The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
By Svetlana Alliluyeva. Abridged by Eileen Horne.
Svetlana and her father become estranged after her first love is exiled from Moscow, only to find some accord after the war when she becomes a mother....
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
In the final programme in a series of inspirational walks, Clare Balding is joined by the former poet laureate, Sir Andrew Motion, to walk around the village of Stisted in Essex. As they walk around the village, Sir Andrew tells Clare about his memories of growing up in the village where he was first inspired to write poetry.
This will have been the busiest week of the year for florists and flower growers, in the run up to Mothering Sunday. But, as around three quarters of flowers sold in the UK are imported, could, or should, more flowers be grown here? Charlotte Smith visits David Austin Roses in Shropshire, which breeds new varieties for cut flower producers and gardeners. Every year they cross pollinate thousands of roses by hand but, from that, only four or five varieties will make the grade to go on sale. Whilst the company carries on its painstaking rose breeding in England, its cut flower production actually takes place in Kenya, Ecuador and California. Charlotte also visits New Covent Garden Market to talk to florists who are English flower enthusiasts, and Sarah Falkingham meets a woman on a mission to create a British 'Flowers from the Farm' label.
With Sarah Montague and Justin Webb. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Pauline Black, Kate Fox, Natasha Owen Jones, Milton Keynes, Breadboard, Ben Miller's Inheritance Tracks
Richard Coles with The Selecter's Pauline Black, poet Kate Fox, Natasha Owen Jones who traced her long-lost brother only to find he was a convicted killer and who has just returned from meeting him for the first time, one of the original inhabitants of Milton Keynes, the story of a beloved breadboard, and the Inheritance Tracks of comedian Ben Miller.
John McCarthy meets a writer who followed in the 14th century footsteps of the Black Prince through SW France; an historian who has followed a medieval wine trail through Gascony and a novelist who was seduced by the lure of Lourdes and the Pyrenees.
The Royal Collection is one of the most wide-ranging collections of art and artefacts in the world and provides an intriguing insight into the minds of the monarchs who assembled it.
During the series, Will Gompertz encounters dozens of these unique objects - some priceless, others no more than souvenirs - each shedding light on our relationship with the monarchy and giving a glimpse into the essential ingredients of a successful sovereign.
In this programmes, Will explores the relationship the institution of the monarchy has had with that potentially corrosive agent - change. He finds that the most successful monarchs have understood and harnessed innovation - Henry VIII took an interest in wood so the Navy boats would be the best on the ocean, Charles II established the Royal Observatory so astronomers could find out more about the skies and better inform navigation. Queen Victoria asked Marconi to demonstrate a radio station at Osborne House and she took part in the first trans-Atlantic cable ever sent.
With the help of objects and curators from the Royal Collection, together with leading historians, Will studies objects that not only demonstrate the patronage of the arts and sciences but also illuminate the more personal expressions of learning and monarchical intellectual engagement.
.Jackie Ashley of The Guardian looks behind the scenes at Westminster.
There has been much speculation over what taxes the chancellor might raise or cut in his budget next week. Tim Farron Liberal Democrat and David Ruffley Conservative discuss the options.
Recent events in Afghanistan have started to pose questions about the effectiveness of the British and US mission there and the timing of the withdrawal of troops. Sir Menzies Campbell a former Liberal Democrat leader and Patrick Mercer a Conservative MP who was formerly an officer in the armed forces assess the current strategy.
Plus David Cameron's highly successful trip to the USA as observed by David Rennie of the Economist and Lance Price a former special adviser to Tony Blair.
And Margaret Hodge chair of the Public Accounts Select Committee engages with former senior civil servant Sir Richard Mottram on the vexed question of the accountability of the civil service.
A hundred million plus hits on the internet. Our Africa correspondent Andrew Harding on the film about warlord Joseph Kony and why it's received the thumbs down from an audience in Uganda.
A group of former paramilitaries and police officers from Northern Ireland have been to South Africa to see how combatants in the apartheid era there are now trying to come to terms with their troubled past -- Fergal Keane joined them.
'A steady pulse of pleasure' as Simon Worrall sails to the fabled Spice Islands in the wake of the great nineteenth century naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace.
Joanna Robertson's been to the cinema in Paris seeing how French children are being educated to become the film experts of the future.
And Peter Day describes the extraordinary Chinese ghost town -- empty streets, half-finished buildings -- which suggests to some that the great real estate bubble there has finally burst.
More than a million homes have no buildings insurance. So, what happens if you're one of them and your house is burnt down, through no fault of your own? Money Box has a cautionary tale of two cottages. Paul Lewis visits listener, Violet, who used to live in a semi-detached thatched cottage in Hertfordshire, until last month, when it was totally destroyed by fire. He talks to Malcolm Tarling from the Association of British Insurers and Laura Checkley, property litigation solicitor at Pemberton Greenish.
Will better-off families lose their child benefit? After months of wrangling, that question will finally be settled when the Chancellor, George Osborne, delivers his budget on Wednesday. As it stands, from January next year any parent earning more than £42,475 will lose the benefit altogether. But the Government is under considerable pressure - not least from within its own ranks - to rethink its plans. Paul Lewis discusses the issue with Lindsay Judge from the Child Poverty Action Group and Claudia Wood, deputy director of the left-leaning think tank, Demos.
Where should you store your valuables? Money Box listener, Keith, paid for a safe deposit box at his local branch of Lloyds bank in Somerset last year to store a family legacy. But now his bank is changing the service. In future, it will cost more and the items will be stored by a private company hundreds of miles away in Scotland. Keith may be unhappy with the new service on offer, but he is lucky to have a bank safe deposit box at all. If you are a new customer, it is now impossible to store valuables in a safe deposit box at any of the major high street banks. Paul Lewis speaks to Keith and to Asian Network reporter, Catrin Nye, who's been investigating the issue
What should you do if an urgent, official-looking letter addressed to a previous resident drops through your door? Especially one that's threatening the bailiffs. Should you return to sender - or open it and deal with the consequences? Paul Lewis speaks to Money Box listener, Annie and gets advice from Susan Marks from the Citizens Advice Bureau
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis with a mix of topical sketches and stand up with Matt Forde, Laura Shavin, Jon Holmes and Mitch Benn.
Jonathan Dimbleby chairs a discussion of news and politics from the BBC's More Than Words Festival at Bristol's M-Shed.
Call Jonathan Dimbleby on 03700 100 444, email any.answers@bbc.co.uk or tweet #bbcaq on questions from Any Questions' audience in Bristol. Topics included Afghanistan; the 'special relationship' between the UK and US; how to improve stagnant literacy rates in England's primary schools; whether animals should be transported into the UK for medical testing; and is there a difference between Syrian bombs and Israeli bombs killing civilians?
Final part of Ian Rankin's crime thriller as Inspector Rebus investigates the death of an MP's wife. Ron Donachie stars in this two-part dramatisation by Chris Dolan set in Edinburgh and the Highlands in 1992.
In Edinburgh a man confesses to the murder of two women - but Rebus isn't convinced. Much to his superior's dismay, Rebus ignores the confession and disappears north to investigate a wild party deep in the Scottish countryside.
D.I. Rebus ..... Ron Donachie
D.S. Holmes ....... Andy Clark
WPC Moffat.... Lisa Gardner
Gregor Jack.... Gavin Kean
C.S. Watson..... Douglas Russell
Ronald Steele.... Robin Laing
Helen/Cathy ..... Emma Currie
Costello/Rab ..... Lewis Howden
Patience...... Monica Gibb
Kemp..... Laurie Brown
Other parts played by the cast.
Singer Catherine Bott explores the Bronte sisters' musical world through their newly restored piano, returned to the parsonage in Haworth.
Joined by pianist Jonathan Cohen, Catherine looks through the Bronte's family music collection and discovers how musical life at the parsonage underscored the sisters' creative life, their work and tastes.
When Charlotte Bronte discovered the poems of her sister Emily, she described them as having "a peculiar music - wild, melancholy and elevating." The Bronte sisters - Charlotte, Emily and Anne - have been mythologised and worshipped ever since their early deaths. Haworth Parsonage, where they and their troubled brother Branwell grew up, has been a place of pilgrimage for 150 years.
The Brontes are a literary industry, because we need them to stand as symbols of doomed, rebellious womanhood. And their lives, just as much as their writing, oblige us. They all wrote compulsively from early childhood, creating fantastical worlds in minute writing, moralising verse-tragedies - and Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
But when they made music, they came home from the fantasy lands of Gondal and Angria, to sing and play folk songs (such as Robert Burns' 'Ye Banks and Braes), popular numbers by Haydn, Handel's Harmonious Blacksmith, for their own pleasure, not solely to demonstrate their maidenly accomplishments.
With the piano restored, their sheet music is still in its drawer. Catherine and Jonathan get to hold it in their hands to recreate a quiet evening at home with Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell.
They all lived much of the time in a "wild, melancholy and elevating" world, and that's part of the Bronte myth, but their music-making reminds us of a different side to them - perhaps one that doesn't quite fit with how we want or need them to be.
Doreen Lawrence on getting Justice for her son Stephen. Tippi Hedren on what it was really like working with Alfred Hitchcock. Advice for entrepreneurs from some of the UK's top business women from our visit to the
Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Liverpool. And Jane Garvey learns how to shop for vintage clothes.
Ritula Shah presents a fresh perspective on the day's news, with sports headlines.
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. The programme is broadcast first on BBC Radio 4 and later on BBC World Service Radio, BBC World News TV and BBC News Channel TV.
Evan's executive panel discuss what good leadership consists of - how do you turn a mediocre manager into a brilliant boss? They also swap thoughts on surviving on 20% less of everything. How would their companies cope, and what would they look like?
Joining Evan are Martin Gilbert, chief executive of fund manager Aberdeen Asset Management; Allan Leighton, chairman of set top box maker Pace; Nigel Whitehead, group managing director of BAE Systems.
Alex James, Peter Lord and Lynne Truss. Arthur Smith chats to Pearl Lowe. With music from The Stranglers and Crybaby
This week we're in Bristol at the More Than Words Festival where Clive is joined by the daddy of Wallace and Gromit, Peter Lord. He's aboard the good ship Loose Ends to tell us about Bristol based Aardman's latest flick, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists starring Hugh Grant as a salty sea captain.
Fromage alert! Former Blur man and Bristol local Alex James saunters by to treat us to a taster from his latest memoir 'All Cheeses Great and Small'.
Former singer-songwriter turned fashion and textiles designer, Pearl Lowe tries to get to grips with Arthur Smith and his idiosyncratic sense of style?? Tune in to see how she fares........
The always polite and grammatically correct writer Lynne Truss keeps Clive on his toes ahead of her appearance on Sunday at the More Than Words festival when she introduces her BBC Radio 4 series 'Tidal Talk from The Rock Pool'
Music is brought to us from British legends The Stranglers who perform 'Boom Boom' from their new album Giants. And Bristolian tunesmith Crybaby who play 'I Cherish The Heartbreak More Than The Love That I Lost' from their their eponymous debut album.
