FITTED & KITTED: ARCHIVE ON FOUR VISITS THE KITCHEN

I’m a Radio 4 Fan. I confess it freely. On my journey into work and on my journey home it’s Radio 4 all the way – which basically means Today, PM, the News and the 6:30 funny. 

Radio 4 also rules in the kitchen when cooking or washing up. And – sometimes – it is Radio 4 when I am doing a big photo edit with my Andrew King Photography hat on.

One show that I will go out of my way to listen to on catch up is Archive on Four. Under its original title of The Archive Hour, this programme goes right back to the 90s when it was presented by Claire Rayner. I guess it is fairly inexpensive material for Auntie Beeb to make – trawling through the amazing archives to illustrate different themes and aspects of social history. Just add a couple of talking heads in studio and a winning formula is created…

Archive on Four on this coming Saturday focuses on the history of the British domestic kitchen, under the title Fitted and Kitted. This is a subject close to my heart as main writer of this blog. Just when did we start “fitting” kitchens, and why? For younger people, the idea of a kitchen made up of separate pieces of disparate furniture may seem just too weird – but for anyone born pre-War it was normal.

Fitted and Kitted is due to be broadcast at 8 on Saturday evening, but if you want to pick it up via BBC Sounds on catch-up, the link (though not the programme itself) is already available. I will certainly be giving it a listen.

From time to time, this blog has also touched on matters of kitchen history. For a look at the way fashion and technology have given us man-made stones that look like marble, see here.