Radio Times
type: channel
link: https://www.radiotimes.com
date: 2026-03-06T17:13:32.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: 'Witty, warm and relatable'
items: Shine a light
items: David Suchet reveals why Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol remains so prescient – and what he'd say to Agatha Christie
items: Personal history
items: Folk for today
items: Mum's the word
items: 'A sense of humour helps'
items: Joanna Lumley, Roger Allam on Conversations from a Long Marriage, bad habits and Desert Island luxuries
items: The lost years
items: Parental guidance
items: The new Gatsby
items: Roy Williams on revamping The Great Gatsby with Ncuti Gatwa: 'I didn't want to repeat the same story'
items: Highland haunting
items: Hugh Dennis on Making a Difference campaign: 'Tiny amounts make an enormous difference'
items: 'Tiny amounts make an enormous difference'
items: For these times
items: David Morrissey on Hard Times and Dickens: "He would be surprised how little has changed"

'Witty, warm and relatable'
type: item
creator: Anna Jones
subject: App
subject: App features
description: More people listen to Radio 2 than any other station. Boss Helen Thomas offers up her formula for its ongoing success
encoded: It’s a typical afternoon on the eighth floor of New Broadcasting House in London, home to Radio 2. Trevor Nelson and Richie Anderson are in animated conversation across a studio desk. Jeremy Vine is perched on the back of a seat, having discarded the shocking pink shell suit he’s just donned to do some on-air anti-fall exercises with Mr Motivator. Round the corner, in another studio, Foo Fighters are giving an interview to Shaun Keaveny, who’s sitting in for Jo Whiley this week. A companionable warm-up for the afternoon school run, health tips for the elderly and a conversation with a globally famous, post-grunge rock band are all part of the mix on the most listened-to radio station in the UK. The latest Rajar figures (the official quarterly measurements of radio audiences) show a weekly reach of 12.7 million, with people listening on average for 11 hours over seven days. That’s huge – a fact not wasted on canny music industry execs and artists. Features like The Piano Room on Vernon Kay’s mid-morning show (the most listened-to programme in the country), where musicians perform a new song, a classic hit and a cover with the BBC Concert Orchestra, can achieve career-altering results. The recent performance from Labi Siffre, for example, attracted millions of hits across Instagram and TikTok, as well as on BBC platforms. The woman behind this broadcasting behemoth is Helen Thomas. Her petite form belies her powerful presence and inexhaustible energy. In the week of International Women’s Day, we ask how this Hull-born-and-raised girl, with a BA in drama and an MA in medieval studies, came to be the head of the station. It was a recommendation to listen to the Today programme by a fellow student at Bristol University that set her on the path. “A light-bulb moment,” she says, having grown up listening to Yorkshire-based Viking FM and Radio 1. She grabbed an opportunity to do work experience in the rural affairs team at Radio 5 Live in Birmingham’s Pebble Mill studios, a…

11radio-2-Presenter-drinks-202641708-copy-beac839-e1772554725967.jpg
width: 2970
height: 1980

Shine a light
type: item
creator: Anna Jones
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Sir David Suchet says Dickens’s A Christmas Carol offers hope in dark times
encoded: Nothing brings us together like a festive ghost story and, since its publication in 1843, Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol has never been out of print. It is the seasonal chiller. Sir David Suchet is delighted to be narrating it, alongside some of the author’s lesser-known tales, for a new podcast series. “These aren’t merely creepy stories — they’re ghostly reflections of the human soul.” We know about your devotion to Agatha Christie, but how well do you know Dickens? I don’t claim to be a Dickens expert, but he has always held up for me as the master of the English language. Reading these ghost stories has just been one of the most enjoyable and exciting pieces of audio work I’ve done. I’ve been blown away by how he writes. He’s very theatrical. Why do you think Dickens remains so prescient? I would say the same thing about Shakespeare and, if I’m allowed to, Agatha Christie. They all write about the human condition: love, jealousy, greed, hate, envy, crimes. They talk about poverty and society. They have managed to write about various aspects of our lives as human beings and make them into dramatic tales. That’s why they will never date. Why do you think that we enjoy being scared at Christmas? Well, if you go back to when you were a little child and somebody scared you, what was the first thing you did? You screamed and giggled. We love mystery, we love being scared. I mean, look at Doctor Who! We love to be taken outside of ourselves into realms that we don’t quite understand, and being a little bit frightened can be very enjoyable. Is A Christmas Carol the ultimate seasonal ghost story? A Christmas Carol is a work of genius. It’s just got everything. Not only the most extraordinary characters, but Scrooge himself going through that redemption... It’s what Christmas is all about, which is generosity, kindness, family if you have one, friends if you haven’t. Being social, being warm to each other. Ultimately, that’s the world that Ebenezer Scrooge enters and…

https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/12/52CMYK300dpiBrazierRadioTimesDavidSuchet223x203-copy-790fe86-e1765295766233.jpg
width: 1360
height: 907

