Half-Life

Instrumental

Short documentaries and adventures in sound presented by Josie Long - available to download as a podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mk3f8/episodes/downloads

Short Cuts

Listen to the music of decomposing mushrooms, look through a photographer's lens at a surprising streak of streaking in the 1970s, and explore the world of a Danish hospital clown who opens up a pocket of a different reality.

Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about the joys that lurk beneath the surface of things.

Mushroom Music
Featuring Mati Araoz
Produced by Seb Masters

A Different Reality
Featuring Boaz Barkan
Produced by Nanna Hauge Kristensen

The Streak!
Featuring Ron Harr
Including original compositions by Alan Goffinski
Produced by Alan Goffinski

Image credit Karamell https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mushroom_Forest.jpg

First broadcast 21st March 2023, BBC Radio 4
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

S34: Short Cuts: Dig For Joy 2/6

A remnant from the Cold War becomes an accidental haven for wildlife, a poet and a tree surgeon search for the roots of a metaphor, and a musician searches for an anchor to home. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about the ground beneath your feet.

Always Moving
Cello performed by Joe Reynolds
Engineered by Yuri Shibuichi
Composed and produced by Tendertwin (Bilge Nur Yilmaz)

Memorial Landscape
Featuring Kai Frobel
Translator Jana Kosok
Produced by Tom Phillips

Poet / Tree
A conversation between Matthew Reid and Raymond Antrobus

First broadcast 24th October 2023, BBC Radio 4
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft

S36: Short Cuts: The Soil 6/9

From handfuls of dust to watching geological time mark the landscape, this documentary flows from the night skies into the deepest known point in our oceans.

"I noticed that language seems to fail us. How do you write about the foundations of our existence? That is how mythology enters very naturally into the story, because history is about ideas, religions, empires, wars and culture. Mythology is about the fundaments. Sun, moon, wind, oceans, great floods and tragic gods... We are living in mythological times, where we are shaking the fundaments." - Andri Snær Magnason

Drawing on ideas in his book, On Time and Water, the Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason and the Scottish artist Katie Paterson explore how our imagination can help us hold the moment we live in. 

TRANSCRIPT: https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/radio4/Lights_Out/Dust_Transcript.pdf

Archive recording from Raddir - Voices: Recordings of Folk Songs courtesy of the Árni Magnússon Institute
'Vatnajökull (the sound of)' recording courtesy of Katie Paterson

Recording of the journey to Okjökull by Guðni Tómasson
Music composed and performed by Phil Smith and Zac Gvi

First broadcast 20th November 2023, BBC Radio 4
Produced by Eleanor McDowall

Lights Out: Dust 6/6

In 1971, when experimental composer Gavin Bryars chanced upon the voice of an anonymous old man - "a tramp" - on a spool of discarded tape, he had no idea where his impulse to make a piece of minimal 'pop art' would lead.

Gavin shares the story of Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet through the original vinyl recording on Brian Eno's Obscure label and the Mercury Prize-nominated CD version featuring Tom Waits to the adoption of the piece by the homeless community.

With Vince, Dee and Brian from the homeless choirs Streetwise Opera and Choir With No Name, Pam Orchard of The Connection At St Martin's, composer Jocelyn Pook and Revd Richard Carter from St Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square.

First broadcast 14th April 2024, BBC Radio 3
Produced by Alan Hall

Never Failed Me Yet

A look at the history and evolution of the radio documentary feature, a hybrid form which can sometimes appear closer to music or poetry than to news reporting.

The list of contributors features some of the finest feature-makers of their generation, including Chris Brookes, Berit Hedemann, Kaye Mortley, Robyn Ravlich, Edwin Brys, Simon Elmes, Mark Burman, Sarah Taylor and Piers Plowright.

First broadcast 28th June 2008 BBC Radio 4
Produced by Alan Hall

The Ballad Of The Radio Feature

On the sixtieth anniversary of his death, Cerys Matthews takes a side-ways look at the life and work of her hero Dylan Thomas. Using special access to her uncle's extensive archive of interviews with those who knew him, she explores some of Dylan's greatest and lesser known works and finds her way to the man behind the myth.

First broadcast 25th October 2014 BBC Radio 4
Presented by Cerys Matthews
Produced by Sarah Cuddon

Cerys Goes Under Milk Wood

Leonard Cohen's muse when he turned from poetry to song-writing was a beautiful Norwegian woman immortalised in the song So Long, Marianne - this is their story, based on the award-winning programmes made for NRK by Kari Hesthamar. 

