BBC Radio 2

"The Woman In White" - January - 8x15mins

Read by Dougray Scott / Directed by Neil Gardner

Dougray Scott (Mission Impossible 2/Triffids) reads Wilkie Collins' celebrated novel in this newly-abridged eight-part series. Described as the first detective novel in the English language, the book was a bestseller from the moment of its publication in 1860 - a popularituy which continues to the present day.

 

 

"Oliver Twist" - December - 6x15mins

Read by David Warner / Directed by Neil Gardner

Emmy award-winning legendary actor David Warner reads a new six-part abridgement of Charles Dicken's all-time classic tale of an orphan boy finding his way through life. One of the most dramatised of Dickens' works, 'Oliver Twist' was appearing in 10 theatres in London before the serialisation of the novel was even completed. There are 25 film version listed with the first being in 1906!

 

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BBC Radio 3

"Drama on 3 - Don Carlos" - 1x120mins

Starring Sir Derek Jacobi / Directed by MIchael Grandage & Andy Jordan

A transfer of the critically acclaimed West End production of Schiller's 'Don Carlos' - starring Sir Derek Jacobi, Richard Coyle, Elliot Cowan, Claire Price, Peter Eyre, Charlotte Randle, Una Stubbs, Ian Hogg and Andrew MacDonald among others. Directed by award-winning theatre director Michael Grandage and Andy Jordan, with music by Adam Cork. Recorded in Studio 2 at Abbey Road studios.

 

 

 

"Between The Ears - Doing The To Do List" - 1x30mins

Produced by Richard Bannerman

Everyone has a to do list - this original montage piece looks at the to do lists of people from around the UK, learning just what these lists mean to their owners, and whether or not they ever achiebe their ultimate aims! Featuring comedian Arthur Smith.

 

"Joyce Grenfell at the Aldeburgh Festival" - 3x20mins

Presented by Janie Hampton / Starring Maureen Lipman / Produced by Merilyn Harris

Comedienne and actress Joyce Grenfell fell in love with the annual classical music pageant in Aldeburgh back in 1947. These three 20 minute programmes, written & presented by Joyce's biographer Janie Hampton, follow her love for the festival through the reading of her personal letters to her best friend. Features Maureen Lipman as Joyce Grenfell.

 

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BBC Radio 4

"The Wild Blue" - 1x60mins

Presented by Cy Grant / Produced by Paul Kent

Emory Cook was a pioneer of early recording techniques, including developing one of the very first portable stereo recorders. But it was his love for esoteric sounds and the music of the Caribbean that this programme delights in. From the sound of trains and trumpets to the strains of Calypso and more.

"I Will Survive" - 1x30mins

Produced by Richard Bannerman

This iconic song has been the saviour of many a person facing tough times. This moving and amusing montage piece takes a look at those people who have had their own 'Survive' moments, and hears their stories alongside the song's own story, as told by Gloria Gaynor herself.

"Strolling With Sartre" - 1x60mins

Presented by Miles Kington / Produced by Merilyn Harris

On the 100th anniversary of his birth, Miles Kington retraces the steps of Jean-Paul Sartre across Paris, revealing old haunts, meeting those that knew him, and reliving some of JPS' favourite past-times.

"Mishkids - Living With The Consequences" - 1x30mins

Presented by Edi Stark / Produced by Anna Scott-Brown

Edi Stark investigates the impact of being a child of a missionary. From those who see it as a blessing, to those who loathe it as a curse. With personal recollections and incredible stories, being a Mishkid was a mixture of fun and hardship.

 

 

 

"The Old Bill" - Series 1 - 5x15mins

Presented by Richard Foster / Produced by Merilyn Harris

Historian Richard Foster makes superb use of an old historian's tool, the bill! By investigating bacl from accounts and receipts, Richard tells the stories of five people - a Tory MP, a harpsichord tuner, a churchwarden, a police constable and an Irish doctor.

 

 

 

"Pomp & Circumstance" - 1x30mins

Presented by Paul Vaughan / Produced by Richard Bannerman

The truth behind the lyrics of Elgar's masterpiece. Just who wrote them, and what do they really mean? Is their original meaning still relevant today? Featuring Paul Daniel, the conductor of the 2005 Last Night of the Proms.

