SATURDAY 17 DECEMBER 2011

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b0184w7m)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (b018scwh)
Craig Taylor - Londoners

Episode 5

By Craig Taylor. Abridged by Pete Nichols.

Craig Taylor's book has given new voice to Londoners; the rich and the poor, the native and the immigrant; men and women. It continues an oral tradition that goes back to Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, published in the mid-nineteenth century.

Taylor gives us the squatter and the teacher; the bicycle mechanic and the registrar; the plumber and the rickshaw rider; the lost property clerk and the Wiccan priestess, who casts the remnants of her spells into the Thames.

These remarkable snapshots of the city dwellers are moving, funny and informative.

"What makes Londoners as valuable as any sociological treatise is Taylor's appreciation of the ways in which his subjects are themselves surveying, analysing and theorising the turbulent city in which they live.... At more than 400 pages, the book could easily have been twice as long... But this remains a remarkable volume, from the heaving, contradictory energy of its countless funny, terrifying, epic stories" Sukhdev Sandhu in The Guardian.

The lost property clerk ..... Paul Ritter

Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b0184w7p)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b0184w7r)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b0184w7t)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b0184w7y)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b0184wv2)
with Bishop Dr Joe Aldred.


SAT 05:45 iPM (b0184wv4)
'The sea's a monster, if you love it you're an idiot!' Listeners Bill and Laurel Cooper long ago quit the land and have spent half their lives sailing the world, but now age and ill health have confined them to port. What do you do after you've lived the dream? Also iPM visits an old-fashioned menswear shop to talk about mohair and the decline of the High Street. With Eddie Mair and Jennifer Tracey. iPM@bbc.co.uk.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b0184w9y)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SAT 06:04 Weather (b0184wb2)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (b0184v2z)
Snowdonia: Search and Rescue Dog Association

The Search and Rescue Dog Association (SARDA) Wales is a specialist element of Mountain Rescue in England and Wales responsible for the training and deployment of dogs to search for missing people in the mountains and on the moorlands of Britain as well as lowland, rural and urban areas. When someone is missing in a rural or mountain environment, a dog team can be more effective than 4 teams of people, covering large areas much faster and effectively. For the handlers and trainers who bring their dogs along to be trained in this work, this work is voluntary and something that they do out of their sheer love of the great outdoors and, of course, the reward of working so closely with their dogs to search for missing people. Helen Mark joins some of the experienced, and not so experienced, dogs and handlers at the foot of Cader Idris in the Snowdonia National Park to find out what this work involves, how important it is to the search teams and to the people they help and to hear why 'one man (or woman!) and their dog are such a fundamental part of the British landscape.

Helen meets Helen Howe, an experienced trainer and handler, who explains how the dogs and their handlers are trained to search and rescue missing people. It can take around 3 years to train a new puppy to become a fully qualified Search Dog and Helen Howe explains how this is done. Between then, Helen and Cluania have had several successful finds. However, it is impossible to train a search dog without the invaluable help of a team of people called 'dogsbodies' and Helen Mark then meets up with Emmer Litt who has been volunteering herself as a 'body' for over four years. At each training event, Emmer spends her time hiding out in the hills that she loves with a good book and a flask of tea waiting to be 'found' by the dogs in training. Without the help of people like Emmer it is impossible to train a search dog because they need someone to search for and so Helen joins trainee handler, Rob Johnson, and his dog Skye as they set off in the hunt for Emmer who is now hidden somewhere under Snowdonia's autumn sunshine in the foothills of Cader Idris.

Finally, Helen joins handler Iain Nicholson and his dog, Mij, who is a trailing dog. Together they demonstrate for Helen how Mij works in a scent specific way by following the actual scent of the person that is missing. Iain and Mij work from the place that the missing person was last seen and have been extremely successful in locating people in more lowland and urban areas as well as helping out with the Mountain Rescue Teams of the Lake District.

Being part of SARDA is extremely important to the handlers and dogs that are involved but their continued presence on the British landscape is just as vital to the people that they help to rescue each year.

