The run
- Network
- BBC
- Years active
- 1947–1953
- Surviving broadcasts
- 14
- Genre
- comedy
Much Binding in the Marsh : Old Time Radio comedy An English radio comedy series from the 1940s, starring Richard Murdoch and Kenneth Horne . With Sam Costa, Maurice Denham, and Maureen Riscoe. Songs and sketches written by Mr Murdoch and Mr Horne. Note : Be aware that the in-page media player on this page does not properly display all the available recordings. Open this link to see a complete list of the recordings posted here : List of Broadcasts This enormously popular radio show ran for nine years, from 1944 through to 1953, mainly on the BBC, although in 1951 the duo moved the series temporarily to the rival commercial station, Radio Luxembourg, for a year. The show originated in 1944 a Public-domain transfers from the Internet Archive.
Source collection
Internet Archive audio collections
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
4 dated broadcasts across 80 years on the air, with 79 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 2026, in original transmission order.
- 1. Dead Air · 5 May 2026
- 2. The Long Silence · 12 May 2026
- 3. A Room Above the Street · 19 May 2026
Night Broadcast
4 Aug 2026 · 19 min
New tape, a reluctant witness, and a timeline that finally stops making sense.
The Last Train Out
28 Jul 2026 · 34 min
We go back to the beginning and read everything again.
Signal at Midnight
21 Jul 2026 · 49 min
Short, complete and unexpectedly devastating.
A Room Above the Street
14 Jul 2026 · 1h 4m
The episode listeners keep sending to people who never listen to podcasts.
The Long Silence
7 Jul 2026 · 27 min
A quiet beginning that turns, halfway through, into something else entirely.
Dead Air
30 Jun 2026 · 42 min
The one everybody argues about.
Sign Off
23 Jun 2026 · 57 min
Short, complete and unexpectedly devastating.
The Case of the Missing Hour
16 Jun 2026 · 20 min
The episode listeners keep sending to people who never listen to podcasts.
Also on BBC
BBC in 1947–1953
Other series the network carried while Much Binding in the Marsh was on the air.
Same seasons
comedy on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
What it became
Friends in front of a microphone
Jack Benny and Fibber McGee sold intimacy: recurring characters, in-jokes, a house style. The modern hang-out show is the same trick without the script.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of Much Binding in the Marsh
Modern series carrying this form forward.
If you liked this
More to explore
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