There are now more than 7,000 links in BBC Genome to the World Service archive. Here is a selection of some of our favourites, profiling important figures from history.

As we have continued to sift through the thousands of programmes in the World Service Archive to identify more recordings that can be linked to listings in BBC Genome, the range of programmes continues to amaze. As cataloguers, we work in a more or less orderly fashion, navigating an alphabetical list or along a timeline. As listeners, however, we are like radio magpies, attracted by a particular programme, which on listening reminds you of something else. Soon you are happily ricocheting around the archive, finding new programmes you never knew existed. 

So, in this spirit, we offer a “playlist” of individuals whose lives and works feature in the World Service archive. 

One hundred years ago, a lot of British women got the vote, thanks to campaigners and suffragettes like Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960), featured in this Omnibus. Photography may show us what someone looked like but hearing their voice is momentarily to feel their presence. Listening to an early recording of her speaking about the origin of her mother Emmeline Pankhurst’s call to arms – “They must do us justice or do us violence!” – was quite thrilling. However, it’s what Pankhurst did next that is the real subject of the programme, as the defence of Ethiopia’s independence against the fascist advances of Italy became the focus of her activism. After 19 years of producing the New Times and Ethiopian News in London, the radical feminist and socialist, ended her days in a house given to her by the Emperor Haile Selassie in Addis Adaba, where, in 1960, she was given a state funeral.

Appetite whetted, I put her name into the iPlayer radio search box and found Sylvia Pankhurst: Honorary Ethiopian, which was broadcast on Radio 4 earlier this year (and so is not yet in Genome). It’s presented by her granddaughter, Helen Sylvia Pankhurst, who grew up in Addis Ababa and still sleeps in the room that was her grandmother’s. Much of Helen’s own working life has centred on Sylvia’s twin passions of women’s rights and Ethiopia. A fascinating example of how ideals and consequences can cascade down the generations.

Another generation, another country, another woman on a mission: American philosopher, writer and director Susan Sontag (1933-2004) staged Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett in Sarajevo in 1993, during the 1,425-day siege of the city. In an episode of Meridian broadcast the following year, Sontag gradually brings life behind (and between) the lines into sharp focus and stands witness for those living under siege. And she makes the case for arts in times of conflict: “Culture – serious culture from anywhere – is an expression of human dignity, which is what people in Sarajevo feel they have lost.”

Once again, an iPlayer search turns up a complementary programme: Still Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo? BBC correspondent Alan Little had been in the audience of that original production and here he returns to the city 20 years later. Where in the scale of human needs do the arts come, he asks theatre director Haris Pasovic, who had invited Sontag to the besieged city. “The most important thing in war is not to survive. The most important thing today is to remain human … That is why art has been a primary need as much as food and sex and water.” Little wonder then that in the intervening years, the epithet “legendary” has attached itself to Sontag’s Godot.

As the first environmentalist and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Kenyan Wangari Maathai (1940-2011) also helped people meet their primary needs. Maathai was the founder of the Green Belt Movement, a tree-planting campaign aimed at helping and empowering the poorest people in rural communities. Environmental devastation, particularly deforestation, she said, is interlinked with poverty, the political climate interacting with the physical environment. Here, in one of the World Lectures series from 1998, she talks about her research into rural poverty and how it shaped her ideas of what people can do for themselves. “Everyone can plant a tree.” And not any tree, either. Maathai advocates the planting of indigenous trees to preserve Africa’s biodiversity at a time when she said big agrichemical companies were taking control of more crops. “I am against the patenting of life.”

Another Nobel laureate who believed in preserving our genetic heritage for everyone was the late Sir John Sulston (1942-2018), interviewed in 2002 on Agenda. Officially, he was awarded his Nobel Prize for work on a thousand-celled worm but he really will be remembered as the man who kept the human genome in the public domain. “I could not understand, in my heart, how anybody on earth would actually say they should privatise the human genome… I thought it was absolutely despicable and therefore it became a moral thing. But still the pragmatic view was there as well: that we’d get more medicine, faster, if everybody worked on the data.” His account of the race with venture capitalists who wanted to sequence and patent human genes makes for gripping and salutary listening. What might have happened had his team lost?

Last year, BBC Genome began to link listings to programmes which are available on the BBC website. 

On the BBC iPlayer you can watch or listen to some programmes during a 30-day catch-up period, but you may not be aware that the BBC website carries special collections and single programmes that are permanently available online. Our aim is to identify all of these and make them easy to find, through the simple and intuitive search function on the BBC Genome website.

The result of our initial efforts last summer was to provide links to around 8,500 permanent programmes - the large majority of them radio, but there are also hundreds of TV programmes - all searchable through Genome, by clicking “Advanced” in the search box, then selecting “Programme available”. 

