The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Laurie Taylor discusses Karl Marx's theory of Alienation with Philosophy Professor, Sean Sayers, political economist, Ian Fraser, and Professor of Medical Ethics, Donna Dickenson.
Marx saw Alienation as an objective condition inherent in waged labour under capitalism. He believed that the mass proletariat were alienated because the fruits of production belonged to the employers. Factory workers were estranged from themselves, from the products of their labour, and from each other. Human relations came to be seen as relations between commodities rather than people. Marx believed this alienation would be overcome in a communist future in which we could "hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner...without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic". Individuals would become multifaceted and be at one with their creative selves. Work, in such a future, would be an end in itself rather than a means to an end in the form of a wage.
Thinking Allowed explores the evolution and development of Marx's theory of Alienation. Can it, in any way, capture the experience of today's worker? Or is it hopelessly outdated in an economy dominated by a service sector rather than factory production?
Caz Graham visits a goat farm at the foot of Scafell Pike in the Lake District and discovers the challenges in raising goats in the rocky Lake District terrain. With 65% of goat's milk being imported into the UK, Caz asks farmer Richard Scrivener how difficult looking after goats can be and is given a lesson in animal husbandry.
Presented by Caz Graham. Produced by Martin Poyntz-Roberts.
Morning news and current affairs with John Humphrys and Justin Webb, including:
In a special Radio 4 series the BBC's Environmental Analyst Roger Harrabin questions whether his own reporting - and that of others - has adequately told the whole story about global warming.
Roger Harrabin has reported on the climate for almost thirty years off and on, but last November while working on the "Climategate" emails story, he was prompted to look again at the basics of climate science.
He finds that the public under-estimate the degree of consensus among scientists that humans have already contributed towards the heating of the climate , and will almost certainly heat the climate more.
But he also finds that politicians and the media often fail to convey the huge uncertainty over the extent of future climate change. Whilst the great majority of scientists fear that computer models suggest we are facing potentially catastrophic warming, some climate scientists think the warming will be restricted to a tolerable 1C or 1.5C.
At this crucial moment in global climate policy making, Harrabin talks to seminal characters in the climate change debate including Tony Blair, Lord Lawson, Professor Bob Watson, former diplomat Sir Crispin Tickell and the influential blogger Steve McIntyre.
And he asks how political leaders make decisions on the basis of uncertain science.
Nick Clegg's meteoric rise to become Deputy Prime Minister has brought into sharp focus the role of the number two. It's not always an enviable position. So why, in British politics, does the deputy so rarely reach the summit? And why, when he does, does it usually end in disaster? Think of Michael Foot or Anthony Eden. These programmes talk to a number of the politicians who became deputy leader of their party or even Deputy Prime Minister but who just didn't reach the summit -- people like Roy Hattersley, Michael Heseltine, Shirley Williams, Margaret Beckett and Geoffrey Howe. Some never really wanted the job in the first place, others found it an exciting experience from which they learned a lot. One likens it to a bucket of warm spit, only worse. So is there a jinx on the role of the deputy? The political commentator, Julia Langdon, finds out in The Curse of the Number Two.
The second volume of Chris Mullin's diaries reflect irreverently and humorously on New Labour's last term in office. Today, dismissed from government Mullin contemplates a future at the lower foothills of political life.
Chris Mullin is the former MP for Sunderland South, a journalist and author. His books include the first volume of his acclaimed diaries, "A View From the Foothills." He also wrote the thriller, "A Very British Coup", with the television version winning BAFTA and Emmy awards. He was a minister in three departments, Environment, Transport and Regions, International Development and The Foreign Office.
The reader is Sam Dale.
The abridger is Penny Leicester.
A programme devoted to the history, politics and colour of hair. We explore how it's been used to indicate status, power and politics throughout the ages and across cultures. We focus on the lengths and money some black women will go to achieve longer, smoother straighter 'good hair' using relaxers, weaves and wigs and also how many women refuse to go grey.
Rosamund Lehmann's first novel Dusty Answer records the education of Judith Earle, the only child of an academic father and socialite mother. Judith grew up in the seclusion of a large riverside house in the Thames Valley. The house next door is occupied from time to time by the Fyfe family whose children - cousins Charlie, Roddy, Julian and Martin drift in and out of her life.
Part One sees Judith reminiscing about her childhood where the seeds of her strong friendship with the cousins are laid. Many years have passed and the cousins return in adolescence for an atmospheric day of skating on the pond.
Narrator ..... Julia Hills
Judith ..... Rosina Carbone
Charlie ..... Jack Farthing
Martin ..... Oliver Gomm
Julian ..... Tom Ferguson
Gardener ..... Stephen Tomlin
Adam Rutherford heads to tinsel town to talk to the scientists who have left the lab for the glamour of the film set.
Although the silver screen may not be known for its scientific accuracy, in recent years Hollywood does seem to have come calling, where science is concerned. A growing number of scientists seem to be taking time out of their day job to advise Hollywood directors and producers on the portrayal of science, and scientists, in some very well known films and TV series.
Adam visits the set of one of the most well known science based TV shows, CSI New York to meet the writer and co-producer, himself a former forensic scientist. He talks to physicist Brian Cox about his role as science advisor to the Danny Boyle directed movie Sunshine. He meets the new wave of Hollywood movie makers who are turning to the real life scientists to help improve not only the image of science on screen, but to inspire some of their most fantastical plot line, and finds out whether factually incorrect science in the movies really matters?
According to the US National Academy of Science, it does. So much so that they have now set up a programme specifically designed to help their scientists work with the entertainment industry, to improve and foster a positive image of science on screen. Adam meets the producer of one of last year's biggest Hollywood blockbusters about his ambition to keep the science fact in the science fiction as accurate as possible, and how the scientists he worked with came up with some far more intriguing plot twists and turns than anything his writers could have dreamt up.
Comedy drama series by Nigel Williams that charts the misfortunes of a middle-aged HR officer and his trouble-making colleague.
Sam, determined to help depressed Peter find a sense of purpose in his retirement, gets him a dog. But will the scruffy mongrel help Peter? Or will it add to his aggression and sense of injustice?
Peter ..... Jonathan Pryce
Sam ..... Nicholas Le Prevost
Nasty Man ..... Tony Bell
Woman ..... Christine Kavanagh
Man ..... Sam Dale
Humphrey Lyttelton's son Stephen introduces an evening in celebration of his father, the acclaimed jazz musician, band leader and much-loved host of Radio 4's perennial antidote to panel games 'I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue'.
An all-star cast of friends and admirers drawn from the worlds of music and comedy includes Wally Fawkes, Stacey Kent, Tim Brooke-Talyor, Graeme Garden, Barry Cryer, Tony Hawks, Andy Hamilton, Sandi Toksvig, Jeremy Hardy, Rob Brydon, Jack Dee, Elkie Brooks, Jools Holland, Charlie Watts the Humphrey Lyttelton Band.
(5/12) Tom Sutcliffe asks the trademark cryptic questions in the latest heat of the long-running quiz. The Welsh team of David Edwards and Myfanwy Alexander compete with the Scots, Alan Taylor and Michael Alexander.
Illusionist Caesar Price has reproduced nearly all of the miracles of Jesus and built a massive cult following but is he prepared for what will happen when he decides to stage the crucifixion?
In a near-future London, society is in distress. In the midst of climate chaos, people are seeking solace in the promises of new strains of religion. Illusionist Caesar Price has already walked on water; resurrected people from the dead and fed thousands from one tin of sardines. When he announces that his next 'miracle' will be the crucifixion and eventual resurrection a media frenzy erupts. Is Caesar Price merely an illusionist or is there something more?
Forty years ago 14,000 youngsters across Britain were asked to write about where they saw themselves in the future - their jobs, family lives, belongings, living environments and leisure pursuits. Those essays have now been followed up by the Nuffield Foundation as a way of finding out how far ambition at an early age shapes what happens in later life.
This is the first time that media access has been granted to those who have taken part in their research. As well as evidence of ambition the essays offer lovely detail about how the eleven year olds imagined life would be at 25, with one writing: "my husband would have just won £200 so we decided to go to the moon for our holiday while we had not got any children."
The series covers the following five areas: jobs, family lives, living environments, leisure pursuits and belongings that they imagined owning when first studied. The findings suggest that children who are ambitious go on to enjoy greater success than those with lower aspirations. Once background and ability were accounted for, children did better if they set themselves lofty goals.
It reveals that, even if a child is economically disadvantaged or less able, having high ambitions at around the time they leave primary school means that they are significantly more likely to have a professional job, though not necessarily the one that they predicted.
Ernie is joined by three guests who discuss how their own religious or non faith tradition affects their values and outlook on the world, often revealing hidden and contradictory truths.
In this programme, Ernie's guests discuss what an understanding of the Big Bang Theory proves about the existence or not of God. How is the search for the so-called "God particle" or Higgs Boson taking shape at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Switzerland and what are the implications for its discovery?
Joining Ernie to discuss this are Professor Jeff Forshaw from Manchester University, Reverend Dr David Wilkinson from St John's College, Durham and Dr Usama Hasan from Middlesex University. Providing some light relief is the comedian and atheist, Robin Ince.
Popular panel game in which guests attempt to speak for a minute without hesitation, repetition or deviation. Recorded at the Edinburgh Fringe festival with guests Paul merton, Jenny Eclair, Fred Macaulay and Stephen K. Amos.
Robert's cooking breakfast for their nice guests. Lynda's glad that Eddie's campsite is the preferred option for their guests' teenage children. She much prefers accommodating just adults. But she's taken aback when she goes to check on their room - they've left it in quite a state.
Kathy and Jamie are having lunch at the Bull. Kathy tells Fallon that she thinks Jamie's starting to get used to losing Sid, and he's enjoying his job at the golf club. Robert arrives, and asks Kathy how things are going. She tells him how she's busy preparing for a dinner dance
Lilian's at the Bull to help interview for a new bar person, taking Jolene by surprise as she'd forgotten this was the arrangement. One of the applicants, Citz, turns up with weird hair and covered in piercings. Her work history has mainly been at festivals. She's clearly not right for the Bull. After more interviews, the bar job is offered to a Welsh guy called Rhys. He can start next week.
Lilian knows Jolene's heart wasn't in the interviews. Jolene admits she's still feeling the same. She just can't see her future at the Bull any more.
Playwright and novelist Michael Frayn talks to Mark Lawson about his childhood and his career, in the light of a newly-published memoir about his father, which explores growing up in Surrey during World War II and a sudden shattering event that changed his family's life forever.
In the last of the current series Mike Thomson investigates how Britain covertly manipulated the democratic process in its South American colony, then known as British Guiana in the run up to its independence in 1966. Mike discovers new documents which show that they deliberately scuppered the outcome of their own conference organised to determine the country's future.
On the face of it the conference, held in London in October 1963, was designed to confirm the constitutional future for what was then British Guiana. Publicly Britain encouraged the country's Prime Minister Dr Cheddi Jagan - who had been fairly elected in 1961 - and the leader of the opposition Linden Forbes Burnham to agree terms for independence. However, behind the scenes, the documents reveal that the British were working to a different outcome - to ensure that agreement was never reached.
The British, under pressure from the Kennedy administration which feared Dr Jagan's Marxist leanings, were determined that he would not lead the country to independence. To this end they suggested a form of proportional representation in forthcoming elections, knowing full well that Dr Jagan would not agree to these terms as they would favour his rival. When the conference ended in deadlock as the British hoped it would, PR was duly implemented and the following year Dr Jagan was ousted much to the relief of the super powers.
Mike talks to historians, eye witnesses and Guyanese commentators today to discover how democracy itself was destroyed in British Guiana and the legacy of these shady days in today's modern Guyana.
Luol Deng is a giant - both physically and in the world of American professional basketball where is one of the biggest stars, and reportedly Barack Obama's favourite player. He was born in South Sudan but had to flee as a child because of his father's political activities. His family moved to Brixton where Luol's talents on the basketball court were spotted as a teenager. He's now established a charity working with the "lost boys" of Sudan - young men who have lived their entire lives in refugee camps after fleeing the country as children. Now Sudan is facing the prospects of partition, with a referendum next year expected to endorse splitting the mainly Christian South from the mainly Muslim North. Tim Franks joins Luol Deng as he returns to Sudan to assess the prospects for peace - and of course to show his skills with a basketball.
