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History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom #3
History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume III: The War of Words
This is the third part of a five-volume history of broadcasting in the UK, giving an authoritative account of the rise of broadcasting in this country.
This volume covering the period from 1939 to 1945, is concerned not only with the impact of the Second World War on the structure, organization, and programmes of the BBC, itself a fascinating subject; it also deals directly with the role of the BBC outside as well as inside Britain within the context of the general political and military history of the war; an exciting, complicated, sometimes controversial role, strangely neglected by historians.
This volume covering the period from 1939 to 1945, is concerned not only with the impact of the Second World War on the structure, organization, and programmes of the BBC, itself a fascinating subject; it also deals directly with the role of the BBC outside as well as inside Britain within the context of the general political and military history of the war; an exciting, complicated, sometimes controversial role, strangely neglected by historians.
699 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1970
About the author
Asa Briggs
153 books11 followersAsa Briggs, Baron Briggs was an English historian, best known for his studies on the Victorian era. In particular, his trilogy, Victorian People, Victorian Cities, and Victorian Things made a lasting mark on how historians view the nineteenth century. He was made a life peer in 1976.
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January 2, 2022
The Second World War was unique among the major wars of the twentieth century in a number of respects, but one of the more underappreciated of those is in terms of its media. Whereas the conflicts that proceeded it were wars of static images and print reporting, and television increasingly predominated in the ones that followed, radio was the primary medium over which the Second World War was waged. This was due to its timing, as whereas television was only in its infancy radio had established itself firmly in the lives of millions of people throughout the Westernized world by the time war broke out in 1939. This made it both a form of media over which they experienced the war and one over which the opposing sides waged the conflict.
It is the latter aspect which makes the title of Asa Briggs’s book especially appropriate. As with the previous two volumes in his series, he offers his readers a history of broadcasting in Great Britain centered around the operations of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which here features the role they played in the war. Not only did the BBC grapple during this period with the myriad challenges of serving their listeners in wartime with a program of news and entertainment, they also transformed themselves into a weapon of war, as they served as an arm in Britain’s propaganda campaign against Nazi Germany – a role that nobody had envisaged for the corporation when it was first chartered in 1927, and which posed a challenge to the culture of fair-mindedness that had become part of the BBC’s brand.
That the BBC would even continue broadcasting during the war was uncertain at its start. Preparations for the war were based on the assumption that Britain would be subject to heavy air attacks from the start, with the enemy using British transmissions to home in on their targets. As a result, broadcasting was curtailed, with regional services shut down, transmissions synchronized, and staff dispersed. Instead, Britons found themselves grappling with the boredom of the “Phoney War,” which the BBC soon was called upon to alleviate. This contributed to the creation in 1940 of the Forces Programme, which was a precursor to the postwar Light Programme and reflected the BBC’s attempt to adapt to changing circumstances. The BBC faced demands of a different nature with the formation of a new Ministry of Information, which proved an unstable entity with an uncertain degree of control over the BBC’s content. Even the appointment of the BBC’s former director-general, John Reith, as the new Minister of Information in January 1940 did little to clarify matters.
The hesitant and exploratory nature of British broadcasting’s approach to the war changed in the spring of 1940 with the German offensive in western Europe. With the conquest of France and the Low Countries, Britain shouldered alone the burden of the war against the Axis powers. Briggs details the complex relationships in which the BBC found itself now enmeshed, as in addition to its budding propaganda campaign against Germany it found itself managing efforts by Allied governments-in-exile to broadcast programs to their now-occupied territories. Yet their greatest competition often came not from these governments or even from German propaganda efforts but from the newly-formed Special Operations Executive (SOE), which conducted its own broadcasting operations as part of its campaign to disrupt Germany’s hold on Europe. This proved a precursor to the later issues of coping with the military’s own efforts as well, particularly those of the Allied military command preparing for its invasion of France in 1944.
Yet for all of these difficulties and despite the political and administrative turmoil it experienced throughout the war, the BBC enjoyed an unprecedented amount of popularity and influence. At home it possessed an enormous audience, with programs of truly nationwide appeal. Abroad it was regarded by millions as a source of reliable facts in a media environment constrained by censorship and laden with propaganda-fueled fictions. And in the midst of the demands and strains of war the BBC adapted and even grew, so that by the war’s end in 1945 it had not only successfully surmounted the challenge posed by the Nazi propaganda machine but was providing two alternative programs for their listeners and preparing to resume their introduction of television services. For those reasons, the BBC was fully justified in regarding themselves as the victors in the “war of words.”
