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PODCAST

Illuminated

Illuminated is BBC Radio 4"s home for creative and surprising one-off documentaries that shed light on hidden worlds.Welcome to a place of audio beauty and joy, with emotion and human experience at its heart. The programmes you will find in this feed explore the reality of contemporary Britain and the world, venturing into its weirdest and most wonderful aspects. This is a chance to meet voices that are not normally heard, open secret doors into concealed chambers and, above all, be transported by

society & culture

All Episodes

28:17

Doctor Dolittle and the Exploding Trout

Illuminated ·

2025/05/18

It's the glorious summer of 1966 and Hollywood has taken over England’s prettiest village. The residents of Castle Combe have made way for the cast and crew of the biggest budget musical of the decade- Doctor Dolittle.Where sheep once grazed there are two-headed llamas, talking macaws, singing chimps and enormous catering trucks. Propping up the bar at the local pub are hot actors Anthony Newley, Richard Attenborough and one of the biggest stars of the day- the man who talks to the animals- Rex

en

29:36

A Map of the Moon

Illuminated ·

2025/05/11

When you look at the moon, what do you see? Producer and artist Siddharth Khajuria encounters competing human imaginations for the moon. Starting with some of the earliest lunar maps, he works with moonlight to illuminate thornier questions about our own behaviour on earth. What motivates the desire to etch a name into the landscape? The humanity woven through our modern map of the moon – Seas of Tranquility and Crises, Lakes of Death and Dreams, an Ocean of Storms – is the work of a 17th century

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29:18

The Organ Symphony

Illuminated ·

2025/05/04

An extraordinary one-off symphony brings to life the stories of five people and their relationship with one of their vital organs.Like a symphony orchestra, our organs work in harmony to execute the movement that is human life. We don’t often think about our relationship to these internal cogs that keep us alive. For most people, the connection remains distant. For others, it is ever present. In The Organ Symphony, we encounter our five vital organs – the heart, lungs, brain, kidneys and liver –

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29:02

Mum in a Box

Illuminated ·

2025/04/27

As their 30th birthday approaches, Saba Husain (they/them) receives an unexpected and life changing box. It contains ‘the life’ of their mum; never before seen diaries, love letters, poems, photos of a person who died when Saba was born, 29 years earlier.With no note or message, it must have been sent by Saba’s father - but why now? Why not before? And what should Saba do with these incredibly intimate pieces of their mother? Saba starts to investigate, asking; how do you get to know your mum - from

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29:09

Robben Island’s Hallelujah

Illuminated ·

2025/04/15

In his memoir of surviving the brutal apartheid prison Robben Island, South African activist Sedick Isaacs recalls an extraordinary event about which little has been recorded - "the creation and training of the eighty-member choir [of political prisoners] for the production of Handel’s ‘Hallelujah Chorus'. The incongruous beauty of the choir’s performance – and the rich history of the Messiah in South Africa – is brought to life by former political prisoners, by musicians and academics who reveal

en

28:54

The Big Ask

Illuminated ·

2025/04/13

How many questions have you asked today? How many were rhetorical, “boomer-asking”, passive/aggressive or just boringly functional?Did you know that our appetites for question-asking peak at the age of five, then steadily diminish? That kids ask an average of 40,000 questions between the ages of 2 and 5, while adults ask fewer than ten questions a day? Why are we asking fewer, meaningful questions? In an age where antisocial behaviour has become normal — where it’s entirely acceptable to spend most

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28:34

Nobody to Call

Illuminated ·

2025/04/06

If a person dies without friends or relatives, the authorities can instigate a 'public health funeral'.Once called pauper's funerals - the services are referred to on the administrative form with a poignant phrase: "Nobody to Call."These funerals often see online appeals for mourners to attend. And when the BBC's Kevin Core spots a particularly moving appeal on behalf of a 102 year old woman, he's intrigued. “Funeral notice for Miss Margaret Robertson. 11 O’Clock, Thursday. Sefton Road United

en

28:47

A Georgian Polyphonic Feast

Illuminated ·

2025/03/23

Welcome to the feast! We’re invited to a traditional Georgian ‘Supra’ to immerse ourselves in the magic of Georgian polyphonic singing. The table groans with food, the wine flows, and the singing fills the heart. Led by toastmaster Levan Bitarovi, diners are guided through a narrative, weaving together their personal and collective experiences, through song.At home in the mountains, in Georgia's "singing village" Lakhushdi, people sing like they breathe. A lullaby, a grieving song, a song when the

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29:08

The Story of Solent City

Illuminated ·

2025/03/16

Author Owen Hatherley goes in search of the lost future of Solent City – the extraordinary plan, devised in the mid-1960s at the height of the post-war modernisation of Britain, to join the historic city-ports of Southampton and Portsmouth with a vast, Los-Angeles style grid. The plan was finally rejected, but why? - and what were the consequences of its defeat, not only for the region but for the future of urban planning in Britain? Travelling across south Hampshire from Fareham to Portsmouth,

