SATURDAY 26 FEBRUARY 2011

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b00yrh1m)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SAT 00:30 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.


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00yrh1p)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00yrh1r)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00yrh1t)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b00yrh1w)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00yrh1y)
With singer and broadcaster Beverley Humpreys.


SAT 05:45 iPM (b00yrh20)
Hitchcock, Formby and Jonathan Ross: the son of a British movie legend explains his film feuds, and why he thinks his father's Ealing Comedies still have lessons to teach us about 'The Big Society', democracy and patriotism. The BBC's Arts Editor, Will Gompertz, reads the bulletin of listeners' news. With Eddie Mair and Becky Milligan. iPM@bbc.co.uk.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b00yrh22)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SAT 06:04 Weather (b00yrh24)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (b00yv5cs)
Series 17

Wales - Garth

Continuing his series of short walks for winter days that take in city skylines, Stuart Maconie walks the Garth outside of Cardiff with a group who call themselves Welsh Women Walking. As they admire spectacular views of the city and over the Bristol Channel to Somerset and Devon, Stuart hears from one woman who says these walks with her friends, saved her life and sanity after the death of her son.


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b00yv5cv)
Farming Today This Week

Gourmet food producers say there is still demand for luxury, despite people tightening their purse strings. Caz Graham visits Bertelin Farmhouse in Staffordshire to make some gourmet cheese with John Heath. Sarah Swadling smokes salmon in Somerset and Ruth Sanderson visits a Leicestershire farmer who grows exotic mushrooms.

Also, Anna Hill learns about Wagyu beef which is fed on clover, drinks beer and gets a massage every day. And we speak to shoppers in Penrith to see why they are still investing in expensive foods.

Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Emma Weatherill.


SAT 06:57 Weather (b00yrh26)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 07:00 Today (b00yv5cx)
Morning news and current affairs with James Naughtie and Evan Davis.
08:20 A look at the neo-gothic masterpiece that is the Midland Grand Hotel.
08:33 Why did the government's operation to evacuate British people from Libya work so badly?
08:42 Comedian and tweeter David Schneider explains if correct grammar on Twitter really matters.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b00yw1pf)
Richard Coles with actress Alison Steadman and poet Luke Wright.


SAT 10:00 Excess Baggage (b00yw1ph)
Syria - The Pennines

John McCarthy explores some ancient monuments and places of interest across Syria. He also hears about the Turkish baths- or Hammams- of Damascus and Aleppo. And travel along the backbone of England - the Pennines.

Producer Chris Wilson.


SAT 10:30 Britain in a Box (b00yw1pk)
Series 4

Driving School

Paul Jackson tells the story behind another TV classic, 'Driving School'. Broadcast in 1997, it only ran for six editions, but left an indelible mark on British documentary TV.

Commanding audiences of up to 12 million, it made a star of Cardiff cleaner, Maureen Rees who failed her driving test six times, and arguably helped spawn Britain's first "reality television" celebrity.

With Alan Yentob, Grant Mansfield and Phil Hall.

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.


SAT 11:00 Beyond Westminster (b00yw4f1)
New to the Lords

Four new peers from beyond the world of politics talk about their first impressions of life in the House of Lords: Joan Bakewell, Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, Raj Loomba and Tony Hall describe the experience of being appointed and getting to grips with the culture, customs and working environment. How do they see their role and influence at a critical moment in the history of the Lords? As the coalition government prepares to publish a bill to change the House radically by introducing elections, how do these new members see the future for themselves and their fellow peers?
Presented and produced by Sheila Cook
Editor: Sue Ellis.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b00yw4f3)
A journalist - who can't be named - describes life in Tripoli with its empty streets, boarded up shops and burnt out buildings. Communications inside the city are being closely monitored and state security personnel are out in force. There are reports of shootings and people being killed. She also hears from doctors who claim the army is preventing them from treating casualties.

Barbara Plett describes the strange goings on at the United Nations with Libya's diplomats divided over support for Colonel Gaddafi's regime. She witnesses the deputy ambassador of the Libyan Mission denounce the country's leader for waging genocide followed by the actual ambassador who tells correspondents that he is 'with Gaddafi' who is an old friend before changing his mind and denouncing him.

Mark Mardell witnesses the conflicting emotions in Washington over the upheaval in the Middle East and asks why it seems that the United States so often backs the bad guys? Americans glory in the fact that their country was born out of a revolution against tyranny but their foreign policy has been largely dictated by selfish strategic interest.

Jonty Bloom explores the linguistic divide behind the political impasse in Belgium. The Belgian government collapsed last year and there has still been no agreement on a new administration eight months on. The reasons can be found in the very distinct Flemish and French-speaking communities - as well as the 70 thousand German speakers - who have been able to strike a deal.

