Editing Stephen Potter (section)

===BBC writer and producer===
Potter first wrote for [[BBC]] radio in 1936. Finding that his academic career, although promising, was insufficiently well paid to support his family, he resigned from Birkbeck in 1937 and the following year joined the BBC as a writer-producer<ref name=MCreg /> in its features department, originally concentrating on literary features and documentaries. In the same year he joined the [[Savile Club]], known for its artistic and especially literary members, who have included [[Thomas Hardy|Hardy]], [[Rudyard Kipling|Kipling]], and [[William Butler Yeats|Yeats]]. He was a leading player of the club's idiosyncratic version of [[snooker]], and some of his later "gamesmanship" ploys are thought to have originated in the Savile's games room.<ref>[http://www.savileclub.co.uk/index.php?id=111&sub=57 "Savile Snooker"], Savile Club website. The rules of Savile Snooker, formulated by Potter, can be accessed [https://web.archive.org/web/20110716140249/http://www.savileclub.co.uk/downloads/SavileSnookerRulesA5Booklet.pdf here].</ref>

At the outbreak of the Second World War Potter was sent by the BBC to work in [[Manchester]]. Later in the war years he and his wife moved south, living in a farmhouse in [[Essex]] where she found more scope to pursue her career as a painter.<ref name=dnb2/> In 1943 Potter collaborated with [[Joyce Grenfell]] on a gently satirical comedy feature "How to Talk to Children".<ref>[http://www.bris.ac.uk/theatrecollection/grenfell.html University of Bristol Theatre Collection]</ref> It was well received and they made twenty-eight more "How to&nbsp;..." programmes, including "How to Woo" and "How to Give a Party". In 1946 "How to Listen" was the first broadcast heard on the newly created [[BBC Radio 3|Third Programme]].<ref>Joyce Grenfell, his co-author, wrote in the ODNB article that this feature was called "How to Listen to Radio", but comparison with the published programme listings (e.g. ''The Manchester Guardian'', 28 September 1946, p. 2 and ''The Times'', 30 September 1946, p. 6) shows that the title was "How to Listen" ''tout court''.</ref> At the end of the war, Potter took on a number of concurrent literary tasks. These included drama critic for the ''[[New Statesman]]'' and book reviewer for the ''[[News Chronicle]]''.