Blog posts by year and monthJanuary 2011
Posts (16)
How to get into Oxford. Climb in through the window
Editor's note: Riazat Butt is The Guardian's religious affairs correspondent. Listen to her programme on Radio 4 at 2000 tonight - SB. Oxford University's admissions system is one of those subjects that really winds people up - and that's why I wanted to look at it. It enrages those who think t...
Rock Island Line
Editor's note: I'm republishing this post from last year now because the programme has just been repeated and that's a good enough excuse to revive this excellent new recording of Skiffle classic 'Rock Island Line' - SB The chorus goes like this: The Rock Island Line is a mighty good road The ...
A new schedule, The Archers and cuts
Editor's note - Feedback is back. And highlights of the first episode of the new series are a wide-ranging interview with Controller Gwyneth Williams and an encounter with Archers editor Vanessa Whitburn for two of her listeners - SB. Hardly had Feedback gone off the air before Christmas then J...
'Curating' The Secret History of Social Networking
Curation is going to be one of the big words of 2011. Everyone's at it. My Saturday newspaper offers to 'curate my weekend', chefs 'curate lunch'. Every time we share a link or a music track with friends we're 'curating the web'. Real curators, of course, will object to such imprecise use of the...
Some changes to the Radio 4 schedule
I was promised freshly-brewed coffee and croissants at the end of their last run but when I went to Feedback to talk to R4 listeners - alas - I got a lovely welcome but just the usual BBC water... I did, however, get a chance to answer some listeners' questions and to put some of my early though...
Adapting Balzac for the Friday Play
Editor's note: Adrian Penketh is an actor and playwright. He's adapted a novel by Honoré de Balzac for The Friday Play - SB. In the introductory note to my first copy of The Wild Ass's Skin (La Peau de Chagrin), the word 'allegorical' was used in the first paragraph. It's a welcome word for a w...
Give us one of the old tunes
Editor's note: Deborah Wain is the writer of today's Afternoon Play 'Notes To Self', a drama about Alzheimer's disease, based on real experiences and interwoven with recordings of music sessions carried out in care homes and day centres - SB. A heartfelt blast of a chorus or just a brief flicke...
Beyond Belief - dealing with serious issues in a serious way
I gave up my day job as Head of Religious Broadcasting at the Beeb in January 2001 and began presenting Beyond Belief in January 2002. It was just three months after 9/11 and the events of that day gave it a context: All of a sudden everyone was interested in world religions. Britain woke up to ...
Cocktails, nuts and anachronisms
Editor's note: the final instalment of Ed Reardon's midwinter diary puts the final nail in the coffin of the season of goodwill - SB. People sometimes say to me "What must it be like being you?" - most recently at my local greengrocer's, when I tried to take back and exchange a dozen or so alm...
King James Bible podcasts
How much of King James Bible Day did you catch on Sunday? It was hard to miss with 28 readings across a single day and a star-studded cast: Samuel West, Emilia Fox, Hugh Bonneville, Toby Stephens, Henry Goodman, Niamh Cusack, Rory Kinnear, Miriam Margolyes and others. There were some interest...