The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
In 2010, the world turned towards Chile when the collapse of a copper mine left 33 men to survive underground for almost 3 months, the longest time in history. Journalists flocked to the San Jose mine and the family's settlement 'Camp Hope' to follow the rescue mission, to see if the impossible could be achieved.
In this insightful and gripping account, Jonathan Franklin reveals what life was really like for the 33 men underground and how complex the rescue mission actually was. A story of courage and camaraderie, it reveals the toll on minds and bodies trapped almost half a mile beneath the surface of the earth.
Jonathan Franklin is an award-winning journalist published in 30 languages around the world. He regularly reports for The Guardian, Washington Post, Dagbladet, Der Spiegel, Jerusalem Post, Sydney Morning Herald and Rolling Stone magazine, among many others.
He was one of the only journalists to have security access to the heart of the rescue team.
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
"One can touch it, smell it, hear it." Listeners explain their love of trees, as iPM visits an ambitious volunteer project to return wild woodland to the borders of Scotland. Also, James Reynolds reads Your News. With Eddie Mair and Becky Milligan. iPM@bbc.co.uk.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Broadcaster, journalist and keen walker Stuart Maconie continues this series of Ramblings, finding walks that are perfect for short winter days and which offer skyline views of British cities. Today, he's setting out from the village of Slyne in Lancashire and heading to look over the historical city of Lancaster.
There are too many horses for the number of good quality homes available for them in the UK, according to the country's biggest horse charity Redwings.
Charlotte Smith speaks with horse riders in North Warwickshire about the financial strain of keeping the animal. Anna Hill visits World Horse Welfare in Norfolk who have taken in 230 horses in the last year.
Horse owners, carers and riders in Britain spend more than £7 billion per year in gross output terms, Charlotte visits the London Equestrian Centre in Barnet to see if it is still in the current economic climate.
Also, we hear from Stephen Potter who runs an abattoir in Taunton about the possibility of selling horses for meat and French chef Michel Lemoine describes what horse steak tastes like.
Morning news and current affairs with James Naughtie and Evan Davis, featuring:
Former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind on continuing protests in Arab states.
As the baby boomers start to die off, will there be a crisis for Britain's cemeteries?
Fi Glover with dancing queen Arlene Phillips and poet Kate Fox; an interview with a pair of identical twins separated at birth who found each other again quite by chance when one recognised her sister in a movie poster, an I Was There feature with a man who lived in the flat below Freddie Mercury and listened to the musical musings that were to become Bohemian Rhapsody, a Sound Sculpture about freewheeling and actor Om Puri shares his Inheritance Tracks.
John McCarthy explores British Woodland and meets a fan of travelling in cold landscapes. He hears about ancient woods across the country and about Iceland and the Scottish islands. And he examines myths associated with trees and woods in Anglo-Saxon England and some relating to the Icelandic sagas.
Another chance to catch the programme in which Paul Jackson shines a light on TV classics that helped define their time. Tonight, the 1990s sitcom whose title spelled out exactly what the audience saw: Men Behaving Badly, featuring contributions from producer Beryl Vertue, writer Simon Nye and stars Martin Clunes and Leslie Ash.
The marathon battles in the House of Lords have come to end and there will now be a referendum on changing the voting system on May 5th.
Two former Lord Chancellors, Lords Mackay and Falconer, have been very engaged in the debates of the past weeks, and here they consider what changes have come about in the Lords since the formation of the coalition government.
The campaign on the AV voting system has now begun in earnest, but how much does the general public know about it, and what can we expect from the campaign?
Anthony Wells of the UK Polling Report, and Neil O'Brien of the think tank Policy Exchange, look at the situation so far.
There was more disquiet in the House of Commons this week over the European Court of Human Rights ruling on the register of sex offenders. David Cameron promised a commission to look into a British Bill of Rights. Chris Bryant Labour and Bernard Jenkin Conservative consider the proposal.
Neal Lawson of the left of centre campaign group Compass is changing its membership rules to allow Liberal Democrats to join. He and Julian Astle of the Liberal Democrat think tank CentreForum talk about how British politics is adapting to coalition politics.
And one of the big questions confronting southern Sudan as it prepares for independence -- "what to do about the cows"....
All across the Arab world the revolutionary storm continues to play itself out. And its force is now being felt by the king of Bahrain. In the streets beyond his palace gates there have been tear gas and gunfire....and demonstrators are mourning their dead. Before this explosion of violence, my colleague Bill Law spent time in Bahrain. He watched its tensions mount, and he's well placed to explain sudden upsurge of anger that has so badly shaken the island ...
And the demonstrators on that roundabout in Manama....and the angry crowds all over the Middle East....have drawn huge inspiration from what they saw unfold in Cairo. The people of Egypt showed that it was possible to bring down even the most tenacious of rulers. But the euphoria on the Nile is subsiding now. And Paul Adams has been watching the country begin to come to terms with the challenges and opportunities thrown up by the revolution....
Ireland is in the run-up to what looks like being a momentous election. From Galway Bay to Dublin Bay....from Cork to Donegal....the nation's troubles are being aired -- and there are many. Ireland has been engulfed by economic disaster. The great boom that raised it out of centuries of poverty suddenly collapsed. The impact was shattering, and Europe and the International Monetary Fund had to come to the rescue. But so vast are Ireland's debts that many years of pain and austerity lie ahead... Fergal Keane has been reflecting on what led his country down the road to ruin....
The bones of the Roman Empire are scattered all over Italy. And when you wander around places like the Colosseum, and the ruins of Pompeii it's easy to feel that the land is steeped in a magnificent, ancient past. And indeed it is....but actually, the Italian state, the Republic that we know today is quite a recent idea -- only a-hundred-and-fifty years old. And as the nation marks the anniversary of its coming together, Robin Lustig has been assessing the mood of modern Italy.
Africa's largest country...Sudan...is splitting in two. The South has voted to break-away....it'll become independent in the summer. And so now what amounts to a divorce on a grand scale is being negotiated. This is the complicated process of untangling the new country from the old. It's about agreeing the rules of a completely new relationship. And Martin Plaut says that as tricky as any of the issues on the table is what to do about the great herds of cattle....
Why are car insurance premiums going up - if road accidents have been going down?
Plus: the winners and losers from the welfare and benefits shake up announced this week
And: how the taxman may take more of your redundancy pay out - leaving you no choice but to claim it back.
Welfare, WMD, and Woodland. Sandi Toksvig hosts Radio 4's topical panel show, in the week that Ian Duncan Smith launched his bill to reform the welfare state; Rafid Al Janabi, the "Curveball" informant claimed responsibility for the war in Iraq; and the UK coalition government passed a milestone - their first U-turn. Panellists are Jeremy Hardy, Paul Sinha, Imran Yusuf and Fred Macaulay. Neil Sleat reads the news. Produced by Victoria Lloyd.
Jonathan Dimbleby chairs the topical discussion from King's Norton Boys' school in Birmingham with a panel including environmental campaigner George Monbiot, former Dragons' Den investor Doug Richard, media entrepreneur Kelvin MacKenzie and Susan Greenfield, Professor of Pharmacology at University of Oxford.
Any Answers? Listeners respond to the issues raised in Any Questions? If you have a comment or question on this week's programme or would like to take part in the Any Answers? phone-in you can contact us by telephone or email. Tel: 03700 100 444 Email: any.answers@bbc.co.uk.
When Philip Marlowe sees a huge, loudly dressed man casually throwing a bouncer out onto the pavement as he goes into a bar, he knows it's time to walk away, so he follows him inside. The big guy is Moose Molloy, recently released from an eight year prison sentence and now on the hunt for his old sweetheart, a red-haired nightclub singer named Velma Valento.
Marlowe follows a trail which includes a stick-up, blackmail, an irresistible blonde, a psychic, drugs and murder, and it leads him all the way to the top of a corrupt state of California.
Farewell My Lovely was the second of Chandler's novels featuring Marlowe. It was adapted for the big screen three times.
Robin Brooks (dramatist) has recently dramatised I Claudius in 5 episodes for BBC Radio 4. Other Classic Serials include: Boswell's Life of Johnson, My Cousin Rachel and The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West.
Presented by Jane Garvey. Sixties' legend Marianne Faithfull on high heels and that voice. Jo Brand discusses her dislike of crying in public. As part of our Women in Business series, we explore whether women are less likely to take risks than male counterparts. Men who abuse their wives or partners can be offered places on programmes to prevent domestic abuse: we ask what's the evidence that they work. Dramatic weight loss and the unforeseen impact on people's lives - one dieter describes how it led to separation from her husband. And pets in bed - would you share yours?
The view from the top of business. Presented this week by Stephanie Flanders, The Bottom Line cuts through confusion, statistics and spin to present a clearer view of the business world, through discussion with people running leading and emerging companies.
This week, Stephanie and her panel of top executives discuss hyperconnectivity - the idea that there are more devices in use around the world than there are people actually using them. How do the panel cope with the sheer mass of incoming information, and devices to carry it? Does more technology mean better communication, or just less time to think?
They also talk about the role of intuition in making important decisions. Is there still room in modern business for the good old-fashioned hunch, or do decisions these days always need to be backed up by solid analysis?
Stephanie is joined in the studio by Dominic Taylor, chief executive of payment services company PayPoint; Rita Clifton, chairman of branding consultancy Interbrand; Sir Michael Rake, chairman of telecoms company BT Group.
Clive Anderson and guests with an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy.
Clive Anderson is joined by Neil Morrissey, one of television's most recognised faces - starring in Men Behaving Badly, Waterloo Road and, of course, the voice of Bob the Builder. The actor and real ale enthusiast spills the beans on his life for audiences around the UK with his new show 'Neil Morrissey: Celebrities Stripped Bare'.
Presenter and comedian Griff Rhys Jones is an avid art collector and enthusiast. Griff ventures to remote corners of the globe in search of ancient cultural art, the impulses that underpin it and how it has been affected over time. The first trip for his new BBC Two series looks at the sacred and tribal art of Australia, with the splendour, magical and religious energy behind African and Indian art following on subsequent Friday evenings.
Edward Fox is a stalwart of the acting profession having appeared in Day of the Jackal, A Bridge Too Far and Edward and Mrs. Simpson. He returns to the stage to celebrate the life and work of the Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope in his new one-man show 'Edward Fox: Trollope in Barsetshire'.
Robin Ince talks to writer and producer Robert Popper whose new Channel 4 comedy series Friday Night Dinner is inspired by his own family life and background. The show stars Black Books Tamsin Greig and Inbetweeners Simon Bird.
With their blissful blend of panoramic, alternative pop, music comes from Newcastle collective Sharks Took The Rest.
And folk bluesman Charlie Parr hot foots it back from Brussels to perform 1922 Blues on his twelve string guitar, live in the Loose Ends studio.
"I have seen God. He bats at No 4 for India in Tests". Rob Bonnet profiles Sachin Tendulkar, possibly the most worshipped cricketer in the world. He has broken records galore in Test and One-day international cricket. In India he's revered more than Bollywood stars and politicians. And his name and face are used to promote eveything from luxury cars to soft drinks. Yet off the field he is one of the most reclusive players. As the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 gets underway in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, Profile discovers how Tendulkar has become India's cricket God.
Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelists Terence Blacker and Deborah Moggach and theatre writer David Benedict review the week's cultural highlights including Anna Nicole.
Anna Nicole is a new opera by Mark-Anthony Turnage and Richard Thomas, starring Eva-Maria Westbroek as Anna Nicole Smith - the Texan waitress and Playboy pin-up who acheived fame and notoriety when she married an 89 year old oil billionaire.
Tim Pears' novel Disputed Land is narrated by Theo, looking back on a childhood Christmas when his entire family was summoned to his grandparents' house in Shropshire for reasons which were not immediately obvious.
The jumping off point for Enda Walsh's play Penelope is the fate of the suitors who were vying for the hand of Odysseus's wife in Homer's epic poem. Here there are four of them remaining, with expanding waistlines and receding hairlines, occupying an empty swimming pool ouside Penelope's house and wooing her via CCTV.
Robert Popper's new comedy on Channel 4 - Friday Night Dinner - stars Tamsin Greig and Paul Ritter as parents who are joined every Friday evening by their twentysomething sons played by Simon Bird and Tom Rosenthal for an uneasy and fractious meal.
Watercolour at Tate Britain is an exhibition which spans 800 years and brings together over 200 works including pieces by historic artists such as William Blake, Thomas Girtin and JMW Turner, through to modern and contemporary artists including Patrick Heron, Peter Doig and Tracey Emin.
"Tighter, tighter!". This, the television producer Hugh Burnett tells Sue MacGregor, was a typical instruction to cameramen on the BBC series Face to Face which ran from 1959 to 1962.
Face to Face was Burnett's idea and it was simple. Each week, a public figure would join the presenter John Freeman for a half hour interview.
Fifty years on the programmes still shine, remarkable for their relentless camera close-ups and Freeman's forensic questioning, bringing celebrities to television screens as never before.
In Freeman's World, Sue MacGregor and Hugh Burnett look back on the series, beginning with its interrogation of Tony Hancock - "There's something troubling you about the world and I should like to know what it is". Critics rounded on Freeman for the tough line he took. In fact, the two men became firm friends.
Perhaps the most enduring Face to Face image is Gilbert Harding in distress as he's asked about seeing someone die (Freeman didn't know Harding's mother had just passed away). But Harding didn't cry, reveals Hugh Burnett. He was sweating under the lights. Moreover, Burnett says, he knew he was in for "a public beating."
Face to Face made John Freeman a celebrity, to his distaste. But his face was almost never seen, only the back of his head. And interviewing was just part of a life in which he has been soldier, MP, magazine editor, TV executive and high-ranking diplomat.
Freeman's World also features Bertrand Russell, Carl Jung, Dame Edith Sitwell and Sir Stirling Moss. And then there's Evelyn Waugh, aloof and ill at ease in the studio. Asked by John Freeman why he's agreed to appear on Face to Face, Waugh replies "Poverty. We've both been hired to talk in this deliriously happy way."
Paul Rhys as Franklin Blake, Kenneth Cranham as Sergeant Cuff, Bill Paterson as Mr Bruff and Jasmine Hyde as Rachel Verinder star in Episode Four of Doug Lucie's dramatisation of Wilkie Collins's detective masterpiece.
Franklin Blake returns from abroad determined to get to the bottom of the mystery of the missing diamond and persuade Rachel to talk to him again. In Yorkshire he makes a shocking discovery at the quicksand and then sets up an amazing re-enactment of the fatal night a year ago.
Opium plays an important part in the re-enactment as it was used widely for killing pain in mid-Victorian England and in Blake's case by accident to help him sleep after stopping smoking cigars. A strange medical man called Ezra Jennings enters the story and movingly describes how opium has helped him to combat a disease for many years (which sounds like cancer but is never explained).
After finally discovering who stole the diamond, the action moves back to London as the Indians have reappeared just as the Moonstone is likely to leave the Bank at the end of the year's pledge. A chase to a pub in the East End of London ends tragically for a man in disguise and the final postscript from Mr Murthwaite tells of the diamond's final resting place back in the forehead of the Indian deity.
Franklin Blake ..... Paul Rhys
Rachel Verinder ..... Jasmine Hyde
Betteridge ..... Steve Hodson
Sergeant Cuff ..... Kenneth Cranham
Mr Bruff ..... Bill Paterson
Ezra Jennings ..... Peter Marinker
Mr Luker ..... Stephen Critchlow
Rosanna Spearman ..... Alison Pettitt
Mr Murthwaite ..... Paul Bhattacharjee
Lucy ..... Rachel Atkins
Gooseberry ..... Harrison Webb
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
"Who should be allowed to marry?" It may sound a strange question, but that's exactly the issue raised by reports that the government is considering allowing gay "weddings" in churches and other places of worship. If that isn't contentious enough in recent weeks we've also had heterosexual couples demanding the right to have civil partnerships, plans to give co-habiting couples the same rights as those who are married and 24 hour Las Vegas style wedding chapels could be coming to a street near you soon. We've come a long way from the days of the Biblical understanding of the sacrament of marriage as the union of a man and a woman. But does it matter? Perhaps not if you see marriage as just another contractual arrangement like buying a car or a house. But historically we've viewed marriage as uniquely valuable to society - the building block on which families are made and children are raised - which is why it's the only sexual relationship in which the state is entitled to have a say in giving it special status and privileges. A relaxed and laissez faire attitude to marriage may reflect our current society, but what's it doing to our moral climate? When all the data suggests that married people and their children are happier and have better mental health shouldn't the state be actively encouraging marriage? Or is the problem the link between marriage and religion? Is it time we abandoned state sanctioned religious ceremonies in favour of a universal civil marriage?
