Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Social Sciences

The writer David Eldridge introduces his BBC Radio 3 full-cast drama, ‘The Picture Man’ starring Martin Freeman, about a man who despairs of the behaviour he sees around him and decides to take action. Originally broadcast in the ‘Drama on 3’ slot on 6 January 2008.Neil decides he has been pushed too far by the uncaring and often callous behaviour he sees around him. But when he begins to intervene in incidents by taking pictures on his mobile phone, it has disastrous consequences.

Five remarkable women. Five stories from across the world, where these influential people made an impact on democracy in their nations. Broadcast in January 2018 to mark the 100th anniversary of the first time British women won the vote, this fascinating series sees BBC Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet travel across the globe, meeting women from Northern Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Iceland, Afghanistan and Liberia. She hears reflections from some of the world's most influential women's rights activists, including former presidents.

The emergence of the Polgar sisters in the 1970s and 80s rocked the chess world. In a heavily male dominated game, the three Hungarian girls broke record after record. The Chess Girls is the story of their parents, Laszlo and Klara Polgar, and how they defied the Communist authorities to conduct a remarkable educational experiment. Laszlo Polgar, convinced that any healthy child can be trained to become a genius, set out to prove his theory with his own children.

Lenny Henry plays double murderer Frank Watt, who is getting ready to face life on the outside after 30 years in prison. He's looking forward to getting out, but things have changed a lot since the '80s and he's institutionalised. He quite likes his bookish, monklike life inside and the anger he was boiling over with when he went to prison is down to a manageable simmer.

Here are four of Hans Christian Andersen’s best-loved short stories, specially adapted for young children and read by some of Britain’s most well-known actors. The Brave Tin Soldier: A one-legged toy soldier falls in love with a paper ballerina. Thumbelina: A tiny but beautiful girl grows from a barleycorn which has been enchanted by a witch. The Nightingale: An emperor prefers a sparkling mechanical bird to the song of a real nightingale. The Ugly Duckling: A little bird is called ugly by others until he matures into a swan.

From the mid-1970s the humble 7-inch vinyl single was joined by a much grander relative - the 12-inch single. It reached its peak in 1983 with "Blue Monday", by New Order, probably the biggest-selling 12-inch single of all time. Music Journalist and co-founder of ZTT Records Paul Morley talks to Peter Hook of New Order about how "Blue Monday" was written, and to designer Peter Saville about the famous sleeve. Paul explores the origins of the 12-inch single as a potentially higher-quality format than the 7-inch single and visits Abbey Road studios to watch an engineer cutting a 12-inch single.

Clare Balding looks back at the time the Olympic Games came to London in 1948. Three years after the end of the Second World War, Britain was still gripped by austerity. Rationing was still in force, severe bomb damage was still much in evidence, and no new sports facilities could be built. Visiting athletes were put up in schools and RAF camps. Yet the Games were a resounding success and actually made a profit.

When a delirious Irishman arrives in a Cornish harbour, baker Mary Kneebone takes him in, and soon the sick and gullible are queuing at her door. A wry comedy about faith, love and redemption from outstanding Cornish playwright Annamaria Murphy.

Firsthand accounts by those who planned and took part in the Normandy landings, and eyewitness reports from BBC correspondents travelling with the troops on 6 June, 1944. In 1940, after the evacuation of the British army from Dunkirk, Winston Churchill vowed that Allied Forces would return to "cleanse Europe of the Nazi Pestilence". The logistics of Operation Overlord were daunting, but an inspired campaign of deception successfully diverted Hitler’s attention away from the Normandy beaches until it was too late.

Dr. Geoff Bunn presents a journey through 5,000 years of our understanding of the most complex thing in the known universe: the brain, in this major ten-part BBC Radio 4 series.Human beings have long been fascinated by the brain and how it fulfils its many functions. This groundbreaking cultural history explores the development of our ideas about the mind from Neolithic times to the present day.

The special New Year's Day 2011 edition of BBC Radio 4's 'Beyond Westminster', in which Andrew Rawnsley considers the lessons of history for Britain's coalition government - and its opponents. Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers are busily advancing their ambitious political and economic agenda - albeit amid parliamentary revolts and embarrassing comments to undercover reporters.

Joseph Fiennes stars as the young Lieutenant Richard Burton who, in 1853, disguised himself as an Afghani pilgrim and undertook an expedition to Mecca. His aim was to explore the Holy of Holies. He chronicles this journey fraught with dangers and misadventure. But can he hide his identity from his two young guides?

When he was 14 years old, some friends of his parents gave wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson The Observer's Book of Birds. Flicking through the pages, Chris was captivated by the description of a bird that sang at night. The bird was a nightingale. In this programme, he tries to get a microphone really close to a nightingale to record its remarkable song.

John Fletcher’s BBC Radio 3 full-cast play explores the dramatic clash between three key historical figures: a warlord, a historian and a poet. Originally broadcast in Radio 3’s ‘Drama on 3’ slot on 16 November 2008.As war swirls around them, three of the most important figures in the history of the Middle and Near East are brought together in fierce debate: how can a successful society be built, and what does it need to do to endure?

Scarlett Moffatt is obsessed by the unsolved and the unexplained. But her boyfriend Scott Dobinson is more sceptical, preferring facts and evidence to her bizarre conspiracy theories.

In this fascinating 10-part series, Lenny Henry traces the long and painful road that black Britons have travelled on stage and screen, from the overt racial discrimination of the 19th century, via the thinly veiled slurs that persisted through the first 70 years of the 20th, to today's more equal society. Interviewing playwrights, actors, directors and filmmakers - including Mustapha Matura, Roy Williams, Lolita Chakrabarti, Michael Buffong, Horace Ové and Steve McQueen - he tells the story of black drama and the influential artists who have shaped it over the past hundred years.

The BBC Radio 3 series exploring the meaning of the male nude in the visual arts. When we think of the nude we usually think of the female nude, and in Western art in particular, we're often contemplating an image where the artist is primarily concerned with sensuality and desire. If we spare a thought for the male nude at all, he tends to appear as a figure symbolising courage and endurance. Both perspectives are, of course, a simplification or distortion.

With George Monbiot, Paul Allen and Peter Harper. Have you got what it takes to get to zero carbon? Our expert panel set one average family the task of eliminating their carbon footprint... and living with the consequences. Originally broadcast in March 2009. Starring Kate Ashfield, Don Gilet, Poppy Lee Friar, Ryan Watson, Malcolm Tierney, Jonathan Tafler, Janice Acquah, and Stephen Hogan. Producer/Director: Jonquil Panting.

A BBC Radio 4 drama by Louise Ramsden, based on Seaneen Molloy's blog 'The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive', her account of learning to live and love with bipolar disorder. Originally broadcast as the 'Afternoon Play' on 8 May 2009.Facing life as a newly-diagnosed manic depressive, Seaneen fears that Rob has become more nurse than boyfriend, and begins to wonder if the only way to save a brilliant relationship is to leave it. .

A series of extended interviews from Colin Murray's Gold Run - one man's quest to meet every living GB gold medallist from the summer Olympics. In these nine episodes, Murray talks to David Bond, Ben Ainslie, the GB 4x100 relay team, Bradley Wiggins, Ann Packer, Daley Thompson, Rebecca Adlington, Sir Chris Hoy, Jonathan Edwards, Linford Christie, Mary Peters, Matthew Pinsent, Duncan Goodhew, the 1988 hockey squad, Gillian Sheen, Dame Kelly Holmes and Sir Steve Redgrave.