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...

Northern Ireland was a very dark place in the 1980s. A hunger strike was looming, street violence and tit for tat murders were an everyday occurrence, but in a small corner of West Belfast something extraordinary was happening. In a factory in Dunmurry a unique new sports car was being built, a DMC 12, a style icon for the late 20th century. For 2...

Derek Nimmo is one of Just a Minute's famous sparkling raconteurs, whose sharp wit and skill made him a pleasure and delight to listen to. This episode is one of four which showcases his highlights - the moments which reveal Derek Nimmo at the very top of his game. First broadcast 18 April 1981, it features Derek Nimmo, Clement Freud, Peter Jones,...

Derek Nimmo is one of Just a Minute's famous sparkling raconteurs, whose sharp wit and skill made him a pleasure and delight to listen to. This episode is one of four which showcases his highlights - the moments which reveal Derek Nimmo at the very top of his game. First broadcast 4 April 1989, it features Derek Nimmo, Peter Jones, Paul Merton and...

Angela Carter's relationship with radio began with an accidental sound effect. She went on to write two docu-dramas, Come Unto These Yellow Sands (about the Victorian painter Richard Dadd) and A Self-Made Man (about Edwardian novelist Ronald Firbank) and re-worked two of her short stories into radio plays. Carter loved radio's technical possibiliti...

The Royal Collection is one of the most wide-ranging collections of art and artefacts in the world and provides an intriguing insight into the minds of the monarchs who have assembled it. In this series, BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz examines dozens of these unique objects, in a quest to 'use the Collection as a prism through which to better unders...

Germany as we understand it, unified and strong, only came into existence a mere 140 years ago. Before then? Well, there was Bavaria and Prussia, Saxony, Baden Wurttemberg, Pomerania, Westfalia, Schleswig Holstein - this list is extremely long. And defining where one bit ended and the next began - well, it was utterly bewildering.' Misha Glenny pre...

It's a world in which teamwork and goals are more than just motivational phrases, and moving the goal posts will get you sent off the pitch. Football management has come a long way since men in sheepskin coats bestrode the land. The BBC's business editor Robert Peston lifts the lid on this multimillion pound industry and, with managers like Harry R...

Barry Johnston presents a retrospective of his father's career as a much-loved BBC broadcaster. Jovial Johnners was the doyen of cricket commentators, as well as a consumer of chocolate cake, a reporter, presenter, quizmaster and much-loved voice at State occasions. For nearly 50 years the ever-affable, always enthusiastic Brian Johnston brought wa...