In Our Time, from Aristotle to the History of Zero
Post categories: In Our Time, Melvyn Bragg, archive, culture, history, philosophy, religion, science
15:05, Monday, 8 February 2010
In Our Time is both in a central slot in the schedule and something of a cult. When it began 12 years ago it was a leap into the dark. Would a mass audience (over 2 million a week listen to at least some of it - and mostly all of it) take to something so straightforwardly intellectual - and so simple in its format.
Melvyn Bragg had been master of ceremonies at Start the Week for 10 years but had left it after becoming a Lord. And everyone at R4 wanted to keep him. Thus was born In Our Time. It rapidly became clear that the audience not only coped - but loved it. And now many hundreds of editions later it is one of the keystones of Radio 4.
The programme was a pioneer of 'Listen Again' - as we called the facility to listen after the programme was broadcast in pre iPlayer days - and then became the first Radio 4 programme to be podcast. Melvyn at the time was not 100% au-fait with the technology - but he saw the point and his on-air trails for podcasts were works of art. And there has always been a big demand for 'listen again' in what ever form - 300,000 podcasts a month for instance. The website is the most loved of any Radio 4 programme. (We measure these things).
But we have often been asked why the audience only has 7 days to listen again - and why we can't make available the brilliant - and enduring - programmes that have been made in recent years.
And we now can do that. Every edition of the programme is now available from the website. So if your thing is the measurement problem in physics: man is not the measure of all things or Heaven: a journey through the afterlife or any one of hundreds of others - you can now listen when you want. Enjoy.
Mark Damazer is Controller of BBC Radio 4
- The next episode of In Our Time is about unintended consequences. It's on Thursday 11 January at 0900 (repeated at 2130 on the same day). Listen to the first two episodes from the current series - and all previous episodes - on the In Our Time web site.
- Picture by Steve Cadman. Used under licence.
- The In Our Time podcast has 300,000 subscribers.
Comment number 1.
At 17:32 8th Feb 2010, Briantist wrote:Thanks Radio 4. I just love In Our Time. It's General Studies on steroids. The best podcast there is.
Now there is the whole 445 episodes, more than the 352 I have in my collection.
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Comment number 2.
At 08:39 10th Feb 2010, Forget It wrote:Long Live IOT
Long Live Melvyn!
Of course most of the programmes were already available
as variable quality RA files - but this update is a much
appreciated resource for all British listeners at home
and abroad!
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Comment number 3.
At 11:52 11th Feb 2010, Stuart Ian Burns wrote:This is brilliant but may I make a couple of suggestions?
-- more specific subject headings. The culture list is 100 items longs and it would be nice to have all of the fine art or book or theatre items in one place. Similarly science is 151 items.
-- Include Melvyn's newsletter on the episode page along with the subject discussion and bibiography.
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Comment number 4.
At 23:05 11th Feb 2010, newlach wrote:I'm very glad to hear this news. In Our Time is an excellent programme, and I'll definitely download some editions to my portable device during the summer to listen to when I'm not at home.
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Comment number 5.
At 04:13 18th Feb 2010, Bobby wrote:IOT is one of my favorite radio shows and the work to make as many of the previous episodes as possible available is no doubt a major undertaking. Earlier this week I used the technical issues form to submit a number of errors, including episodes listed as not available when there are operational feeds, links to feeds that cannot be found when there are operational feeds, and links to feeds that cannot be found for which I could find no alternative feeds.
No corrective actions appear to have been taken.
Of the 455 episodes in the back catalog, 7 are listed as not available for which no media links are provided, and 1 is listed as not available but a media link which to a feed saying the episode (William Wilberforce) is not available.
