I Must Tell You Now That No Such Undertaking Has Been Been Received, And That Consequently This Country Is At War With Germany.

[sandyRoe]

That must have been one of the most momentous announcements during the 100 years of the BBC transmissions.
Any others come to mind?

[Zacs-Master]

‘ From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction - you must stay at home.’
23rd March ‘20


‘ In England, we must therefore go into a national lockdown which is tough enough to contain this variant.
That means the Government is once again instructing you to stay at home.
You may only leave home for limited reasons permitted in law, such as to shop for essentials, to work if you absolutely cannot work from home, to exercise, to seek medical assistance such as getting a Covid test, or to escape domestic abuse’
4th Jan ‘21.

[Tilly2]

The War of the World broadcast.

[sandyRoe]

If I could edit that I'd remove a been.

[Tilly2]

[THECORBYLOON]

TILLY, that was broadcast in America and the impact it was said to have had, appears to have been exaggerated, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/10/30/241797346/75-years-ago-war-of-the-worlds-started-a-panic-or-did-it

[Tilly2]

Oh, sorry. I wasn't thinking straight.

[douglas9401]

“And, good morning everyone, welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1.”

[sandyRoe]

^. Tony Blackburn introducing Flowers in the rain(was that the first record played).
All else palls in comparison.

[douglas9401]

It was, Sandy.

[ichkeria]

I remember the morning in 1997 I switched on Radio One to hear some very odd music playing and then the announcement about Princess DI and Dodi.
It was a hell of a shock at that hour

[Barsel]

I expect it was probably a bit of a shock to hear Edward Vlll abdicating.

[wolf63]

I was working in the office when the radio started broadcasting about the twin towers.

I had never heard of them before but had, just a few nights before, watched an episode of Captain Scarlett where some towers were attacked by the Mysterons. I didn't really appreciate how serious it was until the whole incident evolved.

[New Judge]

//I expect it was probably a bit of a shock to hear Edward Vlll abdicating.//

I imagine it was. But the abdication, whilst probably viewed far more seriously than it would be today (with some people recently actually calling for the abdication of The Queen and now King Charles), it didn’t really have a lasting effect on the population.

I’m with Zacs – the announcement on Friday evening (20th March 2020) “I’m asking you to stay at home “ and the follow up on Monday 23rd “I’m telling you to stay at home” (with the threat of criminal proceedings if you don’t) must rate as one of the most outrageous infringements of civil liberties in recent times. This is especially so when just a couple of weeks earlier, the country had a perfectly sound plan to cope with a pandemic. This had been developed more than 20 years earlier, had been honed in the meantime and was approved by the WHO. Importantly it did not involve lockdowns, furlough or anything like what we saw. It has still not ben explained to this day why that plan was ditched and how “the science” (which obviously must have been considered when the plan was devised) changed so dramatically with little evidence to support such a drastic change.

[Canary42]

[New Judge]

I thought that [the moon landing] was a momentous occasion too. I was especially interested because I had had bet my Dad £10 that it would occur before the end of August 1971. He never paid up and it's just as well I won because £10 would have been beyond my means at that time anyway.

As fascinating as I found Project Apollo (and the preceding projects, Mercury and Gemini) from an engineering point of view (and all were fantastic achievements) the "human endeavour" aspect seemed to grind to a halt after Apollo had ended. It was almost as if they said "been there, done that, got the T-shirt, let's move on." But they never really did move on.

[Khandro]

It made me the first British casualty of WW2 ...... honestly; and I'm in the BBC archives as being so.

[jno]

a lot of Churchill's wartime speeches weren't broadcast on the BBC, including the one about fighting them on the beaches. There's an urban myth that they got someone from the Archers in to record them later, but Churchill recorded that one himself, only years after the war.

[Khandro]

Jno, the announcement wasn't made by Churchill, it was made by the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain.

[Peter Pedant]

I expect it was probably a bit of a shock to hear Edward Vlll abdicating.

yes it was - completely unexpected. The only squeal here was the Bishop of Doo-dah's sermon on duty and marriage

"A few hours ago, I discharged my last duty as King and Emperor,"

[Peter Pedant]

"My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour....."

and so it must bepeace in our time.

a speech that everyone wanted to hear, but it wasnt.

as the place circled and landed, Daladier asked "have they come to lynch us?" - musta been Paree