Claire Bolderson profiles the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, who is working as an unpaid advisor to the UK Government helping open up policy making to the public. He's an information evangelist and his belief in the power of shared knowledge has driven the remarkable success of Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia. With entries on more than 20 million subjects looked at by more than 450 million people per month, Jimmy Wales' creation is one of that handful of internet successes that really have changed our lives. The programme hears from associates of Jimmy Wales and from his critics. And of course from the man himself.
Sarfraz Manzoor and his guests novelist Liz Jensen and the writers Susannah Clapp and Giles Fraser review the cultural highlights of the week - including Can We Talk About This?, a physical theatre piece that sets out to explore the issues of Islamic extremism, multiculturalism and freedom of speech. It's set to a text that has been taken from over 40 interviews and asks - have well-intended multicultural policies inadvertently ended up betraying the very minorities and freedoms Britain ought to be protecting?
The classic novel Gullivers Travels has been adapted and updated by the cartoonist, and satirist, Martin Rowson into a graphic novel. He sets his book in the late 1990s and his hero - a distant descendant of Swift's Lemuel Gulliver - is a former Government employee who has travelled the world working for various NGOs and charities. The Lilliput that Gulliver arrives into has an oddly familiar Prime Minister with large ears and a semi-crazed smile.
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is a brooding and philosophically searching film that won the Grand Prix prize at Cannes last year. The story takes place during one night as a convoy of three vehicles, containing a dozen men, drive through the badlands of Turkey. The convoy contains two murder suspects who are trying to take the policemen, prosecutor and doctor they are travelling with to the location where they buried their victim.
Death Row is a new TV documentary series where the iconoclastic director Werner Herzog takes an inside look at a maximum security prison in Texas, featuring interviews with death row inmates.
Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude is an exhibition which focuses on the debt that the British painter owed to the 17th century French artist Claude Lorrain. When Turner died, he bequeathed two large paintings to the National Gallery, on the condition that they were hung between two specific works by Claude.
Seventy years ago British-trained volunteers assassinated Reinhard Heydrich, a leading Nazi, in Prague. His killing resulted in drastic reprisals against innocent civilians in Czechoslovakia. The village of Lidice, which was falsely linked to the assassins, was razed to the ground, all the adult men were executed and the women and children sent to concentration camps. The ensuing outrage, however, did help firm up commitment to the Czechoslovak cause and to the Allies finally revoking the Munich agreement under which large parts of the country had been ceded to Germany.
Britain contemplated using assassination after the Second World War - for instance against Presidents Nasser in Egypt and Idi Amin in Uganda - but as far as we know it has repeatedly decided against, fearing the consequences. Other Western countries have toyed with it - such as the CIA plotting against Castro in Cuba and Lumumba in Congo in the 1960s but also more recently in the use of drones against al-Qaeda leaders and in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. And some countries - notably Israel, it's alleged - continue to use it regularly today as an instrument of policy - for instance against Iranian scientists.
The BBC's Security Correspondent Gordon Corera asks whether state-sponsored assassination is an effective tool of war and policy and if it can ever be justified.
The story of a Jewish family forced to flee from Germany in 1933 - told from the perspective of nine-year-old Anna.
The first book of Judith Kerr's internationally acclaimed trilogy dramatised by Beaty Rubens.
Young Anna ... Lauren Mote
Max ... Hugo Docking
Mama ... Adjoa Andoh
Papa ... Paul Moriarty
Julius ... James Lailey
Elsbeth ... Xenia Mainelli
Omama ... Eleanor Bron
Fraulein Lambeck ... Tracy Wiles
Aunt Sarah ... Sheila Steafel
Herr Rosenfeld ... Gerard McDermott
Passport Officer ... Christopher Webster
Concierge ... Alex Rivers
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
The government will this week launch a public consultation on its proposals to allow gay marriage. The idea has brought forth a torrent of opposition from many senior church leaders who argue the institution is one of the building blocks of society and that the state does not have the moral authority to dismantle the universally understood meaning and purpose of marriage. Earlier this year the Pope said gay marriage threatens to undermine "the future of humanity itself" and in a speech to US bishops in Rome last Friday he said the Christian vision of human sexuality was now in crisis around the world with "powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage". The Universal Declaration on Human Rights defines marriage as a right which applies to men and women and that "the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state". But the authority of the church, our understanding of human sexuality and our definitions of what a family is have all changed fundamentally in the past 60 years. Of course there are those who say that's part of the problem and there are also those who see the issue in the simple terms of equality - why should gay people be denied something that heterosexuals have as a right? But there are also many people of faith who welcome the idea that the sacrament of marriage should be open to as many people as possible because it's the best way establish long lasting, stable loving relationships whether children are being raised in them or not. So who should be allowed to marry?
Witnesses: Dr Austen Ivereigh - Catholic Voices; Ben Summerskill - Chief Executive Stonewall; Dr David Landrum - Director of Public Policy Evangelical Alliance; Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner- Movement of Reform for Judaism.
Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk with Michael Portillo, Anne McElvoy, Kenan Malik and Clifford Longley.
Coming this week from the University of East Anglia, "The 3rd Degree" is a funny, lively and dynamic 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, cafes 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...
Every Japanese person knows Matsuo Basho's 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North'. This classic is an account by Japan's best-loved poet of a journey he made in 1689. He visited several places famous for their beauty, and because they had inspired poets in years gone by. He celebrated these in his haiku and visited fellow poets.
Many of the places Basho wrote about were devastated by last year's tsunami. He walked through Fukushima prefecture, where the stricken nuclear plant is today. In Shiogama, Basho pitied the fishermen and, at Ishinomaki, described hundreds of boats bobbing in a wide bay. Of the 12,000 vessels registered in Sendai, Shiogama and Ishinomaki, only 1,200 remained intact after the tsunami.
For the first anniversary of the earthquake the poet and translator Stephen Henry Gill, who has lived in Japan for many years, follows in Basho's footsteps on his own 'Narrow Road to the Disaster Zone'. He tries to reach the power station, passing through village after village deserted because of radiation. He looks at the islands of Matushima, so beautiful they left Basho speechless, continues to the fishing villages of Oshika peninsula and on to the point where he looks out to sea towards the epicentre.
All the time, like Basho, Stephen meets people - a poet publishing his work about the tsunami on Twitter; volunteers rebuilding houses; a Zen priest radio broadcaster whose show kept communication open; the fisherman who went to sea, choosing to risk riding the giant waves rather than have his boats smashed onshore. Using interviews, sounds recorded along the way, Basho's writings, and his own haiku, Stephen Gill creates, one year on, a historical, contemporary and cultural response to the earthquake, the nuclear fallout and the tsunami.
SUNDAY 18 MARCH 2012
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b01dc8x3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SUN 00:30 Bath Festival Stories, Series 3 (b01dd5s4)
It May be Lalique, by Morag Joss
This year's Radio 4 stories from the Bath Literature Festival are all are written by women in the West Country, with women at their heart, recorded on stage on International Women's Day. They all have a slightly edgy feel to them, too, as ghosts, shadows and strange events unfold. The second story is read by Morag Joss, award-winning crime fiction author of the Sara Selkirk series.
The last story in the series will be read by Patricia Ferguson
Producer: Sara Davies.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b01dc8x5)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b01dc8x7)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b01dc8x9)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b01dc8xf)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b01dhcg0)
The bells of St Edward's, Eggbuckland, Plymouth.
SUN 05:45 Lent Talks (b01d2h8v)
Prof John Lennox
John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, explains how the relationship between God and the individual is enhanced through science.
In the wake of political and social reactions to the financial crisis, austerity measures and the riots of 2011, debate continues to determine the role of the individual and society. The 2012 Lent Talks consider the relationship between the individual and the collective. Is each person one alone or one of many? Is it the human condition to be self-contained or to belong to the family, the tribe, the congregation, the nation? We live in groups but our most intense experiences are incommunicable. Jesus shared a communal last supper but he died an outcast, abandoned and rejected by his people, his disciples and (apparently) his Father.
Speakers of this year's talks include the journalist and author Martin Wroe, who will explore humanity being at its most divine when working in community; Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University, examines the philosophy of the individual and how this is neglected in many areas of Islam; Dr Gemma Simmonds CJ, explores the agony of the individual in society.
The Christian season of Lent is traditionally a time for self-examination and reflection on universal human conditions such as temptation, betrayal, abandonment, greed, forgiveness and love.
SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b01dc8xh)
The latest national and international news.
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b01dd5tf)
The Moon in My Life
In 'The Moon in My Life' the space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin Pocock reflects on the cultural and scientific effects of the moon, and also on the role the moon has played in her personal life.
She talks to scientist Professor John Sutherland about recent research that indicates that the moon could have been responsible for generating all life here on Earth and chooses readings by H.G. Wells, Carol Ann Duffy and Carl Sandburg and music by Dvorak, Debussy and Carl Orff . The readers are Liza Sadovy and David Holt.
Producer: Ronni Davis
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (b01dd5vn)
Anna Hill visits two farmers in East Sussex to find out about the impact of the Schmallenberg virus. The disease, which causes serious deformities and stillbirths in sheep and cattle, was first identified in Germany last year. Scientists believe the disease is spread by midges, and it emerged in southern England during January. More than 150 farms in England have now seen the Schmallenberg virus. East Sussex is one of the most badly affected areas. Being so close to the continent, where there have been more than 2,000 cases, farmers in East Sussex are on the front line for infected midges having blown in. Anna meets pedigree South Down sheep breeder Mark Littmoden, whose lambing has been marred by the disease. A few miles down the road, Justin Harmer is waiting anxiously to see if it will show up in his pedigree Sussex cattle, once spring calving gathers pace. As Justin says, it's "all in the lap of the gods".
Presenter: Anna Hill
Producer: Sarah Swadling.
SUN 06:57 Weather (b01dc8xk)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b01dc8xm)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (b01dd5wf)
Edward Stourton with the religious and ethical news of the week. Moral arguments and perspectives on stories familiar and unfamiliar.
On the programme this week
Gavin Drake reports on what practical steps churches can offer to the young unemployed in the week that new figures show a rise in the number of young out of work.
We hear from Catholics about their varying reactions to Archbishop Vincent Nicholls letter on gay marriage which was read out in churches last weekend...and from a liberal rabbi who feels the government has not gone far enough because there is still no provision for religious marriage for same sex couples.
St Cuthbert's Gospel is believed to be oldest fully intact European book, created in honour of one of our most celebrated Christian leaders.The British Library has just a few weeks to hit its 9 million pound target to save the book for the nation after it was put up for sale by the Society of Jesus.
Luke Walton has a report.
And we examine in detail the legacy of Rowan Williams as he announces he is to step down as Archbishop of Canterbury at the end of the year....and asking who might succeed him in what he once described as "an intimidating and enormous job."
Series Producer: Amanda Hancox.
SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal (b01f8r1f)
Child in Need India
Mark Tully presents the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity Child In Need India.
Reg Charity: 1092674
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope Child In Need India.
Give Online www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/appeal.
SUN 07:57 Weather (b01dc8xp)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b01dc8xr)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b01dd5zs)
The Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor Dr Donal McKeown, is the preacher in the fourth of this year's Lent services taking the theme of the Way to Freedom. On this Mothering Sunday, the service reflects on Church as Community. From the Church of the Good Shepherd in Belfast, led by the Father Eugene O'Neill, with Cappella Caeciliana directed by Donal McCrisken. Producer: Bert Tosh.