David Suchet reveals why Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol remains so prescient – and what he'd say to Agatha Christie
type: item
date: 2025-12-09T17:01:19.000Z
creator: Anna Jones
subject: audio
subject: Christmas
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: As he voices a new Dickens podcast, David Suchet reflects on timeless storytelling and the hope Christmas brings.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Nothing brings us together like a festive ghost story and, since its publication in 1843, Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol has never been out of print. It is the seasonal chiller. Sir David Suchet is delighted to be narrating it, alongside some of the author’s lesser-known tales, for a new podcast series. “These aren’t merely creepy stories — they’re ghostly reflections of the human soul.” We know about your devotion to Agatha Christie, but how well do you know Dickens? I don’t claim to be a Dickens expert, but he has always held up for me as the master of the English language. Reading these ghost stories has just been one of the most enjoyable and exciting pieces of audio work I’ve done. I’ve been blown away by how he writes. He’s very theatrical. Why do you think Dickens remains so prescient? I would say the same thing about Shakespeare and, if I’m allowed to, Agatha Christie. They all write about the human condition: love, jealousy, greed, hate, envy, crimes. They talk about poverty and society. They have managed to write about various aspects of our lives as human beings and make them into dramatic tales. That’s why they will never date. Why do you think that we enjoy being scared at Christmas? Well, if you go back to when you were a little child and somebody scared you, what was the first thing you did? You screamed and giggled. We love mystery, we love being scared. I mean, look at Doctor Who! We love to be taken outside of ourselves into realms that we don’t quite understand, and being a little bit frightened can be very enjoyable. Is A Christmas Carol the ultimate seasonal ghost story? A Christmas Carol is a work of genius. It’s just got everything. Not only the most extraordinary characters, but Scrooge himself going through that redemption... It’s what Christmas is all about, which is generosity, kindness, family if you have one, friends if you haven’t. Being social, being warm to each other. Ultimate…

Personal history
type: item
date: 2025-10-30T18:01:07.000Z
creator: Anna Jones
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Hallie Rubenhold is taking on “Great Man” theory by presenting stories of real people — and her own family
encoded: Intimate Histories is on Monday-Friday at 11.45am on Radio 4. Add it to your collection Historian Hallie Rubenhold has the builders in. She and her lawyer husband Frank removed some woodchip paper in their London home, only for the ceiling to collapse. Their trusted decorator was able to pinpoint exactly when the unwanted decor had been put up from a 1991 newspaper lurking beneath. Despite the dust and rubble, this DIY disaster has made Rubenhold smile. It speaks to her core belief that history is all around us: in our homes, our heirlooms, our memories of deceased family and friends. Over the course of her career as a historian, Rubenhold has been determined to present the stories of “ordinary” people, not focus on national leaders, military heroes or monarchs – aka “Great Man” history, a theory attributed to the 19th-century philosopher Thomas Carlyle who argued that our shared history has been created by the superior intellect or great courage of individuals, pretty much all of them male. “Carlyle wasn’t the first person to conceptualise history as the great deeds of great men,” she says. “This is a very conservative, very Victorian, very inflexible way of viewing history. That’s why people have turned away – it feels distant, alien, unrelatable.” On the contrary, Rubenhold’s acclaimed books – including The Five, The Covent Garden Ladies and, most recently, Story of a Murder – are about the people who have been overlooked in history, primarily women. The Covent Garden Ladies was used as the inspiration for TV’s Harlots, for which she was historical consultant. Adapting her words in the interest of “drama” was a learning process, but she’s clear that the kind of factual inaccuracies witnessed in series like BBC One’s King & Conqueror (which she didn’t watch) are not acceptable: “A lot of the stuff that we’re seeing is an erasure of the reality of people’s lives. We erase racism and sexism in many cases, or we tone it down to make it more palatable for us. But what…

