Illuminated

If a person dies without friends or relatives, the authorities can instigate a 'public health funeral'. Once called pauper's funerals - the services are referred to on the administrative form with a poignant phrase: "Nobody to Call."These funerals often see online appeals for mourners to attend. And when the BBC's Kevin Core spots a particularly moving appeal on behalf of a 102 year old woman, he's intrigued. “Funeral notice for Miss Margaret Robertson. 11 O’Clock, Thursday. Sefton Road United Reformed Church in Morecambe. Margaret Robertson has no family. If anyone could attend, that would be lovely.”This documentary charts his visit to that funeral. He talks to celebrant Hayley Cartwright about the hidden world of "public health funerals". Hayley's commitment to "do right by people" who die alone, compels her to seek out details about their lives, inviting mourners and ensuring these departures are more than cold, legal necessities. Kevin wants to know more about the life of the 102-year-old Margaret Robertson, and finds a story of grit and dedication - and the surprising, moving reality behind the original online appeal. Produced and presented by Kevin Core

Welcome to the feast! We’re invited to a traditional Georgian ‘Supra’ to immerse ourselves in the magic of Georgian polyphonic singing. The table groans with food, the wine flows, and the singing fills the heart. Led by toastmaster Levan Bitarovi, diners are guided through a narrative, weaving together their personal and collective experiences, through song.At home in the mountains, in Georgia's "singing village" Lakhushdi, people sing like they breathe. A lullaby, a grieving song, a song when the belly is full, a song for milking the cow. It’s a part of everyday life and forms the connective tissue of the community.For Paris-based singer Luna Silva, these songs bring her the comfort and sense of togetherness of her childhood circus home. Since first hearing the music as an ethno-musicology student in London, she has made several trips to the Georgian mountains to immerse herself in the musical tradition, and now teaches polyphonic singing to her French choir. She even took them with her to Lakhushdi. Now, the French choir has invited their Georgian hosts to attend their first Supra in Montreuil, Paris.In the pauses during the Supra, as people talk and eat, we hear from singers and diners what makes the Supra so important in Georgia. Luna and Levan also dissect the polyphonic singing style, as voices are added and removed to demonstrate how individual pitches and harmonies are brought together. They are layered over each other, surrounding the listener in a bath of sound which touches the soul. As the Supra draws to a close, everyone joins together to sing a song to life.You can hear more from the musicians at https://adilei.ge/en/about-us/ You can also find Lakhushdi, the Singing Village on various music streaming websites. Search for ‘The Singing Village Lakhushdi’.Presented by singer and ethno-musciologist Luna Silva Featuring singers Levan Bitarovi, Madona and Ana Chamgeliani, Avto Turkia and Lasha Bedenashvili Produced by Amanda Hargreaves Executive producer: Carys Wall Sound recordist: Léonard Ibañez Sound designer: Joel Cox With thanks to the Choeur d'Aronde in MontreuilA Bespoken Media production for BBC Radio 4

Author Owen Hatherley goes in search of the lost future of Solent City – the extraordinary plan, devised in the mid-1960s at the height of the post-war modernisation of Britain, to join the historic city-ports of Southampton and Portsmouth with a vast, Los-Angeles style grid. The plan was finally rejected, but why? - and what were the consequences of its defeat, not only for the region but for the future of urban planning in Britain? Travelling across south Hampshire from Fareham to Portsmouth, Chandler’s Ford to his native Southampton, Owen meets architects, planners and historians to tell the story of one of the boldest visions in the history of British urban design, discovering that some of its most important ideas might still be ahead of us.With contributions from Nicholas Phelps, Chair of Urban Planning at the university of Melbourne; architecture historian and author Gillian Darley; Kate Macintosh, former senior architect at Hampshire County Architects; urban historian Otto Saumarez Smith; writer and software engineer Naomi Christie; city planner and architecture blogger Adrian Jones; Southampton Hackney Carriage taxi driver Perry McMillan; Charlotte Gerada, councillor for Central Southsea and social historian of modern place, John Grindrod.Produced by Simon HollisA Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4

Ian Burke was not someone who grew up riding buses. His school was in walking distance, his parents had a car.But one night in his 20s, he had a dream which began a love affair with bus travel.Any spare moment is now spent exploring undiscovered routes or revisiting old favourites.“It’s about the journey, the out-of-the-way, the overheard snippets of conversation, the weird and unfamiliar place names, the people you’re with, the unexpected,” says Ian.He’s someone who can find beauty in an industrial estate or a gossip between pensioners. But it’s time for a new adventure. In a bid to boost the local economy and provide safer travel for revellers and shift workers, Manchester is trialling new bus routes at night.Alongside the drunken students dissecting their evening exploits and the night-time workers struggling to stay awake, we join Ian as he hops aboard the night bus to experience, for the first time, the darker side of both his home city and bus travel.

Estimates from NSPCC suggest around 1 in 20 children in the UK have been sexually abused. This documentary brings together survivors whose experiences span different backgrounds, relationships and generations - challenging misconceptions that abuse only happens in certain communities. Through intimate conversations with Laura, Bryony, Joe, and Chris, we witness how institutional silence has allowed abuse to become endemic. At a time when child sexual abuse is making headlines, these survivors offer crucial insight into what real justice looks like, and how society must act to protect children while supporting those whose lives have been irrevocably changed by abuse.Voices: Laura, Bryony, Joe and Chris from IICSA Changemakers Consultant: Natalie Dormer, Ambassador for NSPCC Sound design and music by Phoebe McIndoe Production Support: Clare Kelly & Denise Pringle Produced by Phoebe McIndoe assisted by Tess Davidson A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

The story of how a heterosexual, Indian immigrant to England, ignorant of the gay scene, ended up delivering heartfelt eulogies to 30 homosexual men at the height of the AIDS crisis. The experiences of Suresh Vaghela take us behind the headlines of the infected blood scandal and into a transformative relationship between a hemophiliac and the people who he came to regard as his new family.(Including extracts from the BBC Sound Archive and from the 1975 World In Action documentary Blood Money, Granada TV) Music by Jeremy Warmsley Produced by Nicolo Majnoni Executive Producer: Alan Hall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