Download web resources specially written for the series from the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland website.
SUN 08:50 A Point of View (b01d5r25)
Power of the Press
Historian David Cannadine reflects on the power of the press, past and present, recalling how early twentieth century press barons attempted to influence politics. He recalls Stanley Baldwin's response to the campaign by Lords Rothermere and Beaverbrook to topple him as Conservative leader, accusing them of wielding "power without responsibility."
Producer: Sheila Cook.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b01dh7c6)
Paddy O'Connell presents news and conversation about the big stories of the week.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b01dh7c8)
See daily episodes for detailed synopsis
Writer ..... Joanna Toye
Director .....Julie Beckett
Editor ..... Vanessa Whitburn
Jill Archer ..... Patricia Greene
David Archer ..... Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ..... Felicity Finch
Pip Archer ..... Helen Monks
Josh Archer ..... Cian Cheesbrough
Tony Archer ..... Colin Skipp
Pat Archer ..... Patricia Gallimore
Helen Archer ..... Louiza Patikas
Tom Archer ..... Tom Graham
Brian Aldridge ..... Charles Collingwood
Jennifer Aldridge ..... Angela Piper
Christine Barford ..... Lesley Saweard
Jamie Perks ..... Dan Ciotkowski
Joe Grundy ..... Edward Kelsey
Eddie Grundy ..... Trevor Harrison
Clarrie Grundy ..... Rosalind Adams
Emma Grundy ..... Emerald O'hanrahan
Edward Grundy ..... Barry Farrimond
Neil Carter ..... Brian Hewlett
Susan Carter ..... Charlotte Martin
Christopher Carter ..... William Sanderson-Thwaite
Alice Carter ..... Hollie Chapman
Mike Tucker ..... Terry Molloy
Vicky Tucker ..... Rachel Atkins
Kirsty Miller ..... Annabelle Dowler
Jim Lloyd ..... John Rowe
Natalie Hollins ..... Maddie Glasbey
Consultant ..... Tracy Wiles
Kylie Richards ..... Leah Brotherhead.
SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b01dh7cb)
Anna Ford
Kirsty Young's castaway is the broadcaster Anna Ford.
One of the first high profile women in news, she worked for Granada, ITV and the BBC before retiring after more than thirty years on our screens. One of her professional pairings was presenting the News at 10 with Reginald Bosanquet, she remembers how he would try to unsettle her during broadcasts: "I adored Reggie, he would land either obscene poems or love poems on my script just before I was to about to read it to camera and I would catch just a sight of this and it was almost impossible not to laugh."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
SUN 12:00 Just a Minute (b01d0rj5)
Series 62
Episode 6
Nicholas Parsons challenges Paul Merton, Liza Tarbuck, Josie Lawrence and Kit Hesketh-Harvey to talk for 60 seconds without hesitation, repitition or deviation. From March 2012.
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b01dhcg2)
Free From Foods
There's been a huge growth in the range of 'free from' foods over the last decade. Sheila Dillon asks whether this is due to more people being diagnosed with food allergies, or whether retailers and manufacturers are finding their own ways to grow consumer interest in dairy and gluten free foods.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
SUN 12:57 Weather (b01dc8xt)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b01dhcg4)
Shaun Ley presents the latest national and international news, including an in-depth look at events around the world. Email: wato@bbc.co.uk; twitter: #theworldthisweekend.
SUN 13:30 Soul Music (b01b9jp0)
Series 13
Baker Street
Gerry Rafferty's glorious and instantly recognisable hit, Baker Street is the subject of this week's Soul Music.
Rafferty died last year (on January 4th 2011) at the age of 63, leaving behind a widely respected musical legacy. The most popular of his tracks is, arguably, Baker Street:
His daughter Martha Rafferty recalls hearing her father develop the melody in the attic of their Glasgow home; the sound of him picking-out the tune on his acoustic guitar would drift through the push-up attic-door, filling the rest of the house with what would become his biggest hit. She describes the inspiration for the lyrics: a book called 'The Outsider' by Colin Wilson which Rafferty was reading at the time. It's about the sense of disconnection from the world that artists often feel. Martha regards Baker Street as the lyrical version of that book.
Other contributors include:
Musician and founder member of Stealer's Wheel, Rab Noakes. He describes how the legal wrangling which followed the break-up of Stealer's Wheel inspired the creation of Baker Street. "Winding your way down on Baker Street, light in your head and dead on your feet, well another crazy day, you'll drink the night away and forget about everything". Although Rafferty was living in Scotland at the time, he had to endure long meetings at his lawyers, and Baker Street was where he'd meet friends and drink, and sing, and talk the night away. The lyrics explore the conflicting thoughts and pressures Rafferty faced: he wanted to continue with his music, but - as Martha says - he had a young family to support and there was pressure to get a 'normal job'.
Singer-songwriter Betsy Cook whose former husband, the late Hugh Murphy, produced Baker Street, plays through the melody on her keyboard and describes what makes the song work musically. She also recalls the emotional impact of hearing it played at Hugh Murphy's funeral.
For poet, Ian McMillan, Baker Street provided the sound track to his student years; and busker Gavin Randle plays it often on Brighton pier with a backdrop of murmurating starlings, a setting sun, and passers-by dancing arm in arm.
Martha Rafferty's interview at the start of the programme is illustrated by an acoustic version of the track played especially for Soul Music by the guitarist Hugh Burns. He played on the original recording, and explains how he achieved the stirring guitar solo at the end of the record.
Also included in the programme is the original demo version of Baker Street, on which Gerry Rafferty plays the famous sax solo on guitar. It was released late last year on a Collector's Edition of the City to City album.
Producer: Karen Gregor (whose first decision when starting work on the programme was not to mention the Bob Holness/saxophone riff urban myth... so there is no word of it anywhere in the programme...!).
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b01d5qq4)
Postbag Edition
Christine Walkden, Bob Flowerdew and Bunny Guinness answer questions you've sent in to the programme via post or email.
She has visited Turkey 18 times collecting cyclamen...Christine Walkden shares her private collection of plants with Bob Flowerdew and Bunny Guinness.
Our Practical March continues with an illustrated guide to propagation.
Questions answered in the programme:
I'd like to grow a dwarf, evergreen hedge around 4 small beds. Can the panel suggest a suitable alternative box?
Plants suggested were: Japanese Holly or Ilex crenata, Euonymus microphyllus, and Yew or Taxus Boccata, Lonicera pileata, or Lonicera nitida
Is it dangerous growing potatoes in old tyres?
Which are safe plants to edge my pony paddock with?
Hawthorne, Rosa rugosa, Crataegus prunifolia, Sorbus 'Joseph Rock', Sorbus cashmiriana
Plants to avoid are:
Laurel prunus, Yew and Ivy as they are poisonous to ponies.
How can I guarantee my lavender will be in flower mid-June?
Planting suggestions for a late-September wedding: Our colour scheme is green, yellow or orange please.
Suggestions included: Ivy goldheart, Rudbeckia, Inula, Ixia, Eleagnus quicksilver, Daphnes, Wheat, Hop flowers, Marigolds, Nasturtium
Why are the fruits of my Clementine tree so tiny? It grows in a 12" pot, is housed in a frost-free shed over winter and stands outside in the summer.
What is the best time of year to move a tree peony?
Can I re-use the compost in my flower pots if I top up with blood, fish and bone?
Suggestions for drought-tolerant plants, due to look their best around mid-June?
Silver foliage plants, Petunias, Cosmos and Pelargoniums
Produced by Lucy Dichmont
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 14:45 Lent Talks (b01d2h8v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:45 today]
SUN 15:00 Classic Serial (b01dhcg6)
Out of the Hitler Time
Bombs on Aunt Dainty
Having been forced to flee the Nazis, Anna and her family have now arrived in London.
Both Anna and her brother Max face the challenges of life as refugees rather better than their parents.
The second book in Judith Kerr's trilogy dramatised by Beaty Rubens.
Anna ... Anna Madeley
Max ... Adam Billington
Mama ... Adjoa Andoh
Papa ... Paul Moriarty
Dainty ... Thelma Ruby
Louise ... Susan Engel
Mrs. Hammond ... Joanna Monro
Mrs. Riley ... Ann Beach
Barbara ... Tracy Wiles
Cotmore ... Gerard McDermott
George ... Harry Livingstone
Otto ... Jack Holden
Sam ... Malcolm Tierney
Director: David Hunter
SUN 16:00 Open Book (b01dhdd9)
Mariella Frostrup looks at the career and life of Dodie Smith, the author best known for her hugely popular children's story, The 101 Dalmatians, and I Capture the Castle, a teenager's depiction of her family's life in a crumbling castle. Written in 1949, it was voted in at number 82 in 'the nation's 100 best loved novels' as part of the BBC's The Big Read.
With three of her lesser known novels, The Town in Bloom, The New Moon with the Old and It Ends with Revelations being re-published, Dodie's biographer Valerie Grove and Heidi Thomas, who adapted I Capture The Castle for the big screen, discuss her legacy.
Sofka Zinovieff has written two non fiction titles, the first Eurydice Street - A Place in Athens about her experience living in that city for a year and her second about the fascinating life of her grandmother, an aristocratic Russian who escaped the revolution to lead a peripatetic life in Europe. Her latest is a novel, The House on Paradise Street in which she fictionalises the story of Greek women that embraces the last turbulent 70 years of Greek History.
In his fictionalised memoir "Walking to Hollywood" Will Self writes about an author called Will Self. In the book this alternative Will Self meets homeless people played by Toni Morrison and Salman Rushdie! Therefore it's not surprising that he himself is now the subject of a surreal novel by Sam Mills. In The Quiddity of Will Self, he himself becomes the object of adoration and sexual desire by members of the WSC, the Will Self Cult. And Sam isn't the only novelist to base their book around a real living person. Rodge Glass's latest novel, 'Bring me the head of Ryan Giggs', uses Manchester United's popular and long standing player as a way of looking at the underside of football.
Producer: Andrea Kidd.
SUN 16:30 Poetry Please (b01dhddc)
Roger McGough is joined on stage by Harriet Walter, John MacKay, Guy Paul and the poet Paul Henry to read poetry requests on the theme of listening and sounds. Coming live from St George's Hall in Bristol as part of the Radio 4 'More than Words' listening festival.
Poetry is meant to be heard, and Roger has been gathering requests for poems that celebrate the wonder of listening. The results may well include favourites like The Listeners by Walter de la Mare, poems about music, birdsong and the weather. But there will be surprises and new discoveries to tantalise or please the ear, and perhaps the heart too. Paul Henry will read his moving poem The Black Guitar and hears his request 'Counting the Beats' by Robert Graves.
Producer: Sarah Langan.
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (b01d13y9)
Tax Avoidance
How strong is the government's commitment to ending schemes set up to minimise tax? A number of schemes have proved popular in the private sector, including Employee Benefit Trusts. These have been used by football clubs for tax planning purposes, but are now in the sights of HMRC as it attempts to recoup what it sees as unpaid tax. But how widespread are these trust schemes and why are they so popular with companies that have large government contracts?
As the Treasury reviews tax avoidance by senior government employees, it has emerged that employees in other parts of the public sector are using payment schemes that keep them off the payroll. There is growing concern that paying public servants through personal service companies may be inappropriate.
How tax-compliant are the citizens of the United Kingdom? Is there a risk that publicity about the tax-avoidance schemes of the rich, coupled with easier access to information via the internet, could lead to more people trying to cut their contributions?
Presenter: Fran Abrams
Producer: Ian Muir-Cochrane.
SUN 17:40 Profile (b01dc617)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b01dc8xw)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 17:57 Weather (b01dc8xy)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b01dc8y0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b01dhddf)
Simon Parkes makes his selection from the past seven days of BBC Radio
There's not so much a recurring theme, but a mood in this week's Pick of the Week, reflecting the power of human endeavour and endurance when pitted against the sometimes impenetrable, stark beauty of nature.
We find out about the fossilised riches of the South Pole, even though the man who collected them perished there, we hear the quiet but angry poetry written by someone who witnessed the Japanese tsunami of 2011, and then there's the hold that mountains have over nearly the entire population of Slovenia.
It's enough to make us all feel very, very small.
The Narrow Road to Disaster- Radio 4
Sunday Feature: Swansea's Other Poet- Radio 3
The History Plays: Oh Salutarious Hosta, Diana - Radio 4
Afternoon Drama: Interiors - Radio 4
Architects of Taste - Radio 4
Drama on 3: Chowringhee - Radio 3
Alvin Hall in the Bonfire of Vanities - Radio 4
Original Shorts: Under my Skin - Radio 4
Feed Me To The Wind - Radio 4
Costing the Earth - Radio 4
Scott's Legacy - Radio 4
The Essay: Meanings of Mountains - Radio 3
Wicked Picket: The Life and Times of Wilson Pickett - Radio 2
Email: potw@bbc.co.uk or www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/potw
Producer: Cecile Wright.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (b01dhddh)
Emma's woken up on Mother's Day, with a card and present from George and Keira. Ed's planned a special day out at the park, where they chat about the on-going problem of child-care. Emma asks Ed what he thinks about her packing in her job at Lower Loxley. Ed knows she enjoys her job, so suggests she sleeps on it. If she feels the same in the morning, she should go for it.
Helen gets the call from Kylie she's been waiting for, and it's good news. Sharon has said she'll meet up with Helen. Helen hopes she'll agree to let Rich know about Tony and Pat. Kylie tells her not to expect too much.
Helen's excited though, and tells Tom that Sharon must have softened a bit towards them. She needs Tom's help to come up with a ruse to keep their parents off the scent whilst she's in Leeds. They work to devise a plan. Tom reminds her of a cheese buyer on the way. She could visit them at the same time, which would make her day out legitimate. Helen crosses her fingers that he can sort it out.
SUN 19:15 In and Out of the Kitchen (b016ljx7)
Series 1
January 1st to 5th
Mouth-watering entries from the kitchen diary of cookery writer, Damien Trench.
written by and starring Miles Jupp.
In a mixture of narrative, dialogue and recipes, Damien unflinchingly captures every angle of his day-to-day life, "no matter how grisly or, indeed, how gristly".
Damien and his partner, Anthony, deciding on their New Year's Resolutions. They start by finally making up their minds to commit to each other...namely, by signing up a builder, Mr Mullaney to install a new kitchen which Damien hopes will eventually become the food and preparation space that he's always dreamed of.
On top of all this, Anthony decides to get fit and Damien decides to do a radio programme about the French bean. But not everything goes according to plan...
Also featuring Damien's easy-to-follow recipes: for a "Super Simple" Roast Beef, cooking your own pasta, and "Marvellously Moist Muffins".
Damien Trench ...... Miles Jupp
Anthony ...... Justin Edwards
Damien's Mother ...... Selina Cadell
Mr Mullaney ...... Brendan Dempsey
Ian Frobisher ...... Philip Fox
Researcher ...... Alex Tregear
Producer: Sam Michell.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2011.
SUN 19:45 A Father for My Son (b01dhfkx)
Episode 2
The Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott died a hundred years ago, leaving behind a fascinating and talented wife, the sculptor Kathleen Scott. Jenny Coverack's trilogy A Father for my Son is adapted from her own one-woman stage play, written with Robert Edwards, based on Kathleen Scott's autobiography and journals. Having arrived in Paris to study art at the turn of the twentieth century, Kathleen makes friends with the sculptor Rodin, and through him makes friends with the dancer Isadora Duncan. After a series of adventures around Europe, with and without Isadora, Kathleen meets the figure she has been searching for: the one man who is worthy to be a father to the son she desperately desires.
With grateful acknowledgement to the novelist Louisa Young for her biography of her grandmother, Kathleen Scott, 'A Great Task of Happiness'.
Reader: Jenny Coverack
Producer: Sara Davies.
SUN 20:00 Feedback (b01d5qwk)
After The Now Show this week tackled gay marriage, child abuse and the Catholic church some Feedback listeners contacted us with concerns. Roger asks Jane Berthoud, BBC Radio's head of comedy, how her team assesses controversial material and whether in this case the right decisions were made.
Robust and challenging - or simply a slanging match? When presenter Justin Webb first joined the Today programme he said he'd be gentle and let politicians have their say. Then he changed his mind. In this week's programme he joins BBC Radio 5Live's Victoria Derbyshire to discuss the difference between aggression and persistence in the political interview.
And after many Feedback listeners reported hearing the repeated use of "Facades" by composer Philip Glass in an array BBC Radio programmes. we finally hear from the man himself. Ahead of his installment as BBC Radio 3's Composer of the Week, Philip Glass offers his own slightly surreal insight into the popularity of this particular piece.
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producers: Karen Pirie and Kate Taylor
A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 20:30 Last Word (b01d5qvj)
Sherwood Rowland, Lawrence Anthony, James Q Wilson, Jack Chippendale, Joe Thompson and Philip Madoc
Matthew Bannister on
Sherwood Rowland who won the Nobel prize for showing that chemicals used in aerosols were damaging the ozone layer,
Lawrence Anthony, the conservationist known as the "elephant whisperer" who saved the animals in the Baghdad Zoo after the American invasion of Iraq,
James Q Wilson, the neo con social scientist who put forward the "broken windows" theory of crime - suggesting that focussing on low level disorder could combat more serious offences,
Joe Thompson - the fiddle player who kept alive the musical traditions of the black string bands of the American south,
and Jack Chippendale, the respected wooden boat builder.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (b01dc57k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:00 on Saturday]
SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b01f8r1f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 today]
SUN 21:30 Analysis (b01d0rp8)
Nassim Nicholas Taleb: Downing Street Guru
Janan Ganesh of The Economist speaks to Downing Street's favourite intellectual, Nassim Nicolas Taleb - author of the best selling book The Black Swan - to investigate his political appeal.
Producer: Mukul Devichand
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b01dhfkz)
Carolyn Quinn asks the political editor of the Financial Times, George Parker, what he thinks will be in the Budget.
The Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George responds to speculation that the Chancellor will announce he will scrap the 50p top rate of tax. He also attacks Mr Osborne's suggestion that pay in the public sector should take account of regional pay levels in the private sector.
Two MPs take part in the weekly live debate - the Conservative Andrea Leadsom and Labour's Chris Leslie.
Leala Padmanabhan reports on the growth in the number of backbench groups in the parliamentary Conservative Party. And she discovers that so-called 'modernisers' in the party hope to defeat MPs from the Right in elections to the backbench 1922 Committee.
Programme Editor: Terry Dignan.
SUN 22:45 What the Papers Say (b01dhfl1)
Episode 95
Anne McElvoy of the Economist analyses how the newspapers are covering the biggest stories in Westminster and beyond.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b01d2rd0)
Francine Stock meets with Mark Wahlberg to discuss his new film, Contraband, his love of European thrillers, and why his criminal record has helped his acting career.
Polish director Agnieszka Holland discusses her new film, In Darkness, a real-life tale of a group of Jews who hid from the Nazis in the sewers of Lvov, in Poland.
And a celebration of the late director Ken Russell, as Kim Newman reviews a new cut of The Devils, and from behind the piano Neil Brand deconstructs Russell's use of music in his films from Gustav Mahler to The Who.
Producer: Craig Smith.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b01dd5tf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 19 MARCH 2012
MON 00:00 Midnight News (b01dc8yn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b01d2fll)
Private military security; whisky tourism
The MIddle Eastern conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been characterised by widespread deployment of private military and security companies. Their job has been to provide protection to army compounds, aid agencies and governments. Most of these men are American but a third are British. Laurie Taylor hears about new research by Professor Paul Higate, a Reader in Gender and Security at Bristol University. His study finds that British operatives see themselves as cool headed professionals but regard their American counterparts as 'trigger happy cowboys'. But is this perception an objective reality or a self serving illusion? The sociologist, Professor Anthony King, joins this discussion. Also, artifice versus authenticity on the traveller trail.
Professor Karl Spracklen from Leeds Metropolitan University talks about the quest for the 'real' and 'authentic'' in tourism. Whisky tours are now as central to Scottish tourism as buying heather or eating haggis. Has 'tasting a dram' become just another element in the construction of invented tradition?
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b01dhcg0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b01dc8yq)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b01dc8ys)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b01dc8yv)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (b01dc8yx)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b01dhg7y)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Rev Dr Bert Tosh.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (b01dhg80)
Alien Invaders: Charlotte Smith hears the killer shrimp has arrived in the Norfolk Broads. The Environment Agency explains how this inch-long predator has spread from its native territory near the Black Sea, and could now present severe problems for the Broads' delicate ecosystem.
The biggest challenge facing farmers in the next few years is water - whether too much, or too little. That's the view of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. RASE Chief Executive Denis Chamberlain tells Farming Today how farmers in England are changing how they work the land to cope with the drought.
And Caz Graham tries her hand at coppicing - the traditional way of managing woodlands to create healthy habitats for wildlife and to provide wood.
Presenter: Charlotte Smith Producer: Melvin Rickarby.
MON 05:57 Weather (b01dc8yz)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 06:00 Today (b01dhgbl)
With John Humphrys and Sarah Montague. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (b01dhhpg)
Nobel Prize winning author, Nadine Gordimer
Andrew Marr talks to the Nobel Prize winning author Nadine Gordimer. In her latest book she explores the tensions at the heart of a nation struggling to define itself post-apartheid, through the lives of an interracial couple in suburban South Africa. The past and present also collide in the poet Jack Mapanje's attempt to understand why he was arrested by the Malawian secret police, and imprisoned without charge. Richard Dowden looks to the future of Africa to ask whether Chinese investment, an explosion in mobile technology and a growing middle class, means this will be Africa's decade.
Producer: Katy Hickman.
MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b01dhhpj)
Tim Winton: Land's Edge - A Coastal Memoir
Episode 1
by Tim Winton.
Acclaimed Australian author, Tim Winton, recalls childhood memories of Christmas holidays in a shack at the beach, the coastal summer idyll and how his relationship with the sea has shaped his adult life.
Read by Stephen Dillane
Abridged and produced by Gaynor Macfarlane.
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b01dhhpl)
Phone-in: Stay at home or go to work?
If you're a parent and money was no object would you rather stay at home with your children or work outside the home? A recent discussion on this subject provoked such a large and varied response that today we're devoting the programme to it with a phone-in. Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer Kirsty Starkey.
MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b01dhhpn)
Craven: Series 2
Episode 1
Series 2 of Amelia Bullmore's Police Drama 'Craven', starring Maxine Peake as Sue Craven returns to Radio 4.
As impending cuts threaten the staff of the Greater Manchester Police Murder Investigation Team, a case involving dangerous dogs and legal drugs piques DCI Craven's interest.
Her boss, DCI Price (James Quinn) warns Craven to concentrate on the bigger stories that might just save the staff, but Craven has other plans and dog loving Terry Bird, (David Crellin) puts old grievances aside to take on the case.
Craven is determined to prove that the dog bite murder of a homeless man, is part of a new wave of organised crime and the 'legal' drugs on sale at the Pet Shop is somehow linked. Her Boss DI Price has other plans and with DS Watende Robinson afraid of dogs, bending the rules won't be easy.
Producer: Justine Potter
A Red production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 11:00 The Teenage Pregnancy Myth (b01dhhpq)
In 1997 the newly elected Labour government was quick to take measures against teenage motherhood. In 1999 they published a seminal document which became hugely influential in shifting both the public's and policy makers' ideas of the 'problem' of teenage pregnancy. The report was underpinned by a drive to tackle social exclusion. The report's tone was set in its foreword where Tony Blair described youthful pregnancy as leading to 'shattered lives and blighted futures'. But teenage fertility was highest 4 decades ago in 1971 with 51 births per 1000 in women under 20. Since then the numbers have halved.
In this programme Miranda Sawyer hears from leading social scientists who argue that public policy has ignored evidence which shows that far from shattered lives and blighted futures, teenage mothers and their children can and do lead happy, healthy lives.
MON 11:30 Wordaholics (b01dhhps)
Series 1
Episode 5
Gyles Brandreth hosts the comedy panel show in which guests are challenged to display their knowledge of words and language.
On the panel: Jack Whitehall, Milton Jones, Natalie Haynes and Countdown's Susie Dent.
Letter of the week is P which really packs a punch.
We learn why Susie Dent's favourite word is 'blurb', we find out what a Chicago Piano was and we listen as Jack Whitehall struggles to reduce to a tweet a particularly fruity passage from his father's autobiography.
Writers: James Kettle and Jon Hunter.
Producer: Claire Jones
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2012.
MON 12:00 You and Yours (b01dhhpv)
Rate your tenant, eco-cooking and rent a dress
Landlords and letting agencies are creating networks to share information on how their tenants behave. Is it a sensible precaution or all a bit Big Brother?
Some of the UK's most economically challenged areas, like the North-East of England, Yorkshire and the Humberside, have the best potential for economic growth with new fast-growing and export focused firms according to a new BBC Report. But do they receive the support they deserve?
We'll test a new piece of cooking equipment that is claimed to cut energy use and bills. It's not a pot. It's a bag. We try it out and talk to Wonderbag's founder Sarah Collins.
Elocution for employment - elocution teachers are reporting greater numbers of people trying to modify their regional accents to find a job.
One in five company directors in the technology industry admit to rejecting potential employees after checking out their profiles on social networks. Could your latest tweet or Facebook profile stop you getting a job?
And we'll also hear about the women who see the dress, love the dress and wear the dress - without ever having to buy the dress. How to rent a designer dress for the weekend at a fraction of the designer price tag - the founders of Girl Meets Dress explain how it works.
Presented by Julian Worricker
Produced by Paul Waters.
MON 12:57 Weather (b01dc8z1)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 13:00 World at One (b01dhhpx)
Martha Kearney presents the national and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
MON 13:45 Blind Man's Bete Noire (b012fbpq)
The Countryside
In his new series Blind Man's Bete Noire, Peter White explores some of the things which 'get up my nose' about blindness. The four programmes include The Countryside, Holidays, Being Introduced to Other Blind People and Going Slowly.
In the first programme, Peter takes a walk in the Kent countryside with keen rambler Janet Street-Porter, who tries to help Peter find the best way for him to experience and enjoy the countryside.
She suggests that Pete finds a silent walking companion, but they both agree they would not make an ideal partnership as both are too similar in disposition and like to do most of the talking!
Producer: Cheryl Gabriel.
MON 14:00 The Archers (b01dhddh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Stone (b01dhn6m)
Series 3
One of Our Own
One of Our Own written by Danny Brocklehurst.
Final episode in the new series of the intelligent, morally complex detective drama created by Danny Brocklehurst and starring Hugo Speer as DCI John Stone.
When a fellow police officer is found critically injured on the notorious Marinduque Estate, Stone is determined to find the attackers. But with the Governor telling him to back off the case, Stone decides to take matters into his own hands.
DCI STONE ..... Hugo Speer
DI MIKE TANNER ..... Craig Cheetham
DS SUE KELLY ..... Deborah McAndrew
MCCAFFREY/FULLERTON ..... Jonathan Keeble
MIRIAM/WAITRESS ..... Maggie Fox
LEAH ..... Vivienne Harvey
BILLY/LANDLORD ..... Greg Wood
Produced by Charlotte Riches
Audio Drama North.
MON 15:00 The 3rd Degree (b01dhn6p)
Series 2
Swansea University
Coming this week from Swansea University, "The 3rd Degree" is a funny, lively and dynamic 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 15:30 The Food Programme (b01dhcg2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 There is Business Like Show Business (b01dhn6r)
Some of the most lavish and expensive musicals ever staged were in praise of photocopiers, kitchen appliances, insurance salesmen and even tractors...
They were made in the 1950s, 60s and later by companies to motivate their staff.
The people who wrote them were huge Broadway names including Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock (Fiddler on the Roof). They were private performances staged at sales conventions and the music was never made available to the public.
A hidden part of the business world - the only reason we now know about them is that some shows were recorded as souvenirs for the employees - and were discovered by two enthusiastic collectors, Steve Young and Jonathan Ward. They tell Will Young about their favourites - Detroit Diesel's "Diesel Dazzle" and "A Musical Introduction to 1958 - The Shape of Tomorrow" from Westinghouse Appliances.
The UK also had industrial shows. Choreographer and director Gillian Lynne produced "With Lyon's Maid, You're Laughing!" in 1973. Herb Kanzell followed his triumph with The Westinghouse Appliances show of 1958 with shows for British Rail, Oxo and British Airways.
Music played in this programme:
* Somewhere over the Rainbow - Judy Garland from "The Wizard of Oz" soundtrack
* "Tractor Drivin' Man" by Hank Beebe and performed by Bill Shirley - who also sang "On the Street Where You Live" on the "My Fair Lady" soundtrack and provided the voice for Prince Phillip in Disney's "Sleeping Beauty". Tractor Drivin' Man was used in several Ford Tractor Shows in the 1960s.
* "My Insurance Man" from the Continental Assurance Company 1968 show. Written by Arnold Midlash and Robert WeDyck. Performed by Beverly Lacek.
* "Golden Harvest" from the Ford Tractor Show 1959 "Ford-i-f-y Your Future" written by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock.
* "Big and Beautiful" from the 1966 American Motors show "Music from AM Route 66" written by Hank Beebe and Bill Heyer, performed by Chuck Green.
* "Tomorrow, Today" from "the shape of tomorrow, a musical introduction to 1958" from Westinghouse Appliances, written by Herb Kanzell and John Wyman, performed by Marilyn Ross.
* "Nightmare", also from "the shape of tomorrow", written by Herb Kanzell and John Wyman performed by Martin Green.
* "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" from Oklahoma! written by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
* "Monroe Man" from the Monroe Calculator Show 1969, music written by Sonny Kippe, lyrics by Joe Lapidos & Glenn Moore, performed by Diane Findlay.
* "Tele op blues" from the Lyon's Maid 1973 show, "With Lyon's Maid You're Laughing" written by Denis Norden and Malcolm Mitchell and performed by Julia Sutton.
* "The Latest" from Cole National Annual Sales Meeting Show "A Fairy Tale" 1965, performed by Liz Seneff
* "I Never Enjoyed my Operation More" from the Converters Inc show "The Spirit of '78". No composition credits. Cast: Carol Steffen, Renee Kalen, Alice Dodd, Lee Pelty, and Mike Arquette
* "We Were There" from the Detroit Diesel 1966 show "Diesel Dazzle" written by Hank Beebe and Bill Heyer.
* "The Answer" from General Electric's Silicon Division's 1973 show "Got to Investigate Silicones" written by Hank Beebe and Bill Heyer, performed by Ron Young, Paul Eichel, & Joy Garrett. Special cameo vocal appearance by lyricist Bill Heyer.
Producer: Rachel Ross
Firrst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2012.
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (b01dhn6t)
Nigeria
Nigeria is in crisis. Thousands of Nigerians have fled their homes following a spate of Islamist killings.
The attacks have been carried out by a group calling itself Boko Haram which has demanded that Christians leave the North of the country where the majority population is Muslim. Christians have taken revenge by attacking mosques and Muslims living in the South.
Nigeria is said to be one of the most religious countries in the world. Its also Africa's biggest producer of oil so it is wealthy. But more than half of its people live in poverty. Corruption and mismanagement is endemic. So is this conflict really about religion at all, or is religion simply a presenting issue?
Joining Ernie to discuss the role of religion in the conflict in Nigeria are
Dr Jameel Yusha, senior lecturer in media and politics at Northumbria university, Dr Steven Pierce, lecturer in the history of sub Saharan Africa at the university of Manchester and Dr Leena Hoffman who has just completed her PhD on democracy and patronage politics in Nigeria at the University of Birmingham.
MON 17:00 PM (b01dhn6w)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b01dc8z3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (b01dhn6y)
Series 62
India
Nicholas Parsons takes the show to Mumbai. With Paul Merton, Marcus Brigstocke, Anuvab Pal and Cyrus Broacha. From 2012.
MON 19:00 The Archers (b01dhn70)
Kylie's confirmed that Helen can visit Sharon on Wednesday, so it's all systems go.
Pat asks Tom to look through the farm's finances with her. Tom thinks things look like they are picking up. He suggests they go to the bank together next week, so that he can ask for a business loan for the new polytunnel at the same time. Pat wants to run this past Tony first. Now that things look positive, she doesn't want him to feel marginalised.
Emma tells Ruth she's packed in her job at Lower Loxley. They've been very kind about it and she doesn't have to work her notice, so she'll finish at the end of the week.
Ruth is concerned by Josh's worries surrounding the farm. It seems he's picked up on the atmosphere over the last couple of weeks. Ruth assures him that they plan to keep the cows, and that everything is ok with them. David's glad they can put their troubles behind them, and look forward to their new business venture - thanks to Ruth. If Lisa comes up with some solid figures tomorrow, negotiating a loan for the new storage tank should be a piece of cake.
MON 19:15 Front Row (b01dhn72)
Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton; Russell Banks
With Mark Lawson.
Mark talks to Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton, who star as the demon barber of Fleet Street and his partner in crime Mrs Lovett in Stephen Sondheim's musical Sweeney Todd.
Having created the hugely successful Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes has turned to the Titanic story for his new ITV mini-series. Writer and critic Kate Saunders gives her verdict.
Novelist Russell Banks discusses the issues surrounding his latest work The Lost Memory Of Skin, which follows a convicted sex offender on probation.
