The Radio 4 Blog Feed

A programme named

2009-11-03T11:20:55+00:00

This has proved much harder then we thought and thank you all for all your comments and suggestions. In the end we had well over 50 title suggestions, from listeners, Radio 4 bloggers, colleagues, presenters and random people we've simply accosted who didn't look like they had anything better to do. Favourites included 'Quips and Quarks', 'Brian and Robin's Multiverse', 'SchrÃ¶dinger's Chat', and 'Here's Looking at Euclid'.

We considered them all very carefully, and took on board all your comments, hence our slight tardiness in getting back to you, but we do finally have a winning entry. And the title is... (insert drum roll here)... 'The Infinite Monkey Cage'. This was actually one of the earliest contenders, and came from our very own Robin Ince. It's inspired by the popular probability idea that suggests if monkeys were left with a typewriter for an infinite amount of time they would eventually type the complete works of Shakespeare. I'm not sure if Robin is suggesting that he and Brian are the monkeys in this scenario, but we all loved it the moment he suggested it, although there were concerns that it was perhaps not as straightforward as some of the Radio 4 titles around today, and whether this mattered? (see my previous blog post).

But the fact it is a bit offbeat and challenging is the very reason it fits the show so well, with its irreverent and quirky take on the world through scientists' eyes. I hope you will join us inside The Infinite Monkey Cage for our very first broadcast on Monday November 30th at 1630, and that we live up to our spankingly brand new title, and thank you for being part of the process.

Alexandra Feachem is a producer in the Radio Science Unit

You'll be glad to know that all the parties to the decision are on Twitter. Follow Alexandra, Brian Cox and Robin Ince (and, of course, the Radio 4 blog).
The picture, cage drawer, by Leia Scofield, is used under licence.

Naming a new science programme

2009-10-02T17:30:01+00:00

We've got a new programme in the works. It's an irreverent, witty, unashamedly opinionated science show with physicist and former pop sensation Brian Cox and comedian and science enthusiast Robin Ince. But what shall we call it?

Less than two months until first transmission and even more alarmingly, only one week until our first publicity deadline and still no title - ahh! How, in just a few words, do you convey all that the comedy genius of Brian Cox and the physics know-how of Robin Ince (or is that the other way round?) will bring to the greatest science show you'll ever hear... and I'm not biased obviously, I'm just the producer.

The Science Unit have been mulling hard and it turns out that we are a lot funnier then we thought - or at least we think we are - it is very hard to tell now. Early favourites included several plays on already established titles including I'm sorry I Haven't a Clone and Drop the Dead Dolly. Some truly terrible puns emerged including The Abi Titmus Test (vetoed for fairly obvious reasons), and Here's looking at Euclid which is so bad it's almost brilliant.

Well known science phrases have been put to good use: Particle Zoo, Periodically Funny (we could shoot ourselves in the foot with that one - suppose we aren't?!), and The Infinite Variables have all made the short-list. And our working title of Top Geek, a sneaky nod to our ambition to do to science what Jeremy Clarkson has done for cars, and never meant as a serious consideration, has turned out to be a surprise contender, although it does seem to be the Marmite of titles - loved or hated (more candidate names here). Robin came up with the genius title of The Infinite Monkey Cage. It's so weird its sort of perfect and is certainly a favourite amongst the production team and the Science Unit... but does it tell us what the programme is about and does it matter?

And Mohit Bakaya, who commissions science programmes for Radio 4, adds:

More generally, the issue of titles is an interesting one. In the age of podcasting and iPlayer it makes sense for titles to have that 'Ronseal' quality - to do exactly what they say on the tin. That way people searching for business programmes, for example, know what they're in for when they come across In Business. But what about The Bottom Line? Would they know that that would be of interest too?
Yet sometimes purely descriptive titles can seem a little prosaic. How does one convey attitude, wit, something new and different and be recognisable in the age of the internet? That's the challenge!

Alexandra has written for the Radio 4 blog before.
Brian Cox presented an Archive on 4 about Carl Sagan earlier this year. It was pretty popular.
More candidate names here.Your suggestions are, of course, welcome. Leave a comment if you've got a good idea.
The picture, OK, who gave the monkey a ray gun?! is by Don Solo. It's used under licence.

