Illuminated

When decapitated cats start appearing in South London, animal rescue duo Boudicca Rising and Tony Jenkins spring into action. They’ll do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of this mystery.It’s 2015 and the two volunteers running the South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty (SNARL) Facebook page, stumble upon a vet’s poster telling locals to keep their pets safe as there have been a series of “mutilations” in the area. When Boudicca and Tony share the vet’s warning, they’re flooded with messages from pet owners saying something similar has happened to their cats.Boudicca and Tony convince the police to launch Operation Takahe, an investigation into the “Croydon Cat Killer.” Far from stepping back, Boudicca and Tony find themselves at the centre of the operation; investigating “crime scenes,” breaking bad news to pet owners and being interviewed by press. The case takes over their lives.Presented and produced by Natasha Fernandes Editor: Matt Willis Sound design: James Beard

Watchmaker Rebecca Struthers has been invited to come and examine a watch which its owners claim is the world's oldest - but is it?Until now, Rebecca had only heard rumours of this watch - about the reputation of its famous maker, about the extraordinary circumstances in which it was found, about its unbelievable valuation. It is famous, or infamous, in antiquarian horology circles. But until Rebecca wrote her book 'Hands of Time' (a Radio 4 Book of the Week), few outside that small world had heard much about it. Now, thanks to her book, a mysterious lawyer has emailed to ask if she'd like to examine the watch. So she's on her way to Switzerland with a lot of questions. Not least - is it the real deal or, as so many of the watch's detractors claim, nothing more than a forgery.Producer: Giles Edwards

The red-billed chough is the most dashing crow in the world. These rare, flamboyant, scarlet-legged, scarlet-billed denizens of Britain’s Celtic coasts are communal and comic, intelligent and daring. They’re also sublime aeronauts, riding the breeze as though they’re made of it. For writer Horatio Clare, the chough is his totem. He’s loved the bird since he first encountered it in the 1980s during childhood holidays to Pembrokeshire. And more than forty years on from that joyous first encounter he still seeks them out. It’s his annual pilgrimage. In this episode of Illuminated, we join Horatio on that pilgrimage as he tells the story of a bird with a beak and legs the colour of a saint’s blood… or perhaps a king’s blood; whose cry says its name and whose presence symbolises a nation’s identity. It’s the story of a bird which embodies myths… and creates new ones; a bird which fled into the West over two centuries ago and which is finally returning to a wider world. Horatio begins his journey on Pen Llŷn, the westernmost spur of North Wales and one of the red-billed chough’s strongholds. His guide as he walks the sea cliffs is naturalist and folklorist Twm Elias. Twm lived alongside chough as he grew up on Llŷn and remembers a childhood visit to Caernarfon Castle, where his friend Dic John made a grab for the Castle’s ‘tame’ chough – and got a painful pecking in return. Twm sees chough as a symbol of the wild coastal areas of north Wales. But it’s also wrapped up in ideas of Cornish identity too. Dr. Loveday Jenkin grew up on stories of King Arthur becoming a chough when he died. Yet, just as she heard those stories, the very last choughs were dying out in Cornwall. But then, in 2001, thirty years after the last chough disappeared, three birds from Ireland made landfall in the far west of Cornwall. The following year two of them built a nest and the population grew from there. Hilary Mitchell from Cornwall Birds tells the story of how the avian symbol and spirit of the county returned. The chough is associated now with the western Celtic coasts. But once upon a time it ranged right across the British Isles. And maybe it will again. Horatio heads in the opposite direction… east… to a place which hasn’t seen chough for at least two centuries, despite the bird being embedded in its iconography.In Dover he meets Paul Hadaway from Kent Wildlife Trust to discover how a bird which was a symbol of the martyr and saint Thomas a Becket is once again flying in Kentish skies. And Jenny Luddington from the Trust explains how she’s drawn on an old tradition of hooden creatures – carved wooden animal heads on poles – to create a hooden chough and tell the story of the bird’s return to Kent. Horatio Clare discovers that the chough’s story has come full circle as old myths rehatch and new ones take wing.Presenter: Horatio Clare Producer: Jeremy Grange Editor: Chris Ledgard A BBC Audio Wales production for BBC Radio 4

