Illuminated – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

Illuminated

BBC Radio 4

Society & Culture

Frequency: 1 episode/8d. Total Eps: 38

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 the art and inventiveness of the very best programme makers. Just press the switch.

New episodes are available weekly on Sunday evenings. Subscribe on BBC Sounds to make sure you don't miss an episode.

Read moreCollapse

Site

RSS

Apple

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

🇬🇧 Great Britain - societyAndCulture
23/02/2025
#86
🇬🇧 Great Britain - societyAndCulture
22/02/2025
#64
🇬🇧 Great Britain - societyAndCulture
21/02/2025
#78

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.

See all

No links shared by this podcast

RSS feed quality and score

Technical evaluation of the podcast's RSS feed quality and structure.

See all

RSS feed quality

To improve

Score global : 49%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

Recent episodes with titles, durations, and descriptions.

See all

Bellboy

Sunday, February 9, 2025 • Duration 28:23

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 project that would span the length and breadth of the UK. His Time and Tide Bells project is a monumental work of both sculpture and social enterprise, 13 massive bells mounted along the British shoreline, each one ringing out twice a day with the tide and telling a unique story about its surrounding community. In Harwich a teacher uses the bell as a catalyst for marine biology lessons. In Aberdyfi, a town on the verge of collapse, their bell might just pull a disintegrated community back together. And in Par, their bell is facilitating conversations between generations that were once impossible.

But closer to home, Marcus faces an urgent challenge. The church bells in the village of Highampton - the ones whose sound signalled the end of the Foot and Mouth outbreak - are under threat. In a story that is common across the country, the church has seen a steep decline in use and has become redundant. The tower is crumbling, and if the tower goes, the bells go too.

Aside from their personal connection to Marcus, these bells have historic significance, dating as they do from between 1200 and 1500 AD. Marcus is determined to save them, but the forces of bureaucracy are against him.

We follow Marcus on his quest to save the Highampton Bells and learn about the lives he has touched through the bells he created.

A Sound & Bones production for BBC Radio 4

Read moreCollapse

Scattering

Sunday, February 2, 2025 • Duration 29:06

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 tube of John Dee's cremated remains travels in the passenger seat, safely buckled up. Then at each place, some of the contents are decanted into an recycle Indian Takeaway container for the act itself.

They are cast into the wind from the top of Dunkery Beacon on Exmoor, from a bridge over the River Horner nearby. A pot of ashes is put into a paper boat as an attempt to sail John out to sea from Madbrain Sands in Minehead.

Then to Bristol. To the family home on Sion Hill to remember domestic rancour between father and mother. And below the bridge over the Avon Gorge, a place of profound early trauma for son Tim.

All this is set to a soundtrack of remembrance on the car stereo with songs from The Beach Boys, Julie Andrews, Taylor Swift and the recorded memories of Tim's father from a conversation they had 20 years before his death.

Presenter: Tim Dee Producer: Alastair Laurence Executive Producer: David Prest A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

Read moreCollapse

Stockport: Britain's Karaoke Town

Tuesday, December 17, 2024 • Duration 29:23

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 with his friend Caroline Aherne, so he sets off on a quest to get to the bottom of this tale; a quest that sees him chat to Stockport hitmakers Blossoms, comedy writing legend Craig Cash and a Japanese academic said to have backed up Roy's crazy claim.

On the way he discovers a town so in love with Karaoke that it's home to the country's only dedicated league, a secretive world jampacked with big voices and human drama. 12 pub teams meet every Monday for chance to be champions of the New Stockport Fun Karaoke League. But have some of the teams starting taking it too seriously and forgotten about the fun?

Will Geoff track down Roy Brooke and hear his side of the story and find out why Karaoke has taken root so strongly in Stockport?

Presenter: Geoff Lloyd Producer: Catherine Murray Additional recording by George Herd Production Co-ordination: Mica Nepomuceno Studio mix: Nat Stokes Executive Producer: Richard McIlroy

Featuring Blossoms, Craig Cash, Professor Hiroshi Ogawa, and Matt Alt, author of Pure Invention: How Japanese Culture Conquered the World.

Special thanks to the Blossoms Bees and The Barnhouse teams and all the members of the New Stockport Karaoke Fun League

Read moreCollapse

Voices from the Bog

Sunday, December 1, 2024 • Duration 29:12

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 case of Lindow Man, why he met his violent death. Was it ritual sacrifice to the gods, private scores settled or a public execution?

Their spirits remain in the place of their burial - a small corner of Cheshire filled with myth, mystery and history. Together with one of the original peat cutters at that time, the first journalist on the site, a professor of pre-history, a conservator and material from archive, we tell the story of this remarkable archaeological discovery.

And a slight twist - listening in on proceedings are Lindow Man and Lindow Woman. What might they make of the celebrations around the anniversary of the bodies in the bog?

Contributors: Melanie Giles Professor in European Prehistory, University of Manchester; Stephen Dooley, former peat cutter; Rachel Pugh, writer and journalist; Velson Horie, conservation consultant and the late Rick Turner (archive) former County Archaeologist, Cheshire. Lindow Man is played by Fisayo Akinawe and Lindow Woman by Eve Shotton.

