David Hendy by Tim Stubbings

Emeritus Professor David Hendy

David Hendy is emeritus professor at the University of Sussex. His latest book is The BBC: A People’s History (Profile, 2022)

The striking, surrealism-influenced Radio Times cover shows the transmitter mast at Alexandra Palace

Radio Times at 100: a "vivid running commentary" on a century of British life

David Dimbleby commands the studio during the May 1997 general election

BBC at 100Into the digital age. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Protesters gather outside the Royal Courts of Justice during the 2003 Hutton inquiry into claims, broadcast on the BBC, that the case for war in Iraq had been “sexed up”.

BBC at 100Rocked by scandal. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Jazz singer Adelaide Hall at Radiolympia, 1947

BBC at 100Entry into the television age. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Anthony Eden addresses BBC cameras in 1956

BBC at 1001950s friction between government and the BBC. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Cast and crew filming an episode of EastEnders in 1998 (Photo by Polly Borland/Getty Images)

BBC at 100How EastEnders saved the BBC. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 8What can history tell us about its future?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The presenters of the recently launched BBC Radio 1 assemble for a group photo outside Broadcasting House, 1967. (Photo by Robert Stiggins/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

BBC at 100Sounds of the Sixties. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

David Attenborough with mountain gorillas in Rwanda, in a famous scene from 1979’s Life on Earth

BBC at 100The rise of natural history television and David Attenborough. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

African-American double act Buck and Bubbles (Ford L Washington and John W Sublett) were part of a coterie of entertainers of colour broadcast on the BBC in the 1930s (Photo by UPI/Bettmann via Getty Images)

BBC at 100Mirroring Multicultural Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 6Political tensions in the 1970s and 80s. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 5Change & innovation in 60s Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC at 100Captivating little citizens. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 4TV takes off in the 1950s. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 3The corporation at war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 2Establishment values in the 1930s. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 1Audio adventures in the 1920s. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC employees at work in the control room at the new home at Broadcasting House (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

BBC at 100Broadcasting House: a new home for the BBC. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A group of BBC staff surround a large piece of broadcasting equipment

BBC at 100The BBC begins: how a group of radio pioneers launched one of Britain's most famous institutions