Chaired by Michael Buerk with Melanie Phillips, Claire Fox, Kenan Malik and Clifford Longley.
Dan Boucher - Director of Parliamentary Affairs, CARE (Christian Action Research and Education)
Rachel Morris - Psychotherapist, agony aunt for Cosmopolitan magazine and author of The Single Parent's Handbook
George Pitcher - Anglican Priest at St Brides' Fleet Street, works for the ArchBishop of Canterbury's secretary for Public Affairs but speaking for himself.
Russell Davies chairs the 2011 Final of the evergreen general knowledge contest. The Finalists are from Northwich in Cheshire, Prescot in Lancashire, Beeston in Nottinghamshire, and Winchester. All have come through heats and semi-finals to face this last hurdle for the silver trophy and the title Brain of Britain, in the 58th contest since the programme was devised.
The best-known Shakespearean character named Valentine is one of the Two Gentlemen of Verona; but what's the other gentleman of Verona called?
The actor Peter O'Toole won accolades for portraying the same King of England in two very different films during the 1960s. Which king?
Roger McGough presents a selection of poetry requests to stir the senses; from the contemporary to the canonical, read by John Sessions and Catherine Cusack.
With work by Coleridge, Cavafy, Larkin and Plath, as well as less familiar names like the American Chase Twichell seeking solace in the company of trees. There's a mysterious story about an exiled aristocrat by Robert Graves, and a blast of fresh air from Vicki Feaver. There's also an evocative poem by Robert Minhinnick, where the recollection of the feeling of holding a bird in the palm of the hand provokes a powerful question.
SUNDAY 20 FEBRUARY 2011
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b00ym9f3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SUN 00:30 Afternoon Reading (b00ls1vk)
Three Women in a Motorhome
Pam's Story
Part 1 of 3 stories by Sue Teddern about three women who take a short but eventful trip in a motorhome. Pam's story is read by Lynda Bellingham.
Pam's husband died recently. The couple had just bought a motorhome and dreamt of enjoying their retirement on the open road, but ever since his death 'The Sedona' has been parked on the driveway - too symbolic to sell, too precious to use. Pam is cajoled by her daughter into taking it for a trip along The Severn, and on the way they pick up an eccentric elderly relative. Pam is grieving, but also learning to assert herself with a daughter whose concern manifests as control.
Producer: Sarah Langan.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00ym9f5)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00ym9f7)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00ym9f9)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b00ym9fc)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b00ym9ff)
The bells of St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol.
SUN 05:45 Profile (b00ym844)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b00ym9fh)
The latest national and international news.
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b00ym9fk)
Time Has Told Me
Fergal Keane reflects on the importance of real life experience - wisdom gained not from books but from the world.
Like Shakespeare's Cleopatra, who remembers her salad days as a time when I was green in judgment, cold in blood, lack of life experience can cause us to rush in where angels fear to tread. Or where a more mature person might hesitate. Which is the better weapon for life?
Fergal will draw on the work of W.B. Yeates, Fleur Adcock and the Indian writer Radhika Jha to explore this notion.
The readers are Liza Sadovy and Aiden Mcardle.
Presenter: Fergal Keane
Producer: Ronni Davis
An Unique production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 06:35 Living World (b00ym9fm)
Ptarmigan
The high plateaus of the Scottish highlands are mainland Britain's piece of Arctic tundra, especially the high slopes of the Cairngorm mountain range. Here, on the "roof of Scotland" the vegetation of the heathland changes from one which is good for grouse to another that best suits the Arctic grouse, Ptarmigan. In winter this hardy bird acquires white plumage and nothing short of a set of snow boots!
Lionel Kelleway joins Cairngorm Mountain Head Ranger Nic Bullivant on the snow fields of Caringorm looking for the Ptarmigan in their harsh and open mountain-scape.
Presented by Lionel Kelleway
Produced by Polly Procter.
SUN 06:57 Weather (b00ym9fp)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b00ym9fr)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (b00ym9ft)
Jane Little with the religious and ethical news of the week. Moral arguments and perspectives on stories, familiar and unfamiliar.
The teaching of Religious Edcuation in schools in crisis. It has been omitted from the new English Baccaluareate and a recent survey found that a third of all secondary schools will cut it from their curriculum. We'll discuss what has happened to an academic subject in which the UK is considered a world leader; with Professor Trevor Cooling, Reverend Jan Ainley and Dr Phillip Barnes.
Ireland is about to go to the polls. Are people - amid the anger, pain and desolation of financial meltdown - striving for non-materialistic help? Irish Journalist David Quinn
Homosexual couples could soon ne allowed to marry in church while straight couples could be given the right to a civil partnership. We ask why some religious groups are opposed to the consultation process.
Algeria, Libya, Bahrain, Iran and Yemen have all seen big and small protests over the last few days. What does this mean for the Arab world and will more regimes in that part of the world collapse? Fawaz Gerges is the Director of the Middle East Centre at London School of Economics
Our reporter Kevin Bocquet looks into the issue of Child Protection in Madrassahs
The Industral Revolution brought a boom in the number of temporary churches or Tin Tabernacles to cater for a devout but transient people. Geoff Bird visted one in Staffordshire to hear how they have remained part of worship for so many people
Father Christopher Jamison reviews the new film 'The Rite', released next week in the UK.
E-mail: sunday@bbc.co.uk
Series producer: Amanda Hancox.
SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal (b00ym9fw)
HOPE HIV
Wendy Wall presents the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity HOPE HIV.
Donations to HOPE HIV should be sent to FREEPOST BBC Radio 4 Appeal, please mark the back of your envelope HOPE HIV. Credit cards: Freephone 0800 404 8144. You can also give online at www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/appeal. If you are a UK tax payer, please provide HOPE HIV with your full name and address so they can claim the Gift Aid on your donation. The online and phone donation facilities are not currently available to listeners without a UK postcode.
Registered Charity Number: 1079385.
SUN 07:57 Weather (b00ym9fy)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b00ym9g0)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b00ym9g2)
The Healing of Fear
Writer on spirituality Dr Michael Ford and the Rev Andrew Martlew, an ex army chaplain who served in Iraq, explore how faith can contribute in the healing of life's traumas. Live from Emmanuel Church Didsbury, with the Manchester Chamber Choir. Producer: Clair Jaquiss.
SUN 08:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories (b00yjtg4)
Series 2
Canopy
If you walk into a rainforest you are immediately met by quite literally a forest of trees.
All the tree trunks look like cathedral pillars, smooth and wet from the rain. Not a single branch emerges from the trunk for tens of metres - and when they do you see a breath-taking interlocking jungle of branches and leaves, ferns and flowers and all number of creatures great and small. The canopy is a bonanza of tropical forest life, in the bright light and gentle breeze - a far cry from the dark and humid underworld of the forest floor.
Not surprising then that Sir David Attenborough knew this would be a perfect place to film wildlife.
Producer: Julian Hector
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2011.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b00ym9ls)
Paddy O'Connell speaks to the woman behind Berlusconi's 'bunga bunga' parties, and the newspapers are reviewed by Sir Christopher Frayling, Paul McKenna and Bim Adewunmi.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b00ym9lv)
For detailed synopsis, see daily episodes
Written by: Joanna Toye
Directed by: Julie Beckett
Editor: Vanessa Whitburn
Jill Archer ..... Patricia Greene
Kenton Archer ..... Richard Attlee
David Archer ..... Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ..... Felicity Finch
Pip Archer ..... Helen Monks
Josh Archer ..... Cian Cheesbrough
Elizabeth Pargetter ..... Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter ..... Jack Firth
Helen Archer ..... Louiza Patikas
Ian Craig ..... Stephen Kennedy
Jolene Perks ..... Buffy Davis
Clarrie Grundy ..... Rosalind Adams
Susan Carter ..... Charlotte Martin
Roy Tucker ..... Ian Pepperell
Hayley Tucker ..... Lorraine Coady
Caroline Sterling ..... Sara Coward
Lynda Snell ..... Carole Boyd
Kirsty Miller ..... Annabelle Dowler
Jazzer McCreary ..... Ryan Kelly
Usha Franks ..... Souad Faress
Harry Mason ..... Michael Shelford.
SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b00ym9lx)
Lawrence Dallaglio
Kirsty Young's castaway is the former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio.
He was capped 85 times for England, played in three Lions tours and led his club side, Wasps, to the top of the premiership five times.
Yet, he says, he only started playing rugby seriously after the death of his sister, Francesca. She died in the Marchioness disaster on the Thames when he was 16 and her death, he says, blew his world apart.
"Losing my sister was devastating. It made me more determined to do something to bring my parents together. When I first took up rugby, I took it up not for sporting reasons, I needed something to grab onto, I needed an olive branch."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
SUN 12:00 Just a Minute (b00yj3sn)
Series 59
Episode 2
Popular long running panel game, hosted by Nicholas Parsons. The panellists this week are Paul Merton, Sheila Hancock, Sue Perkins and Marcus Brigstocke. Subjects include "Twenty Four Hour News" and "Emergency Stop" in which a Kitten is hypothetically run over.
No REAL animals were harmed in the making of this programme.
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b00ym9lz)
Andrew Lansley on Food and Obesity
Food and the coalition. How does the government intend to change the way Britain eats? Sheila Dillon interviews Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.
Producer: Dan Saladino.
SUN 12:57 Weather (b00ym9g4)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b00ym9m1)
The latest national and international news, with an in-depth look at events around the world. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #theworldthisweekend.
SUN 13:30 Mind Changers (b00ymjpr)
Walter Mischel's Marshmallow Study
The psychologist Walter Mischel made his name with his ground-breaking book, Personality and Assessment, in 1968. He followed up with a classic experiment which is still running today.
Seeking to understand how the impulsive behaviour of his own three daughters at age 3 became increasingly regulated and planned by age 4 or 5, Mischel set up his experiment in delayed gratification at the Bing Nursery at Stanford University. Over 6 years he asked more than 300 4-year-olds to decide whether to have one marshmallow right now, or wait and get two, and he examined the cognitive processes which enabled some children to wait.
Hearing by chance how these 4-year olds were getting on in high school years later, Mischel realized that whether or not they'd been able to resist eating one marshmallow in order to get two was now showing a strong correlation with their achievements at school, and even with whether or not they were over-weight. Following the same cohort at 10-year intervals, he's shown that those who were able to hang on for two marshmallow were less likely to drop out of college, use cocaine, or even go to prison.
Now the original Marshmallow Test children are middle-aged and still being followed up in one of psychology's longest-running studies. Coordinated by Ozlem Ayduk at Berkeley and Ian Gotlib at Stanford, many have returned to Stanford for fMRI scans and have completed tests on laptops mailed out to them all over the US and even abroad.
Claudia Hammond meets Walter Mischel and hears from his former colleagues at Stanford, Al Bandura and Gordon Bower. Also from Mischel's current collaborator, BJ Casey at Cornell, and former student Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, and from one of the original subjects, now a Professor of Psychology herself, Carolyn Weisz.
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b00yjqs8)
Cheshire
Eric Robson and the panel are joined by guest panellist Paul Peacock in Cheshire.
Paul advises on creating a herbaceous border with year-round interest.
Bunny Guinness visits Emma Morris in her garden in Shrewsbury. Part of the Listeners' Gardens series.
Produced by Howard Shannon
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 14:45 The Completists (b00yn83l)
Episode 5
The word 'completist' was coined in the 1950s and was originally applied to collectors who aspired to own an entire set of records by a particular artist (usually a jazz musician). But now completists come in many different forms with different ambitions. Ian Marchant meets five "completists" - each of them driven by the need to tick off the entire collection.
The internet has revolutionised everything for this group dragging them out of their cellars, kitchens, bedrooms and sheds and into web forums, specialist chatrooms and onto the blogosphere to exchange opinions, tips and secrets with whole tribes of fellow completists. The opportunities to complete their goal are more available because of global communication but the logistics are harder and the goal posts are higher.
Ian Marchant, a former Charing Cross Road bookseller, is an old friend and admirer of completists. He recalls the story of one book collector who regularly asked for a particular volume habitually adding '...but you won't have it.' When the book (at last and amazingly) turned up, the collector refused to buy it because, once he owned it, he'd no longer have a reason to live.
Ian's completism? He owns all the records of Brinsley Schwarz. It took him ten years to find a copy of their first album and it turned out to be lousy.
SUN 15:00 Classic Serial (b00yn83n)
Show Boat
Episode 1
Show Boat
By Edna Ferber
Dramatised by Moya O'Shea
Part One
When Magnolia Hawks climbs aboard the Cotton Blossom Floating Palace Theatre a whole new world opens up and so her remarkable life begins ...
Kim.....................Lysette Anthony
Magnolia..............Samantha Spiro
Parthy..................Laurel Lefkow
Andy....................Morgan Deare
Young Magnolia....Shahrazad Matthews
Gaylord................Ryan McCluskey
Julie.....................Samantha Dakin
Steve....................Henry Devas
Elly.......................Leah Brotherhead
Schultzy................Jude Akuwudike
Jo.........................Nonso Anozie
Queenie................Tracy Ifeachor
Sophy...................Joanna Monro
Windy...................Sean Baker
Pete......................Mark Caven
Mr. Mowson...........Iain Batchelor
The Music by Neil Brand and the Banjo Played by Mike Hammond
Directed by Tracey Neale
No little girl had a more enchanted childhood than Magnolia Hawks. Her daughter Kim, a famous actress, begins to tell the tale to a journalist from 'The New Yorker'.
Andy Hawks, Magnolia's father, a river boat captain, buys the Cotton Blossom Floating Palace Theatre, much to the dismay of Parthenia, his wife. Parthy doesn't approve of the stage but Magnolia loves the actors and actresses who play to the audiences each night on a glittering show boat which proceeds up and down the Mississippi River.
For Magnolia the Show Boat is a magical place full of wonderful company members. There's the beautiful and talented Julie, kind Schultzy and Jo, a black member of the crew, who plays the banjo and has the most amazing soulful voice that seems to seep up from the river itself when he sings 'Deep River'.
Magnolia is destined to become a performer and before long her name is famous up and down the Mississippi, Ohio and Missouri Rivers. Then the handsome and charming Gaylord Ravenal joins the company. Gaylord is actually a riverboat gambler and on the run from debts but he manages to bluff his way onto the boat by pretending to be an actor. But does anyone know his secret?
Gaylord's a natural and soon the pair are playing lovers on stage - and off. If there's one thing Parthenia dislikes more than actors it's gamblers but will she be able to separate the two of them?
Show Boat is huge, romantic, challenging, uncomfortable, exciting, unexpected and original. Edna Ferber's research for the novel took her to the Deep South and a voyage aboard one of the last of the show boats. Her themes of love, regret, racism and failure still have much to say to us in the 21st Century. And the constant and brooding presence within the tale is always 'The River' upon which they travel.
The River's presence is beautifully captured by Neil Brand's music. Neil has written music for TV documentaries such as 'Paul Merton's Silent Clowns' and many radio plays including 'The Midnight Folk', 'The Box of Delights' and 'A Town Like Alice'. Neil also writes radio plays, including the Sony-nominated 'Stan', which aired on BBC4 too.
This story, which brings a touch of Hollywood to Radio 4's Classic Serial, is narrated by Magnolia's daughter, Kim. Kim is played by Lysette Anthony who has appeared in 'The Bill', 'Casualty', 'Doctors' and 'Coronation Street'. Her film work includes 'Krull', 'Husbands and Wives' and 'Look Who's Talking Now'. Theatre work includes 'No Expense Spared' at The New End.
Magnolia is played by Samantha Sprio who has just won the Best Female Comedy Breakthrough Artist at this year's Comedy Awards. In addition to 'Grandma's House' for which she won the award, Samantha played Barbara Windsor to great acclaim in 'Cor Blimey' and was winner of Best Actress in a Musical at the Olivier Awards last year for 'Hello Dolly'.
Jo is played by Nonso Anozie who appears in the recently released film 'Brighton Rock' Nonso was the winner of the Screen Nation Award for Emerging Talent for his performance in 'Cass'. He is in the soon to be released 'Conan The Barbarian' and is currently filming 'The Grey'.
The Author:
Edna Ferber trained as a journalist and worked on the Chicago Tribune. Then she began writing short stories and novels, which achieved world success. Among them 'Giant', 'Cimarron', 'Saratoga Trunk' and 'So Big', each made into a major feature film starring the likes of James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and Gary Cooper. Her plays include 'Stage Door' and 'Dinner at Eight'.