Of the 7 listed as not available there are operational feeds for the following 5:
Utopia - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005462n - https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/aod/playlists/p2/64/50/0p/RadioBridge_0802_bbc_radio_fourfm.ram
The Universe's Shape - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0054880 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/aod/playlists/18/84/50/0p/RadioBridge_0902_bbc_radio_fourfm.ram
Milton - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00548bg - https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/aod/playlists/hb/84/50/0p/RadioBridge_0902_bbc_radio_fourfm.ram
Zoroastrianism - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005bc5v - rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk:554/radio4/2004/archive/inourtime_20041111.ra
On the Origins of Charles Darwin - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pqb4n - rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk:554/radio4fmcoyopa/archive/radio_4_fm_-_monday_0900_20090105.ra
The following 7 episodes are have links to media feeds that do not work, but for which there are working alternatives:
The Prelude - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00899w0 - broken feed https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/aod/playlists/vs/99/80/0b/RadioBridge_0900_bbc_radio_fourfm.ram - working feed rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk:554/radio4/2007/archive/inourtime_20071122.ra
The Four Humours - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008h5dz - broken feed https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/aod/playlists/p5/5h/80/0b/RadioBridge_0900_bbc_radio_fourfm.ram - working feed rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk:554/radio4/2007/archive/inourtime_20071220.ra
Camus - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008kmqp - broken feed https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/aod/playlists/v6/mk/80/0b/RadioBridge_0900_bbc_radio_fourfm.ram - working feed rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk:554/radio4/2008/archive/inourtime_20080103.ra
The Charge of the Light Brigade - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008md8x - broken feed https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/aod/playlists/69/cm/80/0b/RadioBridge_0900_bbc_radio_fourfm.ram - working feed rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk:554/radio4/2008/archive/inourtime_20080110.ra
The Multiverse - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008z744 - broken feed https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/aod/playlists/0q/6z/80/0b/RadioBridge_0900_bbc_radio_fourfm.ram - working feed rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk:554/radio4/2008/archive/inourtime_20080221.ra
Lovelace - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0092j0x - broken feed https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/aod/playlists/0r/h2/90/0b/RadioBridge_0900_bbc_radio_fourfm.ram - working feed rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk:554/radio4/2008/archive/inourtime_20080306.ra
The Greek Myths - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0093z1k - broken feed https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/aod/playlists/qx/w3/90/0b/RadioBridge_0900_bbc_radio_fourfm.ram - working feed rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk:554/radio4/2008/archive/inourtime_20080313.ra
The following episodes have links to media feeds that do not work, for which I could not find working alternatives:
The Roman Empire's Decline and Fall - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004y237
The Dissolution of the Monasteries - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b009jtq1
Additionally there are many (too many to list here) episodes for which (presumably UK only) iplayer feeds are provided when there are working alternatives that are internationally available, however for 4 such iplayer only episodes, there is what appears to be an internationally available feed, but the feed does not match the episode:
The Romantics - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00546ws - iplayer feed https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00546ws - international feed rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk:554/radio4/2000/archive/inourtime_20001012.ra plays Biography (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00546vf%29 instead
Democracy - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00547jm - iplayer feed https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00547jm - international feed rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk:554/radio4/2001/archive/inourtime_20011018.ra plays Slavery and Empire (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00548jd%29 instead
Surrealism - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00547l1 - iplayer feed https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00547l1 - international feed rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk:554/radio4/2001/archive/inourtime_20011108.ra plays an episode of what appears to be Start The Week
Catharism - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005488v - iplayer feed https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p005488v - international feed rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk:554/radio4/2002/archive/inourtime_20020117.ra plays an episode of what appears to be Start The Week
I have a spreadsheet that details all my findings (including the 58, presumably UK only, iplayer only links for which I have found internationally available feeds). I'd be happy to pass this on to an interested party.
Thanks.
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Comment number 6.
At 00:41 19th Feb 2010, Bobby wrote:Who is "Jonathan Rée" (from The Frankfurt School - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pr54s%29? Looks like the volunteers at wikipedia know (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_In_Our_Time_programmes%29, Jonathan Rée. Bizarrely the same guest was on Kierkegaard (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b009fycc%29, Spinoza (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0079ps2%29, Relativism (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003hyc8%29, Sartre (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004y25x%29, Empiricism (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004y28g%29, and Originality (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00548vy%29 but on those pages his name looks correct.
Viewing the html source, The Frankfurt School (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pr54s%29 has "Jonathan Rée", the others "Jonathan Rée", how did one accented e (character number 233) become two characters (195 and 169)?
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Comment number 7.
At 15:02 23rd Feb 2010, John99 wrote:There seems to be a problem of In Our Time programmes playing in the UK but not in the 48kbps stream available abroad. Also I personally could not find working links to previous years podcasts.see the thread:https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbiplayer/F8035762?thread=7313726
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Comment number 8.
At 02:32 24th Feb 2010, Bobby wrote:Noticed that some pages have been modified, three previously unavailable episodes:
Utopia - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005462n
The Universe's Shape - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0054880, and
On the Origins of Charles Darwin - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pqb4n
now have iPlayer links (which means I still can't play them direct off the page, but the working streams I noted earlier still work).
The following that used to have RealMedia links that did not work:
The Dissolution of the Monasteries - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b009jtq1
The Prelude - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00899w0
Camus - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008kmqp
The Charge of the Light Brigade - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008md8x
The Multiverse - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008z744
Lovelace - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0092j0x, and
The Greek Myths - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0093z1k
Now have iPlayer links, (again this means I have no idea whether these work).
Another episode is now available for playback:
Rome and European Civilization - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00547ms - https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/aod/playlists/tm/74/50/0p/RadioBridge_0902_bbc_radio_fourfm.ram
not sure why, but the IOT page shows this as "Sorry, this programme is not available to play.".
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Comment number 9.
