Summary
Josie Long presents short documentaries and stories about the quest for resolution. Years spent in search of a solution to Elgar's Enigma, an adult seeks an answer to a childhood letter and a mother records her young son's responses.
The Being Sound Produced by Stephanie Rowden
Get Pierced Produced by Duncan Cowles
Counter Melody Featuring Bob Padgett (who runs the website The Enigma Theme Unmasked) Produced by Daniel Estrin, Jessi Carrier, Steven Jackson and Nick van der Kolk.
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in March 2018.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:03.9 | Hello, welcome to the podcast of Shortcuts. |
| 0:08.2 | My name's Josie Long. |
| 0:09.4 | Today's episode is a big investigative smasher for us as a program. |
| 0:17.3 | We're solving big mysteries. |
| 0:19.0 | So please feel free to listen with a magnifying glass. |
| 0:22.4 | Every question you've ever wanted answered here in the next 27 minutes, |
| 0:26.9 | as long as your questions dovet how very neatly with the three or four questions that we are answering. |
| 0:39.1 | This is Shortcuts Brief Encounters, true stories, radio adventures and found sound. |
| 0:47.8 | Today, The Answer. |
| 0:50.7 | How low does your voice go? |
| 0:56.3 | Is that low enough? |
| 0:58.9 | Why do you think you didn't hear a reply? |
| 1:01.2 | What did cross my mind that the teacher might have sent it to him? |
| 1:09.3 | We all have a deep need for resolution, for loose ends to be tied up nicely. |
| 1:15.5 | There's something incredibly satisfying about hearing a chord in music resolve. It just feels correct. |
| 1:23.8 | And part of it is because life is a mess. It's complicated and unsatisfying a lot of the time. |
| 1:30.2 | So we want to pin down something ephemeral |
| 1:32.9 | to get straight answers to big elusive questions. |
| 1:37.3 | Here, the audio artist Stephanie Rowden |
| 1:39.8 | tries to capture just that from her son. |
| 1:44.0 | What do you hear at the window? |
... |
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.