Researchers are poring over thousands of back copies of the Radio Times to put together a list of every BBC programme ever broadcast.

It is part of a bid to create a complete online broadcast history of the corporation dating back to its foundation in 1922.

Project manager Helen Papadopoulos said the Radio Times was “an ideal place to begin”.

Writing on a BBC blog, she said: “It contains a record of everything we intended to broadcast – even if what actually went on air wasn’t what we planned to show – and it is in a structure and format that people readily recognise, with basic but consistent details for all programmes, along with regional variations.” In many cases this information is all that remains of the programmes, with many being wiped after they were broadcast.

It was not until the 1970s that moves were made to preserve recordings for posterity.

Among the programmes that were lost were early episodes of Doctor Who and a one-off play from 1963 featuring the first UK performance of a then little-known American folk singer called Bob Dylan.

Next month work will start on putting information from around 400,000 pages of the magazine online.

Ms Papadopoulos said: “In less than a year we expect the Radio Times digitisation project to be completed and for the first time there will be, in one place, a comprehensive record of every programme.”