ABSTRACT
But the role of Schools Radio in bygone education was huge: possibly more significant even than video and film are today. I can still remember verbatim long passages from the schools broadcasts of my childhood, but none from film or TV. I can remember a song called ‘Farewell Manchester’ which was made much of in the music programme Rhythm and Melody, and if I know all the words to ‘D’ye ken John Peel’ this has nothing to do with any hunting background and everything to do with BBC Schools. And as for Music and Movement, to this day if that commanding lady’s voice were to say, ‘Now find a space – and sit in it!’ or ‘Make yourself into a long shape!’, I would immediately do so, casting dignity to the winds and ignoring all middle-aged twinges. The programme stopped in the Eighties, after 30 years, but I bet that if you were to pipe it into any pinstriped office today at moments of stress you would get countless greying, red-faced men bending their pinstriped shapes into Giant Steps, obediently bunny-hopping, or curling up very, very small. It had authority. I have long suspected
Cabinet.
