Episode details

Available for over a year
Fi Glover presents Radio 4's series capturing the nation in conversation: in today's last visit Francis and Lily from Glasgow remember the years of Francis' addiction to heroin and its terrible consequences. Throughout everything - even prison - his mum, Lily, remained constant and supplied the strength to pull him through. Recorded by Radio Scotland, this is Francis' opportunity to say thankyou. The Listening Project is a new initiative for Radio 4 that aims to offer a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Many of the long conversations are being archived by the British Library which they will use to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject Producer Marya Burgess.
Programme Website