BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 4 will bring live podcast and radio recordings to Sheffield as part of an expanded partnership with Crossed Wires festival this July.
The BBC has confirmed that BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 4 will act as official Fringe partners for Crossed Wires 2026, with programming across two city venues and selected sessions also becoming available on BBC iPlayer for the first time.
BBC Sounds will return to the former Cole Brothers department store with live editions of podcasts covering news, entertainment, sport, comedy and investigations.
The programme includes Radio 2 Book Club with Sara Cox and author Lisa Jewell, Newscast with Chris Mason and Henry Zeffman, Sort Your Life Out Unpacked with Dilly Carter, and Traitors: Uncloaked featuring Minah Shannon.
In a new addition for this year, BBC Radio 4 will take over The Montgomery with live recordings of some of its established programmes. Audiences will be able to attend sessions including Woman’s Hour, In Our Time, Political Thinking, What’s Up Docs and The Archers Podcast.
Other Radio 4 productions appearing at the festival include Sixty Years of Hurt with David Baddiel, Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley, Uncanny with Danny Robins and investigative series To Catch a King.
The BBC will also create a BBC Sounds Garden between the two venues, giving visitors an outdoor space to listen to audio content throughout the event.
Selected recordings from Sheffield will later be available on BBC iPlayer. The line-up includes BBC productions such as Newscast, Sort Your Life Out Unpacked, Fame Under Fire, Good Bad Billionaire and Woman’s Hour, alongside other festival shows.
Mohit Bakaya, Controller of BBC Radio 4, said: “Radio 4 is home to some of the UK’s most distinctive, trusted and thought-provoking audio, and I’m thrilled that this year we’re joining forces with BBC Sounds in an expanded partnership with Crossed Wires.”
Alice Levine, co-founder of Crossed Wires, added: “The BBC Sounds Fringe was a highlight of last year, so to have them return to the festival and grow our partnership with a brand-new venue for Radio 4 is so exciting.”
The festival takes place in Sheffield from 2 July to 5 July. Free Fringe tickets became available from 11am today, 2 June.
