Authors
Radio Times' Pick of the Week: Warhorses of Letters
Editor's note: Warhorses of Letters starts on Radio 4 this Tuesday 25 October at 11pm. As the Radio Times puts it: "Only on Radio 4 would one find a gay, epistolary romance in which the letter writers are horses". Stephen Fry and Daniel Rigby (who won a BAFTA for his portrayl of Eric Morecambe o...
The 'unsung' heroes of winter birdsong
Tweet of the Day presenter, Chris Packham, celebrates some of the 'unsung' heroes of winter birdsong.
Bono's Elvis
When you make a radio programme, you wait for the transmission date, you hope for a couple of reviews in the paper, you listen to the transmission and then it's gone. Elvis by Bono has had a different journey. It's attracted world wide press, has become the most read story this week on the Times...
Brains, idea, lightbulbs and tattoos
Andrew Park, Visual Thinker and Director of Cogni+ive talks about the History of Ideas animations.
Red or Dead
You'd be hard pushed to find a better man to write about than Bill Shankly." David Peace [The Damned United, Red Riding Trilogy] talks to us about Red or Dead, his latest novel about legendary Liverpool Manager Bill Shankly which is this week's Book at Bedtime.
Sunday Worship from Camp Bastion, Helmand
The seeds for Sunday Worship from Helmand were sown more than five years ago. I'd always been interested in the role of religion in an organisation where the job - when all else failed and to put it bluntly - was to blow things up and kill people. It took about 18 months from first contacting th...
Adapting Balzac for the Friday Play
Editor's note: Adrian Penketh is an actor and playwright. He's adapted a novel by Honoré de Balzac for The Friday Play - SB. In the introductory note to my first copy of The Wild Ass's Skin (La Peau de Chagrin), the word 'allegorical' was used in the first paragraph. It's a welcome word for a w...
Modesty Blaise – A Taste for Death
You may recognize the name and be vaguely aware of her as the scantily-clad, drop-kicking heroine of a 60s comic strip. Or you may be one of the secret legion of fans who collect every novel and strip, original artwork and rare editions.
Nina Perry on 'Spirit of the Beehive'
Ed's note: Spirit of the Beehive (TX: 11am, Friday 2 September 2011) is a composed feature by Nina Perry exploring our enduring relationship with the honeybee. Here on the blog Nina talks about the making of the programme. You can listen to Spirit of the Beehive online shortly after transmission...
Radio 4 Drama: Jack's Return Home
Editors note: You can hear Jack's Return Home on Radio 4 on Tuesday 28 August 2012, 23:00. Here, Nick Perry writes about the dramatisation of the 1970s crime novel by Ted Lewis that became the film Get Carter. PMcD You've probably seen Michael Caine in Get Carter but it's less lik...
'Taught, yelled at, encouraged and licked into shape': A childhood at the BBC
On the 90th birthday of Radio Drama, Sian Phillips remembers the first time she acted for the BBC Welsh Home Service department as a child.
Artangel and Radio 4: Open Project Artists
Radio 4 has teamed up with Artangel in a quest to bring to life new ground-breaking arts projects.
Rescheduling Radio 4
The Film Programme moves to Thursdays starting next week when one of the guests is the writer and director of film classic Withnail and I, Bruce Robinson, director of new release The Rum Diary. As Paul Murphy posted earlier this week, next Monday sees the start of The World At One's exten...
Frightening the horses - swapping stations on Feedback
For many listeners to Feedback, it will be many years since they listened to Radio 1 - if they ever did. That's a problem for us on the Feedback team because we're here to represent the views of listeners of all the national networks. But because it's broadcast on Radio 4 - what happens on that ...
Tweet of the Day - Recording the Common Crane Chick
Recording the chicks of the Common Crane for Radio 4's Tweet of the Day
Series catch-up for Radio 4 programmes
Yesterday something small but significant happened. Instead of disappearing from iPlayer when its 7 days were up, the first Episode of The Complete Smiley - The Spy Who Came in From the Cold stayed put. Which means that you can go back and listen to it before listening to Episode 2. The unusual...
Brazilian Bonanza: The Dumbo List
Antonio Prata on the childhood memories that influence his story Valdir Peres, Juanito and Poloskei, the third story in the Brazilian Bonanza collection.
Rocking and rolling on The Reunion
We recognised Marty Wilde first. He was the tall one with the full head of hair dressed in a camel coat. Vince Eager came next, a man who once quaked the nation with the soda pop fuelled Buzz, Buzz. Buzz. Then came the drummer who has quite possibly played on more No 1's than any other man alive...
The 4 O'Clock Show: The Roald Dahl archive
2011 marks 50 years since the publication of the Roald Dahl classic James and the Giant Peach. The 4 O'Clock Show on BBC Radio 4 Extra has recorded a new version of the story, read by Miriam Margolyes. You can catch up on the website and listen to the remaining parts everyday this week. Rich Pre...
The annual Radio 4 Christmas appeal
Back to Trafalgar Square for another year, in a strange flat limbo between the departure of the last Antony Gormley plinth-person and the arrival of the big Christmas tree. This time last year - as right now - I was involved in the Radio 4 Christmas appeal, for the work of St Martin-in-the-Field...
