Lights Out

Series

Episode

Title

First
Broadcast

Repeated

Comments

A Sense Of Quietness

20181126

20200819 (R4)

Documentary adventures that encourage you to take a closer listen. This episode follows a line of connection through four women across two referendums to explore the unexpected consequences of talking about abortion.

Starting on live television at a beauty pageant, we hear from a journalist, a radio producer, the founder of a woman's clinic and a woman travelling from Ireland to the UK - and discover the quiet power and hidden dangers of speech itself.

Featuring the voices of Brianna Parkins, Siobhan McHugh and Anne Connolly. With additional recordings courtesy of Zo뀀 Comyns and Regan Hutchins

Produced by Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Big Tex

20181112

20200817 (R4)

Dallas is a city built on creeks and streams and, in the 1970s, the children of Dallas often roamed a secret landscape of culverts, waterways and tunnels. Meanwhile, above ground, adults in the city were reckoning with a local court order to desegregate the city's schools. Almost twenty years after Brown v Board of Education ruled that racial segregation violated the US Constitution, Dallas began bussing minority students into majority-white schools.

The change brought conflict and strife, but also opened up new worlds for children in a city isolated by race. In classrooms and playgrounds, an osmosis of experience, perspective and rumours took place. Julia Barton, who is white, heard a murky legend of a tunnel to Fair Park, home of the bombastic and beloved State Fair of Texas. Much later (and buttressed by a local basketball star's biography), Julia's black classmate Sam Franklin helps her track the legend down.

But the children of Dallas have a new legend now. The story of desegregation itself has become a distant myth as white families fled the city's schools, leaving new patterns of isolation in their wake. Only the Fair's iconic Big Tex - a 55-foot tall, talking statue of a cowboy - seems to stay the same in Dallas from year to year. But even he may be more changeable than locals want to admit.

With Julia's classmate Nikki Benson, former teenage tunneller Melvin Qualls, local historian Donald Payton, retired teacher Leonard Davis and Sixth Graders from Alex Sanger Elementary School.

Presented by Julia Barton

Additional research by Paula Bosse

Produced by Hannah Dean and Alan Hall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Deep Time And The Sparrowhawk

20181119

20200818 (R4)

After a decade photographing The Oldest Living Things In The World, New York photographer Rachel Sussman said she began thinking of deep time as deep water. `The more time I spent in the depths, the more I could stay in that space longer.`

What can we glean from spending time in the company of those who fix their gaze on longer timeframes, whose work entails inhabiting expanded notions of time, who seek both to ask and answer questions about our bounded place in that which is boundless?

This is a sonic deep-dive into deep time and 'the long now' - a series of close encounters via philosophy and science, literature and nature, art and the lived life, which delves into how we can think long-term and hold something of deep time as we move through our days. With musings and moments that connect the speaker to the infinite at one time or another - to the deep past, the long future, or the bigger present.

Perhaps, if we can better inhabit an expanded view of time, we might also expand how we can live its mysteries and exigencies.

Featuring interviews with philosopher and author David Wood, NASA astrophysicist and research astronomer Natalie Batalha, Brooklyn-based photographer Rachel Sussman, Australian writer and philosopher Christina McLeish, and Danny Hillis, an American inventor, scientist and designer of The Long Now's 10, 000 Year Clock.

With thanks to NASA's sound archive and the University of Iowa's Space Sounds.

Including extracts from poems by Alice Oswald and Edna St Vincent Millay.

Produced by Jaye Kranz

A Falling Tree productions for BBC Radio 4

A sound-led dive into deep time and 'the long now'.

Into This World

20200330

20200824 (R4)

Two new parents-to-be contemplate what it means to navigate the limitations of the identities their son will inherit.

The desire to protect and shelter is fraught with the anticipation that one day he will move in a world having to know in some way what it means to be racialised as black, gendered as a man and everything in between.

Featuring the voices of Kate Williams, Dean Atta and Ansel Wong.

Produced by Axel Kacouti退 with Maz Ebtehaj

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Prison Sentences

20200413

20200826 (R4)

The UK prison population has risen by 69% in the last 30 years.

Lots of people have lots of opinions about prison - politicians, newspapers, artists and, of course, former prisoners themselves. Prison Sentences offers a meditation on the efficacy of prison through opinions, statistics, statements of policy and the testimony of those who've experienced it first hand.

24% of prisoners were brought up in care

29% of prisoners were abused as children

42% of prisoners were excluded from school

62% of prisoners have a reading age of 11 or under

15% of prisoners were homeless before entering prison

33% will be homeless when they leave

We know not whether laws be right

Or whether laws be wrong

All we know who lie in gaol

Is that the walls are strong

And each day is like a year

A year whose days are long.`

The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Oscar Wilde

With music from The Clash, Olivier Messiaen, Sam Cooke, Zimbo Freemind, Johnny Cash, The Band, Remtrex, Fox, Lady Unchained, Malvina Reynolds and Nina Simone. And archive from Porridge, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Cool Hand Luke, Rupert Everett reading Wilde, Benjamin Zephaniah, The Shawshank Redemption, Hooked, John Cooper Clarke and Midnight Express,

Produced by Josie Bevan and Alan Hall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

The things people say about prison.

Speaking Sabar

20200406

20200825 (R4)

The N'diaye Rose family of Senegal are masters of Sabar drumming. They are the descendants of the late Doudou Ndiaye Rose, the legendary griot drummer famous for sharing the deep and complex rhythms of Sabar with the rest of the world.

Today, in the capital, Dakar, electronic musicians Beatrice Dillon, Nkisi and LABOUR try to interpret and translate the encoded language of the drums.

With thanks to the N'diaye Rose family and Berlin Atonal

Photo credit: Sandhya Ellis

Produced by Zakia Sewell

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

A griot family teaches the language of Sabar drumming in Senegal.

The Outside World

20200420

20200827 (R4)

Slow radio which weaves together tropical thunderstorms in Australia, parrots heard through a window in Italy and erupting applause amid the skyscrapers of Manhattan.

Audio-makers reflect on the sonic worlds they want to inhabit in this moment in time. With contributions from Daria Corrias in Italy, Ariana Martinez and Benjamin Riskin in America and Caddie Brain in Australia.

Featuring recordings from the archive of the Field Recordings podcast, including:

Starling Murmuration, Nobber, Co. Meath, Ireland in January 2019 by Zo뀀 Comyns

42nd St and 1st Avenue, New York, USA on 7th April 2020 by Benjamin Riskin

Hollow Tree, Sergiyev Posad, Russia on 11th March 2011 by Vladimir Kryuchev

Frogs, Hilo, Hawaii, USA in 2018 by Helen Zaltzman

Abidjan, C䀀te d'Ivoire April 2018 by Axel Kacouti退

Backyard storm, Darwin, Australia by Nyah Bertschi and Caddie Brain

Sinharaja tropical rainforest, South West of Sri Lanka, at daybreak by Alannah Chance

Hogsback, Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, last summer by Neroli Price

Terrace, Rome, Italy, during the lockdown by Daria Corrias

Combate, Puerto Rico by Ariana Martinez.