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28:38

Night Bus

Illuminated ·

2025/03/09

Ian Burke was not someone who grew up riding buses. His school was in walking distance, his parents had a car.But one night in his 20s, he had a dream which began a love affair with bus travel.Any spare moment is now spent exploring undiscovered routes or revisiting old favourites.“It’s about the journey, the out-of-the-way, the overheard snippets of conversation, the weird and unfamiliar place names, the people you’re with, the unexpected,” says Ian.He’s someone who can find beauty in an industrial

en

29:24

The Endemic Truth

Illuminated ·

2025/03/02

Estimates from NSPCC suggest around 1 in 20 children in the UK have been sexually abused. This documentary brings together survivors whose experiences span different backgrounds, relationships and generations - challenging misconceptions that abuse only happens in certain communities. Through intimate conversations with Laura, Bryony, Joe, and Chris, we witness how institutional silence has allowed abuse to become endemic. At a time when child sexual abuse is making headlines, these survivors offer

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29:03

Thirty Eulogies

Illuminated ·

2025/02/23

The story of how a heterosexual, Indian immigrant to England, ignorant of the gay scene, ended up delivering heartfelt eulogies to 30 homosexual men at the height of the AIDS crisis. The experiences of Suresh Vaghela take us behind the headlines of the infected blood scandal and into a transformative relationship between a hemophiliac and the people who he came to regard as his new family.(Including extracts from the BBC Sound Archive and from the 1975 World In Action documentary Blood Money,

en

28:23

Bellboy

Illuminated ·

2025/02/09

The 2001 Foot and Mouth crisis forced North Devon farmers into a traumatic 6 month lockdown, cut off from their neighbours and living with the death and destruction of their animals. When restrictions were finally eased, the ringing of church bells signalled the end of the lockdown, bringing communities back together. For artist and farmer Marcus Vergette it was a sound that would change his life.Marcus was struck by the ancient power of bells to unite and resurrect a community and he embarked on a

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29:06

Scattering

Illuminated ·

2025/02/02

Over 80% of people in Britain choose to be cremated rather than buried after death and the scattering of a loved one's ashes is a ritual that's increasingly familiar to many of us.In a lyrical and bittersweet meditation on grief and memory, writer and producer Tim Dee reflects on a West Country road trip to scatter his father’s mortal remains in places of significance to both of them. Each stop has a unique story and forms part of a revealing and poignant commemoration. In the car, the cardboard

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28:45

The Memory Catcher

Illuminated ·

2025/01/26

Memory is fragile. We are driven to capture it. But is this possible when the memories of the person we love have fragmented?Julian’s mother has no memory. Both her long and short term memory were destroyed by different viruses. His mother still has an emotional memory of Julian. She recognises him - his personality, his manner. But she doesn’t know how old he is, what he does for a living, or that he has a partner. And she doesn’t realise that she can’t remember. So their relationship is stuck in a

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29:12

Anger and Us

Illuminated ·

2025/01/19

Siblings Sam and Bon Stone are angry. Sam directs her anger inwards while Bon’s anger can be explosive. Through sharing parts of their lives with each other for the first time, they explore how we process anger and whether we can change it.With contributions from Noel Oganyan of Forrest Flowers (recorded at the New Cross Inn, London in November 2024) and Ronnie Turner, founder of The Anger Clinic. Original music by Jennifer WaltonProduced by Sam Stone A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

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29:24

In Pieces

Illuminated ·

2025/01/12

For some, burnout feels like an unravelling - a slow, creeping dissolution where the threads of your life and identity loosen and fray until you are completely undone. For others, it’s a breaking point - a sharp, sudden, collapse where everything shatters all at once. It doesn’t just kill physical vitality it also guts the entire internal mechanism of us. Like lifting the hood off a car and finding no engine. There’s nothing, a void, which feels very shameful and fragile to those who have defined

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28:34

One Hundred Ways of Listening

Illuminated ·

2025/01/05

Distracted, privatised, enchanted - do you ever think about how you listen? For the last 20 years, sound anthropologist Dr Tom Rice has been collecting different ways of listening from the world’s leading sound experts. He’s gathered more than 100 – some of these may be quite familiar, others will definitely surprise you. We are at a critical moment when it comes to listening. The world is increasingly busy with sound, and it’s placing more and more demands on our ears. There’s an awareness that our

en

29:31

My Night With Tracy - How the Darwin Cyclone Made a...

Illuminated ·

2024/12/30

What drives us? What makes us who we are? For one of the BBC’s most experienced foreign correspondents, the multi-award-winning Mike Thomson, it was a near-death experience in Australia’s worst natural disaster this century. Having been kicked out of school at 17 for refusing to cut his hair, Mike opts to go travelling. With an older family friend, Mick Kendall, he journeys overland from Ivybridge in Devon to Australia’s 'top end' via Turkey, Afghanistan, India, Burma and Indonesia. Mike arrives in

en

28:48

The Shipping Forecast: A Haven

Illuminated ·

2024/12/28

It's the most intimate moment of the Radio 4 schedule: The late-night Shipping Forecast, a prelude to the close-down of the station, read every night at 00:48. But who is really listening along, and why? Guided by Radio 4 Announcer Al Ryan, we'll cross the world to meet the people who find comfort in this unique broadcast for a variety of reasons.Produced by Luke Doran

en

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