A light music programme which ran (albeit intermittently) for over 40 years. Starting during the war, initially as a record programme, it soon graduated to using studio music using a military or brass band to play the marches and a light orchestra to play the waltzes. For many years the resident orchestra was The Raeburn Orchestra conducted by Wynford Reynolds.

When Reynolds became terminally ill in 1958, Bernard Monshin conducted his orchestra for a while. Other orchestras took over after the death of Wynford Reynolds in January 1959 with Anton and his orchestra eventually becoming resident orchestra.

The programme commenced and ended with the band playing the Sousa march 'King Cotton' and the orchestra playing a part of 'Vienna Blood' (Strauss), a novelty feature being that band and orchestra would combine for the last part of the waltz. However,this idea could only be used when both contributions were live ( the marches were sometimes pre-recorded) and ceased altogether when,in the sixties, it was decided to utilise BBC staff orchestras to play the waltzes. The Midland Light Orchestra did it for a while but were known to hate the programme because it meant a three-hour session (rehearsal plus the one - hour broadcast) playing in three-four time which they found monotonous!

After their participation ceased, the orchestral part of the programme was provided by the BBC Northern Ireland Light Orchestra, apart from a series around 1980 when it was decided to use the London Studio Players (augmented with brass) for the waltzes, with a different guest conductor each week. The BBC, in its infinite wisdom, decided to bill this in the 'Radio Times' as - 'The Orchestra conducted by......'. The writer thought this was ridiculous and told the producer, Charles Clark- Maxwell that they should find a name for it! So they decided to call it 'The Langham Orchestra' - obviously oblivious to the fact that there had been a Langham Light Orchestra back in the Fifties!

For the final series in 1984, the BBC introduced the idea of having the band and orchestra switch roles for two pieces in each programme. This resulted in the writer's waltz 'Souvenir de Montmartre' being played by the Band of the Royal Artillery (Woolwich) in one of the last programmes ! Maybe that was the final straw!

It is worth mentioning that,for a while in the seventies, a variant on 'Marching and Waltzing' was broadcast,initially featuring the BBC Northern Ireland Light Orchestra and guest brass and military bands entitled 'Brass and Strings and Other Things' - a cumbersome title later shortened to 'Brass and Strings', when the orchestral content was provided by a section of the BBC Radio Orchestra. These programmes differed only to the extent that the music did not have to be confined to marches and waltzes.

MARCHING AND WALTZING at 11a.m. Home Service on 24th. August 1959
The marches played by the C.W.S Manchester Band, Conductor Alex Mortimer
The Waltzes played by Anton and his Orchestra