MI5 have caught up with Joan Stanley and her secret past is unravelling. Poignant memories of her wartime passion for Leo Galich and her friendship with his beguiling cousin, Sonya, are recalled.
Jennie Rooney's compelling spy thriller set in wartime Cambridge and Cold-war London
Rita Coburn Whack reveals how a generation of artists forged a new identity amidst the Depression in Chicago's 'Black Metropolis'.
By the 1930's Chicago was the promised land for the largest internal migration in American history. Waves of black American's left the South for a city that promised opportunity and deliverance from the murderous land of Jim Crow. On the city's Southside black owned businesses, newsapers and clubs helped define a city within a city that resounded to the music of giants like Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith.
This burgeoning 'Black Metropolis' sparked an artistic renaissance that outlasted Harlem, nurturing painters, sculptors, poets and printmakers. Largely rejected by the White American art world, able to study only in a few places and barely able to exhibit in their own city these visual artists forged a new identity in the Black Metropolis.
The Depression also birthed new links between both white and black, the talk was revolutionary, the politics incendiary and the desire to represent the race, to redefine their place in this white world and to reclaim dignity, drove many.
In 1940, at the height of Roosevelt's New Deal 'Negro Art' was firmly on the map with both The American Negro Exposition and the triumphant opening of the South Side Community Art Center by the First Lady in the heart of Chicago's thriving Bronzeville.
Now, funded by the W.P.A., artists like Charles White, Elizabeth Catlett, Eldizor Cortor, Margaret Burroughs, fledgling photographer Gorden Parks and young poet Gwendolyn Brooks had a space to call their own. Bold murals, social realist depictions of ordinary black life and meditations on what it meant to be black in America filled the walls whilst an entire community learnt art in a time of austerity.
A showcase concert for a local diva turns into a headache for organiser Rosie Burns.
Rosie is asked to arrange a showcase concert for a new potential rival to Celine Dion.
Another assignment for Rosie Burns and the event management company, where the clients are only part of the problem...
Rosie ..... Prunella Scales
Jo ..... Rebecca Callard
Bob ..... Duncan Preston
Tess ..... Annette Badland
Robert ..... Simon Trinder
Cath Unger ..... Felicity Goodson
Terry ..... Colin Sell
Joining Victoria Coren Mitchell to commit heresy about pets and Donald Trump's Twitter account are Germaine Greer, Sathnam Sanghera and David Mitchell.
Compilation produced by Mike Craig.
DeVere takes a shine to Mrs fforbes-Hamilton's guest. Is Audrey jealous?.
Keith Barron ..... Richard DeVere
Angela Thorne ..... Marjory Frobisher
Nicholas McArdle ..... Brabinger
Margery Withers ..... Mrs Polouvicka
Frank Middlemass ..... Ned
Podge Hodge ..... Zulema Dene
The tale of lady of the manor Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, forced to sell her beloved Grantleigh Estate when her husband's death leaves her financially strapped. With butler Brabinger in tow, they've decamped to the tiny Old Lodge cottage.
From this vantage point, Audrey keeps a close and disapproving eye on the estate's new owner, the nouveau-riche Richard DeVere, a wholesale foods magnate of Czech descent.
First piloted on radio and then whisked off to TV before it ever appeared, before finally arriving home in 1997.
A date, a declaration, some poetry and a proposal: things get out of hand for all the lovers.
Travis ..... Julian Rhind-Tutt
Grace ..... Charlotte Randle
Charlie ..... Paul Reynolds
Serena ..... Alice Lowe
Alice ...... Clare Cathcart
Bathsheba discovers that sending William Boldwood a valentine card was a terrible mistake. But Boldwood is not Gabriel's only rival for Bathsheba's heart.
Bathsheba ...... Alex Tregear
Gabriel Oak ...... Shaun Dooley
Boldwood ...... Toby Jones
Troy ...... Patrick Kennedy
Liddy ...... Lizzy Watts
Fanny ...... Hannah John-Kamen
Maltster ...... Robert Blythe
Jan ...... Joe Sims
Joseph ...... Sam Alexander
Henery ...... Patrick Brennan
Billy ...... Don Gilet
Cain ...... Harry Livingstone
Maryann ...... Amaka Okafor
John Finnemore always wanted to write for radio and, since that first commission, his output has been prolific.
He created the popular sitcom Cabin Pressure, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Roger Allam, and the long-running Souvenir Programme sketch series, which is now in its eight series.
Along the way, he’s picked up multiple awards, seen a cast member become a Hollywood star, and taken control of the Radio 4 airwaves, as the Lord Of Misrule for Twelfth Night 2017.
John has added comedy two-handers to his CV, with two series of Double Acts, taken Souvenir Programme out on the road (retitled John Finnemore’s Flying Visit), and even finds time to create the occasional cryptic crossword.
Eleanor is surprised to find herself dancing at the golf club party... And dancing, it turns out, is easy.
Tracy Wiles continues Gail Honeyman's heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking novel.
Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. But one simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself.
In 1903 a cluster of evening primrose in an abandoned potato field outside the Dutch town of Hilversum caught the eye of German botanist Hugo de Vries. Its huge blooms and large leaves appeared to suggest the sudden development of a new species. Around the same time in Kew Gardens a mysterious primula hybrid appeared. The new discipline of plant genetics soon revealed that this curious trick was being driven by multiplication of chromosomes inside the plant cell nucleus.
Professor Kathy Willis examines this phenomenon - known as polyploidy ( "multiple forms") - and how insights into this peculiarity can contribute to the evolutionary success of plants. It may also hold the answer to one of the botanical world's greatest mysteries - why so soon after appearing in the fossil record did the flowering plants suddenly explode into the bewildering range of species we see today.
With contributions from historian Jim Endersby, Keeper of Kew's Jodrell Lab Mark Chase, and Jodrell Laboratory geneticist Illia Leitch.
The dazzling splendour of a Marquis ball intensifies married Emma's longing for excitement.
A French masterpiece of betrayal and wantonness; the first great novel of adultery starring John Hurt..
Narrator ...... John Hurt
Charles ...... Conrad Nelson
Emma ...... Sarah Smart
Madame Bovary Snr ...... Brigit Forsyth
Monsieur Rouault ...... Russell Dixon
Gustave Flaubert's novel is dramatised by Diana Griffiths from a translation by Margaret Mauldon.
Philip meets Monica Jones, an Assistant Lecturer in the English Department at Leicester University. And so begins a complicated, lifelong relationship.
Read by Michael Pennington.
Philip Larkin was that rare thing among poets - a household name in his own lifetime. Lines such as 'Never such innocence again' and 'Sexual intercourse began / In nineteen sixty-three' made him one of the most popular poets of the last century.
Larkin's reputation as a man, however, has been more controversial. A solitary librarian known for his pessimism, he disliked exposure and had no patience with the literary circus. And when, in 1992, the publication of his Selected Letters laid bare his compartmentalised personal life, accusations of duplicity, faithlessness, racism and misogyny were levelled against him.
There is, of course, no requirement that poets should be likeable or virtuous, but James Booth asks whether art and life were really so deeply at odds with each other. Can the poet who composed the moving 'Love Songs in Age' have been such a cold-hearted man? Can he who uttered the playful, self-deprecating words 'Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth' really have been so boorish?
A very different public image is offered by those who shared the poet's life - the women with whom he was romantically involved, his friends and his university colleagues. It is with their personal testimony, including access to previously unseen letters, that Booth reinstates a man misunderstood - not a gaunt, emotional failure, but a witty, provocative and entertaining presence, delightful company; an attentive son and a man devoted to the women he loved.
Holly Walsh presents the comedy panel show that defines the dos and don'ts of modern manners.
The guest panellists are comedians Mark Steel, Isy Suttie and Tom Allen - who are all seeking to supply the top tips for best behaviour in the 21st century.
In this edition, the social minefield of parties is up for debate - including the suggestion of a new rule banning all small talk, and the desperate need for the end to evening-only wedding invitations.
The panel also have the opportunity to offer advice on the social conundrum from a member of the studio audience: 'My friend has hijacked my baby-sitting job. How can I win it back?'
Bernard Gallagher has resigned from the police force to take up a singing career. Whilst lodging with the Maconchy sisters at the Post Office, he makes a devastating discovery...
Muriel Maconchy ...... Margaret D'Arcy
Vera Maconchy ...... Stella McCusker
Phonsie Doherty ...... Gerard Murphy
Vivienne Hawthorne ...... Annie McCartney
Stumpy Bonner ...... Gerard McSorley
Guard Gallagher ...... Frankie McCafferty
Realising they have been protecting and corrupting the wrong child, Aziraphale and Crowley set out to discover what happened to the real son of Satan.
With a cast led by Peter Serafinowicz and Mark Heap, this is the first ever dramatisation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens.
Events have been set in motion to bring about the End of Days. The armies of Good and Evil are gathering and making their way towards the sleepy English village of Lower Tadfield. The Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse - War, Famine, Pollution and Death - have been summoned from the corners of the earth and are assembling.
Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell and his assistant Newton Pulsifier are also en route to Tadfield to investigate some unusual phenomena in the area, while Anathema Device, descendent of prophetess and witch Agnes Nutter, tries to decipher her ancestor's cryptic predictions about exactly where the impending Apocalypse will take place.
Atlantis is rising, fish are falling from the sky; everything seems to be going to the Divine Plan.
Everything that is but for the unlikely duo of an angel and a demon who are not all that keen on the prospect of the forthcoming Rapture. Aziraphale (once an angel in the Garden of Eden, but now running an antiquarian bookshop in London), and Crowley (formerly Eden's snake, now driving around London in shades and a vintage Bentley) have been living on Earth for several millennia and have become rather fond of the place. But if they are to stop Armageddon taking place they've got to find and kill the one who will the one bring about the apocalypse: the Antichrist himself.
Crowley ...... Peter Serafinowicz
Aziraphale ...... Mark Heap
Marie ...... Tracy Wiles
Dagon ...... Ben Crowe
Agnes Nutter ...... Josie Lawrence
Shadwell ...... Clive Russell
Madame Tracy ...... Julia Deakin
Prout ...... Ben Crowe
Newton Pulsifer ...... Colin Morgan
Anathema Device ...... Charlotte Ritchie
Raven Sable ...... Paterson Joseph
Mary Hodges ...... Louise Brealey
Ami ...... Christy Meyers
Elvis The Cook ...... Mitch Benn
Blenkinsop ...... Paul Stonehouse
Tomkins ...... Theo Maggs
Wethered ...... Tom Alexander
Jane Garvey ...... Herself
Adam ...... Adam Thomas Wright
Pepper ...... Hollie Burgess
Wensleydale ...... Bobby Fuller
Brian ...... Lewis Andrews
Peter Sellers' son Michael chats to Sally Magnusson about the ups and downs of growing up with a famous funny father.