Since then, the project has continued, with help from within the BBC and also public-spirited members of the audience, who have helped us to track down other interesting programmes online that we had not yet spotted. 

Today, therefore, we’d like to say thank you for helping us to reach another milestone, and hitting the 10,000 programme mark.

We’ve been having a look back at what has been made available over the last few months, and here are some of our favourites:

Some valuable television archive has been added from the BBC Arts site, including these charming vignettes by the great Orson Welles on his life on the stage, and as a director, writer and producer, in the series Orson Welles’s Sketch Book. (Thank you very much for the suggestion, Stuart Ian Burns) 

“Something for me to turn to, when I lose the thread of what I’m talking about…”, says Welles as he brandishes the pad in question, and begins a narrative that includes an anecdote about being saved (by a sudden earthquake) from the embarrassment of forgetting the punch-line of a joke during an after-dinner speech. 

We have also managed to finish listing programmes carried by bbc.co.uk/archive, which contains a wealth of voices from the arts and literature, including Doris Lessing, JG Ballard, and JRR Tolkien. But perhaps this programme is the most apt for us here at Genome, a fascinating historical insight into the birth of the BBC’s sound archive, thanks to the efforts of BBC producer Marie Slocombe (1912-1995). 

(As an aside, we’d like to mention that we will be working on the /archive site in 2016 to breathe new life into it and bring together as many archive collections as we can. About time we hear you say!)

There is also much in the archive for those interested in science and exploration, with a wonderful collection of The Sky at Night, presented by the inimitable Sir Patrick Moore.

Many more archive programmes have been dusted off and uploaded to the BBC website by the excellent BBC Four team, who have made a selection of the best full-length BBC TV programmes available.  If you’re a fan of Sherlock, you may enjoy some real-life mysteries, or for techy nostalgia, a series of programmes on home computing, mainly from the 1980s. 

Added to the many programmes from our domestic channels, we have also started including BBC World Service programmes, thousands of which are now permanently available – particularly those broadcast in the last twenty years - including news and current affairs as well as documentaries and the arts.  

We hope you’ll get plenty of enjoyment searching through the programmes. Perhaps you’ll find a favourite, or a long-forgotten memory. Genome listings finish at the end of 2009, but you can also dip into the BBC's programmes pages to see what you can find from 2010 onwards.

What is the gentleman in this photograph doing? And who is he?

This is a moment from the early days of BBC television before the outbreak of World War Two. The man was called Kuda Bux, and one of his appearances in 1939 was treated with a meaty write-up the listings - quite rare at the time. In more brief listings, he was always known as The Man With X-Ray Eyes.

"With his eyes completely bound up he is able to see exactly what is going on before him," it enthuses.

Kuda Bux was born in Kashmir in 1906 and became famous for his feat of covering his eyes with wads of dough and swathes of bandages - but was able to copy pieces of text and even light a set of candles, apparently without the power of sight. His repertoire of tricks was extensive.

The entertainer and illusionist - sometimes referred to as a 'mystic' - went on to be feted in the US and lived there for much of his life. By some cruel irony, he lost his sight to glaucoma in old age.

We'll occasionally bring you more from the sometimes weird and wonderful world of early TV entertainment here...

As you probably know (I’m assuming you are all huge broadcasting buffs and know your stuff, and if you don’t there is a brief guide in the About this Project section at the front of the Genome website) the BBC began broadcasting regularly on 14th November 1922, but as Radio Times did not begin publication until September the following year, the Genome website does not feature more than 10 months of BBC broadcasts.

Before you get excited, no, I am not announcing that the listings for those months are about to be added to Genome, that is just one of a number of major tweaks that are on our to do list. It’s more that I have a sneaking suspicion that I feature TV more often than radio in these columns, so I thought I would take a look at the very first schedules published in Radio Times (or ‘The Radio Times’ as it was known, until January 8th 1937 – coincidentally that issue previewed the programme Scrapbook for 1922, which featured reminiscences of the start of the BBC.)

By 1923, the main stations of the BBC (then the British Broadcasting Company) were established, with broadcasts coming from London, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Newcastle and Glasgow. A few things are particularly noticeable about the first published day of listings, for 30th September 1923: one, the programmes are mainly composed of music, the only exceptions being religious talks (it being a Sunday) and the news.

The news itself is a single short bulletin at 10pm, and it is the only networked programme that day – the rest of the content is produced locally. Another thing is the hours of broadcasting: only London and Newcastle provide afternoon programmes, from 3pm to 5pm (London in fact does not list the closedown time but it is a reasonable assumption). Most of the other stations start their transmissions at 8.30, when London and Newcastle also resume; Cardiff though begins at 8.15.

