The BBC has announced that it has a sustainable plan for the future of the BBC Singers, in association with The VOCES8 Foundation.
The threat to reduce the staff of the three English orchestras by 20% has not been lifted, but it is being reconsidered.
See the BBC press release here.
RADIO-LISTS: BBC RADIO 4 Extra
Unofficial Weekly Listings for BBC Radio 4 Extra — supported by bbc.co.uk/programmes/
The ghoulish Vanderhausen seals his deal with Rose's uncle and takes her away. 17th-century mystery concluded by Ian McDiarmid.
Restaurant critic Jay Rayner, Professor John Sutherland and writer Julie Myerson discuss drink with Chris Bigsby.
In each programme, Professor Bigsby introduces a group of writers of fact and fiction: new talent and established names. In the context of a discussion of one of the ideas and pre-occupations of our times, each presents a piece on this week's topic.
The best new writing and the freshest conversation from 2002.
A long-buried secret induces pity and sorrow in the Great Detective.
Holmes and Watson learn the truth about the death of a lion tamer many years before, which left his wife horribly mutilated and hidden behind a veil. A tale of abuse and revenge fuelled by the ultimate betrayal of a lover and the physical and emotional scars it has left behind.
Taken from 'The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes' published in 1927 some years after Holmes' death at the hands of Moriarty, this a story from the latter period of Sherlock Holmes mysteries.
Read by James Nickerson.
Producer: Joanne Reardon
Made for BBC 7 and first broadcast in 2004.
The planet Mars boasts the most dramatic landscapes in our solar system. Kevin Fong embarks on a grand tour around the planet with scientists, artists and writers who know its special places intimately- through their probes, roving robots and imaginations.
As we roam Mars' beauty spots, Kevin explores why the Red planet grips so many. Beyond its alien topographic grandeur, Mars inspires the bigger questions: are we alone in the cosmos, and what is the longer term destiny of humanity? Was there more than one life genesis? Will humans ever live on more than one planet?
The itinerary includes the solar system's greatest volcano - Olympus Mons. It is an ancient pile of lavas more than twice the height of Everest, with a summit crater that could contain Luxembourg.
The weight of Mars' gargantuan volcanic outpourings helped to create the planet's extreme version of our Grand Canyon. Vallis Marineris is an almighty gash in the crust 4,000 kilometres long and seven kilometres deep. That is more than three times the depth of Earth's Grand Canyon. In some place the cliffs are sheer from top to bottom.
A little to the east lies an extraordinary region called Iani Chaos, a vast realm of closely spaced and towering rock stacks and mesas, hundreds to thousands of metres high. One researcher describes it as Tolkienesque. This unearthly shattered terrain was created billions of years ago when immense volumes of water burst out from beneath the surface and carved another giant canyon, known as Ares Valles, in a matter of months. Imagine a hundred Amazon rivers cutting loose at once, suggests Professor Steve Squyres.
The catastrophically sculpted landscapes are part of the plentiful evidence that in its early days, Mars was, at time,s awash with water and, in theory, provided environments in which life could evolve and survive. That is what the latest robot rover on Mars - Curiosity - is exploring at the dramatic Gale Crater with its central peak, Mount Sharp.
Expert Mars guides in the programme include scientists on the current Curiosity mission, and on the preceeding rover explorations by Spirit and Opportunity. Kevin talks to hard sci-fi novelist Kim Stanley Robinson whose rich invocations of Martian landscapes form th narrative bedrock of his Mars Trilogy.
He also meets Bill Hartmann, a planetary scientist since earliest generation of Mars probes in the 1960s and 1970. Bill has a parallel career as an artist who paints landscapes of the Red Planet.
Planetary scientist Pascal Lee of the Mars Institute begins Kevin's tour with a painting he created - an imagined view of Mars from the surface of its tiny moon, Phobos.
Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker, BBC Radio Science Unit
An old pal of roaring 1920s jazz cornet player Pete Kelly is suspected of murdering a mobster.
Stars Jack Webb as Pete Kelly with his 'Big 7' jazz group.
Set in a 1922 Speakeasy at 417 Cherry Street, Kansas City, where a heady mix of gangsters, pulpy thrills and spills are readily available.
Pete Kelly's Blues may have only run for three months on American radio, but it spawned a whole film in the mid-1950s. A novel mix of hard-boiled thriller and musical interludes, Jack 'Dragnet' Webb not only stars but also directs.
A keen fan of jazz in real life, Webb did not miss the opportunity to get some of the genuine article into the series. It's fair to say happy endings weren't high on the agenda.
Written by Joe Eisinger.
Music by Dick Cathcart, with scoring by Matty Matlock.
First broadcast on NBC in the USA in 1951.
4 Extra's MYSTERY THEATER showcases American radio's golden years of the 1940s and 50s, when many of Hollywood's greatest screen stars were regular performers, often re-enacting film roles.
Englishman Philip confesses all to Italian Gino and learns a bitter truth. Stars Sian Thomas, Jamie Bamber and Tom George.
Nicholas Shakespeare writes about his aunt, a glamorous English woman whose life in Paris during the German Occupation grew more and more mysterious. Abridged in 5 episodes by Katrin Williams.
5. D-Day and the whole of Paris is jumping, dancing, clasped in embrace. But Priscilla the eternal party girl is in a very quiet place, with a dubious past hot on her heels.
Reader Nicholas Shakespeare
Producer Duncan Minshull
Dramatisation of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.
One of the great works of English literature, this powerful, compelling story explores love from its first tentative beginnings through to passionate sensuality and eventual tragic disillusionment. Lavinia Greenlaw's new version for radio brings Chaucer's language up-to-date for a modern audience while remaining true to his original poetic intention.
Criseyde's Uncle Pandarus has been the matchmaker for the Trojan hero Troilus and young widow Criseyde, who are desperately in love. But what will happen when Criseyde is handed over to the Greeks at the gates of Troy to join her 'traitor' father?
Troilus ...... Tom Ferguson
Criseyde ...... Maxine Peake
Pandarus ...... Malcolm Raeburn
Servant/Friend ...... Kathryn Hunt
Calchas/Servant ...... Kevin Doyle
Priam/Servant ...... Terence Mann
Hector/Diomede ...... Declan Wilson
With music composed by Gary Yershon and performed by Ehsan Emam, Tim Williams and Mike Dale.
Directed by Susan Roberts.
Animal, vegetable or mineral?
Barry Took hosts a revised version of popular radio parlour game of 20 questions.
Regular Geoffrey Durham is joined by Neil Innes and Jan Ravens.
Written by Michael Dines.
Producer: Andy Aliffe
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 1998.
Tom and Jerry visit a cockfight, try to buy a horse, meet a sporting legend and lay a wager on which is better, London or the West Country.
Meanwhile, garrulous narrator Pierce Egan takes literary critic William Hazlitt to his first boxing match.
Pierce Egan’s 19th-century comic novel adapted in six parts by Dan Tetsell.
Pierce Egan .... Geoffrey McGivern
Plausible Jack .... Ben Graves
Corinthian Tom .... Greg Wise
William Hazlitt/Tom Cribb .... Alex Mcqueen
Jerry Hawthorn .... Mark Gatiss
Bob Logic .... James Bachman
Mrs Egan .... Alys Torrence
Producer: Tilusha Ghelani
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2006.
A group of friends are landed in a situation they're desperate to get out of - on the slopes of a ski resort.
Six black comedies by Mark Maier and Daniel Maier.
Nadine - Olivia Colman
Clare - Joanna Holden
Craig - Mark Maier
Paul - Chris Pavlo
Enzo - Daniel Maier
Producer: Alex Walsh-Taylor
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2003.
By Richard Katz, John Nicholson and Javier Marzan
In ancient Persia, the new Queen cheats death by captivating the King with stories. For almost three years, she's kept the executioners waiting and now they're taking matters into their own hands by hatching a plot to kidnap her.
In this new series the comedy troupe Peepolykus assume the roles of minor characters in great works of fiction and derail the plot of the book through their hapless buffoonery.
Cast:
Richard . . . . . Richard Katz
The King . . . . . Javier Marzan
John . . . . . John Nicholson
Hayley . . . . . Hayley Carmichael
Scheherazade . . . . . Sirine Saba
Grand Vizier . . . . . Sam Dale
Guards . . . . . Richard Pepple & George Watkins
Director . . . . . Sasha Yevtushenko
As young Titus approaches his destiny in Gormenghast, he faces the rise of the ruthlessly ambitious Steerpike.
The second of two plays based on the Gormenghast novels by Mervyn Peake - dramatised by Brian Sibley.
Stars Sting as Steerpike
Freddie Jones as The Artist
Bernard Hepton as Dr Prunesquallor
Judy Parfitt as Irma Prunesquallor
Eleanor Bron as Gertrude
Sheila Hancock as Clarice and Cora
Jill Lidstone as Fuchsia
Cyril Shaps as Flay
Maurice Denham as Barquentine
Michael Aldridge as Bellgrove
Hilda Schroder as Nannie Slagg
Vicky Ireland as Titus aged 7
Julian Firth as Titus aged 17
Schoolmasters:-
Mulefire .... Arnold Diamond
Cutflower ... David Garth
Shrivell ... Alan Thompson
Shred ... David Sinclair
Opus Fluke ... John Forbes Robertston
Perch-Prism ... David Gooderson
Director: Glyn Dearman.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1984.
Music critic Pete Paphides tells the story behind three 'follow-up' albums - from Dexys Midnight Runners, Fleetwood Mac and Suede - with tales of musical pressure, creative differences, personal politics and mixed results.
How many bands have found themselves with a massive and often unexpected hit album, only to struggle with the creation of their next opus? Sometimes the follow-up exceeds the first album, but often nerves kick in and bands are removed from the very stimulus that created their magic in the first place, finding themselves in a world of creative confusion, sycophants and accountants.
Pete Paphides talks to musicians, producers, and critics to explore the stories of follow-up albums with the same expert knowledge he brought to Lost Albums.
Programme 2: Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
How do you follow a record that sells 21 million copies worldwide and spends over 30 weeks at number one in the US album chart?
The answer is Tusk - the album Fleetwood Mac recorded in the wake of 1976's Rumours.
Despite joining the band just three years previously, this was the record that saw Lindsey Buckingham impose his will on Fleetwood Mac using the studio as a crucible in which he shovelled intra-band infidelities and his new-found love of punk.
