episodes

WHAT'S NEW

WHAT'S NEW

Loss, love and the struggle to stay alive in 1912

Jon explains his decision to write an historical novel, A Spring Marrying. He discovered the extraordinary history of the sail trawlers working off the English coast before 1939 whilst making a film for C4. It was the men who crewed them that fascinated him the most. Down in Brixham, Devon, they had four crew – skipper, mate, deckhand, and a cookie who was often only 12 or so. Theirs was an unremitting routine. Danger and death were never far away: it was the most dangerous job in the land. Yet they earned a reputation as supreme, quietly proud seamen, religious, brilliantly able to navigate without charts and survive just about anything. Except, maybe, falling in love with the town’s most complicated young woman.

Start Listening

The series we are currently broadcasting is shown first.
After that, in reverse chronological order - from the present day to 1400 - comes a huge range of subjects. Anywhere a story has got stuck in our collective memory but looks - to us - like it would benefit from a re-visit. These fresh reinterpretations take time to research, argue and record.
You’ll find that each subject page contains a playlist, synopses, photos and read on.

To get straight to the Spotify playlists, head over to our Linktree.