Radio & TV Journalism

4 AT THE STORE

by Miscellaneous authors

read by Miscellaneous

running time 11hrs 30mins

Stand-up fans rejoice - this cracking collection contains a whole seven series of top-drawer comedy, recorded live at London and Manchester's legendary Comedy Store and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Enjoy over eleven hours of laughs from some of the biggest and best stand-ups on the circuit, hosted by three fantastically funny compères: Simon Bligh, Ross Noble and Adam Hills. Included here is an A-Z of top-drawer comic talent, from Richard Ayoade, John Bishop, Alan Carr, to Sean Lock, Lee Mack, Dara Ó Briain, Lucy Porter, Gina Yashere and a host of other peerless performers. It's all the fun of a comedy club, without the need to leave your armchair.

AFTER EXTRA TIME AND PENALTIES

by Mike Ingham

read by Mike Ingham

running time 7hrs 30mins

BBC Football correspondent, Mike Ingham, MBE, shares a candid, comprehensive, and sometimes, controversial account of how the world of broadcasting and football changed beyond recognition throughout his career. He recalls England's campaigns in tournaments over the last half century with a detailed and eyewitness account of what the atmosphere was really like over the years behind the scenes in the England camp.

BBC SPORTS REPORT: A CELEBRATION OF THE WORLD'S LONGEST-RUNNING SPORTS RADIO PROGRAMME

by Pat Murphy

read by Pat Murphy

running time 12hrs 59mins

For nearly 75 years, one BBC programme has been a constant factor in chronicling the way sport is covered, in all its many facets. First broadcast in 1948, Sports Report is the longest-running radio sporting programme in the world and one of the BBC's hardy perennials. Pat Murphy has been a reporter on the programme since 1981 and here he sifts comprehensively through the experiences of his contemporaries and those who made their mark on Sports Report in earlier decades. Drawing on unique access from the BBC Archives Unit, he highlights memorable moments from Sports Report, details the challenges faced in getting live interviews on air from draughty, noisy dressing-room areas and celebrates the feat of just a small production team in the studio who, somehow, get the show up and running every Saturday, with the clock ticking implacably on.

CHAIN REACTION: THE COMPLETE BBC RADIO 4 HOSTLESS CHAT SHOW

by Miscellaneous authors

read by Miscellaneous

running time 32hrs 30mins

A complete collection of the talk show with a twist—the guest each week becomes the interviewer in the following episode. Focusing on the career and passions of a figure in the entertainment world whose work they admire, each interviewer gets to delve into the life of their hero as well as revealing hidden aspects of themselves. Featuring great British comedians, award-winning actors, and iconic musicians and writers, Chain Reaction serves you double helpings of amazing individuals like Johnny Vegas, Barry Cryer, Lenny Henry, David Tennant, Eddie Izzard, Lee Mack and Ruby Wax.

A DAY LIKE TODAY

by John Humphrys

read by John Humphrys

running time 13hrs

For more than three decades, millions of Britons have woken to the sound of John Humphrys’s voice. As presenter of Radio 4’s Today, the nation’s most popular news programme, he is famed for his tough interviewing, his deep misgivings about authority in its many forms, and his passionate commitment to a variety of causes. Here, John charts his journey from the poverty of his post-war childhood in Cardiff, leaving school at 15, to the summits of broadcasting.

EVERY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE

by Anna Blundy

read by Bridget Biagi

running time 6hrs

Anna Blundy received a telephone call in November 1989 to say that her father, foreign correspondent David Blundy, had been shot whilst reporting the war in El Salvador. In 1997 Anna, also a journalist, went to El Salvador to try to discover the truth of his death. She recalls her experiences in this moving portrait of a country and a man. Contains some offensive language.

THE FALKLANDS WAR: RECORDINGS FROM THE ARCHIVE

by Miscellaneous authors

read by Miscellaneous

running time 2hrs

1982 was a historic year, a year in which the battle for a small group of islands in the South Atlantic dominated the news. From the initial broadcasts of the growing Argentine threat and Mrs Thatcher's speech to the Commons informing them that a Task Force will sail, to the battles for Goose Green and Port Stanley, the Argentine surrender and the controversial sinking of the Belgrano—all these historic moments, together with all the other important events of the Falklands War, are recorded here, in live BBC Radio News coverage.

