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27 :
Prehistoric Footprints Under the Sand |
first
broadcast:
Tue May 6 2003 |
11.00 am
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Mark Whitaker |
producer:
Mike Hally & Janet Graves |
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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:
Sun Apr 13 2003 |
2.45 pm
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Mark Whitaker |
producer:
Mark Whitaker |
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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:
Thu Feb 13 2003 |
11.00 am
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Mark Whitaker |
producer:
Mark Whitaker |
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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:
Sat Sep 28 2002 |
8.00 pm
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Mark Whitaker |
producer:
Mark Whitaker |
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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:
Thu Jul 25 2002 |
8.00 pm
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Mark Whitaker |
producer:
Mark Whitaker |
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"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:
Tue Nov 20 2001 |
9.30 am
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Mark Whitaker |
producer:
Mike Hally |
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"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:
Tue Nov 13 2001 |
9.30 am
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Mark Whitaker |
producer:
Mike Hally |
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"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:
Tue Nov 6 2001 |
9.30 am
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Mark Whitaker |
producer:
Mike Hally |
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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:
Tue Oct 30 2001 |
9.30 am
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Mark Whitaker |
producer:
Mike Hally |
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A series of four that
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1 :
The Aboriginal Cricket Tour of England 1868 |
first
broadcast:
Thu Jun 14 2001 |
8.00 pm
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Mark Whitaker |
producer:
Mark Whitaker |
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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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