Manchester Theatre History

  1946 England wanted to be entertained and be a happy place to live in again after the war. The popular quiz show Have A Go! with Wilfred Pickles was first broadcast on BBC Radio, it ran for 21 years. The BBC Light Programme transmitted the first episode of the radio programme Woman’s Hour , which is still running 70 years later. ...

1944 saw the historic DD landings, the Americans, British, Chinese, French and Soviet representatives met to plan the foundation of the United Nations. The Japanese surrender in Burma. Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler escaped from Auschwitz concentration camp; in the April and then prepared the Vrba–Wetzler report, one of the earliest and most detailed descriptions of the extermination of Jews in the...

News of the World War Two 1943 1943 saw the first “Bevin Boys” being conscripted to work in the coal mines.  The pigeons White Vision, Winkie and Tyke become the first recipients of the Dickin Medal, which was to honour the work of animals in war. Labour Minister Ernest Bevin announced that women from 19 to 50 would be called for work in aircraft and munitions...

News of the Year 1942 After the Pearl Harbour disaster in Dec 1941, America entered the 2nd World War. They started to arrive in their droves and as the film ‘Yanks’ says ‘Overpaid, Oversexed, and over Here’.  The radio programme Desert Island Discs was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme.   It was presented by Roy Plomley . The programme is...

Manchester at War 1940 was the first time the bombs fell on Manchester.  Both the Palace and Opera House theatres were bombed but they still remained open.  Manchester Cathedral, the Royal Exchange and the Free Trade Hall were among the large buildings that were damaged.  That same year saw the start of food rationing and the  Home Guard was formed, it was otherwise...

World War Two 1939 was a memorable year in British History as in September that year World War Two started when things began to change as the dark days were just around the corner! With the advent of identity cards, petrol rationing and Parliament introducing national service for all men aged between 18 and 41. William Joyce began broadcasting Nazi...