BBC Radio 4 Making History programme

Update 19 November 2009

You can hear the three episodes by clicking here.

Update 26 July 2009

Exciting news: BBC Radio 4 are to broadcast three 14 minute extracts from Edie's diaries on the afternoons of 10 to 12 November 2009!  The programmes will be produced by the same company which delivers the Making History programmes: Pier Productions. More information to follow - when it's available.

Update June 2009

It is no longer possible to listen to the items (on 11 November and on 30 December 2009) about Edie's diaries on the Making History website but we did save it ourselves and you can hear it by clicking here. It's a big file (12MB) to download but it's worth waiting for!

DR
29 June 2009

Update 4 January 2009.
The item (see below) was repeated in Making History's Pick of the Year - their round up of the best items of their 2008 series, broadcast on Tuesday 30 December.  It was most moving to hear the diaries described as 'one of the most poignant personal histories we have featured' on Making History.

DR
4 January 2009

On 11 November 2008 - the 90th anniversary of the Armistice - the BBC Radio 4 programme Making History broadcast a charming piece about Edie's diaries. 

Their website is here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qxrc and you can listen to the whole  11/11/08 programme here: www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/making_history/making_history_20081111.shtml. Update June 2009: sadly this is no longer available but see note in 29 June 2009 update above.

If you don't want to listen to the whole half hour programme - Edie's piece starts roughly 2/3rds of the way through - you can just hear her piece here: http://www.edithappleton.co.uk/audio/edithappleton.mp3.  The MP3 file is 12MB and will take a little time to download. Given that I've listed their website prominently above, I'm hoping that the BBC doesn't descend upon this humble licence payer for 'borrowing' that extract!

I thought the piece turned out really well, despite my anxieties, and I felt the combination of Vanessa Collingridge's breathless introduction, the voice of Rachel Atkins, the actress playing Edie, which was just right and the enthusiastic comments of Dr Terry Charman of the Imperial War Museum all worked really well together. I would even admit, if pressed, that I was happy with my own contribution as well and that owes a lot to the sympathetic editing of the producer, Nick Patrick, and the thoughtful interviewing of Making History's new girl, Krupa Thakrar.  Thanks folks; it was a pleasure doing it.

Edie - the movie?  Why not? I await the call from Hollywood.

Dick Robinson
13 November 2008

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