Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

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

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Book of the Week

Audiobooks

Factual

Serialised book readings, featuring works from various genres

Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

BBC Radio 4 Extra

BBC Radio 4 LW

Jessica Gunning

Paul Copley

Maggie Steed

Colman Domingo

Susanna Hislop

Jill Waters

Book of the Week: Stories in the Stars: 25/12/2014

Stories in the Stars

25/12/2014

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Stories in the Stars, 25/12/2014

The stories behind the names and shapes of the constellations that pattern the night sky.

Susanna Hislop on the origins of names of the night sky's constellations: Telescopium and Libra. From December 2014.

A seasonal reading for clear and frosty nights, when the skies sparkle with thousands of dots forming half remembered, almost traceable shapes. These are the stories behind the names and shapes of the constellations that pattern the night sky.

Stories In The Stars by Susanna Hislop is read by a range of voices and accents from around the country and the globe. It might be one of the stories that the great Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy assigned to them in his masterwork that became known as the Almagest, or it might be a personified first person narration from the constellation Chameleon having a grumble about the number of different names and imagined shapes assigned to him over the millennia.

From Greco-Roman mythology to the lives of the eighteenth century astronomers, this is a delightful miscellany which gives us a reason to step outside, look up and wonder at the magic lantern show above us.

Readers: Jessica Gunning, Paul Copley, Maggie Steed, Colman Domingo

Episode Four:
A telescope – Telescopium – is given as a gift. Libra balances things out.
 
Abridged, directed and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company Production for BBC Radio 4

Book of the Week: Stories in the Stars

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Susanna Hislop tells the stories behind the names and shapes of the constellations.

Susanna Hislop tells the stories behind the names and shapes of the constellations that pattern the night sky.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Book of the Week

Stories in the Stars

25/12/2014

Contributors

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4