Read this: Listeners' verdicts on BBC Sounds

BBC sounds music Radio podcasts download the free app now to listen Without Limits the products and the reviews are in and they are somewhat mixed.

I find it really frustrating features though.

I've been used to doing the eat Radio iplayer app on easily available an awful.

Lot of scrolling to get past things at the BBC want me to listen to listeners.

Give their verdicts on the new BBC Sounds app.

Also this week.

The Empire is all around us here in Britain we don't always recognise the presenter of Radio 4 living with the Empire historian and Conservative MP kwasi kwarteng tells me about the challenges offering a new ones to you about colonial past I wanted to present a balanced account I wanted to present a kind of warts and all account of empire and after 4.

Long Years the war is coming to an end we go behind the scenes of the making of radio Force World War 1 drama Tommy's you only do this show once every 100 years block people died.

Am I going to bother to do this right or half right? I'm going to go and do it right more from Jonathan ruffle and the team behind Tommy's later, but first BBC sounds the app which will eventually replace iPlayer radio and promises to offer all of BBC audio at your fingertips.

It was launched last week with muchmusic and no little alcohol at the Tate in London and on last week's feedback.

Do you know Tilbury abstemious Bob shennan the BBC's director of radio music discuss the new app with me? We know the less than half of 15 to 24 year olds are listening to a linear radio.

We know that mobile phone consumption is far greater than it was before we know that music streaming services of capturing the attention of audiences like never before.

And what we want to do is to create an offer in those spaces for younger audiences to be attracted to BBC I hope that will also lead to them finding Radio 4 in a linear format now the BBC admits that it sounds app is still a work in progress in other words.

They expect teething troubles and it seems their right to do so judging by the reactions of some of our listeners.

Who've already tried it BBC iPlayer radio programmes on a smartphone it seems to me that much functionality has been lost no preview of upcoming programmes.

I.e.

Synopsis and cast no MOGA telling you how many episodes of the series of listen to No sleep Timer no subcategories of drama.

Hello my name is on Thursday from Astley in Greater Manchester I hate the new sounds but in time.

I will get used to.

Tablayout WhatsApp not get used to is the way that when a program ends it starts playing a program.

I have no wish to listen to when I finish listening to see you back it started playing Radio Cumbria holiday Manchester with any interest to me.

My name is Maria I live in Hove I found out by chance that I like it the look and the feel is much more seductive my only but are functionality ones can we please have episodes listed in sequence.

I'm selling shares from Lancaster of course.

I would love to use your new app to listen to All My Favorites but it's not compatible with my particular model of iPad come on you technical people.

I'm not from the Arc and very interested in the app, but I'm not buying a new iPad just for you so lots of Commons complaints and questions about the functionality of BBC sounds and many of those concerns are record.

Google Play the site where lots of people download their apps it gives sounds a customer rating of just 2.5 out of 5 compared with 3.7 for the eventually outgoing iPlayer radio so plenty to talk about with a BBC representative except that she was surprised and I would guess yours no one was as they say available BBC sounds told us they will put up someone at next week in the meantime.

I've been talking to media consultant and podcast expert Madigan I asked him whether he thought the BBC address the app onto soon before it was probably ready as it was difficult is the iPlayer speed around a long time and does a good job.

They try to learn something new for a different audience.

I don't think there are right now trying to get everybody to move from from one to the other they're trying to build up a product for younger audiences who won't have never met then be used iPlayer Friday before so don't know those issues for

That you listen surprised but the bloody question is is it ready or have they rushed it forward and what political are the pressure from the BBC we must be seen to do something get it on the and I will sort out the problems afterwards.

I think this partly that but that's often the way that Apso launch them and work.

I think there is a Desire receipt from listeners for the BBC that were the Producers is perfect the difficulty is how long will that take 6 months and 9 months to a year and they're competing with Spotify and apple with with high budgets.

You can roll products quicker and if they want to compete at the got to run something now.

It might be too late for them, but one of ballast and says it is user-friendly as a cornered rat the papst exception lot of people can see the potential but are worried about some specific things for example the fact that is incompatible with some iPads at Sally from Manchester I mean she got a point is it incompatible? I need something that a lot of app developers a similar problem that that they have in a apple improve their software and a things that you can put in interact with a

Does mean that the older products aren't supported and I can understand why someone would be annoyed by that but it said to charge and she's something she'll probably fine with other apps from other providers as well as a question about whether the BBC should do something different fruits audiences obviously iPlayer for radio still exists and we haven't heard anything that they going to remove that to know so there was people saying how are we going to lose iPlayer radio? I don't want to the truth is probably eventually but no date yet.