A history of private life

2009-09-24T16:04:35+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mvfb7

I first met Amanda Vickery ten years ago - her book, 'The Gentleman's Daughter' had just been published, and she gave an interview to our local paper. Something about the interview made me think she would be good on the radio - her liveliness and her sense of fun came across, even in a print interview. I was right - when I called her, and we met for coffee, I realised that her warmth and her quick wit made her a radio natural. It took another ten years before we would work together - meanwhile, I was promoted to a job where I was no longer making radio programmes, and Amanda was winning prizes for her books, appearing as a regular contributor on programmes like 'Saturday Review', and becoming a Professor. When I went back to making radio programmes as a freelance producer, she was one of the first people I called.

I have always been fascinated by the history of domestic life. I often think of my grandmothers and great-grandmothers and their lives at home, the hard labour of it all, but also the real creative pleasure. On my study wall I have framed some of the beautiful miniature dolls' clothes my grandmother made me as a child: works of art. I'm pleased that our series includes a programme on sewing, and values the time and creativity of the many women who spent, and continue to spend, time on sewing, craftwork, decorating their homes. But the series goes much wider than that - it's as much about men as women, and the real pleasure husbands and fathers took in home. It's not fashionable to admit it, but for many men too, domestic life provides the greatest happiness.

The challenge of this big series was to make each afternoon programme a satisfying story in itself, but to join them together in a coherent week for the Friday night Omnibus (2100 on Friday). Each week has a theme, and over the six weeks we move from the 16th to the 20th century. The programmes are all very different: some are funny, some very dark - like the terrible diary of domestic violence from the early nineteenth century. Some have dozens of voices in them, some are just the story of one person, drawn from intimate letters and diaries. I thought of it like constructing a quilt - each piece very different, some plain, some embroidered, but sewn together, a pattern emerges.

As Amanda began to write the stories in the series, and we met every week for coffee to discuss the latest programme, I began to wonder about music. Were there songs which would illustrate our themes? My friend David Owen Norris, a brilliant concert pianist and Professor of Music, put me in touch with a young academic, Wiebke Thormahlen. She began to search libraries for songs about drunken husbands, burglars, housework. And it was extraordinary what she found - a protest song about women's servitude from the 18th century; a comic song about seducing a woman who never stops talking; and my favourite, 'The Housewife's Lament', in which an early nineteenth century housewife describes the unremitting toil of her life, cleaning, cooking, ironing, and imagines a never-ending tide of dirt coming towards her. When I showed this to a young man, he thought it was funny, and it does have a twist in the end; but for me it almost makes me cry (you can hear verses from it in week 1, week 2 and week 4 of the series).

Once Wiebke Thormahlen and David Owen Norris had gathered a pile of sheet music, we found some great singers to bring it to life - these are not songs which have been recorded before. Thomas Guthrie is a baritone and opera director - I'd seen him in Aldeburgh, singing an extraordinary 'Wintereisse' with puppets. Our other singer, Gwyneth Herbert, doesn't usually sing this kind of song at all - she's a singer-songwriter who writes her own material, and appears at venues like Ronnie Scott's. But I'd heard her interviewed on Radio 4, and started listening to her songs, and loved the way she brought such emotional power to her performances. It's a haunting voice.

We recorded the music in David Owen Norris's keyboard room at the University of Southampton one Saturday; it's a large space packed with a variety of instruments so we could move round the room from the harpsichord to the forte piano to the modern piano as the series moved through the centuries. David arranged the sig tune too - a take on the old song 'Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron', played in the style of different periods. The first week starts with a simple harpsichord - by week 6, the song's moved into boogie-woogie jazz piano.

Any big series like this depends on having the right team. We were lucky enough to be able to book engineer Jon Calver to record the music; and to attract a team of first-class actors - among them Deborah Findlay, John Sessions and Madeleine Brolly - to read for us. The home team at Loftus - Jo Coombs, David Smith and Tobin Coombs - dealt with actors' agents, read scripts, suggested changes, and improvised sound effects. Loftus is a small and highly prestigious production company, who specialise in crafted features and documentaries - and it has been a pleasure working with them.

It's been such a big project - we've been working on it for a year now. You can probably tell what enormous fun it's been to bring the voices of the past to life in such a substantial series. I am really looking forward to hearing what you think of it!

Elizabeth Burke is Producer of A History of Private Life

A History of Private Life, a 30-part series presented by Amanda Vickery, begins on 28 September at 1545.
There are two lovely features about the series on the Radio 4 web site: one by Amanda Vickery about the programme's research methods and one by Wiebke Thormahlen about the music.
The picture is Home Sweet Home, from the Wikimedia commons: a work in the public domain.

