Jack Soper

Exactly 40 years to the day after the first Star Wars film was released in US cinemas, BBC Radio 4 explores its impact on popular culture with Mark Miller, creator of Kick-Ass and creative consultant on the X-Men and Fantastic Four movies, and film critic Mark Eccleston.

TX 25 May 2017

See Me Now at the The Young Vic is a theatre production created and performed by current and former sex workers.  The aim: to challenge stereotype and stigma.  In this feature for BBC Radio 4's Front Row, writer Molly Taylor and cast member Jane discuss bringing together a group of male, female and transgender performers to share their stories on stage.  

The acclaimed ballet and contemporary dancer Sylvie Guillem reflects on her career spanning almost 35 years and explains the painful decision to stop dancing following her final programme of work. 

The celebrated and secretive street artist and campaigner Stik shows Samira Ahmed some of his work on the streets of East London to mark the publication of his first book. 

Five years on from the launch of government plans to encourage more philanthropic funding of the Arts, Kirsty Lang speaks to key cultural philanthropists about the part they play in funding artistic endeavour. 

Series 2 of Books To Live By.

Mariella Frostrup talks to her guests including David Walliams, Jo Brand and George The Poet as they pick books from their lifetime of reading. From childhood favourites, to books to mend a broken heart, we hear how those books have shaped who they are today.

Books to live by was created by Mariella Frostrup

Produced by Jack Soper

I had the pleasure of working with Inge Daniels and Anna Ulrikke Andersen on their podcast Disobedient Buildings.

Their project explores everyday lived experiences of inhabitants of aging blocks of flats in three different European welfare states: the UK, Romania and Norway. The podcast was conceived and presented by Inge Daniels, the principal investigator, and the project’s two postdoctoral researchers: Gabriela Nicolescu and Anna Ulrikke Andersen. In Season One, they scrutinise key themes guiding our research such as disobedience, inequality, urban development, welfare and health. Across 10 episodes, they interview local experts and highlight commonalities and differences experienced by residents in field sites in London, Bucharest and Oslo. They ask, what is a disobedient building, why is home ownership promoted, and will the State look after you?

Opening Lines is the series in which producer and writer John Yorke unpacks the themes and impact behind the books, plays and stories that are dramatised in BBC Radio 4's weekend afternoon dramas.

Somewhere between autobiography, memoir and novel, the Irish writer and poet Brendan Behan’s Borstal Boy was published in 1958. It’s the story of the teenaged Behan’s three years in an English Borstal – the youth detention centres of their day.

As an Irish Republican, Behan’s views of the English are challenged, relationships are formed, and his journey to becoming one of the most celebrated writers of his generation begins.

Hearing from the bestselling Irish novelist Colm Tóibín, John Yorke explains the delight of this tender, funny, sometimes sad, sometimes violent book, and unpicks Behan’s ability to capture detail and dialogue in rich, yet somehow sparse descriptions of life in Borstal.

Researcher: Nina Semple
Sound: Sean Kerwin
Producer: Jack Soper
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
Production Manager: Sarah Wright

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

TX 16 April 2023, BBC Radio 4 and available on BBC Sounds

John Yorke looks at The Manxman by the Sir Thomas Hall Caine, a love story set on the Isle of Man. The novel broke sales records and changed the book industry forever when it was published in 1894. Hall Caine was globally famous, hugely successful, adored by readers and feted by royalty. The story was adapted for film by Alfred Hitchcock, translated into 12 languages and performed on stage. Yet today, The Manxman and Hall Caine are almost completely forgotten.

John looks at this hugely successful Victorian melodrama, to discover a curiously powerful story, set in a location rarely found in literature, that has plenty of resonance for audiences today.

Researcher: Nina Semple
Sound: Sean Kerwin
Producer: Jack Soper
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
Production Manager: Sarah Wright

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

TX 19 November 2023, BBC Radio 4 and available on BBC Sounds

Continuity announcers' voices are at the heart of Radio 4 - they introduce programmes and bring us the news. But who are they? What does it take to do their job - from introducing The Archers to reading the Shipping Forecast? And what happens on those hopefully rare occasions when things don't go according to plan? With contributions from more announcers than ever previously spotted in one place, and a special musical performance, countdown to the new year with the BBC Radio 4 announcers.

Producer: Jack Soper.

TX 31 December 2023 BBC Radio 4.