In 1979 it was deemed a failure, nicknamed "Lindsey's folly" from industry insiders. After 35 years, it has been reappraised as their boldest, most forward-looking release, "a peerless piece of pop art", influencing Radiohead and REM.
Produced by Laura Parfitt
A White Pebble Media Production for BBC Radio 4
Back in 1973, Britain was plunged into darkness as Prime Minister Edward Heath introduced a three-day working week.
Cities fell dark. Factories and schools closed. People, often wrapped in blankets, worked by candle and torchlight. At home, people boiled water to wash and children were sent to school with luminous yellow bands so they could be seen in the gloom. And Britain's three TV channels came to an abrupt end at ten thirty!
For decades, British politics was shaped, perhaps defined, by the events of the early 1970s, with the three-day week as the centrepoint. Now it seems almost unimaginable that this could have happened in one of the world's richest countries so how did it ever get to this point? Could Heath have done anything different? Michael White of The Guardian, then a young reporter, takes us back to those extraordinary days and charts the long-term political significance of the crisis.
Producer: Jim Frank.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.
Following Alan Coren's death in 2007, Robert Thomson, then editor of the Times, aptly described him as "a witty and thoughtful tour guide through life."
Writer, editor of Punch, The Listener, columnist and commentator for a number of national newspapers and "The New Yorker", he was regarded by some as the natural successor to SJ Perelman.
A natural raconteur and broadcaster, he enlivened numerous radio and TV programmes, playing head curmudgeon on "The News Quiz" for nearly 30 years, puncturing pomposity and folly – but managing to do so with humanity and warmth.
With the help of his son and daughter, Giles and Victoria, and friends, colleagues and commentators, Christopher Matthew is your guide through some of most memorable moments of Alan Coren's radio career – from a poignant early "Desert Island Discs", to his humorous columns and contributions to "The News Quiz", as well as an edition of the series Christopher made with Alan Coren - "Freedom Pass".
"The Sage of Cricklewood" will also be remembered and celebrated by some of those who worked with him and knew him best.
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Pier Productions.
A mystery body strains the Republic's spirit of glasnost at the British Embassy – where many more British tourists are finding their way here than in the past...
Alex Shearer's Eastern bloc embassy sitcom.
Starring Dinsdale Landen as HM Ambassador Mackenzie, Peter Acre as William Frost, Moir Leslie as Helen Waterson, Stephen Greif as the United States Ambassador, Christopher Benjamin as Colonel Surikov and Stephen Rashbrook as Harris.
Producer: Pete Atkin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 1988.
A smooth trouble-free staff meeting... no hiccoughs or nasty surprises? That's a bad omen for the school's staff.
School comedy created and written by Jim Eldridge. Ten series of this King Street Junior ran between 1985 and 1998. King Street Junior Revisited ran from 2002 to 2005.
Stars Carolyn Pickles as Mrs Devon, Marlene Sidaway as Miss Lewis, Michael Cochrane as Mr Maxwell, Paul Copley as Mr Long, Teresa Gallagher as Miss Featherstone, Jacqueline Beatty as Miss Reid, Janice Acquah as Mrs Khan, Christopher Dunning as Paul, Charlotte Finlay-Tribe as Mandy, Nikki Snode as Dinesh and Jodie Devlin as Ria.
Producer: John Fawcett Wilson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2003.
Maya Angelou moves to LA in the late 1950s and receives an unexpected visit from singing legend Billie Holiday.
Omnibus edition of Angelou's autobiography.
This series sees Maya move onto New York, retire from singing to pursue her writing at the Harlem Writers Guild, and move into Civil Rights. She works for Martin Luther King Junior, and meets Malcolm X. She also falls in love with a South African freedom fighter.
Narrator Maya - Adjoh Andoh
Maya - Pippa Bennett-Warner
Billie Holiday - Nina Sosanya
Wilkie/Martin Luther King Junior - Steve Toussaint
John Killens/Malcolm X - Don Gilet
Hazel - Saffron Coomber
Vusumzi Make - Danny Sapani
Dramatised by Janice Okoh
Produced and directed by Pauline Harris
First broadcast in five parts on BBC Radio 4 in November 2018
4 Extra Debut. Renowned dancer and choreographer Akram Khan chooses 'Mera Joota Hai Japani' by Mukesh and 'Spiegel Im Spiegel' by Arvo Part.
Muriel Gray walks in the Boyne Valley in the Republic of Ireland with local artist Claidhbh O'Gibne and archaeologist Geraldine Stout.
Series exploring the areas around our greatest battlefields.
Producer: Lucy Lunt
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004.
Michael Williams stars as 1940s comic Robb Wilton, had he been around in 1986. The eternal pessimist muses about telephony. From April 1988.
At the beginning of the 17th century, Ned Prynne invents a machine to record the human voice and fears the church will accuse him of stealing souls.
He earns his living by capturing "master-less men" and selling them, but does not know which story to tell history...
Stars James Bolam as Ned Prynne, Simon Treves as Richard Cornford, Paul Nicholson as Tyler and Stephen Sylvester as Thomas Blacktin.
Written By: Tony Bagley
Director: Alec Reid
First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1990
Satan introduces Edith to Adam and Eve, but for the father and mother of all humanity, they are alarmingly stupid.
Andy Hamilton's comedy set in Hell.
Starring Andy Hamilton as Satan, Annette Crosbie as Edith, Robert Duncan as Scumspawn and Jimmy Mulville as Thomas.
Other characters played by Michael Fenton Stevens, Philip Pope and Felicity Montagu
Producer Paul Mayhew-Archer
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2007.
The Sheffield singer-songwriter tries contacting the spirit world with his wife Mary and Yvette Fielding. From April 2006.
Welsh comic Rhod Gilbert introduces regulars Lloyd Langford and Greg Davies, plus Sarah Millican who takes a weekly look at The Six Stages of Woman.
With live music from Goldheart Assembly, including hits King of Rome and Engravers Daughter.
Guest comedian is Edinburgh Comedy Award winner, Milton Jones.
Join Rhod for his Rant on misguided advertising, see what punch lines Lloyd Langford offers up in It's a Set Up and see if Greg Davies can tempt you with a life time supply of chocolate if you accept his Indecent Proposal.
Producers: Julia Mckenzie and Lianne Coop.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in September 2010.
As Philip and Harriet arrive in Monteriano to rescue the unfortunate Lilia's beastly baby from the horrors of an Italian upbringing, Philip finds himself once more captivated by the country he is supposed to decry.
Conclusion of EM Forster's deliciously witty story of English conventions confounded by the romance of Italy.
Omnibus of the last of ten parts dramatised by Penny Leicester.
Sian Thomas is the Narrator, with Jamie Bamber as Philip, Deborah Findlay as Harriet, Emilia Fox as Caroline and Tom George as Gino.
Director: Di Speirs
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2003.
During Hanukkah, a mother visits the creepy house on the cul-de-sac to fetch her son’s football.
Written by Michelene Wandor and read by Lesley Joseph.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1994.
Another series of the comedy show hosted by Alex Horne and his five-piece band and specially written, original music. Guests across this series include Phill Jupitus, Charlie Baker, Nick Mohammed, Doc Brown, Matt Lucas and Danny Baker.
The first episode explores the theme of 'games' and guest stars Danny Baker who sings with the band and champions an instrument that can't fail to put a smile on your face. Plus, the funkiest song you're ever likely to hear about Chess; an Ode to Chris Hoy and music to exercise to.
Host .... Alex Horne
Trumpet/banjo .... Joe Auckland
Saxophone/clarinet ....Mark Brown
Double Bass/Bass .... Will Collier
Drums and Percussion .... Ben Reynolds
Piano/keyboard .... Ed Sheldrake
Guest performers .... Danny Baker and Ben Jones
Producer .... Julia McKenzie.
David Jason and company elect to poke fun at the Houses of Parliament.
With Sheila Steafel, Royce Mills and Chris Emmett.
Following in the footsteps of Lord Clark, Dr Bronowski and Professor Galbraith, David Jason unravels the mysteries of the universe and the meaning of life.
Scripted by Colin Bostock Smith, Andy Hamilton, Barry Pilton and Alastair Beaton.
Music by John Owen Edwards
Producer: Geoffrey Perkins
First broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 in September 1977.
Phil asks David to help him with his ex-girlfriend, who is stymying his love-life.
Stars George Cole as David Bliss, Diana Churchill as Anne Fellows, Colin Gordon as Tony Fellows, Donald Sinden as Phil Bender, Sheila Sweet as Zoe Hunter, Percy Edwards as 'Psyche' the Dog, Maxine Audley as Estelle Livingstone and Virginia Winter as Wanda Goddard.
Godfrey Harrison's sitcom about shy, bumbling bachelor David Alexander Bliss.
Beginning in 1953, it ran for six series of 118 episodes concluding in 1969 - but few survive in the BBC archive. (A TV series was made in 1969). For the first 7 episodes, David Tomlinson played David, but the rest starred the future star of The St Trinian's films - destined to find great fame as the dodgy Arthur Daley in ITV's Minder - George Cole.
Producer: Leslie Bridgmont
First broadcast on the BBC Home Service in January 1959.
A poignant, powerful autobiography in letters. Sylvia Plath's letters give us a privileged insight into her inner world, as a poet and as a person. This selection offers a fresh perspective on her as a writer and some stunning personal revelations.
This collection of the letters of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet cover the years 1956 and her marriage to the poet Ted Hughes to the final days leading to her death in 1963.
One of the most talented and beloved poets, Sylvia Plath continues to fascinate and inspire. The tragedy of her untimely death at age thirty, almost fifty-five years ago, has left much unknown about her creative and personal life. In this remarkable selection of correspondence, the full range of Plath’s ambitions, talents, fears, and inner world is revealed in her own powerful words.
The Letters of Sylvia Plath are read by Lydia Wilson and produced in Salford by Susan Roberts.
The world renowned physicist Professor Stephen Hawking tells Sue Lawley about his life and work.
Stephen remembers growing up in St Albans, a "ridiculously easy" physics course at Oxford University, where he didn't fully apply himself, and his dark and apocalyptic mood when motor neurone disease was diagnosed in 1963.
The prospect of an early death made Stephen realise that life was worth living and he threw himself into his work, which includes the discovery of Hawking radiation and the best-selling A Brief History Of Time.
His music selections range from Mozart's Requiem in D Minor (his favourite) to Edith Piaf's Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien, a song which sums up his life.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Christmas Day 1992.
