Archive on 4

Brilliant stories told using archive from the BBC and beyond.

Radio 4,699 episodes

Episodes

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A Life Less Ordinary
Christopher Jefferies
Christopher Jefferies assesses the media assault that left his reputation in tatters.
11 Jan 2014,60 mins
The Long, Long Trail
Roy Hudd explores the forgotten radio masterpiece that inspired Oh What a Lovely War.
04 Jan 2014,58 mins
The Three Day Week
White explores the political significance of the 1970s crisis, when Edward Heath was PM.
28 Dec 2013,60 mins
When Comedy and Politics Collide
Is satire on radio and TV now harming rather than helping our politics?
21 Dec 2013,58 mins
Monkey Planet
Will Self asks where apes end and human apes begin.
30 Nov 2013,58 mins
The Kennedy Book Depository
Mark Lawson explores the literary and cultural responses to JFK's assassination.
16 Nov 2013,58 mins
Gloria and Me
Glenn Patterson traces the cultural journey of Van Morrison's much-covered song Gloria.
02 Nov 2013,58 mins
Orson Welles and The War Of The Worlds - Myth or Legend?
The true story behind the most notorious hoax in radio - Orson Welles' War Of The Worlds.
26 Oct 2013,60 mins
Not Enough Hours in the Day
Claudia Hammond looks back at 80 years ago of time use surveys, started by the BBC.
19 Oct 2013,58 mins
The World Turned Upside Down
Peter Day argues that the internet is completely revolutionising manufacturing and trade.
12 Oct 2013,58 mins
Yeats and Heaney: A Terrible Beauty
Fintan O'Toole looks back at the reputations of WB Yeats and Seamus Heaney.
05 Oct 2013,57 mins
A Brief History of Irony
Satirist Joe Queenan charts the rise and fall of the 'nudge nudge wink wink' epidemic.
28 Sep 2013,58 mins
Bombing Berlin
Stephen Evans on Wynford Vaughan-Thomas's 1943 dispatch during a bombing raid on Berlin.
07 Sep 2013,58 mins
Beyond the Kitchen Sink
Paul Allen uses the archive to explore the social changes that led to the British New Wave
31 Aug 2013,60 mins
This Train Rides Again
A recreation of the1963 train journey made to Washington by civil rights campaigners.
24 Aug 2013,57 mins,
Scrambled
Allegra McEvedy reflects on our complex, even scrambled, relationship with the humble egg.
17 Aug 2013,58 mins
Ivor Cutler at 90
A celebration of the 90th anniversary of poet, humourist and absurdist Ivor Cutler.
10 Aug 2013,60 mins
Crime of the Century
Jake Arnott examines the Great Train Robbery of 1963.
13 Jul 2013,58 mins
Churchill's Secret Cabinet
A humble wooden cabinet reveals secrets about how Churchill developed his oratorical style
06 Jul 2013,58 mins
Dial-a-Poem
Poet Brian Patten explores the 1960s counter-culture through its radically risqué poetry.
29 Jun 2013,58 mins
Writers and Radio
Susannah Clapp talks to authors who grew up at the end of the radio age.
22 Jun 2013,58 mins
Very British Dystopias
Steven Fielding looks at the impact of British dystopian political fiction.
15 Jun 2013,58 mins
Profumo Confidential
Tom Mangold revisits the scandal he covered for the Daily Express fifty years ago.
25 May 2013,57 mins,
Lives and Politics
Two remarkable archives, 80 years apart, throw light on what makes a politician tick.
18 May 2013,58 mins
Heroes and Hacks
Journalist Eamonn O'Neill examines his profession through the legacy of Watergate.
11 May 2013,58 mins
From Donald Winnicott to the Naughty Step
Anne Karpf on psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, among the first to broadcast to new mothers.
04 May 2013,58 mins
Collar the Lot
Tom Conti explores the story of Italian internment in Britain during World War II.
27 Apr 2013,60 mins
Dr K
Should we remember Henry Kissinger as America's wise strategist or its ruthless operator?
20 Apr 2013,58 mins
DNA 60 Years On
Robert Winston traces the impact of DNA - from its discovery 60 years ago to today.
23 Mar 2013,58 mins
Wheeler: The Final Word
David Taylor and Charles Wheeler's probe into Johnson and Nixon's clash over Vietnam.
16 Mar 2013,58 mins