"Auntie" celebrates her 75th birthday this weekend. The "loveable", familiar image of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as a friend in the homes of viewers and listeners across the world will be remembered in television and radio programmes over the coming weeks charting the corporation's history from 1922 to the present day.
Synonymous with Queen Elizabeth's tradition of celebrating her birthday twice - one official and one actual birthday - the BBC will begin its celebrations ahead of the date of the first broadcast to the British nation on November 22nd, 1922.
BBC Radio 1 is celebrating its 30th birthday and one of its former presenters, Mr Noel Edmonds, has been invited to discuss the origins of BBC radio and the pre-war commercial stations.
One of Radio Five Live's presenter's, Mr Peter Allen, described the history of the BBC as a "fascinating" and "complex" story. Some of the highlights will include the night during the second World War blitz when two journalists filed their reports from the roof of the BBC's headquarters and the invention of the tape recorder.
From the 1930s, when the former teacher, Frank Gillard, began working for the BBC as a correspondent during the second World War to the launch of the news and sports service on Radio Five Live, the BBC has cultivated its image as a friend to people at home and abroad. However, a number of the programmes marking the 75th anniversary are intended to shed light on the BBC "warts and all". Auntie - The Inside Story of the BBC will be broadcast next week when the BBC will open its archives "for the first time".
Early BBC footage from the 1930s, when secretaries could be sent home for not wearing stockings and staff were dismissed for being homosexual or if they had affairs, tarnishes somewhat the friendly image cultivated in the 1950s and the 1960s.
More recently, the BBC has clashed with its employees over the aggressive vetting of staff and the programme will discuss the less than happy relationship between the corporation and the former prime minister, Baroness Thatcher.