45Hallie-C-Sarah-Blake-COLOUR-copy-dc19359-e1761818292551.jpg
width: 1232
height: 823

Folk for today
type: item
creator: Anna Jones
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Mark Radcliffe, a champion of folk music, says a new season is bringing the genre into the 21st century
encoded: The Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe is on Wednesday at 2pm on Radio 2. Add it to your collection. Cast aside clichéd preconceptions about folk music as the domain of bearded men drunk on real ale singing with a finger in one ear, or waif-like women in floaty dresses bewailing their latest abandonment. The always convivial Mark Radcliffe has real fire in his belly when it comes to folk music being unfairly dismissed as old-fashioned. “Folk music is not a museum piece. It’s a drop-in centre with a big archive! It moves forward because it must, because we are telling stories of now,” declares the Radio 2 and 6 Music presenter and there couldn’t be a better introduction to 21st Century Folk as it returns to Radio 2 for the third year. Each day this week on the Jeremy Vine show (Mon–Fri 12 noon), five artists commissioned to create a piece inspired by someone connected to the railways will debut their song, along with the person who inspired them. Meanwhile, Radcliffe has a train-song special in The Folk Show, and will be talking to folk star Peggy Seeger. His interview with Seeger is particularly apt, given this year’s theme is connected to Railway 200, celebrating two centuries of train transport in the UK. Back in 1958, Peggy worked on the first of the ground-breaking Radio Ballads with singer/songwriter Ewan MacColl (whom she later married) and documentary producer Charles Parker. It was called The Ballad of John Axon and told the story of a driver from Stockport, posthumously awarded the George Cross when he refused to abandon his runaway train, sacrificing his own life to save others. That’s a lot to live up to when it comes to a story but, as Radcliffe explains, listeners to these five new inspiring narratives are not going to be disappointed. There’s the tale of a man left as a two-week-old baby in a waiting room at Reading station; a railway worker who’s had a locomotive named after him to recognise his family’s 157 years of combined service; a female accountant-t…

31Mark-Radcliffe1454-copy-DL-EXT-472d14c-e1753716981757.jpg
width: 7795
height: 5197

Mum's the word
type: item
creator: Anna Jones
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Comedian Laura Smyth was hard on her mum until she had kids herself — now she’s celebrating motherhood, whether it’s good, bad or funny
encoded: Your Mum is on Radio 4 on Wednesday at 6.30pm. Add it to your collection. One of celebrated paediatrician Dr Benjamin Spock’s top tips to parents was, “Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” Comedian and broadcaster Laura Smyth feels the same and in Your Mum, the series where she invites celebrities to discuss their relationships with their mothers, she aims to shake up our views on parenting. If you haven’t come across Smyth before, this is a gentle introduction to her comedy. It’s worth checking out her adults-only podcast Bang On It and her 2023 late-night stand-up special I Don’t Know What to Say on BBC Sounds, for which she won gold in the comedy category at last year’s Arias. The latter is a fierce, frank yet very funny account of her breast cancer diagnosis in 2021 at the age of 37, just after she’d left her career as an English teacher to become a comedian. She has three children, aged 22, nine and seven, and lives in London with her husband, musician Alastair Smyth. Her own mum, who was widowed at a young age with multiple children to raise, is not far away. And she gets the complexities of family dynamics. “We’re so hard on ourselves as mums, and we’re so hard on our own mums. They did their best. They were just humans; they were not gods.” Throw in social media and headline-grabbing TV shows, and it’s harder than ever to feel as if you are doing a “good job” as a parent. “I’m a bit sick of the navel-gazing culture we’re in at the minute,” says Smyth. “If you’re doom-scrolling, it’s all, ‘When were you last sad? Are you sad?’ And it’s full of people crying. I think if this is what we’re consuming, I really want my show to be the opposite of that. You can’t help but worry about your kids – and then you watch Adolescence! But as long as your house feels safe, emotionally, you can’t go far wrong.” Like most of us, her teenage years involved conflicts with her own mum, but now she’s a parent herself they rub along very well. “I think there were …

Jiksaw-001-Laura-Smyth-25-11474-47d0ac3-e1751037277985.jpg
width: 5866
height: 3910

