Hi,

I'm running get_iplayer 2.94-ppa23, Copyright (C) 2008-2010 Phil Lewis in Linux Mint 17.2.

If I look for radio programmes with "drama" in their title I get the following list:

Quote:iplayer --type=radio "drama"
get_iplayer 2.94-ppa23, Copyright (C) 2008-2010 Phil Lewis
  This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use --warranty.
  This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain
  conditions; use --conditions for details.

Matches:
10001:    15 Minute Drama: Colin Douglas - The Gap - Episode 1, BBC Radio 4 Extra,
10002:    15 Minute Drama: Colin Douglas - The Gap - Episode 2, BBC Radio 4 Extra,
10003:    15 Minute Drama: Colin Douglas - The Gap - Episode 3, BBC Radio 4 Extra,
10004:    15 Minute Drama: Colin Douglas - The Gap - Episode 4, BBC Radio 4 Extra,
10005:    15 Minute Drama: Colin Douglas - The Gap - Episode 5, BBC Radio 4 Extra,
10006:    15 Minute Drama: Iris Murdoch: A Severed Head - Episode 1, BBC Radio 4,
10007:    15 Minute Drama: Iris Murdoch: A Severed Head - Episode 2, BBC Radio 4,
10008:    15 Minute Drama: Iris Murdoch: A Severed Head - Episode 3, BBC Radio 4,
10009:    15 Minute Drama: Iris Murdoch: A Severed Head - Episode 4, BBC Radio 4,
10010:    15 Minute Drama: Iris Murdoch: A Severed Head - Episode 5, BBC Radio 4,
10128:    Afternoon Drama: When Greed Becomes Hunger - The Pit, BBC Radio 4,
10129:    Afternoon Drama: When Greed Becomes Hunger - The Pen, BBC Radio 4,
10130:    Afternoon Drama - Chris Harrald - Mr Larkin's Awkward Day, BBC Radio 4 Extra,
10131:    Afternoon Drama - Matt Hartley - The Pursuit, BBC Radio 4 Extra,
10132:    Afternoon Drama - Rose Tremain - The Darkness of Wallis Simpson, BBC Radio 4 Extra,
11097:    Drama on 3: The Oresteia - The Libation Bearers, BBC Radio 3,
11098:    Drama: Brief Lives - Episode 2, BBC Radio 4,
11099:    Drama: Iris Murdoch: The Sea, the Sea - Episode 1, BBC Radio 4,
11100:    Drama: Iris Murdoch: The Sea, the Sea - Episode 2, BBC Radio 4,
11101:    Drama: Red and Blue - Alive, BBC Radio 4,
11102:    Drama - Fifteen Minutes, BBC Radio 4,
11103:    Drama - Closely Observed Trains, BBC Radio 4,

Which lists 11103:    Drama - Closely Observed Trains, BBC Radio 4,

But if I search for "Closely Observed Trains" get_iplayer reports no matches:

Quote:get_iplayer --type=radio "Closely Observed Trains"
get_iplayer 2.94-ppa23, Copyright (C) 2008-2010 Phil Lewis
  This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use --warranty.
  This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain
  conditions; use --conditions for details.


INFO: 0 Matching Programmes

After a little experimentation, it seems that get_iplayer doesn't find a programme title if the search string follows a '-' character!

Is this a bug? Or am i doing something dumb?

The hyphen is not relevant per se. It just separates the programme name from the episode title.  From get_iplayer --help:

Thanks Dinky.

I guess I was being dumb unaware of that subtlety on my first use of the program!

So you just use the option --long to make get_iplayer search all program fields.
So, for example

get_iplayer --long --type=radio "Closely Observed"

now finds a match