Pennine Productions programmes on BBC Radio -- forthcoming programmes

Pennine Productions partners:

Mark Whitaker producer & presenter credits

click for Janet Graves, Mike Hally, or Clare Jenkins

latest programmes first (click on any title for more details)

149: Stunned to Death
first broadcast: Saturday, January 01, 2011	21:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
(to add, tx between October and December)
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148: A Brave Medical Life
first broadcast: Friday, December 10, 2010	11:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
(to add)
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147: The New MBAs (2)
first broadcast: Monday, November 22, 2010	11:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mike Hally
(to add)
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146: The New MBAs (1)
first broadcast: Monday, November 15, 2010	11:00 Radio	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mike Hally
(to add)
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145: The War is Not Over
first broadcast: Sunday, November 14, 2010	11:45 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mike Hally
(to add)
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144: William Quilliam
first broadcast: Wednesday, October 20, 2010	11:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
(to add)
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143: Britain on the Bottle (10)
first broadcast: Friday, July 30, 2010	15:45 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
The ‘Drink Question’; Past and Present To round off his history series on the politics of alcohol Mark Whitaker talks to Britain’s leading historians on the subject, asking them how the past can inform present policy.
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142: Britain on the Bottle (9)
first broadcast: Thursday, July 29, 2010	15:45 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
The Doctors Take Over: Continuing his series on the politics of alcohol in Britain Mark Whitaker looks at how and why the NHS, in the 1960s, embarked on the hospital treatment of alcoholics.
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141: Britain on the Bottle (8)
first broadcast: Wednesday, July 28, 2010	Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
The Improved Pub: Mark Whitaker’s series on the politics of alcohol reaches the 1920s. With consumption falling, and nationalisation threatened, the industry invested heavily in ‘improved pubs’.
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140: Britain on the Bottle (7)
first broadcast: Tuesday, July 27, 2010	15:45 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
The Central Control Board: Continuing his series on the politics of the ‘Drink Question’ Mark Whitaker looks at the Central Control Board, set up in 1915 to run some of the liquor trade for the state.
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139: Britain on the Bottle (6)
first broadcast: Monday, July 26, 2010	15:45 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
‘Habitual Drunkards’ and the Asylum: As part of his history series on the politics of alcohol Mark Whitaker looks at the late C19th panic over ‘habitual drunkards’, when special asylums were built for them.
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138: Britain on the Bottle (5)
first broadcast: Friday, July 23, 2010	Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
Political Thinkers and the Drink Question Continuing his history series on the politics of alcohol Mark Whitaker shows how for John Stuart Mill and T.H. Green the ‘Drink Question’ raised the central dilemmas of liberalism.
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137: Britain on the Bottle (4)
first broadcast: Thursday, July 22, 2010	15:45 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
The 1872 Licensing Act and the Challenge of Temperance At the General Election of 1872 one of the most divisive issues between the parties was drink. Mark Whitaker shows how the temperance movement had got a grip on political life.
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136: Britain on the Bottle (3)
first broadcast: Wednesday, July 21, 2010	15:45 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
The Beer Act, 1830 Continuing his series on the politics of alcohol, Mark Whitaker explains why in 1830 the British government thought easier access to beer would solve the problem of drunkenness.
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135: Britain on the Bottle (2)
first broadcast: Tuesday, July 20, 2010	15:45 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
The Gin Act, 1736 Continuing his narrative history series Mark Whitaker explores the eighteenth century Gin Craze, the response to it of Defoe and Fielding, and what the authorities did.
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134: Britain on the Bottle (1)
first broadcast: Monday, July 19, 2010	15:45 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
King James 1: Drunkenness “is not one sin, but all sins”, said a preacher in 1624. Mark Whitaker begins his history series on the politics of alcohol with King James I’s campaign against it.
