THE GREAT McGONAGALL BBC Radio 4, 1 x 28 minutes
Thursday 23 February 2006 at 11.30 p.m.
REPEATED 26 February 2006 at a quarter past midnight
We all know William McGonagall's poem The Tay Bridge Disaster. But there is much, much more to McGonagall than simply being a bad poet. Why is he not forgotten? Why do so many people take him to heart?
Presenter: Phil Kay
Producer: Matt Thompson
'This was a sweet, wry tribute, and Kay a sympathetic, funny presenter, horrified and charmed by the clunking rhymes. "Mesmerising, isn't it?" he said after a verse. And it was, too.' - Elizabeth Mahoney, Guardian
'Matt Thompson's production and Phil Kay's presentation gave this programme surprise and delight in every minute.' - Gillian Reynolds, Daily Telegraph
CARING BEYOND REASON BBC Radio 4, 1 x 28 minutes
Thursday 9 March 2006 at 8 p.m.
I said to Mum, 'we can't go on like this - he's bonkers.'
A quarter of the population will be treated for mental illness at some stage in their life. Three families describe the initial shock at realising that a loved one is mentally ill, how they responded and how they cope with a condition that is still stigmatised.
Producers Kim Normanton and Nigel Acheson
SHORTLISTED for THE MENTAL HEALTH MEDIA AWARDS 2006
'A quarter of the UK population will be treated for mental illness at some time in their lives but we still flinch from it. Here's a brilliant way into the subject, honest, brave, inspiring.' - Gillian Reynolds, Daily Telegraph
'Get out the hankies. No one with even an ounce of humanity can fail to be touched by this study of three families labouring under the enormous strain of mental illness.' - Chris Campling, Times
'The best thing about the programme was that the carers were allowed to tell their own stories at their own pace, without introduction or context. This brought terrifyling descriptions... but it also brought humour and heartfelt social observation. "you talk about mental illness," said Terry, "and people close the curtains." This measured programme gently prised them open for a while.' - Elisabeth Mahoney, Guardian
THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF NEEM BBC Radio 4, 1 x 28 minutes
Monday 17 APRIL 2006 at 9 p.m.
An investigation into the versatile Neem tree, a native to India, and the implications of a landmark patent case surrounding it. Can Western pharmaceutical companies claim the know-how of traditional medicine as their own?
Presenter: Charles Haviland
Producer: Anna Horsburgh-Porter
SHAKESPEARE AND ENGLISHNESS BBC Radio 3, 45 minutes
Sunday 23 April 2006, 8 p.m.
To celebrate St George's Day and the birthday of the Bard, Jonathan Bate and his guests examine the role Shakespeare has played - and continues to play - in the shaping of the national consciousness. Catholic dissident or Protestant apologist? Voice of the commons or celebrant of Empire? Around the table are Peter Ackroyd, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Michael Dobson. With contributions from Michael Boyd, Ania Loomba, Richard Wilson, Eamon Duffy , David Dabydeen and David Crystal.
Presenter: Jonathan Bate
Producer: Paul Quinn
HIGH SOCIETY BBC Radio 4, 1 x 28 minutes
Saturday 29 April 2006 at 8 p.m. REPEATED on BBC Radio Merseyside
Tower blocks have been one of the most controversial housing 'solutions' of the twentieth century - both praised and vilified in equal measure. This programme tells the story of tower block life in Liverpool through a unique archive of recorded material that charts the experience of those that lived in them.
Presenter: Stuart Henderson
Producer: Jules Wilkinson
IN THE BIN BBC RADIO 4, 1 x 30 minutes
Monday 12 June 2006 at 8 p.m.
The story of three women who spent decades of their lives as patients in vast psychiatric hospitals that now exist only in the memories of their residents.
Producer: Corinna Faith
WINNER, THE MENTAL HEALTH MEDIA AWARDS 2006
'Forthright, presenter-free reminiscences' - Imogen Ridgway, Evening Standard
Extract played on BBC Radio 4's Pick of the Week
NOW I CAN SAY NO BBC RADIO 4, 1 x 28 minutes
Thursday 22 June 2006 at 8 p.m.
This programme follows three former convicted women criminals as they take part in a radical new course which aims to help them avoid re-offending.
Producers: Kim Normanton and Nigel Acheson
BOOK OF THE WEEK:
THE PERFECT SUMMER by Juliet Nicolson BBC Radio 4, 5 x 14 minutes
Monday to Friday 17 - 21 July 2006 at 9.45 a.m. (FM only) REPEATED at half past midnight
A biography of the summer of 1911: the minutiae of the day-to-day life of Queens, politicians, debutantes, women trade unionists, poets, butlers and school children.
