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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Noise: A Human History: Carnival

David Hendy tells the story of a medieval street party that lasted for eight weeks.

Carnival: Episode fourteen of a thirty-part series made in collaboration with the British Library Sound Archive.

Feast days in Medieval Europe were noisy affairs - the streets filled with processions, animal baiting, games and mystery plays. Professor David Hendy of the University of Sussex tells the story of a Somerset town where a church ale got out of hand and the party went on for eight weeks. Then, as now, being raucous in the streets was a way for the dispossessed to make themselves heard - and revelry could easily tip into revolt.


Series producer: Matt Thompson
A Rockethouse production for BBC Radio 4.

Carnival

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Noise: A Human History

Documentaries

Factual: History

Prof David Hendy on the role of sound and listening in 100,000 years of human history.

Prof David Hendy presents a 30-part series exploring the role of sound, and listening, in the past 100,000 years of human history.

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Noise: A Human History, Carnival

Prof David Hendy tells the story of a medieval street party that lasted for eight weeks.

Professor David Hendy tells the story of a Medieval street party that lasted for eight weeks, with streets filled with processions, animal baiting, games and mystery plays.

Feast days in Medieval Europe were noisy affairs - the streets filled with processions, animal baiting, games and mystery plays. 

Professor David Hendy of the University of Sussex tells the story of a Somerset town where a church ale got out of hand and the party went on for eight weeks. Then, as now, being raucous in the streets was a way for the dispossessed to make themselves heard - and revelry could easily tip into revolt.

30-part series made in collaboration with the British Library Sound Archive.

Producer: Matt Thompson.
A Rockethouse production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2013.

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Noise: A Human History

Carnival

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