victorian

Wheatstone, his Sighing Reed… and the Great Regondi

November 28th, 2007 by Steve Bowbrick

You want half-hour features about obscure musical instruments and their eccentric inventors? We’ve got half-hour features about obscure musical instruments and their eccentric inventors. Yes we have. This one’s about the Concertina - about the whole category of ‘free reed’ instruments, in fact. About the whole period in history that produced the ‘free reed’ instruments (the second quarter of the 19th Century) and about Victorian physicist Sir Charles Wheatstone, its inventor. Really good stuff (MP3).

Presenter: Dr Bernard Richardson
Producer: Paul Evans
Production Company: BBC Wales
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Listen: [MP3] [Real]

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A nasty case of the vapours

October 26th, 2007 by Steve Bowbrick

Here’s another quickie. I heard this one in the car and it had me sort of chortling (gurgling?) with pleasure. Not because it’s funny (although it is) but because it’s almost perfect radio. Presenter Vivienne Parry’s a proper grown-up broadcaster with a personality, opinions and loads of wit. She oozes confidence and pleasure in what she does (and she used to present Tomorrow’s World!).

In this half-hour feature (obviously my favourite kind of show, looking back through Speechification’s lengthening archive), she asks “what did the doomed heroines of all those Victorian novels actually die of?” and she rounds up a bunch of fascinating doctors and literary types to provide some answers. This is precisely what I pay my licence fee for (MP3, Real).

Presenter: Vivienne Parry
Producer: Simon Hollis
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Listen: [MP3] [Real]

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