There are about 500 BBC radio programmes listed on their page "Seriously..."
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p021gdts
Here are a few musical ones I bookmarked :
Pet Sounds and Blonde on Blonde - 2016
On Monday 16 May 1966, the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde were released simultaneously. This is the story of that momentous day.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b079pqct
Betjeman's Banana Blush - 2014
Betjeman's Banana Blush was released on the progressive rock label Charisma - the home of Genesis, Lindisfarne and Van Der Graf Generator - and tracks from it were regularly featured on John Peel's Radio 1 programme. A Shropshire Lad was named single of the week by New Musical Express and the paper featured an interview with the poet.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04bmtpp
A Cello in the Desert - 2016
After a family send-off, Nina Plapp and Cuthbert[the cello] head east on an adventure into the rich musical landscape of the gypsies. They first visit a family in Romania where she immerses herself in the wild rhythms and melodies of the Roma in rural Transylvania. Then they continue to India to seek out the original gypsies.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04d02db
Clap Clap: A Brief History of Applause - 2016
Simon Callow explores one of the earliest and most universal systems people have used to interact with each other - the clapping of hands.
Applause in the ancient world was acclamation. But it was also communication. An early form of mass media, connecting people to each other and to their leaders - instantly, visually and, of course, audibly.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07lffnh
The Fisher Poets Gathering - 2014
Katrina Porteous visits Astoria, Oregon, where each February commercial fishermen and women gather for a festival of poems, songs and stories they have written about their lives.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b042d57r
Highway 61: Fifty Years On - 2015
Andy Kershaw travels to the USA to explore the lasting impact of Bob Dylan’s 1965 LP, Highway 61 Revisited.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06gtk2l
JFK: The Vinyl Reaction - 2015
Paul Gambaccini reveals how the American record industry, songwriters and record buyers responded to the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06qv3zl
The Last Post(bugle call) - 2015
How did a simple British Army bugle call from the 18th century become a sacred anthem of death and remembrance?
And how did it spread to the rest of the world, played at the funerals of Gandhi and Nelson Mandela?
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06nq1f6
On The Road - Maddy Prior and Rose Kemp - 2015
Maddy Prior and daughter Rose Kemp discuss their totally different musical journeys.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06pf1wn/episodes/player
Pete& Clive - 2015
Pete Atkin and Clive James shared a partnership in songwriting for half a century since their University days in Cambridge.
They created an archive of 300 or more songs known for their intellectual ranking.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06nnnlc
Seth Lakeman and the Newport Folk Festival - 2015
As a fan of the history of folk music Seth is keen to discover how Dylan's iconic performance in July 1965 helped establish the Newport Folk Festival's reputation as a barometer for cultural change, where key artistes at the forefront of the civil rights movement were provided with a platform to voice their political views to a wider audience.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06442qf
Singing Piaf with No Regrets - 2015
The Paris-based singer Caroline Nin listens to those drawn to sing the music of the legendary French performer, born 100 years ago this week in the working class Parisian district of Belleville.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06rzd4b
Songs for the Dead - Ireland's keening women - 2016
Keeners were the women of rural Ireland who were traditionally paid to cry, wail and sing over the bodies of the dead at funerals and wakes.
Their role was to help channel the grief of the bereaved and they had an elevated, almost mythical status among their communities. The custom of keening had all but vanished by the 1950s as people began to view it as primitive, old-fashioned and uncivilised.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07npx1f
Spanish Steps - the hunt for the authentic sound of flamenco - 2015
Chris Stewart meets the youngest in a long line of gypsy guitarists - Juan Habichuela Nieto performing in the open air courtyard of the Alhambra; the much lauded singer Juan Pinilla; the dancer Chua Alba, who also teaches his own daughter Chloe; the grand old man of Sacramonte, Curro Albaicin; and learns the poetry of flamenco from Steven Nightingale.
Drinking more red wine than a wise man should on a hot night, he listens to the wavering song of a 99 year old Juan Mesa, accompanied by Alvaro, his 19 year old accompanist, in the dust riddled guitar shop of Rafa Moreno; before bumping into the proud bohemian, the gypsy singer, Cristobal Osorio, under the stars, concluding that flamenco is indeed the 'Blues of Europe'.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06l1yp7
Up Close and Personal - the crooners - 2016
Clarke Peters follows the croon and practitioners of the art, including Rudy Vallee, Russ Columbo, Al Bowlly and Bing Crosby.
In the 1920s and 30s electric microphones and amplifiers enabled singers with soft, untrained voices to finally be heard.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07vjqml
sub page
Strange Sounds
- Weird instruments and unearthly rhythms
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02wyw0d
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