Blog posts by year and monthMay 2011
Posts (18)
Classic serial - Plantagenet: He that plays the king...
A portrait of Richard II Plantagenet, alone in the great roll call of the Classic Serial, is based on a book that is almost impossible to try to get through. Holinshed Chronicles, the Elizabethan equivalent of the Ladybird Book of Kings and Queens, is a very tough and uncompromising read. Bu...
Boy Racers: From Karting to Formula One
Editor's note: While Lewis Hamilton might be in the news today for the wrong reasons, Boy Racers - available to listen to on the Radio 4 website for the next seven days - follows the same arduous path to the top that Hamilton took and hears from some of the drivers looking to become the stars of...
Lenny Henry on Radio 4: What's So Great about Snooker?
Video: Lenny Henry being interviewed by John Parrott at the Crucible during the making of 'What's so Great about Snooker?' Editor's note: In this three-part series Lenny Henry explores the iconic status of people or things held dear by many. "Yeah, I'll blog about snooker", I said to Paul...
Bringing Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate with Kenneth Branagh to Radio 4
Editor's note: It's been known for a while that Radio 4 were adapting Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate, a great passion of Radio 4's former controller, to run over one week. It's been announced today that Kenneth Branagh will be playing the central role of Viktor. Producing the Radio 4 dramati...
Feedback: Slut walks and the Moral Maze
I have chaired a couple of editions of the Moral Maze on Radio 4 and it was terrifying - and not just because it was live and not recorded. Imagine trying to control all those formidable and passionate intellects on the panel; especially when they spend most of the programme with their back t...
The Today programme: The "radio show that one in eight of us now tune in to"
Jon Henley's written a profile of Radio 4's Today programme in The Guardian: The Today programme is, of course, a legend, but now we know it has never been more popular: the latest figures put its audience during the first three months of this year at 7.03 million, 600,000 more than last year...
Comedy on Radio 4: How Dave against the Machine came to be written
Editor's note: A new comedy for Radio 4, Dave against the Machine starts this Thursday night at 11.00pm written by and starring Dave Lamb. We asked Dave where the idea for Dave against the Machine came from. This is what he sent us. I am best known as 'that sarcastic bloke who takes the mick...
Daleks on the 7th Dimension: The voice meets the philosopher
The 7th Dimension, featuring sci-fi, fantasy and horror programmes was always one of the most popular zones on Radio 7, and continues to be on Radio 4 Extra. With the strand broadcasting one hour every day and repeated at midnight, it is quite a challenge to track down enough archive material...
Choosing your Desert Island Discs
One desert island, only eight tracks of music to keep you company. What will you choose? From today Kirsty Young is offering you a unique opportunity to take part in Desert Island Discs. Cast yourself away and share the eight tracks that you would take with you to a desert island. All yo...
Feedback - Radio 4 Extra: A rose by any other name would smell as sweet
The BBC digital station Radio 7 has changed its name to Radio 4 Extra, but some Feedback listeners don't like the smell. Amaechi Ihetu told us that she was 'disappointed that listeners have lost a true gem'. Tina Taylor wrote 'I don't want to hear repeats of Desert Island Discs'. Fred Whal...