Beckett's Last Tapes

Robert McCrum explores Samuel Beckett’s literary career through rare recordings.

• 57 mins

Losing My Voice

Jan Ravens explores the fate of impressionists when their signature character retires.

• 57 mins

Beating Hitler with Humour

Timur Vermes on how the BBC used humour in its battle with Hitler during the World War II.

• 57 mins

The First Political Youthquake

How did radical changes 50 years ago recast young people's engagement with UK politics?

• 57 mins

Going to the Gay Bar

Travis Alabanza investigates the impact of the closure of LGBTQ+ venues in the UK.

• 57 mins

Panorama Broke My School

How a 1977 TV documentary about one London school helped change education policy.

• 57 mins

Please Leave a Message after the Tone

Are we hanging up on the voicemail? Olly Mann charts its rise, fall and strange afterlife.

• 57 mins

Judy Garland: The Final Rainbow

The spectacular story of Judy Garland's last concerts in London.

• 57 mins

Our Anniversary Obsession

From book publishers to Radio 4 commissioners, why are we so interested in anniversaries?

• 57 mins

Akenfield Now

How has English rural life changed since Ronald Blythe wrote his bestseller Akenfield?

• 57 mins

Here's Looking at You, Parents!

Parenting comedy couple Josie Long and Jonny Donahoe share their parenting archive clips.

• 30 mins

Backwards Brexit

This week's Archive on 4 goes backwards in time to find the roots and routes of Brexit.

• 57 mins

Desert Island Myths: Three Centuries of Robinson Crusoe

Christopher Frayling explores the creation and legacy of Defoe's controversial novel.

• 57 mins

Build the Wall!

30 years after the Berlin Wall fell, Katy Long examines the history of border walls.

• 57 mins

Pandora's Ballot Box

Philip Cowley explores how technology influenced elections long before the digital age.

• 57 mins

High Crimes and Misdemeanours: US Presidential Impeachment

Michael Goldfarb looks back at how impeachment became a tool of US partisan politics.

• 57 mins

Altamont: The Death of the Hippie Dream

Mick Jagger's personal assistant returns to the scene of the Rolling Stones' 1969 concert.

• 57 mins

Joe v Max

The story of the fight that gripped the world in 1938 between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling.

• 57 mins

Peak Hype

Murray Lachlan Young traces the rise of hyperbole and asks: Have we reached Peak Hype?

• 57 mins

The Problem of Leisure

The history of a phantom fear: that automation will end work and leave us nothing to do.

• 57 mins

Divided Nation

Timandra Harkness asks if the nation is more divided now than it has been for fifty years

• 57 mins

Sontag's Radical Will

Novelist Deborah Levy assesses the life and work of American writer Susan Sontag.

• 57 mins

Mad Monks

James Naughtie probes the chequered history and impact of prime ministers' top advisers.

• 57 mins

Virtues of Vulnerability with Ed Balls

Ed Balls and guests reflect on the impact of showing one’s vulnerable side.

• 57 mins

Questioning the Political Interview

How can the political interview adapt to a changing political and media landscape?

• 57 mins

Call Jane at 643-3844

A look back at Chicago's underground feminist abortion service.

• 57 mins

The Science of Evil

How the Holocaust created a new field of science - social psychology

• 57 mins

I Think I’ve Been Here Before

Repetition is everywhere. Repetition is persuasive. Has Ross Sutherland been here before?

• 57 mins

Andrea Levy: In her own words

Andrea Levy speaks candidly about her writing life and her impending death.

• 57 mins

Everyone's a Star

Chris Stokel-Walker assesses how YouTube has shaped and changed the society we live in.

• 57 mins

The Decade of Distrust

Laura Kuenssberg explores the foundations of the scandals that shook faith in elites.

• 57 mins

Call Up: The Story of National Service

Sixty years after the call-up ended, Richard Vinen looks back at National Service.

• 57 mins

After The Fallout

The human fall out from the Pacific Nuclear tests - dramatically revisited.

• 57 mins

Lights, Camera, Inaction: An Existential Guide to the Movies

Matthew Sweet looks at why mainstream cinema and existentialism seem so fond of each other

• 57 mins

The End of the Thirty Year Itch

Phil Tinline explores whether we are seeing the emergence of a new political orthodoxy.

