A family living on the edge of the river struggle with the thought of losing their livelyhood, whilst battling to keep family relationships together. Maggie and Tom, brother and sister, try to save their livelihood as their parents flounder in the face of modernization. Maggie befriends the disabled son of a family rival in an attempt to build bri...

The first episode, Astronomy for Dummies, of the BBC Radio 4 comedy series, All of the Planet's Wonders, in which award-winning comedian Josie Long attempts to better herself through learning from reference books, with help from Irish comedian Maeve Higgins. Originally broadcast 18 February 2009 and repeated on 28 December 2010. In this episode Jos...

The second episode, The Enlightenment, of the BBC Radio 4 comedy series, All of the Planet's Wonders, in which award-winning comedian Josie Long attempts to better herself through learning from reference books, with help from Irish comedian Maeve Higgins. Originally broadcast 25 February 2009 and repeated on 29 December 2010. In the second episode,...

The third episode, Obscure Animal Facts, of the BBC Radio 4 comedy series, All of the Planet's Wonders, in which award-winning comedian Josie Long attempts to better herself through learning from reference books, with help from Irish comedian Maeve Higgins. Originally broadcast 4 March 2009 and repeated on 30 December 2010. In Obscure Animal Facts...

Alice, Hanging in There is the second of three comic tales from BBC Radio 4's The Greengrocer's Apostrophe, inspired by those hand-written signs offering "Apple's and Banana's" which can be found in every town in Britain. Originally broadcast in the Afternoon Reading slot on 29 September 2010. When Alice's high-flying career stalls, she finds a nov...

BBC Radio 4 sitcom written by and starring Sanjeev Kohli and Donald McLeary, set in a Glasgow corner shop. In Series One, which was first broadcast in 2007, the nettle of the ugly spectre of racism was grasped, a religious festival was invented and an impacted cola bottle (sour) was removed from one of Ramesh's premolars. We were also introduced to...

The De-Magowaning of Ramesh. Corner shop owner Ramesh has toothache and Sanjay embraces retail.

The first play in Pilgrim Series 2, a collection of four BBC Radio 4 modern-day fantasy adventures written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz and starring Paul Hilton as Pilgrim. The Drowned Church was originally broadcast in the Afternoon Play slot on 31 August 2010. What if all the myths and folktales of these islands were true? And what if they were not o...

A series of four BBC Radio 4 modern-day fantasy adventures written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz and starring Paul Hilton as Pilgrim. Pilgrim Series 2 was originally a weekly broadcast in the Afternoon Play slots from 31 August-21 September 2010. The plays in Pilgrim Series 2 are thrilling, dark and contemporary. They're set in a very recognisable, very...

The last play of four in Pilgrim Series 2, a collection of BBC Radio 4 modern-day fantasy adventures written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz and starring Paul Hilton as Pilgrim. Hope Springs was originally broadcast in the Afternoon Play slot on 21 September 2010. What if all the myths and folktales of these islands were true? And what if they were not on...

The second play of four in Pilgrim Series 2, a collection of BBC Radio 4 modern-day fantasy adventures written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz and starring Paul Hilton as Pilgrim. The Lost Hotel was originally broadcast in the Afternoon Play slot on 7 September 2010. What if all the myths and folktales of these islands were true? And what if they were not...

oin Brett Westwood and Stephen Moss in this fascinating guide to the sounds of our most popular coastal birds, as heard on BBC Radio 4. In the fourth of our series of bird guides, Brett Westwood is joined by keen birdwatcher Stephen Moss on the north coast of Devon, and with the help of wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson they offer a practical a...

The power of English-and the "English of Power", as the language extends its influence from Court to Edinburgh. Melvyn Bragg goes to Edinburgh and the house of John Knox, the great Scottish apostle of the Reformation, who preached in English. Latin was replaced by English as the language of the Church when Henry VIII broke with Rome. And the 1611 K...

Conquest, trade and immigration have woven dozens of languages into English. Melvyn Bragg visits Liverpool, home of Scouse, an Irish-based variant of northern English made famous by the Beatles and countless comedians. By the mid-nineteenth century the port of Liverpool ranked second to London and became home to immigrants from all over the world w...

In Pigs Have Wings, affably potty Lord Emsworth is embroiled in a fierce pig-rearing battle with his obese neighbour, Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe. Tossed in for good measure: romantic entanglements, some dubious detective work and a fearful dieting product called 'Slimmo'. Blandings is also never complete without the resourcefulness of canny Gally...

Young Twig lives in the Deepwoods, among the Woodtrolls, but he isn't one of them. In a brave attempt to find out where he belongs, Twig wanders into the mysterious, fascinating and sometimes hazardous world beyond the Deepwoods. In his travels he encounters myriad peculiar creatures, like his wise guardian, the Caterbird; the Slaughterers, a peace...

Before cars and planes, railways and steam engines were the main form of transport. And in the early days the engine driver was the fastest man on earth, travelling at 60 mph (and much faster than a car). No wonder it was every schoolboy's dream to become the driver of a locomotive, even though it was dirty and dangerous work. Some boys went straig...

Around 117 AD the Roman Ninth Legion was ordered to put down an uprising among the Caledonian tribes. Four thousand men vanished without a trace into the swirling mists of the north of Roman Britain. Many years after their disappearance, a young centurion, Marcus Aquila, sets out to discover the truth about what happened to the legion and to its Fi...

Elisabeth Sladen presents another time-travelling journey through the history of Doctor Who on BBC radio and television. Our good friend the Doctor may continually jump from the past to the present and back to the future, but he's never really gone away. Since 1963 he has had a massive influence on our popular culture - as this second volume of rar...

Tom Baker and Sophie Aldred appear in one of three full-cast BBC radio dramas based around the real-life worlds of Doctor Who. Doctor Who, the TV series which millions adore, is the inspiration for these three original radio plays. Presented in their entirety, they each focus on the effect which the programme has had on the lives of ordinary - and...

First broadcast on BBC1 in 1968, The Dominators sees the TARDIS materialising on the planet Dulkis, currently under threat from two alien Dominators and their robotic servants, the Quarks. Their intention is to turn the planet into a raidoactive mass, fuel for their space fleet. The pacifist Dulcians refuse to retaliate, until the Doctor, Jamie and...