Comedian Alun Cochrane has a 25 year mortgage which he can only pay off by being funny. In this series he takes us on a room by room, stand up tour of his house.
He has a fridge that beeps at him when he doesn't move quickly enough and a fire alarm he can't reach. His relationship with his house is a complicated one.
A hoarder of funny and original observations on everyday life, Alun invites us to help him de-clutter his mind and tidy his ideas into one of those bags that you hoover all the air out of and keep under your bed. This show will help Alun and his house work through their relationship issues and prevent a separation that Alun can ill afford; at least not until the market picks up anyway.
Starring ... Alun Cochrane and Gavin Osborn
Written by ... Alun Cochrane and Andy Wolton
Produced by ... Carl Cooper.
Sharply observed sketch show from award-winning comedy duo Hannah Croft and Fiona Pearce.
These Edinburgh Fringe favourites were the break-out hit of BBC Radio 4's Sketchorama and have performed sell-out shows in London, New York and around the UK.
Packed with sharply observed characters, this debut from writer-performers Hannah Croft and Fiona Pearce is not to be missed.
In the opening episode we meet June and Jean, two middle-class ladies driven to the brink by the strain of village life in the Home Counties, as well as a rowdy Geordie Brown Owl and an over-excited work experience girl.
Imagine if London's genteel literary scene had a bit more swag and a gangsta's lean. You've just imagined The Literary Adventures of Mr. Brown.
With the help of his naively affable intern, Charlie, the heroic, absurd and frankly bad-ass Kurtis Brown fights for his clients in London's entertainment industry.
When you need your fights fought and your books bought, who are you going to call? The best damn literary agent in the world, Kurtis Brown. He'll solve all your problems...for 15%.
WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019
WED 00:00 Good Omens (b04vdqpp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:00 on Tuesday]
WED 00:30 Dad Made Me Laugh (b007k0n4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:30 on Tuesday]
WED 01:00 Book at Beachtime (b036x212)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 on Tuesday]
WED 01:30 Dreamers of the Black Metropolis (b01r113s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 on Tuesday]
WED 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b09jdc7v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:00 on Tuesday]
WED 02:15 Plants: From Roots to Riches (b04cc1wy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:15 on Tuesday]
WED 02:30 Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary (b00cq60z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:30 on Tuesday]
WED 02:45 Book of the Week (b04fc4m0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:45 on Tuesday]
WED 03:00 Classic Serial (b01n0vh4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Tuesday]
WED 04:00 Best Behaviour (b05tm8wt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Tuesday]
WED 04:30 Ballylenon (b00pcl7j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
WED 05:00 Smelling of Roses (b00dpspn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:00 on Tuesday]
WED 05:30 Heresy (m0006m3r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 on Tuesday]
WED 06:00 Book at Beachtime (b036xc1d)
Jennie Rooney - Red Joan
Episode 3
MI5 have caught up with Joan Stanley and her secret past is unravelling.
New revelations about her war work in 1940s Cambridge leave Nick, her barrister son, in a state of shock. Eleanor Bron and Olivia Hallinan read.
Jennie Rooney's compelling spy thriller abridged by Alison Joseph.
Abridged by Alison Joseph
Producer: Elizabeth Allard.
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in 2013.
WED 06:30 Gone Today, Hair Tomorrow (b01104bx)
For centuries hair has been used as a symbol of remembrance; from a simple lock kept to the more intricate practice of weaving hair into bracelets or its use in art and jewellery.
Historian and biographer Juliette Barker traces these practices through history and talks to some modern collectors.
Now that it's become apparent that hair offers us the chance to retrieve good quality DNA, could it be about to enjoy a renaissance as favoured medium once more by which we remember our loved ones and ancestors?
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2011.
WED 07:00 There Is No Escape (b06grjn7)
Episode 1
Andrew Lawrence's sitcom about a man dissatisfied with his life, whose feeble attempts to run away invariably end with him traipsing home defeated.
In this opening episode, Andrew arrives home from work one evening to find the house even more of a mess than usual. An argument with his girlfriend about cleaning escalates and Andrew storms out to find something to eat.
After a soul destroying encounter with the woman in the local shop, who can only recommend frozen turkey dinosaurs for his meal, Andrew joins his work mate, Lennie, for a consolation dinner in the pub.
Later he returns home and is forced to negotiate about a cleaner through the letterbox before he is finally allowed back in.
Starring Andrew Lawrence and Diane Morgan.
With Rosie Cavaliero and Marek Larwood.
Producer: Jane Berthoud
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2015.
WED 07:30 The Pin (m0006lsk)
Series 4
Ep 2: Magic
The latest series from Ben and Alex, aka "The Pin", is a sketch-sitcom hybrid. The award-winning sketch duo are forced to record their latest series in their flat and the boys are glad of the new creative freedom this opportunity presents, away from the "prying eyes of the BBC". Unfortunately, their creative freedom is short-lived, thanks to numerous intrusions from the boys' unlucky neighbour Maria, Ben's restaurant-reviewing mother and a disappearing magician.
The Pin At Home is written by Alex Owen and Ben Ashenden
It stars:
Alex Owen as Alex
Ben Ashenden as Ben
Pippa Haywood as Michelle
Celeste Dring as Maria
Ellen Roberstson as Olivia, the magician
Krupa Pattani as Karen
and
Jason Forbes as Jamie, the hotel receptionist
It was produced by Sam Michell
A BBC Studios Production
WED 08:00 The Diary of a Nobody (b01fhrg1)
Episode 1
The imaginary journal of a middle-class suburban 'hero' with an over-developed sense of dignity - Charles Pooter.
Arthur Lowe reads George and Weedon Grossmith's comic masterpiece of middle-class self importance in Victorian Britain.
One of the classic humorous books of English literature, first published in 1894.
Abridged in five parts by Donald Bancroft.
Producer: Richard Wortley
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1977.
WED 08:30 Doctor at Large (b009s9n7)
Mozambique
A trip ashore for ship's medic Simon Sparrow leads to some local linguistic mishaps
The misadventures of newly qualified doctor, Simon Sparrow - adapted for radio by Ray Cooney from Richard Gordon's 'Doctor at Large' published in 1955.
Starring Richard Briers as Simon Sparrow, Geoffrey Sumner as Captain Spratt, Ray Cooney as First Mate Jock Hornbeam, Marjorie Westbury as Maria, Miriam Margolyes as Matilde, Ann Murray as Mrs Hawkins, Madi Hedd as Rosa and Peter Jones as Easter.
Producer: David Hatch
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1969.
WED 09:00 Act Your Age (b00fr1tp)
Series 1
Episode 2
Simon Mayo discovers which generation is the funniest. With Jon Richardson, Lucy Porter and Roy Walker. From December 2008.
WED 09:30 Cleaning Up (b053c3p4)
Episode 2
They say there's someone for everyone, has Shiv found true love?
Every night, as time is called and people are spat out onto the streets and squeezed into rides home to dream -tossed beds - others are hard at work. Teams of cleaners are in office spaces scrubbing, vacuuming and cleaning up. And right at the bottom of the food chain we find our gang - Spit n' Polish tackling the floors of a plush tower block in Manchester city centre.
Written by Ian Kershaw and with a top hole Northern cast, this is a funny, sometimes dark comedy about people who always get the fuzzy end of the lollipop. A group of people thrown together by their work, take as much solace as they can from this.
Julie ..... Julie Hesmondhalgh
Nobby ..... Paul Barber
Dave ..... John Thompson
Shiv ..... Lauren Socha
Nita ..... Bhavna Limbachia
Our Bri ..... Jack Deam
Produced at BBC Salford by Alison Vernon-Smith
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.
WED 10:00 Classic Serial (b01n606d)
Thomas Hardy - Far From the Madding Crowd
A Successful Rival
One man proves constant in his love for Bathsheba, while she gives up on all hopes of happiness.
Thomas Hardy's classic tale dramatised by Graham White.
Bathsheba ...... Alex Tregear
Gabriel Oak ...... Shaun Dooley
Boldwood ...... Toby Jones
Troy ...... Patrick Kennedy
Liddy ...... Lizzy Watts
Fanny ...... Hannah John-Kamen
Maltster ...... Robert Blythe
Jan ...... Joe Sims
Joseph ...... Sam Alexander
Henery ...... Patrick Brennan
Billy ...... Don Gilet
Cain ...... Harry Livingstone
Maryann ...... Amaka Okafor
Musicians: Colin Guthrie, Chris Davies, Lauren Swift
Director: Jessica Dromgoole
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012.
WED 11:00 Ronald Frame Short Stories (b007k19s)
The Trinket Box
To her observers, Mrs Bradley always seemed that bit too glamorous for a small gift shop owner...
John Gordon Sinclair reads Ronald Frame's short story.
Producer: David Hunter
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 1996.
WED 11:15 Sarah Waters Introduces - The Yellow Wallpaper (m0006t5p)
Exclusively for Radio 4 Extra, author Sarah Waters chooses a favourite book from the BBC archives.
Dramatised from the 1892 short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. A woman is taken to the country by her doctor husband in order to cure her of an unnamed illness - post-natal depression - after the birth of a child.
Instructed to have total rest and emptiness of mind and avoid stimulating company, the woman sinks into a still-deeper depression. Alone in the top floor nursery of a rented house, she becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper and descends into madness.
Dramatised from the 1892 short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Starring Charlotte Emmerson.
Music composed by Gary Yershon and performed by Gary Yershon and Laetitia Havers
Producer Susan Roberts
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2006.
WED 12:00 The Diary of a Nobody (b01fhrg1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:00 today]
WED 12:30 Doctor at Large (b009s9n7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:30 today]
WED 13:00 Book at Beachtime (b036xc1d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
WED 13:30 Gone Today, Hair Tomorrow (b01104bx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 today]
WED 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b09jf23j)
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Bad Days
Sporting her new hairdo, make-up and outfit, Eleanor prepares herself for the hand of fate to unite her with Johnnie Lomond at his farewell gig.
Tracy Wiles continues Gail Honeyman's heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking novel.
Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. But one simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself.
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2017.
WED 14:15 Plants: From Roots to Riches (b04cffpd)
Battling Bark and Beetle
By the end of the First World War the mysterious sudden death of elms was a common sight across Belgium and the Netherlands. Dutch researchers managed to elucidate the real culprit amidst rumours of drought or wartime gas poisoning. It was a fungus thought to originate from America, carried by a beetle and the disease rather unfairly gained its name Dutch elm disease. Diagnosis produced no cure and it soon advanced across the channel to Britain.
Professor Kathy Willis talks to the head of Kew's arboretum, Tony Kirkham, on the disease's impact amidst complacency, and how the emergence of a vigorous new fungal strain was to completely transform the landscape during its peak in the 1970's.