Quentin Cooper presents his weekly digest of science in and behind the headlines. This week he finds out why it will take so long to reach the trapped miners in Chile. He catches up on the infestation of the Horse Chestnut Tree by tiny parasitic moths and also why our current thinking on how Black Holes are formed could be all wrong. And he talks to one of our So you want to be scientist finalists about the results from his experiments. Will Sam be able to to tell where the safest place to be in a crowd at a rock concert is?
Radio 4's daily evening news and current affairs programme bringing you global news and analysis.
Second narrative strand from James Robertson's monumental new novel which portrays the last six decades of Scotland's social and political landscape through the lives of a handful of characters.
This week, the action is set in 1950 and the story focuses on the friendship between Don and Jack - two men in their thirties from the same village in Fife. The men have two key things in common: they get on the same bus to work each morning and they both served in World War Two. Don in Europe, Jack in the Far East.
Five years on, the war still casts a shadow but the men deal with its after-effects in very different ways.
With just two years remaining until London's Olympic Games start, the search for volunteers with language skills has begun. Presenter Chris Ledgard travels to St Pancras station to meet Seb Coe, Boris Johnson and LOCOG chief executive Paul Deighton to hear about the two schemes - Games Makers and Ambassadors for London. "You don't need a degree in Mandarin" says Boris Johnson, but what language skills are required ? Chris also talks to gold medal winner Sally Gunnell about the need for translators in previous games, and also to Professor Joe Lo Bianco in Australia. Joe was heavily involved in the planning for the Sydney Olympics, which set a benchmark in getting language requirements correct. Does Joe think the London organisers have left enough time to get everything in place ?
Ian McDiarmid stars as Dr Henry Pickerskill retired English master of Haunchurst School for boys, looking back on his most favourite pupils and their fortunes in the adult world based on their school reports and their letters to him after they left.
Pickerskill is forced by the Warden, A.R.F. Somerset-Stephenson to intercept intimate letters left carelessly by a love sick pupil as they threaten to expose and embarrass the boy's father, a well-known Conservative MP.
Dr Henry Pickerskill ..... Ian McDiarmid
Crispin Biggerstaffe ..... James Rowland
ARF Somerset-Stephenson ..... Mike Sarne
Chadwick ..... Tom Kane
Calman ..... Louis Williams
Mrs Pickerskill / Bernadette Feane ..... Abigail Hollick
TUESDAY 31 AUGUST 2010
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b00thrh9)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b00thw3j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00thrl2)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00thsky)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00thrqp)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b00thsry)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00thswp)
Daily prayer and reflection.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b00thvqp)
Smuggling illegal food into the lucrative European market is a growing problem. Anna Hill hears how organised gangs are smuggling counterfeit food to UK shores. Jenny Morris from the Chartered Institute for Environmental Health calls for European crime prevention teams to work together to safeguard European food supplies.
Despite British blueberry production increasing fivefold in a decade, only 10% of what we consume is grown here. Sarah Swadling visits Exmoor, where one farmer is tapping into the rising demand for the fruit.
A controversial trial of blight-resistant GM potatoes appears to be working. Farming Today visits the site near the John Innes Centre in Norfolk to see how the modified crop is coping with the disease.
Presenter: Anna Hill Producer: Melvin Rickarby.
TUE 06:00 Today (b00thvrx)
Morning news and current affairs with Evan Davis and James Naughtie, including:
07:50 How people in Pakistan are reacting to cricket betting scam allegations.
08:10 President Obama to announce a formal end to combat operations in Iraq.
08:20 The Today programme's new theme tune.
TUE 09:00 What's the Point of...? (b00tj7rg)
Series 3
The Public Library
Question: Where can you go to reduce your fear of crime, have a massage, ring a church bell, get some information about council tax, and engage in some heavy petting without being told off?
Quentin Letts is surprised and sometimes disheartened by the answer; a library.
Of course, you can borrow a book as well, but campaigners argue that - with some authorities spending less than ten per cent of their library budgets on books -something has gone very wrong with the way the service is being managed.
Public Libraries have come a long way since Manchester opened the first in the 1850s. But where is the service going? Gleaming new buildings have opened in Newcastle, Whitechapel and Brighton - but more than 80 other libraries have been closed in the last five years; an age of public spending cuts surely means more.
Former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion, campaigner Tim Coates and Arts minister Edward Vaizey join Quentin Letts as he asks, what's the point of the public library?
TUE 09:30 How The Mighty Have Fallen (b00tj826)
Diets Through The Ages
"He that dieteth himself, prolongeth his life" - Ecclesiastes.
Dr Hilary Jones continues his series on the history of obesity with a look at diets and dieting through the ages.
"It is very injurious to health to take in more food than the constitution will bear, when at the same time, one uses no exercise to carry off this excess" - Hippocrates, millennia ahead of his time, defining the energy balance equation. Plutarch, in 1AD, recognised the link between weight and health: "thin people are generally the most healthy; we should not therefore indulge our appetites with delicacies or high living, for fear of growing corpulent".
Twenty years on from the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror grew too large to ride his horse, and decided to lose weight by consuming nothing but alcohol. Other historic diets include Cheyne's lettuce diet, Fletcherising - "nature will castigate those who don't masticate", and Banting. William Banting lost almost a quarter of his weight in a few weeks by adopting a diet "low in farinaceous food" - a precursor of the modern low-carbohydrate diet. His 1863 diet book was a top-seller.
And we hear about the extraordinary exploits of the Great Eater of Kent, a "Tugmutton" who could eat an entire sheep in one sitting. There are interviews with Dr Susan Jebb of MRC Human Nutrition Research in Cambridge, and Prof David Haslam of the National Obesity Forum, plus readings and music - a popular song from 1929 encapsulating the new craze in America: the grapefruit diet.
Readings by Toby Longworth & Michael Fenton-Stevens.
Producer: Susan Kenyon
A Ladbroke production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b00thw3l)
Chris Mullin - Decline and Fall: Diaries 2005-2010
Episode 2
The second volume of Chris Mullin's diaries reflect irreverently and humorously on New Labour's last term in office. Today, it is 2006 and Mullin looks back on Tony Blair's premiership, and the events leading up to Labour's Black Wednesday.
Chris Mullin is the former MP for Sunderland South, a journalist and author. His books include the first volume of his acclaimed diaries, "A View From the Foothills." He also wrote the thriller, "A Very British Coup", with the television version winning BAFTA and Emmy awards. He was a minister in three departments, Environment, Transport and Regions, International Development and The Foreign Office.
The reader is Sam Dale.
The abridger is Penny Leicester.
The producer is Elizabeth Allard.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00thw7h)
Choirmaster Gareth Malone talks about his new TV series "Extraordinary School for Boys" set at a primary school in Essex where he discovers that many of the boys would do anything rather than sit through a literacy lesson.His solution to this problem is to start them on a programme of physical exercise, outdoor lessons and healthy competition. We hear about the history of Klezmer music and there'll be live music from Hilda Bronstein. What's hot and what's not in teen fiction at the moment and we discuss the future of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. Presented by Jane Garvey.
TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00thwrp)
Rosamond Lehmann - Dusty Answer
Episode 2
Rosamund Lehmann's first novel Dusty Answer records the education of Judith Earle, the only child of an academic father and socialite mother. Judith grew up in the seclusion of a large riverside house in the Thames Valley. The house next door is occupied from time to time by the Fyfe family whose children - cousins Charlie, Roddy, Julian and Martin drift in and out of her life.
Part Two. Judith realises the Fyfe cousins have returned to the house next door during a midnight swim in the river which joins both gardens . After days spent dancing, playing the piano and getting to know her neighbours again an unexpected telegram arrives form her mother in Paris.
DUSTY ANSWER by Rosamund Lehmann dramatised by Lavinia Greenlaw
Narrator ..... Julia Hills
Judith ..... Rosina Carbone
Roddy ..... Brodie Ross
Martin ..... Oliver Gomm
Julian ..... Tom Ferguson
Tony ..... Jack Farthing
Mamma ..... Melissa Jane Sinden
Directed by Susan Roberts.
TUE 11:00 Saving Species (b00tj829)
Series 1
Episode 18
18/40 We come back on air with a special feature about swifts recorded in the tower that legendary ornithologist David Lack studied the species. Over the run of Saving Species we have been making special features about past abundance of animals and plants in the British landscape. This week we reflect on Swifts. Swifts are often seen as the bird of the towns and cities. We hear their "chatting" call as they swirl and hawk in the sky for insects. Many are now heading south to Africa but that late summer spectacle in the UK is still with us, if you include the swallows and martins as they group up in the sky grabbing their last meal before heading south. In this programme we hear that nest site availability in the UK is as much an issue for swift survival as the many challenges they face migrating to and wintering in Africa.
In this programme we also hear about Southern Ocean Krill.
And an ancient beast living in the foot prints of cattle in Scotland - The Tadpole Shrimp.
Presented by Brett Westwood
Produced by Sheena Duncan
Series Editor Julian Hector.
TUE 11:30 Ford Madox Ford and France (b00tj82c)
Julian Barnes and Hermione Lee on The Good Soldier
Ford Madox Ford said France "begins on the Left Bank of the Seine" and described Provence as "a frame of mind". His last lover, the painter Biala, said "we grow our own vegetables, we have six (not very magnificent) rooms, and a garden with the finest view in the world".
Julian Barnes and Hermione Lee visit Aix-en-Provence to explore the life of Ford Madox Ford, author of The Good Soldier and - 4 years before his death in 1939 - of a book about Provence which includes descriptions of bull-fighting, a recipe for bouillabaisse, an argument about the Albigensian religious heresy and a history of troubadour poetry.
Hermione Lee explores the way these interests are woven into the plot of his best known book - The Good Soldier - "a tale of two couples with additional victims who come into their orbit -and it's about adultery, betrayal madness, suicide, desperate love" which she believes is a book about Albigensian beliefs.
Julian Barnes explains that "the great emotional smash of Ford's own life was in 1924 when he received a contribution from the Transatlantic Review from a young woman" who was then called Ella Lenglet. He gave her work the title "Triple Sec" and gave her the pen-name Jean Rhys. "She had three francs, a cardboard suitcase and a lot of talent, her husband was in jail and the bad move was to move her in with him and Stella Bowen." All four parties in this affair then wrote books which depicted their tangled relationships.
The programme ends by considering his end. When he arrived in France in 1922, Ford was one of over five hundred mourners to attend the funeral of Proust. In June 1939 Ford was taken ill, en route to his beloved South of France, and buried at a ceremony in the port town of Deauville attended by only 3 people.
Producer: Robyn Read
Reader: Kerry Shale.
TUE 12:00 You and Yours (b00thxg0)
On Call You and Yours this week we pose the question: Is it worthwhile learning another language? If you speak a few words of French, German or Chinese, or maybe you're even fluent in them, we want to know how and why you mastered it.
How does this skill improve your life? Does having another language help you get under the skin of another country, make international friends, and even boost your business?
Or perhaps you've struggled, or not even bothered, to learn another language, relying on others to speak English. After all, plenty of people abroad speak good English, don't they, and relish any opportunity to practise!
Email: youandyours@bbc.co.uk or call 03700 100 444 (lines open at
10am).
TUE 12:57 Weather (b00thxg2)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b00thxr8)
National and international news with Edward Stourton.
TUE 13:30 Serbian Trumpets (b00tj82f)
With composer and musician, Llywelyn Ap Myrddin we travel to Guca, officially the Dragacevo Trumpet Festival, a hundred miles south of Belgrade, to explore the sound and culture of this distinctly Balkan music. Played by Roma and Serbs alike, Guca is about the only place the two cultures tolerate one another.
