Radio 4
Is Radio 4 encouraging us to overshare?
Much ado about Radio 4’s latest venture into the new smart world of aural selfies. Reaction Time, on Thursday mornings,…
Long before Twitter, Wogan offered continuous conversation
For once, the superlatives that have greeted Terry Wogan’s death from cancer have been entirely in keeping with the man.…
Serial returns with a story of loyalty, resilience and punishment
The new season of the Serial podcast (produced by the same team who make This American Life) was launched last…
Stephen Hawking shows that all is not lost if by mischance you fall into a black hole
You don’t expect to be brought close to tears by the Reith Lectures, which are after all at the most…
Corbyn’s turn on Today was as graceful and twinkle-toed as Bowie himself
Some might say that Jeremy Corbyn is cloth-eared, tone-deaf, socially inept but on Monday morning, as the death of the…
The best - and worst - podcasts
My resolution this New Year is to get to grips with podcasts, to brace up and embrace this new aural…
Radio is flowering because it’s so much more potent than TV
Who would have thought in this visually obsessed age of YouTube, selfies and Instagram that radio, pure audio, no images…
Glenda Jackson is brilliant in Radio 4’s Zola adaptation - and terrifying
It was a stroke of genius to invite Glenda Jackson to make her return to acting as the star of…
You can’t forget what Will Self says - even if you wish you could
It lasted for just a few seconds but was such a graphic illustration of the statistics behind the bombing campaign…
A gripping Start the Week from a Paris on the edge
It was as if Andrew Marr and his guests on Start the Week on Monday morning were standing on the…
Was Bach really a ‘tasteless and chaotic composer’?
It’s just not what you expect to hear on Radio 3 but I happened upon Music Matters on Saturday morning…
Agincourt was neither necessary, nor great. We’re mad to celebrate it
Can anyone explain this sudden enthusiasm for Agincourt, that unexpected victory over the French, now being celebrated, or rather commemorated,…
National Poetry Day's mistake: letting normal people do the reading
Imagine what Brennig Davies must have felt like just before 11 o’clock last Tuesday evening. The 15-year-old was about to…
Why we should embrace being average
Maybe what we love about radio is the way that most of its programming allows us the luxury of staying…
How The Archers tried to derail the launch of ITV
Two significant anniversaries, each very different but both reflecting the BBC’s mission and the reasons for its continued success. From…
The Baroque composer who was a world music pioneer
On Private Passions this week the writer Amitav Ghosh gave us a refreshingly different version of what has become a…
Late Night Woman’s Hour assumes that all women think about is dating, desire and drinking
Late Night Woman’s Hour has created a Twitter storm with its twice-weekly (Thursdays and Fridays) doses of ‘mischievous and unbridled…
Why are we so silent over Hiroshima?
It’s 70 years since the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and yet there has been no rush to…
If the government have their way, will Radio 4’s dramas be broken up by ads for dentures?
‘Bait by Cartier,’ she growls as her priceless diamond bracelet is strapped to a piece of rope and dropped overboard…
Turn the licence fee into a digital currency – and save more than just the BBC
What follows is a proposal for reducing the BBC licence fee and improving the corporation’s output while saving the British…
Why it would be absurd to sell off Radio 2 - even if it could do with a refresh
The idea that Radio 2 should be sold off by the BBC to a commercial rival is as nonsensical as…
Why sound beats image when it comes to memory
It’s often not visual images that stimulate memory but a smell, a taste, the sound of pebbles crashing on to…
Why I love The Bottom Line
Evan Davis’s series on business life, The Bottom Line (made in conjunction with the Open University), has become one of…
When Dr Johnson went to Tahrir Square
Goodness knows what the Great Cham would have made of Radio 4 airing an adapted version of his philosophical fable,…
The history of India in 50 personalities
The idea of using objects — salt, cod, nutmeg, silk — to turn history lessons into something popular and accessible…