Produced by Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

The Saigon Tapes

20200323

20200821 (R4)

A meditation on the events of one night in Saigon over 50 years ago and the aftershocks that are felt still - most strongly in the hearts of a 17 year old schoolboy in London and his American-born mother.

During the evening of March 31st, 1966, an Army Captain billeted in the Victoria Hotel, Saigon recorded a tape to send back to his wife Susie and his three young children in Seattle. David Davies had been in-country for seven months and was counting down each day until he could return home. While he recorded, the Overture to West Side Story started to play on the radio, with Davies singing along to Somewhere (There's a Place For Us).

In London, early in 2020, a London schoolboy is working on an essay project about the factors that shaped US policy in Vietnam. Aged 17, Charlie has inherited a family connection to the war - his grandfather's medals, including his Purple Heart. David Davies was killed in a bomb explosion shortly after finishing his tape-letter and retiring to bed - but ripples from that explosion play out over the decades through Captain Davies' daughter, Tricia, and her young son Charlie, who embark on a pilgrimage to the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in Washington DC.

Produced by Alan Hall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Ripples from an explosion in Saigon in 1966 are felt in the soul of a 17-yr-old in London.

The Space Between Stories

20200316

20200820 (R4)

Inhabiting the ideas of author and speaker Charles Eisenstein, this edition of Lights Out explores our current historical moment in the West as a 'space between stories', embracing the state of not-knowing and the ways in which certain kinds of questions can lead us towards the creation of a more beautiful world.

For thousands of years, for many people on earth, The Story of Separation has dominated our way of being. According to this story, we are separate individuals whose purpose is to maximise rational self-interest and conquer nature and death in a universe of atoms and void. At a time of social polarisation, ecological collapse and political crisis, this story is unravelling, and with it our sense of who we are in the world.

Propelled out of the old story, we enter the unknown, a space of bewilderment into which a new story, a new reality, can come.

Produced by Phil Smith

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

From The Ashes Of New Cross

20201026

20220120 (R4)

The documentary series that invites a closer listen.

On 18th January 1981, Yvonne Ruddock was celebrating her 16th birthday party in the family home at 439 New Cross Road in south east London. What followed devastated countless families, scarred the community and shifted the position of black politics in British society. A fire broke out in a downstairs room and 13 young people were killed, including Yvonne and her elder brother Paul. A 14th young person died subsequently.

With the 40th anniversary of the fire approaching, Lights Out revisits the events of that night and their aftermath. The musician Johnny Osbourne encapsulated the official and media response to the fire in his song Thirteen Dead and Nothing Said.

At first, the police and local community suspected arson - a racist attack. After all, this was only a short time after the Battle of Lewisham in which black residents and activists had successfully confronted a National Front march just up the street. But no-one was ever charged and, at the Inquest, an open verdict was returned.

Survivors of the fire - including members of the Ruddock family and Wayne Haynes, who was DJ'ing that night, along with community activists such as Sybil Phoenix who were witnesses to it and the subsequent Black People's Day of Action - share their understanding of what happened and what the New Cross Fire has come to symbolise.

With a specially commissioned sequence of poems by unofficial Lewisham Laureate, Mark 'Mr T' Thompson.

Produced by Cherise Hamilton-Stephenson and Alan Hall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Revisiting the night of the New Cross Fire in 1981 and its aftermath.

Silent Mothers

20201102

~Lights Out - a space for documentaries that encourage you to take a closer listen. In this episode - flight, return and silence. An exploration of the lives of women trapped by an international treaty.

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction was set up in the 1980s to make sure children who'd been taken by one parent to another country without the other parent's permission were returned quickly. Today, the majority of abductions are committed by women, many of whom are fleeing domestic abuse and returning to their home country taking their children with them.

Two British mothers share their experiences of being Hagued' by their ex-husbands - one was a rare exception who won her case, while the other returned with her children to her ex-husband's country voluntarily, only to lose everything. A third woman speaks for the many others who are still silenced years after going through a Hague Convention court case.

Details of organisations offering information and support with domestic abuse are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline, or you can call for free, at any time to hear recorded information on 0800 888 809. Alternatively, these organisations offer support:

https://www.reunite.org/

https://www.globalarrk.org/

Produced by Andrea Rangecroft

A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4

How Do You Sleep At Night?

20201109

A dreamlike glimpse at our collective consciousness in this documentary composed entirely of questions.

Featuring Caroline Bird, Ross Sutherland, Axel Kacouti退, Rachel Long, Juliet Jacques, Melissa Harrison, Pejk Malinovski, Rikke Houd, James T Green, Sara Brooke Curtis, Rebecca Tamကs, Joe Dunthorne and Bertie Warmsley.

Produced by Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Fallout

20210906

20211230 (R4)

The image of the atomic mushroom cloud is powerfully symbolic, yet the grainy black and white footage that we're familiar with can create a sense of something historical, abstract and almost cinematic.

The legacy of the UK's atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in Australia and the South Pacific is still, to some degree, shrouded in mystery. But for veterans and their offspring, as well as often forgotten islanders, these events are something very present that they carry with them everyday in an ongoing fight for acknowledgement.

This documentary brings together these interconnected, intergenerational testimonies and considers the possible physical, psychological and cultural fallout that has occurred in the years following Operation Grapple on Kiritimati (then Christmas Island) and the Minor Trials in Maralinga.

With contributions from Tekaobo Wainwright, John and Laura Morris, Steve Purse, Philomena Lawrence and Stacy & Rose Clark.

Producer: Hannah Dean

Consultant: Becky Alexsis-Martin. and additional research from Susie Boniface

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

(photo credit: Eric Meyer)

The Last Taboo

20210913

20220106 (R4)

We rarely speak about familial childhood sexual abuse. We should.

Through one woman's story, we hear how the silence surrounding childhood sexual abuse compounds trauma in ways that ripple through survivors' lives, touching and tainting relationships and experiences of parenthood, and leading to problems with mental health and addiction.

If we could talk about familial abuse more openly, could we help survivors, and make it more difficult for perpetrators to hide behind secrecy?

Too often, our mental health systems treat the symptoms of abuse and trauma rather than unlocking the cause. But if we continue to create worlds which permit and encourage silence, are we perpetrators too? Perhaps it's time to speak up.

Featuring extracts from The Flying Child by Sophie Olson, founder of The Flying Child Project, and work by John Slater, co-founder of moMENtum.