Producer Ellie Bury.
MON 19:45 Pink Mist (b01dhq6b)
After Before
A new dramatic poem by Owen Sheers about a soldier struggling to return home. Commissioned for the Radio 4 More than Words festival in Bristol and set and recorded there.
There are three comrades: Arthur is back in Bristol and wants to tell the story of his war and that of his friends, Hads and Taff.. Taff is a dubstep 'soundhead', Hads is trapped in a job in a shopping centre; they join up too Arthur's girlfriend and Had's mother and Geraint's wife also appear.
With music by Jon Nicholls.
Episode 1. After Before
Arthur: Carl Prekopp; Hads: Osi Okerafor; Taff: Jordan Bernarde; Gwen: Devon Black; Lisa: Alex Tregear; Sarah: Leona Walker.
Producer Tim Dee.
MON 20:00 Document (b01dhq6d)
Mike Thomson continues Radio 4's investigative history series, examining documents which shed new light on past events.
In 1942, the Vichy regime ruled a large part of France, after striking a deal with Hitler when France fell in June 1940. This left France officially neutral, with a severely limited 'Armistice Army'. Yet British troops were fighting Vichy forces in Madagascar, as they had done in Syria in1941. France, it seems, was more neutral towards Germany than towards Britain; here its collaborationist regime, under Marshall Petain, was viewed with contempt by Winston Churchill and the British people, who instead supported Charles De Gaulle, leader of the Free French.
Yet in this edition of Document, Mike Thomson presents evidence that, not only were the British Chiefs of Staff meeting with representatives of the Vichy army to discuss supplying them with arms, but they were doing so behind the backs of Prime Minister Churchill and the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden.
To investigate, Mike enlists the help of Eric Grove - Professor of Naval History at the University of Salford, Vichy historians Robert Paxton, Henry Rousso and Simon Kitson, eminent French historian Jean-Louis Cremieux-Brilhac - who was one of De Gaulle's intelligence officers, and military historians Max Hastings and Colin Smith, as well as Gerald Bryan, who was badly injured fighting Vichy forces in Syria.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
MON 20:30 Analysis (b01dhq6g)
War Gaming Iran
Could a hot war with Iran be about to start? Israel could strike against Iran's nuclear facilities; Syria is in revolt; the world is on edge. Edward Stourton probes the West's options.
MON 21:00 Material World (b01d2rgl)
A new set of Hominin remains from a Cave in China prove difficult to place in the human family tree. The "Red Deer Cave People" share some traits with modern humans, and some with older relatives. Do they represent hybrids from interbreeding 11,500 years ago or could they represent a new species previously unknown to science? Lead author Darren Curnoe from the University of New South Wales and Dr Isabelle de Groot from the Natural History Museum in London discuss the findings.
Co-curator Ghislane Boddington and Prof Noel Sharkey talk to Quentin about a new exhibition opening on Friday at FACT, Liverpool, called "Robots and Avatars". The vision of numerous artists of a near future where we freely interact with colleagues and friends in the form of robots or remote projections as avatars will be on display. What are the implications for how we live and work?
An update from 'So You Want to Be a Scientist' - Material World's search for the BBC's Amateur Scientist of the Year. One of our four finalists, Dara Djavan Khoshdel aged 25 from Bournemouth, starts his experiment at Modern Art Oxford. He's testing people's emotional reactions to paintings using a skin galvanometer, which measures our micro-sweating. But will the strength of people's reaction match the financial value of each artwork?
Producer: Martin Redfern.
MON 21:30 Start the Week (b01dhhpg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:58 Weather (b01dc8z5)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b01dhq86)
Toulouse school shootings: who could be responsible?
Heavy fighting in the Syrian capital, Damascus. Is the momentum still with the Syrian Government?
Could the Shetland and Orkney Islanders say no to devolution?
With Ritula Shah.
MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b01dq3v9)
Stonemouth
Episode 1
Stewart Gilmour is back in Stonemouth. After five years in exile his presence is required at the funeral of patriarch Joe Murston, and even though the last time Stu saw the Murstons he was running for his life, staying away might be even more dangerous than turning up.
An estuary town north of Aberdeen, Stonemouth, with its five mile beach, can be beautiful on a sunny day. On a bleak one, it can seem to offer little more than seafog, gangsters, cheap drugs and a suspension bridge irresistible to suicides. And although there's supposed to be a temporary truce between Stewart and the town's biggest crime family, it's soon clear that only Stewart is taking this promise of peace seriously. Before long a quick drop into the cold grey Stoun begins to look like the soft option. As he steps back into the minefield of his past to confront his guilt and all that it has lost him, Stu uncovers ever darker stories, and his homecoming takes a more lethal turn than even he had anticipated.
Read by David Tennant.
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 23:00 Lucy Montgomery's Variety Pack (b00wdjff)
Series 1
Episode 3
Peter Andre is revealed as the most dangerous man on Earth.
Multi-paced, one woman Fast Show showcasing the exceptional talent of Lucy Montgomery.
With Philip Pope, Sally Grace, Waen Shepherd and Natalie Walter.
Written by Lucy Montgomery with additional material by Steven Burge, Jon Hunter and Joe Wilkinson.
Music by Philip Pope
Producer: Katie Tyrrell.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2010.
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (b01dhq8q)
Susan Hulme with the day's top news stories from Westminster, where opponents of the Government's changes to the NHS in England have tried to stop them becoming law.
As peers debated the Health and Social Care Bill in the Lords, in the Commons, Labour asked the Speaker to grant an emergency debate on the Government's refusal to publish a confidential assessment of the risks involved in the changes.
At question time, MPs stepped up demands for tough action to combat the wave of metal thefts taking place throughout the country.
In the Lords, a Foreign Office Minister defended British intervention in Libya one year to the day after military action against Muammar Gaddafi's regime began.
TUESDAY 20 MARCH 2012
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b01dc8zr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b01dhhpj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b01dc8zt)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b01dc8zw)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b01dc8zy)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b01dc900)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b01dhqc2)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Rev Dr Bert Tosh.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b01dhqcj)
Anna Hill hears ways to combat campylobacter - the bacteria in raw and undercooked chicken that causes 700,000 cases of food poisoning each year. The Food Standards Agency has set targets to reduce the amount of campylobacter in chicken over the next three years. Professor Tom Humphrey from Liverpool University and Peter Bradnock from the British Poultry Council explain what they think needs to be done to meet these targets.
And farmers are facing tough decisions over what to plant as rivers, ponds, wetlands and streams are all drying up in this year's drought. Many of the crops farmers had originally planned to plant will not survive in dry weather without irrigation. Nick Parrish is an onion and potato grower in Bedfordshire, he tells us the changes he is making to try and limit the damage of the drought to his business.
Presented by Anna Hill. Produced by Emma Weatherill.
TUE 06:00 Today (b01dhqfl)
Presented by Evan Davis and Justin Webb. Including Sports Desk; Yesterday in Parliament; Weather; Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (b01dhrmb)
Tejinder Virdee
Jim talks CERN physicist, Tejinder Virdee about the search for the elusive Higgs boson, also known as the "God particle". Last December, scientists working at the Large Hadron Collider caught a tantalising glimpse of the Higgs; but they need more data to be sure of its existence. Twenty years ago, Tejinder set about building a detector within the Large Hadron Collider that's capable of taking forty million phenomenally detailed images every second. Finding the Higgs will validate everything physicists think they know about the very nature of the universe: not finding it, will force them back to the drawing board. By the end of the year, we should know one way or the other.
Producer: Anna Buckley
Producer: Anna Buckley.
TUE 09:30 One to One (b01dhrmd)
Samira Ahmed talks to Konstanty Gebert
The journalist and broadcaster Samira Ahmed explores some missing angles for One to One:
Samira has spent 20 years reporting breaking news at home and abroad from Britain to Los Angeles to Berlin. Born to Hindu and Muslim parents and educated at a Catholic school, Samira married into a Northern Irish family. As a result, she's aware of the way news coverage can make sweeping assumptions about stories and tries to seek out the missing angles behind the headlines.
Programme 2: From Poland to the Arab Spring
Samira meets Konstanty Gebert one of Poland's best-known and most respected journalists. During Poland's Communist dictatorship, he operated underground; laboriously hand-printing documents which were secretly distributed; avoiding the police who would constantly follow his movements. In One to One he recalls those years, and describes what it was like when he and his colleagues were eventually able to join a free press. He makes comparisons with journalists in Arab spring countries, and discusses what they could possibly glean from his experiences.
Producer: Karen Gregor.
TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b01dnf3q)
Tim Winton: Land's Edge - A Coastal Memoir
Episode 2
by Tim Winton.
The acclaimed author considers the very particular Australian relationship with the sea and describes his encounters with dolphins and whale sharks off the coast of Western Australia.
Read by Stephen Dillane
Abridged and produced by Gaynor Macfarlane.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b01dhrmg)
Claudia Roden on Spanish cuisine and a life in food; The Women's English rugby team who won the Grand Slam; Food and nutrition in old age; Meeting the child you gave up for adoption; Why has Child benefit become such an important issue?. Presented by Jane Garvey.
TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b01dq3t8)
Craven: Series 2
Episode 2
Series 2 of Amelia Bullmore's returning Police Drama 'Craven' starring Maxine Peake as Sue Craven continues on Radio 4.
Impending cuts continue to threaten the staff of the Greater Manchester Police Murder Investigation Team, and a case involving dangerous dogs and legal drugs causes friction as Sue Craven believes it is the key to a much bigger crime Her boss, DCI Price (James Quinn) warns Craven to concentrate on the bigger stories that might just save the staff, but Craven has other plans and dog loving Terry Bird, (David Crellin) puts old grievances aside to take on the case.
Craven is determined to prove that the dog bite murder of a homeless man, is part of a new wave of organised crime and the 'legal' drugs on sale at the Pet Shop is somehow linked. Her Boss DI Price has other plans.
DS Watende Robinson refuses to admit to the rest of the team that he is afraid of dogs and is distracted at work by the impending birth of his first baby. But DS Terry Bird has him sussed.
Producer: Justine Potter
A Red production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 11:00 Scott's Legacy (b01dhrmj)
Episode 2
Can the heroic age of Antarctic exploration show us the way back to the Moon and onto Mars?
One hundred years ago, Scott reached the South Pole. However, more than four decades passed before people went back there. On the Moon, Neil Armstrong took his leap for mankind in 1969 and it has been forty years since the last astronaut left the lunar surface. Presenter Kevin Fong talks to space scientists and historians to find out if Robert Scott's Antarctic exploits provide a road map for future human exploration of the Moon and the planet Mars.
Kevin's quest entails an examination of the underlying geopolitical motivation behind both South Polar exploration and the effort which took humans briefly to the lunar surface. But what would get us back to the Moon and onto Mars - would it be political rivalry, science or transport that was cheap enough?
In times of economic austerity (in the West at least), what scientific questions are important enough to justify exploration of the Moon and Mars? The six short Apollo visits to the lunar surface were enough to crack the mystery of how the Moon itself formed - namely that a Mars sized planet crashed into the early Earth. The molten rock that was blasted into orbit by that collision coalesced as our lunar neighbour.