Inside the Bermuda Triangle: the Mysteries Solved

2009-09-17T15:39:43+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mjpcq

The idea behind the series was to find primary sources and to uncover original documents which might give some clues as to why the Bermuda Triangle myth caught on in the first place, and why it has endured for so long - and of course to get a sense of whether there is any truth in it. So it took a long time - about a year - to put together.

The real driving force behind it all was reporter Tom Mangold, with whom I worked extremely closely all through the research, recording and editing stages. It was his idea in the first place, and it was his passion and his extraordinary detective tenacity which made it all work. There is something rather attractive about the idea of setting a hard-nosed, investigative journalist the task of getting to the bottom of a myth, and it was quite something to behold when Tom gave some of the myth-mongers a courteous, fair but rigorous grilling.

One author we tracked down to his large house in Florida eventually unlocked the chain around his fence and invited us to talk in his garden about his part in genesis of the Bermuda Triangle 'mystery' . He ended up warming to Tom and finally admitting that he had 'spiced up' his book in order to make it more interesting.

There are three lines of enquiry throughout the series: first, we looked at the stories, articles and books which set up the myth in the 1950s and 60s, and some of those which have kept the pot boiling ever since; second, we spoke to historians and psychologists about the human need for mystery and conspiracy; and lastly we took several 'inexplicable' maritime and aircraft disappearances and did some thorough 21st century investigations into probable causes with the help of an air accident investigator and Lloyds Register in London.

Tom remains skeptical throughout, and virtually everything he uncovers suggests some very terrestrial and very human causes of the events and accounts of the Bermuda Triangle. However, we don't want to be complete spoil-sports and we did speak to some plausible people who remain convinced that they have experienced 'something weird out there". As ever, in my job, the real privilege was meeting the characters who gave us their time and their stories - and we met a lot, in the UK in the USA and in Bermuda itself.

And it was a privilege too, working with one of the world's best journalists and finest travelling companions. Indeed I have to admit, on the recording trip to the Triangle, more than one bottle of wine went missing without trace.

Adam Fowler is Producer of Inside the Bermuda Triangle: the Mysteries Solved

Adam sent this fascinating interview with a prominent Bermuda Triangle skeptic for exclusive use here on the blog:

Adam has also given me a full-length recording of the haunting song written and recorded specially for the programme:

Inside the Bermuda Triangle: the Mysteries Solved is a five-part documentary made by Ladbroke Radio. Listen again on the Radio 4 web site.
The Deadly Bermuda Triangle, one of the foundation texts of the Bermuda Triangle myth, by Vincent H. Gaddis, published in Argosy Magazine, February 1964.
Picture, Bermuda Triangle Sky - 8, by Mike Powell. Used under licence.

Twice Ken is Plenty - the lost script of Kenneth Williams

2009-09-04T16:00:58+00:00

It was thirty-nine pages of green paper, a carbon-copy, in amongst hundreds of scripts and notes I'd bought from a young man in Devon. In late 2005 he'd listed on eBay a framed photograph that his description claimed had once belonged to Kenneth Williams. The starting bid was 99p, there were no bidders. It turned out he was Williams's godson, left £30,000 and fifty-percent of the comedy-actor's belongings when he had died in mysterious circumstances in 1988. To raise money for a snow-boarding holiday, the godson planned to put each item on the site, piece by piece. I asked how much he'd take for all of it and to my delight we did a deal; it felt right that this collection should stay together.

While other teenagers in the nineties were mad for Oasis, I lay in my bedroom listening to cassette tapes of The Goons and Hancock's Half Hour loaned from Manchester's Central Library. For some peculiar reason this love had never extended to Beyond Our Ken and Round the Horne. Yet, as I lay in bed over a decade later, assessing my newly acquired hoard for a new biography of Williams, I began to read the green script. The voices, the sound effects, the jokes, came alive. Headed "Twice Ken is Plenty", the pages only featured Kenneths Horne and Williams. I'd just assumed it was the latter's copy of a Round the Horne episode. Unlike the majority of the other papers it didn't have any of his own annotations, nor did it include the other members of the team (Betty Marsden, Hugh Paddick and the like). Eventually I wanted to hear it for myself, but a call to the BBC archive put me in the picture: "No, it's not one we have listed." I vividly remember thinking this'd make a great radio show in the same style as Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel, another Radio 4 favourite of mine wherein actors re-created old Marx Brothers' scripts.

So, here we are in 2009 with the two best Kenneth Williams and Kenneth Horne impersonators, an audience of hundreds, in the historic Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House, and before my eyes (and ears) it is happening. I imagine in my mind that it's the Sixties, pretending it's for real, which, if you close your eyes, it certainly is. I've since had emails saying as much. Within a few hours one of Williams's friends wrote, "About a third of the way into listening I forgot it wasn't Williams or Horne... it sounded to me like a bona fide 60s episode! Utterly authentic."

And I'm thrilled it hit a right note with his fans, whose appetite for anything Kenneth is insatiable. Why is that? Why does he intrigue us so much? Why, after dozens of documentaries, best of compilations, and his diaries, letters and my own book utilizing all this unseen material, do we still need more? For me, it's the paradox of the broken-hearted clown, the man who was loved by millions but who found it impossible to love himself. Add to that his exceptional talent, his amusing vocal dexterity and his ability to appeal to all ages, all generations, and you have a unique man who is exceptionally hard to forget.

Wes Butters is the presenter and co-producer of Twice Ken is Plenty

Listen again to Twice Ken is Plenty - the lost script of Kenneth Williams.
The pictures show a page from the script and Robin Sebastian as Kenneth Williams and Jonathan Rigby as Kenneth Horne, during the recording. There are some lovely production pictures on the programme's web page.
Twice Ken is Plenty - the lost Kenneth Williams Script reviewed in The Stage: "...the result of their efforts was a joy".

Happy birthday MI6

2009-07-27T17:50:20+00:00

Tracking down spies for a documentary poses peculiar challenges. Most are reticent to break cover and speak in public. But the occasion of the 100th anniversary of MI6 tempted a few out of their silence. Many were delighted at the chance to talk about their work even if they drew a veil over the more sensitive areas. Some agreed to meet but some wanted to remain anonymous or decided not to speak on tape at all. One individual did his interview in black tie. Very Bond and very old-school Radio 4. Although, I have to admit it was really because he had a formal dinner to go to straight afterwards.

Sir John Scarlett was certainly not in black tie when I went to meet him at MI6's headquarters at Vauxhall (referred to by some as 'Legoland'). Our radio equipment had to be specially cleared in as electronic devices are not usually allowed past the entrance. Scarlett is due to leave as head of MI6 in November and the interview - the first by him or by any serving chief - was a chance to dwell on the history of the organisation and what it gets to know. The other obvious place to go for a history of MI6 was Moscow. There we found some former Russian spies who relished the long intelligence duel between the two countries. One former KGB man even had a rather odd picture on his wall featuring the face of Margaret Thatcher superimposed onto a rather scantily clad model. Not quite sure why.

Gordon spoke on Today about the relationship of fictional spies to the real world intelligence services:

And wrote an article on the same topic for the BBC News Magazine.

Gordon Corera is the BBC's security correspondent

The first episode of MI6: A Century in the Shadows, Gadgets and Green Ink, went out on Radio 4 at 0900 today and will be repeated at 2130.
Radio 4's Complete Smiley continues until April 2010.
On 1 August, journalist Tom Bower will introduce his 1980s documentary about double agent George Blake in the Archive on Four slot.

What's on in Balham?

2009-07-14T07:38:12+00:00

Well, Mondays and Fridays at 2000 there's mixed Badminton with the St Margaret's Club and on Tuesday the Townswomen's Guild meets at Wiseton Hall between 1400 and 1600. Wednesdays Mums-to-be meet for Reiki at Balham Therapy Rooms (1030) and on Thursday there's drama for the over-fifties at The Bedford. On Saturday the Anglican Church on Balham Hill is running a course for 'street pastors'. On Sunday you can learn scuba diving at the leisure centre. And this evening you're invited round to Arthur Smith's maisonette for half an hour of comedy and song. How can you say no?

The Balham Partnership's local information site.
Balham's Wikipedia entry.
Balham, Gateway to the South on YouTube.
Lots of good stuff on the Arthur Smith's Balham Bash pages on the Radio 4 web site.
David Thair visited Arthur's flat for the recording of tonight's episode back in June.

Responding to big stories at Radio 4

2009-06-28T19:07:08+00:00

We've thrown things up in the air in recent days in a bid to respond to two big stories - MPs' expenses and the disputed Iranian election.

Last Thursday evening John Simpson did 'The Report' - our new Current Affairs strand. He spoke about what it was like reporting from Iran this month before he was evicted - but went much further by providing the depth of political analysis that you cannot get anywhere else on the BBC - and certainly not at this speed. The joy of radio. John has been reporting on Iran on and off for 30 years - so when he spoke about ex President Rafsanjani's role there was most of a lifetime's work involved in reaching his conclusion.