The nature of the content is noticeably sober too, the music is all serious and ‘improving’, in line with the views of the then General Manager of the BBC, John Reith (later Managing Director, and then the first Director General of the British Broadcasting Corporation), whose strict Presbyterian upbringing left him determined to protect the Christian religion, which he felt would be compromised by the inclusion of jazz or variety (in the showbusiness sense, though other senses apply) on the Sabbath. One of the most light-hearted offerings anywhere that day were numbers performed on the Newcastle service by the South Shields Corporation Tramways Band.

The rest of the week, 1st – 6th October, saw things lightening up a little, with a greater range of programmes, and more hours of broadcasting – London begins with a Morning Concert from 11.30 am to 12.30, though the other regions start around 3.30 pm – London itself does not restart until 5pm with Women’s Hour (Manchester follows this pattern as well on Thursday 4th). Most of the programmes still originate locally, but on the Monday at 7.30pm there is a Symphony Concert from 2LO London which is taken by all the regions except Cardiff – Manchester is listed as providing a Special Operatic Night performance of Carmen, starting at 8.15, but elsewhere in the magazine there is an erratum note to the effect that this would not take place.

Apart from the national news, the only other networked programmes appear to be a simultaneous broadcast of speeches at the Royal Colonial Institute Dinner from the Hotel Victoria in London on Tuesday 2nd , and a play, Rob Roy, produced in Glasgow on Saturday 6th October, although Birmingham transmitted their own programmes in the latter slot – mostly a concert by the Band of the Royal Air Force, with talks and a comedian in the intervals.

On a technical note, it’s interesting to see that the mode of transmission is mentioned occasionally – the Rob Roy production is specified as being ‘transmitted by wireless’, while several broadcasts by Mr Paul Rimmer’s Orchestra from Lozells’s Picture House in Birmingham, and the Oxford Picture House Orchestra in Manchester, are billed as being by landline (they were not being heard outside their own regions, this is presumably a reference to the programmes being outside broadcasts rather than coming from the studio).

It’s unfortunate that we are not yet able to share all the articles from Radio Times on the Genome site, perhaps this will one day be possible – but the earliest pieces in the magazine are fascinating for the historical information they give. The first edition includes an article by the BBC’s Chief Engineer, Captain P.P. (Peter) Eckersley, about the problems of these ‘simultaneous transmissions’, alongside an alarming picture of him alongside the current equipment to achieve this in the “experimental room” at the BBC headquarters, an arrangement that would make Heath Robinson throw in the towel…

The first edition of Radio Times is more than just a publishing landmark, it gives so many insights into the state of broadcasting then, both in the articles (sorry about that, again) and the listings. Various Children’s Hours under various names were well established, concerts were being given by in-house musicians such as the 2LO and 2ZY Orchestras, and Glasgow’s ‘Wireless Trio’. There was even a talk Seen on the Screen with Mr. G.A. Atkinson reviewing the latest films (silent of course – the films, that is, not the talk).

Every now and again, you can come across something that makes you realise people were not entirely straight-laced – for example, Manchester’s programme Keyboard Kitty and Klavier-Klash on 5th October wouldn’t sound too out of place at Glastonbury…

A part of my job involves delving into the BBC picture library, which often unearths gems from the history of television.

I've noticed a rich and varied stills collection from BBC Wales and their television programmes from across the decades, including a 1957 show (pictured above), which was a glitzy homecoming concert for Cardiff-born singing superstar Shirley Bassey.

It's always a joy to match the wonderful image with its Genome listing which states that Shirley Comes Home brought the singer back from "the bright lights of Las Vegas and the West End" to Cardiff's Queen Alexandra Dock.

Broadcaster Michael Aspel - best known for presenting This Is Your Life and the Antiques Roadshow - crops up regularly in the Welsh image collection. You may not know (I certainly didn't) that his early career was forged in Cardiff, where he presented the first news bulletins in the late 1950s.

If you search for him in Genome, you discover that in 1956 he read Morning Story on radio's Light Programme, which was produced in Wales.

The database is rich in Welsh language listings, such as long-running current affairs programme Heddiw (Today) which was given a wider airing for many years, including a regular Sunday afternoon slot on BBC One.

However, Genome does not yet have a dedicated stream for BBC Wales programming history, which has been very distinct for many decades. This is one of the many things to think about as the project continues to develop, and you can find more information about the regional versions in the FAQs.

It's amazing where a couple of fantastic archive images can take you...

And our colleagues from BBC Scotland stumbled upon a programme about The West Highlander...

My favourite thing to do with this feature is to search for a particular keyword and then check if there are programmes available. If you search for "parents", for example, you'll get a pretty interesting list of BBC Radio 4 programmes from the 1960s to today -  from a Reith Lecture exhorting listeners "not to panic because enriched human experience fits less and less tidily into compartments" (how 1967!), to the 1970s "child-centred age", to a more recent discussion about "whether shouting at children inflicts long-term damage"... A radio playlist of parental anxiety throughout the decades.

