Over the last 5 years, I’ve not missed a single episode of From Our Own Correspondent from the BBC.
The brilliance of From Our Own Correspondent is its discipline:
- Each episode is 30 minutes long.
- Each episode has 5 segments from different countries.
- Each segment is about 5 1/2 minutes long.
- Each segment only ever has one person talking.
- There are never any sound effects.
- There’s never any news. The show is all about stories and personal anecdotes.
Oh, and the show is going to be 60 years old this year. It’s an incredibly successful example of creativity coming from a strong restrictions.
The only flexibility in the show comes from the breadth of the stories told and how they often swing from tragedy to comedy within a single episode.
You can get the From Our Own Correspondent podcasts here.
This show gets me thinking about how I could improve by putting tighter restrictions on my work.