Start the Week

Start the Week is one of radio’s long-running programmes, first hitting the air on Monday 6 April 1970. In that first programme the Radio Times told us that “Ken Sykora will talk to Los Picaflores and Philip Howarth of The Times will talk on the anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, when Scotland’s independence was asserted in a letter to the Pope”.

For the first 17 years of its existence the regular Monday morning host was Richard Baker. Here are a few clips from the archive. As well as Richard you’ll hear an eclectic mix of Idi Amin, Ted Heath, Kenny Everett, Sophia Loren and Kenneth Robinson.