Breakaway (radio programme)

Breakaway was BBC radio's first regular consumer travel programme, conceived by producer Roger Macdonald. It was launched on Saturday 29 September 1979, when it ran from 9.05 to 9.50 on BBC Radio 4, where it continued to be broadcast live every Saturday morning in roughly the same time-slot for nearly two decades. Its longest-serving presenter was Bernard Falk, who fronted the programme from 1980 to 1990. Breakaway finally came to an end as part of the extensive schedule changes introduced by Radio 4 controller James Boyle in April 1998.

Breakaway took the BBC into a different dimension, far removed from the idealised travel dreams of the Holiday programme, reporting without fear or favour on the reality behind the glossy brochures. Macdonald favoured reporters who were members of the Guild of Travel Writers, hardened travel professionals, and schooled them in the art of radio journalism. A regular commentator was Nigel Coombs then editor of Travel Trade Gazette who provided knowledgeable insights into the travel industry. The mix of 'warts and all' location features with studio badinage and the irrepressible Falk's interviews with luckless travel executives desperately trying to defend the indefensible, found almost universal favour with the audience. Nor did the program shy away from discussing unsavoury topics like travelers diarrhea; they ran, for example, an interview with Dr. Jane Wilson-Howarth on the topic. Sometimes the programme came entirely from far-flung places, such as New York, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Great Barrier Reef, and famously on one occasion live from Boulogne on the weekend when a ferry ran aground.^[1]

The distinctive Breakaway theme tune was a version of the Jack Hylton Orchestra's 1929 song Breakaway

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