'A sense of humour helps'
type: item
creator: Anna Jones
subject: App
subject: App features
description: As Jan Etherington’s marital comedy returns after ructions over a secret son at the end of series five, we put the compatibility of its stars, Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam, to the test
encoded: Conversations from a Long Marriage is on Radio 4 on Monday at 2.15pm. Add it to your collection now What would you say is the secret to a long marriage? Roger Probably a sense of humour. Laughing and giving each other room to be elsewhere and do things on your own or with other people, not having to be together all the time. Joanna A sense of humour helps navigate life full-stop. But complementary personalities can be a symbiotic yin and yang in a marriage. What is your best trait? Roger It’s a form of torture answering this! What is my best trait? Probably my self-delusion that I look like Cary Grant, but my bad eyesight means I don’t notice that I don’t. Joanna He’s a sensational actor, with one of the best voices you could hear and he’s heaven to work with. Roger Joanna has so many good traits. Perhaps her unfailing courtesy to everyone she meets – and also her interest and curiosity about the world. What is your worst trait? Roger I can be bad-tempered sometimes. My worst trait is getting irritable when being interviewed about things! Joanna I seem to be a bit of a butterfly who flits from one thing to the next. Roger Joanna’s worst trait? No idea. There’s not a list. It seems to me she undervalues her great skill as an actor. How would you deal with a serious betrayal of trust? Roger I don’t know. It would depend. I mean, the presence of this son, it’s not something that he’s kept hidden from her – it’s a huge surprise and shock for him as well. There’s huge anxiety on both sides about destabilising what is a long and happy marriage. If it was something really treacherous, if he’d known about the son but kept it secret, then I think it would be completely justified for her to walk out. I wouldn’t like to say if Joanna is like this in real life. Joanna I think he’s more trustworthy than she is – she’s definitely more economical with the truth. But I don’t think either of [our characters] has ever done anything particularly bad – there’s been no infidelity, I am …

https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/05/21RADIOTIMESJOANNALUMLEYSHOT01133-copy-d93559f-e1746880196376.jpg
width: 1530
height: 1020

Joanna Lumley, Roger Allam on Conversations from a Long Marriage, bad habits and Desert Island luxuries
type: item
date: 2025-05-12T23:01:51.000Z
creator: Anna Jones
subject: audio
subject: Radio
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: Lumley and Allam are back to star in the sixth season of the radio series from Jan Etherington.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. What would you say is the secret to a long marriage? Roger: "Probably a sense of humour. Laughing and giving each other room to be elsewhere and do things on your own or with other people, not having to be together all the time." Joanna: "A sense of humour helps navigate life full-stop. But complementary personalities can be a symbiotic yin and yang in a marriage." What is your best trait? Roger: "It’s a form of torture answering this! What is my best trait? Probably my self-delusion that I look like Cary Grant, but my bad eyesight means I don’t notice that I don’t." Joanna: "He’s a sensational actor, with one of the best voices you could hear and he’s heaven to work with." Roger: "Joanna has so many good traits. Perhaps her unfailing courtesy to everyone she meets – and also her interest and curiosity about the world." What is your worst trait? Roger: "I can be bad-tempered sometimes. My worst trait is getting irritable when being interviewed about things!" Joanna: "I seem to be a bit of a butterfly who flits from one thing to the next." Roger: "Joanna’s worst trait? No idea. There’s not a list. It seems to me she undervalues her great skill as an actor." How would you deal with a serious betrayal of trust? Roger: "I don’t know. It would depend. I mean, the presence of this son, it’s not something that he’s kept hidden from her – it’s a huge surprise and shock for him as well. There’s huge anxiety on both sides about destabilising what is a long and happy marriage. If it was something really treacherous, if he’d known about the son but kept it secret, then I think it would be completely justified for her to walk out. I wouldn’t like to say if Joanna is like this in real life." Joanna: "I think he’s more trustworthy than she is – she’s definitely more economical with the truth. But I don’t think either of [our characters] has ever done anything particularly bad – there’s been no infidelity, I am sure of it. She sa…

