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For most of my life the kind of people who made Radio 4 programmes were all self-evidently much older than me. They were people of my parents' generation, people who ...

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It is 21 years this summer since I started working on In Business, thanks to a sudden crisis. The programme's previous presenter had been tempted to a more lucrative job in television, and the vital deadline of the billing was looming. That was when we decided what ought to be in the programme, and who the presenter would be. And though the presenter has stuck, this is still a familiar deadline, I'm afraid.

In Business had started some time before, in the 1970s, at a time when business got short shrift from Ö÷²¥´óÐã News. The powers that be must have thought it too boring, too specialist, too incomprehensible for a general audience.

Economics coverage was mostly restricted to a canter round the monthly economic indicators and a routine daily mention of the ups and downs of share prices as indicated by the .

Business was a distant world. Radio 4 had woken up to the fascinating intricacies of the financial markets in 1971, when a long postal workers strike badly affected the City of London. The deputy editor of the World Tonight, Vincent Duggleby, was alerted to this, commissioned a piece on it, and very soon after that the Financial World Tonight was born as a separate programme, with Vincent at the helm.

In Business came a bit later; the first series was commissioned by Radio 4 after Ö÷²¥´óÐã governors were badgered at a 'Meet the Ö÷²¥´óÐã' meeting to recognise that there was a lot more to business than the City. That has turned out to be true.

Nevertheless, despite the explosion of business broadcasting in the past 20 years led by the American networks and then taken up round the world, it is still those perpetual motion machines the financial markets that get the most attention, in minute detail.

Leaving In Business (and its sister programme Global Business on the World Service) ample room to pursue some of the longer term trends. In particular, that means addressing the endless story of change: high technology crashing into the established way of doing things in companies, industries, countries, over and over again.

It's strange but true that the new millennium in 2000 really did seem to usher in a whole new world of business activity, reasserting the significance of the dot-com bubble even after it burst so apparently definitively the same year.

And organisations are still busy learning how to cope with the new wired-up interconnected, interactive world... look at the confusion in the global media industry at the moment if you think the implications of the Internet are now out in the open.

But it may go deeper than mere business models, such as shifting retailing to the web, or not.

Some 10 years ago the great management thinker the late told me that he did not think that the computer had yet begun to effect the way organisations were managed. At the time, it seemed to be a crazy remark, but thinking about it afterwards it made more and more sense.

transformed industry after industry with his adoption of the in Detroit 100 years ago. Theoretically, the interactive information generated by the computer network should be having just as much disruptive impact on business now as Ford had then.

But few pre-existing companies seem to have changed their shape, size or business model to reflect what they now know about the clients and customers.

The mass production corporation tells itself it is making things its customers want to buy, and giving them a choice. But big companies seem to erect walls around themselves to keep the customer at bay. They commission market research rather than themselves go out and ask questions, and they mainly want customers who want to buy the things they make, not the other way round.

Inside the company all is ordered and predicable, punctuated by meetings and lunches and access to the company car parking space. Outside, in the real world, there is fearful chaos.

Big companies seem scared of the individuality of the people in the market place. They long to bring order and branding and simplicity to the disorder of real life.

It is something you see vividly in India at the moment, where the country's 12-million roadside hawkers and tiny corner shops are fighting to prevent the spread of the big corporate supermarkets.

Company Man and Company Woman see chaos on the street and in the bazaars of India, when what I see is huge choice and enormous convenience... backed by a remarkably efficient supply chain getting produce from the wholesale markets to the streets. Choice and convenience now under threat.

Business people get business qualifications that give them the tools to bring what they think is order to the chaos of the real world, in the same way that the whiz kids in the financial markets thought they had packaged up sub prime risk so that it wasn't risky any more.

The 21st century post-Ford lesson that business may have to learn is that the real world is full of millions of individuals with individual needs who want their individuality respected and served. The network computer makes this sort of intimacy possible, if companies were to learn how to use it to craft the mass market products for a clamour of different preferences.

Providing goods and services in this way was not possible when I started doing In Business 21 years ago. Perhaps we ought to make a programme about it. Perhaps that's what we are doing.

Peter Day is presenter of In Business

• This week's In Business, Learning Curve, is about training in the Internet era and is on Radio 4 at 2030 tonight.
• I in the offices of Radio Current Affairs in White City - the department that produces Moneybox, Analysis, More or Less and In Business.
• Peter Day on his death in 2005.
• The In Business archive is one of the most comprehensive at the Ö÷²¥´óÐã. You can listen to programmes going back to 2002.
• Peter Day's World of Business podcast combines In Business and his 52 weeks-per-year World Service programme Global Business.

Book of the Week on Radio 4 this week is Ben Mezrich's Accidental Billionaires, a book whose subtitle (at least in the American edition) is: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal. Perfect Radio 4 material then. As you'd expect, the book has its own .

Radio 4, like all the top media brands, is on too, but in a fairly haphazard way, although the Corporation's social media guidelines encourage staff and programme makers to get involved. There's no formal Radio 4 presence but a number of individual programmes have profiles. Only one Radio 4 programme makes systematic use of Facebook  to interact with listeners and to solicit contributions: Saturday Live.

The (2,784 members) is busy and Fi Glover uploads her popular weekly newsletter here. In the group right now there's some debate about Secretary of State for Health Andy Burnham's choice of inheritance tracks. Group member says:

The Rt.Hon.A.Burnham chose Billy Bragg as his track to pass onto the next generation. The simplistic ideology of B. Bragg might be an understandle indulgence for a student, but for a mature man approaching 40, and a cabinet minister to boot?

has 3,151 fans but there's not much going on and this isn't an official Radio 4 profile - it was set up by a fan. , on the profile's wall, says:

I'm a fresh arrival from the USA. Radio here is 100 times better. I can't believe I find myself being sucked into radio drama! I was digging the recent sci-fi hard. And the comedy is funny as hell! Thumbs up!

The busiest Radio 4 group on Facebook is an entertaining one with a backhanded compliment for a name: (4,932 members). The group's name echoes the challenges Mark Damazer addressed here on the blog a couple of weeks ago when he explained why Radio 4 is touring universities later this year:

It is an attempt to explain to an audience that sometimes knows distressingly little about Radio 4 (we have evidence that we are not much known among many under 30 year-olds) that we have things to stimulate and amuse them.

Radio 4's talent, especially the comedians, is well-represented on Facebook, as you'd expect. has 1,365 members, the has 4,859 and has 1,666 fans. has 1,278 fans and her has 2,017 members but only two people .

Do you think Radio 4 should make more effort on Facebook? Should there be an official profile? Should programmes and personalities use the social networks to interact with listeners at all? Or are they right to steer clear and leave it to the fans?

