Episodes

SeriesEpisodeTitleFirst
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Lockdown2020052520210409 (R4)From somewhere deep in lockdown, Jarvis trawls the Wireless Nights archive looking for relief from isolation.

From the darkness of Lundy Island to a snowbound white out, from a man sending radio signals to the moon to a castaway in the North Sea, Jarvis tunes into stories of isolation and endurance with fellow travellers as they make it through the long night.

Produced by Laurence Grissell and Neil McCarthy

Jarvis Cocker shares favourite encounters to weave a restless slumber in lockdown limbo.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

Nights Of Passage2013052320140524 (R4)
20201223 (R4)
Tonight, Jarvis Cocker's award-winning nocturnal exploration of the human condition takes to the sea. Join him on the midnight sailing of a Channel ferry as he contemplates night crossings mythic and modern.

As he moves across dark waters, he hears the miraculous story of Jeni, a castaway lost and found in the North Sea whose epic struggle took place at night. He meets Sean, a young wrestler who slips through the ropes of the ring for his first fight night and embarks on his own rite of passage. Also on board, a wise old man of the sea, Swilly Billy, keeps Jarvis on course.

The ferryman of dead souls across the ancient River Styx also shadows the vessel, but fear not, sea sickness tablets are available and the lights of Calais are not far off.

Produced by Neil McCarthy

Jarvis Cocker's award-winning nocturnal exploration of the human condition takes to sea.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

0101Overnight Delivery2012040520140503 (R4)
20200526 (R4)
Jarvis Cocker prowls the dark, finding stories of the night people in a Prix Italia winning series.

Tonight, in an edition which won the Prix Italia for Extraordinary Originality and Innovation - a top European radio prize - the theme is Overnight Delivery. Jarvis boards the red-eye, taking a transatlantic flight of the imagination - peering down at the human dramas beneath as the world slowly rotates - accompanied by Jarvis' own musical selections.

As Jarvis reaches cruising altitude, he finds himself gripped by the compelling life and death stories of a shepherdess in the midst of a very difficult birth, a transplant nurse on late shift and a priest who performs the role of deliverance ministry - in layman's terms: exorcism.

But this dark night is not without light relief, as Jarvis muses on the trying experience of long haul air travel, revealing his own antidote to a fear of flying: Hugh Grant.

Producer: Laurence Grissell

Jarvis Cocker prowls the dark, telling stories of the night in this award-winning series.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

0102They Only Come Out At Night2012041220140510 (R4)
20200527 (R4)
Continuing his new series of nocturnal meditations, Jarvis Cocker prowls the nation's night.

This evening's theme is 'they only come out at night'. Jarvis slips between the shadows to find punks, poets, poker dens and an alcohol fuelled badger watch and eavesdrops on a series of nocturnal dreams and dramas.

His guide to the dark is poet, author and explorer of the night Al Alvarez. In this trip through the night Al points him towards a gambling club where players never see daylight and nerves begin to fray around the card table; to a feminist punk gig where other more exotic identities emerge under cover of darkness; and to an allotment in Hastings where a man's mind unwinds whilst drinking beer, feeling 'the wild' and entertaining notions of sabotage.

Jarvis is our roving eye and ear entering these nocturnal worlds to shine a light whilst contemplating what it is that we search for once night falls.

Producer: Neil McCarthy

Jarvis Cocker prowls the dark in search of those who only come out at night.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

0103Behind Closed Doors2012041920161003 (R4)Jarvis Cocker takes to the streets to peer through stained windows, cold steel bars and Japanese paper screens, to find out just what goes on Behind Closed Doors at night time.

He joins a lock-in where the time bell is never rung, and peers into the deepest recesses of a lock-in brain that belongs to Jack, reliving the night when the doors shut in his brain.

On his nocturnal sojourn Jarvis recalls old times, on the streets of post-industrial Sheffield, and shares the loneliness of the long sentenced prisoner who dreams of empty streets under a full moon.

Take a night walk with Jarvis Cocker; bring a torch. You might find yourself in a dark corner, but you've got a good guide.

Producer: Sara Jane Hall.

Jarvis Cocker goes on a city night walk to find out what goes on behind closed doors.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

0104Night Manoeuvres2012042620150804 (R4)
20200528 (R4)
Jarvis Cocker continues his prowl through the dark in the last of his new series Wireless Nights.

This evening he invites you on a curb crawl around the seamy side of town as he explores the theme 'night manoeuvres'. Driving through London he weaves his way in and out of the lives of other night riders who are always on the move. He joins a private invstigator in Nottingham on a car chase and stake out on the trail of a man suspected to be having an affair; he finds a minicab driver lost in the Mersey fog between fares, haunted by an eerie bell; and is encircled by street skaters who spin around the neon-lit West End and dark car parks seeking thrills on wheels.

