New commissions for 2008

20 June 2008

Forthcoming programmes in 2008

For BBC Radio 4 we'll be making a number of features - Musical Migrants, produced by Rachel Hopkin, is a series of portraits of musicians who've crossed borders in search of new forms of musical expression.

Katie Burningham produces a half hour portrait of the alternative and precarious lifestyle of cycle couriers, City Messengers. Letters to Myself is a feature constructed from letters people have written to be opened by themselves when older. It's produced by Sandhya Suri, who made the award-winning film documentary I is for India. Also, Arlen Harris and Peregrine Andrews depict the lives of 'repo men' in a half hour feature called Driving Into Debt and we reversioned Kari Hesthamar's celebrated documentaries for NRK about the relationship of Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen, with a new interview in English with Marianne - Leonard and Marianne received a staggering number of hits on Radio 4's on-line 'listen again' site .

BBC Radio 3 has commissioned a collaboration between the distinguished Newfoundland producer Chris Brookes and Alan Hall. Hark! will explore the sound world of early modern England and will be heard in versions designed specially for the CBC and BBC Radio 3

(tx. 5 October 2008).

Nina Perry has had a new 'composed feature' commissioned by BBC Radio 4. Sounding Post looks at the connection between music and wood and features LA-based guitarist Laurence Juber.

In the summer of 2008, Falling Tree produced a further pair of Archive Hours, one marking the fiftieth anniversary of the broadcast of the first Radio Ballad, The Ballad of John Axon. Produced by Charles Parker's daughter, Sara, the programme is called Like Blackpool Went Through Rock. Also, BBC Radio 4 commissioned The Ballad of the Radio Feature, a documentary produced by Alan Hall tracing the evolution of the radio feature, the purpose of which has been described as being "to mirror the true inwardness of its subject".

Launching BBC Radio 4's Cosmology season, Diane Hope produced a feature called Lonely Nights, following the experiences of deep sky astronomer and contemporary music fan Brian Skiff in the Lowell Observatory in Arizona.

BBC Radio 3 has commissioned a new 'Between the Ears' from John Wynne. Hearts, Lungs&Minds is composed from recordings made in Harefield Hospital's heart and lung transplant wards (tx. 21 June 2008). Alan Hall and Katie Burningham have been commissioned to make another 'Between the Ears', called A Map of Paradise (tx. 24 May 2008).