Tracking down spies for a documentary poses peculiar challenges. Most are reticent to break cover and speak in public. But the occasion of the 100th anniversary of MI6 tempted a few out of their silence. Many were delighted at the chance to talk about their work even if they drew a veil over the more sensitive areas. Some agreed to meet but some wanted to remain anonymous or decided not to speak on tape at all. One individual did his interview in black tie. Very Bond and very old-school Radio 4. Although, I have to admit it was really because he had a formal dinner to go to straight afterwards.

Sir John Scarlett was certainly not in black tie when I went to meet him at MI6's headquarters at Vauxhall (referred to by some as 'Legoland'). Our radio equipment had to be specially cleared in as electronic devices are not usually allowed past the entrance. Scarlett is due to leave as head of MI6 in November and the interview - the first by him or by any serving chief - was a chance to dwell on the history of the organisation and what it gets to know. The other obvious place to go for a history of MI6 was Moscow. There we found some former Russian spies who relished the long intelligence duel between the two countries. One former KGB man even had a rather odd picture on his wall featuring the face of Margaret Thatcher superimposed onto a rather scantily clad model. Not quite sure why.

Gordon spoke on Today about the relationship of fictional spies to the real world intelligence services:

And wrote an for the Ö÷²¥´óÐã News Magazine.

Gordon Corera is the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's security correspondent

• The first episode of MI6: A Century in the Shadows, Gadgets and Green Ink, went out on Radio 4 at 0900 today and will be repeated at 2130.
• Radio 4's Complete Smiley continues until April 2010.
• On 1 August, journalist Tom Bower will introduce his 1980s documentary about double agent George Blake in the Archive on Four slot.

Lunch yesterday at one of London's poshest restaurants - not, as many people think, what I normally spend my life doing, but a chance for me to eavesdrop on a meeting about the future of . In Italy Slow Food is a powerful political force, in the UK it's been a lot less than that which has greatly aggravated SF's founder . The result is UK Slow Food has a new chief exec, American-Italian dynamo , hot from the UN, ready to do some shaking up and convince us class-ridden, good-food-wary Brits that food matters. I think Catherine could easily outperform Tony Blair in the Middle East, but changing the food culture of the British Isles is an altogether harder task.

Lots of compliments at the meeting about our Food & Film programme two Sundays ago. The food world is a bit like the entertainment industry - you were wonderful darling - so I don't take compliments too seriously, but that was a programme I'm particularly proud to have presented. One of the Food Programme's brilliant producers understood that it would cast a new light on our food system if we looked at it just through the eyes of film makers, both here and abroad. We're living through a golden age of documentary making - documentaries that are being watched in cinemas, village and church halls all over the world (while fewer and fewer are appearing on our television screens. Something wrong somewhere).

Making the programme I interviewed Nick Francis, who with his brother Marc directed , a documentary about the coffee business. I met them first with producer Rebecca Moore when The Food Programme went to Cancun to cover the World Trade Organisation meeting. Nick and Marc were there following the coffee story, documenting the relationship between developing countries and global decision-making on "free trade". The Cancun scenes in are some of the most powerful in the whole film. Since the film was released in 2007 the issues it highlighted have taken over the brothers' lives.

And the film has been screened all over Africa and the Americas, spelling out for all to see a world where a cappuccino costs around £2.50 but the Ethiopian farmer who produced the beans - generally agreed to be the finest on the planet - will get perhaps 5p a kilo. And as the film tells us one kilo of coffee beans makes about 80 cups of coffee. The arithmetic isn't difficult. This is one of the reasons Ethiopian farmers and their families are going hungry, need food aid and are getting out of coffee growing. Insane? As we say at the Food Programme - understand food and you're a long way on the road to understanding the way the world works.

Meanwhile we're gearing up in this little corner of the open plan on the 6th floor at Broadcasting House for this year's Radio 4 Food & Farming Awards - the 10th. A decade since Prince Charles handed out the first gongs.

Gearing up seems the right expression... adjusting the criteria for each award, appointing the judging panel (Chair, Raymond Blanc, plus Alex James, Rose Prince, Mark Hix, Simon Parkes, Lord Haskins, for starters), constructing the trails for Radio 4, setting up the website to take in nominations, starting a filing system for each of the nine categories, getting the help of a smart young intern for a couple of weeks. And then wondering how the hell the producers are going to cope with organising the judging, and recording, with at least one judge, at each place, on each short-list - 24 sites in all and if other years are a guide they'll be scattered from the Orkneys to the Scillies--all the while continuing to turn out The Food Programme every week. Every year it seems overwhelming, every year it's exhaustingly fascinating.

Sheila Dillon is presenter of The Food Programme

• Make a nomination for the 2009 Food & Farming Awards.
• of Sheila Dillon and producer Rebecca Moore in the studio on 23 July 2009.
• Paul Levy's in The Guardian.
• The Financial Times to market Fair Trade coffee in the UK.
• on WTO Cancun.

The blog is picking up momentum. In addition to regular posts from our Controller (35 posts so far - about six per month) we've had 128 posts all together, from programme makers, presenters, commissioners, managers and even a handful of outsiders (like yesterday's lovely post by Margie Tunbridge, a 'plinther').There have been lots of housekeeping posts and round-ups and behind-the-scenes photos from me and a really gripping two-month flurry of posts and comments and responses all about the Radio 4 web site's redesign (Doh! I've mentioned it again).

We've tackled some fairly big topics (at least in Radio 4-Land), like the cancellation of Go 4 It, repeats, commissioning (or not commissioning) political drama, pulling a programme at the last minute and giving airtime to controversial figures.

And one of the exciting things about airing these issues on the blog is the breadth and quality of listener feedback that results - I'd invite you to follow the links above and read the comments. I always make sure that the right people at Radio 4 are aware of these useful and well-informed responses: they're important. The biggest topic so far? The web site redesign, by several miles (and especially the size of the pictures). That produced over 500 comments. I've answered (and sometimes failed to answer) dozens of direct questions from listeners, usually by ferreting out the right person at the network and asking them. In this, I think I'm something between a 'listeners' editor' and a customer service rep.

So, I'm just planning the next couple of weeks on the blog and I've already got posts lined up from Food Programme presenter Sheila Dillon, veteran Ö÷²¥´óÐã business guru Peter Day, legendary actress and a post about Ö÷²¥´óÐã Security correspondent Gordon Corera's new spies programme so it's all looking very interesting indeed.

What I'd like to know from you, though, is who else I should get to write for the blog and which subjects I should tackle? Do you want to hear more from behind-the-scenes at Radio 4? More programme previews and posts from Radio 4 talent? Or would you rather we focused more on accountability and feedback: keeping the network honest? And how about ? Have you tried it? Would you like to see more or less of this sort of thing?

Or should we be doing something else all together? Please leave a comment here on the blog or, if you're that way inclined, send us a message on . I'll round up responses here on the blog once a few have come in.

• The has pictures from all over Radio 4.


