Slow Radio Folgen

Artist and cultural geographer Rob St John joins presenter Will Abberley on a walk through the Pennines, untangling the idea of the dark and unsettling impression of eeriness in the English landscape.

Dusk to dawn at the Isle of Wight Zoo.On the beautiful Sandown Beach on the Isle of Wight stands a historic fort, now home to the Isle of Wight Zoo. It is run by the Wildheart Trust, which promotes the survival of endangered species, and is well-known as a centre for rescued big cats who, along with pocket-sized primates and other even smaller animals have a starring role in this portrayal of the sounds of the zoo. The programme moves from dusk, as the animals prepare for sleep, through the small hours of the night, when the silence is punctuated by the sound of snoring, to dawn and the beginning of a new day.

A montage of music and natural sounds from the world’s northernmost freshwater lake in Siberia where you’ll hear the calls of Lapland buntings, oriental golden plovers and ptarmigans. We also visit Ein Bokek Canyon in Israel, where the chirps of graceful warblers compete with the rasping sounds of Tristram’s grackles. Then we head to Dyfed in Wales, where an early morning chorus of chaffinches and wrends is joined by the gentle bleating of sheep and lambs on the hillsides. We end in Tanzania, and the Olduvai Gorge, where calls from slate-coloured bou-bous and yellow-necked francolins combine with the distant braying of donkeys and far-off spotted hyenas.