Produced by Redzi Bernard and Phoebe McIndoe

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Kaleidoscope

20210920

20220113 (R4)

What does it feel like to be a child or teenager navigating the ups and downs of youth, under the shadow of constant media scrutiny about your identity, your choices and whether you fit into society?

Transgender kids and teenagers are often spoken about in the media, but rarely get the chance to speak for themselves. In this episode of Lights Out, three young trans people, aged 10, 15 and 16, let us into their inner worlds. Their mums share how media scrutiny of their families affects their lives and an academic in media studies and queer theory reflects on how the media constructs narratives about marginalised groups, exploring why queer people and children are easy targets for moral panic.

Produced by Arlie Adlington

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

A Service For Society

20210927

20220127 (R4)

Eleven years after the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, a sequence of events unfolded that would rock the British political establishment and test those campaigning for gay rights in the United Kingdom. It resulted in a dead dog, a political career in ruins, a classic comedy sketch and the cause of gay liberation being set back years.

Through remarkably candid interviews not previously broadcast in this country with Norman Scott (the former model) and Andrew Newton (the suspected hitman), two of the main protagonists in the trial of Jeremy Thorpe (former leader of the Liberal Party), this documentary revisits a very English scandal and gauges its impact on the struggle for gay rights.

We hear from the human-rights activist Peter Tatchell; a member of the Brixton Faeries, Julian Hows, who staged a satirical play based on the Thorpe case; and Tom Robinson, whose song Glad to be Gay hit the charts in 1978. We also hear from Derek Stimpson, archivist of the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers, and archive of Peter Cook as the 'biased judge'.

Archive of Norman Scott and Andrew Newton from 'The Jeremy Thorpe Affair' courtesy of CBC Radio's Sunday Morning (1978).

Produced by Alan Hall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

A political scandal, a dead dog and the struggle for gay rights in 1970s Britain.

Accounts And Accountability

20221212

Across the course of a single day, a documentary-maker hosts an open-call audition for subjects to star in her next project. Accounts and Accountability offers a dive into the ethics of buying and selling true stories.

With music composed by Eliza Niemi

Sound Recording by Fivel Rothberg

Assistant Producers: Kristine White, Kyle Damiao, Jose Salazar and Emma Rose Brown

Special thanks to Sean Hanley, David Pavlovsky, and Kelly Anderson

Produced by Jess Shane

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Greenham Convictions

20221219

It's 40 years this month since 30,000 women 'embraced the base' at RAF Greenham Common, Berkshire in protest at the proposed siting of cruise missiles there. For some of them, the Women's Peace Camp became home and the RAF base the scene of countless actions, as political convictions led inevitably to arrests, court appearances and imprisonment.

Lyn Barlow served something between 15 and 20 sentences - she lost count - and Sue Say at least eight. Mild-mannered former teacher Mary Millington has journals documenting her numerous prison terms. Greenham Convictions traces why these women put not just their bodies but 'their entire beings' on the line for a cause - and at what price.

With thanks to Rebecca Mordan of Greenham Women Everywhere.

Produced by Alan Hall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Protest and prison. Women who 'embraced the base' at RAF Greenham Common 40 years on.

Call Signs

20221227

A man, a Mouse and a morse key: the story of a radio amateur in Kyiv as the Russian invasion unfolds.

When his wife and two children flee Kyiv to escape the war, Volodymyr Gurtovy (call sign US7IGN) stays behind in their apartment with only his radios and the family hamster, Mouse, for company.

Before the war, he used to go deep into the pine forests, spinning intricate webs of treetop antennas using a fishing rod, catching signals from radio amateurs in distant countries.

Prohibited by martial law from sending messages, he becomes a listener, intercepting conversations of Russian pilots and warning his neighbours to hide in shelters well before the sirens sound. After three months of silence, he begins transmitting again. Switching his lawyer's suit for a soldering iron, he runs a radio surgery for his friends and neighbours, dusting off old shortwave receivers and bringing them back to life.

During air raids, he hides behind the thickest wall in his apartment, close to his radios, their flickering amber lights opening a window to another world. A story of sending and receiving signals from within the darkness of the Kyiv blackout.

Music: Ollie Chubb (8ctavius)

Producer: Cicely Fell

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Man, Mouse and a morse key: the story of a radio amateur in Kyiv as the Russians invade.

The Night Sky

20230101

Having devoted decades of their lives to fighting for a better world, three activists in their 70s reflect on keeping going, hope and despair as the year turns - while a retired clergyman and his wife explore what's drawn them to activism in their 60s.

Featuring Leila Hassan Howe, Angie Zelter, Linda Clair and Bill and Rosemary White, alongside radio clips from BBC news programmes, Outlook and Mattie's Broadcast (produced by Veronica Simmonds).

With music by Lucinda Chua

Featuring the tracks Semitones (written and engineered by Lucinda Chua, produced by Lucinda Chua and Adam Wiltzie, mixed by Adam Wiltzie and Francesco Donadello and mastered by Nathan Boddy) and An Avalanche (written, engineered and produced by Lucinda Chua, mixed by Adam Wiltzie and Francesco Donadello and mastered by Nathan Boddy)

Development producer: Michael Segalov

Additional recording: Andrea Rangecroft

Produced by Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Three activists in their 70s reflect on keeping going, hope and despair.

County Lines

20230102

Four people recount their involvement with `county lines` - gangs that exploit children and vulnerable adults to sell drugs around the UK.

Underneath their stories lies a series of unspoken, unanswered questions. Who gets to decide the boundary between criminal and victim? Why do we view 'county lines' through the lens of crime and punishment? And how well does the system support individuals and families devastated by the impact of 'county lines'?

With thanks to St Giles Trust SOS Project, Not In Our Community, Escape Line and Eski Media

Produced by Phoebe McIndoe and Redzi Bernard

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio Four

Four people recount their involvement with 'county lines' - selling drugs around the UK.

06 LAST

Gatekeeper

20230109

`Somewhere between the narrow entry of Who I am and What I seem to be, lies a vast and nameless place.`

In this transmission, Axel Kacouti退 discovers a new sense of self in the cosmologies, concepts and realities of queer and indigenous folks. What are the links between gender expression and our relationship with the Earth? How does it destabilise colonial and capitalist imaginations of what we're told a gender binary is meant to be?

Featuring the voices of:

Opaskwayak Cree Nation Professor at the University of Saskatchewan, Dr Alex Wilson

Artist Buitumelo Kotekwa

Afro-Taino Two-Spirit change-maker Cleopatra Tatabele

Scholar and Research Assistant, Karyn De Freitas

Transmasculine, non-binary scholar and Founder of the Free Black University, Melz Owusu.

