What it’s really like to live in India today - stressful
After a month cooped up in a Scottish castle, no internet, no TV, and no radio, watching hectic snowflakes billowing…
The amazing story of the blind photographer
Perhaps the news that Radio 5 live will be the only BBC station (under the new broadcasting rights agreements) to…
Why BBC Arabic is booming
Last weekend BBC Arabic celebrated 77 years since John Reith (as he then was) launched the first foreign-language service of…
The man who discovered Ebola
By some quirk of fate, just as news reached the papers that the Scottish nurse who had contracted Ebola while…
Radio 4’s War and Peace: almost as good as the book
To have listened to Radio 4’s marathon ten-hour adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace as it was being broadcast on…
Was Beethoven influenced by yoga?
How many digital radios have you bought over the years? How many are still working? Of the four I used…
Without childhood traumas, how did Alan Bennett ever become a writer?
‘So — take heart,’ said Alan Bennett, sending us out from his play, Cocktail Sticks, on a cheery note. The…
Why Serial is the future of radio
The fuss may now be over, the last episode of Serial revealed. But if the global success of WBEZ Chicago’s…
Children’s radio was once at the core of the BBC - now it’s all but disappeared
It was a bit of a surprise to hear Jarvis Cocker, the embodiment of cool and former frontman of Pulp,…
Why you have to listen to this year's Reith Lectures
Each year the Reith Lectures come round as Radio 4’s annual assertion of intellectual authority, fulfilling the BBC’s original aspiration…
Was this Christian pioneer of radio evangelism a fraud?
She was the sequinned star of the airwaves back in the 1920s, the first preacher to realise the potential of…
Why radio is a surprisingly good medium for talking about art
You might think it a fool’s errand to attempt programmes about art on the wireless. How can you talk about…
The voices of Indian PoWs captured in the first world war
At six o’clock on 31 May 1916, an Indian soldier who had been captured on the Western Front alongside British…
Many more Germans were displaced in 1945 than Indians during partition
What Radio 3 needs is a musical version of Neil MacGregor. The director of the British Museum and now a…
Kate Chisholm on what makes the BBC World Service so special
‘Don’t take it for granted,’ she warned. ‘It’s one of the few places where you can hear diverse voices, different…
What it’s like being a scarily talented teenager
It was when she said how she loved ‘watching the computer do exactly what you wanted it to do’ that…
Can Radio 3 escape the digital squeeze?
The new controller of Radio 3 has at last been appointed. Alan Davey (not to be confused with the former…
Mary Beard vs Jeremy Paxman
‘Did you find it a good read?’ asked Harrriett Gilbert. An incredibly long drawn-out sigh from Mr Paxman. ‘I think…
The sofa that became a work of art
Last week on Front Row (Radio 4) the singer Joyce DiDonato recalled the advice she gave the new graduates of…
Warhol’s ‘time capsules’ contain everything from toenails to previously unseen paintings worth millions
‘I don’t know what I think,’ says Lenny Henry, echoing what many of us who were listening were probably also…
Radio 4 deserts the British bird. Shame on them!
A strange coincidence on Saturday night to come back from the cinema, having seen a film about a woman fighting…
Even near the front line, there were flowers on the ward
It’s the tub of bright red geraniums at the heart of the picture that startles. How did anyone have time…
Who needs drugs when you have Radio 3?
I’m willing to bet it’s only on the BBC’s Radio 3 that you’ll find yourself listening to a programme quite…
Ambridge recovers its sense of humour — finally
‘Isn’t that charming!’ Carol declares at the height of the great Home Farm cocktail party, after being subjected to Jennifer’s…
Why is Radio 3 still leaderless?
It’s happened almost by stealth but the number of listeners to 6 Music has now overtaken Radio 3, creeping up…