The ride might get a bit hairy at times, but he promises to drop you off safely at the end.

Produced by Neil McCarthy and Laurence Grissell

Jarvis Cocker prowls the nations dark in search of the night people

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

0201Night Of The Hunter2013050920161007 (R4)Jarvis Cocker returns to Radio 4 with his award-winning feature series exploring the human condition after dark. Tonight is the 'Night of the Hunter' and Jarvis turns his eye to the starlit sky with his mind on hunters and their quarry.

Taking his bearings from Orion, he follows a lamper across farmland hunting foxes by torchlight. A soldier takes him on a top secret mission behind enemy lines when the hunter became the hunted. He accompanies a young man nervously preparing for his first date, in pursuit of love. And a party of friends go out on the pull in Hull, with mixed results.

Join him on an aural journey of the imagination as he tunes into the wireless night.

Producer Neil McCarthy

Contributor recordings by Sara Parker, David Reeves and Laurence Grissell.

Jarvis Cocker returns with his award-winning nocturnal exploration of the human condition.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

0202Nightwatch2013051620140517 (R4)Jarvis Cocker becomes a nightwatchman in a high rise office block as he continues his nocturnal exploration of the human condition.

Decked out in regulation uniform and armed with a powerful torch, Jarvis starts his rounds protecting London's 36 storey Euston Tower. Along the way, he hears tales from others keeping watch during the dark hours.

Among those who share their stories of late night vigilance are the parents of a young girl with a rare condition which causes her to stop breathing when she falls asleep; a man at a control centre in Portsmouth who monitors the Indian Ocean for Somali pirates and a former spy recalling a dangerous meeting with a Middle Eastern agent.

For Jarvis, the strain of this late lonely night starts to takes its toll as he attempts to play table tennis - with himself.

As ever, the stories in tonight's dark vigil are accompanied by Jarvis' own musical selections.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Jarvis becomes a night watchman, and a nurse and a spy also share stories of keeping watch

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

0204The Darkest Hour2013053020161006 (R4)Jarvis Cocker stars in his own horror movie as he continues his nocturnal examination of the human condition, exploring the battle between the forces of darkness and light.

He hears from horror movie goers at the Electric Cinema in Birmingham, keen to turn the lights off and let the scares begin; the National Grid control room which is charged from keeping the lights on; and Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel - where the electricity switches off at midnight.

What is lurking in the basement as Jarvis approaches the darkest hour?

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Jarvis explores the battle between the forces of darkness and light.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

03Bbc Philharmonic Presents...2014122120141013 (R4)
20141225 (R4)
To mark the winter solstice, a chance to hear a programme first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 1st October in which Jarvis Cocker brought his award winning series Wireless Nights to Salford, forming part of this year's BBC Philharmonic Presents... series, a celebration of orchestral music in its many different forms.

In front of a studio audience, Jarvis Cocker and the BBC Philharmonic weave tales of insomnia, nocturnal inspirations and dark imaginings from the world of classical music - against the backdrop of a President embroiled in the Vietnam War. There's also a special performance from Jarvis himself.

Jarvis tells stories of an insomniac German Count who supposedly had Bach compose his Goldberg Variations as a sleeping aid, and a wired President Nixon listening to Rachmaninov in the small hours when he felt the urge to go on a bizarre excursion in the presidential limo.

He also conjures up music that came in dreams and revelations - from Stravinsky's wild visions in the Rite of Spring to Schumann's once forgotten Violin Concerto, which apparently re-emerged during a s退ance many years after the composer's death.

Maxime Tortelier conducts the BBC Philharmonic led by Yuri Torchinsky. Anthony Marwood plays solo violin and Peter Donohoe plays solo piano.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and repeated on 6 Music to mark the Winter Solstice.

Producers: Laurence Grissell and Neil McCarthy

Jarvis Cocker and the BBC Philharmonic weave dark tales of insomnia and nocturnal visions.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

0302Reaching For The Moon2014102020150805 (R4)
20200529 (R4)
Jarvis Cocker attempts to fly to the moon with the aid of astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

0303Lava And Ice2014102720150806 (R4)Jarvis Cocker wanders the lava fields of Iceland in search of the unseen forces of night. In the midnight shadow of Snaefellsjokull, the volcano featured in Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Jarvis considers the timelessness of the landscape, until he discovers sheep time. His sheep guides only lead him further into the unknown, through a hole in the lava floor and on a journey through a magma underworld, finding there a symphony orchestra, human seals and a wake.

