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| 155 : The Silent Epidemic (R4) | ||||
| first broadcast: Fri Jan 4 2013 |
11.00 am Radio 4 |
presenter: Mark Whitaker |
producer: Mike Hally |
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| Mark Whitaker reports from Bangladesh and Vietnam on the surprising fact that drowning is a leading cause of child death across SE Asia, and on the efforts being made to prevent it. | ||||
| 156 : The Silent Epidemic | ||||
| first broadcast: Tue Feb 12 2013 |
8.00 am BBC World Service |
presenter: Mark Whitaker |
producer: Mike Hally |
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| Mark Whitaker reports from Bangladesh and Vietnam on the surprising fact that drowning is a leading cause of child death across SE Asia, and on the efforts being made to prevent it. | ||||
| 157 : Patently Absurd | ||||
| first broadcast: Tue Aug 20 2013 |
8.02 pm Radio 4 |
presenter: Rory Cellan-Jones |
producer: Mike Hally |
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| The patent system in the USA is so distorted it's now more lucrative for companies known as 'patent trolls' to sue manufacturers rather than actually make anything. The problem's so serious that President Obama has got involved -- and British companies are also targeted if they do business in the US. Rory Cellan-Jones investigates and finds one of the world's biggest trolls in his lair in Dallas. | ||||
| 158 : Some Corner of a Foreign Field | ||||
| first broadcast: Sun Nov 10 2013 |
11.45 am Radio 4 |
presenter: Mark Whitaker |
producer: Mike Hally |
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| A global network of cemeteries and memorials now marks every Commonwealth military casualty of the two World War – a commitment that was born amid the mud and slaughter of the Western Front The man responsible for this was Fabian Ware, and in this programme Mark Whitaker tells his extraordinary story. | ||||
| 159 : PISA - Global Education Tables Tested | ||||
| first broadcast: Mon Nov 25 2013 |
8.02 pm Radio 4 |
presenter: David Spiegelhalter |
producer: Mike Hally and Mark Whitaker |
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| A critical look at the international 'PISA' survey of education systems that consistently ranks British schools well down the 'league table'. | ||||
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to see full details of a programme, please click its title
| 151 : John Arlott - Cricket's Radical Voice | ||||
| first broadcast: Sat Jan 7 2012 |
8.00 pm BBC Radio 4 |
presenter: Mark Whitaker |
producer: Mark Whitaker |
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| John Arlott, who died just over twenty years ago, was not just the greatest ever cricket commentator. He was also a brave and radical political voice both inside and outside the game. | ||||
| 152 : The Sad Story of Jim Thorpe - the 'Greatest Ever' Athlete | ||||
| first broadcast: Wed Jul 4 2012 |
11.00 am Radio 4 |
presenter: Mark Whitaker |
producer: Mark Whitaker |
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| 2012 will be the 100th anniversary of the Stockholm Olympics, where the greatest star was the 'Indian' American Jim Thorpe. He returned a national hero, but in 1913 he was stripped of his medals by a jealous and racist US athletic elite. In 1953 his widow sold his remains to a Pennsylvania town, and his descendents are now trying to get them back. | ||||
| 153 : The Art of Remembrance | ||||
| first broadcast: Sun Nov 11 2012 |
11.45 am Radio 4 |
presenter: Mark Whitaker |
producer: Mike Hally |
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| Mark Whitaker looks at some of the more unusual ways that artists remembered the Great War, through the works of an painter, an architect, a film-maker, a sculptor and a poet | ||||
| 154 : The Naughty Pictures Committees | ||||
| first broadcast: Mon Nov 12 2012 |
11.00 am Radio 4 |
presenter: Laurie Taylor |
producer: Mike Hally |
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| On the centenary of the British Board of Film Censors, Laurie Taylor investigates how local councils used to ban films passed by the BBFC and permit others the Board had banned | ||||
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| 148 : The Stunning Controversy | ||||
| first broadcast: Wed Jan 5 2011 |
9.00 pm Radio 4 |
presenter: Mark Whitaker |
producer: Mark Whitaker |
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| Mark Whitaker reports from California and Arizona on why so many Americans die after being shot by allegedly "safe" police stun guns. Is the weapon to blame or do the deaths result from other factors? Their formal title is "conducted-energy devices" but, to the public, they are stun-guns or Tasers, named after Taser International of Arizona, the largest manufacturer of the weapon.
Some 11,000 law-enforcement agencies in the United States use them and there is evidence that they reduce the need for police officers to use lethal force. But, there is an intensifying debate about whether they are really as safe as claimed. The programme is written and produced by Mark Whitaker. |
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| 149 : Known Unto God | ||||
| first broadcast: Sun Nov 13 2011 |
11.45 am Radio 4 |
presenter: Mark Whitaker |
producer: Mike Hally |
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| Mark Whitaker recounts the story of the discovery and re-burial of the remains of an unknown soldier from World War 1, one of about two dozen cases a year in France and Belgium. | ||||
| 150 : Malmesbury - the Philosophy Town | ||||
| first broadcast: Fri Nov 18 2011 |
11.00 am BBC Radio 4 |
presenter: Mark Whitaker |
producer: Mark Whitaker |
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| Malmesbury in Wiltshire is famous as the birthplace of Thomas Hobbes, and now wants to establish itself as the country's special Philosophy Town. Britain's most famous political philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, was born there, and Malmesbury wants to become for philosophy what Hay-on-Wye is for books, St Ives for painting or Aldeburgh for music. | ||||