David Dimbleby to host Invisible Hands and Joe Dunthorne to present Half-Life for The History Podcast on BBC Radio 4
BBC Sounds has announced two brand new series which will air this spring as part of the popular history strand, The History Podcast.
Invisible Hands is a landmark six-part narrative podcast in which David Dimbleby tells the seismic story of the free market revolution - perhaps the most powerful political idea of the 20th century. But this is not a dry story of economic models, this is the story of the little-known visionaries, mavericks and outcasts who made it their life's work to transform Britain's economy forever, setting the stage for Margaret Thatcher's reforms, the City's big bang and beyond. Dimbleby, who witnessed the idea unfold first-hand across his years as a BBC political reporter and presenter, takes us through the dramatic twists and turns of its evolution. His story starts - unexpectedly - on a chicken farm in Sussex, with the man who went on to set up the influential Institute of Economic Affairs think tank, before tracking the idea as it moved its way through the shadows of post-war London, and exploded onto a scene of opulence and excess in the new champagne bars of the City. Today, free market capitalism dominates every corner of British life, but how did it happen and who were the masterminds behind it? The History Podcast: Invisible Hands will begin on 26th March on BBC Radio 4 and Sounds.
David Dimbleby, broadcaster and presenter of Invisible Hands, says: 'Looking back on a lifetime interviewing politicians and debating their ideas I think that none was more radical than the theory of free market capitalism. In the mid-1970s no one knew what it really meant or where the idea came from. This is the story of how this revolutionary idea took hold, challenging old assumptions and redefining British society. It begins with a fighter pilot shot down in the Battle of Britain, an ambitious chicken farmer and a politician nick-named the mad monk who embraced the idea with such enthusiasm that he persuaded the government to abandon the old way of running Britain for a new and as yet untried theory. I was seven when the Second World War ended, and in this series, I trace the history of the revolutionary idea that spans my own lifespan, and now defines every part of our lives in Britain.'
Following closely this May, Half-Life follows award-winning poet, novelist and journalist Joe Dunthorne as he embarks on a deeply personal investigation into his own family history. The gripping eight-part series starts with the story of his great-grandfather, Siegfried, a German-Jewish chemist who made radioactive toothpaste in the 1920s. While trying to write his family's history, Joe discovers Siegfried's nearly two thousand page memoir, a turgid and repetitive account of his life that few members of his family ever managed to finish reading. Joe was going in search of the details of his family's dramatic escape from Nazi Germany in 1936 but found a far more disturbing history, a confession from his great-grandfather hidden on page 1,692. This unearths a story of unexploded bombs, radioactive soil and erased histories that takes Joe from Berlin to Ankara to North Carolina and back to Swansea.
Joe Dunthorne, presenter of Half-Life, says: 'Half-Life is about the stories we tell ourselves, who we are and where we come from – and how these stories often hide a more complex truth. As I explored the messy inheritance left to me by my great-grandfather, I learned first-hand the many ways history continues to haunt our present. It lives on inside us, even when we try to ignore it.'
Daniel Clarke, Factual Commissioning Editor at Radio 4, says: 'We are delighted to add not one but two new history series to our popular history strand, The History Podcast. These new commissions follow the success of The Lucan Obsession, which reignited the nation's fascination with one of the most enduring mysteries of the 20th century, and The Brighton Bomb, which featured fresh testimony on the 1984 IRA plot to assassinate Margaret Thatcher. Such engaging and high quality titles saw The History Podcast ranked as the fourth most-listened to podcast on BBC Sounds in the last quarter of 2024.'
The History Podcast is Radio 4's home for story-driven history documentaries. The new series follows a string of successful titles under the same strand, available to listen to now on BBC Sounds: The Lucan Obsession, The Brighton Bomb, Escape from the Maze, D-Day: The Last Voices, Shadow War: China and the West.
In addition to this, beginning on Wednesday 2 April, BBC Radio 4 will treat listeners to a new weekly five-minute feature called This Week in History. Each episode will be read by Radio 4 announcers. They will spotlight a selection of the most fascinating and significant events that occurred this same week in the past. The feature will air on Wednesdays, with repeats on Fridays.
Listen to The History Podcast on BBC Sounds
Credits
The History Podcast: Invisible Hands
Begins on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds on 26 March 2025
Presented by David Dimbleby
A Samizdat Audio production
Producer: Jo Barratt
Executive Producers and Story editors: Dasha Lisitsina and Joe Sykes
Sound Design: Peregrine Andrews
The History Podcast: Half-Life
Available on BBC Sounds from 7 May 2025
Written and presented by Joe Dunthorne
A Falling Tree production
Produced by Eleanor McDowall.
Executive Producer: Alan Hall
Story Consultant: Sarah Geis
Original music composed by Jeremy Warmsley
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