'Long March of Everyman'

'The Long March of Everyman' was a radio series that gave a history of Britain, beginning with the Roman occupation and ending in the contemporary present day (i.e. 1970s). The series appears to have been made up of 26 programmes, not all of which are present in the archive. The programme titles are as follows:

Programme 1: 'Green Land, Red Brick: Britons and Romans and beginnings'
Programme 2: A Sigh on the Harp: Celtic Britain'
Programme 3: Unknown ('Alfred's Jewel?')
Programme 4: 'Horseman: the Medieval Knight'
Programme 5: 'Villlage Church'
Programme 6: Unknown
Programme 7: 'The Sheep Hath Paid For All: Masters and Men in late medieval Britain'
Programme 8: Unknown
Programme 9: 'London'
Programme 10: 'The Holy War: Roundheads and Cavaliers and Everyman'
Programme 11: 'Nation of Shopkeepers'
Programme 12: 'The British Gentleman: Country House, Town Mansion in the 18th and 19th centuries'
Programme 13: Unknown
Programme 14: 'The Iron Machine'
Programme 15: 'The Dignity of Danger: Nelson and Wellington to Trooper Kirk of the Light Brigade'
Programme 16: 'True Born Britons: Everyman reacts to the ideas of the French Revolution'
Programme 17: Unknown ('The Two Nations?')
Programme 18: Unknown
Programme 19: 'Wayfarers'
Programme 20: Unknown
Programme 21: Unknown
Programme 22: Unknown
Programme 23: Unknown
Programme 24: Unknown
Programme 25: 'The People's War and Peace'
Programme 26: 'Between Two Worlds: Our Own Changing Society'

Production and composition of the programmes appears to have been split between Daniel Sloman and Michael Mason with each programme directed by a guest historian who specialised in whichever subject the particular programme dealt with.

The programmes in the series take the format of different people giving commentary on the events of whichever period the particular programme deals with (it appears that the guest historian commentated on their programme). The commentary is interspersed with voice actors dramatising contemporary issues and sometimes reciting contemporary literary material. None of the commentators or voice actors are introduced before they speak and so for the most part the speakers in the programmes are unknown. According to the credits, Charles Parker provided voices for some characters that appeared in the programme. Some programmes feature songs (which are never introduced and so the title of the song and the names of the musicians and singers are unknown) which may be traditional songs taken from the period that the programme is dealing with or may have been written especially for the programme. It is unclear whether the programmes in this series are the complete programmes as they were aired (MS 4000/6/1/65/1, 2, 3, 4 and 8 seem to be excerpts of the complete programmes). News items before and programmes following the broadcast programmes suggest that they have been recorded exactly as they aired.

Note that some of the reels also contain parts of the recordings for 'Battle of St. Ann's'. For the proper recordings of 'Battle of St. Ann's' see MS 4000/6/1/66.

For related paper files, see MS 4000/2/137.