Authors
The Slanket of Con: Origins
Martha Kearney in the Slanket of Con. Martha subsequently tweeted: "I have reached the pinnacle of my career thanks to Corrie Corfield..." Editor's note: Some of you will be familiar with the Slanket of Con, some of you will have no idea what's going on. I first saw it being discussed onli...
BBC Radio 4's digital challenge day
Radio 4 is to hold a hackday to explore new and innovative ways of using digital communications to do more for new audiences.
Remembering Churchill’s Funeral
David Cannadine, presenter of ‘Churchill’s Other Lives’ remembers Churchill’s funeral 50 years ago.
Upshares - a new high
I like to think that every week on PM is a special week, but for regular listeners, this week will be... shall we say, extra special? For this is the week that the great Alexander Faris, composer of the Upstairs, Downstairs theme, will speak unto the nation. For new readers: over the last year,...
Four minutes. Exactly.
ANNOUNCERS' WEEK: DAY TWO There are some things on Radio 4 that you only notice when they go wrong. For continuity announcers the potential for things to unravel is never more than a stone's throw away, but it edges just a little bit closer each day at midday. This is when we split the output b...
An introduction to Online First
Online First gives you with the ability to hear a selection of Radio 4 programmes before they have been on the radio. Head of Speech & Classical Music Radio, Andrew Caspari explains.
Read the manual? Never!
Ever been on an online discussion forum to inquire about some technical problem you're trying to sort out? Then it's quite likely that after a while you will have received a terse message from some smart-alec, which will end with the acronym RTM, followed by a number of exclamations marks. That ...
The Day of the Sardine: Being Dad
Editor's note: First published in 1961 to much acclaim, The Day of the Sardine is the story of Arthur Haggerston a school-leaver with zero educational qualifications, an absentee father, a mother who gives him a hard time, and a home in a slum-clearance area of Newcastle. Written by Sid Chaplin ...
Analysis at forty
The BBC is famously good at marking anniversaries. Wars, coronations, Darwin's birth, 'Dad's Army.' So it is right that the fortieth anniversary of Radio Four's Analysis, which takes place this year, should be marked in some way. It was at 21:15 on Friday 10 April 1970 that the voice of the urba...
When Harry met Sally at 20
Editor's note - Sarah Churchwell is writer and presenter of yesterday's When Harry met Sally at 20. I asked her to tell us more about her subject - SB. The only difficult thing about writing a script - or indeed a blog post - about When Harry Met Sally and its place in the genealogy of American...
The Art of Monarchy - Psaultier de David
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 Elizabeth Clark considers an inscription by Queen Elizabeth I - PM. Supplied by Royal Collection Trust /...
Eliza Manningham-Buller's second Reith Lecture: Security
Editor's note: This Tuesday morning Radio 4 broadcasts Eliza Manningham-Buller's second Reith Lecture, Security, at 09.00 BST. It will be repeated on Saturday 17 September at 22.15 BST - PM. In Security, recorded last week in Leeds, Baroness Manningham-Buller argues that the securi...
Being told off by James Naughtie
ANNOUNCERS' WEEK: DAY ONE 3.30AM The alarm goes off, but it doesn't bother me. That's because I'm already staring at it. In fact, I've been staring at it on-and-off since about two o'clock, when I jolted awake after a horrible dream in which I overslept until half past seven, raced in to find R...
The Science Explorer and the Radio 4 science archive
The Science Explorer It sure was a trip back in time. Could it really have been 1995 when I had interviewed Steven Pinker about his work on the mistakes young children make in language - "taked" instead of "took", and "hidded" rather than "hid"? And now Pinker is probably one of the best ...
Saturday Live: Richard Curtis and Inheritance Tracks from Ben Elton
Richard Curtis, Murray Lachlan Young, Inheritance Tracks from Ben Elton, Antarctic explorer Meredith Hooper, plus Richard's panto experiences...
Making History is back
Series 23 of Making History is under way and the email traffic is pouring in. Two weeks ago, we somehow managed to find three consecutive days for location interviews in which Nick must have driven about 500 miles as we worked our way around Norfolk, Bury St Edmunds, Tetbury in Gloucestershire a...
Wearing a cravat
Editor's note - Charles Collingwood, landed lothario Brian Aldridge in The Archers, stopped by my borrowed desk in the Birmingham Mailbox this morning and, while pacing up and down, dictated this short diary piece to me. And this, for some reason, seemed entirely appropriate - SB. I stayed over...
Book at Beachtime
Editor's introduction: For the next four weeks Radio 4 Extra's running a season of "gripping, escapist summer reading... twisted family drama, sweeping romance and, above all, great story-telling by best-selling authors old, new and to come..." I asked the producers, Lucy Collingwood (LC) and Ge...
