Radio Times

Review by:

Tony Peters

In this meticulously researched two-parter, Noel Edmonds takes us back 80 years to reflect on how an upstart radio station shook the fabric of the BBC. It’s difficult to imagine now how alien the idea of pop music shows sponsored by advertisers was to a public brought up on the dour BBC of Lord Reith, but Radio Luxembourg established the vibrant style that still influences music radio today.

It also introduced presenters like Pete Murray who would become broadcasting stalwarts when Auntie Beeb finally got the message that youth was an audience worth catering for. Today’s fascinating fact is that Luxembourg was also the birthplace of shows that would become popular on ITV: Take Your Pick, Double Your Money and Hughie Green’s Opportunity Knocks — sponsored by a laxative. I’m saying nothing. 

About this programme

Part one of two. Noel Edmonds tells the story of the pop music station that proved hugely popular with young people in the 1960s, many of whom listened to it under their bed covers, despite its sometimes unreliable medium-wave signal. He begins by exploring how in 1932 the launch of a Luxembourg transmitter paved the way for the arrival of commercial radio in Britain.

Cast and crew

Cast

Presenter

Noel Edmonds

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