27/12/2025
As this year draws to a close here are a few glimpses of the last 12 months at Falling Tree. We’re looking forward to the sounds of 2026! 📻 ✨
* Problems with Julia Masli - produced by Talia Augustidis and Julia Masli. There are so many problems in the world. For the past three years, Estonian clown Julia Masli - armed with a microphone taped to a mannequin leg - has been trying to solve them… Listen on the Illuminated podcast https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ld6d
This was one of many one-off Falling Tree documentaries which you can find in our free online archive - listen at www.fallingtree.co.uk
* After 13 years on the radio, Short Cuts Podcast final episode aired on BBC Radio 4 at the start of the year. It was a joy to see Josie Long win Gold at the ARIAS for her work on the series and the whole team nominated for the inaugural Audio UK Changemaker Award, as well as travelling to New York for a special Short Cuts retrospective at Tribeca Festival (with a live performance from Ross Sutherland)
* Afterwords - our series of archive-led musical documentaries returned to BBC Radio 3 with explorations of the work of Pierre Boulez and the writer Anthony Burgess’ musical dreams (produced by Alan Hall) and this tender, thoughtful dive into the work of deep listening pioneer Pauline Oliveros produced by Steve Urquhart https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0028t48
* At the beginning of the year Alan Hall and Audrey Gillan paid tribute to Tara McKerr, one of the rough sleepers at the heart of our BBC Radio 4 series Tara and George. Last Rights explored how in death, as in life, Tara had fallen through the cracks in society.
At the end of this year, we were sad to mark the death of George at St Martin-in-the-Fields moving annual remembrance service for the homeless. George's name was read out alongside the 208 people who experienced homelessness in London who had died in 2025.
* East Piano offered the frontline sonic journal of Ukrainian musician-soldier Timur Dzhafarov (aka John Object) in Between the Ears. Produced by Cicely Fell and Timur Dzhafarov, we were proud to see it open this year’s EBU Audio Storytelling Festival in Lithuania.
* In our new BBC Radio 3 series Instrumental, Alan Hall talks with musicians about their relationship to their chosen instrument. Returning to the radio in the first week of January! Listen to the first series now on BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002cyml
* In 'Time, Paper, Bone' Bongani Kona presented an intimate portrait of one woman’s quest for closure and South Africa’s long reckoning with the injustices of the past. The result of years of work by producers Catherine Boulle and Bongani Kona (supported by The Whickers funding) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002g2nf
* The Endemic Truth produced by Phoebe McIndoe with Tess Davidson focused on the voices of survivors, as reports of child sexual abuse drew increasing media attention. Listen on the Illuminated podcast.https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0028jjm
We were also glad to see Phoebe McIndoe and Redzi Bernard's exceptional work on 2024’s BBC Radio 4 County Lines series receive multiple awards this year including the Outstanding Journalism award from the Criminal Justice Alliance and Save the Children’s Global Media Award for Radio and Podcasts.
* Half-Life offered an eight-part exploration into the ways the past lives on inside us, even when we try to ignore it. Written and presented by Joe Dunthorne and produced by Eleanor McDowall it was featured in the The New Yorker's podcasts of the year and won awards at the Audio UK production awards and Signal Awards. Listen on The History Podcast.
* Thirty Eulogies produced by Nicolo Majnoni focused on the experiences of Suresh Vaghela, taking us behind the headlines of the infected blood scandal and into a transformative relationship between a haemophiliac and the people who he came to regard as his new family. Listen on the Illuminated podcast. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0028b77
* In the company of other poets, Caroline Bird explored the silences when it feels like poetry has abandoned you in our BBC Radio 3’s documentary When the Words Leave, produced by Eleanor McDowall https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002lqlz
* Our final documentary of the year aired just before Christmas, a magical and unsettling look at the festive ghost story. Produced by Sarah Cuddon https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002ntx3
