Two new committees of BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds History Podcasts will be set forth by David Dimbleby and Joe Dunthorne.
Invisible Hands is a six-part story podcast in which David Dimbleby tells the story of a free market revolution. Perhaps the most powerful political idea of the 20th century.
This tells the story of a little-known foresighted man, Maverick and the outcast, who did his life's work to change the UK's economy forever. They set the stages of Margaret Thatcher's reforms, the city's Big Bang, and more.
Dimbleby saw this unfold in his time as a political reporter and presenter for the BBC. He experiences a dramatic twist and turn of its evolution.
His story tracks the ideas as he unexpectedly set up a think tank for the influential Institute of Economic Affairs on a bee farm in Sussex, then blew through postwar London and exploded into scenes of luxury and excess at the city's new champagne bar.
Today, the free market capitalization rules every corner of British life, how did that happen and who was the mastermind behind it? The History Podcast: Invisible Hands will be released on BBC Radio 4 on March 26th, with the sound coming out.
David Dimbleby said:
“In the mid-1970s, no one knew what it really meant or where it came from, and it was a story of how this innovative idea became entrenched, challenged old assumptions and redefine British society.
“It started with a fighter pilot shooting down in the battle of England, and when an ambitious chicken farmer and politician were named the crazy monk K, and was named the crazy monk K.
“I was seven years old when World War II ended. This series tracks the history of revolutionary ideas that span my life and now defines every part of our lives in the UK.”
Then in May, Half Life follows award-winning poet, novelist and journalist Joe Dunthorne.
The eight-part series begins with the story of Siegfried, his great grandfather, a German Jewish chemist who made radioactive toothpaste in the 1920s.
While trying to write family history, Joe discovered Siegfried's almost 2,000 pages of memoir.
Joe was searching for details of his family's dramatic escape from Nazi Germany in 1936, but found a much more disturbing history, a confession from his great grandfather hidden in 1,692 pages.
This unearths the story of unexploded bombs, radioactive soil and Joe from Berlin to Ankara, North Carolina and back to Swansea.
History Podcast: Half-Life begins with Radio 4, and the BBC will sound on Wednesday, May 7th.
Joe Dunthorne said:
“When I explored the troublesome inheritance left behind from my great grandfather, I learned first hand the many ways history continues to haunt us today. Even if we try to ignore it, it lives within us.”
Daniel Clarke, the de facto commissioning editor of Radio 4, adds:
“These new committees rekindled the Brighton bomb, featuring the success of Lucan's obsession that rekindled the country's appeal for one of the most enduring mysteries of the 20th century, and fresh testimony of assassinating Margaret Thatcher in a 1984 IRA plot.
“With such a compelling and high-quality title, the History Podcast was ranked as the fourth-ranked podcast in the BBC Sound in the last quarter of 2024.”