• The picture shows four Radio 4 figures: Kathy Clugston, announcer, with her Ukulele in a Broadcasting House studio, Fran Barnes, producer and beekeeper, with the Farming Today bees, Elvis Costello on Loose Ends and Evan Davis, recording The Bottom Line.


• Follow the on Twitter for interesting news, reviews, replies and retweets.

Editor's note. When Margie Tunbridge wrote to Radio 4 asking for a flag to unfurl on the fourth plinth we leapt at the chance. Here she writes about the experience - SB

Like nearly every other Plinther I like (did he know he had so many fans?) - I've seen the several times, the exhibition which came to Tate St Ives a few years ago and other pieces by Gormley at and the . I've followed (some of) the controversies about other pieces of his work. I've been affected by his work, for example, from 1994, a cast of his daughter, aged six days, which apparently so affected the gallery attendants at that they reportedly had to do shorter shifts in that room.

I had quite a difficult slot - it was 0200 to 0300 on Sunday 19th. So there was a sizable crowd in Trafalgar Square who were not terribly sober... they wanted to be entertained (is everything ?). I knew that the weekend night slots were likely to be more difficult but when you are allocated a slot your only option is to accept it or refuse it - there is no chance of swapping it. So I had decided to do it. A family member had said that the evening weekend slots were "skittles for drunks", and so it partly proved.

I had not planned to engage with the crowd. I did not 'do' a performance - I had collected together objects which represent important things to me - so I unfurled banners from and the , both of whom work for; also and which are important to me for news, arts, entertainment and so on. I also had a banner from the which is the professional organisation for psychologists to which I belong.

To represent my family, friends, and colleagues, I signed pre-prepared postcards to send the next day, and put out about thirty little clay figures which I had made which were in the style of the Antony Gormley figures in the - they were a respectful nod to Gormley and another way of representing people I know.(Though a colleague wanted to know later why I had a chess game up there!)

I read three poems by , who was well known to my husband's family in Launceston, and taught my husband at primary school. I read The School At Four O'clock which is about the old National School at Launceston which perches on the side of the hill, under the castle. The poem has a notion of the school as a ship setting off for the day and then coming back to the harbour at the end of the day at four. I also read one about the moorland near here - , and one I dedicated to my husband, called My Young Man's a Cornishman. He is, I'm not.

I flew some paper aeroplanes which had questions and possible answers on them from psychology - when they were unfolded the answer was at the apex of the plane - I chose questions which had less obvious answers and might be surprising. I saw people with their planes discussing the answers and words.

I also had brought some food and drink with me - not a pasty, I'm afraid - I'd asked , a very excellent restaurant which I've been to a couple of times in London, to provide me with some food which they very kindly did, and I took a half bottle of wine from a favourite place in France, and had a glass of wine.

I took a little chair and sat to read the most recent edition of , and the book we are currently reading in my book group. I think that because I did not respond to the shouty, sweary people in the Square, and because the police and the 'Heritage Wardens' in the Square moved some of them on, in the latter twenty minutes it became quieter and calmer, and I had a better look at the Square and the people in it. Some people waved and smiled and the tone changed from the rather more combative and shouty tone of earlier in the hour.

It was an interesting and unusual thing to do - in the event it was quite hard to do. The admin team at One and Other said that there are some much easier slots to fill. They were quite concerned about how I had managed it and were keen to check I was OK when I finished. A very different experience.

Because I'd asked to help me they were keen to be helpful and invited me to the studios of the current affairs programme and I went to watch the Broadcasting House programme being broadcast on Sunday morning.

And why ? - because it's my nourishment and entertainment. I listen to a lot of the output either when I'm at home or in my car travelling between meetings. (Today, PM, Broadcasting House, The Archers, In our Time, Woman's Hour, Front Row, Saturday Review, Poetry Please, Material World, Thinking Allowed, Loose Ends, The Now Show, The News Quiz and so on).I quite often plan journeys to be able to listen to favourite programmes. I'm the target listener the programme makers are thinking of when they make the programmes.

• Antony Gormley's One and Other project puts 2400 people (the 'plinthers') on the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, one hour at a time for 100 days. There's where you can watch the plinth live, round the clock and there are still places available for September and October. Book .
• You can watch all of Margie's hour on the plinth .
• Diligent Guardian staff are keeping an eye on the plinth 24/7 and posting their observations to Twitter. The hashtag is .
• Some during Margie's hour on the plinth.
• Charles Causley picture from the Ö÷²¥´óÐã web site, by (used ), Picture of Radio 4's illuminated waterwall at Latitude 2008 from the Radio 4 Marketing department, by (used ).

The office is full of people who spent the weekend at the in Suffolk. They don't look visibly scarred, although apparently it rained more-or-less all the time. Absolutely no one was miserable, though, because there was no mud. Sandy soil, you see. That's the secret of a happy Summer Festival in Britain.

Radio 4 was at for the fourth year in a row and, in addition to presenting a lot of live shows for audiences on the Radio 4 Stage, also recorded plenty of material for later broadcast. Already you'll have heard Friday's Now Show, Saturday's Loose Ends and, this afternoon, the first of the Stories with Latitude, from Emma Kennedy. 4 in a Field, presented by Adam Hills, selects the best stand-up performances from the festival for the 6.30 comedy slot on Wednesday.

And there was Mitch Benn. This year, Radio 4's own satirical guitar God recorded three songs - each from a different part of the site (including a gondola on the lake) exclusively for the web site. They're all here and one of the interesting things about the whole thing is that you're encouraged to lift the videos and embed them on your own web site - and it's easy to do so (that's how I embedded the one at the top - instructions are here).

• The Ö÷²¥´óÐã's Latitude site brings together content from all of the networks that were at the Festival - 6Music, Radio 2 and Radio 4.
• The Festival's has photo galleries and some music.
• East Anglia's local paper The Eastern Daily Press has of the festival.

And finally, , the urban fox that trashed the offices of Crossing Continents and The Report, waiting in the RSPCA's special cage, to be taken away and released. Released 'nearby' I'm told. Does that sound wise to you? Given this fox's demonstrated resourcefulness shouldn't the creature have been taken to Exeter or Aberdeen?

• , taken by James Daniel, an engineer.

Jennifer Clarke, interactive producer and fox watcher, emailed me this morning:

The fox was seen by a security guard last night still wandering free. Actually the Money Box area was unscathed - the fox seemed to take out its frustration on the Crossing Continents/The Report areas!

An hour or so later she wrote again: "The fox was apparently caught last night - unharmed" and went on:

The RSPCA supplied a cage which was left somewhere tempting. One of our engineers spotted the fox hiding behind a filing cabinet late last night and managed to get it into the cage. It was then released some distance away from the building.

Jennifer's so far been unable to confirm the rumour that the fox was carrying a staff pass in the name B. Brush.