Presenter: Helen Mark
Producer: Helen Chetwynd.


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b018851p)
Farming Today This Week

Caz Graham visits the farmers working around the clock to ensure the festive vegetables arrive in time for Christmas dinner. She braves the sleet and snow at a parsnip farm in Staffordshire, where pickers and packers work through the night to get the stock to the supermarkets.

The UK is eating much less of many traditional winter vegetables. In 1985 UK farmers grew 135 thousand tonnes of sprouts - by 2010 that had reduced to just 43 thousand tonnes. And while in 1985 232 thousand tonnes of winter cabbage were grown, that shrank to 162 thousand tonnes by 2010. Charlotte Smith visits Brixton market with Christopher Stocks, author of Forgotten Fruit, to discover the origins of our winter veg, and analyse changing tastes.

And in Suffolk, Anna Hill takes to the fields to harvest sprouts and cauliflower for the Christmas dinner table.

Presenter: Caz Graham Producer: Melvin Rickarby.


SAT 06:57 Weather (b0184wb6)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 07:00 Today (b01886s5)
With James Naughtie and Evan Davis. Including Sports Desk, Weather, Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b018851r)
Samantha Bond; Luke Wright; young ballerina; lung scientist; Chi Chi's keeper; saw Sound Sculpture; Gareth Malone

Richard Coles with actress Samantha Bond, poet Luke Wright, young ballerina Izzy McGuire who left home to train in Russia when she was just 14, medical scientist Dame Julia Polak who ended up suffering from the rare condition she'd been researching, JP Devlin continues the saga of celebrity panda Chi-chi this week with Chris Madden who was the man she mauled, a Sound Sculpture of a saw from listener Alexander Frew, and the Inheritance Tracks of choirmaster Gareth Malone.

Producer: Sukey Firth.


SAT 10:00 Excess Baggage (b018851t)
Animal welfare - Plant hunting

John McCarthy meets Phillip Cribb, a botanist and orchid specialist at Kew Gardens who's spent thirty years plant hunting in Western China. Along with Christopher Grey-Wilson, he's just produced a Guide to the Flowers of Western China and he regularly leads tours there. He explains the process of gathering the flowers and how attitudes towards their native flora are changing.

John also discusses animal welfare abroad and meets two women who have decided to devote their life to helping domestic animals around the world. Barbara Webb spent ten years trekking in Nepal before the plight of stray dogs there inspired her to set up HART, the Himalayan Animal Rescue Trust. Caroline Yates is CEO of the Mayhew, an animal home in the UK supporting projects in Moscow, northern Peru, India and Afghanistan. Now she regularly treks in East Africa, Morocco and South America with animal welfare in mind.

Producer: Margaret Collins.


SAT 10:30 Pop Goes the Bible! (b018851w)
As the 400th anniversary of the translation of the Bible into English draws to a close Paul Gambaccini picks out some of the 100's of pop songs that have been inspired by the Old and New Testaments. The stories, characters and text have led to a huge catalogue of songs ranging from Elvis Presley ('Adam and Evil'), to Bob Dylan (Highway 61 Revisited), Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice ('Joseph' and 'Jesus Christ, Superstar'), The Byrds (Turn! Turn! Turn!), Leonard Cohen ('Hallelujah'), and U2 ('40' and 'Yahweh').

Paul talks to Tim Rice about his early schooling which laid down for him an intimate knowledge of Bible stories. One of his favourites was that of 'Joseph' and the musical that evolved became the foundation of the Rice/Lloyd-Webber partnership. His fascination with the stories and characters took Rice not only on to 'Jesus Christ, Superstar' but more recently to the story of King David and Saul. He talks about his continued absorption in the people within the pages of the Bible.