THE GIFT OF A RADIO: MY CHILDHOOD AND OTHER TRAINWRECKS

by Justin Webb

read by Justin Webb

running time 7hrs

Justin Webb's childhood was far from ordinary. Between his mother's un-diagnosed psychological problems and his step-father's untreated ones, life at home was dysfunctional at best. But with gun-wielding school masters and sub-standard living conditions, Quaker boarding school wasn't much better. And the backdrop to this coming-of-age story? Britain in the 1970s. Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin and Free. Strikes, inflation and IRA bombings. Candid, unsparing and darkly funny, Justin Webb's memoir is a portrait of personal and national dysfunction. So was it the brutal experiences of his upbringing, or an innate ambition and drive that somehow survived them, that shaped the urbane and successful radio presenter we know and love now?

HARDSHIP BRITAIN

by Miscellaneous authors

read by Miscellaneous

running time 17hrs 22mins

Individuals who have experienced some of society's biggest issues tell their stories - and search for answers. From climate change, fake news and vaccine hesitancy to mental health, addiction and domestic violence, there are no shortage of societal problems facing the UK right now. But while we are aware these challenges exist, without personal experience it is hard for us to understand what it is like to struggle with them, and harder still to envision potential solutions. These compelling documentaries, first broadcast on radio under the title 'My Name Is...', introduce us to a range of individuals who have confronted various hardships, telling their stories and following them as they ask difficult questions and endeavour to drive positive change. Offering unique insight into the lives of a host of extraordinary people, these fascinating first-person accounts highlight the complexity of the issues affecting Britons today, and provide diverse perspectives on how we can set about tackling them.

I MUST COLLECT MYSELF

by Maureen Lipman

read by Pat Steadman

running time 15hrs 45mins

Maureen Lipman has the knack of making the everyday supremely entertaining, and this collection of pieces sparkles with her inimitable prose and pithy opinions. Also includes a selection of brilliant monologues which capture Maureen's voice in wonderfully diverse ways.

JACOB HAWLEY: ON DRUGS

by Jacob Hawley

read by Jacob Hawley

running time 8hrs 16mins

Stand-up comedian Jacob Hawley explores every corner of the UK drugs scene, from nightclubs to prisons. In his first BBC radio series, New Comedy Award finalist Jacob Hawley examines one of the most important issues affecting young people today, looking into every aspect of British drug culture to discover its scope and effects. As a recreational drugs user for almost a decade, Jacob thought he knew more than most about the topic - but was shocked by how much he still had to learn. Beginning with a debate about legalisation, these 16 episodes examine the highs and lows of drug use and abuse, from psychedelics, ayahuasca and chemsex to addiction, County Lines gangs and drugs behind bars and on the streets. Jacob visits a rehab clinic to talk to recovering addicts, meets families who have lost loved ones to drugs and speaks with dealers and policemen to canvass opinions from both sides of the law. In addition, he probes the murky world of doping and performance-enhancing drugs, investigates prescription drug abuse and antidepressants, and looks at the damaging effects of one of the most widely-used drugs in the world: alcohol. His guests include controversial scientist Professor David Nutt; 'Acid Countess' Amanda Feilding, grime artist and DJ Faze Miyake and Olympic gold medal winner Luke Campbell - and, in a special episode live from the BBC 6Music Festival, Jacob catches up with actor and presenter Tyger Drew-Honey, who discusses his struggle with drink and drugs.

KEVIN ELDON WILL SEE YOU NOW: THE COMPLETE SERIES 1 - 4

by Kevin Eldon

read by Miscellaneous

running time 7hrs 30mins

Comic phenomenon Kevin Eldon has appeared in almost every hit comedy series in the last 25 years, and now he's decided to take it up a notch with his very own show. It features sketches, characters, sound effects, a bit of music and a lot of messin' about - as well as his all-important cast of stellar comedy names and special guests. In the first three series, Kevin goes into space, evokes the powerful gods of Ancient Egypt, extols the wonders of drink and sneezing, and finally discovers a use for avant-garde German film director Werner Herzog. The fourth series takes a narrative turn, as Kevin broadcasts from the family stately home, complete with his artistic genius Italian wife, Alessandra; his pair of adopted sons, Jacob and Rees; and their cat, Mogg.

