Nicholas Parsons chairs the panel game that rewards those who can talk the hind leg off a donkey. The panellists on today's show are Paul Merton, Sheila Hancock, Gyles Brandreth and Barnsley poet Ian McMillan. The aim of the game is to speak on a given subject for sixty seconds without hesitation, repetition or deviation. A task much harder than it...

Melvyn Bragg examines some of the many different varieties of English spoken around the world today, taking in Spanglish from the USA, Indian English, Caribbean English, Australian English, South African English, and finally a kind of "international English" used between non-native English speakers.

Melvyn Bragg follows his long historical exploration of the Routes of English with Voices of the Powerless, the BBC Radio 4 series in which he explores the lives of the ordinary working men and women of Britain at critical moments across the last 1,000 years. Ulster, one of the four ancient provinces of Ireland, remained largely independent of Eng...

Welsh comedian Rhod Gilbert is one of the biggest names in UK stand-up, performing to sell-out audiences in Britain and abroad. Now he has his own radio series, 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 who takes...

Melvyn Bragg follows his long historical exploration of the Routes of English with Voices of the Powerless, the BBC Radio 4 series in which he explores the lives of the ordinary working men and women of Britain at critical moments across the last 1,000 years. The Peasants' Revolt began in the Essex village of Fobbing in May 1381. It started with t...

Arthur Smith invites an audience into his South London home for comedy, music and entertainment. There's jamming in the kitchen, chuckles in the front room and poetry on the landing. Pippa Evans is a regular contributor as singer-songwriter Loretta Maine, while special guests include Paul Sinha, Milton Jones, Glenn Tilbrook, Benjamin Zephaniah, Ste...

To tie-in with Radio 4's new versions of the Raymond Chandler classic thrillers aired in February 2011, Harriett Gilbert presents a reappraisal of the life and legacy of the man from Upper Norwood who invented the PI as we know him. 'I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had...

Join Brett Westwood and Stephen Moss in this absorbing guide to the sounds of our most popular farmland birds, as heard on BBC Radio 4. In the fifth of our series of bird guides, Brett Westwood is joined once again by enthusiastic birdwatcher Stephen Moss, and with the help of recordings made by wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson they present th...

The second series of the Sony Radio Academy Gold Award-winning BBC Radio 4 show in which physicist Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince take a witty, irreverent and unashamedly rational look at the world according to science. In the first episode, specially recorded as part of 2010's Cheltenham Science Festival, Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by...

Physicist Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince return for the third series of the Sony Radio Academy Gold Award-winning BBC Radio 4 show in which they take a witty, irreverent and unashamedly rational look at the world according to science. In the first episode, 'Apocalypse!', Brian and Robin are joined by comedian Andy Hamilton to discuss some of the...

Physicist Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince return for the fourth series of the Sony Radio Academy Gold Award-winning BBC Radio 4 show in which they take a witty, irreverent and unashamedly rational look at the world according to science. Winner of a Sony Radio Academy Gold Award for Best Speech Programme: 'A brilliant way of being both innovative...

'It's Your Round' is the comedy panel game where the format is simple: there is no format. Instead, each of the panellists has brought along their own round for the others to play, meaning that each show is unique, untried, and unpredictable. Angus Deayton is the host valiantly trying to make sure everyone comes out of it with their reputations int...

'It's Your Round' is the comedy panel game where the format is simple: there is no format. Instead, each of the panellists has brought along their own round for the others to play, meaning that each show is unique, untried, and unpredictable. Angus Deayton is the host valiantly trying to make sure everyone comes out of it with their reputations int...

'It's Your Round' is the comedy panel game where the format is simple: there is no format. Instead, each of the panellists has brought along their own round for the others to play, meaning that each show is unique, untried, and unpredictable. Angus Deayton is the host valiantly trying to make sure everyone comes out of it with their reputations int...

'It's Your Round' is the comedy panel game where the format is simple: there is no format. Instead, each of the panellists has brought along their own round for the others to play, meaning that each show is unique, untried, and unpredictable. Angus Deayton is the host valiantly trying to make sure everyone comes out of it with their reputations int...

It's Your Round' is the comedy panel game where the format is simple: there is no format. Instead, each of the panellists has brought along their own round for the others to play, meaning that each show is unique, untried, and unpredictable. Angus Deayton is the host valiantly trying to make sure everyone comes out of it with their reputations inta...

'It's Your Round' is the comedy panel game where the format is simple: there is no format. Instead, each of the panellists has brought along their own round for the others to play, meaning that each show is unique, untried, and unpredictable. In this final episode Johnny Vaughan, Alan Davies, Roisin Conaty and Arthur Smith battle it out to see who...

Resourceful mum, Shanice, is persuaded by her next-door neighbour, Evie, to take up the bizarre sport of jelly wrestling to make ends meet in this BBC Radio 4 'Afternon Play'. 'Jelly Babes' was originally broadcast on 13 April 2011. Becky, AKA 'Azaria The Amazon', shows Shanice the ropes, and she is soon wowing the rowdy stag night audiences with h...

Martin Sixsmith continues his history of Russia, from the tumultuous events of 1917 to the country's re-emergence as one of the world's most powerful nations. After the whirlwind of the revolution, the Bolsheviks struggled to consolidate their victory. To rescue the economy and save the regime, Lenin made concessions to the people. But after his d...

When a new concept or product comes along, how does it get its name? Making up new words for new things or ideas isn't new. New words-linguists call them "coinages"-are as old as the English language itself. Melvyn Bragg explores the history of linguistic innovation from the Middle Ages, through the inventiveness of the Industrial Revolution, to th...

Melvyn has fun and games with puns, wordplay and tongue twisters. Twisting, manipulation and stretching of the English language is an integral part of everyday communication. This language play exists in many forms, as puns, double entendres, word games and verse exercises, and we have been playing with English for centuries.