GloballvoicesJan Smuts, prime minister of the Union of South Africa, talks to journalists in London in April 1946. That September, Smuts was among the contributors to the launch day of the BBC’s new Third Programme
"The Third Programme’s first head put it bluntly: there would, he warned, be few props. Listeners would need to ‘make an effort’"
George Barnes, the first controller of the new Third Programme, pictured in 1946. The service, Barnes cautioned, was not for everyone
BBC ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
At 6pm on 29 September 1946, when the Third Programme took to the air for the first time, it seemed as if the BBC was dramatically abandoning one of its core “Reithian” principles. The corporation’s “founding father”, John Reith, had always insisted that the broadcaster’s purpose had been to make “all that is best” available to “the greatest number”. Yet here was the Third, apparently threatening to ring-fence high culture for a minority.