Producer Neil McCarthy.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

0304Bright Nights2014110320150807 (R4)In the second part of his nocturnal Icelandic adventure, Jarvis goes on a journey through the long, light summer night. He meets Megas, the island's best known poet and rock and roll legend, who warns of wandering demons as he embarks on an overnight road trip.

Along the way he stops to hear ghost stories in Reykjavik's oldest cemetery, meets an elf seer in a lava field and is led to a sacred waterfall, behind which he makes a wish. But will he make it back before the hour of the wolf?

Producer Neil McCarthy.

Jarvis Cocker goes on a journey through an Icelandic night that never falls.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

04Keep On Truckin'2015113020161004 (R4)Jarvis Cocker continues his nocturnal exploration of the human condition.

Tonight: an unlucky trucker, a hopeful hitch-hiker and a host of Scottish ghostbusters.

As Jarvis climbs up into the Wireless Nights monster truck, he hears from a long distance lorry driver who received a nasty surprise, a hitcher trying to make it to Liverpool and he travels along the most haunted stretch of road in Scotland.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Jarvis meets an unlucky trucker, a hopeful hitchhiker and a host of Scottish ghostbusters.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

04Snowbound2015120720161005 (R4)Jarvis Cocker is snowed in for tonight's nocturnal exploration of the human condition. With the snow piling high outside his farmhouse and long hours to kill, Jarvis's mind drifts to other snowbound dramas and dilemmas as he tries to distract himself from a creeping solitude. But as night draws on, can he be sure he's really alone?

Producer Neil McCarthy.

Jarvis Cocker finds himself snowbound in his nocturnal exploration of the human condition.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

04The Nightclub20151214Jarvis Cocker invites you to a night out in Soho on his nocturnal exploration of the human condition. Below street level he finds drama and delirium as clubbers play out their lives after dark.

From a dimly lit ska joint to an after hours speakeasy, Jarvis is night guide to the smoke and mirrors of underground Soho - brushing shoulders with a club angel, a psychic mod and a singing waitress in among the shadows.

(Free dance lesson included)

Producer Neil McCarthy.

Jarvis Cocker's nocturnal exploration of the human condition leads him to Soho after dark.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

04Underwater At The Proms2015112320151231 (R4)Jarvis Cocker's nocturnal exploration of the human condition takes him beneath the waves in this special edition of Wireless Nights.

Accompanied by the BBC Philharmonic at this year's Proms, as Jarvis drifts off to sleep he soon finds himself on an underwater voyage down to the endless night of the ocean bed. En route, he meets psychoanalyst Carl Jung, two submariners called Roger trapped in a tiny submersible and a free-diver experiencing 'the rapture of the deep'.

The BBC Philharmonic creates a sonic seascape as Jarvis goes deeper and deeper - but will he make it back to the surface in time to wake up?

Producers Laurence Grissell and Neil McCarthy.

Jarvis Cocker goes on an undersea voyage with the BBC Philharmonic in this Radio 4 Prom.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

05Berlin2017040320200813 (R4)Jarvis Cocker's nocturnal exploration of the human condition leads him to Berlin. Walking in the shadowlands of the Wall he reflects on a once divided city and hears stories of thenacht.

Between East and West, he encounters a 1930s musical salon run by a cabaret diva; a ballroom dancing escapee from East Berlin; an underground den of iniquity and vice; and Iggy Pop, held prisoner.

Amid the street-lit ruins of the Berlin Wall, he considers the scar left behind.

Jarvis Cocker's nocturnal exploration of the human condition leads him to the Berlin Wall.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

05Joujouka2017031320200810 (R4)Jarvis Cocker returns to Radio 4 with his nocturnal explorations of the human condition.

In tonight's Wireless Night, Jarvis travels to a remote village in the Rif Mountains of Morocco to join the Master Musicians of Joujouka. Their ancient Sufi trance music is said to heal crazy minds. Jarvis wonders if his own troubled mind can find tranquillity there but encounters the wild living embodiment of the God Pan, half man and half goat, who has other ideas.

The Master Musicians of Joujouka were first discovered by Western ears in the 1950's when beat writers and artists like Brion Gysin and William Burroughs, living in Tangier, were lured up to the hills and had their minds blown by the healing power of the music. Rolling Stone Brian Jones also made a recording of their music shortly before his death calling it The Rites of Pan in Joujouka. This ritual lives on in the village, where somebody dressed in goatskins takes on the mythical character Bou Jeloud, enters a trance, whirls around with branches of willow and anyone he brushes with is blessed with fertility.

For one night only Jarvis joins the musicians and Bou Jeloud under a starlit sky in North Africa where unexpected things happen after dark.

