Speech formed a much higher proportion of output than the later Radio 3. Particularly notable in its drama productions were the radio plays of Samuel Beckett and the Hilda Tablet plays by Henry Reed. Martin Esslin was particularly associated with the network's productions of European drama.

The Third Programme is still much missed by older listeners, who often assert that its replacement by Radio 3 was a retrograde step.

References

Carpenter, Humphrey. "The Envy of the World: Fifty Years of the Third Programme and Radio Three" , Weidenfeld & Nicolson , (November 10, 1997) , ISBN 0-7538-0250-3.