Care packages are a universal love language and a way for families to stay connected across distances. We unbox four from China, India, Ireland and the Philippines, each filled with the tastes, textures and memories of home. In Newton-le-Willows, content creator Aurora unwraps a parcel from her mother in China revealing fragrant spices, dried mushrooms and handmade gifts as a reminder of her native traditions. In Cardiff, dancer Ishika shares a tightly sealed batch of homemade bori, sun-dried lentil dumplings prepared and packed by her cousins in India. Over in Liverpool, full-time mum Sarah introduces us to a selection of snacks pulled from her Nanny's cabinet in Ireland for a mix of nostalgia, sweetness and comfort that bridges generations. In Norwich, multidisciplinary artist Sha opens a package from her mum in the Philippines filled with dried mangoes and polvoron, a crumbly, sugary treat that melts in your mouth and warms the heart. Each of them shares how these packages, sent with care and packed with love, offer more than just food. They’re a connection to family, culture, belonging and the best remedy for homesickness.Presented and produced by Jay Behrouzi Executive Producer Richard McIlroy A BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4

When the Reverend Andrew Doarks took on the church of St Gregory's in Sudbury three years ago - he received no warning of what he would discover in the vestry.There - behind a perspex screen and a wooden flap in the wall - is the severed head of the fourteenth century Archbishop of Canterbury Simon of Sudbury. Simon who was decapitated during the Peasant's Revolt in 1381 shares the same space as the church's playgroup and receives visitors by appointment only. It is an unusual arrangement for the former Archbishop who met his demise after attempting to introduce a hated poll tax. So how did Simon's head end up in Sudbury when his body is buried in Canterbury Cathedral? And should both head and body be reunited?Andrew takes a trip to Canterbury to see Simon's tomb with the Cathedral's Head of Estates Joel Hopkinson. Inside the tomb - Simon's head has been replaced by a cannonball. He then visits the Cathedral library with Cressida Williams who discovers a document in the archive that relays Simon's will, dictated immediately before his death and he discusses Simon's future with the Canon Treasurer Andrew Dodd. Dr Helen Lacey from the University of Oxford and the People of 1381 project provides the historical context from the days of the Revolt.It's a journey of discovery that sheds light on Simon's past and gives Andrew ideas for his future. After all - as he reflects - managing severed heads just wasn't part of his training at theological college.Produced and presented by Robin Markwell for BBC Audio in Bristol "Vice Or Virtue" is composed and performed by singer-songwriter Jonny Day

“There are so many things you can’t see coming. You can’t see death. You can’t see Mount Vesuvius erupting. The carpet could be pulled out from under you at any second. But I’ll see a knife coming if it’s going to hit me.”Target Girls are the female performers in “impalement arts'', where knives, arrows and even bullets are propelled at humans. Prepare for a full body immersion in this extreme profession, as we pull back the curtain on the hidden world behind the target girl’s silent, singular image.Your ringleader for this event is world-famous target Ula The Painproof Rubbergirl! Also starring!! Yana Hanson, Annabelle Holland and Amanda Jane ... With a special guest appearance from The Great Throwdini!Producer: Jude Shapiro Executive Producer: Jack Howson Sound Designer: Louis BlatherwickA Peanut & Crumb production for BBC Radio 4

Electromagnetic waves fill the universe, radiating from solar storms and bursts of lightning, but also from our electronic devices and infrastructures. Using simple, DIY tools, a community of audio enthusiasts translates these waves into sound, uncovering hidden sonic worlds.Five dedicated ‘natural radio’ enthusiasts venture beyond the electromagnetic pollution of the city, tuning into the Earth’s natural static to reveal a rich, textured soundscape, rarely heard.Stephen McGreevy, a cult figure within this practice, shares stories of his recordings during the geomagnetic storm of 1989. Hannah Kemp-Welch travels to northern Norway in search of the electromagnetic waves of the aurora borealis, struggling to escape the omnipresent hum of the mains power grid. Alyssa Moxley captures the crackles of shooting stars in southern France. Matt Parker ventures into the National Radio Quiet Zone in Virginia, USA. And Anonea experiments with antennas from a remote location in northern Spain.This audio feature encourages listeners to contemplate the vast, often invisible role electromagnetism plays in our daily lives. It invites us to look up at the sky and imagine radio waves bouncing off layers of the atmosphere, connecting us all under one magnetosphere. Produced by Hannah Kemp-Welch and Oliver Sanders Research & Development: Hannah Kemp-Welch Editing & Sound Design: Oliver Sanders Executive Producer: Lucia Scazzocchio Special thanks to Anonea, Alyssa Moxley, Dan Tapper, Francesca Thakorlal, Matt Parker, Rob Stammes, Rebekah Breding, Ruth Stewart, Sébastien Robert and Stephen P. McGreevy. A Social Broadcasts production for BBC Radio 4

Tracey Okines is witty, stylish, sharp, and fiercely independent. She loves seaside strolls, spontaneous shopping trips, pub outings, and her cat, Meow. She’s a writer, a dreamer, a lover of music, and someone who refuses to be boxed in by anyone’s expectations.At 27, Tracey’s life changed overnight when a misjudged cartwheel caused a massive bleed, leading to a brainstem stroke. She was left with locked-in syndrome, unable to move or speak but fully conscious. Sixteen years on, she communicates using eye-tracking and a letter board, lives independently with 24-hour care, and remains, as ever, totally herself.In Still Me, producer Jess Gunasekara visits Tracey in Eastbourne, joining her in everyday moments and quiet reflections. Through Tracey’s personal musings, dream diaries, text messages, and actor-read excerpts from her memoir, this intimate portrait reveals a woman living boldly, navigating the world with humour, honesty, and imagination.A story of agency, adaptation, and the richness of inner life, from someone who’s still here, still vibrant, still herself.Produced and presented by Jess Gunasekara Sound design and mix by Meic Parry Actor: Lizzie Stables Executive Producer: Olivia Humphreys With thanks to Tracey Okines and John OkinesAn Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4

An atmospheric gathering storm of a documentary exploring the extraordinary history of the Beaufort Scale - a system designed to help find language for the wind.Sea like a mirror Whistling heard in telegraph wires Umbrellas used with difficulty...In this programme we climb to the top of a lighthouse in the Outer Hebrides, labelled the windiest point in Britain by the Guinness Book of Records, and travel deep into the Met Office archives. With contributions from the writer Scott Huler, author of Defining the Wind; Ruairidh Macrae, the retained lighthouse keeper for the Butt of Lewis and Eilean Glas lighthouses in the Outer Hebrides; Catherine Ross, the library and archive manager at the Met Office; and John Morales, a hurricane specialist and meteorologist with 40 years experience in the field.The Beaufort scale is read by Charlotte Green Original music composed by Jeremy Warmsley, with additional music by Eleanor McDowall Mix by Mike WoolleyProduced by Eleanor McDowall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Once a year, residents of Longyearbyen gather where the steps of the old hospital used to be to witness the return of something they have not seen in months – sunlight. The Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, part of Norway, is as far north as humans can live. This dramatic polar world experiences 24-hour daylight in summer and total darkness in winter.But on March 8th, locals and visitors of its largest settlement, Longyearbyen, wait with baited breath until a single ray of sunshine appears upon the old hospital steps, warming their cheeks for a few minutes before disappearing once more behind the vast mountains that surround the town. Journalist and producer Lara Bullens takes us with her to witness this miraculous moment, but also to understand why people have decided to make a home in a place not meant for humans. Svalbard is a barren frozen land, devoid of trees or crops. The risk of avalanches is always lurking around the corner. Polar bears outnumber humans. Powerful winds and sub-zero temperatures engulf the landscape most of the year. Deprived of sunlight for months at a time, many residents battle depression. The remote landscape is also experiencing vast transitions. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as any other part of the planet, banishing sea ice and opening its waters to the exploitation of natural resources. Coal mining, the industry on which Svalbard’s economy was built, is coming to an end. And non-Norwegians living in Longyearbyen are increasingly feeling less stable here. Yet humans decide to stay, bound together by the eternal cycle of light. Written and Presented by Lara Bullens Produced by Lara Bullens and Steven Rajam Executive Producer: Leonie Thomas Mix and Sound Design: Mike Woolley An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4

