0:00:02 > 0:00:03BRASS BAND PLAYS
0:00:03 > 0:00:06SLOW MARCHING, ORDERS ARE SHOUTED
0:00:06 > 0:00:09On the 8th of May 1945,
0:00:09 > 0:00:13the Allies formally declared that the war in Europe was over.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17It was VE Day. Nazi Germany was in ruins.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20In the German capital, there was a ceremony
0:00:20 > 0:00:24to mark the raising of the Union Jack by British soldiers.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27For the BBC, as for the nation,
0:00:27 > 0:00:30it was the summit of a quite extraordinary journey.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33My father, Richard Dimbleby, was there.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38'All around us are signs of battle and of bombing.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41'The very trees themselves are broken and stripped of their bark.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44'Many of the British troops, who are here unofficially as spectators,
0:00:44 > 0:00:47'are standing on piles of rubble.' VOICE FADES
0:00:47 > 0:00:51The devastation of the Third Reich and the destruction of Nazism
0:00:51 > 0:00:54was the 20th century's greatest triumph.
0:00:54 > 0:00:58For the BBC, it was a broadcasting pinnacle
0:00:58 > 0:01:00that no-one had imagined or foreseen.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04'That is the end of the formal ceremony...'
0:01:04 > 0:01:06OFFICER SHOUTS ORDERS '..and the beginning
0:01:06 > 0:01:08'of the symbolic occupation of this city
0:01:08 > 0:01:11'by the troops of the British Army and their Canadian colleagues.'
0:01:14 > 0:01:17This is the story of how it happened,
0:01:17 > 0:01:21of how the BBC emerged from uncertain and insecure beginnings
0:01:21 > 0:01:25to become a national institution and a global force.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27It's about those who made it happen,
0:01:27 > 0:01:29and those who tried to stop it happening.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32It's about battles at the front and behind the scenes.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35It's about generals and politicians,
0:01:35 > 0:01:39entertainers and comedians, musicians and singers.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41It's about those millions upon millions of people
0:01:41 > 0:01:44who tuned in from all over the world -
0:01:44 > 0:01:45from Canada, the United States,
0:01:45 > 0:01:49Australia, Asia, India and occupied Europe.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52And it's about the British people,
0:01:52 > 0:01:56who themselves helped shape the story of the BBC at war.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10'This is the BBC Home Service.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13'Here is the news, read by Frederick...'
0:02:14 > 0:02:17The BBC began the war with virtually no idea
0:02:17 > 0:02:21of what its role could, would or should be.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24Some insiders thought it might be closed down for the duration.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27Others that the government would take it over.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29In fact, the politicians and the broadcasters alighted
0:02:29 > 0:02:32on a very British solution -
0:02:32 > 0:02:34the BBC would remain independent,
0:02:34 > 0:02:38but would have to live by a set of imprecise rules of engagement.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42It was a recipe for confusion and conflict.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44On one thing only was everyone agreed -
0:02:44 > 0:02:50the famed motto of the BBC, "Nation shall speak peace unto nation",
0:02:50 > 0:02:54was emphatically unsuited for the challenges that lay ahead.
0:02:58 > 0:02:59CLOCK STRIKES
0:02:59 > 0:03:05The BBC had listeners - nine million licence holders at the latest count.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08But the broadcaster had precious little idea
0:03:08 > 0:03:11about what they wanted, needed or would be allowed to hear.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16Its founding father, John Reith,
0:03:16 > 0:03:20had defined its mission as "to inform, educate and entertain".
0:03:20 > 0:03:24But that was in peace. This was war.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28'This is the national programme from London.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31'Please stand by for a very important announcement.'
0:03:33 > 0:03:36On the morning of September the 3rd, 1939,
0:03:36 > 0:03:40the BBC was due to broadcast the first of six programmes
0:03:40 > 0:03:42on the subject of death.
0:03:42 > 0:03:47That was hastily substituted by an item on how to make the best
0:03:47 > 0:03:50of a meal consisting entirely of tinned food.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53Aside from that, there were gramophone records
0:03:53 > 0:03:59and, every 15 minutes, an announcement that, at 11:15am,
0:03:59 > 0:04:02the Prime Minister, Mr Neville Chamberlain,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05would broadcast to the nation.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16'This morning, the British Ambassador
0:04:16 > 0:04:20'in Berlin handed the German government
0:04:20 > 0:04:28'a final note, stating that, unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock,
0:04:28 > 0:04:33'that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland,
0:04:33 > 0:04:36'a state of war would exist between us.
0:04:38 > 0:04:43'I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received...
0:04:44 > 0:04:49'..and that, consequently, this country is at war with Germany.'
0:04:53 > 0:04:56It was, of course, an awesome moment for the nation.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00But it was also a remarkable day for the BBC.
0:05:00 > 0:05:05For the first time, a British Prime Minister had been able to use radio
0:05:05 > 0:05:08in Number 10 Downing Street, at the heart of government,
0:05:08 > 0:05:12to make a critical announcement -
0:05:12 > 0:05:15a declaration of war.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18Afterwards, the BBC played the national anthem
0:05:18 > 0:05:22and that was followed by a long peal of church bells.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24BELLS PEAL
0:05:24 > 0:05:27That evening, the King also made a speech,
0:05:27 > 0:05:29which the government had originally planned
0:05:29 > 0:05:33to post out to every household in the land.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35But this proved unnecessary.
0:05:35 > 0:05:40George VI had chosen the instant medium of radio to rally the nation,
0:05:40 > 0:05:44and the newspapers would report what he said the following day.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52'For the second time in the lives of most of us,
0:05:52 > 0:05:55'we are...at war.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00'Over and over again,
0:06:00 > 0:06:08'we have tried to find a peaceful way out
0:06:08 > 0:06:12'of the differences between ourselves
0:06:12 > 0:06:19'and those who are now our...enemies.'
0:06:23 > 0:06:27Such official duties were, of course, no-brainers for the BBC.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31Far more testing was how otherwise to fill the airtime.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35At the start of the war, on the orders of the government,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39the BBC's fledgling television service was closed down.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43The nation would rely on radio.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45The BBC's immediate response to the outbreak of war
0:06:45 > 0:06:47was to cancel all programmes,
0:06:47 > 0:06:51except for official announcements interspersed by music,
0:06:51 > 0:06:55and, ten times a day, a news bulletin,
0:06:55 > 0:06:57which contained only the information
0:06:57 > 0:07:00that the government thought fit to broadcast.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02AUDIO HISSES
0:07:02 > 0:07:07'All cinemas, theatres and other places of entertainment
0:07:07 > 0:07:11'are to be closed immediately, until further notice.'
0:07:13 > 0:07:15With all public places of entertainment -
0:07:15 > 0:07:17cinemas, theatres, concert halls -
0:07:17 > 0:07:20closed down for fear of mass casualties,
0:07:20 > 0:07:25the BBC clearly failed to rise to the challenge.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29One commentator was moved to write, "Your wireless seems to have changed
0:07:29 > 0:07:34"from an agreeable companion to an official bully."
0:07:35 > 0:07:37SLOW ORGAN PLAYING
0:07:37 > 0:07:41As well as relentless and repetitious announcements,
0:07:41 > 0:07:45the BBC subjected the nation to an orgy of organ music.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48Marathon sessions of uplifting performances
0:07:48 > 0:07:52that made Sandy MacPherson, who played for up to 12 hours a day,
0:07:52 > 0:07:57a famous name, and one that was not always appreciated.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01One listener wrote in to say he'd rather face the German guns.