Sending astronauts back to explore the rocks of the Moon could solve the most important mysteries about the early Earth - when did life first evolve and under what sort of conditions? On the Earth itself all the clues have been obliterated by eons of erosion and continental drift but on the inert Moon there may well be fragments of the primordial Earth on the surface. These fragments were flung there 4 billion years ago when giant space rocks crashed into our young planet, kicking up ejected debris.
As for Mars, the big questions are, is there life there now or did life ever evolve there? If it did originate on Mars, how different was it from life on Earth? If we found life did not arise there, we might wonder whether we are really alone in the Universe.
Kevin asks whether we need to send human explorers rather than expendable robots to tackle these great scientific and philosophical prizes. Assuming that people will do a much better job, who will get them there. Will it be NASA joining forces with the Chinese and Indian space agencies? Or might it be the likes of Elon Musk, founder of the private rocket company Space X - a dot.com and space entrepreneur who has been described as a cross between Bill Gates and Howard Hughes.
Among Kevin's interviewees are Elon Musk and Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmidt, the only geologist (so far) to walk and collect specimens on the Moon.
Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker.
TUE 11:30 Robert Winston's Musical Analysis (b01dhrml)
Series 3
Tchaikovsky
Professor Robert Winston brings a scientist's ear to his passion for music, exploring the medical histories of great composers and how illness affected the music they wrote.
The romantic sweep of Tchaikovsky's music has made him a favourite with audiences for over a century. But is it possible that the extremes of emotion expressed in his best loved symphonies, ballets and operas were the product of a man tormented? Professor Winston examines Tchaikovsky's experience of living as a gay man in 19th century Russia, where homosexuality was illegal, and puts under the microscope the theory that Tchaikovsky's music reveals a man who was psychologically damaged by the conflict between his nature and society's expectations.
TUE 12:00 You and Yours (b01dhrmn)
Call You & Yours: Curbing the number of pupils who are expelled from school
The School Exclusions Inquiry report published yesterday says that exclusions are being used too freely. Almost 6,000 children were expelled from state schools in England in 2010/11.
On Call You & Yours Dr Maggie Atkinson will be in the studio and we want to hear what you think.
Are teachers too ready to expel or exclude pupils for minor offences like flouting school uniform rules or dying their hair?
Or do you believe teachers need more help in excluding badly behaved pupils?
Perhaps you agree with today's editorial in the Daily Mail which says the Commissioner's report is misguided, and it hopes Michael Gove throws it - and I quote - straight into the Whitehall bin.
You can have your say by emailing us via our website - go to the BBC radio 4 website, click on You and Yours and then Contact Us . Don't forget to leave a contact number where we can reach you.
Alternatively you can also call us on 03700 100 444. Or you text on 84844 and we might call you back.
You comment via twitter, use the hashtag #youandyours for your tweet.
TUE 12:57 Weather (b01dc902)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b01dhrmq)
Martha Kearney presents the latest national and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
TUE 13:45 Blind Man's Bete Noire (b012krr1)
Holidays
In Blind Man's Bete Noire, Peter White explores some of the things which annoy him most about his blindness.
In the second programme Peter is joined by broadcaster and travel expert Simon Calder. They spend the Isle of Wight ferry crossing discussing the best type of holiday for Peter to enjoy independence, flexibility and action.
Simon suggests a cruise may well meet Peter's requirements and mentions that there are also tailored holidays for blind people. Peter talks to one such specialist company about the holidays they offer, providing blind travellers with a sighted guide, to enable them to go on holiday on their own.
Producer: Cheryl Gabriel.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b01dhn70)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b01dhrmv)
Noise
A sound-driven mystery about memory loss and trust. Kit knows something isn't quite right, as she struggles to regain her identity after an accident. A new play by Alex Bulmer.
Alex Bulmer was one of the writers on the successful Radio 4 dramatisation of Hunchback of Notre Dame (2008). She is one of the BAFTA nominated writers of Channel 4's Cast Offs and her play My Garden, has been selected as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad at South Bank, with Graeae Theatre Company. Ongoing work includes writing with the Big Lounge Collective on a new theatre piece called Assisted Suicide, The Musical, and an outdoor piece called Breathe, with several other artists, for the opening of the sailing events for the London Olympic Opening Ceremony, with Diversity.
Noise is her first original play for BBC Radio 4. It was inspired by Dramalab, a weekend workshop for writers run by Sparklab with funding from a BBC Audio and Music development grant. After the workshop, Alex came up with the idea to write a play driven by sound, rather than mainly dialogue. She wanted to write a piece about someone decoding and understanding the world through sounds, similar to the way she herself does. She spent time with a sound engineer recording and gradually the story emerged.
Alex says: "I started to consider my relationship to sound, especially sounds which are not expected, and sounds which occur as I move through space. Being blind, I don't rely on my eyes to identify the origin of a sound visually. As such, I can't always quickly understand its meaning. So sounds can exist as noise, for a period of time, meaningless noise, until I am able to give context to what it is I am hearing - an experience that can be at best, intriguing, and at worst, profoundly threatening."
Original music by Alice Trueman
Sound Designer: Eloise Whitmore
Cast:
Kit ..... Effie Woods
Dan ..... Jonas Khan
Helena ...... Sarah Waddell
Matt ...... Richard Teverson
Producer: Polly Thomas
A Sparklab Production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:00 The Global Reach (b01dhrmx)
Episode 3
On the global reach this week, we speak to Dr Jacques Beres, just back from the horror of Homs where he performed 89 operations in 12 days under constant bombardment. He doesn't worry about his own safety, though he is frustrated he can't sit on the floor to eat with his Arab colleagues. He's 71 and has a dodgy hip.
Apostolos Polyzonis was so outraged by the behaviour of his Greek bank last autumn that he set himself on fire in protest. He tells us his story.
Also we have a letter to Kandahar - a very personal reaction to the tragic civilian shootings there. .
And we meet Red Band ... a raucous and irreverent Israeli muppet rock band.
Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (b01dhrmz)
Outbreak
The outbreak of Schmallenberg disease amongst sheep and cattle on British farms has provided a powerful reminder of how novel infections can develop, spread and kill before the authorities have a chance to react.
Scientists are still working hard to fully understand the virus and a vaccine is still some way off so what can we do to protect ourselves against future disease outbreaks?
And how can we discover what diseases could be heading our way? Tom Heap heads to the Kent marshes in search of one of the potential carriers of nasty illnesses: Culex modestus. It's known to be a successful carrier of West Nile Virus - a paricularly nasty illness - and while the mosquito has been found on the marshes of Kent the disease has not made it's way to the UK yet.
Costing The Earth also discovers the vital role social media could play in monitoring future epidemics.
Intensive farming, international travel, global trade and climate change are all playing a role in changing the diseases we encounter. In 'Costing the Earth' Tom Heap asks what epidemics we should expect in the future and examines the readiness of government, the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry.
Producer: Martin Poyntz-Roberts.
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b01dhrn1)
Michael Rosen and guests celebrate nonsense at an event recorded at Radio 4's More The Words festival in Bristol. Michael's guests include the children's writer Philip Ardagh, the actor Paul Nicholson, and nonsense experts Anna Barton and James Williams. With help from an audience of adults and children at Bristol Central Library, Michael will be filling a cauldron with nonsense poems, prose, limericks and tongue twisters, with a few nonsense sounds thrown in to bring out the flavour. And the programme will mark the 200th anniversary of Edward Lear's birth with discussion of the writer's life and work.
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (b01dhrn3)
Frances Barber and Grace Dent
Harriett Gilbert and her guests – writer, Grace Dent and actress, Frances Barber - discuss favourite books by Nancy Mitford, Khaled Hosseini and Margaret Atwood.
From Bristol at BBC Radio 4's More Than Words Listening Festival.
Grace Dent chooses: Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford.
Frances Barber chooses A Thousand Splendid Suns by Aghan-born novelist Khaled Hosseini.
And Harriett Gilbert chooses: Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2012.
TUE 17:00 PM (b01djtx7)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b01dc904)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show! (b01dhrn5)
Series 7
Spanish Elvis
Arthur puts on en event in an ill friends Spanish bar. With Liza Minelli and a Spanish Elvis auditioning, Arthur can do nothing other than perform himself to make sure the night goes off with a real bang.
Count Arthur Strong - one time Variety Star, now sole proprietor and owner of Doncaster's Academy of Performance - is a show business legend, raconteur, and lecturer extraordinaire. He stars in a Sitcom with regular sidekick Wilfred Taylor, Master Butcher, and a host of other characters.
All false starts and nervous fumbling, badly covered up by a delicate sheen of bravado and self-assurance, and an expert in everything from the world of entertainment to the origin of the species, everyday life with Arthur is an enlightening experience.
Cast:
Steve Delaney
Mel Giedroyc
Alastair Kerr
Martin Marquez
David Mounfield
Producer: John Leonard
A Komedia Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b01dhs11)
Jennifer tells Christine about Jamie's hopes of getting a cricket coach for the youngsters. Adam can't commit to it, but he's promised to contact a former Ambridge player for advice. Christine's concerned when Jim approaches her and asks her to be present while he makes an important phone call later. After his recent effusive compliments, she's worried he's got romance on his mind. It's a huge relief when she realises he just wants her to witness him making another compliment, to silence any doubters of his ability to keep his Lenten challenge.
Ruth tells Jill that Lisa, the consultant, has delivered good news. The figures show that their plans should put them back on an even keel within three years.
Brian receives a worrying email from Annabelle. Some of the board members are getting twitchy about the bad publicity for the dairy. With the demonstrators at the market again today, Brian needs to speak to Debbie, urgently. Debbie finds the situation quite absurd. She refuses to let the board throw in the towel and promises to do some sharp thinking to save the project.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b01dhs13)
The Hunger Games; Kensington Palace; Paul Weller on beat poetry
With John Wilson.
The film The Hunger Games, based on the best-selling book by Suzanne Collins, is set in a future dystopia in which young people are forced to kill each other as entertainment. Antonia Quirke gives her verdict.
Kensington Palace is about to re-open to the public after a multi-million pound transformation, including an exhibition about Queen Victoria in the apartments in which she grew up. Writer and biographer A N Wilson reviews.
The BBC's new talent show The Voice begins this weekend, in which the judging panel cannot see the contestants when they first appear, relying only on what they hear. Pop critic Kitty Empire and James Inverne, former editor of Gramophone magazine, consider whether image plays too great a role in musical success.
Poet Michael Horovitz, who is now in his late 70s, has written a new long poem, commissioned by Paul Weller for the cover of his new album Sonik Kicks. They discuss the energy of beat poetry, and the relationship between poems and song lyrics.
Producer Timothy Prosser.
TUE 19:45 Pink Mist (b01dhs15)
Hads's Story
A new dramatic poem by Owen Sheers about a soldier struggling to return home. Commissioned for the Radio 4 More than Words festival in Bristol and set and recorded there.
There are three comrades: Arthur is back in Bristol and wants to tell the story of his war and that of his friends, Hads and Taff.. Taff is a dubstep 'soundhead', Hads is trapped in a job in a shopping centre; they join up too Arthur's girlfriend and Had's mother and Geraint's wife also appear.
With music by Jon Nicholls.
Episode 2. Hads' Story.