Three weeks ago Nick Robinson and I were talking after one of his interviews on Today about the expenses story. We were just chewing the fat. Nick was being self-conscious about what it felt like reporting it - how adrenalised, important and difficult it had been. So we cooked up a plan to do a 30 minute documentary about it - and to do it quickly. Nick and his producer Martin Rosenbaum set about it - in between Nick doing his daily job - and produced quite one of the best programmes - titled 'Moats, Mortgages and Mayhem' - we've broadcast since I got the job. I leave you to make your own judgements - but I thought it brought real insight into the difficulty of political reporting and analysis - and also included an interview with The Telegraph's editor - Will Lewis. That's the first time he's spoken in public since the paper hit the journalistic jackpot.

And this week - more Iran. In 2006 we ran a season of programmes on Iran - 'Uncovering Iran' which had as its centrepiece a 3 part series by Sir John Tusa (former Director of BBC World Service and a great Newsnight presenter) about the history of Iran with a lot on how and why so many Iranians despise Britain. John and his production team have updated the series and we will be repeating this new version on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week at 1100. It's good.

These programmes exemplify what makes Radio 4 what it is. The best of BBC talent doing things they couldn't do elsewhere on big stories and doing it brilliantly and rapidly - backed up with talented producers. I felt perhaps a little unseemingly proprietorial - but very proud.

Listen again to Nick Robinson's Moats, Mortgages and Mayhem
Nick Robinson's Newslog and his short post about the programme (with a lot of comments).
John Tusa's Iran: A Revolutionary State.
Picture, duck house, by Circulating. Used under licence.

Americana

2009-05-29T10:06:23+00:00

America is so vast that almost everything you say about it is likely to be true and the opposite is probably equally true.

That's how the late Irish-American novelist James T. Farrell summed up the intriguing complexity of the United States. I have found this to be a very useful quote. It covers just about everything and gets me out of a tight corner if I am accused of misrepresenting the country which has been my family's adopted home for the past seven years.

I am also reminded every day that it happens to be true on so many different levels. For instance two of my daughters attend a Church school but they are not allowed to celebrate Christmas. Compared to Europe America is devout, but the separation of Church and State - a brilliant move dreamed up by the founding fathers - continues to be an article of faith.

Two thirds of practising Christians believe in the Second Coming but roughly half the country describes itself as agnostic or atheist, a number which is rising. America has the reputation of being a melting pot but to me it often seems more like an archipelago of tribes living separated from each other in a country with space to spare.

Visitors get their thumbprints taken and their retinas scanned when they enter America but it is estimated that as many as 15 million migrants from Latin America live and work here illegally by walking across the 2000 mile long border with Mexico.

The list of contradictions is practically endless.

America suffers from an epidemic of obesity but the slim foods and diet industry is one of the fastest growing and most lucrative in the country. American news media can be hopelessly parochial and yet National Public Radio, the New York Times, my local paper, the Washington Post or the Chicago Tribune provide a nuanced and detailed eye on the world.

The Iraq war continues to be unpopular but the military is more revered here as an institution than in any other democracy. Baseball games kick off with a salute to the troops; supermarket chains offer special discounts for all military families and even our staunchly liberal neighbours, who regularly give money to the Peace Corps hang out a huge Stars and Stripes flag on Veteran's Day.

Oh, and by the way, in this country "liberal" tends to be an insult.

And yet beyond these contradictions I have witnessed the tectonic plates of America shift while we have lived here. We arrived a year after 9/11 when the world's most powerful nation felt vulnerable and fearful. Vengeful grief at home morphed into muscle flexing abroad and - at times - arrogance. The agony of Iraq and the shock of Hurricane Katrina triggered a period of introspection.

The 2008 Presidential race reignited political engagement and turned the internet into a shrewd electoral tool. The election of an African-American President showed America the scope of its ambitions while the implosion of the economy hammered home the limits. The country that had learned to distrust big government was prepared to crawl to it for salvation.

Has the crisis changed America's love affair with money? Is America seriously ready to re-engage the world at a time when there is plenty to worry about at home? How many compromises will the exercise of power force upon a President who stormed to office on the promise of change? Can America still inspire with the power of its ideas or is it hinged more to the idea of power? With all these questions should Uncle Sam check in with a shrink?

Americana hopes to answer these questions by telling you what America is talking, arguing, fretting, laughing and, yes, dreaming about. We hope to surprise, entertain and inform. And by letting America itself do most of the talking we promise never to be dull.

Matt Frei is Anchor of World News America and presenter of Americana

Americana starts this Sunday 31 May at 1915 on BBC Radio 4.
World News America airs weeknights at 7pm & 10pm ET on BBC America.