The documentary is the latest to be produced by radio indie Made in Manchester for the network’s popular Archive on 4 strand.

One Way Ticket: The Beeching Cuts Revisited will air at 8pm this Saturday night.

Producer and MIM Creative Director Ashley Byrne says: ‘Michael loves the railways and his passion for their history and heritage really comes through in this programme. His BBC2 series is a massive hit and takes up a lot of his time so we are delighted to be able to recruit him for this programme.

“There’s some touching anecdotes from people who worked in the railways during their heyday and Richard Spendlove, creator of the hit TV series Oh Dr Beeching (and a former station master) reminds us how it was a completely different way of life before the hated civil servant wielded his axe to hundreds of lines and stations across the country in the 1960s.

Ashley adds: “We analyse the impact the cuts had on communities and on the way politicians, planners and the public subsequently viewed the railways in the following five decades. And we ask how Dr Beeching might have felt about the railway renaissance we enjoy today.”

Made in Manchester has made a number of programmes in the Archive on 4 strand including the critically acclaimed The Lost World of the Suffragettes (presented by Dan Snow) and The Bradford Fire: A Day That Will Live With Me Forever (presented by Gaby Logan).

Suzie Pugh and a Monster Too already broadcasts on Ireland’s state broadcaster RTE and on the UK’s only dedicated children’s radio station Fun Kids Radio which broadcasts on DAB across the South East.

Starring Vicky Binns from Coronation Street and Steve Murphy from Life on Mars/Shameless, the series will feature as part of the station’s longest running programme Children’s Corner, which has aired on the island since 1929.

The news that Falklands Radio is taking the audio adventure series about a little girl and Smert, her alien monster friend, comes just weeks after the 10 minute episodes began airing on RTE across the Irish Republic.

Falklands Radio Programme Controller Liz Elliot says: “These stories are totally different and new and we believe that our younger listeners (and the young at heart) will really enjoy this fantastic series. A big Falkland Islands welcome to Suzie Pugh and the wonderful Smert.”

She adds: “We are really looking forward to the beginning of the new liaison with the team from Made Manchester.”

In 1982 Falklands Radio was forced off air when Argentina invaded the Islands.

Made in Manchester Creative Director Ashley Byrne says: “It’s really exciting to be supplying programmes to other territories beyond the UK and I hope this will lead to a longer-term relationship with Falklands Radio and other stations especially in Commonwealth countries.

Ashley adds: “MIM is now actively looking at ways we can provide stand-out icing on the cake programming for Falklands Radio and other stations in English-speaking territories around the world. There’s a lot of historic links between the UK and these countries which largely goes uncelebrated. I think it should be nurtured. Watch this space!”

You can hear a specially extended first episode of Suzie Pugh and a Monster Too at www.suziepugh.com

The series can be heard on Falklands Radio online at firs.co.fk while past episodes can also be heard via the RTE radio player at www.rte.ie

The Secret Life of Danny Kaye will air on Britain’s most listened to network next Monday night from 10 til 11pm (March 26th 2012).

Producer Phil Collinge says: ‘Made in Manchester is delighted to be working with Elliott Gould who takes a personal look at the life and career of his screen hero and friend.’

Danny Kaye, who died twenty-five years ago in March 1987, was the son of an immigrant Ukrainian tailor who became the epitome of the American Dream.

Phil adds: ‘Singer, dancer, actor, gourmet chef, conductor and UNICEF ambassador. He was a multi-faceted megastar. Sadly he’s been largely forgotten about and MIM is pleased to be able to revisit his career for this programme.’

Films, musicals and TV specials made Kaye a worldwide superstar and his unique delivery of tongue-twisting lyrics would become his trademark. When Danny sang the Kurt Weill-Ira Gershwin song Tchaikovsky and reeled off the names of 54 Russian composers in 38 seconds, he brought the house down wherever he went.

In 1948, in one of the most successful shows ever witnessed at the London Palladium, Danny’s one man performance brought him adoration of such magnitude that Life magazine described it as “worshipful hysteria”. It was the only time the Royal Family left the royal box and sat in the first row where they could see him better. According to The New York Times, he “roused the Royal Family to shrieks of laughter”.

