Illuminated

Writer Tim Dee is trying to make a most extraordinary Zoom Call that will transport him across the centuries to have a most magical encounter with a scholarly looking guy with a white beard who is his namesake.
Dr John Dee was astronomer and astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I. He was a wizardly necromancer with a Europe wide reputation who ended up desperately trying to converse with angels to unlock the secrets of the universe.
As attempts at making a connection go ahead, Tim also goes on a quest in search of Dr Dee. He talks with biblical scholar, former Archbishop of Canterbury and poet Rowan Williams to understand more about the importance of Angels in Dee’s time.
On the site of Dr Dee’s house by the Thames at Mortlake, he meets Ann Dingsdale, a real flesh and blood relative of the Renaissance genius. Ann is his ten times great granddaughter.
At the British Library, Tim looks over Dee’s legible and miraculously preserved Angel Diaries with the poet Camille Ralphs. Such is her fascination, Camille has written a sequence of poems in Dee’s voice and reads extracts from them.
The Royal College of Physicians has several unique volumes from Dr Dee’s library, which was the largest of its time in the whole of Europe. With Tim to peruse these, and to understand the connections between Science and Magic in the Elizabethan age, is Renaissance expert Charles Nicholl.
All this plus Dee’s voice heard at intervals coming through the ether, and a heavenly soundtrack that includes Aretha Franklin, The Who, Nina Simone, Dr John, Jimi Hendrix and The Clash.
Presenter: Tim Dee
Producer: Alastair Laurence
Executive Producer: David Prest
Sound Design: Jake Wittlin
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

When museum curator Mark Hignett began buying WWII-era letters online, he believed he was piecing together the life of an ordinary soldier.
At first glance, the letters looked like typical correspondence: full of yearning, daily details, and hopes for peace. But what emerged wasn’t just a wartime chronicle - it was a love story. As he kept on reading, he slowly realised they were letters from one male soldier to another.
At a time when homosexuality was criminalised in Britain and gay soldiers risked court martial, Gilbert and Gordon exchanged intimate, heartfelt correspondence, which are read for this programme by Olly Alexander.
Their letters spoke of longing, joy, fear, and hope. In one, Gordon writes simply: “There is nothing more that I desire in life but to have you with me constantly.” In another, he reflects on how the world would see them: “The rest of the world have no conception of what our love is – they do not know that it is love.” It’s a reminder that while the law branded them criminals, they understood their bond as something deeply human, and deeply right.
That dream, however, sat alongside deep fear. In one letter, Gordon pleaded with Gilbert to destroy their correspondence: "Please darling, do this for me in deadly seriousness" - terrified of the consequences if their relationship were discovered. And yet, in another, he imagined a world that would understand: “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all our letters could be published in a more enlightened time?”
In this episode of Illuminated, curator Mark Hignett and producer Ilona Toller assess the content of the letters, which are read by Olly Alexander.
Producer: Ilona Toller
Editor: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

This is a love letter to a special kind of letter, a 'later life letter' - a letter that can 'speak across the years', telling an adopted child where they come from, and helping them understand who they might be now.
In this documentary, poet Luke Wright opens his 'later life letter' and shares what it reveals, and why he keeps it in his bedside drawer. It's one of the most meaningful documents anyone can read. It tells a child about their birth family and their history, when there may be no-one who remembers or knows these details. Luke's letter is handwritten, and has come to mean so much more to him than an official document.
When Luke received his later life letter as a teenager, he didn’t pay it too much attention. But now, married to a social worker and seeing the care she takes with these letters, he re-examines it, writing poetry about the letter itself, the life he might have had, and appreciating the care a social worker took in 1982 to tell the story of his surprise birth and his earliest weeks on earth.
He wants to understand how it was written, to imagine the social worker who wrote it in her own hand - and to say thank you to her in person if he can.
Presented by Luke Wright - his new collection is 'Later Life Letter' (Fleet)
Produced by Faith Lawrence
Mix by Sharon Hughes (Shush)

We're at the Black Sea coast on the last night of June. Everything is building up to the sunrise.

This is Bulgaria’s ‘July Morning’ observance - somewhere between a counter-cultural musical festival, and a secular pilgrimage marking the start of July. It revolves around reaching the coast in time to meet July’s first sunrise.

This celebration has an unlikely origin story - a 1971 song, also called July Morning, by English rock band Uriah Heep.

Starting in Sofia, we make the road trip across Bulgaria to Kamen Bryag, one of Bulgaria's easternmost points, where the sun rises earliest over the horizon. Audio producer Carys Wall travels with friend Kami and Bulgarian musician and veteran July Morning attendee Milenita.

Uriah Heep still have a significant following in the Balkans, and the band’s late singer John Lawton performed at the celebration several times.

In the 80s, during the social and cultural restrictions of state-socialist Bulgaria, Uriah Heep and July Morning gained massive underground appeal, as a protest anthem. The festival grew from that – with fire, rock music, and Metal-inspired fashion.

Many attendees are long-time rockers who remember these protest origins. For others – revellers in their teens and 20s – Bulgaria’s July Morning celebration is a coming-of-age, a social event to mark the start of summer, and a chance to listen to really loud music.

Whichever way you look at it, it is a celebration of freedom.

As the sun peaks over the sea, the song blares from speakers.

There I was on a July morning
Looking for love
With the strength of a new day dawning
And the beautiful sun
And at the sound of the first bird singing
I was leaving for home
With the storm and the night behind me
And the road of my own
With the day, came the resolution

With thanks to Kmetal Tsonko Tsonev, Alex Boreva, Katie Revell, Andrea Morán and Cicely Fell.

Producer: Carys Wall
Executive producer: Dave Howard
Sound designer: Jonathan Webb
A Bespoken Media Scotland Production

What does it take to choose peace when you have every reason not to?
Aziz Abu Sarah is a Palestinian who grew up under Israeli occupation in East Jerusalem. He was first shot at when he was seven years old, and in 1991, when he was ten, his older brother Tayseer died after being arrested and beaten while in Israeli military custody.
Maoz Inon is an Israeli who grew up in a community just 200 metres from the Gaza border. On 7 October 2023, his parents and many of his childhood friends died in the Hamas attacks.
Everything about their histories suggests Aziz and Maoz could never become friends. Yet, despite experiencing profound personal loss on opposite sides of one of the world’s most enduring conflicts, they have turned away from hatred and towards each other in a shared mission of peacemaking. A single text message to a stranger in a moment of empathy, sparked a friendship that would overcome seemingly insurmountable differences.
If We Can Walk Together follows their remarkable stories, from pivotal childhood experiences to moments of political awakening, and their shared decision to rise above fear and revenge.
Moving, inspiring and radically hopeful, their story offers a rare perspective on a conflict often portrayed as intractable. In bearing witness to what human connection can overcome, it invites us to imagine a future shaped not by division, but by our capacity to walk together.
This programme is part of BBC Radio 4's Common Ground season, examining the challenges of social cohesion and how to address them.
Producer: Guy Natanel
Executive Producers: Shannon Delwiche and Chris Jones
Composer: Pat Moran
Sound Mixer: John Scott
Sound Engineer: Rob Fanner
A Sound and Bones production for BBC Radio 4