Una Marson and the BBC Caribbean Service

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2022

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

To mark the 90th anniversary of the BBC World Service, we trace the development of the Caribbean Service. Its beginnings go back to the early 1940s when the BBC’s first black producer, Una Marson was employed. She created Caribbean Voices, which gave future Nobel laureates such as Derek Walcott their first international platform. In 1969, one of the UK’s best known newsreaders, Sir Trevor McDonald, left Trinidad to join the BBC Caribbean Service as a producer. He reflects on its legacy. Produced and presented by Josephine McDermott. Archive recording of West Indies Calling from 1943, is used courtesy of the Imperial War Museum. Una Marson's poem Black Burden is used courtesy of Peepal Tree Press and the BBC Caribbean Service archive material was provided by the Alma Jordan Library, The University of the West Indies. (Photo: Sir Trevor McDonald and Una Marson. Credit: BBC)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, this is the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service, with me Josephine
0:11.0	McDermott. To mark the 90th anniversary of the BBC World Service, we're going back 81
0:20.2	years through the archives to the beginnings of the BBC Caribbean Service. You're going
0:26.6	to hear the first black producer and broadcaster employed by the BBC, one of the UK's most
0:32.3	famous newsreaders, and the man regarded as having one of the best voices in radio.
0:39.3	It's 1941, and the studio in London is full of service men and women from the Caribbean,
0:45.3	chatting before they go on air. Amongst the muted carcay uniforms, a Jamaican woman in
0:51.4	a white dress and heels flits among them, listening intently. They are all here for a special
0:57.3	programme about their contribution fighting in World War II. The woman is 36-year-old
1:04.7	Unimarsson. We're already for you, Ms. Marsson. Thank you, darling. And she is the Compaire.
1:16.6	This is Unimarsson introducing West Indians in Britain. There's no doubt who was in charge,
1:22.4	and she did this with much a plum, and of course, great tact, but she was in charge and absolutely
1:29.4	respected by the total crew. We found a very warm and generous person who offered hospitality
1:38.2	and was a wonderful friend to have during the war years in London. Her friend, Iver D'Souza,
1:46.7	there in 1997. The pioneering nature of her time in London would make history. Being single,
1:53.7	black and a woman, she defied the norms of the time. Before she was employed by the BBC,
2:00.3	she had had two volumes of poetry published back home in Jamaica. The BBC's network, broadcasting
2:06.5	abroad, was called the Empire Service at this time. In 1939, it started the programme
2:13.4	calling the West Indies. You know what's hired as a producer and presenter. This programme
2:19.1	would be what the BBC Caribbean Service eventually evolved from. He was a uni in 1940, interviewing
2:26.4	the star Ken Snakehips Johnson. So you left London a tap dancer and returned a band conductor?
2:33.0	Well, uni, I first had to convince London that I could conduct as well as I could dance.
	...

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