True stories told live in in the USA: Jenifer Hixson introduces stories about people and things that flash into our lives.
The Moth is an acclaimed not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling based in the USA. Since 1997, it has celebrated both the raconteur and the storytelling novice, who has lived through something extraordinary and yearns to share it. Originally formed by the writer George Dawes Green as an intimate gathering of friends on a porch in Georgia (where moths would flutter in through a hole in the screen), and then recreated in a New York City living room, The Moth quickly grew to produce immensely popular events at theatres and clubs around New York City and later around the USA, the UK and other parts of the world.
The Moth has presented more than 15,000 stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. The Moth podcast is downloaded over 27 million times a year.
Featuring true stories told live on stage without scripts, from the humorous to the heart-breaking.
The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Jay Allison and Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and is distributed by the Public Radio Exchange.
'It was tempting to think, at times like this, that some bizarre hysteria had gripped the British people.'
Jonathan Coe's new novel for Brexit Britain.
Beginning eight years ago on the outskirts of Birmingham, where car factories have been replaced by pound shops, and London, where riots give way to Olympic fever, Jonathan Coe's new novel follows a Britain through a time of mind-boggling change.
There are newlyweds Ian and Sophie, on either side of the Referendum debate; Doug, the left-wing journalist who writes about austerity from his Chelsea townhouse, and his radical teenage daughter who will stop at nothing in her quest for social justice; Benjamin Trotter, who embarks on an apparently doomed new career in middle age, and his father Colin, whose last wish is to vote to leave the EU. Through these lives is the story of modern England: a story of nostalgia and delusion; of bewilderment and barely-suppressed rage.
Writer: Jonathan Coe's novels include The Rotter's Club and What a Carve Up!
Producer: Justine Willett
Reader: Jeff Rawle is an acclaimed British actor, best known for his role as the long-suffering George Dent in the sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey.
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Series of programmes in which two people from different generations discuss a topic that reveals the changing nature of Britain.
The theme of the first five programmes is Respect.
Michael Ryan, a funeral director in Newport, and his daughter Louise - who, at 21, is the youngest female funeral director in the world - discuss whether changes in funeral styles mean that our respect for the dead has changed.
A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4.
When Rory marries a woman his friends don’t like, they devise a preposterous plan.
An urbane comedy of unpleasant manners written by Marcy Kahan and directed by Marion Nancarrow.
Jane Bertish stars as Sally; Paul Bhattacharjee stars as Anthony; Kerry Shale as Max; Emily Raymond as Colette; Mark Bonnar as Rory; Eleanor Bron as Penelope; and David de Keyser as Edgar.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2001.
Poet Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's radio poetry archive with Particle Poets and Molecular Metaphors.
From Einstein's theory of molecular relativity to the hunt for the Higgs Boson, atomic science has influenced poetry more than any other social, economic or political force over the last century.
With the help of the former Welsh laureate, Gwyneth Lewis, Professor Peter Middleton, poet Gitte Broeng, Nobel physicist Murray Gell-Man, and Thomas Otto from CERN, and examples of poems by James Joyce, Arthur Sze and David Ignatow, Anna McNamee explores the strong connections between physics and poetry.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.
After quitting his post, secret agent ZM73 wakes up imprisoned in a bizarre village with a new identity.
The original 17-episode TV series of The Prisoner created intrigue and controversy in equal measure when it first aired in the UK in 1967. In a taut psychological spy thriller the main character, dehumanised as ‘Number 6’, has committed no crime, save for having resigned from some unspecified branch of the British Secret Service. His prison is a heavily guarded coastal village.
Under constant surveillance, Number 6 can trust no-one and relentlessly works to establish who his captors are, a seemingly impossible task when the most senior figure he encounters – Number 2 – changes frequently...
Mark Elstob stars as Agent ZM73 aka Number 6, with John Standing as Number Two, Sara Powell as Number 9, Helen Goldwyn as the Village Voice , Sarah Mowat as Zero Six Two, Jim Barclay as Control and Barnaby Edwards as Number 34.
Music - Jamie Robertson
Script Editor - Jamie Anderson .
Written and directed by Nicholas Briggs.
A Big Finish Production - based on the classic ITV series.
A Tuscan tower fills a solitary visitor with dread. Is the cause vertigo, or something more menacing?
Read by Joss Ackland.
Written by Marghanita Laski and abridged by Richard Dunn.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1987.
It's election time on the colony - Richard goes for the youth vote while Brian's campaign is based on feeding everyone some nauseating protein. And just who is the mysterious Security Officer hidden on the colony?
The return of the hit sitcom starring Nicholas Lyndhurst and Vicki Pepperdine ("Getting On") set on a shiny new planet.
Welcome to the colony. We're aware that, having been in deep cryosleep for 73 years, you may be in need of some supplementary information.
Personnel:
Unfortunately, Burrows the leader of the colony has died on the voyage so his Number 2, Brian (Nicholas Lyndhurst), is now in charge. He's a nice enough chap, but no alpha male, and his desire to sort things out with a nice friendly meeting infuriates the colony's Chief Physician Lillian (Vicki Pepperdine), who'd really rather everyone was walking round in tight colour-coded tunics and saluting each other. She's also in charge of Project Adam, the plan to conceive and give birth to the first colony-born baby. Unfortunately, the two people hand-picked for this purpose - Carol and Richard - were rather fibbing about being a couple, just to get on the trip.
Add in an entirely unscrupulous Chief Scientist, Mason and also Archer, an idiot maintenance man who believes he's an "empath" rather than a plumber, and you're all set to answer the question - if humankind were to colonise space, is it destined to succumb to self-interest, prejudice and infighting? (By the way, the answer's "yes". Sorry.)
Written by Phil Whelans
Produced and Directed by David Tyler.
Needing a new place to stay, Clare goes house-hunting with Brian - and she has an unusual, new pen pal.
Clare Barker is a social worker with all the politically correct jargon but none of the practical solutions. Award-winning sitcom by Harry Venning and David Ramsden.
Starring Sally Phillips as Clare, Alex Lowe as Brian, George Harris as Wendell, Andrew Wincott as Simon, Richard Lumsden as Ray, Gemma Craven as Helen, Ellen Thomas as Irene, Nina Conti as Megan, Alex Tregear as Hannah and Roy Hudd as Mr Figgis.
Producer: Katie Tyrrell
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2006.
Office life, relationships and 'Lossie Come Home'. Award-winning monologues and sketches. With Rosie Cavaliero. From June 2008.
A blizzard has hit England. In the tiny village of Sittaford, on the fringes of Dartmoor, a party of six is gathered in Sittaford House, home of Captain Trevelyan. He's rented the house out for the winter and is staying in a nearby village. As evening draws in, a séance is proposed. But it reveals something far more sinister than they'd all anticipated...
Agatha Christie's whodunit stars Geoffrey Whitehead as Inspector Narracott, Barbara Atkinson as Mrs Curtis, Norman Bird as Major Burnaby, Susan Westerby as Mrs Willett, Victoria Carling as Violet Willett and John Moffatt as Mr Rycroft.
From the book first published in 1931.
Dramatised and directed by Michael Bakewell.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1990.
What would William Wordsworth have made of modern Greens? Professor James Woudhuysen investigates what Britain's 19th-century Romantic poets thought about man and nature, and finds some important differences between them and today's environmentalists.
Producer: Kevin Mousley
What goes up in the era of glasnost must come down, but exactly where is still a matter for negotiation...
Alex Shearer's Eastern bloc embassy sitcom.
Starring Dinsdale Landen as HM Ambassador Mackenzie, Peter Acre as William Frost, Moir Leslie as Helen Waterson, Stephen Greif as the United States Ambassador, Christopher Benjamin as Colonel Surikov and David Goodland as Olav.
Producer: Pete Atkin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 1988.
The nation's favourite wireless entertainment pays a visit to the New Victoria Theatre in Woking. Old-timers Barry Cryer, Graeme and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Kerry Godliman with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell provides piano accompaniment.
Producer - Jon Naismith.
It is a BBC Studios production.
Inspired by Bill and supplied by Sid, the lad turns his home into a centre of learning.
Stars Tony Hancock. With Sidney James, Bill Kerr, Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams.
Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
Theme and incidental music written by Wally Stott.
Producer: Tom Ronald
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in March 1958.
Station Master Horace Hepplewhite reveals a surprising talent for childminding.
Starring Arthur Lowe as Horace, Ian Lavender as Bert, Liz Fraser as Gloria, Kenneth Connor as Percy and Pat Coombs as Maud.
Jim Eldridge's eponymous series is set in a sleepy railway station. The Hepplewhites have run 'Parsley Sidings' station for generations and the current Station Master, Horace, hopes that his son Bert will continue the line. Mild-mannered Ticket Clerk Bert wants to work anywhere but on the railways. His colleague, Station Announcer Gloria Simpkins, secretly loves him. Porter Percy Valentine is an archetypal wheeler-dealer and the ancient Signalman, Bradshaw, causes havoc and dispenses home-made remedies in equal measure. The 'Parsley Sidings' nemesis is Phineas Perkins, the station master of Potwhistle Halt, one stop down the line.
Re-created Announcements by Keith Skues.
Producer: Edward Taylor
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in January 1972.
Nicholas Parsons challenges Paul Merton, Gyles Brandreth, Jason Byrne and Alun Cochrane to speak for 60 seconds without hesitation, repetition or deviation. From August 2011.
“The child is the father of the man".
The school show sparks some robust religious debate - and a demonstration of true human kindness...
School comedy created and written by Jim Eldridge. Ten series of this King Street Junior ran between 1985 and 1998. King Street Junior Revisited ran from 2002 to 2005.
Stars Carolyn Pickles as Mrs Devon, Marlene Sidaway as Miss Lewis, Michael Cochrane as Mr Maxwell, Paul Copley as Mr Long, Teresa Gallagher as Miss Featherstone, Jacqueline Beatty as Miss Reid, Janice Acquah as Mrs Khan, Jimmy Chamberlaine as Iqbal and Melissa Wood as Ghazala.
Producer: John Fawcett Wilson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2003.
Tim McInnerny plays Laurie and Niamh Cusack his mother, in this production recorded on location in and around the Slad valley. In the first of two episodes dramatised by Nick Darke, the Lee family arrive in their new home.
