HeyJaredIlluminated
Illuminated is BBC Radio 4's home for creative and surprising one-off documentaries that shed light on hidden worlds.Welcome to a place of audio beauty and joy, with emotion and human experience at its heart.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 12
- Latest publication
- Sep 27, 2026
- Audience
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 5, 2026
Latest episodes
Faithless (opens the original)
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For much of their lives, Micki, Esther, Nicola and Colin were devoted members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Nigerian Deeper Life Bible Church and Mormonism, respectively. Each recounts the moments when certainty began to unravel. In raw and honest detail, their stories explore the difficult line between deep religious devotion and unhealthy control. Along the way, for each of them, the balance tipped. Eventually, the effort of holding on became harder than letting go. With thanks to Faith to Faith
Izabela in Peru (opens the original)
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Young Polish field-recordist Izabela Dłużyk travels to the Amazonian rainforest of Peru. Izabela, blind from birth, is a self-taught recordist with a wonderful ears for sound and limitless passion for the natural world. She is ‘rather shy and modest’ by her own account, but indefatigable in her adventurous pursuit of lovely recordings, leaving her recorders running night and day. She knows around 300 creature sounds by heart and in Peru she meets Red Howler Monkeys, Scarlet Macaws, Cobalt winged
The Power of the Bayeux Tapestry (opens the original)
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Radio 4 is marking the arrival of the Bayeux Tapestry in Britain with a day of programmes on the Norman Conquest and its lasting legacy today. George Parker, political editor of the Financial Times, was first captivated by the tapestry as a young boy when he was taken to see it on a family holiday to Normandy. He went on to discover why the tapestry is first and foremost a deeply political object. Tracing an extraordinary history over nearly 1000 years, George singles out the moments which show
Bouncing off the Walls: A Prison Soundscape (opens the original)
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Footsteps on a metal walkway. The jangle of keys and the resonant clang of thick steel doors slamming. The clamour of voices raised in conversation, or argument, or laughter… their echoes ricocheting off brick and concrete. TVs and radios, all tuned to different stations, fighting it out with each other, overlapping and blurring into a muddle of sound. Prison is a swirling soundscape. A cacophony of disparate elements bouncing off the walls, assaulting your ears - and your mind. And each sound h
Ringing the Bullring (opens the original)
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You might know Birmingham's Bullring as one of the UK's premiere shopping destinations, or somewhere to pass through on your way to visit Birmingham's famous Christmas Market. But at the heart of the Bullring is a special church – one of only three churches in the world to have 16 bells. And bells have been rung on this site for almost 500 years. The bellringers of Birmingham are arguably the best in the world at change ringing. They are preparing to compete at the annual National 12-Bell Striki
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