Ö÷²¥´óÐã

It started with a tweet. "I will if you will", says Heather. "Wot for a whole week?" says Jenni?

I wonder how many women over the age of 35 would choose to wake up with Chris Moyles every morning. And how many teenagers would swap Judge Jules and Jo Whiley for Jonathan Dimbleby and Justin Webb?

We appealed on Twitter for two brave souls to give up their favourite stations for a week. Heather Dontenville and her 17 year-old step-daughter Jenni couldn't resist Roger Bolton's Feedback challenge.

"Ha ha" said Jenni, "You'll have to listen to the likes of Fat Boy Slim now". Heather didn't like to point out that she'd been listening to him since he was the bass player in "the fourth best band in Hull" - years before Jenni was even born.

On Feedback earlier today, Roger asked them both what they'd miss most during adventures across the dial. Heather a committed news nut wonders how the transition will affect the morning routine. "I'm a little bit concerned, especially first thing in the morning. I'm used to having Today as my backdrop while shovelling Weetabix into my toddler. I'm not sure Chris Moyles is going to do anything to smooth that process."

And what will Jenni miss most? "The Chart Show with Reggie Yates. I'll have to ask Heather what number one is!" Oh the humiliation. Listen to the item from Feedback:

Heather and Jenni will be back on Feedback next week to tell Roger how they got on - that's if they are still speaking to us. In the meantime you can follow their progress on Twitter (follow the hashtag #) and listen to their audio diaries on Audioboo.

Karen Pirie is producer of Feedback

• On Twitter, Jenni is and Heather is .
• Their audio diaries are on Audioboo: , .
• Jenni's written - today is day four.
• Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with Feedback, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
• Feedback is now on Twitter. Follow .
• Picture , by . .

In the first half of the 1970s Stevie Wonder released four landmark albums that changed the course of pop music. A combination of funk and synthesisers, this incredible collection of music includes many of Stevie's classic songs such as Superstition, Living for the City and You Are the Sunshine of My Life. These albums have been influencing songwriters, musicians and producers ever since their release.

Although no one's disputing Stevie Wonder's unquestionable genius, it was Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil's production talents and electronic ingenuity that gave him the tools to develop his finest work, now regarded as his 'classic period'. These two sonic architects developed the world's largest synthesiser - The Original New Timbral Orchestra - which features heavily on all of those records. They invented a unique recording environment that captured Stevie at his most creative, encouraging him to play all the instruments himself. It was a world away from the stifling environment of the Motown hit factory and it allowed Stevie to fully realise the songs he had in his head for the first time.

Cecil and Margouleff also released under the name of . They also went on to work with big name acts such as The Isley Brothers, George Harrison, Gil Scott-Heron and Devo. Malcolm - now in his 70s - still has TONTO set up in a barn at the bottom of his garden. It's a fantastic-looking thing, incredibly complex and the size of a living room. It's in full working order and he was kind enough to show Radio 4 around his other-wordly creation.

James Hale is producer of Stevie's Wonder Men

• Listen to the programme on 30 November at 1330.
• The Stevie Wonder albums to which TONTO contributed are , , , and Jungle Fever. Stevie's official site is .
• James made the video on his visit to TONTO's home in Up-State New York.
• A bundle of links to .

Editor's note: this post by the lead in Radio 4's new Classic Serial, 'I, Claudius', starts with a clip from the drama - SB.

I was eight when 'I, Claudius' first aired on the Ö÷²¥´óÐã in 1976. It remains burned on my brain as the first televisual event that I recall. Of course I was far too young to be allowed to watch all or indeed any of its vices and excesses, and I remember it principally for two reasons; because I watched what I did from halfway up the stairs through a gap in the living room door; and for Derek Jacobi.

Derek's performance catapulted him into public consciousness, and to an eight year old boy who already dreamed of being an actor it made one thing abundantly clear; a character actor can have just as much fun as a leading man. Claudius is one of those roles that makes an actor jump for joy, because you can be the fool, the schemer, the wise man, the idiot, the villain, the hero and the narrator all at the same time.

Thirty-four years later, producer Jonquil Panting asked me if I'd like to play Claudius on the radio and I jumped at the chance. I'd had a wonderful time working with her as Jesus in Witness and as Yuri in Doctor Zhivago in recent years and I knew it would be an epic romp. Of course I couldn't get the image or sound of Derek as Claudius out of my head, and was simultaneously thrilled and quietly terrified to be told that he would be playing Claudius' step-grandfather Augustus.

Fortunately, with Derek playing my grandfather it more or less gave me licence not to have to worry if I sounded a lot like him. It's impossible to take on the stammer and not hear Derek's voice in your head, or sense him constantly on your shoulder. In the end it was easier to accept that I was bound to sound like I was impersonating him, throw caution to the wind and just enjoy myself.

For most of the recording period I didn't see Derek because Augustus mostly appears with the boy Claudius, so we only had one full day in the studio together and it proved to be enormous fun. Naturally I told Derek of all my nervousness at playing the character that made him famous, and said how hard it was not to hear his voice. Derek was kind enough to put me at my ease by saying 'Well how do you think I feel? I've got Brian Blessed sitting on my shoulder.'