Laurie........Tim McInnerny
Mother.......Niamh Cusack
Young Loll..Sunny Leworthy
With Jennifer Compton, Paul Currier, Briony Fforde, Daniel Clifford, Lisa Kay, Laura Strachan, Jed Blacklock, David Goodland, Constance Chapman, Val Lorraine, Chris Grimes, June Barrie, James Lawton, Pupils of Rodborough Primary School.
Music by Paul Burgess
Directed by Viv Beeby and Jeremy Howe.
A daughter starts to worry after her divorced mother meets a new man. Is he too good to be true? Written by Gillian Tindall. Read by Clare Corbett. From June 2003.
Sharing a passion for opera, Albie and Marguerite have seats next to each other, but feel too shy to speak.
But when they do, is it too late..?
Byrony Lavery's tragi-comedy stars Derek Jacobi as Albie and Nichola McAuliffe as Marguerite
Other parts played by Alice Hart and Philip Fox.
Director: Janet Whitaker
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004.
1947: In 'Actor's Alibi' struggling writer Dan Holliday's ad for inspirational adventure backfires.
Stars Alan Ladd as Dan Holliday. With Sylvia Picker as secretary Suzy and Edmund MacDonald as Police Lieutenant Kling.
Former hack turned freelance thriller writer Dan needs to generate ideas, so places a classified ad in the paper: "Adventure wanted - will go anywhere, do anything - Box 13." Played by Hollywood film star Alan Ladd (1913-1964), he's the very image of a perpetually rent-owing, down-at-heel luckless gumshoe wannabe.
Renowned for being only 5 foot 5 inches or so tall, actor Alan Ladd's tough California childhood gave way to small roles in theatre, film and radio before silver-screen success. His films included: This Gun For Hire, Duel of Champions, The Carpetbaggers, One Foot in Hell, The Deep Six and The Proud Rebel.
Box 13 is a syndicated 52-part series created by Alan Ladd's company, Mayfair Productions. The series premiered on December 31st 1947 on New York radio station WOR.
by Kate Chopin, dramatised by Janice Okoh
Holidaying on Grand Isle in 1899, Edna Pontellier feels she is living in a dream, so the attentions of the dashing young Robert Lebrun serve merely to amuse her.
Edna Pontellier ..... Pippa Bennett-Warner
Leonce Pontellier ..... Guy Paul
Celestine ..... Petra Letang
Robert Lebrun ..... PJ Brennan
Adele Ratignolle ..... Sasha Pick
Madame LeBrun ..... Adjoa Andoh
Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow
When it was published in 1899, Kate Chopin's novel shocked society and divided critics. Respectable, married Edna Pontellier, 28, is away from her home in New Orleans, holidaying on Grand Isle in the Gulf of Mexico with her husband and children. Teaching her to swim is the debonair young Robert Lebrun, known for forming an attachment with a different woman every summer. Despite warnings from her more conventional friend, Adele, Edna falls incontrovertibly for Robert. When he leaves Louisana for Mexico, Edna realises she's been "awakened" and questions everything: her marriage, her position, the society she lives in. But what is left for her? The novel is regarded by many as the first in a new wave of modern American literature.
From the Pizzaro brothers, who pillaged Peru for Inca gold in the 16th century, to the modern-day Mponeng mine in South Africa, the deepest in the world, where the ghost miners illegally siphon off millions - the pursuit of gold has led to wars, insurrections, betrayals and bloodshed.
Matthew Hart charts a course through history and across continents to tell the story of the world's most coveted metal. Part history, part journalism and part economic analysis, Gold tells the story of a human obsession that shows no sign of abating.
In 2008, when the financial crisis rattled economies, investors inevitably resorted to the perceived safety of gold – and its price escalated from $800 to $1900 an ounce. This, in turn, accelerated the exploration for yet more gold.
Matthew Hart is a journalist, whose work has appeared in The Times, Granta, The Atlantic Monthly and The Globe and Mail. He has written two IMAX films, numerous TV documentaries, and appeared on CNN, Sixty Minutes and the National Geographic channel. His previous books include Diamond: The History Of A Cold-Blooded Love Affair, which was filmed as a documentary by ABC.
Abridged by Pete Nichols
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
Two emasculated husbands - one a lover of gardening, the other of chess, and both with nagging wives - plan to restore peace to their lives and enjoy their retirement at leisure...
Horror legend Vincent Price introduces another dark tale starring Mervyns Johns, Michael Gwyn, Clive Swift, Avril Angers, Diana Bishop and Robin Browne.
Jack Ritchie’s short story dramatised by William Ingram.
Producer: John Dyas
First broadcast on the BBC World Service in 1973.
Sue MacGregor and her guests - Arts presenter, Tim Marlow and cultural historian Marina Warner - discuss books by Bret Easton Ellis, Adolfo Bioy Casares and Kazuo Ishiguro.
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
Publisher: Picador
The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares, translated by Ruth L.C. Simms
Publisher: New York Review of Books
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Publisher: Faber
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007.
Country legend Tina C challenges the Secretary for the US Treasury, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve and the former CEO of Goldman Sachs that where they have failed, she can come up with a solution to the Global Recession, and sets off on a six country tour to prove it. With guest appearances from economists and financial journalists, including Will Hutton, Paul Mason and Gillian Tett.
This week she visits the United States.
Tina C ...Christopher Green
With Gillian Tett, Victoria Inez Hardy and James Lailey
Musical arrangements by Duncan Walsh Atkins and Christopher Green
Directed by Jeremy Mortimer
"Christopher Green's Tina C is one of the great comic creations of the age. A genuinely fine country singer, but with a twist of satire and insight which is rare and highly to be prized." Stephen Fry.
Market researcher Ian Dunn seeks the opinions of a hostile public. Stars Neil Edmond and Paula Wilcox. From November 2007.
Everybody hates market researchers. Ian Dunn doesn't know that he's doing the worst job in the world. As International Query Board UK's only long-serving door-to-door interviewer, Ian - armed with a broken clipboard, puny incentives, inappropriate footwear and an unflagging commitment to the Market Researcher's Code Of Conduct - must persuade a hostile public to part with their precious opinions.
At the ugly end of the business stick - rained on, rejected, and ignored - Ian has faith. Faith in the importance of his work, faith in a public that are pretending to be out by hiding in their bins, faith that - were he to cheat - civilisation would crumble within hours. Possibly even minutes. For Ian, filling in a survey about flannels is more democratic than voting. And he might be right.
Ian's source for help and guidance is International Query Board UK's disinterested Field Manager Mary, who dispenses tough love and surveys by phone and post. She burnt her copy of the Code Of Conduct back in '76. She can't actually tell Ian to cheat - and he's unlikely to take the hint - but, as 80% of her interviewers disintegrate within 3 months, she can't afford to sack him either. He's never met her, but reports in to her at the start of each episode.
Most important of all are The Respondents. From the sniffy suburbs to the stagnant sinkholes he is sent to, Ian blankly appeals to the better side of a suspicious populace. After a series of daft, brisk rejections, each episode will result in a single showcased interviewee - each with their own strange reason to cooperate. Every location he's posted to, every home he's let into, has a distinct ambience and story and each episode its own illogical unwieldy an archaically worded survey.
Knocker is a playful, absurdist trot through the instantly recognisable, but nonetheless mysterious labours of a hapless, low-waged door-knocker. Spilling from the knuckle-bruising rigmarole of cold calling are a wealth of ridiculous situations, ensuring a lively, compact 15 minutes of intelligent silliness performed by a cast of comedy veterans.
Cast
Ian Dunn NEIL EDMOND
Mary PAULA WILCOX
All other roles in the series are played by JULIA DEAKIN, TINA GRAY, SIMON GREENALL, BEN ONWUKWE, SIMON TREVES, PAUL WILCOX and ROSIE WILKINSON.
Writer
Neil Edmond is co-founder and member of the comedy sketch group The Consultants, who have a Perrier Award and four BBC Radio 4 series to their name. He's performed in Green Wing, Peep Show, Man Stroke Woman, Hyperdrive, Modern Men and Lead Balloon. He's recently completed filming the semi-improvised 'Where are the Joneses?', a daily online sitcom made by Baby cow. Neil trudged through three years of door-to-door Market Research interviewing more than 3000 people. He still gets Christmas cards from two of them.
Episode 1 - Privinvasionacy
Shivering in a leafy, unadopted road of long gravel driveways and mini-mansions, Ian politely asks Mary if he can go home - his clipboard's gone wonky in the wet and today's survey is the embarrassingly invasive 'Lower Body Hygiene Study Phase 1'. Mary says no. As Ian discovers what every door-knocker knows - that the chance of an interview is inversely proportional to length of the drive - he embarks on an unwinnable debate as to why he's not covered by a 'No canvassers, no hawkers, no circulars' sign, before finally discovering a woman who's all too willing to talk - about anything but the survey...
Hugh Dennis presents the week via topical stand-up and sketches and looks ahead at what we've got to look forward to in the news this winter.
Zoe Lyons compares the incredible achievement of the Insight Mars probe with the achievements of the British rail system; Ken Cheng tell us what Christmas is like with non-British parents and Jake Yapp takes us to the G20 summit.
Gemma Arrowsmith and Luke Kempner provide additional voices.
It was written by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis with the cast - additional material from Jenny Laville, Sarah Morgan, Ian Smith, Ania Magliano, Laura Major and Mike Shephard.
The production coordinator was Sarah Sharpe.
It was a BBC Studios production.
Email problems in ancient Rome in this sketch comedy starring Robert Webb, Olivia Colman and Sally Hawkins. From September 2002.
A seance at the remote Sittaford House has revealed the murder of Captain Trevelyan. But who would've killed a man who didn't have an enemy in the world?
Agatha Christie's whodunit stars Geoffrey Whitehead as Inspector Narracott, Stephen Tompkinson as Charles Enderby, Donald Gee as Evans, Jo Kendall as Mrs Belling and Norman Bird as Major Burnaby.
From the book first published in 1931.
Dramatised and directed by Michael Bakewell.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1990.
Cornish playwright, Nick Darke, suffered a serious stroke in 2001. He was paralysed at first down his right side.
But - far worse still for a man whose very life as well as his livelihood depends on being able to express himself through words - he found himself struck virtually dumb. He knew what he wanted to say, but the saying was near impossible. So too writing ... and reading.
Now he is working on his first play since falling ill. In a remarkable audio diary, Nick charts his painful, painstaking and at times hilarious path to the full recovery of his dramatic voice.