When a dog goes missing it can be devastating. It’s every dog owners worst nightmare. Social media is awash with posts about lost dogs, some of them scams, but many are genuine cries for help from distressed people who have lost an animal they love. Between January 2023 and June 2024 almost 5000 dogs were reported missing in the UK.In March 2025, Roger put a lead on his Jack Russell terrier Betty, as he attended to his boat at Buckden Marina in St Neots, Cambridgeshire. With his back turned for a few minutes, she disappeared. In this episode of Illuminated, we join a group of volunteers with St Neots Animal Search and Rescue as they seek to reunite Betty and Roger using all the experience, teamwork and technology available. Colin Butcher is a pet detective based in West Sussex who has been recovering missing and stolen pets for over 20 years. As Colin shares his expert tips for dog-owners, through field recordings from a tiny microphone attached to a dog-collar, listeners are invited to enter the world of our missing puppy.Producer: Peter ShevlinA Pod60 production for BBC Radio 4

Worms are everywhere - in our soils, our seas, and our selves. Dive down a worm burrow on this sound-rich odyssey to meet our most numerous and intimate animal companion.Science writer Jack Monaghan will guide you through gardens and farms, factories and laboratories to look afresh at our wriggling, wonderful world.Producer and narrator: Jack Monaghan Sound design and original music: Robert Moutrey Executive producer: Bridget Harney A Pronk production for BBC Radio 4

Where do we begin to think about time without humans to count it? Chris Gasson spends every spare moment on his local beach, Seatown on the Jurassic coast of Dorset, looking out for fossils and stones that speak of a past and future too vast for us to easily imagine. On his walks, Chris has found countless time capsules - including a mammoth tooth, plesiosaur vertebrae and the remains of an ichthyosaur 190 million years old, now under research by Craig Chivers. 'It's a fantastic find,' says Craig. 'Fossils are a snapshot in time a bit like paintings and writings. Trace fossils that show where a dinosaur once stepped and left a footprint behind, or an ammonite has rolled along the sea floor and left an impression in the sediment, really stir the imagination.' Our walk along Seatown beach is accompanied by readings by geologist and writer, Marcia Bjornerud, Walter Schober Professor of Environmental Studies and Professor of Geosciences at Lawrence University, Wisconsin. Her essay Wrinked Time imagines humans as wandering in a vast, labyrinthine library of time. 'We are like squatters living amid the remains of earlier empires, worlds defined by different geographies,' she writes in a work that first appeared in Emergence Magazine. Marcia shows us how fragments from that library still exist in the most synthetic, human-made products like phones and computers if only we have eyes to see them. Produced by Jon Nicholls and Monica Whitlock Sound design and music by Jon Nicholls Photograph by Monica WhitlockA Storyscape production for BBC Radio 4For many more creative and surprising one-off documentaries like this, just search for Illuminated on BBC Sounds.