The 2001 Foot and Mouth crisis forced North Devon farmers into a traumatic 6 month lockdown, cut off from their neighbours and living with the death and destruction of their animals. When restrictions were finally eased, the ringing of church bells signalled the end of the lockdown, bringing communities back together. For artist and farmer Marcus Vergette it was a sound that would change his life.Marcus was struck by the ancient power of bells to unite and resurrect a community and he embarked on a project that would span the length and breadth of the UK. His Time and Tide Bells project is a monumental work of both sculpture and social enterprise, 13 massive bells mounted along the British shoreline, each one ringing out twice a day with the tide and telling a unique story about its surrounding community. In Harwich a teacher uses the bell as a catalyst for marine biology lessons. In Aberdyfi, a town on the verge of collapse, their bell might just pull a disintegrated community back together. And in Par, their bell is facilitating conversations between generations that were once impossible.But closer to home, Marcus faces an urgent challenge. The church bells in the village of Highampton - the ones whose sound signalled the end of the Foot and Mouth outbreak - are under threat. In a story that is common across the country, the church has seen a steep decline in use and has become redundant. The tower is crumbling, and if the tower goes, the bells go too. Aside from their personal connection to Marcus, these bells have historic significance, dating as they do from between 1200 and 1500 AD. Marcus is determined to save them, but the forces of bureaucracy are against him.We follow Marcus on his quest to save the Highampton Bells and learn about the lives he has touched through the bells he created.A Sound & Bones production for BBC Radio 4

Over 80% of people in Britain choose to be cremated rather than buried after death and the scattering of a loved one's ashes is a ritual that's increasingly familiar to many of us.In a lyrical and bittersweet meditation on grief and memory, writer and producer Tim Dee reflects on a West Country road trip to scatter his father’s mortal remains in places of significance to both of them. Each stop has a unique story and forms part of a revealing and poignant commemoration. In the car, the cardboard tube of John Dee's cremated remains travels in the passenger seat, safely buckled up. Then at each place, some of the contents are decanted into an recycle Indian Takeaway container for the act itself.They are cast into the wind from the top of Dunkery Beacon on Exmoor, from a bridge over the River Horner nearby. A pot of ashes is put into a paper boat as an attempt to sail John out to sea from Madbrain Sands in Minehead.Then to Bristol. To the family home on Sion Hill to remember domestic rancour between father and mother. And below the bridge over the Avon Gorge, a place of profound early trauma for son Tim.All this is set to a soundtrack of remembrance on the car stereo with songs from The Beach Boys, Julie Andrews, Taylor Swift and the recorded memories of Tim's father from a conversation they had 20 years before his death. Presenter: Tim Dee Producer: Alastair Laurence Executive Producer: David Prest A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

Memory is fragile. We are driven to capture it. But is this possible when the memories of the person we love have fragmented?Julian’s mother has no memory. Both her long and short term memory were destroyed by different viruses. His mother still has an emotional memory of Julian. She recognises him - his personality, his manner. But she doesn’t know how old he is, what he does for a living, or that he has a partner. And she doesn’t realise that she can’t remember. So their relationship is stuck in a loop, consisting of repeated conversations and activities. But Julian’s found a way to connect with his mother. He is a photographer and he is constantly trying to capture his mother’s image. His sister thinks he’s trying to catch glimpses of their mum as she would have been had she not got ill. Julian isn’t so sure. For him, taking photographs of his mum is simply a way for them to pass time together - to connect. Chatting in her care home, going to the café for tea and cake, listening to music in the car, celebrating a birthday - the lens of Julian’s camera brings us into the relationship between a mother and a son, divided by a loss but bound together by love. The Memory Catcher takes us on a journey into their relationship but also our relationship with memory. Who are we when we cannot make memories, even as simple as who has just said hello? When memory is faulty, fading, or lost altogether, what can be captured by another? Recorded by artist and writer Julian Lass Produced by Maia Miller-Lewis and Jo Rowntree Composer Maia Miller-Lewis With thanks to Kirsten and Monika and the wonderful staff at Monika’s care home.A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4

Siblings Sam and Bon Stone are angry. Sam directs her anger inwards while Bon’s anger can be explosive. Through sharing parts of their lives with each other for the first time, they explore how we process anger and whether we can change it.With contributions from Noel Oganyan of Forrest Flowers (recorded at the New Cross Inn, London in November 2024) and Ronnie Turner, founder of The Anger Clinic. Original music by Jennifer Walton Produced by Sam Stone A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

For some, burnout feels like an unravelling - a slow, creeping dissolution where the threads of your life and identity loosen and fray until you are completely undone. For others, it’s a breaking point - a sharp, sudden, collapse where everything shatters all at once. It doesn’t just kill physical vitality it also guts the entire internal mechanism of us. Like lifting the hood off a car and finding no engine. There’s nothing, a void, which feels very shameful and fragile to those who have defined themselves by performance and always had the ability to bounce back. Driven by extensive rumination both burnout and shame thrive in silence. Stories are often how we create shape from the mess, they turn shame into something softer; something shared. They are how we make sense of the world, and often how we survive it. Giving us the power to hold what feels unholdable and ultimately creating a space where someone else can say, “me too”. And sometimes what is required isn’t the courage to keep it all together, but to surrender and come apart.Recovery is messy, non-linear but also deeply creative. This is where the feature maker Hana Walker-Brown finds herself in this tender and intimate programme, sifting through the fragments, the scattered pieces of a life upended, considering how to start putting it back together. With contributions from Luca and Theo Walker-Brown, Hana’s swimming companions Zoë and Gabby, Dr Sophie Mort, Dr Aaron Balick, Andrew Tobert and Services Director for Calm Wendy Robinson.With thanks to Kenwood Ladies Pond and Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) Featuring the use of "Prayer" by PJ HarveyProduced and presented by Hana Walker-Brown Sound design and original music by Hana Walker-Brown Executive Producer: Anishka Sharma Mix and Mastering: Peregrine AndrewsA Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4

