91Èȱ¬

Greg James, host of the Radio 1 Breakfast show, has renewed his access-all-areas pass to the 91Èȱ¬ Archives and is ready to track down audio gems, using listener requests, overlooked anniversaries and current stories as a springboard into the vast vaults of past programmes.

Obi Wan Kenobi is back with a new series on Disney Plus starring Ewan McGregor, but Greg uses the force (well, his computer) to search for the original Obi Wan, the inimitable Sir Alec Guinness. We hear his thoughts on the original Star Wars film, find a rejection letter from the 91Èȱ¬ from 1934, and learn about an eerie encounter with the actor James Dean.

As summer approaches, Greg goes swimming in Loch Ness…but there’s something stirring in the water. He gets to know the eccentric characters of the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau, as well as encountering a man who spent 15 years camping by the loch in the hopes of finding definitive proof of the legendary monster.

A listener request takes Greg to 1937 and a largely-forgotten but fascinating slice of social history, when 4,000 child refugees from the Spanish Civil War were brought over to England. We hear from the MP who organised the evacuation, as well as some of those refugees, recorded 75 years later.

And Greg celebrates Sir Paul McCartney’s 80th birthday with a bit of advice on the songs he might want to choose for his Glastonbury setlist this weekend. Frog Chorus, anyone?

Producer: Tim Bano