大象传媒

Marking the centenary of the 大象传媒, Past Forward uses a random date generator to alight somewhere in the 大象传媒's vast archive over the past 100 years. Presenter Greg Jenner hears archive clips for the first time, and explores the changes between then and now.

In this omnibus edition, Greg is presented with five fragments of archive. The first is of one of the earliest editions of iconic radio show Listen with Mother from 1950, and he reflects on the ways children's entertainment has changed since then with Professor Kate Lacey and Kay Benbow. Next there鈥檚 a fragment of archive about the last working canal boatmen in the 1960s, and Greg speaks to writer Julian Dutton and boat-dwellers Jo and Vic about the new era of life on Britain's waterways. To find out more about the background to a news interview with Welsh women trying to save Ebbw Vale steelworks in 1975, he talks Professor Louise Miskell about how important women were in political activism in Wales in the 1970s, and to Sophie Williams about how she approaches activism in 2022. Then a clip from a 1963 documentary about the growth in large urban redevelopment projects in the UK prompts him to unpack the past and present of such schemes with Otto Saumarez-Smith and Andrew Carter from the Centre for Cities. Finally, Greg sees a clip from the 1970s containing dour predictions for the future of the Outer Hebrides and seeks help in explaining its prognosis from Professor of Sustainable Rural Development Frank Rennie and the co-founder of the North Uist Distillery Kate Macdonald.