The BBC Academy Podcast

Every weekday afternoon Noreen Khan takes to the mic on the BBC Asian Network to present her award-winning “info-tainment” radio show comprising music, entertainment, sport and lots of banter. Hear from producer Anish Shaikh, assistant producer Amrit Matharu and Noreen as they discuss the challenge of making a live radio programme. They cover how to keep up with changes to the way people listen to...

BBC Academy director Joe Godwin sat down with CBBC controller Cheryl Taylor and presenters Sam & Mark to discuss children’s TV and its impact on young children. "We’ve all got to learn from a children’s audience before we all lose our audiences. What a nine-year-old is doing now is what a 25-year-old will be doing in 16 years," says Joe. Younger audiences are increasingly turning away from TV...

Stuart Rowson and Neil Hall from BBC Sport explain how mobile phones are key to how audiences consume content.

The technology sector is perceived as predominantly male, with many women feeling tech jobs are ‘not for them’. This lack of diversity will continue to be a problem until the stereotype is challenged. The BBC’s Women in Tech event during London Technology Week aimed to do exactly that by inviting women with tech skills to meet team leaders and hiring managers from across the BBC’s Design and Engin...

Presenting or reporting for television or radio can be both exciting and terrifying in equal measure - and that’s not including how you make it on air in the first place! In this week’s podcast Charles Miller talks to three presenters with varied careers: Rajan Datar, Sarah Cruddas and Lindsey Chapman. Between them they present for TV, radio and online and cover news, travel, science, sport, natur...

Learn how to tell news stories with BBC News presenter Maxine Mawhinney

How does Sima find stories? - Social media is where Sima finds something compelling which leads to a story - Talking to people on the street or at events can lead to a story idea - What makes a good story? Can you explain your story or idea to an 11 year old? - ‘Keep it simple stupid’ (KISS) - Real people with compelling stories, different feelings, personalities, problems and issues - "Be bold, b...

How a BBC WM 95.6FM ‘takeover’ connected with people in Birmingham and the Black Country to create a big impact on a tight budget. In March 2016, BBC WM 95.6FM invited listeners and members of the local community to 'takeover' the station as reporters, producers and co-presenters for a whole week. In this podcast, the BBC Academy’s Roxanne Ibrahim-Khan talks to assistant editor Sharon Stokes who h...

Learn how the way we think can make us better musicians and software developers. Musician and designer Lee Sankey has conducted research called Brainstruments which suggests that accomplished musicians stop playing the physical instrument and start playing the mental model of their instrument that exists in their head. Lee believes this theory of mental models doesn't just apply to musicians or si...

A mentor can help you make the most of career opportunities and aid your personal development. Today programme studio director Rachel Wheeley was able to see a clearer path to working in another area of radio with help from Caroline Raphael, then a commissioner at Radio 4. In this podcast they emphasise that it’s the mentee who needs to put in the hard work. “It’s not an easy option. You do have t...

The Shelbys are back! The third series of the hit show, Peaky Blinders, has returned to our screens with a new director, Tim Mielants. Tim is a huge “fan boy” of the show says series producer Simon Maloney, which is something that helped the pair bond easily and build an invaluable producer/director relationship. In this week’s podcast the BBC Academy’s Roxy Ebrahim-Khan speaks to Simon as well as...

Doctors series producer and writer Peter Lloyd had always wanted to incorporate Shakespeare into the show. With 2016 being the 400th anniversary of the death of the great bard and the BBC celebrating in grand style with its six-month Shakespeare Festival, it seemed the perfect opportunity. In this podcast Joe Godwin, director of the BBC Academy and BBC Birmingham, hears why Peter decided to avoid...

National Theatre Live has reached more than 5 million cinema-goers in 2,000 venues across the world. They have arguably had a role in democratising theatre, by taking star-studded, sell-out productions from London’s West End and from New York’s Broadway to the far edges of the country and beyond. Some of their best received screenings include War Horse, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night...

BBC Two’s Later… with Jools is returning for its 48th series. That’s right. The show is in its 24th year. How has it survived when other series such as Top of the Pops and CD:UK have become part of music history? Executive producer Alison Howe says it’s down to the programme’s simplicity in “putting together a show that offers a rich and varied mix of live music being performed in one room in one...

Midlands Today, presented by Mary Rhodes and Nick Owen, is a BBC regional TV programme covering areas including Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country. The team put out four daily bulletins and in this podcast we find out how. We speak to Hilary McConnell, one of the channel’s two senior producers, Giles Latcham, a senior journalist and reporter, and Sarah Falkland, presenter and reporter (pic...

Our very own drone enthusiast Charles Miller discovers that there's plenty to think about when filming with unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or drones as they are better known. In this podcast, Charles is joined by experienced drone pilot Mya Padget and BBC series producer Graham Cooper, who uses drones for his documentaries. We find out why you may want to use a drone for your shoot and what you...

An in depth conversation with the writer behind Line of Duty, Bodies and Critical. In this interview, recorded by BBC Writersroom for The BBC Academy podcast, Henry Swindell, senior script executive for BBC Northern Ireland, talks to Jed about his career and how he creates his stories and characters.

We talk to apprentice turned journalist Lauren Page and find out about the BBC’s apprenticeship schemes from their manager Simon Broad

First came BAFTA winning Educating Yorkshire, then Educating Essex. So why not adapt their documentary skills to filming children, thought production company Twofour That’s how the returning CBBC series Our School was born. The first series was set in Conyers School in Teeside. The current series shows life in Greenwood Academy in Castle Vale, Birmingham. Kez Margrie, CBBC’s executive producer, sa...

This wouldn’t happen in any other medium: an elderly Auschwitz survivor called LBC radio to tell the presenter, Nick Ferrari, about her experiences in the camp as a child. She then told Ferrari she hadn’t even been able to talk about Auschwitz to some members of her own family. Ferrari told the story on a Media Society panel about radio. Along with presenters Paul Gambaccini (above) and Sue MacGre...

The broadcasting industry is moving ever closer to a “gig-economy”, where more people take on short terms contracts rather than stay in a full time job. In audio production, freelancing is not as common as in television, but it is predicted to grow. In this podcast we hear from two award-winning freelance producers. Kellie Redmond works in BBC radio and Matt Hill specialises in podcast production....

With one billion podcast downloads from iTunes alone in 2014, podcasts have never been so popular. The growth in audience numbers has been in part attributed to the popularity of investigative crime show Serial; which has had more than five million downloads since launching in 2014. What has this meant for the industry? Keeren Flora talks podcasting with media journalist Abigail Edge, to find out...

Ed Barlow discusses the making of an observational documentary series, The Best Bottoms in the Land for BBC English Regions (Image copyright RSC).

Behind the voice of the DJ, radio production is a team effort. This week we find out about what goes on behind the scenes at BBC Radio 1Xtra in a panel discussion from the 1Xtra Live event in Leeds. 1Xtra breakfast DJ Yasmin Evans spoke to her 1Xtra colleagues: team assistant Harrison Stock, assistant content producer Keturah Cummings, producer Alex Lawless and head of programmes Rhys Hughes. They...

The BBC Academy Podcast, presented by Ben Toone, talks to three graduates of the BBC’s Local Apprentice Scheme, Yasmin Ojo, Jayde Pearson and Talisha Johnson, who at the time of recording were preparing to graduate with a National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) accredited qualification. Each Local Apprentice was placed at one of 45 local radio stations across the UK, where they gai...