The Dramatist:
Moya O'Shea's 'Theo' was voted most popular play ever by the listeners of Radio 7 and her dramatisation of 'A Town Like Alice' winner of a Sony Award in 1998. Other work includes dramatisations of Mary McCarthy's 'The Group' and Daphne du Maurier's play 'September Tide'. Original work includes 'Lovely Witches', 'Late In The Day' and 'A Night in '54'. Moya's television work includes 'Doctors'. She has two film scripts in development.
SUN 16:00 Open Book (b00yn83q)
Mariella Frostrup talks to first time novelist Sarah Winman and investigates the rise of debut fiction this year.
Authors Muriel Zagha and John Baxter discuss how the the art of writing about sensuality is poles apart in French and English literature.
And we look back at the radical series of Penguin modern classics, now classics themselves at fifty.
Producer: Sally Spurring.
SUN 16:30 Poetry Please (b00yn83s)
Roger McGough with a magical mix of poetry requests, including work by Hilaire Belloc, DH Lawrence and Imtiaz Dharker. The readers are John Sessions and Catherine Cusack. Imtiaz Dharker also joins the programme to read her own poem about the miraculous daily arrival of thousands of tiffin boxes to their correct destinations in the city of Mumbai. There's a mesmerising rendition from 1932 of The Tarantella by Hilaire Belloc (which many will know from its opening refrain of 'Do you remember an inn, Miranda?') Also, Roger reads one of his own most well liked poems 'At Lunchtime', and DH Lawrence considers the more sedentary affairs of tortoises.
Producer: Sarah Langan.
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (b00yj96f)
Shaken Babies?
Each year, around 250 parents and carers are accused of killing or injuring children by shaking them or inflicting some other form of head injury. But an acrimonious scientific debate over the theory behind so-called Shaken Baby Syndrome, has turned toxic among the expert witnesses whose evidence is so critical in determining guilt or innocence.
Andrew Hosken examines claims of a campaign of dirty tricks to discredit those who question the orthodoxy and hears calls from one of the country's leading pathologists for an inquiry.
Producer Paul Grant.
SUN 17:40 Profile (b00ym844)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b00ym9g6)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 17:57 Weather (b00ym9g8)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00ym9gb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b00yn83v)
Steve Hewlett makes his selection from the past seven days of BBC Radio
PHONE: 0370 010 0400
Email: potw@bbc.co.uk or www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/potw
Producer: Helen Lee
Little green men from mars, Mac The Knife - do you know where that song comes from? The Chilean Miners - what was it really like down there? Brighton's nudist beach, David Attenborough's pulley system for inspecting the rainforest canopy, Johnny Morris - not just funny animal voices, Face to Face with John Freeman, Berthold Brecht, Valentine's Day and Camilla takes the Ambridge biscuit ...that's pick of the week with Steve Hewlett
The Archers Radio - Radio 4
Leaving Mr Wrong - Radio 4
You and Yours - Radio 4
Not Just Funny Animal Noises - Radio 4
Archive on 4: Freeman's World - Radio 4
David Attenborough's Life Stories - Radio 4
Today - Radio 4
The 33 - Radio 4
The Priest, the Badger and the Little Green Men from Mars - Radio 4
Song Stories - Radio 2
The Call - Radio 4
It's Your Round - Radio 4
In Living Memory - Radio 4.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (b00yn83x)
The village is still talking about Lynda's close encounter of the Royal kind, which is growing a bit in the telling. Meanwhile, Susan has proudly displayed a picture in the Echo showing Susan herself really quite close to the Duchess.
Jolene is puzzled that Kenton seems to be reluctant to pursue their friendship. He tells her that he can't make the gig they'd planned to go to this week. She's taken aback to find herself a bit hurt.
Nic suggests to Will that they might make some suggestions for Eddie's 60th birthday party, and Will comes up with the idea of taking him to the races. They could club together and give him a bit of money to bet with. Nic thinks it's a great idea.
Brian is off to Paris to the agricultural show. He's looking forward to seeing Debbie and hoping he can avoid Matt and Lilian. But his hopes are dashed when he gets there and finds Debbie has already invited Matt and Lilian for dinner.
SUN 19:15 Americana (b00yn83z)
Philadelphia's Return to a Balanced Budget:
As Washington insiders wrangle over the annual Federal budget, guest presenter Adam Brookes takes Americana on the road to Philadelphia -- where Mayor Michael Nutter describes how he has steered his city back into the black. Can the Federal government learn anything from Philly?
Virginia's relics of Elizabethan English:
After stopping for traditional cheesesteaks in Philly, Americana rides the mail boat from the mainland to Virginia's remote Tangier Island. It's a place where some say the remnants of Cornish speech from Elizabethan times can still be heard in the language of watermen today but as business on the sea faces challenging times the dialect may soon disappear.
SUN 19:45 Afternoon Reading (b00lpp9g)
Stories with Latitude
Scott Hardy's Queensway Sessions
PHOTOGRAPHER REUBEN CANTARINI BECOMES OBSESSED WITH THE WORK OF A BRILLIANT MUSICIAN CALLED SCOTT HARDY, WHOSE MUSIC ONLY EXISTS ON THE INTERNET UNTIL REUBEN CLANDESTINELY TAPES A PRIVATE SESSION. WHEN HARDY'S DEATH IS ANNOUNCED, HIS CULT FOLLOWING GROWS. REUBEN NEVER DIVULGES THE EXISTENCE OF HIS BOOTLEG RECORDING UNTIL AN EMAIL FROM ANOTHER MUSIC COLLECTOR STARTS TO UNRAVEL THE MYSTERY OF HIS HERO'S DEATH.
Producer Sara Davies.
SUN 20:00 Feedback (b00yjt8v)
Roger Bolton visits in Salford with Feedback listeners Heather Howarth and Delphine Price to explore the Media City UK development. He asks them if moving more programmes to BBC North will make them more representative of northern life and whether they actually care where their programmes come from.
And down the road in Manchester, Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie are preparing to shift their popular evening banter on Radio 2 to an afternoon slot on 6 Music. Roger talks to the station's controller Bob Shennan about his decision and asks him if he's doing enough for older Radio 2 listeners.
Producer: Karen Pirie
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 20:30 Last Word (b00yjt8x)
George Shearing, Derek Rawcliffe, Brian Jacques, Daniel Bell, TP McKenna
John Wilson presents Radio 4's obituary programme.
We retrace Sir George Shearing's jazz journey from Battersea to Birdland - pianist Julian Joseph demonstrates the secret of Shearing's keyboard technique.
The Right Reverend Derek Rawcliffe was known as Britain's first gay Bishop after he outed himself on Newsnight.
How former Liverpudlian milkman and docker Brian Jacques became one of the biggest selling children's authors in the world.
Sociologist Daniel Bell's big ideas included a prediction of the internet - three decades before it was invented.
And how actor TP McKenna became a familiar face on stage on screen.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (b00ym6cp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:00 on Saturday]
SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b00ym9fw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 today]
SUN 21:30 Analysis (b00yj3xx)
The Big Society
The "big society" - the idea that volunteers should take over some of the functions of the state - is the most over-used policy phrase of the moment. But how will the theory work in practice?
Chris Bowlby looks at the big society on the ground in Oxford - from the affluent streets of the City's North to the deprived estates of Blackbird Leys - and tries to figure out the consequences of expecting communities to do more for themselves.
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b00yn8kz)
Carolyn Quinn talks to the Spectator's political editor James Forsyth and the Independent On Sunday's political commentator John Rentoul. They discuss the referendum on changing the way we vote for MPs, the government's plans to examine human rights legislation and the introduction of new advisers to Downing Street.
Labour MP Heidi Alexander and Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng join our MPs' panel.
John Beesley reports on the role of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee. He examines why there are divisions within the MPC over inflation. And he hears why some believe that temporary factors causing higher inflation may turn out to be permanent.
Editor: Terry Dignan.
SUN 22:45 What the Papers Say (b00yn8l1)
Episode 40
BBC Radio 4 brings back a much loved TV favourite - What the Papers Say. It does what it says on the tin. In each programme a leading journalist has a wry look at how the broadsheets and red tops treat the biggest stories in Westminster and beyond. This week Steve Richards of The Independent takes the chair.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b00yjt8z)
Francine Stock meets Simon Pegg and Nick Frost to discuss Paul. A homage to the sci-fi films of their childhood, the film sees the pair embark on a road trip across America where they meet a real life alien.
Neil Brand is here to give a musical guide through the world of dreams in film.
Iranian director Rafi Pitts discusses The Hunter, a metaphorical meditation on the current political situation of his home country.
Liverpudlian Geoff Woodbridge is a big fan of horror films. He's just watched one a day for the last year. He explains why and picks out a couple of favourites.
Producer: Craig Smith.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b00ym9fk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2011
MON 00:00 Midnight News (b00yqg7d)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b00yjcnt)
Islam and capitalism - Sex before the sexual revolution
Sexual Intercourse began in I963, according to Philip Larkin's 'Annus Mirabilis'. But what of the dark ages before the sexual revolution? A new study shows them to be not quite as repressed, unfulfilled and pitiable as many have been keen to cast them. In this edition Laurie talks to Kate Fisher and Simon Szreter about their illuminating exploration of intimate life in England between 1918 and 1963, which involved them speaking frankly and in depth to almost a hundred people about their sex lives in the period.
Also, Charles Tripp talks about the relationship between Islam and capitalism, and some Muslim societies' reactions to what are seen as the dangers of a rapacious and socially destructive force.
Producer: Charlie Taylor.
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b00ym9ff)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00yqg7g)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00yqg7j)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00yqg7l)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (b00yqg7n)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00yy7jn)
With the Revd Sharon Grenham-Toze.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (b00yqg7q)
The grower of the worlds hottest chilli tells us what happened when he ate it.
Also, according to food industry experts, high end and niche food seems impervious to the economic downturn, we find out why.
And this weekend marked the 10th anniversary of the country's biggest foot and mouth outbreak, Louise Walter talked to a selection of children in the South West of England who were affected.
Producer: Ruth Sanderson
Presenter: Charlotte Smith.
MON 05:57 Weather (b00yqg7s)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 06:00 Today (b00yrkys)
Including Sports Desk at
6.25am,
7.25am,
8.25am; Weather
6.05am,
6.57am,
7.57am; Thought for the Day
7.48am.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (b00yqg7v)
Andrew Marr talks to Simon Wessely about the mental health of soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and explores why British personnel appear to have fared so much better than their American counterparts. The historian John Stubbs revels in the antics of the Cavaliers - the 17th century dandies and political intriguers, loyal to the king. The experimental physicist Athene Donald argues that science is as creative as the arts, and describes how studying the texture of yoghurt could help the treatment of dementia. And Simon Sebag Montefiore studies the texture of a city - Jerusalem. His epic 3000 year history is a chronicle of faith and power, diversity and co-existence.
Producer: Katy Hickman.
MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b00y5dc3)
Colin Thubron - To a Mountain in Tibet
Episode 1
"By trekkers' standards our party is small and swift: a guide, a cook, a horse-man, myself. We move scattered above the river, while loan traders pass us the other way, leading their stocky horse and mule-trains between lonely villages. They look fierce and open, and laughingly meet your eyes. The delicacy of the plains has gone..."
Renowned travel writer Colin Thubron is about to climb Mount Kailis in Tibet, one of the holiest places in the world and hardly visited by westerners. Its slopes are rugged, glacial, and peopled by the toughest types alive. Its slopes are also full of stories: Hindu and Buddhist tales of struggle, devotion and intrigue. But on from these lower reaches, Kailis' s peak rises sacrosanct. Forbiddingly distant. And it is here that Thubron casts his gaze, then walks towards, as listeners can discover in his new account.
1. In the first of five episodes, abridged by Penny Leicester, the author begins his ascent of Mount Kailas with trusty guide and cook in tow. But what exactly lies ahead?, he asks himself.
Reader Stephen Boxer.
Producer Duncan Minshull.
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00yqhrc)
Jenni Murray presents: Women and Westerns. From the cowboy to the bandit, the gunslinger to the sheriff, Westerns are often thought of as galleries of very macho characters. In this world women might be pure householders in need of protection, or good time gals working the Saloons, and not much in between. But has that always been the case? We look at rising unemployment amongst women and also examine proposals by the Afghan government to take control of the country's 11 women's shelters. And the story of Lucie Blackman the English girl working as a nightclub hostess in Tokyo who was found dismembered in a seaside cave. We talk to journalist Richard Lloyd Parry who's written a book about the case and to Sophie Blackman, Lucie's sister.
MON 10:45 MM Kaye - The Far Pavilions (b00yqhrf)
Episode 16
British attention turns to Afghanistan, and the Guides need the services of a man who could pass for a Shinwari.
MM Kaye's epic of love and war, dramatised by Lucy Catherine.
Narrator ..... Vineeta Rishi
Ash ..... Blake Ritson
Anjuli ..... Ayesha Dharker
Cavagnari ..... Sam Dale
Wally ..... Jonathan Forbes
Battye ..... Jude Akuwudike
Directors: Marc Beeby and Jessica Dromgoole
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2011.
MON 11:00 The Chaplin Archive (b00yqhrh)
Episode 1
An exclusive look into Charlie Chaplin's life through his personal archives. Some of this material has never been revealed before so it's a wonderful opportunity for the Radio 4 audience.
In 1952 America turned it's back on Charlie Chaplin. His had been the classic American story: from rags to riches and from street boy to millionaire. But, in the McCarthy era, Chaplin wasn't regarded as patriotic enough for some and he decided to leave. He chose exile in Vevey, Switzerland where he lived on the shores of Lake Geneva, seeking sanctuary from the hostile atmosphere of Hollywood. Vevey was where he brought up his children and found peace but always waiting for the America's authorities to realise the mistake they had made. He died on Christmas Day in 1977 and is buried on the slopes above the lake. However his archival remains are there too - letters, photos, scripts, recordings, scrap-books - the written legacy of one of the iconic figures of the 20th century.
Writer, broadcaster and film buff Matthew Sweet travels to Vevey in Switzerland where he meets Chaplin's son, Michael, to explore the house and get unprecedented access to some of the amazing revelations of the archive. We hear recordings of Chaplin composing and Michael Chaplin shows Matthew a document, found in a locked drawer after his death, which could lead experts to revise one of the most basic assumptions made about his famous father.
Helping to guide us and explain the significance of these discoveries through Chaplin's music, his Victorian Poverty and his women are Timothy Brock, composer, conductor and restorer of Chaplin's music, Dinah Birch, historian and Neil Brand, a respected authority on Chaplin.
MON 11:30 Brian Gulliver's Travels (b00yqhrk)
Series 1
Gelbetia
by Bill Dare
Brian Gulliver, a seasoned presenter of travel documentaries, finds himself in a hospital's secure unit after claiming to have experienced a succession of bizarre adventures.
This week we hear about his travels in Gelbetia, a country run by doctors.
Produced by Steven Canny
Brian Gulliver's Travels is a new satirical adventure story from Bill Dare. The series has attracted an excellent cast led by Neil Pearson and award winning star of the RSC's current season, Mariah Gale. Cast includes fantastic actors Tamsin Greig, John Standing, Paul Bhattacharjee, Christopher Douglas, Catherine Shepherd, Vicky Pepperdine, Phil Cornwell, Antonia Campbell Hughes, Jo Bobin and Katherine Jakeways.
For years Bill Dare wanted to create a satire about different worlds exploring Kipling's idea that we travel, 'not just to explore civilizations, but to better understand our own'. But science fiction and space ships never interested him, so he put the idea on ice. Then Brian Gulliver arrived and meant that our hero could be lost in a fictional world without the need for any sci-fi.
Satirical targets over the series: the medical profession and its need to pathologize everything; the effect of marriage on children; spirituality and pseudo-science; compensation culture; sexism; the affect of our obsession with fame.
Gulliver's Travels is the only book Bill Dare read at university. His father, Peter Jones, narrated a similarly peripatetic radio series: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
MON 12:00 You and Yours (b00yqhrm)
We'll be looking at the introduction of new regulations for timeshare and holiday club holidays, and we'll be asking if they'll stamp out the problems rogue traders have caused in the industry in the past.
We'll be investigating whether a fashionable new hair treatment is safe. Brazilian hair smoothing treatments promise to transform frizzy hair into smooth glossy locks for up to 12 weeks. But some of the products have been banned elsewhere in the world.
And why more of us are visiting the shops to research our purchases before spending our money online instead.