Distracted, privatised, enchanted - do you ever think about how you listen? For the last 20 years, sound anthropologist Dr Tom Rice has been collecting different ways of listening from the world’s leading sound experts. He’s gathered more than 100 – some of these may be quite familiar, others will definitely surprise you. We are at a critical moment when it comes to listening. The world is increasingly busy with sound, and it’s placing more and more demands on our ears. There’s an awareness that our culture and economic circumstances influence our perception, concern about growing pressures on our attention, and anxiety about our relationship to the environment. With the pace at which technology is developing, can we even be sure of what it is we’re listening to? We need to be skilful and agile listeners. By recognising the vast scope and extraordinary complexity of listening, we can develop our awareness and sharpen our perception, helping us to survive and even thrive in the complex sound world of the 21st century. Contributors: Bernd Brabec, University of Innsbruck; Ruth Herbert, University of Kent and City University; Dylan Robinson, University of British Columbia.Special thanks to: Michel Chion – semantic listening; Martin Daughtry – palimpsestic listening; Michael Gallagher, Jonathan Prior, Martin Needham and Rachel Holmes – embodied listening, expanded listening; Stefan Helmreich – soundstate; David Huron – ecstatic listening; James M. Kopf – anal listening; Pierre Schaeffer – acousmatic listening; Murray Schafer, David Toop – clairaudience; Kai Tuuri – critical listening. Written by Tom Rice and Ben Lewis Produced by Eve Streeter and Tom Rice Sound design by David Thomas Music by Max Walter A Raconteur Studios production for BBC Radio 4

What drives us? What makes us who we are? For one of the BBC’s most experienced foreign correspondents, the multi-award-winning Mike Thomson, it was a near-death experience in Australia’s worst natural disaster this century. Having been kicked out of school at 17 for refusing to cut his hair, Mike opts to go travelling. With an older family friend, Mick Kendall, he journeys overland from Ivybridge in Devon to Australia’s 'top end' via Turkey, Afghanistan, India, Burma and Indonesia. Mike arrives in Darwin in December 1974. However, the search for fun and adventure with Mick and their new friend, Daryl Johnson, turns to terror when an “evil wind” known as Cyclone Tracy strikes on Christmas Eve and flattens the city in one night. For days Mike’s parents think their youngest child is "presumed dead" His name is on a list of causalities when in fact Mike was being well looked after as a refugee and evacuated to a farm in Western Australia. Why the confusion? Who is this ‘other’ Thomson? Now, 50 years on, Mike returns to Darwin to answer these questions and search for the two friends who helped him through the ordeal that shaped him. For more stories like this, search for Illuminated on BBC Sounds. It was produced by Ed Prendeville for BBC Audio Wales and Jane Ray for Cat Flap Media. Sound design is by John Wakefield, original music by Ben Goodman. This edition of ILLUMINATED was written and presented by Mike Thomson.With thanks to Rod Louey-Gung on behalf of the Northern Territories Museum for use of their archive.

It's the most intimate moment of the Radio 4 schedule: The late-night Shipping Forecast, a prelude to the close-down of the station, read every night at 00:48. But who is really listening along, and why? Guided by Radio 4 Announcer Al Ryan, we'll cross the world to meet the people who find comfort in this unique broadcast for a variety of reasons.Produced by Luke Doran

Ceefax has just reached its 50th birthday, and to celebrate this unique golden anniversary, the BBC's once-mighty teletext news service is receiving the greatest gift of all - the gift of life, courtesy of the greatest novelty politician in the omniverse, Count Binface. For eight years, Binface has pledged in his election manifestos to bring back Ceefax and now, at last, the BBC is granting his wish. With just one small hitch - it's on the radio. Still, you've got to start somewhere. Featuring the stellar talents of Rory Bremner, Emma Clarke and Jon Harvey, get ready for an aural event like no other, with the unlikely return to the airwaves of the much-missed Ceefax. Or should that be Hearfax?Starring: Rory Bremner, Emma Clarke, Leah Marks and Jon Harvey And introducing Ceefax, 4-Tel and The OracleScript Writers: Jon Harvey and Matthew Crosby Sound Design: Tony Churnside Producer: Jon Harvey Illustration: Dan Farrimond Executive Producer: Eloise WhitmoreA Naked production for BBC Radio 4

Every year's end, as the days shorten and the nights grow darker, you might be fortunate enough to hear a distinctive knock at your door. Upon opening it, you'll be met with a group of Guisers - men in disguise - here to perform their mystery play, part of the ancient Mumming tradition. There's the Enterer In, Saint George, The Prince of Paradise, The King, The Old Woman, The Quack Doctor, Beelzebub, Little Johnny Jack with his wife on his back, Little Devilly Doubt, The Groom, and The Horse.And it's the vision of The Horse At The Door that has stayed with Isy since childhood.Isy hasn’t seen the Guisers for over 30 years, but that horse and the clack of its jaw frightened her so much, she thinks of it often. In The Horse At The Door, Isy will see if she can come face to face with her fears and see whether that black painted skull still holds the same magic and power. She will speak to local pub owners and residents about The Guisers habit of bursting in, to the folklorist Richard Bradley about the Derbyshire traditions of mumming and guising, to the psychotherapist Jane Watson about why we enjoy being scared, and to The Winster Guisers themselves about the traditions they are keeping alive – and the children they are scaring.Can Isy finally look that horse in its red bulging eyes? The Horse At The Door is written and presented by Isy Suttie The Music is by Jane Watkins and Isy Suttie The Sound Design is by Jane Watkins It is produced by Laura Grimshaw It’s a Mighty Bunny production for BBC Radio 4.With thanks to The Winster Guisers, Richard Bradley, Jane Watson, Colette Dewhurst at The Barley Mow, The Miners Standard and - especially - The Old Horse.

The best stories have a certain WTF factor.. a weird little fact that draws you in…something you can’t ignore because it’s so contrary to what you previously thought. So it was for Geoff Lloyd when he heard that the story that Karaoke was invented in Stockport, by a charismatic shopkeeper called Roy Brooke who claimed the Japanese adopted his discovery and marketed it around the world.Geoff’s a massive Karaoke fan and remembers his halcyon days in the 90s, judging karaoke competitions in the town with his friend Caroline Aherne, so he sets off on a quest to get to the bottom of this tale; a quest that sees him chat to Stockport hitmakers Blossoms, comedy writing legend Craig Cash and a Japanese academic said to have backed up Roy's crazy claim.On the way he discovers a town so in love with Karaoke that it's home to the country's only dedicated league, a secretive world jampacked with big voices and human drama. 12 pub teams meet every Monday for chance to be champions of the New Stockport Fun Karaoke League. But have some of the teams starting taking it too seriously and forgotten about the fun?Will Geoff track down Roy Brooke and hear his side of the story and find out why Karaoke has taken root so strongly in Stockport?Presenter: Geoff Lloyd Producer: Catherine Murray Additional recording by George Herd Production Co-ordination: Mica Nepomuceno Studio mix: Nat Stokes Executive Producer: Richard McIlroyFeaturing Blossoms, Craig Cash, Professor Hiroshi Ogawa, and Matt Alt, author of Pure Invention: How Japanese Culture Conquered the World.Special thanks to the Blossoms Bees and The Barnhouse teams and all the members of the New Stockport Karaoke Fun League

For 2000 years beneath layer upon layer of peat, the remains of two bodies - a man and a woman - lay buried in the earth. Within 12 months of each other, they were discovered on Lindow Moss, the cut-over peat bog in Cheshire. It's now 40 years since the remains of Lindow Man were found, the best-preserved bog body ever discovered in the UK. A year before that, the skull of Lindow Woman was found, with major ramifications for a modern-day mystery. We still don’t know who these people were or in the case of Lindow Man, why he met his violent death. Was it ritual sacrifice to the gods, private scores settled or a public execution? Their spirits remain in the place of their burial - a small corner of Cheshire filled with myth, mystery and history. Together with one of the original peat cutters at that time, the first journalist on the site, a professor of pre-history, a conservator and material from archive, we tell the story of this remarkable archaeological discovery. And a slight twist - listening in on proceedings are Lindow Man and Lindow Woman. What might they make of the celebrations around the anniversary of the bodies in the bog? Contributors: Melanie Giles Professor in European Prehistory, University of Manchester; Stephen Dooley, former peat cutter; Rachel Pugh, writer and journalist; Velson Horie, conservation consultant and the late Rick Turner (archive) former County Archaeologist, Cheshire. Lindow Man is played by Fisayo Akinawe and Lindow Woman by Eve Shotton. Produced and written by Geoff Bird Executive Producer: Mel Harris Sound Engineer: Eloise Whitmore Music composed & performed by Laetitia Stott & mixed and mastered by Geoff Southall A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4

Mike is a carpenter, a boat builder, and a keen amateur sailor. Now, in his 60s he feels the time has come for a big adventure, so he signs on as crew for a transatlantic sailing voyage. But when the skipper turns to tyranny and his only ally on board loses touch with reality, Mike is faced with his own demons. There's no storm, no shipwreck, no sea monster - only three men trapped together, each battling for their own sanity. With only the endless sea surrounding them, Mike soon realises he is the only one who can pull the crew and himself out of a very dangerous place. Will he surrender to the dark line that runs through all of us?Produced by Guy Natanel Executive Producers: Shannon Delwiche and Chris Jones Original Music by Pat MoranA Sound and Bones production for BBC Radio 4

Composer Aidan Tulloch is fascinated by the physical process of making music – but fears he knows very little. He gains a unique insight from some of the most precise and gifted technicians in the country – members of the Association of Blind Piano Tuners. Aidan traces their journey into this field, goes along to their annual curry lunch, and finds out why the highly skilled craft of piano tuning was once a popular career for blind and partially sighted people: now their numbers are dwindling. They also reflect on how we listen to and perceive sound and music, and the joy it brings.Presenter: Aidan Tulloch Producers: Maryam Maruf and Emily Webb Editor: John Goudie Mix: Giles Aspen(Photo: Piano tuner Martin Locke tuning a piano. Credit: Maryam Maruf)

The story of Anthony Ray Hinton who spent years on death row for crimes he didn't commit, with a soundtrack composed by Harvey Brough and performed by Vox Holloway Community Choir.In June 1988, Mr Hinton was convicted of two murders, in one of the most shockingly cynical miscarriages of justice in US history. He spent the next 28 years on death row, before all charges were dropped and he was finally released in April 2015. The Sun Does Shine is the title of his memoir, in which he tells how he found life and freedom on death row. His story reflects the compassion, faith and heroic courage of a remarkable man. In prison he befriended Henry Hays, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, who was convicted and eventually executed for a racist murder. The unlikely friendship of Hinton and Hays lies at the heart of this story. The Sun Does Shine features an extended interview with Hinton, in which he talks about how he survived years of imprisonment, facing the constant threat of execution, and how the multiple appeals launched by his lawyer Bryan Stevenson ultimately led to his release. His words are accompanied by an oratorio composed by Harvey Brough, based on Hinton's memoir and performed by the Vox Holloway Community Choir. Vox Holloway’s work on The Sun Does Shine was supported by Arts Council EnglandSince leaving prison, Anthony Ray Hinton has worked tirelessly, alongside Bryan Stevenson, campaigning for the abolition of the death penalty and for reforms to the criminal justice and prison systems in America PRESENTER: Christina Gill PRODUCERS: Abigail Morris and Sam Liebmann with Osman Teezo Kargbo COMPOSER: Harvey Brough EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Andrew Wilkie and Tricia Zipfel A Vox Holloway / Prison Radio Association production

