The '''BBC Third Programme''' was a national radio service produced and broadcast by the [[BBC]] from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by [[BBC Radio 3|Radio 3]]. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and quickly became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces in [[Great Britain|Britain]], playing a crucial role in disseminating the arts.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hewison |first=Robert |year=1995 |title=Culture and Consensus: England, Art and Politics Since 1940 |publisher=[[Methuen Publishing]] |___location=London |isbn=0-413-69060-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NHDbCQAAQBAJ |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2020}} It was the [[BBC]]'s third national radio network, the other two being the [[BBC Home Service|Home Service]] (mainly speech-based) and the [[BBC Light Programme|Light Programme]], principally devoted to [[light entertainment]] and [[light music|music]].
