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