Other names | Night Waves (1992–2014) |
---|---|
Running time | 60 minutes (9:00 pm – 10:00 pm) |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Language(s) | English |
Home station | BBC Radio 4 |
Hosted by | Various |
Original release | 15 September 1992[1] – present |
Audio format | Stereophonic sound |
Website | Official website |
Free Thinking is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 weekly from Friday 5 April 2024.
It was previously broadcast on Radio 3 as part of its "After Dark" late night programming. The programme is a rebranded version of Night Waves, "Radio 3's flagship arts and ideas programme". [2] Night Waves was broadcast every Monday to Thursday evening, except during the Proms season. Radio 3 rebranded Night Waves as Free Thinking from 7 January 2014, and reduced the number of first-time broadcasts per week from four to three (plus one repeat). It had a 45 minute running time on Radio 3.
Programmes usually included a mix of interviews, reviews, previews, discussions, commissioned writing and reports. Some episodes included a single interview with a prominent figure in the worlds of arts or ideas. The programme's presenters include Matthew Sweet, Philip Dodd, Rana Mitter, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.
The Guardian said in May 2010: "...the king of radio arts programmes is undoubtedly Night Waves, a programme so clever that it regularly makes me stand still and listen, usually halfway to the dishwasher with a plate in my hand...It's the desire to untangle arguments, to lift up their corners and see what lurks there. There's a gleeful range of references too...and a relish for intelligent debate." [3]
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded entirely by its commercial activities, including advertising. It began its transmission in 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in the United Kingdom. At the time, the only other channels were the licence-funded BBC1 and BBC2, and a single commercial broadcasting network, ITV.
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue is a BBC radio comedy panel game. Billed as "the antidote to panel games", it consists of two teams of two comedians being given "silly things to do" by a chairman. The show was launched in April 1972 as a parody of radio and TV panel games, and has been broadcast since on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, with repeats aired on BBC Radio 4 Extra and, in the 1980s and 1990s, on BBC Radio 2. The 50th series was broadcast in November and December 2007.
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasting House, London. Since 2019, the station controller has been Mohit Bakaya. He replaced Gwyneth Williams, who had been the station controller since 2010.
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Front Row is a radio programme on BBC Radio 4 that has been broadcast regularly since 1998. The BBC describes the programme as a "live magazine programme on the world of arts, literature, film, media and music". It is broadcast each weekday between 7:15 pm and 8 pm, and has a podcast available for download. Podcasts consisted of weekly highlights until September 2011, but have been full daily episodes since. Shows usually include a mix of interviews, reviews, previews, discussions, reports and columns. Some episodes however, particularly on bank holidays, include a single interview with prominent figures in the arts or a half-hour-long feature on a single subject.
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Shahidha Bari is a British academic, critic and broadcaster in the fields of literature, philosophy and art. She is a professor at the University of the Arts London based at London College of Fashion. She is a host of the topical arts television programme Inside Culture on BBC Two, standing in for Mary Beard, one of the presenters of the BBC Radio 4 arts and ideas programme Free Thinking, and an occasional presenter of BBC Radio 4's Front Row.
Inside No. 9 is a British black comedy anthology television programme that aired from 5 February 2014 to 12 June 2024. It is written by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith and produced by the BBC. Each 30-minute episode is a self-contained story with new characters and a new setting, almost all starring Pemberton or Shearsmith. Aside from the writers, each episode has a new cast, allowing Inside No. 9 to attract a number of well-known actors. The stories are linked only by a setting related to the number 9 in some way, and a brass hare statue that is hidden in all episodes. Themes and tone vary from episode to episode, but all have elements of comedy and horror or perverse humour, in addition to a plot twist.
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A timeline of notable events relating to BBC Radio 4, a British national radio station which began broadcasting in September 1967.
A timeline of notable events relating to BBC Radio 3, a British national radio station which began broadcasting in September 1967.