Whistledown

09/10/2024

40 years ago this week, an IRA bomb caused devastation at the Conservative Party Conference in Brighton killing five people and injuring thirty.

Back in 2007, we brought the man who built and planted the bomb, Patrick McGee, into The Reunion studio.

It was probably the tensest recording session I've ever produced with Sue MacGregor doing a masterful job of managing the emotional complexity of it all.

Jo Berry explained her extraordinary sense of forgiveness towards the man who took her father's life. Conference organiser Harvey Thomas described the chilling moment his hotel room collapsed around him. Former Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd brought his own combination of courtesy and condemnation to the meeting, then politely refused a handshake shortly after this photograph was taken.

The Reunion: The Brighton Bomb. Available on BBC Sounds.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0fz9kmn

01/10/2024

More winners photos from last week's British Podcast Awards. Still all a bit surreal.

27/09/2024

Here's Dame Maggie Smith on great form in this memorable episode (no 53) of The Reunion from April 2009

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00jh1f1

27/09/2024

Wow - what a surprise. Whistledown's investigation into accesible audio p**n - PRESS PLAY, TURN ON, made last year for Audible UK, won Podcast of the Year at the British Podcast Awards last night.

Delighted for the team - Presenter Amelia Lander-Cavallo, and producers Leeanne Coyle and Adam Zmith.

22/09/2024

Peter Jay, who has died today, took part in our 2006 reunion of the launch team of TV-AM. Jay was coming to the end of his time as British Ambassador in Washington, when David Frost persuaded him to get involved.

"I'll come and do it," he said, "as long as I can lead the team".

Sue MacGregor reunites some of the men from ITV's first breakfast service.

21/09/2024

Saddened to hear about the death of voice artist David Graham. He was a regular visitor to our studios, and on one of those drop ins, we managed to get him to share a few stories ...

The wonderful David Graham - the voice of Parkerfrom Thunderbirds dropped into the Whistledownstudios a few days ago. We asked him about thetime Thunderbirds creator Gerry Andersontook him for lunch....

18/09/2024

Joining Nick Wallis, Sima Kotecha, and Ilona Toller at the 2024 Radio Festival to talk about The Great Post Office Trial ... that's me on the right. Really heartening to hear from so many people who enjoyed the series, and Nick's extraordinary reporting of the story.

30/08/2024

Jim Murphy was one of the rescuers who pulled bodies from the rubble of the Clutha helicopter crash in Glasgow in 2013. For years he was haunted by the memory of the unconcious girl he rescued who simply vanished in the chaos. He never knew who she was, or what had happened to her. On this week's episode of The Reunion he found out she was Nancy, and she was sitting opposite him.

06/07/2024

The Whistledown/ Politico team worked through the night for the WESTMINSTER INSIDER election special "14 Hours That Changed Britain". Here they are "clocking off" after their mammoth 19 hour shift... (L-R) Artemis Irvine, Sascha O'Sullivan, John Rogers, and Robert Nicholson

https://www.politico.eu/podcast/westminster-insider/14-hours-that-changed-britain/

09/05/2024

.. and Happy (90th) Birthday to Alan Bennett, who made all our days when he said that Radio 4's The Reunion was one of a handful of programmes that justified his licence fee.

As a thank you, we invited him to meet up with the "Talking Heads" gang.

Sue MacGregor gathers key players from Alan Bennett's groundbreaking TV monologue series.

09/05/2024

More silverware - Delighted to say that Whistledown's mega-production WHITE SMOKE won a prize at the ARIAS on Tuesday night.

Extraordinary brave and original reporting by Patrick Strudwick and our team of US and UK producers, and chiefly the brilliant Kate Holland, and Exec'd by the "gaffer" Will Yates.

If you haven't heard it - then give it a try.

It's a shocking and unsettling story set amongst the Hollywood high-rollers.

Available on Audible.

03/05/2024

We've got a glittering line up of medal winners on The Reunion this weekend. Remembering "Super Saturday" on Sunday at 10.

30/04/2024

The Boys do the talking in this amazing Whistledown series for Radio 4. It's a real eye opener. Catherine Carr Catherine Carr Makes Radio presents and produces with Jill Achineku and Marie Helly.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001yshm?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1H9dWbk1cDTzrsglcnYLom2mnCtGJGOyAno3r58i1oonXaxp-gzZrZR9Q_aem_AeSsrmpuZC4VSCNaAyzPt0vFV83pyl9HJQblNlRNwrllPBTSMmieksm2xTH_VzjO2DgrnOoQLYreaDBGavx9im9p

From p**n to friendship, boys from all over the UK talk frankly to Catherine Carr.

14/04/2024

Tragedy on Everest. Kirsty Wark and guests reflect on the fateful 1996 expeditions of May 9th/10th, that ended with eight climbers dead, and others with life-changing injuries.

The Reunion on BBC Radio 4.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001y8g2

07/04/2024

On air at the moment....

Yorkshire terrier Prince became a national hit when he barked his dietary requirement on a 1979 episode of the consumer affairs show - with 'shoshigish' instantly becoming a catchphrase.

04/04/2024

Back in the studio with The Reunion, and on air at a new time this Sunday morning of 10am.

First off - That's Life! A staple of public service telly in the 70's, 80's and into the 90's. Dame Esther joined us from her home in the New Forest - and there was a lot of love in the room.

How many of her co-presenters (Don't call them "Esther's Boys") can you name?

25/03/2024

Great news - We made it to No 1 in the Social Science charts with the new series of The We Society with Will Hutton, produced by Emi Finch

18/03/2024

Occasionally you get to shine a light on a really under-reported story. This is one of them. The brilliant Anu Anand is the reporter/ producer. Broadcast on Radio 4 and available on BBC Sounds.

Businesses are failing at a rate not seen for years. What's gone wrong?