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Limelight

Limelight

BBC Radio 4 278 Episodes Sep 18, 2026

The Limelight podcast features fiction and drama serials from BBC Radio 4, offering a curated selection of compelling audio stories.

Episodes

Underground: Episode 1
Underground: Episode 1 Sep 18, 2026 1705 Tutor Charly arrives in luxury bunker Thornfield. But something's not right with this place. And what happened to her predecessor? In a near-future world on the brink of societal collapse, the wealthiest 0.01% have retreated into luxury bunkers. These high-tech fortresses boast swimming pools, cinemas, and hydroponic farms, but their inhabitants live in a bubble of paranoia and control. Charly tak
Underground: Trailer
Underground: Trailer Sep 14, 2026 139 In a near-future world on the brink of societal collapse, the wealthiest 0.01% have retreated into luxury bunkers. These high-tech fortresses boast swimming pools, cinemas, and hydroponic farms, but their inhabitants live in a bubble of paranoia and control. Charly takes a job tutoring the children of reclusive billionaire Edward in his doomsday bunker. But when strange things start happening, it
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 10
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 10 Sep 11, 2026 2027 1968. LBJ is running out of time. Having abandoned his own re-election campaign, the President turns to the one achievement that might redeem his final months in office: peace in Vietnam. But as the US election tightens, the CIA begins to pick up signs that Nixon’s campaign may be using secret back channels to keep South Vietnam away from the negotiating table. For LBJ, it could destroy his final
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 9
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 9 Sep 4, 2026 1865 America is losing faith in Vietnam. After a major communist offensive shocks the public and exposes the fragility of the war effort, LBJ faces pressure from every side. The generals want more troops. The country wants answers. And inside Washington, the search begins for a strategy that can deliver results without admitting defeat. Into that vacuum steps Bill Colby, played by David Duchovny — the
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 8
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 8 Aug 28, 2026 1807 The war in Vietnam is no longer happening far away. Images of conflict flood American living rooms and the anti-war movement explodes. LBJ is convinced the protests cannot be truly domestic. Someone must be behind them: Moscow, Havana, perhaps both. He orders Richard Helms and the CIA to find the foreign influence driving unrest at home. But as the Agency moves closer to spying on American citizen
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 7
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 7 Aug 21, 2026 2096 Rumours are spreading through the Bolivian jungle: Che Guevara is back. For Washington, the possibility is explosive. The world’s most famous revolutionary may be trying to ignite another insurgency in the Americas — and the CIA cannot afford to let his legend grow. But before they can act, they need proof. Is it really Che? Or another fighter hiding behind the myth? As the Agency trains Bolivian
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 6
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 6 Aug 14, 2026 1888 Richard Helms has finally reached the top of the CIA. Now he has to prove the Agency deserves to be heard. In Vietnam, the Pentagon insists America is winning. The CIA’s own intelligence tells a darker story: the enemy is larger, stronger and more resilient than Washington wants to believe. LBJ demands evidence, and Helms must stand behind an estimate that challenges everything the military is tel
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 5
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 5 Aug 7, 2026 2018 Soviet nuclear power is growing, and LBJ wants answers. Inside the CIA, Eloise Page and Richard Helms are trying to bring the Agency into a new age of intelligence: satellites, signals, analysis and serious tradecraft. But Admiral Raborn needs a triumph of his own — something bold enough to impress the President and prove he belongs in the job. His solution is one of the strangest operations in CI
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 4
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 4 Jul 31, 2026 2000 1965. Richard Helms is the obvious choice to lead the CIA. Experienced, respected and trusted inside the Agency, he appears to be next in line. LBJ has other ideas and instead appoints Admiral William “Red” Raborn — a fellow Texan with almost no intelligence experience. On his first day, a coup erupts in the Dominican Republic, and Raborn is thrown into a crisis he barely understands. As LBJ deman
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 3
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 3 Jul 24, 2026 1962 1964. At the Pentagon, America’s future in Vietnam is played out in two rooms. The war game is meant to test whether bombing North Vietnam can force a communist retreat. But the simulation points to a devastating conclusion - whatever America does, the North will keep fighting, the Viet Cong will keep being supplied, and the war cannot be won on Washington’s terms.The CIA sees the warning clearly.
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 2
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 2 Jul 17, 2026 1971 1964. As British Guiana edges towards independence, Washington fears another communist foothold in the Americas. But the President’s attention is soon caught by a more immediate irritation: Harold Wilson’s new Labour government is pressing ahead with a lucrative export deal to Castro’s Cuba. To London, it is just business. To LBJ, it looks like betrayal. And as the CIA tries to keep one eye on Bri
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 1
Central Intelligence: Series 3: Episode 1 Jul 10, 2026 1824 1964. Chile is preparing to vote — and Washington is watching nervously. With the memory of Cuba still raw, LBJ fears another communist foothold in the Americas. Inside Langley, the CIA is told to help deliver the right result before the ballot box produces the wrong one. For Eloise Page, Richard Helms and John McCone, that means money, media, pressure, persuasion — and the fine art of interferenc

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