This programme was recorded 'Binaurally'. This is a special, immersive way of recording whereby you'll hear things the way Jarvis was hearing them and can best be appreciated by listening on headphones.

Producer Neil McCarthy.

Jarvis Cocker is back, curing a troubled mind with a night of sufi trance music in Morocco

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

05Megahertz2017032720200812 (R4)Jarvis Cocker navigates the ether as he continues his nocturnal exploration of the human condition.

On a night voyage across a sea of shortwave he meets those who broadcast, monitor and harvest electronic radio transmissions after dark.

Paddy McAloon, founder of the band Prefab Sprout, took to trawling the megahertz when he was recovering from eye surgery and the world around him became dark. Tuning in at night he developed a ghostly romance with far-off voices and abnormal sounds.

Artist Katie Paterson and 'Moonbouncer' Peter Blair send Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata to the moon and back, to find sections of it swallowed up by craters.

Journalist Colin Freeman was captured by the Somali pirates he went to report on and held hostage in a cave. But when one of them loaned him a shortwave radio, the faint signal to the outside world gave him hope as he dreamed of freedom.

And 'London Shortwave' hides out in a park after dark, with his ear to the speaker on his radio, slowly turning the dial to reach all four corners of the earth

Jarvis sails in and out of their stories - from the cosmic to the captive - as he wonders what else is out there, deep in the noise

Producer Neil McCarthy.

Jarvis Cocker navigates the ether in his nocturnal exploration of the human condition.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

05Night Tube2017032020200811 (R4)Jarvis Cocker rides in the driver's cab of a late night Tube train, hearing tales of nocturnal travellers across London.

With Beyonc退-loving Night Tube driver Kylie at the controls, Jarvis is whisked along the Victoria line late into the night. En route he hears from a cast of characters embroiled in their own dramas as they make their way around the capital in the small hours - including a late night reveller who fell sleep on the train and got more than she'd bargained for.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Jarvis Cocker rides in the driver's cab of a late-night Tube train.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

06A New Year's Resolution2019010120210104 (R4)Jarvis Cocker continues his nocturnal exploration of the human condition. He often lies awake at night trying, unsuccessfully, to nod off. But, not one to give up, his New Year's resolution is to crack this habit and attain the perfect night's sleep. His restless search leads him to fellow insomniac Marina Benjamin, sleep coach Max Kirsten, Greek goddesses and a cave where night meets day and peace may possibly reside.

Producer Neil McCarthy

Jarvis Cocker on the nocturnal human condition, trying to get the perfect night's sleep

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

06Destiny's Child2018122520201225 (R4)Jarvis Cocker hosts a special festive edition, telling stories of a shepherdess and a miracle birth, whilst a wise man looks out for bright lights in the Christmas skies.

On a cold and frosty Christmas night, a baby is set to enter the world in the most inauspicious circumstances, a pair of shepherds keep watch over their flocks and a star gazer scans the heavens for unusual signs.

Producer: Laurence Grissell

Jarvis Cocker hosts a festive edition, with stories of a shepherdess and a miracle birth

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

06Dungeness2018121120201221 (R4)Jarvis Cocker's series exploring the human condition after dark returns with a night wander around Dungeness.

Sometimes referred to as Britain's only desert, it's a shingle headland in Kent jutting into the English Channel. Sparsely populated, with wooden shack cottages and star filled night skies, a lighthouse sweeping its beam out to sea and a nuclear power station glowing with electric light like a city suspended in the darkness.

But Jarvis isn't alone as he explores this untamed landscape, torch in hand. Also on the move are Paddy Hamilton and Bridget Wilkins who leave the cosiness of their old railway carriage home for a night walk on the beach, bumping into a Chinese fishing party along the way. At the Bird Observatory, moth trappers Sean Clancy and David Walker keep vigil as they wait for a specimen to fly into the light and recall other things that went bump in the night. Doreen Thomas, the matriarch of a Dungeness fishing family, reflects on nights gone by. And Mark Daniels is out there somewhere, swimming in the cold black inky waters.

Producer Neil McCarthy

Jarvis Cocker returns with his series exploring the human condition after dark

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

06Night Train2018121820201222 (R4)Jarvis Cocker's series exploring the human condition after dark boards the Wireless Nights Express to hear tales of night people on sleeper - or sleepless - trains. He begins on the Caledonian Sleeper, leaving the noise and crowds of London Euston to make a night-time journey across the country to the Scottish Highlands. In the dining car and corridors he meets fellow passengers and stewards. And as he starts to drift off in his cabin, the train makes some unscheduled stops.

