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Last week our @eleanormcdowall visited @royalacademyofart.thehague’s Non Linear Narrative course to run a workshop on listening and the body, translation and sonic experimentation.

Spending a joyful day with the students and Aurality and Orality lecturer, Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman - seeing their homemade radios, invented instruments - that visualised sparkling sound waves or connected you to your neighbour’s heartbeat and playful donkey puppets! As well as extra-curricular glimpses of dusk bats 🦇 and beaches (both painted and actual)

Last week our @eleanormcdowall visited @royalacademyofart.thehague’s Non Linear Narrative course to run a workshop on listening and the body, translation and sonic experimentation.

Spending a joyful day with the students and Aurality and Orality lecturer, Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman - seeing their homemade radios, invented instruments - that visualised sparkling sound waves or connected you to your neighbour’s heartbeat and playful donkey puppets! As well as extra-curricular glimpses of dusk bats 🦇 and beaches (both painted and actual)

Last week our @eleanormcdowall visited @royalacademyofart.thehague’s Non Linear Narrative course to run a workshop on listening and the body, translation and sonic experimentation.

Spending a joyful day with the students and Aurality and Orality lecturer, Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman - seeing their homemade radios, invented instruments - that visualised sparkling sound waves or connected you to your neighbour’s heartbeat and playful donkey puppets! As well as extra-curricular glimpses of dusk bats 🦇 and beaches (both painted and actual)

Last week our @eleanormcdowall visited @royalacademyofart.thehague’s Non Linear Narrative course to run a workshop on listening and the body, translation and sonic experimentation.

Spending a joyful day with the students and Aurality and Orality lecturer, Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman - seeing their homemade radios, invented instruments - that visualised sparkling sound waves or connected you to your neighbour’s heartbeat and playful donkey puppets! As well as extra-curricular glimpses of dusk bats 🦇 and beaches (both painted and actual)

Last week our @eleanormcdowall visited @royalacademyofart.thehague’s Non Linear Narrative course to run a workshop on listening and the body, translation and sonic experimentation.

Spending a joyful day with the students and Aurality and Orality lecturer, Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman - seeing their homemade radios, invented instruments - that visualised sparkling sound waves or connected you to your neighbour’s heartbeat and playful donkey puppets! As well as extra-curricular glimpses of dusk bats 🦇 and beaches (both painted and actual)

Last week our @eleanormcdowall visited @royalacademyofart.thehague’s Non Linear Narrative course to run a workshop on listening and the body, translation and sonic experimentation.

Spending a joyful day with the students and Aurality and Orality lecturer, Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman - seeing their homemade radios, invented instruments - that visualised sparkling sound waves or connected you to your neighbour’s heartbeat and playful donkey puppets! As well as extra-curricular glimpses of dusk bats 🦇 and beaches (both painted and actual)

Our current series of Afterwords concludes on @bbcradio3 tonight with an exploration of trumpet player, composer and conductor Elgar - Gary - Howarth.

One of the five musicians who constituted the ‘Manchester School’ in the 1950s (composers Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr and Peter Maxwell Davies, together with pianist John Ogdon), Elgar - or, universally, Gary - Howarth was a distinguished trumpet player with the @royalphilorchestra and, notably, the Philip Jones Ensemble before becoming a hugely respected conductor, composer and arranger.

Musical colleagues together with his son Patrick reflect on Gary’s humble origins and international achievements, interwoven with extracts from the BBC Sound Archive. With @gillianmooresoutheastlondon, formerly of the @london.sinfonietta, trumpet player @archibald.paul, trombonist David Purser, oboe player Melinda Maxwell, conductor and broadcaster @frankrentononbrass and former Musical Director of @grimethorpeband Garry Cutt.

Producer by @alanhall1964

“The first time I saw Franz Liszt, I was about seven years old, and already accustomed to seeing the spirits of the so-called dead...” - Rosemary Brown

Pick of the day in the @radiotimes, tonight’s edition of Afterwords on @bbcradio3 explores the work of Rosemary Brown.