Development Producer: Eleanor McDowall

Assistant Producer: CA Davis

Additional Recording: Heidi Chang and Israel Ramjohn

Sound Design, Music and Mixing Production: Axel Kacouti退

Produced by Axel Kacouti退

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Axel Kacoutie discovers a new sense of self in the cosmologies.

Dead Ends

20231016

“Should we delete the sex tape? ? Should we get rid of the crime scene photographs? How do I find a true image of my mum amidst the recordings, fragments and images she left behind?

Exploring an archive of home videos, photographs, memories and news reports, Talia Augustidis reflects on how we choose to remember someone. Told through five chapters, each part focuses on a single image of her mum, who died when Talia was three.

Dead Ends is an exploration of what privacy and control is afforded to people who sit at the heart of our news stories, as accidental absences and fragments of memory piece together these self-contained narratives of loss.

Talia collected the tape for Dead Ends over several years. In 2022 she received a Content is Queen micro-grant, which allowed her to begin piecing these stories together.

Original music composed by Jeremy Warmsley

Produced by Talia Augustidis

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

The audio-maker Talia Augustidis reflects on how we choose to remember someone.

What privacy and control is afforded to people who sit at the heart of our news stories? Talia Augustidis offers a personal reflection on how we choose to remember someone.

`Should we delete the sex tape?` Should we get rid of the crime scene photographs? How do I find a true image of my mum amidst the recordings, fragments and images she left behind?

Lithified

20231023

“I was well aware of this synchronicity: that Cornwall was going onto lithium, or what I prefer to call ‘lithifying', just as I was ‘delithifying', or coming off it. This wasn't an accidentally aligned pairing of incidents. I'd planned it that way. ?

In 2022, Laura Grace Simpkins made two big life changes. She decided to stop taking lithium (a medication she was prescribed for her mental health) just as she moved to Cornwall—the only place where lithium is being mined in the UK. In 'Lithified', Laura gets ready for her future without the silvery-white metal, while exploring the landscape it will soon be coming from.

Featuring the voices of:

Marcia Bjornerud, Professor of Geology and Environmental Studies at Lawrence University

Jeremy Wrathall, Founder and CEO of Cornish Lithium

Dr Beth Simons, Cornish geologist and author of ‘Variscan Coast

Written and narrated by Laura Grace Simpkins

Music and sound by Alice Boyd

Produced by Alice Boyd and Laura Grace Simpkins

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Laura Grace Simpkins reflects on modern society's dependency on lithium.

As Cornwall prepares to mine for lithium, Laura Grace Simpkins ends her dependency on the lithium used in prescribed medication.

`I was well aware of this synchronicity: that Cornwall was going onto lithium, or what I prefer to call lithifying', just as I was delithifying', or coming off it. This wasn't an accidentally aligned pairing of incidents. I'd planned it that way.`

In 2022, Laura Grace Simpkins made two big life changes. She decided to stop taking lithium (a medication she was prescribed for her mental health) just as she moved to Cornwallthe only place where lithium is being mined in the UK. In 'Lithified', Laura gets ready for her future without the silvery-white metal, while exploring the landscape it will soon be coming from.

Dr Beth Simons, Cornish geologist and author of Variscan Coast

Threads

20231030

Documentary adventures that invite a closer listen.

Infamous during the Greenham Common protests of the 1980s for the recklessness of her activism and her multiple prison sentences (as heard in Lights Out: Greenham Convictions), Lyn Barlow now lives quietly in Somerset. She spends her time making textile art, huge tapestries that document the turbulence of her childhood in care and the struggles of her adulthood - both with the State and herself.

Now that her work is on display in Watchet's East Quay gallery, in an exhibition shared with Grayson Perry called Common Thread, Lyn reflects on the textures, the threads and the imagery of her life.

Produced by Alan Hall

(with music by Alabaster DePlume, licensed courtesy of Domino Publishing Company Limited.)

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Textile artist Lyn Barlow comes to terms with the reckless activism of her past.

Documentary adventures that invite a closer listen. Textile artist Lyn Barlow comes to terms with her unhappy childhood and the reckless activism of her younger self.

Crossings

20231106

Documentary adventures that invite a closer listen.

Sahid has spent years on a relentless journey. Crossing international borders, he has confronted the harrowing realities of human trafficking, slavery, and rafting across the Mediterranean Sea. But his journey isn't over yet - Sahid is at risk of being sent back to the first European Union country he arrived in, a country where he was unlawfully imprisoned and tortured.

This is the story of one man's search for safety, from Sierra Leone to Strasbourg.

Produced by Phoebe McIndoe and Redzi Bernard

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Documentary adventures that invite a closer listen. The story of a young man's search for safety, from Sierra Leone to Strasburg.

Four Walls

20231113

Documentary adventures that invite a closer listen.

For generations, queer people have moved to London from more conservative parts of the UK, in search of community and to live as their authentic selves. Now, with housing so unstable, queer people are among the marginalised communities for which homelessness is on the rise. They continue to come to London now to find their place, but the trade off is extreme financial insecurity.

Can you really feel at home when the four walls around you are unstable?

Jesse Lawson talks to Karen Fisch, Topher Campbell, Carla Ecola and Reggie Lennox about what it means to have to choose between one form of home over another.

Music by Femi Oriogun-Williams

Produced by Jesse Lawson

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Documentary adventures that invite a closer listen. The story of Reggie, whose move to London to find a queer community risks financial insecurity.

Reggie moved to London from their small town in the Midlands in 2018, to find other queer people like them. Five years later, they are living the life they only thought possible in movies.

They're also deeply overdrawn.

For decades, London has been a city that queer people from more conservative parts of the UK move to, in search of community and to live as their authentic selves. Now, with housing so unstable, queer people are among the marginalised communities for which homelessness is on the rise. They continue to come to London now to find their place, but the trade off is extreme financial insecurity.

Four Walls looks at at what it means to have to choose between one form of home over another.

06 LAST

Dust

20231120

I noticed that language seems to fail us. How do you write about the foundations of our existence? That is how mythology enters very naturally into the story, because history is about ideas, religions, empires, wars and culture. Mythology is about the fundaments. Sun, moon, wind, oceans, great floods and tragic gods... We are living in mythological times, where we are shaking the fundaments.' - Andri Snær Magnason

Drawing on ideas in his book, On Time and Water, the Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason and the Scottish artist Katie Paterson explore how our imagination can help us hold the moment we live in. From handfuls of dust to watching geological time mark the landscape, this documentary flows from the night skies into the deepest known point in our oceans.

Archive recording from Raddir - Voices: Recordings of Folk Songs courtesy of the À?rni Magnússon Institute

Vatnajökull (the sound of)' recording courtesy of Katie Paterson

Recording of the journey to Okjökull by Guðni Tómasson

Music composed and performed by Phil Smith and Zac Gvi

Produced by Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

How can our imagination help us hold the moment we live in?

