Archive on 4

Brilliant stories told using archive from the BBC and beyond.

Radio 4,699 episodes

Episodes

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Decimal Day - What's That in Old Money?
Peter Day considers the events and impact of Britain's currency going decimal in 1971.
60 mins
David Bowie: Verbatim
David Bowie’s extraordinary life and career told in his own words.
30 Jan 2016,60 mins
Utopias
Michael Symmons Roberts examines the book behind one of our most influential ideas: Utopia
23 Jan 2016,60 mins
The Stranger in the Mirror
Does the history of our ideas about autism reveal more about ourselves than about autism?
16 Jan 2016,58 mins
Jay Rayner Pigs Out
Jay Rayner, self-confessed greedy pig, gets serious about porkers.
26 Dec 2015,58 mins
The Selling of Sinatra
Jazz singer Kurt Elling doffs his trilby as he explores the life of Frank Sinatra.
19 Dec 2015,60 mins
When Britain Had the Right Stuff
Richard Hollingham uncovers the forgotten history of Britons in space.
12 Dec 2015,58 mins
Racial Equality Enshrined
Ritula Shah explores Britain's first Race Relations Act, fifty years on.
05 Dec 2015,58 mins
Lives in a Landscape
Alan Dein tells the story of ten years of Radio 4's observational documentary series.
28 Nov 2015,60 mins
A Sympathetic Eye
Simon Farquhar examines how Man Alive reflected changing TV and social values in the 1960s
14 Nov 2015,58 mins
07/11/2015
Fifty years after abolition, John Tusa reviews the history of the death penalty debate.
07 Nov 2015,58 mins
The Time Machine
Comedian Doc Brown activates the flux capacitor back to the world of 21 January 1981.
31 Oct 2015,57 mins
The Future of the BBC: A History
Steve Hewlett explores the troubled past behind today's debates on the future of the BBC.
24 Oct 2015,58 mins
Attention Must Be Paid - Arthur Miller's Centenary
Christopher Bigsby traces the life and work of Arthur Miller, mostly in Miller's own words
17 Oct 2015,58 mins
Bernstein, My Mentor
Acclaimed conductor Marin Alsop remembers her mentor, the great Leonard Bernstein.
10 Oct 2015,58 mins
John Lennon: Verbatim
John Lennon's extraordinary life and career told in his own words.
03 Oct 2015,57 mins
Kindertransport
How 10,000 unaccompanied children, mostly Jewish, escaped from Nazi Europe to Britain.
26 Sep 2015,60 mins
From the Self to the Selfie
Lauren Laverne on the origins and effects of the obsession with selfies.
19 Sep 2015,58 mins
MP for Penrith and the Border
Programme following a year in the life of Rory Stewart - an MP with an unusual profile.
12 Sep 2015,58 mins
The Power of Political Forgetting
What happens when a major past crisis slips from public memory? With David Aaronovitch.
05 Sep 2015,58 mins
New Orleans: The Crescent and the Shadow
Harry Shearer lives in New Orleans. He looks back at the last ten years in the city.
29 Aug 2015,58 mins
Dickie Attenborough: A Life in Film
Susan Marling celebrates Richard Attenborough’s legacy a year on from his death.
22 Aug 2015,60 mins
Stadium Rock at 50
50 years after the Beatles played Shea Stadium, Kate Mossman plots a history of Arena rock
15 Aug 2015,58 mins
Misunderstanding Japan
What impact have western media representations had on our view of Japan and its people?
08 Aug 2015,60 mins
Cradle to Grave
The history of the NHS told through one hospital - the QEII in Welwyn Garden City.
01 Aug 2015,58 mins
Shhhhhhh
Lucy Powell offers a quiet celebration of the rich and various virtues of silence.
25 Jul 2015,58 mins
How to Make an Archive on 4
Alan Dein enters the strange world of instructional records.
18 Jul 2015,60 mins
Destroyer of Worlds
How Britain developed the world's first atomic bomb only to lose it to the Americans.
11 Jul 2015,57 mins
Tomorrow's World, Today
Tomorrow's World came to our TV screens in 1965. Were any of its predictions correct?
04 Jul 2015,60 mins
A Brief History of Shame
American satirist Joe Queenan explores Shame.
27 Jun 2015,60 mins