What If?

A BBC Radio 4 Alternative History

By: Christopher Andrew

Narrated by: Christopher Andrew

Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Christopher Andrew and guests ask what would have happened if major historical moments had taken a different course.

In these 34 intriguing episodes, leading historian Christopher Andrew rewrites history, considering what might have transpired if pivotal events had turned out differently. By altering a single, plausible fact, he explores alternative futures where the Spanish Armada landed on English soil, Pontius Pilate freed Jesus, the Nazis occupied Britain and many more.

What if George Washington had lost the War of Independence? What if Columbus had never reached the New World? And what if Elizabeth I had married? In the company of an array of guest experts, Andrew tackles these and other questions, imagining a world where cars are banned from our cities, JFK survived the shooting in Dallas or the Great Fire of London never took place.

Full of thought-provoking hypotheses and lively speculation, this counterfactual history series not only suggests what could have happened, but refreshes our memories of what actually occurred during some of history's key turning points. In contemplating an alternate story, we are reminded how extraordinary it is that things did indeed result in the way that they did.

Episode list

1. What if Hitler had won the war against Russia in 1941?
2. What if John F Kennedy had survived the shooting in Dallas?
3. What if the 1979 referendum had led to Scottish independence?
4. What if Columbus hadn't reached the New World?
5. What if we'd kept the trains and banned cars from our main towns and cities?
6. What if King Edward VIII had married Mrs Simpson and remained on the throne?
7. What if Pontius Pilate had freed Jesus?
8. What if the Spanish Armada had landed in Kent in 1588?
9. What if Labour leader John Smith had lived?
10. What if either the royalist or parliamentary armies had achieved outright victory at the battle of Edgehill?
11. What if the NHS had never been introduced in 1948?
12. What if Britain had not discovered the North Sea Oil?
13. What if there was no fire of London in 1666?
14. What if Alfred the Great was defeated in 878?
15. What if German Emperor Wilhelm I had died ten years earlier?
16. What if germ warfare were to be used against the US?
17. What if there was no 1947 Agriculture Act?
18. What if Martin Luther King had survived the assassination on 4 April 1968?
19. What if Napoleon had won the Battle of Waterloo?
20. What if the Diggers had spread in 1649, and there were no slaves, lawyers or accountants?
21. What if Yasser Arafat had been assassinated in 1968?
22. What if Mary Tudor had completed the Counter-Reformation as planned?
23. What if the First Crusade had failed in 1095?
24. What if Germany had defeated France at the beginning of World War I in 1914?
25. What if Britain had voted against EU membership in the 1975 EEC Referendum?
26. What if the Russians had won the Space Race?
27. What if Alexander the Great had gone West, not East?
28. What if George Washington had lost the American War of Independence?
29. What if the Germans had discovered that the Allies had cracked the Enigma code during World War II?
30. What if the Nazis had occupied Britain in 1940?
31. What if Elizabeth I had married?
32. What if the Chinese authorities had not sent tanks into Tiananmen Square in June 1989?
33. What if the Zulus had defeated the British in 1879?
34. What if D-Day had failed?

Production credits

Presented by Professor Christopher Andrew

Produced by Ian Bell, Mark Smalley and Isobel Eaton

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 2 January 1991-5 June 2004.

©2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Intriguing Alternate Histories

Running from 1991 to 2004, BBC Radio 4's series What If has, at last, gotten something of an official release. This presentation of it, the 16 plus hour running time, isn't the complete series, frustratingly, but the 34 ventures into divergences from established history make for some intriguing listening. There are obvious ones like JFK not being assassinated or if Hitler, after victory during the Battle of Britain, had managed to invade Britain. There are also less obvious ones, from North Sea oil failing to give Britain a much-needed economic lifeline to 1970s referendums regarding Scottish independence and Britain entering the forerunner to the EU. Oddly given host Christopher Andrew's work in the field of intelligence, only one episode of the series deals with that topic. Yet Andrew, along with panels of experts assembled for each episode, offers insights and often plausible if (as in the case of the Martin Luther King Jr episode) overly optimistic, scenarios. All of which makes the 34 episodes presented here worth a listen for any history buff or budding alternate history writer.

Out of date

I love alternate history, fiction or nonfiction. However, the “What If” discussions in this book were recorded in something like 1992. The historical knowledge is 30 years old. Way out of date. For instance, the interviewer’s understanding of Native Americans (referred to as “Indians”) borders on insulting. I will look for something more recent.

An interesting snapshot of views a generation ago

These programmes discuss a wide range of historical counterfactuals. Criticisms of style and language used in the interviews are misplaced. Readers should appreciate context and mores at that time and not impose today’s politically correct terminology upon contributors who would not have known them, never mind accepted them.
The substance of the programmes remain relevant despite more recent attempts to write alternative histories.
Listen and enjoy

Boring, biased, and bizarre

Bunch of left-wing academics (oops, that was redundant) so detached from the concept of alternate history as to make this a complete waste of time. And some of their storylines are just odd. I got about a fourth of the way through before realizing I’d rather have my teeth pulled. I’ll go back to reading alternate history fiction, far more engaging in most cases.