"...both of the interviews had a dreamy quality and listening to the two voices of Leonard and Marianne all these years later made for a programme you want to hear again and again." - BBC Radio 4 Pick of the Week 3.8.08 

"...a melancholic and incredibly moving memoir."  - Radio Times

First broadcast on 2nd August 2008 BBC Radio 4
Produced by Alan Hall

Leonard And Marianne

An hour east of Dallas, you'll find the small town of Poetry, Texas. Pejk ventures out to uncover the poetry of Poetry.

"...a goosebumpy wonder, all layers of sound-texture, mesmerising voices and a lyrical narration by Malinovski as he described the town in ordinary terms elevated into something hypnotic by the key word: 'For a traveller, there's nowhere to sleep in Poetry.'" - The Guardian, 18th May 2012

First broadcast on 14th May 2012 BBC Radio 4
Produced by Pejk Malinovski

Poetry Texas

The story of the day Jeff Buckley arrived on the UK music scene, March 18th 1994, from a photo shoot with Kevin Westenberg in the morning, a live appearance on GLR in the afternoon and a gig at Bunjies folk club that was so over-booked that a second concert was arranged for later that evening at the 12 Bar.  Told by those who were there: manager Dave Lory, booking agent Emma Banks, photographer Kevin Westenberg and tour manager Steve Abbott.  With exclusive interview and music recordings featuring Jeff.

"Truly great singers all have moments at the start of their career when they were raw, pure, still within reach, yet already with one foot on another planet. That tingly intimacy courses through this memory of Jeff Buckley’s 1994 UK tour." - Radio Times, July 2014

"It was terrific, rich in detail and shot through with a melancholy of what would come later." - The Independent, 10th July 2014

First broadcast on 5th July 2014 BBC Radio 4
Produced by Alan Hall

The Grace of Jeff Buckley

This powerful and highly personal series investigates how criminal networks systematically exploit vulnerable young people, transforming them from ordinary schoolchildren into drug dealers through manipulation, violence, and trauma. An estimated 50,000 children in Britain have been groomed into county lines drug trafficking, yet their stories remain largely hidden.

In this first episode, Phoebe McIndoe hears from those caught in the web of county lines. Between the promise of quick money and the reality of extreme violence, we reveal how Britain's drug trade is being built on the backs of traumatized children, and why the system often fails to protect them.

First broadcast 25th November 2024, BBC Radio 4
Presented by Phoebe McIndoe
Produced by Redzi Bernard and Phoebe McIndoe
With original music by Phoebe McIndoe

County Lines: Their World 1/3

Time capsules and yesterday's dreams of tomorrow, Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures exploring lost futures.

That’s Merely an Adjective
Produced by Zara Karschay

Time Play by Chelsea Kigano, Lily Sloane, Lilia Vega, and Emily Shaw
Originally made as part of The 24-Hour Radio Race from KCRW's Independent Producer Project
Music and sound design by Lily Sloane, with Time Ain't Gonna Make Me Stay by Ed Andrews
Special thanks to David Lee

Letters
Produced by Mika Golubovsky and Sasha Borzenko
Featuring Zehnya Feldman and Natasha Zotova

Higher Ground
Produced by Leila Goldstein
Featuring Winda Safitri, Yoppi and Naya Hidayatul Alialna

First broadcast 10th December 2024, BBC Radio 4
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Produced by Axel Kacoutié

S40: Short Cuts: Lost Futures 2/6

Feeding the birds, sharing meals and chaotic menus - Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about eating together.

Bird Feeder
Produced by Stella Sims

And to Start...
Produced by Mae-Li Evans

Foodhall
Produced by Nadia Mehdi

First broadcast 17th December 2024, BBC Radio 4
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

S40: Short Cuts: Feast 3/6

A friendship forged working the land, memories of volcanic eruptions from 800,000 years ago frozen in Antarctica’s ice cores, and the importance of wild, patient gardens. Short documentaries presented by Josie Long that rise up from the earth.


