London calling Italy is a book about Radio Londra, as the BBC Italian Service was known in Italy, and the company’s development as a global leader in the broadcasting industry, starting from the Second World War. Drawing on unexplored archive material collected in Italy and the United Kingdom, it aims to understand how the BBC programmes engaged with ordinary Italians, while concurrently conducting political warfare against fascist Italy. The book also focuses on the relationship between the BBC Italian anti-fascist broadcasters, the British Foreign Office, and Labour Party. Key sources analysed in the book are, among others, the Foreign Office’s records, the programmes broadcast by the BBC Italian Service during the Allied campaign, the memoirs of Italian anti-fascist broadcasters, the BBC surveys on the audience and the letters sent by listeners of the Italian Service.
Price: £25.00
Pages: 224
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Series: Studies in Popular Culture
Publication Date:
03 June 2025
ISBN: 9781526190802
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
PERFORMING ARTS / Radio / History & Criticism, History and Archaeology, HISTORY / Europe / Italy, HISTORY / Military / World War II, Radio / podcasts
'London Calling Italy offers an expertly researched, thought-provoking analysis of BBC propaganda for Italy during the Second World War, exploring how programmes were put together and what listeners made of them. It will surely become the key work on this topic.'
Simon Potter, Professor of Modern History at the University of Bristol
'This is a lively book that makes excellent use of its high-profile interviews to highlight an elite view of how the British economy should be managed.'
Duncan Needham, Journal of British Studies
Ester Lo Biundo is a transnational modern historian, specialising in media history, popular culture and public engagement. She has extensively published on the BBC Italian Service and worked at cultural institutions both in the United Kingdom and Italy.
Introduction: why Radio London?
1 Radio at war
2 The Italian Service
3 Exiles: biographies, memories and experiences of the Italian anti-fascist broadcasters
4 The Italian broadcasters and the British Foreign Office
5 The enemy: Ente Italiano per le Audizioni Radiofoniche (EIAR)
6 Occupation/Liberation
7 Who tuned in to the BBC? The Italian Service: its target audiences and listeners
Conclusion: Radio Londra between myth and reality
Bibliography
Index