Now that the principle replacement for lost elms, ash, itself has fallen victim to the latest disease to hitch a ride on incoming nursery stock, Paul Smith, Head of Kew's Millennium Seed Bank, explains why this new disease could be easier to control.
Producer Adrian Washbourne.
WED 14:30 Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary (b00cqdwd)
The Solicitor
As Emma and Charles move to a new town, she makes the acquaintance of a young solicitor.
A French masterpiece of betrayal and wantonness; the first great novel of adultery starring John Hurt..
Narrator ...... John Hurt
Charles ...... Conrad Nelson
Emma ...... Sarah Smart
Madame Bovary Snr ...... Brigit Forsyth
Monsieur Rouault ...... Russell Dixon
Doctor Lariviere ...... Martin Reeve
Mere Rollet ...... Julie McCabe
Madame Lefrancois ...... Siobahn Finneran
Monsieur Homais ...... David Fleeshman
Leon Dupuis ...... James D'Arcy
Gustave Flaubert's novel is dramatised by Diana Griffiths from a translation by Margaret Mauldon.
Producer: Pauline Harris
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2006.
WED 14:45 Book of the Week (b04fc5f0)
Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love
Episode 3
Philip begins work as Librarian at Hull University and oversees plans for an ambitious programme of expansion. In his private life, another woman - Maeve Brennan - catches his eye.
Read by Michael Pennington
Philip Larkin was that rare thing among poets - a household name in his own lifetime. Lines such as 'Never such innocence again' and 'Sexual intercourse began / In nineteen sixty-three' made him one of the most popular poets of the last century.
Larkin's reputation as a man, however, has been more controversial. A solitary librarian known for his pessimism, he disliked exposure and had no patience with the literary circus. And when, in 1992, the publication of his Selected Letters laid bare his compartmentalised personal life, accusations of duplicity, faithlessness, racism and misogyny were levelled against him.
There is, of course, no requirement that poets should be likeable or virtuous, but James Booth asks whether art and life were really so deeply at odds with each other. Can the poet who composed the moving 'Love Songs in Age' have been such a cold-hearted man? Can he who uttered the playful, self-deprecating words 'Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth' really have been so boorish?
A very different public image is offered by those who shared the poet's life - the women with whom he was romantically involved, his friends and his university colleagues. It is with their personal testimony, including access to previously unseen letters, that Booth reinstates a man misunderstood - not a gaunt, emotional failure, but a witty, provocative and entertaining presence, delightful company; an attentive son and a man devoted to the women he loved.
Written by James Booth
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Produced by Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
WED 15:00 Classic Serial (b01n606d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 today]
WED 16:00 Act Your Age (b00fr1tp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 16:30 Cleaning Up (b053c3p4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 today]
WED 17:00 There Is No Escape (b06grjn7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:00 today]
WED 17:30 The Pin (m0006lsk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
WED 18:00 Good Omens (b04vf43c)
Episode 3
Aziraphale consults Agnes's prophesies in the hunt for the antichrist, the Witchfinder Army send Newt to Tadfield, and the Horsepersons of the Apocalypse continue to be summoned.
With a cast led by Peter Serafinowicz and Mark Heap, this is the first ever dramatisation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens.
Events have been set in motion to bring about the End of Days. The armies of Good and Evil are gathering and making their way towards the sleepy English village of Lower Tadfield. The Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse - War, Famine, Pollution and Death - have been summoned from the corners of the earth and are assembling.
Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell and his assistant Newton Pulsifier are also en route to Tadfield to investigate some unusual phenomena in the area, while Anathema Device, descendent of prophetess and witch Agnes Nutter, tries to decipher her ancestor's cryptic predictions about exactly where the impending Apocalypse will take place.
Atlantis is rising, fish are falling from the sky; everything seems to be going to the Divine Plan.
Everything that is but for the unlikely duo of an angel and a demon who are not all that keen on the prospect of the forthcoming Rapture. Aziraphale (once an angel in the Garden of Eden, but now running an antiquarian bookshop in London), and Crowley (formerly Eden's snake, now driving around London in shades and a vintage Bentley) have been living on Earth for several millennia and have become rather fond of the place. But if they are to stop Armageddon taking place they've got to find and kill the one who will the one bring about the apocalypse: the Antichrist himself.
There's just one small problem: someone seems to have mislaid him...
Crowley ...... Peter Serafinowicz
Aziraphale ...... Mark Heap
Major Pulsifer ...... Ben Crowe
Agnes Nutter ...... Josie Lawrence
Anathema Device ...... Charlotte Ritchie
Newton Pulsifer ...... Colin Morgan
Shadwell ...... Clive Russell
Madame Tracy ...... Julia Deakin
Lopez ...... Mitch Benn
Blake ...... Theo Maggs
Wasabi Computer ...... Andy Secombe
Carmine Zuigiber ...... Rachael Stirling
Chalk ...... Harry Lloyd
Death ...... Jim Norton
International Express ...... Ron Cook
Anforth ...... Nicholas Briggs
Nick Grimshaw ...... Himself
Martha Kearney ...... Herself
Neil Sleat ...... Himself
Adam ...... Adam Thomas Wright
Pepper ...... Hollie Burgess
Wensleydale ...... Bobby Fuller
Brian ...... Lewis Andrews
Adaptation and sound design by Dirk Maggs.
Producer: Heather Larmour
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2014.
WED 18:30 That Reminds Me (b007jnv6)
Series 3
George Melly
Celebrated raconteur, jazz singer and critic George Melly regales an audience with tales of his eventful life and passions.
Aged 75, the bon viveur reveals his short-term memory is faulty, yet his past is crystal clear. As Melly charts his way through a varied career - underpinned by his hunger for entertaining and performing - he recalls his early gay lifestyle, and explains his great passion for surrealism,
When George died, BBC News said "With his flamboyant suits, oversize hats and Havana cigars, George Melly was a good-time Renaissance man who indulged, often over-indulged, his passions for jazz, film, art, fishing, writing, drink and sex."
George Melly: Born 17 August 1926. Died 5 July 2007.
Producer: Claire Jones
First broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 in November 2001.
WED 19:00 The Diary of a Nobody (b01fhrg1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:00 today]
WED 19:30 Doctor at Large (b009s9n7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:30 today]
WED 20:00 Book at Beachtime (b036xc1d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
WED 20:30 Gone Today, Hair Tomorrow (b01104bx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 today]
WED 21:00 Ronald Frame Short Stories (b007k19s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 today]
WED 21:15 Sarah Waters Introduces - The Yellow Wallpaper (m0006t5p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 today]
WED 22:00 The Pin (m0006lsk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
WED 22:30 The Future of Radio (b04brrpp)
Series 1
Sweet Smell of Success
What is the future of radio? In a world of digital overload can the public be expected to just listen to something without any pictures? Is the radio era over? The Institute of Radiophonic Evolution (IRE), based in South Mimms, is working hard to give radio a bright future.
Their secret work is revealed in these programmes which draw on conference calls, voice notes and life-logs, to tell a compelling and strange story of the technological lengths to which the researchers will go to keep radio relevant.
Instead of just adding pictures, the lab is working on ways to transmit smells, vibrations, and 3D images, as well as a way of putting radio into listeners' very brains!
It sounds impossible, but the IRE boffins believe in making the impossible audible. And that's their motto.
Each week a jiffy bag of sound files arrives at the BBC. We listen to the contents to discover what backroom boffins Luke Mourne and Professor Trish Baldock (ably assisted by Shelley – on work experience) have been up to.
In this week's episode, they discover that radio can transmit smells and use them to enhance the output of the Radio Drama Department.
Luke ..... William Beck
Trish ..... Emma Kilbey
Shelley ..... Lizzy Watts
Felix ..... David Brett
with Joan Walker and Chris Stanton
Pianist: Mike Woolley
Written by Jerome Vincent and Stephen Dinsdale
Producer David Blount
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in July 2014.
WED 22:45 John Kearns (b05w3x5l)
Half-Time
Passions flare and loyalty is tested at a football ground in London.
The second of four 14-minute vignettes in a series from John Kearns, the Winner of the Main Prize at the 2014 Edinburgh Comedy Festival, as well as the Best Newcomer Award in 2013.
Producer: Arnab Chanda.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.
WED 23:00 The Jason Byrne Show (b01fhswh)
Series 2
Money
Award-winning comedian Jason Byrne gives full value on the cost of living and luxury.
Stand up and sketches with Laurence Howarth and Anna Bengo.
Producer: Julia McKenzie
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2009.
WED 23:30 Hamish and Dougal: You'll Have Had Your Tea (b0077038)
Series 3
Inverurie Jones and the Thimble of Doom
Unscrupulous treasure hunter Inverurie Jones has made off with the legendary Thimble of Doom. The Laird leads Hamish and Dougal on an expedition to retrieve it.
Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden star as the two Scotsmen famed for their appearances on BBC Radio’s I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
With Alison Steadman as their cleaning-lady-cum-housekeeper, Mrs Naughtie, and Jeremy Hardy as the local Laird.
Producer: Jon Naismith
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2006.
WED 23:45 Love in Recovery (b050bmfm)
Series 1
Andy
The lives of five very different recovering alcoholics.
Set entirely at their weekly meetings, we hear them get to know each other, learn to hate each other, argue, moan, laugh, fall apart, fall in love and, most importantly, tell their stories.
Comedy drama by Pete Jackson, set in Alcoholics Anonymous. Starring Sue Johnston, John Hannah, Eddie Marsan, Rebecca Front, Paul Kaye and Julia Deakin.
In this episode, Andy has a date for the first time in....well....longer than he'd like to admit. It's up to the rest of the group to rally round and get him match fit.
Julie ...... Sue Johnston
Marion ...... Julia Deakin
Fiona ...... Rebecca Front
Simon ...... John Hannah
Danno ...... Paul Kaye
Andy ...... Eddie Marsan
There are funny stories, sad stories, stories of small victories and milestones, stories of loss, stories of hope, and stories that you really shouldn't laugh at - but still do. Along with the storyteller.
Writer Pete Jackson is a recovering alcoholic and has spent time with Alcoholics Anonymous. It was there he found, as many people do, support from the unlikeliest group of disparate souls, all banded together due to one common bond. As well as offering the support he needed throughout a difficult time, AA also offered a weekly, sometimes daily, dose of hilarity, upset, heartbreak and friendship.
Director: Ben Worsfield
A Lucky Giant production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2015.