Wintering
Music by Jules Bradley
Produced by Jules Bradley

Melt Tones
Featuring Dr Dieter Tetzner
Produced by Anton Spice

Sue’s Garden
Featuring Sue Trolle
Music by Sóley
Produced by Rikke Houd

First broadcast 29th December 2024, BBC Radio 4
Produced by Andrea Rangecroft
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft

S40: Short Cuts: Earth 5/6

A criminal defence lawyer finds a surprising new job foisted upon him and a son attempts to recover his joyfulness on a family holiday. Josie Long presents short festive documentaries and merry sonic adventures.

Family Yoga
Produced by Kit Callin

A Conversation with my Mum at Christmas
Featuring Rhik Samadder
A version of this story first appeared in Rhik Samadder's memoir, I Never Said I Loved You
Music by The Enchanted Cinema
Produced by Sarah Cuddon

Miracle on the George Washington Bridge
Produced by Luke Green

Santa Calls
Featuring Matt Storrs
Produced by Talia Augustidis

First broadcast 24th December 2024, BBC Radio 4
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

S40: Short Cuts: Merry Christmas 4/6

Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures as the clock slips closer to midnight.

In the last Short Cuts on BBC Radio 4, 13 years after the broadcast of our first ever episode 'Misadventures', we listen to radio waves after dark with the Shortwave Collective, tumble into a radio poem alongside a sleeping child, tune into a late night pirate radio station from the early 1960s, and raise a parting glass.

At Least
Featuring Xelis de Toro
Produced by Phil Smith

Voice of Nuclear Disarmament
With thanks to the British Library Sound Archive, and the family of John Hasted
Produced by Jonny Matfin

Perhaps at Midnight, When All Boundaries Are Lost
Produced by the Shortwave Collective

Good Company
Featuring Jesse Lawson, Izzy Yon and Femi Oriogun-Williams
Produced by Jesse Lawson

First broadcast 7th January 2025, BBC Radio 4
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
Mix by Mike Woolley
Executive Producer: Alan Hall

S40: Short Cuts: Midnight 6/6

The frontline sonic journal of a Ukrainian musician-soldier.

Wartime soundscapes recorded by Ukrainian experimental musician-turned-soldier Timur Dzhafarov: sketches on a broken piano in an abandoned house near Bakhmut, rain on a field hospital roof, dogs howling in tune to the sirens…

Before Russia's full-scale invasion, Timur made experimental electronic music in Kyiv under the name John Object. He walked through life with open ears, picking up unusual sounds to use in his compositions. Then on the third day of the invasion, he joined the Ukrainian Army. As a soldier, Timur still finds a few moments to tune into the sounds around him: the staccato firing of a rifle, the dissonant tone of air-raid sirens, a pianist playing in the mess hall. But his relationship to the aural environment is to change as the war drags on.

Location recordings by Timur Dzhafarov
Music by Timur Dzhafarov (recording as John Object)

First broadcast 2nd February 2025, BBC Radio 3
Producer: Cicely Fell

East Piano

Drawn to a family legend about his German-Jewish family’s dramatic escape from Nazi Germany in 1936, the writer Joe Dunthorne accidentally discovers a far more disturbing history.

A conversation with his granny, who spent her childhood brushing her teeth with the radioactive toothpaste her father Siegfried manufactured, leads Joe to finally read his great-grandfather's nearly 2000-page long unpublished memoir. Hidden on page 1692 he finds an unsettling confession.

Written and presented by Joe Dunthorne, (based on his book Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance)
Produced by Eleanor McDowall
Music by Jeremy Warmsley
Mixing engineer, Mike Woolley
Story consultant, Sarah Geis
Executive producer, Alan Hall
First broadcast 7th May 2025, BBC Radio 4

Half-Life: Daughter of Radium 1/8

When you look at the moon, what do you see?

Producer and artist Siddharth Khajuria encounters competing human imaginations for the moon. Starting with some of the earliest lunar maps, he works with moonlight to illuminate thornier questions about our own behaviour on earth. What motivates the desire to etch a name into the landscape?

The humanity woven through our modern map of the moon – Seas of Tranquility and Crises, Lakes of Death and Dreams, an Ocean of Storms – is the work of a 17th century Italian priest, Giovanni Battista Riccioli. Siddharth meets Riccioli’s poetic mapmaking in the context of a heated European race to name the moon’s many craters, mountains, valleys and maria.

From these celestial cartographers etching names into the first detailed lunar maps, to the Cold War era Apollo missions and commercially-fuelled landings that lie ahead of us, the story of humanity’s relationship with the moon is one of a growing intimacy.

Featuring astronomer and lunar biographer David Whitehouse, librarian at the Edinburgh Royal Observatory Karen Moran, space lawyer Frans von der Dunk, and a late night, torch-lit conversation between Siddharth and his eldest son.

Photograph: Siddharth Khajuria

First broadcast 11th May 2025, BBC Radio 4
Music composed and performed by Phil Smith
Produced by Eleanor McDowall and Siddharth Khajuria

A Map of the Moon

Dangers lurk beneath the soil, in the town where Joe's great-grandfather worked.

First broadcast 14th May 2025, BBC Radio 4
Written and presented by Joe Dunthorne
Produced by Eleanor McDowall
Music by Jeremy Warmsley
Mixing engineer, Mike Woolley
Story consultant, Sarah Geis
Executive producer, Alan Hall

Half-Life: The Quiet Town By The River 2/8

Joe's research into his great-grandfather's work takes him to Ammendorf, south of Berlin - one of the key sites of Nazi Germany's chemical weapons production.

Written and presented by Joe Dunthorne
Produced by Eleanor McDowall
Ammendorf recordings by Marta Medvešek
Music by Jeremy Warmsley
Mixing engineer, Mike Woolley
Story consultant, Sarah Geis
Executive producer, Alan Hall

Half-Life: Lost 3/8

Joe follows in his great-grandfather's footsteps to Turkey where he was employed, it seems, making gas masks.

First broadcast 28th May 2025, BBC Radio 4
Written and presented by Joe Dunthorne
Produced by Eleanor McDowall
Music by Jeremy Warmsley
Mixing engineer, Mike Woolley
With thanks to David McDowall
Story consultant, Sarah Geis
Executive producer, Alan Hall

Half-Life: Young Republic 4/8

A letter from Joe’s great-grandfather, leads him to the east of Turkey and the story of a massacre, kept silent for many years

First broadcast 4th June 2025, BBC Radio 4
Written and presented by Joe Dunthorne
Produced by Eleanor McDowall
Music by Jeremy Warmsley
Mixing engineer, Mike Woolley
With thanks to Jaclynn Ashly and David McDowall
Story consultant, Sarah Geis
Executive producer, Alan Hall

Half-Life: The Road Through the Mountains 5/8

Playing a musical instrument - whether you're professional or amateur - rarely follows a simple trajectory of practice and progress and it makes psychological as much as physical demands that can come to define a person. Alan Hall - who's returned to trumpet playing after a three decade hiatus - talks with musicians about the nature of their relationship to their chosen instrument.

Today, the poet Kim Moore who wrote a book about her complex instrumental entanglement, What The Trumpet Taught Me.

Including extracts from 'You Can't Mean It' performed by the Soul Survivors and Askam Town Silver Band playing Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo.

First broadcast 9th June 2025, BBC Radio 3
Presented and produced by Alan Hall

Instrumental: Kim Moore, Trumpet 1/5

Playing a musical instrument - whether you're professional or amateur - rarely follows a simple trajectory of practice and progress and it makes psychological as much as physical demands that can come to define a person. Alan Hall - who's returned to trumpet playing after a three decade hiatus - talks with musicians about the nature of the relationship to their chosen instrument.

Today, Timothy Rundle, the Principal Oboe with the Philharmonia, recalls falling for this notoriously tricky instrument before he was big enough to play it.

Including extracts from the Philharmonia's recordings of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Stravinsky's The Firebird Suite and Bach's Goldberg Variations arranged by Robin O'Neill.

First broadcast 10th June 2025, BBC Radio 3
Presented and produced by Alan Hall

Instrumental: Timothy Rundle, Oboe 2/5

Playing a musical instrument - whether you're professional or amateur - rarely follows a simple trajectory of practice and progress and it makes psychological as much as physical demands that can come to define a person. Alan Hall - who's returned to trumpet playing after a three decade hiatus - talks with musicians about the nature of their relationship to their chosen instrument.

Today, the bass guitar player Yolanda Charles, who has her own funk band, Project pH, made her name playing with Paul Weller, Robbie Williams and many others.
Including extracts from Project pH's Only You (feat. Vanessa Haynes) and Yolanda's demo When Someone...

First broadcast 11th June 2025, BBC Radio 3
Presented and Produced by Alan Hall

Instrumental: Yolanda Charles, Bass Guitar

Playing a musical instrument - whether you're professional or amateur - rarely follows a simple trajectory of practice and progress and it makes psychological as much as physical demands that can come to define a person. Alan Hall - who's returned to trumpet playing after a three decade hiatus - talks with musicians about the nature of their relationship to their chosen instrument.

Today, Gurdain Rayatt, a third generation tabla player whose work isn't restricted to Indian Classical music.
Including extracts from Raag Bhimpalasi with sarod player Debasmita Bhattacharya and Lavanani with Matchume Zango.

First broadcast 12th June 2025, BBC Radio 3
Presented and produced by Alan Hall

Instrumental: Gurdain Rayatt, Tabla 4/5

Playing a musical instrument - whether you're professional or amateur - rarely follows a simple trajectory of practice and progress and it makes psychological as much as physical demands that can come to define a person. Alan Hall - who's returned to trumpet playing after a three decade hiatus - talks with musicians about the nature of the relationship to their chosen instrument.

Today, the cellist and composer Zoë Martlew who made her name in contemporary music circles, including with her own one woman musical cabaret show.
With extracts from Zoë's work: Revue Z, Shift Trip, Salat Babilya and G-lude.

First broadcast 13th June 2025, BBC Radio 3
Presented and produced by Alan Hall

Instrumental: Zoë Martlew 5/5

In this final episode, Joe follows the opening of a public memorial and engages with a private reckoning.

First broadcast 25th June 2025, BBC Radio 4
Written and presented by Joe Dunthorne (based on his book Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance)
Produced by Eleanor McDowall
Music by Jeremy Warmsley
Mixing engineer, Mike Woolley
Translator in Berlin: Francesca Schweiger
Recordings of the memorial unveiling: Phoebe McIndoe
Story consultant, Sarah Geis
Executive producer, Alan Hall

Half-Life: A Fracture 8/8

Five audio-makers from around the world take over The Essay to offer a series of Radio 3's innovative Between the Ears features in miniature. Each edition inspired by a different aspect of the weather.

In this edition, Miyuki Jokiranta sinks into a mire near the arctic circle, discovering weather has a memory. Miyuki is a creative audio maker who is in awe of the environment. She believes in the transformative power of acts of listening to foster care for the world around us. Jarkko Kela is Helsinki-based sound designer, sound editor and experimental musician. He has widely collaborated with filmmakers, visual artists, poets, dancers.

First broadcast 30th June 2025, BBC Radio 3
Produced by Miyuki Jokiranta and Jarkko Kela


Between the Ears: Miniatures: Into the Mire 1/5

Five audio-makers from around the world take over The Essay to offer a series of Radio 3's innovative Between the Ears features in miniature. Each edition inspired by a different aspect of the weather.

In tonight's edition, produced by the audio artist Phoebe McIndoe, Lucy Edwards explores what it means to sense the changing seasons through sound and touch.

First broadcast 1st July 2025, BBC Radio 3
Produced by Phoebe McIndoe

Between the Ears: Miniatures: Weathering 2/5

Five audio-makers from around the world take over The Essay to offer a series of Radio 3's innovative Between the Ears features in miniature. Each edition inspired by a different aspect of the weather.

In tonight's edition, summer rains, storms of songs and memories encapsulated in the noise of early home recordings on wax cylinders. Adomas Zubė is a radio producer and occasional sound artist, working across radio, theatre, and installation. He is interested in voice and memory.

Featuring Luke Owen, the founder of the label Death Is Not The End

First broadcast 2nd July 2025, BBC Radio 3
Produced by Adomas Zubė

Between the Ears: Miniatures: Summer Rains and Storms of Songs

Five audio-makers from around the world take over The Essay to offer a series of Radio 3's innovative Between the Ears features in miniature. Each edition inspired by a different aspect of the weather.

In this edition, Kristina Loring explores points of human connection in the eye of the storm. Kristina Loring is a story editor, sound artist, and audio producer, who works across genre and form to create sensorial media experiences and classes you feel in your body.

First broadcast 3rd July 2025, BBC Radio 3
Produced by Kristina Loring

Between the Ears: Miniatures: (Eye of) the Storm 4/5

Five audio-makers from around the world take over The Essay to offer a series of Radio 3's innovative Between the Ears features in miniature. Each edition inspired by a different aspect of the weather.

With original music and field recordings, the writer, musician and audio producer HJ Radia creates a memory space for the monsoon winds. A collage of associations with the Western Indian Ocean trade winds, from the primordial to the personal - a meditative exploration of the polyphonies we carry.

With thanks to Professors Kwame Anthony Appiah and Abdulrazak Gurnah. We also hear the voice of the late Pan-Africanist writer, political commentator and former BBC journalist Ahmed Rajab.

Including extracts from the BBC Sound Archive.
Sarangi excerpt of Raag Jog by Pandit Ramesh Mishra - with thanks to Lyle Wachovsky at India Music Archive.
Music by Sonic Soma - Maitreya & Radia

First broadcast 4th July 2025, BBC Radio 3
Produced by HJ Radia

Between the Ears: Miniatures: Monsoon 5/5

Nombulelo Booi last saw her father – anti-apartheid activist James Booi – in 1963. He was dragged into an armoured police vehicle in the early hours of the morning and never seen again. Decades later, Nombulelo works with South Africa’s Missing Persons Task Team to find the remains of her father.

Based on four years of fieldwork by collaborators Bongani Kona and Catherine Boulle, ‘Time, Paper, Bone’ is an intimate portrait of one woman’s lifelong quest for closure, and South Africa’s long reckoning with the injustices of the past.

This story was made possible with the support of The Whickers Radio and Audio Funding Award and The Whickers/Sheffield DocFest Podcast Pitch Award.

With special thanks to:
Nombulelo and Zola Booi
Madeleine Fullard and the Missing Persons Task Team
Professor Nicky Rousseau
Nolubabalo Tongo-Cetywayo and the Robben Island Museum
Jane Ray
Ibby Caputo
Rhulani Maboko and the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa
Erika le Roux and the Western Cape Archives and Records Service
Sipho Rala and the National Library of South Africa's Cape Town campus
Marcus Solomon and Moyisile Douglas Tyutyu
Archival tape courtesy of: the SABC, the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa, Gallo Images, Journeyman Pictures and Villon Films.

First broadcast 19th July 2025, BBC Radio 4
Presented by Bongani Kona
Written by Bongani Kona and Catherine Boulle
Translated by Thenjiwe Kona
Music by Charl-Johan Lingenfelder
Produced by Catherine Boulle

Time, Paper, Bone

In late 19th century Hammersmith, two titans of the printing scene, Emery Walker and Thomas Cobden-Sanderson, form a deep friendship. They hang out at the same printing events and socialist meetings, they move into houses four doors apart, they work in the same building, their families go on holidays together.

Then in 1900, they set up the ground breaking Doves Press together - whereupon their friendship swiftly implodes, and they spend the rest of the decade fighting over the custody of their in-house typeface, Doves. And then things get even uglier.

Souvenirs explores broken friendship, typefaces, lost words, self-destruction, and the legacies we didn’t intend to leave. With type designer Robert Green.

Written and performed by The Allusionist’s Helen Zaltzman, with an original score by Martin Austwick (performed by him and Adrienne LaBelle, violin).

First broadcast 22nd July 2025, BBC Radio 4
Produced by Helen Zaltzman and Martin Austwick

Souvenirs

In 1931, during the Depression, an unknown young black woman took her new-born son to a Pittsburgh orphanage. And so began jazz pianist Horace Parlan´s life. At the age of five, he was struck by polio and lost the use of three fingers on his right hand, yet somehow, against the odds, he managed a long career as a professional musician. Now, aged 84, he lives in a nursing home outside Copenhagen, Denmark.

His journey through life was always guided by music – and still is. From the spirituals of his upbringing to his experiences as a musician in 1960’s New York City. Then, in 1972, he moved to Denmark and joined Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, Oscar Pettiford and other Afro-American jazz musicians who had found a haven there during those turbulent years. Most of his colleagues left, but Horace stayed, marrying a Danish woman, Norma, with whom he shared his life for 37 years.

Despite his disability Horace found his own sound as a pianist and played with some of the biggest names – Charles Mingus and Archie Shepp among them. But now, blind for eight years, wheelchair-bound and widowed two years ago, he spends his days in a small coastal town outside Copenhagen. His long piano fingers are stiff - he no longer plays - but he spends every day surrounded by music and looks forward to regular trips to Copenhagen’s legendary Montmartre Jazz Club. Rikke Houd presents a portrait of Horace Parlan.

First broadcast 14th July 2015, BBC World Service
Produced by Rikke Houd

A Portrait of Horace Parlan

"If you're not angry, you're not paying attention," says one character in Dawn King's play about the climate crisis, The Trials.

"I learnt at an early age what it is to be angry - angry and helpless." In Look Back in Anger, a youthful Jimmy Porter rages against church, country and the docility of those he loves.

People working in theatre now - amid war, injustice and increasing authoritarianism - reflect on anger as a motivation for the 'art of words', its creative limitations and the eroding effect of the passing years.

With playwrights Dawn King and Georgia Bruce, director Atri Banerjee and Cress Brown of Cutting the Tightrope.

Including extracts from the 1959 film Look Back in Anger. Original music (Homage to Jimmy Porter) written and performed by Alan Hall.

First broadcast 4th August 2025, BBC Radio 4
Produced by Alan Hall

Angry and Young

Forty years ago, Route 66, the highway that ran the 2448 miles from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California, was formally decommissioned, usurped by a more modern, high-speed interstate. But the road has lived on in the collective imagination — a symbol of freedom, adventure, and new beginnings, of America's concept of itself.

In this meditation on the Mother Road, as John Steinbeck christened it, Laura Barton explores 66's shifting identity, from migratory route to America's Main Street.

With contributions from Angel (the "Angel of Route 66") and his daughter Clarissa Delgadillo in Seligman, Arizona; Mike Cowen who set up his own Historic Route 66 museum in Williams, Arizona; Leigh Anne Isbell of the Devil's Rope Museum in Texas and Candacy Taylor, who's written about Route 66 in relation to The Green Book.

Written and presented by Laura Barton
With extracts from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath read by Corey Johnson.
Location recording producer, Diane Hope

First broadcast 14th September 2025, BBC Radio 4
Produced by Alan Hall

Where The Distance Shimmers

"A dancer dies twice", the legendary choreographer Martha Graham said, "once when they stop dancing, and this first death is the more painful."

This is a documentary about first deaths and last dances, about what happens when an instrument as finely tuned as a dancer's body begins to change.

From the music which prompts a twitch of muscle memory to the comedown which follows a burst of performance adrenaline, we hear stories of the last dances and what comes next from Gabriella Schmidt, Isabel Mortimer from Dancers' Career Development, and former principal ballerinas Natasha Oughtred and Wendy Whelan.

We eavesdrop on the training of young dancers at the Royal Ballet School as they shape muscle and bone into elegant lines, diving into the visceral excitement of pounding pointe shoes and powerful leaping bodies. And we visit Sage Dance Company and the Company of Elders as they work with dancers who move with grace and beauty in defiance of their changing bodies.

From the first anxious glance in the mirror to the last touch - how does the language of our bodies change as we age?

Produced by Eleanor McDowall
First broadcast 4th April on BBC Radio 4

A Dancer Dies Twice

What happens when your home turns into a combat zone? When the sound of children playing, a kettle whistling, or a car backfiring transports your loved one back to a killing ground in Afghanistan or Iraq?

Night terrors, flashbacks and the hidden cost of war - this Between the Ears explores the inner lives of women who care for former service personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

We hear a delicate and often wrenching patchwork of audio diaries and interviews recorded in kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms at moments when couples hit breaking point or encounter unexpected moments of tenderness. This fierce and intimate portrait reveals the true impact of military campaigns on British families - and the sacrifices made by a generation of women who refuse to give up on the soldiers they love.

First broadcast 4th March 2017, BBC Radio 3
Produced by Eleanor McDowall with Matthew Green

The Enemy Within

W.H.Auden’s Paysage Moralisé [1934] in a polyphonic setting for radio, featuring voices recorded in Berlin [2015 - 2017], and original music by producer Phil Smith.   

Producer: Phil Smith
Executive Producer: Alan Hall 
A Falling Tree Production
First Broadcast: 16th May 2017, BBC Radio 4.    

TRANSCRIPT: https://www.scribd.com/document/371956742/IFC-2018-TRANSCRIPTION-AVeryDifferentTime-PhilipSmith

W.H. Auden's 1934 poem Paysage Moralisé, written in 1934, is a poem that floats across time and landscape, expressing something of that search for home, for peace, for safety and for meaning which shapes our existence on this planet. 