Tom Goodman-Hill plays Claudius in Radio 4's new production of 'I, Claudius'

• Listen to episode one of 'I, Claudius' on Sunday at 1500.
• Tom is on Twitter. Follow
• The picture shows Tom Goodman-Hill as Claudius and Derek Jacobi as Augustus.

For as long as I can remember has been the soundtrack of my Summer.

I admit I was jealous of commentators who got paid to watch the cricket and to talk about it - I still am. They are brilliant and the skill of the producers in bringing in recent ex-players such as Michael Vaughan has taken the coverage onto a new level.

As a child TMS was even more exciting in Winter when the slightly telephonic sound quality whispered out of my radio from Australia when my parents thought I was asleep. Now the quality of sound is much better particularly when it is on DAB on 5 live Sports Extra which will carry every ball of every Test Match.

When I became commissioning editor at Radio 4 in 1997 you can imagine my joy when the Controller of Radio 4 James Boyle asked me to look after the relationship between TMS and the network. He was Scottish and it wasn't really his game. Finally I fulfilled my dream of visiting the commentary box and sampling the cake.

What I was less prepared for was the detailed and hard work that goes into planning TMS on Long Wave. Here we had to balance the conflicting demands on the Long Wave frequency. The contest was, and still is, Parliament and the Daily Service and The Shipping Forecast vs. The Cricket. That task has not changed and as we will see this winter the time differences across Australia mean it is a different story for each match.

The principles have not changed. Sailors need to know about the wind, the nation needs to know what is going on at Westminster, The Daily Service is a daily cherished 'appointment to listen' so Long Wave listeners will miss a few overs or switch to listening online via the 5live website or to a DAB radio. The interruptions are a small price to pay for keeping the comprehensive coverage that Long Wave affords for those who live outside the DAB range or do not have a DAB radio. Long Wave Radio is the only analogue live coverage of the cricket but I know some listeners will be frustrated that they cannot hear normal Radio 4 on Long Wave during the cricket.

We hope FM coverage will work for most people and remember Radio 4 is streamed online and for night-owls the World Service is on 648 medium wave. Failing all that TMS is very special even for some who never watch cricket and, who knows, Aggers may be warming our winter with a story of triumph down under. Alternatively the Shipping Forecast may be a poetic relief from the gloom.

If you do fall asleep how about subscribing to the TMS podcast and catching up on the way to work or school.

Andrew Caspari is Head of Speech Radio and Classical Music, Interactive at the Ö÷²¥´óÐã

• Radio 4's LW schedule and FM schedule.
• Join the discussion of The Ashes on Twitter. Follow and use the hashtag .
• The Test Match Special blog brings together posts from all of the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's cricket blogs.
• Tim Davie, Director of Audio & Music, has written about the vitality of radio sports commentary on the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio blog.
• Adam Mountford, Test Match Special producer, has written about the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's Ashes coverage on his blog.
• Details of the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's Ashes coverage .
• The picture shows the stopwatches showing time of play remaining on TMS (it was taken in 2005 - they've probably gone digital since).

Up until last month, I had never set foot on a Traveller site or thought I ever would. Few non-Travellers tend to be allowed into this closed, tight knit community. Therefore, it was a great surprise and privilege not only to be invited onto a Traveller site, but to be given the run of the place for a whole week to record Atching Tan, a Radio 4 afternoon play.

Atching Tan, which in Romani means 'stopping place' is a drama written by Traveller (and Director of The Romany Theatre Company), Dan Allum. It focuses on Lovvie Arkley, a young Traveller faced with a difficult decision; to marry her childhood sweetheart Nelius and live a traditional Traveller life, or renounce her culture to pursue a career in the outside 'gorgia' world.

The seeds of the play first came to life three years ago as a radio drama series on Ö÷²¥´óÐã East, a series created by Dan to explore the Traveller community in a way it has never been done before - from the inside. Dan's authentic representation of the Traveller world is what makes this play so unique, especially as most Travellers would argue that they tend to be portrayed negatively in dramatic media - usually as dirty trouble making thieves and scroungers. Travellers themselves may privately admit to being far from perfect but would assert they are clean, law abiding, hard working people who would live in peace with their non-Traveller neighbours given the chance.

As well as creating a strong and engaging dramatic script, we wanted to challenge these traditional, negative representations and instead portray the Traveller community as they realistically are. Not just in the writing, but in the casting too, which is why all but one member of the cast are from the Traveller community. This was especially important as the Romany language is woven throughout the script and we needed people who could speak and understand the language in order to fully convey the spirit and richness of Romany speech. These real Traveller voices give the play a very distinct feel, especially combined with the colourful Romany language. And of course the setting adds extra texture. The life of our real site intermingled with our drama - dogs barked, cars and trucks came in and out and food was cooked in a pot over the open fire.

