Since the year 2000, Howard Leader has presented a weekly nostalgia show for BBC Radio Lincolnshire. In addition to being a radio presenter, Howard is also an actor and musician. Many will remember him as a co-host of Ester Rantzen's TV show 'That's Life' as well as his occasional appearances in the comedy series 'Allo, Allo'.

Howard, being fond of the older and more traditional styles of popular music has, on a number of occasions been kind enough to share his weekly programme with me, Brian Reynolds, giving me an opportunity to co-present with him, programmes of light orchestral music, all of it drawn from my large collection of radio broadcasts of 50 or more years ago. Radio was very different in those days and live studio broadcasts by the numerous orchestras and instrumental combinations represented a substantial portion of each day's output.

It has been agreed with the BBC that these programmes should be preserved for posterity and I am grateful to them, and to Howard for enabling these to be accessible via BBC iPlayer and linked to this site - Masters of Melody.

Further programmes will be added periodically.

The first is a thirty minute extract from a 90 minute programme about BBC Staff Orchestras first broadcast on 5th July 2005.
This clip features the BBC Midland Light Orchestra.

Howard and myself play some of my rare recordings of BBC live broadcasts of light music orchestras from the 50s & 60s