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Producer: Matt Thompson
BERTOLT BRECHT'S EAST BERLIN BBC Radio 4, 1 x 28 minutes
Thursday 14 September 2006 at 11.30 a.m.
REPEATED Sunday 17 September 2006 at a quarter past midnight
In the 50th anniversary year of Bertolt Brecht's death we return to the ruins of post-war east Berlin to tell the story of the famous playwright's celebrated - but troubled - last years in communist East Germany.
Presenter: David Edgar
Producer: William Brittain-Catlin
DEATH AND THE PENGUIN BBC Radio 3, 1 x 90 minutes
Sunday 29 October 2006, 8 p.m.
A Radio adaptation of Andrey Kurkov's satirical, deadpan thriller about an obituary writer and his pet penguin.
Surviving in the Ukraine these days is existentially challenging in all sorts of surprising ways. The publication in 1996 of Death and the Penguin , Andrey Kurkov's debut novel, heralded a unique new voice in post-Soviet satire. Set in the Ukraine in the years immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, this dark, deadpan tale chronicles the journalistic career of Victor, who shares a flat with Misha, his depressed Penguin, rescued from the under-funded zoo in Kiev.
Viktor: Paul Ewing
Igor: James Bryce
Sonya: Kate Bennett
Nina: Katrina Bryan
Sergey: Jimmy Harrison
Pidpaly: John Mckie
Misha Non-Penguin: Stewart porter
Lyosha: Andrei Kurkov
Original music and foley effects by Joe Acheson
Adapted by Matt Thompson from the English translation by George Bird.
Producer: Matt Thompson
'Simply brilliant... a black comedy about sudden deaths and precarious existences in today's Ukraine... it made you feel the life being lived in another place. That's art.' - Gillian Reynolds, Daily Telegraph
Extract played on BBC Radio 4's Pick of the Week
STREETWISE - THE OPERA! BBC Radio 4, 2 x 28 minutes
Friday 1 December and 08 December 2006, 11 a.m.
REPEATED Sunday 3 and 10 June 2007, 11.30 p.m.
A behind-the-scenes look at the production in Gateshead of a new work by Will Todd for 'Streetwise Opera', in which homeless people from Tyneside perform and work alongside professionals.
Presenter : Brigette Foley
Producer: Hannah Andrassy
Extract played on BBC Radio 4's Pick of the Week
WEIRD TALES:
THE STRANGE LIFE OF H. P. LOVECRAFT BBC Radio 3, 45 minutes
Sunday 3 December 2006
REPEATED 10 June 2007 at 8 p.m.
An enlightening look into the dark imagination of the man credited with creating the modern horror story, H. P. Lovecraft: polymath, pulp genius, and Harry Houdini's ghost-writer.
Presenter: Geoff Ward
Reader: Jeff Harding
Producer: Paul Quinn
BETWEEN THE EARS:
THE CHARMING MR KHARMS BBC Radio 3, 20 minutes
Saturday 16 December 2006, 11.30 p.m.
Daniil Kharms was a Russian absurdist who wrote hilarious microscopic playlets about the silliness of the human condition. They're menacing distillations: Kafka shrunk to a pinhead. Stalin threw him in prison and he died. The end.
Introduced by Andrei Kurkov
Actors: Sandy Grierson and Stewart Porter
Music by Haflidi Hallgrimsson, arranged and performed by Poppy Ackroyd (piano)
Translations: Pauline Acheson
Additional pastiches The Meal and Inky Fingers by Matt Thompson
Producer Matt Thompson
BOOK OF THE WEEK:
PLAYING WITH FIRE by Nigel Havers BBC Radio 4, 5 x 15 minutes
Monday to Friday 18 - 22 December 2006, 9.45 a.m. (FM only) REPEATED at half past midnight
An actor's life as lived, written and read by Nigel Havers.
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Producer: Nigel Acheson
WHEN THE WHISTLE BLOWS BBC Radio 4, 1 x 14 minutes
Monday 18 December 2006, 3.45 p.m.
As US legislation is being introduced to curb trains sounding their horns, this programme celebrates that quintessentially American sound: the horn of a passing freight train.
Producers: Diane Hope and Matt Thompson
'A gem of a programme... Diane Hope and Matt Thompson capture the magic of the story, the musical influence of those long low notes.' - Elisabeth Mahoney, Guardian
2006 radio programmes
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