Producer Simon Elmes.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2003.
To Robert's dismay, his sister, Barbara, is about to succumb to temptation in the shape of biker Andy Hunt.
His mother can't help to save her, so he enlists the help of Father Benedict as an avenger...
A six-part black comedy by Martin Davies
Stars Desmond Barrit as Father Benedict, Brenda Blethyn as Mrs Patterson, Paul Parris as Robert Patterson, Charlotte Coleman as Barbara Patterson, Martino Lazzeri as Guy Entwhistle, Mark Straker as Andy and Claire Skinner as Janet.
Producer: Lissa Evans
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 1993.
Nominated for this year’s main Edinburgh Comedy Award, and winner of the Newcomer in 2014, American comedian Alex Edelman is back for a second series of his show PEER GROUP in which he takes a comic look at what it’s like being a millennial today.
This episode is all about his relationship with social media and how it has insinuated itself into his life. From the power of Twitter to the perils of Intagramming your sandwich, Alex takes a personal look at a very millennial preoccupation.
We also hear from friends of Alex - American comedians Brandon Wardell and Jak Knight, journalist Rebecca Nicholson and cultural commentator David Burstein.
It is written and presented by Alex Edelman, with additional material by Ivo Graham.
Producer: Sam Michell.
A BBC Studios production.
When Bertie Wooster is accused of theft, luckily there's always Jeeves
PG Wodehouse romp adapted by Chris Miller.
Starring Michael Hordern as Jeeves, Richard Briers as Bertie Wooster, Patrick Cargill as Sir Watkyn Bassett, Rex Garner as Gussie Fink-Nottle, Vivian Pickles as Aunt Dahlia, James Villiers as Roderick Spode, Tony McEwan as PC Oates.
Producer: David Hatch
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1973.
The bungling bureaucrats react when a by-election candidate goes from slide to landslide.
One of 14 shows not kept in the archive and re-recorded in 1980 – previously never broadcast in the UK, until the arrival of BBC Radio 4 Extra.
‘The Men from the Ministry’ ran for 14 series between 1962 and 1977.
Stars Richard Murdoch and Deryck Guyler (who replaced Wilfrid Hyde-White from 1966).
With Norma Ronald, Ronald Baddiley and John Graham.
Written by Johnnie Mortimer, Brian Cooke and Edward Taylor.
Producer: Edward Taylor.
Re-recording of ‘'Up the Poll'' made in April 1980.
Comedian Dominic Holland points out the pitfalls of growing up, becoming an adult and having children.
Stand-up and sketches with Simon Greenall, Sally Grace and Dave Lamb.
Producer: Maria Esposito
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2000.
Entertainment in words and music to help you beat the weather.
Performed by the comedy musical cabaret group, Instant Sunshine featuring David Barlow, Peter Christie, Miles Kington and Alan Maryon-Davis
Special guests: Father's Footsteps.
Producer: Richard Edis
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1985.
In the second of two episodes dramatised by Nick Darke, young Loll experiences his first taste of the adult world.
Laurie.................Tim McInnerny
Mother................Niamh Cusack
Young Loll...........Sunny Leworthy
Rosie..................Emily Parrish
with Jennifer Compton, Paul Currier, Lisa Kay, Briony Fforde, Daniel Clifford, Jed Blacklock, David Goodland, Bill Wallis, Paul Dodgson, June Barrie, Chris Grimes, Megan Melish, Laura Beckett, Luke Glastonbury-Cole, Buster Reece, Alex Smith, Leanne French, Villagers of Slad and Rodborough.
Music by Paul Burgess
Directed by Viv Beeby and Jeremy Howe
Repeated Saturday 9.00 p.m.
A tramp, unused to speaking, describes the occasional ritual of taking a bath. Remarkable story read by Paul Copley.
When this volume of short stories was published in May 2014 , Christobel Kent in the Guardian described how it is Gardam's gift -
''for showing us what a place of wonders is the world and the hearts that dwell in it, that endows this collection with a dangerous and formidable energy, richer and more concentrated than any novel. She gives us miracle heaped upon miracle, and insists that they should each one be handled with care.'.
Widowed for two years, Claire still feels the loss of her husband and talks to him every night. But she's about to surprise him - and herself - by falling for her dishy young decorator...
Stars Julia McKenzie as Claire, Ifan Meredith as Richard, Frances Jeater as Joyce and John Baddeley as Frank.
Director: Enyd Williams
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2003.
1950: Jeff gets caught up in a case of missing memories. Could a mystery woman carrying a pistol be a murderer?
Starring Paul Dubov as Jeff Regan and Frank Nelson as Anthony Lyon.
Jeff Regan is a fully registered official private investigator working for the Los Angeles-based International Detective Bureau. Unlike some of his radio contemporaries, Jeff gets the job done through diligence and tenacity - rather than gun-toting fisticuffs.
The series debuted on CBS in the US 1948 starring Jack 'Dragnet' Webb. After he left the role on radio, Jeff was played by Frank Graham and finally Paul Dubov (1918-1979) who appeared in many Hollywood films as a support actor, rather than playing the leading man.
Jeff Regan, Investigator came off-air in 1950.
4 Extra's MYSTERY THEATER showcases American radio's golden years of the 1940s and 50s, when many of Hollywood's greatest screen stars were regular performers, often re-enacting film roles.
by Kate Chopin, dramatised for radio by Janice Okoh
Edna is still holidaying on Grand Isle and, after a disagreement with her husband, plans a trip alone with Robert.
Edna Pontellier ..... Pippa Bennett-Warner
Leonce Pontellier ..... Guy Paul
Celestine ..... Petra Letang
Madame LeBrun ..... Adjoa Andoh
Robert Lebrun ..... P J Brennan
Adele Ratignolle ..... Sasha Pick
Mlle Reisz ..... Lucy Newman-Williams
Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow
From the Pizzaro brothers, who pillaged Peru for Inca gold in the 16th century, to the modern-day Mponeng mine in South Africa, the deepest in the world, where the ghost miners illegally siphon off millions - the pursuit of gold has led to wars, insurrections, betrayals and bloodshed.
Matthew Hart charts a course through history and across continents to tell the story of the world's most coveted metal. Part history, part journalism and part economic analysis, Gold tells the story of a human obsession that shows no sign of abating.
In 2008, when the financial crisis rattled economies, investors inevitably resorted to the perceived safety of gold – and its price escalated from $800 to $1900 an ounce. This, in turn, accelerated the exploration for yet more gold.
Matthew Hart is a journalist, whose work has appeared in The Times, Granta, The Atlantic Monthly and The Globe and Mail. He has written two IMAX films, numerous TV documentaries, and appeared on CNN, Sixty Minutes and the National Geographic channel. His previous books include Diamond: The History Of A Cold-Blooded Love Affair, which was filmed as a documentary by ABC.
Abridged by Pete Nichols
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
James Walton's pop music history quiz with Andrew Collins, Tracey MacLeod, Carol Decker and David Hepworth. From December 2004.
Izzy struggles to come to terms with some alternative domestic arrangements.
Tumbling from one love entanglement to another, 30 something teacher Izzy Comyn has a predilection for inappropriate men.
Adapted by Sue Limb from her 1984 novel into 3 radio series which ran from 1987 to 1993. Granada also adapted the series for ITV.
Imedla Staunton stars as Izzy. With Nicholas Le Prevost as Michael, Mike Grady as Dick, Sion Probert as Gwyn, Phyllida Nash as Louise and Marty Cruickshank as Maria.
With Kerryann White, Sarah Doyle, Sam Smart and Mark Monero as Class 4C.
Producer: Jonathan James-Moore
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1987.
A small party of tourists visit an old castle in Bavaria – unaware of a horrifying series of events awaiting them in a dank and dismal torture chamber...
Fright master Vincent Price introduces a tale of horror starring Kenneth J Warren, Frederick Schrecker, John Samson and Bonnie Hurren.
Bram Stoker’s story ‘The Score’ dramatised by Richard Davis.
Producer: John Dyas
First broadcast on the BBC World Service in 1973.
Award-winning actor Peter Cushing takes a break from making horror films to discuss his enthusiasm for the British countryside and its wildlife - aided by recordings from the BBC Sound Archive.
Peter tells Derek Jones how he used to spend hours with his late wife Helen watching wild birds from their home on the estuary at Whitstable in Kent.
Peter Cushing, OBE: born 1913 - died 1994.
Producer: John Burton.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1972.
Back where it started out. Matt Lucas and David Walliams' oddball TV smash hit, without the cameras. From March 2002.
From 10.00pm until midnight, 7 days a week, the Comedy Club has two hours of comedy. Plus Laura Lexx chats to Adam Riches.
By James Lever and Nat Segnit.
In this series documentary maker Nat Segnit investigates the untold stories of visionary mavericks including; the creator of the first animal orchestra; a billionaire planning to freefall from space; an ex-con New York junkie bridge jumper; the first swimmer of the River Europe and the 'Jonahs' who offer themselves to be swallowed by whales.
This week Nat explores the life and work of Artur Mistek, founder of Musica Zoologika. With contributions from Charlie Higson, Toby Jones, Eleanor Bron, Peter Marinker and Zeb Soanes.
Music by David Pickvance
Produced by Steven Canny and Sasha Yevtushenko
Nat Segnit's short stories and journalism have appeared in The Times and The Independent on Sunday. For Radio 4 he has written Dolphin Therapy and Strangers on Trains.
James Lever is author of the best-selling Me Cheeta, which Lynne Truss loved so much she said, "It will subtly change forever the way we think not only about Hollywood but also about our own species" (The Sunday Times).
Ed Reardon leads us through the ups and down of his week, complete with his trusty companion, Elgar, and his never-ending capacity for scrimping and scraping at whatever scraps his agent, Ping, can offer him to keep body, mind and cat together.
Ed discovers that he can put his extensive general knowledge to good use when he finally finds his niche and becomes a contestant on the Radio 4 seminal quiz 'What Do You Know'. Not only is his general knowledge excellent, but he's also being paid a fee to the grand sum of £43. Is his luck turning at last?
Written by Andrew Nickolds and Christopher Douglas
Produced by Dawn Ellis.
James Pearson has been arrested for the murder of his uncle, but his fiancee Emily is determined to prove his innocence.
