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Simon Tillotson

@simontillotson.bsky.social
4.4K followers 2.2K following 364 posts

Ex-BBC, formerly senior producer of In Our Time now quietly enjoying and celebrating the humanities

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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I agree - Misha was in his element here
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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Well here is a truly magical live-audience & life-affirming episode of BBCInOurTime BBCRadio4—on that movie perennial ‘Casablanca’. Misha Glenny has such equipoise in getting the fluent best from his experts. Unmissable. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
bbc.co.uk
BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Casablanca
The classic 1942 movie that convinced Americans the Second World War was worth fighting.
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yes it’s this standardoflivingplay.com
standardoflivingplay.com
The Standard of Living | Theatre Royal Haymarket 2026
James Graham’s world-premiere play The Standard of Living comes to the West End for a strictly limited season from 21 September to 12 December 2026. Book now.
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
At the theatre and (in the interval) these editions and more come to mind. Guess the play. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I‘ve heard that yes it is available there to subscribers to BBC dot com and I don’t know if it becomes free after 28 days
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Tbh I don’t know but I’ve read that these will be available on BBC.com though there may be a delay
bbc.com
BBC Home - Breaking News, World News, US News, Sports, Business, Innovation, Climate, Culture, Travel, Video & Audio
Visit BBC for trusted reporting on the latest world and US news, sports, business, climate, innovation, culture and much more.
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Congratulations @pamhutch.bsky.social you were brilliant
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
And, as with every edition, I‘m in awe of what Misha and guests achieved - and here not just their broadcast performance but delighting the full house in front of them 🏆.
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This iPlayer edit removes the radio break after 42 minutes, before the podcast extra part ‘what did we miss out’. Thanks to the video edit team who looked after everything once I’d left two days later 👏
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I enjoyed watching this Casablanca discussion for In Our Time, broadcast today, which we recorded (as live, to time) back in July at Crossed Wires. Play it! www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
bbc.co.uk
In Our Time - Casablanca
Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the most popular films of the twentieth century and the remarkable story of its production amidst the Second World War.
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Ah that was my last venture and a great way to bow out
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Among the many delightful experiences when making this In Our Time on Casablanca in Sheffield: exploring Sheffield and watching Casablanca. Highly recommend both (and this programme) www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
From the producer’s chair at the Crossed Wires recording in Sheffield in July
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Higher Education risks irreversible damage, says British Academy president Prof Susan Smith, with humanities and social sciences disciplines disappearing in many cold spots. BA is tracking subject provision & calling for a comprehensive review www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/stateme...
thebritishacademy.ac.uk
British Academy President: UK higher education crisis risks irreversible damage
As course closures, shrinking provision and widening regional inequalities threaten the future of UK higher education and research, President of the British Academy, Susan J Smith calls for an immedia...
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Last day at BBC. First job: interviewing Würzel at a roadies convention. Last job: recording In Our Time in Sheffield on Casablanca. Best job: those days and everything in between. Thanks to everyone who made this possible for me and anyone who listened. And now, time for a tea or coffee.
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
And for hundreds and hundreds of live editions of In Our Time, this is what the producer would see through the soundproof window
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
50E/F
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I realise radio has the best pictures and the studio of the imagination is different from reality, but this is a view of the great workhorse 50F before a regular live In Our Time back in 2016. Taken from the doorway.
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Thanks Hugh. I know you’ve been listening for a long time and it was always encouraging to think ‘if Hugh Sykes enjoys the programmes then we must be doing something right’
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Lots of reasons (and I think of this small section of my bookshelves whenever I see you here so maybe as with line 8 bk 1 this is hard to answer - even for a muse) but partly it‘s because I’ve had 11 years and it’s surely time for others to have the privilege of making this programme
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I don’t know. They didn‘t appear in Utopia but maybe this is in the pipeline!
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Meanwhile (and this is probably a joke someone other than me should make) I hope the new visualised In Our Time does as much for iPlayer as the audio version has for BBC Sounds (figures from last May). Move over, Strictly www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...
bbc.co.uk
Record quarter for BBC Sounds as flagship speech, sport and news titles drive growth on and off platform
The Archers, The Traitors: Uncloaked, In Our Time, and Newscast helped drive BBC Sounds to a record start to 2026
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
In my locker I also found this trophy from the Daily Mail in praise of In Our Time from 2017. I wonder what became of Dominic 🙂. I pinned a copy above my desk for a while
Dominic Sandbrook writing in praise of In Our Time in the Daily Mail in 2017, found when clearing out my locker
