Our documentaries team has a long heritage as one of Radio 4’s main suppliers for documentaries. Our producers have created award-winning programmes on current affairs, history, science, arts and culture. Recent highlights include:
Searching For Swimming Pools
Paul Smith’s portrait of the effects of dementia on one family. Nominated for Prix Italia in 2019 and selected as British entry at the IFC 2019 International Audio Features Conference.
The Expressing Room
Nominated for BBC Radio & Music Awards best documentary, Fi Glover goes behind closed doors of an Expressing Room on a premature babies ward, following the stories and conversations of a group of mothers as they express milk for their newborns.
The Pleasures of Brecht
Described by Radio 4 commissioning editor as ‘possibly the most beautiful programme I have ever commissioned’. Producer Phil Smith goes in search of Brecht’s simple joys in life, and tells the story of the poem that described them. Selected as one of the 100 Outstanding Podcast episodes of 2019 by Bello Collective
The Deported
So you’ve been deported, what happens now? The stories of three people sent to Nigeria, a country they left many years ago, and what happens to them once they arrive.
Art of Now: Race And Fashion
Kenya Hunt investigates how the fashion world is grappling with race.
Destiny And The Brain
Neuroscientist Hannah Critchlow asks what the latest brain research might tell us about ideas of free will, nature and nurture, and destiny.
Driven To Distraction
Are we really more distracted than ever before? Rhys Jones explores how previous generations have fought back against the forces of distraction.
Going To Town
Anand Menon investigates why towns have become crucial to understanding political changes in the UK.