Agatha Christie's whodunit stars Melinda Walker as Emily Trefusis, Stephen Tompkinson as Charles Enderby, Geoffrey Whitehead as Inspector Narracott, Jo Kendall as Mrs Belling, Susan Westerby as Mrs Willett and Victoria Carling as Violet Willett.
From the book first published in 1931.
Dramatised and directed by Michael Bakewell.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1990.
Overseas Chinese tourism is on the rise. Around 30 million Chinese took foreign vacations last year. Chinese visitors are venturing to Britain in increasing numbers, encouraged by their home government, keen that Chinese citizens are seen to be enjoying the fruits of the country's economic miracle.
And Chinese visitors abroad are left in no doubt that they are representing their country. Official circulars remind them to act as "ambassadors" for their country. Several times in the past few years the Spiritual Civilisation Steering Committee of the Communist Party has issued bossy instructions calling on Chinese tourists to avoid spitting, queue-jumping, loudness or haggling in shops with fixed prices.
The favoured mode of travel for Chinese visitors to Britain is the planned bus tour, but the route these bus tours follow is rather idiosyncratic. Whereas most foreign tourists to Britain follow a predictable tourist trail - Buckingham Palace, ruined Castles, beautiful cathedrals and quaint market towns, the Chinese are more interested in seeing places with a Chinese connection.
The Willow Tree in Cambridge is famous in China because it is where the modern poet Xu Zhimo wrote his poem "On Leaving Cambridge." Bus loads of Chinese Tourists stop there now. Philip Dodd boards a coach and goes with the Chinese tourists who have an idiocratic view of Britain and spends a night with them in Manchester's Chinatown.
London 1858: A little bored by Gerald, Cordelia is having fun with the novelist Wilkie Collins, who’s having a spell of writer's block with The Woman in White.
Primus has the answer...or does he?
Martyn Wade’s four-part comedy stars Michael Cochrane as Primus, Maggie Steed as Cordelia, Elizabeth Spriggs as Edith, David Horovitch as Gerald, Frances, David Timson as Wilkie Collins, Charles Simpson as Simeon and David Antrobus as George Eliot.
Director: Cherry Cookson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 1998.
Victoria Coren Mitchell returns with a new series of the interview programme that uses a famous woman's cars as a vehicle to talk about her life. This week Victoria talks to the actress, singer, writer, business woman, and politician Baroness Benjamin of Beckenham, known to millions of Play School viewers as Floella Benjamin.
Floella tells of how her supremely happy childhood in Trinidad turned to unhappiness when her parents left her with a cruel foster family; the joy of being reunited with her mother and father when she came to England; learning to overcome racism with a smile; the freedom that came with passing her driving test; buying and then selling her very own Austin 35; driving around looking for parties in the 60s; appearing in the musical Hair without having to take her clothes off; the power of Play School and the enduring importance of children's TV; the day her husband's dream came true with a vintage Bentley; and why when she became a peer she chose Baroness of Beckenham as her title.
Car descriptions read by Sarah Hadland.
Produced by Gareth Edwards
A BBC Studios Production
Is Povey a fraud? It seems so, as the crew of HMS Troutbridge race to secure his captaincy
Stars Leslie Phillips as the Sub-Lieutenant, Jon Pertwee as the Chief Petty Officer, Stephen Murray as the Number One, Richard Caldicote as Captain Povey, Heather Chasen as Heather, Ronnie Barker as Lieutenant Queeg and Tenniel Evens as The Commander.
Laughs afloat aboard British Royal Navy frigate HMS Troutbridge. The Navy Lark ran for an impressive thirteen series between 1959 and 1976.
Scripted by Lawrie Wyman
Producer: Alastair Scott Johnston.
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in December 1963.
Kenneth Horne’s plumber sends him round the u-bend and ‘Hornerama’ hails communications.
With Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Bill Pertwee.
Written by Eric Merriman and Barry Took
Music from Pat Lancaster, the Fraser Hayes Four and the BBC Variety Orchestra conducted by Paul Fenoulhet.
Announcer: Douglas Smith
A madcap mix of sketches and songs, Beyond Our Ken hit the airwaves in 1958 and ran to 1964 – featuring regulars like Arthur Fallowfield, Cecil Snaith and Rodney and Charles.
The precursor to ‘Round The Horne’ – sadly only 15 shows survive from the original run of 21 episodes in Series 2. Audio restored using both home and overseas (BBC Transcription Service) recordings.
Producer: Jacques Brown
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in May 1959.
Sue Perkins puts Kerry Godliman, John-Luke Roberts, Julia Hartley-Brewer and Clarke Carlisle through the moral and ethical wringer.
The panellists collectively attempt to resolve dilemmas based around dinosaur bones, injured guinea pigs, and unethical banks.
They also assert their moral correctness over giving directions and selling state secrets.
Devised by Danielle Ward.
Producer: Ed Morrish.
It's Jesters' Relief Week in Drumlin Bay and Tamsyn is a bit tired of raising cash for the people of Devon just because their clotted cream is slightly less clotted than the Cornish equivalent.
It's 1793 and in the small Cornish village of Drumlin Bay, heroic smuggler Tamsyn Trelawny is still running rings around the customs men, assisted by her drunken father Jago.
Written by Tom Jamieson and Nev Fountain.
Starring Sheridan Smith as Tamsyn Trelawny, John Bowe as Jago Trelawny, Cameron Stewart as Major Thomas Falconer, Andrew McGibbon as Captain Marriot, Martin Hyder as Squire Bascombe, Mark Felgate as Dewey and Mark Perry as Smeldof.
Producer: Jan Ravens.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2004.
From the moment their eyes meet across a packed gaming room, Daniel Deronda is as drawn to Gwendolen Harleth as she is to him.
George Eliot's 1876 classic novel of love and idealism, dramatised in three parts by Robert Forrest.
Stars Anna Chancellor as Gwendolen Harleth, James Bryce as Grandcourt, Michael Perceval-Maxwell as Deronda, Joanna Tope as Mrs Davilow, Finlay Welsh as Klesmer, Lucy Patterson as Mirah, Sarah Collier as Baroness Langen, Sandy Neilson as Sir Hugo, Katherine Igoe as Catherine, Noreen Leighton as Lydia,Simon Tait as Lush and Gregor Powrie as Rex.
Director: Patrick Rayner
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1999.
A widow grieving for her recently dead husband spends an afternoon with some old friends. Read by Sylvestra le Touzel. From March 2015
'Elderly lady living alone in remote house, willing to take in paying guests.'
When Miss Pickering puts this ad in the newspaper, she has an ulterior motive.
So have the four gentlemen who reply...
RD Wingfield’s drama stars Monica Grey as Miss Pickering, Norman Shelley as Colonel Fryatt, Jonathan Scott as Dr Brown, Peter Woodthorpe as Harris, Howard Goorney as Wakeson, Lewis Stringer as Lethbridge, Elizabeth Havelock as Woman in crowd, Daisy Bell as Woman in Telephone kiosk, David Ponting as Car Driver, Brian Gear as Jones and Douglas Leach as the Constable.
Directed at BBC Bristol by John Cardy.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1977.
1943: Agnes Moorehead stars as the neurotic, bedridden Mrs Elbert Stevenson who overhears a murder being plotted via crossed phone wires.
It proved so popular that between 1947 and 1960, Moorehead freshly performed her "one-woman show" on CBS radio eight times, including versions for the East and West coasts - and always used her original script. However, the lead role in the 1948 movie version of Sorry, Wrong Number went to Barbara Stanwyck.
The film roles of Hollywood actress Agnes Moorehead (1900-1974) included Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons and Show Boat. She also starred as Endora in the long-running US TV sitcom 'Bewitched' for ABC.
Written by Lucille Fletcher, the May 25th 1943 broadcast of Sorry, Wrong Number was deemed to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the American Library of Congress and chosen for the National Recording Preservation Board. Orson Welles once called it "the single greatest radio script ever written."
Sound-effects by Bernie Surrey.
Producer: William Spier
Moorehead was a regular performer in CBS Radio's Suspense series which ran in the USA from 1942 to 1962.
4 Extra's MYSTERY THEATER showcases American radio's golden years of the 1940s and 50s, when many of Hollywood's greatest screen stars were regular performers, often re-enacting film roles.
by Kate Chopin, dramatised for radio by Janice Okoh
Edna continues to be enraptured by Robert's company, but there is a shock in store for her.
Edna Pontellier ..... Pippa Bennett-Warner
Leonce Pontellier ..... Guy Paul
Celestine ..... Petra Letang
Adele Ratignolle ..... Sasha Pick
Mme LeBrun ..... Adjoa Andoh
Mlle Reisz ..... Lucy Newman-Williams
Dr Mandalet ..... Peter Marinker
Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow
From the Pizzaro brothers, who pillaged Peru for Inca gold in the 16th century, to the modern-day Mponeng mine in South Africa, the deepest in the world, where the ghost miners illegally siphon off millions - the pursuit of gold has led to wars, insurrections, betrayals and bloodshed.
Matthew Hart charts a course through history and across continents to tell the story of the world's most coveted metal. Part history, part journalism and part economic analysis, Gold tells the story of a human obsession that shows no sign of abating.
In 2008, when the financial crisis rattled economies, investors inevitably resorted to the perceived safety of gold – and its price escalated from $800 to $1900 an ounce. This, in turn, accelerated the exploration for yet more gold.
Matthew Hart is a journalist, whose work has appeared in The Times, Granta, The Atlantic Monthly and The Globe and Mail. He has written two IMAX films, numerous TV documentaries, and appeared on CNN, Sixty Minutes and the National Geographic channel. His previous books include Diamond: The History Of A Cold-Blooded Love Affair, which was filmed as a documentary by ABC.
Abridged by Pete Nichols
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
A young film director mysteriously disappears while holidaying in Greece.
But when his girlfriend enlists Vincent Price to help her find him, they only succeed in uncovering the latest commodity on the black market - death...
Vincent Price introduces another chilling tale starring Kate Coleridge, Steve Plytas, Robin Browne, Michael Deacon and Charles Birkin.
Maurice Travers story ‘So Cold, So Pale, So Fair’ dramatised by Charles Birkin.
Producer: John Dyas
First broadcast on the BBC World Service in 1973.
Harry Worth worked as a miner in Barnsley before his talent for comedy came to the fore during the Second World War.
On seeing his act as a less-than-convincing ventriloquist, Stan Laurel advised him to "ditch the dummy". Harry never looked back. His gently dithering characterisations charmed the nation on both radio and TV.