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132: Geo-engineering the Climate
first broadcast: Wednesday, March 10, 2010	21:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mike Hally	Artist's impression of Roger Angel's proposed 'solar shield' spacecraft
Following December's climate conference in Copenhagen the world is now committed to holding global warming to a maximum of 2 degrees centigrade -- in theory. But without a binding treaty to curb carbon emissions, there's growing interest in "geoengineering" as a kind of insurance policy against the possibility that the worst predictions of some climate scientists come true. Mark Whitaker reports on research in key centres in Britain and the USA into ways of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the earth -- and on the massive technical, financial and political hurdles they face.
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131: Textbook Diplomacy (2)
first broadcast: Wednesday, February 03, 2010	10:00 World Service	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
In Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia historians are struggling to produce school textbooks that will help overcome deep-seated misunderstandings and hatreds between neighbouring states. This week -- Europe
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130: Textbook Diplomacy (1)
first broadcast: Wednesday, January 27, 2010	10:00 World Service	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
In Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia historians are struggling to produce school textbooks that will help overcome deep-seated misunderstandings and hatreds between neighbouring states. This week - South Africa
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129: Poppies are Red, Cornflowers are Blue
first broadcast: Sunday, November 08, 2009	11:45 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mike Hally
The fourth in our series of annual ¼ -hour vignettes for Remembrance Sunday. It's not just how the Poppy became the symbol of remembrance in Britain - though that is a fascinating story, rarely told in full - but also a deeper analysis of why it rapidly became such a strong and enduring symbol, to the point where some fear it is becoming over-exploited. Plus a look at France's rather less ubiquitous flower of remembrance, the blue cornflower, and through these symbols an insight into the two countries' different approaches to remembering those who have died in conflicts past.
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126: The Manuscript Hunter
first broadcast: Wednesday, May 13, 2009	11:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
Over the past twenty years the archives of many of the U.K.’s most important living writers have ended up in America, bought for the University of Texas at Austin by Thomas Staley. Mark Whitaker profiles a remarkable and controversial man, and reports on efforts to stop the continuing export of our literary heritage.
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125: Anthropology at War
first broadcast: Friday, April 24, 2009	11:02 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
The US Army has introduced a scheme which ‘embeds’ anthropologists with military units in Iraq and Afghanistan : the aim is to make military decisions more ‘culturally informed’, but the scheme’s caused a furore in the academic community.
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124: William Hazlitt, Philosopher (5)
first broadcast: Friday, March 06, 2009	23:00 Radio 3	presenter: Jonathan Ree	producer: Mark Whitaker
William Hazlitt is recognised as a founder of English literary criticism and a magnificent exponent of the art of the essay. But he spent the first half of his career grappling with abstract questions in philosophy, and these 15-minute talks evoke and celebrate Hazlitt’s work as a philosopher, and show how it helped shape the celebrated ‘familiar style’ of his later essays. Five: Acquaintance with Poets
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123: William Hazlitt, Philosopher (4)
first broadcast: Thursday, March 05, 2009	23:00 Radio 3	presenter: Jonathan Ree	producer: Mark Whitaker
William Hazlitt is recognised as a founder of English literary criticism and a magnificent exponent of the art of the essay. But he spent the first half of his career grappling with abstract questions in philosophy, and these 15-minute talks evoke and celebrate Hazlitt’s work as a philosopher, and show how it helped shape the celebrated ‘familiar style’ of his later essays. Four: a Metaphysical Discovery
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122: William Hazlitt, Philosopher (3)
first broadcast: Wednesday, March 04, 2009	23:00 Radio 3	presenter: Jonathan Ree	producer: Mark Whitaker
William Hazlitt is recognised as a founder of English literary criticism and a magnificent exponent of the art of the essay. But he spent the first half of his career grappling with abstract questions in philosophy, and these 15-minute talks evoke and celebrate Hazlitt’s work as a philosopher, and show how it helped shape the celebrated ‘familiar style’ of his later essays. Three: the Fate of Modern Philosophy
