Authors
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...
Protection - it's the name of the game
I'm standing in a large conference room - devoid of furniture, carpet pulled back - in an ordinary well-known branded hotel in Kent. The room reverberates with shouts and cries: "Give me your money!" I've got a gun and I'll use it if you don't give me your valuables! br> Get down! Get down! br...
Book of the Week: Just My Type by Simon Garfield
Ed's note: Just my Type is on Monday to Friday this week at 9.45am on Radio 4. You can catch up with any missed episodes on the website - PM Bowie's Hunky Dory: "The swell of the type (Zipper, I now know) promises an expanding consciousness even before the needle hits the groove..." - pic...
Listener Week
Jane Garvey talks about Listener Week on Woman's Hour, In Our Time and Saturday Live on BBC Radio 4.
Dr Geoff Bunn introduces A History of the Brain
Ed's note: A History of the Brain, presented by Dr Geoff Bunn, starts today on Radio 4 at 1.45pm and is on every weekday for the next two weeks. See the links at the end of this post for more info - PM. Egypt: Gizeh, Sphinx and Pyramid, Brooklyn Museum Archives In researching A Histor...
Jalalabad university bombing hits 'imam of peace'
Editor's note: Nadene Ghouri's Radio 4 programme about John Butt from a couple of weeks ago now has a melancholy postscript. On Tuesday, bombers struck the university he founded in Jalalabad. The programme is no longer available on the iPlayer so I've republished it here, in full. In this blog p...
Beatrix Potter and the tailor
Hear Beatrix Potter’s Favourite Tale on BBC Radio 4 at 11.30am on 27 December. Here, the presenter Philip Glassborow talks about the story behind the programme.
The Shared Experience: Do you believe in ghosts?
Fi Glover reveals the ghost of a fugitive priest in the house in which she grew up in. She presents The Shared Experience, the first episode of which meets 5 people who have had ghostly experiences.
Throwing caution to the wind in 'I, Claudius'
Editor's note: this post by the lead in Radio 4's new Classic Serial, 'I, Claudius', starts with a clip from the drama - SB. I was eight when 'I, Claudius' first aired on the BBC in 1976. It remains burned on my brain as the first televisual event that I recall. Of course I was far too young to...
Front Row's Cultural Exchange
John Goudie, Editor of Front Row, discusses the Radio 4 project - Cultural Exchange - in which 75 creative minds share their passion for an art-work of any kind.
Severed Threads: From Downtown Manhattan to Suburban Minneapolis
Editor's note: radio drama rivals all other media as a source of innovation and adventurous story-telling technique. Fred Greenhalgh worked on a particularly adventurous example for the Afternoon Play slot at 1415 today. The video shows the recording of one scene on location in New York - SB Jo...
David Pownall Season
Mike Greenwood discusses his work as the presenter and producer of Radio 4 Extra's 'David Pownall Season'. David shares his reflections on the art of Radio Drama and the enduring power and creative potential of radio for writers and audiences alike.
Lives in a Landscape: The Devils of Broughton podcast
St Peter's Church in Broughton While Radio 4's documentary series Lives in a Landscape is off air, we're steadily making the archive available for download - and this week we're putting up a seasonal classic - The Devils of Broughton on the Lives in a Landscape podcast page. Alan Dein...
Pather Panchali - Song of The Road
Tanika Gupta describes how she adapted Bibhuti Bhushan Banerji's novel Pather Panchali - Song of The Road for radio drama.
Our Mutual Friend - sound design - Colin Guthrie
Right from the start it was clear that the sound of water would feature heavily in the soundscape of the production - the river Thames could be considered the central character of the piece as so much of the story is woven in and around it. Drownings and near drownings, Lizzie Hexam and her fath...
I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, Again: A Legacy of Laughs?
Is there any thread that links I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again to it's famous TV decendants, Monty Python or The Goodies? Producer Nick St George reflects on ISIRTA's legacy of laughs.