Episodes

Series	Episode	Title	First Broadcast	Repeated	Comments
		A Sense Of Quietness	20181126	20200819 (R4)	Documentary adventures that encourage you to take a closer listen. This episode follows a line of connection through four women across two referendums to explore the unexpected consequences of talking about abortion. Starting on live television at a beauty pageant, we hear from a journalist, a radio producer, the founder of a woman's clinic and a woman travelling from Ireland to the UK - and discover the quiet power and hidden dangers of speech itself. Featuring the voices of Brianna Parkins, Siobhan McHugh and Anne Connolly. With additional recordings courtesy of Zo뀀 Comyns and Regan Hutchins Produced by Eleanor McDowall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
		Big Tex	20181112	20200817 (R4)	Dallas is a city built on creeks and streams and, in the 1970s, the children of Dallas often roamed a secret landscape of culverts, waterways and tunnels. Meanwhile, above ground, adults in the city were reckoning with a local court order to desegregate the city's schools. Almost twenty years after Brown v Board of Education ruled that racial segregation violated the US Constitution, Dallas began bussing minority students into majority-white schools. The change brought conflict and strife, but also opened up new worlds for children in a city isolated by race. In classrooms and playgrounds, an osmosis of experience, perspective and rumours took place. Julia Barton, who is white, heard a murky legend of a tunnel to Fair Park, home of the bombastic and beloved State Fair of Texas. Much later (and buttressed by a local basketball star's biography), Julia's black classmate Sam Franklin helps her track the legend down. But the children of Dallas have a new legend now. The story of desegregation itself has become a distant myth as white families fled the city's schools, leaving new patterns of isolation in their wake. Only the Fair's iconic Big Tex - a 55-foot tall, talking statue of a cowboy - seems to stay the same in Dallas from year to year. But even he may be more changeable than locals want to admit. With Julia's classmate Nikki Benson, former teenage tunneller Melvin Qualls, local historian Donald Payton, retired teacher Leonard Davis and Sixth Graders from Alex Sanger Elementary School. Presented by Julia Barton Additional research by Paula Bosse Produced by Hannah Dean and Alan Hall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
		Deep Time And The Sparrowhawk	20181119	20200818 (R4)	After a decade photographing The Oldest Living Things In The World, New York photographer Rachel Sussman said she began thinking of deep time as deep water. `The more time I spent in the depths, the more I could stay in that space longer.` What can we glean from spending time in the company of those who fix their gaze on longer timeframes, whose work entails inhabiting expanded notions of time, who seek both to ask and answer questions about our bounded place in that which is boundless? This is a sonic deep-dive into deep time and 'the long now' - a series of close encounters via philosophy and science, literature and nature, art and the lived life, which delves into how we can think long-term and hold something of deep time as we move through our days. With musings and moments that connect the speaker to the infinite at one time or another - to the deep past, the long future, or the bigger present. Perhaps, if we can better inhabit an expanded view of time, we might also expand how we can live its mysteries and exigencies. Featuring interviews with philosopher and author David Wood, NASA astrophysicist and research astronomer Natalie Batalha, Brooklyn-based photographer Rachel Sussman, Australian writer and philosopher Christina McLeish, and Danny Hillis, an American inventor, scientist and designer of The Long Now's 10, 000 Year Clock. With thanks to NASA's sound archive and the University of Iowa's Space Sounds. Including extracts from poems by Alice Oswald and Edna St Vincent Millay. Produced by Jaye Kranz A Falling Tree productions for BBC Radio 4 A sound-led dive into deep time and 'the long now'.
02		Into This World	20200330	20200824 (R4)	Two new parents-to-be contemplate what it means to navigate the limitations of the identities their son will inherit. The desire to protect and shelter is fraught with the anticipation that one day he will move in a world having to know in some way what it means to be racialised as black, gendered as a man and everything in between. Featuring the voices of Kate Williams, Dean Atta and Ansel Wong. Produced by Axel Kacouti退 with Maz Ebtehaj A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
02		Prison Sentences	20200413	20200826 (R4)	The UK prison population has risen by 69% in the last 30 years. Lots of people have lots of opinions about prison - politicians, newspapers, artists and, of course, former prisoners themselves. Prison Sentences offers a meditation on the efficacy of prison through opinions, statistics, statements of policy and the testimony of those who've experienced it first hand. 24% of prisoners were brought up in care 29% of prisoners were abused as children 42% of prisoners were excluded from school 62% of prisoners have a reading age of 11 or under 15% of prisoners were homeless before entering prison 33% will be homeless when they leave We know not whether laws be right Or whether laws be wrong All we know who lie in gaol Is that the walls are strong And each day is like a year A year whose days are long.` The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Oscar Wilde With music from The Clash, Olivier Messiaen, Sam Cooke, Zimbo Freemind, Johnny Cash, The Band, Remtrex, Fox, Lady Unchained, Malvina Reynolds and Nina Simone. And archive from Porridge, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Cool Hand Luke, Rupert Everett reading Wilde, Benjamin Zephaniah, The Shawshank Redemption, Hooked, John Cooper Clarke and Midnight Express, Produced by Josie Bevan and Alan Hall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 The things people say about prison.
02		Speaking Sabar	20200406	20200825 (R4)	The N'diaye Rose family of Senegal are masters of Sabar drumming. They are the descendants of the late Doudou Ndiaye Rose, the legendary griot drummer famous for sharing the deep and complex rhythms of Sabar with the rest of the world. Today, in the capital, Dakar, electronic musicians Beatrice Dillon, Nkisi and LABOUR try to interpret and translate the encoded language of the drums. With thanks to the N'diaye Rose family and Berlin Atonal Photo credit: Sandhya Ellis Produced by Zakia Sewell A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 A griot family teaches the language of Sabar drumming in Senegal.
02		The Outside World	20200420	20200827 (R4)	Slow radio which weaves together tropical thunderstorms in Australia, parrots heard through a window in Italy and erupting applause amid the skyscrapers of Manhattan. Audio-makers reflect on the sonic worlds they want to inhabit in this moment in time. With contributions from Daria Corrias in Italy, Ariana Martinez and Benjamin Riskin in America and Caddie Brain in Australia. Featuring recordings from the archive of the Field Recordings podcast, including: Starling Murmuration, Nobber, Co. Meath, Ireland in January 2019 by Zo뀀 Comyns 42nd St and 1st Avenue, New York, USA on 7th April 2020 by Benjamin Riskin Hollow Tree, Sergiyev Posad, Russia on 11th March 2011 by Vladimir Kryuchev Frogs, Hilo, Hawaii, USA in 2018 by Helen Zaltzman Abidjan, C䀀te d'Ivoire April 2018 by Axel Kacouti退 Backyard storm, Darwin, Australia by Nyah Bertschi and Caddie Brain Sinharaja tropical rainforest, South West of Sri Lanka, at daybreak by Alannah Chance Hogsback, Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, last summer by Neroli Price Terrace, Rome, Italy, during the lockdown by Daria Corrias Combate, Puerto Rico by Ariana Martinez. Produced by Eleanor McDowall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