• 57 mins

Riot Remembered

The St Paul's Riots in Bristol in 1980 remembered by those who took part.

• 57 mins

I'm Terry Gross and this is Fresh Air

Dolly Alderton turns the tables on the master of the radio interview, Terry Gross.

• 57 mins

The Hubble Legacy

Astronaut Nicole Stott celebrates the cultural legacy of the Hubble Space Telescope.

• 57 mins

The Phoney War

The story of the BBC in the strange period of 1939-1940 and the echoes of Covid-19 today

• 57 mins

Malcolm McLaren: Spectacular Failure

Paul Gorman assesses the exceptional achievement of Malcolm McLaren, who died 10 years ago

• 57 mins

Four Dead in Ohio

Michael Goldfarb explores America at the time of the Kent State massacre, 50 years ago.

• 57 mins

The Empire Strikes Back

40 years ago George Lucas risked everything on making The Empire Strikes Back. Here's how.

• 57 mins

So Bad It's Good?

Steve Punt and guests share the joy of films, songs and books that are so bad they're good

• 57 mins

The Wellness Phenomenon

Claudia Hammond explores the wellness phenomenon, from its start in California to today.

• 57 mins

Anthony Blunt: A Question of Retribution?

David Cannadine on the controversy caused by the unmasking of Anthony Blunt as a spy.

• 57 mins

Girl Power RIP

Journalist and author Ella Whelan asks if contemporary feminism is - well - dead.

• 57 mins

Poetry For Sale?

Poet and copywriter Rishi Dastidar on the relationship between poetry and advertising.

• 57 mins

Apollo 13: The Rescue

Houston, we've had a problem. How the mission of Apollo 13 was saved

• 57 mins

Summer with Greta

Campaigner Greta Thunberg describes the remarkable and tumultuous past year of her life.

• 80 mins

The Crunch Convention

A US election like no other, presented by Alistair Cooke

• 57 mins

LOLs on LPs

David Walliams remembers the comedy albums which inspired him to write and perform.

• 57 mins

The End of Coming Out?

Dustin Lance Black asks whether LGBTQ+ people still need to come out publicly.

• 57 mins

Spitfire: From the Ashes

How an icon was made, piece by piece, against all odds. With historian Victoria Taylor.

• 57 mins

Raise Your Game

Jay-Ann Lopez asks if toxic gaming culture can change.

• 57 mins

A Broadcasting Life

Sue MacGregor looks back on five decades of broadcasting in this final goodbye to Radio 4.

• 57 mins

The Day Brexit Hit Boiling Point

Carolyn Quinn recalls the intense and bitter Parliamentary confrontations over Brexit

• 57 mins

The Quebec Emergency

Margaret Macmillan recalls the 1970 crisis when kidnappings threw Canada into turmoil.

• 57 mins

A Media Divided

The end of the Fairness Doctrine and the rise of political polarisation in US broadcasting

• 57 mins

Play for Today

Alison Steadman celebrates 50 years of BBC television's seminal drama series.

• 57 mins

Trump: Backwards

Scrolling backwards through the archive to tell the Trump story in reverse.

• 57 mins

Our Sacred Story

Alec Ryrie argues that the Second World War is our modern sacred narrative.

• 57 mins

14/11/2020

Steve Fielding explores how political parties have recovered from big election defeats.

• 57 mins

All Things Must Pass at 50

Composer Nitin Sawhney tells the story of George Harrison’s most famous album.

• 57 mins

Da da da DAAAAA!

Rachel Parris leads us on an irreverent tour of Beethoven's 5th Symphony.

• 57 mins

Disorienting

Phil Wang investigates the representation of East and South East Asians in western media.

• 57 mins

It's Behind You! The weird and wonderful story of British pantomime

Cultural historian Christopher Frayling explores the rich and surprising history of panto.

• 57 mins

The Alliance

How close were Pope John Paul II and Ronald Reagan at the end of the Cold War?

• 57 mins

Easier than curing a toothache? The Story of Lobotomy.

Claire Prentice looks at the history of a notorious medical procedure - lobotomy.

• 57 mins

A Backwards Catastrophe

Travelling in reverse through the archives to trace the roots of the environmental crisis.

• 57 mins