THURSDAY 18 JULY 2019
THU 00:00 Good Omens (b04vf43c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:00 on Wednesday]
THU 00:30 That Reminds Me (b007jnv6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:30 on Wednesday]
THU 01:00 Book at Beachtime (b036xc1d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 on Wednesday]
THU 01:30 Gone Today, Hair Tomorrow (b01104bx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 on Wednesday]
THU 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b09jf23j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:00 on Wednesday]
THU 02:15 Plants: From Roots to Riches (b04cffpd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:15 on Wednesday]
THU 02:30 Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary (b00cqdwd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:30 on Wednesday]
THU 02:45 Book of the Week (b04fc5f0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:45 on Wednesday]
THU 03:00 Classic Serial (b01n606d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Wednesday]
THU 04:00 Act Your Age (b00fr1tp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
THU 04:30 Cleaning Up (b053c3p4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 on Wednesday]
THU 05:00 There Is No Escape (b06grjn7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:00 on Wednesday]
THU 05:30 The Pin (m0006lsk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 on Wednesday]
THU 06:00 Book at Beachtime (b036y5sh)
Jennie Rooney - Red Joan
Episode 4
MI5 are getting closer to the truth about Joan's hidden past.
Her moral convictions and her clandestine Cold-War actitivities are recalled along with a devastating loss which in turn leads to a new and crushing revelation.
Read by Olivia Hallinan and Eleanor Bron.
Jennie Rooney's spy thriller abridged by Alison Joseph.
Producer: Elizabeth Allard.
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in 2013.
THU 06:30 Who Was Opal? (b00pk9y9)
Journalist Melanie McFadyean investigates the strange life of Opal Whiteley, a child prodigy from Oregon, whose childhood diary was a huge hit in the early 1920s, but whose aristocratic claims were disputed and ultimately brought her to a sad end in a British psychiatric hospital.
Opal's diary described, in an amusing, poetic style, her upbringing in the backwoods lumber camps at the beginning of the 20th century, and her intimate relationship with the natural world - a relationship in which many of the animals she knew, and even some of the trees, were given names, often taken from classical literature.
But it was the story behind the diary's publication that first raised eyebrows - Opal, as an adult, claimed to a publisher that the original diary had been ripped apart by a jealous sister, but the piecies were preserved for years in a hatbox. Opal was encouraged to paste the diary back together, and the manuscript for the book was transcribed from the results.
Many people were sceptical about the diary's reconstruction, but scepticism turned to outright suspicion when Opal turned her back on her Oregon family, as a result of implications in the diary that she was an orphan and that her real father was a member of the French royal family. Opal's diary still divides opinion in America.
During the Second World War, Opal lived in a London flat, along with thousands of books. But her mental condition deteriorated and she was placed in Napsbury Hospital, near St Albans, in 1948, where she spent the next 44 years until her death in 1992. We hear from people who met her and knew her, hear extracts from the diary, and musical clips from a musical about her life.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2010.
THU 07:00 Hobby Bobbies (b04svjxv)
Series 2
Vice
The tiny Haling police force is thrown into confusion when The Guv orders a crackdown on vice in their patch. Can social media help unveil the mysterious Big Brenda?
The characterful sitcom where Britain's longest serving PCSO -and Britain's laziest - make quite a pairing.
Written by Dave Lamb (the voice of Come Dine With Me) and starring Richie Webb (Horrible Histories), Nick Walker, Chris Emmett and Noddy Holder.
Geoff...............Richie Webb
Nigel...............Nick Walker
The Guv..........Sinead Keenan
Nina................Pooja Shah
Bernie.............Chris Emmett
Geoff's Dad.....Noddy Holder
Written by Dave Lamb
Produced by Steve Doherty
A Top Dog production for BBC Radio 4 in December 2014.
THU 07:30 Terry Alderton's Whole Half Hour (m0006lb4)
Terry Alderton has been thrilling audiences with his jokes, energy, characters and general chaos for over 20 years. Finally he’s arrived in radio’s most prestigious comedy slot. Expect some songs, some stand up and some general silliness.
Written and performed by Terry Alderton
Additional material: Richard Melvin, Julia Sutherland, Bobby Davro, Bob Tap, Paul Tonkinson, Steven Dick.
Sound Design: Sean Kerwin
Produced by Richard Melvin
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4
THU 08:00 Brothers in Law (b007jrs5)
Series 1
The Expert Witness
Faced with a case involving osteoarthritis, rookie barrister Roger Thursby must bone up on his medical knowledge.
Roger Thursby ...... Richard Briers
Henry Blagrove ...... Richard Waring
Sally Mannering ...... Ann Davies
Belkin ...... John Bresslin
Rennell ...... Robert Dorning
Guest stars:
Eagler ...... Richard Caldlcot
The Judge ...... John Le Mesurier
Other parts by Malcolm Hayes, Clifford Norgate and Frederick Treves.
Adapted for radio by Richard Waring from the BBC TV scripts.
Restored from BBC Transcription Service tapes - originally edited for sale abroad.
Published in 1955, Henry Cecil's comic legal novel Brothers in Law was adapted first for TV in 1962 by Frank Muir and Denis Norden. It provided the first regular starring role for Richard Briers, who later reprised his role of the idealistic young lawyer Roger Thursby for BBC Radio between 1970 and 1972.
Produced by David Hatch.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1970.
THU 08:30 The Goon Show (b00jz5x2)
The Tay Bridge
On Scotland's crab-ridden shores, Neddie Seagoon is bridging a gap. Stars Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers. From February 1959.
THU 09:00 Booked (b0075m1d)
Series 2
Episode 5
The Troll applies for the job of Archbishop of Canterbury, while Thomson and Thompson, from Tintin, offer their pitch to be the PM's bodyguards.
Satirical wit, outrageous parody and original writing from Mark Thomas, Dillie Keane, Miles Kington and Roger McGough.
Irreverent literary game chaired by Ian McMillan.
Producer: Marc Jobst
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 1997.
THU 09:30 Bristow (b007sxvq)
Series 2
The Girl in the Yellow Overcoat
It's the Chester-Perry office party and Jones thinks all his Christmases have come at once.
Michael Williams stars as Bristow, the buying clerk from Frank Dickens' famous newspaper cartoon strip. Syndicated internationally, it ran for 41 years in London's Evening Standard.
Bristow ...... Michael Williams
Jones ...... Rodney Bewes
Mrs Purdy ...... Dora Bryan
Hewitt ...... Owen Brenman
Miss Sunman ...... Katy Odey
MoorcroftRobert Bathurst
Fudge ...... Jon Glover
Post Boy ...... Simon Schatzberger
Witherspoon ...... Peter Kelly
Fenella ...... Anna Mountford
Yellow Overcoat Girl ...... Zeena Eate
Music composed and performed by John Whitehall.
Producer: Neil Cargill
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1999.
THU 10:00 Drama (b054pfn7)
John Gabriel Borkman
Episode 1
David Threlfall stars as John Gabriel Borkman, a disgraced banker now destitute after a fraud scandal and imprisonment.
Whilst trapped in his own home like a wolf in a cage, the living ghosts of his past wrestle to determine his future.
Henrik Ibsen’s rarely performed but all-too-pertinent play about the dangerous pursuit of power. Produced from a version by David Eldridge.
John Gabriel Borkman ….. David Threlfall
Miss Ella Rentheim ….. Susannah Harker
Mrs Gunhild Borkman ….. Gillian Bevan
Vilhelm Foldal ….. Philip Jackson
Erhart Borkman ….. Luke Newberry
Mrs Fanny Wilton ….. Jenny Rainsford
Malene ….. Claire Cage
Director: Helen Perry
A BBC Cymru/Wales production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2015.
THU 11:00 Ronald Frame Short Stories (b007k1lf)
The End of the Season
Rhona has run away from her relationship problems. At her hotel, she comes to an understanding.
Jilly Bond reads Ronald Frame's short story.
Producer: David Hunter
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1995.
THU 11:15 Drama (b04jjz3q)
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
What are the odds on the earnest statistician Liam meeting the impulsive photographer Sadie?
What are the chances of starting a family?
Charlotte Bogard Macleod's tale of love, surrogacy and statistics.
Liam ..... Andrew Scott
Sadie ..... Jeany Spark
Cath ..... Hannah Genesius
Finn ..... Karna Majdian
Director: David Hunter
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
THU 12:00 Brothers in Law (b007jrs5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:00 today]
THU 12:30 The Goon Show (b00jz5x2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:30 today]
THU 13:00 Book at Beachtime (b036y5sh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
THU 13:30 Who Was Opal? (b00pk9y9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 today]
THU 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b09jgklj)
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Please Don't Hurt Us
Humiliated by her childish infatuation with Johnnie Lomond, Eleanor seeks help...
Tracy Wiles continues Gail Honeyman's heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking novel.
Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. But one simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself.
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2017.
THU 14:15 Plants: From Roots to Riches (b04cfhqt)
Hunt for Diversity
Agriculture tends to favour the best food varieties but this is often a trade off with beneficial traits such as resistance to disease or tolerance to drought. During the 1920s the Russian botanist Nikolai Vavilov, having witnessed famine on a large scale, became increasingly concerned about the potential loss of locally adapted varieties and spent his life studying crop plants in their wild habitats.
Professor Kathy Willis examines Vavilov's pioneering work and his search for pools of genetic variability - so called "centres of origin" amongst the wild relatives of our domesticated crops that could help sustain future plant breeding for human use.
Vavilov's story has a tragic end but, as we hear, his legacy lives on in seedbanks such as Kew's Millennium Seedbank at Wakehurst Place whose Crop Wild Relatives Project is collecting and assessing new potential amongst the original progenitors of our domestic crops.
With contributions from archaeobotanist Dorian Fuller, Kew's curator of economic botany Mark Nesbitt, Crop Wild Relatives Project coordinator Ruth Eastwood, and head of the Millennium Seedbank Paul Smith.
Producer Adrian Washbourne.
THU 14:30 Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary (b00cql2l)
The Longing
Emma's memory of young solicitor Leon becomes the core of her despair.
A French masterpiece of betrayal and wantonness; the first great novel of adultery starring John Hurt..
Narrator ...... John Hurt
Charles ...... Conrad Nelson
Emma ...... Sarah Smart
Leon Dupuis ...... James D'Arcy
Monsieur L'Heureux ...... Seamus O'Neill
Felicite ...... Sarah Jayne Hallworth
Rodolphe Boulanger ...... Jude Akuwudike
Gustave Flaubert's novel is dramatised by Diana Griffiths from a translation by Margaret Mauldon.
Producer: Pauline Harris
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2006.
THU 14:45 Book of the Week (b04fc80x)
Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love
Episode 4
As middle age approaches, Larkin's public and professional life come to the fore, while his poetry retreats to a more private space. And his personal life is as complicated as ever.
Read by Michael Pennington.
Philip Larkin was that rare thing among poets - a household name in his own lifetime. Lines such as 'Never such innocence again' and 'Sexual intercourse began / In nineteen sixty-three' made him one of the most popular poets of the last century.
Larkin's reputation as a man, however, has been more controversial. A solitary librarian known for his pessimism, he disliked exposure and had no patience with the literary circus. And when, in 1992, the publication of his Selected Letters laid bare his compartmentalised personal life, accusations of duplicity, faithlessness, racism and misogyny were levelled against him.