Are we ever really alone nowadays, what with the extraordinary velocity of contemporary social circulation, whether this be the madness of the crowds, or the relentless churn of social media? Does anyone really experience reclusion? A conscious choice to withdraw from the social realm. What would it be like? For decades, Will Self lived his life as a very public figure. An acerbic satirist and giant man of letters he was constantly on the move, driven by his insatiable curiosity about the world. “I once flew to Scotland, climbed Ben Lomond, and flew back to London the same day”. In a series of powerful soliloquies, Self reveals how he’s gradually withdrawn from the social realm. He began by abandoning acquaintances and remoter colleagues, then started cutting off friends, close colleagues, and eventually family. “It’s been over a year since I’ve read a newspaper report, looked at a news website, or heard more than a three-minute news bulletin. Most days I see only my wife and youngest child who I live with.” In this powerful piece of radio, Will Self reaches down to the very bottom of how the self is socially constructed – and then dismantles that scaffolding from around it, to see what’s still standing. A half-hour that will leave the listener feeling as if they’ve been staring at their reflection for so long in a mirror, that this image appears totally uncanny to them.Presenter: Will Self Producer: Emily WilliamsA Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

When Clive Hammond was 31, he had a cardiac arrest. His heart stopped for eight minutes. But he can't remember any of it.What happens when the heart stops - and then what happens next?Clive sets out to piece together what happened to him. He speaks to his wife Victoria about what went on while he was unconscious, and the impact it had on their lives. He compares notes with fellow cardiac arrest survivor Meg Fozzard about what it's like to have a cardiac arrest as a young person. Former head of first responders at London Ambulance Chris Hartley-Sharpe tells him what goes on in the body during a cardiac arrest, and how they can affect medical professionals afterwards. And he hears the incredible story of Steve Morris, who started carrying a defibrillator in his car after having a cardiac arrest - and then used it to help save someone else's life.Presenter: Clive Hammond Producer: Lucy Burns Editor: Clare Fordham Technical production: Richard Hannaford

In 1980, Prestonwood Mall in Dallas contacted the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) with a unique request. It was the opening weekend of The Empire Strikes Back, and the mall’s marketing team wanted an additional attraction. Sensing an opportunity, John P Timmerman, the owner of a family air-conditioning business in Ohio and a dedicated volunteer at CUFOS, packed his car with an eye-catching collection of UFO photographs and embarked on a cross-country journey for the weekend.What began as a simple photography exhibit turned into a 12year research expedition across the malls of America. In front of plexiglass panels, between the skylights and shiny floors, Timmerman interviewed curious shoppers with stories to tell. What he captured on his small tape recorder was the “raw material of ufology” - candid, first-hand accounts of strange lights, silver discs, and close encounters. Between 1980 and 1992, Timmerman recorded 1,179 witness reports across 120 tapes that cover every aspect of the UFO phenomena. The collection is considered one of the largest ever put together by a single investigator.John P Timmerman spent years travelling far from his quiet family life in the Midwest searching for insights into our place in the universe. What he found, among the hum of escalators and muzak, was connection - or ‘contact’ - with thousands of ordinary people, all searching for the same thing.Produced, Edited & Sound Designed by Oliver Sanders Archive Digitisation & Co-Production by James Timmerman Executive Producer: Lucia Scazzocchio Special thanks to Dr Mark Rodeghier, Dr Michael Swords, Dr Michael West, The Center For UFO Studies, The Timmerman Family, Dominic De Vere, Francesca Thakorlal, Ben Plumb, Hannah Kemp-Welch.A Social Broadcasts production for BBCRadio 4

On their last tour, the award-winning folk band The Young'uns took with them an old suitcase, some blank luggage tags and marker pens, and asked audience members to fill the case with ideas for songs. Hundreds poured in with stories of hope, remembrance, love, grief and joy. In this programme, singer-songwriter Sean Cooney opens the case to find a myriad of voices all waiting...wanting to be heard. He follows three stories of love... from a couple who found each other in their 70s through their shared passion of Middlesbrough Football Club, to a story of love, loss and renewal on the banks of the Thames. He meets up with Angela to hear a tale of how some borrowed boots outside a disco led to several dates, a marriage and three children. Inspired by this wonderful story, Sean writes a song to surprise the man with the borrowed boots - Angela's now-husband.Presenter: Sean Cooney Producer: Elizabeth Foster

Alongside their A-levels, five 17 year-olds volunteer for six months at a hospice in Surrey. These are young people who hope to work in healthcare one day and, for one reason or another, feel drawn to helping others. Their hopes and fears are similar to most people who've never been to a hospice, which includes their parents, and they have have no idea what they'll encounter. Above all, there are worries that it will be very sad, and too much for people of their age to handle.Pretty quickly, they get to know the nurses at the hospice, who have a great sense of humour and are not in the least bit despairing. The volunteers feel awkward at first, and scared of getting things wrong, but with the nurses' encouragement, they begin talking with patients, feeding them, moving them, brushing their teeth, and helping them to the toilet. Little by little, they get to know patients, gain confidence and maturity and start to form a new understanding of dying and death.With many thanks to the staff of the Princess Alice Hospice and to Lizzie Leigh in particular. Presented by Farida Abdelhamid Produced by Tim Moorhouse A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4

Why are all the bees dying? Simon Mitambo, an expert from Kenya's so-called 'Land of Bees', travels from his own affected community to huge industrial farms in search of answers. It is a journey both planetary and personal: without bees, can Simon's world survive?Presenter: Simon Mitambo Producer: Lucy Taylor Field producer: Mel Myendo Researcher: Georgie Styles Exec Producer: Dan Ashby Sound design and mixing: Jarek ZabaA Smoke Trail Production for BBC Radio 4.

