travel

The Night Air: Loco

February 23rd, 2008 by Dan Hill

The Night Air can be a frustrating little programme. Sometimes too clever for its own good, the echoed, layered montage approach can lead to rapidly diminishing results. However, it’s experimental radio on the mainstream channel of a national broadcaster, so deserves to be on a loose leash. And this little show, on the world’s railways - something of a current obsession - is pretty good, with some lovely atmospheric moments … and some just plain silly. Personally, I can’t condone the slightly sniffy attitude to the greatest train service in the world, the Shinkansen, but it rather nicely covers many of the world’s other great train networks, with a sly Aussie irreverence crossed with a good solid dose of Kraftwerk.

ABC Radio National: The Night Air: Loco (mp3)

Presenter: Brent Clough
Production Company: ABC Radio National
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Listen: [MP3]

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From Our Own Correspondent

November 24th, 2007 by Roo Reynolds

There’s also something unbearably romantic about From Our Own Correspondent on Radio 4, but perhaps especially when listening while bundled up in warm blankets during a lie-in on a grey winter weekend morning.

In case you’re not familiar with the show, it describes itself as “personal reflections by BBC correspondents around the world” which is a wonderful thing indeed. It’s not a travel show, but a glimpse into the quiet moments of the lives of British journalists on foreign assignments.

Personally, I can’t help picture the faces and suitcases behind all these lovely British accents sitting in front of their microphones in lonely hotel rooms in distant and exotic places. This week’s epdisode brings us thoughts on the impact of recent strikes in Paris, contemplations of the Commonwealth from Uganda, a glimpse into family life in rural China, a hunt for size ten shoes in Yemen and even enticing descriptions of twenty-first century Timbuktu. (MP3, Real)

The whole thing is tied together by Kate Adie, the much loved flack-jacketed BBC chief reporter who was apparently once shot at by an “irate Libyan” on one of many war assignments.

I have only just now realised that From Our Own Correspondent is available as a podcast. I’ll be subscribing to that now then.

[Photo by ny156uk on Flickr]

Presenter: Kate Adie
Producer: Tony Grant
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Listen: [MP3] [Real]

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