Broadcaster and arts presenter Melvyn Bragg fronts 'The Written World', a five-part BBC Radio 4 series following the origins of writing from its first appearance 6,000 years ago and exploring how it has shaped the world's intellectual history. In the first programme he looks at the technology of writing, and how making signs on clay, wood or parchm...

What caused the financial mess we're in? And how do we get out of it? Two of the great economic thinkers of the 20th century had sharply contrasting views. John Maynard Keynes believed that government spending could create employment and longer term growth. His contemporary and rival Friedrich Hayek believed that investments have to be based on rea...

El Ultimo Proyecto - The Last Project by Michael Butt, a play in two languages- Spanish and English. A romantic thriller set in the hills of Andalucia. A British former soldier, Travis, has a love affair with the wife of a famous Spanish film director. Story telling and reality collide when the director insists Travis helps with his latest film, hi...

When Ed finds himself sleeping in the spare room he realises he might have to rediscover exactly what love is. But coming up with the correct definition proves harder than he first imagines. Starring Paul Ritter, Tessa Peake-Jones, Aurelie Ambland, Jonathan Forbes, Peter Polycarpou, and Jane Whittenshaw. Directed by Sally Avens.

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 from the third series, Michael Portillo back to his former school in Harrow. In his day, it was a boys' grammar school and in this visit to celebrate 100 years of the school, Michael is one of the gue...

Cockney comedian Micky Flanagan's debut radio show charts the ups and downs of his life, from Billingsgate fish porter to successful stand-up comic and from Sunblest to panini, tabloids to broadsheets and the street party to the dinner party. Each week's episode focuses on a different decade of Micky's life, and he regales us with autobiographical...

Ronnie Barker stars in four episodes of the comedy sketch show as heard on BBC Radio 4. Here s a further cornucopia of clever comedy, featuring sketches, monologues, poems and songs in this sequential entertainment for radio . Here, the sketches include: a bizarre slice of Shakespeare, a poem for a man with a plan and a forgetful actor. There are a...

Join Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick and Joan Sims as they go beyond Round the Horne. Taking over the mantle of Round the Horne, Stop Messing About carried on the comedy tradition, which reunited Kenneth Williams with both Hugh Paddick and Kenneth's Carry On co-star, Joan Sims. These four episodes include such favourites as crusty old judge Sir Inig...

Award-winning writer Ayeesha Menon's rework of Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit is set amongst the Catholic community in modern-day Mumbai. Convinced his relatives are after his money, Martin Chuzzlewit, a wealthy old landlord, has adopted orphan girl Mary as his carer with the understanding she will be housed and fed as long as he lives - but on his dea...

Wolfgang Stoecker is on a mission to explore the cultural meanings of dust. Cologne-based artist Stoecker has collected samples of dust from historic buildings across Europe and beyond. With the help of scientists and an electron-microscope, he has analysed the dust and discovered it contains tiny fossils, particles from the Sahara, pollutants of v...

Tuck into this bean-feast of razzle-dazzle rhymes and tales of tomfoolery! Meet Anna, who decides to view the world upside down. Make the acquaintance of the cat who writes poems. And find out exactly what happens when Mr Delmonico offends the word witch...

Arthur Lowe, Kenneth Connor and Ian Lavender star in four episodes of the radio comedy series set in a sleepy railway station. Featuring Arthur Lowe and Ian Lavender from Dads Army, and Kenneth Connor (from the Carry On films), these recordings are among the few remaining episodes available. Goodbye Parsley Sidings (Series 1, Episode 10): Horace He...

A 15-part BBC Radio 4 series exploring the origins of the Post Office, how it became a cherished national institution, and how it adapted to globalisation and commercialisation. It s called Royal Mail but it should be known as the People s Post. Launched in 1516 by Henry VIII, it was intended to support royal communications and bolster intelligence...

A practical audio guide to help listeners improve their assertiveness skills. By the end of the programme they will feel that they have had a personal coaching session and put into practice the tips they have been given. It will be the audio self-help guide to expressing oneself clearly and confidently.

When Fate and a chivalrous impulse combine to saddle Viscount Desford with a friendless, homeless waif in the engaging shape of Cherry Steane, who else should he turn to in such a scrape but his childhood playmate, Henrietta Silverdale? And although they refused to oblige their parents by marrying, they have always been the best of friends. But as...

Set against the backdrop of America's Great Depression and Dust Bowl, a family of farmers from Oklahoma head west in search of work, only to discover thousands like them are also on the move. Following a violent altercation with some locals, they head back on the road with their dream of a promised land in tatters. And life is set to get much worse...

Ronnie Barker, Richard Beckinsale, Fulton Mackay and Brian Wilde star in two classic episodes written by Dick Clement and Ian la Frenais. An Evening In: Godber is moved into Fletch's cell, and confides that he finds it tough each time the door bangs shut. Fletch advises him to think of it as a quiet night in, but the trouble is Godber has 698 more...

A wild, dark modern fairytale, set in Damascus. The second in a series of contemporary plays inspired by stories from the Arabian Nights. It is time for Shahrazad to tell another tale to save her life. In this story within a story, we find out that if Joe doesn't find the exclusive to satisfy his ruthless editor, he will lose his job. He finds thre...

The story of Graham Chapman's history with the Monty Python team; how he met and started writing with John Cleese, his rise through the ranks writing The Frost Report, the glory, glory years with the Pythons and his struggle to overcome his considerable drinking demons. And how the collective kindness of Messrs Cleese, Jones, Idle, Palin and Gillia...

Terrified, a young prisoner in the Second World War closes his eyes and pictures himself going out to bat on a sunlit cricket ground in Hampshire. Across the courtyard in a Victorian workhouse, a father too ashamed to acknowledge his son. A skinny girl steps out of a Chevy with a guitar; her voice sends shivers through the skull. Soldiers and lover...

It is 1969 and James Bond is about to go solo, recklessly motivated by revenge. A seasoned veteran of the service, 007 is sent to single-handedly stop a civil war in the small West African nation of Zanzarim. Aided by a beautiful accomplice and hindered by the local militia, he undergoes a scarring experience which compels him to ignore M's orders...