Russia: The Wild East (pt 1) - From Rulers To Revolutions
Written & Presented by Martin Sixsmith
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
The first 25 episodes from the landmark BBC Radio series. Martin Sixsmith brings his first-hand experience of reporting from Russia to this fascinating narrative, witnessing the critical moment when the Soviet Union finally lost its grip on power.
Dur: 5hrs 37minsSTEREO - 25 part Radio Series
Available as 192kbps Stereo MP3 - 475MB
Russia: The Wild East (pt 2) - The Rise And Fall Of The Soviets
Written & Presented by Martin Sixsmith
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
The final 25 episodes from the landmark BBC Radio series. Martin Sixsmith brings his first-hand experience of reporting from Russia to this fascinating narrative, witnessing the critical moment when the Soviet Union finally lost its grip on power.
Dur: 5hrs 41minsSTEREO - 25 part Radio Series
Available as 192kbps Stereo MP3 - 480MB
Written & Presented by Tom Mangold
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
Oil has meant mastery throughout the 20th Century. It is the world's biggest and most pervasive business, and 'the' strategic commodity on the world stage. In a four part series Tom Mangold looks at the geopolitics of oil. When will the tap run dry: Tom Mangold explores the biggest debate facing the oil industry today - will we run out of oil, and if so, when?
Dur: 1hr 48minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 249MB
Written & Presented by Various
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 3
'Silent Spring', written by Rachel Carson and published in 1962, is widely credited with having launched the environmental movement. Serialised in The New Yorker, it caused a furore. Here, five key figures in the world of environmentalism deliver essays on Silent Spring and some of the important works that followed it.
Dur: 1hr 7minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 154MB
Written & Presented by Bob Kingdom
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
A series in which five public figures revisit the route of their paper round to reveal how it influenced their attitudes to work, creativity and independence.
Dur: 1hr 8minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 158MB
Written & Presented by Sir David Frost
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
In this programme, the man who got close to Nixon when in 1977 he taped nearly 29 hours of interviews with Nixon, Sir David Frost, searches through the BBC archives and the White House tapes to try to discover just what kind of man Richard Nixon was.
Dur: 57minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 130MB
Written & Presented by Edi Stark
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
Edi Stark investigates the impact of being a child of a missionary. From those who see it as a blessing, to those who loathe it as a curse. With personal recollections and incredible stories, being a Mishkid was a mixture of fun and hardship.
Dur: 28minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 64MB
Written & Presented by Michael Goldfarb
Originally Broadcast On BBC World Service
In this two-part documentary, Michael Goldfarb examines the protest march as a force for change.
Dur: 45minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 104MB
Written & Presented by Dr Hilary Jones
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
"I believe no Age did ever afford more Instances of Corpulency than our own." Physician Thomas Short, writing in 1727. Today the language may be less quaint, but the sentiments are echoed repeatedly in the media, in Government and in medical reports all over the world. The obesity epidemic has arrived - but obesity is as old as mankind, and in a new four-part series, Dr Hilary Jones looks back into its history, and asks what can we learn today from the mistakes and successes of our overweight ancestors.Dur: 1hr 8minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 157MB
Asian Weddings: Something Gold, Nothing Borrowed, Everything New
Written & Presented by Yasmeen Khan
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
Yasmeen Khan explores the glamorous world of British Asian weddings. She takes in an Asian wedding exhibition in the UK, meeting the clothes designers, wedding planners, toastmasters, food suppliers, chefs, videographers and 'yellow gold' jewellers making their fortunes as the second and third generation tie the knot, all of them keen to help the families show off their wealth.