At the end of our week at the site we didn't want to leave. Our hosts had been generous, incredibly hospitable and above all supportive of what we were doing. This, in a huge part was due to the passion and drive of writer Dan, whose infectious enthusiasm really hammered home to the cast and crew that we were working on something very special indeed. This wasn't just a play about two people falling in love, or a young girl deciding what career choice to make. This was also a rare opportunity to challenge people's pre-conceptions about a marginalised community. Travellers feel a terrible wrong has been done to them throughout history in the way their culture and identity has been demonised and distorted. So we felt a great responsibility with this play and set about trying to right this wrong in the only way we knew how. By letting Travellers speak for themselves.

The challenges for everyone involved in the play and the Ö÷²¥´óÐã East series have been enormous but exciting, and the result is raw but hopefully groundbreaking. If we happen to challenge stereotypes and change people's perceptions about the Traveller community along the way, then all the better.

Charlotte Riches is producer of Atching Tan

• Atching Tan is today's Afternoon Play on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio 4 at 1415.
• The Atching Tan radio series is broadcast on Ö÷²¥´óÐã East and you can also listen at .
• The picture was taken during recording of Atching Tan. It shows: Dan Allum (writer), Damian Le Bas (Neilus), Candis Nergaard (Lovvie) and Ali McGregor (Sound). More pictures from the production .

Lynda Snell has seen off many rivals to her position as the most irritating person in Ambridge. Marjorie Antrobus started as a formidable character but went on to become a bit of a national treasure. Brian Aldridge can be a pain, and has caused much unhappiness, but his love for Ruairi is unquestionable. But they all face much more serious competition from that layabout, sponger and occasional drug taker, Jazzer.

In this week's Feedback programme I asked Jazzer, otherwise known as Ryan Kelly, whether he has any redeeming features at all, and he made some frankly incredible claims. I also ask whether, as a Scot, he agrees, with some of our listeners, that he is "a shocking case of an untruthful (Scottish) stereotype", after all there have been references to deep frying substance abuse.

I also talked to one of the scriptwriters Keri Davies about the role of 'the irritant' in The Archers and about the blueprint the series' creator, Godfrey Basely laid down well over half a century ago. Plus we hear about the latest updates on The Archers' website.

The Archers is gearing up for its 60th Anniversary celebrations - how do you think they should celebrate?

Roger Bolton (Born and brought up 8 miles south of Scotland. He has never seen, let alone eaten, a deep fried Mars Bar) is presenter of Feedback.

• Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with Feedback, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
• The new Archers web site has many interesting new features, including a brand new blog, edited by Keri Davies.
• Feedback is now on Twitter. Follow .
• shows Ryan Kelly as Jazzer McCreary rehearsing with, on the right, Joanna Van Kampen as Fallon Rogers and, on the left, Director Rosemary Watts. It's by Steve Bowbrick.

Editor's note: another edition of Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time newsletter, a communication written weekly, right after the live Thursday morning transmission. Details of how to get the newsletter delivered to your inbox are at the bottom - SB

I don't know what the ethics are about saying "it's great" about a programme in which you've taken part. But I thought that the three contributors this morning had got over not only an immense amount of information about Foxe's Book of Martyrs, which for two centuries at least was one of the dominating books in our culture, second only to the King James Bible, but they had achieved a level of transferring the passion felt in the 16th century to a rather cold London studio in 2010. The Tudors must have bewildered their congregations with regard to religion.

To be uprooted, re-rooted, tossed aside, reclaimed, burnt, tortured, dismissed, told to read different texts, their saints destroyed, their saints propped up again, walls whitewashed, walls painted again ... I thought that came over. We didn't quite emphasise what a very good man Foxe himself was. He seems not to have sought any financial advantage from his book or any preferment in his career.

Afterwards Elizabeth Evenden told us that she had written biographies of the 2,238 people who had participated in the Marian martyrdoms. These included not only those who were burnt, but also their persecutors, their defences, their witnesses, their judges... it had taken her six years and she had spent most of that time in Lambeth Palace, because it was the only place where she could get the full, necessary editions of the Book of Martyrs side by side. Considering that one of them was over 2,000 pages long and the others not so far behind, it makes you realise that a scholar's work has an aspect of labouring to it.

She is bringing out a book in January on the making of Foxe's Book of Martyrs. While we're talking about books (there's a blanket ban on talking about contributors' own books in the programme) it would be only fair to mention Diarmaid MacCulloch's wonderful A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, which has been invaluable to me as I've been putting together my own book over the last year or two.

Justin Champion is working on Hobbes and has discovered that Hobbes, towards the end of his life, wrote ten essays on natural philosophy which have not been recognised or worked on before. This is like a gold prospector finding the great seam. Hobbes is still underrated. What he wrote predated a lot of what Spinoza wrote (Spinoza seems to have recognised this). He fell out with the Royal Society. He tended to fall out with a lot of people. He was a notoriously mean man and only had one overcoat all his life until the last two years when he bought a new one. He must have felt that he'd made a bad purchase with only two years' wear out of it. He died aged 90. He used to sing loudly in his bed before he went to sleep because he'd been told that that would protract his life.

