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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

28:48

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

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29:05

Ceefax Strikes Back... with Count Binface

Illuminated ·

2024/12/25

Ceefax has just reached its 50th birthday, and to celebrate this unique golden anniversary, the BBC's once-mighty teletext news service is receiving the greatest gift of all - the gift of life, courtesy of the greatest novelty politician in the omniverse, Count Binface. For eight years, Binface has pledged in his election manifestos to bring back Ceefax and now, at last, the BBC is granting his wish. With just one small hitch - it's on the radio. Still, you've got to start somewhere. Featuring the

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29:17

The Horse at the Door

Illuminated ·

2024/12/22

Every year's end, as the days shorten and the nights grow darker, you might be fortunate enough to hear a distinctive knock at your door. Upon opening it, you'll be met with a group of Guisers - men in disguise - here to perform their mystery play, part of the ancient Mumming tradition. There's the Enterer In, Saint George, The Prince of Paradise, The King, The Old Woman, The Quack Doctor, Beelzebub, Little Johnny Jack with his wife on his back, Little Devilly Doubt, The Groom, and The Horse.And

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29:23

Stockport: Britain's Karaoke Town

Illuminated ·

2024/12/17

The best stories have a certain WTF factor.. a weird little fact that draws you in…something you can’t ignore because it’s so contrary to what you previously thought. So it was for Geoff Lloyd when he heard that the story that Karaoke was invented in Stockport, by a charismatic shopkeeper called Roy Brooke who claimed the Japanese adopted his discovery and marketed it around the world.Geoff’s a massive Karaoke fan and remembers his halcyon days in the 90s, judging karaoke competitions in the town

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29:12

Voices from the Bog

Illuminated ·

2024/12/01

For 2000 years beneath layer upon layer of peat, the remains of two bodies - a man and a woman - lay buried in the earth. Within 12 months of each other, they were discovered on Lindow Moss, the cut-over peat bog in Cheshire. It's now 40 years since the remains of Lindow Man were found, the best-preserved bog body ever discovered in the UK. A year before that, the skull of Lindow Woman was found, with major ramifications for a modern-day mystery. We still don’t know who these people were or in the

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29:12

Dark Crossing

Illuminated ·

2024/11/24

Mike is a carpenter, a boat builder, and a keen amateur sailor. Now, in his 60s he feels the time has come for a big adventure, so he signs on as crew for a transatlantic sailing voyage. But when the skipper turns to tyranny and his only ally on board loses touch with reality, Mike is faced with his own demons. There's no storm, no shipwreck, no sea monster - only three men trapped together, each battling for their own sanity. With only the endless sea surrounding them, Mike soon realises he is the

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29:26

The Last of the Blind Piano Tuners

Illuminated ·

2024/11/18

Composer Aidan Tulloch is fascinated by the physical process of making music – but fears he knows very little. He gains a unique insight from some of the most precise and gifted technicians in the country – members of the Association of Blind Piano Tuners. Aidan traces their journey into this field, goes along to their annual curry lunch, and finds out why the highly skilled craft of piano tuning was once a popular career for blind and partially sighted people: now their numbers are dwindling. They

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28:55

The Sun Does Shine

Illuminated ·

2024/11/10

The story of Anthony Ray Hinton who spent years on death row for crimes he didn't commit, with a soundtrack composed by Harvey Brough and performed by Vox Holloway Community Choir.In June 1988, Mr Hinton was convicted of two murders, in one of the most shockingly cynical miscarriages of justice in US history. He spent the next 28 years on death row, before all charges were dropped and he was finally released in April 2015. The Sun Does Shine is the title of his memoir, in which he tells how he found

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27:37

Reclusion

Illuminated ·

2024/10/27

Are we ever really alone nowadays, what with the extraordinary velocity of contemporary social circulation, whether this be the madness of the crowds, or the relentless churn of social media? Does anyone really experience reclusion? A conscious choice to withdraw from the social realm. What would it be like? For decades, Will Self lived his life as a very public figure. An acerbic satirist and giant man of letters he was constantly on the move, driven by his insatiable curiosity about the world. “I

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29:10

Rebirth

Illuminated ·

2024/10/20

When Clive Hammond was 31, he had a cardiac arrest. His heart stopped for eight minutes. But he can't remember any of it.What happens when the heart stops - and then what happens next?Clive sets out to piece together what happened to him. He speaks to his wife Victoria about what went on while he was unconscious, and the impact it had on their lives. He compares notes with fellow cardiac arrest survivor Meg Fozzard about what it's like to have a cardiac arrest as a young person. Former head of first

