Serendipity

Serendipity was a BBC Radio 4 programme briefly broadcast from 5.40-5.55 pm in 1977/78 after PM was shortened on the instructions of controller Ian McIntyre, who felt that current affairs programmes were too long and would be more hard-hitting if they were more concise. It included The Archive Auction, which subsequently continued on Radio 4 as a separate programme in its own right (and indeed had its roots on the station in 1977), where "an imaginary sale of the BBC Sound Archives" would see a different broadcaster every week "browsing through the catalogue and choosing the recordings they would most like to own".

John Peel appeared on this programme on 14th November 1977. It is not known which clips he chose and it is also not known whether the programme has survived. Its listing on Genome is here: