Speechification

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]

As we’ve been seeing on Speechification recently, Radio 4 is not the only place to go for intelligent speech. The World Service should be an obvious choice, and I’ve recently been addicted to Mike Williams’ three part series “Inside the Climate Change talks” which I discovered thanks to the documentary archive podcast.

It soon gets out of being an introduction to climate change, and becomes a fascinating guided tour of the behind the scenes action at G8 in May, and the preparations for the December UN Summit in Bali.

• Part one (mp3)
• Part two (mp3)
• Part three (mp3)

At its best, it’s like Today in Parliament on an international stage. I would have liked to hear more of the international negotiations on the floor of the G8 from the horses mouths though; Mike Williams is so keen to explain what we’re hearing in these meetings that we sometimes don’t get much of a chance to hear it for ourselves. Other than that, it’s an enjoyable and fascinating series.

Photo credit: intimaj on Flickr.