So please comment on this blog post to share anything unusual, funny or interesting - we will then create a list with all your favourite picks to guide people throught the thousands of programmes available to watch and listen to on the BBC website.

Over to you...

Today, any Genome user can go into the database and sift through just under 4.5 million Radio Times listings for BBC radio and TV programmes broadcast between 1923 and 2009. It’s a rich resource for information, but what about the programmes themselves? Many of you have written, asking to watch or listen to them.

We know that the BBC has about 30% of the programmes listed in Genome in its physical archives, which amounts to more than a million hours of output, but many users will not realise that some of them are already permanently available to view or listen to on the BBC website.

In an effort to make this material easier for you to find, we have embarked on a project to link all of the radio and TV programmes which are already available on the BBC website to their Genome listings. This is just one part of a larger initiative to match Genome listings to programmes.

When I started the work to find the programmes, we weren't sure how many published programmes, which are available outside the 30 day catch-up period for programmes available on BBC iPlayer — we would find on the BBC website. Over the years, different departments have uploaded select broadcast programmes, and they sit under different collections on bbc.co.uk – sometimes categorised and alphabetised, sometimes not. We knew about the large and well-documented collections, and estimated there would be many more obscure, single programmes too.

Our guess when we started was that we might able to link about 3,000 videos or radio programmes – so far, we have found about 8,500 (282 television and 8,200 radio). And we're still working on more.
(Update, 03/08/2015: these numbers have now gone up to more than 300 television and more than 8,500 radio programmes, as we've been adding links and getting very helpful contributions from the public).

Some of the programmes available on the website are well advertised - such as Desert Island Discs, which is a comprehensive and large, single collection curated by the Radio 4 online team that goes back to the 1950s. It has been much talked of on Radio 4 and sporadically added to, as new archive material has surfaced. Alistair Cooke’s Letter from America is another large Radio 4 collection, in which archive material was provided by audience members who had recorded and kept hundreds of episodes of the programme. And BBC Four have a permanent archive collection of TV programmes available to watch on BBC iPlayer. Again, many BBC audience members will already know of the existence of these programmes.

Some material, however, remains harder to find.

In many cases, this content might be on an older version of the BBC website, as is the case with some of the programmes on the BBC Archive site — we are working to update these pages and preserve some of the now out-of-date material elsewhere.

This fascinating programme on the Supermarine Spitfire is a fine example. It was originally broadcast on a regional channel and only made it to national TV three months after its original broadcast date. It would be hard to stumble upon, although it does sit under a curated index.

So how do we, at Genome find these gems? Sometimes this process involves sifting through a chronological list of programmes, like the one you can find here, on the Radio 4 programme page. We have also been helped by developers who work with Genome, who have been able to capture the URLs of permanent programmes that I may not otherwise have spotted.

Then there has been the additional challenge of matching programmes to Genome entries. As those conversant with Genome’s database will know, the listings show what was scheduled to be broadcast – but this does not necessarily mean, in the event, that a specific programme went to air.

Sometimes this necessitated extra research to create an accurate picture of what went on, such as this Desert Island Discs, featuring Umberto Eco. BBC Genome contains two listings for the same programme – which was postponed after the first Radio Times edition had gone to print: http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/fac16c4f89c84edeab163a3c78ac29fc and http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/b1c4df5c8c63439ba5cdc7996afbcda5. Cross-checking these anomalies against contemporary records which show what was broadcast on the date, allowed us to confirm the actual broadcast date, and therefore create an accurate link between Genome and the programme page.

In some cases, a programme listed on the website may have been only one smaller part of an entire programme listing in Genome – such as this John Betjeman film A Bird's Eye View, which appeared as part of Festival 77 in August 1977. In cases like these, records of the BBC’s broadcast output, as well as extensive searches on Genome have yielded answers about times, dates and titles that have allowed us to produce the most accurate possible match between programmes and Genome listings.

When you now search for playable content on Genome, you will find that about 8,500 entries contain clickable buttons – directing you to programmes on bbc.co.uk. And the work continues, we are still turning up new programmes and will continue to add these to Genome (a hint: If you just want to browse the thousands of available TV and radio programmes, you can run an empty search and click on the "programme available" button - this will show you all the listings linked to programmes.)

As for my personal favourites, this episode of Desert Island Discs, featuring the brilliantly witty Tom Lehrer has to come high on my list. In response to Roy Plomley's standard opening question of what he would be happy to leave behind, Lehrer replies: "I'd hate to say dogs, because then everyone will write in..."

We hope you enjoy the archive as much as we have, and if you have seen a whole programme on the BBC website that you think we haven’t spotted – then let us know and we will add that to Genome too.