Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Politics & Social Sciences

Written by Hugh Cunningham and presented by award-winning children's author Michael Morpurgo, this genuinely ground-breaking history of British childhood teaches us about the key elements that have shaped children's lives. The Invention of Childhood explores how gender, geography and ethnicity...

When a delirious Irishman arrives in a Cornish harbour, baker Mary Kneebone takes him in, and soon the sick and gullible are queuing at her door. A wry comedy about faith, love and redemption from outstanding Cornish playwright Annamaria Murphy. Starring Mary Woodvine, Barbara Jefford, Stephen...

The special New Year's Day 2011 edition of BBC Radio 4's 'Beyond Westminster', in which Andrew Rawnsley considers the lessons of history for Britain's coalition government - and its opponents. Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers are busily advancing their ambitious political and...

Intrepid broadcaster Roy Mallard sets out to give us an insight into the lives of ordinary people in these two episodes form the original BBC Radio 4 series: 'The Headmaster' and 'The Solicitor'. Roy tackles the burning educational issues of the day with comprehensive school headmaster Nigel...

A series of extended interviews from Colin Murray's Gold Run - one man's quest to meet every living GB gold medallist from the summer Olympics. In these nine episodes, Murray talks to David Bond, Ben Ainslie, the GB 4x100 relay team, Bradley Wiggins, Ann Packer, Daley Thompson, Rebecca Adlington, Sir Chris Hoy, Jonathan Edwards, Linford Christie, Mary Peters, Matthew Pinsent, Duncan Goodhew, the 1988 hockey squad, Gillian Sheen, Dame Kelly Holmes and Sir Steve Redgrave.

Broadcaster and arts presenter Melvyn Bragg fronts 'The Written World', a five-part BBC Radio 4 series following the origins of writing from its first appearance 6,000 years ago and exploring how it has shaped the world's intellectual history. In the first programme he looks at the technology...

Until the time of her death in 2003, much-loved actress Thora Hird worked regularly with the playwright Alan Bennett. Now, in a specially written introduction and postscript, Bennett recalls his work and friendship with Thora, and introduces three examples of their collaboration. In The Last of...

What was life like for Shakespeare's first audiences? In a time of political and religious unrest and economic expansion, how did Elizabethan play-goers make sense of their changing world? What did the plays mean to the public when they were first performed? In this fascinating series, Neil...

Dr. Geoff Bunn presents a journey through 5000 years of our understanding of the most complex thing in the known universe: the brain, in this major ten-part BBC Radio 4 series.Human beings have long been fascinated by the brain and how it fulfils its many functions. This groundbreaking cultural...

A BBC Radio 4, three-part factual series, first broadcast on 23 March 2011. Michael Blastland presents ‘The Story of Economics’, and lays out the history of economic ideas, to understand why economics goes wrong and whether it can ever go entirely right...

'I tend to think of myself as a man of few words, but looking at this collection it seems to have been gab gab gab for the last thirty years'. Admittedly not all the words are his own - but even the work of other writers can be transformed by Alan Bennett. This unique anthology of Bennett's...

In Blind Man's Bete Noire, Peter White explores some of the things which annoy him most about his blindness. The four programmes include The Countryside, Holidays, Being Introduced to Other Blind People and Going Slowly. Produced by Cheryl Gabriel...

The story of the Second World War told by former BBC newsreader Richard Baker, with original recordings from the BBC. From Neville Chamberlain's historic declaration of war on Germany in 1939 to the sounds of rejoicing crowds on VJ Day in August 1945, the BBC - regarded at home and abroad as the very voice of Britain and the world's most trusted broadcaster - brought the full picture to an attentive nation.

Professor Amanda Vickery is one of the most charismatic historians in Britain today. In 'A History of Private Life' she reveals the intimate secrets of life at home, from the Tudor mansion to the modern bedsit. Through letters, diaries and other first-person accounts, we hear the voices of men...

A BBC Radio 4 dramatic adaptation of Keats' sensual narrative poem ‘Lamia’, about the ill-starred love affair of the serpent Lamia, and the innocent mortal Lycius. Featuring original music by John Harle, and singer Sarah Leonard. With Paterson Joseph as the Narrator, Charlotte Emmerson as...

Two BBC Radio programmes exploring President John F. Kennedy's shocking assassination on 22 November 1963. In Something Is Terribly Wrong, first broadcast in 2003, Alan Thompson charts the confusion and disbelief after the assassination. He returns to key sites in Dallas, and talks to...

In this remarkable collection of BBC recordings, we hear what the people of the Home Front listened to as they lived, loved, laughed and worked through the dark days of World War Two; from the stirring speeches and air-raid sirens, to the humour and music that helped to keep them smiling through.

Described by the Observer as ‘Some of the most inventive comedy writing of the decade’, and eliciting an exclamation of ‘Wow!’ from Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening, come with us now on a journey through time and space - to the world of The Mighty Boosh... Here are all six episodes of...

Lenny Henry plays double murderer Frank Watt, who is getting ready to face life on the outside after 30 years in prison. He's looking forward to getting out, but things have changed a lot since the '80s and he's institutionalised. He quite likes his bookish, monklike life inside and the anger he was boiling over with when he went to prison is down to a manageable simmer.

A BBC Radio 4 drama by Louise Ramsden, based on Seaneen Molloy's blog 'The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive', her account of learning to live and love with bipolar disorder. Originally broadcast as the 'Afternoon Play' on 8 May 2009. Facing life as a newly-diagnosed manic depressive, Seaneen...