Obviously that's up to them when they change over from from one to the other I would have thought they would get sounds to an appointment.

They turned off iPlayer that the majority of this is to have the functionality that they like so if you were going to give stars for this launch out of 10.

How many Vit B minus something weird and actually the technical information and its complex with customers over the

Doing some of the things there's clearly some things that they've they've got to fixed and I'm sure it's on there bug list Madame thanks very much.

Great heroes of the British Empire pluckily fighting against the native horse facing them.

I particularly enjoyed king of the Khyber rifles than they were the tales of Missionaries like David Livingstone presented as bringing lights to what song called the Dark continent in the 1960s of course that changed and the Empire was increasingly seen as a shameful chapter in British history and embarrassment best and something to feel guilty about living with the Empire and recent BBC Radio 4 Series presented by historian and Conservative MP kwasi kwarteng attempted a more nuanced approach looking for traces of the Empire to be found in the UK's monuments people and contested memories much like the subject itself the series provides a wide range of.

Actions I'm Ian Anderson from London and I'm hugely enjoying living with the Empire listening to that first programme the history of Empire is all around us but we fail to see it so much of the time and the Show really brings that the life what emerges from the stories that we've heard in Glasgow and Bristol has a scarf really getting to understand the impact of Empire from good and bad on Scotland to it's a fascinating series of generosity is legendary here in Bristol I didn't UK are governing principle is true and fair, but he was a slave trader on a grand scale.

I was really unhappy with one aspect of the first episode and to me this devalued its important truth.

I'm sure all we heard was true, but we're not hearing the whole truth, so the overall picture was unfair the idea came across an English slavery group.

Nothing was unique and by extension that the British were peculiarly fitted, but everybody within your power was at it's not just a British Mark Sharon London I found the Empire stone episode of living with the Empire fighting a depressingly familiar theme guilt and pennants who claim to be uncovering truths translates as picking at the who's that really should be left to heal.

The title is that at least the Empire is a stone modern Britain is Condemned to push uphill like a letter day sisyphus some very different reactions to living with the Empire but winemaker series and why make It Now questions.

I put two quazy quoting in a meeting room in the palace of Westminster I think it's a very important series to make because there are debates about the Empire about The Legacy of individual people like Cecil Rhodes in the roads Ms for movement in Oxford I think the ongoing debate about migration about identity with regard to brexit our national future.

I think Empire is a very.

Hot Topic at the moment and it was a good time.

I think to look at her some of the issues that it raises a lot of people really enjoyed the programme was really interesting but one this until this the claim to be uncovering truth translated picking up wounds that should be left to heal.

Is there any validity in that? I don't think that's the right approach to history.

I think there are lots of contentious lots of difficult debates lots of controversial issues in history, and I don't think it makes sense of me to ignore them and hope that the wounds heal according to that phrase.

I think it's much better to have an honest and intellectually open engagement with the issues, but of course you only had three programs to half hour.

Which to do this it meant being very selective M12 balusters think well.

You should have conflated slavery with Empire do that was a danger of doing that we recorded a huge amount for the program and I thought personally that the way in which the first programme was edited was too.

Slanted towards the slavery issue, we spend a lot of time in Glasgow talking to people who had been involved in Shipbuilding and for whatever reason that was cut out of the program and I think there was perhaps a misapprehension about what the program was about I wanted to present a balanced account I wanted to present a kind of warts and all account of empire and there is an argument to say that in the first programme we did concentrate very seriously and materially on the slavery issue without engaging in some of the other issues because the program was after all is called Empire of the Seas and the Seas obviously was a scene of the Terrible slave trade, but it was also the scene of battles of Wars and Industry heavy industry which we had in Glasgow and you think there's a considerable changes occurred in the last 20 years about an understanding of the role of Empire of slavery within the Empire on society, am I remember from my childhood going round country houses never hearing for a moment that some of them were built on the fruits of.

Slavery, do you think there's still quite a way to go in terms of making sure that people understand that complex and complicated history.

I think slavery overseas a big factor that we can obsess about these things.

I think that actually the Debate moved on I think very much in the 50s.

There was a view until the 15th of the Empire was a good thing but in the 60s and 70s.

We had people in the in academia questioning a lot of the assumptions of empire and that work has been going on for a very long time.

That's all the new thing and now I think there's always two colour post revisionist approach which is trying to look at the Empire in cement in totality and the person whose record on this.

