BBC sounds - add your review or recommendation here

[idontgetitdoyou]

Inspired by another thread about how rubbish the search functionality on Sounds is.

It’s also annoying that there are no listener reviews. So a few times I’ve listened to some pretty poor quality dramas etc and really wished I could have read a review first.

So I thought it would be good to have a thread for this so people can share recommendations for shows they liked (or warnings for those they didn’t!)

I’ll start with:
Really enjoyed a dramatisation of Behind the Scenes at the Museum (Kate Atkinson)
plus just listened to the Barchester Chronicles which I enjoyed.

I like fiction especially detective and historical, but post about anything you like on Sounds. There’s so much on there but it’s hard to navigate and the length of time things are available for is so random.

Getting on a flight now so look forward to reading later!

@andIsaid The Essay and Private Passions are often very engaging. I hope others will have specific ones they've enjoyed, because there are many episodes of each to choose from!

Just thought of something else @andIsaid if you enjoy hearing people talking about music then 'building a library' might be up your street. I think you'd have to search for 'Record review' on the BBC Sounds app.

Thank you to the oringal poster, I too love the content but can struggle to find new things, so thanks everyone for all the recommendations.

I found Behind the Crime fascinating, along with lots of the other recommendations above. The Gift (about the DNA kit) was also brilliant, came across it by accident.

Add to Playlist, which is R4 rather than R3, is great, because it's such a wide selection of music and the links are sometimes deeply technical musical things, but could be history, geography, or a million other things.

@andIsaidI really like Private Passons - I think it’s much better than Desert Island Discs!

The comedy is hit and miss but I’m enjoying Fab TV, a send up of those slightly surreal thrillers of the 60s (The Prisoner, Randall and Hopkirk deceased etc). Also The Masterson Inheritance and In and Out of the Kitchen.

Others are blatantly unfunny, or a waste of talent (looking at you, The Maltby Collection).

Great Lives can also have some gems: Ivor Novello is a treat.

Amol Rajan’s ‘Radical’ on R4 can be really interesting - I just listened to the one on marriage and found it fascinating.

Try Music Matters - lots of different documentary-style programmes on a wealth of subjects. Most recently the violinist Tasmin Little talking to performers who, like her, have decided to stop giving concerts.

I actually came on here to recommend the 'Archive on 4' store, which is a real treasure-trove. I’ve just listened to a cracker of a doc called Song of the Singer Sewing Machine - absolutely fascinating.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002sf85

1hr play first broadcast in 1981 - suspense thriller. I went through a long phase recently of listening to every R. D. Wingfield radio play and series I could find. There are a great many on YouTube. Always a terrific twist, often several. By all accounts he was pretty pissed off when Inspector Frost became a big TV hit, as he much preferred writing for radio.

Have you listened to Claire in the community?

Everything Is Fake, all about fake news, bots, AI etc. Really interesting and more than a little terrifying.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001w207?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Or the island, a comedy fronted by Stephen Mangan who ends up on an island with fellow castaways from Desert Island Discs. At the moment there are only six episodes but it is well worth a listen, it is very funny @badger2005

Sadly, it was produced by the brilliant Bill Dare who was killed not long after the Island was broadcast, so there may not be another series.

Oh,that’s a shame.

Fabulous thread. I always pull up the radio 4 drama page and then find things that way. The search function on Sounds really is terrible!

There's a very funny spoof of Woman's Hour called Time of the Week with Sian Clifford playing the presenter. I think it's hilarious!

Uncanny, Battersea Poltergeist and The Witch Farm were all brilliant.

I enjoyed Yeti too.

Lately, I've been into The Rest is History, and How did we get here ? About Palestine and Israel. Fascinating.

Who killed Emma and Bible John are amazing. Bible John is one of the best podcast series I've ever heard and I get through a lot.

Try Crime Next Door about the Anglesey vampire murder.

The Anglesey vampire killer is really good, but its not all on there yet. Only up to episode 5.

Believe in Magic is good.

i did post this on another thread
there was a rediscovered interview with Kenny Everett on Radio 4 extra, reminded me how much i enjoyed listening to him

I agree with all of these apart from Uncanny which I just can't get on with. It feels ponderous to me.

My favourite absolute tip top choice is Yeti though, I love that programme. There's something about it, with the people they selected to participate, I felt that they all had such a useful perspective on, well, life really and I loved the way the programme makers worked with them.