A cultural institution
“The Third Programme’s first head put it bluntly: there would, he warned, be few props. Listeners would need to ‘make an effort’”
At 6pm on 29 September 1946, when the Third Programme took to the air for the first time, it seemed as if the BBC was dramatically abandoning one of its core “Reithian” principles. The corporation’s “founding father”, John Reith, had always insisted that the broadcaster’s purpose had been to make “all that is best” available to “the greatest number”. Yet here was the Third, apparently threatening to ring-fence high culture for a minority.
Reith, already long departed from the role of director general, harrumphed from the sidelines. True, the very first item in that first Sunday’s schedule was accessible enough. was a “satirical review” that took the opportunity to poke gentle fun at the Third Programme’s grand pretensions before anyone else did. The rest played – rather unusually for the time – on the harpsichord, followed by “Reflections on World Affairs” from the South African prime minister Jan Smuts. Later there were madrigals by Monteverdi conducted by Nadia Boulanger, a live concert featuring works by Hubert Parry and Vaughan Williams, and a specially commissioned Festival Overture from Benjamin Britten.