• I'll be honest, doesn't show the Radio 4 fox (not, so far, caught on camera). It's by and it's used .
• The RSPCA has an and an (PDF).
• There are of other urban foxes on flickr.

Jennifer Clarke (of this parish) and Hugh Levinson from the department that makes Moneybox and Analysis sent me taken in their office on the first floor of Ö÷²¥´óÐã White City, the big, grey fortress on Wood Lane (and home to the Director General). A fox gained entry (nobody saw it but it had been spotted in another office earlier) and essentially trashed the place - with a special emphasis on paperwork. Some kind of protest?

We may only have had our bees a couple of months, but they're already thinking of leaving us. Bees as a natural way of increasing their numbers - typically over half of the colony will leave. But we don't want to lose so many of them just as they're starting to make us honey.

They've been showing signs of swarming for a few weeks - most notably by creating queen cells - as a swarming hive will need two queens: one to stay with the original colony and one for the departing bees. Fran, Clive (our bee mentor) and me have been destroying the cells, but they've been persistently returning. So Clive decided it was time to take more decisive action.

When I turned up at the hive that morning I was surprised to find Clive with a separate, empty hive just a few feet from the Farming Today hive. Over the next hour we proceeded to split the bees between the two hives, with Auntie (our original queen bee) in one, and some of the younger bees and a queen cell in the other. The theory is that because some of the bees have moved position, they'll think they've swarmed.

"Will it definitely work?" I asked Clive.

"No," he replied.

A couple of weeks on though I can report our bees are still in the hives, so all's looking promising, and we're hopeful that soon we'll be jarring up honey.

Incidentally Fran and I had a great time at the . In between making Farming Today programmes we spent time at the tent - including giving a couple of demonstrations under Clive's watchful eye. Our honey and honey cake failed to win any prizes. We were all disappointed but took solace in some honey ice cream. Thanks to all the Farming Today listeners who came up and spoke to us.

Our bees are going on holiday to Derbyshire soon - more to follow.

• All the posts about the Farming Today Bees from the Radio 4 blog.
• Ian Douglas in the Telegraph is keeping his own . Here's .
• Picture, , by . Used .

Editor's note: when Alexandra Feachem told me she was making a documentary about Supercentenarians - those remarkable people who live beyond 110 years - and that she was attending Henry Allingham's 113th birthday party, I asked her to write a blog post about it. Sadly, since I asked her, Henry Allingham has died. She's written this appreciation specially for the blog - SB.

When I heard the news yesterday, that Henry Allingham had passed away I felt sad, like the rest of the nation, that someone who had played such an important part in our history was no longer with us. But I also feel sad, because I had the immense honour and privilege to meet Henry in person, just last month, as part of a documentary I'm making for Radio 4 on Super-Centenarians - people who make it to 110 and beyond. Henry was remarkable in so many ways, and not just because of his age, or that he was the oldest surviving veteran of World War 1. His extraordinary life spanned 3 centuries and saw 6 monarchs and 21 Prime Ministers come and go. He lived through some of the most important moments in our history and emerged from them all with good humour and tremendous spirit, both of which were clearly on display when I met Henry last month as he celebrated his 113th birthday.

This was certainly unlike any other birthday party I'd ever attended. Hosted by the Royal Navy, the festivities began with a helicopter fly-by and Henry's cake being delivered by speed boat down the River Thames. I have to say, I had been wondering how the Navy would handle the delicate issue of birthday candles, but they diplomatically decided to present a cake free of flames, which is probably just as well, as we found ourselves in quite a small crowded room, and none of the guests, even the young naval officers, looked ready to take on the herculean feat of blowing out 113 all in one go. The guest of honour, despite his obvious frailty, beamed with pleasure and thanked everyone for being there with him, declaring "wonderful, wonderful" on several occasions.

There was no doubt that Henry knew exactly where he was and why he was there and was obviously very moved to see so many members of his family, who had flown in from the USA to be with him. There were several moving moments that day. First, as Henry took a photo call for the media scrum who had turned up to see him reach this massive milestone - a small blond boy broke through the crowd, ran up to Henry and clutched his hand earnestly. This was one of Henry's great great grandchildren, upset that he had not been able to speak to his grandpa properly, thanks to all the photographers who had crowded round. Henry knew exactly who it was and stroked and comforted the little boy, and the media got their perfect picture. Later, I happened to be standing by Henry's wheel chair, when a very senior member of the RAF approached. He bent down, held Henry's hand and talked directly into Henry's ear, as Henry was extremely hard of hearing by this point. The RAF officer spoke to Henry about how much he meant to the RAF, how much it meant for them all to be here with him today and how proud they were of him.

Henry's war career began with the Royal Naval Air Force, which later became the RAF - so both the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force claim him as their own. Since Henry turned 110, they have shared responsibility for his birthday celebrations. This year was the turn of the Royal Navy - next year would have been the turn of the RAF, but sadly it is not to be. St Dunstan's Residential Centre, Henry's home for the last few years,warned me that Henry's health had declined dramatically in the last few months. At last year's festivities he had cheerfully declared "see you next year!" This year, despite his obvious pleasure at all the fuss being made in his honour, he was less keen to make any promises about next year, and clearly felt the end was near.

I have met some amazing people in my time with the Ö÷²¥´óÐã, and visited some amazing places - but meeting Henry and being able to celebrate such a huge milestone with him, is definitely one of the highlights of my career. How many people today can say they've met someone who fought in the Great War, or been to a birthday party where the guest of honour might potentially have been asked to blow out 113 candles. Adam, my presenter, and I, did manage to grab a quiet moment with Henry and we asked him what he thought the secret to his long life was? He has in the past, somewhat tongue in cheek, put his longevity down to whisky and wild women. But today, he simply replied "be good - all you children out there, be good."

• 'Secrets of the Super-old' presented by Adam Rutherford, will be broadcast on Wednesday August 12th at 2100 on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio 4.
• Helen Emmerson, manager of Mr Allingham's care home, yesterday on the Ö÷²¥´óÐã News Channel.
• Wikipedia's .
• Obituaries of Henry Allingham from , and . The Independent on Sunday's about the man.
• Ö÷²¥´óÐã News Online's ''

Editor's note: We're trying something new. Every Friday afternoon during the Summer we're going to publish a diary post from an important Radio 4 personality. We're starting with Robin Lustig, presenter of The World Tonight since 1989. If you'd like to hear from a particular Radio 4 personality (a presenter, a programme maker or even a senior manager), leave a comment and we'll see what we can do.

But when I travel, it's different. After a hard week at the studio coal-face (six programmes in five days since you ask, three at the World Service and three at The World Tonight), I was up on Saturday morning for the 10-hour flight to Mexico.

The following day, Sunday, we were straight off into the countryside to start collecting material. I love travelling, and will always leap at the chance to shove my passport into my pocket and head off to some distant location. So I don't really resent the occasional missed weekends (well, not too much, anyway).