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121: William Hazlitt, Philosopher (2)
first broadcast: Tuesday, March 03, 2009	23:00 Radio 3	presenter: Jonathan Ree	producer: Mark Whitaker
William Hazlitt is recognised as a founder of English literary criticism and a magnificent exponent of the art of the essay. But he spent the first half of his career grappling with abstract questions in philosophy, and these 15-minute talks evoke and celebrate Hazlitt’s work as a philosopher, and show how it helped shape the celebrated ‘familiar style’ of his later essays. Two: William Hazlitt Snr
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120: William Hazlitt, Philosopher (1)
first broadcast: Monday, March 02, 2009	23:00 Radio 3	presenter: Jonathan Ree	producer: Mark Whitaker
William Hazlitt is recognised as a founder of English literary criticism and a magnificent exponent of the art of the essay. But he spent the first half of his career grappling with abstract questions in philosophy, and these 15-minute talks evoke and celebrate Hazlitt’s work as a philosopher, and show how it helped shape the celebrated ‘familiar style’ of his later essays. One: Winterslow
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119: The Menin Gate
first broadcast: Sunday, November 09, 2008	11:45 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mike Hally
The Menin Gate in the little Belgian city of Ypres is an extraordinary symbol of remembrance - the Last Post has sounded every night since 1929 (bar WW2) and it's the most visited site on the Western Front. This is a little cameo for Remembrance Day, following ''the Roots of the British Legion'' last year and ''the Roots of Remembrance Day'' the year before.
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117: Textbook Diplomacy
first broadcast: Monday, September 08, 2008	11:02 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
Across Europe school history textbooks are being used to build bridges over deep fault lines of nationalist hatred or suspicion; but while it's proved easy enough to create a joint Franco-German textbook, the task is both more difficult and more urgent in a country such as Bosnia.
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116: The Strange Story of Oliver Cromwell's Head
first broadcast: Wednesday, September 03, 2008	11:02 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
September 3rd 2008 will mark the 350th anniversary of Oliver Cromwell’s death : but his severed head was only finally put to rest in 1960. This is the extraordinary story of what happened to it.
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115: Peer Review in the Dock
first broadcast: Monday, August 04, 2008	21:02 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mike Hally
¨Peer Review¨ is supposed to be the ¨gold standard¨ of quality control for research projects and academic studies, yet evidence of its many deficiencies has been building up for over 20 years. That knowledge has been confined to the academic world until recently but now peer review’s tarnished image is being revealed to a wider audience. Rightly so, because this is no academic argument – hen it comes to medicine, inadequate peer review of proposed new drugs and other treatments can be literally a matter of life and death.
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114: Olympic Arts
first broadcast: Monday, July 21, 2008	11:02 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
It was called the ‘Pentathlon of the Muses’, and at each Olympic Games between 1912 and 1948 there were medals for architecture, sculpture, painting, music and literature. But most serious artists are not ‘amateurs’, so these forgotten and controversial contests were eventually brought to an end. Preview picture (right) copyright Mark Whitaker
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112: North African Short Stories (5): You Taught Me To Love Life, Father
first broadcast: Friday, May 09, 2008	15:30 Radio 4	presenter: Youssef Kerkour	producer: Mark Whitaker, Mike Hally, Gillian Hush
Written by Arousia Naluti: what his wife’s pain in childbirth teaches a young Tunisian man about his country
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111: North African Short Stories (4): Provisions of Sand
first broadcast: Thursday, May 08, 2008	15:30 Radio 4	presenter: Sherif Eltayeb	producer: Mark Whitaker, Mike Hally, Gillian Hush
Written by Said al-Kafrawi: an Egyptian man is ambushed by the past when he returns to the village of his childhood.
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110: North African Short Stories (3): If She Comes
first broadcast: Wednesday, May 07, 2008	15:30 Radio 4	presenter: William El-Gardi	producer: Mark Whitaker, Mike Hally, Gillian Hush
Written by Tayib Saleh: a trio of middle-class young people fantasise that opening a travel agency will allow them to escape from their own culture in Sudan.