An English musician and spirit medium Rosemary said her pieces were dictated to her by dead composers like Liszt, Beethoven, Chopin and Debussy.

In this archive-led documentary, we dive into some of the recordings from the time and hear new interviews with the composer @arcoarcoarcoarco, pianist @siwan_rhys, radio presenter and journalist @katemolleson, Spectator Arts Editor and Director of the @lcmf__, Igor Toronyi-Lalic and the radio producer Daniel Snowman who interviewed Rosemary Brown in 1969.

Image credit: Louis-Maxime-Dubois

Produced by @eleanormcdowall
Mixed by @woolleymike

Afterwords, our series which tells the stories of musicians with the help of the archive interviews they left behind, returns to @bbcradio3 tonight

Richard Rodney Bennett, who would have celebrated his 90th birthday in March 2026, has been described as the ‘complete musician’. Born into a highly musical family - his mother had studied with Gustav Holst - he was already writing film scores while a teenage student at the Royal Academy of Music. He went on to study with Boulez, perform as a jazz pianist and singer and to receive three Academy Award nominations for his film music.

He was also a lively interviewee, as revealed in the BBC Sound Archive. Here, his words interweave with new observations from jazz singing partner @clairemartinjazz pianist and film expert @neil.brand.9 biographer Anthony Meredith and musical collaborator@scottdunn3

Photo by Sven Arnstein

Produced by @alanhall1964
Mixed by @woolleymike

From the moment her dad introduced teenage @zzzakia to the music of Pentangle, she’s been on a quest for a cultural English identity to counter the political identity of nationalism. Our @bbcradio4 series My Albion was part of that quest which has now found expression in her wonderful new book. Released in time for the spring equinox! 🌱 Go and get yourself a copy! Congratulations @zzzakia!

From the moment her dad introduced teenage @zzzakia to the music of Pentangle, she’s been on a quest for a cultural English identity to counter the political identity of nationalism. Our @bbcradio4 series My Albion was part of that quest which has now found expression in her wonderful new book. Released in time for the spring equinox! 🌱 Go and get yourself a copy! Congratulations @zzzakia!

“A delight… something between a documentary jukebox and an audio seance” - pick of the day, @radiotimes

In tonight’s @bbcradio4 Archive on 4, @eleanormcdowall listens to the spirits of radio’s past and asks how our memory of radio might shape its future.

What happens to a medium that disappears into thin air?

Featuring an interview with @davidjhendy, archive from 1955 -2008 (including the Mark Burman interview featured in this clip) and original music from @philsmithreduced, with additional music by @eleanormcdowall

Mixed by @woolleymike
Exec @alanhall1964

“A delight… something between a documentary jukebox and an audio seance” - pick of the day, @radiotimes

In tonight’s @bbcradio4 Archive on 4, @eleanormcdowall listens to the spirits of radio’s past and asks how our memory of radio might shape its future.

What happens to a medium that disappears into thin air?

Featuring an interview with @davidjhendy, archive from 1955 -2008 (including the Mark Burman interview featured in this clip) and original music from @philsmithreduced, with additional music by @eleanormcdowall

Mixed by @woolleymike
Exec @alanhall1964

“This magical programme, just like the sculptures it represents, weaves into a listen that lets in light on the destructive and life-bringing nature of time” - Pick of the Day, @radiotimes

Listen to Time and the Forest, on the sculptor David Nash as he turns 80, on @bbcradio4 this afternoon (or later on @bbcsounds)

In 1977, David Nash planted a ring of ash trees near his home in North Wales. Over time, he worked with them until they formed a surreal living sculpture - the Ash Dome - a kind of whirling dance of wood, coiled into a structure and reaching up to the light.

