Illuminated

Illuminated

BBC Radio 4

Illuminated is 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. This is a chance to meet voices that are not normally heard, open secret doors into concealed chambers and, above all, be transported by the art and inventiveness of the very best programme makers. Just press the switch.New episodes...

Bellboy

Bellboy

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 o

Feb 9, • 28:23

Scattering

Scattering

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 cardboar

Feb 2, • 29:06

The Memory Catcher

The Memory Catcher

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

Jan 26, • 28:45

Anger and Us

Anger and Us

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

Jan 19, • 29:12

In Pieces

In Pieces

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 define

Jan 12, • 29:24

One Hundred Ways of Listening

One Hundred Ways of Listening

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

Jan 5, • 28:34

My Night With Tracy -  How the Darwin Cyclone Made a Man of Mike Thomson

My Night With Tracy - How the Darwin Cyclone Made a Man of Mike Thomson

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

Dec 30, 2024 • 29:31

The Shipping Forecast: A Haven

The Shipping Forecast: A Haven

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

Dec 28, 2024 • 28:48

Ceefax Strikes Back... with Count Binface

Ceefax Strikes Back... with Count Binface

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 t

Dec 25, 2024 • 29:05

The Horse at the Door

The Horse at the Door

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

Dec 22, 2024 • 29:17

Stockport: Britain's Karaoke Town

Stockport: Britain's Karaoke Town

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 t

Dec 17, 2024 • 29:23

Voices from the Bog

Voices from the Bog

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 t

Dec 1, 2024 • 29:12

Dark Crossing

Dark Crossing

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

Nov 24, 2024 • 29:12

The Last of the Blind Piano Tuners

The Last of the Blind Piano Tuners

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. T

Nov 18, 2024 • 29:26

The Sun Does Shine

The Sun Does Shine

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 f

Nov 10, 2024 • 28:55

Reclusion

Reclusion

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.

Oct 27, 2024 • 27:37

Rebirth

Rebirth

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 f

Oct 20, 2024 • 29:10

We Are Not Alone

We Are Not Alone

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

Oct 13, 2024 • 28:49

The Suitcase

The Suitcase

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 th

Oct 6, 2024 • 29:22

Lasting Lessons

Lasting Lessons

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, the

Sep 29, 2024 • 29:03

A Man Without Bees

A Man Without Bees

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.

Sep 22, 2024 • 29:09

Hervé's Way: The Story of a One-legged Pilgrim

Hervé's Way: The Story of a One-legged Pilgrim

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

Sep 15, 2024 • 28:47

John Meagher: The Divil's Own

John Meagher: The Divil's Own

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" wa

Sep 12, 2024 • 28:53

Reaching for Rossini

Reaching for Rossini

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

Sep 8, 2024 • 28:56

Brood X

Brood X

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

Sep 5, 2024 • 28:46

Infinite Scroll

Infinite Scroll

"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,

Sep 1, 2024 • 29:22

Sybil Phoenix, A Civil Life

Sybil Phoenix, A Civil Life

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

Aug 25, 2024 • 29:21

Strandings

Strandings

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 approxima

Aug 22, 2024 • 29:04

The Ballad of Scout and the Alcohol Tag

The Ballad of Scout and the Alcohol Tag

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 bei

Aug 18, 2024 • 28:51

The Psychology of a Second Life

The Psychology of a Second Life

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 s

Aug 11, 2024 • 29:03

Becoming German

Becoming German

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 1930

Aug 4, 2024 • 29:15

Shifting Soundscapes

Shifting Soundscapes

“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 cha

Jul 29, 2024 • 29:37

The Beauty of Everyday Things

The Beauty of Everyday Things

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

Jul 29, 2024 • 29:21

How Much Can You Say?

How Much Can You Say?

"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 or

Jul 29, 2024 • 29:24

'Am I Home?' - Life in a Dementia Village

'Am I Home?' - Life in a Dementia Village

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 extraordinar

Jul 29, 2024 • 28:18

Fragments - The London Nail Bombings

Fragments - The London Nail Bombings

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 wit

Jul 29, 2024 • 29:17

God Next Door

God Next Door

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

Jul 21, 2024 • 28:49

Welcome to Illuminated

Welcome to Illuminated

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 t

Apr 13, 2024 • 3:15

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