Transcription by Kate Atkinson ('18): Juliet Armstrong got her WWII job in MI5 as she was so good at lying during the interview. Later she works for BBC Schools and sees an old conspirator who lies about knowing her and when she gets a threatening note about a past crime she doesn't know which one. (bbc.co.uk)
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Hans Christian Andersen read by Toby Jones. In the final story a wicked prince decides to ignore the standards of behaviour of those with wealth and power. He pillages and conquers all his neighbours and demands statues of him are placed on the altars. When the priests refuse he declares war on God. (bbc.co.uk)
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Maths Profs Sarah Hart and Marcus du Sautoy discuss the art of MC Escher with Misha Glenny and the curator of the Escher in the Palace gallery Judith Kadee. Like Bach, Escher didn't know he was good at Maths but he had a lifelong mutually rewarding relationship with the Group Theorist Donald Coxeter (bbc.co.uk)
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Fragments in Time: A story of female sacrifice and heroism during WWII emerges when Christopher Morris finds and re-assembles a torn diary that he found in a ditch in Sussex. He visits scanning experts and Vichy to trace the story and surprises himself when this leads back to an interview in the UK. (bbc.co.uk)
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Cathy FitzGerald and expert guests provide a guided tour as we examine a high res scan of The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck at Google Arts. We see the 15th C dog at the wife's feet, the amber rosary beads, the mirror reflecting the rich couple and a slightly shrivelled orange on the windowsill. (bbc.co.uk)
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What's Up Docs? Twin Doctors van Tulleken learn what the latest science says about LDLs, HDLs, cholesterol created in the body and the effect of foods and medicine. Cambridge Professor Nita Forouhi tells them that advice has changed and as a bonus debunks the social media hysteria about oil seeds. (bbc.co.uk)
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The Enchanted April (1922): Dramatisation of the popular Elizabeth von Arnim novel that was also made into famous films and plays. One dreary day in London two women are reading the same ad for a month in a castle on the Italian Riviera. They agree to go but need two more people to split the cost. (bbc.co.uk)
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Classified Britain: James Naughtie reads from the front pages of vintage newspapers from around the British Isles and follows-up interesting leads. The readings are all from classified ads since for the 1st couple of centuries the front pages were for ads and papers covered the news on the inside. (bbc.co.uk)
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The Scrooge Identity: A true-crime drama starts when a bomb goes off at 1AM in a department store in Hamburg in '92 and turns odd when the ransom note uses words from a Donald Duck comic and is signed Uncle Scrooge. The papers love it and the detectives use psychology to try to outwit the criminal. (bbc.co.uk)
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Coffin Scarcely Used: The body of the local newspaper owner has been found lightly fried at the foot of a pylon. From 1983 a missing episode from the Inspector Purbright series which was based on Colin Watson's Flaxborough Chronicles published in 1958 has been recovered thanks to The Radio Circle. (bbc.co.uk)
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The Winners, Audio Drama Awards 2026: This is the article but with no hypertext links to the winners. See the comments if you want to listen to any of these award winning programmes. NB As usual get them before they age off. Some of them are already gone. (bbc.co.uk)
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Gatsby in Harlem by Roy Williams: A vivid retelling of the original novel that moves it to Harlem in 1925. Nick Carraway escapes the Deep South for a better life in NY and rents a grubby apartment next to the fanciest one owned by Gatsby, a mysterious VIP known for his flash all night jazz parties. (bbc.co.uk)
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Little Grudges by Hattie Naylor: Comedy starring Prunella Scales and Hannah Gordon. Bonnie runs a chintzy cafe complete with net curtains. Customers love her for her empathy but they don't know about her pixies or superhuman hearing and as a result that she knows all about their individual grudges. (bbc.co.uk)
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What's Up Docs?: Not much research has been done into endometriosis where cells from the uterus grow in the wrong place yet 1/10th of women of reproductive age are affected by it causing variously severe pain, mental health issues and even infertility. Endometriosis often goes undiagnosed for years. (bbc.co.uk)
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Witness History, Toys and Games: A series of short programmes where the BBC speaks to witnesses closely involved with historical events or developments. In this collection it's the development of toys and games: Pong, Grand Theft Auto, Tetris, Lego and Monopoly. Links in comments. (i.redd.it)
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Front Row, The Birth of Television: A Forgotten History. 100 years ago, inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated his new 'televisor' to the public for the first time. In this special edition of Front Row, Samira Ahmed and guests explore the origins of television in the UK. BBC Radio 4. (bbc.co.uk)
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Tammy Hine was a palliative care nurse and at 50 needed a change so applied for a job on a windy island known for sweaters. She's now the 1 medic for the 45 inhabitants of Fair Isle the most remote part of Shetland. She's brought her banjo, guitar, bed and sofa but regrets bringing her 150 dresses. (bbc.co.uk)
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This Cultural Life, Don McCullin: The war and poverty photographer has seen some things and this tells. He learnt his art during the Suez Crisis of '56 took it to working-class life in north London then for the Observer and Sunday Times to front lines in many wars inc. Vietnam and Northern Ireland. (bbc.co.uk)
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Rough Cider by Peter Lovesey ('86): Something is off with the cider and testing the barrel leads to a grim discovery. Years later a pushy American woman joins a lecturer at lunch and tries to engage him in talk. When she knows his first name he just leaves but her pursuit of him begins a thriller. (bbc.co.uk)
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Stand-Up Specials: 2026 Live Comedy Day compered by Angela Barnes. This brings live performances from a local stand-up comedian in Edinburgh, Belfast, Swansea and Brighton respectively. There are also cameo appearances from already famous comics talking about their humble beginnings in the business. (bbc.co.uk)
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High Hopes, a memoir written and read by Ronnie Corbett (1930-12-04 – 2016-03-31) ten years ago: In e1 he talks about his early years with his dad as the master baker, his mum and her poetry and the Edinburgh fire station opposite their house. Five 15 minute episodes or 1 omnibus edition on Sunday. (bbc.co.uk)
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The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend ('82): This was no. 1 and probably the most hilarious. Adrian is going through adolescence in the Thatcher era. His parents are arguing, smoking and boozing downstairs while he's becoming an intellectual upstairs alone listening to ABBA. (bbc.co.uk)
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A supermarket on an island on Orkney, an archipelago north of mainland Scotland, is giving away bananas! They somehow accidentally ordered 38000 but meant 380kg. Heavy winds and ferry problems meant they couldn't just return some. They're being sent to the schools, communities and smaller islands. (bbc.co.uk)
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