Explore every episode of the podcast Stories to Tell in the Middle of the Night

Join Francesca to look out her kitchen window, walk round the block and hear as the view changes and buildings fall.

Join Francesca on a walk with her dog, as she tells smalls stories and tries to find a sense of what she is missing.

Enjoy stories about the strange situation we all find ourselves in now. Stories to stay home to.

In this bonus episode Francesca talks with producer Pippa Frith and sound designer Iain Armstrong about turning the theatre show Stories to Tell in the Middle of the Night into a podcast series. There are conversations about directing, editing, collaboration and whether Iain really did record the cutting his toe nails.

Day is coming, the sun is rising towards the horizon, 12 degrees to go. Shining light on the frustrations and the urges and the loves and the lost as it leaves other places to darkness on the other side of the horizon. The night lingering.

We’ve had the darkest time of night and now she, the sun is moving upwards; little bits of light rising in the atmosphere, the day is coming, there is no stopping the inevitability of it breaking.

Tonight it’s the Horrors (not the mid-noughties indie rock band, but the night chills, the night sweats, Witching Hour). Wherever you are, let's say it's way past our bedtime, the sun is more than 18 degrees below the horizon, the darkest time, the night proper. Street lights perhaps, make shadows through cracks in curtains, things come half formed, cupboards and shelves looming with hands outstretched. Aches and creaks sound as footsteps. Coming...

The Night Belongs to Lovers, so we are wrapped up and in the comfort of familiar arms, safety in another's breath... stories of finding each other in a potent sense of smell, original ways to measure time together and a man with his eye on a match made.

The night time can be the right time for hookups and booty calls, last minute love-ins and for finally doing something x-rated with that one person you'd kept on the back burner. Even though you shouldn't have. But really you should.

This set of stories is the Losses part 2: The Lost and the Left Behinds. The ghosts that come crowding in, crawling up the covers and sticking their fingers in your ears. We'll hear about a last act of kindness intended for the left behind and someone trying to lose themselves just to prove a point.

This week, the Found and Lost: the ghosts that come crawling in at night, the people, the things we have lost. We'll be hearing stories from people who have found a way to combat loss, found sleep, or something they never really wanted.

In this set of stories, it’s the frustrations we're looking at; the things that churn around your brain to stop you sleeping, the indignations we invent about others who cut in and cut up.

From dancing under disco lights to blood on the pavement, with the watchers and the shakers in between, here's some stories as an ode to nights out, your first one, the regular ones, the ones that don't end as they should.

An introduction to Stories to Tell in the Middle of the Night, written and performed by Francesca Millican-Slater.