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109: North African Short Stories (2): The Furnace
first broadcast: Tuesday, May 06, 2008	15:30 Radio 4	presenter: Alia Alzougbi	producer: Mark Whitaker, Mike Hally, Gillian Hush
Written by Rachida el-Charni: the degradations of work in a foreign-owned textile factory as experienced by a young Tunisian woman.
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108: North African Short Stories (1): The Crop
first broadcast: Monday, May 05, 2008	15:30 Radio 4	presenter: Essam Edriss	producer: Mark Whitaker, Mike Hally, Gillian Hush
Written by Gamal el-Ghitani: an Egyptian farmer is dazzled by a proffered deal from a glitzy international hotel; his sons don’t trust it at all.
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107: Creative Writing Groups (5)
first broadcast: Friday, February 22, 2008	15:30 Radio 4	presenter: Delia Corrie	producer: Mark Whitaker
"Rowing Upriver from Bridge Cottage", written by Lesley Jackson of Sheffield Hallam University Short Story Group, shines a light on a long marriage through a river journey with changes of direction, arguments over destinations and the occasional sudden squall.
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104: Creative Writing Groups (2)
first broadcast: Tuesday, February 19, 2008	15:30 Radio 4	presenter: Rod Arthur	producer: Mark Whitaker
"St John the Better", written by Celia Burney of Hexham Writers, is set outside an abandoned tower block, where a group of local lads have set up an unorthodox clubhouse. When they reluctantly report a strange wailing noise coming from an upstairs window, their action has unexpected consequences.
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102: The Roots of the British Legion
first broadcast: Sunday, November 11, 2007	11:45 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mike Hally
It seems like the Royal British Legion has always been with us -- synonymous with Remembrance Day, red poppies and be-medalled veterans parading with quiet dignity past cenotaphs in London and around the country. Yet it grew out of an assortment of rival ex-services associations that themselves arose from the awful experience of 'total war' and the country's poor treatment of returning soldiers. These new groups were quite different from the traditional Victorian philanthropic charities that had previously looked after their welfare, for these were self-help groups and they asserted their rights rather than asking for charity.
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101: Occupation
first broadcast: Friday, July 20, 2007	11:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
An examination of the Bush Administration's claim that the post-WW2 occupations of Japan and Germany are a good historical analogy for the occupation of Iraq today.
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100: Danger Fuels (Guatemala)
first broadcast: Wednesday, June 13, 2007	00:01 World Service	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
Second and final part of a series for 'One Planet' about the health and development implications surrounding household energy and domestic smoke in the developing world. Smoke inhalation kills more people that malaria according to the WHO
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96: Danger Fuels (Nepal)
first broadcast: Wednesday, June 06, 2007	00:01 World Service	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker	Open fire indoors
A series for 'One Planet' about the health and development implications surrounding household energy and domestic smoke in the developing world. Smoke inhalation kills more people that malaria according to the WHO.
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90: Don Bradman - Myth, Reality, Commodity
first broadcast: Monday, December 25, 2006	22:15 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
A myth has been constructed that makes Don Bradman the 'ideal Australian' - but it doesn't bear much relation to the real country or to what's becoming known about the real man.
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89: The Roots of Remembrance Day
first broadcast: Sunday, November 12, 2006	11:45 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mike Hally
The ingredients of the Remembrance Day service – the Cenotaph, the Last Post, the two-minute silence, the marching veterans and the laying of wreaths – have been in place since just after World War I. But how did this enduring ceremony, so moving in its simplicity and so widely copied in local commemorations in the UK and around the world, come about in the first place? This programme reveals the surprising origins and evolution of Remembrance Day, including the protests that greeted it in some parts of the country in its first year.
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81: Return of the First Cuckoo
first broadcast: Friday, August 11, 2006	15:45 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Janet Graves
Return of the First Cuckoo celebrates the nature diaries kept by Radio 4 listeners and others and which came to light after the broadcast of the First Cuckoo and the Last Swallow in August 2005.