Amongst those popping up in praise of Danny are Pat Boone, Shirley Mclaine, Michael Caine, Carl Reiner, Anne Rutherford, composer Leslie Bricusse, long term friend Avrum Bluming, performer Shirley Jones, writer/director Paul Mazursky, and Danny’s Daughter Dena, who gives her first interview for many years

Recorded largely in America, the programme also includes the man himself as well, both in archive interviews and in extracts of material which remains as funny today, as it was when Danny first recorded it.

It’s just a few weeks since MIM picked up the BBC’s first Audio Drama online award for its piece about Rock Hudson while the company is no stranger to the How Dos – walking away with the Best Radio Programme of the Year gong in 2009 for its ground breaking 5Live doc ‘Gay Life After Saddam’. MIM has also won or been nominated for RTS and Sony Awards.

Director Ashley Byrne says: ‘We are delighted to have been nominated for this How Do Award. Made in Manchester is now in its 7th year and we continue to go from strength to strength. In the first three months of this year alone we’ve been recognised for our ground breaking drama, a Radio Times columnist has described our Lost World of the Suffragettes documentary as ‘the most impressive’ Archive on 4 she’s heard, we’ve had our first-ever commission for Radio 1 and our children’s series ‘Suzie Pugh and a Monster Too’ has debuted on RTE Radio across Ireland.’

Ladies with Lyrics: The Rise of the UK Female MC will air on the digital radio network as part of the station’s 1Xtra Stories strand this Sunday night (March 18th 2012 from 9 until 10pm. It will be available on the BBC iplayer for a week afterwards.

The success of the likes of Tinie Tempah, Chipmunk and Professor Green in the last few years is proof that male MCs are dominating the scene. But there’s an impressive army of female MCs rising through the ranks and the documentary charts their progress.

Amplify Dot, Lioness, No Lay and Lady Leshurr are confident artistes who have got their male rivals running scared and in this programme 1Xtra’s Sarah-Jane Crawford gets an exclusive insight into this elite set of UK female MCs. Many are saying at least one if not all of them are about to blow the lid off the game in 2012. All that despite an apparent reluctance by major record labels – both here and in America – to sign female rappers.

MIM Producer Marverine Cole says: `It was so much fun speaking to the girls for this 1Xtra story. Each and everyone of them is not only mega-talented but is also incredibly intelligent, witty and self-motivated. They’re all very unique stars of the future and this story is the most real and in depth portrayal of some of the UK’s hottest female MC’s yet. I think 1Xtra listeners will be very pleasantly surprised by what they hear. I love these girls.’

MIM Director Ashley Byrne added: ‘It was great to get this commission from 1Xtra and proves yet again that there are no no-go areas for Made in Manchester. If it’s a good idea we’ll run with it regardless of genre.’

Following the success of Sex Night, the Radio 1 Surgery team will spend three hours this Sunday evening discussing and answering questions about all aspects of sexuality.

Made in Manchester has criss-crossed the country for real stories of young people talking about their experiences.

One piece about Coming Out looks at the different ways in which young people choose to reveal their sexuality. Another looks at how bisexual people face prejudice from both the straight and gay communities while a group of gay and bi women in Newcastle talk about how the media obsession with female to female images causes them problems when trying to forge longer-lasting relationships.

Producer Ashley Byrne adds: ‘It’s not all about the LGBT world though. For example we hear from a group of straight lads in Bath about their affection for each other and so-called male bonding.’

Made in Manchester won the features commission as part of the BBC’s special Northern Round Commissioning Process.

Programming around sexuality has become something of a specialism for Made in Manchester which last year produced Getting Bi (for Radio 4) – the first ever documentary solely dedicated to the subject of bisexuality.

In previous years MIM produced How Aids Changed America for Radio 2 and Gay Life After Saddam for Radio 5 Live (winner of the How Do Radio Programme of the Year Award in 2010)

The award winning radio production company has been working with the Women’s Library, London Metropolitan University to put together a special programme presented by historian and broadcaster Dan Snow.

