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Short Cuts

Correspondents

Short Cuts

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8788 Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about letter writing - Mother’s Day cards travelling thousands of miles home, love letters that are cherished, hidden and lost, and a one-way correspondence bringing comfort during chemotherapy. Letters to My Dear Lovers Produced by Sofia Saldanha

You Go First Featuring Helene Ishikawa Produced by Rachel Ishikawa

Ursula Bloom speaking to Jack Singleton Home This Afternoon, BBC Radio, 1965

From Me To You Featuring Alison Hitchcock and Brian Greenley Produced by Helen Zaltzman First broadcast in The Allusionist podcast episode ‘66. Open Me part 1’ frommetoyouletters.co.uk

Production Team: Eleanor McDowall Produced by Andrea Rangecroft A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:05.2

Hello, I'm Jacey Lung.

0:06.7

Welcome to the podcast version of shortcuts.

0:09.2

Today's episode is all about correspondences, letters, letter writing.

0:14.0

And if you have any time later, I think you should write somebody a letter, if you can, someone you care about.

0:19.6

I'm not trying to inspire a generation of poison

0:22.1

pen letters. There's something about the actual paper when you touch it, which sounds ridiculous,

0:30.5

I know, but it just comes to you. This is a swindle. This is Shortcuts.

0:38.7

It was a hot September and I didn't know I was going to miss you.

0:43.8

I didn't know anything about broken hearts.

0:46.9

Brief encounters, true stories, radio adventures and Found Sound.

0:57.6

Today, correspondence.

1:02.6

I love to read, but I wasn't interested in writing.

1:06.8

So goodness knows why I made this offer.

1:10.3

And I would save it and take it with me, because then it felt as though she was there with me.

1:14.6

It used to feel a strong connection, and it used to make me laugh.

1:18.6

It would be like she was talking to me.

1:20.6

I'd never really told them that I was unhappy or that I had an issue.

1:28.3

I felt protective of them.

1:30.3

If today it feels trivial and important, it is still an open door to the past.

1:43.3

Today's show focuses around letter writing, and I have always loved writing letters.

1:52.2

As a child, I had a roster of international pen pals.

...

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