Front Line Family

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Front Line Family was a British radio soap opera initially broadcast on the BBC's North American Service. It ran from 1941 until 1948 when it was replaced by Mrs Dale's Diary.

Front Line Family was devised as a tool in the propaganda effort to help the USA join Britain in the Second World War^[1]. The BBC's Radio Drama department, under the influence of Val Gielgud had long resisted the production of serial dramas, or soap operas, as Gielgud saw them as excessively populist, part of the Americanisation of British culture and that the demands of an on-going serial would distort the BBC's drama production. However, the demands of the war effort and the involvement of personnel from the BBC's Canadian production wing saw Front Line Family become the first soap to be produced by the BBC and it was a massive success in the USA.

The show's storylines depicted the trials and tribulations of a British family, the Robinsons, living through the war. This featured plots about rationing, family members missing in action and the Blitz.^[2]

The show was moved to the Light Programme in 1946 and continued to run until 1948.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ http://mcs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/29/1/5 Abstract of "Front Line Family: ‘Women's culture’ comes to the BBC" by Michele Hilmes. Accessed on 23-07-07
2. ^ http://www.irdp.co.uk/britrad3.htm "British Radio Drama - A Cultural Case History" by Tim Crook. Accessed on 23-07-07