Diana Lipton, an Old Testament scholar, shows how many popular song treatments refresh the ancient stories by setting them in an entirely different and often contemporary context. She cites Bob Dylan's treatment of the story of Abraham and Isaac in 'Highway 61 Revisited', but also finds a connection in Tom Jones' hit 'Delilah'. Although the only Biblical connection is the name 'Delilah', the blind passion of both the character in the song and Samson provokes the same disastrous outcome.

U2, with their song '40', took much of the lyric from Psalm 40, and rock critic Neil McCormick points to the close connection between Bono and his religious upbringing, a connection which - as in many of the songs in this programme - feeds into popular song culture.

Producer: Richard Bannerman
A Ladbroke Production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (b018851y)
Jackie Ashley looks behind the scenes at Westminster.
The Editor is Peter Mulligan.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b0188520)
The polar bear's back in the news - this time it's at the centre of controversy in Canada where some believe it's a far better animal to be the country's national symbol than the one which currently holds the honour, the beaver. Lorraine Mallinder has been finding out that some Canadians reckon the beaver's just too boring for the job. At the end of another stressful week in the eurozone Chris Morris tells us that the Germans don't seem too concerned -- the Christmas party season's on their minds! The revolution's brought a new look to Libya but Tarik Kafala, who's been back to Tripoli after many years away, says not everything's changed. Jill McGivering's in Indian Kashmir where questions are being asked about thousands of unmarked graves. And a celebrated bookshop owner passed away this week in Paris and Christine Finn, who worked in his shop recently, tells us what made this store, over the bridge from Notre Dame, so special.


SAT 12:00 Money Box (b0188522)
Over 50s plans are sold by some of the biggest names in insurance but have been roundly criticised by the consumer organisation Which?

It says they may be worse than a savings account - or even putting your money into a box in a cupboard. What do they really give you?

Money Box gets the response from some of the providers and speaks to Richard Lloyd, Which?'s executive director.

Paul Lewis also looks at the story of a Church of Scotland Minister who was charged for unwanted texts, reward credit cards, PPI compensation delays and the likely purchase of hundreds of Lloyds branches by the Co-op Bank.

The programme was produced by Bob Howard.


SAT 12:30 The Now Show (b0184w5y)
Series 35

Episode 6

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are joined by Jon Holmes, Alun Cochrane, Laura Shavin and Mitch Benn for the last in the current series.

Back in February 2012.

Producer: Katie Tyrrell.


SAT 12:57 Weather (b0184wbg)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 13:00 News (b0184wbj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (b0184w64)
Stepney, London

Jonathan Dimbleby presents a panel discussion of news and politics from Sir John Cass Red Coat School in Stepney, London with broadcaster and former Cabinet minister, Michael Portillo; poet Andrew Motion; veteran foreign correspondent and broadcaster, Dame Ann Leslie; and vice-chair of the Liberal Democrats' National Policy Committee and Hacked Off activist, Dr Evan Harris.

Producer: Victoria Wakely.


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b0188524)
Call Jonathan Dimbleby on 03700 100 444 about the following topics: are we heading for a great depression as bad as the 1930s? Do you agree with David Cameron when he said the UK is a Christian country and we should not be afraid to say so? Is it news that newspapers use dodgy tactics to create stories to sell newspapers? And what should be done to tackle child poverty?

The panel from Stepney in London were: broadcaster and former Cabinet minister, Michael Portillo; poet Andrew Motion; veteran foreign correspondent and broadcaster, Dame Ann Leslie; and vice-chair of the Liberal Democrats' National Policy Committee and Hacked Off activist, Dr Evan Harris.


SAT 14:30 Saturday Drama (b0188526)
Our Country's Good

by Timberlake Wertenbaker

Australia 1789: A young lieutenant attempts to direct a cast of convicts
in 'The Recruiting Officer', the first play ever to be staged in the country.
But one of his cast may be about to be hanged.
The convicts' production of The Recruiting Officer can be heard
on Drama on 3 on Sunday evening..

Captain Arthur Philip ..... Nicholas Le Prevost
Major Robbie Ross ..... Stuart McQuarrie
Captain David Collins ..... Paul Moriarty
Captain Watkin Tench ..... Adam Billington
Captain Campbell ..... James Lailey
2nd Lieutenant Ralph Clark ..... Paul Higgins
Reverend Johnson ..... Simon Bubb
Midshipman Harry Brewer ..... Rikki Lawton
Mary Brenham ..... Francine Chamberlain
Robert Sideway ..... Adam James
John Wisehammer ..... Elliot Levey
Liz Morden ..... Kate Fleetwood
Dabby Bryant ..... Alex Tregear
John Arscott ...... Ralph Ineson
Ketch Freeman ..... Jonathan Forbes
Duckling Smith ..... Adjoa Andoh

Director ..... Sally Avens

Timberlake Wertenbaker's stage play was adapted from Thomas Keneally's novel, 'The Playmaker'.
It tells the true story of Lieutenant Ralph Clark's attempts to put on a production of George Farquhar's 'The Recruiting Officer' using a cast of convicts. It met with high praise when it was first staged at The Royal Court and the play argues eloquently for the redemptive power of theatre. Many of the arguments are still current today as we debate how best to rehabilitate prisoners. At the heart of the play is its language; Wertenbaker celebrates the beauty of language in the slang of the criminal classes and the poetry of the play but she also looks at how language is used as an instrument of power.

Over one weekend Radio 4 and Radio 3 present new productions of 'Our Country's Good' and 'The Recruiting Officer' using the same cast. On Saturday on Radio 4 we hear 'Our Country's Good' and watch a group of convicts' lives change as they rehearse 'The Recruiting Officer' and on Sunday on Radio 3 we hear the convicts' production of 'The Recruiting Officer'.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b01886jl)
Yotam Ottolenghi, Strictly Come Dancing, Tripoli Witness

Yotam Ottolenghi Cooks the Perfect Baba Ganoush. Forget Superman - meet the new generation of actiongirl heroines. We step into the Strictly Come Dancing wardrobe with one of today's finalists Chelsee Healey. The free schools that are changing the educational agenda. Folklore and the power of the Snow Queen. Tripoli Witness: the woman behind the blog. Presented by Jane Garvey.


SAT 17:00 PM (b01886jn)
Saturday PM

A fresh perspective on the day's news with sports headlines with Carolyn Quinn.


SAT 17:30 iPM (b0184wv4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:45 today]


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b0184wbq)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 17:57 Weather (b0184wbs)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b0184wbx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b01886jq)
Clive Anderson and guests with an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy.

In 2006 he was 'Pedantic and Whimsical', but this year, Perrier Award-nominated Irish comedian Ed Byrne's critically acclaimed show was a 'Crowd Pleaser' and is now available on DVD. Ed tells Clive what it takes to tickle the ribs and appease a room full of hecklers.

Prize-winning author Adam Nicolson talks about his book 'The Gentry: Stories of the English'. Telling the real story of England, it focuses on fourteen families, from the medieval gung-ho of the Plumpton family to the high-seas adventures of the Lascelles in the 18th century and is a wonderful sweep of English history.

All aboard The Swallow! Jo Bunting talks to The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon about writing songs for the musical play 'Swallows And Amazons' at London's Vaudeville Theatre. Based on the much-loved book by Arthur Ransome, Neil's songs accompany Captain John and his crew, embarking on an exotic adventure capturing dastardly pirates and defeating mortal enemies.

Bonafide member of The IT Crowd, Katherine Parkinson explains her new role as Conceptiva Secret-Past, the on-screen wife of Robert Webb, purveyor of miscellaneous odd things in BBC Two's 'The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff'. It's a tale of hidden wills, brave urchins, giant clocks, misery, joy and treacle!

Bringing some funk and rhythm into the Loose Ends studio is soulful Nigerian Xantoné Blacq who performs 'Mama Won't Listen' from his album 'Revelation'.

And the magnificent singer-songwriter Ed Harcourt gives us an exclusive rendition of his his brand new song 'El Magnifico'.

