E191 - Music at Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park

History

4.8 • 200 Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2026

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

May 2026

Against the backdrop of war and secrecy, the Codebreakers of Bletchley Park were often able to enjoy comfort in music. From choirs to orchestras, gramophone evenings to opera, music appears again and again as a recurring motif in the social lives of those working at the Government Code & Cypher School. This episode delves into several different aspects of a topic that we are often asked about, but which frequently gets overshadowed by the showier activities of the BP Drama Group.

Head of Content Erica Munro and Head of Audiences and Programmes Vicki Pipe will discuss some very special musical material from Bletchley Park Trust's archive. Hear from researcher and musician Crispin Lewis about his famous BP relative, composer Herbert Murrill. We are also joined by Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheetham to explore links between music and codebreaking.

Many thanks to Crispin Lewis for allowing us reproduce his performance of Herbert Murrill's 1942 piece 'In Youth Is Pleasure'. www.crispinlewis.com

See copies of the documents we discuss in this episode here: https://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/our-story/e191-music-at-bletchley-park/

Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2026

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #Enigma, #Codebreaker,

Transcript

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0:00.0	The President
0:02.0	...
0:07.0	... From the home of the codebreakers and the birthplace of modern computing, this is the Bletchley Park podcast.
0:40.3	Welcome to the May 26 episode of the Bletchley Park podcast
0:43.7	Music at Bletchley Park
0:46.5	Against the backdrop of war and secrecy,
0:50.8	the codebreakers of Bletchley Park
0:52.4	were often able to enjoy comfort in music, from
0:55.5	choirs to orchestras, gramophone evenings to opera. Music appears again and again as a recurring
1:02.4	motif in the social lives of those working at the Government Code and Cipher School. This episode
1:08.1	delves into several different aspects of a topic that we're often asked about,
1:11.6	but frequently gets overshadowed by the showier activities of the BP drama group.
1:17.6	Head of content, Erica Monroe and head of audiences and programs, Vicky Pipe,
1:22.6	will discuss some very special musical material from Bletchley Park Trust's archive. Hear from researcher and musician Crispin Lewis about his famous BP relative, composer Herbert Murrell.
1:35.3	We're also joined by Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheatham to explore links between music and code breaking.
1:41.3	Many thanks to Crispin Lewis for allowing us to reproduce his performance
1:45.8	of Herbert Murrell's 1942 piece in Youth is Pleasure.
1:58.8	Erica, hello. I'm absolutely thrilled to be recording this episode with you this month. It's
2:04.8	something we've talked about for a little while. Music and the recreational side of what was
2:09.9	happening here at Bletchley Park comes up again and again. And it seeps into both our roles
2:15.4	in lots of different ways. So maybe we can start by talking about
2:18.4	how it arises in our roles and why is music so important to Bletchley Park? We do get quite a lot
	...

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