Mark Radcliffe looks back at the life and career of Harry Worth.
Series exploring the tradition of influential northern comedians of the past,
Producer: Libby Cross
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2000.
By Justin Moorhouse and Jim Poyser
Justin ..... Justin Moorhouse
Gran ..... Anne Reid
Ray ..... Paul Copley
Lisa ..... Christine Bottomley
Bryn ..... Lloyd Langford
Tanya ..... Susan Cookson
Waiter ..... Jim Poyser
Head ..... Caimh McDonnell
Produced by Steven Canny
In one version of his life, Justin is a well-known local Manchester radio DJ who is successful, funny, and stopped in the street by adoring fans. He's the man who has everything. In another version he's a DJ in a slightly shabby local radio station who gets hassled by the occasional oddball on the street. And he's the man who hopes for everything. The truth lies somewhere in between.
And at home? Well, naturally, his private life is chaotic. His wife has left him, taking custody of his 8-year-old son Justin jnr, and is in the process of taking him to the cleaners. So he's back on the market. As is his house - so he's currently living in his father-in-law's spare room in Bury. The only person who understands him is his Gran, living in luxury in an old folk's home in Warrington. Oh, and his producer Bryn but this might not be a good thing.
Despite all this mess, Justin always remains positive. Every new day is a new opportunity, "When life throws you lemons, make lemonade".
Recorded in front of an audience in Manchester.
Everyone Quite Likes Justin is written by Justin Moorhouse and Jim Poyser. Justin is a comedian who sells out gigs across the country. He has also written plays and a previous show for Radio 4. Jim Poyser is a writer and producer of enormous experience in both radio and television.
South Londoner Arthur invites Stewart Lee and Reginald D Hunter round to his home in Balham, with music from Sophie Ellis-Bextor. From July 2009.
Spin doctor Martin's new bestseller drives a wedge between him and Charles. Stars Stephen Fry and John Bird. From February 2004.
Emily suspects that the Willetts, who've rented Sittaford House, are somehow involved in the murder of Captain Trevelyan. But how can she get into the house?
Agatha Christie's whodunit stars Melinda Walker as Emily Trefusis, Stephen Tompkinson as Charles Enderby, Geoffrey Whitehead as Inspector Narracott, Barbara Atkinson as Mrs Curtis, John Moffatt as Mr Rycroft and Nigel Greaves as Ronnie Garfield.
From the book first published in 1931.
Dramatised and directed by Michael Bakewell.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1990.
Each year the Senegalese king of music, Baaba Maal, invites musicians across the region to play at the Blues du Fleuve festival, Festival of the River, which takes place somewhere along the Senegal River on the northern edge of the country.
The river is the key - it runs from Guinea through Mali, Mauritania and Senegal - the countries that were once unified in the kingdom of Mali, the most musical region in Africa and Baaba has invited musicians from all these countries to perform at the festival.
This year the English cellist Adrian Brendel travels with his instrument to the most remote festival location ever, to immerse himself in the music. He makes his way to the desert town of Demet on the Senegal side of the river and to Bogue on the Mauritanian side, to hear traditional singing of the griots, spine tingling laments from Mauritania's Veyrouz, love songs from Guinea's Binta Laly Sow next to the finest hip hop artists including Duggy Tee.
Baaba's own band Daande Lenol draws thousands - young and old. The band's name means the "Voice of the People" and they follow him in droves.
Baaba is increasingly deemed a guide for these people - collectively the Fulani - and he represents peace and wisdom in a culturally threatened region.
He and Adrian share a passion for music and discuss differences in their approach. Baaba describes his alarm at the upheaval in Mali along with sadness that music has been banned as part of the repressive regime. Adrian plays with different musicians, ultimately going on stage with Daande Lenol.
Producer: Kate Bland
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4
Unable to locate the money he liberated as a courier for 'Racecourse Rita', Ken has become a wanted man. With Gerard McDermott.
Geoff Norcott is working class, had two disabled parents, votes Tory and voted Leave. How did he end up a comedian?
In this stand up show, Geoff introduces us to his family, his early career as a teacher and how he ended up on Question Time.
He has a starring role in The Mash Report on BBC 2, has done a national tour and appeared on Live at the Apollo, Edinburgh Nights, Comedy Bigmouths, and The Wright Stuff, as well as Question Time - twice. Geoff has also found himself in demand as a social commentator on Radio 4's Today programme, Daily Politics on BBC1, Victoria Derbyshire on BBC 2 and Sky News' All Out Politics.
He writes for national publications with articles appearing in The Sunday Telegraph, The Independent and The New Statesman. He writes regularly for other comedians including Sarah Millican and Katherine Ryan. Geoff was nominated for Best New Show at the Leicester Comedy Festival and an has Operational Services Medal for five frontline tours entertaining the troops in Afghanistan.
With Geoff Norcott, Leanne Everitt and Barry Castagnola.
Written by Geoff Norcott with additional material by Stephen Grant and Barry Castagnola.
Produced by Caroline Raphael
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
Out to promote new bubbling bath salts, the ad agency hits some jumbo-sized snags.
"A light-hearted exposé of the advertising world!". Set in a London ad agency called 'Apsley, Addis, Cohen, Barbican, Blythe, Giddy & Partners'.
Starring Michael Medwin as Michael, Fenella Fielding as Janet, Joan Sims as Mavis, Eleanor Summerfield as Maggie and Nicholas Phipps as Adrian. Other parts by Warren Mitchell.
Series two (of three) written by Myles Rudge with Ronnie Wolfe.
Producer: Eric Miller
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in January 1961.
Neddie Seagoon and friends are on the London trail of long-buried valuables. Stars Spike Milligan. From October 1957.
More fiendish brain teasers with Chris Maslanka, Tony Buzan, David Singmaster and Robert Eastway. From July 1998.
Richard finds himself propelled into the limelight as a superstar DJ. With Patrick Barlow and Barbara Flynn. From February 1995.
Gwendolen is now trapped in a cruel and loveless marriage with the philandering Grandcourt.
George Eliot's 1876 classic novel of love and idealism - dramatised in three parts by Robert Forrest.
Stars Anna Chancellor as Gwendolen Harleth, James Bryce as Grandcourt, Michael Perceval-Maxwell as Deronda, Joanna Tope as Mrs Davilow, Finlay Welsh as Klesmer, Mark McDonnell as Mordecai, Lucy Patterson as Mirah, Gerda Stevenson as Mrs Meyrick, Sarah Collier as Mrs Arrowpoint, Sandy Neilson as Sir Hugo and Steven McNicoll as Ezra Cohen.
Director: Patrick Rayner
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1999.
Clockie Gosport has a diamond under the skin at the back of his neck. Unlikely mysteries and miracles read by Paul Copley. From March 2015.
Murder, theft and romance in a home for elderly actors. Stars Googie Withers, Wendy Hiller, Michael Denison and Jimmy Jewel. From April 1991.
NBC radio's orchid-loving gourmand detective genius chases a fraudulent treasure map.
Stars Sydney Greenstreet as Nero Wolfe and Wally Maher as Archie Goodwin.
British actor, Sydney Greenstreet's stage career didn't give way to cinema roles until he reached his sixties, when his co-stars included Peter Lorre and Humphrey Bogart.
The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe ran from 1950-1951.
Wolfe originated in Rex Stout's books and two films were made, but the author disapproved and the character didn't stray into vision again until the late 1970s.
Written by Alfred Bester.
Director: J Donald Wilson
Producer: Edwin Fadiman
One of a series of selected shows from the golden days of American radio in the 1940s and 50s, when many of Hollywood's greatest screen stars were regular performers - often re-enacting their famous film roles.
First broadcast on NBC Radio in the USA in 1950.
by Kate Chopin, dramatised for radio by Janice Okoh
Leonce hopes a visit from her father will stop Edna's unconventional behaviour, but very soon the notorious Alcee Arobin has begun to visit....
Edna Pontellier ..... Pippa Bennett-Warner
Leonce Pontellier ..... Guy Paul
Celestine ..... Petra Letang
Alcee Arobin ..... Richard Laing
Adele Ratignolle ..... Sasha Pick
Mlle Reisz ..... Lucy Williams
The Colonel ..... David Cann
Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow
From the Pizzaro brothers, who pillaged Peru for Inca gold in the 16th century, to the modern-day Mponeng mine in South Africa, the deepest in the world, where the ghost miners illegally siphon off millions - the pursuit of gold has led to wars, insurrections, betrayals and bloodshed.
Matthew Hart charts a course through history and across continents to tell the story of the world's most coveted metal. Part history, part journalism and part economic analysis, Gold tells the story of a human obsession that shows no sign of abating.
In 2008, when the financial crisis rattled economies, investors inevitably resorted to the perceived safety of gold – and its price escalated from $800 to $1900 an ounce. This, in turn, accelerated the exploration for yet more gold.
Matthew Hart is a journalist, whose work has appeared in The Times, Granta, The Atlantic Monthly and The Globe and Mail. He has written two IMAX films, numerous TV documentaries, and appeared on CNN, Sixty Minutes and the National Geographic channel. His previous books include Diamond: The History Of A Cold-Blooded Love Affair, which was filmed as a documentary by ABC.
Abridged by Pete Nichols
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
On a train journey across the USA, Vincent Price orders breakfast in the deserted restaurant car.
But then he encounters a meek millionaire with an alarming tale to share...
Vincent Price introduces another tale of horror starring Peter Cushing as Harry, Diana Olsson as Marilyn and Steve Preston as Chuck.
Robert Arthur’s story dramatised by William Ingram.
Producer: John Dyas
First broadcast on the BBC World Service in 1973.
Gertude Stein, American poet, writer and art collector, lived most of her life in France. She was one of the first people to spot the genius of Picasso, Cezanne and Matisse, and she believed she was a genius too. Opinion on that score remains divided.
In Great Lives, Erin Pizzey chooses her because Stein inspired her to live a life without compromise. Since setting up the world's first refuge for battered women in 1971, Erin Pizzey has campaigned and written about domestic violence, publishing "Scream Quietly Or The Neighbours Will Hear" and her autobiography "This Way To The Revolution". Joining presenter Matthew Parris in the studio is Diana Souhami, author of "Gertrude and Alice".
The producer is Isobel Eaton.
Made for 4 Extra. Short-form show from the same team behind the long-running scrapbook sketch show, hosted by Angela Barnes and written entirely by the great British public.