I'm afraid I have sadly to bring to an end any more comments on the puppy in the office. Poland Street is now beset by puppyrazzi who are very dogged in the attentions they are paying to this beautiful little dog. I refuse to reveal his name because his privacy must be respected. He has the most wonderful long ears and is black and white and I may return to him in a year's time.

Only the unicorn has aroused a similar sort of interest. The puppy and the unicorn proved to be too toxic a mix for some of our readers. So I'm dropping the puppy and leaving the unicorn to be undiscovered in Mallorca.

Melvyn Bragg is presenter of In Our Time

• Listen to yesterday's episode of In Our Time, Foxe's Book of Martyrs, on the Radio 4 web site.
• In Our Time has been on-air since 1998 and you can listen to every single programme on the web site (the largest online programme archive at the Ö÷²¥´óÐã).
• Read and subscribe to Melvyn Bragg's newsletter and subscribe to the podcast.
• The full text of Foxe's Book of Martyrs .
• shows the testimony of Anne Askew, one of Foxe's martyrs. It's by . .

Editor's note. You can make a donation to this year's Radio 4 Christmas Appeal - SB

The service at St Martin-in-the-Fields for homeless people who have died in the past year never fails to move me. During the service the names of those who have died are read out, today it was 156 names, the names are interspersed with prayers, poems and music. It was after this service back in 2006 that I first met Dave McKane.

Dave had been rough sleeping for over 20 years and afterwards over tea and sandwiches we talked. He became part of that year's Radio 4 Christmas Appeal - Received with Thanks programme, which reports on how the money from the appeal is spent. He told me: "they say that homelessness is easy to get used to, it's not, it's bloody hard work. You think you can survive but a lot don't." A reference I felt to the service we had both just sat through.

Dave was described as an entrenched rough sleeper, someone who it is really hard to move off the streets. I remember we chatted easily in the clothing stall - Dave selecting and describing the way to dress in layers to survive a winter on the streets, but he also talked about his darker moments when he would throw his rucksack in the Thames in anger or despair - or perhaps both.

Move forward two years - it's Autumn 2008 and as I start the recordings for the Christmas Appeal, staff at tell me I must interview Dave again - he's moved off the streets into a hostel. Dave poses for some photos, standing on the steps of the hostel recalling how when he first arrived the worker said "take that rucksack off" and how "to get the rucksack off was a relief". He proudly showed me his room and admitted that for the first week he slept in his sleeping bag on the floor, he was so unused to a bed. When he did finally 'hop into the bed' he slept for 23 hours. It was great to be able to tell Dave's story in the programme, to show that donations really could make a difference.

I've done the recordings for this year's programme and a theme that has emerged is that staff feel they must never give up on clients, even when those clients try to push them away, "they feel they're not worthy, we know they are". The work is painstaking, sometimes two steps forward, one step back, it takes patience. As I leave the church, after this year's service for those who died homeless, I pause to chat to one of the priests, then look behind me to see a tall man, smartly dressed in a dark suit with a black tie and yes it's Dave. He greets me with a hug, asks after my family and then tells me how he has moved into a flat now. I comment on how well he looks - he laughs and tells me he's looking after himself now. He loves cooking and where others might hate the trip to Tesco to get some supper, he 'could spend all day in there'! I ask if I can take his photo on the church portico.

We're now in the countdown to this year's appeal, over the next 3 weeks we'll be promoting it on air, on the Radio 4 website, on and then on the 5th December we'll open the phone lines and hold our breath for that first call. Last year we raised almost £900,000 none of us know how that comes from this small 3 minute appeal - it's a bit of a minor miracle but I'm heartened by my chance meeting with Dave maybe he's a good omen for this year...

Sally Flatman is Producer of the Radio 4 Appeal

• on the St Martin-in-the-Fields web site.
• Learn more about on the web site.
• The picture shows Dave McKane outside St Martin-in-the-Fields in London after the service. It was taken by Sally Flatman.

During the last 18 months, we've been relaunching parts of the Radio 4 website, redesigning for the wider page template now in use at bbc.co.uk and taking advantage of new technologies on offer.

The last programme website to move across is one of our most popular - The Archers, which consistently receives more 'listen again' requests per month than any other Ö÷²¥´óÐã radio programme. A site tour takes you through the features page-by-page.

Where should you start?

If you're an Archers newbie who has always been intrigued by the happenings in Ambridge but never taken the plunge, then start with our short introduction, kindly read for us by Archers fan Stephen Fry. And then listen and explore the links from the latest episode panel on the homepage, to find out more about the characters and locations in the current storylines.

Lighter or lapsed listeners can quickly get back up to speed with our timeline and a series of summaries of selected storylines, listed beneath.

And I hope that our regular users will adjust happily to the new layout for familiar content, and enjoy the regular news from the Archers blog, edited by our web producer and Archers scriptwriter Keri Davies. The blog will include a regular round-up of conversations and opinion from Archers audiences on our messageboard and on social networks - there are now more ways than ever for you to talk with, and be entertained by, your fellow listeners.

As always, we welcome your feedback, which helps us to continue to improve what we do - so please leave your comments.

