The Museum of Soho · Soho Radio
Conversations, characters and stories from Soho
An evolving archive of programmes made by The Museum of Soho for Soho Radio. Where a programme survives on Mixcloud we link to it; where the Museum holds an audio copy, it can be heard here.
The presenters
The Museum's Soho Radio programmes have been presented over the years by Tony Shrimplin, Mark Brisenden, Paul Ryan and Des Burkinshaw, with occasional special programmes and guest interviewers.
Chair of The Museum of Soho and a long-standing Soho resident. Tony has helped lead the Museum's exhibitions, oral-history work and community archive, and has also appeared regularly on Soho Radio discussing the history and character of the neighbourhood.
Writer, comedy writer and Marx Brothers specialist. Mark presented The Museum of Soho Radio Hour, bringing together Soho history, popular culture, music and characteristically offbeat stories from the neighbourhood.
Paul Ryan (1952–2022) was a writer, film historian, interviewer and acclaimed jazz singer. He wrote on film and the arts for major newspapers and journals, and for many years interviewed leading actors, writers and directors at the Institut français in London. His books included Marlon Brando: A Portrait and Never Apologise: The Collected Writings of Lindsay Anderson. His work for The Criterion Collection included the essay Walkabout: Landscapes of Memory and a visual essay on the design of Marcel Carné’s Children of Paradise. France made him Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1996 and promoted him to Officier in 2008. As a singer he worked extensively with pianist Kenny Clayton, appearing at venues including Ronnie Scott’s and recording Blame It On My Youth.
Former Fleet Street journalist and feature writer, later working in television and as a novelist. Des presented The Museum of Soho on Soho Radio for around two years, interviewing writers, performers and other people with strong Soho connections.
Programme archive
This chronological index combines the programmes visible in Soho Radio’s surviving Mixcloud archive with the Museum’s own audio files and contemporary references. Where full guest notes survive, they are given below. Where only Mixcloud’s date and subject tag survive, the description is deliberately limited to what can be supported.
24 January 2016
Mixcloud listing confirmedAn early conversation-led edition from the Museum’s Soho Radio series. Mixcloud categorises this programme under chat; guest details are still being matched against the Museum archive.
21 February 2016
Mixcloud listing confirmedA history-focused Museum of Soho programme. Mixcloud’s surviving listing categorises this edition under history; the individual guests and topics are still being recovered.
20 March 2016
Mixcloud listing confirmedA programme centred on Soho itself — its people, streets and stories. The surviving Mixcloud listing is tagged Soho; fuller programme notes are still being recovered.
17 April 2016
Mixcloud listing confirmedA London-focused edition of the Museum programme, placing Soho within the wider history and culture of the capital. The surviving Mixcloud listing is tagged London.
15 May 2016
Mixcloud listing confirmedA Soho-focused edition from the early run of the Museum programme. Mixcloud’s listing is tagged Soho; the guest list is still being matched to the Museum’s records.
24 July 2016
Mixcloud listing confirmedJoan Navarre discusses the extraordinary Soho polymath Edward Heron-Allen — violin maker, writer, translator, palmist and scholar — with George Skeggs, better known as Soho George, also appearing as a guest. The programme connects Heron-Allen’s life and work with the history and characters of Soho.
7 August 2016
Mixcloud listing confirmedA conversation-led edition of the Museum’s Soho Radio programme. Mixcloud categorises this broadcast under chat; detailed guest information is still being recovered.
4 September 2016
Mixcloud listing confirmedA programme devoted to Soho and its characters, culture and local history. Mixcloud’s surviving listing is tagged Soho.
2 October 2016
Mixcloud listing confirmedA Beatles-themed edition of the Museum programme. Soho Radio’s surviving Mixcloud listing is tagged The Beatles, reflecting the neighbourhood’s close connections with London’s popular-music history.
30 October 2016
Mixcloud listing confirmedPresenter: Mark Brisenden. A Halloween edition touching on actor and noted food enthusiast Vincent Price, including his suitably ghoulish goulash and the world of film-star cookery.
19 February 2017
Mixcloud listing confirmedA London-focused Museum of Soho broadcast. The surviving Mixcloud listing is tagged London; detailed guest and subject notes are still being recovered.
11 June 2017
Mixcloud listing confirmedA history-led edition from the Museum’s Soho Radio series. Mixcloud categorises the programme under history; fuller guest information is still being recovered.
3 September 2017
Mixcloud listing confirmedAnother history-focused Museum broadcast, drawing on Soho’s past and its people. The surviving Mixcloud entry is tagged history.
1 October 2017
Mixcloud listing confirmedA discussion-led edition of the Museum programme, categorised by Soho Radio as talk radio. Guest details are still being matched to the surviving archive.
29 October 2017
Mixcloud listing confirmedPresenter: Mark Brisenden. Jenny from Silver Screen Suppers joins the Museum show for a Halloween conversation about Vincent Price, his recipes, film-star food and a suitably strange Vincent Price LP.
26 November 2017
Mixcloud listing confirmedA history-focused Museum of Soho programme. Mixcloud’s surviving listing is tagged history; the individual stories and guests are still being identified.
24 December 2017
Mixcloud listing confirmedPresenter: Mark Brisenden. A Christmas Eve special devoted to the Marx Brothers, with writer and Marx Brothers specialist Matthew Coniam involved in the programme, alongside discussion of their films, books and comic world.
