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Irish Times journalist Fintan O'Toole takes a look at some of the 2,000 letters crowdsourced by Maynooth University as part of a special project in Ireland, marking the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising. There are love letters penned by a couple starting a romance amid the backdrop of the troubles in Dublin, there are letters from soldiers on the Western Front confused at the events back home, there are lost letters and there are last letters from people eventually condemned for their part in the Rising. 

On 26 January 1972 four Aboriginal men began a protest for land rights in Canberra, Australia. First they erected a beach umbrella on the grass outside Parliament House and labelled it an 'embassy'. Soon they were joined by other activists with tents. Gary Foley, an aboriginal activist talks about his part in the demonstration which lasted until July. 

Journalist, broadcaster and author Nichi Hodgson attempts to get to the heart of an issue which divides as many as it unites.This programme looks at the making of porn by and for consenting adults. Nichi explores the arguments for whether the watching and making of it could be policed to ensure standards and best practices.    

The Monkees were the world's first 'manufactured' boy band - created especially for a TV show. Hear from the man who directed that show - Bruce Kessler.

Historian Helen Castor presents a 5-part series about the History of the Midlands. Helen, herself a Midlander, argues that England has largely been shaped historically by the people and places of its Middle counties. 

In 1998 someone cut the head off the most famous statue in Denmark. Inspired by a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, it's a bronze figure of a girl sitting on a rock in Copenhagen harbour. After a police search to find the head, it was Peter Jensen's job to reattach it to the mermaid's body.

Tala Raassi is an Iranian-American Fashion designer currently based in Virginia, whose clothing has been seen on red carpets and some of the most famous people on the planet. She specializes in swimwear which is not something you would necessarily expect for a girl who grew up in ultra-conservative Muslim Iran. 

On 8 September 1966 the cult American science fiction series first went on air. Herb Solow, the original producer of the series, speaks to Ashley Byrne about how the first Star Trek was made. 

Boston in Lincolnshire is home to many settlers from Eastern Europe and has a long history associated with immigration and migration. But the UK media focus in recent years has been on how the people of the Boston of the 21st Century struggle to live side by side. Poet Benjamin Zephaniah, himself a son of immigrants visits Boston to hear, via poetry and interviews with the different people who live there, what Boston means to them.

Stephen Sackur chairs a debate on BBC Radio 4 about the role of prison in the 21st century, at the Galleries of Justice Museum in Nottingham. Is incarceration still fit for purpose in a digital age? Are there other ways to punish and rehabilitate people? 

When Giovanni Vigliotto went on trial for fraud and bigamy in the USA, he claimed he'd married more than a hundred women. Dave Stoller was the Arizona prosecutor who brought him to trial. He's been telling Ashley Byrne the story of the man who would first charm women, then marry them, then cheat them out of their savings and possessions. 

Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Ruzickova endured three Nazi concentration camps and persecution under communist rule. Now turning 90, she says her love of Bach's music gave her strength and hope in the bleakest of moments.