BOOK OF THE WEEK:
THE LEMON TREE by Sandy Tolan BBC Radio 4, 5 x 14 minutes
Monday to Friday 12 - 16 February 2007 at 9.45 a.m. (FM only) REPEATED at half past midnight
An unusual dialogue between a Palestinian man and the Israeli woman who now lives in his old home.
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Producer: Matt Thompson
Extract played on BBC Radio 4's Pick of the Week
AGES APART BBC Radio 4, 1 x 28 minutes
Thursday 12 March 2007 at 8 p.m.
Pensioners in Bethnal Green are involved with an intriguing project. Called Magic Me, it aims to get together elderly, predominantly white pensioners with teenagers - mostly Bengali, Somali and Afro-Caribbean - on an equal basis to exchange views, challenge stereotypes and find common ground.
Presenter: Jules Wilkinson
Producer: Jules Wilkinson
Extract played on BBC Radio 4's Pick of the Week
FISH TALES BBC Radio 4, 4 x 14 minutes
Monday to Thursday 9 - 12 April 2007 at 3.45 p.m.
A foray into the worlds of five of Britain's rather more common coarse fish. A gallery of piscatorial character studies, portrayed through the experiences of contemporary enthusiasts and literature past and present.
1:The Carp
with comedian and fisherman Paul Whitehouse
2: The Pike
with top rod maker Edward Barder
3: The Trout
with champion trout angler Ronnie Butler
4. The Perch
with writer Tom Fort
Presenter: Chris Yates
Reader: John Rowe
Producer: Dan Shepherd
Extract played on BBC Radio 4's Pick of the Week
'This charming programme...does sound like it's been broadcast before. In about 1962. And so what? Yates has a lovely, quiet voice, modulated, one suspects, so as not to alarm fish. In fact, from the evidence of the first couple of days... the idea seemed to be not to catch any fish at all. It is a brave programme about fishing which has no quota for fish.' Nicholas Lezard, The Independent on Sunday
'Lovely atmosphere, civilised talk, delight in the world.' - Martin Hoyle, The Financial Times
BOOK OF THE WEEK:
LENI: THE LIVE AND WORK OF LENI RIEFENSTAHL by Steven Bach BBC Radio 4, 5 x 14 minutes
Monday to Friday 16 - 20 April 2007 at 9.45 a.m. (FM only) REPEATED at half past midnight
She was one of the greatest women film directors of all time. But she sold her soul by making Hitler look so good. What was Leni really like?
Reader: Kenneth Branagh
Producer: Matt Thompson
Extract played on BBC Radio 4's Pick of the Week
BLINDNESS BBC Radio 3, 1 x 90 minutes
Sunday 6 May 2007 at 8 p.m.
A radio play adapted from the Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese writer José Saramago's allegorical thriller about a city - not unlike Lisbon - which is hit by an epidemic of sudden blindness.
'The apprentice thought, 'we are blind,' and he sat down and wrote Blindness to remind those who might read it that we pervert reason when we humiliate life; that human dignity is insulted every day by the powerful of our world; that the universal lie has replaced the plural truths; that man stopped respecting himself when he lost the respect due to his fellow-creatures.' - José Saramago, Nobel Prize lecture, 1998
The Doctor's Wife: Josefina Gabrielle
Girl in Dark Glasses: Madeleine Worrall
Doctor: Anthony Howell
Driver: Michael Cannon
Driver's Wife: Pat Borthwick
Car Thief: Stewart Porter
Sergeant: Bob Kane
Old Man with Eye Patch: Peter Sproule
Gang Leader: Joe Montana
Gang Lackey: David Webster
'Writer': John Rowe
Young boy: Sean Gardner
Sound design by Joe Acheson
Producer Matt Thompson
THE BLONDE ATOMIC TRAITRESS BBC Radio 4, 1 x 28 minutes Monday 14 May 2007 at 8 p.m.
85-year-old Joan Hinton must be one of the last surviving scientists who worked on the first atomic bombs, dropped on Japanese cities in 1945. At a dairy not far from Beijing, G erry Kennedy meets her and traces the journey undertaken by her and her brother William, Vermont radicals who turned their backs on the post-war American dream in order to savour the 'fruits of the struggle' of revolution in China.
