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INNER VOICES - THE BURTON DIARIES (320kbs-m4a/128mb/56mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 10th November 2025
The archive of Richard Burton is a treasure. Hamlet, Under Milk Wood, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Equus stand out, and then there are the movies: Wild Geese, Where Eagles Dare, Antony and Cleopatra, Night of the Iguana and The Robe.
Through several periods of Burton's life, most notably from the mid-1960s to the early '70s he kept a diary, sometimes handwritten, mostly typed out and assembled in thick notebooks. The diaries provide a unique view of the world in which he moved, among actors and directors, writers and poets, millionaires and royalty. They also give an insight into his approach to acting, his insecurities, his drinking and his volatile relationship with Elizabeth Taylor at a time when they were the most famous couple in the world.
Shortly after Burton's death in 1984, Melvyn Bragg was given access to the diaries to write his biography of Burton, Rich.
Burton was the son of a Welsh miner. He met a remarkable teacher and made the journey to Oxford and on to fame and fortune but was seldom really happy. He was a hellraiser who often behaved appallingly and was accused of squandering an extraordinary talent on drinking and bad movies. But Burton was also a man of wonderful erudition, passion, insight and self- knowledge. He fought his way in life through force of will, love, and voracious reading. It is this side of the man that makes him such a remarkable presence. It is also a side of him captured in a rich vein of BBC archive and interviews.
Presented by Melvyn Bragg
Reader Josh Richards
Taking part Dai Smith and Chris Williams
Producer Jeremy Grange
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2012.
ONE LAST CHANCE TO SEE (320kbs-m4a/129mb/56mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 4th October 2025
"It's funny how often, every author I know, their own favourite book is the one that sold the least… My favourite book is what I'm here to talk about tonight."
Douglas Adams is best known as a science fiction writer. But in the late 80s, the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy embarked on something completely different. After a life-changing meeting with a rare lemur called an Aye-Aye, he decided he wanted to travel the world with the zoologist Mark Carwardine, in search of endangered species. Their journeys became a book and a Radio 4 series called Last Chance To See.
A few years ago, Katherine Rundell stumbled upon Last Chance To See in a second hand book shop. "It was a revelation... the way that he managed to salute the intricate variety and infinite strangeness of living things and still tell some of the best jokes that you will encounter in print, that seemed to me both an extraordinary thing and the thing that we need so much more of."
Here, Katherine Rundell revisits the story behind the book and Radio 4 series – as told by its co-author Mark Carwardine in a new interview, and Douglas himself, thanks to archive from the lecture Douglas gave at the University of California in 2001, just a month before his death.
Ever ahead of his time, the message of the book is even more stark today.
"We don't have to save the world. The world's fine. The world has been through five periods of mass extinction…. What we have to be concerned about is whether or not the world we live in will be capable of sustaining us in it. That's what we need to think about."
With thanks to Mark Carwardine, the Douglas Adams Estate, and the University of California.
Presented by Katherine Rundell. Produced in Bristol by Polly Weston
THIS CULTURAL LIFE - 138. MARK RONSON (320kbs-m4a/98mb/43mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 23rd October 2025
Having spent his early years in London, Mark Ronson grew up in Manhattan, began working as a DJ as a teenager and quickly made a name for himself on the New York club scene of the 1990s. He moved into music production and, in 2006, co-wrote and co-produced the Amy Winehouse album Back To Black. The record won five Grammys and Mark Ronson himself scooped the Producer of the Year Award. Since then, he has released five solo albums and worked with some of the most successful names in pop including Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, Queens Of The Stone Age and Paul McCartney. The winner of ten Grammys and two Brits, he added an Academy Award to his list of accolades in 2018 as co-writer of the song Shallow from the film A Star Is Born. He was also Oscar nominated for his work as executive producer, composer and songwriter for the soundtrack to the Barbie movie. More recently he has written a book called Night People, a memoir about his time as a DJ in 90s New York.
Mark Ronson tells John Wilson about the influence of his music-loving parents, who often threw parties at their north London home when he was a child. He talks about the influence of his stepfather Mick Jones, songwriter, guitarist and producer of the 80s rock band Foreigner, who allowed Mark to experiment with equipment in his home studio in New York and encouraged his early interest in production. He remembers how hearing the 1992 track They Reminisce Over You by Pete Rock and CL Smooth led him to pursue a career as a club DJ and become renowned for the diverse range of music he played in clubs - from soul and hip-hop to classic rock - an eclectic approach which later informed his work as a producer. Mark Ronson also recalls first meeting Amy Winehouse and how they wrote and recorded the songs for her Back To Black album.
Producer: Edwina Pitman
THIS CULTURAL LIFE - 132. ALICIA VIKANDER (320kbs-m4a/98mb/43mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 11th September 2025
Swedish-born Alicia Vikander won global acclaim in 2015 for playing Vera Britten in Testament Of Youth, and a humanoid robot in the thriller Ex-Machina. The following year she won an Academy Award for her supporting role with Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl, along with a Screen Actors Guild Award and BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. Since then her diverse range of screen roles have included playing a spy boss in the film Jason Bourne, computer game heroine Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, and Gloria Steinem in the biopic The Glorias. The daughter of acclaimed stage actor Maria Fahl, she tells John Wilson how she first performed on stage at the age of seven in a musical written by Benny and Bjorn of ABBA. She also appeared in Swedish television dramas and films as a child actor. In 2025 Alicia Vikander makes her return to the stage in a new version of Ibsen's The Lady From The Sea at The Bridge in London, her first theatre role since she was a child.
Producer: Edwina Pitman
