Past Forward: A Century of Sound

A BBC Radio 4 history series

Om bogen

A funny, fascinating and personal look at 100 years of history in the BBC archives

Historian Greg Jenner uses a random date generator to visit somewhere in the BBC's vast archives of remarkable sound clips from the last 100 years. Using that clip as a jumping-off point to explore what has changed between then and now, Greg talks to experts and those connected to the archived people, places, and ideas, including Stephen Fry, writer Naomi Alderman, playwright Nell Leyshon, social historian Carol Dyhouse, author and disability campaigner Dr Amit Patel, food historian Annie Gray, and inveterate tennis fan Geoff Dyer.

From dance crazes, post-war Christmases and communist sitcoms to pub evolution, life on the waterways and women's political activism, Past Forward provides a rich and thought-provoking look at the oral histories, personal stories, big moments and small joys of the past and the present, and how our history has shaped the people we have become.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the following dates:

The Lambeth Walk 03 January 2022

1984 - Comrade Dad 04 January 2022

Christmas 1945 05 January 2022

Mary Whitehouse 06 January 2022

Porton Down 07 January 2022

Match Point 10 January 2022

Kitty Hart-Moxon 11 January 2022

If People Can't Let Slip... 12 January 2022

Traffic 13 January 2022

England v Argentina 1998 14 January 2022

Dinner Is Served 21 March 2022