02		The Saigon Tapes	20200323	20200821 (R4)	A meditation on the events of one night in Saigon over 50 years ago and the aftershocks that are felt still - most strongly in the hearts of a 17 year old schoolboy in London and his American-born mother. During the evening of March 31st, 1966, an Army Captain billeted in the Victoria Hotel, Saigon recorded a tape to send back to his wife Susie and his three young children in Seattle. David Davies had been in-country for seven months and was counting down each day until he could return home. While he recorded, the Overture to West Side Story started to play on the radio, with Davies singing along to Somewhere (There's a Place For Us). In London, early in 2020, a London schoolboy is working on an essay project about the factors that shaped US policy in Vietnam. Aged 17, Charlie has inherited a family connection to the war - his grandfather's medals, including his Purple Heart. David Davies was killed in a bomb explosion shortly after finishing his tape-letter and retiring to bed - but ripples from that explosion play out over the decades through Captain Davies' daughter, Tricia, and her young son Charlie, who embark on a pilgrimage to the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in Washington DC. Produced by Alan Hall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 Ripples from an explosion in Saigon in 1966 are felt in the soul of a 17-yr-old in London.
02		The Space Between Stories	20200316	20200820 (R4)	Inhabiting the ideas of author and speaker Charles Eisenstein, this edition of Lights Out explores our current historical moment in the West as a 'space between stories', embracing the state of not-knowing and the ways in which certain kinds of questions can lead us towards the creation of a more beautiful world. For thousands of years, for many people on earth, The Story of Separation has dominated our way of being. According to this story, we are separate individuals whose purpose is to maximise rational self-interest and conquer nature and death in a universe of atoms and void. At a time of social polarisation, ecological collapse and political crisis, this story is unravelling, and with it our sense of who we are in the world. Propelled out of the old story, we enter the unknown, a space of bewilderment into which a new story, a new reality, can come. Produced by Phil Smith A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
03	01	From The Ashes Of New Cross	20201026	20220120 (R4)	The documentary series that invites a closer listen. On 18th January 1981, Yvonne Ruddock was celebrating her 16th birthday party in the family home at 439 New Cross Road in south east London. What followed devastated countless families, scarred the community and shifted the position of black politics in British society. A fire broke out in a downstairs room and 13 young people were killed, including Yvonne and her elder brother Paul. A 14th young person died subsequently. With the 40th anniversary of the fire approaching, Lights Out revisits the events of that night and their aftermath. The musician Johnny Osbourne encapsulated the official and media response to the fire in his song Thirteen Dead and Nothing Said. At first, the police and local community suspected arson - a racist attack. After all, this was only a short time after the Battle of Lewisham in which black residents and activists had successfully confronted a National Front march just up the street. But no-one was ever charged and, at the Inquest, an open verdict was returned. Survivors of the fire - including members of the Ruddock family and Wayne Haynes, who was DJ'ing that night, along with community activists such as Sybil Phoenix who were witnesses to it and the subsequent Black People's Day of Action - share their understanding of what happened and what the New Cross Fire has come to symbolise. With a specially commissioned sequence of poems by unofficial Lewisham Laureate, Mark 'Mr T' Thompson. Produced by Cherise Hamilton-Stephenson and Alan Hall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 Revisiting the night of the New Cross Fire in 1981 and its aftermath.
03	02	Silent Mothers	20201102		~Lights Out - a space for documentaries that encourage you to take a closer listen. In this episode - flight, return and silence. An exploration of the lives of women trapped by an international treaty. The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction was set up in the 1980s to make sure children who'd been taken by one parent to another country without the other parent's permission were returned quickly. Today, the majority of abductions are committed by women, many of whom are fleeing domestic abuse and returning to their home country taking their children with them. Two British mothers share their experiences of being Hagued' by their ex-husbands - one was a rare exception who won her case, while the other returned with her children to her ex-husband's country voluntarily, only to lose everything. A third woman speaks for the many others who are still silenced years after going through a Hague Convention court case. Details of organisations offering information and support with domestic abuse are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline, or you can call for free, at any time to hear recorded information on 0800 888 809. Alternatively, these organisations offer support: https://www.reunite.org/ https://www.globalarrk.org/ Produced by Andrea Rangecroft A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4
03	03	How Do You Sleep At Night?	20201109		A dreamlike glimpse at our collective consciousness in this documentary composed entirely of questions. Featuring Caroline Bird, Ross Sutherland, Axel Kacouti退, Rachel Long, Juliet Jacques, Melissa Harrison, Pejk Malinovski, Rikke Houd, James T Green, Sara Brooke Curtis, Rebecca Tamကs, Joe Dunthorne and Bertie Warmsley. Produced by Eleanor McDowall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
04	01	Fallout	20210906	20211230 (R4)	The image of the atomic mushroom cloud is powerfully symbolic, yet the grainy black and white footage that we're familiar with can create a sense of something historical, abstract and almost cinematic. The legacy of the UK's atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in Australia and the South Pacific is still, to some degree, shrouded in mystery. But for veterans and their offspring, as well as often forgotten islanders, these events are something very present that they carry with them everyday in an ongoing fight for acknowledgement. This documentary brings together these interconnected, intergenerational testimonies and considers the possible physical, psychological and cultural fallout that has occurred in the years following Operation Grapple on Kiritimati (then Christmas Island) and the Minor Trials in Maralinga. With contributions from Tekaobo Wainwright, John and Laura Morris, Steve Purse, Philomena Lawrence and Stacy & Rose Clark. Producer: Hannah Dean Consultant: Becky Alexsis-Martin. and additional research from Susie Boniface A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 (photo credit: Eric Meyer)
04	02	The Last Taboo	20210913	20220106 (R4)	We rarely speak about familial childhood sexual abuse. We should. Through one woman's story, we hear how the silence surrounding childhood sexual abuse compounds trauma in ways that ripple through survivors' lives, touching and tainting relationships and experiences of parenthood, and leading to problems with mental health and addiction. If we could talk about familial abuse more openly, could we help survivors, and make it more difficult for perpetrators to hide behind secrecy? Too often, our mental health systems treat the symptoms of abuse and trauma rather than unlocking the cause. But if we continue to create worlds which permit and encourage silence, are we perpetrators too? Perhaps it's time to speak up. Featuring extracts from The Flying Child by Sophie Olson, founder of The Flying Child Project, and work by John Slater, co-founder of moMENtum. Produced by Redzi Bernard and Phoebe McIndoe A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