0:08:01 > 0:08:02FASTER ORGAN PLAYING
0:08:04 > 0:08:08Such dreariness could not long survive the outbreak of hostilities.
0:08:08 > 0:08:13The public wanted to know what was happening, and where.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17But the BBC was woefully ill-equipped to tell them.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20In large measure, this was because the broadcaster hitherto
0:08:20 > 0:08:25had carefully avoided reporting the news, let alone breaking it.
0:08:25 > 0:08:29Until this point, the BBC had been unable to broadcast any news
0:08:29 > 0:08:32until after six o'clock in the evening -
0:08:32 > 0:08:35a watershed that had been agreed by the fledgling broadcaster
0:08:35 > 0:08:38with the almighty press barons,
0:08:38 > 0:08:41who were determined to preserve their monopoly.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44And even the bulletins that WERE broadcast
0:08:44 > 0:08:48were culled almost entirely from the wire services like Reuters.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50And that's all there was.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05In Berlin, the leaders of the Third Reich were in no doubt
0:09:05 > 0:09:07about how to exploit the power of the wireless
0:09:07 > 0:09:10as a means of mass communication.
0:09:10 > 0:09:15They had a propaganda ministry. Its boss was Josef Goebbels.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19TRANSLATION:
0:09:32 > 0:09:35No-one understood radio better than Goebbels.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38Soon after the Nazis came to power in 1933,
0:09:38 > 0:09:43he said that the new medium was, "The most modern, the most powerful,
0:09:43 > 0:09:47"and the most revolutionary weapon that we possess."
0:09:47 > 0:09:50For that reason, the Nazis wanted to make sure
0:09:50 > 0:09:52that radios were dirt cheap.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55Well before the war, some seven million of these
0:09:55 > 0:09:58so-called "people's radios" were sold at prices
0:09:58 > 0:10:01that virtually any family could afford.
0:10:01 > 0:10:03And Goebbels was smart enough to realise that
0:10:03 > 0:10:07you couldn't ram Nazi propaganda down the German throat.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09You had to sweeten the pill
0:10:09 > 0:10:12with popular music and light entertainment.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17GERMAN SONG PLAYS
0:10:17 > 0:10:20Realising more clearly than anyone else
0:10:20 > 0:10:24that the struggle between Britain and Germany would be a war of words,
0:10:24 > 0:10:27as well as a fight to the finish on the battlefield,
0:10:27 > 0:10:31Goebbels did not shrink from telling any lie, however implausible.
0:10:34 > 0:10:39This war of words began on the very first day of the war.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49'It is not yet known how many lives were lost
0:10:49 > 0:10:50'when the British liner Athenia
0:10:50 > 0:10:54'was torpedoed today without warning in the Atlantic.'
0:10:57 > 0:11:00The Athenia was sunk by a German U-boat,
0:11:00 > 0:11:05200 miles off the British coast as it steamed towards Montreal.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09117 men, women and children were drowned,
0:11:09 > 0:11:14including 28 of the 300 US citizens who had been on board,
0:11:14 > 0:11:19hoping to escape a European war in which they had no involvement.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23The survivors were brought ashore at the port of Greenock on the Clyde.
0:11:23 > 0:11:28The BBC sent a recording car to hear their accounts of the tragedy.
0:11:28 > 0:11:29RADIO IS TUNED
0:11:29 > 0:11:32'I was in the third-class dining room on Sunday night,
0:11:32 > 0:11:34'when the loud crash of the explosion came
0:11:34 > 0:11:36'and the support in the dining room,
0:11:36 > 0:11:39'which was practically beside me, came crashing down.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43- 'Dishes went flying...- ..two detonations almost simultaneously.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47'I found my way out of my cabin and started the struggle to get on deck.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49'I have in mind a general impression
0:11:49 > 0:11:51- 'of wrecked and distorted steelwork...- ..terrible.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54'Everyone was crying, "Oh, my God!"
0:11:54 > 0:11:56'and we never really expected to see daylight.'
0:11:58 > 0:12:01Hitler was aghast. The rules of engagement at sea
0:12:01 > 0:12:06expressly forbade any attack on passenger ships.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09By sinking a liner carrying US citizens, he feared that America
0:12:09 > 0:12:13would be sucked into Britain's war against the Third Reich.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15He ordered his Propaganda Ministry
0:12:15 > 0:12:18to deny any responsibility for the disaster.
0:12:23 > 0:12:24This was a task for which
0:12:24 > 0:12:28Dr Josef Goebbels was well suited and well prepared.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34He instructed Berlin radio to announce to the world
0:12:34 > 0:12:36not only that the Germans were innocent,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39but that the Athenia had been sunk by the British.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42And the voice of Nazi Germany went further.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46"We believe", it said,
0:12:46 > 0:12:49"that the present Chief of the Royal Navy, Churchill,"
0:12:49 > 0:12:52who was then First Lord of the Admiralty,
0:12:52 > 0:12:55"capable of even such a crime,"
0:12:55 > 0:13:00adding, "It was an abominable lie to suggest the Germans had done it."
0:13:00 > 0:13:02Such doublespeak was not without effect,
0:13:02 > 0:13:06because, elsewhere, many people, including Americans,
0:13:06 > 0:13:10were as prone to believe Berlin as London.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12The war of words really mattered.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19The BBC had a very different approach to the facts,
0:13:19 > 0:13:23but this caused the broadcaster as many problems as it solved.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25And these were to surface very soon.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31At the start of the war, the BBC undertook to tell the truth,
0:13:31 > 0:13:33however disconcerting or painful that might be,
0:13:33 > 0:13:37and the Ministry of Information, which held the whip hand,
0:13:37 > 0:13:39appeared to concur.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43But what WAS the truth? Who should decide?
0:13:43 > 0:13:46How much should be told? And how swiftly?
0:13:46 > 0:13:50To those questions, there were no simple answers.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56With one recording car on the home front,
0:13:56 > 0:13:59the BBC's only other one was in France.
0:14:01 > 0:14:03On the outbreak of war,
0:14:03 > 0:14:06the British Army was hurriedly despatched across the Channel
0:14:06 > 0:14:11to help the French protect their border from any German invasion.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13The headquarters of the British Expeditionary Force,
0:14:13 > 0:14:18as it was known, was in the town of Arras, at the Hotel l'Univers.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22The BBC had sent my father to join them.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26'Coming down the road towards us
0:14:26 > 0:14:28'is a battalion that I know to be of a famous Irish regiment.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31PIPES ARE PLAYED 'They're marching in threes,
0:14:31 > 0:14:34'and, in their full battle dress and kit, they blend with the dripping
0:14:34 > 0:14:38'green grass of the roadside and the brown of the haystacks.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40'As they passed us on that road,
0:14:40 > 0:14:44'I thought how similar this must be to pictures of the last war.
0:14:44 > 0:14:49The road, the trees, the rain and the everlasting beat of feet.'
0:14:49 > 0:14:52MARCHING FEET
0:14:52 > 0:14:55So, Dimbleby was here in Arras.
0:14:55 > 0:15:00He had his recording car, two colleagues and, very important,
0:15:00 > 0:15:04a formal letter from the War Office, stating to all and sundry
0:15:04 > 0:15:09that the team should be allowed to pass without let or hindrance.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12For the BBC and its correspondent,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15it was the start of a very steep learning curve.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22My father may have been dressed for the part, but he fooled no-one.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24The military was deeply suspicious of reporters
0:15:24 > 0:15:29and most of all of a young man from the BBC wielding a microphone.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31He wasn't allowed to make phone calls,
0:15:31 > 0:15:32not allowed to leave town,
0:15:32 > 0:15:35and when he tried to report anything of interest,
0:15:35 > 0:15:37he was stifled by the censors.
