Housewives' Choice was a BBC radio

BBC Radio

BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...

 record request programme broadcast every morning from 1946 to 1967 on the BBC Light Programme

BBC Light Programme

The Light Programme was a BBC radio station which broadcast mainstream light entertainment and music from 1945 until 1967, when it was rebranded as BBC Radio 2...

. It played a wide range of (mostly popular) music designed to appeal to housewives

Housewife

Housewife is a term used to describe a married woman with household responsibilities who is not employed outside the home. Merriam Webster describes a housewife as a married woman who is in charge of her household...

 at home during the day. Like many other BBC radio shows in the era of very limited broadcasting competition, it achieved massive audiences, and is very closely identified in the public mind with its era.

The distinctive theme music was "In Party Mood" by Jack Strachey

Jack Strachey

Jack Strachey , was an English composer and songwriterBorn John Francis Strachey in London, England on 25 September 1894 he began writing songs in the 1920s for the theatre and the music hall, scoring his first success with songs he had written for Frith Shephard's long running musical revue Lady...

. This music (much like "Puffin' Billy", the theme to Children's Favourites

Children's Favourites

Children's Favourites was a BBC Radio programme from 1954 broadcast on the Light Programme on Saturday mornings from 9:00. A precursor had been called Children's Choice after the style of Housewives' Choice....

) has latterly been used frequently in other media as a signifier for "1950s Middle England

Middle England

The phrase "Middle England" is a socio-political and geographical term which originally indicated the central region of England, now almost always referred to as the "Midlands"....

", for example in a number of TV adverts and in The Comic Strip

The Comic Strip

The Comic Strip is a group of British comedians, known for their television series The Comic Strip Presents.... The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders, with frequent appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane and...

's parodies of The Famous Five

The Famous Five (characters)

The Famous Five is the name of a series of children's novels written by British author Enid Blyton. The first book, Five on a Treasure Island, was published in 1942....

, Five Go Mad in Dorset

Five Go Mad in Dorset

Five Go Mad in Dorset was the first of the long-running series of Comic Strip Presents... television comedy films. It first aired on the launch night of Channel 4 , and was written by Peter Richardson and Pete Richens, and directed by Bob Spiers.-Plot and satire:The film is an extreme parody of...

and Five Go Mad on Mescalin.

It had a different presenter (often referred to at the time as a compere

Compere

Compère can refer to:* Loyset Compère, a French composer of the Renaissance* Louis Fursy Henri Compere , a French general in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars...

) every week. Among those who returned most often was George Elrick

George Elrick

George Elrick , was a British musician, impresario and radio presenter, known as 'The Smiling Voice of Radio' and probably best known for presenting the popular record request show Housewives' Choice during the 1950s and 1960s.George Elrick was born in Aberdeen in 1903...

, who sang his own lyrics over the theme music, beginning with "Dooodle-dum-de- doodle- dum" and ending with "I'll be with you all again tomorrow morning".

The programme finished when the Light Programme was replaced by BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

 and BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

 in 1967. Its short-lived successor, "Family Choice", went out on both Radios 1 and 2, but had itself been discontinued by 1970.

In 1982 a radio series called "When Housewives Had The Choice?", with Russell Davies

Russell Davies

Robert Russell Davies , known as Russell Davies, is a British journalist and broadcaster. He presents a Sunday radio programme on BBC Radio 2 which spotlights popular song, as well as Brain of Britain on Radio 4.-Background:...

, Maureen Lipman

Maureen Lipman

Maureen Diane Lipman CBE is a British film, theatre and television actress, columnist and comedienne.-Early life:Lipman was born in Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Maurice Julius Lipman and Zelma Pearlman. Her father was a tailor; he used to have a shop between the...

  and Julie Covington

Julie Covington

Julie Covington is an English singer and actress, best known for recording the original version of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina".-Career:...

, looked back over the Housewives' Choice years, and a spin-off album of the most frequently requested tunes was released.

This 1980s radio show also produced a full set of lyrics to the original housewives choice theme tune sung by Julie Covington. The lyrics contrasted the austere life of a housewife in the nineteen forties to that of the affluent nineteen eighties.