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Find the 'Stories to Tell...' on your normal podcast provider, by clicking on Spotify or HERE to listen (opens new page)

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A podcast series of 9 episodes of short, strange tales. Small stories, odd, true, funny and familiar that reflect the night hours themselves. Each episode has a set of Stories that visit a different kind or part of the night. They are Stories that aren't always about the night but carry a sense of the night, of being awake when no one else is, unrest when the sleep won't come. The things that keep us awake. Frustrations, irritations, fears, loss, love and lust. Each set of Stories is no longer than 30 minutes and has a theme that ties those stories together.  There is a night out on the town, nights in with lovers, or nights up remembering the left behind. Sometimes you’ll get three stories, sometimes five, sometimes a mini story and a singular long tale. I’ll tell you stories about dead dogs, pork pies, noisy neighbours and itches that need to be scratched. SEE BELOW FOR 'STORIES TO TELL WHEN YOU STAY AT HOME'

SERIES 1

Production Credits

Francesca Millican-Slater // Writer and Performer

Pippa Frith // Producer

Iain Armstrong // Sound Design

Mark Steadman // Consultation

Podiant // Hosting

Check out the About page for biogs and links.

 

Episode 1 - A Night Out

Released May 22nd 2018

From dancing under disco lights to blood on the pavement, with the watchers and the shakers in between, here's some stories as an ode to nights out, your first one, the regular ones, the ones that don't end as they should.  

  • Put on your dancing shoes and go up town in The Pied Piper of Broad Street.

  • Bring back the 90's sounds of Britpop in The Moon and Us.

  • Try not to be kept awake by the third story, Violence.

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Music in this episode: John Field - Nocturne No 14 Gmaj, performed by Elizabeth Joy Roe and K-Ci & JoJo - All My Life

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Stories To Tell: A Night Out is a Spotify playlist of music to accompany this Episode.  Contains UK Garage, R&B and The Spice Girls.  

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Episode 2 -The Frustrations 

Released May 29th 2018

In this set of stories, it’s the frustrations we're looking at; the things that churn around your brain to stop you sleeping, the indignations we invent about others who cut in and cut up.

  • Manage your anger in the mini-tale The Man Who Burns Down Cities

  • Don't cause a fuss with The Neighbours

  • Share a moment of tenderness in Supermarket Argument

  • Try to ignore the itch in Pearl.

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Music in this episode:  John Field - Nocturne No 14 Gmaj, performed by Elizabeth Joy Roe ; Robert Armani - Circus Bells; Taylor Swift - Shake it Off

Enya - Orinoco Flow (Sail Away);  Apna Sangeet - Vaje; Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture, Op 49, performed by the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. 

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'Stories To Tell: The Frustrations' is a Spotify playlist of music to accompany this episode (WARNING CONTAINS EARWORMS). 


Episode 3- The Losses Part 1: The Found and Lost

Released 5th June 2018

This week, the Found and Lost: the ghosts that come crawling in at night, the people, the things we have lost. We'll be hearing stories from people who have found a way to combat loss, found sleep, or something they never really wanted.

• Keep occupied with the woman who longed for her ex-lover's lullaby in Sleep Girl

• Go for walkies in Lucky

• Keep your dignity in Pork Pie Holer.

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Music in this episode; John Field - Nocturne No 14 Gmaj, performed by Elizabeth Joy Roe

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Stories To Tell: The Losses Part 1 is a Spotify playlist to accompany this episode. 

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Episode 4 - The Losses Part 2: The Lost & Left Behind 

Released 12th June 2018

This set of stories is the Losses part 2: The Lost and the Left Behinds. The ghosts that come crowding in, crawling up the covers and sticking their fingers in your ears. We'll hear about a last act of kindness intended for the left behind and someone trying to lose themselves just to prove a point.

• Try to forget, in The Girl That Music Was Stalking

• Leave it all behind, in He Built His House for Him

• Clear your history in She Exits Her Life.

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Music in this episode; John Field - Nocturne No 14 Gmaj, performed by Elizabeth Joy Roe

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Stories to Tell: The Losses Part 2 The Left Behinds is a Spotify playlist to accompany this episode. 

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Episode 5 - The Distractions (Explicit) 

Released 19th June 2018

The night time can be the right time for hookups and booty calls, last minute love-ins and for finally doing something x-rated with that one person you'd kept on the back burner. Even though you shouldn't have. But really you should.

  • Love yourself, in Big Knickers, Thick Elastic

  • Look for release in Tank Wank.