The hour long show – The Lost World of the Suffragettes – is this Saturday night’s Archive on 4 on BBC Radio 4 and centres around interviews conducted by Oxford historian Sir Brian Harrison over a 7 year period from 1974-1981.

Many of the women were in their 80s and 90s when they were interviewed but all gave sharp testimony of their time in the movement including graphic details of being force fed and drugged whilst on hunger strike in prison.

The programme also lifts the lid on the splits in the cause and questions whether it was the militant suffragettes like Manchester woman Emeline Pankhurst or the much more moderate suffragists who eventually won the vote for women.

Meanwhile we hear about leading suffragettes’ attitude to men and how some of the women found themselves at stark logger heads with the women’s lib movement of the 1970s.

Dan Snow’s great, great grandfather was the Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George who eventually granted the first votes to women at the end of the First World War in 1918.

The idea for the programme came from MIM Creative Director Ashley Byrne and suffrage historian Elizabeth Crawford and has taken four years to get off the ground.

Ashley says: “This archive is amazing as all these women lived quite extraordinary lives.  It’s a credit to Sir Brian Harrison that he was able to glean so much from them.”

He adds: “Who better to present this programme than Dan Snow. Having such a connection to the period through his great, great grandfather makes his contribution particularly special.”

As well as the archive, the programme also includes analysis from Baroness Brenda Dean and Director of Liberty Shami Chakrabarti as well as suffrage historian Elizabeth Crawford and the man behind the tapes, Sir Brian Harrison.

Archive on 4 – The Lost World of the Suffragettes – airs from 8pm until 9pm on BBC Radio 4 this Saturday, 11th February 2012

More details about the entire archive are available at http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/thewomenslibrary/

The series which casts former Coronation Street and Emmerdale star Vicky Binns in the lead role will play out for 15 weeks on RTE’s dedicated children’s station RTEjr from February 18th with a slot at 11am each Saturday morning. 

The 10 minute episodes which revolve around Suzie and her colour-changing monster friend Smert already air on the UK’s only children’s station, Fun Kids Radio in the South East but this is the first time a national broadcaster has taken the series. 

MIM Creative Director Ashley Byrne says: “We are delighted to be able to bring Suzie Pugh and her adventures to Irish audiences. We have long been admirers of RTE and its commitment to children’s programming. Getting youngsters to use their imaginations in this increasingly visualized world can only be a good thing and we salute RTEjr for bringing exciting and engaging audio to a new generation.” 

Martina McGlynn, Head of RTEjr Radio says: “We are delighted to be broadcasting this children’s series and we are thrilled that the voice of such a well known and experienced actor will now be heard on RTEjr Radio on Saturday mornings.” 

She adds: “At RTEjr Radio we want to encourage parents to sit with their children for just 30 minutes a week and to listen to radio. Suzie Pugh and a Monster Too is an engaging and fun series for kids aged 3-8 and would be perfect for parent-child together listening.” 

News that Suzie Pugh and Monster Too is to TX in Ireland comes just days after Made in Manchester won the Best Online Drama Award at the BBC’s New Audio Drama Awards.  The company took the gong for ROCK – Tim Fountain’s piece about Hollywood legend Rock Hudson. Rock was aired as part of a series of dramas produced by MIM for The Independent online. 

Suzie Pugh and Monster Too is written and created by MIM’s Phil Collinge and stars Vicky Binns as Suzie Pugh and Steve Murphy (Shameless, The Street, Life on Mars) as Smert. It is produced by Iain Mackness and Executive Produced by Ashley Byrne. www.suziepugh.com  http://www.rte.ie/digitalradio/rtejr/ or www.funkidslive.com

In a star-studded ceremony presented by former Dr Who actor David Tennant, MIM was recognised for its piece about Hollywood legend Rock Hudson.