04	03	Kaleidoscope	20210920	20220113 (R4)	What does it feel like to be a child or teenager navigating the ups and downs of youth, under the shadow of constant media scrutiny about your identity, your choices and whether you fit into society? Transgender kids and teenagers are often spoken about in the media, but rarely get the chance to speak for themselves. In this episode of Lights Out, three young trans people, aged 10, 15 and 16, let us into their inner worlds. Their mums share how media scrutiny of their families affects their lives and an academic in media studies and queer theory reflects on how the media constructs narratives about marginalised groups, exploring why queer people and children are easy targets for moral panic. Produced by Arlie Adlington A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
04	04	A Service For Society	20210927	20220127 (R4)	Eleven years after the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, a sequence of events unfolded that would rock the British political establishment and test those campaigning for gay rights in the United Kingdom. It resulted in a dead dog, a political career in ruins, a classic comedy sketch and the cause of gay liberation being set back years. Through remarkably candid interviews not previously broadcast in this country with Norman Scott (the former model) and Andrew Newton (the suspected hitman), two of the main protagonists in the trial of Jeremy Thorpe (former leader of the Liberal Party), this documentary revisits a very English scandal and gauges its impact on the struggle for gay rights. We hear from the human-rights activist Peter Tatchell; a member of the Brixton Faeries, Julian Hows, who staged a satirical play based on the Thorpe case; and Tom Robinson, whose song Glad to be Gay hit the charts in 1978. We also hear from Derek Stimpson, archivist of the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers, and archive of Peter Cook as the 'biased judge'. Archive of Norman Scott and Andrew Newton from 'The Jeremy Thorpe Affair' courtesy of CBC Radio's Sunday Morning (1978). Produced by Alan Hall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 A political scandal, a dead dog and the struggle for gay rights in 1970s Britain.
05	01	Accounts And Accountability	20221212		Across the course of a single day, a documentary-maker hosts an open-call audition for subjects to star in her next project. Accounts and Accountability offers a dive into the ethics of buying and selling true stories. With music composed by Eliza Niemi Sound Recording by Fivel Rothberg Assistant Producers: Kristine White, Kyle Damiao, Jose Salazar and Emma Rose Brown Special thanks to Sean Hanley, David Pavlovsky, and Kelly Anderson Produced by Jess Shane A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
05	02	Greenham Convictions	20221219		It's 40 years this month since 30,000 women 'embraced the base' at RAF Greenham Common, Berkshire in protest at the proposed siting of cruise missiles there. For some of them, the Women's Peace Camp became home and the RAF base the scene of countless actions, as political convictions led inevitably to arrests, court appearances and imprisonment. Lyn Barlow served something between 15 and 20 sentences - she lost count - and Sue Say at least eight. Mild-mannered former teacher Mary Millington has journals documenting her numerous prison terms. Greenham Convictions traces why these women put not just their bodies but 'their entire beings' on the line for a cause - and at what price. With thanks to Rebecca Mordan of Greenham Women Everywhere. Produced by Alan Hall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 Protest and prison. Women who 'embraced the base' at RAF Greenham Common 40 years on.
05	03	Call Signs	20221227		A man, a Mouse and a morse key: the story of a radio amateur in Kyiv as the Russian invasion unfolds. When his wife and two children flee Kyiv to escape the war, Volodymyr Gurtovy (call sign US7IGN) stays behind in their apartment with only his radios and the family hamster, Mouse, for company. Before the war, he used to go deep into the pine forests, spinning intricate webs of treetop antennas using a fishing rod, catching signals from radio amateurs in distant countries. Prohibited by martial law from sending messages, he becomes a listener, intercepting conversations of Russian pilots and warning his neighbours to hide in shelters well before the sirens sound. After three months of silence, he begins transmitting again. Switching his lawyer's suit for a soldering iron, he runs a radio surgery for his friends and neighbours, dusting off old shortwave receivers and bringing them back to life. During air raids, he hides behind the thickest wall in his apartment, close to his radios, their flickering amber lights opening a window to another world. A story of sending and receiving signals from within the darkness of the Kyiv blackout. Music: Ollie Chubb (8ctavius) Producer: Cicely Fell A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 Man, Mouse and a morse key: the story of a radio amateur in Kyiv as the Russians invade.
05	04	The Night Sky	20230101		Having devoted decades of their lives to fighting for a better world, three activists in their 70s reflect on keeping going, hope and despair as the year turns - while a retired clergyman and his wife explore what's drawn them to activism in their 60s. Featuring Leila Hassan Howe, Angie Zelter, Linda Clair and Bill and Rosemary White, alongside radio clips from BBC news programmes, Outlook and Mattie's Broadcast (produced by Veronica Simmonds). With music by Lucinda Chua Featuring the tracks Semitones (written and engineered by Lucinda Chua, produced by Lucinda Chua and Adam Wiltzie, mixed by Adam Wiltzie and Francesco Donadello and mastered by Nathan Boddy) and An Avalanche (written, engineered and produced by Lucinda Chua, mixed by Adam Wiltzie and Francesco Donadello and mastered by Nathan Boddy) Development producer: Michael Segalov Additional recording: Andrea Rangecroft Produced by Eleanor McDowall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 Three activists in their 70s reflect on keeping going, hope and despair.
05	05	County Lines	20230102		Four people recount their involvement with `county lines` - gangs that exploit children and vulnerable adults to sell drugs around the UK. Underneath their stories lies a series of unspoken, unanswered questions. Who gets to decide the boundary between criminal and victim? Why do we view 'county lines' through the lens of crime and punishment? And how well does the system support individuals and families devastated by the impact of 'county lines'? With thanks to St Giles Trust SOS Project, Not In Our Community, Escape Line and Eski Media Produced by Phoebe McIndoe and Redzi Bernard A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio Four Four people recount their involvement with 'county lines' - selling drugs around the UK.
05	06 LAST	Gatekeeper	20230109		`Somewhere between the narrow entry of Who I am and What I seem to be, lies a vast and nameless place.` In this transmission, Axel Kacouti退 discovers a new sense of self in the cosmologies, concepts and realities of queer and indigenous folks. What are the links between gender expression and our relationship with the Earth? How does it destabilise colonial and capitalist imaginations of what we're told a gender binary is meant to be? Featuring the voices of: Opaskwayak Cree Nation Professor at the University of Saskatchewan, Dr Alex Wilson Artist Buitumelo Kotekwa Afro-Taino Two-Spirit change-maker Cleopatra Tatabele Scholar and Research Assistant, Karyn De Freitas Transmasculine, non-binary scholar and Founder of the Free Black University, Melz Owusu. Development Producer: Eleanor McDowall Assistant Producer: CA Davis Additional Recording: Heidi Chang and Israel Ramjohn Sound Design, Music and Mixing Production: Axel Kacouti退 Produced by Axel Kacouti退 A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 Axel Kacoutie discovers a new sense of self in the cosmologies.