When I started as a reporter, long before the days of mobile phones or laptop computers, I was taught that the first thing you had to do when you went out on an assignment was find a public phone box that worked, so that you could phone in your story.

The 21st century broadcaster's equivalent when you're overseas is find a location from which your satellite dish can transmit a signal. More often than not, you end up on the roof of your hotel.

But our Mexico City hotelier wasn't keen on letting us on to his roof - and his car park, which is the usual Plan B, had high walls round it - so we started touring city centre hotels to find one with a roof or a balcony facing in the right direction. Eventually, mission accomplished: sound engineer Jacques Sweeney pronounced himself satisfied; producer Beth McLeod negotiated a special cheap deal on behalf of licence fee-payers, and we were ready to roll.

We do a lot of "multi-platform content delivery" these days. Which means we blog, we write for News Online, and we even pop up on other people's programmes. So after a week of scurrying about for The World Tonight, and a quick chat with nice Mr Humphrys on the The Today programme, we were up at 5am the following Sunday to contribute first to The World This Weekend on Radio 4, and then immediately afterwards to Newshour on the World Service. The joys of working west of the Greenwich meridian meant we were done by 8am, and were able to take a few hours' break to visit the stunning Aztec ruins at , an hour's drive from Mexico City. (The pictures are in The World Tonight Flickr group ).

I love coming home, of course, but I don't much like 10-hour overnight flights (yes, of course, in Economy). So I was perhaps just slightly grumpy when the BA pilot informed us that it had been raining at Heathrow (rain? In July? Who would have thought it?), and that the airport was in a bit of a mess. We parked about a mile away from Terminal 5 and waited first for the steps and then for the bus to carry us back to civilisation. But I mustn't grumble: I wasn't due back on air till the next day - and I did have a weekend off to look forward to. Jet lag? Don't know the meaning of the word.

• Robin wrote a series of posts for The World Tonight blog from his trip to Mexico.
• The World Tonight's home page and Robin's World Tonight blog.
• Robin's Ö÷²¥´óÐã Press Office biography.

As I start writing this the countdown timer on the says there are 10 hours and 45 minutes and 3 seconds to go before the Festival starts. Which is a bit worrying as I have to drive all the way there from West London and I would not mind some sleep before it all kicks off. And I still cannot find my Wellington boots because it is going to rain. It always does. Peter Gibbs from the Met Office and our own GQT chair sent us a gloomy personal forecast.

Part of my job at Radio 4 is to organise our presence at Festivals and other events (such as the forthcoming University Tour). I started my working life as a theatre director and somewhere deep down the bug is still there for live performance.

When I suggested to the Latitude organisers, 4 years ago, that its line-up looked rather Radio 4-shaped - masses of poetry, theatre, writers talking, comedy - they declared they had felt rather the same. And when I asked if they would like us to come and do some of our programmes from there they welcomed us with open arms and four years on we are going again with an even bigger space and now joined by colleagues from Radio 2, 6Music, and 5 Live. And Radio Suffolk will be reporting from the event as well.

I won't tell you what the countdown timer says now as that will give away how long it has taken me to write this! I was supposed to have written it days ago but the organisation for such events can be pretty time consuming. Lea, my assistant, and I have to really sort out everything we need before we go. There is no broadband where we are, no stationery cupboard, no real way of printing anything out and the mobile phones work only occasionally. Passes for everyone including the performers have to be arranged and then checked and checked and checked again. Nightmare scenario is Steve Punt or Hugh Dennis stuck on the wrong side of the fence unable to get in because we forgot to sort out their passes. Any basic refreshments in our backstage area (a portacabin and a chemical loo and a large outside broadcast truck) we have to take with us too so the boot of my car is stuffed with UHT milk and teabags. We have a brilliant outside broadcast team led by Tim Allen but they work even better if kept fed and watered.

We'll be recording Loose Ends, The Now Show, two With Great Pleasures, specially commissioned short stories, and a comedy show 4 In A Field. However well produced our shows are (and I believe they are) there is something that happens when they are performed in front of a festival audience be it in a field with rain beating down on the marquee and the sound of rock in the distance or at a slightly more sedate literary festival. The celebratory nature of a festival is infectious. The audience are energetic and often have never had the chance to see a radio show being recorded and the performers feel part of a big party. That's one of the several reasons why we try and take our shows out as often as budget allows.

Why else do we go? It is a chance to encourage new listeners. Yes, some of them will be slightly younger. But it is not about changing the shows to lure them in but demonstrating how inclusive our work can be. It's also a great chance to meet listeners and talk with them about Radio 4. In return they have a chance to put a face to the network, as it were. Or a face to the voice as I discovered one year when someone outed me as the 'woman who's always on Feedback'. At Edinburgh, for example, there one or two people we see year after year who are die-hard Radio 4 fans alongside the students who tell us that they are seeing Just a Minute to find out what their mother's been going on about all these years and then at the end of the show come out beaming saying "Now I know!".

At one year we excited Roadies who got up early (that's 10am in Glastonbury time) to catch their hero presenting Loose Ends in the huge Comedy Marquee. And we met the teenager who accosted me demanding to know if I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue was going to be playing - he had bought his radio especially so that in the middle of one of the biggest music festivals he and his friends should not miss that day's broadcast.

There was was also the young woman no more than about 20 who was a huge GQT fan and wanted to know if they would come and record in her village. Now, I bet she did not have her own Peter Gibbs' personal forecast - not that you need it at Glastonbury. It rains. We all know that. But let's cross fingers for a fairly dry weekend in Suffolk. I hope you listen to the programmes and enjoy them. And if you happen to be going - come and say hello.

Caroline Raphael is Commissioning Editor, Comedy, at Radio 4

• This year, Radio 4, Radio 2, 6Music and 5Live are all at . You can see everything they're doing, all in one place on this handy page.
• The Latitude Festival
• The picture is of the spectacular waterfall projection at last year's Latitude. It's there again this year. There are taken at Latitude over the years. Here's , a member of the Radio 4 Interactive team who's at the festival again this year helping to get it all online.

Well, Mondays and Fridays at 2000 there's mixed Badminton with the and on Tuesday the meets at between 1400 and 1600. Wednesdays Mums-to-be meet for Reiki at (1030) and on Thursday there's drama for the over-fifties at . On Saturday the is running a course for 'street pastors'. On Sunday you can learn scuba diving at the . And this evening you're invited round to Arthur Smith's maisonette for half an hour of comedy and song. How can you say no?

• The Balham Partnership's .
• Balham's .
• Balham, Gateway to the South .
• Lots of good stuff on the Arthur Smith's Balham Bash pages on the Radio 4 web site.
• David Thair visited Arthur's flat for the recording of tonight's episode back in June.
  

