Children’s radio was once at the core of the BBC - now it’s all but disappeared

It was a bit of a surprise to hear Jarvis Cocker, the embodiment of cool and former frontman of Pulp, confessing to a love of Singing Together, a BBC programme straight out of the 1940s, with its clipped pronunciation and uptight pronouncements. But in his edition of Archive on 4, broadcast just as the Advent season began (and produced by Ruth Evans), Cocker took us on a musical journey back into his past and to his memories of singing in the classroom, ‘which certainly left its mark’ on him and millions of others. He reminded us that children were once at the heart of BBC programming and Singing Together was thought to be a great way to ‘improve young minds’. Catch them young and you’ll hold on to them for life was the idea; make sure they learn the listening habit.

Cocker is living proof of the potency of these programmes. He still believes in the value of singing along, encouraging listeners to his 6 Music programme to join in by playing them clips from old Singing Together programmes. He has a booklet from the series, dated autumn 1974, with his name on the front cover (in long, angular lettering, just like him), and he can still sing all the songs he learnt as a knobbly-kneed schoolboy in Sheffield. In Archive on 4 Cocker took us back in time to remember those Monday mornings when, prompt at 11, teachers across the UK switched on the radio to hear William Appleby urging everyone to join in as the first notes began of ‘Soldier, Soldier, Won’t You Marry Me?’ or ‘Green Grow the Rushes, O’.