Produced and written by Geoff Bird Executive Producer: Mel Harris Sound Engineer: Eloise Whitmore Music composed & performed by Laetitia Stott & mixed and mastered by Geoff Southall A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4

Read moreCollapse

Dark Crossing

Sunday, November 24, 2024 • Duration 29:12

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 only one who can pull the crew and himself out of a very dangerous place. Will he surrender to the dark line that runs through all of us?

Produced by Guy Natanel Executive Producers: Shannon Delwiche and Chris Jones Original Music by Pat Moran

A Sound and Bones production for BBC Radio 4

Read moreCollapse

The Last of the Blind Piano Tuners

Monday, November 18, 2024 • Duration 29:26

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 also reflect on how we listen to and perceive sound and music, and the joy it brings.

Presenter: Aidan Tulloch Producers: Maryam Maruf and Emily Webb Editor: John Goudie Mix: Giles Aspen

(Photo: Piano tuner Martin Locke tuning a piano. Credit: Maryam Maruf)

Read moreCollapse

The Sun Does Shine

Sunday, November 10, 2024 • Duration 28:55

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 life and freedom on death row. His story reflects the compassion, faith and heroic courage of a remarkable man. In prison he befriended Henry Hays, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, who was convicted and eventually executed for a racist murder.

The unlikely friendship of Hinton and Hays lies at the heart of this story.

The Sun Does Shine features an extended interview with Hinton, in which he talks about how he survived years of imprisonment, facing the constant threat of execution, and how the multiple appeals launched by his lawyer Bryan Stevenson ultimately led to his release.

His words are accompanied by an oratorio composed by Harvey Brough, based on Hinton's memoir and performed by the Vox Holloway Community Choir. Vox Holloway’s work on The Sun Does Shine was supported by Arts Council England

Since leaving prison, Anthony Ray Hinton has worked tirelessly, alongside Bryan Stevenson, campaigning for the abolition of the death penalty and for reforms to the criminal justice and prison systems in America PRESENTER: Christina Gill PRODUCERS: Abigail Morris and Sam Liebmann with Osman Teezo Kargbo COMPOSER: Harvey Brough EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Andrew Wilkie and Tricia Zipfel A Vox Holloway / Prison Radio Association production

Read moreCollapse

Reclusion

Sunday, October 27, 2024 • Duration 27:37

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 once flew to Scotland, climbed Ben Lomond, and flew back to London the same day”.

In a series of powerful soliloquies, Self reveals how he’s gradually withdrawn from the social realm. He began by abandoning acquaintances and remoter colleagues, then started cutting off friends, close colleagues, and eventually family.

“It’s been over a year since I’ve read a newspaper report, looked at a news website, or heard more than a three-minute news bulletin. Most days I see only my wife and youngest child who I live with.”

In this powerful piece of radio, Will Self reaches down to the very bottom of how the self is socially constructed – and then dismantles that scaffolding from around it, to see what’s still standing.

A half-hour that will leave the listener feeling as if they’ve been staring at their reflection for so long in a mirror, that this image appears totally uncanny to them.

Presenter: Will Self Producer: Emily Williams

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

Read moreCollapse

Rebirth

Sunday, October 20, 2024 • Duration 29:10

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 responders at London Ambulance Chris Hartley-Sharpe tells him what goes on in the body during a cardiac arrest, and how they can affect medical professionals afterwards. And he hears the incredible story of Steve Morris, who started carrying a defibrillator in his car after having a cardiac arrest - and then used it to help save someone else's life.

Presenter: Clive Hammond Producer: Lucy Burns Editor: Clare Fordham Technical production: Richard Hannaford

Read moreCollapse

We Are Not Alone

Sunday, October 13, 2024 • Duration 28:49

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 photography exhibit turned into a 12year research expedition across the malls of America.

In front of plexiglass panels, between the skylights and shiny floors, Timmerman interviewed curious shoppers with stories to tell. What he captured on his small tape recorder was the “raw material of ufology” - candid, first-hand accounts of strange lights, silver discs, and close encounters.

Between 1980 and 1992, Timmerman recorded 1,179 witness reports across 120 tapes that cover every aspect of the UFO phenomena. The collection is considered one of the largest ever put together by a single investigator.

John P Timmerman spent years travelling far from his quiet family life in the Midwest searching for insights into our place in the universe. What he found, among the hum of escalators and muzak, was connection - or ‘contact’ - with thousands of ordinary people, all searching for the same thing.

Produced, Edited & Sound Designed by Oliver Sanders Archive Digitisation & Co-Production by James Timmerman Executive Producer: Lucia Scazzocchio Special thanks to Dr Mark Rodeghier, Dr Michael Swords, Dr Michael West, The Center For UFO Studies, The Timmerman Family, Dominic De Vere, Francesca Thakorlal, Ben Plumb, Hannah Kemp-Welch.

A Social Broadcasts production for BBCRadio 4

Read moreCollapse

Illuminated – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Illuminated – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities