Yesterday once more: The Karen Carpenter story

BBC Radio 2 provides another chance to hear Mark Radcliffe profiling one of the greatest voices of a generation. The programmes were originally broadcast in January 2004 -- twenty-one years after Karen Carpenter's untimely death. As one half of the brother-sister duo The Carpenters, Karen was one of the most talented, successful and enduring pop stars of her generation. Famous for songs such as "Top of the World" and "Superstar", The Carpenters were the epitome of wholesome, happy, all-American youth. Yet in 1983 Karen Carpenter died suddenly from heart failure, the result of years of suffering with anorexia nervosa.

In this two-part documentary Mark Radcliffe concentrates not on the record sales and sell-out tours but on Karen Carpenter herself. Through conversation and interviews with some of Karen's closest friends, school mates and music industry colleagues, Mark explores what life was really like for Karen, both centre stage and behind the scenes.

The series includes new interviews with Phil Ramone, who produced Karen’s only solo, non-Carpenters album; Karen Ramone, Phil’s wife and one of Karen’s best friends; Debbie and Theresa Viauso, Karen’s childhood friend and her mother; Brian Southall, the Carpenters’ press agent from the seventies; and Nicky Chinn of the Chinn/Chapman song-writing partnership. There's also archive from Karen and Richard Carpenter, and Herb Alpert.