A two-decade long commitment to writing a new Christmas standard, an Icelandic documentary fairytale and the comedian Mark Thomas feature in Josie Long's festive documentary special.

The Night Before the Night Before Christmas

Solla Decorates for Christmas

Dad's Christmas

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in December 2017.

Josie Long explores the way our collections and accidental archives define us. Diving into a head full of palindromes, love letters, artistic accidents and family recipes.

Featuring the writer Nikesh Shukla, the illustrator Ralph Steadman, love letter writer extraordinaire Janet Gallin, and Martin Clear, the winner of the World Palindrome Championship.

Janet Gallin

Ralph Steadman: Better than Being in a Tent

Yoko Is Not a Palindrome

Family Recipe

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in December 2017.

Falling from a great height and last words across a telephone line - Josie Long hears stories of relationships stretched across space.

From the crossover between skydiving, Soren Kierkegaard and falling in love, to the final words uttered into the ear of a loved one on another continent.

Rafadan Yumurta

On Top

Alfred and Katie

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in December 2017.

Josie Long hears stories from within hidden worlds - a doctor living in quarantine, the founder of a time travellers convention and a radio DJ offering a lifeline to prisoners.

On The Inside

The Time Traveller's Convention

Quarantine

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.first broadcast in November 2017.

Josie Long hears stories spell craft, poetry and art coming to life.

What can a poet learn from a consultant sorcerer? Ross Sutherland explores the poetic possibilities of spell craft. A fragment of Sappho's poetic longing is unpicked alongside a reading by Anne Carson. And at night, in a gallery, art springs to life.

Incantations

After Fragment 31

Nocturne

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in November 2017.

Josie Long hears stories which come out of nowhere. A story of creation, time and disappearance; a writer takes a precarious drive down an icy road imagining the dive into nothing at the edge of her vision, and the unexpected kindness of a stranger pulls a man back from the brink.

Thin Air

The Water

The Kindness of Strangers

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

What can we learn from the humanity of others? From seeing ourselves reflected in someone else? Josie Long presents stories of role models.

"You know, vampires have no reflections in a mirror? There's this idea that monsters don't have reflections in a mirror. And what I've always thought isn't that monsters don't have reflections in a mirror. It's that if you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves... Part of what inspired me, was this deep desire that before I died, I would make a couple of mirrors. That I would make some mirrors so that kids like me might see themselves reflected back and might not feel so monstrous for it." - Junot Diaz

Water Fleas

Mirrors

Nadia

Intolerants Not Welcome

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in September 2017.

Secret languages, loving acts of translation and musical instruments with an unrecognised power - Josie Long presents new documentaries about translation.

From the man who introduced a poet to Iran through a tender act of love for his father, to a debate about breaching the peace.

The Stash

Be Myself

Days of Razors, Nights Full of Rats

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in September 2017.

Escape artists, losing control of your body and losing yourself in water - Josie Long takes a twilight stroll across Hampstead Heath while she presents stories of movement.

Pond

Movement

Lake

Einstein

Sea

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in September 2017.

A disembodied voice, digital ghosts and the contraptions we build that alter our humanity - Josie Long presents new short documentaries about machines.

We hear from the voice of Siri in the UK about losing control of what you say. Also - the story of a digital version of yourself outliving you and our relationship to the tools we build and the scars they leave.

Daniel

Replika

15 Years

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in September 2017.