0:15:37 > 0:15:39Even the word "Tommy gun" was red pencilled.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47Eventually, the BBC team was given permission
0:15:47 > 0:15:49to head for the Maginot Line -
0:15:49 > 0:15:53a massive defensive barrier along the Franco-German border,
0:15:53 > 0:15:56which had been constructed to be an impregnable obstacle
0:15:56 > 0:16:00through which not even the mightiest army could penetrate.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04'We've come a long way today through rain,
0:16:04 > 0:16:08'through villages and meadows and up and down the hills that lie
0:16:08 > 0:16:10'between us and the heart of France.'
0:16:10 > 0:16:16But at this point, the Nazis were in any case content to bide their time.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19Although France had joined Britain in declaring war on Germany,
0:16:19 > 0:16:22the guns here were virtually silent.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24It was The Phoney War.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27Very frustrating for the young BBC correspondent.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35So, for the first time, a radio reporter was at the front.
0:16:35 > 0:16:37And it would be the first opportunity
0:16:37 > 0:16:41in the history of warfare to hear the sounds of battle.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44Dimbleby was well aware of that,
0:16:44 > 0:16:48and also that the enemy was only a few kilometres away.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50So he suggested to an artillery battery,
0:16:50 > 0:16:52"Why not fire off a round or two?"
0:16:52 > 0:16:58To which the retort was, "No. If we fire, they fire.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00"Then what?"
0:17:04 > 0:17:08But Dimbleby was allowed to describe the Maginot Line,
0:17:08 > 0:17:11to see the vast underground complex beneath it.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13He was permitted to use the railway
0:17:13 > 0:17:15which linked one fortress to another.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21'I'm standing on the threshold
0:17:21 > 0:17:24'of a fort that's one of the greatest of the Maginot chain.
0:17:24 > 0:17:25'Behind me in the sky,
0:17:25 > 0:17:29'the noise of distant guns and, before me,
0:17:29 > 0:17:32'and stretching into the hillside,
0:17:32 > 0:17:35'electric lights and the sound of voices.'
0:17:35 > 0:17:37Even in The Phoney War,
0:17:37 > 0:17:41there were occasional skirmishes on this border.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46In due course, the microphones did pick up the sound of gunfire.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50It was not very much, but enough to excite the Radio Times,
0:17:50 > 0:17:52which trumpeted the BBC's scoop
0:17:52 > 0:17:56as an illustration of what would be possible in the months ahead.
0:17:57 > 0:18:02But the BBC's broadcasting first did not meet with universal acclaim.
0:18:02 > 0:18:03Far from it.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07In fact, the press barons were outraged,
0:18:07 > 0:18:10seeing this as a threat to their pre-eminence,
0:18:10 > 0:18:13and they rose up as one to demand
0:18:13 > 0:18:17that reports from the front by the BBC should only be transmitted
0:18:17 > 0:18:21after the news had already appeared in their newspapers.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24But the BBC was beginning to flex new muscles
0:18:24 > 0:18:28and it retorted firmly and formally -
0:18:28 > 0:18:32"A return to the pre-war arrangement in respect of news
0:18:32 > 0:18:36"would seriously damage not only the reputation of the BBC,
0:18:36 > 0:18:39"but..." - what was of far greater importance -
0:18:39 > 0:18:43"..the prestige of the nation as a whole."
0:18:43 > 0:18:46This time, the press backed off.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57The BBC had also managed to offend some listeners
0:18:57 > 0:19:00who found it impossible to understand why the broadcaster
0:19:00 > 0:19:02should wish to report from the front line.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05It was too immediate, too vivid and too intense.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08Altogether very disconcerting.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14The BBC was in uncharted territory,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17on the cusp of awesome and terrible events
0:19:17 > 0:19:20of a kind that had never before been recorded,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23let alone broadcast into the nation's living rooms.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26The broadcaster had to establish itself
0:19:26 > 0:19:31in a role for which there had been no preparation and no rehearsal.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38If the war on land had hardly begun,
0:19:38 > 0:19:42the war at sea was already being fought with an intensity
0:19:42 > 0:19:45that threatened the very survival of the United Kingdom.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52Truth is not always the first casualty of war.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56In the Second World War, it was the BBC weather forecast,
0:19:56 > 0:19:58and for a very good reason.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01Because it was not only heard here in the United Kingdom,
0:20:01 > 0:20:05but in Germany as well, letting the Luftwaffe know
0:20:05 > 0:20:09whether it was likely to be fine enough to launch a bombing raid.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19A month after the opening of hostilities,
0:20:19 > 0:20:23a German reconnaissance plane flew over Scapa Flow,
0:20:23 > 0:20:26the British fleet's largest and most important anchorage.
0:20:26 > 0:20:28AIRCRAFT ENGINE RUMBLES
0:20:28 > 0:20:31A few days later, on the 13th of October,
0:20:31 > 0:20:36a German U-boat crept into the harbour and sank the Royal Oak.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40833 members of her crew died.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46'There was a terrific explosion. I thought, "We've blown up.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49'"We've hit a mine," and then I decided there had been an air raid.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52'The ship began to list to starboard
0:20:52 > 0:20:56'and there was a foul smell, as of cordite.
0:20:56 > 0:21:02'I heard four more explosions - "Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" like that.
0:21:02 > 0:21:09'And I watched the ship heel over and settle down like a upturned saucer.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12'And I heard afterwards there's only two of us,
0:21:12 > 0:21:15'myself and one other, saved from my mess.'
0:21:19 > 0:21:23The BBC spared its listeners the full horror of the sinking,
0:21:23 > 0:21:27or any speculation about how it had been allowed to happen.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30Even so, it was impossible to disguise the fact
0:21:30 > 0:21:35that the U-boat's success was a humiliation for the Royal Navy.
0:21:47 > 0:21:52Six months later, on the 16th of March, 1940,
0:21:52 > 0:21:55the enemy again managed to penetrate Scapa Flow,
0:21:55 > 0:21:57but this time from above.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01The raid lasted some 75 minutes
0:22:01 > 0:22:04as they flew around Scapa Flow picking their targets.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06They hit a battleship, the Iron Duke,
0:22:06 > 0:22:10and a cruiser, the Norfolk, and then they flew off again.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14There were casualties, but they hadn't inflicted that much damage.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16However, the fact that they'd been able
0:22:16 > 0:22:21to penetrate British defences so easily was a serious embarrassment.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28The Royal Navy's self-esteem had been severely dented.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33So much so that the Admiralty chose to conceal the facts from the media.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37As a result, Broadcasting House only got wind of the raid
0:22:37 > 0:22:40from a gloating account on Berlin radio.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45The BBC at once got in touch with the Admiralty, saying,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48"The Germans are broadcasting it, we must as well."
0:22:48 > 0:22:51But the Admiralty was adamant - nothing should be said.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53In fact, it wasn't until the following afternoon
0:22:53 > 0:22:57that the BBC was finally allowed to say what had happened,
0:22:57 > 0:23:03and that had the effect of turning the Luftwaffe's modest military coup
0:23:03 > 0:23:07into a major victory for German propaganda.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14This didn't stop the BBC coming under further fire,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17albeit from a slightly different direction.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20This time, it was the merchant fleet.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23By reporting THEIR losses, the skippers complained,
0:23:23 > 0:23:27the BBC was undermining crew morale to an alarming degree.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33'The captain says too much about bombing convoys
0:23:33 > 0:23:37'is broadcast by the BBC and is having a bad effect on the seamen.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40'When the ship arrived in port, they are leaving wholesale
0:23:40 > 0:23:43'and it leaves the owners a hard task to find crews,
0:23:43 > 0:23:46'and the captain blames nothing but British broadcasts.'
