Radio Comedy

Can I do you now, sir?

1920

Dame Nellie Melba sings on Britain’s first public radio broadcast

1920

1921

The Post Office issues 4000 licenses for people to receive wireless broadcasts

1922

The British Broadcasting Corporation is formed and transmits from November

1922

1923

Issue 1 of The Radio Times is published

1924

"The pips" (Greenwich Time Signal) are first broadcast

1924

1925

Radio Radiance, the first radio revue, starts in July

1926

That Child, the first domestic sit-com, starts its 6-episode run on 12th April

1926

Before radio, professional comedy for the working-classes was provided by Variety and music halls.

On the evening of 31st May 1923, two new comedy shows were to hit the airwaves...

The BBC began to develop a set of tactics to maintain their audience.

The world was modernising, and the new listener wanted new comedy.

At the end of the decade a new form of radio comedy had arrived - the wacky Disc Jockey.

In the last twenty-five years, British radio comedy has gone from strength to strength.