Feedback is one of the most important programmes on Radio 4 - and in some ways the whole of the Ö÷²¥´óÐã. For many years it has been the only programme on a mainstream network - TV or Radio - that has engaged consistenly and rigorously with complaints. Points Of View on television does a bit of that - but it is shorter and less stringent. The Ö÷²¥´óÐã News Channel has now set up to examine discontents. Feedback is done by an independent company () in order that there should be some distance between us (the Ö÷²¥´óÐã decision makers) and the production team who make it.

I have appeared on Feedback for many years - when I was in Ö÷²¥´óÐã News and now as Controller of Radio 4. I did so last week - to answer questions from a panel of Radio 4 listeners who were far from completely happy. We explored our coverage of America, Thought for The Day, Drama - and whether we take listeners' opinions seriously enough.

It is a tough programme to do. Roger Bolton has teeth and bares them - but people like me are given enough time to explain ourselves as best we can. I hope that is well enough. I am biased but I think the Ö÷²¥´óÐã editors etc. who come on do take the whole thing seriously.

There's always been a little - almost deliberate - uncertainty about how much the programme should focus on Radio 4 and how much on other Ö÷²¥´óÐã radio stations - and even, occasionally, wider Ö÷²¥´óÐã concerns. It is mostly about Radio 4 - but when you get a big kerfuffle - think Ross/Brand - Feedback becomes an important arena for debate, explanation and confession.

Some issues get 'done' repeatedly - trails, accents, comedy, the Today programme interviewing style etc. I know that the production team are always looking for new (sic) themes to explore - so feel free to take up the offer. We (Ö÷²¥´óÐã employees) may not all regard being on Feedback as the single most enjoyable part of our lives - but it is an essential part of what we do - and, as it happens, I mostly rather do enjoy it! Mostly...

• Listen to Mark Damazer being grilled by the Feedback panel.
• Subscribe to the Feedback podcast.
• How to join the Feedback panel.
• Roger Bolton's profile on the Radio 4 web site.

Yesterday something small but significant happened. Instead of disappearing from iPlayer when its 7 days were up, the first Episode of The Complete Smiley - The Spy Who Came in From the Cold stayed put. Which means that you can go back and listen to it before listening to Episode 2.

The unusual behaviour of The Spy is down to the "Series catch-up" feature of iPlayer - something that's been on offer for some TV series for a while, and which we're now starting to trial for radio programmes. Series catch-up means that all the episodes in a series are available until 7 days after the final episode is broadcast. So you don't have to worry about keeping up each week, but can catch up with the story so far at any point during the series.

There will be around 30 series in the trial between now and mid January, including quite a few from Radio 4. Most of the le Carré season will be included as well as an exciting Dickens serialisation and a complete series of Behind Closed Doors later in the year.

The reason that we're only offering a limited number of series is because this is a trial. The Ö÷²¥´óÐã already has permission from the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Trust, who regulate what we do, to offer TV programmes with series catch-up, but we don't yet have permission for radio. We're running the trial to find out how useful or interesting people think this is, and to establish what it would mean to offer it more widely. If all goes well we'll then use the information from the trial to ask for permission to offer series catch-up as a permanent feature.

I realise the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's internal processes may sometimes seem a touch bureaucratic, but it's important that we find out how popular or useful a new feature might be, how much it might cost, and also what impact it might have on the wider industry, before we decide whether to launch it. This particular trial is limited to 30 series, and we've picked them from across networks and genres to make sure we get a broad range of feedback (here's a list of the Radio 4 series included).

If you're interested in telling us what you think about series catch-up, as part of this trial, then you can take part in a survey that we're running. There's a link below, along with some more info. I'll also be happy to respond to any comments you post on this blog over the next couple of weeks.

Sarah Prag is Executive Producer, Audio Services at Ö÷²¥´óÐã Audio & Music Interactive

• A list of the Radio 4 programmes included in the trial.
• Troy's post from the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Internet blog announcing series catch-up for TV programmes last year.
• The series catch-up survey is now closed.
• Picture, , by . Used .

Editor's note: Radio 4's 90-part history series America, Empire of Liberty, ends today at 1545. Writer and presenter Professor David Reynolds reflects on the experience.

"I hear you're doing some programmes about US history. How many?"
"Ninety", I would say, a little sheepishly.
Pause. Frown. "Nineteen?"
"No. Nine Zero".
Longer pause. Then we chat about the weather.

That sort of exchange occurred many times while writing America, Empire of Liberty. So much so that I stopped talking to friends and colleagues about the project. It was, indeed, a marathon. Listened to continuously (if you could bear to do so), it amounts to nearly a day of radio - twenty-two and a half hours.

But I never had any doubt that this was a wonderful opportunity to share my own accumulated experience of teaching American history. Ideally I'd have liked another year for research and writing, particularly when doing a book of the series as well, but scholars always want more time. Anyway I couldn't disagree that a presidential election year was the ideal moment to 'do' American history - and that was before Obama came on the scene.

Having written and presented some history films for television, I enjoyed the different discipline of radio. Very austere: no images, just words. Or, more exactly, I had to find the words to trigger the listener's imagination. That was the greatest challenge and the most fun. Hours spent in the University Library or on the internet (amazing how much historical source material is now available in electronic form) looking for the quotations and the stories that would bring my big themes to life.

The acid test was whether I could see the event in my mind's eye. Even better, if it made me smile, like in 1776 enjoining husband John to 'remember the ladies' when writing America's Declaration of Independence (episode 17). Or if it brought tears to my eyes: President Lincoln's Christmas during the Civil War to young Fanny McCullough about her soldier father (episode 36). Discovering that was a moment I shan't forget.

Other pleasures? The steady flow of e-mails from listeners from Britain and, thanks to the website, from many parts of the world (America, Africa and India). Messages from people who'd arranged their tea breaks in order to tune in at 3.45. And from listeners who offered their own interesting takes on subjects as diverse as the Indians and the personal computer. Best of all, from many who said they'd hated history at school or had given it up at O-level/GCSE but had really enjoyed the series. Winning the for the Best New Radio Programme of 2008 and receiving a were the icing on the cake.

Regrets? Much, of course, had to be left out, even in ninety programmes. Economic history is hard to convey in popular form. Stories of tycoons such as or labour unrest such as the work well on radio; statistics usually got squeezed out. Fortunately, I was able to get some of that deeper background into the book.

Also thanks. To some wonderful Ö÷²¥´óÐã professionals, particularly editors Maria Balinska and Sue Ellis and producer, Rosamund Jones. To Mark Damazer, Controller of Radio 4, for his commitment to history on the air. And to the much-criticised Beeb: what other broadcasting institution in the world would be crazy enough to commission a project of this magnitude?