The lost years
type: item
creator: Anna Jones
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Five years after the Covid lockdown, Catherine Carr reveals the impact on children who missed the end of primary school
encoded: Lockdown's Legacy: the Children is on Radio 4 at 4pm on Monday. Add it to your collection now "We were like ten-year-olds trapped in 13-year-olds’ bodies,” says a teenager from Northern Ireland. Now in Year 11 and preparing for his GCSEs, he’s reflecting upon being part of the swathe of children who never experienced their final months at primary school because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Five years on from the first UK lockdown, which was imposed on 23 March 2020, a new Radio 4 series highlights the impact upon three groups of people: children, teachers and medics. Catherine Carr narrates the episodes and also conducted interviews with the teenagers. She has form in creating audio that allows people to tell their stories in their own way, including Where Are You Going?, which was named as RT’s Podcast of the Year in 2023, and last year’s Radio 4 series About the Boys on the challenges facing young men. She and the production team are not making a sweeping generalisation that these then Year 6 children were the most badly affected group in the country, but there is a logic in selecting them: “They really had a formative part of adolescence hollowed out. All those experiences like texting your mate and meeting them in town; learning to use the bus; having your first crush and acting on it. Their confidence and social skills were marked and it’s definitely something they’re talking about here.” Before any cynical adults default to that pejorative word “snowflake”, consider this. Professor Lucy Easthope, who specialises in emergency planning, risk and hazard, noted that it’s as if they have been through a natural disaster and we haven’t given them the time to tell us how they feel. Their opportunity has come now, though, and Carr has been blown away by what they have shared. This is a richly textured piece of audio, including extracts from home videos taken in lockdown. “This might include learning to ride a unicycle, getting into birdwatching, having terrible haircuts, …

https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/03/12GettyImages-1245029375-copy-275f484-e1741711512246.jpg
width: 1452
height: 968

Parental guidance
type: item
creator: Anna Jones
subject: App
subject: App features
description: How Namulanta Kombo’s idea of writing a letter to her daughter became a global hit podcast
encoded: Dear Daughter: Stars is available to listen to on BBC Sounds. Add it to your collection Back in 2021, Namulanta Kombo was working in the development sector of her home country of Kenya and a mother of two children (now eight and four), when she heard the BBC World Service promote a competition for fresh ideas for podcasts from people with no broadcast experience. She’d never won anything before apart from small trinkets in lucky dips and so, with little hope but plenty of enthusiasm, she submitted her idea for a series based upon a very personal project: building a “handbook for life” for her daughter from letters she wrote to her. A year later and Kombo’s show, Dear Daughter, picked up prizes for Best Family Podcast and Podcast of the Year at the 2022 British Podcast Awards, with the judges stating that this was “an excellent example of how one simple idea can have such universal appeal… such a powerful, emotional and creative listen.” Not bad going for a novice and Kombo is the first to acknowledge how extraordinary this rapid career trajectory has been. “It was a huge change in my life, but I was ready to make space for this opportunity because I really, really wanted it, most of all for my daughter.” In essence, Dear Daughter invites guests to read out a letter they have written to their daughter, son, or important young person in their lives. There are no hard-and-fast rules, but the aim is to share the experiences and advice that they would like to pass on. This has included a widower navigating solo parenting, a mother fleeing genocide in Rwanda and some top tips from a young cousin on the peer-pressure perils of buying a cheap thong. It doesn’t have to be a life-changing or momentous event to pass muster. In fact, the key to Dear Daughter’s global success has been its relatable content. “There are so many stories, so many experiences. People are living very similar lives, just in different contexts and countries,” Kombo explains. The latest series marks some…

IMG3091-099527c-e1740156074229.jpg
width: 5928
height: 3952

The new Gatsby
type: item
creator: Anna Jones
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Playwright Roy Williams is giving the Jazz Age classic a fresh spin — but he never imagined he’d secure his dream cast
encoded: Gatsby in Harlem is on Radio 3 at 8pm on Sunday 12 January. Add it to your collection now When playwright Roy Williams was approached by Radio 3 to dramatise F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, it was a no-brainer. But the London-born creator of the acclaimed stage-play trilogy Death of England and Radio 4’s long-running dramas The Interrogation and Faith, Hope and Charity was also clear that he wanted to bring something fresh to the text and take a different view of the complexities of the American Dream. Naturally, he reread the novel, but an idea had already started to grow: “I instinctively knew how I would like to tell it,” he says. “I wasn’t interested in doing literally the same story that’s been done so many times.” So, what’s different about this audio dramatisation? Instead of being set in Long Island, New York, it’s based in Harlem and, while all the characters remain painfully aspirational and emotionally broken, they are black rather than white. Williams did exhaustive research on the societal status of African-Americans in the 1920s and leans heavily into the culture of the Harlem Renaissance, which grew out of so many people leaving the southern states to get away from the Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation. Williams also presented the production company, Granny Eats Wolf, with an ambitious wish-list of young British talent for the cast: Ncuti Gatwa (the current Doctor Who) as Jay Gatsby, Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Loki and Surface) as Daisy Buchanan, and Malachi Kirby (Roots, Small Axe and Steven Knight’s upcoming drama A Thousand Blows) as Nick Carraway. “When we sat down to discuss the casting, honest to God, they were my choices, but I never thought that we were going to get them,” admits Williams. “When the email came through saying they’d all agreed, I couldn’t believe it!” While Gatsby claims the (tarnished) glory with his name in the title, both in the F Scott Fitzgerald novel and in this reworking of the story, it’s Nick Carraway who hol…