LETTERS FROM AMERICA: SEASONAL LETTERS

by Alistair Cooke

read by Alistair Cooke

running time 1hr 46mins

This selection contains eight of Alistair Cooke's Christmas and New Year Letters from America, broadcast in December and January over the five decades of his career and covering a range of festive topics from the light-hearted to the sombre. Starting with his December 2001 Letter - broadcast in the wake of 9/11 - he remembers introducing Leonard Bernstein to Handel's 'Messiah', muses on the creation of A Christmas Carol and shares his memories of two friends who died in 1977, Groucho Marx and Bing Crosby. Here, too, are Cooke's reflections on Christmas in Vermont, the early days of television in the USA, cigarette advertising and sport, the Millennium Bug and the Nixon family's first days in the White House. The Letters are introduced and linked by the BBC's Justin Webb, who sets them in their historical context and adds his own observations.

MAEVE'S TIMES

by Maeve Binchy

read by Kate Binchy

running time 11hrs 45mins

Maeve Binchy is well-known for her bestselling novels but for many years Maeve was a journalist, writing for the Irish Times. Arranged in decades, from the 1960s to the 2000s, and including Maeve's first and last ever piece of writing for the Irish Times, the columns also give a fascinating insight into the author herself.

NEWS FROM NO MAN'S LAND

by John Simpson

read by Michael St. John

running time 23hrs 45mins

John Simpson was one of the first western journalists to enter Kabul after the liberation of Afghanistan. Here he describes how journalists find the stories that make the headlines. He also talks about pressures placed upon journalists, both ethical and political.

ON DUTY WITH THE QUEEN

by Dickie Arbiter

read by Richard Simpson

running time 8hrs 30mins

In this honest and entertaining book, Dickie Arbiter recounts his life's journey from a broadcast journalist to becoming a press spokesman to the Royal family. He discusses the inner workings of everyday life in Buckingham Palace, and what it was really like to work under the media spotlight with the most famous family in the world.

PAST FORWARD: A CENTURY OF SOUND

by Greg Genner

read by Miscellaneous

running time 4hrs 30mins

Historian Greg Jenner uses a random date generator to visit somewhere in the BBC's vast archives of remarkable sound clips from the last 100 years. Using that clip as a jumping-off point to explore what has changed between then and now, Greg talks to experts and those connected to the archived people, places, and ideas, including Stephen Fry, writer Naomi Alderman, playwright Nell Leyshon, social historian Carol Dyhouse, author and disability campaigner Dr Amit Patel, food historian Annie Gray, and inveterate tennis fan Geoff Dyer.

THE REITH LECTURES: 10 OF THE BEST

by Miscellaneous authors

read by Miscellaneous

running time 7hrs 30mins

Ten emblematic lectures by world-leading thinkers, specially selected by the series producer.

SELECTIVE MEMORY

by Katharine Whitehorn

read by Jill Hetherington

running time 10hrs 40mins

The autobiography of British journalist Katharine Whitehorn whose pioneering newspaper column was the first to cover everyday life. Her article entitled 'Sluts' about busy women cutting corners with housework, provoked a deluge of letters to The Observer.

THANKS A LOT MILTON JONES! SERIES 1 - 4

by Milton Jones

read by Miscellaneous

running time 11hrs

Mention Milton Jones to most people and the first thing they think is 'Help!' So he's set out on a mission to help anyone, anywhere - whether they need it or not. Armed with a new motto, 'No problem too problemy', and accompanied by his faithful assistant Anton and landlady Pauline, he sets out to assist people in any way he can. In these 24 episodes, he tries out an array of new careers, and becomes embroiled in numerous new adventures. Whether he's running a B & B, launching a job agency, showing off his lovely buns as a baker or facing drama in the line of duty, he always goes out of his way to help out. Because when you're close to the edge, then Milton can give you a push...

VERONICA GUERIN

by Emily O'Reilly

read by Derina Dinkin

running time 7hrs

The extraordinary story of a bold but reckless young Irish journalist whose dangerous investigations led to her tragic death.

WAR STORIES

by Jeremy Bowen

read by Fred Parker

running time 12hrs

As a war correspondent, Jeremy Bowen was addicted to reporting wars, until the violent death of a close colleague and the birth of his first child made him reassess his dangerous job. Now in a less hazardous role, he comes to terms with his enduring obsession in this candid memoir.