New series of Word of Mouth

Posted on 8 May 2025 • TV and radio, University news

A new six-part OU/BBC radio series of Word of Mouth begins on Thursday, May 8th, and will air weekly at 15:30 on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

The series is presented by celebrated author Michael Rosen and explores the world of words and how we use them.

In the first episode, Michael talks to Dr Philip Seargeant, Senior Lecturer in English Language and Applied Linguistics at The Open University, about where our street names come from including Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate in York, and Michael’s old address, Love Lane.

Dr Seargeant was one of the academic consultants on the series alongside Dr Zsuzsanna Barkanyi, Senior Lecturer in Spanish.

They said:

 “We’re delighted to be working with Michael Rosen and the ‘Word of Mouth’ team on this OU/BBC collaboration. ‘Word of Mouth’ consistently presents issues around language and its use in ways that are both popular and well-grounded in up-to-date research. As such, it aligns very well with the mission of OU’s School of Languages and Applied Linguistics, which is to reach as broad a section of society as possible.

The topics the programme focuses on are very often ones which we teach in our modules – for example, the history and social significance of street names, for which Philip was interviewed, features in our Level 1 course, An Introduction to English Language Studies.

Other topics in the series, such as the influence of social media culture on punctuation and the status and roles of the Welsh language in Britain today, are also likely to be of direct interest to OU students as well as the wider OU community. We are hopeful that our research expertise has added an extra dimension to the programme, and that this will be the start of a long-running collaboration.”

Supporting Online content:

Visit our Broadcast & Partnerships site OU Connect where you can find a quiz exploring why languages have odd clusters of words, such as ‘have your cake and eat it’.

This series was commissioned by Broadcast & Partnerships and is supported by the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, with particular relevance to Q39 Ba (Hons) English Language and Literature, Q30 BA (Hons) Language Studies and R54 BA (Hons) English Language

• Commissioned by Dr Caroline Ogilvie, Director, Broadcast & Partnerships

• Academic Consultants: Dr Zsuzanna Barkanyi and Dr Philip Seargeant

• Media Fellow: Dr Alex Twitchen

• Broadcast Project Manager: Clair Robinson

• Supporting Online Content: Xinmiao Zhang