MON 12:57 Weather (b00yqg7x)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 13:00 World at One (b00yy7sj)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
MON 13:30 The 3rd Degree (b00yqhrp)
Series 1
Southampton
Coming this week from the University of Southampton, host Steve Punt quizzes Biology students and Mathematics dons alike on dachshunds, Dante, and Doctor Who. So if you've ever wondered whether "The Golgi Apparatus" refers to part of a eukaryotic cell or is merely a little-read Robert Ludlum novel then this is the show for you.
"The 3rd Degree" is a funny, lively and dynamic new quiz show aimed at cultivating the next generation of Radio 4 listeners whilst delighting the current ones. It's recorded on location at a different University each week, and it pits three Undergraduates against three of their Professors in a genuinely original and fresh take on an academic quiz. Being a Radio 4 programme, it of course meets the most stringent standards of academic rigour - but with lots of facts and jokes thrown in for good measure.
Together with host Steve Punt, the show tours the (sometimes posh, sometimes murky, but always welcoming!) Union buildings, cafés and lecture halls of six universities across the UK.
The rounds vary between Specialist Subjects and General Knowledge, quickfire bell-and-buzzer rounds and the 'Highbrow & Lowbrow' round cunningly devised to test not only the students' knowledge of current affairs, history, languages and science, but also their Professors' awareness of television, film, and Lady Gaga... In addition, the Head-to-Head rounds, in which students take on their Professors in their own subjects, were particularly lively, and offered plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both sides...
The resulting show is funny, fresh, and not a little bit surprising, with a truly varied range of scores, friendly rivalry, and moments where students wished they had more than just glanced at that reading list...
Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 14:00 The Archers (b00yn83x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Drama (b00yqhrr)
Market
Eclipse
Carrie runs a flower stall. She also has a birthmark on her face. Maybe that's the reason she has never married. But Mrs Kaminsky knows she has an ardent admirer. A tender romantic comedy by Sharon Oakes.
Carrie.....Michelle Holmes
Gordon....Andrew Westfield
Mrs Kaminski....Melissa Jane Sinden
Maurice......Ian Champion
Lisa.........Claire Lever
Original Music by Steven D Reid
Produced by Gary Brown
If you want owt - go down the market... They sell everything from pins to pearl earrings, from peaches to pig's trotters, from tripe to tiramisu. See the hanging, marbled haunches of beef down Butchers' Row. Smell the flowers, a fragrant dream. Taste the fresh silvery fish motorwayed down from the North Sea.
Some would say the Market is the last authentic part of the city centre. This northern city once textured by textiles has reinvented itself as a business and financial centre - it bristles with designer shops and bars. A cosmopolitan, twenty-four hour city. Yet slap bang in the centre is a shard of another city. And after countless makeovers, the Victorian City Market remains what it has always been; a place where you can get anything and see anything - a place teeming with life. A place bristling with stories. The market is the real face of the city - mucky, multicultural and magnificent.
'Market' is an umbrella series of six plays about people who work in and around its stalls. Each story is a self-contained quirky tale. Modern morality plays, with a whiff of the fantastical about them.
MON 15:00 Archive on 4 (b00ym8bb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Saturday]
MON 15:45 Against the Grain (b00yqj8p)
Episode 1
A series featuring five people who have defied their culture or tradition to stand up for what they believe in or to follow a dream. Programme one features pig farmer, Irayne Paikin, who comes from a traditional Jewish background in Hampstead but has discovered a passion for pigs and sausage production at her farm in the Cotwolds.
MON 16:00 The Food Programme (b00ym9lz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (b00yqj8r)
Nuns
Ernie Rea chairs Radio 4's discussion programme in which guests from different faith and non-faith perspectives debate the challenges of today's world.
Each week a panel is assembled to represent a diversity of views and opinions, which often reveal hidden, complex and sometimes contradictory understandings of the world around us.
In this programme, Ernie discusses the role and place of nuns in religious communities. How have they changed in recent years and how have they coped with a serious decline in vocations? Is there a similar decline within other faith communities?
Joining Ernie to discuss nuns are Myra Poole, a Sister of Notre Dame who is very involved with the movement for Catholic Women's Ordination; Rosanne Reddy, Sister of the Gospel of Life, a comparatively new order which she founded along with Cardinal Thomas Winning in 2000: and Lama Zangmo, a Buddhist nun and Director of the Kagyu Samya Dzong Buddhist Centre in London.
Producer: Karen Maurice.
MON 17:00 PM (b00yqj8t)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00yqg7z)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (b00yqj8w)
Series 59
Episode 3
Long running comedy panel game hosted by Nicholas Parsons. This week the panellists are Paul Merton, Ross Noble, Tony Hawks and Liza Tarbuck. Subjects include 'On Valentine's Day, I recieved...'.
MON 19:00 The Archers (b00yqj8y)
David is organising the moving of Nigel's favourite bull to Scotland. There's some paperwork for Elizabeth to sign. Meanwhile, Josh helps him out in the lambing shed. It's a teaching experience for Josh as they deliver a difficult lamb together. David asks Josh to be a help to his mum while he's away in Scotland.
Roy is a tower of strength at Lower Loxley, helping Elizabeth with the conference that Grey Gables and Lower Loxley are sharing. It goes very well.
Matt and Lilian enjoy themselves at the Paris Show. They look at pennage with Brian, who would really prefer them not to be there. He's glad that they go off shopping once they've identified a company they'd all like to explore further. Over a meal, Lilian tells Matt that she's really proud of him, recovering from the awful experience of prison in the way he has. They raise a glass to success in the future.
MON 19:15 Front Row (b00yqjj1)
Courtney Pine, Jim Davidson and Animal Kingdom
Jazz musician and saxophonist Courtney Pine talks about his new album Europa and discusses what it was like making a record with a bass clarinet. Europa takes the listener on a musical tour of the continent, from Scandinavia and Russia through to Italy and Spain.
Jim Davidson has written his debut play Stand Up and Be Counted. The drama centres around a 50-year-old 'old school' comic, played by Davidson, who is working with two modern stars of comedy and TV. The comedian discusses the background to the play, and the clash of old versus new performers, a subject he is familiar with in his own life.
The new Australian film Animal Kingdom is a thriller set within the tensions of a family of brutal Melbourne criminals. Jacki Weaver has been nominated for several awards for her role as the matriarch of the family, including the Oscar for best supporting actress. Kate Muir reviews.
The Model Agency, a new Channel 4 series, offers an insider's glimpse into the world of modelling, by showing what goes on at Premier Model Management, a company that scouts and sources models for the fashion industry. Lisa Armstrong, fashion editor of The Times, gives her verdict on the show.
Producer Jerome Weatherald.
MON 19:45 MM Kaye - The Far Pavilions (b00yqhrf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 Designing Camelot (b00yqjtg)
When Jacqueline Kennedy arrived at the White House as the new First Lady in 1961, she initiated a complete redesign of the whole house. It became a national project, the subject of an Emmy-winning documentary and the model for the historic restoration of houses all over the world.
In the process, she redefined what the White House meant to the nation, provided a living history of American design, and established the foundations of the Camelot image with which the administration would always be associated.
Katty Kay looks back at the this transformation, and talks to some of the people who made it happen.
MON 20:30 Analysis (b00yqjtj)
The Orange Book: Clegg's Political Lemon?
The Orange Book, published in 2004, is a collection of political essays by leading Liberal Democrats. Although the writers come from a range of viewpoints, the book has been seen as an attempt by party right wingers to reclaim the party's economic liberal origins in the nineteenth century and give it a new modern emphasis. But for some leading Liberal Democrats these ideas are now closer to tenets of Conservative thought. So will the Orange Bookers bind the coalition ever closer together or lead to fractures and even splits in Liberal Democrat ranks?
Edward Stourton talks to one of the leading Orange Book Liberal Democrats, David Laws MP, about the philosophy behind the book and why they were so keen to publish it. He discusses the consequences for the party of the gap which has now emerged between public perceptions of where the party stands on major issues and where its leadership's inclinations lie. And he discusses what the longer-term implications of the Orange Bookers' relationship with David Cameron's Conservatives will be.
Among those he talks to are Baroness Williams of Crosby; the former Conservative Shadow Home Secretary, The Rt. Hon. David Davis, MP; the historian and newly-elected Labour MP, Tristram Hunt; the expert on political leadership, Professor Peter Clarke; and the former Liberal Democrat policy director and Orange Book sceptic, Richard Grayson.
MON 21:00 Material World (b00yjs49)
Quentin Cooper presents his weekly digest of science in and behind the headlines. Could severe flooding in the UK in 2000 have been caused by climate change? Quentin finds about the latest research which suggests that greenhouse gases, produced by humans, are to blame. Quentin also discusses the largest solar flare for four years & asks what effects it might have on electronics and telecommunications. He also discovers why Vincent van Gogh's sunflowers are turning brown, and he hears about new images that are providing novel insights into the physical structure of comets.
The producer is Ania Lichtarowicz.
MON 21:30 Start the Week (b00yqg7v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:58 Weather (b00yqg81)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b00yy898)
Radio 4's daily evening news and current affairs programme bringing you global news and analysis.
The Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, is under growing pressure at home and abroad after his supporters reacted with violence overnight against anti-government protests in the capital, Tripoli. We'll have the latest from Libya, and look at the background to the story.
We'll have a report from Kabul, where children caught up in the war are being rehabilitated.
Wales prepares for a referendum on the powers held by the assembly in Cardiff.
All that and more on The World Tonight with Ritula Shah.
MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00yqjtl)
Virginia Woolf - Flush
Episode 1
1/5 Virginia Woolf's delightfully whimsical biography of the Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning's beloved spaniel, Flush, is read by Jenny Coverack. Flush was given to Miss Barrett by a family friend, and the young spaniel very quickly became the poet's devoted companion and constant atttendant at her bedside in her father's house in Wimpole Street. In this first episode, Flush must learn to forget his early life in the country, and become used to days spent in an invalid's bedroom.
Abridged and produced by Sara Davies.
MON 23:00 Within These Walls (b0076cb2)
The Ministry of Justice has recently announced that the prison in Lancaster Castle is to close. When that happens it will bring to an end a period of more than 900 years of the castle being used as a jail.
Lancaster Castle has held Pendle witches, Catholic priests, Jacobite rebels, 18th century Quakers, lunatics and prisoners of war. It's reputed to have sentenced more people to hang than anywhere else outside London and, more recently, held the trial of The Birmingham Six. The courtroom dock is still in use for modern trials, though it contains a branding iron.
In recent times it has also been home to 240 convicted offenders - housed in a way which required the authorities to combine the latest techniques with an ancient environment. Ironically the continued use of the Castle as a prison - meaning that the public has been barred from seeing inside - has meant that large parts Lancaster have remained undisturbed for centuries - for example the underground cell which held 9 people accused in the Lancashire Witch trials of 1612.
So what will happen if the law abiding lancastrians are allowed access to the building which towers over their city once the Ministry of Justic move out?
In 2003 History Professor and Lancaster resident Jeffrey Richards was given exclusive access to the castle for Radio 4 and in the light of the latest news that the prison is to close, we're repeating the programme he made.
MON 23:30 The Write Stuff (b00q3lcy)
Series 12
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
James Walton takes the chair for the game of literary correctness. Team captains John Walsh and Lynne Truss are joined by Mark Billingham and John O'Farrell. The author of the week and subject for pastiche is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the reader is Beth Chalmers.
TUESDAY 22 FEBRUARY 2011
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b00yqjcd)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b00y5dc3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00yqjcg)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00yqjcj)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00yqjcl)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b00yqjcn)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00yqmn8)
Sharon Grenham-Toze
With the Revd Sharon Grenham-Toze.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b00yqmnb)
England's National parks are warning cuts will affect our access to the countryside and could hit rural tourism. Northumberland National Park Authority is beginning a legal challenge against DEFRA over its funding. And, Gloucester County Council has approved plans to sell off thirty of its tenant farms to protect essential services. On a happier note, fine food producers in the British countryside report business is good despite the recession.
Presenter: Anna Hill.
Producer: Sarah Swadling.
TUE 06:00 Today (b00yqmnd)
Including Sports Desk at
6.25am,
7.25am,
8.25am; Weather
6.05am,
6.57am,
7.57am; Thought for the Day
7.48am.
TUE 09:00 The Long View (b00yqn6q)
Royal Weddings
Jonathan Freedland takes the long view of royal weddings, comparing the marriage between Prince William and Kate Middleton with the romance between King Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville who fell in love and married in the 15th century.
In 1464 Edward pursued and secretly married Elizabeth Woodville against the counsel of his royal advisors who were negotiating a dynastic union for the dashing young king. When word of the wedding got out it was billed as a marriage for love - a dramatic break with royal tradition. And eyebrows were also raised at Elizabeth's social status - her father was a member of the gentry rather than the aristocracy.
Jonathan is joined by veteran royal reporter James Whitaker, writer and commentator Peter York and columnist Polly Toynbee to discuss how so-called 'commoners' have won the hearts of royalty.
Producer: Paula McGinley.
Image: Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, circa 1470.
TUE 09:30 The Call (b00yqn6s)
Series 2
The Samaritans
Dominic Arkwright meets people who have made life-changing phone calls.
Following a failed suicide attempt, Duncan Irvine made a phone call to the Samaritans that saved his life.
In the 1970's Duncan lived in a small village in the Scottish borders with his mother, who was suffering from mental health problems.
"She started hearing voices, and told me that the TV was talking to her. She would write down strange things like car numbers and putting them in my pocket. I got no help from our local doctor and I thought not helping her was my fault."
Duncan was also struggling with the realisation that he was gay.
"I felt guilty and ashamed about it all, and was afraid of speaking to anyone. I was depressed but no-one used that word then. Depressed was how you felt when Rangers lost at Ibrox."
One day at work, the pressure overwhelmed him and he tried to cut his wrists. When that didn't work, he thought about throwing himself into the sea. As he walked the streets of Edinburgh, he saw a poster for the Samaritans and decided to give them a call.
"Everything had been going round in my head and it seemed so big I couldn't cope with it....Talking through it made me realise maybe there are some things I can do about this a little bit at a time."
Duncan now runs a pub in London and volunteers for the Samaritans.
TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b00yqn6v)
Colin Thubron - To a Mountain in Tibet
Episode 2
"By trekkers' standards our party is small and swift: a guide, a cook, a horse-man, myself. We move scattered above the river, while loan traders pass us the other way, leading their stocky horse and mule-trains between lonely villages. They look fierce and open, and laughingly meet your eyes. The delicacy of the plains has gone..."
Renowned travel writer Colin Thubron is about to climb Mount Kailis in Tibet, one of the holiest places in the world and hardly visited by westerners. Its slopes are rugged, glacial, and peopled by the toughest types alive. Its slopes are also full of stories: Hindu and Buddhist tales of struggle, devotion and intrigue. But on from these lower reaches, Kailis's peak rises sacrosanct. Forbiddingly distant. And it is here that Thubron casts his gaze, then walks towards, as listeners can discover in his new account.
2. During the ever rockier ascent of Kailas, the author with his guide and cook must enlist the help of Dhabu, who has horses to help the cause...
Read by Stephen Boxer.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00yqn6x)
Ten years ago Jean Else, a head teacher in Manchester was honoured by the Queen and made a Dame, after turning round a failing school. Following an investigation into appointments at the school she was sacked. Earlier this month she learned her honour had been withdrawn. Does she have any regrets ?
We hear from a woman who had claimed she'd been raped by her husband, then withdrawn her allegation, was sent to prison for perverting the course of justice - she explains her side of the story and the director of public prosecutions tells us why he's now issuing guidelines to judges to make sure women are not withdrawing claims of rape under duress. Plus the legacy of Stella Browne - an early 20th century campaigner for women's reproductive rights - whether married or not .
TUE 10:45 MM Kaye - The Far Pavilions (b00yqn6z)
Episode 17
Ash's reports from Afghanistan seem to fall on deaf ears, and he wonders whether the British have any desire to avoid conflict.
MM Kaye's epic of love and war, dramatised by Lucy Catherine.
Narrator ..... Vineeta Rishi
Ash ..... Blake Ritson
Gulbaz ..... Kaleem Janjua
Anjuli ..... Ayesha Dharker
Cavagnari ..... Sam Dale
Wally ..... Jonathan Forbes
Battye ..... Jude Akuwudike
Zarin ..... Chris Simpson
Directors: Marc Beeby and Jessica Dromgoole
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2011.
