Falling Tree Productions

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We make documentaries and audio art for radio, podcasts and public spaces

Listen to nearly 900 radio documentaries in our free, online archive http://www.fallingtree.co.uk/our-archive/

14/09/2025

In tonight's BBC Radio 4 Illuminated, listen to Where the Distance Shimmers https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002jf5j

Forty years ago, Route 66, the highway that ran the 2448 miles from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California, was formally decommissioned, usurped by a more modern, high-speed interstate. But the road has lived on in the collective imagination — a symbol of freedom, adventure, and new beginnings, of America's concept of itself.

In this meditation on the Mother Road, as John Steinbeck christened it, Laura Barton explores 66's shifting identity, from migratory route to America's Main Street.

With contributions from Angel (the "Angel of Route 66") and his daughter Clarissa Delgadillo in Seligman, Arizona; Mike Cowen who set up his own Historic Route 66 museum in Williams, Arizona; Leigh Anne Isbell of the Devil's Rope Museum in Texas and Candacy Taylor, who's written about Route 66 in relation to The Green Book.

Written and presented by Laura Barton
With extracts from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath read by Corey Johnson.
Location recording producer, Diane Hope
Produced by Alan Hall

04/09/2025

Delighted to see Dust - the final edition of our BBC Radio 4 podcast Lights Out - featured in Aesthetica Festival's first ever official audio selection.

From handfuls of dust to watching geological time mark the landscape, this documentary flows from the night skies into the deepest known point in our oceans.

Drawing on ideas in his book, On Time and Water, the Icelandic writer Andri Snær and the Scottish artist Katie Paterson explore how our imagination can help us hold the moment we live in.

Archive recording from Raddir - Voices: Recordings of Folk Songs courtesy of the Árni Magnússon Institute
'Vatnajökull (the sound of)' recording courtesy of Katie Paterson

Recording of the journey to Okjökull by Guðni Tómasson
Music composed and performed by Phil Smith and Zac Gvi

Produced by Eleanor McDowall

So exciting looking at the line up for this year's XMTR Festival from Social Broadcasts - full of imaginative, funny, th...
31/08/2025

So exciting looking at the line up for this year's XMTR Festival from Social Broadcasts - full of imaginative, funny, thoughtful sonic ideas!

See you there?

XMTR AUDIO ARTS FESTIVAL is back in the lovely seaside town of St Leonards-on-Sea – Friday 26th, Saturday 27th, Sunday 28th September 2025 – alongside the sound art focused festival Sono-Electro.This year is set to be even more ambitious, spanning multiple unique and wonderful venues in and aro...

"Hundreds of people lost their jobs in those shakeouts, but the owners who sold those companies are sitting high on the ...
22/08/2025

"Hundreds of people lost their jobs in those shakeouts, but the owners who sold those companies are sitting high on the millions they made from the sales; Pineapple Street sold in 2019 for $18 million and Wondery sold in 2021 for a reported $300 million. It has only just come to my attention that Gimlet co-founder Matt Lieber is spending his post-Spotify days as a whimsical ice cream proprietor in Park Slope, where he sells ice cream shaped like sushi.

Capitalist goonery aside, what stands out to me now, standing on the other side of a popped bubble, is the distinct lack of creative ambition in the industry... The chat shows are entertaining. They fill up my bathroom with agreeable noise when I’m showering, but often I wonder if I’ve turned myself into a grown-up iPad toddler, unable to cope with the silence of being alone, or to train my attention span on something that requires several hours’ commitment. A celebrity talk show has kept me company on walks, but it has never shocked me out of hazy malaise and made me feel more curious about the world, less alone, or in awe."

This week, Left of Dial published its Essential Listening Poll, a compilation of the 100 best podcasts of all time, according to industry creators, writers, and scholars. (Disclosure: I was invited to contribute my selections to the poll, and Normal Gossip ranked on the list, though I was not allowe...

21/08/2025

Lean In and Listen Like It’s Music - Transom

"...a quietly dazzling mosaic of miniature documentaries—curated with elegance and curiosity, it celebrates the art of t...
19/08/2025

"...a quietly dazzling mosaic of miniature documentaries—curated with elegance and curiosity, it celebrates the art of the short form, where fleeting moments and eccentric voices are stitched together into something unexpectedly profound."

Touched to see Short Cuts in the top 20 of this list voted for by 300 audio creators!

You can still listen to our (nearly) 250 episodes in the Short Cuts podcast, on BBC Sounds or in the free Falling Tree Productions archive:

BBC Short Cuts is a quietly dazzling mosaic of miniature documentaries—curated with elegance and curiosity, it celebrates the art of the short form, where fleeting moments and eccentric voices are stitched together into something unexpectedly profound.

05/08/2025

In today's Artworks on BBC Radio 4, people working in theatre take a cue from Look Back in Anger to consider how anger can be a motivation for art.

Featuring playwrights Dawn King and Georgia Bruce, director Atri Banerjee and Cress Brown of Cutting the Tightrope.

Produced by Alan Hall

Listen here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002grr6

"If you're not angry, you're not paying attention," says one character in Dawn King's play about the climate crisis, The...
05/08/2025

"If you're not angry, you're not paying attention," says one character in Dawn King's play about the climate crisis, The Trials.

