THE BBC’S BEST ONLINE TOOLS
Hear your favourite song on Desert Island Discs
BBC Radio’s greatest show began in 1942, and it’s amassed more than 2,100 episodes since - all available free on the Desert Island Discs page ( www.snipca. com/25390). You can stream them (with songs) or download them (without songs, for copyright reasons), and you don’t have to use the iplayer Downloads tool – just click an episode, then click Download to get an MP3. To navigate the vast archive, use the built-in tool to search by castaway name, song choices, presenter and even luxury item (see screenshot right). Search for your favourite song and discover your famous musical kindred spirits.
‘Shoot’ sheep to test your reactions
How quick are your reactions? Find out by sharp-shooting shambling sheep in the Beeb’s funny Sheep Dash test ( www. snipca.com/25399 – see screenshot below). Click the arrow to tranquillise the wool balls as they run across the field. Our average time was a ropey 0.3264 seconds (‘Ambling armadillo’). See how much better you can do.
Read rare documents in the BBC Archive
Sheep Dash may be quick but it’s hung around for years. As you’ll see from the banner on its page (see screenshot below), it’s no longer updated but has been ‘archived’ online for you to enjoy. It’s just one of thousands of pages preserved by the BBC’S archive project, which uses the Web Archive format to ensure links and interactive content remain intact.
As if to prove how enormous the BBC’S online presence is, there’s even an archived, well, archive. Quite a treat it is, too. Go to www.bbc.co.uk/archive for an amazing collection of vintage shows, clips, interviews and documents from Auntie Beeb’s earliest days. Highlights include letters from Enid Blyton to the BBC in the 1930s ( www.snipca. com/25403); a 1969 special edition of The Sky at Night to mark the Moon landings ( www.snipca.com/25404); and typed notes from way back in 1963 from the show’s creators for the then-groundbreaking new show, Doctor Who ( www.snipca.com/25405, see screenshot below).
Sadly there’s no single index of archived BBC pages, but you can read more about the archiving project here: www.snipca.com/25402.
Subscribe to BBC Radio podcasts online
The only way to automatically download new episodes of BBC Radio shows is to subscribe to the show’s podcast. Follow the Podcast links on a show’s page, or in the BBC iplayer Radio app (see page 57), or head to the Podcasts hub ( www.bbc. co.uk/podcasts) then click the Subscribe button (see screenshot above). Songs in shows with music will be clipped (copyright again) and you’ll have to choose a third-party subscription host, such as itunes or Google Play. On the upside, once you’ve downloaded a podcast it’s yours to keep.
Some music podcasts don’t skip the tunes, such as The Proms Podcast ( www. snipca.com/25393). But the best BBC podcasts are speech-based. Gems include The Reith Lectures ( www.snipca.com/25394), tech show Click ( www.snipca.com/25395), WWI drama Home Front (snipca.com/25469), and a new weekly World Service documentary ( www.snipca.com/25398).
Write a computer program
The BBC’S micro:bit ( http://microbit.org) is a tiny PC that fits into the palm of your hand. It’s like a Raspberry Pi, and similarly affordable (from £10.82, www. snipca.com/25413). The micro:bit website is packed with programming tips. Also check out the interactive computer code timeline ( www.snipca.com/25415, see screenshot right). Click a dot to jump to an event – such as the invention of the Enigma machine in 1923 – then explore it through video and PDFS.
Listen to birdsong
BBC sound recordist Chris Watson made MP3S of dozens of garden birds in 2008, and they’re all still free to hear and download from an archived page ( www. snipca.com/25407). To save them, right-click ‘mp3 download’ then choose ‘Save link as’. There’s another archived treat for bird lovers on the old BBC Nature site ( www.snipca.com/25408), where you learn about many of our garden visitors.
Elsewhere, Springwatch offers a “cheat’s guide to being a nature expert” ( www.snipca.com/25418). Sadly it doesn’t explain how to recreate its Raspberry Pi bird box, but this page will get you started: www.snipca.com/25409. If you manage to do it, tell Blue Peter – they might give you a badge ( www. snipca.com/25421).
Browse the history of the BBC
One of our favourite finds on the Beeb’s website was its ‘History of the BBC’ page ( www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc). It contains all kinds of wonderful titbits from the BBC’S past, from an Anniversaries section ( www.snipca. com/25445) that highlights any notable anniversaries of programme airings and occurrences (at the time of writing Match of the Day was celebrating its 64th birthday, for example – see screenshot below), to a ‘BBC Heritage Trail’ ( www. snipca.com/25444) that plots the locations of the BBC’S headquarters (new and old) on a map. It also features a 360 degree interactive tour of the BBC Television Centre as it was just before its closure in 2013 ( www.snipca.com/25443).
Check your internet speed
The iplayer’s old built-in speed checker is sadly no more, but consumer show Watchdog has filled the gap by creating the Broadband Performance checker ( www.broadbandperformance.co.uk, see screenshot above). Click Start to find out if you’re getting the broadband speeds you pay for. The tool is linked from Watchdog’s home page ( www.snipca. com/25406), where you’ll also find special reports on smart meters, roaming charges and more.
Find your home in the 1986 Domesday Book
In 1986, 900 years after the original Domesday Book, the BBC set out to create a modern version. A million volunteers took part in the ambitious Domesday Project, but the results didn’t find an audience – because they were distributed on unpopular laserdiscs. Now the results are available to search on the Domesday Reloaded site ( www.snipca.com/25417). Enter your postcode, then click an orange rectangle on the map to get a detailed slice of local life in 1986.
Test a VR Doctor Who game
Taster ( www.bbc.co.uk/taster) is the BBC’S testing ground for new projects. Some are hits, some are misses – you get to judge. Among dozens of current projects up for testing and rating are virtual reality game ‘Doctor Who: Time Vortex 360’ ( www.snipca.com/25411, see screenshot above) and an interactive World War II graphic novel in glorious ‘binaural’ sound ( www.snipca.com/25412).
Read scripts of TV shows
The BBC Writersroom ( www.bbc.co.uk/ writersroom) is designed to be a resource for aspiring scriptwriters and has all the information you’d need to be the next John Sullivan, creator of Only Fools and Horses – that is if you have the required talent. Budding writers will find information on how to lay out scripts and where to send them. But you don’t need to be a writer to enjoy the hundreds of scripts in its Script Library ( www.bbc. co.uk/writersroom/scripts), not just from BBC TV shows, but also radio, film and theatre. Use the dropdown menus at the top of the page to filter them, click the script you’re interested in, then click ‘Download this script’ to grab it as a PDF.
Watch BBC 4’s ‘box sets’
The BBC 4 Collections website ( www.bbc. co.uk/bbcfour/collections) is a repository of programmes grouped by subject. For example, The Space Race group contains eight shows on America and Russia’s attempts to beat the other into space, including a 1987 episode of Tomorrow’s World detailing the imminent ‘race to Mars’. ‘The Archaeology at the BBC’ group comprises 23 shows from the 1950s, 60s and 70s; while railway buffs will enjoy the Steam Railways group.