0:23:51 > 0:23:54This crystallised a very real dilemma -
0:23:54 > 0:23:57to tell the truth risked undermining public morale
0:23:57 > 0:24:00when Britain was still in mortal peril,
0:24:00 > 0:24:04but not to tell the truth risked undermining
0:24:04 > 0:24:09the credibility of the broadcaster on whom the nation depended.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12The War Cabinet came up with a very British solution.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16Instead of turning the BBC into an arm of government,
0:24:16 > 0:24:19it put its own men into key positions within the Corporation,
0:24:19 > 0:24:23hoping thereby to keep the broadcasters in line.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26But that was very far from being the end of the matter.
0:24:30 > 0:24:34The following month, 300 miles away across the North Sea,
0:24:34 > 0:24:38British troops were facing another crisis.
0:24:38 > 0:24:40GUNFIRE, EXPLOSIONS
0:24:40 > 0:24:43'Attacks were being delivered from the sea
0:24:43 > 0:24:45'on a number of Norway's biggest ports.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48'Strong resistance is still going on.'
0:24:51 > 0:24:52It wasn't.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55British troops were in fact evacuating Norway,
0:24:55 > 0:25:00following a foolhardy attempt to pre-empt a German invasion there.
0:25:00 > 0:25:01It had been a military debacle.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07It was a major reverse, a strategic setback so grave
0:25:07 > 0:25:10that the government concealed it from the BBC,
0:25:10 > 0:25:14which, as a result, continued to give an optimistic version
0:25:14 > 0:25:18of what was by now a deeply pessimistic reality.
0:25:19 > 0:25:24When the BBC found out it had been duped, it was aghast.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34The editor of the broadcasters' European News, Noel Newsome,
0:25:34 > 0:25:36complained bitterly that the Corporation
0:25:36 > 0:25:39had been used merely to throw dust in the eyes of the enemy,
0:25:39 > 0:25:43undermining the BBC's credibility across the Continent
0:25:43 > 0:25:44as well as in Britain.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50'Owing to the fact that our treatment of the campaign
0:25:50 > 0:25:53'was based on the assumption that it would be carried on,
0:25:53 > 0:25:55'a false picture of the true situation
0:25:55 > 0:25:58'was inevitably created and inevitably has had
0:25:58 > 0:26:02'a damaging effect on our reputation abroad for reliability.
0:26:02 > 0:26:07'I cannot but resent most strongly that we were used as a blind tool.'
0:26:09 > 0:26:11And then, there was the enemy,
0:26:11 > 0:26:13discovering all manner of new tricks.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19On the 26th of August, 1939,
0:26:19 > 0:26:22a young couple had boarded the cross-Channel boat train.
0:26:24 > 0:26:26The porter who had carried their luggage aboard
0:26:26 > 0:26:30noted that it was tagged through to Berlin.
0:26:30 > 0:26:31"Blimey!" he's reported to have said,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34"That's a peculiar place to be going at a time like this."
0:26:34 > 0:26:36To which the man replied airily,
0:26:36 > 0:26:39"Oh, I expect it'll blow over pretty soon."
0:26:39 > 0:26:41He showed no sign of pressure,
0:26:41 > 0:26:44though, in fact, as a leading Fascist,
0:26:44 > 0:26:49he was known to the police and was on the run to avoid internment.
0:26:49 > 0:26:50Not surprisingly, he and his wife
0:26:50 > 0:26:52stayed well out of the way on the Channel crossing,
0:26:52 > 0:26:58they got to France and were soon on their way to the safety of Germany.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01His name was William Joyce,
0:27:01 > 0:27:05soon to be rather better known as Lord Haw Haw.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14Within days, Joyce, somewhat to his surprise,
0:27:14 > 0:27:17found himself entering the portals of Haus Des Rundfunks -
0:27:17 > 0:27:21the headquarters of Berlin radio - from where the Nazis conducted
0:27:21 > 0:27:24the war of words against Britain and the BBC.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33William Joyce had expected to find refuge in Berlin.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35In fact, he found celebrity,
0:27:35 > 0:27:38recruited by Goebbels to become an international broadcaster.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40And he was very good at it.
0:27:40 > 0:27:42By turns sinister and seductive,
0:27:42 > 0:27:46his eloquent and often very entertaining commentaries
0:27:46 > 0:27:48soon made him better known in Britain
0:27:48 > 0:27:51than any of his BBC contemporaries.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54And with audiences that numbered around six million,
0:27:54 > 0:27:56and often very much more than that,
0:27:56 > 0:27:59Goebbels could hardly have been better pleased.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08'Germany calling, Germany calling, Germany calling.
0:28:10 > 0:28:12'You are about to hear our news in English.'
0:28:14 > 0:28:17Joyce had a programme every Sunday evening,
0:28:17 > 0:28:21which went out immediately after the BBC's own news bulletin.
0:28:24 > 0:28:26In an attempt to belittle him,
0:28:26 > 0:28:29British newspapers called Joyce Lord Haw Haw,
0:28:29 > 0:28:32as though he were no more than an upper-class twit.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35But this did little to diminish his growing impact.
0:28:37 > 0:28:38RADIO IS TUNED
0:28:38 > 0:28:41'There is still no indication that the British people
0:28:41 > 0:28:44'are fully or even imperfectly informed
0:28:44 > 0:28:47'as to the facts of the military situation.
0:28:47 > 0:28:52'To judge by the BBC bulletins, they have no idea where the front is.
0:28:52 > 0:28:56'Of course, we must not, on this occasion, be too hard on the BBC.'
0:29:02 > 0:29:05Lord Haw Haw attracted not thousands,
0:29:05 > 0:29:07but millions of British listeners.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11Sometimes, up to half of them were tuned to his Sunday night show
0:29:11 > 0:29:13and some of them believed what he was saying.
0:29:17 > 0:29:19The BBC had to find an answer,
0:29:19 > 0:29:23without compromising its own commitment to the truth,
0:29:23 > 0:29:24and despite the censorship
0:29:24 > 0:29:28by which, often for good reason, it was handcuffed.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33The BBC gradually stumbled on a novel solution.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36It needed a first-class speaker,
0:29:36 > 0:29:39whose style was informal and personal,
0:29:39 > 0:29:40and who knew how to use words
0:29:40 > 0:29:43that would warm the hearts of his listeners,
0:29:43 > 0:29:45as well as instructing their minds.
0:29:47 > 0:29:49The man they chose to go head-to-head
0:29:49 > 0:29:51against Lord Haw Haw on Sunday nights
0:29:51 > 0:29:56was a renowned author and playwright called JB Priestley.
0:29:56 > 0:29:59His Postscripts were an immediate hit.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06'But here at Dunkirk is another English epic,
0:30:06 > 0:30:11'and, to my mind, what was most characteristically English about it,
0:30:11 > 0:30:15- 'so typical of us, so absolutely...' - By a remarkable accident of timing,
0:30:15 > 0:30:17Priestley's first Postscript
0:30:17 > 0:30:22was broadcast in the final hours of the evacuation from Dunkirk.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25His way with words meant that he was somehow able to convey
0:30:25 > 0:30:30the individual gallantry of men who were nonetheless,
0:30:30 > 0:30:35in strategic terms, executing a humiliating retreat.
