Greg James, host of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show and self-confessed 'proud radio nerd', rummages through the BBC's vast archives of audio, video, vinyl, photographs and documents, using current stories as a springboard into the past, as well as answering requests and getting hopelessly sidetracked, as his searches take him to unexpected places.

This week, broadcasting from his bedroom, he turns his attention to animals and how, unlike people, dogs are enjoying the lockdown experience - his own dog Barney being a case in point. With Barney as his starting point he goes back to the 1980s when Barbara Woodhouse, the country's most famous dog trainer, put her four-legged pupils through their paces.

Greg also unearths an example of animal home schooling in Dartmoor where naturalist HG Hurrell teaches Atlanta the seal how to read using flashcards. And when school is over for the day Atlanta also enjoys playing on the seesaw. The success of the Netflix series Tiger King prompts Greg to check out the archive for big cats and he discovers the story of a man who kept a tiger in his garage in Northern Ireland.

An email from a listener sends Greg hunting for the many voices of comedian Peter Cook. He discovers archive from Cook's ill-fated live chat show Where Do I Sit? which was cancelled after only three episodes. Greg also finds an edition of the Radio 3 series Why Bother? recorded not long before Cook's death in 1995, which showcases Cook's skill at improvisation and his impeccable comic timing, in conversation with Chris Morris

Baking has taken off during lockdown and Greg finds an early appearance of Paul Hollywood on the Generation Game, long before he entered the Bake Off tent. And in the week of what would have been Florence Nightingale's 200th birthday Greg finds some moving interviews with people who knew her as well as a short recording of Florence herself made in 1890.

Producer Paula McGinley Show less