JEREMY NICHOLAS ON RADIO

Jeremy Nicholas has one of the most distinctive voices on radio.  Since the late 1970s he has acted in radio plays, dramatised novels, adapted and read books for Women’s Hour, Book at Bedtime and the BBC World Service.

He has written and presented dozens of features and series for BBC Radios 2, 3 and 4 on subjects ranging from Latin (Nicholas’s Latin Primer) and Ronald Frankau (The Blue Boy of Variety) to the pianist George Cziffra and Uncle Mac’s Children’s Favourites (Hello Children…Everywhere), the latter inspiring EMI’s best-selling series of recordings.

  In 1996 Jeremy Nicholas won the Sony Gold Award for Best Arts Programme for his two-hour celebration of England in words and music, Green and Pleasant Land, on Radio 2 produced by Ned Chaillet.

From 1978 to 1991, along with Instant Sunshine and Fascinating Aida, he was one of the resident songwriters for Stop the Week with (the late) Robert Robinson. During this time he wrote the lyrics and music for over 150 songs. Many of these have been published by Novello in two albums, Sarah’s Encores and Funny You Should Sing That, and recorded by such artists as Sarah Walker & Roger Vignoles, and Jody Appelbaum & Marc-André Hamelin.

 BBC Radio 2

Writer and Presenter

Series:

  • The Jeremy Nicholas Anthology  Music linked by a common theme
  • Distant Voices  Historic voices from the archives
    ‘A marvellous series’ The Times
    ‘Eerie, inconsequential and utterly compelling’ The Independent
    ‘A gem of a series, compiled with care, presented with grace’ The Daily Telegraph

 Features:

  • Green and Pleasant Land A Portrait of England in Words and Music
    Winner of Sony Gold Award – Best Arts Programme, 1996
  • Maybe It’s Because…  A celebration of London
  • The Communication Chord  Steam trains in words and music
  • The Movies’ Master Musician  Erich Korngold centenary tribute
  • The Blue Boy of Variety  Ronald Frankau centenary tribute
    ‘Jeremy Nicholas’s portrait of this highly skilled skater on thin ice is an unmissable treat’ The Times
  • The Titan of the Organ  George Thalben-Ball
    ‘A terrific centenary tribute’ The Times
  • Seated One Day At The Organ  A celebration of the organ
  • The Twelve Days of Christmas  in music!

 

BBC Radio 3

Writer and Presenter

First broadcast: 1978  –  a feature about the pianist-composer Leopold Godowsky.

Presenter:   1992-97 – Mainly For Pleasure and In Tune

Series:   The Shellac Show  Four series devoted to listener’s 78 rpm requests
‘One of the most entertaining, informative and thought-provoking programmes on offer’ The Independent

Features:

  • Vintage Years: Shura Cherkassky 2 hour celebration of the pianist
  • Vintage Years: George Cziffra Two x 2 hour programmes on the virtuoso pianist
  • Chopin By Arrangement  Four programmes on arrangements of Chopin’s music
  • Moritz Moszkowski
  • Leopold Godowsky
  • Erwin Nyiergyhazi
  • Contributor to Record Review

BBC Radio 4

For Jeremy Nicholas as actor, dramatist and reader on Radio 4, please go to the ACTOR section of the site.

Songwriter

1978-91: Stop The Week with Robert Robinson – words and music to over 150      humorous, topical songs.

Writer and Presenter

Series:

  • 1992-1997 The Tingle Factor (4 series)
  • Personal Records (5 series)

Features (all 60 mins. duration unless otherwise stated):

  • Funny You Should Sing That Comic songs and their writers, 6 x 30 mins., 4 x 60 mins.

Hello Children… Everywhere  Children’s Favourites, 5 programmes

‘Most of us would be more than happy to see the programme given a regular slot –   with Uncle Jeremy at the controls’ The Independent

‘There was nothing to match any of the delights in Jeremy Nicholas’s glorious   potpourri’ Daily Mail

  • Tumpty-Tumpty-Tumpty-Tum  The Art of the Signature Tune
  • With A Song In My Heart  Two-Way Family Favourites
  • Something Borrowed, Something New  Musical plagiarism
  • Nicholas’s Latin Primer Latin in the 1990s
    ‘One of those rare programmes which cause people to ring friends to make sure they are listening too. It was original, instructive, entertaining and thoughtful as well as being funny and provocative… If you missed it, phone to ask for a repeat. It was a programme where pains had been taken to make it a pleasure to listen’ The Daily Telegraph
    ‘New Year’s Day was brightened up by Nicholas’s Latin Primer… unquenchably jolly’ Sunday Independent
  • Nymphs and Shepherds  60 years after the Manchester Schoolchildren’s Choir’s famous recording (30 mins.)           
  • Who’d Have Thought It?  Peculiar recordings
  • The Boy Who Sang ‘O For the Wings of a Dove’  60 years after Ernest Lough’s iconic recording (30 mins.)           
  • The Ruthless Rhymer  Lyricist Harry Graham (30 mins.) 
  • Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Bard  Shakespeare in the 1990s 
  • The High Priest of Latin (30 mins.)
    ‘A spirited programme about the remarkable Father Reginald Foster’ The Sunday Times
  • The Jeremy Nicholas Morning Programme  The way we start the day – and why  
  • Boards and lodgings Actors on the road
  • Storm Ten, Rain Later, Good  Shipping Forecast (30 mins.) 
  • The Piano Lesson Mini series on the way the piano is taught
    ‘An inspired idea for a radio series’ The Observer
    ‘One of the season’s unexpected and richly-deserved hits’ The Daily Telegraph
    ‘A charmingly quirky little series presented by the genial Jeremy Nicholas’ Daily Mail

Presenter  

  • Mrs Grenfell and her music man  Joyce Grenfell and composer Richard Addinsell