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80: Squatters' Paradise
first broadcast: Wednesday, August 02, 2006	11:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
Lack of housing was perhaps the most urgent social problem facing post-war Britain. In the summer of 1946 tens of thousands of people took the situation - and the law - into their own hands, squatting first military camps and then luxury flats and hotels in London. Those still alive tell what happened and how the authorities responded.
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74: Creative Writing Groups (5): 'Water Mouse'
first broadcast: Friday, June 23, 2006	15:30 Radio 4	presenter: Angela Mounsey	producer: Gillian Hush/Mark Whitaker/Mike Hally
A week of readings highlighting the best work from Creative Writing Groups in the North of England. Over 250 groups were invited to submit their best two stories, on any theme. This selection is the pick of more than 130 stories submitted. Today's story is “Water Mouse” by Maureen Fenton, Clitheroe Writing Group, read by Angela Mounsey
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73: Creative Writing Groups (4): 'Whitby Pier'
first broadcast: Thursday, June 22, 2006	15:30 Radio 4	presenter: Emma Lowndes	producer: Gillian Hush/Mark Whitaker/Mike Hally
A week of readings highlighting the best work from Creative Writing Groups in the North of England. Over 250 groups were invited to submit their best two stories, on any theme. This selection is the pick of more than 130 stories submitted. Today's story is “Whitby Pier” by Mary C Clarke, Airedale Writers Circle, read by Emma Lowndes
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72: Creative Writing Groups (3): 'Working From Home'
first broadcast: Wednesday, June 21, 2006	15:30 Radio 4	presenter: David Fleeshman	producer: Gillian Hush/Mark Whitaker/Mike Hally
A week of readings highlighting the best work from Creative Writing Groups in the North of England. Over 250 groups were invited to submit their best two stories, on any theme. This selection is the pick of more than 130 stories submitted. Today's story is “Working from Home” by Iris Woodford, Lancaster Writers, read by David Fleeshman
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71: Creative Writing Groups (2): 'Old Blood'
first broadcast: Tuesday, June 20, 2006	15:30 Radio 4	presenter: Carol McGuigan	producer: Gillian Hush/Mark Whitaker/Mike Hally
A week of readings highlighting the best work from Creative Writing Groups in the North of England. Over 250 groups were invited to submit their best two stories, on any theme. This selection is the pick of more than 130 stories submitted. Today's story is “Old Blood” by Christiane Algar, Alnwick Playhouse Writers Group, read by Carol McGuigan
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70: Creative Writing Groups (1): 'Squirrels'
first broadcast: Monday, June 19, 2006	15:30 Radio 4	presenter: Barbara Marten	producer: Gillian Hush/Mark Whitaker/Mike Hally
A week of readings highlighting the best work from Creative Writing Groups in the North of England. Over 250 groups were invited to submit their best two stories, on any theme. This selection is the pick of more than 130 stories submitted. The first story is “Squirrels” by Karen Whitchurch, of the Hornsea Writers, read by Barbara Marten
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68: I'm Afraid You'll Have to Give That Back
first broadcast: Thursday, April 13, 2006	11:30 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
An insight into the secretive work of the Spoliation Advisory Panel - a small team of academics and art historians who advise government - and British galleries and museums - in relation to claims that works held in this country were looted during the Nazi era and should be returned to their rightful owners.
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67: What is it about the Maghreb?
first broadcast: Tuesday, January 24, 2006	20:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
The North African countries of Morocco and Tunisia are both celebrating fifty years of independence from French colonial rule. They're two of the most pro-western states in the Arab world and both claim to be on the road to political democracy. Yet young Moroccans and Tunisians are prominent among those accused of involvement in Islamic terror groups in western Europe. Mark Whitaker investigates.
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66: Radio Ramadan
first broadcast: Friday, November 18, 2005	11:02 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
Dozens of local 'Radio Ramadans' across the UK provide a unique insight into how our Muslim communities see themselves, and their relationship with the wider worlds of Islam and British culture. The programme will follow the build-up to Ramadan in two communities. It will talk to those who broadcast, and those who they broadcast about. It will provide an immediate insight into the meanings - and joys - of Ramadan itself, while providing a month-long self-portrait of Muslim communities in a Britain that is so profoundly mistrustful of them.