There is, of course, no requirement that poets should be likeable or virtuous, but James Booth asks whether art and life were really so deeply at odds with each other. Can the poet who composed the moving 'Love Songs in Age' have been such a cold-hearted man? Can he who uttered the playful, self-deprecating words 'Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth' really have been so boorish?
A very different public image is offered by those who shared the poet's life - the women with whom he was romantically involved, his friends and his university colleagues. It is with their personal testimony, including access to previously unseen letters, that Booth reinstates a man misunderstood - not a gaunt, emotional failure, but a witty, provocative and entertaining presence, delightful company; an attentive son and a man devoted to the women he loved.
Written by James Booth
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Produced by Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
THU 15:00 Drama (b054pfn7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 today]
THU 16:00 Booked (b0075m1d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 16:30 Bristow (b007sxvq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 today]
THU 17:00 Hobby Bobbies (b04svjxv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:00 today]
THU 17:30 Terry Alderton's Whole Half Hour (m0006lb4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
THU 18:00 Good Omens (b04vjb60)
Episode 4
Newt and Anathema try to decipher Agnes's cryptic riddles; Aziraphale and Crowley receive visits from the Angelic and Demonic authorities, and Adam begins to formulate some plans.
With a cast led by Peter Serafinowicz and Mark Heap, this is the first ever dramatisation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens.
Events have been set in motion to bring about the End of Days. The armies of Good and Evil are gathering and making their way towards the sleepy English village of Lower Tadfield. The Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse - War, Famine, Pollution and Death - have been summoned from the corners of the earth and are assembling.
Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell and his assistant Newton Pulsifier are also en route to Tadfield to investigate some unusual phenomena in the area, while Anathema Device, descendent of prophetess and witch Agnes Nutter, tries to decipher her ancestor's cryptic predictions about exactly where the impending Apocalypse will take place.
Atlantis is rising, fish are falling from the sky; everything seems to be going to the Divine Plan.
Everything that is but for the unlikely duo of an angel and a demon who are not all that keen on the prospect of the forthcoming Rapture. Aziraphale (once an angel in the Garden of Eden, but now running an antiquarian bookshop in London), and Crowley (formerly Eden's snake, now driving around London in shades and a vintage Bentley) have been living on Earth for several millennia and have become rather fond of the place. But if they are to stop Armageddon taking place they've got to find and kill the one who will the one bring about the apocalypse: the Antichrist himself.
There's just one small problem: someone seems to have mislaid him...
Crowley ...... Peter Serafinowicz
Aziraphale ...... Mark Heap
Agnes Nutter ...... Josie Lawrence
Anathema Device ...... Charlotte Ritchie
Newton Pulsifer ...... Colin Morgan
Shadwell ...... Clive Russell
Madame Tracy ...... Julia Deakin
Hastur ...... Phil Davis
Ligur ...... Neil Maskell
Melatron ...... Nicholas Briggs
Adam ...... Adam Thomas Wright
Pepper ...... Hollie Burgess
Wensleydale ...... Bobby Fuller
Brian ...... Lewis Andrews
Corrie Corfield ...... Herself
Adaptation and sound design by Dirk Maggs.
Producer: Heather Larmour.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2014.
THU 18:30 Great Lives (b01s4g7j)
Series 30
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth nominates Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as his "Great Life". Matthew Parris chairs, assisted by biographer Andrew Lycett.
Conan Doyle is best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. This always irritated him, and he tried to kill off the great detective, only to bring him back by popular demand. But there was more to Conan Doyle than Holmes. A footballer, cricketer, skier,, a campaigner against the Belgian atrocities in the Congo, and most startlingly, a convinced spiritualist who believed in fairies.
The paradox of Conan Doyle's life was that, having invented the most rational, cerebral fictional character of all time, he himself embraced superstition and behaved in ways that caused even his allies to despair of his credulity.
THU 19:00 Brothers in Law (b007jrs5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:00 today]
THU 19:30 The Goon Show (b00jz5x2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:30 today]
THU 20:00 Book at Beachtime (b036y5sh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
THU 20:30 Who Was Opal? (b00pk9y9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 today]
THU 21:00 Ronald Frame Short Stories (b007k1lf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 today]
THU 21:15 Drama (b04jjz3q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 today]
THU 22:00 Terry Alderton's Whole Half Hour (m0006lb4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
THU 22:30 Richard Marsh (b06d9ljc)
Cardboard Heart
Wedding
Award-winning writer and poet Richard Marsh stars alongside Russell Tovey and Phil Daniels in this new, heart-warming sitcom set in a greetings card company.
This week, Will's asked to be best man at a wedding. As a man who spends every day writing heartfelt sentiments, the speech is easy - Will's used to writing other people's feelings. It's much harder to confront his own.
Richard Marsh is the writer and star of Love and Sweets, a Radio 4 comedy series that won Best Comedy in the BBC Audio Drama awards 2014. Now, in Cardboard Heart, he plays Will, a hapless romantic who's keen to find love and an aspiring writer with a 9 to 5 job writing poetry at a greetings card company.
Will shares an office with Goadsby (Rebecca Scroggs), who's responsible for the card artwork and being Will's nemesis, Colin (Sam Troughton), the firm's safety and survival-obsessed accountant, and charming renegade salesman Beast (Russell Tovey). Phil Daniels plays Rog, their roguish boss.
Paid to express heartfelt emotions for people he will never meet, Will consistently fails to express himself properly to anyone he does meet. Every social interaction is a minefield for Will. In his head, he knows exactly what to say but the minute he opens his mouth, it's a disaster. Luckily for you, Will shares his inner thoughts with the audience.
Written and created by Richard Marsh
Directed by Pia Furtado
Produced by Ben Worsfield
A Lucky Giant production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 23:00 Lemn Sissay's Homecoming (b05tl3jt)
London
We all leave. We all migrate from childhood to adulthood, from village to town to city, from single to married. We all hate and love where we are from. We are all immigrants of time. There are problems with home and a need to leave. There is a love of home and a need to leave. Goodbye is who we are.
Lemn Sissay explores what "home" means through stand-up, poetry and conversation. It's surely not just a physical location - it's the people, the memories, the feeling. It's not home if you don't belong there, it's just where you live.
The second of two shows was recorded in front of an audience in Lemn's adopted home of London. But he is still perhaps more closely associated with Manchester. He arrived there at the age of 18 with a birth certificate, a fist full of poems and a mouth. It was about to become Madchester. He grew into the talented adopted son of a wonderful, dysfunctional family and thrived. His poems have become landmarks throughout the city. He's tattooed its body. And then he left. He just left.
Talking to Lemn about his journey are Mancunian broadcaster Terry Christian, and artistic director of the Southbank Centre, Jude Kelly.
Lemn Sissay is the author of five collections of poetry. He has also written plays for stage and BBC radio. He was the first poet to write for the Olympics 2012 and received an MBE from the Queen for Services to Literature. He is associate artist at the Southbank Centre, and an (hon) doctor of letters. His radio documentary Child of the State was nominated for the 2010 Sony Awards. If you should google "Lemn sissay" all the returning hits will be about him. There is only one person named Lemn Sissay in the world.
Written and performed by Lemn Sissay,
Producer: Ed Morrish
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.
THU 23:30 Two Episodes of Mash (b01mx27s)
Series 2
Episode 4
Diane, Joe and David have to do 30 minutes of community service as punishment for their crimes against radio.
You can see an animation of their Fishing Sketch by Tom Rourke on the 4 Extra website.
A mix of silly, surreal sketches and banter with Diane Morgan, David O'Doherty, Joe Wilkinson, Paul Harry Allen, Bobbie Pryor, Gary Newman and Aled Jones.
Producer: Clair Wordsworth.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2012.
FRIDAY 19 JULY 2019
FRI 00:00 Good Omens (b04vjb60)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:00 on Thursday]
FRI 00:30 Great Lives (b01s4g7j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:30 on Thursday]
FRI 01:00 Book at Beachtime (b036y5sh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 on Thursday]
FRI 01:30 Who Was Opal? (b00pk9y9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 on Thursday]
FRI 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b09jgklj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:00 on Thursday]
FRI 02:15 Plants: From Roots to Riches (b04cfhqt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:15 on Thursday]
FRI 02:30 Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary (b00cql2l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:30 on Thursday]
FRI 02:45 Book of the Week (b04fc80x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:45 on Thursday]
FRI 03:00 Drama (b054pfn7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Thursday]
FRI 04:00 Booked (b0075m1d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Thursday]
FRI 04:30 Bristow (b007sxvq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 on Thursday]
FRI 05:00 Hobby Bobbies (b04svjxv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:00 on Thursday]
FRI 05:30 Terry Alderton's Whole Half Hour (m0006lb4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 on Thursday]
FRI 06:00 Book at Beachtime (b036yndp)
Jennie Rooney - Red Joan
Episode 5
MI5 have new revelations for Joan about her hidden past.
Will love triumph in her world of secrets and betrayal?
Read by Olivia Hallinan and Eleanor Bron.
Jennie Rooney's intense spy thriller abridged by Alison Joseph.
Producer: Elizabeth Allard.
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in 2013.
FRI 06:30 Just a Simple Old New Zealand Bee Keeper (m0006v5g)
The record-breaking mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary reflects on an incredible life of adventure.
In conversation with Cliff Morgan in Auckland, he remembers his childhood and his father, who was a journalist-turned-beekeeper with strong social views and principles.
Sir Edmund remembers first seeing snow, and the tremendous moment he heard news of his successful summit of Everest with Tenzing Norgay, on BBC Radio.
A self-confessed "mediocre man", with no particular athletic ability, Hillary believes that it was motivation that led him to success on challenging projects.
The conversation also covers diplomacy, in light of his appointment as New Zealand's High Commissioner in Delhi, and his firm belief that the destruction of the natural environment is a worldwide concern.
Producer: Vanessa Harrison
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 1985.
FRI 07:00 Charles Dickens (b00s7fbg)
Sketches by Boz: Series 2
The Boarding House
Mrs Tibbs is the owner of a most respectable Boarding House, until the arrival of a mysterious new lodger.
Gloriously comic stories of London Life by Charles Dickens - dramatised by Stephen Wyatt.
Boz ...... Nicholas Farrell
Mrs Tibbs ...... Imelda Staunton
Mrs Bloss ...... Annette Badland
Mr Tibbs ...... Christopher Hancock
Agnes ...... Tracy-Ann Oberman
Mr Evenson ...... Stephen Critchlow
Mr Wisbottle ...... Peter Gunn
Mr O’Bleary ...... Jason O’Mara
Director: Sally Avens
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1999.
FRI 07:30 The Absolutely Radio Show (m0006s9b)
Series 3
Episode 2
The hugely popular sketch show returns for a third series on BBC Radio 4. Pete Baikie, Morwenna Banks, Moray Hunter, Gordon Kennedy and John Sparkes revisit some of their much-loved characters, and also introduce some newcomers.
