Last edition of Radio Newsreel in 1988

The programme name ‘Radio Newsreel’ sounds valve-fuelled. It was; borrowing its name from its visual sister, Pathe’s famous cinema newsreel. The very sound of its sig tune, Imperial Echoes, evokes the pride of an Empire. The tune had been innocently written for the piano in 1913, before being adapted as a march and played by the Band of the Royal Air Force. It was this version which, for so many years, opened and closed the programme. From 1940 and 1988, Radio Newsreel brought eye-witness despatches from correspondents around the World to transmitters around the World. Launching on the Overseas Service, a domestic edition edition was to air on the BBC Light Programme and later the Home Service and its successor, Radio 4. 1970 saw the end of this homely edition, with the World Service continuing as its home for a further 18 years until this transmission in 1988.