For decades, Nash has collaborated with nature - working primarily with wood as it grows or collapses, cracks and expands. His sculptures, even the ones not rooted in the earth, often feel alive - Three Dandy Scuttlers, like a line of dancing chorus girls or Running Table, as if a deer has been frozen in motion hurtling through the forest.

In the weeks approaching his 80th birthday, we hear Nash walking through the woods near his home in Blaenau Ffestiniog, exploring the ways in which his work has grown from the distinctive landscape of this slate mining town. And we hear time collapse through the BBC archives, interweaving the present day with recordings made between 1986 and 2019 - slipping from forests to sculpture parks, radio studios to David’s own home - Capel Rhiw - a converted chapel now peopled with a congregation of vast wooden sculptures.

Time and the Forest features original music composed for the harmonium, cello and clarinet by @jeremy_warmsley

Produced by @eleanormcdowall
Mixed by @woolleymike

“A multi-layered and poignant examination of family mythology…” - @radiotimes Pick of the Week

Listen to Cannon Fodder - this Sunday’s Illuminated on @bbcradio4

Alan Hall and his siblings have a shared story from their childhoods - their mum, Jackie, describes walking through a Liverpool park with her mum, their grandma, Hettie. It must be the 1940s. Hettie is a single mum. She’d fallen pregnant, according to family mythology, while working as a domestic servant in Scotland. Jackie has had spells in foster care. “Don’t stare,” Hettie says. “Those men over there, they’re your uncles.”

Years later, after Jackie’s death, Alan finds an envelope labelled, ‘Mum’s Pics’. Inside, there are photographs of two men in military uniforms, one with ‘Fred’ written on the back, the other, of a soldier in a kilt, ‘Brother Bill’. These are Hettie’s brothers - or rather, two of them. She was the youngest of nine and the only daughter. Of the other boys, Jackie had told her children, three had been killed in the Great War. A third photograph, of the Foster family gravestone, provides their names - Harry, Sidney and Thomas, “their duty nobly done”.

Cannon Fodder traces memory, myth and meaning within one family touched by the catastrophe of World War One.

Produced by @alanhall1964
Mixed by @woolleymike

“A multi-layered and poignant examination of family mythology…” - @radiotimes Pick of the Week

Listen to Cannon Fodder - this Sunday’s Illuminated on @bbcradio4

Alan Hall and his siblings have a shared story from their childhoods - their mum, Jackie, describes walking through a Liverpool park with her mum, their grandma, Hettie. It must be the 1940s. Hettie is a single mum. She’d fallen pregnant, according to family mythology, while working as a domestic servant in Scotland. Jackie has had spells in foster care. “Don’t stare,” Hettie says. “Those men over there, they’re your uncles.”

Years later, after Jackie’s death, Alan finds an envelope labelled, ‘Mum’s Pics’. Inside, there are photographs of two men in military uniforms, one with ‘Fred’ written on the back, the other, of a soldier in a kilt, ‘Brother Bill’. These are Hettie’s brothers - or rather, two of them. She was the youngest of nine and the only daughter. Of the other boys, Jackie had told her children, three had been killed in the Great War. A third photograph, of the Foster family gravestone, provides their names - Harry, Sidney and Thomas, “their duty nobly done”.

Cannon Fodder traces memory, myth and meaning within one family touched by the catastrophe of World War One.

Produced by @alanhall1964
Mixed by @woolleymike

⭐ 2026 RPS Awards shortlist spotlight ⭐ Robben Island's Hallelujah – BBC Radio 4 / Falling Tree Productions

Shortlisted for the 2026 RPS Storytelling Award, radio documentary ‘Robben Island’s Hallelujah’ tells the story of a remarkable, little-known historical event. On that occasion, an 80-strong choir of political prisoners in South Africa’s infamous apartheid prison, Robben Island, performed Handel’s ‘Hallelujah’ chorus. Produced by Catherine Boulle with @fallingtreeproductions and broadcast on @bbcradio4, the programme combines testimony from prisoners with re-creative recordings of the piece by a choir of young singers from around Cape Town. It powerfully evokes the refuge which music brought in this harshest of places, and the hope and humanity classical music can foster.

