Episode Details

Over the past year, BBC correspondents have reported on upheaval in Egypt, war in Syria, a government shutdown in America, a new pope and a royal baby. But this special edition of From Our Own Correspondent avoids the major headlines and the big breaking stories in favour of a ground-level view of the last 12 months. So, in this programme: Rajan Datar takes a ride with a polyphonic choir in Georgia and Reggie Nadelson hears the story of Harlem's Apollo Theatre. Nick Thorpe finds strangely tender moments in a Romanian slaughterhouse while Steve Rosenberg plays piano with the man who ended the Cold War. We journey to the deserts of Sahara and South America, take trains in Portugal and Nigeria and hear reporters grapple with strange musical instruments in Vietnam and Switzerland. And there's more in this montage of some of the year's more entertaining dispatches, presented by Kate Adie. Producer: Mike Wendling