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65: Get Rid of that Constable, I Want a Hockney
first broadcast: Monday, September 05, 2005	11:30 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
Come with us into the little-known world and work of the Government Art Collection - Whenever a government minister resigns or gets the sack, or whenever a British Ambassador moves on, it's all hands on deck at an unmarked building somewhere near Tottenham Court Road. This is the HQ of the Government Art Collection (GAC), whose 6000 works - paintings, sculptures, photographs - adorn ministerial and ambassadorial walls in the UK and around the world.
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64: A Burning Issue (2): India
first broadcast: Thursday, August 25, 2005	10:05 World Service	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
Fires have been burning for up to ninety years under the ground in India's largest coalfield. Smoke seeps from the ground, making it the unhealthiest place in the country for up to a million people. In places fire breaks through the surface, consuming homes. In the USA whole towns have been abandoned -- one after a 12 year old boy was almost swallowed up by a hole caused by a mine fire, and a whole family was lucky to escape carbon monoxide poisoning.
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63: A Burning Issue (1): USA
first broadcast: Thursday, August 18, 2005	10:05 World Service	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
Fires have been burning for up to ninety years under the ground in India's largest coalfield. Smoke seeps from the ground, making it the unhealthiest place in the country for up to a million people. In places fire breaks through the surface, consuming homes. In the USA whole towns have been abandoned -- one after a 12 year old boy was almost swallowed up by a hole caused by a mine fire, and a whole family was lucky to escape carbon monoxide poisoning.
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62: The First Cuckoo and the Last Swallow
first broadcast: Tuesday, August 02, 2005	11:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
A programme about amateur nature-watchers around Britain whose meticulous private records are now being collated to provide startling evidence for how our climate is changing.
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56: Coming Out of the Woodwork
first broadcast: Tuesday, May 17, 2005	13:30 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
(details to be added)
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55: How Long is this Piece of String?
first broadcast: Monday, May 02, 2005	14:45 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Janet Graves
Taking a single piece of string to notable individuals and asking them to gauge it’s measurement by sight - Mark Whitaker discovers the varying measurement skills of contemporary generations and professions.
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49: The Englishman Who Ran across America
first broadcast: Monday, April 11, 2005	20:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
Peter Gavuzzi was probably Britain's greatest ever distance runner, but he's been forgotten - because he was a working class professional. This is the story of his taking part in the two 'Bunion Derbys' across America in 1928 and 1929.
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48: After the Silver
first broadcast: Thursday, February 03, 2005	20:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Janet Graves
Mark Whitaker presents a programme about the changes that have swept the oldest boxing club in the country since Amir won the medal at Athens.
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47: Who Was Wenceslas, and Who Decided he was Good?
first broadcast: Wednesday, December 22, 2004	15:45 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
St.Wenceslas, King of Bohemia in the early 10th century, is the greatest of all Czech national heroes. And when a Victorian cleric wrote a carol about him in 1853 it was a pointed political gesture.
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46: The Cutteslowe Walls
first broadcast: Wednesday, November 10, 2004	11:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
Between 1934 and 1959 a middle-class community in North Oxford shielded itself from the working-class next door behind seven foot high walls. Those who grew up in their shadow tell the story.
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40: Red Games
first broadcast: Friday, August 13, 2004	11:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker	1930s Workers Olympiad, picture courtesy Peoples History Museum in Manchester, photographer unknown
The International Olympic Committee has done its best to portray the 'official' Olympics as the only Games on offer since 1896. Not so. Between the wars rival 'Workers Olympics' attracted more athletes and more spectators. They were the centrepieces of the socialist sports movement that thrived across Europe, and which regarded the Olympic Games as a propaganda tool of aristocrats, business leaders and the far right. Using testimony from some who took part, this programme retrieves a lost chapter in the political history of sport.