I told him I program was Tristram Hunt who is the director of the V&A I think they were huge wickedness is if you like slavery was a moral evil and it was described as that at the time of people at Wilberforce Andy anti-slavery movement there were other things in terms of cultural mixing in terms of being people talk casually about the way cricket as it was export.

A minor thing it may appear, but it's it's significant culturally, so there was a constant interchange the constant mixing and trading in ideas and and Culture which I think we need to talk about how difficult it is not just as a politician but more as a historian when you've written about these things a great length and you have to somehow compress watch no into 3/2 are Pringles did you find the actual process of making their programs and lightning or frustrating? I think it was a bit of both mostly.

It was incredibly rewarding and what I particularly enjoyed was meeting other people normal people meeting their Walk of Life who are engaging in lots of his issues and I was struck by The Incredible richness of Stories The experiences that people had no in terms of actually trying to compress everything into the half-hour programs.

I think that is very challenging and people have observed that the first programme with did did talk a lot about the Atlantic slave trade.

The other issues, I've said this on the website as well.

I think they should we could have talked about but we have to make editorial choices all the time my thanks to critique writing is story n&p and presenter of Radio 4 living with Empire now in the past feedback listeners have complained that Radio 4 comedy is too left wing the recently such criticism has been muted partly because the networks producers have made an effort to find witty contributors from the right like Danny Finkelstein however.

We still here a few complaints the programs like the news quiz on the Now Show our relentless signatory bashing such critics me now feel vindicated because the BBC's own executive complaints unit has upheld a complaint against the News Quiz for yes anti conservative bias vivax producer wyllyotts has swapped the control room for this extremely small studio ok? What was the complaint? Will well the program question went out on the

1st of June this year and that was shortly after the public violence voted in the referendum to overturn its abortion ban and in the course of the show comedian Susan Calman had this to say about Theresa May's perceived and willingness to step into the debate about Northern Ireland lifting it bad.

If you don't need to be a feminist to see that women should have equal rate.

That is one part of the United Kingdom only gay people that women do not have the same rights as other parts of the United Kingdom as far as I'm concerned not about her being a feminist.

We shouldn't attack on that famous of a different.

It's about not taking on a blatantly to human rights which have been sorted with the program that one listener complain to the BBC executive complaints unit and they investigated and although the full adjudication hasn't yet been published it did confirm in a recent online.

Briefing documents that the complaint has been upheld and said the programme was guilty of anti conservative bias as a result of just one complaint that actually quite normal the number of complaints nanny doesn't matter becu bases its judgements on the validity of the complaint not on how many people have complained so what happens now does this mean that produces will be sent out with instructions not to return until they found a right wing comedian will now party because the ruling itself is about a particular complaint and it's not about the overall makeup of Radio 4 panel shows and the BBC press office has sent us a statement which seems to suggest that are not intended to change their policy in response to the ruling.

How comedy programmes has a long history of panelists making satirical comments aimed at politicians from across the spectrum clearly the Expectations around impartiality in a comedy series of different to a news program and audiences don't tend to turn to comedy as a political guide.

Expression of a personal and political view is not a breach of the BBC editorial guidelines, but they require all programs to show due impartiality especially when dealing with topical controversial issues about this particular not planning to change their approach to satirical comedy anytime soon, but we should know more about this once the fillet occasion is published.

Ok.

Thanks.

Will as ever do let us know what you think about that ruling Radio 4 comedy in general and it did anything to do with BBC audio radio and podcast you can email feedback at bbc.co.uk Twitter said BBC R4 feedback or you can leave a phone message on 0300 333 4445 for standard landline charges applied, but it could cost more on some mobile networks or you can write to feedback PO Box 67234 London se1p.

P4a explorers details from the feedback pages of the radio for website now 100 years to the months after the end of the first world war the Radio 4 drama series Thomas also comes to a close the series is the brainchild of Jonathan ruffle and the series producer directors are jonquil panting and David Hunter Thomas's based on war Diaries and eyewitness accounts telling previously Untold Stories of the conflict from Gaza to Gallipoli Macedonia to Mesopotamia as well as from the Western Front and many of you.

Love it Samantha Fowler girl from West London for me.

There are two important aspects about Thomas firstly the sheer amount of research that goes into ensuring that every episode is a spatula correct as possible and secondly the representation of lesser-known experiences behind the lines in France for example those of the women's army auxiliary.

Record from Harrogate North Yorkshire I've listened to Tommy since it started in 2014 and founded both moving and fascinating the writers of covers such a wide canvas not just the Western Front but all the theatres of WWI you just Calman it was a series.

