BBC Radio 4

09/11/2024

'You don't always need a huge deposit': Advice for first-time home buyers 🏡

Advice for first-time home buyers from Money Box Live.

09/11/2024

Would you swap sugar for salt in your tea? ☕️

Is it time to use salt instead of sugar for tea?

08/11/2024

The Archers radio star June Spencer dies aged 105

The actress played matriarch Peggy Woolley in BBC Radio 4's long-running drama from 1951 until 2022.

08/11/2024

June Spencer, the last original cast member of The Archers, has died aged 105.

Mohit Bakaya, Controller of Radio 4 said: “June Spencer has been a longstanding presence and companion for Radio 4 listeners during her exceptional run on The Archers. Many have grown up with June as Peggy and listened as she journeyed through life’s many chapters, with all of its ups and downs.  In her later years, her portrayal of a devoted wife caring for a husband with Dementia, including their very moving final goodbye, was deeply poignant and powerful radio. We send all our love and condolences to June’s family and the many people whose lives she touched.”

Jeremy Howe, Editor of The Archers added: “”Working with June was like working with a legend, and has been one of the great privileges of my time at the BBC. Here was this person, immaculately dressed and sitting bolt upright in the Green Room at BBC Birmingham, script at the ready, all meticulously marked up with little pencil squiggles and dashes like musical notation, who had been in the first ever episode of the Archers back in 1951. June Spencer wasn’t just a brilliant Peggy Woolley, the ultimate matriarch of Ambridge, but a brilliant actress. I only ever worked with her in radio, but her technique, her precision, her delivery were flawless. One of the cast once remarked that in all her time in the show he had only ever heard her fluff her lines the once. She was an actress who revelled in her craft, someone who could score a bullseye with a gently insulting cough as if it were a bon mot from Oscar Wilde. She was also a great company member – funny, sharp, warm, never gossipy, but with wonderful stories of the early days of radio drama, self deprecating and a great companion. The two things I would never commit to with June were being driven by her at the age of one hundred and one or taking her on at Scrabble. She was a Scrabble demon. June’s Peggy Woolley was and always will be the Queen of Ambridge, and with her death The Archers has lost its link with the birth of the show over seventy years ago. It is a humbling moment for us all.”

05/11/2024

Seven things you need to know about buying a house 🏡

Advice for first-time home buyers from Money Box Live.

03/11/2024

💬Writing, paralysing nerves and donning four-inch crocodile skin platforms

The actor talks dreams of being a rock star and his unexpected comedic idols.

03/11/2024

🇺🇸Kamala Harris and Donald Trump as you've never seen them before

Born decades and thousands of miles apart - a visual look at the lives of the presidential rivals.

03/11/2024

☕️What's the most eco-friendly way to make coffee?

Does coffee pod convenience harm the environment with all those discarded plastic shells?

02/11/2024

Janey was a brilliant storyteller who embodied the stoic nature of Glasgow, offering audiences a very honest window into how she processed sometimes traumatic and sometimes hilarious stories from her life. Her stories were raw and truthful, both devastating and uplifting, very often in the same sentence; and all shot through with her sharp wit and ability to bring characters to life.

She has inspired many - not least all of us at BBC Radio 4 - with her instinct to always make people laugh in the face of darkness, bringing both dignity and empowerment to those different aspects of herself. Janey was entering a new exciting phase of her career, and she has gone too soon. But what a life. It’s her daughter Ashley and Janey’s husband who we are thinking of at this time.

The team at Radio 4 send them our love and we will raise a glass to Janey’s legacy which lives on in her work.

Janey Godley, 1961-2024

02/11/2024

Seven of the most memorable vampires in film and TV

A deep dive into history's greatest on screen vampires

28/10/2024

Do you listen to the late night Shipping Forecast? Are you one of our 00.48 Shipping Forecast devotees?

If so Radio 4 wants to hear any stories about why and where you listen for a special programme. Just contact [email protected] with your stories or comment below.

27/10/2024

Scientists hope they could be on supermarket shelves within five years... 🍽️ 🛒

Scientists hope they could be on supermarket shelves within five years.

27/10/2024

He got up to all sorts of stunts outside Parliament 😆

Comedian Dom Joly used to work as a journalist at ITN before moving into comedy

26/10/2024

Is it worth shelling out for high-tech heating solutions? 🔥📈

Greg Foot examines whether it's worth shelling out for high-tech heating solutions.

26/10/2024

“Being a comedian, you’re very in touch with that silly side of yourself” ❤️😆

What advice would Miranda Hart gve to her younger self?

26/10/2024

Matt Chorley reflects on his recent live broadcasts from swing states in the USA 🌎🎙️

Matt Chorley reflects on his recent live broadcasts from swing states in the USA.

20/10/2024

Do we write and talk differently when we’re on social media? 📲🤔

Do we write and talk differently when we’re on social media?

20/10/2024

The show revolves around three men that have a rivalry which seeps into their professional world... but do the reviewers like it? 📺🤔

This week Hayley and Scott join Naga to review Rivals.