Ncuti-14c00de.jpg
width: 6240
height: 4160

Roy Williams on revamping The Great Gatsby with Ncuti Gatwa: 'I didn't want to repeat the same story'
type: item
date: 2025-01-07T00:01:00.000Z
creator: Anna Jones
subject: audio
subject: Radio
subject: BBC Radio 3
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: The playwright spoke to Radio Times about his new BBC Radio 3 audio drama.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. When playwright Roy Williams was approached by Radio 3 to dramatise F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, it was a no-brainer. But the London-born creator of the acclaimed stage-play trilogy Death of England and Radio 4’s long-running dramas The Interrogation and Faith, Hope and Charity was also clear that he wanted to bring something fresh to the text and take a different view of the complexities of the American Dream. Naturally, he reread the novel, but an idea had already started to grow: "I instinctively knew how I would like to tell it," he says. "I wasn’t interested in doing literally the same story that’s been done so many times." So, what’s different about this audio dramatisation? Instead of being set in Long Island, New York, it’s based in Harlem and, while all the characters remain painfully aspirational and emotionally broken, they are black rather than white. Williams did exhaustive research on the societal status of African-Americans in the 1920s and leans heavily into the culture of the Harlem Renaissance, which grew out of so many people leaving the southern states to get away from the Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation. Williams also presented the production company, Granny Eats Wolf, with an ambitious wish-list of young British talent for the cast: Ncuti Gatwa (the current Doctor Who) as Jay Gatsby, Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Loki and Surface) as Daisy Buchanan, and Malachi Kirby (Roots, Small Axe and Steven Knight’s upcoming drama A Thousand Blows) as Nick Carraway. "When we sat down to discuss the casting, honest to God, they were my choices, but I never thought that we were going to get them," admits Williams. "When the email came through saying they’d all agreed, I couldn’t believe it!" While Gatsby claims the (tarnished) glory with his name in the title, both in the F Scott Fitzgerald novel and in this reworking of the story, it’s Nick Carraway who holds the narrative, and Malachi Kirby w…

roy-williams-1a78c2b.jpg
width: 3000
height: 2000

Highland haunting
type: item
creator: Anna Jones
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Uncanny host Danny Robins revisits the gripping mystery of a Scottish bothy — the perfect Christmas ghost story
encoded: Uncanny is on BBC Sounds from Friday. Add it to your collection It’s a dark and stormy night. Two men have hiked a gruelling nine miles in gale-force winds and torrential rain to reach a ruined cottage, or bothy, in the Scottish Highlands. But will Luibeilt Lodge offer them sanctuary or an encounter with unimaginable terror? One of the men has been here twice before. The first time, in 1973, he encountered a table set for Christmas dinner but with no one there to eat, let alone cook it. This unsettling scenario soon unfolded into a proper horror story, complete with phantom footsteps, books leaping off the shelves and flying ice axes. On his second visit there was an ominous message on the wall that read, “Don’t sleep in this house”. Uncanny will be available on Friday on BBC Sounds (and will be repeated on Christmas Day on Radio 4) with a follow-up to the 2021 story that gripped its legion of loyal listeners: the tale of climber Phil MacNeill, whose life was changed for ever after that first night in the bothy over 50 years ago. This time he’s brought Uncanny series host Danny Robins with him. There are no spoilers here, but Robins does give a hint of unpredictable goings-on. “Some new witnesses have come forward – other climbers who have had some very similar and also intriguingly different experiences,” he says. “The building is just a shell now, there’s not even a roof. It was a strange night… but we’ve learnt a lot about the people who were living in that house, going back a few generations. It’s one of those stories that keeps on giving, keeps on growing, unfolding itself.” Contrary to popular opinion, the Victorians and Edwardians didn’t invent the festive ghost story, despite the creative output of Charles Dickens and MR James. They’ve been part of our culture since the oral tradition began. What is it about this time of year that encourages a blood-chilling tale? “I think that ghost stories offer great comfort,” says Robins. “It’s the darkest point of the y…