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38: Conversations with Gandhi
first broadcast: Friday, May 07, 2004	11:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
For most of the time between 1906 and 1914 a young Englishwoman by the name of Millie Graham Polak, together with her husband, shared the same house in South Africa as Mahatma Gandhi and his family; she and Gandhi talked about everything under the sun, and Millie wrote down their conversations, later publishing them in a small book. This programme recreates those revealing exchanges.
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36: The Jewish Dickens -- Israel Zangwill
first broadcast: Sunday, January 25, 2004	21:45 Radio 3	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
Israel Zangwill has largely been forgotten ; but from the early 1890s until his death in 1926 he was a giant figure in the English literary landscape. He made his name with Children of the Ghetto in 1892 – a panoramic novel about the life of the Jewish poor in the East End of London. And for thirty years Zangwill mixed his life as a writer with one as a political activist. He was an ardent and controversial Zionist - opposing Palestine as the location for a Jewish homeland – as well a pacifist and supporter of women’s suffrage. In this programme Mark Whitaker assesses Zangwill as both a literary and political figure.
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35: Dig Here
first broadcast: Saturday, December 20, 2003	15:30 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Janet Graves
For six weeks every summer, John and Ann Hearle's large hill top cottage garden is taken over by a group of professional and amateur archeologists. This year they make an important discovery which proves that their garden in the village of Mellor, on the border between Derbyshire and Cheshire, has had a community living there for three thousand years. Presenter Mark Whitaker joins archeologists and their amateur helpers, on this year's Mellor dig.
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34: The Land of the Oval Ball
first broadcast: Monday, October 13, 2003	20:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
There are eight major rugby nations in the world ; and seven of them are either part of the UK or former British colonies. The odd-country out is France. Yet the game is as much the national sport for the French as it is for New Zealanders and white South Africans. Reporting from l'Ovalie - which is how many refer to the rugby heartland of south-west France - this programme explores how and why this came about.
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30: Israel in East Africa
first broadcast: Monday, June 30, 2003	20:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
This programme marks the hundredth anniversary of Britain's offer to the Zionist movement in 1903 of a large part of Kenya as a homeland for East Europe's Jews. The offer was a serious one: and it was treated seriously. It split Zionism in two, between those who wanted a safe haven, almost anywhere, and those who insisted it had to be in Palestine. A forgotten and poignant perspective on the tragedy of the Middle East
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28: European Volunteer Workers
first broadcast: Saturday, May 17, 2003	20:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
Between 1947 and 1949 the British government, desperately short of workers in the 'essential' industries of agriculture, coal mining and textiles, turned to the millions of East Europeans living in Displaced Persons camps in Germany. Nearly 100,000 were brought here as 'volunteers', and those who stayed founded the East European communities of Northern England. In the early 1980s the Bradford Heritage Recording Unit (a pioneer of local authority oral history) interviewed dozens of Ukrainians, Latvians, Estonians and Yugoslavs about their often difficult early days in Britain. The interviews they gave then form the basis for this programme.
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27: Prehistoric Footprints Under the Sand
first broadcast: Tuesday, May 06, 2003	11:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mike Hally & Janet Graves
Walking on the Formby seashore some years ago, retired teacher Gordon Roberts saw some human footprints preserved in a dark layer of solidified silt, apparently running towards and the disappearing under later-deposited sediments. He brushed away the top layers to reveal more prints, among them the very large hoofprints of a species of cattle that he'd never before seen. He has made almost daily surveys along the Formby seashore ever since, looking for more prints briefly revealed by the shifting sands. He records their location, photographs and casts them, working with university and other experts to build up a picture of prehistoric life around 5000 years ago. The story of an amateur archaeologist whose investigations have excited the experts.
