Sam Hanna Bell: The Broadcaster 

Welcome to the Now We’re Talking podcast. We’re back looking at the archive and legacy of another big figure. This time it’s writer and broadcaster Sam Hanna Bell. If you enjoyed our earlier episodes examining folklorist Michael J. Murphy, then keep listening as there are plenty of overlaps.

Both of their personal archives are now held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

Episode 2- The Broadcaster

Presented by Heather

We take a deep dive into Sam Hanna’s Bell’s pioneering career as a broadcaster - creating radio programmes in a very different era -from lost scripts to coffee and alcohol fuelled conversations with the prolific group of creatives who ended up working for Sam and working with the BBC in the post-war period.

Ahead of his time, we hear about his efforts to ensure that there was a diverse range of voices on the radio, celebrated regional culture and brought history to life with dramatised scenes in otherwise factual feature programmes.

Thanks to our guests

Ed Bell, Phil Bell, Dr Emily DeDakis, Sean Hayes, and Dr Connall Parr.

Thanks to our podcasters

Carol, Heather, Nuala, Kim and Kirsty.

This podcast was produced by Nerve Centre in partnership with the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland for the Now We're Talking project. The project was made possible through a grant from Archives Revealed, a partnership programme between The National Archives, the Pilgrim Trust, the Wolfson Foundation and The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Additional thanks to Northern Ireland Screen's Digital Film Archive and BBC Northern Ireland for archive content.

This content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.