As the titles suggest, these stories contain explicit content. Well, pretty explicit.

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Music in this episode; John Field - Nocturne No 14 Gmaj, performed by Elizabeth Joy Ro

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Stories to Tell: The Distractions  is a pleasingly filthy Spotify playlist to accompany this episode.

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Episode 6 - The Lovers 

Released 26th June 2018

The Night Belongs to Lovers, so we are wrapped up and in the comfort of familiar arms, safety in another's breath... stories of finding each other in a potent sense of smell, original ways to measure time together and a man with his eye on a match made.

  • Lull yourself to sleep with Bedtime Story

  • Explore olfactory synesthesia in Smell

  • Collect yourself in Little Pieces of Us

  • Swipe right on engineered serendipity, in Analog Tinder.

 

Music in this episode John Field - Nocturne No 14 Gmaj, performed by Elizabeth Joy Roe

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Stories To Tell: The Lovers is a Spotify playlist lovingly put together to accompany this episode. 

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Episode 7 - The Horrors 

Released 3rd July 2018

Tonight it’s the Horrors (not the mid-noughties indie rock band, but the night chills, the night sweats, Witching Hour). Wherever you are, let's say it's way past our bedtime, the sun is more than 18 degrees below the horizon, the darkest time, the night proper. Street lights perhaps, make shadows through cracks in curtains, things come half formed, cupboards and shelves looming with hands outstretched. Aches and creaks sound as footsteps. Coming...

  • Clap until you can't clap anymore, for The Woman That Died on Stage

  • Read between the lines in The Note on the Fridge

  • Subscribe to Real Life™️ in Collector of Grief

  • Wake, work, sleep, repeat, and try to ignore The Ticking    

 

Music in this episode; John Field - Nocturne No 14 Gmaj, performed by Elizabeth Joy Roe; Nils Frahm- My Friend the Forest. 

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Stories To Tell: The Horrors is a frightening Spotify playlist to keep you awake in accompaniment of this episode. 

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Episode 8 - The Inevitable  

Released 10th July 2018

We’ve had the darkest time of night and now she, the sun is moving upwards; little bits of light rising in the atmosphere, the day is coming, there is no stopping the inevitability of it breaking. A micro story and a singular longer one. 

  • Turn back time with Yesterday's Papers

  • If you can't beat 'em, join 'em in The Man in the Camera Shop.

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Music in this episode John Field - Nocturne No 14 Gmaj, performed by Elizabeth Joy Roe. 

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Stories to Tell: The Inevitables is a changable Spotify playlist inspired by these two stories. 

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Episode 9 - Hope 

Released 17th July 2018

Day is coming, the sun is rising towards the horizon, 12 degrees to go. Shining light on the frustrations and the urges and the loves and the lost as it leaves other places to darkness on the other side of the horizon. The night lingering.

  • Explore body modification in Fingertip.

  • Look towards the light in The Man Who Kept the World Turning.

  • An final ode to night & day in Morning Song

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Music in this episode John Field - Nocturne No 14 Gmaj, performed by Elizabeth Joy Roe

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stories stay home no hands.jpg

Francesca Millican-Slater //                    Writer and Performer

She Wants a Dog/ Pippa Frith// Producer

Iain Armstrong // Sound Consultant

Mark Steadman // Consultant

Podiant // Hosting

Check out the About page for biogs and links.

Stories to Tell for When You Stay at Home

During lockdown in 2020 & 2021, I made 3 special 'Stay at Home' episodes. You can listen to them in normal way. 

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EPISODE 1

This comes from under a den of duvets and bed sheets in a home recording written and made for now.  They are about the strange situation we all find ourselves in now, they are stories to stay home to. Enjoy them as a bedtime story, an accompaniment to an afternoon nap, while you wash up, this is a voice in your ear to offer comfort and perhaps, small hopes. 

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Stay at Home with Razzle's Pack  (20 min)

Enjoy at date for this age with Screen Meet  (5 mins)

Find a different kind of connection in Cold Calling  (20 mins)

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EPISODE 2

Walking to a Midlands Sea

Something a little different as you join Francesca on a walk with her dog as she tells small stories and tries to find a sense of what she is missing.

47 Minutes (including Intro & Outro)

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Find  pictures of the walk (including the dog) on Instagram @franmillicans or @middlenighttale

EPISODE 3

Round Here, View from the Kitchen Window

The long time coming third episode of Stories to Tell When You Stay at Home… (again). Join Francesca to look out her kitchen window, walk round the block and hear as the view changes and buildings fall. 40 mins (including intro & outro)

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