Producer: Cathie Mahoney.


SAT 19:00 Profile (b01886js)
Peter Higgs

Profile this week looks at the physicist Peter Higgs who in the 1960s predicted the existence of the so-called "God Particle" which scientists think they glimpsed at CERN this week.

The Higgs boson - which has so excited the scientific community this week - is a subatomic particle which gives mass to all matter and the quest to find it has been described as the holy grail of physics.

Peter Higgs made his prediction in the mid-1960s when he was a relatively young scientist, adding a crucial element to the Standard Model of the universe. At the time the significance of his work was not widely recognised or understood, and one leading scientific journal even turned down one of his early papers setting out his groundbreaking theory.

Higgs, now in his 80s, is very much a theoretical scientist. Colleagues say he has never excelled at practical experiments, and to this day he doesn't get on with computers.

What kind of man is he? Samira Ahmed talks to those who know the scientist, and asks what makes him tick.

Producers:
Ben Crighton and Arlene Gregorius.


SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b01886jv)
Tom Sutcliffe and his guests the writers Lisa Appignanesi and Kamila Shamsie and theatre writer David Benedict review the week's cultural highlights including Noises Off at the Old Vic.

THEATRE Noises Off - Old Vic - revival of Michael Frayn's farce starring Celia Imrie

FILM Dreams of a Life - dir. Carol Morley

EXHIBITION Rabindranath Tagore - V&A - retrospective of paintings by the Bengali polymath

BOOK All Is Song - Samantha Harvey

Producer: Torquil MacLeod.


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b01886jx)
The European Dream

As the Eurozone lurches from crisis to crisis, John Tusa takes us back to the very start of the journey to the single currency: to the vision, and the realpolitik, that made European union happen in the first place.

In 1950, France and Germany, along with Italy, Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg, agreed to surrender national control over some of their most vital industries. Just six years after the Nazis had been driven out of Paris.

John traces how a highly unusual mix of vision and canny national self-interest drove a handful of leading statesmen to take this decisive step.

Robert Schuman was the French Foreign Minister - but had fought for the Germans in the First World War. Then, as a French politician and member of the Resistance, he narrowly avoided being sent by the Nazis to Dachau.

Konrad Adenauer, West Germany's first Chancellor, was proposing a form of European unity as early as 1923. Having survived the Nazi era, he was intent on sacrificing power to bind his pariah nation into the West - and keep it safe from Stalin.

More surprisingly, the idea of European union was also championed by Winston Churchill, in a rousing run of speeches across the Continent in the years after VE Day. The great patriot even advocated a European Army.

But John also explores why - once Churchill was back in power in 1951 - he chose not to join the emergent union.

Meanwhile, Churchill's wartime ally, America, was actively pushing the Europeans to unite - and was prepared to pay handsomely to ensure they wouldn't drag American troops into yet another war.

And John finds out how the whole project came to the brink of collapse within weeks of its birth. In June 1950, the Communists invaded South Korea. Western capitals panicked: was West Germany next? Was this the start of World War 3?

America demanded that West Germany be re-armed. But the French public were outraged, and took to the streets with large photos of Nazi atrocity victims held aloft.

John explores how the project was rescued, and how its strange fusion of realism and idealism presages the crises of today.

Producer: Phil Tinline.


SAT 21:00 Classic Serial (b0183r3q)
François Rabelais - Gargantua and Pantagruel

Gargantua

Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais. Dramatised by Lavinia Murray.

Ep 2 - Pantagruel.

Concluding the bawdy and scatological adventures of Medieval giants. This episode concentrates on the story of Gargantua's son, Pantagruel and his morally dubious friend Panurge, as they go on a quest to discover whether marriage is for them. On the way they have many adventures before they come before the Seer of the Holy Bottle who gives them a definitive judgement.

