Recent from talks
Waggoners' Walk
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Waggoners' Walk
Waggoners' Walk is a daily radio soap opera, set in the fictional cul-de-sac of Waggoners' Walk and its environs in Hampstead, north London. It was broadcast daily on BBC Radio 2 from 1969 to 1980, in the form of fifteen-minute episodes on weekday afternoons with a repeat the following weekday morning. The programme came to a sudden end in May 1980 as part of a number of economies made by the BBC.
Waggoners' Walk was introduced as a successor to the long-running The Dales (1948–1969), which had been cancelled due to the illness of the lead actress Jessie Matthews. The programme was created by writers Jill Hyem and Alan Downer; its origins lay in their Saturday Night Theatre production of The Ropewalk, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1969. This play featured some of the same characters, actors and theme tune of Waggoners' Walk with the story centering on three women who share a flat in Hampstead.
Waggoners' Walk was designed to feature "fast-moving stories" and have a "few taboo subjects". During its run, the storylines tackled issues such as illegitimacy, homosexuality, abortion, child custody and murder. The first edition was broadcast on the afternoon of 28 April 1969 with a repeat the following morning. Early editions were given a title, the first edition billed as "Moving Pictures" for instance, but this was dropped after just three weeks. Initially the programme had an audience of two million listeners but by 1974 was achieving four million.
Most of the storylines involved the tenants of No. 1 Waggoners' Walk, a large townhouse divided into several flats. Other settings included the local pub, The Waggoners, the offices of the Hampstead Herald, Minden Road and the nearby Belsize Park. Hyem and Downer continued to produce scripts for the programme throughout its run and were joined by other writers including Peter Ling, Barbara Clegg and Terry James. The directors included Piers Plowright, who later became the programme's executive producer, David Spenser, Glyn Dearman, Anton Gill, David Johnston and Kay Patrick.
In 1974, listeners were invited to submit their own plots in a "Write Your Own Storyline Competition", with the winning story submitted by Albert Kenyon broadcast in November 1974.
A Sunday-afternoon omnibus edition was added to the schedule in January 1980, though heard only on Radio 2's medium wave transmitters.
As part of a series of cost-cutting initiatives by the BBC in 1980, Waggoners' Walk came to an abrupt end on 30 May 1980 with a cliffhanger ending in which George Underdown proposes marriage to Sophie Richmond. The Corporation received more than 1,000 letters of protest about the ending of the programme. It rejected a request from Capital Radio to take it over.[citation needed]
A number of famous people made cameo appearances on the programme:
Hub AI
Waggoners' Walk AI simulator
(@Waggoners' Walk_simulator)
Waggoners' Walk
Waggoners' Walk is a daily radio soap opera, set in the fictional cul-de-sac of Waggoners' Walk and its environs in Hampstead, north London. It was broadcast daily on BBC Radio 2 from 1969 to 1980, in the form of fifteen-minute episodes on weekday afternoons with a repeat the following weekday morning. The programme came to a sudden end in May 1980 as part of a number of economies made by the BBC.
Waggoners' Walk was introduced as a successor to the long-running The Dales (1948–1969), which had been cancelled due to the illness of the lead actress Jessie Matthews. The programme was created by writers Jill Hyem and Alan Downer; its origins lay in their Saturday Night Theatre production of The Ropewalk, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1969. This play featured some of the same characters, actors and theme tune of Waggoners' Walk with the story centering on three women who share a flat in Hampstead.
Waggoners' Walk was designed to feature "fast-moving stories" and have a "few taboo subjects". During its run, the storylines tackled issues such as illegitimacy, homosexuality, abortion, child custody and murder. The first edition was broadcast on the afternoon of 28 April 1969 with a repeat the following morning. Early editions were given a title, the first edition billed as "Moving Pictures" for instance, but this was dropped after just three weeks. Initially the programme had an audience of two million listeners but by 1974 was achieving four million.
Most of the storylines involved the tenants of No. 1 Waggoners' Walk, a large townhouse divided into several flats. Other settings included the local pub, The Waggoners, the offices of the Hampstead Herald, Minden Road and the nearby Belsize Park. Hyem and Downer continued to produce scripts for the programme throughout its run and were joined by other writers including Peter Ling, Barbara Clegg and Terry James. The directors included Piers Plowright, who later became the programme's executive producer, David Spenser, Glyn Dearman, Anton Gill, David Johnston and Kay Patrick.
In 1974, listeners were invited to submit their own plots in a "Write Your Own Storyline Competition", with the winning story submitted by Albert Kenyon broadcast in November 1974.
A Sunday-afternoon omnibus edition was added to the schedule in January 1980, though heard only on Radio 2's medium wave transmitters.
As part of a series of cost-cutting initiatives by the BBC in 1980, Waggoners' Walk came to an abrupt end on 30 May 1980 with a cliffhanger ending in which George Underdown proposes marriage to Sophie Richmond. The Corporation received more than 1,000 letters of protest about the ending of the programme. It rejected a request from Capital Radio to take it over.[citation needed]
A number of famous people made cameo appearances on the programme: