The Radio 4 Blog Feed 3j3m6l

2011-06-24T16:07:57+00:00

Rarely if ever can BBC Radio 4's Reith Lectures have caused such a stir as they have this year. What is more, this year the conversation has started before a word of Aung San Suu Kyi's lectures has been broadcast. (On Radio 4 at 9.00am on Tuesday 28 June.) On the Radio 4 website there will be full coverage of this year's series but in addition we have a significant new offer. To coincide with this year's series we have added hundreds of the lectures from the last 60 years.

You can now listen to or more than 240 previous Reith lectures from the site. The collection includes every lecture from 1976 to 2010 and, apart from 1949 and 1950, there is at least one lecture for every year from the first in 1948. That is not all. We are building the collection of transcripts of the lectures, with only some from the late 1970s and 1980s left to add.

The archive is a journey through the great names and thinkers of the last 60 years. It includes Bertrand Russell, Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Hoggart, AH Halsey and JK Galbraith. At Radio 4 it is always slightly daunting to commission people to follow in such footsteps but in recent years the likes of Onora O'Neill and Daniel Barenboim have maintained the Reiths as one of the UK's most significant intellectual stages. Their work is online too.

There are sadly some lectures for which we have been unable to unearth the recordings. We know occasionally listeners have their own copies. So if you have a dusty tape somewhere do get in touch.

This archive release is an important stage of the plan to give listeners much more of Radio 4 by offering archive programmes online forever. We know how much it is appreciated. The In Our Time archive is one of the BBC's most highly rated sites. Desert Island Discs has already seen over three million programmes ed in two months. In addition to these headline strands, every week programmes are added to programme sites or to our collections. One of my favourites is the full set of Bookclubs from the start of the series in 1998. You can also now hear every edition of Great Lives.

We don't intend to stop at this, so look out for more collections in the coming months. You have also told us that you want to be able to take these programmes with you wherever you go so we will gradually be making more archive programmes available as s and podcast feeds as we have with the Reiths and Desert Island Discs. Do comment below to let us know what you would like to hear and we will bear your requests in mind as we plan the future.

Aung San Suu Kyi's first Reith Lecture will broadcast at 9.00am BST on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday, 28 June and will be repeated at 10.15pm BST on Saturday, 2 July. The second lecture will first broadcast at 9.00am BST on Tuesday, 5 July and will repeated at 10.15pm BST on Saturday, 9 July. During both broadcasts you will be able to other listeners in a live blog, here on the Radio 4 Blog.

Andrew Caspari is Head of Speech Radio and Classical Music, Interactive at the BBC

2010-05-07T19:09:35+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/today
Editor's note: listen to the 15-minute montage of Radio 4's election night coverage below - it's a real rollercoaster - and it was delivered minutes after the programme went off-air. I asked Hugh Levinson, who made the montage with colleague Tom Brignell, to tell us how they did it - SB.
Our mission: To boil down the election night's programming on Radio 4 into a single snappy podcast with all the highlights, ready for the next morning. Simples!
Except for the fact that the studio we were using in the Radio Current Affairs department isn't really equipped for this task. A massive engineering feat by colleagues Jonathan Glover and Masood Ilyas got it into working order. I had perhaps foolishly agreed to stay up all night to make the podcast, as had studio manager Tom Brignell.
We had a foolproof plan to get through the wee small hours. We'd take it easy during the day on Thursday, roll up just before the start of the programme at 10 p.m., relaxed and ready to go. Somehow it didn't work out that way. Both of us worked a full day before we even got into the studio. However, as seasoned radio professionals, we'd ensured we were supplied with the appropriate resources. Namely a large bag of chocolate caramel shortcake and enough coffee to give Rip Van Winkle palpitations.
Then the fun began. I sat in one room, listening to the coverage from Jim Naughtie and Carolyn Quinn. I frantically scribbled notes - 50 pages by the time 6 a.m. rolled round - and marked up sections for Tom to cut. The only problem with this brilliant plan was my handwriting, which is apparently illegible to mere mortals like Tom. Somehow, he managed.
I was listening out for the magic moments: the breathless atmosphere of the counts at key marginals: the tearstained interviews with failed candidates: and of course the bit where Jim Naughtie talked about a horse getting into a polling booth. Around 3 a.m. I started to flag and was close to hallucinating, but perhaps that was just the bright lights of the set on the TV election special.
Some dramatic results and a spellbindingly unusual interview with Nick Griffin helped pull me through towards dawn. As 6 a.m. rolled round, Tom and I compressed the 8 hours down to a super-snappy 15 minutes. Doesn't time fly when you're having fun.
Click here to play the election night highlights.
Hugh Levinson is an editor in BBC Radio Current Affairs
The election night highlights package is part of the Today programme's daily podcast. the audio in MP3 format, subscribe to the podcast here or listen again to the whole of Radio 4's election night coverage, if you have a spare 480 minutes!

2010-04-25T19:25:00+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006slnx
I hope you are not disappointed by this week's blog!
I would have liked to avoid commenting on the election coverage since many correspondents are threatening to leave the country if Radio 4 keeps on clearing its schedules for the prime ministerial debates which are being transmitted at the same time on television. It is our correspondents who have a big say in the agenda, however, and that is what many have written to us about this week.
Several listeners to the first of the debates believe that the party leader who won the television debate was not the same person who won on radio. Like the Kennedy Nixon presidential debates 50 years ago they believe that radio enables you to concentrate on content, while television forces you to consider how well the candidates have shaved, how white and regular their teeth are and if there is any dandruff on their shoulders.
I am not going to be so foolish as to equate either Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg or David Cameron with Richard Nixon, but you get the point.
Other listeners thought that the gladiatorial contests should not be called debates since there was not much interaction going on, with each leader ing soundbites rather actually debating. Others of a more nationalist disposition think that three leaders aren't sufficient. They want to know why their man wasn't up there on stage.
On the morning after the second debate I put some of those concerns to the deputy Head of BBC News Steve Mitchell:
Roger Bolton presents on BBC Radio 4

If you have any questions for the outgoing Controller of Radio 4 or for the editor of the Archers please let us know. Both will be coming on in the next couple of weeks.

Listen again, get in touch with the programme, find out how to 's listener or subscribe to the podcast on the web page.

Listen again to the first and second leaders' debates (as part of The World Tonight's coverage) here. Watch the first debate at ITV.com and the second at Sky.com

The picture shows the famous 1960 Nixon-Kennedy TV debate. It's from the Wikimedia Commons.

2010-04-18T19:25:00+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006slnx
Whenever the BBC surveys its audience to find out what it least likes - bad language is usually at, or near, the top of the list. Even those who enjoy using occasional expletives in company don't seem to want to hear them on the radio, and certainly not when children are around.
So why did the Radio 4 comedy series 'The Party,' written by Tom Basden, which has just finished a run at 1830, do just that and include some? The programme's use of the sexual swear word which rhymes with tanker, and is often accompanied by a gesture, shocked some listeners and baffled others.
New radio comedies often undergo baptisms of fire, but 'The Party' was widely applauded in our mailbag, and many listeners hope there will be a second series - but minus the bad language which they felt spoilt the comedy and their enjoyment of it.
In this week I put these concerns and criticisms to the Head of BBC Radio comedy Jane Berthoud, and this is what she had to say:
Please tell us at what you think of that interview and the use of explicit language on air by adding your comments here or by ing via the web site.
Roger Bolton presents on BBC Radio 4

Listen again, find out how to 's listener or subscribe to the podcast on the web page.

The picture shows the cast recording Party at The Pleasance, London. From left to right: Tom Basden, Tim Key, Jonny Sweet, Katy Wix, Nick Mohammed (sitting) and Anna Crilly. There are more pictures on the Radio 4 web site.