And Mark Lowen reports on the end of the BBC's Serbian Service after more than seventy years of broadcasting. The World Service programmes in Albanian, Serbian, Macedonian, in Portugese for Africa and in English for the Caribbean are all coming to an end.


SAT 12:00 Money Box (b00yw4f5)
On a scale of one to 10, how much risk would you take with your money? Hard, isn't it? Whatever answer you give is probably fairly meaningless. And the Financial Services Authority says financial advisers do not always accurately interpret what you say about your risk appetite anyway. It says that a failure to properly understand the level of risk a customer can stomach is responsible for more than half the unsuitable advice people are given. Money Box hears from Steffan Huck, a professor of economics and expert in attitudes to financial risk at University College London; Helen White, acting director of life and savings at the ABI; and chartered financial planner, Derek Capelin.

Index-linked savings are back. Three products are on offer. But - with a five-year fixed term - are they really as tempting a prospect as they might at first seem? Paul Lewis speaks to Louise Holmes from Moneyfacts.

If you have cancelled travel plans to a country where civil unrest has broken out, will your costs be covered by your insurance policy? Or will your airline refund your ticket? Or your travel agent? Money Box's Ben Carter finds out what your options are, and talks to Rochelle Turner, head of research at Which? Holiday.

Three of the big four High Street banks have now told us how much money they made - or lost - in 2010.
And it is becoming clear that although bits of their business continue to to lose money, one aspect of their work remains profitable - retail banking. The stuff of High Street banks that we all do - current accounts, savings, loans, mortgages, credit cards, and insurance. Every one of the major banks made money from its retail operations right through the credit crisis. And all three of the big banks made a lot more from us in 2010 than in 2009. Lloyds which reported on Friday, made more than 4 billion pounds profit on its retail operations - double the overall profit made by the bank as a whole. Paul Lewis discusses this with banking analyst Ralph Silva from SRN.

Producer: Ruth Alexander.


SAT 12:30 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.


SAT 12:57 Weather (b00yrh28)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 13:00 News (b00yrh2b)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 13:10 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.


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b00yw4f7)
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.


SAT 14:30 Saturday Drama (b00yw4f9)
Classic Chandler

Classic Chandler - Playback

By Raymond Chandler
Dramatised by Stephen Wyatt

Marlowe is hired to tail the mysterious Betty Mayfield all the way to the seaside town of Esmerelda, without knowing why or the identity of his employer. It's not long before he realises that he's not the only one on the trail, and that he too is being watched. Toby Stephens plays Philip Marlowe in a landmark series bringing all of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels to Radio 4.

Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko
Produced by Claire Grove

Stephen Wyatt (dramatist) is a Sony Award Winning Playwright. Recent work for R4 includes dramatising three of the Complete Ripley series including The Talented Mr Ripley for Saturday Afternoon, The Yellow Plush Papers for 11.30am and Tom Jones for Classic Serial. His original play Memorials for the Missing won a Sony Award in 2008.


SAT 15:30 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.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b00yw4nl)
Weekend Woman's Hour

Jenni Murray presents.

We hear from a woman who had claimed she'd been raped by her husband, then withdrew her allegation and 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. Caroline Herschel, court astronomer to King George III, and the first salaried woman astronomer in history, a pioneer who discovered nine comets.

We examine proposals by the Afghan government to take control of the country's women's shelters.

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. But how much has the Western celebrated women other than those who run bars, brothels or homesteads under threat from Indian invasion, protected by their menfolk?

And Laura and Lydia Rogers - The Secret Sisters - on their sudden rise to fame .and distinctive sound.


SAT 17:00 PM (b00yw5tj)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.


SAT 17:30 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.


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b00yrh2d)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 17:57 Weather (b00yrh2g)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00yrh2j)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b00yw5tn)
Clive Anderson and guests with an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy.

Clive is joined by television's longest-serving news broadcaster, Peter Sissons. His school days were spent with John Lennon, George Harrison and Paul McCartney. His career as a war correspondent was cut short by gunshot wounds to his legs in Nigeria which meant more studio based work presenting for Channel 4 news, ITN and the BBC. He retired to write his memoir 'When One Door Closes' so he's ready to tell us what he really thinks about the state of the media, global affairs and the BBC.

Jon Culshaw's consumate impressions of Sir Patrick Moore will come in handy as he co-presents the seven hundredth edition of The Sky at Night. The impressionist and dead ringer star talks to Clive about being an amateur astronomer and what we can expect from this birthday edition of one of the BBC's longest running programmes.

Roland Rivron's autobiography is filled with drunken binges, death defying escapades, burst celebrity egos and occasional bouts of nudity. That's why it's entitled 'What The **** Did I Do Last Night'.

Open Book and Gardener's World collide as Arthur Smith talks to Mark Crick about his latest literary pastiche. He's already done cookery with Kafka's Soup and and DIY in Sartre's Sink, now twelve great authors put down their pens and pick up their spades to dig up botanical tips in 'Machiavelli's Lawn'.

Plus music from Nostalgia 77 as producer Benedic Lamdin seven piece jazz, soul, blues and folk collective perform a couple of tracks live in the Loose Ends studio.

Producer: Cathie Mahoney.


SAT 19:00 Profile (b00yw5tq)
Lord Patten

Mary Ann Sieghart explores the life and career of Lord Patten, the Conservative peer who has achieved a number of high profile posts in a long political career. A former speechwriter for Margaret Thatcher, he became a 'One Nation' Conservative, serving in a number of ministerial roles before accepting the Chairmanship of the party in difficult political times. He steered his party to victory in the 1992 general election but lost his own seat in the process. He was quickly installed as the Governor of Hong Kong, managing the handover of the former colony to China. He also oversaw the handing over of police powers in Northern Ireland and served as European Commissioner. Now he's the preferred candidate to take control of the BBC Trust in another, new role.


SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b00yw5ts)
Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writer David Aaronovitch, historian Kathryn Hughes and comedian Danny Robins review the cultural highlights of the week including Frankenstein at the National Theatre in London.

Nick Dear's theatrical adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein is directed by Danny Boyle. The roles of Victor Frankenstein and the creature he brings to life are played by Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller, the two actors alternating the roles nightly.

David Michod's film Animal Kingdom is set in Melbourne and stars James Frecheville as a teenager who finds himself drawn into the criminal milieu of his late mother's violent family. Jacki Weaver plays his grandmother - a ruthless matriarch who calls the shots with her brood of armed robber sons.

Like Nuri, the narrator of his novel Anatomy of a Disappearance, Hisham Matar was born to Libyan parents and grew up in Cairo. And, also like Nuri, his father was abducted by secret agents. After his father's disappearance, Nuri grows up in a world of exile, secrets and an ambiguous relationship with his stepmother.

The 16th century Flemish artist Jan Gossaert is the subject of the National Gallery's exhibition Jan Gossaert's Renaissance. Gossaert visited Rome in 1508 and was the first artist to bring the Italian Renaissance's style of depicting historical and mythological subjects with sensuous nude figures into the art of the Low Countries.

Niall Fergusson's Civilisation is a six part series on Channel 4 in which the historian attempts to explain why Western civilisation became globally dominant in the 16th century and remained so for the next 500 years. The series is based on his book Civilisation: The West and the Rest.


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b00yw5tv)
The Last of the International Brigaders

The Spanish Civil War began in 1936, for a civil war constrained entirely within the boundaries of one country, the monuments to the fallen are spread across a remarkably high number of nations. That's because of the International Brigade - whose volunteers travelled across the globe to join the fight against fascism. This programme recounts the events of that civil war through new interviews with the last remaining British Brigaders and archive interviews with many others.

From the defence of Madrid to the Battle of Jarama and on to the Ebro River we hear from the men and women who were there. Jack Edwards served with the International Brigade from the beginning, he was wounded in the battle of Jarama. After a period of convalescence he carried on fighting until he and all the other Brigaders were ordered out of Spain in 1939. Paddy Cochrane, an ambulance driver with the International Brigade, ferried many a wounded soldier from the battle fields until wounded himself by a grenade. Both Jack and Paddy were politically active young men who believed that fighting Franco was the only way to stop the fascist movement from taking over Britain. Thomas Watters, of the Scottish Ambulance Unit, drove from Scotland with a unit of ambulances. As both a driver and a first aider Thomas's motives for volunteering were purely humanitarian.

With these new interviews, and many archive interviews, we cover the events in Spain from the human, day to day perspective. Richard Baxell, historian and author talks us through the political side of events. And Professor Paul Preston, of the International History department at the LSE, gives us a perspective of events in Europe running up to the outbreak of the civil war and details of the motives of Franco.

We also look at how the volunteers were regarded by others. Were they terrorists, idealists, atheists determined to undermine Catholic Spain or heroes, many of whom gave of their lives to fight in what some have called the first battle of World War II. What of today? Are there still young men and women volunteering for causes that the mass populous may not agree with?

Presenter: D J Taylor
New Interviewees: Richard Baxell, Professor Paul Preston, Jack Edwards, Paddy Cochrane and Thomas Watters.
Produced by: Angela Sherwin.


SAT 21:00 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.


SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b00yrh2l)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.


SAT 22:15 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.


SAT 23:00 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.


SAT 23:30 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.