Radio 4
Was Queen Victoria’s doctor the first psychoanalyst?
Queen Victoria began to experience dark visions after giving birth to her second child. Concerned that she might have inherited…
Condoms in 18th-century painting
Waldemar Januszczak and Bendor Grosvenor’s art podcast has returned after nearly five years. It is, says Januszczak, ‘the podcast they…
R.S. Thomas – terrific poet, terrible husband
Love’s Moment is one of those quiet radio programmes you’re unlikely to have read about. It aired without fanfare at…
Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? The BBC, it seems
‘What a lark!’ I thought to myself as I rose on a hot June morning to listen to a documentary…
The best radio at the moment is on the BBC World Service
Online viewings of Conclave increased threefold following the death of Pope Francis last month. At least some of the traffic…
Soothing and glorious: Fashion Neurosis reviewed
Sometimes the mind needs to take a break. And I can’t think of a better stopping-off place than the soothing,…
Booze now has its own Rest is History-style podcast
Intoxicating History is the perfect title for drinks expert Henry Jeffreys and food critic Tom Parker Bowles’s new podcast. Its…
It’s moving to think how happy Van Gogh was in Brixton
When a phrase really takes off in the political sphere, you will recognise it by the frequency with which it…
Why I’m obsessed with Farming Today
Farming Today airs at an undignified hour each morning on Radio 4. On the few occasions I’ve caught it live…
Avoids the breathless hype of so many podcasts: Finding Mr Fox reviewed
We are all surely familiar with those stories of naive young Brits who travel abroad and are persuaded by a…
I listened to a solid week of Woman’s Hour…
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
It was 50 years ago this week, on 7 November 1974, that Lord Lucan fled what was destined to become…
How Berlin nearly broke Bowie
This week’s Archive on 4 is a treat for David Bowie fans. Francis Whately, the producer behind several of the…
Glamour or guilt? The perils of marketing the British country house
The most angst-ridden sub-category of the very rich – admittedly a lucky bunch to start with – must surely contain…
A familiar OE-led balls-up: Rory Stewart’s The Long History of Ignorance reviewed
In my next life I intend to have my brain removed in order to become a telly executive. You know:…
Rushdie on how the best magical realism transcends fantasy
Ask the man in the street to quote a line from one of Salman Rushdie’s novels, and he might struggle.…
Under the Taliban, Afghan light entertainment accrued unusual weight
For a television talent show, Afghan Star had unusually high stakes. When it first hit Afghanistan’s screens in 2005, four…
The jaw-dropping story of the British Museum thefts
It’s August 2023 when news breaks that artefacts have gone missing, presumed stolen, from the British Museum. I’m about an…
A gripping podcast about America’s obsession with guns
The love affair between so many Americans and their guns – long a source of international fascination – appears to…
How to live off the land for a year
Could you live off the land for a year without buying a single thing to eat? This was the challenge…
How did the internet become so horrific?
Plus: the joy of hearing lawyers argue
I’m not convinced Thomas Heatherwick is the best person to be discussing boring buildings
Architects are often snobby about – and no doubt jealous of – the designer Thomas Heatherwick, who isn’t an actual…
The Stradivarius of models
‘What advice would you give to your younger self?’ has become a popular question in interviews in recent years. It’s…
No balls
The first episode of George Osborne and Ed Balls’s new podcast, Political Currency, opened with an old clip of the…
