Language, Linguistics, Lexicography

Last Edited: 03-Oct-2019 A Global British Comedy Collaborative document. Edited by John Lucas
Broadcast source is BBC Radio Four unless otherwise indicated. Recording quality is considered good unless otherwise indicated.
Fry's English Delight
Routes of English
Word 4 Word
Word of Mouth
Words and Music

Date Title Cast Parameters
13-Dec-1997 to
17-Jan-1998
 Mother Tongue
  1. The Angles and Saxons Have Landed
  2. From "The Wife of Bath" to "The Merry
    Wives of Windsor"
  3. Bringing Order to a Disorderly Language
  4. Riddle Me This
  5. Struggling with Phrasal Verbs
  6. Estuary English Rules OK?
 Bill Bryson
Producer: Brian King
 27:27, 38606, S
27:25, 38556, S
26:58, 37928, S
27:21, 38485, S
27:19, 38434, S
27:16, 38363, S
24-Dec-1999
R7:
22-Dec-2004		 The Christmas Dictionary Quiz Michael Rosen-Sue Limb,
Lynne Truss-Steve Punt
Frank Delaney, The Nimmo Twins
Producer Emma Kingsley
 28:06, 26355, S
27-Dec-1999 to
31-Dec-1999
 Words on Words with Ian Hislop
 Ian Hislop, John Sessions, Eleanor Bron
Producer: Sarah Johnson
 5 files
1:06:22, 91.1 MB, S
04-Jan-2000
to
07-Jan-2000
R7:
16-Oct-2006
to
19-Oct-2006		 Art of Rhetoric
  1. Rules of Rhetoric
  2. Politicians and Persuasion
  3. Moving Minds
  4. Speech and Spin
 Simon Hoggart
Produced by Sue Foster and Simon Elmes		 13:41, 12833, S
13:48, 12938, S
13:31, 12683, S
13:48, 12953, S
R7:
03-Dec-2002
to
31-Dec-2003
repeated 4 & 7:
23-Aug-2004
to
27-Aug-2004		 Cutting a Dash
  1. The Endangered Apostrophe
  2. Changing Gear, The Comma
  3. And Another Thing: Colons and Semicolons
  4. Listen to Me When I’m Writing!
  5. Punctuating the Future
 Lynne Truss
Produced by Penny Vines		 14:02, 13161, S
13:51, 12989, S
14:08, 13260, S
13:58, 13100, S
13:56, 13078, S
25-Sep-2002
02-Oct-2002
09-Oct-2002		 Lost for Words
  1. Australian Aboriginal Languages
  2. Hawaiian Language Preservation
  3. What Is Being Lost?
 Gavin Esler
Produced by Amber Dawson/Adam Fowler		 27:59, 6561, m
27:54, 6541, m
27:54, 6540, m
19-May-2003
20-May-2003
21-May-2003
22-May-2003
23-May-2003
repeated 2004
 		As Easy as ABC
  1. Getting Sorted
  2. A Isn’t for Apple
  3. Latecomers to the Alphabet Ball
  4. Letters Have Birthdays
  5. The Perfect B
 Lynne Truss
Produced by Angela Hind
 		14:08, 13252, S
14:03, 13179, S
14:13, 13339, S
13:49, 12956, S
13:32, 6347, S
BBC R4
19-Mar-2004 to
02-Apr-2004
 Prisoners of Albion
  1. Paul Verlaine: Flashing Blades in
    Camden Town
  2. Victor Hugo: TurningTables beside the
    Seaside
  3. Voltaire: Enlightenment and the
    Anglo-Files
  1. Simon Callow
  2. Muriel Zagha
  3. Muriel Zagha

