Whistledown

P.J.Harvey has recorded two new songs, together with the music for a new stage version of the classic movie All About Eve. John Wilson has been granted special back stage access for "Behind the Scenes" - and it's a Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4. Tx 4pm on Monday 11th Feb 2019.

Barry’s Lunch Club is the new radio comedy show from Whistledown. Staring Alex Lowe as the 82 year old Barry from Watford, it is a talking shop for the retired people of Britain. Here, Barry is on Radio 2’s Steve Wright in the afternoon talking about holidays, his wife Margaret and the new show.

We’re saddened hear of the death of historian and biographer Lisa Jardine. Here she is in one of her last interviews, talking about the scientist Leo Szilard, a friend of her father’s for a Whistledown documentary on the origins of the H-Bomb. The programme, "HG and the H Bomb" was presented by Samira Ahmed and broadcast on Radio 3 earlier this year.

As Government papers are released, Radio 4's Cold War Confidential, produced by Whistledown, reveals how the British spy network failed to spot the traitors in their midst.

In 1927 - or thereabouts, a car pulled up outside a hotel in central Chicago. The pianist Fats Waller was bundled in the back ... or was he? Kurt Elling investigates one of the strangest footnotes in jazz in this extract from the forthcoming Radio 2 documentary.

#FatsWaller #AlCapone #Mob #chicago #KurtElling #Radio2

Sue MacGregor reunites cast and creatives to recall how director Peter Brook's revolutionary production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, set inside a brilliantly-lit white box, changed theatre and Shakespeare forever.

Sue MacGregor is joined by Peter Brook, designer Sally Jacobs and actors Sir Ben Kingsley (Demetrius), Sara Kestelman (Titania/Hippolyta), Frances de la Tour (Helena) and Barry Stanton (Snug).

(An extract from Radio 4's 'The Reunion: Peter Brook's A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Originally broadcast on 08/05/15)

The fall of Singapore to the Japanese in 1942 led to the surrender of 67,000 British servicemen, the single largest capitulation in British military history.

While many were sent to forced labour projects such as the Thailand-Burma railway, many more were sent on "hell ships" across South-East Asia.

In this short extract, Bob Morrell remembers his "coffin duty" on the island of Ambon.

(This is an extract from Radio 4's 'The Reunion: Far East Prisoners of War', originally broadcast on 01/05/15.)

Former senior police detective Jackie Malton - the inspiration for Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison in the TV series Prime Suspect – talks to retired and serving officers to explore whether the laddish canteen-culture and sexist attitudes among male police officers has really changed since the 70s and 80s, and whether the force has genuinely created a safe and equal environment for men and women to work in.

(An extract from 'Women in Blue', originally broadcast 20/04/15. This extract contains strong language.)

Radio Today's Trevor Dann speaks to managing director of Whistledown, David Prest about the new RIGTrain scheme which aims to offer the skills required to expand the independent radio production sector, and to support the freelancers working in the industry.