Life after retirement at the BBC
Also this week: savage cuts at Radio 4, and woman as temptress.
ByRadio 4
Can the country house survive?
Tristram Hunt’s Radio 4 documentary The Grand House: Boom or Blight? charts the English manor’s contested legacy.
By
Is this election beyond satire?
With the Tories writing their own punchlines, the jokes in Michael Spicer: No Room are all too plausible.
By
On the trail of human traffickers
Radio 4’s To Catch a Scorpion takes us inside the brutal illegal immigration industry.
By
The cost of climbing Everest
A new Radio 4 series reveals the stark and deadly reality of conquering the world’s highest mountain.
By
The journalist vs the trolls
In Marianna Spring’s series Why Do You Hate Me?, the BBC social media correspondent finds fellowship and reconciliation amid the…
By
Radio 4’s Child puts us on the cusp of life
India Rakusen has created a delightful mosaic of trivia about babies and the earliest stages of human life.
By
Do you know how to read the news?
This BBC Radio 4 series is a fun, bite-sized analysis of journalistic practice past and present.
By
A baffling but brilliant ride through Birmingham’s surrealist scene
Stewart Lee’s Radio 4 documentary on the city’s artistic past is jarring, hard to follow and utterly engaging.
By
A history of the world in circles
Radio 4’s In the Loop explores the secrets of things that are round – from particle accelerators to the 5,000-year-old…
By
When Justin Welby met John Cleese
In BBC Radio 4’s Archbishop Interviews, the unlikely pair talk about faith, forgiveness, cancel culture – and whether Jesus is…
By
What makes a witch?
A new BBC Sounds series explores the tangled roots and modern revival of witchcraft.
The secret history of how we measure time
Did you know the 24-hour day is likely the result of humans counting with their fingerbones?
By
The BBC podcast series A Very British Cult is dark and gripping
This deep dive into a supposed life-coaching organisation is an explosive listen. I won’t spoil the ending.
By
Radio 4 offers BBC staff a chance to “get your head around the economy”
Are W1Aers sure they understand how debt works?
By
The UK’s rubbish-dump mafia
Radio 4’s Buried tells the story of “the astonishing crime you likely haven’t heard of”.
By
The last bell foundry in Britain
This peek inside the John Taylor bell foundry is a ringing endorsement for BBC radio storytelling.
By
The unbearable complacency of the Today programme
Arch presenters, clichéd reporting, soft interviews: no wonder BBC Radio 4’s stale morning show is rapidly losing listeners.
By
Is American democracy in danger?
In the first episode of Owen Bennett-Jones’s new Radio 4 show, the journalist investigates Russia’s attempt to meddle in the…
By
BBC Radio 4’s Raiders of the Lost Archive explores the world of “audio archaeologists” and missing tapes
In a tape-filled attic, Roger Bickerton finds 94 instalments of Desert Island Discs.
By