50-DSC07729-789a59a-e1733072164450.jpg
width: 2624
height: 1751

Hugh Dennis on Making a Difference campaign: 'Tiny amounts make an enormous difference'
type: item
date: 2024-11-28T17:37:52.000Z
creator: Anna Jones
subject: Current Affairs
subject: TV
subject: Interview
description: The Outnumbered star returns for another year to front the Radio 4 Christmas Appeal, sharing powerful stories of resilience and hope from those whose lives have been transformed by St Martin-in-the-Fields' vital support.
encoded: Hugh Dennis is speaking to Radio Times from the set of the festive edition of the BBC One sitcom Outnumbered. You know, the one about a family tackling the issues thrown up by the generation gap all in the comfort of their warm, loving home. But this comedic narrative is a long way from the experiences that thousands of families and individuals will be facing this Christmas. For over a decade, Dennis has been fronting Making a Difference, linked to the annual Radio 4 Christmas Appeal, now in its 98th year, which raises money to help change the lives of those experiencing homelessness. Radio 4 listeners and Radio Times readers donated over £5 million to the St Martin-in-the-Fields charity over the course of last year. Now, in Radio 4 Christmas Appeal: Making a Difference, Dennis catches up with some of the people whose lives have been changed through the money given to support the Vicar’s Relief Fund that offers emergency grants, the Connection day centre at St Martin’s and its Mental Health Frontline Fund. But what makes him come back, year after year, to support these projects? "One of the things you learn working with the appeal is that for the people in this situation, none of it is down to a choice that they’ve made. It takes such tiny changes in people’s circumstances to no longer have a home – a missed mortgage payment, a trauma, a breakdown in family relationships. It’s rather frightening in many senses – a case of there but for the grace of God go I. It takes so little for everything to disappear and, once in that spiral, it’s very difficult to get out, no matter how much you want to. "The charity gives grants to people and they’re not terribly big amounts of money, the maximum is £500, but these small amounts make an enormous difference, which is why I really encourage people to give if they can." Two of the people who received support last year are John and Carla. Dennis heads out on the streets of central London with Carla to experience how she was living…

MG-SMITFCAppeal24-SH-3441-1-f27f851.jpg
width: 7119
height: 4748

'Tiny amounts make an enormous difference'
type: item
creator: Anna Jones
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Hugh Dennis returns for another year of fronting the Radio 4 Christmas Appeal, sharing powerful stories of resilience and hope from those whose lives have been transformed by St Martin-in-the-Fields' vital support
encoded: Radio 4 Christmas Appeal: Making a Difference is on Sunday at 9.45am/11.45pm and Radio 4 Christmas Appeal is on Sunday at 7.54am/9.25pm. Add the Radio 4 Appeal to your collection now Hugh Dennis is speaking to RT from the set of the festive edition of the BBC1 sitcom Outnumbered. You know, the one about a family tackling the issues thrown up by the generation gap all in the comfort of their warm, loving home. But this comedic narrative is a long way from the experiences that thousands of families and individuals will be facing this Christmas. For over a decade, Dennis has been fronting Making a Difference, linked to the annual Radio 4 Christmas Appeal, now in its 98th year, which raises money to help change the lives of those experiencing homelessness. Radio 4 listeners and RT readers donated over £5 million to the St Martin-in-the-Fields charity over the course of last year. Now, in Radio 4 Christmas Appeal: Making a Difference, Dennis catches up with some of the people whose lives have been changed through the money given to support the Vicar’s Relief Fund that offers emergency grants, the Connection day centre at St Martin’s and its Mental Health Frontline Fund. But what makes him come back, year after year, to support these projects? “One of the things you learn working with the appeal is that for the people in this situation, none of it is down to a choice that they’ve made. It takes such tiny changes in people’s circumstances to no longer have a home – a missed mortgage payment, a trauma, a breakdown in family relationships. It’s rather frightening in many senses – a case of there but for the grace of God go I. It takes so little for everything to disappear and, once in that spiral, it’s very difficult to get out, no matter how much you want to. “The charity gives grants to people and they’re not terribly big amounts of money, the maximum is £500, but these small amounts make an enormous difference, which is why I really encourage people to give if they can.” …

