Stevenage at 80 (Omnibus)

As part of our celebration of Stevenage at 80, Paul will visit Broadhall Way, home of Stevenage Football Club, to meet the fans and find out what they love about the town, and what place the football club has in the community.

Paul will travel around the town the find local stories and landmarks – visiting an 850 year old church, the Tudor Knebworth House, a concrete-framed parish church and the pioneering new town square with its iconic clock tower. And he’ll meet local characters including the mayor, museum curator, comedian Emma Kennedy and the stadium announcer for Stevenage FC, who’ll share their experiences of new-town life. Plus, we’ll visit a tea party for residents who are 80 at 80, sharing their birth year with the town.

The programmes include a Stevenage-based edition of Down Your Way, with Brian Johnston talking to Stevenage locals in 1985. Gary Younge shares his relationship to Stevenage in Granta’s Britain (read by David Harewood); Paul Sinha’s General Knowledge delves into new towns; and the documentary It was a Dark and Stormy Night reveals the gothic life of Victorian writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who lived at Knebworth House. Anne McElvoy explores the conflict over our land, asking where a green field is better than a human home in Archive on 4: Houses vs Fields. We’ll have classic drama Howard’s End, inspired by EM Forster’s Stevenage home, Rook’s Nest. And we’ll celebrate Stevenage’s Local Heroes, including Lewis Hamilton. Plus: we’ll learn about Elizabeth Poston, the Stevenage-based wartime composer who sent out coded messages in music; Deke Duncan, the Stevenage radio dj who broadcast to just one listener for decades; and visit the home of the Mars Rover, which is being built and tested in Stevenage.