Producer Sara Jane Hall

 28:27, 26688, S
28:12, 26448, S
28:23, 26622, S
06-Jul-2005 Textual Evidence
Forensic Linguistics		 P D James
Produced by Llinos Jones		 27:39, 25924, S
12-Sep-2005
 The End
 Producer Richard Bannerman
 28:25, 26642, S
26-Sep-2005
 		Funeral Sentences
The Language of Death		 Produced by Alan Hall
 		28:13, 26465, S
03-Jan-2006
 The Joy of Gibberish
 Stephen Fry
Produced by Ian Guardhouse
 28:13, 26459, S
01-Feb-2006
08-Feb-2006
 Say What You Think
Why learning languages is easy or difficult
 Mark Lythgoe
Produced by Michaelle Martin
 28:02, 26288, S
28:06, 26356, S
07-Apr-2006
20-Dec-2006
 		Alpha Bravo Yankee Zulu
The Phonetic Alphabet		 Researched by Leo Sedgley
Produced by David Roper
 		28:13, 26467, S
1994
R7:
03-Jul-2006
to
06-Jul-2006
 		As Soon as I Open My Mouth
  1. Potato, Potahto
  2. East End - West End
  3. Street Talk, Posh Talk
  4. Wha D’ye Say
 Kim Normanton
Produced by Tessa Watt
 		14:51, 13923, S
14:48, 12878, S
14:43, 13806, S
14:40, 13766, S
27-Jan-2007
 Language of Laughter
 Julian Clary, Alexei Sayle, Robin Ince,
Shappi Khorsandi
Producer: Kate Taylor
 28:06, 26355, S
07-Jun-2007
 Current Puns
 Stephen Fry, Arthur Smith
Producer: Ian Gardhouse
 27:35, 12937, S
01-Apr-2008
 		Rise of the Footnote Ben Schott, Terry Pratchett and Lynne Truss
Produced by Nicola Barringer		 28:15, 26486, S
08-Dec-2009
 Mind Your Slanguage
 Benjamin Zephaniah
Producers Barney Rowntree, Joby Waldman
 27:48, 26072, S
01-May-2010
 The Art of The Public Address
 Laurie Taylor, Arthur Smith
producer Howie Shannon
 27:39, 25923, S
30-Apr-2012
 Ampers-Fan -- The story of the ampersand
 Alistair Sooke
Producers: Jo Meek & Gillian Donovan
 27:58, 26177, S
08-Mar-2011 Calibrated Conundrums -- puzzling scientific terms
 		Lynne Truss
Produced by Erica Wright		 27:50, 26098, S
01-May-2011 to
29-May-2011
05-Aug-2013 to
09-Aug-2013
 		15 by 15
  1. Mattress
  2. Trifle
  3. Heels
  4. Spin
  5. Stroke
  6. Box
  7. Check
  8. Clog
  9. Jam
  10. Hip
 Hardeep Singh Kohli
Producer: Richard Bannerman
 		13:57, 13089, S
13:51, 12987, S
13:36, 12765, S
13:46, 12921, S
13:51, 12998, S
13:36, 12734, S
13:48, 12916, S
13:51, 12969, S
13:41, 12811, S
13:47, 12902, S
13-Jul-2012
 Hobson-Jobson: A Very English Enterprise

 Daljit Nagra
Producer: Mukti Jain Campion
 27:42, 25979, S
10-Aug-2012 The 'arse that Jack Built Ian McMillan
produced by Laura Thomas		 27:48, 26014, S
28-Nov-2012 The Goddess of English
 		Zareer Masani
Producer: Julian May
 		27:40, 25888, S
03-Dec-2012
10-Dec-2012
17-Dec-2012		 Our Language in Your Hands
  1. Nepal
  2. South Africa
  3. New York City
 Mark Turin
Producer Mark Rickards		 27:44, 25959, S
27:45, 25973, S
27:47, 26004, S
09-Jan-2013 The Path to English
 		Bobby Friction
Producer: Laura Parfitt
 		27:48, 26021, S
20-May-2013 to
24-May-2013
 		Mother Tongue Interference
  1. Gisela Stuart
  2. Zinovy Zinik
  3. Evelyn Arizpe
  4. Maria Mertzani
  5. Kailash Chand
Producer: Tim Dee
 		13:40, 12911, S
13:34, 12826, S
13:34, 12818, S
13:37, 12869, S
13:40, 12913, S
09-Aug-2013
 		Ecce! Fife! or Rediscovering the Lost Latin of Fife
 		Natalie Haynes
produced by David Stenhouse
 		27:48, 26011, S
27-Sep-2014
 		The Forum -- Multilingualism
 		Bridget Kendall
produced by Caroline Dunn
 		27:52, 26080, S
Lexicography
Date
 Title
 Cast
 Parameters
19-Jul-2003
26-Jul-2003
 Swallowing the Dictionary
75th Anniversary of the OED
 Richard Coles
Produced by Nick Eutakin
 27:50, 13054, m
28:03, 13150, m
29-May-2005
05-Jun-2005
12-Jun-2005
 Hail to the Harmless Drudge
250th Anniversary of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary
 Simon Winchester, Alan Downie, Joe Farrell
Produced by Simon Dee
 14:12, 13315, S
13:46, 12915, S
13:57, 13095, S