Leigh Aspin is Interactive Editor at Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio 4

• The Archers is on Radio 4 at 1400 and 1900 weekdays, 1000 (omnibus edition) and 1900 Sundays
• Follow The Archers .
• There's a podcast for the Sunday omnibus edition and for the daily editions.
• The picture shows part of the Archers Timeline from the new site.

It's been a strange week, locked in a studio recording a novel about secrets and conspiracy in Stalinist Russia and then dashing 8 floors up, to conspiratorially huddle over the short list of this year's Ö÷²¥´óÐã National Short Story Award intent on ensuring total secrecy until the announcement on Thursday's Front Row.

There is a sense of both relief and excitement now that we have reached this point. Relief to have finally got through all the hurdles, from the box loads of entries in the spring, to the complications of contracts in a digital age, from the casting of Cumbrians to the challenges of the short-listing meeting. This year the judges seem to have been particularly passionate in their defence of, or coruscating in their demolition of, some entries! And for the first time we felt we must add a commended category for stories from Edna O'Brien and Graham Mort.

There have naturally been various minor alarms along the ways - a couple of the stories are brilliant and don't need to be abridged - in fact they are written with such economy in their totality, that they are too short for our 30 minute slot! Unfazed by this potential hiccup we have come up with two solutions - the wonderful Irish writer Colm Toibin has promised to reveal his favourite classic short stories after David Constantine's clever and concise tale on Monday, and kindly Gardeners' Question Time will take up the slack on Friday before Hugh Quarshie reads Aminatta Forna's tender story of a love remembered and lost.

The casting was trickier too, with several stories with first person narrators and specific regional or age requirements. Sarah Hall's powerful coming of age story is deeply rooted in north Cumbria and the lovely people at The Theatre by the Lake in Keswick have helped us find the perfect voice. Meanwhile Helen Oyeyemi's story is deliberately unplaced - she told us 'the village itself I feel much more vague about - it could even be Muslim rural Africa, but an Iraqi accent would be true to the story too.' Of course for radio such ambiguity is hard. We have to fix on a voice and thus a suggestion, at least, of place - see where you think Sirine Saba is speaking from.

In these multi-platform days of youtube and twitter we have to find pictures for radio - always an odd idea given we spend our lives saying that radio creates the best pictures! For David Constantine's story Rob Howells has been delving into the picture archives in search of Morecambe Bay - which did appear eventually but only after he'd viewed over two hundred pics of Eric and Ernie. Water and floods resonate through Jon McGregor's poignant and disturbing portrait of a lonely man too. The continuity of the river below his dwelling was the pervading image.

There have been a lot of wonderful trails on Radio 4. Not normally one to step in front of the mike, preferring to lurk on the other side of the glass, I have found myself on air at the most surprising times. It was particularly disconcerting to be drifting off to sleep last night thinking I recognised the actor! But amusing to learn that one of my team, rather groggy and half asleep, leapt out of bed on hearing the Big Brother voice of his leader coming out of the radio at 6.30 in the morning.

Finally, however, it is exciting to be at this point again - with the five stories about to be made public, a chance for the audience to join our debate before what I predict will be a polite but fiercely fought tussle at the final judging meeting for the winner. And then of course we'll all be sworn to secrecy all over again until the 29th. Good thing I'm picking up tricks on enforcement from my current recording!

Di Speirs is Editor, Readings at Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio 4

• The shortlist was announced by James Naughtie on Thursday's Front Row. David Constantine, one of the shortlisted authors, was interviewed by Kirsty Lang on Friday's programme.
• Listen to the five shorlisted stories on Radio 4 at 1530 each afternoon this week, starting today with Tea at the Midland by David Constantine.
• More about the awards, including past winners, on the Radio 4 web site.
• You can download all five of the shortlisted stories to keep after they've been transmitted.
• The hashtag for The Awards is #NSSA
• shows The Midland Hotel in Morecambe Bay. It's by . .

Aung San Suu Kyi's extraordinary life as a quiet prisoner in her own country is the subject of this Radio 4 special programme presented by Mike Wooldridge. Mike hears from her friends and colleagues who speak frankly about her experience and how she has kept her spirit alive after so many years in isolation fighting for democracy. We are rebroadcasting the programme tonight at 11pm following the Burmese elections and speculation about her future.

Gwyneth Williams is Controller of Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio 4 and Radio 7

• Listen to Mike Wooldridge's profile on the Radio 4 web site.
Ö÷²¥´óÐã News profile of Aung San Suu Kyi.
• On Woman's Hour this morning, Jenni Murray was joined by Ö÷²¥´óÐã Foreign Correspondent Sue Lloyd Roberts and by historian Justin Wintle to discuss Aung San Suu Kyi's role in Burma in the light of the recent elections.
• shows supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi protesting outside the Chinese Embassy in London in 2007. It's by and is used .

Editor's note: we present a second edition of Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time newsletter, a communication written weekly, right after the live Thursday morning transmission. Details of how to get the newsletter delivered to your inbox are at the bottom - SB

After a quick dash to the office in Poland Street, where I was met at the door by an extremely tiny and wet-through and exhausted puppy, whose owner had mistakenly thought he needed a little walk on a squally, rainy morning, I then wove through Soho and down Regent Street and around St James's Park, headed for the House of Lords.