 

 

 

 

"Revelations" - 1x30mins

Presented by Thomas DeFrantz / Produced by Richard Bannerman

The story of the revolutionary Black dance company from the United States, coinciding with their 2005 UK tour. From civil rights to dance routines, a look at how art really has changed the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The End" - 1x30mins

Produced by Richard Bannerman

Everything ends eventually - from the ultimate ending of death, through to more mundane endings, like final chapters, end of sports events and finishing a song. This montage piece takes the listener through the varied endings we all reach in our lives.

 

 

"Next Question Please!" - 1x30mins

Presented by Simon Fanshawe / Produced by Richard Bannerman

The story of the people behind the questions. The UK is quiz mad, but just who comes up with all those brain-teasers, cryptic clues and questionable questions? Simon Fanshawe investigates and gets into a few quizzes along the way!

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The Sound of America - The Story of NPR" - 1x60mins

Presented byJoe Queenan / Produced by Neil Gardner

National Public Radio in the US has had a tumultuous 35 year history. Nothing like the BBC, NPR is a schism of liberal-agenda news and cutting edge cultural programme making. This archive hour looks at the key moments from NPR's history, including the very first broadcast, the Watergate scandal, Washington riots, kidnapped repporters, global link-ups, 9/11 and much more. Plus the programme delves in to the incredibly rich collection of NPR music and arts documentaries.

 

 

"Surrounded" - 1x30mins

Presented by Robert Powell / Produced by Richard Bannerman

Fifty years ago Britain's first professional theatre-in-the-round was foudned in Scarborough by the pioneering Stephen Jospeh. Actor Robert Powell, who began his career 'in the round', visits the Stephen Joseph theatre in Scarborouogh and talks to playwright Alan Ayckbourn, actor Tom Courtenay, director Peter Cheeseman, designer Alison Chitty and folk singer Martin Carthy about their experience of this intimate and unusual space, where the audience surrounds the action in a uniquely involving way.

 

 

"Lomax At Christmas" - December - 1x60mins

Presented by Martin Carthy / Produced by Paul Kent

The folk-song collector Alan Lomax loved the traditional songs and carols of Christmas, and sought out music from around the world that summed up the spirit of the season. British folk musician Martin Carthy introduces a vintage radio programme which lomax made in 1957 for the BBC, as well as other music he collected on the theme of Christmas. Lomax brought together artists like Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and Seamus Ennis in a celebration of Christmas from different parts of the UK, and further afield. Irish jigs, Christmas calypsos and italian carols are performed alongside the traditional music of Great Britain. The programme includes an interview with Lomax's daughter, Anna Lomax Wood, who talks about her father's work.

 

 

"6000 Postcards" - 1x30mins

Presented by Chris McManus / Produced by Richard Bannerman

Stacked in shoeboxes in a dusty cupboard, Richard Rawles of the Psychology Dept of University College London stumbled upon 6000 old postcards, all dating from 1953. On the back seemed to be answers to a questionnaire about left and right-handedness, but the cards had lain there ignored for 50 years. An early example of viewer participation and a revealing survey in its own right, Chris McManus describes how he and his colleagues tracked the postcards to an early BBC TV science programme presented by Jacob Bronowski, and 50 years later put them through a computer analysis to find out what they could tell us about the poeple and the time in which they lived.

 

 

"Painting The Sky" - 1x30mins

Presented by Rob Brydon / Produced by Richard Bannerman

Lighting up the sky with stars and streamers are the competing fireworks teams at the annual Pyromusical Firework Championships. Mat Lawrence and Mac McNally are the best of friends except on this one night at Stanford Hall in Leicestershire when their respective firework installations send thousands of pounds up in smoke in their 15 minute displays to music. The public watches and votes via mobile phones for this year's champion. Rob Brydon tells their sotry from the visit to China to choose the latest inventions, to six months later, when in pouring rain wires are laid and fuses primed. Who will win? Will the fireworks even go off?!

 

 

"Ainsley's First Kitchen" - December - 1x30mins

Presented by Ainsley Harriott / Produced by Clare Csonka

Chef Ainsley Harriott returns to his childhood home in South london and relives some of the food and family experiences that made Christmas special for him, and set him on the path his adult life would take. He swaps his TV kitchen for the one in the house in which his mother prepared the family's special Christmas fare, and cooks up a couple of his mother's recipes for fellow chef Roopa Gulati and comedian Arthur Smith.

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