With BBC correspondent Allan Little, the programme reports on the culture and character of the Serbs; following the history of trumpet music which, at the Guca Festival runs parallel with the history of Serbia. The festival began as an expression of Serbian culture, which the founders wanted to celebrate and which had, to some extent, along with other ethnic music through Yugoslavia, been suppressed in the big, 'we are one people' efforts of Tito .
With great emotion for their heritage set against the absorption of Serbian traditions into wider Yugoslavia, the festival became a focus for Serbian trumpeters, but since the recent civil war, other nations in the Balkans have been invited to take part.
The different styles of music create an incredible musical range; the slower, heavier Kolo originating in the West of Serbia, to the heady swirl of dissonant melodies with an oriental flavour, that comes with the Roma Orchestras in the South, to the faster Romanian dance music that originates in the east.
Crucially, music is centre stage - neither Tito or Milosevic were permitted to attend Guca Festival. We will record the great Roma trumpet players: Boban Markovic, famous worldwide for his music in Emir Kusturica's films; along with his son Marco. Sarajevo born, Goran Bregovic along with Golden trumpet winners and musicians who gather at this extraordinary event.
Producer: Kate Bland
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b00thy3k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b00tj82h)
Pilgrim, series 2
The Drowned Church
By Sebastian Baczkiewicz.
Pilgrim comes to Skaymer, a seaside town in Norfolk, to investigate the strange appearance of a young man believed drowned in the great flood of 1757.
William Palmer ..... Paul Hilton
Helen ..... Claire Price
Doris ..... Judy Parfitt
Zach ..... William Gaunt
Aaron ..... Luke Treadaway
Freya ..... Rachael Spence
Mr Hazelbury ..... Sean Baker
Hendry ..... Jude Akuwudike
Mrs Squires ..... Sally Orrock
Legend ..... Agnes Bateman
Directed by Marc Beeby
What if all the myths and folktales of these islands were true? And what if they were not only true but present now in our world? All the spirits, existing, as they have always existed, in the gaps between tower blocks, in the shadows under bridges, in the corner of our vision. An ancient and eternal world which has existed alongside ours since time immemorial and will exist long after we have gone.
Enter Pilgrim... In 1185 William Palmer was making pilgrimage to Canterbury. Unbeknownst to him his fellow pilgrim was the Lord of Faerie. When William claimed that the Church would wipe out the belief in the Faerie world, he was cursed by the Faerie Lord and condemned forever to the walk between our world and theirs.
The plays in PILGRIM are thrilling, dark and contemporary. They're set in a very recognisable, very real present, but a present haunted by the folktales of these islands: drowned villages, changeling children, werewolves, Puck, unruly nature spirits.
PILGRIM is graced by some truly wonderful acting talent, including:
Paul Hilton (Pilgim): Paul is about to start filming a lead role in Peter Moffat's new TV series, SILK. In addition to his television work, Paul has a distinguished stage career that includes leading roles in Shakespeare and Chekhov at the National and Almeida Theatres, and the Donmar Warehouse, for directors like Michael Grandage, Katie Mitchell, David Lan, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Howard Davies
Judy Parfitt (Doris): Judy has had a distinguished film career including work in such hits as The Girl with the Pearl Earing and The Bourne Identity. Her work for the stage has included lead roles in the National Theatre's Therese Raquin, Stephen Daldry's production of An Inspector Calls and Cleopatra at the Young Vic. She is also a regular on television, appearing in Little Dorrit, Midsomer Murders and The Long Firm among many others.
William Gaunt (Zach, Pt 1): Currently to be seen at the Globe Theatre in Henry IV, William has been a regular performer for directors like Trevor Nunn, John Caird, Michael Grandage and Jonathan Kent. He has also made regular tv appearances in popular series like Doctors, The Champions and Holby City.
Anna Wing (Hilda, Pt 4) is best know as Lou Beale in EastEnders, but is still acting at 94, most recently in The Bill.
Jamie Foreman (Puck, Pt 4) is best known for his varied film work, which includes Bill Sykes in Roman Polanski's Oliver, Mark in Gary Oldman's Nil By Mouth and the Earl of Sussex in Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth.
TUE 15:00 Making History (b00tj83g)
Vanessa Collingridge and the team follow up more questions and research sent in by listeners that help us to understand some of the bigger stories from our past.
Today, the little known secret army of 'coders' who were trained to listen to Russian military radio communications. Such was the secrecy surrounding these operations that those taking part had little idea just how big an operation they were involved in and that it was all organised by the fledgling GCHQ.
We travel back to 16th century Warwickshire and the weeks after the birth of world-famous playwright William Shakespeare to ask why his mother didn't attend his christening and what this tells us about the place of women and their role in the family at this time.
We continue our journey to Cresswell Crags near Worksop in Nottinghamshire to find out how to identify flint tools and there's news of a new on-line archive which wants people to submit material they might have on Anglo-Saxon Britain.
Producer: Nick Patrick
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00tj89s)
Claire Keegan - Foster
Episode 1
By Claire Keegan
Abridged by Neville Teller
A heartbreaking, haunting story of childhood, loss and love by one of Ireland's most acclaimed writers. A small girl is sent to live with her mother's people on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when she will return home. In the strangers' house, she finds a warmth and affection she has not known before and slowly begins to blossom in their care. And then a secret is revealed, and suddenly, she realizes how fragile her idyll is.
Winner of the Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize, Foster will be published in a revised and expanded version by Faber on 2nd September 2010. Beautiful, sad and eerie, it is a story of astonishing emotional depth, showcasing Claire Keegan's great accomplishment and talent.
Claire Keegan's first collection of short stories, 'Antarctica', was completed in 1998 and was awarded the Rooney Prize for Literature. Her second short story collection, 'Walk the Blue Fields', was published to enormous critical acclaim in 2007 and won her the 2008 Edge Hill Prize for Short Stories. Claire Keegan lives in County Louth, Ireland.
'Foster' is read by Evanna Lynch, best known to many for her portrayal of Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films.
Producer Heather Larmour.
TUE 15:45 When I Grow Up (b00qvl2l)
Episode 2
Forty years ago 14,000 youngsters across Britain were asked to write about where they saw themselves in the future - their jobs, family lives, belongings, living environments and leisure pursuits. Those essays have now been followed up by the Nuffield Foundation as a way of finding out how far ambition at an early age shapes what happens in later life.
This is the first time that media access has been granted to those who have taken part in their research. As well as evidence of ambition the essays offer lovely detail about how the eleven year olds imagined life would be at 25, with one writing: "my husband would have just won £200 so we decided to go to the moon for our holiday while we had not got any children."
The series covers the following five areas: jobs, family lives, living environments, leisure pursuits and belongings that they imagined owning when first studied. The findings suggest that children who are ambitious go on to enjoy greater success than those with lower aspirations. Once background and ability were accounted for, children did better if they set themselves lofty goals.
It reveals that, even if a child is economically disadvantaged or less able, having high ambitions at around the time they leave primary school means that they are significantly more likely to have a professional job, though not necessarily the one that they predicted.
Producer: Sue Mitchell.
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b00tj94q)
Every two weeks another language becomes extinct and, according to UNESCO, more than 2400 languages spoken today are endangered and will probably vanish by the end of the century. In this edition of Word of Mouth Chris Ledgard meets some of those who are dedicating their lives to maintaining global linguistic diversity. These include Dr Mark Turin, the founder of the Oral Literature Project in Cambridge who works with Thangmi speakers in a remote region of Nepal; Dr Stephen Leonard who is preparing to spend a year in Northern Greenland with a community whose language is threatened as an indirect consequence of global warming; and Dr Julia Sallabank who is working to preserve Guernesiais, a language unique to the island of Guernsey. According to the 2001 census, it was spoken by just 2% of the population. Producer Paul Dodgson.
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b00tjb1h)
Series 22
Simone Weil
Simone Weil - mystic, social activist, and sort of latter day saint - is one of the more unexpected recent choices for Great Lives. She is remembered chiefly these days for her writings and the controversy over whether she starved herself to death, at the age of 34. But for Eleanor Bron she remains the supreme example of someone who lived her life according to her ideals.
Born in 1909 in Paris, Simone Weil chose to work in factories, volunteered for the anarchist militia in the Spanish Civil War, and tried to persuade General de Gaulle in the Second World War to parachute nurses onto the frontline. She seemed permanently compelled to identify with suffering, but not, argues Eleanor Bron, in a preachy way. Grahame Davies, who based his first novel on Simone Weil's life, largely agrees.
Eleanor Bron's career began with satire at the Establishment Club. She appeared alongside the Beatles in Help - her name is said to have inspired McCartney's Eleanor Rigby - and on television she has featured in Yes Minister, Doctor Who, Absolutely Fabulous, and so the list goes on. The presenter is Matthew Parris, and the producer is Miles Warde.
TUE 17:00 PM (b00tj4hs)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00tj4k4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Cabin Pressure (b00m4472)
Series 2
Limerick
In the last of the series, an interminable flight with a very baffling cargo gives our crew the opportunity to pass the time by alternately opening their hearts up to each other and persuading Arthur not to play charades...
Starring
Carolyn Knapp-Shappey ..... Stephanie Cole
1st Officer Douglas Richardson ..... Roger Allam
Capt. Martin Crieff ..... Benedict Cumberbatch
Arthur Shappey ..... John Finnemore
Written by John Finnemore.
Produced & directed by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b00thy35)
Kirsty and Helen shift items for the local food day. Helpful Jazzer also selflessly offers to test the pies. There'll be a photographer along, and hopefully some good coverage of Shelley Brazil's cooking demonstration. Jazzer teases Kirsty about her close relationship with Patrick, who's organising the arrival of the new hide at Arkwright Lake today and will be interviewed for Radio Borsetshire on Friday.
Following her visit to the midwife, Helen tells Kirsty about the Borchester birthing centre. Helen may take a '"triple test", which indicates the probability of conditions including spina bifida. When Kirsty wonders what Helen would do if the probability was high, Helen gets rather defensive.
Jazzer meanwhile feels nauseated by loved-up Alice and Chris. Fallon confirms that Rhys the new barman will start on Monday. Jazzer is surprised at the recruitment drive, as it's all round the village that the Bull's about to shut down. Shocked Fallon flatly denies this. However, when she asks Jolene if the rumours are true, Jolene confirms it. She has spoken to Lilian, but just didn't know how to bring it up with Fallon. Shocked by Fallon's reaction, Jolene is eventually persuaded to reconsider.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b00tj4lp)
With Mark Lawson.
Oscar-winning actress Juliette Binoche discusses her new film Certified Copy, directed by Iranian writer and director Abbas Kiarostami. She talks about her ambiguous role as a wife and mother, working with William Shimell in his first acting role and her response to Gerard Depardieu's recent comments about her acting ability.
Bret Easton Ellis launches Front Row's Chain Story, which also contains contributions from Ian Rankin and Peter James.
Trevor Eve and Imogen Poots star in a new version of Andrea Newman's psychological drama A Bouquet of Barbed Wire, made famous by the controversial 1976 TV series starring Frank Finlay and Susan Penghaligon. Bel Mooney reviews.
The next edition of the complete Oxford English Dictionary might not be published in book form. Novelist Lawrence Norfolk considers whether the pleasures of reading the OED on paper outweigh the advantages of accessing it online.
Producer Philippa Ritchie.
TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00thwrp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 Divided Britain (b00tjb1k)
In 2006, Radio 4 was given access to a ground breaking education scheme in East Lancashire which aimed to improve GCSE results and break down divisions in an area where white and Asian families live separate, parallel lives.
Following the disturbances in Burnley in the summer of 2001, schools were identified as having a crucial role in promoting community cohesion. Lancashire County Council was given the go ahead to close 11 schools and reopen them as 8 new community colleges each with the aim of being a hub for the neighbourhood, where Asian and white families would come together and get to know each other. The last of those £25 million buildings are due to open in September.
Marsden Heights Community College in Nelson moved into its new facilities after Easter. Head teacher Mike Tull is excited by the opportunities that the building brings and hopes it will help engage parents in the area. But what are the challenges he faces in breaking down cultural barriers in the former mill towns of Brierfield and Nelson?
Since the scheme began his school has gone from being 60% Asian students to nearly 80% and he says many white parents choose other schools for their children because of prejudice not standards of education. Locals already describe Marsden Heights as "the Asian school". And now a charity is looking to open an Islamic girls school nearby which many say threatens to further segregate young people.
Can these new "superschools" make a difference or are racial divisions becoming more entrenched?
Producer: Sally Chesworth
Presenter: Gerry Northam.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b00tjdnv)
Marilee Talkington performs her one woman show "Truce" in San Francisco and discusses its exploration of blindness with Peter White. Is there an acceptable term for losing your sight? Why is asking for help such a controversial issue for blind and partially sighted people? Marilee explores how the play has changed her relationship with her family, her own view of her diminishing sight and how audiences have reacted.
TUE 21:00 Case Notes (b00tjdnx)
Patient Safety
It's been estimated that 10% of patients in hospital experience something that could cause them medical harm. Many of these mistakes occur in the operating theatre. Since February 2010 the NHS in England and Wales has introduced the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist for every patient undergoing a surgical procedure, following research that showed its application reduced the number of adverse events. Mark Porter looks into how the checklist is being used in the operating theatres at the Royal London Hospital.
Other common mistakes are the result of patients being given the wrong drugs or the wrong dosage of drugs. In June the National Patient Safety Agency issued guidelines on how to reduce the number of wrong dose incidents involving insulin, which is taken by diabetics. Dr Gerry Rayman at Ipswich Hospital demonstrates the e-learning programme to train medical professionals to administer the correct dose of insulin.
Surgery and medication account for around a fifth or so of the incidents reported to the National Patient Safety Agency. But the biggest cause of all is far more mundane, but potentially just as serious - everyday accidents like trips and falls account for around a third of all incidents and can vary in severity from nothing but injured pride, to a fatal head injury.
Reporter Angela Robson went to Rotherham Hospital to find out how staff there are tackling the problem with patients who are at risk of falling.
Mark discusses how hospitals are dealing with the issue of patient safety with Professor Charles Vincent, Director of the Centre for Patient Safety and Service Quality at Imperial College, London.
Producer: Deborah Cohen.
TUE 21:30 What's the Point of...? (b00tj7rg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:58 Weather (b00tj4r1)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b00tj4ry)
The US combat mission in Iraq ends tonight - but can the North of the country continue to hold?
Mexico arrests alleged drug warlord but sacks 10% of its police.
And the stethoscope app for the iphone - is it safe?
With Felicity Evans.
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00tk91p)
And the Land Lay Still
Episode 7
Written and abridged by James Robertson.
Abridgement of the second narrative strand in James Robertson's monumental new novel which portrays the last six decades of Scotland's social and political landscape through the lives of a handful of characters.
This week, the action is set in 1950 and the story focuses on the friendship between Don and Jack - two men in their thirties from the same village in Fife. Both served in the war and, five years on it still casts a shadow. When Jack goes missing, Don fears for his safety.
Read by Liam Brennan.
Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.
TUE 23:00 Nick Mohammed in Bits (b00tjdnz)
Witness Statement
There's been a robbery, and character comedian Nick Mohammed (Reggie Perrin, Sorry I've Got No Head) dons a police helmet and takes statements. Colin Hoult and Anna Crilly (Lead Balloon) co-star as the unhappy couple called on to testify.
Bits is a series of character pieces showcasing the best of Nick Mohammed's idiosyncratic characters in a series of one off comic plays.
Produced by Victoria Lloyd.
TUE 23:30 Tickets Please (b00p5xc2)
Episode 4
After delays caused by lightning, a 20-piece orchestra in coach G practices. This offers Robin a plangent background for his declaration of love.
But can he seize his chance before the train arrives at Exeter St David's?
Sitcom on rails by Mark Maier.
Robin........Jeremy Swift
Nadine.......Alex Kelly
Peter......Malcolm Tierney
Carol......Tessa Nicholson
Carl........Nicholas Boulton
Diana.......Melissa Advani
Linda.........Kate Layden
Keith.....Stephen Hogan
Other parts played by Philip Fox, Piers Wehner and Joseph Cohen-Cole
Producer: Peter Kavanagh
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2009.
WEDNESDAY 01 SEPTEMBER 2010
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b00thrhc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b00thw3l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00thrl4)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00thsl0)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00thrqr)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b00thss0)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00thswr)
Daily prayer and reflection.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b00thvqr)
Cows belong in fields, not in factories, according to a leading animal welfare charity who are opposed to the so-called 'mega-dairy' planned for Lincolnshire. Sarah Falkingham visits a potato farmer in Yorkshire to hear how farmgate prices have doubled over the last year and Farming Today discovers whether blight resistant potatoes can be bred without the use of genetic technology.
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Martin Poyntz-Roberts.
WED 06:00 Today (b00thvrz)
08:10 Nick Robinson analyses Tony Blair's memoirs
08:18 As Israeli and Palestinian leaders meet face-to-face, what are the chances of a middle east peace deal?
08:50 Can self-help books really help improve self-esteem?
WED 09:00 Fry's English Delight (b00tjf52)
Series 3
Future Conditional
Stephen Fry on the future of English.
As English continues to grow and spread, the influences of the places around the world where it has been adopted are being reimported. As Stephen puts it, "we exported brown Windsor soup and re-imported mulligatawny. We exported clogs - back came tap dancing". The McDonald's slogan "I'm Loving it" is an example. So is the youth-speak Jafaican.
This continual process means we can predict some changes in the way we use language. Dr David Crystal, a world authority, thinks the sound "th" might disappear. The very rhythms of our speech might change, and our vocabulary certainly will.
The other huge influence on the way English will change relates to technology. The programme features computer programmes that "read" text. They do this not just to show off. The London School of Economics employs a computer programme to read text in the service of research. So computers will, in some sense, join the swelling billions who use English.
But will they - can they - ever "understand" English well enough for them to read and understand a novel? Professor Margaret Boden, a leader in the field is doubtful. She and Microsoft search engineer Ron Kaplan discuss a test for computers, in the shape of this sentence: "Is the duck ready to eat?"
Nobody knows exactly how English will change, or whether we might, as time travellers, recognise it 200 years hence. But speculating about it is endless fun.
Producer: Nick Baker
A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 09:30 Head to Head (b00tjf54)
Series 2
Malcolm X and James Farmer
Edward Stourton continues to revisit passionate broadcast debates from the archives - exploring the ideas, the great minds behind them and echoes of the arguments in present-day politics.
In this last episode, two leading black activists clash at the very height of the Civil Rights movement. It was summer 1963 when the radical Muslim Malcolm X met mainstream campaigner James Farmer. They were fired up by the same ideals but were divided on how to achieve them. Malcolm X demanded the creation of an all-black nation, by violent means if necessary. Farmer believed in de-segregation through peaceful protest and the law - using the US constitution to fulfill its promise of an America free for all men.
Whether segregation still exists today is up for question. In the studio dissecting the debate are the author Bonnie Greer, who was a teenager in 1960s Chicago, and Dr Stephen Tuck, lecturer in American Studies at Oxford University.
Producer: Dominic Byrne
A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b00thw3n)
Chris Mullin - Decline and Fall: Diaries 2005-2010
Episode 3
The second volume of Chris Mullin's diaries reflect irreverently and humorously on New Labour's last term in office. Today, Tony Blair's final days as Prime Minister.
Chris Mullin is the former MP for Sunderland South, a journalist and author. His books include the first volume of his acclaimed diaries, "A View From the Foothills." He also wrote the thriller, "A Very British Coup", with the television version winning BAFTA and Emmy awards. He was a minister in three departments, Environment, Transport and Regions, International Development and The Foreign Office.
The reader is Sam Dale.
The abridger is Penny Leicester.
The producer is Elizabeth Allard.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00thw7k)
From Alexis Colby to Catwoman - what makes a female baddie? Actress Claire Skinner on her new play 'Deathtrap' and her role in the hit TV show 'Outnumbered'. As part of our women and sport season we hear about one listener's passion for country dancing and we look at the family courts. Each year around 20,000 children have their futures decided by the family courts. We ask whether the lifting of reporting restrictions in April 2009 went far enough in opening the system up to public scrutiny? Presented by Jenni Murray.
WED 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00thxcp)
Rosamond Lehmann - Dusty Answer
Episode 3
Rosamund Lehmann's first novel Dusty Answer records the education of Judith Earle, the only child of an academic father and socialite mother. Judith grew up in the seclusion of a large riverside house in the Thames Valley. The house next door is occupied from time to time by the Fyfe family whose children - cousins Charlie, Roddy, Julian and Martin drift in and out of her life.
Part Three. Judith arrives in Cambridge and can't find her room. She wonders how she will settle down but soon meets fellow student Jennifer who is to become a great friend. During the winter snow, Roddy comes to visit ..
DUSTY ANSWER by Rosamund Lehmann dramatised by Lavinia Greenlaw
Narrator ..... Julia Hills
Judith ..... Rosina Carbone
Roddy ..... Brodie Ross
Martin ..... Oliver Gomm
Jennifer ..... Annabel Scholey
Geraldine ..... Jemima Foxtrot
Directed by Susan Roberts.
WED 11:00 Mind Changers (b00tjf56)
Case Study: Dora - The Girl Who Walked Out on Freud
Without a few unusual people, human behaviour would have remained a mystery - ordinary people whose extraordinary circumstances provided researchers with the exceptions that proved behavioural rules. Claudia Hammond revisits the classic case studies that have advanced psychological research.
Dora was the pseudonym Sigmund Freud gave to the teenage girl who claimed that her father had offered her to his friend in exchange for the continued sexual favours of the friend's wife. Freud used this, his first case history, to show how the interpretation of dreams could be used in analysis. Also to illustrate his new theory of infant sexuality, and to explain transference. Although Freud said he believed Dora's account of the adults' love triangle, Dora ended the analysis after just 11 weeks. Freud wrote up his account immediately, but didn't publish it until 1905, as Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria.
In the 1970s the case was taken up by feminists to discredit Freud's theories. Claire Pajaczkowska made a film about it: Dora: A Case of Mistaken Identity. She speaks about it to Claudia Hammond in the Freud Museum, Sigmund Freud's former London home.
American psychoanalyst, Karin Ahbel-Rappe, asserts that Dora, a vulnerable teenager, was badly let down by Freud. So does Anthony Stadlen, a psychotherapist who has researched the real people behind the pseudonyms in Freud's case histories. Dora was in fact Ida Bauer, later Ida Adler, and the image of the self-obsessed hysteric perpetuated by Freud and his followers was apparently untrue.
Janet Sayers, Professor of Psychoanalytic Psychology at the University of Kent, and Michael Billig, Professor of Social Science at Loughborough University, also feature in the programme.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
WED 11:30 Mum's on the Run (b00tjf58)
Episode 2
Volunteering to do the Crocodile Walk into school to get brownie points with the other mothers, is not Jen's idea of fun in torrential rain.
A quiet parent's evening becomes a farcical attempt by Jen and ex-husband Keith to recreate the execution of Charles 1.
Mum's on the Run is a modern-day twist on the single-family situation. It follows the hectic life ("What life?") of single mum, Jen.
Mother of two, Master of none - Jen seems to spend most of her time as an unpaid chauffeur to a 15 year-old teenage existentialist son, Toby, and a tonally challenged recorder-practising 11 year-old daughter, Felicity, whilst also coping with the jazz musician ex-husband, the fiercely competitive and annoying downstairs neighbour and a huge crush on her son's history teacher.
Jen ..... Ronni Ancona
Mr Rigby ..... John Gordon Sinclair
Shelly ..... Alexis Zegerman
Vivienne/ Shania's Mum ..... Christine Kavanagh
Keith ..... Kevin Eldon
Felicity ..... Amy Dabrowa
Toby ..... Alexander Heath
Karina ..... Amaya Rowlands
Connor ..... Pip Woolley
Shania ..... Matilda Palmer
David ..... Mischa Goodman
Adam .....Caleb Hughes
Written by Alexis Zegerman.
Producer Dawn Ellis
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2010.