In the office we had sat for two minutes' silence. It seems to me that this observance is growing in this country and I am one of those who think that's a very good thing. The crowds outside Westminster Abbey, queuing to look at and go round what can only be called a garden of memorial crosses, was impressive and touching.

And now the poppies have come out everywhere.

The character of St James's Park this morning was entirely dominated by the dead leaves, falling listlessly like huge brown snowflakes but mostly wet on the ground, ripe for skidding. And so with a certain melancholy peace of mind I went into the Lords to meet one extremely friendly lordship who said: "After listening to your programme this morning the first thing I want to do is to reintroduce ritual chieftain burials in this country. We could start with celebrities."

The Muslim commentators did hit on some violent practices. They themselves, of course, were obsessed with ritual purity, with washing, often several times a day, and these Vikings, with their lack of lavatorial education and practices, which I mention only for the sake of passing on what was told to me after the programme, must have horrified these educated Arabic scholars.

It seems that in the morning the women, who shared the same hut as the men (the women were often slaves and were shared between the men who, according to Professor Montgomery, bonded through sharing their women), would bring out a bowl of water and go round the menfolk who, in the same bowl, would wash, spit and pee. They bonded through their effluvia. Sorry about that, but there is much worse that I will not pass on.

The women were under-represented in the talk on the programme. By the women I mean the wives. They often fought alongside their men in war and remains have been found of them in full armour. In Scandinavia women could take over the throne. They were also the walking safes of their husbands' wealth. The typical silver necklace of a warrior's wife would be worth two hundred times what a tradesman in Baghdad would earn in a year.

I think I mentioned a wonderful sermon preached by the Patriarch Photios of Constantinople in 860. He preached this after an attack on Constantinople by the Vikings, or Rus. He marvelled at how they had turned into a warlike people. "An obscure nation, a nation of no account, a nation ranked among slaves, unknown, but which has won a name from the expedition against us, insignificant, but now become famous, humble and destitute, but now risen to a splendid height and immense wealth, a nation dwelling somewhere far from our country, barbarous, nomadic, armed with arrogance, unwatched, unchallenged, leaderless, has so suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, like a wave of the sea, poured over our frontiers, and as a wild boar has devoured the inhabitants of the land like grass or straw or a crop..." If that is given the right Churchillian intonation, it seems to me it comes very near out-Churchilling Churchill.

I got a tremendous letter about unicorn remains being found in Deia in Mallorca. Really. Honestly. I think I've said enough in this newsletter, but if anybody's interested I'll come back to this. This can be checked up in the museum in Deia. It is weirdly convincing.

These may be washed up bones, from a flash flood, of creatures seen by passing sailors in the Mediterranean and thus entering mythology from a root of truth.

So, pickled onions with lunch and a trip to oblige a friend and speak in a school, and then to a curious evening. Dinner in a London restaurant, which then turns into a theatre for a short play by Ronnie Harwood.

Melvyn Bragg is presenter of In Our Time

• Listen to yesterday's episode of In Our Time, The Volga Vikings, on the Radio 4 web site.
• In Our Time has been on-air since 1998 and you can listen to every single programme on the web site (the largest online programme archive at the Ö÷²¥´óÐã).
• Read and subscribe to Melvyn Bragg's newsletter and subscribe to the podcast.
• shows the prow of the Oseberg ship, a Viking ship built in around 815-820 A.D. and now on display in a museum in Oslo. It's by and it's used .

Which Today programme presenter reportedly said he wants to "upset" more people?

Dead easy.

John Humphrys surely?

Well, no actually.

Step forward Mr Nice-Guy himself, the ever courteous Justin Webb, widely admired by many Feedback listeners for the way he doesn't interrupt every few seconds. Naturally he appreciates the admiration but he's gone public in his admission to up the ante with harder interviews and interruptions.

In Feedback this week I ruthlessly cross examine Mr Webb about this apparent change of heart, interrupting him frequently and insisting he answers my questions. I also put to him some of the embarrassing emails from listeners who were delighted when the Today programme was taken off-air as a result of the recent National Union of Journalists' strike and replaced by birdsong from The Wash.

How did Mr Webb respond to my aggressive questioning? Did he fight fire with fire? Do you care about interviewing style?

Roger Bolton is the ever so polite and inoffensive presenter of Feedback.

• Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with Feedback, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
• Feedback is now on Twitter. Follow .
• Justin asserted that he'd like to upset more people in an interview with James Robinson . Gillian Reynolds was one of those who enjoyed a morning without Today.
• The picture shows Justin presenting Today with Sarah Montague

The live chat has now closed and will be archived here permanently. Click the replay button to see all of the tweets published during the chat.

It's - a huge annual event that celebrates the net in all its variety. Radio 4's small contribution to the week is to line up a Radio 4 legend (and, not incidentally, a man with impeccable geek credentials) for a live Twitter chat.