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26: The Day Jesus Rode into Bristol
first broadcast: Sunday, April 13, 2003	14:45 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
A programme for Easter. In October 1656 a man called James Nayler, one of the prominent early Quakers, rode into Bristol, dressed in white and accompanied by women followers. It was a provocative mock-up of Jesus's entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The government of the country then ground to a halt for nearly two months as Oliver Cromwell and Parliament tried to decide what to do with him. Informative fun for a secular age
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23: Will Power
first broadcast: Thursday, February 13, 2003	11:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
Each week, at various locations around New York City, groups of elderly people - male and female, rich and poor - meet to read Shakespeare together. The sessions are led by sixty-one year old Bob Smith, a man who says that his own life has been 'rescued' by the great English poet and playwright. He says he's passing on to the elderly his realisation that Shakespeare's words can help them understand and live with the complexities of loss, guilt and grief. The Bard, he believes, 'says it exactly as old people feel, only better, much better.'
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18: It Was More Fun by Boat
first broadcast: Saturday, September 28, 2002	20:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
On October 17th the English cricket team will set off for Australia. They?ll slip out, unnoticed, from Heathrow airport ; and their journey will be dull, routine and fast. But for 100 years, from 1861 to 1962, teams went slowly by boat.
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17: No Sport, No Empire
first broadcast: Thursday, July 25, 2002	20:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
"This excellent documentary" (Peter Barnard, Radio Times). By 1930 the power of the British Empire was under threat from movements for colonial independence and the growing influence of American money and culture. The first British Empire games, held in Hamilton, Canada, in august that year, were a last-gasp effort to assert the world-wide relevance of the British race.
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7: Electronic Brains (4): Water on the Brain
first broadcast: Tuesday, November 20, 2001	09:30 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mike Hally
"Last in this offbeat, but informative series" (Susan Jeffreys, Daily Mail). Shortly after World War II, a New Zealand engineer started a sociology degree at the London School of Economics. Bill Phillips had already shown remarkable courage and ingenuity, winning an award for bravery in the Far East, then making electrical gadgets as a prisoner of war. At the LSE he didn’t take to sociology but economics fascinated him. He wrote an essay comparing the national economy to a machine pumping coloured water round clear plastic tubes. An older student persuaded him to build one, and it was an immediate success.
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6: Electronic Brains (3): Then we Took the Roof off
first broadcast: Tuesday, November 13, 2001	09:30 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mike Hally
"I am enjoying this series so much" (Peter Barnard, RT). The Ukrainian city of Kyiv (Kiev) was over-run by the Nazis in World War 2, liberated by the Soviet Army a couple off years later, and by 1945 was in a terrible state. But while re-building started a small group of scientists and engineers found an abandoned monastery in an idyllic setting on the outskirts of the city, in a place called Feofania. There they built “secret laboratory number 1” and started work on the Soviet Union’s first electronic computer.
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5: Electronic Brains (2): Saluting the Moose
first broadcast: Tuesday, November 06, 2001	09:30 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mike Hally
This programme joins a group of retired engineers who meet every Fall in Connecticut to re-discover the forgotten history of the first American business computer. They worked for Remington Rand, in a converted barn that still “smelled of horses” and had a stuffed moose’s head overlooking them as they worked.
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4: Electronic Brains (1): LEO the Lyons Computer
first broadcast: Tuesday, October 30, 2001	09:30 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mike Hally
A series of four that
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1: The Aboriginal Cricket Tour of England 1868
first broadcast: Thursday, June 14, 2001	20:00 Radio 4	presenter: Mark Whitaker	producer: Mark Whitaker
The extraordinary story of the first overseas cricketers ever to visit England -- a team of Australian Aborigines who toured in 1868. The quality of their cricket surprised the English crowds, but it was a commercial tour and they were marketed as racial freaks. They were never paid and only three ever played again. They were the first cricketers to represent Australia overseas, yet no Aborigine has played for his country since.
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112: North African Short Stories (5): You Taught Me To Love Life, Father
*first broadcast:*	15:30 R4	presenter: Youssef Kerkour	producer: Mark Whitaker, Mike Hally, Gillian Hush
Written by Arousia Naluti: what his wife’s pain in childbirth teaches a young Tunisian man about his country
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