Absolutely was a big hit on Channel Four in the late 80s and early 90s. In 2013, the group got back together for the Sketchorama: Absolutely Special for BBC Radio 4 - winning a BBC Audio Drama Award in the Best Live Scripted Comedy category. The Absolutely Radio Show followed, with the first two series picking up Celtic Media Award nominations for Best Radio Comedy, while the second series was also nominated for a BBC Audio Drama Award in 2018.
This second episode includes The Rev McMinn encountering the European political elite in his local Minimart, Gwynedd’s insomnia driving Denzil to despair and then song, and Frank Hovis fondly remembering his holidays. From the archive, we have never before heard footage from Dunkirk rescuers and four-and-three-quarter year-old Jack gives the eulogy at his Grandpa’s funeral.
Written and Performed by: Peter Baikie, Morwenna Banks, Moray Hunter, Gordon Kennedy and John Sparkes
Production Manager Sarah Tombling
Recording Engineer Dave Murricane
Editor Pete Baikie
Producer Gus Beattie
Producer Gordon Kennedy
BBC Executive Sioned Wiliam
Recording Venue The Oran Mor, Glasgow
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 08:00 The Burkiss Way (b00jr7fp)
Series 2
Make Short Programmes the Burkiss Way
The Eurovision Raquel Welch Gag Contest begins in the correspondence course that promises you one free laugh.
With short comedic instruction from Jo Kendall, Nigel Rees, Chris Emmett and Fred Harris
A short comedy script by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick.
Short sharp production by Simon Brett.
Cult sketch show first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1977.
FRI 08:30 Steptoe and Son (b007jmlj)
Series 4
The Three Feathers
Harold Steptoe is convinced a commode will make him rich.
Starring Wilfrid Brambell as Albert and Harry H Corbett as Harold. With Douglas Blackwell and Leslie Heritage
Following the conclusion of their hugely successful association with Tony Hancock, writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson wrote 10 pilots for the BBC TV's Comedy Playhouse in 1962. The Offer was set in a house with a yard full of junk, featuring the lives of rag and bone men Albert Steptoe and his son Harold and it was the spark for a run of 8 series for TV.
Written for TV and adapted for radio by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
Producer: Bobby Jaye
First broadcast on the BBC Radio 2 in February 1972.
FRI 09:00 It's Not What You Know (b01c7snf)
Series 1
Episode 1
Miles Jupp takes the chair of It's Not What You Know, a new series which sets out to see how well panellists know those closest to them. For in this show it's not what, but who you know that matters - and more importantly how well you know them.
Rachel Johnson, Des Lynam and Mark Steel nominate one of their nearest and dearest to answer a selection of questions - anything from "Who would you like to be stranded on a desert island with?" to "What is your favourite film?" to "How much is a pint of milk?" - and they must then attempt to second-guess how their nominee responded. If they can get it right, or come close, they get points.
Each episode also features a very special guest contributor whose answers the panel must also try to predict. In this episode, that very special guest is renowned film director and food critic, Michael Winner.
Producer: Sam Michell.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012.
FRI 09:30 Mr Finchley Goes to Paris (b00g27dk)
Episode 1
Mr Finchley finds himself on his way to Paris to track down a rather irresponsible client. But before he sets off, he has an important question to put to a certain widow of his acquaintance...
Richard Griffiths stars as the shy solicitor's clerk, Edgar Finchley - in a second series of adventures written by Victor Canning.
Mrs Crantel ...... Anna Cropper
Mr Sprake ...... James Grout
Lawrence Hume ...... Piers Gibbon
Mrs Patten ...... Jill Graham
David White ...... James Taylor
Mavis ...... Teresa Gallagher
The Frenchman ...... Barry Gordon
Narrated by James Villiers.
Adapted in six parts by Andy and Eric Merriman.
Producer: Gareth Edwards
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in May 1994.
FRI 10:00 Drama (b055f2lg)
John Gabriel Borkman
Episode 2
Now reunited with his first love, will John Gabriel Borkman be able to find real happiness? Or will the continued pursuit of his ambitions lead to his final destruction?
David Threlfall stars as the disgraced banker finally being made to atone for his sins.
Conclusion of Henrik Ibsen’s rarely-performed but all-too-pertinent play about the dangerous pursuit of power. Produced from a version by David Eldridge
John Gabriel Borkman ….. David Threlfall
Miss Ella Rentheim ….. Susannah Harker
Mrs Gunhild Borkman ….. Gillian Bevan
Vilhelm Foldal ….. Philip Jackson
Erhart Borkman ….. Luke Newberry
Mrs Fanny Wilton ….. Jenny Rainsford
Malene ….. Claire Cage
Directed by Helen Perry
A BBC Cymru/Wales production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2015.
FRI 11:00 Podcast Radio Hour (m0006v5k)
Made for 4 Extra. Presenters recommend their favourite podcasts and speak to the people who make them.
FRI 12:00 The Burkiss Way (b00jr7fp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:00 today]
FRI 12:30 Steptoe and Son (b007jmlj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:30 today]
FRI 13:00 Book at Beachtime (b036yndp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
FRI 13:30 Just a Simple Old New Zealand Bee Keeper (m0006v5g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 today]
FRI 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b09jh3ks)
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Goodbye, Mummy
Tracy Wiles concludes Gail Honeyman's heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking new novel - this year's bestselling fiction debut.
Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. But one simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself.
Today: After being taken back to painful childhood memories, Eleanor finally confronts her mother...
Reader: Tracy Wiles
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2017.
FRI 14:15 Plants: From Roots to Riches (b04cfvg3)
Botanical Medicine
In 1947 Sir Robert Robinson received the Nobel prize for Chemistry "in recognition of his investigations of plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids". This powerful family of plant chemicals was proving a potent medical tool.
Professor Kathy Willis traces the natural role of alkaloids in plants and the first attempts to isolate one of the best know - quinine, from chinchona bark growing in the Andes. This development gave rise to the emergence of a new kind of laboratory scientist equally able to handle botanical and chemical data. As Mark Nesbitt, Keeper of Kew's Economic Botany Collection explains, this was to eliminate the chance and guesswork in identifying "good" plants from "bad".
Professor Monique Simmons of Kew's Jodrell Laboratory, assesses why chemicals from the plant kingdom are still needed in the fight against some of our most challenging diseases, from breast cancer to cardiovascular disease, and how making the nuanced connections between plant species is central to success in this field.
Producer Adrian Washbourne.
FRI 14:30 Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary (b00cqzj4)
The Temptation
Emma meets wealthy land owner Rodolphe Boulanger, and succumbs to temptation...
A French masterpiece of betrayal and wantonness; the first great novel of adultery starring John Hurt..
Narrator ...... John Hurt
Charles ...... Conrad Nelson
Emma ...... Sarah Smart
Rodolphe Boulanger ...... Jude Akuwudike
Madame Lefrancois ...... Siobhan Finneran
Monsieur Homais ...... David Fleeshman
Gustave Flaubert's novel is dramatised by Diana Griffiths from a translation by Margaret Mauldon.
Producer: Pauline Harris
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2006.
FRI 14:45 Book of the Week (b04fchlh)
Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love
Episode 5
Larkin finds professional life stressful, sees his poetic future as bleak and - despite continuing relationships with both Monica and Maeve - brings another woman into his life.
Concluded by Michael Pennington.
Philip Larkin was that rare thing among poets - a household name in his own lifetime. Lines such as 'Never such innocence again' and 'Sexual intercourse began / In nineteen sixty-three' made him one of the most popular poets of the last century.
Larkin's reputation as a man, however, has been more controversial. A solitary librarian known for his pessimism, he disliked exposure and had no patience with the literary circus. And when, in 1992, the publication of his Selected Letters laid bare his compartmentalised personal life, accusations of duplicity, faithlessness, racism and misogyny were levelled against him.
There is, of course, no requirement that poets should be likeable or virtuous, but James Booth asks whether art and life were really so deeply at odds with each other. Can the poet who composed the moving 'Love Songs in Age' have been such a cold-hearted man? Can he who uttered the playful, self-deprecating words 'Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth' really have been so boorish?
A very different public image is offered by those who shared the poet's life - the women with whom he was romantically involved, his friends and his university colleagues. It is with their personal testimony, including access to previously unseen letters, that Booth reinstates a man misunderstood - not a gaunt, emotional failure, but a witty, provocative and entertaining presence, delightful company; an attentive son and a man devoted to the women he loved.
Written by James Booth
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Produced by Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:00 Drama (b055f2lg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 today]
FRI 16:00 It's Not What You Know (b01c7snf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
FRI 16:30 Mr Finchley Goes to Paris (b00g27dk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 today]
FRI 17:00 Charles Dickens (b00s7fbg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:00 today]
FRI 17:30 The Absolutely Radio Show (m0006s9b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
FRI 18:00 Good Omens (b04vjll9)
Episode 5
The Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse assemble and set off for Lower Tadfield, while Aziraphale finds himself inhabiting a most unexpected host body.
With a cast led by Peter Serafinowicz and Mark Heap, this is the first ever dramatisation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens.
Events have been set in motion to bring about the End of Days. The armies of Good and Evil are gathering and making their way towards the sleepy English village of Lower Tadfield. The Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse - War, Famine, Pollution and Death - have been summoned from the corners of the earth and are assembling.
Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell and his assistant Newton Pulsifier are also en route to Tadfield to investigate some unusual phenomena in the area, while Anathema Device, descendent of prophetess and witch Agnes Nutter, tries to decipher her ancestor's cryptic predictions about exactly where the impending Apocalypse will take place.
Atlantis is rising, fish are falling from the sky; everything seems to be going to the Divine Plan.
Everything that is but for the unlikely duo of an angel and a demon who are not all that keen on the prospect of the forthcoming Rapture. Aziraphale (once an angel in the Garden of Eden, but now running an antiquarian bookshop in London), and Crowley (formerly Eden's snake, now driving around London in shades and a vintage Bentley) have been living on Earth for several millennia and have become rather fond of the place. But if they are to stop Armageddon taking place they've got to find and kill the one who will the one bring about the apocalypse: the Antichrist himself.
There's just one small problem: someone seems to have mislaid him...
Crowley ...... Peter Serafinowicz
Aziraphale ...... Mark Heap
Agnes Nutter ...... Josie Lawrence
Anathema Device ...... Charlotte Ritchie
Newton Pulsifer ...... Colin Morgan
Madame Tracy ...... Julia Deakin
War ...... Rachael Stirling
Famine ...... Paterson Joseph
Pollution ...... Harry Lloyd
Death ...... Jim Norton
Big Ted ...... Mitch Benn
Scuzz ...... Mark Benton
Pigbog ...... Arsher Ali
Greaser ...... Ben Crowe
Tyler ...... Andy Secombe
Mrs Omerod ...... Marcella Riordan
Julia ...... Tracy Wiles
Adaptation and sound design by Dirk Maggs.