Dur: 27minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 64MB
Presented by Professor Robert Winston
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
Just 60 years ago, the initials DNA were unknown to the public. A handful of scientists were in a race to discover the structure of this complex molecule which possibly held the secret of life. Today, DNA is a crucial part of our knowledge about health, identity and our whole world. Robert Winston assesses where we are and looks ahead to what DNA might lead to in the future.Dur: 57minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 130MB
Written & Presented by Dennis Marks
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 3
To coincide with the Benjamin Britten Centenary, this documentary, presented by Dennis Marks, explores the social and political background to the pacifism which was central to his creative vision and that of his fellow composer Michael Tippett. Their beliefs made an impact on the personal life of both composers as well as their music. Britten left for the USA and returned as a conscientious objector.Dur: 44minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 100MB
Presented by Ainsley Harriott
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
Ainsley Harriott takes us back to some of the culinary milestones of his South London youth - the market stalls still selling their global range of fruit and veg; the Greek matriarch and magnificent cook, now in her nineties, who treated Ainsley as an addition to her copious family; the kitchen in his childhood home, kindly lent for the occasion by the present occupants, now completely transformed but redolent with memories.Dur: 28minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 65MB
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
eden ahbez is one of those extraordinary characters. His name is not well known but his story and influence are considerable. Credited with having singlehandedly initiated the hippy movement twenty years before it was to arrive in San Francisco in the early 1960s, ahbez was a songwriter who is now known for only one song. But what a song: 'Nature Boy'.Dur: 27minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 63MB
Presented by Tim Brooke-Taylor
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
The legacy of Charlie Chaplin extends far beyond the celluloid archive. There is a living strand of creative performance, which sees the grandchildren of Sir Charles exploring an adventurous new world of physical theatre, and adding a new dimension to those well-worn silent film images of The Little Tramp, battling against a hostile world.Dur: 27minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 64MB
Presented by Rob Brydon
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
Rob Brydon tells the story of two competing fireworks teams at the 2005 Pyromusical Firework Championships.
Dur: 27minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 64MB
Written & Presented by Kati Whitaker
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
The children of sperm donors are, like adopted children, not just interested in finding their biological father. They and their mothers are now aware that sometimes in their own neighbourhood they will have half-sisters and brothers – people with whom they might meet and develop a new kind of family. But the route towards finding their ‘half sibs’ is often fraught with difficulty, both practically and emotionally. Kati Whitaker meets donor-conceived individuals turned ‘sleuths’ in their search for blood relatives.
Dur: 27minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 63MB
Written & Presented by Dr Phil Hammond
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
Phil Hammond, who writes on medical issues and is a practising GP, as well as being a regular broadcaster, talks to Martin Bromiley and to those who are at the forefront of the medical profession, including Lord Darzi, the Health Minister, and Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer. They are faced with a statistics which claim that many patients die each year, because doctors and nurses, while technically skilled, are not sufficiently alert to the risk of a potentially life-threatening error committed by themselves or a member of their team.
Dur: 27minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 63MB
Written & Presented by Adam Fowler
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
In ‘Poles and the Planet’ Adam Fowler charts the legacy of the IGY (1957) in the run up to the IPY (2007). Through a wide variety of archive he recreates the excitement of 1957 and speaks to the explorers and scientists who worked in Antarctica and experienced it first hand.
Dur: 56minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 128MB
Written & Presented by Tom Mangold
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
In “The Miracle Berry”, reporter Tom Mangold tells the story of how, in the early 1970s in Massachusetts, entrepreneur, Robert Harvey was on the brink of revolutionising the eating habits of millions of Americans. He had developed a product made from a West African berry which turned sour tastes to sweet. This ‘Miracle Berry’ meant that diabetics could eat sweet tasting food without risk, and those suffering from obesity could eat what they enjoyed and still lose weight.
Dur: 27minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 62MB
The Great Game In A Cold Climate: A Tale Of Two Cities
Written & Presented by Adam Fowler
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
A few years ago the Canadian port of Churchill on the Hudson Bay was bought for seven dollars by an American railroad company, Omnitrax. A fair price for a dilapidated granary building that nobody wanted, a rusting railhead and a wharf accessible to ships only in the brief, ice-free summer. Now, as the climate changes, Arctic sea routes open up, and vast mineral reserves become accessible for the first time, Churchill is set to become a boom town. In “The Great Game In A Cold Climate: A Tale of Two Cities” Adam Fowler travels there to find out just how good an investment that seven dollars might turn out to be, and just how important this tiny settlement could become when the ‘Scramble for the Arctic’ gets under way in earnest.
