Wireless Nights with Jarvis Cocker
Summary: Jarvis Cocker takes listeners on a nocturnal journey around stories of night people. Winner of the Prix Italia for Extraordinary Originality and Innovation, a top European radio prize. Originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
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- Artist: BBC Radio 4
- Copyright: (C) BBC 2014
Podcasts:
Jarvis Cocker wanders the lava fields of Iceland in search of the unseen forces of night. In the midnight shadow of Snaefellsjokull, the volcano featured in Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Jarvis considers the timelessness of the landscape, until he discovers sheep time. His sheep guides only lead him further into the unknown, through a hole in the lava floor and on a journey through a magma underworld, finding there a symphony orchestra, human seals and a wake.
Jarvis attempts to fly to the moon, with the aid of astronaut Chris Hadfield. En route he hears stories of those touched by the moon in its many manifestations. Producer: Laurence Grissell
In front of a studio audience, Jarvis Cocker and the BBC Philharmonic weave tales of insomnia, nocturnal inspirations and dark imaginings from the world of classical music - against the backdrop of a President embroiled in the Vietnam War. Producers: Laurence Grissell & Neil McCarthy
Jarvis stars in his own horror movie, exploring the battle between the forces of darkness and light. He hears from horror movie goers at the Electric Cinema in Birmingham, keen to turn the lights off and lets the scares begin; the National Grid control room which is charged from keeping the lights on; and Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel - where the electricity switches off at midnight. What is lurking in the basement as Jarvis approaches the darkest hour? Producer: Laurence Grissell
Join Jarvis on the midnight sailing of a Channel ferry as he contemplates night crossings mythic and modern. Meet castaway Jeni, lost and found in the North Sea; Sean, a young wrestler on ropes for his first fight night; and wise old man of the sea, Swilly Billy. Producer: Neil McCarthy
Jarvis becomes a nightwatchman in a high rise office block and meets others keeping watch during the dark hours. He hears from the parents of a young girl with a rare condition which causes her to stop breathing when she falls asleep; a man at a control centre who looks out for Somali pirates and a former spy recalling a dangerous meeting with a Middle Eastern agent. Producer: Laurence Grissell
Jarvis turns his eye to the starlit sky with his mind on hunters and their quarry. Taking his bearings from Orion, he follows a lamper across farmland hunting foxes by torchlight. A soldier takes him on a top secret mission behind enemy lines and he accompanies a young man nervously preparing for his first date. Producer Neil McCarthy
This evening Jarvis invites you on a kerb crawl around the seamy side of town as he explores the theme 'night manoeuvres'. Driving through London he weaves his way in and out of the lives of other night riders who are always on the move. The ride might get a bit hairy at times, but he promises to drop you off safely at the end. Producers: Neil McCarthy & Laurence Grissell
Jarvis takes to the streets to peer through stained windows, cold steel bars and Japanese paper screens, to find out just what goes on behind closed doors. He joins a lock-in where the time bell is never rung, and peers into the deepest recesses of a lock-in brain that belongs to Jack, reliving the night when the doors shut in his brain. Producer: Sara Jane Hall
Jarvis slips between the shadows to find punks, poets, poker dens and an alcohol-fuelled badger watch and eavesdrops on a series of nocturnal dreams and dramas. Producer: Neil McCarthy
Jarvis boards the red-eye, taking a transatlantic flight of the imagination in this Prix Italia winning edition. Jarvis peers down at the human dramas beneath as the world slowly rotates - accompanied by his own musical selections. Producer: Laurence Grissell