It's the glorious summer of 1966 and Hollywood has taken over England’s prettiest village. The residents of Castle Combe have made way for the cast and crew of the biggest budget musical of the decade- Doctor Dolittle.Where sheep once grazed there are two-headed llamas, talking macaws, singing chimps and enormous catering trucks. Propping up the bar at the local pub are hot actors Anthony Newley, Richard Attenborough and one of the biggest stars of the day- the man who talks to the animals- Rex Harrison.Locals are divided about the pros and cons of the Hollywood invasion but one thing they’re all annoyed about is the destruction of the local trout stream, dammed to create a lake for filming. Native fish and plants are gone, replaced by movie props and trained ducks.Four young chaps decide to make their feelings clear. For three of them that means fireworks and noisy protests but ring leader, Ranulph Fiennes, intends to take things a little further. He’s just joined the SAS, the crack Army regiment that gives him access to high explosives- more than enough to blow the dam sky high.Environmental historian and broadcaster, Eleanor Barraclough gathers together the protagonists to publicly share their stories of the Dolittle affair for the first time.Producers: Alasdair Cross of BBC Audio Wales and West and Matt Dyas for Good Productions

When you look at the moon, what do you see? Producer and artist Siddharth Khajuria encounters competing human imaginations for the moon. Starting with some of the earliest lunar maps, he works with moonlight to illuminate thornier questions about our own behaviour on earth. What motivates the desire to etch a name into the landscape? The humanity woven through our modern map of the moon – Seas of Tranquility and Crises, Lakes of Death and Dreams, an Ocean of Storms – is the work of a 17th century Italian priest, Giovanni Battista Riccioli. Siddharth meets Riccioli’s poetic mapmaking in the context of a heated European race to name the moon’s many craters, mountains, valleys and maria. From these celestial cartographers etching names into the first detailed lunar maps, to the Cold War era Apollo missions and commercially-fuelled landings that lie ahead of us, the story of humanity’s relationship with the moon is one of a growing intimacy. Featuring astronomer and lunar biographer David Whitehouse, librarian at the Edinburgh Royal Observatory Karen Moran, space lawyer Frans von der Dunk, and a late night, torch-lit conversation between Siddharth and his eldest son.Photograph: Siddharth KhajuriaMusic composed and performed by Phil Smith Produced by Eleanor McDowall and Siddharth Khajuria A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

An extraordinary one-off symphony brings to life the stories of five people and their relationship with one of their vital organs.Like a symphony orchestra, our organs work in harmony to execute the movement that is human life. We don’t often think about our relationship to these internal cogs that keep us alive. For most people, the connection remains distant. For others, it is ever present. In The Organ Symphony, we encounter our five vital organs – the heart, lungs, brain, kidneys and liver – through the eyes of five people, each with a special relationship to one of the five organs. Our brain is an Emeritus Professor in Computer Science, Steve Furbar, whose work is focused on understanding the human brain via computing. Our kidney is writer Alison Moore, who donated one of her kidneys to her husband and simultaneously wrote a horror novella, based on the experience. Our liver is Dr Zhong Jiao, a Chinese Medical Doctor who focused on treating her postnatal depression by caring for her liver. Our heart is a men's group facilitator and agony uncle Kenny Mammarella-D'Cruz, who draws on his traumatic experiences of leaving his homeland and subsequent journey of self-discovery to help others foster positive relationships with their heart and emotions. Liz, our representative of the lungs, unexpectedly experienced both her lungs collapsing in the space of two yearsEach representative worked with the producer, Maia Miller-Lewis to illustrate their relationship to their organ through music, creating musical sketches that capture how they imagine their organ sounds.These sketches were then taken by composer, David Owen Norris, who turned them into individual classical scores. In this way the five organs have become five sections of an orchestra. The heart, the vocals. The lungs, the brass. The kidneys the woodwind. The brain, the percussion. The liver, the strings. David ultimately brought the five pieces together, working them into harmony to form the completely unique Organ Symphony. With the wonderful assistance of Simon Webb, Carolyn Hendry, Jonathan Manner and Matthew Swann at the BBC, the individual pieces and the combined symphony was played out by the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC Singers at Maida Vale Studios in March 2025.You can hear the full Organ Symphony piece here: https://loftusmedia.co.uk/project/the-organ-symphony/Producer: Maia Miller-Lewis Executive producers: Jo Rowntree and Kirsten Lass Composer and conductor: David Owen Norris With thanks to the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC Singers A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4