ROCK was written and directed by Tim Fountain and starred Michael Xavier as Rock Hudson and Bette Bourne as legendary agent Henry Willson. It was one of a number of pieces produced by Made in Manchester as part of a pioneering experiment to introduce audio drama to new audiences via The Independent newspaper online. ROCK can still be heard at www.independent.co.uk/drama

MIM’s Creative Director Ashley Byrne says: “We are delighted to have been recognised for this piece by the BBC. Special thanks must go to writer and director Tim Fountain, the actors, to producer Iain Mackness who pulled this production off in extra quick time and of course to The Independent online for giving us a platform.”

 And Ashley is now calling on the powers that be inside the BBC to seriously think about opening up their online space to audio drama. 

He says: “Writers, actors, producers all love making audio drama but they rarely get the chance to do so. The BBC has it in its power to give this unique genre more space and to introduce it to new audiences.”

 Ashley, who made 5Live’s first-ever drama last summer, would also like to see audio drama introduced to BBC stations beyond Radio 3 and Radio 4.  Ha adds: “If we can do it on 5Live and online via the Independent, just think what could be done on say, Radio 2. Biopics about popular figures like Rock Hudson would be perfect there.”

 Rock starred Bette Bourne as Henry Willson, Michael Xavier as Rock Hudson, Paul Kendrick as the publicist, Iain Mackness as Phyllis and Matthew Ganley as the newsreader. Original music was composed by Matthew Ganley.  It was written and directed by Tim Fountain, produced by Iain Mackness and the Executive Producer was Ashley Byrne.

 The BBC’s Audio Drama Awards were held in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House. They were hosted by David Tennant with special guests including Richard Wilson, June Whitfield, Rising Damp actor Don Warrington, Johnny Vegas and Eastenders’ and Goodness Gracious Me star Nina Wadia. 

Made in Manchester’s 5Live drama was called Don’t Cry For Me, Maradona and starred Tim Healy as legendary England football manager Bobby Robson and his wife (and Big Brother winner) Denise Welch as Elsie Robson. 

As well as adult audio drama, MIM is currently making children’s audio drama and comedy with the company’s series Suzie Pugh and a Monster Too (starring Coronation Street’s Vicky Binns) being aired on Fun Kids Radio, the digital station for children in the South East of England.

One of Made in Manchester’s ground-breaking audio dramas for the Independent online is up for a top new award.

Rock, the company’s production about legendary Hollywood movie star Rock Hudson has been nominated for Best Online Drama in the BBC’s Inaugural Audio Drama Awards which will be hosted by former Dr Who star David Tennant later this month.

Tim Fountain’s critically acclaimed drama examines how the Rock Hudson name and image was manufactured by 1950’s Hollywood.  Veteran character actor Bette Bourne stars as agent Henry Willson with Rock Hudson played by West End leading man Michael Xavier.

Made in Manchester’s Creative Director Ashley Byrne says: “We’re delighted to be shortlisted for this award.

“When we set out on this project we were determined to introduce radio drama to fresh new audiences and we’ve certainly succeeded in that.
Thousands of people have been listening to our productions from all around the world.

Ashley adds: “Radio drama is a brilliant way to break new writing and new talent and we’ve been delighted to have the support of such big names too.
Rock is brilliantly written and directed by Tim Fountain, the actors are excellent and producer Iain Mackness has done a fantastic job. It’s a quality piece.”

You can still listen to Rock online at www.independent.co.uk/drama

Among the actors who have starred in MIM’s dramas for The Independent on line – Simon Callow, the History Boys’ and Desperate Romantics’ Samuel Barnett – and Coronation Street and Emmerdale star Vicky Binns.

The dramas have included As We Forgive Them (about death row in the United States), Dreaming of Foxes (about Ted Hughes), Turing’s Test (about enigma code breaker Alan Turing) and Death In Genoa (about the latter days of Oscar Wilde’s life).

The projects have also been supported by theatre director Joyce Branagh, poet Ian McMillan and Reggie Perrin creator David Nobbs.

The BBC’s Inaugural Audio Drama Awards’ winners will be announced on Sunday 29th January during a ceremony hosted by David Tennant at the BBC Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House in London.