This week on Breaking Waves, DJ and Jac explore two very different subjects: the history of the telephone and some of the most memorable sporting comebacks.

The first half takes a trip back to the 1870s, when inventors were trying to find a way to send the human voice through wires. Hugh and DJ discuss Alexander Graham Bell, his famous 1876 telephone patent and his historic call to assistant Thomas Watson. From there, the conversation follows the telephone through the age of telephone exchanges, when operators manually connected calls, to the arrival of the rotary dial, mobile phones and eventually the smartphones that now do far more than simply make a call.

Along the way, Hugh and DJ discuss what happened before automatic dialing, the people who worked in telephone exchanges and how dramatically the technology has changed. The episode also features a couple of songs with a telephone theme, including Jim Croce’s “Operator” and Labbi Siffre’s “Bless the Telephone”, as well as some typically unexpected Breaking Waves detours.

The second half of the episode sees Hugh joined by Jac for Thrills and Spills in Sport, looking at famous sporting comebacks and a few personal sporting memories. The pair revisit the story of Stephen Bradbury, before heading to football’s Miracle of Istanbul, when Liverpool came back from 3–0 down against AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League final.

The conversation then turns to cricket and the extraordinary 2019 Ashes Test at Headingley, where Ben Stokes and Jack Leach helped England chase down 359 and win by just one wicket.