#bbcradio4 — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #bbcradio4, aggregated by home.social.
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(yet another look at UK education)
Comps
Archive on 4Financial Times columnist turned teacher Lucy Kellaway takes a personal journey through the education revolution launched fifty years ago to replace grammars and secondary moderns with comprehensives. The ambition was noble: the same opportunities for every child. But the story of Comps suggests that when lofty ideals collide with reality, things don’t always turn out as planned.
Lucy visits two very different models of comp trying to reconcile the history and their local demands and priorities, and speaks to three of the most influential politicians responsible for shaping today's state secondary school system - Lords Baker, Blunkett and Gove. She also discovers the deep roots of the tensions and challenges facing today's comps in a journey through a rich archive that charts the evolution of the comprehensive system in the last fifty years.
Producer: Jonathan BrunertShow less
57 minutesOn air
Today
20:00
BBC Radio 4
More episodes -
Brendan Behan #BrendanBehan
It Must Be Wonderful to Be Free
Archive on 4Irish novelist Megan Nolan presents an intimate study of the late playwright, singer and novelist, Brendan Behan. She reveals a poetic socialist, a fiercely anti-establishment artist concerned with class solidarity, outcasts, liberation, self-revelation and empathy. And she trashes the trivial, stereotyped memory of Behan, as Ireland’s most famous drunk.
She tells his story through the lens of his most prolific years, 1954 - 1958. It was a time of explosive creativity for Behan, which saw the release of three of his most remarkable works - his plays The Quare Fellow and The Hostage, and his work of auto-fiction Borstal Boy. She hears about his determination in these years to recruit language rather than the militarised violence of his youth as a means to valorise life, dignity, humour and queer love, and to advance his vision for his country, forged in his working class roots.
His words paint a picture of a complex character. An intelligent, anti-establishment writer, an Irish beatnik whose talents “would make Jack Kerouac weep with terror” and who even Bob Dylan couldn’t find the courage to “touch the hem of his garment”. A man who met a tragic end, addicted to alcohol and wielding his fame and power in cruel ways.
Marking the 60th anniversary of his death, Megan hears from historians, writers and members of Behan’s family, as well as from the rich archive of the man himself.
Producer: Cat Gough
Executive Producer: Robert NicholsonA Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
With thanks to Iris Klein and Semiotexte for providing archival interview recordings with Brendan Behan made by journalist Sylvere Lotringer in Paris in 1961
Show less
Available now57 minutes
On air
Today
22:00
BBC Radio 4 -
( ... there are possibly some David Sedaris fans out in Fediverseland ... )
David Sedaris
Take Four BooksPresenter James Crawford speaks to American author and humourist David Sedaris on his new collection of essays, The Land and Its People. From navigating the realities of ageing to reflecting on his personal relationships, Sedaris explores a wide range of experiences across the book's 28 essays.
He also discusses the three works that inspired the collection: Raymond Carver's Cathedral (1981), Joy Williams's Taking Care (1982), and Alan Bennett's Talking Heads (1988).
Producer: Rachael O’Neill
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.Show less
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Available now29 minutes
On air
Today
16:00
BBC Radio 4 -
Mr Jefferson's Library (5 part series)
Michael Goldfarb visits the Library of Congress and Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello in Virginia to see how Jefferson's reading shaped the beginnings of American history.
#MichaelGoldfarb
#LibraryOfCongress
#ThomasJefferson
#Monticello#BBCRadio4 #BookOfTheWeek #BBCBOTW #BBCBookOfTheWeek
(15 minute episodes) (very fast reading presentation style)
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Bombing of the Minab School
[ languge use ]
2026-04-29 0710-0720ish
Reporter says Centcom/Pentagon is saying "a review" is underway prior to there being "an investigation" or "further probe".[ QuangoNote: i figured out a couple of weeks ago that the military-security class have started using the word "review" instead of "investigation" -- "reviews" can last as long as you want them to and so are technically compliant with laws/regulation ]
wiki -- 2026 Minab school attack
... the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' elementary school of the Shahrak-e Al-Mahdi neighbourhood in Minab, Hormozgan province in southern Iran was destroyed by a missile ...#BBCRadio4 #BBCTodayProgramme #2026MinabSchoolAttack #MinabSchoolAttack #MinabSchool
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William Dodd Fights the Factories
History's HeroesIn the industrial revolution, a worker takes on the factory system and demands an end to brutal conditions.
Stories of bold voices, with brave ideas and the courage to stand alone. Historian Alex von Tunzelmann shines a light on remarkable people from across history.
A BBC Studios Audio production.
Producer: Lorna Reader
Written and presented by Alex von Tunzelmann
Executive Producer: Paul Smith
Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian RobertsShow less
28 minutes
On airToday
15:00
BBC Radio 4#BBCRadio4 #BBCHistorysHeroes #AlexVonTunzelmann #DisabledRights #WorkersRights
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(a bit of pro-FreeMason propaganda just before noon -- guilds, mystery plays, freemasons)
Arts & Mysteries
A History of Mystery by Cal Flyn
Episode 2 of 5Cal Flyn explores the profound power of mystery and the provocation of the unknown.
Today the award-winning writer uncovers the links between the unknown and the medieval guilds that developed to protect artisanal secrets.
Written and read by Cal Flyn
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
A BBC Audio Scotland production for BBC Radio 4Show less
30 days left to listen14 minutes
Today
11:45
BBC Radio 4(... she wants to be a brother ...)
#BBCRadio4 #BookOfTheWeek #BBCBookOfTheWeek #BBCRadio4BookOfTheWeek
#BBCR4BookOfTheWeek
#R4BookOfTheWeek
#Freemasons #Freemasonry #CalFlyn #BBCCalFlyn #FreemasonBrotherCalFlyn -
(... the_WORST_episode_of_this_series_on_BBC_Radio4 ...)
Café Hope -- Change Please
Cemal Ezel, from Change Please, tells Rachel Burden how they help address homelessness by selling coffee. The social enterprise trains homeless people for employment through the sale of coffee, offering them a living wage, housing and therapy support.
Café Hope is our virtual Radio 4 coffee shop, where guests pop in for a brew and a chat to tell us what they're doing to make things better in big and small ways. Think of us as sitting in your local café, cooking up plans, hearing the gossip and celebrating the people making the world a better place.
We're all about trying to make change. It might be a transformational project that helps an entire community or it might be about trying to make one life a little easier. And the key here is in the trying. Not everything works, and there are struggles along the way. But it's always worth a go.
You can contact us on [email protected]
Presenter: Rachel Burden
Series Producer: Uma Doraiswamy
Sound Design: Nicky Edwards
Editor: Clare Fordham(QuangoNote: The interviewee advocates for #PreEmploymentChecks (- and probably adhers to #WorkReady or #JobReady -) which is part of the fuck-knuckle jobnobbling strategy of Ian Duncan Smith, Tim Montgomerie and the neverending identity checks of our lame-ass security-intelligence community. Their approach is a right-wing capitalist one.)
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Desert Island Discs - Lorraine Kelly
#BBCRadio4 #DesertIslandDiscs
#LorraineKelly #ITV #ITVLorraine
#Lockerbie #Dunblane