21 January 2018
Mixcloud listing confirmedPresenter: Mark Brisenden. The second instalment of the Museum’s extended Marx Brothers celebration, continuing the discussion of Groucho, Harpo, Chico and their films, writing and enduring comic influence.
18 February 2018
Mixcloud listing confirmedA conversation-led Museum programme. Soho Radio’s surviving Mixcloud listing is tagged chat; the guest list and detailed subjects are still being recovered.
18 March 2018
Mixcloud listing confirmedAhead of the Museum’s Murray’s Cabaret Club exhibition, the programme explores the legendary Beak Street club, its spectacular costumes and post-war Soho nightlife. Guests included Teena Symonds, James Birch, Barry Miles and exhibition curator Benjamin Levy.
15 April 2018
Mixcloud listing confirmedPresenter: Paul Ryan. Actor, playwright and children’s dramatist David Wood talks about appearing in Lindsay Anderson’s landmark 1968 film If...., his memoir of making the film, and his stage adaptation of Judith Kerr’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea.
25 November 2018
Mixcloud listing confirmedA surviving full Museum of Soho broadcast on Mixcloud. The programme is currently being matched against the Museum’s paper and audio archive so that the guest and subject information can be added accurately.
20 January 2019
Mixcloud listing confirmedA Museum-focused edition of the Soho Radio programme, tagged by Mixcloud under museum. Detailed guests and subjects are still being recovered from the Museum’s records.
17 February 2019
Mixcloud listing confirmedA conversation-led edition from 2019. Mixcloud categorises the programme under chat; guest details are still being recovered.
11 March 2019
Museum archive audioThe Museum holds a surviving one-hour recording dated 11 March 2019. It forms part of the Museum’s radio archive and is still being identified against the Soho Radio programme list before individual guests are named.
17 March 2019
Mixcloud listing confirmedA further conversation-led Museum programme from March 2019. The surviving Mixcloud listing is tagged chat; full programme notes are still being recovered.
27 October 2019
Mixcloud listing confirmedA history-focused Museum of Soho edition. Soho Radio’s Mixcloud entry is tagged history; fuller subject and guest notes are being recovered.
24 November 2019
Mixcloud listing confirmedA long-form conversation edition from late 2019, listed by Mixcloud under chat. Detailed guest information is still being matched to the Museum archive.
16 February 2020
Mixcloud listing confirmedA Museum-focused edition from early 2020, categorised by Mixcloud under museum. Detailed guest and subject notes are still being recovered.
4 July 2021
Mixcloud listing confirmedPresenter: Des Burkinshaw. Crime writer Christopher Fowler discusses his writing career, including the Bryant & May mysteries, thrillers and non-fiction, and the London and Soho worlds that informed his work.
1 August 2021
Mixcloud listing confirmedA music-led edition categorised by Soho Radio under jazz, reflecting Soho’s long association with jazz clubs, musicians and live performance. Detailed guest information is still being recovered.
28 September 2021
Mixcloud listing confirmedA record-focused Museum of Soho broadcast, tagged by Mixcloud as vinyl addict. The programme belongs to the Museum’s wider interest in Soho’s record shops, music businesses and collecting culture.
25 October 2021 · Museum archive audio
Audio recoveredJingan Young talks with director Edgar Wright about Last Night in Soho, its 1960s setting and music. The Museum’s surviving edit also includes co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns. A web listening copy is hosted here while the original archive file is retained unchanged.
14 November 2021
Mixcloud listing confirmedA Soho-centred edition of the Museum programme, tagged by Mixcloud under Soho. Fuller guest and topic information is still being recovered.
13 February 2022
Mixcloud listing confirmedProfessor Pippa Catterall joins the Museum of Soho Radio Hour to discuss the project she chaired to develop an AIDS memorial in London and the importance of LGBTQ+ history and public memory.
March 2022
Mixcloud listing confirmedPresenter: Des Burkinshaw. Comedian Gary Colman remembers Soho through its pubs and characters, including the comedy club he ran at the Intrepid Fox, his Soho stag do and the game shop Orcs Nest.
8 June 2022
Mixcloud listing confirmedA music-focused Museum edition categorised by Soho Radio under indie. Detailed guest and track information is still being matched to the surviving archive.
28 August 2022
Mixcloud listing confirmedA culture-focused Museum of Soho programme, tagged by Mixcloud under culture. Detailed guests and subjects are still being recovered.
2022
Mixcloud listing confirmedPerformer and former Dean Street resident Josephine Pembroke talks about her cabaret The Working Girls of Soho, celebrating the club runners, strippers, sex workers, thieves and other formidable women in Soho’s past through songs, stories and personal memories.
18 December 2022
Mixcloud listing confirmedA programme focused on the legendary Marquee Club, one of the defining venues in Soho and London music history. Soho Radio’s surviving listing is explicitly tagged The Marquee Club.
12 January 2023
Mixcloud listing confirmedA programme centred on LGBTQIA+ life, history and culture in Soho. The surviving Mixcloud listing is tagged LGBTQIA; fuller guest information is still being recovered.
Archive recovery: this is a working catalogue. Some older Mixcloud pages expose their date and subject but not the original programme notes to external search. Those entries are included so the broadcasts are not lost from the chronology, and will be expanded as the Museum’s hard-drive recordings, photographs and Soho Radio metadata are matched together.
