The Sound of Fear (with Julian May, for Radio 4, October, 2011)
Walls of Sound (with Julian May, for Radio 4, April, 2010)
Then – Now (with Andy Cartwright, Soundscape Productions for BBC Radio 4. January 9, 2006)
Not What It Used To Be -Nostalgia and the English (with Julian May, The Archive Hour, BBC Radio 4, March , 2006)
The Frisco Quake (with Alan Hall, Falling Tree Productions for Radio 4, 12 April, 2006)
Home Recorded Voices (BBC Radio 4, December 2008)
The Trial of Ezra Pound (BBC Radio 3, July, 2008)
Like Blackpool Went Through Rock (BBC Radio 4, June, 2008)
Seán Street has worked in radio since 1970. He began his career at BBC Radio Solent, later moving into the commercial sector when 2CR opened in Bournemouth, in 1980. Here he was Features Editor, leaving in 1987 to develop work as a freelance programme maker. Since that time he has made programmes for The BBC World Service, BBC Radios 2,3 and 4, and a number of commercial radio stations, including LBC in London.
The Sound Of Fear
Elisabeth Mahoney
The Guardian, Tue 18 Oct 2011 21.40 BST
Radio programmes about sound are often a delight, exploring the medium's currency, but they can be esoteric. Not so The Sound of Fear (Radio 4), a fascinating consideration of why sounds scare us, if only some of the time. Hearing footsteps nearby during the day, for example, wouldn't warrant attention. But, as one contributor put it to presenter Sean Street: "If I'm woken up by the sound of footsteps in the middle of the night that has a very different meaning".
This exploration had three major things in its favour. First, Street is blessed with a very listenable becalming voice and second, it was beautifully produced by Julian May to include a rich aural backdrop of noises that might terrify.
Street had fine contributors, too. I could listen to musician and writer David Toop for hours on the subject. Sounds, he argued, are fleeting: "As soon as you make a sound, it's gone." Because of this, he went on, sound is always about loss, and ultimately death.
Neuroscientist Sophie Scott explained how the noises we make when frightened are "more like noises made by other animals than they are like speech". But speech can be scary, too, said one contributor, if it's a Dalek talking: "The Dalek voices scare me," he said, "even though I'm a 40-year-old man."
Below: Working on The Sound of Fear, for BBC Radio 4, September 2011
The 'Frisco Quake, Radio 4, 2006
