Margaret Bacon (19 November 1918 – 1 March 1976), who worked under the name Peggy Bacon, was a BBC radio and television producer and radio presenter.[1][2]
Peggy Bacon | |
|---|---|
| Born | Margaret Bacon  19 November 1918 Kings Heath |
| Died | 1 March 1976 (aged 57) London |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Radio producer, radio personality, television producer, nurse |
| Employer | |
Early life and education edit
Bacon was born on 19 November 1918 in Kings Heath, Birmingham, England, to Arthur Charles Bacon and Doris Elizabeth, née Day.[3] She was educated at the city's King Edward VI High School for Girls from 1931 to 1936.[2][4]
Career edit
She joined the BBC in Birmingham as a secretary in 1938 before working as a Red Cross nurse, treating wounded servicemen at an emergency hospital in Birmingham for several months in 1940, during World War II.[2]
She produced and presented - as "Aunty Peggy" - the BBC Home Service radio programme Children's Hour for almost 20 years,[2] with the Radio Times first listing her appearance on 17 September 1947.[5] She also edited a B.B.C. Children's Hour Annual book, for the BBC.[6][7]
After meeting two railway-enthusiast film makers, she commissioned them to work on Railway Roundabout, a television series, episodes of which she also produced, and which ran from 1958 to 1962.[8][9]
She commissioned Brian Vaughton to make the documentary The Cats Whiskers: celebrating forty years of broadcasting from the heart of England, broadcast on the Home Service (Midland) on 12 November 1962.[10][11] In 1965, after she made a successful series of programmes for O-level students, she was transferred to the BBC's education department, in London.[2] While there, she edited F. D. Flower's Reading to Learn: An Approach to Critical Reading (BBC, 1969).[12]
Personal life and death edit
In her leisure time, she was a singer and linguist, and translated song lyrics from French and German, some of which were broadcast.[2]
She retired in 1975 and died in London on 1 March 1976, aged 57.[1][2]
References edit
- ^ a b David Davis (5 March 1976). "Miss Margaret Bacon". The Times (59645). ISSN 0140-0460. Wikidata Q110995197.
- ^ a b c d e f g "BBC's Aunty Peggy dies". Birmingham Post: 5. 4 March 1976. ISSN 0963-7915. Wikidata Q110995254.
- ^ "Births". Birmingham Mail. No. 16498. 20 November 1918. p. 6. OCLC 863516663. Retrieved 21 November 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ Hutton, Thomas Winter (1952). King Edward's School, Birmingham, 1552-1952. Blackwell. p. 185.
- ^ "Children's Hour". Radio Times. No. 1248. 14 September 1947. p. 14. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
- ^ "Personalia". The Publishers' Circular and Booksellers' Record. 165: 1324. 1951.
- ^ "B.B.C. Children's Hour Annual (image of cover)". 23 February 2022. Archived from the original on 23 February 2022. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
- ^ Hewitt, Sam (19 December 2019). "From the Archive: P B Whitehouse". The Railway Magazine. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
- ^ "Railway Roundabout". Radio Times. No. 1896. 11 March 1960. p. 16. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
- ^ Vaughton, Brian. "Birmingham Ballads". Charles Parker Archive Trust. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
- ^ "The Cats Whiskers". Radio Times. No. 2035. 10 November 1962. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
- ^ Reading to learn an approach to critical reading;. OCLC. OCLC 579516566. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
