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Speakers Cornered (Feb 2001)
BBC Radio 4: 2 x 15 minutes

In a year when the role of the Speaker was called into question, Nick Utechin recalls the chequered history of this important parliamentary role, including Speakers that have been imprisoned and executed.

Presenter: Nick Utechin
Producer: Viv Black

At Home with Healey (Jan 2001)
BBC Radio 4: Two series each 4 x 30 minutes

Tim Healey invites musicians, historians and story tellers to his Oxford sitting room to play the music of the past and find out about the people who played it. In the most recent of two series Healey and co recall why town municipal bands - the Town Waits - also performed as official timekeepers, recalled amorous exploits at barn dances through the ages and, most memorably, joined with parents Denis and Edna Healey to have a family chat about political songs, which naturally turned into a family sing song.

Producer: Dilly Barlow

What the critics said...
"The last of an enlightening series... As ever the Healeys were good company and good value. Immensely entertaining, the Healeys avoided self importance and were always able to put things in a historical context."
Financial Times

2001: Heaven and HAL (Dec 2001)
BBC Radio 4: 1 x 30 minutes

When Hal famously murdered his crewmates aboard Discovery, was he acting consciously? An investigation into the future of intelligent machines and the dangers some experts see ahead. With Arthur C Clarke and Jonathan Miller.

Writer/Presenter: Nick Baker
Producer: Nigel Acheson

A Caribbean Blue (2000)
BBC Radio 4: 2 x 15 minutes

Two autobiographical talks from Jamaican born Pat Cumper from her arrival in Britain and her first year at Cambridge to her journey to Kenya to meet her proposed in-laws.

Producer: Dilly Barlow

The Real Sherlock Holmes (2000)
BBC Radio 4: 1 x 30 minutes

How fiction influenced the real world of forensic science during the dawn of deduction.

Presenter: Ruth Dudley Edwards
Producer: Joanna Rahim

The Secret History of Conan Doyle (2000)
BBC Radio 4: 1 x 30 minutes

The private life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and an attempt to reconcile his principal character's devotion to deduction and his own famous faith in fairies.

Presenter: Humphrey Carpenter
Producer: Nick Utechin

How Jazz came to Britain (2000)
BBC Radio 4: 1 x 60 minutes

It was not until the late 30's that the BBC finally gave into the campaign for regular Jazz on the air. Veteran BBC man Charles Chilton describes his part in the process, including a little white lie to the Master of the King's Music, an act of musical disobedience in the BBC Chapel in Broadcasting House, and Alastair Cooke's tearful mother, distraught because of her son's taste for depraved music.

Presenter: Charles Chilton
Producer: Nick Baker

Essential Guide to the 21st Century (2000)
BBC World Service: 3 x 30 minutes

Three programmes for the landmark World Service series on the subjects of work, lifestyle and leisure, recorded in China, the USA and Italy.

Presenter: Nick Baker
Producer: Lore Windemuth

Shanghai Scouse (1999)
BBC Radio 4: 1 x 30 minutes

Liverpool's Chinatown is the oldest in Europe. Its links to Shanghai are strengthened by the similarity of their waterfronts, their passion for football, and the fact that Shanghainese seafarers were stranded in Liverpool - some until the present day - after the outbreak of the Chinese revolution in 1948. Hoping to capitalize on some of these links, the cities twinned. But Liverpool - in comparison to fast growing Shanghai - is a poor relation. Nick Baker tried to find out whether the twins might enjoy an equal relationship. He also saw Shanghai through the eyes of some young Liverpool FC footballers, there to play a friendly match against their Chinese counterparts.

Presenter: Nick Baker
Producer: Viv Black

Home Thoughts (1999)
BBC Radio 4: 10 x 15 minutes (Two series)

Britain's minorities as they see themselves. Through their own papers and magazines: Chinese, Asian, Australian, Afro-Caribbean, Mauritian, Greek, South African, Turkish Asian and Russian.

Presenter: Nick Baker
Producer: Viv Black

Moon Day mini series: Astronomer Royal (1999)
BBC Radio 4: 1 x 30 minutes

Sir Martin Rees talks about his lunar vision and his hopes for a renaissance in space exploration in the new millennium.

Presenter: Leo Enright
Producer: Nick Utechin

What the Critics said:
As one who remembers dozing in front of a fuzzy black-and-white television in the early hours of that momentous day in July 1969, unable to take in the magnitude of the occasion, I found the preview tapes of Radio 4's 15 hour lunar excursion consistently engaging, sometimes rather moving and a testament to the skills and knowledge of those who have made them. They are also a strong pointer ot the talent of the independent production sector, since no fewer than five of the programmes are made by the same outfit (the aptly named Testbed Productions, which also makes Feedback).
Paul Donovan
The Independent

Moon Day mini series: How High the Moon (1999)
BBC Radio 4: 1 x 30 minutes

A look at the real effect that the moon has on life on earth.

Presenter: Sue Nelson
Producer: Joanna Rahim

Moon Day mini series: The Apollo Factor (1999)
BBC Radio 4: 1 x 40 minutes

A reflection upon the iconic significance of the 1969 landing and the Cold War ideology that drove the United States to win the 'space race'.

Presenter: Anthony Howard
Producer: Nick Utechin

What the Critics said:
A real nostalgic treat - Journey Into Space Again - in which writer and producer Charles Chilton looks back at the hit radio drama that transported six million listeners into space every Monday night, back in the innocent fifties.
Nigel Andrew
Daily Mail

Moon Day mini series: Journey into Space Again (1999)
BBC Radio 4: 1 x 30 minutes

A look back at the 1953 drama series - the last radio drama to trounce TV in the ratings - with some of the original crew of JOURNEY INTO SPACE and excerpts from their first mission.

Presenter: Charles Chilton
Producer: Nick Baker