Piers Plowright, Soundsmith

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)

Archive on 4

Documentaries

Factual

Brilliant stories told using archive from the BBC and beyond.

BBC Radio 4 LW

Archive on 4: Piers Plowright, Soundsmith

BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, Piers Plowright, Soundsmith

Lend your ears to work by legendary 'radio man' Piers Plowright.

Lend your ears to work by the legendary BBC feature-maker and 'radio man', Piers Plowright, who died in July 2021.

Piers Plowright described himself as a 'radio man'. He'd grown up in a home where the wireless was moved into the living room of an evening for family listening.

Others have called Piers, who died in July 2021, the Godfather of the British Radio Feature.

His thirty-year BBC career began in 1968 as a trainee in English By Radio, after which he migrated via drama to documentaries.  There, his programmes received radio's highest accolade, the Prix Italia, on three occasions. Yet he remained always modest, a practised listener, a supporter of colleagues, a composer of sound, silence and word, and - for all his erudition and love of culture - a mischievous spirit.

All of this is felt in his many programmes (see below). In a medium described as having no memory, the quality and distinctiveness of Piers' radio programmes - and the grace of the man - are long remembered.

You are invited to lend your ears to some of his work in this tribute from colleagues and admirers:
Melvyn Bragg, his close friend from student days and distinguished broadcaster,
Dr Cathy Fitzgerald, an award-winning feature-maker and presenter
Seán Street, poet and Professor of Radio
Marta Medvešek, the young Croatian recipient of the 2021 Prix Europa for radio documentary
Matt Thompson, a younger colleague who fell under Piers' spell in the BBC documentaries department
Julie Shapiro, formerly Artistic Director of the Third Coast Festival in Chicago, which awarded Piers the Audio Luminary Award in 2006
Martin Williams, a celebrated producer and amateur radio historian
Redzi Bernard, producer and co-host of the Telling Stories podcast
Tony Phillips, former production colleague and radio commissioning executive.

Including interview excerpts with Piers from Roger Kneebone's Countercurrent podcast and Victor Hall's Pocketsize Studio
and extracts from the following programmes in the BBC Sound Archive:
Stepping Stones (R4, 2015)
A Fine Blue Day (R4, 1978)
Splashpast! (R4, 1993)
Mirooo (R3, 1993)
Mr B - a portrait of James Bellamy (R4, 1991)
Setting Sail (R4, 1985)
One Big Kitchen Table (R4, 1989)
Mr Fletcher, the Poet (R4, 1986)
Nobody Stays in This House Long (R4, 1983) 
What Are They Looking At? (R3, 1997)

Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

(Photo credit: Lucy Tizard)

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

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Archive on 4

Piers Plowright, Soundsmith

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4