MG-CSTMCaseStudy-7404-fedd2b9-e1732292558693.jpg
width: 7030
height: 4678

For these times
type: item
creator: Anna Jones
subject: App
subject: App features
description: David Morrissey and Jason Watkins star in a new season of Dickens dramas, which still feel as relevant as ever…
encoded: Hard Times is on Radio 4 on Sunday 29 September at 3pm. Little Dorrit is on at 3pm on Sunday 13th September, and Our Mutual Friend follows at 3pm on Sunday 3 November. Add them to your collection now. David Morrissey plays Thomas Gradgrind, the wealthy school superintendent-cum-merchant-cum-MP with a strong belief in utilitarian, rational thought in Hard Times... Were you introduced to Dickens as a child? No. Dickens and Shakespeare were not a part of my [school] curriculum at all. I came to him in my early 20s. There was something about the volume and size of the books that I found intimidating, but then I realised when I started reading them that there was nothing intimidating in the language and that they rocked along. We know now that he wrote them episodically and they were like modern soap operas. They captivated everybody and that’s why newspaper proprietors just loved them – Dickens was one of the main reasons people bought their papers. He has “come back next week” cliffhangers and big moments. I played Bradley Headstone in Our Mutual Friend on BBC2 in 1998, which is very much about intriguing characters: funny, tragic, political. I think certainly with Hard Times there is a modern political aspect to it as well. So, yes, I came to him late. It wasn’t part of my education, but once I dipped my toe in, that was it – I was really smitten! Tell us more about the connections you see to current politics in Hard Times. My bugbear for a long time has been people like Michael Gove when he was the Secretary of State Listen for Education [2010–14]. He downgraded what he called “soft options”: arts, music, drama, media studies, things like that. So, he was basically saying to a whole generation of state-educated pupils that these subjects aren’t worth it. Put your energy into what business is telling us we need: maths, English, science. The consequence of that is quashing the imagination, creativity, curiosity, the idea of fantasy. What relevance do you see between Di…

https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2024/09/40RadioTimesBrazier300dpiCMYK-copy-c874a16-e1726763640728.jpg
width: 4149
height: 2768

David Morrissey on Hard Times and Dickens: "He would be surprised how little has changed"
type: item
date: 2024-09-24T12:35:59.000Z
creator: Anna Jones
subject: audio
subject: Radio
subject: Interview
description: For the latest issue of Radio Times magazine, the actor discusses his role as Thomas Gradgrind in the new Radio 4 dramatisation.
encoded: BBC Radio 4 is embarking on a new season of Dickens dramas, starting with Hard Times on Sunday 29th September. David Morrissey plays Thomas Gradgrind, the wealthy school superintendent-cum-merchant-cum-MP with a strong belief in utilitarian, rational thought. Speaking to Radio Times, Morrissey discusses why the writer's work still feels as relevant as ever... Were you introduced to Dickens as a child? "No. Dickens and Shakespeare were not a part of my [school] curriculum at all. I came to him in my early 20s. There was something about the volume and size of the books that I found intimidating, but then I realised when I started reading them that there was nothing intimidating in the language and that they rocked along. "We know now that he wrote them episodically and they were like modern soap operas. They captivated everybody and that's why newspaper proprietors just loved them – Dickens was one of the main reasons people bought their papers. He has 'come back next week' cliffhangers and big moments. "I played Bradley Headstone in Our Mutual Friend on BBC Two in 1998, which is very much about intriguing characters: funny, tragic, political. I think certainly with Hard Times there is a modern political aspect to it as well. So, yes, I came to him late. It wasn't part of my education, but once I dipped my toe in, that was it – I was really smitten!" Tell us more about the connections you see to current politics in Hard Times. "My bugbear for a long time has been people like Michael Gove when he was the Secretary of State for Education [2010–14]. He downgraded what he called 'soft options': arts, music, drama, media studies, things like that. "So, he was basically saying to a whole generation of state-educated pupils that these subjects aren't worth it. Put your energy into what business is telling us we need: maths, English, science. The consequence of that is quashing the imagination, creativity, curiosity, the idea of fantasy." What relevance do you see between Dic…

GettyImages-2172686599-94a9de8.jpg
width: 2220
height: 1480