Authors
What Time Is it Eccles?
Spike from The Goon Show, 1958 Classical music in the morning, jazz in the afternoons, half an hour for lunch (battenburg or a danish) and to open the French windows and talk to the birds. The Magic Roundabout at five to six and then a bath. "The public perception of Spike is this sc...
Give us one of the old tunes
Editor's note: Deborah Wain is the writer of today's Afternoon Play 'Notes To Self', a drama about Alzheimer's disease, based on real experiences and interwoven with recordings of music sessions carried out in care homes and day centres - SB. A heartfelt blast of a chorus or just a brief flicke...
The Manhattan Bee Testimonials
This is the story of the search for the Manhattan Bee Man - a guy who apparently lives in New York with 250,000 bees in his apartment and is completely oblivious to the discomfort. Is he real or is he a just another bogie man? It's also about Alphabet City, and the truly amazing people who live ...
More from the You & Yours archive
Editor's note: more quite haunting glimpses of our former selves from the You & Yours archive. We've now published all of the five episodes of the programme from the 1970s found in the archive. If you have a recording of an episode of You & Yours from that decade, please leave a comment to let u...
The BBC Radio New Comedy Award comes to Radio 4 Extra
The BBC Radio New Comedy Award 2013 is a nationwide talent search that aims to find the brightest new voices on the stand-up comedy circuit and will be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 and Radio 4 Extra. It is currently open for entry until 28th June.
Feminine Mystiques: In thrall to glamour - the story behind Mink
Fifty years since the first publication of Betty Friedan's seminal feminist work The Feminine Mystique, Radio 4 has commissioned three leading writers to celebrate her influence in new short stories exploring the contemporary feminist landscape. Marina Warner explains the inspiration behind her ...
Radio 4 Extra's Book at Beachtime: Before I Go to Sleep
Editor's note: Radio 4 Extra have been running a season of readings for the summer, Book at Beachtime. Each of the books in the series has been adapted in five parts and is broadcast on 4 Extra Monday to Friday at 2.30pm and is then available to listen online for seven days afterwards. This week...
Guided by sound: Recording the Bearded Tit for Tweet of the Day
Wildlife Recordist Chris Watson goes amongst the reeds in the Humber Estuary in search of the bearded tit.
A day spent producing (and directing) The Archers
A straight hit into studio today after not having been in the office for a week, all a bit of a shock and I gave myself an hour and a half to get into work - I only live 12 miles away! Just as well I did, the traffic is always heavy on a Monday morning, and I got in with 20 minutes to spare; tim...
The Woman's Hour Power List: How we found our Top 100
Woman's Hour Producer, Ruth Watts, outlines the hours of deliberation that went into choosing the Top 100 most powerful women in Britain today.
Alistair Cooke's Letter From America
This week Radio 4 releases over 900 editions of Alistair Cooke's Letter From America. You can listen, download and read transcripts of all these programmes that span from 1946 to 2004. Here, Justin Webb talks about the impact and lasting influence of Letter From America. Alistair Cooke © C...
The 2014 Radio 4 Christmas Appeal
Revd Dr Sam Well shares his thoughts on writing the 2014 Radio 4 Christmas Appeal
Can east London's Silicon Roundabout help Britain out of the economic crisis?
Editor's note: In Business explores what's behind the flurry of entrepreneurial web-based businesses siting themselves near an east London roundabout which has led to the area being dubbed Silicon Roundabout in a clear nod to Silicon Valley. BBC journalist Mike Wendling considers if these hungry...
From the Archers blog - The Archers editor on the 60th anniversary
A week on from marking our 60th anniversary, and it's clear it's not just the residents of Ambridge who are talking about recent events in Borsetshire. I have a two inch high pile of press cuttings before me. Many celebrate the amazing achievement of a drama having reached its diamond jubilee, ...
Peter White's week
One of my delights over the past few years has been following the so-called 'children of the Olympic bid'. If you've missed it let me fill you in. These are the youngsters who back in 2005 played a key but little known role in snatching the games for London from under the Parisian nose. Aged be...
The Bob Graham Round: Music meets the Fells
Ed's note: Richard Wigley is the general manager of the BBC Philharmonic in Salford. Like many people he likes nothing better than spending time in the Lake District. But rather than a gentle amble though the hills he prefers a gruelling run. And so he set Italian film composer Maurizio Malagnin...
Cue! Eric Sykes
This Christmas Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra pay tribute to Eric Sykes, one of the great English comedians who died earlier this year.
James Lees-Milne
James Lees-Milne -'the man who saved England'? There are no statues erected in his memory, no museums dedicated to his life and work. But across the country there are monuments to be seen – if you know where to look.
The 4 O’Clock Show on Radio 4 Extra
Radio 4 Extra currently broadcast The 4 O’Clock Show, a mix of stories, comedy, interviews and quizzes. With regret we confirm our plans for the programme to finish next spring and I wanted to explain why we have made this decision.
Saturday Live: Dr Michael Dixon and Inheritance Tracks of singer Katie Melua
Sian Williams and Richard Coles with Dr Michael Dixon, the Director of the Natural History Museum, The Inheritance Tracks of singer Katie Melua, the sounds of a 20 ton Wurlitzer organ in a Chorleywood living room.