At 16:48 25th Feb 2010, Bobby wrote:A few more fixes have been put in place:
Rome and European Civilization - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00547ms
The Four Humours - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008h5dz
Milton - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00548bg
Zoroastrianism - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005bc5v
History as Science - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00545f0
now have iPlayer links. The iPlayer team have been made aware that iPlayer links are not operational outside of the UK (https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbiplayer/F8035762?thread=7313726.
The good news is that there's are now only one episode that is not available, Wilberforce - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00774j0 (there is a media link on the Wilberforce page, but the it plays back a message saying the episode is not available).
Oddly, there are two entries for one episode on https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl/episodes/player:
Darwin: On the Origins of Charles Darwin - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00g9z9x
On the Origins of Charles Darwin - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pqb4n
The latter is the one that is linked from the 2nd episode's "In this series" links, though it's run time is given as 28 minutes compared to the former's 45. The latter was one I logged a technical fault on:
On the Origins of Charles Darwin - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pqb4n - rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk:554/radio4fmcoyopa/archive/radio_4_fm_-_monday_0900_20090105.ra
the rtsp stream is > 40 minutes long.
The typo on The Frankfurt School - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pr54s remains ...
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Comment number 10.
At 18:14 26th Feb 2010, Steve Bowbrick wrote:Bobby and John99, you've done heroic work in uncovering these problems. In the process I think you've illustrated something of the scale and complexity of the operation to publish all of the IOT archive. It's a work in progress and you'll see more improvements and fixes as time passes. I'm passing your comments to Leigh Aspin who leads the Radio 4 Interactive Team. He'll act on them.
Steve Bowbrick, editor, Radio 4 blog
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Comment number 11.
At 01:13 27th Feb 2010, Bobby wrote:Steve Bowbrick, thanks for taking a look at this. As I noted in my first post to the blog I do appreciate that "the work to make as many of the previous episodes as possible available is no doubt a major undertaking", whenever something of this scale is attempted it's inevitable that there will be a couple of issues. I'm very glad to see that there are now media links for all episodes in the IOT archive.
Hopefully Leigh Aspin and the iPlayer Team can resolve the issue that results in about 1/6th of the archive not being available for playback outside of the UK from links provided on the IOT pages. Details of these episodes are posted here and here. If I may be of any further assistance (e.g. testing iPlayer links), please do not hesitate to contact me.
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Comment number 12.
At 14:06 1st Mar 2010, Herakles wrote:Thanks to everyone for pointing out the problems relating to some of the archived streams. We have completed an audit of the site and fixed all the broken audio links. The vast majority of the problems related to technical issues beyond our control and it has taken time to find fixes for these problems but the audio links are now working. We are also investigating reports about some problems with the international streams and will report back as soon as our investigations are complete. Thank you again for your patience.
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Comment number 13.
At 01:28 7th Mar 2010, IOT_fan wrote:Hello,
Thanks to all for addressing the recent issues.
I live outside the UK and currently have no problem accessing the IOT archived episodes that are available via Real Player. But some are available only on the iPlayer, and those I can no longer access at all. Thank you for addressing the issue!
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Comment number 14.
At 23:12 8th Mar 2010, IOT_fan wrote:Hello again,
Just to update and let you know that some (though not yet all) of the archived iPlayer episode streams are working now outside the UK. Thank you for addressing the issue--I've become an IOT addict, and look forward to listening to the entire archive! It will be great to have it all available.
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Comment number 15.
At 15:12 9th Mar 2010, Bobby wrote:As noted by IOT_fan there is some good news, a number of the previously "unavailable from overseas" iPlayer streams are now available. Unfortunately, there is some bad. I mentioned in a previous post that some of the rtsp streams I could find were for the "wrong" episode/programme, today when I listen to iPlayer I hear the same wrong episode/programme that I previously heard:
The Romantics - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00546ws - iPlayer link https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00546ws - plays Biography (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00546vf%29 instead
Surrealism - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00547l1 - iplayer link https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00547l1 - plays an episode of what appears to be Start The Week
Catharism - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005488v - iplayer link https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p005488v - plays an episode of what appears to be Start The Week
The episode on Democracy https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00547jm - iplayer link https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00547jm, remains unavailable but the rtsp stream I was previously able to find (rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk:554/radio4/2001/archive/inourtime_20011018.ra) still plays Slavery and Empire (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00548jd%29. Given my other findings, I suspect if I could play the iPlayer stream I'd hear Slavery and Empire instead of Democracy.
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Comment number 16.
At 00:33 12th Mar 2010, Bobby wrote:More fixes in place today, The Romantics and Surrealism now have content matching the subject.
Democracy is still unavailable, and the voice on Catharism sounds like Andrew Marr ...
Oh,and Jonathan Rée is Jonathan Rée (twice) on The Frankfurt School (the comment on Feb 19th has more details on this).
