Libby Purves considers the impact of On the Beach, Stanley Kramer's groundbreaking film which 50 years ago reduced cinema-goers to tears with its bleak vi
Celebrating Maida Vale at 75, Peter Reed discovers how the BBC's mammoth tape archive arrives on Radio 7, via the former home of the Radiophonic Workshop.
Elbow singer and BBC 6 Music presenter Guy Garvey explores the development of the musical encore, from the spontaneous demand for a repeat performance to the predict
Black comedy by David Pownall following events of August 1939, when the British and French were seriouslyout-maneuvered by Stalin and Hitler when they unexpectedly agreed to
sign a non-aggression pact.
It Was A Dark and Stormy Night
Broadcast Thu 26 Nov 2009, 11:30
160/44; 32.3 MB; sound quality excellent
Ian Peacock reveals the dark and gothic life of the Victorian writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who coined the archetypally gothic opening line, 'I
Broadcast Sat 10 Oct 2009, 10:30
Patrick Humphries tells the little-known story of Errol Flynn's final year, much of which he spent in Cuba, filing reports to Hearst newspapers and producing two Cuban-based movies.
One of the leading Hollywood st
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Britain's Other Music Hall: The Story of the Blackface Minstrels
Tue 10 Nov 2009, 11:30
Musician Tony Etoria explores the strange world of blackface minstrelsy, the Victorian forebear of the Black and White Minstrel show, and its continuing impact
BBC World Service - Documentaries - Gold
12 august 2009 - 08:47 GMT
As the paper-money financial world is revealed to be fictional, people have been rushing to invest, once again, in "real" gold.
Nick Rankin unlocks the history and enduring f
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He's Not The Messiah, He's A Very Naughty Boy
Radio 2, Tue 1 Dec 2009, 22:30
160/44; 65 MB; sound quality excellent
When Monty Python's Life Of Brian was released in 1979, it was denounced by many around the world as blasphemous - and was an insta
Our Country's Good
by Timberlake Wertenbaker
adapted by John Foley
Director/David Hitchinson
15 October 2005, 6.30-8.00pm
BBC World Service Play of the Week
128/44; 81 MB; sound quality very good
Set in the early days of penal settlement, Our Coun
Chaos and Creation
Sun 7 Jun 2009, 21:40, BBC Radio 3
(Duration: 45 minutes)
192/44; 61 MB; sound quality excellent
A reflection on the mythology, the science and the religious and political significance of the origins of the universe. With contri
To Err is Human
Monday 11 August 2008, 9.00-9.30pm
Phil Hammond explores human error in the medical profession. Thousands of patients die each year because doctors and nurses, although technically skilled, are not alert to the risk of a potentially
Between Ourselves
Olivia O'Leary presents the series which brings together two people who have had profound and similar experiences, to hear their individual stories and compare the long-term effects on each of their lives.
Wed 5 Aug 2009
Olivia t
The Many Lives of Roald Dahl
Sat 23 May 2009 - Archive on 4
Sophie Dahl looks at the life, writing and passions of her grandfather, the children's author Roald Dahl.
By turns acerbic, funny, inventive and clever, what made him the writer he became
When A Man's Home Really Is His Castle (www.npr.org)
July 31, 2009 A couple of weeks ago, The Miami Herald ran a photo of a fire. The location, according to the caption, was an abandoned medieval castle built in 1925 in Miami Beach, Fla.
Robert Si
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Scots Gothic: A Portrait of Edgar Allan Poe in Ayrshire
First broadcast 20071031, Radio Scotland
repeated 20090627, Radio 7
After Edgar Poe lost both his parents as a child, he was taken in by the family of a Virginia tobacco merchant, John Allan.
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I Have Heard The Mermaids Singing
Janet Ellis heads to Cornwall, Preston and Macclesfield to speak to authors, storytellers and academics about the power of the mermaid image and its origins.
She hears from the man who came up with the Starbuc
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