Originally broadcast in March this year and repeated last night on BBC Radio 4

Past Forward - A century of Sound


Greg Jenner hears a recording of the song Lord Rendall (sometimes known as Lord Randall) by Somerset folk singer Louie Hooper.

The recording was made in 1942 by the pioneering radio producer Douglas Cleverdon.

With his guests, the playwright Nell Leyshon and Tom Gray from the band Gomez, Greg explores the idea of musical ownership and how musicians are remunerated today.

Marking the centenary of the BBC, Past Forward uses a random date generator to alight somewhere in the BBC's vast archive over the past 100 years. Greg Jenner hears an archive clip for the first time at the top of the programme, and uses it as a starting point in a journey towards the present day. The archive captures a century of British life in a unique way - a history of ordinary people’s lives, as well as news of the great events. Greg uncovers connections through people, places and ideas that link the archive fragment to Britain in 2022, pulling in help from experts and those who remember the time, and looking at how far we've come since then.