The RPS Storytelling Award is kindly supported by @_martinrandalltravel.

The RPS Awards will be presented live at @southbankcentre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on Thursday 12 March 2026. Join us for an uplifting night celebrating all of the shortlistees and musical achievements nationwide, with live performances and special guests. Book your tickets from just £10 (plus venue fees) via the link in our bio.

⭐ 2026 RPS Awards shortlist spotlight ⭐ Robben Island's Hallelujah – BBC Radio 4 / Falling Tree Productions

Shortlisted for the 2026 RPS Storytelling Award, radio documentary ‘Robben Island’s Hallelujah’ tells the story of a remarkable, little-known historical event. On that occasion, an 80-strong choir of political prisoners in South Africa’s infamous apartheid prison, Robben Island, performed Handel’s ‘Hallelujah’ chorus. Produced by Catherine Boulle with @fallingtreeproductions and broadcast on @bbcradio4, the programme combines testimony from prisoners with re-creative recordings of the piece by a choir of young singers from around Cape Town. It powerfully evokes the refuge which music brought in this harshest of places, and the hope and humanity classical music can foster.

The RPS Storytelling Award is kindly supported by @_martinrandalltravel.

The RPS Awards will be presented live at @southbankcentre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on Thursday 12 March 2026. Join us for an uplifting night celebrating all of the shortlistees and musical achievements nationwide, with live performances and special guests. Book your tickets from just £10 (plus venue fees) via the link in our bio.

“Radio 4’s Illuminated strand is one of my life’s small pleasures; it’s on at a time �when I’m often listening to the radio, and single episode documentaries are my jam... This week’s Illuminated�, Functioning [was] touching [and] the sound work – rushing water, echoing creaks, broken chords – gave everything a creeping dread...” @msmirandasawyer @theobserveruk

Listen to Functioning, produced by @jodie__taylor, in tonight’s @bbcradio4 Illuminated

If you ask many women in recovery from alcoholism what the term ‘functioning alcoholic’ means to them, they will laugh. In truth, a large percentage of women who end up in treatment had been, to the outside world, ‘functioning’. Holding down jobs, raising children, paying their rent or mortgage. However, internally, ‘functioning’ is about the last word they would use to describe their mental and emotional landscape as alcohol increasingly tightened its grip on their lives.

Here, two women share in raw and brutally honest detail their descent into alcohol dependency, which took place incrementally, behind closed doors, and, for the most part, under the radar as they continued to appear to live regular, ‘functional’ lives.

​​Functioning offers a rare insight into the experience of leading a completely dual existence - the secrecy, the agility and the alchemy required in maintaining a ‘functioning’ exterior, while your interior is coming apart; and a lesson in how much can go undetected when you are not what the world assumes of an alcoholic.

Produced by @jodie__taylor
Mixed by @woolleymike

“Intensely powerful [and] sensitively handled by producer @jodie__taylor…” - @radiotimes Pick of the Day

Listen to ‘Functioning’ this Sunday in @bbcradio4’s Illuminated

Having used alcohol to navigate anxieties, insecurities and noisy minds, women share their experience as ‘functioning alcoholics’, an unravelling that happened slowly and in secret.

Tonight on @bbcradio4, the poet Jack Underwood offers his services as a metaphor consultant, for a very reasonable fee.

Listen live at 19.15 or catch up on the BBC’s Illuminated podcast

Featuring conversations with poet and psychoanalyst @nuaralsadir; Dr Stephen Flusberg, the Director of the Framing, Reasoning And Metaphor (FRAME) Lab at Vassar College; computer scientist Melanie Mitchell; the philosopher @nimmersein and the linguist and author of Metaphors We Live By, George Lakoff.

Presented by @jundermilkwood
Produced by @eleanormcdowall
Mixed by @woolleymike