TUE 11:00 Bosphorus (b00yqp5s)
Episode 3
Istanbul is, famously, the only city in the world to straddle two continents - Europe and Asia. The dividing line is the Bosphorus and Edward Stourton has been exploring the life and rich history of this 19 mile long stretch of water.
The Bosphorus gives Istanbul its unique character, but, as he discovers in this, the last of the series, having a foot in both Europe and Asia forces the people who live there to ask themselves interesting questions about their identity and the future of Turkey.
Producer: Phil Pegum.
TUE 11:30 With Great Pleasure (b00lv202)
Anthony Howard
Guest performers select their favourite pieces of writing.
Journalist and political commentator Anthony Howard chooses some of his favourite pieces - read by Nigel Anthony and Eleanor Bron.
TUE 12:00 You and Yours (b00yqp5x)
Call You and Yours with Julian Worricker.
More people are in debt than ever before at a time when support for those in financial trouble is under threat. With more than half of UK families struggling to repay loans and the cost of living likely to rise further there are fears things could get even worse.
Are you in debt with no where to turn to? Are you worried if interest rates go up you will no longer be able to afford your mortgage? Have you or are you considering taking a pay day loan or going online to borrow at eye-watering interest rates? With both the National Debtline and Citizen's Advice Bureau facing cuts where do we now go to get help? Should there be regulation to make borrowing more affordable?
Join Julian Worricker on Call You&Yours and take the opportunity to contribute your views to the programme. Email youandyours@bbc.co.uk or call 03700 100 444 (lines open at
10am).
TUE 12:57 Weather (b00yqjcq)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b00yy8b5)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
TUE 13:30 The Foghorn: A Celebration (b00yqp5z)
Peter Curran celebrates the humble foghorn's powerful role in music, literature and film.
The foghorn was invented in 1855 by Robert Foulis, a Scotsman living in Canada who heard the low notes (but not the high notes) of his daughter's piano playing whist walking far from the family's fog-shrouded coastal cottage, thus inspiring the first steam powered fog horn. But beyond the sea, it's 'whale-like' sound has inspired artists, writers and musicians to use the foghorn both as symbol and instrument.
Peter Curran hears from foghorn composer of 'Maritime Rites' Alvin Curran, Jason Gorski, aka The Fogmaster, who used to conduct guerrilla foghorn concerts in the Bay Area of California, and takes a tour of Portland Bill lighthouse in Dorset, with keeper Larry Walker, taking the opportunity to set off an almighty Victorian foghorn. He also joins James Bond film music and future 2012 Olympic theme music composer David Arnold, who tries to digitally recreate the foghorn's cry, and Dr Harry Witchel, who analyses Peter's yearn for the sound as a child.
Producer: Sara Jane Hall.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2011.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b00yqj8y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b00jxyrh)
Two Pipe Problems
Episode 1
By Michael Chaplin
We return to The Old Beeches, a retirement home for elderly thespians, in the company of William and Sandy; two actors who still nurse a certain affectionate animosity towards one another since they starred as Holmes and Watson in a 1960s television series. Our two elderly thespian residents of the Old Beeches home for retired members of the Acting profession become embroiled in making sure the course of true love DOES run smooth.
It all begins with a proposal, leading swiftly to a wedding, involving two residents - a Shakespearian knight called Sir Trelawney Hope and an ex-nightclub chanteuse called Dolores Sweet, with William as Trelawney's best man and Sandy giving Dolores away. But as the old couple stand there, Trelawney drops a bombshell - he no longer wishes to go through with it. There's uproar, Trelawney strides away, refusing to say any more. Our two heroes are once again pressed into service to solve a mystery; just why does the bridegroom suddenly call the wedding off?
Cast:
Sandy Boyle ..... Stanley Baxter
William Parnes ..... Richard Briers
Dolores Sweet ..... Julia McKenzie
Sir Trelawney Hope ..... John Rowe
Godfrey ..... Joseph Mydell
Mary Winter ..... Jillie Meers
Isadora Klein ..... Susan Wooldridge
Hugo ..... Stephen Critchlow
Saxophonist ..... Julie Hodge
Producer/Director: Marilyn Imrie
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:00 Home Planet (b00yqp77)
We waste, so we are told, up to 40% of the food we buy. Huge mountains of rotting vegetables, veritable lakes of sour milk. And at the same time food prices have reached an historic high. Some commentators even suggest that the unrest in Egypt was in part due to the high cost of basic ingredients. This week you ask whether part of the solution to feeding the world lies in reducing the amount of food we throw away.
Folklore suggests coppiced trees live forever but, you ask, can this really be the case? Where do grasses hide their flowers, why do crop plants become sterile over time? And how high is or was the highest mountain ever to have existed on Earth?
On the panel this week are Human Geographer Professor Sue Buckingham of Brunel University; Professor Denis Murphy, plant geneticist from the University of Glamorgan and Professor Philip Stott, an environmental scientist from the University of London.
Presenter: Richard Daniel
Producer: Toby Murcott
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00yqp9k)
A Few More Actors' Words
An Elephant at Trincomalee
The latest series of short stories by actors features James Wilby, Sarah Winman and Kerry Shale reading their own work. From the jungles of 1970s Sri Lanka (when it was Ceylon) to a luxury boutique hotel in Seville, from the devastation a death causes - and comfortable lives confronted by something shocking - to the adventure of following a wild elephant, these stories are as varied as the performers who have written and read them.
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:45 Against the Grain (b00yrj63)
Episode 2
Protestant politician Ivan Cooper is best known for his role leading the Bloody Sunday civil rights march. As a Catholic sympathiser and civil rights activist, he took up the nationalist cause and became a hate figure for Unionists in Northern Ireland.
TUE 16:00 Law in Action (b00yqp9m)
Wikileaks and the Law
The attempt to extradite the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to Sweden has attracted media interest from across the world.
In the first of the news series Joshua Rozenberg speaks to Mr Assange's lawyer Mark Stephens and asks whether his regular press conferences and comments to the press have crossed the line between representing and supporting his client.
He asks the United States legal representative in the UK, Amy Jeffress, if the extradition arrangements between the US and UK need changing and he looks at whether people should be tweeting from court.
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (b00yqshz)
Ian Hislop and Jan Etherington
Kate Saunders and her guests - Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye and star of BBC TV's Have I Got News For You, and Jan Etherington, writer of comedies like Next of Kin, and Second Thoughts - discuss favourite books by WC Sellar & R.J Yeatman, Roger Deakin and Patrick Dennis.
1066 and All That by WC Sellar & RJ Yeatman
Publisher: Methuen
Waterlog by Roger Deakin
Publisher: Vintage
Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade by Patrick Dennis
Publisher: Penguin Modern Classics
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2011.
TUE 17:00 PM (b00yqsj1)
Eddie Mair brings you the top stories of the day.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00yqjcs)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Rudy's Rare Records (b00yqsj3)
Series 3
Girls and Boys
With Rudy about to tie the knot, it's party time - Adam style.
Adam has created a wedding spreadsheet, and it's down to Richie to intervene to ensure that both the Stag Do, and Doreen's hen night, go off with a Rudy Sharpe Sizzle.
Father and son comedy set in the finest old-school record shop in Birmingham.
Stars Lenny Henry and Larrington Walker.
Written by Danny Robins and Paula Hines
Adam ...... Lenny Henry
Rudy ...... Larrington Walker
Richie ...... Joe Jacobs
Tasha ...... Natasha Godfrey
Clifton ...... Jeffery Kissoon
Doreen ...... Claire Benedict
Producer: Lucy Armitage.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2011.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b00yqjd9)
Jolene goes into Borchester to find out what the Bull might be worth. She's a bit low when she realises how much its value has dropped in recent years, and preoccupied by it later in the pub. When Tony tells her she could do with a break from work for a bit, she agrees, wondering when Lilian is coming back from Paris.
Tony tries to talk to Helen about cropping plans for the shop in the coming season, but Helen is so tired she's falling asleep. Tony says he'll look after Henry for a bit. He takes Henry down to the Bull where he has a fine time with Mike and Eddie who are full of plans for Eddie's day at the races. Eventually, Tony goes back, waking a surprised Helen. She asks Tony to let her know next time he's taking her baby out!
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b00yvv11)
West Is West; Steven Berkoff
With John Wilson, including a review of the film West Is West, a sequel to the hit 1999 film East Is East, about a British Pakistani family living in Salford in 1971. This sequel jumps forward to 1975 and focuses on the difficult relationship between George Khan (Om Puri) and his 15 year old son Sajid. Mishal Husain reviews.
The National Gallery is staging the first solo exhibition of the Flemish painter, Jan Gossaert, for over 40 years. He travelled to Rome in 1509 and was the first northern artist to draw directly from antiquity in Italy and a founder of the Northern Renaissance. Curated by Dr Susan Foister, who feels Gossaert has been unfairly overlooked in recent times, the exhibition displays more than 80 of his works.
John Wilson visits the exhibition with Dr Susan Foister and Professor Jerry Brotton, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary College, University of London.
Radiohead have released their 8th album, The Kings of Limbs. The band invited fans to pay what they wanted for their last album, Rainbow. The new album has been released initially as a download only and has a set price. A CD and vinyl version is being released on 28 March. Caspar Llewellyn Smith gives his verdict on Radiohead's shortest album.
Steven Berkoff is directing and starring in his own new adaptation of Oedipus. He discusses with John Wilson why Greek drama appeals to him, his dislike of "small plays" and why he relishes both the luxury of playing film roles and the pleasurable pain of playing theatre roles.
Producer: Philippa Ritchie.
TUE 19:45 MM Kaye - The Far Pavilions (b00yqn6z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (b00yqsph)
Airport Woes
Business travel and Christmas holidays were ruined for hundreds of thousands of people by snow. While many airports abroad bounced back quickly from bad weather, some in Britain began to resemble refugee camps. But discontent among passengers and airlines goes well beyond winter readiness.
Julian O'Halloran asks how one operator BAA, justifies its grip on no fewer than half a dozen British airports? And questions whether government and regulators need to take more control over the industry in order to prevent further damage to Britain's image abroad..
Producer : Samantha Fenwick.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b00yqspk)
Welfare Reform and Comic Relief's Desert Trek
More on the government's Welfare Reform Bill. We look at the changes to Disability Living Allowance and their impact on blind and partially sighted people.
And Peter White and Cheryl Gabriel report from a Sightsavers camp in the Kaisut Desert in Kenya. They are trekking 100 km across the desert in searing 40 degree heat for this year's Comic Relief Campaign which aims to raise awareness of preventable eye diseases.
TUE 21:00 Case Notes (b00yqspm)
Epilepsy
Dr Mark Porter discusses epilepsy and its treatment. Advances in brain scanning and surgery mean an increasing number of people can be cured with an operation. However, surgery is not an option for the majority. Mark talks to epilepsy specialists about drug treatments, and a special high-fat diet, known as the ketogenic diet, which helps to reduce the severity of the condition in some children.
TUE 21:30 The Long View (b00yqn6q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:58 Weather (b00yqjcv)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b00yy8b7)
Radio 4's daily evening news and current affairs programme bringing you global news and analysis.
Libya's Colonel Gaddafi has made a national television address - he's vowed to stay on and declared himself a warrior. We'll analyse the speech, and the man and hear the latest from Tripoli. We will also hear calls for action from the international community.
Stories from the earthquake zone in New Zealand.
And new guidelines for adoption.
The World Tonight with Robin Lustig.
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00yqspp)
Virginia Woolf - Flush
Episode 2
2/5 Virginia Woolf's biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's devoted spaniel, Flush, is read by Jenny Coverack. Flush has abandoned the memories of his early days in the country, and is now Miss Barrett's constant companion in her father's house in Wimpole Street. However, when his beloved owner embarks on a very special correspondence, Flush senses change is in the air. His fears are confirmed with the arrival of a new visitor to the invalid's bedroom. When Flush realises he longer occupies the most important place in Miss Barrett's affections, he decides to make his feelings about the usurper Mr Browning clear in the only way he knows.
Abridged and produced by Sara Davies.
TUE 23:00 Wondermentalist Cabaret (b00yqspr)
Series 1
Episode 4
Matt Harvey's warm-hearted poetry cabaret in the company of fellow poets Les Barker, Pete Hunter and Jude Simpson.
Supported by one man house band, Jerri Hart, they vie for the audience's approval at the Comedy Box, Bristol, in the Dead Poets' Slam, wooing us with the deathless words of their best-loved poets from the past.
The audience too play their part, composing their own crowd-sourced poem (the subjects of which can vary wildly, from reflecting on the delights and demerits of cheese, to Sunday mornings, and the winter habits of gerbils).
Producer: Mark Smalley
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2011.
TUE 23:30 The Write Stuff (b00qcjwq)
Series 12
Irvine Welsh
James Walton takes the chair for the game of literary correctness. Team captains John Walsh and Lynne Truss are joined by Jane Thynne and Christopher Brookmyre. The author of the week and subject for pastiche is Irvine Welsh, and the reader is Beth Chalmers.
WEDNESDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2011
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b00yqjcx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b00yqn6v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00yqjcz)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00yqjd1)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00yqjd3)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b00yqjd5)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00ysklp)
Sharon Grenham-Toze
With the Revd Sharon Grenham-Toze.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b00yqsq8)
The government is investing £7 million to develop new varieties of wheat for the UK and abroad in an attempt to feed a rising global population. Scientists from five different research centres are using traits from ancient varieties of wheat and other cereals to breed modern strains, which could produce more food without harming the environment. Anna Hill visits the John Innes Centre in Norwich to speak with Professor Graham Moore.
A farmer has won a judicial review against the Rural Payments Agency, after it fined him a total of £50,000 for making a mistake on his subsidy claim form. Judge David Mackie ruled that the RPA had unfairly imposed a financial penalty and withheld money owed to Peter Strawson, who farms in Lincolnshire.
The Liberal Democrat Tessa Munt MP says that some of her constituents in Wells are still waiting for their payments from the Rural Payment Agency and are unable to pay their bills. Paul Caldwell from the RPA responds to her concerns.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Emma Weatherill.
WED 06:00 Today (b00yqp8b)
Morning news and current affairs with John Humphrys and Evan Davis including:
07:50 Should divorcing couples be made to take part in mediation?
08:10 Lord Owen and Sir Jeremy Greenstock on what the world should do about Libya.
08:20 The long history of sporting heroism.
WED 09:00 Midweek (b00yqsqb)
This week Libby Purves is joined by Eva Petulengro, Izzeldin Abuelaish, Rebecca Peyton and Mark Todd.
Eva Petulengro is a member of the last generation of true Romany gypsies who spent her childhood on the road with her family. She read palms on Brighton Pier and became one of the country's leading clairvoyants and astrologers, with famous clients including The Beatles and Michael Crawford. Her book 'The Girl in the Painted Caravan - Memories of a Romany Childhood' is published by Pan MacMillan.
Izzeldin Abuelaish is a Palestinian doctor and infertility expert who was born and raised in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. On 16th January 2009 he witnessed the death of his three daughters and a niece, by shell-fire and his response, moments after the attack, was broadcast live on Israeli television. His steadfast, active advocacy for peace and reconciliation, despite his loss, has earned him international recognition, including a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. He tells his story in his book 'I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity', published by Bloomsbury.
Rebecca Peyton is the sister of Kate Peyton, the BBC producer who was shot dead within hours of arriving in Mogadishu, Somalia, on assignment. Rebecca knew early on that she wanted to make a show about her experience of Kate's murder and wrote 'Sometimes I Laugh like my sister', her one-woman show which is about to tour the UK.
Mark Todd Mark is Chief Executive of Ocean Youth Trust South and has just been announced as the inaugural winner of the MCA Award for Command Commitment to Sail Training. The Ocean Youth Trust takes over 450 young people sailing each year, two thirds from disadvantaged backgrounds or vulnerable in some way, including children with special needs and homeless teenagers. The aim of the training is not primarily about teaching them to sail but to help them develop skills and qualities that will be valuable in everyday life.
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b00yqsx4)
Colin Thubron - To a Mountain in Tibet
Episode 3
"By trekkers' standards our party is small and swift: a guide, a cook, a horse-man, myself. We move scattered above the river, while loan traders pass us the other way, leading their stocky horse and mule-trains between lonely villages. They look fierce and open, and laughingly meet your eyes. The delicacy of the plains has gone..."
