Middlesbrough, Money and Me
Seriously...
BBC
4.1 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 25 October 2019
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Steph McGovern returns to her home town of Middlesbrough to ask why we aren’t better equipped to deal with the practical maths that we need to work out phone contracts, energy tariffs and any number of other challenges thrown at us in everyday life. She argues that too much emphasis is put on abstract maths in the school curriculum, and visits a Teesside primary school that is bucking the trend by emphasising practical maths to see what difference it is making. Steph meets university maths lecturer Sven Ake Wegner and hears about his struggles with cucumbers and tax returns, as well as the crucial relationship between theoretical and applied maths. Finally Steph attends the finals of a young enterprise competition to talk with teams of schoolchildren learning about profit, loss and percentages through running their own businesses. Along the way Steph sets a series of puzzles to test the listener’s own ability to make the numbers add up.
Producer: Geoff Bird
ANSWERS: 1/ It's cheaper to pay off the card in equal amounts for 12 months than pay the transfer fee. 2/ Shorts were £5.25 3/ Less than £100.00
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.5 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path |
| 0:19.5 | through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:39.0 | Hi, I'm Alice Tisuke and I want to tell you about the way I see it, a brand new podcast from BBC Radio 3. |
| 0:46.3 | It's a 30-part series in which we're throwing open the collection at Moma, the Museum of Modern |
| 0:51.6 | Art in New York, to some of the sharpest creative minds of our time. |
| 0:56.7 | We'll be speaking to comedian Steve Martin, writer Roxanne Gay, musician Steve Reich, and many, many more. I'll be your guide throughout the series, |
| 1:06.1 | so join me as I explore one of the greatest collections of modern art in the world. |
| 1:11.9 | If you'd like to hear more, just search for The Way I See |
| 1:15.2 | It on BBC Sounds. |
| 1:17.0 | Hi, I'm Riana Dillon, and this is seriously. No matter where you are, get ready for a listening delight from BBC Radio 4. I'm in Middlesbrough and are such a lovely day. |
| 1:35.0 | I'm in Middlesbrough and are such a lovely day, the sun shining, I'm just wandering down the high street |
| 1:41.0 | and actually I can see just in the distance the street that I |
| 1:45.1 | used to live in when I was a little baby and this is my home this place so I |
... |
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.