Hervé lost a leg in a motorbike accident. On the eve of the operation, he made a deal with God: “If I walk again, I'll go to Santiago.” He did walk again, but not on pilgrimage. Instead, he got caught up in his business affairs, had a burn out, tried to kill himself and spent several months in a psychiatric hospital before he decided to keep his side of the bargain. He set out, with crutches and a prosthetic leg, for Santiago de Compostela, a journey of 1,920 kilometres from his home in Brittany in north west France to the cathedral that contains the relics of Saint James at the tip of north west Spain. The experience utterly changed him. It was, he says, a resurrection. He is now embarking on a second pilgrimage which will cover almost twice the distance; from Rome to Santiago de Compostela. John Laurenson walks with him for a couple of days to hear his story and talk about life, God, pilgrimage, about Luther's criticism – that they are a waste of time - and the sacrifice they can represent for his family of a wife and four children. John also talks to him about how, in a part of the world where religious observance has become the affair of a small minority, going on pilgrimages in Europe has never been more popular with new routes opening all the time.This episode was first broadcast on BBC World Service on 24 May, 2024.Producer / Presenter: John Laurenson

Did you ever have a recurring dream that you think might just be a memory? Or a nightmare so vivid that it could almost be real? John Meagher has. He’s been dreaming about a group of devil worshippers who may or may not have terrorised his home town of Newry, Northern Ireland since the early 90s. John takes us on a funny, fearful and surprising journey of discovery across Northern Ireland to uncover the truth behind the story of "The Whitehoods" of Newry and discovers that the "Satanic Panic" wasn't exclusive to his home town. But what was really going on? And why do so many towns in the North have a similar story?Can John find out the truth and lay these memories to rest? Is there any truth to be found at all in this land of saints, scholars and spoofers? For the sake of his sleeping patterns and his marriage, John is determined to find out.A Fabel production for BBC Radio 4

In an engaging programme full of beautiful music, Joanna Robertson eavesdrops on a cast of talented young opera singers from around the world, as they work on favourite arias to perfect the style of "bel canto" ("beautiful singing"). They have come to the bel canto summer school of the Georg Solti Accademia, in the small Italian seaside town of Castiglione della Pescaia in Tuscany. The academy was founded in memory of the legendary conductor who had his summer residence here. We listen in on the world-class students as they hone their bel canto technique with leading vocal coaches, opera singers and conductors. "Bel canto" is now on UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. It is both a style of singing and a repertoire. It requires vocal artists to produce a penetrating yet luxuriantly smooth, and very expressive sound - often with virtuosic and dazzling runs of notes. Bel canto singing can be heard above an orchestra, without the help of amplification. It sounds effortless, but takes years to learn. It can be used for any style of music, but the repertoire most closely associated with it are operas by the nineteenth century Italian composers Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti. Joanna joins the young singers and their teachers to find out more about bel canto and to hear how this sound is produced. Producers: Arlene Gregorius and Joanna Robertson Editor: Penny Murphy Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound mix: Andy Fell Photo of Rebecca Gulinello by Jennifer LorenziniWith special thanks to Jonathan Papp, Artistic Director, and all at the Solti Accademia 2024 Young artists heard in this programme: Eva Rae Martinez - Soprano Rebecca Gulinello - Soprano Aebh Kelly - Soprano Clover Kayne - Mezzo Soprano Xavier Hetherington - Tenor Oliver Heuzenroeder - Baritone

Every seventeen years in the eastern United States, a roaring mass of millions of black-bodied, red-eyed, thumb-length insects erupt from the ground. For a few glorious weeks the periodical cicadas cover the trees and the air vibrates with their chorus of come-hither calls. Then they leave a billion eggs to hatch and burrow into the dirt, beginning the seventeen year cycle all over again. Sing. Fly. Mate. Die. This is Brood X or the Great Eastern Brood. It’s an event which, for the residents of a dozen or so US states, is the abiding memory of four, maybe five, summers of their lives. In a programme that’s both a natural and a cultural history of the Great Eastern Brood we re-visit four Brood X years....1970, 1987, 2004 and 2021…. to capture the stories of the summers when the cicadas came to town. Princeton University's Class of 1970 remember the cicadas’ appearance at their graduation ceremony, during a time of student unrest and protest against the Vietnam War; a bride looks back to the uninvited - but welcome - cicada guests attending her wedding; a musician recalls making al fresco music with Brood X; and an entomologist considers the extraordinary life cycle of an insect which is seems to possess both great patience and the ability to count to seventeen. Brood X cicadas spend 17 years underground, each insect alone, waiting and listening. In 2021, as Brood X stirred and the air began to thicken with the cicadas’ love songs, we all shared with them that sense of emerging from the isolation of lockdown and making a new beginning.Featuring: Elias Bonaros, Liz Dugan, Anisa George, Ray Gibbons, Peter Kuper, Gene Kritsky, Gregg Lange, David Rothenberg, Gil Schrage and Gaye WilliamsProducer: Jeremy GrangeCicada audio recorded by Cicada Mania and David RothenbergProgramme Image: Prof. Gene Kritsky

"And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you..." Late at night, the writer, audio artist and sleep-deprived parent of a newborn, Ross Sutherland, is staring into infinity... "Usually, my phone becomes my window into a bigger world. Not just bigger- endless. Unmeasurably vast. You can scroll social media feeds forever and never hit the bottom of the chasm. I know it's objectively bad for me but I can’t stop myself. I'm craving endlessness- I need space! Vast, endless interior space... to compensate for the smallness of my waking days." Sinking into the infinite scroll of his phone (a web design technique - created to encourage addiction as your webpage never ends...) he weaves a woozy, funny, adventurous audio essay through sonic experiments, illusions and mirror worlds that invite us to reckon with the infinite.Including archive from ReThinking with Adam Grant 'Aza Raskin on why technology – and democracy– are in an imagination crisis' (courtesy of TED). Original music composed by Jeremy Warmsley Written and produced by Ross Sutherland A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