As a teacher, I believe that history is too important to be left in an academic ghetto: it should be part of the public culture of a civilized society. The invitation to offer a very long view of Obama's America and where it has come from was a great chance to practise what I preach.

is Professor of International History and a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge

• The final episode, To Shape an Uncertain Destiny, is transmitted at 1545 today. You can listen again for the next seven days.
• A selection of America, Empire of Liberty Audiobooks is available to buy from Ö÷²¥´óÐã suggested online retailers.
• The creative people at Ö÷²¥´óÐã News Interactive have made six beautiful audio slideshows, narrated by Professor Reynolds, each covering one of the large themes of the series: , , , , and . The picture is the opening frame from the .
• Justin Webb's America blog.
• Matt Frei's new series about American Life, Americana, on Radio 4 at 1915 on Sunday evenings, and Mark Damazer's blog post introducing the programme.

I that we were going to do some Radio 4 roadshows at universities later this year - at , and . We will record in front of an audience a clutch of programmes (comedy, debate, political) and, in addition, tell them about the range of Radio 4 programmes - and what we're about.

It is decidely not an attempt to change the demographics of Radio 4. It is an attempt to explain to an audience that sometimes knows distressingly little about Radio 4 (we have evidence that we are not much known among many under 30 year-olds) that we have things to stimulate and amuse them. I know that they won't listen to hours on end of Radio 4 but if they listen even to a little bit now then I am hoping that later in their lives they will end up listening to more. I don't think I can just assume that as they get older they will 'find' Radio 4. There are too many other choices around now for anyone to bank on the behaviour of previous generations to assert that Radio 4's future is safe.

There's been a huge expansion in the number of people who go on to higher education and I don't think we've thought through how to appeal to them at this point in their lives. And it's reasonable to think intelligent speech has something to offer. If it works then we'll go to many more universities/higher education institutions next year.

• Ben Dowell's about Radio 4's university roadshows and Media Guardian's .
• Chortle.co.uk as part of the tour.
• by . Used .

You won't need me to remind you that Torchwood: Children of Earth is under way over there on the telly but you might not know that you've only got a matter of hours to download the first of last week's Torchwood radio plays as an MP3 that you can keep forever (and the other two will expire in 24 and 48 hours respectively, of course). The Ö÷²¥´óÐã Cardiff drama department did some innovative work with the creative and rights people to liberate the three episodes for download: a follow-up to last year's amazingly successful Big Bang Day download.

The reaction online has been predictably huge and quite a good test for the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's nifty new 'buzz tracker' - a web site called that finds discussion of Ö÷²¥´óÐã programmes online and presents it visually. Try searching for your favourite programme and see what other listeners are saying about it.

Torchwood fans are evidently pleasantly surprised to see their favourite Sci-Fi brand show up on what they thought was their mother's radio station. This can only be good for the reputation of Radio 4 - and its drama output in particular.

The most entertaining blog post Shownar exposes is , by Stuart Ian Burns on the blog. Stuart's not entirely won over by the radio version ("generally underwhelmed" he says) but then this is the voice of a mega-fan and he does find some kind words for writer Anita Sullivan:

Sullivan clearly grasps what Torchwood was about. She captured the individual character voices beautifully, especially Gwen. She even picked up the television series's habit of moving the plot forward by having a Torchwood member leaving their keys in a motor vehicle.

I hope that Kate McAll and her team will be reading this one - I think there's a valuable fan's perspective on offer here. This is the kind of direct access to the opinions of listeners that these social media tools make possible. Ö÷²¥´óÐã programme makers will inevitably already have bookmarked .

With the national papers generally scaling back their in-depth coverage of radio (and drama in particular), the actors' trade paper is a reliable source of news and reviews. Last week was on the site's blog, with a dozen posts about the series, mostly about Children of Earth but including this one about the radio plays: Moira Petty, The Stage's regular radio reviewer, :

The first surprise was how little Captain Jack hogged the limelight, screeching on with an anarchic act or comment before zipping off again. He only exerted his authority when his subordinates (played by Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd and both sounding far more cuddly and less glam than they look in the publicity stills), threatened to turn it into The Gwen and Ianto Show.

You'll remember that Kate McAll, here on the Radio 4 blog last week, wrote about the difficulty of fitting her superstar talent into a recording schedule which I think might go some way to explaining Jack's limited presence in the radio plays.

for references to the radio plays and you'll find hundreds of tweets - orders of magnitude more than any radio play has a right to expect: the power of the brand! I'll leave you with my favourite tweet (from ):

It's a freaking Torchwood Radio Play. It should not make me cry damn it!

• Torchwood: Children of Earth is on Ö÷²¥´óÐã1 at 2100 all week.
• Listen again to the Torchwood radio plays here and download them here.
• Dan Taylor, leader of the Ö÷²¥´óÐã team working on Shownar, wrote about it on the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Internet blog.

Casting a radio drama can be one of a radio producer's most nerve-wracking jobs. To be honest, money is part of the reason. Actors, by and large, do radio for love because radio fees are, shall we say, modest compared to the bigger bucks offered by television, film or commercials. A part in a Saturday Play or a voiceover on major advertising campaign? No contest! What this means is that actors' agents rarely commit their clients to a radio job more than two weeks in advance - just in case one of those far more lucrative offers come in. So as the days tick down towards a recording, the air in the drama office is taut with anxiety. Will we get our dream cast? We consult (a kind of glossy catalogue of actors and their CVs), we rifle through the huge file in the office marked 'Actors', and dredge our memory banks for people we've seen and heard in other productions. Eleri McAuliffe, Ö÷²¥´óÐã Wales Radio Drama Production Assistant has a brilliant memory for voices and always has plenty of good suggestions. I make lists - if Clooney says no, offer to Pitt, if he turns it down try Depp - OK, I'm fantasising a little but you get my drift.

The casting of the three Torchwood Afternoon Plays, however, presented an altogether different conundrum. How do you get an established cast, including , aka the busiest man in showbiz, into a radio studio in Cardiff to record three 45 minute dramas - something which would normally take around six days?

What we usually do to record a 45 minute drama is to assemble the cast for 2 days, start at 1000 on the first day with a read-through and then rehearse and record each scene according to the schedule. The schedule, i.e. the order the scenes are recorded, is determined by when each actor is available and how economically they can be used, so is always recorded out of scene order. The three Torchwood plays would involve 15 actors, including the three main cast - John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), (Gwen Cooper) and (Ianto Jones) - who would be needed for most of the time.

Negotiations begin with John Barrowman's agent. 'Can it be done in one day?' they ask, optimistically. 'No,' we reply, 'it can't! We need him for six.' 'Ok,' they counter, 'How about one and a half?' In the end we have to settle for two days, the only two days available in fact between the end of John's Saturday night television show and the start of . We grab them and sign him up.

