Dr. Geoff Bunn presents a journey through 5000 years of our understanding of the most complex thing in the known universe: the brain, in this major ten-part BBC Radio 4 series. Episode 9, 'All Or Nothing', focuses on the invention of the electroencephalograph, which made our brain waves visible. Invented by Hans Berger, one of its main proponents w...

Dr. Geoff Bunn presents a journey through 5000 years of our understanding of the most complex thing in the known universe: the brain, in this major ten-part BBC Radio 4 series. Episode 10, 'Einstein's Brain' focuses on how advances in neurology have influenced our understanding of human's as 'neurochemical selves'. Examining the recent trend to exp...

This fascinating collection of archive interviews with the much-loved comedy actor and diarist begins in 1961, with an appearance on the BBC TV Tonight programme, and culminates in 1987 when Kenneth Williams is a guest on Desert Island Discs. Along the way are several interviews on Parkinson, conversation from The John Dunn Show, and a number of ra...

It was a footman who brought the news to ten-year-old Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor on December 10, 1936. Her father had become an accidental king just four days before his forty-first birthday when his older brother, King Edward VIII, abdicated to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, a twice-divorced American. Edward VIII had been sovereign only nine...

A BBC Radio 4 documentary all about Johnny Morris of BBC TV's 'Animal Magic' fame, a household name and character who created charming, comic voices for the creatures in the show. 'Not Just Funny Animal Voices' presenter Terry Nutkins, (Johnny's TV side-kick, mentor and close friend until Johnny's death in 1999), explores Johnny's life and work, a...

Welsh stand-up comedian Rhod Gilbert is one of the biggest names in UK stand-up, performing to sell-out audiences in the Britain and abroad. Now he has his own radio show, recorded in front of a live audience and packed with laughs. Joining Rhod on stage are fellow comedians Lloyd Langford and Greg Davies (We Are Klang), along with Sarah Millican w...

Stephen Fry traces the evolution of the mobile phone, from hefty executive bricks that required a separate briefcase to carry the battery, to the smartphones available today. There are more mobile phones in the world than there are people on the planet: Stephen Fry talks to the backroom boys who made it all possible and hears how the technology suc...

Stephen Fry meets the brains behind the mobile phone. There are more mobile phones in the world than there are people on the planet: In this first episode, Stephen Fry explores the creation of the mobile phone network. Richard Frenkiel, a Bell Labs engineer, who created the cellular networks on which all mobile phones depend, was himself never part...

Stephen Fry meets the brains behind the mobile phone. There are more mobile phones in the world than there are people on the planet: Stephen Fry talks to the backroom boys who made it all possible and hears how the technology succeeded, in ways that the geeks had not necessarily intended. In this second episode, he traces the evolution of the mobil...

Stephen Fry meets the brains behind the mobile phone. In this third episode, he looks at the discovery of text messaging. The engineers who designed the early texting facilities didn't imagine that anyone might want to reply. (Just in case, they added a short list of possible pre-set answers: yes, no and maybe). In the eighties, when network covera...

Stephen Fry meets the brains behind the mobile phone. In this third episode, he looks at the discovery of text messaging. The engineers who designed the early texting facilities didn't imagine that anyone might want to reply. (Just in case, they added a short list of possible pre-set answers: yes, no and maybe). In the eighties, when network covera...

Stephen Fry meets the brains behind the mobile phone. Today, 85% of the silicon chips inside all mobile phones are designed by one Cambridge-based company, ARM. Two computer engineers needed some micro-processors but didn't like what they saw and decided to make their own. Strapped for cash, they designed chips that were small, cheap and exceptiona...

This fascinating collection of archive interviews with the acclaimed playwright, whose centenary was celebrated in 2011, begins in 1969 with a radio appearance on Out This Week. It culminates with an interview for Kaleidoscope in 1977, recorded a few months before his death. Inbetween are several major radio features on Rattigan's life and work, in...

In a fifty-six-year career spanning 'Take It from Here' to 'Absolutely Fabulous', June Whitfield's presence in a show has always been a hallmark of quality. From Shakespeare to 'Carry On' films, from Penge rep to the Palladium, there is hardly a theatre or studio where she hasn't appeared, and in the process acquired a wonderfully funny backstage t...

Sue Johnston always seemed to be disappointing her mother. As a girl she never stayed clean and tidy like her cousins. As she grew older, she spent all her piano lesson money on drinks for her mates down the pub, and when she discovered The Cavern she was never at home. The final straw was when Sue left her steady job at a St Helen's factory to try...

Clare Balding grew up in a rather unusual household. Her father a champion trainer, she shared her life with more than 100 thoroughbred racehorses, mares, foals and ponies, as well as an ever-present pack of boxers and lurchers. As a toddler she would happily ride the legendary Mill Reef and take breakfast with the Queen. She and her younger brothe...

Clare Balding looks back at the last time that the Olympic Games came to London in 1948. Three years after the end of the Second World War, Britain was still gripped by austerity. Rationing was still in force, severe bomb damage was still much in evidence and no new sports facilities could be built. Visiting athletes were put up in schools and RAF...

We all have low moods from time to time. Usually, the mood passes after a few days and we get back to our normal way of living. We may say that we have been 'depressed', 'down in the dumps', 'fed up' or have had the 'blues'. But low moods like this are not what doctors call depression. Instead, they use the term to describe a more severe illness wh...

In 1979, the British team was in training for the following year's Olympics when Russia invaded Afghanistan. President Carter, backed by Margaret Thatcher, urged athletes to boycott the event, and the worlds of politics and sport seemed caught in a headlock. This fascinating programme sees Sue MacGregor reuniting members of the British Olympic team...

In Top of the Class, John Wilson meets leading figures in their fields and takes them back to the places and people they left behind. In this episode, he takes author Andrea Levy back to the building where her creative success took root - the old City Literature building in London's Covent Garden. When she started doing an adult education class in...

Series 3 of the sociable show in which Arthur Smith presents music and comedy from his home in South London. Arthur Smith loves to have a full house in his Balham flat. And his house guests are a talented bunch: there's jamming in the kitchen, laughter on the landing and poetry in the front room. Among the guests finding a performance space amid th...