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.

They’re living in the worst conditions imaginable and have no way out. And it’s the British state that’s keeping them there. ITV News Investigations Editor Daniel Hewitt exposes the UK’s dirty secret and confronts the people responsible. But how are people trapped all over Britain? Why can't they get out? And what's being done to change it? Daniel embarks on a four-year-long investigation to find out, only to discover some truly shocking answers. So come see the country that you really live in...

Head to www.thetrapped.co.uk to hear the full series and see the visuals that support each episode.

If you are in bad housing or your living situation is under threat you’ll also find a full list of people to contact to get help here: https://thetrapped.co.uk/are-you-trapped.html

The Trapped is an ITV News podcast. Presenters: Daniel Hewitt, alongside Imogen Barrer. Writers: Daniel Hewitt and David Williams. Archiving: Alpha Ceesay and Lauren Aarons

Audio production and sound design: Meic Parry and Jack Soper

Director and producer: David Williams. Executive producers: Matt Williams and Ed Saunt

Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, is one of the most well-known and influential pieces of writing in Western literature. Initially presented as a true account, this tale of adventure, desert island shipwrecking and survival has been re-told and re-packaged for different audiences, different generations and different times - rom The Swiss Family Robinson to Lost In Space, and Lord of the Flies to Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway. The term ‘Robinsonade’ was even coined to identify the many books that followed the desert island template.

John Yorke examines what makes the story work, unpacks Daniel Defoe’s skill as literary pioneer, and asks how we should view the book today.

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for 30 years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatized in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. From EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters.

Contributor:
Bill Bell, Professor of Bibliography at Cardiff University and author of Crusoe's Books: Readers in the Empire of Print, 1800-1918 (2022)

Readings by Stephen Bent
Excerpts from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, 1719
Archive clip from The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, TV adaptation, 1964

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

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Are you considering a career in law? Come visit our offices to hear from our lawyers on what it's like to work in one of the world's longest established international law firms.

With market-leading international practices, Curtis punches well above its weight. It does outstanding work for fascinating clients, but it's not a "shouty" culture. For all the firm’s international outlook, it retains a family feel; with fewer than 300 attorneys, so you're never just a number.

Curtis’ legal DNA goes right back to 1830, when it was founded in New York City. Today, the firm has 19 offices across 15 countries. So when you join Curtis, you gain an international network of co-workers, from Bogotá to Brussels, Milan to Muscat. And New York and London, of course!

Join Kate Fairweather to hear an insight into working in a law firm, which combines a storied tradition with an international outlook and entrepreneurial smarts. Meet our lawyers and hear what they think of Curtis and what it’s like to build a practice here.

Produced by Jack Soper for Fresh Air Production

The inside story of the CIA from the perspective of Eloise Page (Kim Cattrall), who joined on the Agency’s first day in 1947 and, in a 40-year career, became one of its most powerful women. Eloise takes the listener on a journey through the highs and lows of US foreign policy, spanning the staggering world events that shaped her career, as well as portraying her relationships with early CIA leaders, Allen Dulles and Richard Helms. A major new audio drama series starring Kim Cattrall, Ed Harris and Johnny Flynn.

Original music is by Sacha Puttnam

Production:
Written by Greg Haddrick, who created the series with Jeremy Fox
Episode 7 is written by Maryam Master
Sound Designers & Editors: John Scott Dryden, Adam Woodhams, Martha Littlehailes & Andreina Gomez Casanova
Script Consultant: Misha Kawnel
Script Supervisor: Alex Lynch
Trails: Jack Soper
Archive Research: Andy Goddard & Alex Lynch
Production Assistant: Jo Troy
Sonica Studio Sound Engineers: Mat Clark & Paul Clark
Sonica Runner: Flynn Hallman
Marc Graue Sound Engineers, LA: Juan Martin del Campo & Tony Diaz
Margarita Mix, Santa Monica Sound Engineer, LA: Bruce Bueckert
Mirrortone Sound Engineers, NY: Collin Stanley Dwarzski & James Quesada

Director: John Scott Dryden
Producer & Casting Director: Emma Hearn
Executive Producers: Howard Stringer, Jeremy Fox, Greg Haddrick and John Scott Dryden.

A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4

The Sportswriter, by the American novelist Richard Ford, is the first of what became a series of five novels following the life of Frank Bascombe – a failed writer of fiction who turns to writing about sport to make a living.

Frank’s marriage to a woman only referred to as X is over - although he wishes it wasn’t – and Ralph, one of their three children, has died.

Published in 1986, The Sportswriter was named one of Time magazine's five best books of the year and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. John looks at the reasons for its success.

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for 30 years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatised on BBC Radio 4. From EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book, Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters - his students have had 17 green-lights in the last two years alone.

Contributor:
Ian McGuire, Professor of American Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Manchester. He is the author of three novels, Incredible Bodies (2006), The North Water (2016) and The Abstainer (2020), and one critical monograph, Richard Ford and the Ends of Realism (2015).

Credits:
Excerpts from The Sportswriter by Richard Ford, 1986.
Readings and interview clips of Richard Ford from World Book Club, BBC World Service, 12 June 2013.

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

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4