Producer: Heather Larmour.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2014.
FRI 18:30 Off the Page (b0076k37)
The Paranormal
Matthew Parris invites Matt Harvey, Candida Clark and Tibor Fischer to make their unseen presence felt by talking.
In each programme, Matthew Parris introduces a group of writers of fact and fiction: new talent and established names. In the context of a discussion of one of the ideas and pre-occupations of our times, each presents a piece on this week's topic.
The best new writing and the freshest conversation from 2004.
FRI 19:00 The Burkiss Way (b00jr7fp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:00 today]
FRI 19:30 Steptoe and Son (b007jmlj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:30 today]
FRI 20:00 Book at Beachtime (b036yndp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
FRI 20:30 Just a Simple Old New Zealand Bee Keeper (m0006v5g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 today]
FRI 21:00 Podcast Radio Hour (m0006v5k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 today]
FRI 22:00 The Absolutely Radio Show (m0006s9b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
FRI 22:30 BBC Introducing Radio 4 Comedy Award (m0006v5m)
2019
Heat 3
The third heat of BBC Introducing Radio 4 Award 2019, recorded at The Y in Leicester and hosted by Lloyd Griffith. Ten new acts compete for a place in the Edinburgh semi-final of this prestigious new act competition.
The acts featured are:
Abbie Edwards
Adam Beardsmore
David Eagle
Donald Alexander
Eleanor Colville
Stuart McPherson
Helena Langdon
Liz Guterbock
Nathan Roberts
Vlad Ilich
The judges are: Geoff Rowe (Director of Leicester Comedy Festival), BBC Executive Producer Alexandra Smith and comedian and writer Angela Barnes.
Produced by Adnan Ahmed. A BBC Studios production.
FRI 23:30 The Big Booth (b007jrvv)
Series 2: The Big Booth Too
Episode 5
Boothby's script dictatorship is overthrown by the Workers' Collective.
More guitar-flavoured songs and surreal laughs from Boothby Graffoe.
With Stephen Frost , Kevin Eldon, Vivienne Soan, Big Al and Antonio Forcione.
Written by Boothby Graffoe and Dave Thompson.
Producer: Lucy Armitage
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2001.
LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)
15 Minute Drama
02:30 SAT (b062n4n6)
A Good Read
18:30 MON (b00c5j0v)
A Good Read
00:30 TUE (b00c5j0v)
A Very Private Man
08:00 MON (b09g6hw1)
A Very Private Man
12:00 MON (b09g6hw1)
A Very Private Man
19:00 MON (b09g6hw1)
A Whole 'Nother Story
04:30 SAT (b0076457)
Act Your Age
12:00 SAT (b00fn0vg)
Act Your Age
09:00 WED (b00fr1tp)
Act Your Age
16:00 WED (b00fr1tp)
Act Your Age
04:00 THU (b00fr1tp)
Alun Cochrane's Fun House
22:30 TUE (b01s0dld)
Armando Iannucci
23:00 SAT (b007jym0)
BBC Introducing Radio 4 Comedy Award
22:30 FRI (m0006v5m)
Ballylenon
16:30 TUE (b00pcl7j)
Ballylenon
04:30 WED (b00pcl7j)
Best Behaviour
16:00 TUE (b05tm8wt)
Best Behaviour
04:00 WED (b05tm8wt)
Book at Beachtime
06:00 MON (b036wblb)
Book at Beachtime
13:00 MON (b036wblb)
Book at Beachtime
20:00 MON (b036wblb)
Book at Beachtime
01:00 TUE (b036wblb)
Book at Beachtime
06:00 TUE (b036x212)
Book at Beachtime
13:00 TUE (b036x212)
Book at Beachtime
20:00 TUE (b036x212)
Book at Beachtime
01:00 WED (b036x212)
Book at Beachtime
06:00 WED (b036xc1d)
Book at Beachtime
13:00 WED (b036xc1d)
Book at Beachtime
20:00 WED (b036xc1d)
Book at Beachtime
01:00 THU (b036xc1d)
Book at Beachtime
06:00 THU (b036y5sh)
Book at Beachtime
13:00 THU (b036y5sh)
Book at Beachtime
20:00 THU (b036y5sh)
Book at Beachtime
01:00 FRI (b036y5sh)
Book at Beachtime
06:00 FRI (b036yndp)
Book at Beachtime
13:00 FRI (b036yndp)
Book at Beachtime
20:00 FRI (b036yndp)
Book at Bedtime
02:00 SAT (b09hw97w)
Book at Bedtime
14:00 MON (b09jcs2k)
Book at Bedtime
02:00 TUE (b09jcs2k)
Book at Bedtime
14:00 TUE (b09jdc7v)
Book at Bedtime
02:00 WED (b09jdc7v)
Book at Bedtime
14:00 WED (b09jf23j)
Book at Bedtime
02:00 THU (b09jf23j)
Book at Bedtime
14:00 THU (b09jgklj)
Book at Bedtime
02:00 FRI (b09jgklj)
Book at Bedtime
14:00 FRI (b09jh3ks)
Book of the Week
02:45 SAT (b04g19vy)
Book of the Week
14:45 MON (b04f9frc)
Book of the Week
02:45 TUE (b04f9frc)
Book of the Week
14:45 TUE (b04fc4m0)
Book of the Week
02:45 WED (b04fc4m0)
Book of the Week
14:45 WED (b04fc5f0)
Book of the Week
02:45 THU (b04fc5f0)
Book of the Week
14:45 THU (b04fc80x)
Book of the Week
02:45 FRI (b04fc80x)
Book of the Week
14:45 FRI (b04fchlh)
Booked
09:00 THU (b0075m1d)
Booked
16:00 THU (b0075m1d)
Booked
04:00 FRI (b0075m1d)
Bristow
09:30 THU (b007sxvq)
Bristow
16:30 THU (b007sxvq)
Bristow
04:30 FRI (b007sxvq)
Brothers in Law
08:00 THU (b007jrs5)
Brothers in Law
12:00 THU (b007jrs5)
Brothers in Law
19:00 THU (b007jrs5)
Bussmann and Quantick Kingsize
23:30 TUE (b00757wk)
Cabin Pressure
23:00 SUN (b012r99d)
Charles Dickens
05:00 SAT (b00s5lbl)
Charles Dickens
07:00 FRI (b00s7fbg)
Charles Dickens
17:00 FRI (b00s7fbg)
Chris Addison's Civilization
23:30 SUN (b00dr4t0)
Classic Serial
10:00 MON (b01mtsm3)
Classic Serial
15:00 MON (b01mtsm3)
Classic Serial
03:00 TUE (b01mtsm3)
Classic Serial
10:00 TUE (b01n0vh4)
Classic Serial
15:00 TUE (b01n0vh4)
Classic Serial
03:00 WED (b01n0vh4)
Classic Serial
10:00 WED (b01n606d)
Classic Serial
15:00 WED (b01n606d)
Classic Serial
03:00 THU (b01n606d)
Cleaning Up
09:30 WED (b053c3p4)
Cleaning Up
16:30 WED (b053c3p4)
Cleaning Up
04:30 THU (b053c3p4)
Dad Made Me Laugh
18:30 TUE (b007k0n4)
Dad Made Me Laugh
00:30 WED (b007k0n4)
Dad's Army
08:30 MON (b007qrzs)
Dad's Army
12:30 MON (b007qrzs)
Dad's Army
19:30 MON (b007qrzs)
Dead Cert (Omnibus)
13:00 SAT (m0006t0h)
Dead Cert (Omnibus)
01:00 SUN (m0006t0h)
Dead Ringers
23:00 MON (m0006n1y)
Dead Ringers
09:00 TUE (m0006n1y)
Desert Island Discs Revisited
10:15 SUN (b070pb4d)
Desert Island Discs Revisited
21:15 SUN (b070pb4d)
Doctor at Large
08:30 WED (b009s9n7)
Doctor at Large
12:30 WED (b009s9n7)
Doctor at Large
19:30 WED (b009s9n7)
Dodie Smith - Dear Octopus
06:00 SAT (b06qjp4l)
Dodie Smith - Dear Octopus
16:00 SAT (b06qjp4l)
Dodie Smith - Dear Octopus
04:00 SUN (b06qjp4l)
Drama
10:00 THU (b054pfn7)
Drama
11:15 THU (b04jjz3q)
Drama
15:00 THU (b054pfn7)
Drama
21:15 THU (b04jjz3q)
Drama
03:00 FRI (b054pfn7)
Drama
10:00 FRI (b055f2lg)
Drama
15:00 FRI (b055f2lg)
Dreamers of the Black Metropolis
06:30 TUE (b01r113s)
Dreamers of the Black Metropolis
13:30 TUE (b01r113s)
Dreamers of the Black Metropolis
20:30 TUE (b01r113s)
Dreamers of the Black Metropolis
01:30 WED (b01r113s)
Ernest Fontwell versus the Experts
14:45 SAT (m0006t0m)
Ernest Fontwell versus the Experts
02:45 SUN (m0006t0m)
Floating in Space
09:00 SAT (b073bhqc)
Floating in Space
19:00 SAT (b073bhqc)
Gone Today, Hair Tomorrow
06:30 WED (b01104bx)
Gone Today, Hair Tomorrow
13:30 WED (b01104bx)
Gone Today, Hair Tomorrow
20:30 WED (b01104bx)
Gone Today, Hair Tomorrow
01:30 THU (b01104bx)
Good Omens
18:00 MON (b04knthd)
Good Omens
00:00 TUE (b04knthd)
Good Omens
18:00 TUE (b04vdqpp)
Good Omens
00:00 WED (b04vdqpp)
Good Omens
18:00 WED (b04vf43c)
Good Omens
00:00 THU (b04vf43c)
Good Omens
18:00 THU (b04vjb60)
Good Omens
00:00 FRI (b04vjb60)
Good Omens
18:00 FRI (b04vjll9)
Great Lives
18:30 THU (b01s4g7j)
Great Lives
00:30 FRI (b01s4g7j)
Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
14:30 MON (b00cq1d4)
Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
02:30 TUE (b00cq1d4)
Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
14:30 TUE (b00cq60z)
Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
02:30 WED (b00cq60z)
Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