Between 1 and 2 pm today, Tim Bentinck, , harried minister in The Thick of It, cowboy in a recent short feature and - you won't need me to remind you - David Archer in The Archers since 1982, will be answering questions about his career, his roles and his interest in the net.

To join in and ask Tim a question, tweet using the hashtag . Tim will be following the hashtag and will answer your questions - in 140 characters or fewer!

If you're not on Twitter, you'll still be able to watch the chat right here on the blog. And if you'd like to contribute a question, leave it as a comment here and I'll relay it to Tim using this length of bailer twine and a feed bucket.

Steve Bowbrick is editor of the Radio 4 blog

• The .
• The Archers on the Radio 4 web site.

Seismic events. An upheaval in the British political landscape. Radical change in the destiny of parties and political careers. The challenge - to capture the complex, fast-moving, five-day narrative of those events in just 58 minutes.

There was no shortage of material. Transcripts of the many hours of interviews that took place with the protagonists - with Cameron, Clegg, Mandelson, Balls, Ashdown and many more. Many more hours of recorded interviews with the people who were there, in the room as the negotiations that led to the formation of the coalition took place.

As a writer, as you absorb that mass of material, what you have to have is a filter. A way of selecting from that mass of messy reality the things what will help you most in the creation of your script - that artificial construct you have promised to deliver in three weeks time. In my filter there were four layers.

Essentials

This is the easy bit. The must haves, the things that have to be there. The resignation of Gordon Brown. David Cameron's acceptance speech on the steps of No 10. The big events give you the milestones. That moment as your plane taxis from its stand and then turns to align itself with the runway - when, for a few moments, you see those long lines of lights that lead from where you are to the vanishing point, to the climax of that thundering charge down the tarmac.

Essential inessentials

I know. An oxymoron. A statement carrying an internal contradiction. But they exist. These are things that are utterly inessential to the forward progression of the narrative - but that carry an emotional, dramatic or symbolic meaning that makes them absolutely essential to your script. Gordon Brown about to face the cameras to make his last ever speech as Prime Minister. He borrows a red tie from Alistair Campbell. Peter Mandelson gives a final piece of advice. Sue Nye, Brown's faithful assistant, puts the advice into action - and adjusts the knot of Brown's tie. How many layers are there? The need, in these final moments to wear, like a badge of honour and an assertion of identity, the party colour. That last service from Mandelson, the ultimate, Machiavellian courtier. And then that moment of intimacy as the errant knot of Brown's tie is straightened.

Issues

Dangerous things for the dramatist. The seductive allure of bringing to the centre of the stage that big bass drum marked 'issues' and then banging it hard with the biggest blunt instrument you can find. In writing drama there are commandments, carved in stone, etched with awesome authority, stern injunctions you ignore at your own peril. One is simply this - show don't tell. It's for the audience to decide what the issues are. Your job is to embed the ones you think are important in the story, the actions, the characters.

People

The infinite variety of human behaviour. Even better, human behaviour in extreme situations, under huge pressure when the things they do and the decisions they take will have massive implications for themselves, for the people around them and for the future of the country. David Cameron facing the Conservative Parliamentary Party knowing he must bring them with him into a coalition that, only months before, would have seemed inconceivable. Paddy Ashdown deciding to put his weight behind the deal. William Hague making jokes to defuse the tension in the negotiating room. Brown insisting on calling his potential partners 'the Liberals' and not the Liberal Democrats. On these brief fragments of human conduct does the destiny of nations hang. And what delicious drama it all makes.

Matthew Solon is writer of Five Days in May

• Listen to Five Days in May on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio 4 this afternoon at 1430.
• Elisabeth Mahoney reviewed the play
• The picture of Number 10 Downing Street is from the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's picture library.
• Discussion of the play has begun on the Radio 4 messageboards
• Nick Robinson wrote about the deal that brought the coalition into being on his blog during the Summer.

Editor's note: this week's item from Radio 4's accountability programme Feedback is about Ö÷²¥´óÐã Monitoring after the renegotiated licence fee settlement - SB

Shortly before his execution Charles 1 was taken to Caversham Park near Reading, where he wrote to his son James to arrange their last meeting. By the time his other son, Charles 2nd had returned from exile to regain the throne, Caversham had fallen into ruin and disrepair.

It´s not quite so dramatic, but major threats face the current day occupants of the historic park. The is to undergo unprecedented cuts and a change of funding which could change what they do forever. The Unit has been at Caversham since 1942 occupying a beautiful early Victorian building which dominates the skyline above Reading and the River Thames.

With its listening stations around the world it was the first to hear of the death of Hitler, and of Khruschev"s decision to withdraw missiles from Cuba and so avoid a terrifying nuclear confrontation. Today its main customers are UK Government departments including MI5 and MI6, Ö÷²¥´óÐã newsrooms, businesses here and abroad, and research and academic institutions.

Until now its main funding has come, not from the licence fee, but from a direct Government grant. However in the whirlwind weekend when the latest Ö÷²¥´óÐã licence fee deal was thrashed out the Government announced that from 2013 the Government would withdraw its financial support and the Monitoring Unit would be funded from the licence fee.