I've never have expected to find interesting but the lives of all of the main characters and their determined resolute trajectories through the course of such extraordinary ordeals has been utterly riveting my name is David Hunter I'm one of the Producers working on Thomas today with the 11th of November 1918 armistice day, but we're not in Western Europe where in Russia up beyond the Arctic Circle down the Davina river several hours south of archangel where British forces are leading the

Fight against the bolsheviks the Ethos of Tommy's has always been to tell those stories that are not the central stories to the first world war series was cooked up by Mr Jonathan ruffle.

Who has been investigating researching with incredible depth for the last 4 years and has also written a good number of the dramas.

Well.

I've kept away with Jonathan ruffle to somewhere quiet Jonathan the explosions that accompanied our departure with a genuine they genuine to the extent that they are real first world war shells French farmers Plough up the shells at the book to the side of the road French bomb disposal guys come along and they let me record them blowing those shells up.

Why does it was message to go and get the the real sound of explosives over the period two reasons you only?

Do the show once every 100 years lot of people died am I going to bother to do this right or half right? I'm going to go and do it right.

So that was the original idea II reasons of much more prosaic one when you tell the cost that you have these sounds you watch their faces.

They have two reactions the first is this man is completely mad the second thing they think is this program is truly committed to trying to tell the truth.

That's redouble our efforts as she on Russian bolshevik for sound team on this have embraced the seriousness and the precision of it.

You know how long it takes a Shell to to pass over the Peninsula at Gallipoli for example.

These guys are sat in work the maths out and they really really care.

Phillip Knightley and I am Samsung on Thomas Rosenthal loud lb when we hear them in the hospital, so we're doing is seen in hospital at the moment and then we go outside to the top of a church tower in the next scene to oversee the explosions that happened a mile away so we want to get the difference in sound between inside the hospital outside the top of the church tower in relation to how far away is Explosions are commissioned in 2009.

It's broadcast on the very day 100 years later that particular events occurred.

Why did you take that decision with a difficult to arrive at did you go down some cul-de-sacs when you thinking how you might do this serious before you were lighted on this specific way.

I previously done bomber on Radio 4 that is Len Deighton day-long project and real time I felt a taught me something about an event that was.

Completely different I was in my writing shed and I reflected on the fact that we've been in Afghanistan longer than we thought the second world war and I thought there is a way of looking at the first World War II unpack the harmonica playing corporal on the bum fluff lieutenant into what that story really is one of us does the series but was concerned Heath SO32 Kieran Henry Gordon is it took a rather long time to get Indian troops into the centre of the story order of course you mentioned the very beginning.

Why was that? This is a Curse of actually wanting to do the truth the British Indian Army was tasked almost instantaneously upon the beginning of the war to come to the Western Front but they didn't actually physically arrive there.

They have to get to the ports in India they have to come by ship.

I was going to distort history and put the Indian Army in on the 7th of October 1914 when we could legitimately happened fighting on the 28th of October so they arrived 4 weeks into.

But there was this was representing genuine units I've gone to their war Diaries they were fighting on that day and it was actually what they did or in studio 68 and there's one two three four five six people on the studio production side of the desk.

We can just see through their two actors on the other side and about to record the next section of this episode.

I'm adding and I'm playing a nice my character is a non military nurse which means she's volunteer to do it.

What time is true life? I am always pleased with boy straight from school often terrified didn't know what was happening to them.

My wife will tell you that I come in from the shed on Sundays and I am really really depressed all I've done all day is read about people being killed and this weighs you down after wild.

I won't miss that a bit but I also feel as indeed the soldiers do as invisible major engine room of Thomas is this sense of community this sense of 4th movement the sense of purpose which is the poison chalice that war itself gives us.

Obviously you can do the storyline stretchy out of the 20s and 30s.

Would you like to be a series which carries on with some of the characters? We've got to know in the First World War I don't want to say goodbye to these characters, but actually I put my thumbs up for the method.

I'm not saying with invented a new method with Thomas but what we have done is we confidently said that you go looking closely at history.

There are far better stores in you can make up so the idea that we can take historical rigger find the stories and put those stories into a coherent order with a set of characters.

That's what I want.

Explore that is funnily enough the skill base that I would be really unhappy if if we lost that utility to put real history on the radio in this way are thanks to Thomas created Jonathan ruffle and the rest of the team who forgiveness much to think about this Remembrance Sunday which is also armistice day.

That's all for this week, goodbye.