The emaciation of women in the National Theatre of Brent's definitive history of Earth. Stars Patrick Barlow. From June 1990.
Isy Suttie (Dobby from Channel 4's Peep Show and double British Comedy Award nominee) returns to BBC Radio 4 with these unique tales, recounting a series of love stories affecting people she's known throughout her life, told partly through song.
Sometimes Isy has merely observed other people's love lives; quite often she's intervened, changing the action dramatically - for better or worse. Intertwined within these stories are related real life anecdotes from Isy's own, often disastrous, love life.
In this first episode, Isy and her first ever boyfriend, Darren Jones, conspire to write love notes that bring two shy bell-ringers together, Peter and Anne.
With her multi-character and vocal skills, plus her guitar, Isy creates a hilarious and deeply moving world, sharing with us her lessons in life and love.
"A voice you want to swim in" The Independent
Produced by Lianne Coop.
To avoid a war posting to Burma, the blundering codebreakers must catch a German spy. Stars Robert Bathurst. From June 2008.
Mr Rycroft decides that only by re-enacting the séance which announced the murder of Captain Trevelyan, will the identity of his killer finally be revealed.
Agatha Christie's whodunit stars Melinda Walker as Emily Trefusis, Stephen Tompkinson as Charles Enderby, Geoffrey Whitehead as Inspector Narracott, Norman Bird as Major Burnaby, Jack May as Ellwood, David Goudge as Martin Dering, John Moffatt as Mr Rycroft and Susan Westerby as Mrs Willett.
From the book first published in 1931.
Dramatised and directed by Michael Bakewell.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1990.
In 1955 at the age of ten, Bryan Ferry developed a passion for jazz music. Listening to his radio in Washington, County Durham, he was transported from rural North East England to 1920s New Orleans and Cotton Club, New York. British Trad Jazz was booming, with Humphrey Lyttelton, Chris Barber and Ken Collier offering a gateway to the 'yellow cocktail' music of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker.
Now Bryan has returned to his earliest musical love with 'The Jazz Age', a record that remakes and remodels some of his biggest Roxy Music hits in the style of instrumental 20s jazz standards.
Bryan takes us back to his first concert at Newcastle City Hall to see the Chris Barber band and reveals how a performance of St Louis Blues caught his imagination. Trombonist Chris Barber describes how he brought music from the Deep South to rapturous British audiences.
Newcastle music historian Chris Phipps traces the mythical connection between the Mississippi and the Tyne, while Bryan shares his memories of a vibrant, modernist city where he studied fine art. The city still shows traces of its jazz heritage, including J G Windows, the record shop where Bryan bought his 78s including the Charlie Parker Quintet's EP whose solos he learnt by heart.
It wasn't just the jazz age of the 20s that inspired Bryan, but its literature too. He recently contributed to the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby, the film of one of his favourite novels.
With live recordings from his recent UK tour with The Bryan Ferry Jazz Orchestra, Bryan reflects on Roxy Music's early years and explains how his grounding in jazz helped him lead one of the most influential British bands of all time.
Producer: Paul Smith
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4
Backstage at a comedy club, four comics discover life on the circuit isn't all fun. Stars Philip Jackson. From September 2003.
Behind every great man there is an even greater woman - demanding rent.
Comedy legend Barry Cryer brings his unique brand of silliness to the world of Sherlock Holmes’ landlady in a special Radio 4 double bill recorded in front of an audience in London.
Barry plays chestnut salesman Harry Fryer and is joined by Patricia Hodge as Mrs Hudson and Miriam Margolyes as her mischievous friend and neighbour, Mrs Brayley.
The show has been written by Barry and his son, Bob Cryer (familiar to Hollyoaks fans as Glenn Donovan) and is based on their book, Mrs Hudson's Diaries.
When her tenant, a magician known as The Great Mysto, goes missing, Mrs Hudson is suddenly in urgent need of rent money and new lodgers. This half hour episode sees Mrs Hudson attempting to reclaim her lost money and encountering everything from crooked showgirls and Music Hall eccentrics to German strongmen and dodgy clairvoyants. Meanwhile, Mrs Hudson’s maid Martha (Ruth Bratt) has secretly advertised for new tenants and it’s not long before a doctor (Stephen Critchlow) and a consulting detective (Orlando Wells) come knocking. Time is not on her side as villainous Sir Charles Swift is ready to swoop and reclaim her house if she doesn’t pay her ground rent.
CAST:
MRS HUDSON - Patricia Hodge
MRS BRAYLEY - Miriam Margolyes
HARRY FRYER - Barry Cryer
HOLMES/BESSINGBY - Orlando Wells
MYSTO / ARCHIE / WATSON - Stephen Critchlow
MARTHA/BELLA/MYRTLE /CUSACK - Ruth Bratt
GUSTAV / MD - Jeremy Limb
LESTRADE / SWIFT - Bob Cryer
Written by Bob and Barry Cryer
Produced and Directed by Ned Chaillet and Ben Walker
Executive Producer: Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
Alice goes through the looking glass, where Lady Constance is Queen. Starring John Cleese and Graeme Garden. From December 1973.
Harold is furious when his date Roxanne is late for dinner.
Starring Wilfrid Brambell as Albert, Harry H Corbett as Harold and Marion Stone as Roxanne.
Following the conclusion of their hugely successful association with Tony Hancock, writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson wrote 10 pilots for the BBC TV's Comedy Playhouse in 1962. The Offer was set in a house with a yard full of junk, featuring the lives of rag and bone men Albert Steptoe and his son Harold and it was the spark for a run of 8 series for TV.
Adapted for radio from Galton and Simpson's TV script by Gale Pedrick.
Produced by Bobby Jaye
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in July 1966.
Animal, vegetable or mineral? Barry Took's revised 20 questions. With Geoffrey Durham and Hattie Hayridge. From May 1998.
Pierce Egan's news of slums, a king's interiors and a dog-and-monkey fight. Stars Geoffrey McGivern. From May 2006.
In the sun-drenched port of Genoa, Gwendolen and Daniel's fates become eternally and tragically entwined.
Conclusion of George Eliot's 1876 classic novel of love and idealism - dramatised in three parts by Robert Forrest.
Stars Anna Chancellor as Gwendolen Harleth, James Bryce as Grandcourt, Michael Perceval-Maxwell as Deronda, Joanna Tope as Mrs Davilow, Finlay Welsh as Klesmer, Lucy Patterson as Mirah, Noreen Leighton as Lydia, Simon Tait as Lush, Vivienne Dixon as Leonara and Mark McDonnell as Mordecai.
Director: Patrick Rayner
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1999.
Amanda Litherland and Olly Mann recommend the best podcasts, including The Comedian's Comedian and Getting Better Acquainted.
If murder is the fever, who has the cure? Stars Hugh Marlowe as Ellery Queen, "the celebrated fighter of crime".
With ABC's special guest star, Peggy Lee playing armchair detective.
After first appearing in print, 'The Adventures of Ellery Queen' ran on American radio from 1939 to 1948 on CBS, NBC, back to CBS, back to NBC and finally ABC. In each episode, a celebrity would try to solve the dramatised mystery.
Chantuese Peggy Lee's 60-year career garnered her many awards and spanned many genres. Jazz classics like 'Fever' remain her trademark. Peggy Lee was born in 1920 and died in 2002.
One of a series of selected shows from the golden days of American radio in the 1940s and 50s, when many of Hollywood's greatest screen stars were regular performers - often re-enacting their famous film roles.
First broadcast on ABC Radio in the USA in 1948.
by Kate Chopin, dramatised for radio by Janice Okoh
Edna thinks Robert's return will make her happy, but events are to overtake them both.
Edna Pontellier ..... Pippa Bennett-Warner
Celestine ..... Petra Letang
Robert Lebrun ..... PJ Brennan
Alcee Arobin ..... Richard Laing
Adele Ratignolle ..... Sasha Pick
Mme Lebrun ..... Adjoa Andoh
Catiche ..... Adjoa Andoh
Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow
From the Pizzaro brothers, who pillaged Peru for Inca gold in the 16th century, to the modern-day Mponeng mine in South Africa, the deepest in the world, where the ghost miners illegally siphon off millions - the pursuit of gold has led to wars, insurrections, betrayals and bloodshed.
Matthew Hart charts a course through history and across continents to tell the story of the world's most coveted metal. Part history, part journalism and part economic analysis, Gold tells the story of a human obsession that shows no sign of abating.
In 2008, when the financial crisis rattled economies, investors inevitably resorted to the perceived safety of gold – and its price escalated from $800 to $1900 an ounce. This, in turn, accelerated the exploration for yet more gold.
Matthew Hart is a journalist, whose work has appeared in The Times, Granta, The Atlantic Monthly and The Globe and Mail. He has written two IMAX films, numerous TV documentaries, and appeared on CNN, Sixty Minutes and the National Geographic channel. His previous books include Diamond: The History Of A Cold-Blooded Love Affair, which was filmed as a documentary by ABC.
Abridged by Pete Nichols
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
Horror legend Vincent Price tells the terrifying tale of a painting. With Douglas Blackwell and Alexander John. From September 1975.
Writers Nick Walker, Lindsey Davis and Neil Rollinson join Matthew Parris to discuss what makes a man's man. From 2002.
In each programme, Professor Bigsby ( or Matthew Parris ) introduces a group of writers of fact and fiction: new talent and established names. In the context of a discussion of one of the ideas and pre-occupations of our times, each presents a piece on this week's topic.
The best new writing and the freshest conversation from 2002.
Henry Normal opens the fourth and final volume of his Encyclopaedia Poetica, taking us all the way to Zzz-Zzz.
This week's poems cover Radio 4, Points of View, a mime burglary, obnoxious individuals called Clive, and the Miss Scotland beauty pageant.
Henry is joined on stage, at Edinburgh's Pleasance Theatre, by the poets Liz Lochhead and Pete Ramskill.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1994.
Prince Madoc? Swansea Jack? Comedian Elis James turns the spotlight on seafarers as he compares Welsh history's key figures to determine Wales's ultimate heroes. From January 2012.
Comedy series in which comedian Will Smith seeks help and advice - primarily from his godfather Peter - on coping with the onset of middle age. Peter invites American rap star 10 Shot to help Will with his confidence and Will joins a self defence class to stop him being bullied by teenage girls. With Roger Allam, Jimmy Akingbola, Jill Cardo.