Authors
Shortlisting for Brain of Britain
Producer Paul Bajoria anticipates Monday's Brain of Britain final, and explains how contestants are selected for the show, now in its 60th season.
Introducing Inside Science
Mohit Bakaya, one of Radio 4's Commissioning Editors, discusses new programme Inside Science, which will replace Radio 4's Material World.
Radio 4 Extra: 90 x 90
Editor's note: At 5.33pm on Wednesday 14 November BBC Radio will be coming together to mark its 90th anniversary live with Simon Mayo from London's Science Museum. Here, Nick Baker, talks about how Radio 4 Extra will be joining the celebrations. PMcD For the last few months I have ...
Joan Bakewell on George Orwell
Joan Bakewell discusses George Orwell's influence on her work.
Boy Racers: From Karting to Formula One
Editor's note: While Lewis Hamilton might be in the news today for the wrong reasons, Boy Racers - available to listen to on the Radio 4 website for the next seven days - follows the same arduous path to the top that Hamilton took and hears from some of the drivers looking to become the stars of...
Heather honey and hard work
Picture the scene. Blue sky... singing birds... the rolling Derbyshire moorland covered in a blushing pink eiderdown as beekeepers across the country arrive for the annual ritual of taking the bees to the heather. That's how it should have been on that August day when the Farming Today bees ar...
Recording Fags, Mags and Bags
This week in deepest, darkest Glasgow I've had the great pleasure of producing the 3rd series of corner shop comedy 'Fags, Mags & Bags' for BBC Radio 4. (Let's get the plugs in early, lead character Ramesh would expect nothing less! Starts Wednesday 10th February at 1130) Myself and the writers...
When do they start playing Christmas music in the shops?
Just been into studio where Producer Rosemary Watts is directing with the usual tight schedule - she's making an episode for mid-December so it's full of Christmas cheer. When I went in she had the whole cast plus some of the team (and Blog Supremo Steve) all doing some 'wild track' sound effect...
What does a giant sound like? Making the new series of Pilgrim
Marc Beeby, the producer of fantasy series Pilgrim, explains how to create a radio giant using a bass drum, a chain, and some audio reverb.
Down the Line is back
Editor's note: when Down the Line first appeared on Radio 4 there was uproar. A popular phone-in with an award-winning presenter most obviously recruited from a different part of the speech radio spectrum? Not a popular commission. However, Radio 4 listeners - ever tolerant - have taken the show...
Life outside The Archers
Well here I am back in Ambridge after a two month stint Educating Rita at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury - I popped up to Birmingham to do four episodes in that time but was otherwise immersed in the discipline and rigour of theatre. Most of my life as an actor involves doing something differe...
Planet B, series two
Editor's note: here's a first for the Radio 4 blog. A post by a fictional character. Kip Berenger will make his appearance in series 2 of Radio 7's Planet B, starting on 29 November. He spoke to lead writer Matthew Broughton: I suppose you'd call me a heavy user. I'm going to say that up front...
Comedy podcasts: BBC Radio 4 comedy in your pocket
Building on the runaway success of the Friday Night Comedy podcast (featuring The Now Show and The News Quiz), there are now three comedy podcasts on offer from Radio 4. Yes, the Friday Night Comedy podcast is now being downloaded over a million times each month, putting it at the top of the i...
The Art of Monarchy: The Royal Collection in Context
Editor's note: To coincide with the Art of Monarchy, the Radio 4 blog is running a series of posts by the Royal Collection's curators on different aspects of the collection. In this post Rufus Bird considers Royal art in context - CM. As a curator I am faced with considering the pl...
Tweet of the Day
Sarah Blunt, Senior Producer, Natural History Radio Unit, introduces Tweet of the Day, Radio 4's year long celebration of British birds through their songs and calls. The series starts on 6th May with the first month presented by Sir David Attenborough.
My Nights In With the Prof
The writer Charlotte Bogard Macleod on the inspiration behind Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, a new drama about love and statistics, starring Andrew Scott.
Feedback: Funding the BBC
Roger Bolton on funding the 2017 Charter and licence fee costs for the over 75s.
Queens of Noise - Get It On
‘Queens Of Noise – Get It On’ is the story of all-girl band Velveteens as they clamber up the slippery slope to success in the late 80s /early 90s based on fact, by writers - Roy Boulter and Louise Wener.
Joe Cornish, Attack the Block director, on The Film Programme
Jo Cornish came into BH to talk to Francine Stock about his new film Attack the Block on this afternoon's Film Programme. Listen again on the Radio 4 web site and download the programme to your computer by signing up for the free podcast. Mark Kermode reviewed the film a couple of weeks ago and ...
Is Economics the new Rock 'n' Roll?
Who would have thought that one way for Radio 4 to catch the attention of a younger audience was to organise a debate about two dead economists, with a septuagenarian member of the House of Lords as the star attraction? Last Tuesday night, around 1000 people queued around the block at the L...
