BBC

Impeccable history of the free market – and from the BBC too

12 April 2025 9:00 am

The launch of Radio 4’s Invisible Hands series has been both blessed and cursed by timing. It tells the story…

Heaven is an oeuf en gelée

12 April 2025 9:00 am

The cherry blossom was at its finest as I made my last early morning trip through Regent’s Park to Broadcasting…

The liberating, invigorating music of Pierre Boulez

12 April 2025 9:00 am

‘When you’re not offensive in life, you obtain absolutely nothing,’ declares a twinkly-eyed Pierre Boulez in one of the archive…

Why did the BBC say ‘Muslim reverts’?

6 April 2025 2:15 am

‘Revert’ as a noun rather than a verb sounds like one of those Victorian terms that went out of fashion…

Cracks are appearing in the Cathedral walls

1 March 2025 9:00 am

Is the ‘Cathedral’ about to fall down? That’s the name given by the right-wing blogger Curtis Yarvin to denote the…

Booze now has its own Rest is History-style podcast

8 February 2025 9:00 am

Intoxicating History is the perfect title for drinks expert Henry Jeffreys and food critic Tom Parker Bowles’s new podcast. Its…

How to catch a traitor

26 January 2025 1:51 am

A quarter of a century after the first series of Big Brother, there is still some life in reality TV.…

The Traitors finale was a cruel spectacle

26 January 2025 12:58 am

Blame Covid. That’s the origin of the BBC’s hit game-show, The Traitors. Workplaces are still deserted as people sit in…

It’s moving to think how happy Van Gogh was in Brixton

25 January 2025 9:00 am

When a phrase really takes off in the political sphere, you will recognise it by the frequency with which it…

The secret of Gary Lineker’s success

25 January 2025 9:00 am

The Leicester-born striker was neither exceptionally skilful nor assiduous; but he worked out how to score goals, and later excel in broadcasting, through intelligence and calm resilience

Why I’m obsessed with Farming Today

11 January 2025 9:00 am

Farming Today airs at an undignified hour each morning on Radio 4. On the few occasions I’ve caught it live…

Letters: In defence of Radio 3

7 December 2024 9:00 am

Vote of no confidence Sir: Rod Liddle is too harsh on those calling for another general election (‘I hope you…

The BBC vs Gregg Wallace

7 December 2024 9:00 am

The last time I took my wife to watch Millwall play a home game, a gentleman a few rows in…

Avoids the breathless hype of so many podcasts: Finding Mr Fox reviewed

23 November 2024 9:00 am

We are all surely familiar with those stories of naive young Brits who travel abroad and are persuaded by a…

How did Wolf Hall escape the attentions of the BBC’s diversity commissars?

23 November 2024 9:00 am

Wolf Hall is one of the few remaining jewels in the BBC’s tarnished crown. Presumably that’s why it was allowed…

I listened to a solid week of Woman’s Hour…

16 November 2024 9:00 am

I was a weird kid, and though I harboured the usual innocent girlish ambitions of being a drug fiend and…

Radio 4’s Lord Lucan series is rescued by a brilliant narrator

9 November 2024 9:00 am

It was 50 years ago this week, on 7 November 1974, that Lord Lucan fled what was destined to become…

Do you like the century you’re in?

26 October 2024 9:00 am

Years ago Lord Patten of Barnes – Chris – was our guest for my Great Lives programme on BBC Radio…

The mystery of Huw Edwards’s missing phone

19 October 2024 9:00 am

The best thing about being a playwright? The satisfaction of creativity. The worst? Press-night parties attended by friends, industry people…

The BBC Singers Centenary Concert was toe-curling

12 October 2024 9:00 am

When does a new opera enter the repertoire? Judith Weir’s Blond Eckbert has only had a couple of UK productions…

The fascinating mechanics of striking a deal

28 September 2024 9:00 am

If you wish to know how to become a master negotiator, a formidable body of books will now offer to…

Manacorda’s thrills and spills at Prom 72

21 September 2024 9:00 am

At a Hollywood party in the 1940s, the garrulous socialite Elsa Maxwell spotted Arnold Schoenberg, then teaching music at UCLA,…

More Airplane! than Speed: Nightsleeper reviewed

21 September 2024 9:00 am

Earlier this year, ITV brought us Red Eye, a six-part drama set mainly on an overnight plane from London to…

The tyranny of lawyers

21 September 2024 9:00 am

Is it time to cancel Strictly?

15 September 2024 8:00 pm

The BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing returned this weekend, but rather than being met with the usual fanfare there is a…