{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022 }} {{Use British English|date=October 2022}} {{Infobox radio show | name = Children Calling Home | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | format = | runtime = | runtime_note = | country = {{Plainlist| * United Kingdom * Canada * United States * Australia * New Zealand * South Africa }} | language = | home_station = {{Plainlist| * BBC Home Service * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * NBC * Australian Broadcasting Commission * New Zealand Broadcasting Service * South African Broadcasting Corporation }} | presenter = | producer = | first_aired = {{Start date|1940|12|25 |df=y}} | last_aired = {{End date|1944|05|24 |df=y}} | num_episodes = }}
'''''Children Calling Home''''' was an English-language radio programme, with the first episode on Christmas Day, 25 December 1940 as a collaboration between the United Kingdom's BBC's Home Service, CBC of Canada, and NBC of the United States, and broadcast simultaneously in all three countries.<ref name="RT1">{{cite magazine |title=Children Calling Home |magazine=The Radio Times |date=20 December 1940 |issue=899 |page=20,23 |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/462f90d906974de394563564cdd09698|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221001114122/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/462f90d906974de394563564cdd09698|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 October 2022}}</ref> The following day, an episode made by the BBC in collaboration with the Australian Broadcasting Commission, the New Zealand Broadcasting Service and the South African Broadcasting Corporation, was broadcast simultaneously in all four of their countries.<ref name="RT1" /> The presenter for the BBC was Roy Rich; their producer was Enid Maxwell.<ref name="White">{{cite book |last1=White |first1=Antonia |title=BBC at War |date=1946 |url=https://transdiffusion.org/2022/04/08/bbc-at-war-part-4-across-the-oceans/}}</ref><ref name=SMH>{{cite news|title=Children's Two-Way Radio Talks|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19410520&id=JWlVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PpUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3295,2461263|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=20 May 1941}}</ref>
The programme allowed children evacuated to the host countries from the UK, due to bombing during World War II, to talk with their parents.<ref name="Lawson">{{cite news |last1=Lawson |first1=Mark |title=A commie witch-hunt, a live abdication and a military invasion of sport: 100 years of the BBC, part two |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/sep/27/a-commie-witch-hunt-a-live-abdication-and-a-military-invasion-of-sport-100-years-of-the-bbc-part-two |access-date=30 September 2022 |work=The Guardian |author-link1=Mark Lawson |date=27 September 2022 }}</ref>
The series continued, with various permutations of the involved networks, until at least 31 May 1944.<ref name="RT2">{{cite magazine |title=Children Calling Home |magazine=The Radio Times |date=26 May 1944 |issue=899 |page=12 |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/59ed1c1aa3b14f928823e67d98ad9d65 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021054816/http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/59ed1c1aa3b14f928823e67d98ad9d65 |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 October 2014 }}</ref>
The journalist Mark Lawson identifies it as the first example of co-production.<ref name="Lawson" />
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08bsvky 25 December 1942 episode] in the BBC archives. Featuring children in New York, Capetown and Toronto. * [https://www.britishpathe.com/video/children-calling-home 1941 newsreel footage] from Pathé News, showing guests in the radio studio.
Category:BBC Home Service programmes Category:CBC Radio programs Category:NBC radio programs Category:1940 radio programme debuts Category:ABC radio programs Category:New Zealand radio programmes Category:South African radio programmes Category:1944 radio programme endings Category:English-language radio programs Category:Home front during World War II Category:Children's radio programs Category:1940s Canadian radio programs Category:1940s American radio programs Category:1940s British radio programmes