Berlin-based producer Phil Smith brings the poem into a contemporary light, interweaving Auden's lines with the voices of those who have chosen - for very different reasons - the German capital city as their home. The poem's images of shipwreck and sorrow reverberate with snapshots from the lives of a Syrian refugee (fleeing war) and a West-African refugee (fleeing poverty, seeking a better life), while we also hear the words of an American musician on a European tour, an Italian-German academic who spends some of her time in Berlin, and a German who moved to the city to escape small-town life. There is no presenter to introduce our protagonists; rather, they step out from the city crowd to offer fragments of their personal  stories. 

Part radio poem, part documentary ballad, part composed feature, A Very Different Time addresses the hopes and fears that surround movement and migration, timeless themes that resonate strongly in today’s Europe.

Lights Out: A Very Different Time

For a man whose musical demeanour comes across as rough-hewn with a potency that's barely contained, Richard Dawson in person is gentle with a soft smile and opinions that are precisely worded though almost tentatively shared. He admits to a high level of everyday anxiety, yet has left a mark on contemporary folk music in England that testifies to an innate confidence in his musical vision. His albums (notably Nothing Important of 2014 and Peasant in 2017), as well as being critically acclaimed, have taken folk music into new territory that's at once ancient and avant-garde.

Speaking at his home in the north-east of England, Richard reflects on the particular qualities of his voice, the life that music has opened up to him and his ever-present companion, Trouble the cat.

First broadcast 29th June 2019, BBC Radio 4
Presented and produced by Alan Hall

The Voices Of... Richard Dawson

The bond between mother and child is perhaps the most natural and the most profound relationship we can experience. But for Zakia Sewell and her mother - who she's always called Amey - this relationship has been far from straight-forward.

Now, after many years of disconnection and words unspoken, they're collaborating on a theatre piece, a kind of 'curated conversation', to understand better the issues they have had to overcome.

Some are near, intimate and specific to the two of them - Amey's mental health and her own experience of motherhood - but they are entwined with stories from the past, submerged deep beneath the surface, evoking the ghosts of distant ancestors whose experiences under the brutal tyranny of slavery in the Caribbean find expression through the generations.

With contributions from theatre-maker Cathy Sloan and Sonya Welch-Moring, a specialist in trans-generational therapeutic practice.

First broadcast 12th March 2020, BBC Radio 4
Presented by Zakia Sewell
Produced by Alan Hall

My Amey And Me

Songs of the Humpback Whale was released in 1970 and went multi-platinum, becoming the best selling environmental album of all time. But it also became emblematic of the West’s shifting attitudes towards environmentalism, inspiring a global movement to save the whales which continues to this day.

Marking the 50th anniversary of bioacoustician Roger Payne’s unlikely smash hit, this programme considers the legacy of sounds that caught the imagination of the world.

With contributions from the world of music, science and ecology, including the folk singer Judy Collins, Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner Willie Mackenzie, Greenlandic musician Peter Tussi Motzfeldt, marine biologist and electronic musician Sara Niksic, music writer Simon Reynolds and Roger Payne himself.

Including archive courtesy of Radio Canada international 
With music by Duotone.

First broadcast 17th September 2020, BBC Radio 4
Produced by Hannah Dean

Songs Of The Humpback Whale

As a teenager, Zakia Sewell became entranced by English folk music, initially through Pentangle's haunting rendition of the traditional song, The Cuckoo.

But with this enchantment came a tension - a question - of whether such a song could really belong to her. Being of Caribbean and British descent, Zakia is sensitive to the darker histories that connect these two places and yet is drawn to a vision of Albion - an ancient, mythical land evoked in so many folk songs, symbols and stories.

Spiralling out from the personal to the national, from the present into the past - both real and imagined - Zakia grapples with the complexities of British national identity with the intent of resolving her own inner conflict and finding hopeful visions for the future.

With artist Ben Edge, musician Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne and his mum Mignon, warden of Kilpeck Church, Hesketh Millais, members of Boss Morris - a feminist Morris Side - and Zakia's dad, Caspar.

First broadcast 17th November 2020, BBC Radio 4
Produced by Zakia Sewell and Alan Hall

My Albion: The Cuckoo 1/4

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