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28:49

We Are Not Alone

Illuminated ·

2024/10/13

In 1980, Prestonwood Mall in Dallas contacted the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) with a unique request. It was the opening weekend of The Empire Strikes Back, and the mall’s marketing team wanted an additional attraction. Sensing an opportunity, John P Timmerman, the owner of a family air-conditioning business in Ohio and a dedicated volunteer at CUFOS, packed his car with an eye-catching collection of UFO photographs and embarked on a cross-country journey for the weekend.What began as a simple

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29:22

The Suitcase

Illuminated ·

2024/10/06

On their last tour, the award-winning folk band The Young'uns took with them an old suitcase, some blank luggage tags and marker pens, and asked audience members to fill the case with ideas for songs. Hundreds poured in with stories of hope, remembrance, love, grief and joy. In this programme, singer-songwriter Sean Cooney opens the case to find a myriad of voices all waiting...wanting to be heard. He follows three stories of love... from a couple who found each other in their 70s through their

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29:03

Lasting Lessons

Illuminated ·

2024/09/29

Alongside their A-levels, five 17 year-olds volunteer for six months at a hospice in Surrey. These are young people who hope to work in healthcare one day and, for one reason or another, feel drawn to helping others. Their hopes and fears are similar to most people who've never been to a hospice, which includes their parents, and they have have no idea what they'll encounter. Above all, there are worries that it will be very sad, and too much for people of their age to handle.Pretty quickly, they

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29:09

A Man Without Bees

Illuminated ·

2024/09/22

Why are all the bees dying? Simon Mitambo, an expert from Kenya's so-called 'Land of Bees', travels from his own affected community to huge industrial farms in search of answers. It is a journey both planetary and personal: without bees, can Simon's world survive?Presenter: Simon MitamboProducer: Lucy Taylor Field producer: Mel Myendo Researcher: Georgie Styles Exec Producer: Dan Ashby Sound design and mixing: Jarek ZabaA Smoke Trail Production for BBC Radio 4.

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28:03

Hervé's Way: The Story of a One-legged Pilgrim

Illuminated ·

2024/09/15

Hervé lost a leg in a motorbike accident. On the eve of the operation, he made a deal with God: “If I walk again, I'll go to Santiago.” He did walk again, but not on pilgrimage. Instead, he got caught up in his business affairs, had a burn out, tried to kill himself and spent several months in a psychiatric hospital before he decided to keep his side of the bargain. He set out, with crutches and a prosthetic leg, for Santiago de Compostela, a journey of 1,920 kilometres from his home in Brittany in

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28:53

John Meagher: The Divil's Own

Illuminated ·

2024/09/12

Did you ever have a recurring dream that you think might just be a memory? Or a nightmare so vivid that it could almost be real? John Meagher has. He’s been dreaming about a group of devil worshippers who may or may not have terrorised his home town of Newry, Northern Ireland since the early 90s. John takes us on a funny, fearful and surprising journey of discovery across Northern Ireland to uncover the truth behind the story of "The Whitehoods" of Newry and discovers that the "Satanic Panic" wasn't

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28:56

Reaching for Rossini

Illuminated ·

2024/09/08

In an engaging programme full of beautiful music, Joanna Robertson eavesdrops on a cast of talented young opera singers from around the world, as they work on favourite arias to perfect the style of "bel canto" ("beautiful singing"). They have come to the bel canto summer school of the Georg Solti Accademia, in the small Italian seaside town of Castiglione della Pescaia in Tuscany. The academy was founded in memory of the legendary conductor who had his summer residence here. We listen in on the

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28:46

Brood X

Illuminated ·

2024/09/05

Every seventeen years in the eastern United States, a roaring mass of millions of black-bodied, red-eyed, thumb-length insects erupt from the ground. For a few glorious weeks the periodical cicadas cover the trees and the air vibrates with their chorus of come-hither calls. Then they leave a billion eggs to hatch and burrow into the dirt, beginning the seventeen year cycle all over again. Sing. Fly. Mate. Die. This is Brood X or the Great Eastern Brood. It’s an event which, for the residents of a

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29:22

Infinite Scroll

Illuminated ·

2024/09/01

"And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you..."Late at night, the writer, audio artist and sleep-deprived parent of a newborn, Ross Sutherland, is staring into infinity... "Usually, my phone becomes my window into a bigger world. Not just bigger- endless. Unmeasurably vast. You can scroll social media feeds forever and never hit the bottom of the chasm. I know it's objectively bad for me but I can’t stop myself. I'm craving endlessness- I need space! Vast,

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29:21

Sybil Phoenix, A Civil Life

Illuminated ·

2024/08/25

The years after Sybil Phoenix's arrival in England from British Guiana in 1956 follow a not unfamiliar pattern - trying to find a home and secure a livelihood, learning how to manage the endemic racism in Britain and, above all things, building a community.Fostering countless children, setting up the famous Moonshot youth club in south-east London and dealing with the reaction from right-wing extremists bound together her personal and public lives. In 1972 she accepted - not without controversy -

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