The years after Sybil Phoenix's arrival in England from British Guiana in 1956 follow a not unfamiliar pattern - trying to find a home and secure a livelihood, learning how to manage the endemic racism in Britain and, above all things, building a community.Fostering countless children, setting up the famous Moonshot youth club in south-east London and dealing with the reaction from right-wing extremists bound together her personal and public lives. In 1972 she accepted - not without controversy - an MBE, the first black woman to do so. With her new status she set up a hostel for young women, the Marsha Phoenix Memorial Trust.Now aged 97, Sybil's story is shared by her son Woodrow and daughter Loraine, the activist Eric Huntley, who's known her for over 80 years, and through previously not heard recordings that touch on her troubled early life, the death of her daughter Marsha, the New Cross Fire and much else.Produced by Cherise Hamilton-Stephenson and Alan Hall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Peter Riley was 13 when he saw his first dead whale. It was a sperm whale. He spent most of the day with it on a Norfolk beach, and then watched on as someone carried away a trophy from its carcass. That night marked the beginning of Peter’s lifelong fascination with whales. Now, as an author and a Herman Melville scholar, Peter is seeking to understand the ancient and complex relationship between humans and whales.According to the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme, there are approximately 550-800 strandings of whales, dolphins and porpoises in the UK every year. Although no one is completely certain why this happens, we do know they've been doing it for thousands of years.For as long as there have been stranded whales, there have been humans drawing meaning from their arrival - a warning, a symbol of hope, endings or new beginnings. So what news might they be bringing us now?In our current state of unprecedented abundance and advancement, in our pandemic of isolation and individual “strandedness”, the whales seem to be calling us again. As Peter speaks with cetacean experts, chases down whale remains and witnesses a whale stranding himself, he discovers what these magical creatures might be revealing about who we are, what we've become and where we might be headed.A Sound & Bones production for BBC Radio 4

In 2023, Scout Tzofiya Bolton entered a grocery store in the small town where she lived, carrying a toy gun. The only thing she knows about what happened next is what she's seen on CCTV footage - she pointed the toy gun at the person behind the counter and shouted to give her the money or she'd shoot.A few hours later, four police officers knocked at her door and took her away. She didn't return home for six months.Scout was released from prison wearing a 'sobriety tag' – a tool increasingly being used to help people control their problematic alcohol use. This is the story of Scout's relationship with alcohol, and with the tag that monitors her, told through Scout's dazzling poetry. Scout has a long history of psychosis combined with alcoholism. This was the first time she had been sent to prison. The lead-up was a prolonged psychotic episode, characterised by 'grandiose' behaviour. Scout believed she was a famous celebrity. She would wear ballgowns and walk up and down the high street. Everyone was looking at her – because, she believed, she was famous. In the grocery store, she believed she was making an action scene in a film. She'd called up friends to tell them it was going to be a great day's filming. Scout needed help. She found it in prison. For the first time ever, Scout had an extended conversation with a forensic psychiatrist who got to grips with her complex needs. Sobriety tags take a sweat sample every 30 minutes. The data is automatically sent to probation. There are currently around 3,000 people in England and Wales with sobriety tags as part of their probation conditions.Music and words: Scout Yzofiya Bolton Producers: Andrew Wilkie and Ellen Orchard Sound design: Micky Curling Executive Producer: Phil MaguireA PRA production for BBC Radio 4

When broadcaster Jaz Singh revealed on BBC reality TV show The Traitors that his father had a secret second family, he received hundreds of messages from people who had lived through similar experiences.As Jaz movingly explores his own feelings, he meets others who have also discovered that their loved ones are leading double lives. A wife who, after years of being happily married, discovered on social media that her husband was married to another woman. A daughter whose father had an entirely separate family and children - but whose existence was only revealed after he died.Jaz tries to understand the psychology of these second lives, asking what drives people to weave such complicated webs of deception. How do they manage to deceive so entirely? And how can those who have been betrayed forgive and heal?Producer: Helen Clifton Executive Producer: Jo Meek Sound Design: Craig EdmondsonAn Audio Always production for BBC Radio 4

In recent years, thousands of Britons have become German citizens via a restoration programme for German-Jews and their descendants, whose nationality was stripped from them during the Nazi regime. This is not without controversy. Some see it is a clear righting of wrongs, but for others the idea of becoming German is abhorrent. For presenter Lois Pryce and her special guests, Matt Lucas and Ben Elton, it's personal. Had it not been for Britain's willingness to accept Jewish refugees in the 1930s, none of them would be here today. Lois and Ben share a direct relationship with German physicist Max Born, the Nobel prize-winning scientist and a founding father of quantum theory. He escaped Nazi Germany and fled to Britain in 1933. Descendants from this side of the family also include Olivia Newton-John as well as other luminaries in music, medicine and arts - all directly descended from German Jews seeking sanctuary.In this programme, Lois, Ben and Matt look at this new wave of German citizens, give voice to the strong feelings on both sides, and investigate their own family's refugee story, including receiving an official apology at the German embassy in London.By tackling the circular nature of the story, our hosts also examine the wider point that, in the 1930s, the UK benefited culturally and economically by welcoming this family and others from Germany. But now it is Germany that is restoring citizenship and welcoming refugees while the UK has become, according to some, a hostile environment. Will this shift in attitude ultimately damage the country’s economy as well as its reputation on the world stage?Presenter: Lois Pryce Contributors: Ben Elton, Matt Lucas Producer: Louise Orchard Sound Design: Rowan BishopA 2 Degrees West production for BBC Radio 4

