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BBC Radio 4: A Succession of Repetitive Beats

Archive on 4 charting the impact of the 1992 rave at Castlemorton Common, and how it led to the 1994 Criminal Justice Act. Presented and produced by Tom Barton. Sound by Barney Philbrick and Joel Cox. Listen: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0017f1b

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Amazing Sport Stories: Chasing Mountains

Five of the world’s top female climbers are thrown into a race to be first to climb all of the world's 14 highest mountains. For the BBC World Service - listen here.

A Northerner's Guide To London

In this satirical audio fiction, in the style of a 1940s public information film, lost northerner Ben is given crucial support on a make-or-break work trip to London.

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A Bespoken Media production for BBC Radio 4

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Commissioned in association with the Multitrack Audio Producers Fellowship for new talent in feature-making.

Click here to listen.

The first Ultimate Frisbee World Championship

In 1983, Maini Schildt competed in the first Ultimate Frisbee World Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden. Maini was a teenager when, as part of the Finnish women's national team, she reached the final against the USA.

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Ultimate Frisbee was developed in the late 1960s in the United States before spreading to Canada and beyond. Maini Schildt tells Maddy Savage how it felt to compete at the tournament, the first of its kind in the history of the sport.

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Produced by Carys Wall

Presented by Maddy Savage

Exec Produced by Dave Howard.

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Click here to listen.

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(Photo: The Finnish and American Ultimate Frisbee teams after the 1983 Ultimate Frisbee World Championship. Credit: Maini Schildt)

Rock Bottom: 50 years since Britain's IMF crisis

The UK’s 1977 entry to the Eurovision Song Contest was called Rock Bottom, making fun of the grim political and economic realities of the time.

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On stage, an orchestra conductor was dressed as a city businessman, with a pinstripe suit and a bowler hat.

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Singers Mike Moran and Lynsey De Paul sat at two grand pianos reading newspapers with headlines about Britain's economic mess, before breaking into song. The entry placed second.

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Britain's economic crisis had come to a head a few months earlier, on 28 September 1976. News broke of a run on the pound. Currency markets were in turmoil. International creditors would no longer lend to the UK.

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The country was out of time, and running out of money.

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In this Archive on 4, historian and journalist James Sladden takes us back to that febrile, tumultuous time – and explores why the 1976 IMF crisis still matters today, half a century later.

Producer and presenter: James Sladden
Producer: David Howard
Archive research: Jac Phillimore
Mix engineer: Joel Cox
Executive producer: Carys Wall

With grateful thanks to: Dr Duncan Needham, Professor Kathleen Burk, Mike Moran, Whistledown London studios, and the BBC Radio Archivists team.

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A Bespoken Media Scotland production for BBC Radio 4

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Click here to listen.

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