Wireless Nights

Jarvis Cocker attempts to fly to the moon, with the aid of astronaut Chris Hadfield - famous for his rendition of David Bowie's Space Oddity on the International Space Station.

En route he hears stories of those touched by the moon in its many manifestations.

Producer: Laurence Grissell

To mark the winter solstice, a chance to hear a programme first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 1st October in which Jarvis Cocker brought his award winning series Wireless Nights to Salford, forming part of this year's BBC Philharmonic Presents... series, a celebration of orchestral music in its many different forms.

In front of a studio audience, Jarvis Cocker and the BBC Philharmonic weave tales of insomnia, nocturnal inspirations and dark imaginings from the world of classical music - against the backdrop of a President embroiled in the Vietnam War. There's also a special performance from Jarvis himself.

He also conjures up music that came in dreams and revelations – from Stravinsky's wild visions in the Rite of Spring to Schumann's once forgotten Violin Concerto, which apparently re-emerged during a séance many years after the composer's death.

Maxime Tortelier conducts the BBC Philharmonic led by Yuri Torchinsky. Anthony Marwood plays solo violin and Peter Donohoe plays solo piano.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and repeated on 6 Music to mark the Winter Solstice.

Jarvis Cocker stars in his own horror movie as he continues his nocturnal examination of the human condition, exploring the battle between the forces of darkness and light.

He hears from horror movie goers at the Electric Cinema in Birmingham, keen to turn the lights off and let the scares begin; the National Grid control room which is charged from keeping the lights on; and Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel - where the electricity switches off at midnight.

What is lurking in the basement as Jarvis approaches the darkest hour?

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Tonight, Jarvis Cocker's award-winning nocturnal exploration of the human condition takes to the sea. Join him on the midnight sailing of a Channel ferry as he contemplates night crossings mythic and modern.

As he moves across dark waters, he hears the miraculous story of Jeni, a castaway lost and found in the North Sea whose epic struggle took place at night. He meets Sean, a young wrestler who slips through the ropes of the ring for his first fight night and embarks on his own rite of passage. Also on board, a wise old man of the sea, Swilly Billy, keeps Jarvis on course.

The ferryman of dead souls across the ancient River Styx also shadows the vessel, but fear not, sea sickness tablets are available and the lights of Calais are not far off.

Produced by Neil McCarthy

Jarvis Cocker becomes a nightwatchman in a high rise office block as he continues his nocturnal exploration of the human condition.

Decked out in regulation uniform and armed with a powerful torch, Jarvis starts his rounds protecting London's 36 storey Euston Tower. Along the way, he hears tales from others keeping watch during the dark hours.

Among those who share their stories of late night vigilance are the parents of a young girl with a rare condition which causes her to stop breathing when she falls asleep; a man at a control centre in Portsmouth who monitors the Indian Ocean for Somali pirates and a former spy recalling a dangerous meeting with a Middle Eastern agent.

For Jarvis, the strain of this late lonely night starts to takes its toll as he attempts to play table tennis - with himself.

As ever, the stories in tonight's dark vigil are accompanied by Jarvis' own musical selections.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Jarvis Cocker returns to Radio 4 with his award-winning feature series exploring the human condition after dark. Tonight is the 'Night of the Hunter' and Jarvis turns his eye to the starlit sky with his mind on hunters and their quarry.

Taking his bearings from Orion, he follows a lamper across farmland hunting foxes by torchlight. A soldier takes him on a top secret mission behind enemy lines when the hunter became the hunted. He accompanies a young man nervously preparing for his first date, in pursuit of love. And a party of friends go out on the pull in Hull, with mixed results.

Join him on an aural journey of the imagination as he tunes into the wireless night.

Producer Neil McCarthy

Contributor recordings by Sara Parker, David Reeves and Laurence Grissell.

Jarvis Cocker continues his prowl through the dark in the last of his new series Wireless Nights.

This evening he invites you on a curb crawl around the seamy side of town as he explores the theme 'night manoeuvres'. Driving through London he weaves his way in and out of the lives of other night riders who are always on the move. He joins a private invstigator in Nottingham on a car chase and stake out on the trail of a man suspected to be having an affair; he finds a minicab driver lost in the Mersey fog between fares, haunted by an eerie bell; and is encircled by street skaters who spin around the neon-lit West End and dark car parks seeking thrills on wheels.

The ride might get a bit hairy at times, but he promises to drop you off safely at the end.

Produced by Neil McCarthy and Laurence Grissell

Jarvis Cocker takes to the streets to peer through stained windows, cold steel bars and Japanese paper screens, to find out just what goes on Behind Closed Doors at night time.

He joins a lock-in where the time bell is never rung, and peers into the deepest recesses of a lock-in brain that belongs to Jack, reliving the night when the doors shut in his brain.

On his nocturnal sojourn Jarvis recalls old times, on the streets of post-industrial Sheffield, and shares the loneliness of the long sentenced prisoner who dreams of empty streets under a full moon.

Take a night walk with Jarvis Cocker; bring a torch. You might find yourself in a dark corner, but you've got a good guide.

Producer: Sara Jane Hall.

Continuing his new series of nocturnal meditations, Jarvis Cocker prowls the nation's night.

This evening's theme is 'they only come out at night'. Jarvis slips between the shadows to find punks, poets, poker dens and an alcohol fuelled badger watch and eavesdrops on a series of nocturnal dreams and dramas.

His guide to the dark is poet, author and explorer of the night Al Alvarez. In this trip through the night Al points him towards a gambling club where players never see daylight and nerves begin to fray around the card table; to a feminist punk gig where other more exotic identities emerge under cover of darkness; and to an allotment in Hastings where a man's mind unwinds whilst drinking beer, feeling 'the wild' and entertaining notions of sabotage.

Jarvis is our roving eye and ear entering these nocturnal worlds to shine a light whilst contemplating what it is that we search for once night falls.

Jarvis Cocker prowls the dark, finding stories of the night people in a Prix Italia winning series.

Tonight, in an edition which won the Prix Italia for Extraordinary Originality and Innovation - a top European radio prize - the theme is Overnight Delivery. Jarvis boards the red-eye, taking a transatlantic flight of the imagination - peering down at the human dramas beneath as the world slowly rotates - accompanied by Jarvis' own musical selections.

As Jarvis reaches cruising altitude, he finds himself gripped by the compelling life and death stories of a shepherdess in the midst of a very difficult birth, a transplant nurse on late shift and a priest who performs the role of deliverance ministry - in layman's terms: exorcism.

But this dark night is not without light relief, as Jarvis muses on the trying experience of long haul air travel, revealing his own antidote to a fear of flying: Hugh Grant.

Producer: Laurence Grissell