0:30:35 > 0:30:37It was a consummate piece of broadcasting.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43'So absurd and yet so grand and gallant
0:30:43 > 0:30:45'that you hardly know whether to laugh or to cry
0:30:45 > 0:30:48'when you read about them was the part played
0:30:48 > 0:30:51'in the difficult and dangerous embarkation,
0:30:51 > 0:30:54'not by the warships, magnificent though they were,
0:30:54 > 0:30:57'but by the little pleasure steamers.
0:30:57 > 0:30:59'We've known them and laughed at them,
0:30:59 > 0:31:03'these fussy little steamers, all our lives.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06'These Brighton Belles and Brighton Queens
0:31:06 > 0:31:11'left that innocent, foolish world of theirs to sail into the inferno,
0:31:11 > 0:31:17'to defy bombs, shells, magnetic mines, torpedoes, machinegun fire,
0:31:17 > 0:31:19'to rescue our soldiers.
0:31:19 > 0:31:21'Some of them, alas, will never return.'
0:31:23 > 0:31:26In part, the key to Priestley was his voice.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29He clearly wasn't a toff. It seemed to say,
0:31:29 > 0:31:32"I'm one of you, not one of THEM."
0:31:32 > 0:31:35But he was also a character larger than life,
0:31:35 > 0:31:38and this posed something of a dilemma for the BBC.
0:31:38 > 0:31:43He was clearly going to be a star that could outshine Lord Haw Haw.
0:31:43 > 0:31:45But what if he shone too brightly?
0:31:45 > 0:31:48Got too big for his broadcasting boots?
0:31:51 > 0:31:54Until now, the BBC had carefully avoided
0:31:54 > 0:31:57promoting any of its broadcasters as "personalities",
0:31:57 > 0:32:01for fear their very celebrity might diminish the reputation
0:32:01 > 0:32:05for authority for which the Corporation had long striven.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12'A night or two ago, I had my first spell
0:32:12 > 0:32:15'with our Local Defence Volunteers
0:32:15 > 0:32:18'and, indeed, there was something in the preliminary talk,
0:32:18 > 0:32:21'before the sentries were posted for the night,
0:32:21 > 0:32:24'that gave this whole horrible business of air raids
0:32:24 > 0:32:29'and threatened invasion a rustic, homely,
0:32:29 > 0:32:31'almost comfortable atmosphere,
0:32:31 > 0:32:34'and really made a man feel more cheerful about it.'
0:32:39 > 0:32:41In his inimitable fashion,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44Priestley had not only seduced the British public,
0:32:44 > 0:32:48but had become a star, a personality, a celebrity.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51He was also what some regarded as a leftie.
0:32:53 > 0:32:58Among the many transcripts of his programmes, there was this.
0:32:58 > 0:33:03'We are at present floundering between two stools. One of them
0:33:03 > 0:33:05'is our old acquaintance labelled
0:33:05 > 0:33:07'"every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost".
0:33:07 > 0:33:10'The other stool, on which millions are already perched
0:33:10 > 0:33:13'without knowing it, has some lettering around it
0:33:13 > 0:33:16'that hints that free men could combine,
0:33:16 > 0:33:19'without losing what's essential to their free development,
0:33:19 > 0:33:22'to see that each man gives according to his ability
0:33:22 > 0:33:26'and receives according to his need.'
0:33:26 > 0:33:28In one broadcast, he took a sideswipe
0:33:28 > 0:33:33at those who were rich enough to get out of London to escape the bombing.
0:33:33 > 0:33:38More generally, he was arguing for a fairer and more equal society
0:33:38 > 0:33:40that he thought would better unite the nation.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43His listeners lapped it up.
0:33:43 > 0:33:47But to a powerful few, he sounded like a Marxist.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50In fact, he seriously got up the noses
0:33:50 > 0:33:52of some backbench Conservative MPs
0:33:52 > 0:33:54and, before long, the chorus was joined
0:33:54 > 0:33:57by the Minister of Information, Duff Cooper,
0:33:57 > 0:34:00who described him as "a second-rate novelist
0:34:00 > 0:34:04"who had grown conceited on the back of his broadcasting success",
0:34:04 > 0:34:07and then, to the BBC's dismay,
0:34:07 > 0:34:10ordered that his Postscripts be taken off air,
0:34:10 > 0:34:12which prompted Priestley to say
0:34:12 > 0:34:15that the BBC was controlled by the Ministry of Information,
0:34:15 > 0:34:18which in turn was controlled by the War Cabinet.
0:34:18 > 0:34:20And that, of course, meant Churchill.
0:34:23 > 0:34:25Winston Churchill had become Prime Minister
0:34:25 > 0:34:27just under a year earlier,
0:34:27 > 0:34:30a few weeks before Priestley's initial Postscript,
0:34:30 > 0:34:32when the fall of Dunkirk was imminent.
0:34:34 > 0:34:35A few days later,
0:34:35 > 0:34:39he gave the first of his many famous broadcasts in his new role.
0:34:40 > 0:34:46'I speak to you for the first time as Prime Minister,
0:34:46 > 0:34:51'in a solemn hour for the life of our country, of our Empire,
0:34:51 > 0:34:56'of our allies and, above all, of the cause of freedom.
0:34:57 > 0:35:01'Now one bond unites us all -
0:35:01 > 0:35:05'to wage war until victory is won
0:35:05 > 0:35:09'and never to surrender ourselves to servitude and shame,
0:35:09 > 0:35:13'whatever the cost and the agony may be.'
0:35:14 > 0:35:18Of course, Churchill was a master of rhetoric.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21He knew how to spellbind an audience,
0:35:21 > 0:35:24but he was born into another age of communications
0:35:24 > 0:35:26and he'd always distrusted the BBC,
0:35:26 > 0:35:31once describing it as "the enemy within the gates".
0:35:31 > 0:35:35But he knew that radio was a crucial means
0:35:35 > 0:35:39of uniting all those who were fighting against the Nazi tyranny.
0:35:45 > 0:35:51That battle was now being fought in the skies as well as at sea.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53The Battle of Britain was just that -
0:35:53 > 0:35:56a battle to save the nation from Nazi invasion.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04As yet, the BBC had only a handful of reporters to cover the drama.
0:36:06 > 0:36:08One of them was Charles Gardner.
0:36:08 > 0:36:10Like Dimbleby, still learning his craft
0:36:10 > 0:36:13as a radio correspondent in time of war.
0:36:14 > 0:36:18He was deputed to cover the struggle for mastery of the skies.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25One day in July 1940, Gardner found himself here,
0:36:25 > 0:36:30on the White Cliffs of Dover, at a good moment in a good place.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33A merchant convoy was steaming up the Channel
0:36:33 > 0:36:35when the Luftwaffe roared in
0:36:35 > 0:36:38and started to dive-bomb the ships below.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41But the RAF was on the scene almost immediately,
0:36:41 > 0:36:43and Gardner seized the moment
0:36:43 > 0:36:48to give a blow-by-blow account of the dogfight in the skies above.
0:36:51 > 0:36:55'Well, now the Germans are dive-bombing a convoy out at sea.
0:36:55 > 0:36:57'There are one, two, three, four, five, six,
0:36:57 > 0:36:59'seven German dive-bombers, Junkers 87s.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01'There's one going down on its target now.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06'Bomb... No, missed the ships. He hasn't hit a single ship.
0:37:06 > 0:37:08'There are about ten ships in the convoy.'
