BBC Radio To Air Music Hall Documentary, Commissions Second on Comedy and Absurdism

Original recordings of variety performers Marie Lloyd and Dan Leno will be featured in the new radio documentary The Good Old Days?, according to a report on the website for the U.K. magazine The Stage. The program about the history of music hall, expected to air on BBC Radio 3 in November, will be presented by singer and songwriter Billy Bragg.

The Good Old Days?, which will look at how music hall became the dominant form of popular culture in the 19th-century, will feature contributors including authors who have been inspired by the theatrical genre and musicologists. The documentary will also examine how facets of music hall traditions can still be found today in reality television programming, such as Britain’s Got Talent.

Another radio documentary about theater is also in the works. BBC Radio 4 has just commissioned Simply Absurd, a program that will explore how theatre of the absurd and the work of writers such as Jean Genet and Eugene Ionesco has influenced more recent comedies.

For further information, visit www.bbc.co.uk.