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THE GHOSTS OF MAIDA VALE (320kbs-m4a/131mb/57mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 28th March 2026
In 1934, the BBC bought a roller-skating rink in west London and turned it into a home for the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Walk around Maida Vale studios today and it still feels like a makeshift conversion - no architect in their right mind would design a building in which the main access route is a 120 metre corridor down which two people can barely pass. And yet, for 92 years, the world's greatest musicians have been coming here to perform and record for the BBC.
From now on, they will do so for new owners.
In The Ghosts of Maida Vale, we hear rock and pop musicians and presenters, past and present, including Jarvis Cocker, Annie Nightingale, Squeeze, Beyoncé, John Peel, Adam Ant and The Beatles.
Writer and presenter Matthew Sweet, alongside like-minded artists, conjures the spirits and echoes of Maida Vale studios with reminiscences from the worlds of classical music, radio drama, wartime propaganda and the electronic music pioneers of the world famous BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Many of the recordings made here since the 1930s have been preserved on disc. In the 1960s the Beatles recorded 52 editions of their show Pop Goes The Beatles!, many from Maida Vale. These programmes capture the evolution of their style. In 1977 Bing Crosby made his last ever recording in Studio 3. Between 1967 and 2004, John Peel's sessions laid down an immensity of work by artists including Led Zeppelin, The Slits, Fairport Convention and Nirvana.
The story of the BBC at Maida Vale has been told many times – this programme brings that story to a close.
Writer/presenter: Matthew Sweet
Producer: Debbie Kilbride
Editor: Sukey Firth
A Mighty Real production for BBC Radio 4
SOUND OF CINEMA - 480. A PLACE FOR IDEAS (320kbs-m4a/134mb/58mins)
BBC Radio 3 broadcast: 23rd October 2025
A selection of music for the big screen introduced by Matthew Sweet (in his final show) suggesting that cinema is not only a great source of entertainment but a perfect medium for expressing ideas. Matthew's choice of scores includes David Shire's 'The Taking of Pelham 123', Johann Johannsson's 'Arrival', Jerry Goldsmith's and Michael Giacchino's music for 'The Planet of the Apes' series, Laura Karpman's 'American Fiction', Naomi Sato's 'Godzilla Minus One', Angelo Badalamenti's 'Twin Peaks', and Howard Shore's 'Hugo'.
David Shire - The Conversation (1974) - Theme [Silva Screen]
David Shire - The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three (1974) - Main Title [EMI America]
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Arrival (2016) - Kangaru [Deutsche Grammophon]
Jerry Goldsmith - Planet Of The Apes (1968) - The Hunt [Varèse Sarabande]
Michael Giacchino - Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes (2014) - End Credits [Sony Classical]
Michael Giacchino - Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) - Star Trek Main Theme [Varèse Sarabande]
Laura Karpman - American Fiction (2023) - Family Is, Monk Is [Mutant]
Laura Karpman - American Fiction (2023) - Romantic Ending [Mutant]
Naoki Satō - Godzilla Minus One (2023) - Godzilla Suite II [Waxwork]
Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks (1990) - Main Theme [Warner Bros.]
Howard Shore - Hugo (2011) - Winding It Up [Howe]
Jean Vincent Plummer - Casablanca (1942) - As Time Goes By [Sony Classical]
Ennio Morricone - Cinema Paradiso (1988) - Love Theme - Version 3 + Main Theme [EMI]
Paul Giovanni - The Wicker Man (1973) - Festival / Sumer Is A-cumen In [Trunk]
ARCHIVE ON 4: LOBSTER TELEPHONE (320kbs-m4a/130mb/57mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 16th November 2024
Matthew Sweet explores a century of surrealism.
In 1924 Andre Breton published the Manifesto of Surrealism, giving shape to a set of ideas that had a profound effect on cultural and artistic life. Despite the manifesto, Surrealism was less a cast-iron ideology than an evolving set of principles. In short, it aimed to loosen the shackles of rationality and to liberate minds. It drew on our dream lives, our unconscious selves and our nightmare visions. Not simply in the service of shock: surrealism sought to upend settled assumptions and change the world.
We might think first of the visual arts – of vivid and puzzling paintings – but Breton was first of all concerned with writing. And Surrealists went on to use any and all methods to dislocate conventional reason: poems, texts, photographs, collages, film. But in our digital age can the juxtapositions of surrealism carry any urgency? Has its emancipatory potential seeped away with familiarity and the easy ability to cut and paste? Can surrealism still be subversive? And, as we tell the stories and discuss the ideas, can we infuse this programme with an authentic surrealist spirit?
With Louisa Buck, Hamed Maiye, Desmond Morris, Adjoa Osei and Perdita Sinclair.
With grateful thanks to Sabina Stent.
ARCHIVE ON 4: THE GREAT OUTDOORS (320kbs-m4a/130mb/57mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 3rd June 2023
Matthew Sweet goes outside on an expedition to survey the history of the Great Outdoors.
Never has communing with nature been more celebrated. The cultural conversation is thick with soul-searching rainy walks, philosophical journeys in the company of birds, insects, and the taking of pleasure in a keenly observed scrubland. The idea that the outdoors is good for body and soul is one that permeates the 20th and 21st centuries, but for all the great beauty of nature writing and broadcasting this celebration of the natural world has its roots in often murkier ground.
There are BBC archive encounters with some of the most enrapturing broadcasters of the outdoors - Roger Deakin, Richard Mabey and Robert Macfarlane among others, the outdoors-man Horatio Clare who offers advice and guidance for the would-be rural rambler. The countryside has also been a battleground for political and cultural factions and the archaeologist David Petts shows him Heartbreak Hill, the site of a 1930s work camp in Cleveland set up to get unemployed ironstone miners back to the land. One of its driving forces was Rolf Gardiner, the rural revivalist and fundamentalist Morris dancer.
With Sandra Kerr, the folk singer and, in guise of Madeleine the rag doll, esteemed colleague of Bagpuss, Matthew explores how rural romanticism preoccupied the song collectors of the early 20th century and has his own Madeleine moment as he listens to her sing by a mill stream.
Advice on the right tools for the right job provided by Nuts in May (1976), BBC, Play for Today, BBC1 Directed and Devised by Mike Leigh with Roger Sloman as Keith and Alison Steadman as Candice Marie.
Presenter: Matthew Sweet
Producer: Natalie Steed
A Rhubarb Rhubarb production for BBC Radio 4