0:37:08 > 0:37:09GUNFIRE
0:37:09 > 0:37:12'There you can hear anti-aircraft going at them now.
0:37:12 > 0:37:14'Now the British fighters are coming up.
0:37:14 > 0:37:16'You can hear our own guns going like anything now.
0:37:16 > 0:37:18'There's one coming down in flames.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21'Somebody's hit a German and he's coming down. There's a long streak!
0:37:21 > 0:37:24'He's coming down completely out of control. A long streak of smoke.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27'He's... Oh, ah, the man's bailed out by parachute!
0:37:27 > 0:37:29'The pilot's bailed out by parachute. He's a Junkers 87
0:37:29 > 0:37:32'and he's going slap into the sea, and there he goes, smash!'
0:37:34 > 0:37:37Gardner was wrong about the plane.
0:37:37 > 0:37:39It was an RAF fighter.
0:37:39 > 0:37:41Though that wasn't the cause of the controversy
0:37:41 > 0:37:46which his report, a broadcasting first, immediately provoked.
0:37:50 > 0:37:54Gardner's commentary was too racy for some listeners, who complained
0:37:54 > 0:37:57that he was trivialising a life-and-death struggle,
0:37:57 > 0:38:00and one general, retired, thundered that
0:38:00 > 0:38:05"the broadcast was revolting to all decent citizens".
0:38:05 > 0:38:07But the BBC stood by its man.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10The Director General, Frederick Ogilvie, retorting that he
0:38:10 > 0:38:13"would not be browbeaten into a retreat
0:38:13 > 0:38:16"to the safe regions of the colourless."
0:38:16 > 0:38:19Had it been Number 10 that was complaining,
0:38:19 > 0:38:21he might've been a touch less robust.
0:38:21 > 0:38:26As it was, it was a small but significant sign
0:38:26 > 0:38:29that the BBC was starting to find its journalistic feet.
0:38:31 > 0:38:35The Battle of Britain demonstrated the nation's resolve
0:38:35 > 0:38:38that the war could not be won by standing alone.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42The new Prime Minister knew that, without the United States,
0:38:42 > 0:38:45the British could not possibly prevail.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50However, the American people were strongly averse
0:38:50 > 0:38:54to getting involved in a faraway, European war.
0:38:56 > 0:39:00The government decided that the BBC could help.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03A collaboration which suited the broadcaster
0:39:03 > 0:39:05as well as the men from the ministry.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09Their weapon was a renowned American reporter, based in London,
0:39:09 > 0:39:11whose broadcasts were not only carried
0:39:11 > 0:39:15by one of the famous US stations, but by the BBC.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21'This is London calling in the Overseas Service of the BBC.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24'And so to Trafalgar Square.
0:39:24 > 0:39:26'Waiting there is Edward Murrow,
0:39:26 > 0:39:29'known to you as Columbia's European Director.'
0:39:29 > 0:39:33On the 24th of August 1940, in the height of The Blitz,
0:39:33 > 0:39:37an American correspondent for CBS, Edward R Murrow,
0:39:37 > 0:39:39was standing in Trafalgar Square,
0:39:39 > 0:39:43waiting to present a new programme, London After Dark.
0:39:43 > 0:39:49As he started the broadcast, the air-raid sirens began to wail.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53SIRENS WAIL 'This is Trafalgar Square.
0:39:55 > 0:39:57'The noise that you hear at the moment
0:39:57 > 0:39:59'is the sound of the air-raid sirens.
0:40:00 > 0:40:05'I'm standing here, just on the steps of St Martin-in-the-Fields.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08SIRENS CONTINUE
0:40:08 > 0:40:12'A searchlight just burst into action off in the distance.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15'One single beam, sweeping the sky above me now.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19'People are walking along quite quietly.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21'We're just at the entrance of an air-raid shelter here,
0:40:21 > 0:40:25'and I must move this cable over just a bit, so people can walk in.'
0:40:28 > 0:40:31Murrow's report seized the imagination of his listeners.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34For the first time, they had been able
0:40:34 > 0:40:36to hear something of the reality of war,
0:40:36 > 0:40:41and it kindled a certain sympathy for the predicament of Britain.
0:40:41 > 0:40:43In Washington, the British Ambassador was
0:40:43 > 0:40:47in no doubt about the importance of such broadcasts.
0:40:47 > 0:40:49TYPEWRITER CLATTERS
0:40:51 > 0:40:54'If America ever comes into a European war,
0:40:54 > 0:40:57'it will be some violent, emotional impulse which will provide
0:40:57 > 0:40:59'the last decisive thrust.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02'Nothing can be so effective as the bombing of London
0:41:02 > 0:41:04'translated into the homes of America.'
0:41:06 > 0:41:09Murrow had captured the start of an air raid by chance.
0:41:09 > 0:41:11He now wanted to go further
0:41:11 > 0:41:15and record The Blitz in all its ferocity.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17The BBC was only too eager to help.
0:41:17 > 0:41:19Others weren't so happy.
0:41:21 > 0:41:23At first, the military censors
0:41:23 > 0:41:26banned any attempt to record the sound of the bombing.
0:41:26 > 0:41:30Apparently, because they feared it might help German intelligence
0:41:30 > 0:41:33discover where the bombs were falling.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36But Murrow refused to take no for an answer.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38For six nights in a row,
0:41:38 > 0:41:40he stood here on the roof of Broadcasting House
0:41:40 > 0:41:45with his microphone, describing what he could see and what he could hear,
0:41:45 > 0:41:50and then handing over the dummy reports to the censors.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54His ploy worked. On the seventh night, he got the go-ahead.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57EXPLOSIONS
0:41:59 > 0:42:02'I'm standing on a rooftop, looking out over London.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06'For reasons of national as well as personal security,
0:42:06 > 0:42:10'I am unable to tell you the exact location from which I'm speaking.
0:42:10 > 0:42:12'Four searchlights reach up...
0:42:12 > 0:42:15'disappear in the light of a three-quarter moon.
0:42:16 > 0:42:18'I should say, at the moment,
0:42:18 > 0:42:22'there are probably three aircraft in the general vicinity of London.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25EXPLOSION 'There they are.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28'That hard, stony sound.'
0:42:31 > 0:42:35Murrow's report brought the bombing and Britain's plight
0:42:35 > 0:42:38into the homes of millions of American citizens
0:42:38 > 0:42:40and made a powerful impact.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44Not surprisingly, the government was more than happy
0:42:44 > 0:42:46to give the go-ahead for the BBC
0:42:46 > 0:42:50to set up a North America Service, which rapidly expanded
0:42:50 > 0:42:53to reach a growing audience in the United States.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58In military terms, America was still on the sidelines,
0:42:58 > 0:43:02when, on Sunday the 22nd of June 1941,
0:43:02 > 0:43:06the British people woke to discover that another great nation
0:43:06 > 0:43:11was fighting against what had suddenly become their common enemy.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14The Nazis had invaded the Soviet Union.
0:43:17 > 0:43:20Churchill loathed the Soviet Union,
0:43:20 > 0:43:22he abhorred Bolshevism,
0:43:22 > 0:43:28and he tended to regard the Russian nation as peopled by barbarians.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32But now, the unholy alliance between Stalin and Hitler was over.
0:43:32 > 0:43:34They were at war with each other.
0:43:34 > 0:43:38Yesterday's enemy was now our ally.
0:43:38 > 0:43:44This was a dramatic sea change for Britain, and for Churchill.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47That evening, he took to the airwaves.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54'At four o'clock this morning,
0:43:54 > 0:43:57'Hitler attacked and invaded Russia.
