''Children Calling Home'' was an English-language radio programme, with the first episode on

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

, 25 December 1940 as a collaboration between the United Kingdom's

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

Home Service Home Service is a British folk rock group, formed in late 1980 from a nucleus of musicians who had been playing in Ashley Hutchings' Albion Band. Their career is generally agreed to have peaked with the album ''Alright Jack'', and has had an ...

, CBC of Canada, and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

of the United States, and broadcast simultaneously in all three countries. The following day, an episode made by the BBC in collaboration with the

Australian Broadcasting Commission The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

, the New Zealand Broadcasting Service and the

South African Broadcasting Corporation The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's stat ...

, was broadcast simultaneously in all four of their countries. The presenter for the BBC was

Roy Rich Roy Rich (16 September 1911 – 24 March 1970) was a British broadcaster and film and theatre director. Life and career Rich was born in Plymouth, Devon, the son of a music hall comedian. Educated at Dulwich College, southeast London, Rich beca ...

; their producer was Enid Maxwell. The programme allowed children evacuated to the host countries from the UK, due to bombing during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, to talk with their parents. The series continued, with various permutations of the involved networks, until at least 31 May 1944. The journalist

Mark Lawson Mark Gerard Lawson is an English journalist, broadcaster and author. Specialising in culture and the arts, he is best known for presenting the flagship BBC Radio 4 arts programme '' Front Row'' between 1998 and 2014.Padraic Flanaga"Mark Lawson ...

identifies it as the first example of co-production.

References

{{Reflist

External links

25 December 1942 episode
in the BBC archives. Featuring children in New York, Capetown and Toronto.
1941 newsreel footage
from

Pathé News Pathé News was a producer of newsreels and documentaries from 1910 to 1970 in the United Kingdom. Its founder, Charles Pathé, was a pioneer of moving pictures in the silent era. The Pathé News archive is known today as British Pathé. Its co ...

, showing guests in the radio studio. BBC Home Service programmes CBC Radio programs NBC radio programs 1940 radio programme debuts ABC radio programs New Zealand radio programmes South African radio programs 1944 radio programme endings English-language radio programs Home front during World War II Children's radio programs