The Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast
6/21/202639 min
This unique BBC radio programme is aimed at just a few dozen listeners: The team of scientists and support staff isolated at British research stations in the Antarctic midwinter.
Hosted by Cerys Matthews, the show features messages from family and friends at home as well as music requests from Antarctica. For decades it has been part of the traditional midwinter celebrations and, since 2020, it’s been enjoyed by listeners around the world.
Midwinter celebrations at the British research stations include a feast, exchange of presents, watching the 1982 horror film The Thing (where an alien monster terrorises an Antarctic base) and listening - on short wave - to the BBC’s Midwinter Broadcast.
A Boffin Media Production for BBC World Service
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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Speaker 20:34
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Cerys Matthews· Host1:03
[gentle music] This is the BBC World Service calling Antarctica. Hello, I'm Cerys Matthews, and this time in the documentary from the BBC World Service, it's the annual edition of the Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast. It's the BBC's program of greetings dedicated to members of the British Antarctic Survey overwintering in the frozen south. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it's