Miles’s radio broadcasting career spanned thirty or more years.
His first appearance, was early in the 1970s when he gave a short talk on Radio 3 on the French humorist, Alphonse Allais*.
His last original recording was transmitted after his death in 2008: The Archive Hour: ‘Kington’s Last Tapes’ April 2008. This programme features Miles, shortly before his death, talking about his life to his friend and work colleague, Tony Staveacre.
Later that year, Woman’s Hour featured ‘How Shall I Tell The Dog’ read by Michael Palin, as their book of the week. (Oct 2008)
In the years between his first and last broadcasts, his mellifluous voice, his observational powers, his wit, his intelligence and his intellect resulted in him being very much sought after by radio producers
The outcome was a volume of work so enormous, the list included here reflects only those programmes where he made a significant contribution.
As this website grows, we hope more and more of these programmes will be available to listen to and the scripts themselves will be accessible to read.
How Shall I Tell The Dog (5 episodes) TX 20/10/08-25/10/08
The Archive Hour: Kington’s Last Tapes TX 26/04/08
Jazz File: Swing City (3 programmes on Kansas city) TX from 06/01/07
Twenty Minutes – The Song not the Singer TX 08/08/07
The Queen at 80: For Crown and Comedy TX 08/06/06
Archive Hour- Betjeman the Broadcaster. TX 28/08/06
Miles Apart (Interviews with entertainers from abroad)
- Antoine de Caunes TX17/08/06
- Sabina Gazanti TX 27/08/06
- Harry Shearer TX 31/08/06
Someone Like Me (5 episodes, Miles reads from his spoof autobiography) TX from 26/09/05
Second String – Miles Kington TX 10/07/05 Barbed Wire
Barbed Wire Ballads (songs from POW camps) TX 11/05/05
Strolling With Sartre (2 programmes) TX from 21/05/05
Archive Hour: Fossilized Fish-Hooks! (Jennings at the BBC) TX 21/10/05
French Exchange (children’s exchange experiences) TX 12/11/04
Kington’s Anatomy of Comedy (3 programmes) TX from 08/03/05
The General Secretary- The Brezhnev Years (2 programmes) TX from 12/02/05
The Generalissimo (3 programmes on Franco) TX from 02/08/03
Archive Hour: St Muggs (on Malcolm Muggeridge) TX 19/04/03
Blackboards on the Beach (2 programmes on Teaching English as a Foreign language) TX from 17/01/03
Django: Jazz and the Nazis TX 27/04/03
The General: The story of Charles de Gaulle TX 12/01/02
The Last of the Humorous Casuals (HF Ellis) TX 04/11/02
The Story of Sax Appeal TX 23/09/00
The Rock and Poll Years (Callaghan and the Winter of Discontent) TX 06/05/00
Reading Music (A magazine series on music and writing that ran for approx three years - i/vs, music, reviews) last TX 25/07/00
Double Vision (co-presented with Edward Enfield –A Saturday morning chat show with guests, comedy, music, essays. Ran for five series) 22/07/95- 16/01/99
Fag End: The History of Smoking TX 14/08/1998
The Club That Scott Built (A tribute to Ronnie Scott) TX 25/08/97
Conan Doyle (Interval talk) TX 04/10/96
Dear Diary – Christmas Diaries of Literary Characters TX 23/12/96
The French Experience (Hotels) TX 27/11/94
The Miles Kington Interview- a series of fictitious interviews with characters from history and literature:
Oscar Wilde performed by Simon Callow TX 05/01/93
Robinson Crusoe – Bob Peck TX 12/01/93
Mona Lisa – Miranda Richardson TX 19/01/93
Arthur Conan Doyle – Edward Hardwicke TX 26/01.93
John Brown – Bill Peterson TX 02/02/93
The Empress Josephine – Jane Lapotaire TX 09/02/93
Bonnie Prince Charlie - Simon Cadall TX 2/08/94
Mata Hari, - Fiona Fullerton. TX 29.08/94
Nostradamus – Robert Stephens TX 08/08/94
Florence Nightingale- Eleanor Bron TX 15/08/94
Cyrano de Bergerac – Andre Maranne TX 5/9/94
Dr Samuel Johnson - Roger Allam. TX 19/9/94
Jazz from the Bath Festival (presents and interval talks with John Surman, Stephan Grappelli, Andy Sheppard and Joanna MacGregor) TX from 25/06/94
My-Fi ( a series of 4 progs on the impact of technology on listening to recorded music) TX from 11/07/94
Bizarre- R2 Arts (Miles’s theatre show of The Fortean Times with Simon Gilman) TX 16/12/94
It’s a Funny Old World (A series of 12 programmes on humour around the world):
1. Nigeria TX 29/09/92
2. India TX 06/10/92
3. China TX 13/10/92
4. Greece TX 27/10/92
5. Poland TX 3/11/92
6. Ireland TX 10/11/92
7. France TX 17/11/92
8. Jamaica TX 24/11/92
9. Germany TX 01/12/92
10. Russia TX 08/12/92
11. Israel TX 15.12.92
12. Czech Republic TX 22/12/92
Water, Water, Everywhere (winner of Grand Priz radio award) TX 18/13/92
Jazz from the Horse’s Mouth (Based on Miles’s Jazz Anthology) TX 13/12/92
Down Your Way – Frome TX 10/11/91
Paddington TX 13/11/91
150 Years Of Punch TX 16/07/91
In My Opinion TX 19/07/89
With Great Pleasure TX 2412/89
The Ruthless Rhymer (Harry Graham) TX 11/04/87
Instant Sunshine TX 17/12/86
View From The Boundary (I/V by Brian Johnston) TX
Instant Sunshine Christmas Special TX 22/12/85
Franglais TX 19.09.85 & 22/08/85
Instant Sunshine 26/04/85 & 12/04/85
Alphonse Allais Archive TX 08/11/84
Just After Four -Abroad Thoughts From Home (on Peru) TX 16/03/84
Persona Grata (on favourite humorous characters from fiction) TX 02/08/83
You Are Mr Lobby Lud (tracking down the real Lobby Lud , a character a bit like ‘Where’s Wally’, who mingled amongst the seaside holiday crowds at the behest of his newspaper, challenging the holidaymakers to spot him and win a fiver) TX 07/03/83
In the Archives every other week for at least a year 1982/3
Interview – R1 on Instant Sunshine, Peru and Franglais. TX 28/10/80
Instant Sunshine – regularly on Stop The Week and with their own programmes 10/11/79. 24/09/78. 01/06/77
Numerous repeat appearances on the News Quiz; The Write Stuff; Loose Ends; A Good Read; Word of Mouth; Say The Word; Front Row; Quote, Unquote; Booked; The Motion Show; Fourth Column; Pick of the Week; Hoax; Question Time… and many others.
NB I cannot trace the R3 talk on Alphonse Allais but it would have been around about 1974…