Geoff MacCormack recalls taking the Trans-Siberian express with his childhood friend David Bowie and a sobering stop at the East German border. Tessa Smit boards a twenty-four hour party train; and travel writer Colin Thubron on the time he got off his train, in the middle of Siberia.

Producer: Georgia Catt

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

07Bat Night2021112220220307 (R4)Jarvis Cocker is back with a new series of Wireless Nights

Tonight, armed with a bat detector Jarvis sets off through a wetland in search of bats and bat stories.

He finds ecologist John Altringham crouched beside a cave in North Yorkshire awaiting a swarm of bats that come once a year to dance the night away.

Jayne Hyde Dryden is using her powers of echo location to find her way around on a night walk. Being blind, this helps her see in sound.

And Gail Armstrong is on watch at the Bat Hospital in Lancashire, nursing injured bats back to good health and finally returning them to the wild.

Thanks to Lisa Woodward at the London Wetland Centre

Producer Neil McCarthy

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, and goes in search of bats

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

07Full Moon2021120620220321 (R4)In this edition of Wireless Nights, Jarvis Cocker discovers what happens here on earth on the night of the full moon. He'll be meeting the planet's inhabitants, both man and beast, as they divulge what light of the full moon does to them.

Jarvis heads to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London to search for the full moon. His guide and telescope operator is astronomer Dr Emily Drabek-Maunder. Jarvis also discovers what others are getting up to on this full moon night.

On a beach in Merseyside he encounters Moon Goddess Gatherings, a mass ritual where hundreds of women watch the full moon rise and embrace the energy of the lunar cycle.

The writer Lewis Coleman reflects on his own relationship with the full moon as is teases him with lunacy and lycanthropy.

And ecologist Rachel Grant reveals how a moonlit Italian jeep ride led her to discover that it's not just wolves driven wild by the full moon, but amphibians too.

Lewis Coleman is the author of Drinking The Moon and other works.

Rachel Grant specialises in behavioural and evolutionary ecology at London South Bank University.

Dr Emily Drabek-Maunder is an astrophysicist and Senior Manager of Public Astronomy at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

Karlee Matthews is Lead Pathfinder for Moon Goddess Gatherings.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

07Lost In The Forest2021112920220314 (R4)Jarvis Cocker gets lost in the forest at night and encounters a series of rather intriguing characters.

As darkness falls on the forest, Jarvis realises he's hopelessly lost. Disorientated and desperately trying to find his way out, his nocturnal woodland walk takes a series of increasingly dark turns.

He stumbles upon members of Essex Ghost Hunters who are mounting some rather spooky paranormal investigations. Another presence in the woods tonight is storyteller Lisa Schneidau who recounts some very strange fairy tales and legends of the forest after dark. He then runs into mountaineer Nick Bullock who recalls his own terrifying encounter in the forests of Alberta, Canada.

But just as the darkness of the forest seems to be at its most impenetrable, Jarvis runs into bushcraft expert David Willis who guides him back to the light.

Lisa Schneidau is the author of 'Woodland Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland', and Nick Bullock is the author of 'Tides: A Climber's Voyage'.

Producer: Laurence Grissell

Jarvis Cocker gets lost in the forest at night and encounters some intriguing characters

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people

07On The Edge2021121320220327 (R4)Jarvis goes into hospital for a routine procedure, and the anaesthetic gives him some very strange nocturnal visions.

As Dr Ed Patrick administers the anaesthetic, Jarvis is transported far, far away. One moment he's on a Scottish lighthouse at midnight with artist and writer Peter Hill, who spent time as a lighthouse keeper in the 1970s.

Then, in the blink of an eye, he's in a blizzard in the far north of Norway with Sunniva Sorby and Hilde F倀lun Strøm, who became the first women in history to overwinter solo in the Arctic.

The visions just keep coming as ice turns to fire, and Jarvis finds himself on the top of a mountain watching forest fires burn through the night with author Philip Connors who spends half of every year as a fire lookout high up in the mountains of New Mexico.

In a night of vivid encounters, everyone Jarvis meets has stepped away from their every day lives, to live life on the edge.

Doctor and comedian Ed Patrick is the author of 'Catch Your Breath: The Secret Life of a Sleepless Anaesthetist

Peter Hill is the author of 'Stargazing: Memoirs of a Young Lighthouse Keeper

Philip Connors is the author of 'Fire Season: Field notes from a wilderness lookout'.

Details of the work of Sunniva Sorby and Hilde F倀lun Strøm are at heartsintheice.com

Producer: Laurence Grissell

Jarvis goes into hospital, and the anaesthetic gives him some very strange visions.

Jarvis Cocker explores the human condition after dark, with stories of night people