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Clearing out my In Our Time locker and finding some good luck offerings from my children, the plate from Oxfam for serving biscuits after recordings, shoe polish for the 9am lives (!) and ear defenders to help me concentrate on eg Hegel in an open plan office
A beach pebble and decoration which my children gave me when I started Small decorative plate for biscuits after recordingsBefore I started I was advised to have shiny black shoes on recording days and I took this seriously Ear defenders for firing shotguns or something like that, which I wore in the open plan office when trying to concentrate on complex ideas
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
For viewers in the UK like me, here’s a link to the first iPlayer version of In Our Time. Wishing my former colleagues every success with this new stage www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
bbc.co.uk
In Our Time - Thomas More’s Utopia
Misha Glenny and guests discuss Thomas More’s notoriously ambiguous text, which coined our word ‘utopia’ and gave rise to new genres of writing, theorising, and thinking.
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Best of luck to In Our Time for this next stage (and looking forward to seeing how our Sheffield Casablanca recording turns out) www.bbc.com/mediacentre/...
bbc.com
BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time to launch as a video podcast on iPlayer from September
Alongside new weekly episodes, a specially-curated audio-only archive edition will be added to the In Our Time feed on BBC Sounds
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Jane Thurber @thurberteam.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
A fun painting in front of a Tate Britain exhibition of JMW Turner's work. The joke is that Turner spelled his second name "Mallord" with an O - not like the duck.
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Catching up with an old friend 🙂 and noticing details I’d missed before www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
In my ignorant state, this episode delivered many “NOW I understand“ moments (and has helped in a couple of quizzes)
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Frank Cogliano @frankcogliano.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
The episode of In Our Time on the Spanish-American War that I was in the spring will be rebroadcast on the #bbcworldservice this weekend. It was a fun conversation with Misha Glenny, Mary Vincent & Stephen Wilkinson, expertly produced by @simontillotson.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
bbc.co.uk
BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time - Next on
Upcoming episodes of In Our Time
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
there’s the Baroque too though again that out of shot
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
There‘s even an article about Dirac and Einstein in our accommodation
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
How many In Our Time programmes have links to this image? I can think of Archaea (pink salt pans), Unification of Italy (Garibaldi landing at Marsala), The Phoenicians (settlement on island in lagoon left of centre), Odyssey, Aeneid, Destruction of Carthage, Venus (though temple site is behind me)
The view from my holiday terrace overlooking Favignana and Marsala
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Admiring ‘Penelope’s Castle’ from a sunbed
The castle used for Ithaca in Nolan’s Odyssey
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
When I realised the BBC (founded October 1922) is a Libra
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Where the University of Catania houses the Humanities department (and its library)
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Off to see Nolan’s Odyssey later and unsure whether these will help or hinder my enjoyment 🙂https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01h9vvk
bbc.co.uk
BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Ancient Greece
Browse the Ancient Greece era within the In Our Time archive.
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
This all makes sense. Steam would fit the flue/exhaust. Could have been light industrial use. Not far from an old hospital
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
In the back garden of a student house in Bristol (near docks) and no idea what it can be
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
thanks for this
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
About 10cm
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Though following your lead it may be a sand gaper as large and fragile?https://www.marlin.ac.uk/species/detail/1404
marlin.ac.uk
Sand gaper (Mya arenaria) - MarLIN - The Marine Life Information Network
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Thank you! I’ve spent so much time by the sea and can’t recall seeing one before - they seem more fragile than the others
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
So many sea shells and I don’t yet know what this larger one is
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Amazing thanks
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Good morning Sheffield! crossedwires.live/podcast/in-o...
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
“Everybody comes to In Our Time in Sheffield this Saturday“ crossedwires.live/podcast/in-o...
crossedwires.live
In Our Time — Crossed Wires Festival 2026
Radio 4's In Our Time makes its Sheffield debut, with a rare chance to see new host Misha Glenny and guests in action. From its start in 1998 with host Melvyn Bragg, In Our Time has become essential l...
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Wonderful afternoon celebrating the career of In Our Time royalty Judith Hawley. Anyone not heard the gin craze episode? www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Closing a wonderful weekend with family fans of Belle and Sebastian first in Glasgow then nearer home 🦊❄️
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Weather was kind and barely rained at all. Arrows Meet supported and went down really well with crowd. A brilliant night
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Simon Tillotson @simontillotson.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Catching up with Belle and Sebastian at Kelvingrove Bandstand, c30 years since I picked Dog on Wheels out of the surplus promo CDs box at GLR and played it to death
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