Tony wrote:
Make a cable to go from the 'audio out' jack on your soundcard to the 'Aux' input of an amplifier, connect the tape recorder to the amp in the usual way, adjust levels to suit, restart file on BBC site and then just 'listen again' on the amp's speakers while the programme is recording.
I think you can probably connect them in software using an ALSA config file .asoundrc but I don't know the incantations. Then you could capture the PCM as it's sent to the speakers.
This is why audio with Digital Rights Restriction Technology is silly. It's always possible to hack yourself in somewhere along the line unless the entire digital system is a sealed unit from backing store to output socket - even then we will probably get Digital->Analogue->Digital conversions that are near enough lossless eventually. Audio will come before video, based on experience, but both will happen if there's demand for it...