Beyond the grave

If proof were needed that radio will survive the onslaught of the new (or rather now not-so-new) digital technologies, albeit somewhat battered and slimmed down, then series like Radio 4’s Unforgettable (produced by Adam Fowler) should clinch it. Each episode is self-contained, and only 15 minutes long (the perfect length for podcasting). It’s cheap to make, requiring just a single guest, and inspired by a really simple idea — to create a conversation between a guest in the studio and someone they once knew who has died. You could make it at home, except that you probably couldn’t because an advanced editing machine is required, and an incredibly skilled operator. In less than professional hands, there’s every chance it would sound artificial and dangerously clichéd; not a conversation, just a series of disconnected statements.

‘I’m really excited to speak with her,’ says Samantha Roddick, daughter of Anita, the businesswoman and founder of the Body Shop, who died in 2007 aged just 64. ‘I haven’t heard her voice for years.’

Fowler explains that he has in his ‘little box of tricks’ a whole cache of clips of Roddick speaking, all now carefully colour-coded under different categories: gender, enthusiasms, outrage. ‘Does she talk about money?’ asks Samantha, anxious to find out why her mother chose to give away all that she had made. She sounds quite hostile.

‘It’s fun,’ Anita chips in. ‘It’s fun being wealthy because what it allows you to be is generous.’

Samantha laughs, but it sounds hollow.

‘Where do you think your rebellion came from?’ she asks her mother in a neat reversal of roles.

When the conversation finishes, you can almost hear Samantha’s sigh of relief. ‘That was intense,’ she says. But not in a bad way. It was intense for us, too.