From Our Home Correspondent 17/02/2019
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 17 February 2019
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mishal Husain introduces dispatches from journalists and writers around the United Kingdom which reflect the range of British life today.
Writer and broadcaster Horatio Clare reveals the deeply personal story of how he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and his experiences on an in-patient ward in Yorkshire.
In the month of the National Parks Dark Skies Festival and a star-counting survey run by the British Astronomical Association and the Campaign to Protect Rural England, Andrew Green discovers why an unblemished night sky is so hard to find even in the Chilterns - and why that matters.
We often take our senses for granted. Charmaine Cozier recounts how she suddenly came to lose her sense of smell - and also to be left with a much diminished sense of taste - and explains the various strategies she's employed to try and recover them.
With little sign of an early end to Britain's housing problems, the ups and downs of squatting in a former industrial building are described by Lizzy McNeill.
And Adrian Goldberg climbs aboard "the cutest train in England" which, in its canary-yellow livery journeys modestly between stops in the West Midlands town of Stourbridge, yet offers a possible solution to transport problems elsewhere in the UK.
Producer: Simon Coates
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | Thank you for downloading from our home correspondent on BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:10.0 | I'm Michelle Hussein. |
| 0:12.0 | Our pieces this time include an ode to the night's sky and why it's so difficult |
| 0:16.7 | to see the stars in so much of England. A former squatter is taking us back to the disused factory that she once called home. |
| 0:25.3 | We find out what it's like to discover overnight that your sense of smell has disappeared |
| 0:30.9 | and what that means for everyday life. And we take a journey on a tiny, |
| 0:36.0 | environmentally friendly and very successful West Midlands Rail Service. |
| 0:41.0 | First to Yorkshire and the experience of one of our seasoned correspondence, someone who makes their living with words, and this time reveals something deeply personal. |
| 0:52.0 | We talk about mental health and illness. This time reveals something deeply personal. |
| 0:53.0 | We talk about mental health and ill health more today than ever before, |
| 0:57.6 | banishing much of the ignorance and prejudice of the past. |
| 1:01.7 | But some phrases can still evoke a darker era and being |
| 1:05.7 | sectioned is one of them. Having recently been sectioned himself, the author and |
| 1:11.0 | broadcaster Horatio Claire has been reflecting on the new world he was introduced to. |
| 1:17.4 | As a travel writer who loves action, I occasionally meet fear. |
| 1:25.0 | The hippopotamus biting your canoe in half, the wheel flying off the land cruiser, |
| 1:28.0 | and the ship fighting a storm can all be exhilarating. |
| 1:31.0 | There's little time to think until you tell the story, which I love to do. |
| 1:36.0 | We don't dwell on our darker fears. It wouldn't be sane and insanity is probably one of our deeper dreads. |
| 1:43.0 | To lose and then regain reality and yourself is not quick. |
| 1:48.0 | It's a terrifyingly protracted process, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.