In the meantime, the writers (Anita Sullivan, James Goss and Phil Ford) are still working on last minute adjustments to the scripts. Usually a producer and writer work together on a script one-to-one. Again, Torchwood is different. It's a brand, with existing characters, a big back story, and a huge and dedicated fanbase - the facts, the character portrayals, the atmosphere and the story arc have to fit. So, in addition to my notes, every script is scrutinised by a Torchwood script editor, as well by Julie Gardner, the Exec Producer of the television series, and - most important of all - the great man himself series creator, Russell T Davies. John's availability, or lack of it, poses a big problem so a major creative decision is taken with John's storyline in Phil Ford's drama, The Dead Line. (You'll have to listen to find out!).

Meanwhile, the rest of the casting starts to fall into place. We pin down Tom Price (PC Andy Davidson) in between , and Kai Owen (Rhys Williams) on a day when he isn't training for or actually running the London Marathon, and Gareth David-Lloyd is signed up the moment he flies back in from LA. I audition six young girls for the lead in Asylum, and ten Asian actors for key parts in Golden Age which is set in Delhi. At the back, well the front, of my mind, though, is a nagging worry. Eve Myles, a central Torchwood cast member, still hasn't been booked. She's 'technically' free, according to her agent, but 'her people' still haven't actually signed the contract. This is getting scary. Everyone else is in place. If Eve can't do these dates for some reason, the unpicking would be a nightmare - and the possibility of finding two other free days in Mr Barrowman's hectic schedule extremely unlikely. Eleri calls Eve's agent again. We can't do these plays without Eve. This is one show where you can't recast at the last moment - there can be no substitutes! Finally, we're given the go-ahead to book her. Phew.

Now, that schedule. I make a list of who is available on which days, then a list of who is in which scene with whom, and juggle it all to a conclusion. We will record the three plays, 74 scenes, in bits and pieces over a period of eight days. We're used to recording drama out of order but three plays, all jumbled up is something else! Eleri checks and double checks that every scene and every actor is accounted for. We breathe a sigh of relief.

Then, disaster. Just as Eve's contract is about to be signed we get a call. Another offer has come in for her - it's a lead in which starts filming the same week as our recording. Eve's agent is apologetic but she has to encourage her client to take the part. (Who wouldn't? It's six weeks film work in a major production!) But Eve is also desperate to do the radio and doesn't want to let us down. 'Can she do both?' asks the agent. Eleri and I stare hard at the schedule once more feeling a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of taking the whole jig-saw apart and starting again. We have to fit in Eve's scenes around her constantly changing filming schedule. I spend the next three days on the phone to the producer of the film - and somehow, we manage it.

Before we know it, the first recording day is upon us. Once the red light goes on and the production starts, it all flies by at top speed. By the end of the eighth day we are dizzy and exhausted but elated - we've done it! Everyone turned up at the right time and in the right place. We've survived Eve being whisked away for a last minute love scene with Trevor Eve. We release Gareth only to find that he still has two lines to record! Happily they're on the phone so we record him from home, on the phone, which is why they sound particularly realistic! John's boundless energy has infected everyone and as he heads out of the building in his pale pink sweater and on to his next gig, we're sad to see him go - yet still buoyed up by the enthusiasm of all the actors and their terrific performances. As we leave for the day, Eleri and I look back at the wall chart. Only ten more days to go until the next recording. Tomorrow morning we start all over again!

Kate McAll is a Senior Producer, Radio Drama at Ö÷²¥´óÐã Wales

• You can listen to all three of the Torchwood Afternoon Plays on iPlayer and, for the first time, download the programmes as MP3 files to keep forever (or until the planet is vaporised by a belligerent alien race or something).
• Kate McAll was Executive Producer and Director for all three episodes. Her Co-Producers were Brian Minchin for Golden Age and Lindsey Alford for Asylum and The Dead Line.
• Theatre weekly The Stage has carried a lot of Torchwood coverage this week, including .
• Thanks to Simon Hugo at for permission to use the production pictures in this post.
• Barrowman Tonight's The Night.
• , a busy Torchwood Community site.
• The new Torchwood TV series, Children of Earth, begins on Ö÷²¥´óÐã 1 on Monday 6 July and runs at 2100 every night for the rest of the week.

World Tonight presenter Robin Lustig is on the road again - this time in Mexico, a country that he and editor Alistair Burnett feel has been unfairly absent from the news agenda lately (apart from Swine Flu) and is due for some attention. He's posting daily on the World Tonight blog while he's there. Here's his first post:

I am in Mexico to report on how a country with a population of 110 million people is facing up to a three-fold challenge: economic recession, a surge in drugs-related violence, and swine flu.

According to a recent US government security analysis, Mexico ranks up there with Pakistan as being at risk of becoming a failed state. So today I've been talking to people in a small town in central Mexico about how the recession across the border in the US is hitting them hard.

Read the rest of this post and leave comments on the World Tonight blog. Read Robin's second installment here.

It was all going so well when I first arrived at the apiary to do another routine check on the Farming Today beehive. There was a light breeze, the sky was blue, the birds were singing.

I was just admiring the view and the wildlife when it happened. I wasn't anywhere near a hive and hadn't had the chance to put my protective veil on, when a bee (definitely not one of the Farming Today bees) took a dislike to my newly shampoo'ed hair and, after buzzing around my head for a few seconds, dive-bombed my eye. I think my reaction was something along the lines of "ouch" as the bee speared my eyelid with its poisoned dart. Clive Joyce, our mentor, was there and scraped the sting out of my eyelid. Novices be warned - never pinch a sting out, always scrape it out. If you pinch it you'll squeeze more venom out.

Yes it did hurt - I was expecting that. But I wasn't expecting the pain that followed for 12 hours nor the Popeye look I had the following 2 days. But, 4 days later, my eye is now only slightly swollen and almost back to normal.

I tell you this not because I want sympathy (though I'll take it if it's offered) but as a timely reminder about the dangers of working with bees. I'm sure many beekeepers may be slightly irritated that I am making such a meal of this, many of them feel that we should celebrate the positive aspects of beekeeping. But stings are a problem, and they really hurt. For some who are particularly allergic, stings can be fatal. For the rest, our mentor, Clive informs me that once you're stung 20 times to get immunity. I'm 5% there already. I'd be interested to hear any of your views on stings - why did the bee go for me when I was nowhere near any hive? Do you have immunity from beestings - if so how long did it take you?

On the positive side. Farming Today now has two hives. The bees were clearly trying to swarm out of our first hive, so Chris and Clive 'artificially' swarmed the hive. Chris will post the mechanics of this later. It has now occurred to me that we'll have to go through the process of naming another Queen.

Aunty is still doing well in the first hive. Honey production going well and we're keeping our fingers crossed for Charlotte's cake. We've entered 4 categories at the . Light honey, medium honey, honeycombe and honey cake. If you're planning to be at the do come along and say hello. Chris and I will both be giving demonstrations in beekeeping on Wednesday 8th July at the tent.

Fran Barnes is Senior Producer at Farming Today

• All the posts about the Farming Today Bees from the Radio 4 blog.
• Wikipedia .
• The Royal Show's (PDF).