Renowned travel writer Colin Thubron is about to climb Mount Kailas in Tibet, one of the holiest places in the world and hardly visited by westerners. Its slopes are rugged, glacial, and peopled by the toughest types alive. Its slopes are also full of stories: Hindu and Buddhist tales of struggle, devotion and intrigue. But on from these lower reaches, Kailas's peak rises sacrosanct. Forbiddingly distant. And it is here that Thubron casts his gaze, then walks towards, as listeners can discover in his new account.
3 Colin Thubron strides forth into majestic desolation and one early morning awakes face to face with a local beast. Meanwhile, Mt Kailas looms ever nearer for him...
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00yqsx6)
Join Jenni Murray as she looks at; What impact the recent attack on a US foreign correspondent will have on the future of women reporting from areas of conflict? Discusses the latest biography of Poet Dame Edith Sitwell. Talks to actress Hermione Norris about her latest stage role in Noel Coward's Blythe Spirit and playing live Laura and Lydia Rogers - The Secret Sisters.
WED 10:45 MM Kaye - The Far Pavilions (b00yqn79)
Episode 18
Ash's increasing sense of his own difference from his friends and fellow soldiers drives him to make a move.
MM Kaye's epic of love and war, dramatised by Lucy Catherine
Narrator ..... Vineeta Rishi
Ash ..... Blake Ritson
Anjuli ..... Ayesha Dharker
Zarin ..... Christopher Simpson
Colonel Jenkins ..... Sean Baker
Wally ..... Jonathan Forbes
Directors: Marc Beeby and Jessica Dromgoole
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2011.
WED 11:00 In Living Memory (b00yqsx8)
Series 13
Episode 2
Zero Tolerance. Chris Ledgard visits New York to explore the origins of zero tolerance policing, arguably responsible for cutting New York's murder rate by half in the 1990's. But can such spectacular results in the fight against violent crime really be traced back to tackling litter, broken windows and graffiti?
Zero tolerance policing has its origins in the criminological theory know as "broken windows." According to this theory, serious crime can be tackled at grass roots level by improving the quality of life of a community. George Kelling, academic and architect of "broken windows" talks to Chris Ledgard about the origins of the idea, and the way it was used in the fight against crime in the 1980's and 1990's.
Chris also meets William Bratton, onetime head of the NYPD and hailed as America's top cop when his zero tolerance policing appeared to cut New York's murder rate by half. But did clamping down on street traders and squeegie men really tackle serious crime, or was something else happening to the Big Apple?
WED 11:30 Ballylenon (b00yqtqm)
Series 8
Crime Fiction
A writer finds the local denizens of Ballylenon ideal for a salacious work of fiction...
Written by Christopher Fitz-Simon.
Series set in the sleepy town of Ballylenon, Co Donegal in the 1960s.
Ballylenon, County Donegal. Pop. 1,999 was founded by St Lenon of Padua, when he fell into the river at this spot in 953. Ballylenon is situated on the shores of Lough Swilly with entrancing views of Muckish Mountain, in the Diocese of Derry and Raphoe. (Note: Ballylenon is a fictional name, but the other landmarks are identifiable.)
Written by Christopher Fitz-Simon.
Muriel McConkey ...... Margaret D'Arcy
Vera McConkey ...... Stella McCusker
Phonsie Doherty ...... Gerard Murphy
Mrs Vivienne Hawthorne ...... Aine McCartney
Rev. Samuel Hawthorne ...... Dermot Crowley
Kevin 'Stumpy' Bonnar ...... Gerard McSorley
Guard Gallagher ...... Frankie McCafferty
Daniel O'Searcaigh ...... James Greene
Monsignor McFadden ...... Niall Cusack
Aubrey Frawley ...... Chris McHallem
Polly Acton ...... Joanna Munro
Eamonn Doyle ...... Patrick Fitzsymons
Mr Boylan ...... Derek Bailey
Pianist: Michael Harrison
Director: Eoin O'Callaghan
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2011.
WED 12:00 You and Yours (b00yqtqp)
Consumer news with Winifred Robinson. As councils finalise their budgets, we return to the proposed cuts in bus services and hear from North Yorkshire where local people are bidding to take over the running of their own buses using a new Government transport fund.
Controversy in Turkey where there are plans for more than a thousand hydro-electric power plants by 2023. But what will happen to the Roman ruins there? One of the largest and best-preserved Roman spas anywhere could be submerged by a new reservoir.
And the iconic brand Biba, set up in London in the sixties. It has gone through difficult times but is now facing a revival.
WED 12:57 Weather (b00yqjd7)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b00yy8bk)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
WED 13:30 The Media Show (b00yqtqr)
Former Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer shares his thoughts on the future of BBC Trust. What does he think of the man widely expected to be its new Chair, Lord Patten, and what will his biggest challenges be?
Steve Hewlett is joined by Alex Thompson, Chief News Correspondent at Channel 4, and the BBC's Wold News Editor Jon Williams. How do they deal with reporting on the protests which are sweeping the Middle East and Northern Africa? Does social media make it easier or more difficult? And, with Western journalists banned from Libya how can you verify what is happening on the ground?
And the programme everyone is still talking about - My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. Veteran documentary maker Roger Graef and journalist Anne McElvoy discuss.
The Producer is Joe Kent.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b00yqjd9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b00jxfql)
Two Pipe Problems
Have You Come Far?
We return to The Old Beeches, a retirement home for elderly thespians, in the company of William and Sandy; two actors who still nurse a certain affectionate animosity towards one another since they starred as Holmes and Watson in a 1960s television series.
Sandy appears in the honours list but a trip to Buckingham Palace to collect his award provides another mystery for the veteran sleuths to solve.
Cast:
Sandy Boyle ..... Stanley Baxter
William Parnes ..... Richard Briers
Karen ..... Tracy Wiles
Postman ..... David Shaw-Parker
Charles, Equerry to HRH ..... Julian Rhind-Tutt
Doctor Mortimer ..... Geoffrey Whitehead
Marvin ..... Stephen Critchlow
Elsie ..... Linda Broughton
Producer/Director: Marilyn Imrie
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 15:00 Money Box Live (b00yqvjt)
If you have a question about finding suitable financial advice you can talk to Vincent Duggleby and guests on Wednesday's Money Box Live.
Making decisions about your financial future can be daunting, with so many products, providers and types of advice on offer.
So how can you find financial advice you can trust ? And what are your rights when things go wrong?
Phone lines open at
1.30pm on Wednesday afternoon and the number to call is 03700 100 444. Standard geographic charges apply. Calls from mobiles may be higher. The programme starts after the three o'clock news.
WED 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00yrpys)
A Few More Actors' Words
It's Chinatown
The latest series of short stories by actors features James Wilby, Sarah Winman and Kerry Shale reading their own work. From the jungles of 1970s Sri Lanka (when it was Ceylon) to a luxury boutique hotel in Seville, from the devastation a death causes - and comfortable lives confronted by something shocking - to the adventure of following a wild elephant, these stories are as varied as the performers who have written and read them.
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 15:45 Against the Grain (b00yrjg7)
Episode 3
Naz Nureen is an Asian woman bodybuilder from Birmingham. She is also a Muslim. She explains why she believes her passion for her sport is not in conflict with her religion.
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b00yqvjw)
Irregular and undocumented workers - America's death penalty
Every country in the Western world has abandoned the use of capital punishment in the name of civilisation and humanity. Yet in the USA, dozens of states and the Federal Government itself continue to execute criminals for certain crimes. Laurie Taylor talks to David Garland about his investigation into the US death penalty and how America has become a peculiar exception in a world which is moving towards abolition. They are joined by former Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken (Lord) MacDonald.
Also on the programme David Whyte presents new research gathered from interviewing undocumented workers in Britain. Seven years on from the tragedy on Morecombe sands, what is the experience of illegal workers in the UK?
Producer: Charlie Taylor.
WED 16:30 Case Notes (b00yqspm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 17:00 PM (b00yqvjy)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00yqjdc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Showstopper (b00yqvk0)
6. Bedlam
Showstopper! The Improvised Musical is a brand new comedy in which the Showstopper team create a hilarious improvised musical on the spot - with the songs, plot and characters based entirely on suggestions from the live studio audience.
The cast includes Pippa Evans, Ruth Bratt, Dylan Emery, Lucy Trodd, Sean McCann and Oliver Senton.
Produced by Sam Bryant.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b00yqjdw)
Brian's flight home from Paris is delayed, and Phoebe picks up Jennifer's anxiety about it. It's made worse when Brian comes home moaning about losing his boarding card and telling everyone there was a problem with an engine. Phoebe worries about what she would do coming home on her own from South Africa if there were problems with her flight. Kate makes light of it, telling Phoebe it's a really grown up thing to do. Kate would have loved to have done something like that when she was Phoebe's age.
Ruth is stressed with David away in Scotland - and off the farm yet again. With lambing happening, it's all a bit much for her. Jill comes over to cope with the domestic side of things, and Ruth is really grateful. Pip helps out in the lambing shed, but really wants to go to a party. She tells Izzy she can't make it, but then David comes home and goes straight to work with the lambs. Pip is free to go. David promises Ruth he'll be around for the rest of the week.
WED 19:15 Front Row (b00yvv1h)
Guy Garvey, frontman of Elbow
John Wilson talks to Guy Garvey, Elbow's lead singer, about the band's new album. Elbow's last album, The Seldom Seen Kid marked a turning point for the Manchester band long seen as the much loved nearly men of popular music. The album won the 2008 Mercury Music Prize and the following year, Elbow won the Brit award for Best British Band. Their latest album, Build A Rocket Boys! is an exploration of the excitement and the regrets of youth. Guy Garvey talks to John Wilson about creating the follow-up to a hugely successful album.
2010 was a very strong year for film documentaries, and that has been reflected in the selection of this year's five Oscar-nominated contenders: Restrepo, Gasland, Waste Land, Inside Job and Exit Through the Gift Shop. Ahead of the Academy Awards ceremony this weekend, the film-makers discuss their documentaries and the state of the art form.
In 1961 Desmond Paul Henry turned a World War Two Bombsight computer into what he described as a drawing machine and became a pioneer of computer art. His pictures straddled the art and science divide and it was this duality that led him into obscurity. The celebrated graphic designer, Peter Saville, reviews a new show that aims to bring Henry in from the cold.
Producer Ekene Akalawu.
WED 19:45 MM Kaye - The Far Pavilions (b00yqn79)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (b00yqvk2)
Have we forgotten the meaning of Charity?
David Cameron this week announced plans that will completely change public services, bringing in a "presumption" that charities are just as able to run schools, hospitals and welfare services as the state. He wants a massive shift from provision funded by the taxpayer to services supplied by volunteers and funded by philanthropy. But is this a proper role for charities to perform? Is it right that levels of public donation to this or that good cause should set priorities that used to be weighed up by democratically-elected MPs and councils?
And as charities become more professional and more competitive in their fund-raising, are they forgetting their place? Manchester, among many other local councils, has brought in bye-laws to control high-street 'chuggers' (short for 'charity muggers') who allegedly annoy shoppers. Research shows that the proportion of national income given to charity has stubbornly failed to increase despite all the efforts of some of the 'big boys', who
have bosses on six-figure salaries.
Charities already run schools and have a major role in the provision of housing, welfare and amenities. NSPCC and RSPCA inspectors are taking on the role of the police in cases of alleged child-abuse and cruelty to animals. Does the protection of birds really need all that money? Is cancer research really more important than all the other kinds of medical research put together? Are we heading for a national system of resource-allocation based on nothing more objective than tear-jerking adverts and pester-power? Has the 'third sector' got out of hand?
Is this, as Sir Stephen Bubb of ACEVO has written, "an exciting opportunity for the third sector to play a far greater role in delivering care and promoting the citizen's voice..." - or will giving more power to charities lead to injustice and unfairness, to responsibility without accountability?
Debate chaired by Michael Buerk with Michael Portillo, Melanie Phillips, Claire Fox and Matthew Taylor.
Witnesses:
Sir Stephen Bubb, head of ACEVO, the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations
Nick Seddon from the think-tank 'Reform', author of "Who Cares?: How State Funding and Political Activism Change Charity".
Mike Short, National Officer for the Community and Voluntary sector, Unison
Emma Harrison, Chairman of the FSI which supports small charities.
WED 20:45 Four Thought (b00yqvk4)
Series 1
Ahdaf Soueif: The Egyptian Uprising
Egyptian author Ahdaf Soueif describes how the anti-Mubarak protests have allowed Egyptians to reconnect with thousands of years of history and regain their sense of self.
She describes a civilised and sophisticated protest which has shown Egyptians that they can rise above the divisions ascribed to them over the past 30 years. And she says whatever the outcome of the current political instability, this cultural change is permanent.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (b00yqvk6)
The Real Eco Warriors?
According to senior military figures, by the time a gallon of fuel reaches the frontline in Afghanistan its cost has increased to £250. Add in the cost of escorting those tankers in terms of lives and you have a pretty powerful incentive for the military to cut down its fuel consumption. Top officials in the United States and in the UK are taking this message seriously, investing in research into alternative fuels, portable battlefield power systems and energy reduction strategies.
There's already a company of US Marines operating in Afghanistan with solar powered communications systems whilst back home military chemists are working on fuels from algae. Their ultimate aim is for frontline military bases to produce their own vehicle fuel from on-site tanks of algae, completely eliminating the need for long convoys of fuel tankers. One British company is building enormous fuel-efficient airships that will spend weeks in the air patrolling Afghanistan whilst another builds generators that turn frontline waste into power for military camps.
Could all this military effort be just the tonic that civilian green technology needs? Could the military's cash, expertise and sense of urgency push forward the stagnant technology of solar, wind and alternative fuels? Tom Heap investigates the real eco-warriors in this week's 'Costing the Earth'.
Producer: Alasdair Cross.
WED 21:30 Midweek (b00yqsqb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 21:58 Weather (b00yqjdf)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b00yy8c5)
As foreign workers are evacuated or flee Libya, Colonel Gaddafi continues his fight to retain control of the country
China arrests more dissidents to prevent any protests there
Is David Cameron right to insist Britain can support pro-democracy protestors in the Arab World while British companies sell defence equipment to their governments?
With Robin Lustig.
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00yqvk8)
Virginia Woolf - Flush
Episode 3
3/5 Virginia Woolf's biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's devoted spaniel, Flush, is read by Jenny Coverack. Miss Browning's constant companion Flush has been stolen by a gang of dog snatchers who hold their canine victims to ransom - and exact a fearful retribution if the price is not paid. Flush finds himself imprisoned in dreadful conditions in Whitechapel, while Miss Barrett becomes increasingly anxious in Wimpole Street. When her father tries to prevent her securing Flush's return, and even dear Mr Browning advises her against giving in to blackmail, she leaves her sickroom and takes matters into her own hands.
Abridged and produced by Sara Davies.
WED 23:00 Mordrin McDonald: 21st Century Wizard (b00yqvkb)
Series 2
Team Building
Written by David Kay and Gavin Smith, Mordrin McDonald is a 2000 year old Wizard living in the modern world where settling garden disputes and watching Countdown are just as important as slaying the odd Jakonty Dragon.
This week Mordrin is convinced by Councillor Campbell to take part in a team building exercise.
Featuring and co-written by Scottish stand up David Kay, and starring Gordon Kennedy and Jack Docherty with this week's guest star Brian Pettifer. Mordrin McDonald mixes the magical with the mundane and offers a hilarious take on the life of a modern day Wizard.
Cast:
Mordrin ..... David Kay
Geoff ..... Gordon Kennedy
Councillor Campbell ..... Callum Cuthbertson
Pete The Pict ..... Brian Pettifer
Heather ..... Hannah Donaldson
Producer/Director: Gus Beattie
A Comedy Unit production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:15 Bob Servant (b00w18zn)
The Bob Servant Emails
The Hunt for Jerren Jimjams
Born and bred in Dundee, Servant sees himself as a people's champion. His extraordinary self-belief stems largely from his dominant position in Dundee's notorious Cheeseburger Wars of the early 1980s - a period of riotous appreciation for the traditional American snack that caused madness on the streets and lined Servant's pockets. He continued his Midas touch in the 1990s by running what he often claims to have been the 'largest window cleaning round in Western Europe'. And now, he's taking on the internet spammers of the world.
WED 23:30 The Write Stuff (b00qj216)
Series 12
Anton Chekhov
THE WRITE STUFF
James Walton presides over another episode of the literary quiz. John Walsh and Lynne Truss return as team captains with guests Peter Kemp and Tibor Fischer.
The author of the week and subject for pastiche is Anton Chekhov and the reader is Beth Chalmers.
PRODUCER SAM MICHELL.
THURSDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2011
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b00yqjdh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b00yqsx4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00yqjdk)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00yqjdm)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00yqjdp)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b00yqjdr)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00ysklr)
Sharon Grenham-Toze
With the Revd Sharon Grenham-Toze.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b00yqvqr)
£2 billion is given to farmers and traders in the UK in the form of European Union subsidies. David Handley from Farmers for Action says that this money is still needed until retailers start paying a fair price for their produce.
Also, there are fears that cuts to local authorities could lead to some of Britain's rarest breed animals being sold off. Peter Titley from the Rare Breed Survival Trust explains how this could impact estated like Temple Newsam near Leeds.
And we hear about the Wagyu beef which drinks beer, is fed clover and gets a massage every day.
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Emma Weatherill.
THU 06:00 Today (b00yqp8d)
Morning news and current affairs, with James Naughtie and Evan Davis, including:
07:30 What should the government do about Neets?
07:50 Royal Bank of Scotland boss Stephen Hester.
08:10 Foreign Secretary William Hague on the Libya emergency evacuation.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (b00yqvqt)
The Taiping Rebellion
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Taiping Rebellion.In 1850 a Chinese Christian convert, Hong Xiuquan, proclaimed himself leader of a new dynasty, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. He and his followers marched against the ruling Qing dynasty, gathering huge support as they went. The ensuing civil war lasted fourteen years; around twenty million people lost their lives in a conflict which eventually involved European as well as Chinese soldiers. The Taiping Rebellion was arguably the most important event to befall China in the 19th century. Chinese nationalists and communists alike have been profoundly influenced by it, and historians believe it shaped modern China in the same way as the First World War shaped modern Europe.Rana MitterProfessor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of OxfordFrances WoodHead of the Chinese Section at the British LibraryJulia LovellLecturer in Chinese History at Birkbeck, University of London.Producer: Thomas Morris.
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b00yqy5w)
Colin Thubron - To a Mountain in Tibet
Episode 4
"By trekkers' standards our party is small and swift: a guide, a cook, a horse-man, myself. We move scattered above the river, while loan traders pass us the other way, leading their stocky horse and mule-trains between lonely villages. They look fierce and open, and laughingly meet your eyes. The delicacy of the plains has gone..."
Renowned travel writer Colin Thubron is about to climb Mount Kailas in Tibet, one of the holiest places in the world and hardly visited by westerners. Its slopes are rugged, glacial, and peopled by the toughest types alive. Its slopes are also full of stories: Hindu and Buddhist tales of struggle, devotion and intrigue. But on from these lower reaches, Kailas's peak rises sacrosanct. Forbiddingly distant. And it is here that Thubron casts his gaze, then walks towards, as listeners can discover in his new account.
4. Few westerners make it to Mount Kailas and its majestic lakes.Then the author hears about the remarkable explorer Sven Hedin and his adventures thereabouts in 1907...
Reader Stephen Boxer.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00yqy5y)
Jenni Murray presents: Getting more women onto boards - what chances have been missed?
THU 10:45 MM Kaye - The Far Pavilions (b00yqn7c)
Episode 19
The British Mission is welcomed to Kabul, but - it transpires - on a false premise.
MM Kaye's epic of love and war, dramatised by Lucy Catherine.
Narrator ..... Vineeta Rishi
Ash ..... Blake Ritson
Anjuli ..... Ayesha Dharker
Official ..... Kaleem Janjua
Cavagnari ..... Sam Dale
Jenkyns ..... Sean Baker
Wally ..... Jonathan Forbes
Ambrose ..... Iain Batchelor
Nakshband Khan ..... Mozaffar Shafeie
Directors: Marc Beeby and Jessica Dromgoole
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2011.
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (b00yqz6g)
Stephen Rosenberg hears about security fears as Russia prepares for the Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Armed men struck at a Russian ski resort last weekend and tourists were among the five people shot dead when a minibus was ambushed. The attack has increased concerns that the 2014 Winter Olympics may be targeted.
In Germany Stephen Evans attends a neo-Nazi rally in Dresden on the anniversary of the bombing during the Second World War. Both the far right and the far left marked the occasion by shouting at each other. The demonstration was tiny compared to the thousands who linked hands across the city in a human chain to mark the anniversary.
Petroc Trelawney is treated to a day out in the Zimbabwean countryside and a history lesson from the daughter of Garfield Todd, South Rhodesia's Prime Minister back in the fifties. When Todd fell in 1958, Rhodesia moved inexorably towards its unilateral declaration of independence and civil war.
Jonathan Fryer meets members of a European religious sect that has set up home in Paraguay. The community of Mennonites, a puritan Christian sect, went to Filadelfia in the north of Paraguay in the 1930s to escape the pressures and profanities of modern life. They are still there as Filadelfia celebrates the eightieth anniversary of its founding.
And Paul Miles takes part in some wacky races in Norway - the World Kick-Sledge Championships, a kick-sledge being a uniquely Scandinavian mode of transport, similar to a sledge but powered by people instead of dogs.
THU 11:30 Bring On the Clowns (b00yrfw5)
Clowning is one of the oldest forms of entertainment. We have been laughing at their physical antics and outlandish make-up and costume for generations. If there is ever a crisis in a circus performance, the cry goes out-"Send in the clowns!" -and that function of clowning to heal awkward, embarrassing and sometimes painful situations is particularly resonant in contemporary society.
But what role does clowning have today? Traditionally associated with the circus ring, clowns are now often relegated to children's parties and as mascots in advertising promotions in car parks and burger bars. Do they still have the power to transform people (not just children) with laughter, wonder and fun?
A common definition of a clown is "an innocent abroad in a malevolent world" in which the clown takes a child-like approach to problems and events in an often-hostile social, political and natural environment. In the face of changing audiences, tastes and forms of entertainment, how has British Clowning adapted and what can it offer? It is often street performances and community arts projects that are the vanguard of urban regeneration and community renewal. And does clowning still retain its power to subvert through anarchic comedy and to transform our emotions through laughter?
The programme looks at the working lives of a number of contemporary clowns who inhabit the world of circus, rock festivals and church , street theatre and children's party, and whose work can take them into hospital wards and to the violent streets of Iraq. What role do they play in a world of economic downturn? Can their slapstick comedy beat depression in a recession?
Presenter: Tony Lidington
Producer: Mike Greenwood
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in February 2011.
THU 12:00 You and Yours (b00yrfw7)
Consumer news with Winifred Robinson.
Northern towns are taking a battering with shoppers down and shop vacancies on the up but when the good times come around again, will the damage done in recent years be so great that they will struggle to recover? Do we need to radically re-think how we plan and run our town centres?
A fifth of consumers are caught out by confusing consumer contracts. The result is that we are paying over many billions of pounds a year more than we ought. The Office of Fair Trading says 70% of the complaints it receives are related to contract disputes and they are preparing new rules to banish unpleasant 'traps' in the small print.
Centrica, the parent of British Gas have published its results. They show that income and profit margins are at a record high. Consumer groups are angry and want the regulators to take action to curb prices in future.
Many local authorities have proposed cuts to their library services in a bid to meet government demands for budget cuts. It is reckoned as many as 500 libraries could close or be cut back but one council has bucked the trend. Salford city council say they expect to have more libraries and longer opening hours after shaving nearly a million pounds off its leisure and culture budget; how have they pulled that off?
A proposed bio-fuel power plant has provoked fierce opposition in Bristol. The plant intends to use palm oil to generate 50 MW of electricity . The plan was turned down by Bristol city council but the government has overruled the decision. The power station spokesman says not a single palm oil tree will need to be planted to supply it with the fuels it needs.
THU 12:57 Weather (b00yqjdt)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b00ysh0z)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
THU 13:30 News from Nowhere: How the Papers Got Their Stories (b00zdkx8)
In this half-hour news special Jon Manel uncovers new evidence of the methods used by some newspapers to get their stories. He reveals how private investigators, employed by journalists, have gained access to private medical records without consent.
As the inquiry intensifies into phone-hacking at The News of the World, the programme hears claims that underhand methods, to obtain confidential information about public and private figures, have been widespread in the newspaper industry.
The Information Commissioner describes the programme's evidence as alarming and calls for tougher sanctions, including imprisonment, for anyone breaching the Data Protection Act.
THU 14:00 The Archers (b00yqjdw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b00ysqsm)
The Bail-Out
On Feb 24th 2011 (the Eve of the Irish General Election) we flashback to the end of November 2010, when Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, made an announcement that confirmed the nation's spectacular decline from economic miracle to European basket-case. A decade of mismanagement and barefaced corruption had left the economy in freefall.
The Bailout chronicles the resignations, the rancour, the public fury and the gradual dissolution of a parliament barely able to ratify the IMF loan before it collapses in disarray at the end of January 2011. And we follow events as they unfold right up to the eve of the general election on 25th February the day after our broadcast.
Using an urgent, fast-moving drama-documentary approach, The Bail-Out follows 3 months of tumult - which leaves the British listener thinking, there but for the grace of God.....
Karen Ardiff, Richard Dormer, Pat Fitzsymons and Ali White star as two couples one in Dublin and one in London, who are forced to come to terms with the collapse of what they realise was an illusion of prosperity, and must decide what the hell they are going to do now. With Mark Lambert as Professor Culloty a Professor of Economics and Niall Cusack as a campaigning journalist, Ger McQuaid.
Director Eoin O'Callaghan
Writer Hugh Costello and producer Eoin O'Callaghan have a proven track record when it comes to interrogating the shibboleths of modern Ireland. Their recent Radio 4 collaborations include Smoke and Daggers, which exposed the amoral underbelly of the Celtic Tiger, and What the Bishops Knew, which shone a revealing light on the Catholic church's inept response to the abuse crisis.
CAST
Annie Clancy - Karen Ardiff
And Niall Clancy - Patrick Fitzsymons
Colm Keating - Richard Dormer
Lorraine Keating - Ali White
Eamon Cullotty -Mark Lambert
Ger McQuaid - Niall Cusack
The Radio Presenter - Miche Doherty
And a Woman in street - Aine McCartney
Producer - Eoin O'Callaghan.
THU 15:00 Ramblings (b00ym4yg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:07 on Saturday]
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b00ym9fw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00ysfpn)
A Few More Actors' Words
The Scent of Washing Powder and Care
The latest series of short stories by actors features James Wilby, Sarah Winman and Kerry Shale reading their own work. From the jungles of 1970s Sri Lanka (when it was Ceylon) to a luxury boutique hotel in Seville, from the devastation a death causes - and comfortable lives confronted by something shocking - to the adventure of following a wild elephant, these stories are as varied as the performers who have written and read them.
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 15:45 Against the Grain (b00yrjht)
Episode 4
Classical musician Paul Gladstone Reid explains why his strict Jamaican background in the Seventh Day Adventist Church was at odds with his desire to pursue a career in music and why he was ex communicated by the church because it did not approve of his musical leanings.
THU 16:00 Open Book (b00yn83q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:30 Material World (b00yrfwc)
Quentin Cooper presents his weekly digest of science in and behind the headlines. We find out why the Christchurch earthquake caused such devastation. Quentin will be joined by the UK's Red Squirrel champion to find out about repopulating Anglesey with the native animal. Also on the programme - a new high tec glass house that the Royal Horticultural Society will be building to track new pests and diseases in our gardens. And finally how Scott of the Antarctic is now helping ecologists learn about the changing ecosystems on the icy continent.
The producer is Ania Lichtarowicz.
THU 17:00 PM (b00yrfwf)
Eddie Mair brings you the top stories of the day.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00yqjdy)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Tom Wrigglesworth's Open Letters (b00yrfwh)
Series 1
Estate Agents
Through the medium of four open letters, the comedian Tom Wrigglesworth investigates the myriad examples of corporate lunacy and maddening jobsworths in modern Britain.
In this series his subjects range from traffic wardens to estate agents, with Tom recalling his own funny and ridiculous experiences as well as recounting the absurd encounters of others.
Tom asks why we still bother with estate agents.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b00yqjfg)
Helen and Pat tease Tony about taking Henry to the Bull yesterday. Tony protests that Henry was perfectly safe. Privately, to Pat, Tony says he thinks Helen should move back in with them for a while. Why does she need to make it so hard for herself? She's going to wear herself out at the flat. Pat goes over to try and persuade Helen to come back to Bridge Farm, but Helen doesn't want to.
David is as good as his word, trying to take some of the pressure off Ruth. He works long hours in the lambing shed and promises when it's over he'll do some relief milking. When he gives her a hug and thanks her, Ruth says she doesn't want to nag - but could David please talk to Elizabeth again about getting a manager in? They really can't carry on with this indefinitely. David goes round determined to tell Elizabeth that he's going to have to pull away from Lower Loxley. But Elizabeth has received a letter about the inquest, and she's distressed. She hasn't been able to think about anything else all day. When she enquires what David wanted, he says it's really not that important.
THU 19:15 Front Row (b00yvtzp)
Frankenstein and Anna Nicole
With Mark Lawson. The Oscar-award winning director Danny Boyle, whose new film 127 is nominated for an Academy award this weekend, has returned to his theatrical roots to direct a production of Frankenstein at the National Theatre, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternating the roles of Dr Frankenstein and The Creature.
Writer and critic Adam-Mars Jones reviews.
Award winning Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage discusses writing Anna Nicole, an opera based on the tragic life of former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith, which premiered at London's Royal Opera House this week.
The musical comedy-drama television show Glee i currently features Gwyneth Paltrow in a guest role as a substitute teacher. The the absence of regular characters for this show was a plot device, but unexpectedly absent actors have a huge impact on the makers of continuing dramas such as Coronation Street and EastEnders. TV Executive Mal Young and scriptwriter Mariam Vossough share their experiences.
Following the announcement that John le Carre has given his entire archive to the Bodleian Library in Oxford, Professor John Sutherland discusses some of the treasures unearthed from other literary archives.
Producer Claire Bartleet.
THU 19:45 MM Kaye - The Far Pavilions (b00yqn7c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 Law in Action (b00yqp9m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Tuesday]
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (b00yrfwk)
Consumer Research
The view from the top of business. Presented by Evan Davis, The Bottom Line cuts through confusion, statistics and spin to present a clearer view of the business world, through discussion with people running leading and emerging companies.
This week, Evan's top business guests hail from retail and advertising. They swap thoughts on consumer research. Companies spend lots of money to find out how their customers spend theirs, but do they learn anything useful?
They also debate what purpose business awards serve. Can they actually help a company be more successful?
Evan is joined in the studio by Ian Cheshire, chief executive of home improvement retail company Kingfisher. And from the world of advertising, Cilla Snowball, group chief executive and chairman of Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, and David Jones, global chief executive of Havas Worldwide.
Producer: Ben Crighton.
THU 21:00 Debating Animals (b00yrfwm)
Series 2
The Fox and the Rat
They're both on the wanted list, dead rather than alive, and they're both classed as vermin, but there's a world of difference between our national attitudes to the Fox and the Rat.
Once again Rod Liddle sets out to find out why we think and react as we do to these creatures. What are we to make of the statistics that periodically terrify newspaper readers as rats threaten to over-run our cities? But this debate is moving all the time. Twenty years ago the Fox was the emblem of the put-upon. The hounded beauty standing between the Toff and his stirrup cup it was always hard work for the hunting fraternity to persuade us of their menace. But with urban attacks and foxes scavenging on every street corner the tide is turning against 'the foxy whiskered gentleman'.
Rod takes to the field and lane with experts involved with both animals and he seeks guidance from literature and history as he debates our reaction to The Rat and The Fox.
THU 21:30 In Our Time (b00yqvqt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 21:58 Weather (b00yqjf0)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b00ysfpq)
As anti-government protesters consolidate their hold in Eastern Libya, how strong is Colonel Gaddafi's grip on power?
And, "it's the economy, stupid!" as Irish voters prepare to go to the polls.
With Robin Lustig in London and Ritula Shah in Dublin.
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00yrfwp)
Virginia Woolf - Flush
Episode 4
4/5 Virginia Woolf's lighthearted biography of poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning's spaniel, Flush, is read by Jenny Coverack.Flush's life changes dramatically as his mistress and her new husband leave Wimpole Street behind them and travel to Italy. As the Brownings begin their married life in Florence, Flush too finds a new lease of life amid the rich sensations and smells of the Florentine alleys and fields. Once again, however, a new arrival threatens to disturb the enjoyable routine.
Abridged and produced by Sara Davies.
THU 23:00 It's Your Round (b00yrfwr)
Series 1
Episode 2
Angus Deayton hosts the comedy panel show with no format.
