Radio 4
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…
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…
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…
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…
The bump in the night that changed my mind about pygmies
Music of the Forest on Radio 4 last week was a profile of the anthropologist Colin Turnbull, 1924–1994, who achieved…
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…
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…
Tread carefully! Your garden is saturated with racial meaning – and so is Ikea
Is your life saturated with racial meaning? The most common answer to this question, when I ask friends and acquaintances,…
Jonathan Dimbleby’s notebook: In defence of Chris Patten
I usually spend most of the week at home in South Devon in front of my computer. But for the…
Nothing beats Book at Bedtime
There I was trapped in the bathroom at 10.55 p.m., unable to leave for fear of missing anything. The time…
Ukip isn’t a national party. It’s a Tory sickness
It can happen that something ought to feel wrong yet somehow doesn’t; and you wonder whether this means that in…
How Radio 5 Live transformed the airwaves
It’s amazing to think that it’s 20 years since the launch of Radio 5 Live. But it was bright and…
A learned poet's mystifying mistakes
I enjoy Poetry Please, but was shouting mildly at the wireless the other day when a northern woman poet was…
Is a new art form being born on Woman's Hour?
In a comic-strip cartoon, beads of water apparently radiating outward from the head of one of the characters indicate embarrassment.…
Mishal Husain's diary: Sachin, women secret agents, shipbuilding .. and telling the time.
I’ve worked for the BBC for years and have been listening to the Today programme all my adult life, but…
Come over here, Tom Stoppard
David Blackburn talks to Gwyneth Williams,who wants to revitalise Radio 4’s coverage of the arts
Last week's all-female Today proved women make for a more uplifting show
Boy, we’ve had to wait a long time for this. But last Thursday morning something unusual happened on Radio 4;…
Only Evan Davies can keep his guests in order
It must have sounded like such a great idea. To gather a group of thinkers, agitators, experts, intellectuals and media…
Kirstie Allsopp’s diary: Why I’m terrified of Woman’s Hour
If you haven’t scuffled you haven’t lived, and our local scuffle is the best of the best. A scuffle is…
Kate Chisholm connects to her inner tortoise
Of course there’s a future for digital radio, it’s just that we’ll probably be listening to it online, or on…
Don't blame the baby boomers - they had it tough too
Here’s a competition for you: ‘The most irritating discussion on Radio 4 in the past month.’ Answers in not more…