Dur: 27minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 62MB
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
The end of a game. The end of a story. The end of a love affair. They are points in people’s lives, and in 'The End' , a variety of people talk about the endings in their lives
Dur: 27minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 62MB
Written & Presented by Tom Mangold
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
Tom Mangold tramps the streets of Newark, New Jersey with a presbyterian minister and self-ordained seeker of justice. Jim McCloskey gave up a successful business career at the age of 37 to enter a seminary, from where he began doing outreach work in a local prison. Called by God to give his life for those unjustly incarcerated, he never took the time to become ordained, and since then has been responsible for the freeing of over forty innocent people from America's prisons.
Dur: 27minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 63MB
Written & Presented by Prof Mark Ronan
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 3
These four essays under the title ‘Symmetry and the Monster’ open up the world of mathematics, and describe one of the journeys which have preoccupied some of the greatest mathematical brains from the early 19th century to now. It’s a chronological journey, presented by Prof Mark Ronan.
Dur: 53minsSTEREO - 2 part Radio Series
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 121MB
Presented by Yasmeen Khan
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
From the very first UK laundrette in Queensway, West London (opened in 1949) to the present day laundry-services...the laundrette has played a vital part in the UK's modern history. But is the popular opinion of laundrettes as unsavoury places to go only when you are at your lowest a fair assertion? As Yasmeen Khan discovers, not everyone finds laundrettes depressing places - for many, the local laundrette is as much a community centre and social hub as the pub is...more Dot.com than Dot Cotton - such as Manchester's first Internet launderette where customers can surf the net and watch films while washing their smalls!
Dur: 27minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 62MB
Presented by Yasmeen Khan
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
Yasmeen Khan investigates why there are so few British Asian players in professional football in the UK.
Dur: 27minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 62MB
Presented by John Waite
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
The Vatican Secret Archives are infamous for what people believe is hidden within them. Located in Vatican City, they are the central repository for all of the acts promulgated by the Holy See, as well as state papers, correspondence, papal account books, and many other documents and artefacts which the church has accumulated over the centuries. In the 17th century, under the orders of Pope Paul V, the Secret Archives were removed from the Vatican Library and remained absolutely closed to Vatican outsiders until the late 19th century, fuelling rumours and conspiracy theories of what might be secreted away there.
Dur: 27minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 63MB
Presented by Dr Phil Hammond
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
Phil Hammond finds out how the use of metaphorical language in health care is increasingly accepted as a powerful aid to healing.
Dur: 27minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 62MB
Presented by Laurie Taylor
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
Laurie Taylor loves cash. A wad of notes, a jingle of coins and life is good. But in ‘Laurie’s Loose Change’ he wonders whether his comfort zone of cash is under threat. He remembers the era before the hole-in-the-wall when you had to turn up before the Bank slammed its doors at 4pm prompt in the afternoon. If you hadn’t presented your cheque, you faced a weekend where you would definitely be ‘short’.
Dur: 28minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 63MB
Presented by Yasmeen Khan
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
Yasmeen Khan investigates the growing trend amongst British Asian men to marry women from their native countries... forget arranged/forced marriages, this is something completely different!
Dur: 28minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 63MB
Presented by Various
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 3
April 2009 was the five hundredth anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to the throne and was marked by this series of five individual essays on key areas of his thirty eight year reign.
Dur: 1hr 07minsSTEREO - 5 part Radio Series
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 155MB
Presented by Mark Whitaker
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
This programme explores the life of one of the most extraordinary and controversial of all Victorians – William ‘Abdullah’ Quilliam, who established the first community of English Muslims in Liverpool in the 1890s.