14:30 WED (b00cqdwd)
Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
02:30 THU (b00cqdwd)
Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
14:30 THU (b00cql2l)
Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
02:30 FRI (b00cql2l)
Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
14:30 FRI (b00cqzj4)
Hal
22:30 SUN (b04stlcv)
Hamish and Dougal: You'll Have Had Your Tea
23:30 WED (b0077038)
Heresy
07:30 TUE (m0006m3r)
Heresy
17:30 TUE (m0006m3r)
Heresy
22:00 TUE (m0006m3r)
Heresy
05:30 WED (m0006m3r)
Hobby Bobbies
12:30 SAT (b04pshk4)
Hobby Bobbies
07:00 THU (b04svjxv)
Hobby Bobbies
17:00 THU (b04svjxv)
Hobby Bobbies
05:00 FRI (b04svjxv)
I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
07:30 MON (m0006lnt)
I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
17:30 MON (m0006lnt)
I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
22:00 MON (m0006lnt)
I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
05:30 TUE (m0006lnt)
Inheritance Tracks
14:10 SAT (m0006t0k)
Inheritance Tracks
02:10 SUN (m0006t0k)
Inheritance Tracks
11:50 MON (b07yk69q)
Inheritance Tracks
21:50 MON (b07yk69q)
It's Not What You Know
09:00 FRI (b01c7snf)
It's Not What You Know
16:00 FRI (b01c7snf)
Jarvis and Matthew
07:30 SAT (b07pjkhp)
Jarvis and Matthew
17:30 SAT (b07pjkhp)
Jarvis and Matthew
05:30 SUN (b07pjkhp)
John Kearns
22:45 WED (b05w3x5l)
Just a Simple Old New Zealand Bee Keeper
06:30 FRI (m0006v5g)
Just a Simple Old New Zealand Bee Keeper
13:30 FRI (m0006v5g)
Just a Simple Old New Zealand Bee Keeper
20:30 FRI (m0006v5g)
Lemn Sissay's Homecoming
23:00 THU (b05tl3jt)
Love in Recovery
23:45 WED (b050bmfm)
Lucky Heather
07:00 MON (b0075rz9)
Lucky Heather
17:00 MON (b0075rz9)
Lucky Heather
05:00 TUE (b0075rz9)
Mark Steel's in Town
22:00 SAT (b07x5vs3)
Mr Finchley Goes to Paris
09:30 FRI (b00g27dk)
Mr Finchley Goes to Paris
16:30 FRI (b00g27dk)
Mrs Henry Wood - East Lynne
03:00 SAT (m0006n5p)
Nigel Baldwin - Burnt
01:00 SAT (b09tbs3h)
Nigel Baldwin - Burnt
06:30 MON (b09tc6hp)
Nigel Baldwin - Burnt
13:30 MON (b09tc6hp)
Nigel Baldwin - Burnt
20:30 MON (b09tc6hp)
Nigel Baldwin - Burnt
01:30 TUE (b09tc6hp)
Nightfall
18:00 SUN (m0006sy0)
Nightfall
00:00 MON (m0006sy0)
Off the Page
00:30 SAT (b0076k0b)
Off the Page
18:30 FRI (b0076k37)
Pam Ayres' Open Road
14:15 SAT (b007kd8c)
Pam Ayres' Open Road
02:15 SUN (b007kd8c)
Parkmasters
15:45 SUN (b00773lw)
Parkmasters
03:45 MON (b00773lw)
Peter Wolf - Red Star Belgrade
16:00 SUN (m0006sxr)
Peter Wolf - Red Star Belgrade
04:00 MON (m0006sxr)
Plants: From Roots to Riches
02:15 SAT (b04bryyz)
Plants: From Roots to Riches
14:15 MON (b04cb9gw)
Plants: From Roots to Riches
02:15 TUE (b04cb9gw)
Plants: From Roots to Riches
14:15 TUE (b04cc1wy)
Plants: From Roots to Riches
02:15 WED (b04cc1wy)
Plants: From Roots to Riches
14:15 WED (b04cffpd)
Plants: From Roots to Riches
02:15 THU (b04cffpd)
Plants: From Roots to Riches
14:15 THU (b04cfhqt)
Plants: From Roots to Riches
02:15 FRI (b04cfhqt)
Plants: From Roots to Riches
14:15 FRI (b04cfvg3)
Podcast Radio Hour
11:00 FRI (m0006v5k)
Podcast Radio Hour
21:00 FRI (m0006v5k)
Poetry Extra
17:00 SUN (m0006sxw)
Poetry Extra
05:00 MON (m0006sxw)
Rachel's Cousins (Omnibus)
06:00 SUN (b063hy4b)
Rachel's Cousins (Omnibus)
13:00 SUN (b063hy4b)
Rachel's Cousins (Omnibus)
01:00 MON (b063hy4b)
Radio Active
23:30 MON (b007k18c)
Radiolab
11:00 SUN (b08ynt14)
Radiolab
19:00 SUN (b08ynt14)
Richard Marsh
22:30 THU (b06d9ljc)
Robert Holmes - Aliens in the Mind
18:30 SUN (b007jlwv)
Robert Holmes - Aliens in the Mind
00:30 MON (b007jlwv)
Ronald Frame Short Stories
11:00 WED (b007k19s)
Ronald Frame Short Stories
21:00 WED (b007k19s)
Ronald Frame Short Stories
11:00 THU (b007k1lf)
Ronald Frame Short Stories
21:00 THU (b007k1lf)
Sami Shah's Beginner's Guide to Pakistan
22:30 SAT (b06d8pql)
Sarah Waters Introduces - The Yellow Wallpaper
11:15 WED (m0006t5p)
Sarah Waters Introduces - The Yellow Wallpaper
21:15 WED (m0006t5p)
Say the Word
04:00 SAT (b007652k)
Smelling of Roses
07:00 TUE (b00dpspn)
Smelling of Roses
17:00 TUE (b00dpspn)
Smelling of Roses
05:00 WED (b00dpspn)
Steptoe and Son
08:30 FRI (b007jmlj)
Steptoe and Son
12:30 FRI (b007jmlj)
Steptoe and Son
19:30 FRI (b007jmlj)
Street and Lane
09:30 MON (b00v3n2v)
Street and Lane
16:30 MON (b00v3n2v)
Street and Lane
04:30 TUE (b00v3n2v)
Susan Calman - Keep Calman Carry On
07:30 SUN (b073j5cg)
Susan Calman - Keep Calman Carry On
17:30 SUN (b073j5cg)
Susan Calman - Keep Calman Carry On
22:00 SUN (b073j5cg)
Susan Calman - Keep Calman Carry On
05:30 MON (b073j5cg)
Sweet Sorrow (Omnibus)
14:30 SUN (m0006sxh)
Sweet Sorrow (Omnibus)
02:30 MON (m0006sxh)
TED Radio Hour
11:00 MON (m0006sww)
TED Radio Hour
21:00 MON (m0006sww)
Telling Tales
11:00 TUE (m0006sck)
Telling Tales
21:00 TUE (m0006sck)
Terry Alderton's Whole Half Hour
07:30 THU (m0006lb4)
Terry Alderton's Whole Half Hour
17:30 THU (m0006lb4)
Terry Alderton's Whole Half Hour
22:00 THU (m0006lb4)
Terry Alderton's Whole Half Hour
05:30 FRI (m0006lb4)
That Man Remembered
01:30 SAT (m0006n5l)
That Reminds Me
18:30 WED (b007jnv6)
That Reminds Me
00:30 THU (b007jnv6)
The Absolutely Radio Show
05:30 SAT (m0006l75)
The Absolutely Radio Show
07:30 FRI (m0006s9b)
The Absolutely Radio Show
17:30 FRI (m0006s9b)
The Absolutely Radio Show
22:00 FRI (m0006s9b)
The Al Read Show
08:00 TUE (b00cq63d)
The Al Read Show
12:00 TUE (b00cq63d)
The Al Read Show
19:00 TUE (b00cq63d)
The Big Booth
23:30 FRI (b007jrvv)
The Burkiss Way
08:00 FRI (b00jr7fp)
The Burkiss Way
12:00 FRI (b00jr7fp)
The Burkiss Way
19:00 FRI (b00jr7fp)
The Clitheroe Kid
08:30 SUN (m0006sx7)
The Clitheroe Kid
12:30 SUN (m0006sx7)
The Comedy Club Interviews
22:55 SAT (m0007148)
The Comedy Club Interviews
22:55 SUN (m000714f)
The Comedy Club Interviews
22:55 TUE (m000714h)
The Croft & Pearce Show
23:00 TUE (b072mz5w)
The Diary of a Nobody
08:00 WED (b01fhrg1)
The Diary of a Nobody
12:00 WED (b01fhrg1)
The Diary of a Nobody
19:00 WED (b01fhrg1)
The Fens: Discovering England's Ancient Depths (Omnibus)
09:00 SUN (m0006sxc)
The Fens: Discovering England's Ancient Depths (Omnibus)
20:00 SUN (m0006sxc)
The Future of Radio
22:30 WED (b04brrpp)
The Goon Show
08:30 THU (b00jz5x2)
The Goon Show
12:30 THU (b00jz5x2)
The Goon Show
19:30 THU (b00jz5x2)
The Harpoon
22:30 MON (b00cq60w)
The Jason Byrne Show
23:00 WED (b01fhswh)
The Laxian Key
00:00 SAT (b007k30w)
The Listening Project
10:10 SUN (b07hgb4k)
The Listening Project
21:10 SUN (b07hgb4k)
The Literary Adventures of Mr Brown
23:15 TUE (b0717dlt)
The Museum of Curiosity
09:00 MON (b04mc1hk)
The Museum of Curiosity
16:00 MON (b04mc1hk)
The Museum of Curiosity
04:00 TUE (b04mc1hk)
The Other Man
09:30 TUE (b0076xyj)
The Pin
07:30 WED (m0006lsk)
The Pin
17:30 WED (m0006lsk)
The Pin
22:00 WED (m0006lsk)
The Pin
05:30 THU (m0006lsk)
There Is No Escape
07:00 WED (b06grjn7)
There Is No Escape
17:00 WED (b06grjn7)
There Is No Escape
05:00 THU (b06grjn7)
To the Manor Born
08:30 TUE (b007m9wg)
To the Manor Born
12:30 TUE (b007m9wg)
To the Manor Born
19:30 TUE (b007m9wg)
Two Episodes of Mash
23:30 THU (b01mx27s)
Victorian Love Stories
07:15 SUN (m0006sx1)
Victorian Love Stories
14:15 SUN (m0006sx1)
Victorian Love Stories
02:15 MON (m0006sx1)
Whack-O!
08:00 SUN (b06451cb)
Whack-O!
12:00 SUN (b06451cb)
Who Was Opal?
06:30 THU (b00pk9y9)
Who Was Opal?
13:30 THU (b00pk9y9)
Who Was Opal?
20:30 THU (b00pk9y9)
Who Was Opal?
01:30 FRI (b00pk9y9)
World Book Club
08:00 SAT (m0006t0f)
World Book Club
15:00 SAT (m0006t0f)
World Book Club
03:00 SUN (m0006t0f)
Yevgeny Zamyatin - We
18:00 SAT (b0076l5v)
Yevgeny Zamyatin - We
00:00 SUN (b0076l5v)