Radio drama

Hearing Percy Bysshe Shelley read aloud was a revelation

16 July 2022 9:00 am

Last week I heard the actor Julian Sands give a virtuoso performance of work by Percy Bysshe Shelley to mark…

It's amazing how little insight Paul McCartney has into the Beatles' genius

27 November 2021 9:00 am

The Paul people are out in force these days. A New Yorker profile, a book and a new documentary have…

The joy of Radio 4 Extra

5 June 2021 9:00 am

The best thing on the radio last week was, without question, Kind Hearts and Coronets. You may have missed it…

Adapting Wodehouse for the radio is a challenge – but the BBC has succeeded brilliantly

23 May 2020 9:00 am

Everyone knows a Lord Emsworth. Mine lives south of the river and wears caterpillars in his hair and wine on…

Ill-disciplined and self-indulgent: The Guilty Feminist podcast reviewed

4 April 2020 9:00 am

With theatres shut, radio must lighten the darkness. The Guilty Feminist is a wildly popular podcast performed by Deborah Frances-White…

The Polish electronic music revolution of the 1950s

16 November 2019 9:00 am

It was created in November 1957, a year before the BBC’s fabled Radiophonic Workshop, and was far more influential in…

Without Joe Grundy The Archers feels lost

19 October 2019 9:00 am

There was something really creepy about listening to the ten-minute countryside podcast released last weekend by Radio 4 supposedly transporting…

Radio dial

Listening to plays in a foreign language is a weirdly engaging experience

30 March 2019 9:00 am

As the ravens circle around Broadcasting House in London’s West End, presaging difficult times ahead for BBC Radio, with less…

I always come away more confused after listening to Moral Maze

2 March 2019 9:00 am

Is it me or are we now faced (or perhaps I should say fazed?) much more often by stories in…

Two members of the Glasgow Humane Society on the River Clyde. Photo: Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images

The story of the River Clyde

16 February 2019 9:00 am

It sounds like something out of Dickens or a novel by Thackeray, a classic case of high-minded Victorian philanthropy, but…

Yemen's capital Sana'a after another airstrike, where Aziz H's award-winning new play is set. Photo: Mohammed Huwais / AFP

Why the BBC International Playwriting Competition really matters

26 January 2019 9:00 am

We don’t know whether ‘Aziz H’ listened to radio plays as he grew up in Yemen. In fact we don’t…

When haddocks flirt, they sound like a motorbike revving up

20 October 2018 9:00 am

Flies buzzing, strange rustling, crunching sounds, and then the most chilling screech you’ll have heard all week. Vultures were feeding…

A week of extraordinarily direct and honest radio on the World Service

6 October 2018 9:00 am

The most inspiring voice on radio this week belongs to Hetty Werkendam, or rather to her 15-year-old self as she…

Rod Liddle is wrong: if anything we still hear too much from male presenters on Radio 4

16 June 2018 9:00 am

I don’t know which day Rod Liddle travelled down from the northeast and found nothing but women’s voices cluttering up…

Donald Hankey: a remarkable – and neglected – English voice

16 June 2018 9:00 am

Last year the BBC radio drama department received 3,797 scripts from hopeful authors, of which just 33 were recommended to…

Joanna Lumley plays Mrs God in BBC Radio 4's new play Michael Frayn's Pocket Playhouse (Credit: ITV/ Rex/ Shutterstock)

Only Radio 4 would allow Ian McKellan and Joanna Lumley to play Mr and Mrs God

2 June 2018 9:00 am

One sphere that podcasts have so far not much penetrated is drama. Audible.co.uk is itching to develop its own brand…

Why British radio plays can’t compete with those from the Continent

7 April 2018 9:00 am

To Herne Bay in Kent for the UK International Radio Drama Festival: 50 plays from 17 countries in 15 languages…

‘We’re using the same Aga and Belfast sink as Jill Archer’: how Radio 4 made Home Front

3 March 2018 9:00 am

It feels like a long time since the launch of Home Front on Radio 4 back in June 2014, retracing…

Radio’s role in winning the Cold War

17 February 2018 9:00 am

Some of us grew up worrying about reds under the bed, which was perhaps not as foolish as all that…

What Rwanda can teach us about gender equality

13 January 2018 9:00 am

What an incredible statement we heard on My Perfect Country. ‘I can walk into a boardroom and forget I am…

Podcasts have a long way to go to catch up with radio

6 January 2018 9:00 am

It’s racing up the UK podcast charts, overtaking (as I write) the established favourites such as No Such Thing as…

I never understood the appeal of Ken Dodd

11 November 2017 9:00 am

It’s always odd to hear a familiar voice on a different programme, playing an alternative role. They never sound quite…

India in a day

17 August 2017 1:00 pm

Bold programming by the powers-that-be at Radio 4 meant it was possible to listen to all seven episodes of Ayeesha…

Big Auntie

12 August 2017 9:00 am

It’s sneaky, the way in which the BBC, so much regarded as part of the family as to be nicknamed…

The Archers v the cricket: which was the more dramatic?

9 April 2016 9:00 am

It was a toss-up on Sunday between the atmosphere in the Radio Five Live Sports Extra studio in Kolkata for…