WED 12:00 You and Yours (b00thxdx)
Winifred Robinson discusses our growing appetite for chicken and examines our demand for intensively reared British chicken. So what does this shift mean for our wallets, animal welfare and the environment?
Also why are broadband ads still promising so much but delivering slow speeds?
And Alvin Hall, the internationally renowned financial educator, offers his practical tips on helping us all spend less.
WED 12:57 Weather (b00thxg4)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b00thxrb)
National and international news with Martha Kearney.
WED 13:30 The Media Show (b00tjf5b)
When Mark Thompson spoke of "radical change" at the BBC and insisted that he was "up for the fight," in his speech at the Edinburgh TV festival, exactly what did he mean? Steve Hewlett speaks to the BBC's Creative Director Alan Yentob.
In that same speech, the MacTaggart Memorial Lecture, the BBC's Director General also said that "it's time for Sky to pull its weight" - Sky's Director of Public Affairs David Wheeldon responds.
The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson has written a blog headlined "Blair and Brown - an apology". It's tongue in cheek but refers to the jucier side of what Tony Blair has told us in his memoirs published today. But how much of what we now know - did we not know then? And what does it tell us about political reporting?
And after Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp walked out of an interview with Sky Sports after his side lost at the weekend, and Sir Alex Ferguson continues to refuse to be interviewed by the BBC, we ask what value do post-match interviews hold? Steve is joined by Lynne Truss and Guardian sport's writer David Lacey.
The producer is Joe Kent.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b00thy35)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b00tjf5d)
Gavin Mortimer - The Great Swim
Adapted by Anita Sullivan from the book by Gavin Mortimer.
In the roaring twenties the world was changing at an electric pace. In science, commerce and art, everything seemed possible and the challenges were there to be confronted. By 1926, only five men had ever conquered the English Channel, and the race to become the first woman to swim the Channel captivated two continents. Many doubted that a woman could do it.
Gertrude Ederle, a brilliant young swimmer, was the 19-year-old daughter of a German migrant to the United States. Her father Henry Ederle ran a successful butcher's business in New York. Ederle's cross-channel swim was sponsored by the New York Daily News.
The News sent a crime reporter, Julia Harpman, to accompany the swimmer and cover the story and this drama is told through Julia's eyes.
Cast
Julia Harpman ..... Madeleine Potter
Trudy Ederle ..... Emily Bruni
Lillian Cannon ..... Samantha Dakin
Bill Burgess/Rutherford ..... Philip Jackson
Arthur Sorensen ..... Nathan Nolan
Joe Costa/Frank Pegler/Williams ..... Sam Dale
Henry "Pop" Ederle/Abbot ..... Nathan Osgood
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 15:00 Money Box (b00th8xn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:00 on Saturday]
WED 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00tj89v)
Claire Keegan - Foster
Episode 2
By Claire Keegan
Abridged by Neville Teller
A heartbreaking, haunting story of childhood, loss and love by one of Ireland's most acclaimed writers. A small girl is sent to live with her mother's people on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when she will return home. In the strangers' house, she finds a warmth and affection she has not known before and slowly begins to blossom in their care. And then a secret is revealed, and suddenly, she realizes how fragile her idyll is.
Winner of the Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize, Foster will be published in a revised and expanded version by Faber on 2nd September 2010. Beautiful, sad and eerie, it is a story of astonishing emotional depth, showcasing Claire Keegan's great accomplishment and talent.
Claire Keegan's first collection of short stories, 'Antarctica', was completed in 1998 and was awarded the Rooney Prize for Literature. Her second short story collection, 'Walk the Blue Fields', was published to enormous critical acclaim in 2007 and won her the 2008 Edge Hill Prize for Short Stories. Claire Keegan lives in County Louth, Ireland.
'Foster' is read by Evanna Lynch, best known to many for her portrayal of Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films.
Producer Heather Larmour.
WED 15:45 When I Grow Up (b00r0rdl)
Episode 3
Forty years ago 14,000 youngsters across Britain were asked to write about where they saw themselves in the future - their jobs, family lives, belongings, living environments and leisure pursuits. Those essays have now been followed up by the Nuffield Foundation as a way of finding out how far ambition at an early age shapes what happens in later life.
This is the first time that media access has been granted to those who have taken part in their research. As well as evidence of ambition the essays offer lovely detail about how the eleven year olds imagined life would be at 25, with one writing: "my husband would have just won £200 so we decided to go to the moon for our holiday while we had not got any children."
The series covers the following five areas: jobs, family lives, living environments, leisure pursuits and belongings that they imagined owning when first studied. The findings suggest that children who are ambitious go on to enjoy greater success than those with lower aspirations. Once background and ability were accounted for, children did better if they set themselves lofty goals.
It reveals that, even if a child is economically disadvantaged or less able, having high ambitions at around the time they leave primary school means that they are significantly more likely to have a professional job, though not necessarily the one that they predicted.
Producer: Sue Mitchell.
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b00tjfzj)
French culture - Network Nudge
Has French culture become provincial and inward looking? France aspires to be a global cultural power. But a new book - 'The Death of French Culture' - argues that its government creates a walled garden producing cinema and literature for its own market but not for the world. Gone are the days of geniuses like Emile Zola and Francois Truffaut who spoke to millions. Laurie Taylor is joined by the book's author Donald Morrison and by Noelle Lenoir, a former French minister for European affairs. They consider whether protectionism has caused a decline in French creativity and if state subsidies produce mediocre art. Also, the economist Paul Ormerod highlights the power of networks to change behaviour. Could an understanding of how our connections influence our choices help tackle everything from obesity to unemployment?
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
WED 16:30 Case Notes (b00tjdnx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 17:00 PM (b00tj4hv)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00tj4k6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Ed Reardon's Week (b00qp1cf)
Series 6
Elgar Writes
Episode 6 : Elgar Writes
Whilst Ed is busily teaching grammar to some clumsy, apostrophe-ridden phishers. Elgar finds fame when he becomes an internet hit with his blog. Could Elgar be a more successful writer than Ed? Quite probably.
Ed Reardon ..... Christopher Douglas
Olive ..... Stephanie Cole
Jaz ..... Philip Jackson
Pearl ..... Rita May
Ping ..... Barunka O'Shaughnessey
Stan ..... Geoffrey Whitehead
Paul Sharma ..... Nicola Sanderson
Writers ..... Christopher Douglas and Andrew Nickolds
Producer ..... Dawn Ellis.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b00thy37)
Nic bumps into Harry at the school gates. He's there with his sister's son Jasper, and tells Nic about his sister's partner running off when he discovered she was pregnant.
With both children now at school, Nic considers doing more shifts at the Bull. Will worries about Nic getting tired and overworked, but Nic says it's fine - you meet such nice people working at the pub.
Nic and Harry catch up later at the Bull, during Fallon's music night, also joined by Will with kids in tow. Will lays it on thick to Harry about his happy family unit.
Helen deals with supplier woes before tomorrow's local food day. When her final customer of the day turns out to be from Environmental Health, she wishes she'd cashed up early. The EHO notes that a chiller is not at a consistent temperature, and asks to see the record book. Helen frantically searches for it before persuading the man to come back tomorrow - she'll have it then. Helen panics that they'll be shut down during her special day, with the press looking on. She admits to Kirsty that she's not coping and is overtired. She's also been worrying about the triple test. She resolves to get a good night's sleep and be fine for tomorrow.
WED 19:15 Front Row (b00tj4lr)
Author C J Sansom, The Switch and Dinner for Schmucks
With Mark Lawson.
Novelist C J Sansom discusses whether there are historical parallels between Tudor spin-masters and today's politicians, as he publishes a new Matthew Shardlake novel set during an ill-advised war.
Two new American films re-work existing stories. Jennifer Aniston stars in The Switch, which is loosely based on the short story Baster, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jeffrey Eugenides. Dinner for Schmucks, with Steve Carell and Paul Rudd, was inspired by Francis Veber's play and film Le Diner de cons. Natalie Haynes reviews.
The Mercury Prize 2010 Albums of the Year winner is announced next week. Front Row talks to two music teachers from schools which seem to have produced more than their fair share of Mercury nominees, past and present.
Punk band The Sex Pistols are launching their own brand of perfume. For Front Row, David Quantick considers other music stars whose names appear on bottles of scent.
Producer Claire Bartleet.
WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00thxcp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
WED 20:00 Iconoclasts (b00tjq8f)
Series 3
Episode 2
Journalist Stephen Pollard argues that we should stop spending public money on the arts. "Why should we give taxpayers' money to opera but not to football clubs or pop concerts? Subsidy encourages elitist art which prides itself on its failure to appeal to the masses; it gobbles up funds from the National Lottery which could otherwise be used to benefit the people who actually buy the lottery tickets."
Stephen Pollard's views will be challenged by Moira Sinclair of the Arts Council, James Heartfield (Director of the think-tank 'Audacity') and Neil Nisbet (professional dancer turned arts journalist and film maker). The live studio discussion is chaired by Edward Stourton.
Join in the debate by emailing iconoclasts@bbc.co.uk or text us during the programme on 84844.
Producer: Peter Everett.
WED 20:45 1960-2010 (b00tjq8h)
Episode 1
Fifty years after they began, what did the sixties mean for Britain? Simon Heffer, born in 1960, is the first of three commentators to examine the social consequences of the decade in which they were born. He discusses its mixed legacy for social mobility. This was a decade whose longest-serving Prime Minister was a grammar school boy. But that same Prime Minister's government also tried to stamp out the grammar school altogether, a policy which Simon Heffer says has had disastrous consequences for social mobility.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (b00tjq8k)
Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster
Bad weather shouldn't cause more than 1800 deaths in the world's richest country. Five years on from Hurricane Katrina Tom Heap investigates the real reasons for the New Orleans death toll.
It may be classified as a natural disaster but the famously fractious locals agree on one thing- nature had nothing to do with it. They suggest corruption, complacency and the nagging suspicion that a dirt poor, predominantly black city could never expect much help from Washington's power brokers.
In the first of a new series of 'Costing the Earth' Tom Heap returns to the city to dig a little deeper, identify the villains and gauge the city's chance of surviving the next big storm.
Should the oil industry shoulder the blame? Decades of oil extraction from the Louisiana coast has lowered the land, leaving it more vulnerable to flood and to the depredations of the industry's offshore drilling. How about the US Army? They were charged with building hard defences against a once in 250 year hurricane yet the levees failed throughout the city. Today the same organisation is re-building the defences, this time with a promise to defend the city against a once in a hundred year flood. How can a city rebuild with a promise like that? And what of the wetlands and barrier islands that experts had warned were disappearing fast, leaving the coastline unprotected? How many of the $14bn that's flowed through the city are actually being used to rebuild long-term, natural protection for the city?
Tom Heap helps the people of New Orleans in their search for answers.
WED 21:30 Fry's English Delight (b00tjf52)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 21:58 Weather (b00tj4r3)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b00tj4s0)
Radio 4's daily evening news and current affairs programme bringing you global news and analysis.
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00tk91r)
And the Land Lay Still
Episode 8
Written and abridged by James Robertson.
Abridgement of the second narrative strand in James Robertson's monumental new novel which portrays the last six decades of Scotland's social and political landscape through the lives of a handful of characters.
This week, the action is set in 1950 and the story focuses on the friendship between Don and Jack - two men in their thirties from the same village in Fife. Both served in the war and, five years on, it still casts a shadow.
Jack has gone missing and Don's search is cut short when his wife goes into labour. Suffering serious complications, she is taken into hospital and Don waits anxiously for news.
Read by Liam Brennan.
Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.
WED 23:00 Continuity (b00tjq8m)
Episode 3
A Continuity Announcer's booth can be a lonely place - especially on the late shift, when you've barely seen your wife and children for a week. Still, this Radio 4 Continuity Announcer is nothing, if not a consummate professional and he's not going to let his own insignificant little problems get in the way of your listening pleasure. Especially when there are so many exciting programmes coming up in the next week, which he's got to tell you about. At least some of them are exciting. Some of them aren't quite his cup of tea, if he's honest, but that's not really the point, is it? They may be right up your street. It's not really his place to express an opinion. Even if it is tempting. This may be a come-down from heady days spent announcing on the Today programme, but he's got a job to do. Though sometimes it is rather difficult to concentrate .....