Dur: 28minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 192kbps Stereo MP3 - 38MB
Presented by Mark Whitaker
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
Their formal title is 'conducted-energy devices', but to the public they're stun-guns or tasers. 11,000 law enforcement agencies in the US use them and there is good evidence for the claim that they reduce the need for police officers to use lethal force. But there is an intensifying debate in the States as to whether tasers are really as safe as claimed. . Mark Whitaker reports from California and Arizona.Dur: 28minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 192kbps Stereo MP3 - 38MB
Presented by Mark Whitaker
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4 & BBC World Service
Mark Whitaker takes a critical look at how UK & US business schools are responding to the Crash of 2008 by teaching more about ethics, sustainability and corporate responsibility. A 2 part series.
Dur: 45minsSTEREO - 2 part Radio Series
Available as 192kbps Stereo MP3 - 62MB
Presented by Mark Whitaker
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
While some disagree, the great majority of climate scientists around the world think that global warming is happening and that it's man-made ... and some of them are now beginning to think the planet needs to take out a radical insurance policy against the possibility of future climate catastrophe.
Dur: 28minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 192kbps Stereo MP3 - 38MB
Presented by Dr Hermione Cockburn
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
It's often claimed you're never more than 10 feet from a rat, and you could probably say the same about lasers. In the home and at the shops, throughout medicine, the military, and almost everywhere else the laser has become one of the most ubiquitous pieces of modern technology. And in just 50 years, not bad for a device that, after its first successful test was immediately dubbed “a solution looking for a problem”. Hermione Cockburn takes a slightly tongue-in-cheek look at the “the Death-Ray in Your Pocket" …
Dur: 28minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 192kbps Stereo MP3 - 38MB
Presented by Mark Whitaker
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
Mark Whitaker looks at the Britain's historical love-affair with alcohol. A 10-part series.
Dur: 2hrs 17minsSTEREO - 10 part Radio Series
Available as 192kbps Stereo MP3 - 187MB
Presented by Michael Freedland & Jonathan Freedland
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
Here begins an extraordinary journey to Lithuania & Belarus for broadcaster and writer Michael Freedland and his son, Guardian journalist and best-selling author, Jonathan. These two countries once thronged with Jewish life, a life that was all but extinguished by successive regimes - Russian Czarists, Soviets and then the Nazis who, with the help of some Lithuanians, managed to totally decimate many towns and villages, or shtetls.
Dur: 28minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 128kbps Stereo MP3 - 26MB
Presented by Frank Gardner
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner, himself a bird watcher, looks at the sometimes surprising links between soldiers and birds and the comfort soldiers get from such an interest in times of extreme stress.
Dur: 27minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 63MB
Presented by John Tusa
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
Amnesty has recently attracted criticism, sometimes from those who have been its most committed activists. John Tusa asks if it has lost its way and what will be its future role.
Dur: 37minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 84MB
Presented by Yasmeen Khan
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
The demands on second and third generation young British Asians have brought about a crisis in their ability to care for their elderly relatives. In ‘A Failure To Provide’ investigative journalist Yasmeen Khan explores the options - from abandonment to sending them back ‘home’!
Dur: 28minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 320kbps Stereo MP3 - 63MB
Presented by Mark Whitaker
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 4
This programme marks the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of hom0eopathy's founding text 'Samuel Hahnemann's Organon of Rational Medicine'.
Dur: 28minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 192kbps Stereo MP3 - 38MB
Presented by Dr Zoe Norridge
Originally Broadcast On BBC Radio 3
Zoe Norridge reports from Rwanda as the country prepares for the 20th anniversary of genocide. Over 100 days, beginning in April 1994, up to a million people were massacred in one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.
Dur: 44minsSTEREO - Radio Documentary
Available as 256kbps Stereo MP3 - 80MB