Covering the complexities and scope of wartime broadcasting requires a book that is even longer than Briggs's previous entry in the series, despite covering only half the amount of time. It also forces him to broaden the focus of his earlier volumes, resulting in a work that better fulfills the aim embodied in the series title of providing a true “history of broadcasting in the United Kingdom.” Briggs's achievement here is constrained, though, by the inaccessibility of the SOE archives at the time he wrote the book, leaving him more dependent upon secondary accounts of their activities than he is with the BBC. Because of this, his coverage of the BBC’s operations remains the book’s greatest strength, and one that is better informed by the broader interaction of events and personalities. In this respect Briggs exceeds the high standards he has set for himself, having produced a work that is not just a valuable history of the BBC in wartime but is necessary reading for anyone interested in the propaganda campaigns of the Second World War more generally.
It is the latter aspect which makes the title of Asa Briggs’s book especially appropriate. As with the previous two volumes in his series, he offers his readers a history of broadcasting in Great Britain centered around the operations of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which here features the role they played in the war. Not only did the BBC grapple during this period with the myriad challenges of serving their listeners in wartime with a program of news and entertainment, they also transformed themselves into a weapon of war, as they served as an arm in Britain’s propaganda campaign against Nazi Germany – a role that nobody had envisaged for the corporation when it was first chartered in 1927, and which posed a challenge to the culture of fair-mindedness that had become part of the BBC’s brand.
That the BBC would even continue broadcasting during the war was uncertain at its start. Preparations for the war were based on the assumption that Britain would be subject to heavy air attacks from the start, with the enemy using British transmissions to home in on their targets. As a result, broadcasting was curtailed, with regional services shut down, transmissions synchronized, and staff dispersed. Instead, Britons found themselves grappling with the boredom of the “Phoney War,” which the BBC soon was called upon to alleviate. This contributed to the creation in 1940 of the Forces Programme, which was a precursor to the postwar Light Programme and reflected the BBC’s attempt to adapt to changing circumstances. The BBC faced demands of a different nature with the formation of a new Ministry of Information, which proved an unstable entity with an uncertain degree of control over the BBC’s content. Even the appointment of the BBC’s former director-general, John Reith, as the new Minister of Information in January 1940 did little to clarify matters.
The hesitant and exploratory nature of British broadcasting’s approach to the war changed in the spring of 1940 with the German offensive in western Europe. With the conquest of France and the Low Countries, Britain shouldered alone the burden of the war against the Axis powers. Briggs details the complex relationships in which the BBC found itself now enmeshed, as in addition to its budding propaganda campaign against Germany it found itself managing efforts by Allied governments-in-exile to broadcast programs to their now-occupied territories. Yet their greatest competition often came not from these governments or even from German propaganda efforts but from the newly-formed Special Operations Executive (SOE), which conducted its own broadcasting operations as part of its campaign to disrupt Germany’s hold on Europe. This proved a precursor to the later issues of coping with the military’s own efforts as well, particularly those of the Allied military command preparing for its invasion of France in 1944.
Yet for all of these difficulties and despite the political and administrative turmoil it experienced throughout the war, the BBC enjoyed an unprecedented amount of popularity and influence. At home it possessed an enormous audience, with programs of truly nationwide appeal. Abroad it was regarded by millions as a source of reliable facts in a media environment constrained by censorship and laden with propaganda-fueled fictions. And in the midst of the demands and strains of war the BBC adapted and even grew, so that by the war’s end in 1945 it had not only successfully surmounted the challenge posed by the Nazi propaganda machine but was providing two alternative programs for their listeners and preparing to resume their introduction of television services. For those reasons, the BBC was fully justified in regarding themselves as the victors in the “war of words.”
Covering the complexities and scope of wartime broadcasting requires a book that is even longer than Briggs's previous entry in the series, despite covering only half the amount of time. It also forces him to broaden the focus of his earlier volumes, resulting in a work that better fulfills the aim embodied in the series title of providing a true “history of broadcasting in the United Kingdom.” Briggs's achievement here is constrained, though, by the inaccessibility of the SOE archives at the time he wrote the book, leaving him more dependent upon secondary accounts of their activities than he is with the BBC. Because of this, his coverage of the BBC’s operations remains the book’s greatest strength, and one that is better informed by the broader interaction of events and personalities. In this respect Briggs exceeds the high standards he has set for himself, having produced a work that is not just a valuable history of the BBC in wartime but is necessary reading for anyone interested in the propaganda campaigns of the Second World War more generally.
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