Alistair McGowan stars in a new subversive sitcom about a Continuity Announcer brooding on the escalating disasters of his private and professional life; at the same time as attempting to give us a preview of the programmes on offer in the coming week on Radio 4. Or what might be Radio 4 in a parallel universe. Trails for 'The Ethical Enigma', 'Britain's Favourite Sound' and 'The History of Britain One Year at a Time' are just some of the strange delights on offer in the world of this 'radio professional', who harbours a slightly inappropriate relationship with his audience.
Written by Hugh Rycroft a stalwart of 'The News Quiz' and co-creator of 'Parliamentary Questions' and 'Life, Death and Sex with Mike and Sue', the series also features the voices of Lewis Macleod, Sally Grace, Charlotte Page and David Holt.
Produced by David Spicer and Frank Stirling
A Unique Production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:15 What to Do If You're Not Like Everybody Else (b00tjqzx)
Series 1
Personal Appearance
What lengths do we need to go to "look good"?
Andrew Lawrence examines the effort we all put into our personal appearance and the pressure we feel to take action.
From South London comedy club 'Up The Creek'.
The first of four mini-comedic monologues taking a light-hearted look at various aspects of conventional living and the pressure we feel to conform to social norms and ideals.
Written by Andrew Lawrence.
Producer: Jane Berthoud
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2010.
WED 23:30 Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off (b00pk7zr)
Series 4
Las Vegas
He's back! But this time, he's got a computer! Budleigh Salterton's most famous citizen has been grounded by both the Home Office and his father, so he's set up GWH Travvel ("2 Ms, 2 Gs, 2 Vs - bit of a mix up at the printers").
Run from his bedroom in Budleigh Salterton, with the help of his long-suffering former Primary School teacher Mr Timmis and the hindrance of his sister Charlotte, it's a one-stop Travel/Advice/Events Management/Website service, where each week his schemes range far and wide - whether it's roaming the country lecturing would-be overlanders on how to pack a rucksack ("If in doubt, put it in. And double it"), or finding someone a zebra for a corporate promotion ("I'll look in the Phone Book - how hard can it be? Now, "A to D"...), GWH Travvel stays true to its motto - "We do it all, so you won't want to".
This time, it's Viva Las Vegas as Giles accidentally gets three wives in a row and loses the jackpot as he tries his hand at poker and roulette - and comes up the exact opposite of trumps. The game is Texas Hold 'Em, the flop is huge, Giles has the nuts and we're crying all the way to the river, and no-one has a clue what any of that means. Because, as the old saying goes - what happens in Vegas. makes everyone in Budleigh Salterton very cross indeed.
Starring Marcus Brigstocke as Giles.
Giles Wemmbley Hogg ..... Marcus Brigstocke
Tommy "Tomahawk" Hayes ..... Kerry Shale
Nadine ..... Matilda Ziegler
Mr Timmis ..... Adrian Scarborough
Charlotte Wemmbley Hogg ..... Catherine Shepherd
Tony ..... Lou Hirsch
Mikey ..... David Armand
Written by Marcus Brigstocke & Jeremy Salsby.
Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
THURSDAY 02 SEPTEMBER 2010
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b00thrhf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b00thw3n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00thrl6)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00thsl2)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00thrqt)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b00thss2)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00thswt)
Daily prayer and reflection.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b00thvqt)
Tony Blair confesses he regrets bringing in the hunting ban. Caz Graham hears why, and talks to those who were trying to influence his opinion at the time. The hunting ban was a catalyst for the formation of The Countryside Alliance, who say Blair's recollections and the ban itself are flawed. The RSPCA say the ban is working to protect cruelty to animals and should remain in place.
160 tonnes of illegal meat and animal products were seized at British ports and airports last year. John Craven visits Southampton docks where only 4% of non-meat foods are tested, and The National Farmers' Union calls for better testing to avoid catastrophic diseases entering the country.
THU 06:00 Today (b00thvs1)
Morning news and current affairs with John Humphrys and Justin Webb, including:
07:12 Can Obama guide the Middle East to peace?
08:10 "Serious questions" over William Hague's judgement
08:20 Is the internet making us shallow?
THU 09:00 The Choice (b00tjrgs)
On The Choice this week Michael Buerk talks to Frank Evans, a butchers boy from Salford who dreamt of becoming a bullfighter after a holiday in Spain.
The decision to become a matador meant he had to fight his way into the most dangerous and controversial sports in the world. It brought him ridicule and condemnation along with injuries in the ring and death threats out of it. But it was a choice he kept making despite a fearful wife and family and eventually despite ailing health.
THU 09:30 GPs Who Need GPS (b00tjrgv)
The Ship's Doctor
Decompression sickness in the Caribbean, dentistry in the Mediterranean...Dr Mark Mason sees it all aboard the Crown Princess cruiseliner.
As he travels the world Mark is responsible for the doctoring of over 3000 passengers and crew. Dr Phil Hammond contrasts this exotic life with his own Bristol general practice, and wonders if his fear of sea sickness could be compensated by the benefits of travelling the seven seas.
Produced by Lucy Adam.
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b00thw3q)
Chris Mullin - Decline and Fall: Diaries 2005-2010
Episode 4
The second volume of Chris Mullin's diaries reflect irreverently and humorously on New Labour's last term in office. Today, 2008 approaches, and there is mounting disquiet over Gordon Brown's leadership.
Chris Mullin is the former MP for Sunderland South, a journalist and author. His books include the first volume of his acclaimed diaries, "A View From the Foothills." He also wrote the thriller, "A Very British Coup", with the television version winning BAFTA and Emmy awards. He was a minister in three departments, Environment, Transport and Regions, International Development and The Foreign Office.
The reader is Sam Dale.
The abridger is Penny Leicester.
The producer is Elizabeth Allard.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00thw7m)
Dame Ellen MacArthur talks to Jenni about her memoir 'Full Circle' and the launch of her Foundation. Great Dixter is famed as the home of gardening legend Christopher Lloyd, but his mother Daisy was key to its formation, we hear how. Is there a backlash against home births? The Royal College of Midwives is worried about a trend away from home births in Holland, the USA and Australia and fear the impact this might have on the UK. And as the controversial TV drama 'Bouquet of Barbed Wire' is updated, Andrea Newman talks about her 1960s novel which inspired the series.
THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00thxcr)
Rosamond Lehmann - Dusty Answer
Episode 4
Rosamund Lehmann's first novel Dusty Answer records the education of Judith Earle, the only child of an academic father and socialite mother. Judith grew up in the seclusion of a large riverside house in the Thames Valley. The house next door is occupied from time to time by the Fyfe family whose children - cousins Charlie, Roddy, Julian and Martin drift in and out of her life.
Part Four Judith is invited to a picnic with Julian and Martin, and Roddy takes her for a trip in a canoe. Romance rears its head ...but which of the cousins is it to be ?
DUSTY ANSWER by Rosamund Lehmann dramatised by Lavinia Greenlaw
Narrator ...................................Julia Hills
Judith......................................Rosina Carbone
Roddy......................................Brodie Ross
Martin......................................Oliver Gomm
Julian.......................................Tom Ferguson
Mamma ...................................Melissa Jane Sinden
Directed by Susan Roberts.
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b00tjrgx)
The Church in China
Christopher Landau explores the explosive growth of christianity in China, with millions flocking to the official Protestant and Catholic churches. The country has the world's largest bible printing press while some factories are run on Christian principles. Why has the Communist state, which is formally atheist, endorsed this transition? There is official interest in the idea of a "Protestant work ethic" aiding the country's economy while some branches of government hope that the church's social services will help care for an ageing population.
Producer: Caroline Finnigan.
THU 11:30 Penguin, Puffin and the Paperback Revolution (b00tjrgz)
Children's author Michael Morpurgo tells the story of Penguin books, which was founded in 1935 by his father-in-law, Allen Lane. The idea for the iconic publishing house came when Allen was waiting for a train to take him from Exeter back to London. He went into a bookshop to look for something to read and all he found were badly produced, low quality books with gaudy covers. He realised that there was a gap in the market for high quality, well designed paperbacks available to everyone at the price of a packet of cigarettes.
Michael grew up in a house that was especially full of Penguins and Puffins because his step-father, Jack Morpurgo, was one of the editors there. He remembers being intimidated as a child when Sir Allen Lane came over for dinner. When they met again, Michael was in his late teens and had fallen in love with Allen's eldest daughter Clare. They decided to get married - something Lane was not overjoyed about. It was only seven years later that Allen Lane died of cancer, so Michael never really got to know his father-in-law and never understood what had motivated him.
In this programme, he delves into the Penguin archives and meets with family members and historians to uncover how Allen - who was not a literary man and left school at 16 - went on to revolutionise the publishing industry and change the way the nation reads. He explores the impact of Puffins, launched in 1940, on children's relationships with books and he reflects on what Lane felt about the infamous 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' trial in 1960.
He also hears from Penguin authors Nick Hornby and Sue Townsend about what it feels like to be part of publishing history.
Producer: Susie Warhurst
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:00 You and Yours (b00thxdz)
Winifred Robinson examines the loans increasingly being targeted at disabled people online.
We get the low down on speed cameras - would you pay to have one reinstated?
Greg Woods tells us how the latest cuts will affect primary schools.
And the Oxford English Dictionary may not be available in book form again - will anyone miss it when it's gone?
THU 12:57 Weather (b00thxg6)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b00thxrd)
National and international news with Martha Kearney.
THU 13:30 Costing the Earth (b00tjq8k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:00 The Archers (b00thy37)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b00dv5n2)
Swimming Around Ireland
Steven was badly injured in a traffic accident, his physiotherapy sessions haven't been going well and he has grown depressed and despondent. Keen to motivate him and make some progress his physiotherapist Caet decides to try some hydrotherapy in the pool. But the first session goes badly, Steven can't move his leg and grows increasingly frustrated: 'It's not as if I'll ever swim around Ireland is it?'
But Caet has an idea to prove that Steven can do just that. For every move or kick Steven makes they will travel ten kilometres around Ireland, plotting their progress on a map. So begins an unusual journey of imagination and discovery as Steven and Caet set out to 'swim' around Ireland!
Steven ..... Michael Colgan
Caet..... Dawn Bradfield
Mike..... Kieran Lagan
Porter .....John Hewitt
Tin Whistle was played by John Toal
Voices: Bill Maul, Patrick Watson, Chandrika Nayar, Itsareeya Johnston, Henryk Pieknik, Camilla Carroll and Fiona Woods.
THU 15:00 Open Country (b00th8x4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:07 on Saturday]
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b00thf0j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00tj89x)
Claire Keegan - Foster
Episode 3
By Claire Keegan
Abridged by Neville Teller
A heartbreaking, haunting story of childhood, loss and love by one of Ireland's most acclaimed writers. A small girl is sent to live with her mother's people on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when she will return home. In the strangers' house, she finds a warmth and affection she has not known before and slowly begins to blossom in their care. And then a secret is revealed, and suddenly, she realizes how fragile her idyll is.
Winner of the Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize, Foster will be published in a revised and expanded version by Faber on 2nd September 2010. Beautiful, sad and eerie, it is a story of astonishing emotional depth, showcasing Claire Keegan's great accomplishment and talent.
Claire Keegan's first collection of short stories, 'Antarctica', was completed in 1998 and was awarded the Rooney Prize for Literature. Her second short story collection, 'Walk the Blue Fields', was published to enormous critical acclaim in 2007 and won her the 2008 Edge Hill Prize for Short Stories. Claire Keegan lives in County Louth, Ireland.
'Foster' is read by Evanna Lynch, best known to many for her portrayal of Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films.
Producer Heather Larmour.
THU 15:45 When I Grow Up (b00r5yzr)
Episode 4
Forty years ago 14,000 youngsters across Britain were asked to write about where they saw themselves in the future - their jobs, family lives, belongings, living environments and leisure pursuits. Those essays have now been followed up by the Nuffield Foundation as a way of finding out how far ambition at an early age shapes what happens in later life.