As their 30th birthday approaches, Saba Husain (they/them) receives an unexpected and life changing box. It contains ‘the life’ of their mum; never before seen diaries, love letters, poems, photos of a person who died when Saba was born, 29 years earlier.With no note or message, it must have been sent by Saba’s father - but why now? Why not before? And what should Saba do with these incredibly intimate pieces of their mother? Saba starts to investigate, asking; how do you get to know your mum - from scratch - through a box of her things?Mum in a Box follows Saba on the twists and turns of the often unacknowledged experience of a motherless child, piecing together a person through the things they’ve left behind and the revelations that unfold. We join Saba as they work through this totally uncurated box of both overwhelming and underwhelming surprises, travelling through space and time as they try to reach a mother that they never got to meet.Producer: Christina Hardinge Co-creator: Saba Husain Sound Design & Music composition: Noémie Ducimetière A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio Four

In his memoir of surviving the brutal apartheid prison Robben Island, South African activist Sedick Isaacs recalls an extraordinary event about which little has been recorded - "the creation and training of the eighty-member choir [of political prisoners] for the production of Handel’s ‘Hallelujah Chorus'. The incongruous beauty of the choir’s performance – and the rich history of the Messiah in South Africa – is brought to life by former political prisoners, by musicians and academics who reveal the power of music as it was experienced on the Island – music as escape, protest, refuge and salvation.Original compositions, mixing and production by Charl-Johan Lingenfelder Hallelujah Chorus – reconstruction arranged and conducted by Leon Starker with singers from Fezeka Secondary School in Gugulethu under the leadership of Monde Mdingi, with additional singers from across Cape Town Also featuring: The South African Messiah, a translation of Handel’s Messiah by Michael Masote Archival tape courtesy of UWC-Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archives, Villon Films and the SABC With special thanks to Marcus Solomon, Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi, Kutlwano Masote, Christopher Cockburn, Maraldea Isaacs and Lebohang SekholomiProduced by Catherine Boulle A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

How many questions have you asked today? How many were rhetorical, “boomer-asking”, passive/aggressive or just boringly functional?Did you know that our appetites for question-asking peak at the age of five, then steadily diminish? That kids ask an average of 40,000 questions between the ages of 2 and 5, while adults ask fewer than ten questions a day? Why are we asking fewer, meaningful questions? In an age where antisocial behaviour has become normal — where it’s entirely acceptable to spend most of the time looking down at our phones, or ranting on social media — shouldn’t we be asking what we’re losing in the process?Can journalist Ian Wylie, who uses the five Ws daily, reignite our curiosity and appetite for asking questions? And can he discover better questions that unlock bigger stories and deeper conversations? What will he learn from professional question-askers, including barrister Melanie Simpson, detective Steve Hibbit, philosopher Lani Watson and priest Leanne Roberts? Is artificial intelligence likely to discourage us from asking deep, open-ended questions? Or could it force us to ask clearer, sharper, more precise questions?Can Ian create his documentary entirely from questions? Or will he slip up?A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4

If a person dies without friends or relatives, the authorities can instigate a 'public health funeral'. Once called pauper's funerals - the services are referred to on the administrative form with a poignant phrase: "Nobody to Call."These funerals often see online appeals for mourners to attend. And when the BBC's Kevin Core spots a particularly moving appeal on behalf of a 102 year old woman, he's intrigued. “Funeral notice for Miss Margaret Robertson. 11 O’Clock, Thursday. Sefton Road United Reformed Church in Morecambe. Margaret Robertson has no family. If anyone could attend, that would be lovely.”This documentary charts his visit to that funeral. He talks to celebrant Hayley Cartwright about the hidden world of "public health funerals". Hayley's commitment to "do right by people" who die alone, compels her to seek out details about their lives, inviting mourners and ensuring these departures are more than cold, legal necessities. Kevin wants to know more about the life of the 102-year-old Margaret Robertson, and finds a story of grit and dedication - and the surprising, moving reality behind the original online appeal. Produced and presented by Kevin Core