Andy Parsons, Rebecca Front, Miles Jupp and prog-rock legend, Rick Wakeman battle it out to see who can beat each other at the games they've each brought along.
Can the teams guess the concept for Rick's new prog rock album in his "What's The Concept?" round? And what happens when the teams have to play Andy's inventively titled "It's Not Your Round"? And would Rebecca Front like to marry Prince William?
Angus tries valiantly to ensure everyone comes out of it with their reputations intact.
Writers: Angus Deayton, Ged Parsons and Paul Powell
Devised by Benjamin Partridge
Producer: Sam Michell.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2011.
THU 23:30 The Write Stuff (b00qpq1x)
Series 12
Nancy Mitford
James Walton takes the chair for the game of literary correctness. Team captains John Walsh and Lynne Truss are joined by John O'Farrell and Mark Billingham. The author of the week and subject for pastiche is Nancy Mitford, and the reader is Beth Chalmers.
FRIDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2011
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b00yqjf2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b00yqy5w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00yqjf4)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00yqjf6)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00yqjf8)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b00yqjfb)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00yrg1g)
Sharon Grenham-Toze
With the Revd Sharon Grenham-Toze.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b00yrg1j)
Two slices of roast lamb, beef or pork should be the maximum amount of red or processed meat we eat each day, according to new guidance from the Department of Health. Its Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition says we should only eat 70g per day to reduce the risk of bowel cancer. The NFU says the report comes at a difficult time for livestock farmers whose incomes are predicted to halve this year compared to last.
The luxury food market is reported to be resilient despite the economic downturn. A specialist mushroom grower explains why people will pay £12/kilo for some varieties, rather than settle for cheaper alternatives.
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.
FRI 06:00 Today (b00yqp8h)
Morning news and current affairs with James Naughtie and Evan Davis, including:
07:30 Should computers replace pen and paper in all exams?
07:50 Are you eating too much red meat?
08:10 Latest on the turmoil in Libya.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b00ym9lx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b00yrg1l)
Colin Thubron - To a Mountain in Tibet
Episode 5
"By trekkers' standards our party is small and swift: a guide, a cook, a horse-man, myself. We move scattered above the river, while loan traders pass us the other way, leading their stocky horse and mule-trains between lonely villages. They look fierce and open, and laughingly meet your eyes. The delicacy of the plains has gone..."
Renowned travel writer Colin Thubron is about to climb Mount Kailas in Tibet, one of the holiest places in the world and hardly visited by westerners. Its slopes are rugged, glacial, and peopled by the toughest types alive. It'Its slopes are also full of stories: Hindu and Buddhist tales of struggle, devotion and intrigue. But on from these lower reaches, Kailas's peak rises sacrosanct. Forbiddingly distant. And it is here that Thubron casts his gaze, then walks towards, as listeners can discover in his new account.
5.Near the top of Mt Kailas, the air thins, the pilgrims cluster, and there is a cry of 'victory to the gods'...
Read by Stephen Boxer.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00yrg1n)
Jenni Murray presents: Are women being denied epidurals during childbirth? A survey by the Birth Trauma Association found that many women felt they had been denied the pain relief they required during labour.
One year after the earthquake in Haiti, the country's burgeoning women's movement has been virtually wiped out, how can it get back on track? Singer June Tabor performs a song from her latest album Ashore, a collection of songs inspired by the sea. Michael Hoskins talks about his new book which celebrates the work of astronomers Caroline Herschel.
FRI 10:45 MM Kaye - The Far Pavilions (b00yqn7f)
Episode 20
The Guides' heroic last stand at the British Mission in Kabul is watched helplessly by an imprisoned Ash.
Conclusion of MM Kaye's epic of love and war, dramatised by Lucy Catherine.
Narrator ..... Vineeta Rishi
Ash ..... Blake Ritson
Cavagnari ..... Sam Dale
Anjuli ..... Ayesha Dharker
Jenkyns ..... Sean Baker
Wally ..... Jonathan Forbes
Ambrose ..... Iain Batchelor
Nakshband Khan ..... Mozaffar Shafeie
Hassan Gul ..... Sagar Arya
Directors: Marc Beeby and Jessica Dromgoole
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2011.
FRI 11:00 Hardeep Singh Kohli's Alternative Census (b00yrg1q)
Episode 1
Inspired by the 2011 Census that takes place on the 27th of March, Hardeep Singh Kohli brings his own questionnaire to households across the United Kingdom.
Combining questions based upon the official census along with some of his own, he takes on the challenge of chronicling and comparing the hopes, fears, joy, sadness, struggles, achievements and everyday experiences that make us who we are.
In programme one, Hardeep knocks on doors in Liverpool, Belfast and Mallaig in the Scottish Highlands, to talk candidly and sincerely to, amongst others, a single mother of three, a grandmother and a husband who looks after the croft of his late father.
With questions that range from the intimate to the irreverent, from the factual to the emotional, Hardeep's curiosity takes him beyond the box-checking to gather the motivations and manners, opinions and feelings that define people as individuals rather than as statistics.
Producer: Katie Burningham
A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 11:30 Spread a Little Happiness (b00z09bn)
Series 2
What Are We Going to Do About Maria?
Written by John Godber and Jane Thornton.
Debra Stephenson plays Hope, newly divorced and helping her old schoolfriend Jodie with her new project, bringing designer sandwiches to the hinterland of Hull. But Hull seems more interested in bumper breakfast baps than smoked salmon bagels, and Jodie's had to go to Portugal in a hurry, leaving Hope to hold the fort. So the arrival of Hope's cousin Maria, from Dagenham (Nicola Duffett) is a bonus, until she starts bringing her southern ideas to a northern makeover, and her advice to Hope's relationship with ex-husband Gavin.
Jodie's husband Dave is none too pleased with the makeover either, but comes round when Hope and Maria agree to look after his Mam while he plumbs in toilets in Goole. Add in a persistent swain in the form of passionate roadmender Ray , triumphant divorcee and anxious would-be poet Jenny, posh restaurant reviewer Anita and Hope's moody teenage daughter Carrie, and you have all the ingredients for six episodes of radio bliss.
Cast:
Hope ..... Debra Stephenson
Maria ..... Nicola Duffett
Dave ..... Neil Dudgeon
Mam ..... Anne Reid
Ray ..... Shaun Prendergast
Gavin ..... Ralph Brown
Jenny ..... Sarah Moyle
Anita ..... Sherry Baines
Carrie ..... Elizabeth Godber
Eve ..... Helen Longworth
Bob ..... Ben Crowe
Monty ..... Stephen Critchlow
Blinds man ..... James Weaver
Producer/Director: Chris Wallis
An Autolycus production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:00 You and Yours (b00yrg1s)
A final update with Peter White - blisters and all - at the finish line of his 100km hike in Kenya's Kaisut Desert for Comic Relief.
And as UK tour operators stop advertising campaigns for the Middle East, Winifred Robinson finds out how Egypt's tourism industry is finding innovative ways to attract visitors.
Can online music sites ever make money? We take a look at whether the business model can ever be profitable.
How a cinema initiative is bringing a touch of Hollywood to some English villages.
And the first in a new series looking at the UK's parking industry. Today we investigate parking charges at popular tourist destinations. What factors influence decisons about rates and why can they be so high?
FRI 12:57 Weather (b00yqjfd)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b00ysfrl)
We gauge the situation in Tripoli itself today amid calls for a vast protest march in the capital - and we speak to one resident who hasn't dared to step out of his home for three days - but is calling on the younger generation to take this chance to topple President Gaddafi. Kevin Connolly reports live from the East of Libya and Professor Tim Niblock of Exeter University gives us his latest analysis of the situation.
We also have the latest on Government efforts to bring out those British nationals still stuck in the country. English teacher Emma Wilkes describes leaving Tripoli on an emergency ferry and Patricia Levy talks of her concerns for her brother who is trapped without food in an oil installation near the coast.
With the UK's Gross Domestic Product figures being downgraded for the last quarter of last year, we consider how flat our economy really is with the help of Jonathan Portes, Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social research.
And we look at a Students' Charter being proposed by the Higher Education Minister David Willetts.
FRI 13:30 Feedback (b00yrg1v)
The candid confessional of an alcoholic doctor gripped listeners of Victoria Derbyshire's 5Live phone in last week. Lots of people praised the presenter's "sensitive handling" as listener "Rachel" talked about her long term battle with drink and depression. But what steps are taken to ensure that candid confessional is not just mass entertainment? Roger Bolton talks to Louisa Compton, daytime editor of 5Live.
How many BBC journalists does it take to report a revolution? Too many, say many Feedback listeners, who believe, for example, that Jim Naughtie's presence in Cairo for the Today programme was one too many. Roger talks to Fran Unsworth, the BBC's head of newsgathering who justifies the numbers.
And getting the accents right in BBC drama. At a time when the BBC Trust is encouraging Radio 4 to reach out further to listeners outside of London and the south east - should more care be taken over regional accents? We ask an expert linguist to listen to a recent afternoon play and give his verdict.
Producer: Karen Pirie
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b00yqjfg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b00yrfw9)
The Burning Times
Esme lives on her own in a condemned block of flats with only her plants for company. An easy target for the local girl gang who think the 'old witch' is hiding some cash.
Or so thinks Rhiannon as she bursts into Esme's flat to rob her. Esme is not going to give up so easily and events take a sinister turn as Rhiannon begins to fear that Esme may actually be using Witchcraft after all. Can words really make stuff happen?
With the flat crumbling around them and the gang outside becoming louder and more dangerous, it becomes harder to distinguish who is the victim and who is the bully.
Hayley Carmichael and Danielle Vitalis star in this modern Gothic drama.
Sound and music by
Alisdair McGregor and Howard Jacques
Written by Helena Thompson
Produced & directed by Boz Temple-Morris
A Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b00yrg1x)
Cobham, Surrey
Horticultural problem-solving in Cobham, Surrey. Peter Gibbs is joined by panel-members: Pippa Greenwood, Matthew Biggs and Anne Switihinbank.
In addition, Matthew Biggs attends the biggest community seed swap in the UK.
Produced by Howard Shannon
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:45 Against the Grain (b00yrjk5)
Episode 5
Phoebe Buckley is training for the equestrian events at the 2012 Olympic Games. Unlike many professional horsewomen, she does not come from a background of wealth and privilege. Phoebe is a Romany gypsy and has broken with tradition to follow her dreams.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b00yrg1z)
Raymond Burton, Maria Altmann, Ronald Hickman, David Tench, Nicholas Courtney
John Wilson presents Radio 4's obituary programme
Raymond Burton, who expanded the Burton's suit empire started by his father, and went onto launch Topshop.
Maria Altmann, who - in her late 80s - won ownership of $330m worth of Gustav Klimt paintings that her family had lost in Nazi-occupied Austria.
Ronald Hickman, inventor of the popular piece of DIY kit - the Workmate.
Esther Rantzen pays tribute to That's Life's in-house lawyer David Tench.
And actor Nicholas Courtney, best known for playing Dr Who's ally on earth, the Brigadier.
FRI 16:30 The Film Programme (b00yrg21)
The awards season reaches its grand finale this Sunday with the 83rd Annual Academy Awards and Francine Stock is here with an indispensable guide to this year's crop of films hoping for Oscar glory. With contributions from, amongst others, Darren Aronofsky, Jesse Eisenberg, Amy Adams, Helena Bonham Carter and Mike Leigh.
Film critic Adam Smith will explain why he won't be glued to the television late in to Sunday night.
Australian director David Michod discusses his accomplished first feature Animal Kingdom, a family crime drama set in Melbourne, and winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance film festival last year.
Producer: Craig Smith.
FRI 17:00 PM (b00yrg23)
Eddie Mair brings you the top stories of the day. Plus Weather.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00yqjfj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (b00yrg25)
Series 73
Episode 8
Middle East, Miliband, and Medical Mishaps.
Sandi Toksvig hosts radio 4's popular topical panel show in the week that David Cameron took peace and guns to the Middle East; Labour party funding was said to have dropped to a record low; and the NHS released a list of 25 "never evers" - medical mistakes that will now be fined.
Jeremy Hardy, Roisin Conaty, Susan Calman and Dominic Holland make up the teams, and Rory Morrison reads the news.
Produced by Victoria Lloyd.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b00yrg27)
Jolene shocks Lilian by telling her she's decided she would be willing to sell her share of the Bull. Lilian is furious with Matt, who has proceeded with this behind her back. They have a row about it. Matt can't see what's wrong with the idea if Jolene wants to sell.
Clarrie invites Lilian to Eddie's day at the races to celebrate his 60th birthday. She's delighted to accept, though she tells them Matt won't be coming. Emma tells Susan about the inquest into Nigel's death. She's seen a letter lying around at Brookfield, and wonders if it means they think it wasn't an accident? Susan thinks it's just a formality. Emma hears about the party for Eddie and is upset - she didn't know anything about it. Maybe she isn't invited. Susan tells her not to be silly, and to go and see Clarrie. She does, and Clarrie tries to smooth things over. Of course Emma's invited. I can't wait, says Emma.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b00yvv2g)
The Making of The King's Speech
With Mark Lawson, who focuses on the making of the film The King's Speech, ahead of Sunday's Academy Award ceremony, where it heads the field with 12 Oscar nominations. Mark talks to members of the cast and production team, including Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, director Tom Hooper and Screenplay writer David Seidler.
Producer Nicki Paxman.
FRI 19:45 MM Kaye - The Far Pavilions (b00yqn7f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b00yrg3d)
Jonathan Dimbleby chairs the topical debate from the Rotary Club of Aylsham in Norfolk with questions for the panel including the Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley, former Labour minister Margaret Hodge, Phillip Blond, Director of the thinktank ResPublica and Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the RSA.
Producer: Victoria Wakely.
FRI 20:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories (b00yrg3g)
Series 2
Kiwi
New Zealand had several species of flightless bird living across the islands, all of which are now extinct, bar one.
The Kiwi has become one of those species iconic of the country, like the Koala to Australia, the Giraffe to Africa and the Alpaca to South America. Historically, New Zealand didn't have ground predators such as wild cats and stoats - which allowed birds to exploit living on the ground. Being flightless in New Zealand was a good way to be a bird.
Having filmed Kiwis, Sir David Attenborough muses on the niche the Kiwi occupies on the ground. He argues the Kiwi behaves more like a mammal than a bird, but what mammal do you think, in his view, the Kiwi most resembles..?
Producer: Julian Hector
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2011.
FRI 21:00 Friday Drama (b00yrh7c)
Conclave
Gripping drama by Hugh Costello.
After the short reign and mysterious death of Pope John Paul I, the election of a new Pope takes place in an atmosphere of high tension between opposing factions within the Vatican, including those who want to elect the first non-Italian Pope for over four hundred years.
Cardinal Franz Koenig ...... David Calder
Hannah Popper ...... Alison Reid
Cardinal Giovanni Benelli ...... Nicholas Le Prevost
Cardinal Karol Wojtyla ...... Andrew Hilton
Cardinal Jean Villot ...... Nigel Anthony
Cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider ......Paul Humpoletz
Cardinal Giuseppe Siri ...... Paul Nicholson
Cardinal John Krol ...... Christian Rodska
Monsignor Virgilio Noe ...... Jonathan Nibbs
Cardinal Johannes Willebrands ...... Bill Wallis
Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns ...... David Collins
Uli Melzer ...... Paul Dodgson
With John Sandeman and Kristian Phillips.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b00yqjfl)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b00yy8c2)
Colonel Gaddafi's efforts to maintain control in Tripoli are under threat from mass demonstrations . We have eye witness reports
Who is to blame for the Foreign Office's poor response to calls for help from Britons in Libya?
Still counting : Belgium is no nearer to forming a government eight months after elections.
with Ritula Shah.
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00yrgzc)
Virginia Woolf - Flush
Episode 5
5/5 Virginia Woolf's biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's beloved spaniel, Flush, is read by Jenny Coverack.
The Brownings have settled happily in Florence, their little boy is growing up, and Flush is growing old. He can't understand his mistress's new enthusiasm for summoning the spirits, and he's lost his old passion for roaming the streets and fields of Florence. It's time for him to lie in the shade of a market stall and remember the good times he's lived through.
Abridged and produced by Sara Davies.
FRI 23:00 A Good Read (b00yqshz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 The Write Stuff (b00qvnjh)
Series 12
John Donne
James Walton takes the chair for the game of literary correctness. Team captains John Walsh and Lynne Truss are joined by Jane Thynne and Christopher Brookmyre. The author of the week and subject for pastiche is John Donne, and the reader is Beth Chalmers.