0:43:59 > 0:44:01'This was no surprise to me.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06'Hitler is a monster of wickedness,
0:44:06 > 0:44:10'insatiable in his lust for blood and plunder.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16'So now, this bloodthirsty guttersnipe
0:44:16 > 0:44:19'must launch his mechanised armies
0:44:19 > 0:44:24'upon new fields of slaughter, pillage and devastation.
0:44:24 > 0:44:30'Poor as are the Russian peasants, workmen and soldiers,
0:44:30 > 0:44:34'he must steal from them their daily bread.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37'He must devour their harvests.
0:44:37 > 0:44:41'He must rob them of the oil which drives their ploughs,
0:44:41 > 0:44:46'and thus produce a famine without example in human history.'
0:44:49 > 0:44:52Churchill's homely focus
0:44:52 > 0:44:55on the people of Russia fighting for their lives,
0:44:55 > 0:44:58rather than on the regime which ruled over them,
0:44:58 > 0:45:01was carefully calibrated to establish a distinction
0:45:01 > 0:45:05in the British mind between a popular fight for survival
0:45:05 > 0:45:07and a deplorable political system.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10And the government, through the Ministry of Information,
0:45:10 > 0:45:14expected the BBC to promote that distinction.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17But this created a dilemma for the broadcaster.
0:45:21 > 0:45:23For millions of British workers,
0:45:23 > 0:45:27the Soviet Union had become a beacon of light, even a promised land.
0:45:27 > 0:45:31If Stalin had made errors or even committed crimes,
0:45:31 > 0:45:35he was essentially on the side of the common man against the fat cats.
0:45:37 > 0:45:38They were therefore appalled
0:45:38 > 0:45:43when the BBC appeared, deliberately, to belittle our new ally.
0:45:46 > 0:45:48With the Russians fighting and dying on the battlefield
0:45:48 > 0:45:50against a common enemy,
0:45:50 > 0:45:54the British public expected the BBC to play The Internationale
0:45:54 > 0:45:59on a weekly programme called The National Anthems Of The Allies.
0:45:59 > 0:46:02But The Internationale was a Soviet call to arms,
0:46:02 > 0:46:07urging the workers to rise up against their capitalist masters.
0:46:07 > 0:46:09And the BBC, sensing that the government
0:46:09 > 0:46:13might not altogether appreciate this subversion on the airwaves,
0:46:13 > 0:46:16declined to put it out.
0:46:16 > 0:46:21This ban provoked such an outcry that the BBC was minded to relent,
0:46:21 > 0:46:24but, at that point, Churchill himself intervened,
0:46:24 > 0:46:26instructing that, under no circumstances,
0:46:26 > 0:46:29should the Communist anthem be broadcast.
0:46:29 > 0:46:31The BBC knuckled under.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36The heavy hand of the Ministry of Information
0:46:36 > 0:46:39was felt in all parts of the BBC,
0:46:39 > 0:46:42as the broadcaster wrestled with its Russian dilemma.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44TYPEWRITER CLATTERS
0:46:44 > 0:46:47'Can I have a directive about Russia?
0:46:47 > 0:46:51'Not in political terms, but whether reference to comrade
0:46:51 > 0:46:54'and topical gags about Russia generally are permitted?'
0:46:54 > 0:46:57The reply was terse.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01'Please stop jokes about Russia for the time being.'
0:47:01 > 0:47:04Whatever Churchill's feelings about Communism,
0:47:04 > 0:47:07the British government was bound by common interest
0:47:07 > 0:47:10to assist the Russians in their titanic struggle
0:47:10 > 0:47:12against the Nazi invader.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16'We are breaking programmes to announce the signing
0:47:16 > 0:47:19'of an agreement between Britain and the Soviet Union,
0:47:19 > 0:47:21'for joint action in the war against Germany.'
0:47:23 > 0:47:25With supplies now starting to flow into Russia
0:47:25 > 0:47:29from America and Britain, it no longer made sense
0:47:29 > 0:47:32to ban the BBC from broadcasting The Internationale.
0:47:33 > 0:47:35And in January 1942,
0:47:35 > 0:47:39the Corporation was released from Churchill's ban on that music.
0:47:41 > 0:47:46MUSIC: The Internationale
0:47:46 > 0:47:49'The Internationale may now be played in programmes.
0:47:49 > 0:47:51'We're asked not to overdo it,
0:47:51 > 0:47:54'and only to play it when the occasion really does call for it.'
0:48:00 > 0:48:02The BBC was now encouraged by the government
0:48:02 > 0:48:05to promote the Russian cause,
0:48:05 > 0:48:08and the broadcaster responded with features about Russian people
0:48:08 > 0:48:11and the Red Army's exploits on the battlefield.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14Coverage which made a significant impact on public opinion.
0:48:18 > 0:48:22One evening in the summer of 1942,
0:48:22 > 0:48:25a capacity audience filed into the Albert Hall
0:48:25 > 0:48:30for a remarkable promenade concert that was broadcast by the BBC.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35The audience were here to listen to the BBC Symphony Orchestra
0:48:35 > 0:48:38under the baton of Sir Henry Wood, the founder of the Proms.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42They were giving the first performance in Britain
0:48:42 > 0:48:46of a new work by the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49The score had been flown across in the Diplomatic Bag,
0:48:49 > 0:48:53900 pages on microfilm.
0:48:53 > 0:48:55ORCHESTRA TUNES UP
0:48:55 > 0:48:58The symphony was known as the Leningrad
0:48:58 > 0:48:59and it was written by Shostakovich
0:48:59 > 0:49:02to honour the resilience of his birthplace,
0:49:02 > 0:49:06whose citizens were by now starving to death in a city
0:49:06 > 0:49:09which had already been under siege for more than nine months.
0:49:09 > 0:49:11APPLAUSE
0:49:11 > 0:49:13Nothing could have been better calculated
0:49:13 > 0:49:16to stir the hearts of those who heard it,
0:49:16 > 0:49:18and hearts WERE stirred.
0:49:18 > 0:49:22MUSIC: Symphony Number 7 (Leningrad) by Dmitri Shostakovich
0:49:27 > 0:49:29Despite the new alliance,
0:49:29 > 0:49:32the government's relationship with Moscow was fraught
0:49:32 > 0:49:37by mutual suspicion and misunderstanding. But none of this,
0:49:37 > 0:49:41let alone any rumour of Stalin's truculence or brutality,
0:49:41 > 0:49:43was to surface on the airwaves.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49So delicate was the crucial relationship
0:49:49 > 0:49:53between London and Moscow that the Ministry of Information
0:49:53 > 0:49:56enjoined the BBC not to broadcast anything
0:49:56 > 0:50:01that could be construed as hostile, negative or critical.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04And, under those circumstances, the BBC readily complied.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07ORCHESTRA CONTINUES
0:50:17 > 0:50:22By now, the BBC was rapidly developing into a global service
0:50:22 > 0:50:24and in a growing number of languages,
0:50:24 > 0:50:29targeting especially the people of occupied Europe.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33TRANSMISSION IN SPANISH
0:50:33 > 0:50:36TRANSMISSIONS OVERLAP
0:50:36 > 0:50:38CLOCK STRIKES, TRANSMISSION IN FRENCH
0:50:38 > 0:50:43The Prime Minister decided to make use of the BBC's French service
0:50:43 > 0:50:45to speak directly to the French people.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50A producer, Michel Saint-Denis, was given the task
0:50:50 > 0:50:54of translating his speech and introducing it on air.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58Renowned as a theatre director who had escaped the Nazis,
0:50:58 > 0:51:01Saint-Denis was taken aback when Churchill arrived demanding,
0:51:01 > 0:51:03"Where's my frog speech?"