This is the first time that media access has been granted to those who have taken part in their research. As well as evidence of ambition the essays offer lovely detail about how the eleven year olds imagined life would be at 25, with one writing: "my husband would have just won £200 so we decided to go to the moon for our holiday while we had not got any children."
The series covers the following five areas: jobs, family lives, living environments, leisure pursuits and belongings that they imagined owning when first studied. The findings suggest that children who are ambitious go on to enjoy greater success than those with lower aspirations. Once background and ability were accounted for, children did better if they set themselves lofty goals.
It reveals that, even if a child is economically disadvantaged or less able, having high ambitions at around the time they leave primary school means that they are significantly more likely to have a professional job, though not necessarily the one that they predicted.
Producer: Sue Mitchell
(repeat).
THU 16:00 Open Book (b00thpvz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:30 Material World (b00tjrp4)
Quentin Cooper presents this week's digest of science in and behind the headlines. In this edition; The Cluster mission is ten years old this week. Quentin discusses how its findings help us understand the protective properties of the magnetosphere against solar winds. The problem of cracking concrete and its potential bacterial solution is discussed as Quentin looks at bio-concrete which uses a strain of mineral-eating bacteria to do the job. As the humble fruit fly stars in its own conference Quentin takes a closer look at how important Drosophilia are in genetic experiments and interviews with all four So You Want To Be A Scientist finalists at the crucial results phase of their experiments.
The producer is Ania Lichtarowicz.
THU 17:00 PM (b00tj4hx)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00tj4k8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Clare in the Community (b00hklfr)
Series 5
Name Calling
Clare Barker the social worker with all the politically correct jargon but none of the practical solutions.
Society itself has improved little, so there are still plenty of challenges out there for an involved, caring social worker. Or even Clare.
This award winning comedy stars Sally Phillips as Clare Barker - a social worker and control freak who likes nothing better than interfering in other people's lives on both a professional and personal basis. Clare is in her early 30s, white, middle class and heterosexual, all of which are occasional causes of discomfort to her.
The last series saw the personal and professional lives of Clare and her team shaken around and shuffled about, but it is in the nature of hell to be unchanging, and all are present and correct for a further round of frustration, despair, disappointment, team meetings and eleven o'clock cakes.
Clare ..... Sally Phillips
Brian ..... Alex Lowe
Helen ..... Liza Tarbuck
Ray ..... Richard Lumsden
Megan/Nali ..... Nina Conti
Irene ..... Ellen Thomas
Simon ..... Andrew Wincott
Schoolgirl ..... Donnla Hughes
Written by Harry Venning and David Ramsden
Producer: Katie Tyrrell
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2009.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b00thy39)
Lynda's horrified to discover the children of her B&B guests eating a breakfast they haven't paid for. Robert comes up with a cunning scheme to show that they won't be taken for a ride.
Meanwhile Helen's been up since early morning looking for the elusive record book. A concerned Kirsty sends her home to rest, calling Tom in to cover today's big event.
At Underwoods, Ruth helps Jill to choose a crystal rose bowl for the flower and produce show category in memory of Phil. Jill's pleased that Pip's back at college, confident she'll put Jude behind her and catch up. She's also pleased to hear that Lily and Freddie won't be going to boarding school.
At a crammed Ambridge Organics, Lynda secures an autograph from celebrity guest cook Shelley Brazil, a fellow advocate of local food, as Kirsty turns up the missing record book. Later, Kirsty confides in Tom about Helen's fears from her triple test. She thinks that Helen has finally realised that not everything's in her control. Agreeing not to mention they've spoken, Tom visits Helen. She's glad of a good rest. He tells her the event's been a success and their Environmental Health worries are over. Tom reassures Helen he's here for her. She's delighted to notice how much he's come around to her pregnancy.
THU 19:15 Front Row (b00tj4lt)
Donald Sturrock on Roald Dahl; Tim Robbins sings.
With John Wilson.
Four years after Shane Meadows wrote and directed This Is England, his Bafta Award-winning film about young skinheads, he returns to the characters as he makes his television debut with a four-part follow-up. Set in 1986, the film's protagonist Shaun is about to leave school, and Woody and Lol are getting ready to be married. Miranda Sawyer reviews.
Donald Sturrock, author of the authorised biography of Roald Dahl, discusses the process of writing about Dahl's drama-packed life and the insights he gained into his character from the access he was given to Dahl's private papers and letters.
The Turner Prize-winning photographer Wolfgang Tillmans discusses his new exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. His photographs are displayed among the Gallery's existing collection to provide a commentary or response to the medieval, renaissance and contemporary masters already on show.
Oscar-winning actor Tim Robbins has branched out and, at the age of 51, released a debut album. He reflects on a musical childhood growing up among the folk singers of Greenwich Village in the 1960s, and reveals the inspirations for his song-writing.
Producer Philippa Ritchie.
THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00thxcr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Report (b00tjrp6)
Extradition
Britain's controversial extradition laws will be in focus again today, as courts decide on America's request for a Kent businessman, Christopher Tappin, to face charges on selling batteries to Iran. In The Report this week, Mukul Devichand investigates who can be sent abroad to face trial and finds that high profile requests from America are just the tip of the iceberg. The system allows over 40 countries to request British citizens without a full hearing of the evidence against them and a third of European requests come from just one country: Poland. Mukul explores claims that Britain's courts are being flooded by requests for petty criminals - for example, the man being extradited to Poland for stealing 20 chocolate bars. Former Home Secretary David Blunkett helped push these laws through in the years after the 9/11 attacks, but in a remarkably frank exchange, he tells The Report that he now "regrets" aspects of the law -- and discusses the need for change.
THU 20:30 In Business (b00tjrp8)
Hidden Depths
London-born Graham Hawkes is the man who has created a submersible vessel that flies through the deepest ocean like a plane. Peter Day reports from his workshop in California, where he wonders why space exploration makes decades of headlines while it is so hard to get backers for deepsea travel into a world no one has ever seen.
THU 21:00 Saving Species (b00tj829)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Tuesday]
THU 21:30 The Choice (b00tjrgs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 21:58 Weather (b00tj4r5)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b00tj4s2)
Radio 4's daily evening news and current affairs programme bringing you global news and analysis.
Middle East talks have finished in Washington, we'll hear the latest from there.
Our reporter in Pakistan, Jill McGivering, revisits the family of a new-born baby to see how they're coping in the aftermath of the floods.
And why ants hold the key to saving the savannahs of Africa.
The World Tonight with Robin Lustig.
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00tk91t)
And the Land Lay Still
Episode 9
Written and abridged by James Robertson.
Abridgement of the second narrative strand in James Robertson's monumental new novel which portrays the last six decades of Scotland's social and political landscape through the lives of a handful of characters.
Set in the 1950s, this week's story focuses on Don and on his friendship with Jack. Both men served in World War Two but had very different experiences: Don in close combat in Europe, Jack enduring three years in a Japanese POW camp.
Don's family is growing, his wife has had another son, and he realises that being a good husband and father requires a different kind of courage from being a good soldier.
Read by Liam Brennan.
Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.
THU 23:00 That Mitchell and Webb Sound (b00m6bhh)
Series 4
Episode 1
How to talk to an emperor and inventing Saturday night TV shows. Stars David Mitchell and Robert Webb. From August 2009.
THU 23:30 Safety Catch (b0184tdb)
Series 2
There Will Be Paint
Simon decides it's about time he and his colleagues prove they understand the true horrors of war by getting out there and actually fighting.
So it is that team Heathcote Sanders go paintballing. Okay, so it's not quite the same as fighting in an actual war, but you can't expect Simon to take part in one of those - I mean, people actually die in those things. So join Simon for one last time as he searches for the hero inside himself.
Laurence Howarth's black comedy of modern morality set in the world of arms dealing.
Simon McGrath.............................Darren Boyd
Anna Grieg..................................Joanna Page
Boris Kemal...............................Lewis Macleod
Judith McGrath..............................Sarah Smart
Angela McGrath............................Brigit Forsyth
Madeleine Turnbull........................Rachel Atkins
Roger/Dave......................................Philip Fox
Guide.............................................Gus Brown
Producer: Dawn Ellis.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2009.
FRIDAY 03 SEPTEMBER 2010
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b00thrhh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b00thw3q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00thrl8)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00thsl4)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00thrqw)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b00thss4)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00thsww)
Daily prayer and reflection.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b00thvqw)
Mince is now the nation's favourite cut of beef, but farmers say heavy discounts and reduced sales of more expensive cuts are hitting profits. We hear from one farmer who is quitting beef production after a family involvement of more than a hundred years. Farming Today also visits one of the few remaining medieval field systems in England.
FRI 06:00 Today (b00thvs3)
Morning news and current affairs with John Humphrys and Sarah Montague, including:
07:50 Does Ed Balls agree with Tony Blair's backing of the "thrust" of coalition deficit cutting plans?
08:10 Three Pakistani cricketers have been charged by the International Cricket Council.
08:15 Sally Bercow on the life of the politician's wife.
FRI 09:00 The Reunion (b00thmv9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b00thw3s)
Chris Mullin - Decline and Fall: Diaries 2005-2010
Episode 5
The second volume of Chris Mullin's diaries reflect irreverently and humorously on New Labour's last term in office. Today, the 2010 election approaches, and Mullin anticipates the inevitable outcome, as well as his own last days as an MP.
Chris Mullin is the former MP for Sunderland South, a journalist and author. His books include the first volume of his acclaimed diaries, "A View From the Foothills." He also wrote the thriller, "A Very British Coup", with the television version winning BAFTA and Emmy awards. He was a minister in three departments, Environment, Transport and Regions, International Development and The Foreign Office.
The reader is Sam Dale.
The abridger is Penny Leicester.
The producer is Elizabeth Allard.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00thw7p)
Presented by Jenni Murray.
Scottish Women's Health .A recent report has found that the Scots still drink and smoke more, and have poorer diets when compared to their UK counterparts. In particular, Scottish women appeared substantially worse than those in the rest of the UK, with a higher chance of them developing long term illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. So what is causing such ill health and poor diets in the country? Is it poverty or tradition and culture; and what is the government doing to improve the health of Scottish women? Jenni is joined by Shona Robison, the Scottish Public Health Minister and Dr Douglas Colville, a GP in the Rutherglen district of Glasgow.
School Uniforms - The summer holidays are over and the new school year is about to start. Parents are in a rush to buy the correct school uniform before the crucial day. One of the dilemmas of today's parent is how far to accept 'customisation' of the school uniform and when to try and enforce school rules. If you buy those expensive plain black regulation shoes will she wear them or will they just stay hidden in the back of the wardrobe? Is it acceptable for young teenage girls to wear short skirts to school or, more likely, to hitch it up once they've left the house? What about unbuttoning the top button of their shirts or a big knot in the tie? And how far should they be allowed to go with accessorising - jewellery, make-up and colourful hairbands. Should head teachers take a harder line on school uniform, or is customising a harmless part of teenage rebellion? Jenni is joined by journalist Rosie Millard, and Kathy August, Principal of Manchester Academy.
Delusions of Gender - The Real Science Behind Sex Differences is a new book by Cordelia Fine published on 4th September. It's an attack on pseudo-scientific claims about the differences between the male and female brain. Drawing on the latest research in developmental psychology, neuroscience and social psychology, Delusions of Gender rebuts these claims, showing how old myths, dressed up in new scientific finery, help perpetuate the status quo. Jenni talks to Cordelia Fine and to Professor Melissa Hines of the University of Cambridge.
And DaleDiva - the all woman acapella choir from Derbyshire which has just won Channel 5's talent show Don't Stop Believing.
FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00thxct)
Rosamond Lehmann - Dusty Answer
Episode 5
Rosamund Lehmann's first novel Dusty Answer records the education of Judith Earle, the only child of an academic father and socialite mother. Judith grew up in the seclusion of a large riverside house in the Thames Valley. The house next door is occupied from time to time by the Fyfe family whose children - cousins Charlie, Roddy, Julian and Martin drift in and out of her life.