Presenter: Gerry Kennedy
Readers: Angelique Fernandez, Jonathan Hartman and Ian Porter
Producer: Nigel Acheson
Listen to audio extract
'Absorbing documentary...' - Gillian Reynolds, Daily Telegraph
Extract played on BBC Radio 4's Pick of the Week
THE CABBIES FROM PRAGUE BBC Radio 4, 2 x 28 minutes
Monday 4 and 11 June 2007, 11 a.m.
Following the fortunes of migrant minicab drivers from Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic as they cope with the British public - from Dartford on a Saturday night to an Asda car park in County Durham.
Presenter: Anna Horsburgh-Porter
Producer: Nigel Acheson and Anna Horsburgh-Porter
Listen to audio extract
'Compelling 2-parter' - Stephanie Billen, Observer
Extract played on BBC Radio 4's Pick of the Week
CLEANING OUT THE CAMP BBC Radio 4, 2 x 28 minutes
Thursday 21 and 28 June 2007
Eddie Mair combines oral testimony and analysis in a two-part enquiry into the attitudes and policy of the armed services towards homosexuality since WWII.
Homosexuality is like an iceberg; the greater part remains unseen and undetected.. The threat to security is very real.
The laissez-faire attitude towards homosexuals in the armed services during the second world war quickly gave way to an anti-gay crackdown, despite the liberalisation of social attitudes leading up to the Sexual Offences Act of 1967.
For 33 years until the year 2000, the gulf between civil and military law remained. In the second programme we ask why the armed services maintained its ban on homosexuality for so long. When gay men and women were finally - and suddenly - invited to be open about their sexuality in the Army, Navy and Air Force, how did the transition go? What happened next?
Presenter: Eddie Mair
Producer: Jo Coombs
Extract played on BBC Radio 4's Pick of the Week
THE SUNDAY FEATURE:
MALORY: A TALE OF TWO TEXTS BBC Radio 3, 1 x 44 minutes
Sunday 26 August 2007 at 9.30 p.m.
Le Morte Darthur, Thomas Malory's great work of Arthurian literature, survives in two versions: a manuscript produced by scribes, and a printed edition by Caxton. The Caxton version influenced generations of readers; the manuscript disappeared for nearly 500 years before its amazing discovery in the Warden's bedroom at Winchester College. Its recovery radically changed our view of the text - and of Malory. Professor David Wallace investigates.
Presenter: David Wallace
Producer: Paul Quinn
SECOND TIME AROUND BBC Radio 4, 18th Oct 2007
Thursday 18 October 2007 at 8 p.m.
While many grandparents love to spend time with their grandchildren, taking them on full-time as a result of their sons or daughters having alcohol and drug addictions means the grandchildren arrive confused, angry and - in the worst cases - bereaved. We hear from three families from Derbyshire, Durham and London about the various challenges - as well as the joys - of bringing up their own grandchildren.
Producers Kim Normanton and Nigel Acheson
Extract played on BBC Radio 4's Pick of the Week
'It could be depressing... but these parents for the second time are a resilient lot and there is a lot of joy here as well.' - Chris Campling, The Times
'A remarkable documentary from independents Loftus... The grandparents face immense tasks, finding the energy to care later in life for angry and confused children, witnesses to their parents' decline. The love and patience they bring is inspiring, their candour vivid and unexpected.' - Gillian Reynolds, Sunday Telegraph
THE PREPOSTEROUS FILES BBC Radio 4, 7th Sept, 14th Sept, 23rd Sept, 30th Sept and 7th Oct 2007.
The eternal tension between the little person and City Hall, as exemplified in wonderfully Pootereque, bulging files from the National Archives. This is totally original research, showing how bureaucrats will go to any lengths to avoid a decision, particularly one that sets a precedent.
Producer: Matt Thompson
MALORY: A TALE OF TWO TEXTS BBC Radio 3, 26th August 2007
Le Morte Darthur, Thomas Malory's great work of Arthurian literature, survives in just two versions: a manuscript produced by scribes, and a printed edition by Caxton. The Caxton version influenced generations of readers; the manuscript disappeared for nearly 500 years before its amazing discovery in the Warden's bedroom at Winchester College. Its recovery radically changed our view of the text - and of Malory. Professor David Wallace traces the histories of the two versions and considers the different stories they tell us about the times in which they were made and the times in which they were read. With readings by Andrew Motion.
Producer: Paul Quinn
2007 radio programmes
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