0:51:05 > 0:51:06SIREN WAILS
0:51:06 > 0:51:08With an air raid underway above them,
0:51:08 > 0:51:13the two men made their way to the underground War Rooms in Whitehall.
0:51:13 > 0:51:17The space for this very important broadcast was so small that,
0:51:17 > 0:51:21apparently, Saint-Denis had to clamber onto Churchill's lap
0:51:21 > 0:51:24to reach the microphone before he could announce
0:51:24 > 0:51:26that the Prime Minister of Great Britain
0:51:26 > 0:51:30was to make a very important announcement to the French people.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34TRANSLATED FROM FRENCH:
0:52:43 > 0:52:47Following Dunkirk, the only part of the world where the British Army was
0:52:47 > 0:52:52in action against the Germans on the battlefield was the Western Desert,
0:52:52 > 0:52:55fighting both to protect the Empire
0:52:55 > 0:52:58and to defeat the Axis powers in North Africa.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04For two years, Richard Dimbleby was the BBC's man on this front,
0:53:04 > 0:53:07trying to make sense of a military campaign,
0:53:07 > 0:53:09which ebbed and flowed inconclusively
0:53:09 > 0:53:12across a vast ocean of sand.
0:53:15 > 0:53:19'Confused and fluid doesn't mean necessarily that nobody knows
0:53:19 > 0:53:22'what's happening, or that the situation has got out of control.'
0:53:23 > 0:53:27Churchill wanted action, a victory in the desert,
0:53:27 > 0:53:30and, to that end, he bullied his Middle East Commander-in-Chief,
0:53:30 > 0:53:33General Auchinleck, unmercifully,
0:53:33 > 0:53:36urging him to attack before he was ready.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38But Auchinleck was his own man.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41He would move in his own good time,
0:53:41 > 0:53:44and he wanted to get that message across.
0:53:44 > 0:53:46Who better to do this than Dimbleby?
0:53:48 > 0:53:50'Not far from the particular spot in Libya,
0:53:50 > 0:53:53'at which I'm recording this dispatch, there are two tents
0:53:53 > 0:53:57'from which the whole of the battle is being directed.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00'From those two tents today has come news that
0:54:00 > 0:54:05'makes it clear that the tendency to stabilisation of the situation,
0:54:05 > 0:54:07'that I reported from Cairo a few days ago,
0:54:07 > 0:54:11'has developed into something approaching stabilisation itself.'
0:54:13 > 0:54:16In London, the BBC came under fire from the government
0:54:16 > 0:54:19for putting out news bulletins in which their correspondent,
0:54:19 > 0:54:24my father, appeared to be siding with Auchinleck against Churchill.
0:54:26 > 0:54:30'Stabilisation is the condition that the whole front must be in,
0:54:30 > 0:54:33'before we can undertake our countermeasures
0:54:33 > 0:54:35'against the German thrust eastwards.'
0:54:37 > 0:54:42By the summer of 1942, the British were holding the line at El Alamein,
0:54:42 > 0:54:45and Dimbleby was reporting accordingly.
0:54:45 > 0:54:47Broadcasting House came under renewed pressure
0:54:47 > 0:54:49from the government.
0:54:49 > 0:54:53Dimbleby's boss, a senior BBC controller with close links
0:54:53 > 0:54:57to the Ministry, called AP Ryan, felt bound to concede,
0:54:57 > 0:55:03"There is no doubt that Dimbleby says what Auchinleck wants said."
0:55:03 > 0:55:06But my father was not a willing mouthpiece.
0:55:06 > 0:55:10The military censors in Cairo had red pencilled his copy so heavily
0:55:10 > 0:55:13that he was incensed and he wrote in his diary,
0:55:13 > 0:55:16"It really is disgraceful to deceive the public,
0:55:16 > 0:55:18"to cover up failures,
0:55:18 > 0:55:21"and I really believe that is what Cairo is doing."
0:55:22 > 0:55:24Something had to give.
0:55:25 > 0:55:29In August, Churchill got rid of his problem by sacking Auchinleck
0:55:29 > 0:55:31and replacing him with Montgomery,
0:55:31 > 0:55:35while the BBC summarily recalled Dimbleby
0:55:35 > 0:55:39and, without explanation, placed him on other duties.
0:55:39 > 0:55:40The episode could hardly have
0:55:40 > 0:55:43exposed the BBC's predicament more clearly -
0:55:43 > 0:55:48how to report a war honestly when the generals and the politicians
0:55:48 > 0:55:51regarded radio as little more than a megaphone
0:55:51 > 0:55:54for their own, often competing, purposes.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00The British Army had been on a long and losing streak.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03Norway, France, Greece, Crete,
0:56:03 > 0:56:06Hong Kong, Singapore and then Tobruk.
0:56:06 > 0:56:09For a while, it seemed that the Middle East might fall as well.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15And much closer to home, just across the English Channel,
0:56:15 > 0:56:17there was more to come.
0:56:22 > 0:56:26In the early hours of the 19th of August 1942,
0:56:26 > 0:56:306,000 Allied troops, led by the Canadians,
0:56:30 > 0:56:33launched an assault on the French coast at Dieppe.
0:56:33 > 0:56:37The BBC was at the scene, in the person of Frank Gillard.
0:56:40 > 0:56:44The BBC's correspondent watched from the deck of a British warship
0:56:44 > 0:56:48as what turned into a nine-hour battle raged in front of him.
0:56:52 > 0:56:55It ended in a military disaster
0:56:55 > 0:56:58that cost more than 3,000 Allied casualties -
0:56:58 > 0:57:04men who had fought with tenacity, but against impossible odds.
0:57:04 > 0:57:07But you wouldn't have known it from Gillard's report.
0:57:07 > 0:57:10It had been red pencilled so heavily by the censor
0:57:10 > 0:57:13as virtually to obliterate the truth.
0:57:13 > 0:57:18A cover-up in the name of national security and Allied morale.
0:57:18 > 0:57:23The Dieppe raid was not only a tragedy, but a humiliation.
0:57:23 > 0:57:25Gillard was appalled by what he witnessed.
0:57:25 > 0:57:29"The sea red with blood," as he described it later.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32But he was incensed by the fact that the military
0:57:32 > 0:57:36had prevented him reporting the slaughter on the battlefield
0:57:36 > 0:57:40and only allowed him to report the air war.
0:57:40 > 0:57:44Even 40 years on, that fact still haunted him.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50Nevertheless, no less than 16 million listeners
0:57:50 > 0:57:54tuned into the BBC, thirsty for the truth about Dieppe
0:57:54 > 0:57:57that they were not allowed to hear.
0:57:59 > 0:58:01It was a grim period for the nation
0:58:01 > 0:58:04and a challenging moment for the BBC.
0:58:04 > 0:58:08If the authorities were to go on suppressing bad news,
0:58:08 > 0:58:11it would be impossible for the broadcaster to establish
0:58:11 > 0:58:15a reputation for telling the truth in a timely fashion, which,
0:58:15 > 0:58:19among other things, was supposed to distinguish it from the enemy.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22Perhaps, though, because it was such a blatant example
0:58:22 > 0:58:26of unwarranted and self-destructive censorship,
0:58:26 > 0:58:28Dieppe served to mark a turning point
0:58:28 > 0:58:32that would transform the BBC's coverage of the war,
0:58:32 > 0:58:38when that war itself was about to enter a new and decisive phase.