Rabelais.....David Troughton
Gargantua....Robert Wilfort
Pantagruel....Justin Edwards
Panurge...Conrad Nelson
Friar Jean....Jonathan Keeble
Jacqueline/Seer...Fiona Clarke
Librarian/Secretary...Mark Chatterton

Producer Gary Brown

This tale is a dizzying blend of fantasy, comedy, philosophy and scatological humour. The world's a messy place. All the big mock-heroic novels that followed - Don Quixote, Tristram Shandy, Gulliver's Travels, Ulysses - are about mess, they're about slops and slime, encyclopedic in their efforts to encompass humanity in all its bawdy, chaotic, grungy, and painful reality. And like Gargantua and Pantagruel they're also very funny. The Rabelaisian world view is founded on the assumption that the humourless are not yet wise - and these tales insist you learn to laugh at humanity.

Gargantua and Pantagruel is dramatised by Lavinia Murray, one of our leading radio playwrights whose credits include 'The Anatomy of Melancholy' and 'The Confessions of an English Opium Eater'.


SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b0184wc3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.


SAT 22:15 Bringing Up Britain (b0184s39)
Series 4

Feral Kids and Feckless Parents

Programme 1: Feral Kids and Feckless Parents

The August riots in parts of England showed youngsters out of control on the streets, and put huge focus onto parenting skills.

MPs and council leaders warned parents that they should know where their children were at night and keep them indoors and out of trouble.

But parents themselves were saying they were unable to discipline their kids, either because they feared repercussions by the authorities, or because their children were simply physically too strong.

In the first of the new series of "Bringing Up Britain", Mariella Frostrup is joined by a panel of experts to discuss parental discipline right across British society.

How easy is it for us to control our children, especially after they stop being biddable toddlers and begin to assert their own personalities?

Have we given children too many rights and ignored those of parents?

Can you really stop a large teenage child going out, and what restraining measures can you legally use?

And, if your child is going off the rails, how do you break the cycle and get them back into good habits?

Joining Mariella to explore these issues will be:

Charlie Taylor, headteacher and behaviour advisor to the Department of Education;
Sheldon Thomas, who founded "Gangsline" to help youngsters caught up in gangs and their families;
Clem Henricson, social policy analyst and Member of the University of Oxford Centre for Research into Parenting and Children;
Guardian journalist Zoe Williams.

We also find out the results of a poll commissioned by the programme into attitudes to parental discipline.

Producer: Emma Kingsley.


SAT 23:00 Brain of Britain (b0183t4j)
(5/17)
What name is given to the curved surface of a liquid as it stands in a tube, caused by surface tension? And what kind of creature is a great curassow?

Russell Davies is in the questionmaster's chair for the fifth heat in the current series. Aiming to become the 59th Brain of Britain champion are competitors from Aberdeenshire, the West Midlands, Berkshire and Essex. Today's winner will progress to the semi-finals in the new year.

There'll also be a chance, as usual, for a Brain of Britain listener to outwit the contestants with questions of his or her own.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.


SAT 23:30 Guns, Roses and Poetry Readings (b017c9ph)
Poet and translator W.N. Herbert and sound artist and editor of Poetry Wales Zoe Skoulding share their experiences of worldwide poetry festivals and performance.

They tell us how in many Eastern European countries, poetry festivals attract people in their thousands - particularly to the town of Struga in Macedonia which has become one of the most important poetry festivals in the world. Despite the fall of Yugoslavia, the war in Bosnia, the Kosovo crisis and the political and ethnic clashes in the whole of the region - this particular poetry festival attracts hundreds of international poets all wanting to take part. We discover why.

We also hear why in South America, poets from all over the world gather not only to share their work, but each year decide to "bury" a philosophical thought that the poets feel the world can do without. But we also hear how, in places like China and Burma, poetry can be seen as subversive and is only shared with great risk of imprisonment or torture. Bill Herbert and Zoe Skoulding share all this and more - as they take us on a personal tour to experience poetry, performance and festivals that celebrate this sometimes marginalized art form.

Presented by Bill Herbert.

Producer: Neil Cargill
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.