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Fi Glover presents Radio 4's series capturing the nation in conversation: today Anne and Steve from Bristol reflect on a friendship throughout which they've provided support for each other. Steve was there when Anne's husband died; Anne was there when Steve's despair pitched him close to suicide, as he came to terms with the horrific abuse he suffered as a child, both in his family home and in the children's homes he was sent to.

The Listening Project is a new initiative for Radio 4 that aims to offer a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not 大象传媒 interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Many of the long conversations are being archived by the British Library which they will use to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject

Producer: Mohini Patel.