Part Five. Whilst travelling in France with her mother, Judith meets up with Julian. They enjoy the French heat together until his sudden departure. Jennifer steps back into her life..
DUSTY ANSWER by Rosamund Lehmann dramatised by Lavinia Greenlaw
Narrator ...................................Julia Hills
Judith......................................Rosina Carbone
Julian.......................................Tom Ferguson
Jennifer ...................................Annabel Scholey
Mamma ...................................Melissa Jane Sinden
Directed by Susan Roberts.
FRI 11:00 God's Ambassador (b00tjs03)
Episode 1
When Francis Campbell went to see his careers advisor to find out about becoming a diplomat, he was told that the Foreign Office didnt recruit in Northern Ireland. That was the 1980s, things are different now. He was the first Catholic to be appointed to the role of Ambassador to the Holy See since the Reformation and he's been our man in the Vatican since 2005. Not bad for a man born into farming stock in a tiny Northern Irish village on the border with Ireland.
The Holy See might be one of the smallest British Embassies, but Francis is quick to point out the international scope of his team. In this two part series, Ruth Mcdonald follows the work of the tiny team in Rome, as they prepare for the Pope's visit to the UK - the first STATE visit by the head of the Catholic Church to this country. Francis talks about the day he had to apologise to the Vatican after the leaked memo from the Foreign Office was front page news around the world ("there are a few things in your life as a diplomat that you would prefer not to do, and one if them is to have to offer an unreserved apology for stupid actions of your colleagues" says Francis).
Francis is a charming, friendly and honest man, whose own memories of the Pope's visit to Ireland in 1979 means he knows just what a papal visit can mean to the Catholic minority in the UK. He himself started training for the priesthood - although his interest in politics won out, and he dropped out of seminary. But a strong faith is behind his enthusiasm and drive for this papal visit - enthusiasm that doesnt flag even though the media focus on the visit has so far been on cost and clerical abuse.
Ruth travels between London, Rome and Birmingham, following Francis and the team in Whitehall and the Vatican.
FRI 11:30 Old Harry's Game (b00wnp6m)
Series 6
Investigation
Still keen to know who killed her, Edith discovers why Satan resented Jesus - he didn't like his "holier than thou" attitude.
Andy Hamilton's comedy set in Hell.
Starring Andy Hamilton as Satan, Annette Crosbie as Edith, Robert Duncan as Scumspawn and Jimmy Mulville as Thomas.
Other characters played by Michael Fenton Stevens, Philip Pope, Felicity Montagu and Nick Revell.
Producer Paul Mayhew-Archer
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2007.
FRI 12:00 You and Yours (b00thxf1)
Join Peter White to discover the best time to book flights.
Plus, how low would you go? We road test the latest in no frills hotels.
Also, a new book by an American market research consultant Dan Hill, argues that people are primarily emotional decision-makers. So how do advertisers make use of our emotions?
FRI 12:57 Weather (b00thxg8)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b00thxrg)
National and international news with Shaun Ley.
FRI 13:30 More or Less (b00tjsj3)
Tim Harford presents the magazine which explains the numbers behind the news.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b00thy39)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b00tjsj5)
Big Pies
Two lonely people, one night school and a lot of lying. A romantic comedy.
Ron runs a successful chippy, but when his wife dies, he loses his heart and half his custom. Elaine is trapped at home caring for her irascible Dad, stuck in Yorkshire when she'd much rather be back in Wales. She feels her failure at school holds her back, and her dad doesn't exactly help her self esteem. Ron is fed up at being nagged by best mate Keith about his soggy batter and lack of interest in romance. Goaded into action, they both reluctantly sign on at local night school.
Meanwhile, Keith and Elaine's Dad are caught up with the excitement of local UFO spotters with mysterious crop circles. Keith is adamant that if Ron will only absorb a few cosmic rays, his love life will be transformed.
One night, during a break, Ron is sneaking a fag near the bins round the back when he bumps into Elaine - and sparks immediately fly. Neither is prepared to admit why they are at night school, so they make up elaborate lies about what they are studying. Over the weeks, attracted to each other but in denial, their deception involves them in more and more complicated situations. When the end of term concert is announced, Ron realises he will have to come clean - he is a widower but not really a stand up comedian - and Elaine isn't really a belly dancer...
Big Pies is written by popular radio, stage and screen dramatist, Gill Adams, who has won Silver Sony, Prix ex Aqueo and a Mental Health Award for her previous BBC radio dramas.
Director Polly Thomas for BBC Wales Radio Drama.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b00tjsj7)
Bob Flowerdew, Bunny Guinness and Matthew Wilson join gardeners in Suffolk for a horticultural discussion. Peter Gibbs is the chairman.
In addition, the panel visit Helmingham Hall to investigate the dos and don'ts of border design.
Producers: Lucy Dichmont & Howard Shannon
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:45 When I Grow Up (b00rb1zw)
Episode 5
Forty years ago 14,000 youngsters across Britain were asked to write about where they saw themselves in the future - their jobs, family lives, belongings, living environments and leisure pursuits. Those essays have now been followed up by the Nuffield Foundation as a way of finding out how far ambition at an early age shapes what happens in later life.
This is the first time that media access has been granted to those who have taken part in their research. As well as evidence of ambition the essays offer lovely detail about how the eleven year olds imagined life would be at 25, with one writing: "my husband would have just won £200 so we decided to go to the moon for our holiday while we had not got any children."
The series covers the following five areas: jobs, family lives, living environments, leisure pursuits and belongings that they imagined owning when first studied. The findings suggest that children who are ambitious go on to enjoy greater success than those with lower aspirations. Once background and ability were accounted for, children did better if they set themselves lofty goals.
It reveals that, even if a child is economically disadvantaged or less able, having high ambitions at around the time they leave primary school means that they are significantly more likely to have a professional job, though not necessarily the one that they predicted.
Producer: Sue Mitchell.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b00tjsj9)
On Last Word this week:
Lord Glenconner - who, as Colin Tennant, created the island resort of Mustique where rock stars and royalty had their holiday homes.
Brigadier General Dimitrios Ioannidis, the shadowy head of the secret police in Greece who is blamed for provoking the Turkish invasion of Cyprus
The prison reform campaigner Lady Anne Tree, who set up a charity to allow inmates to make money from needlework.
Michel Montignac who created a weight loss diet which allowed you to eat foie gras and chocolate and drink champagne.
FRI 16:30 The Film Programme (b00tjsjc)
Francine Stock discusses the work of legendary Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami with William Shimell, the opera singer who makes his feature film debut in Certified Copy
In an exclusive interview, Martin Scorsese's long-time collaborator, Thelma Schoonmaker reveals some of her editing secrets on Shutter Island and gives us an insight into their next movie, a children's film called Hugo Cabaret, which is being shot in 3-D.
Claire Denis and Pierre Rissient discuss the influence of Jean Luc Godard's Breathless, 50 years after the ground-breaking work was released onto an unsuspecting public.
FRI 17:00 PM (b00tj4hz)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00tj4kb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 Chain Reaction (b00tjsjf)
Series 6
Ruby Wax interviews Harry Shearer
The new series of the tag team talk show continues as last week's guest, the UK's favourite sharp tongued American, Ruby Wax takes the microphone to interview voice of The Simpsons, face of Derek Smalls and political satirist Harry Shearer.
Ruby asks Harry to delve into some of his Simpsons characters, where he found the inspiration for Derek Smalls in Spinal Tap and who his favourite political target has been over the years.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b00thy3c)
Christopher and Alice have bought a carload of flat pack furniture for their cottage. Jennifer's stored the other furniture - in case it's needed again. Lilian tells Jennifer that things are no better with Jolene at the Bull. Lilian reckons Amside could easily convert the Bull to residential use but she'd much rather the pub kept going.
The council aren't happy about access to the main road for the market site. Brian discusses alternative access, which the council agrees may be workable. Brian needs to find out who owns an undeveloped patch on the business park. If it gets approved, the owner could make good money off that little piece of land.
Lilian joins Jennifer for the opening of the hide at Arkwright Lake. Jennifer's going to feature it on the website and Patrick promotes the new hide in a radio interview on Radio Borsetshire.
Fallon tries to encourage Jolene to think about their future events but it's too much for Jolene to think about. Fallon gets upset when Kirstys remarks that people are suggesting Jolene wants out of the Bull. Jolene isn't going to leave and the Bull's not going to close down. Kirsty's pleased to hear it.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b00tj4lw)
David Grossman; supermarket films; and Eddie Kadi
Kirsty Lang talks to David Grossman, one of Israel's most acclaimed writers, and discusses the poignant personal story behind his novel To the End of the Land, which focuses on an Israeli mother whose son has to return to the battle-front once more, as part of his military service.
Paris Connections, based on a book by Jackie Collins, is the first in a series of new films being released straight to DVD and sold exclusively in the supermarket chain Tesco. The project has also signed up other authors, including Philip Pullman, Judy Blume and Felix Francis. Front Row reports on this initiative, already nicknamed "trolleywood", talking to the producers, the supermarket and writer Felix Francis, with reviewer Adam Smith giving his critical verdict.
Eddie Kadi is a relatively unknown comedian, but he's about to headline London's massive O2 arena. He tells Kirsty about his upbringing and his unusual path to comic success.
Producer Ella-mai Robey.
FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00thxct)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b00tjsjh)
Martha Kearney chairs the topical discussion from St Chad's Church in Burton Upon Trent with questions for the panel including Alan Duncan MP, the International Development Minister, Ed Miliband MP, Labour leadership candidate, Quentin Letts, columnist and broadcaster and Mary Riddell, columnist for The Daily Telegraph.
Producer: Victoria Wakely.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b00tjsm6)
Memory and recall
Lisa Jardine reflects on memory ....and her newly acquired facility to recite Horace odes! She muses how - as she gets older - her long-term memory seems to become sharper. She recalls an episode from her past - forgotten for years - in extraordinary clarity but wonders how accurate those recollections actually are.
Producer: Adele Armstrong.
FRI 21:00 A History of the World in 100 Objects Omnibus (b00tjsm8)
Meeting the Gods
Neil MacGregor retells humanity's history through the objects it has made and this week he is exploring the sophisticated ways that people expressed religious yearning in the 14th and 15th centuries.
In this ominbus edition, Neil encounters the statues of gods and ancestors - in India, Mexico and on Easter Island - and he describes the importance of icon painting in the Orthodox Church.
But he begins with an object designed to connect with Christ himself - a stunning Christian reliquary from medieval Europe made to house a thorn from the crown of thorns
Producer: Paul Kobrak.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b00tj4r7)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b00tj4s4)
Radio 4's daily evening news and current affairs programme bringing you global news and analysis.
The former Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, has said he believes there may be a case for police investigating whether officers carried out a sufficiently thorough investigation of phone tapping allegations against The News of the World. We'll have the latest on the story.
The United Nations has called a special meeting to discuss the recent rise in food prices across the world.
And a potentially significant breakthrough in the treatment of malaria.
The World Tonight, with Robin Lustig.
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00tk91w)
And the Land Lay Still
Episode 10
Written and abridged by James Robertson.
Abridgement of the second narrative strand in James Robertson's monumental new novel which portrays the last six decades of Scotland's social and political landscape through the lives of a handful of characters.
Set in the 1950s, this week the focus is Don and his friendship with Jack. The pair served in World War Two but had very different experiences: Don in close combat in Europe, Jack enduring three years in a Japanese POW camp.
Years have passed since Jack went missing yet Don thinks about him almost every day. Finally, he reveals why Jack's friendship meant so much to him.
Read by Liam Brennan.
Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.
FRI 23:00 Great Lives (b00tjb1h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Mark Thomas: The Manifesto (b00qx43h)
Series 2
Episode 4
Mark Thomas: The Manifesto. Comedian-activist, Mark Thomas creates a People's Manifesto, taking suggestions from his studio audience and then getting them to vote for the best. The winner of each show will be enforceable by law, so pay attention.
This episode will include policies such as crushing the cars of anyone illegally parked in a disabled space; the legalisation of Viking-style funerals; and consolidating the United Kingdom's national debt into one easy-to-pay loan.
Produced by Ed Morrish.