meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Seriously...

The Ballad of the Bet

Seriously...

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.1885 Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2021

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the small hours of the night, we are up in our thousands watching a wheel spin on our phones - a roulette wheel. It may be virtual, yet for many of us it has a power beyond the real. Gambling has been spun inside down and inside out by the internet age, never more so than under lockdown. With the Gambling Act currently under review, Amy Acre brings the experience of betting alive through poetry, music and oral histories, tracing the social history of gambling over three generations.

Image of Amy Acre by Jamie Cameron Sound design and original music by Jon Nicholls Vocals by Steph MacGaraidh Producer Monica Whitlock Production Coordinator Janet Staples Editor Hugh Levinson

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 there, you're listening to Seriously from BBC Radio 4 and I'm your host Vanessa

0:45.9

Kasule. If you love unique documentaries this is the podcast for you. Each week

0:52.0

you'll find two new episodes to discover. Here's the most

0:55.9

interesting thing you'll hear all week. I've got a horse I've got a horse.

1:06.0

We don't speak to that many gamblers now but if you did the

1:09.4

lawyer tell you about the winners.

1:11.4

They never tell me about the losers. The losers are personal. They're in the heart.

1:18.9

There used to be a man that used to stand in the back entry.

1:23.0

I always remember standing with a long machon and a cap and he wouldn't say anything.

1:30.0

And my dad used to follow the paper around the money and tell me to run up the back entry and give it to the man.

1:35.9

And I used to go up and say, that's off my dad, number 11.

...

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.