Audio & Podcasts


BBC Sounds – Free Thinking

20 July 2021

Daljit Nagra & Val McDermid; Reynard the Fox

Poet Daljit Nagra and crime writer Val McDermid discuss capturing different forms of speech, a sense of place, and politics – in a conversation organised with the Royal Society of Literature and Durham Book Festival, and hosted by presenter Shahidha Bari.

Release date: 14-10-2020

Daljit Nagra & Val McDermid

Plus, how the medieval fable of Reynard The Fox has lessons for us all today.
As a new translation and retelling by Anne Louise Avery is published, she joins Shahidha to discuss the book with Noreen Masud – a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker from Durham University. Based on William Caxton’s translation of the medieval Flemish folk tale, this is the story of a wily fox – a subversive, dashing and anarchic character – summoned to the court of King Noble the Lion. But is he the character you want to emulate, or does Bruin the Bear offer us a better template?

Village SOS (Woman’s Hour Drama)

10 July 2021

Village SOS – Audible  Audiobook download – by Val McDermid

Village SOS (Woman’s Hour Drama)
By: Val McDermid
Narrated by: Sarah Beeny
Length: 1 hr and 8 mins
Release date: 05-03-12

Village SOS

DCI Marion Bettany, played by Helen Baxendale, continues her investigation into Colin Arnott’s murder, but the residents of Shilwick are curiously reluctant to help.

Colin’s plans to turn a deconsecrated chapel into a performing arts centre had ruffled feathers throughout the village, and Bettany wants to know if that’s a strong enough motive for murder.

Val McDermid’s Dead Comedy Crime Dramas

10 July 2021

Deadheading (2014) Dead Clever (2015) Dead Pan (2017) Dead Weight (2018)

Dead Comedy Crime Dramas

15 Minute Drama – Deadheading

10 July 2021

Deadheading – Episodes 1 – 5  by Val McDermid

First Released On: Sun 21 Oct 2018

Deadheading - Val McDermid

4 Extra Debut. Comic capers amongst the carrots when a body is found on an allotment. Stars Julie Hesmondhalgh and Miriam Margolyes. From June 2014.

Directed and Produced by Justine Potter
A Savvy Production for BBC Radio 4.

15 Minute Drama – Dead Clever

10 July 2021

Dead Clever – Episodes 1 – 5

First Released On: Mon 6 Jul 2015

15 Minute Drama - Dead Clever

DS Jason Trotter thinks that a professor who is wearing some of his brains on the outside of his head might just be his chance to put DCI Alma Blair in her place.

Producer Beth O’Dea

A Good Read

23 June 2020 – 28 mins

Released On: 23 Jun 2020 – Available for over a year

A Good ReadCrime writer Val McDermid and business woman Martha Lane Fox talk to Harriett Gilbert about books they really love. Val’s choice is This Is Shakespeare: How to Read the World’s Greatest Playwright by Emma Smith, Martha’s is How to be Both by Ali Smith and Harriett’s is The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton.

Producer Beth O’Dea

The Tartan Noir Show

1 April 2020 – 51 mins

Val McDermid: Scotland’s Queen of Crime
What better way to begin The Tartan Noir Show than with The Queen of Crime, Val McDermid? Theresa Talbot talks to Val about her new book, which is not about crime and death, but about hope! ‘Imagine a Country’ is a collection of essays by prominent Scots, edited by Val and geographer, Jo Sharp.

Tartan Noir Podcast

podcast link…

Ex Libris Podcast

14 January 2020 – 47 mins

Val speaks to Ben not at the library but from within a cosy nook of her favourite indie bookshop – Topping & Company in St Andrews. It’s a beautiful shop. Val is old pals with founder Robert Topping. She loves this place so much that she even arranged for her home bookshelves to be handcrafted by the shop’s go-to joiners.

Exlibris podcast

Podcast link…

BBC Radio 4 – Only Artists

6 February 2019 – 27 mins

Crime writer Val McDermid meets graphic artist Vin Deighan.Val McDermid: Scotland’s Queen of Crime

Only Artists Podcast
podcast link…

BBC Sounds

6 August 2018

Dangerous Visions: Resistance
Val McDermid’s thriller examines what happens if antibiotics stop working. Developed through the Wellcome Trust Experimental stories scheme.

Note: For information only, this episode is not currently available.

Only Artists Podcast

BBC Sounds

14 April 2018

Dangerous Visions: The Kraken Wakes
John Wyndham’s science fiction novel adapted by Val McDermid. Performed with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in a terrifying modern retelling of alien invasion and global flooding.

Note: For information only, this episode is not currently available.

Only Artists Podcast

BBC Radio 4 – Only Artists

6 February 2019 – 27 mins

Crime writer Val McDermid meets graphic artist Vin Deighan.Val McDermid: Scotland’s Queen of Crime

Only Artists Podcast
podcast link…

BBC Radio 4 – One to One

28 August 2018 – 14 mins

Unexpected stories of education: The journalist Datshiane Navanayagam speaks to the crime writer, Val McDermid, about an unusual educational experiment she was part of in the 1960s.

BBC podcast 2018

Podcast link…

Val McDermid: On Orlando by Virginia Woolf (BBC Queer Icons)

Val chooses Virginia Woolf’s novel for Queer Icons, BBC Radio’s celebration of LGBTQ culture.
Written in 1928, Orlando is about a poet who changes sex from man to woman and lives for centuries, meeting the key figures of English literary history.

Interview link…

The Danny Baker Show


Danny Baker meets crime writer and Raith Rovers fan Val McDermid. Former England, Liverpool and Everton goalkeeper Rachel Brown-Finnis plays the Sausage Sandwich Game.

Interview link…

Val McDermid: Extended Interview

Val McDermid talks to Shereen about the freedom she found as a child growing up in Fife, breaking the mould and moving to Oxford University, here she developed an impressive English accent, complete with Oxford stammer.

She tells Shereen how feminism, football and left wing Fife politics have shaped her view on life and crime writing.

 

Interview link…

Val McDermid: Jane Austen’s equal? – books podcast

John Crace digests Val McDermid’s update of Northanger Abbey, and asks if her attempt to square up to Austen’s gothic melodrama is fine or foolhardy

 

Interview link…

Open Book – BBC Radio 4

Mariella Frostrup talks to Val in this episode of Open Book on BBC Radio 4

Desert Island Discs…

Val talk to Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4. 
Sunday 14th July 2013

2 October 2012 – BBC Radio 4 – A Good Read

Harriett Gilbert is joined by the Scottish crime writer Val McDermid and comedian and neologist Alex Horne in the first of a new series of the paperback discussion show.

Among the books under discussion are Andre Agassi’s revealing autobiography of life lived centre stage at Centre Court, Jeanette Winterson’s acclaimed memoir of her childhood, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal, and Remembering Babylon, David Malouf’s prizewinning 1993 outsider novel set in Australia.

 

Interview link…

8 March 2012 – Interview From Bookotron.Com

Val McDermid is just as no-nonsense as any copper she might imagine — or write about in one of her novels, including her latest, ‘The Retribution.’

Val McDermid and Laurie R. King

Her schedule in Santa Cruz was going to be complicated and mostly filled, but she was hanging out with Laurie R. King, who was kind enough to help Val arrange an hour over at KUSP, in the big meeting room where the three of us sat down to talk about Val’s work and the mystery genre.

Go to www.bookotron.com for more…

 

Interview link…

08 February 2007 – Book Club BBC Radio 4

Val McDermid joins readers to discuss The Mermaids Singing, the story of a serial killer who stalks the gay subculture of a northern town. James Naughtie presents.

 

Interview link…

Val McDermid