06	01	Dead Ends	20231016		“Should we delete the sex tape? ? Should we get rid of the crime scene photographs? How do I find a true image of my mum amidst the recordings, fragments and images she left behind? Exploring an archive of home videos, photographs, memories and news reports, Talia Augustidis reflects on how we choose to remember someone. Told through five chapters, each part focuses on a single image of her mum, who died when Talia was three. Dead Ends is an exploration of what privacy and control is afforded to people who sit at the heart of our news stories, as accidental absences and fragments of memory piece together these self-contained narratives of loss. Talia collected the tape for Dead Ends over several years. In 2022 she received a Content is Queen micro-grant, which allowed her to begin piecing these stories together. Original music composed by Jeremy Warmsley Produced by Talia Augustidis A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 The audio-maker Talia Augustidis reflects on how we choose to remember someone. What privacy and control is afforded to people who sit at the heart of our news stories? Talia Augustidis offers a personal reflection on how we choose to remember someone. `Should we delete the sex tape?` Should we get rid of the crime scene photographs? How do I find a true image of my mum amidst the recordings, fragments and images she left behind?
06	02	Lithified	20231023		“I was well aware of this synchronicity: that Cornwall was going onto lithium, or what I prefer to call ‘lithifying', just as I was ‘delithifying', or coming off it. This wasn't an accidentally aligned pairing of incidents. I'd planned it that way. ? In 2022, Laura Grace Simpkins made two big life changes. She decided to stop taking lithium (a medication she was prescribed for her mental health) just as she moved to Cornwall—the only place where lithium is being mined in the UK. In 'Lithified', Laura gets ready for her future without the silvery-white metal, while exploring the landscape it will soon be coming from. Featuring the voices of: Marcia Bjornerud, Professor of Geology and Environmental Studies at Lawrence University Jeremy Wrathall, Founder and CEO of Cornish Lithium Dr Beth Simons, Cornish geologist and author of ‘Variscan Coast Written and narrated by Laura Grace Simpkins Music and sound by Alice Boyd Produced by Alice Boyd and Laura Grace Simpkins A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 Laura Grace Simpkins reflects on modern society's dependency on lithium. As Cornwall prepares to mine for lithium, Laura Grace Simpkins ends her dependency on the lithium used in prescribed medication. `I was well aware of this synchronicity: that Cornwall was going onto lithium, or what I prefer to call lithifying', just as I was delithifying', or coming off it. This wasn't an accidentally aligned pairing of incidents. I'd planned it that way.` In 2022, Laura Grace Simpkins made two big life changes. She decided to stop taking lithium (a medication she was prescribed for her mental health) just as she moved to Cornwallthe only place where lithium is being mined in the UK. In 'Lithified', Laura gets ready for her future without the silvery-white metal, while exploring the landscape it will soon be coming from. Dr Beth Simons, Cornish geologist and author of Variscan Coast
06	03	Threads	20231030		Documentary adventures that invite a closer listen. Infamous during the Greenham Common protests of the 1980s for the recklessness of her activism and her multiple prison sentences (as heard in Lights Out: Greenham Convictions), Lyn Barlow now lives quietly in Somerset. She spends her time making textile art, huge tapestries that document the turbulence of her childhood in care and the struggles of her adulthood - both with the State and herself. Now that her work is on display in Watchet's East Quay gallery, in an exhibition shared with Grayson Perry called Common Thread, Lyn reflects on the textures, the threads and the imagery of her life. Produced by Alan Hall (with music by Alabaster DePlume, licensed courtesy of Domino Publishing Company Limited.) A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 Textile artist Lyn Barlow comes to terms with the reckless activism of her past. Documentary adventures that invite a closer listen. Textile artist Lyn Barlow comes to terms with her unhappy childhood and the reckless activism of her younger self.
06	04	Crossings	20231106		Documentary adventures that invite a closer listen. Sahid has spent years on a relentless journey. Crossing international borders, he has confronted the harrowing realities of human trafficking, slavery, and rafting across the Mediterranean Sea. But his journey isn't over yet - Sahid is at risk of being sent back to the first European Union country he arrived in, a country where he was unlawfully imprisoned and tortured. This is the story of one man's search for safety, from Sierra Leone to Strasbourg. Produced by Phoebe McIndoe and Redzi Bernard A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 Documentary adventures that invite a closer listen. The story of a young man's search for safety, from Sierra Leone to Strasburg.
06	05	Four Walls	20231113		Documentary adventures that invite a closer listen. For generations, queer people have moved to London from more conservative parts of the UK, in search of community and to live as their authentic selves. Now, with housing so unstable, queer people are among the marginalised communities for which homelessness is on the rise. They continue to come to London now to find their place, but the trade off is extreme financial insecurity. Can you really feel at home when the four walls around you are unstable? Jesse Lawson talks to Karen Fisch, Topher Campbell, Carla Ecola and Reggie Lennox about what it means to have to choose between one form of home over another. Music by Femi Oriogun-Williams Produced by Jesse Lawson A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 Documentary adventures that invite a closer listen. The story of Reggie, whose move to London to find a queer community risks financial insecurity. Reggie moved to London from their small town in the Midlands in 2018, to find other queer people like them. Five years later, they are living the life they only thought possible in movies. They're also deeply overdrawn. For decades, London has been a city that queer people from more conservative parts of the UK move to, in search of community and to live as their authentic selves. Now, with housing so unstable, queer people are among the marginalised communities for which homelessness is on the rise. They continue to come to London now to find their place, but the trade off is extreme financial insecurity. Four Walls looks at at what it means to have to choose between one form of home over another.
06	06 LAST	Dust	20231120		I noticed that language seems to fail us. How do you write about the foundations of our existence? That is how mythology enters very naturally into the story, because history is about ideas, religions, empires, wars and culture. Mythology is about the fundaments. Sun, moon, wind, oceans, great floods and tragic gods... We are living in mythological times, where we are shaking the fundaments.' - Andri Snær Magnason Drawing on ideas in his book, On Time and Water, the Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason and the Scottish artist Katie Paterson explore how our imagination can help us hold the moment we live in. From handfuls of dust to watching geological time mark the landscape, this documentary flows from the night skies into the deepest known point in our oceans. Archive recording from Raddir - Voices: Recordings of Folk Songs courtesy of the À?rni Magnússon Institute Vatnajökull (the sound of)' recording courtesy of Katie Paterson Recording of the journey to Okjökull by Guðni Tómasson Music composed and performed by Phil Smith and Zac Gvi Produced by Eleanor McDowall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 How can our imagination help us hold the moment we live in?