"I learnt at an early age what it is to be angry - angry and helpless." In Look Back in Anger, a youthful Jimmy Porter rages against church, country and the docility of those he loves.

People working in theatre now - amid war, injustice and increasing authoritarianism - reflect on anger as a motivation for the 'art of words', its creative limitations and the eroding effect of the passing years.

With playwrights Dawn King and Georgia Bruce, director Atri Banerjee and Cress Brown of Cutting the Tightrope.

Including extracts from the 1959 film Look Back in Anger. Original music (Homage to Jimmy Porter) written and performed by Alan Hall.

Produced by Alan Hall

Listen to Angry and Young in BBC Radio 4's Artworks this afternoon at 4pm:

Anger as a motivation for art - its potency and limitations.

Great to see both The Brighton Bomb (produced by Walk on Air Films, which our Alan Hall worked on as both story consulta...
25/07/2025

Great to see both The Brighton Bomb (produced by Walk on Air Films, which our Alan Hall worked on as both story consultant and sound designer) and our Eleanor McDowall's Radio Atlas nominated at this year's British Podcast Awards!

Congratulations to all the nominees! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98j8eepjq2o

Delighted to see Radio Atlas nominated in the British Podcast Awards inaugural Video Innovation category this year!

Featuring work from Radijo dokumentika, Rūta Dambravaitė, Inga Janiulytė-Temporin, Qing Hu, Ka-Young Park, Dimitris Roidis, Joyce de Badts, Daniel Semo, Kato Vanackere, Hrvoje Korbar and Marija Pečnik Kvesić

Subtitles by Eleanor McDowall, web angel Charlie Shackleton https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98j8eepjq2o

24/07/2025

🎧 Exciting Podcast News!

We’re thrilled to share that the winning project of The Whickers and Sheffield DocFest Podcast Award 2023, 'Time, Paper, Bone' is now live on BBC Radio 4! 📻

Huge congratulations to the brilliant Bongani Kona and Catherine Boulle for bringing this powerful story to life. 👏👏

Nombulelo Booi last saw her father – anti-apartheid activist James Booi – in 1963. He was dragged into an armoured police vehicle in the early hours of the morning and never seen again. Decades later, Nombulelo works with South Africa’s Missing Persons Task Team to find the remains of her father.

Based on four years of fieldwork by collaborators Bongani Kona and Catherine Boulle, ‘Time, Paper, Bone’ is an intimate portrait of one woman’s lifelong quest for closure, and South Africa’s long reckoning with the injustices of the past.

🔗 Link in bio - please listen.



21/07/2025

In tomorrow's edition of Artworks on BBC Radio 4, listen to Souvenirs produced by Helen Zaltzman and Martin Austwick - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002g4g2

In late 19th century Hammersmith, two titans of the printing scene, Emery Walker and Thomas Cobden-Sanderson, form a deep friendship. They hang out at the same printing events and socialist meetings, they move into houses four doors apart, they work in the same building, their families go on holidays together.

Then in 1900, they set up the ground breaking Doves Press together - whereupon their friendship swiftly implodes, and they spend the rest of the decade fighting over the custody of their in-house typeface, Doves. And then things get even uglier.

Souvenirs explores broken friendship, typefaces, lost words, self-destruction, and the legacies we didn’t intend to leave. With type designer Robert Green.

Written and performed by The Allusionist's Helen Zaltzman, with an original score by Martin Austwick (performed by him and Adrienne LaBelle, violin).

19/07/2025

Tonight on BBC Radio 4's Archive on 4 - listen to Time, Paper, Bone: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002g2nf

Nombulelo Booi last saw her father – anti-apartheid activist James Booi – in 1963. He was dragged into an armoured police vehicle in the early hours of the morning and never seen again. Decades later, Nombulelo works with South Africa’s Missing Persons Task Team to find the remains of her father.

Based on four years of fieldwork by collaborators Bongani Kona and Catherine Boulle, ‘Time, Paper, Bone’ is an intimate portrait of one woman’s lifelong quest for closure, and South Africa’s long reckoning with the injustices of the past.

This story was made possible with the support of The Whickers Radio and Audio Funding Award and The Whickers/Sheffield DocFest Podcast Pitch Award.

With special thanks to:
Nombulelo and Zola Booi
Madeleine Fullard and the Missing Persons Task Team
Professor Nicky Rousseau
Nolubabalo Tongo-Cetywayo and the Robben Island Museum
Jane Ray
Ibby Caputo
Rhulani Maboko and the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa
Erika le Roux and the Western Cape Archives and Records Service
Sipho Rala and the National Library of South Africa's Cape Town campus
Marcus Solomon and Moyisile Douglas Tyutyu
Archival tape courtesy of: the SABC, the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa, Gallo Images, Journeyman Pictures and Villon Films.

Presented by Bongani Kona
Written by Bongani Kona and Catherine Boulle
Translated by Thenjiwe Kona
Music by Charl-Johan Lingenfelder
Produced by Catherine Boulle

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14 Feathers Place
London
SE109NE

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