“Sound is the barometer of the health of the planet.”It's almost 60 years since 11-year-old Martyn Stewart made his first recording near his house in Birmingham using a reel-to-reel machine borrowed from his older brother. From that day forward, he set out to capture all the natural sounds of the world, amassing nearly one hundred thousand recordings.Now, musician and sound artist Alice Boyd retraces his steps to three locations in Britain to document how these environmental soundscapes have changed, revealing vanishing ecosystems, amplified human noise and the return of endangered species.(Photograph courtesy of Tom Bright.) With archive from Martyn Stewart's library, The Listening Planet. Location recordings and original music by Alice Boyd. A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Poet Ian McMillan has a gift for the art of small pleasures; the joy of close observation; revelling in everyday things, places and encounters; describing and re-describing them endlessly. In the company of fellow poets Helen Mort, Steve Ely and Dave Green he takes us to ordinary places that fascinate him: a railway platform with a striking red bench, on a bus journey, to a village cafe, and a local museum of curiosities; where we discover they can be portals into different ways of thinking, of feeling, and of being, where anything can happen, where the ordinary can become the extraordinary if we simply open our eyes and our ears. Presented by Ian McMillanProduced by Cecile Wright

"The north London heroin trade is almost folklore at this stage."For decades, calculated gang warfare involving Turkish, Turkish Cypriot, and Kurdish heroin dealers has played out on the streets of north London, in the midst of dry cleaners, empty market stalls, and oddly abundant carpet shops. In this intimate documentary, we hear the careful accounts of women and young people on the edges of that world."It is a life-or-death situation to say the wrong thing."Featuring creative direction and original poetry from Tice Cin, an award-winning interdisciplinary artist from Tottenham and Enfield. "The best way to put it is if you look at the Turkish word ‘suskunluk’ ... It's the honour thing, you can't be bad-mouthing your own community."Presented by Tice Cin Produced by Jude Shapiro with Tice Cin Executive Producer: Jack Howson Mixed by Arlie Adlington - including music composed by Tice Cin with Oscar Deniz KemanciA Peanut & Crumb production for BBC Radio 4(Programme Image by Peri Cimen & Tice Cin; © Neoprene Genie)

We lie to people with dementia.In fact, it's one of the only illnesses where lying is acceptable and extends into the entire care process. Since dementia gravely impacts a person's cognitive abilities, those diagnosed won't share the same reality as their carers. To bridge this reality gap and appease disoriented patients, carers distort the truth. Entire care home facilities seek to transform a patient's surroundings into fictional settings.In the heart of Warwick, England, lies an extraordinary experiment in dementia care - a care home transformed to look like a village. In “Am I Home? Life In A Dementia Village”, journalist Lara Bullens takes listeners on a profound journey into a community designed to redefine the boundaries of familiarity for those navigating the fog of dementia. At Woodside Care Village, dementia residents live a somewhat normal life. They are free to roam outside their households, visit the local shop and even get their hair done at Cutters Hair and Beauty salon. Here, the comforts of familiarity and the quiet despair of warped realities coexist, offering a window into the daily dance carers make to navigate the complexities of dementia care. But beneath the surface of these carefully curated environments, lies a complex web of ethical considerations. Listeners will hear how Lara grapples with the implicates of creating alternative realities for those whose grip on the real world is tenuous. Is it possible to build a world that comforts without deceiving, that cares in complete honesty? Weaving a narrative that is as personal as it is universal, Lara draws from the haunting memory of her mother's struggle with early onset fronto-temporal dementia. Her own struggles with lying bring to light the ethical labyrinth of dementia care, where therapeutic fibs become a poignant tool in bridging the chasm between the world as we know it and the world as it is perceived by someone with dementia.Through the intimate lens of Woodside Care Village, listeners are invited to reconsider what it means to provide care in the shadow of dementia - a condition that, in its cruellest irony, often leaves individuals feeling profoundly alone in a crowd of familiar faces.Written and Presented by Lara Bullens Produced by Lara Bullens and Olivia Humphreys Executive Producer: Steven Rajam An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4

It's 25 years since London suffered three vicious nail bomb attacks - holdalls filled with 4-inch nails and hand-made explosives planted in Brixton market, Brick Lane and in the bar of the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho, intended to cause damage to those in the immediate vicinity and to the notion of a tolerant, diverse capital city. The attacks are recorded in photographs shared at the time by the press - of London streets strewn with damaged buildings and injured people, an x-ray of a toddler with a nail embedded in his skull, the wedding photograph of two victims (one killed, the other severely injured) and the police mugshot of the perpetrator, a far right terrorist who hoped to start a 'racial war in this country'.Fragments looks again at these images - some taken by Chris Taylor who happened to be on assignment in Soho's market photographing vegetables - to consider what it means for an instant to be captured and to endure in our memories and understanding of traumatic events.Including contributions from photographer Chris Taylor; Jonathan Cash, who survived the Soho attack, Emdad Talukder, who was injured in Brick Lane and business owner Leo Epstein. Music composed by Alan Hall, with Eleanor McDowall (chimes) and Alan Hall (trumpet)Producer: Alan Hall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio Four(Photo credit: ChrisTaylorPhotography.com)

James lives in Manchester and earns his living as a landscape gardener. Since he was a child he has believed himself to be God, and is on a mission to bring peace to the world. He is part of an organisation that runs community events, fitness sessions, games evenings and he shares his ideas at regular Q&A meetings with a group of people, including many who share his belief that he is a divine figure. Over the last four years journalist Darryl Morris has been spending time with James and some of the members of the group, and attending some of the events they stage. He’s trying to find out what it’s like for James to live his life understanding himself to be God, what he is hoping to achieve, and what he offers those who consider themselves lucky enough to be among the first to recognise his presence.Producer: Geoff Bird Executive Producer: Jo MeekAn Audio Always production for BBC Radio 4

A preview of what to expect from Illuminated, BBC Radio 4’s home for creative and surprising one-off documentaries that shed light on hidden worlds. Welcome to a place of audio beauty and joy, with emotion and human experience at its heart. The programmes you will find in this feed explore the reality of contemporary Britain and the world, venturing into its weirdest and most wonderful aspects. New episodes are available weekly on Sunday evenings from 4 August, 2024.The clips are taken from the following documentaries:The Beauty of Everyday Things Shifting Soundscapes How Much Can You Say? Fragments - The London Nail Bomb