In other words, it will have to compete for funds with all the other Ö÷²¥´óÐã activities. Members of the unit are already facing cuts of 26%, and there could well be more in the offing. How could that affect listeners? For Feedback I travelled to Caversham to talk to the Director of Ö÷²¥´óÐã Monitoring, Chris Westcott, about the changes and challenges they present. There are 8 clocks on the wall of his outer office, each showing a different time. Written above them the places to which they refer - Washington, Kiev, Cairo, Nairobi, Moscow, Baku,Tashkent, Delhi.

With a cup of tea in my hand, I knocked on the door and went in:

Roger Bolton is presenter of Feedback

• Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with Feedback, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
• Feedback is now on Twitter. Follow .
• The has some free content and some fascinating case studies.
• shows Ö÷²¥´óÐã Monitoring's headquarters at Caversham. It's by and it's used .

Editor's note: Melvyn Bragg, presenter of one of the jewels in Radio 4's public service crown - In Our Time - has been entertaining a select group of his radio audience (38,482 of them in fact) for some years now with his elegant and funny weekly newsletter. It really ought to have a wider audience. So here, for the first time on the blog, is that newsletter. Details of how to receive it in your email inbox are at the bottom - SB.

Every Thursday morning I start listening to Radio 4 at 5.30. This is for the necessary 15-minute run-in to Farming Today, the most cheerful, pessimistic programme on radio or television. Full of resolute persons carefully planting complaints. It is a good wake-up call.

And then at six o'clock there is the dreaded moment. Will John Humphrys be introducing ? If he is, then I'll have to step up to the plate in some way. No complaints. It's my own plate. I put it there. And he was! But he was in China! I had no idea what the link with China would be - was he doing a documentary or was he part of the general melee of the Today programme? But China! And we are temporarily lodged in Bush House, the centre of world broadcasting in so many languages. I rang up and asked if the Chinese Section could supply a phonetic message to John in Mandarin. They obliged. If I'd taken longer to think about it, I might have worked out that it would be a little more classy to say something other than "How are you? Good day" but nevertheless it was in Chinese. The boob I made was not to translate it. John then replied "xie xie" but, even so, I should have translated it.

Another owning up. I was wrong about Halley being famous when he visited Hevelius. He had not yet become renowned for spotting the comet, which Patricia Fara pointed out had been spotted by Newton anyway. He was, though, an active scientist and a wealthy man - but that's not the same as being famous for spotting the comet. Patricia Fara carefully pointed this out after the programme. Frankly, I'd much rather she'd pointed it out on the programme, then I could have got this apology over with.

There was a little laugh around the table (well suppressed) when I spoke of one woman marrying somebody "for his telescope". For one millisecond In Our Time teetered on the edge of an abyss. It wasn't helped when Judith Hawley went on to talk in passionate terms about a woman standing beside a massive sextant. Where were we going? Of course, we were going on to talk about women in science in the Enlightenment.

Innuendo, very, very occasionally, can be a problem. Last week talking about the unicorn there was much discussion on the meaning of the unicorn laying its head on the lap of a virgin. The carnal implication was never raised, although again there was a ripple of a smile around the table and discussion about it afterwards. I was even too bashful to raise it in my newsletter last week, but clearly it was there. And it would have been interesting to have explored it a little. Except that perhaps there's no evidence for anyone at that time exploring it a little. Perhaps they did not have innuendo in the High Middle Ages? Allegory was supreme.

After that, I walked back to the office which is now in Soho. In fact, I think it's the smallest office in Soho; it certainly has the smallest puppy in Soho! A little curious, after talk of these wonderful Enlightenment women and their fight for equality with men, in their right to study and be recognised for their work in science, to pass down dark passages advertising strippers of all different varieties. It's a funny old world is London.

Melvyn Bragg is presenter of In Our Time

• Listen to yesterday's episode of In Our Time, Women of Enlightenment Science, on the Radio 4 web site.
• In Our Time has been on-air since 1998 and you can listen to every single programme on the web site (the largest online programme archive at the Ö÷²¥´óÐã).
• Read and subscribe to Melvyn Bragg's newsletter and subscribe to the podcast.
• The picture shows , Marquise du Châtelet, translator of Newton into French and star of yesterday's programme. It's from

Editor's note: we've made a big improvement to Radio 4 podcasts - they're available to download for much longer - most for at least 30 days and two-thirds of them in perpetuity. Mark Friend, Controller of Audio & Music Interactive, explains the change and hints at further improvements in a blog post on the new Radio blog - SB

We know that the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's podcasts are hugely popular with people who know about them and understand how to get hold of them. A recent example is A history of the World in 100 Objects which has had over 12 million downloads so far, over the course of the series. I like this example, first because it's a big number but also because the content itself is stunning.

I also like this example because we've made every episode of the 100-part series available rather than the normal approach of withdrawing the podcasts 7 days after the original programme was broadcast. This means that if you only discovered the series half-way through its 9-month run, it's easy to download any or all of the previous episodes to listen to whenever it suits you...

Read the rest of this post - and leave a comment - on the Radio blog.