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Comment number 17.
At 21:33 17th Mar 2010, Bobby wrote:Another fix today, Catharism is now plays the right episode. Many thanks. Looking forward to a fix for Democracy, once that's done I'll recheck the episodes with iPlayer links that previously didn't work overseas, where I found working rtsp streams instead (there were 58 of these when I started posting to this thread).
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Comment number 18.
At 12:57 19th Mar 2010, Steve Bowbrick wrote:Bobby, you've done a great job! Thanks for the dilligent (and unpaid) web site testing. I know that the Radio 4 interactive team are very grateful for your attention to detail. You'll probably get an OBE for this :-)
Steve Bowbrick, editor, Radio 4 blog
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Comment number 19.
At 19:34 20th Mar 2010, Bobby wrote:Steve Bowbrick, thanks again for keeping an eye on this, glad to hear that the testing is appreciated, the fixes certainly are.
Took a look at the 110 episodes with iPlayer links and many now operate, though there are a few that do not, these are Democracy (iPlayer URL), The Universe's Shape (iPlayer URL), and the 30 from The School of Athens (iPlayer URL) to The Samurai (iPlayer URL).
When I try to play the majority of the group of 30 a message of the form:
"This content doesn't seem to be working. Try again later."
is displayed after it appears that the episode in question attempts to load (I see the episode description before it is replaced with the error message).
For all others (Democracy, The Universe's Shape, The School of Athens, Baconian Science, Brave New World, Suffragism, The Building of St Petersburg, The Vacuum of Space, The Magna Carta, and The Dreyfus Affair) the message is:
"In Our Time: <episode title> is unavailable at this time."
The same type of message appears for both lower and normal bandwidth versions of the same episode. Clearing my browser cache does not resolve the issue. With the exception of Democracy, I have found working rtsp streams for all the episodes I cannot play via iPlayer and posted the URLs for them to the iPlayer Message board.
The two versions of On the Origins of Charles Darwin (the first part of the Darwin special) both appear in the full episode guide and on the Darwin: In Our Time series page; one of which is available for me to play (iPlayer URL), the other (iPlayer URL) results in the "unavailable at this time" type message. The link to the previous episode from the second part of the Darwin special is to the version of the first part that is not available for me to play (hope that makes sense).
Please pass on my thanks to the Radio 4 interactive team for their continuing efforts to resolve the issues identified.
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Comment number 20.
At 23:39 6th Apr 2010, Bobby wrote:The fixes appear to have stalled, would really like to be able to listen to the episode on Democracy, I've heard that the correct content plays via iPlayer to those in the UK. It's the only one of the episodes that I've not been able to listen to.
Thanks.
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Comment number 21.
At 07:37 13th Apr 2010, Steve Bowbrick wrote:Thanks again for your updates, Bobby. I'll pass on your comments to the interactive team.
Steve Bowbrick, editor, Radio 4 blog
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Comment number 22.
At 20:50 14th Apr 2010, Bobby wrote:Steve Bowbrick, many thanks for intervening again, just rechecked Democracy and it plays! The other issues identified in the March 20th 7:34 p.m. ET post appear to remain, though, as noted before, with a little guessing, it's possible to work around them.
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Comment number 23.
At 01:22 15th Jul 2010, Bobby wrote:Noticed there's a new duplicate episode The Neanderthals here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sq1w3 and here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sq1nv. The episode is available for play back on the second of those links, but not the first, and the first is linked to from both the preceding and following episodes (al-Biruni and Antarctica).
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Comment number 24.
At 07:55 3rd Oct 2010, John99 wrote:Steve,
Mark Wrote in the blog But we have often been asked why the audience only has 7 days to listen again - and why we can't make available the brilliant - and enduring - programmes that have been made in recent years.
And we now can do that.
Have all but the last two episodes of iot now disapeared.
LOOK podcast site only currently shows two episodes there is also a related iPlayer thread
Does r4 now only show a few episodes of any programme as podcasts.
Presumably the streamable podcasts are also restricted (will they re-appear IF the older podcasts re-appear).
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Comment number 25.
At 11:28 9th Oct 2010, Tylersboy wrote:Not much to do with the preceding comments, but did want to make three discrete observations about IOT:
Firstly, to say how much I enjoyed the Spanish Armada episode. Remarkable combination of analysis and quite gripping narrative all in just over forty minutes.
Secondly, to say that I’ve just finished reading Peter H. Wilson’s excellent "Europe’s Tragedy: A History of the Thirty Years War", and it occurred to me to wonder if that hugely influential conflict had ever been considered as a good subject for an IOT.
Thirdly – and I hope not too churlishly – a minor quibble: is it really necessary to index every IOT episode whose title begins with “the” under “t” in the archive?
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