Arthur: Carl Prekopp; Hads: Osi Okerafor; Taff: Jordan Bernarde; Gwen: Devon Black; Lisa: Alex Tregear; Sarah: Leona Walker.
Producer Tim Dee.
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (b01dhs17)
A Bridge Too Far?
To the west of Edinburgh, construction of the new £1.5bn Forth road bridge will use steel from Poland, Spain and China.
A local steel plant near Motherwell lost out as part of a consortium bidding for the work. It says the contract could have secured hundreds of local jobs.
Officials insist that they have to follow EU rules which state that any company across the single market can bid for public contracts. But analysts complain that UK authorities interpret these rules more narrowly than their European counterparts, to the detriment of British firms. French public spending goes outside France at only half the rate that British contracts go abroad.
With the economy struggling, the Government has pledged support for British business but accepts that public projects are too often awarded in a way that disadvantages domestic companies. So can it take action to support UK jobs without being accused of protectionism?
Reporter: Gerry Northam
Producer: Gail Champion.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b01dhs19)
Peter White talks to Paralympics athlete Jessica Luke about her sport goal ball and the recent decision to include the sport into the 2012 Paralympics games.
Lee Kumutat looks at the lack of audio described films on online platforms including LoveFilm and Netfilx.
Leen Petre from RNIB explains that the Communications Act only covers linear content, but adds that consumers could argue that under the Equality Act, if they are paying for online services, they should be made accessible under 'reasonable adjustment'.
Leen says that the RNIB is pushing for online services to be made accessible and will be campaigning for this in the future.
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (b01dhs1c)
PCOS, garlic, PSA test, dignity
Dr Mark Porter demystifies discusses polycystic ovary syndrome, the health benefits of garlic, the PSA test for prostate cancer, and concerns over patients' dignity.
TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (b01dhrmb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:58 Weather (b01dc906)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b01dhs1f)
The Government's Health Bill is due finally to reach the statute book tonight - how much difference will it really make for patients?
A series of car bombs rock Iraq.
What do the UK's farmers want from tomorrow's budget?
With Ritula Shah.
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b01dhq88)
Stonemouth
Episode 2
Stewart is catching up with old friends and a flashback takes us back to his childhood when he first met Ellie Murston.
Stewart Gilmour is back in Stonemouth. After five years in exile his presence is required at the funeral of patriarch Joe Murston, and even though the last time Stu saw the Murstons he was running for his life, staying away might be even more dangerous than turning up. An estuary town north of Aberdeen, Stonemouth, with its five mile beach, can be beautiful on a sunny day.
On a bleak one, it can seem to offer little more than seafog, gangsters, cheap drugs and a suspension bridge irresistible to suicides. And although there's supposed to be a temporary truce between Stewart and the town's biggest crime family, it's soon clear that only Stewart is taking this promise of peace seriously. Before long a quick drop into the cold grey Stoun begins to look like the soft option. As he steps back into the minefield of his past to confront his guilt and all that it has lost him, Stu uncovers ever darker stories, and his homecoming takes a more lethal turn than even he had anticipated.
Read by David Tennant
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 23:00 The History Plays (b01dhs1h)
A History of Blair in 9 1/2 Voices
Last in Nigel Smith's series of plays set at key moments in the last five decades.
A History of Tony Blair in 9 1/2 voices stars Jon Culshaw as Tony Blair, lost in the winding corridors of the BBC the day after his resignation. He finds himself sharing a room with Sue (Fiona Allen), a struggling impressionist who assumes he is a Tony Blair lookalike. Blair enjoys the opportunity to talk about himself in the third person, and to show off a few impressions of his own.
A darkly comic but thoughtful exploration of what makes Blair tick, the play gives a compelling explanation for what may have lain behind Blair's early political successes and what prompted his unwavering commitment to the war in Iraq.
Written and directed by Nigel Smith
Produced by Gareth Edwards.
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b01dhs1k)
It's been a right royal day at Westminster, as MPs and peers celebrate sixty years of the Queen's reign. Her Majesty addresses parliament in a special ceremony in ancient Westminster Hall, following introductions by Lord Speaker Lady D'Souza and Commons Speaker John Bercow. Among other things, the Queen reminds the large gathering of the large number of Bills she's signed into law during her six decades on the Throne!
Also on the programme: The Health Bill hasn't been going through Parliament for sixty years but it seems like that. Sean Curran covers the final stages of the marathon debate on this contentious piece of legislation
Plus,
* David Cornock covers the latest exchanges in the Commons on the controversial proposals to shake up the House of Lords
* Simon Jones reports as the House of Lords debates the referral fees used in personal injury legal cases.
WEDNESDAY 21 MARCH 2012
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b01dc90s)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b01dnf3q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b01dc90v)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b01dc90x)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b01dc90z)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b01dc911)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b01dhqc4)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Rev Dr Bert Tosh.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b01dhqc6)
Anna Hill hears Wales' decision to vaccinate badgers, instead of cull them, in attempts to battle bovine TB.
John Griffiths, the Environment Minister for the Welsh Government, explains why he came to this decision.
Arable farmers are having to leave fields without any crops in them because of the drought. James Thorp grows 200 acres of root crops on an 800 acre farm north of Newmarket in Suffolk. He has decided to leave a quarter of his root crop fields fallow because of the lack of rain.
And livestock farmers are taking precautions to try and limit the damage of the drought to their business. Kim Matthews from Eblex tells Anna that if the dry weather continues then it may result in farmers reducing their herd size, resulting in fewer cows and sheep in the UK.
Presented by Anna Hill. Produced by Emma Weatherill.
WED 06:00 Today (b01dhqf8)
Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather, Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Midweek (b01dht1v)
Libby Purves is joined by Timothy and Shane Spall; theatre director Barrie Rutter; biologist Juliane Koepcke, who survived a plane crash in the Peruvian jungle when she was 17, and musician and writer Grant Gordon.
After spending a summer on the Thames, Shane and actor husband Timothy Spall headed out to sea on their Dutch barge Matilda, with only a road atlas and a vast amount of ignorance. A decade before Timothy had been diagnosed with acute leukaemia and was given days to live. Shocked at how life can pass you by they decided that when, and if, Timothy got better, they would buy a boat. The Voyages of The Princess Matilda by Shane Spall is published by Ebury.
Barrie Rutter is the founder and Artistic Director of Northern Broadsides theatre company. This year marks the 20th anniversary of their first production, Richard III. His distinctive approach to theatre is fuelled by his passion for language and his celebration of the richness and muscularity of the Northern voice. The productions are known for being unpretentious, simple and stark, making the audience focus on the language.
Juliane Koepcke grew up in Lima and the rainforests of Peru where her parents founded the Panguana ecological research station. On Christmas Eve 1971, she boarded an internal flight from Lima to Pucallpa with her mother. The plane carrying 92 passengers crashed into dense Amazonian jungle killing everyone on board apart from Juliane. Landing in the jungle, she survived for ten days before being rescued. Now a biologist herself, she continues to fight to save the rainforests of Peru. Her book When I Fell from the Sky is published by Nicholas Brealey publishing.
Grant Gordon is a musician, formerly with The Divine Comedy and producer of the TV series Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity. In his book 'Cobras in the Rough' he tells of how he and his father's relationship was cemented by their shared love of golf. Following the sudden death of his father in 2009, Grant goes to India in pursuit of the golf courses built by the British Raj to try and come to terms with his death. Cobras in the Rough is published by Constable and Robinson.
Producer: Paula McGinley.
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b01dnmr1)
Tim Winton: Land's Edge - A Coastal Memoir
Episode 3
by Tim Winton.
The acclaimed Australian author describes how a childhood of snorkelling has led to a passion for freediving and recalls childhood evenings in the mysterious sand dunes of Western Australia.
Read by Stephen Dillane
Abridged and produced by Gaynor Macfarlane.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b01dht1x)
Katy B
Live music from singer songwriter Katy B, Rachel Joyce talks about her a new novel, "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" which began life as a radio play. We hear from the Birmingham school kids curating an exhibition on children's lives in the 21st Century. And what role could women play in the Church of England under a new Archbishop of Canterbury.
Presented by Jenni Murray.
Producer Ruth Watts.
WED 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b01dq3xp)
Craven: Series 2
Episode 3
Series 2 of Amelia Bullmore's returning Police Drama 'Craven' starring Maxine Peake as Sue Craven continues on Radio 4.
Impending cuts continue to threaten the staff of the Greater Manchester Police Murder Investigation Team, and a case involving dangerous dogs and legal drugs causes friction as Sue Craven believes it is the key to a much bigger crime Her boss, DCI Price (James Quinn) warns Craven to concentrate on the bigger stories that might just save the staff, but Craven has other plans and dog loving Terry Bird, (David Crellin) puts old grievances aside to take on the case.
Craven is determined to prove that the dog bite murder of a homeless man, is part of a new wave of organised crime and the 'legal' drugs on sale at a local Pet Shop are somehow linked. Her Boss DI Price has other plans.
When one of Adams mates dies of a 'legal' drugs overdose, it is clear that the problem is wide spread and a local Pet Shop selling pond cleaner is not all it seems. Craven's 'regular irregular' lover, Macca (Jack Deam) helps out.
Producer: Justine Potter
A Red production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 11:00 North and South: Across the Great Divide (b01dht1z)
Cleethorpes to Coventry
4 Extra Debut. Ian Marchant takes a trip along a very precise line dividing North from South to find out if it's changing.
You can walk the line that separates North from South across England, as mapped by Professor Danny Dorling of Sheffield University. Think of the border which used to separate East and West Germany: a stark division of different life chances. The line which divides the UK is just like that - it's the only comparable 'border' in Europe -according to Dorling.
In these documentaries, writer Ian Marchant travels along the dividing line between North and South, zigzagging the line which runs, rather surprisingly, from Cleethorpes to Gloucester. His aim is to find out what the statistics really mean to neighbours who are separated from each other by a gulf of health, wealth, education, culture and prospects.
Programme one looks at how economic opportunities divide communities on the line, including their health and educational prospects and the type of work available to them. Ian begins his journey just south of Cleethorpes, is buzzed by spitfires, talks to Sir Michael Darrington - ex CEO of Greggs - about different pie-marketing strategies north and south. Professor Danny Dorling reveals the surprisingly clear-cut economic differences he can trace all along the line. Ian also meets Rachel North of West Lindsey District Council to talk about degrees of southern-ness and joins her and some street-cleansing operatives in Gainsborough who are very surprised to find they live in the 'south'.
With his customary wit and deceptively gentle interviewing style he demonstrates so brilliantly in programmes such as 'On the Top Deck' and 'The Ghost Trains of Old England' Ian develops an understanding of what the North/South divide really means to the people who live on it. This is an under-the-skin, thoughtful interrogation of the social geography of Britain using this neat device to dig out fascinating human stories of the real - and changing - meaning of the North/South divide.
Producer: Mary Ward-Lowery.
WED 11:30 Shedtown (b011pkqz)
Series 1
Foundations
Written by Kevin Eldon. Colin (Johnny Vegas) is all at sea as the foundations of Jimmy's dream take shape on the beach. Wes and Father Michael witness the profits of some not-so-spiritual meat.
Cast:
Barry ......Tony Pitts
Jimmy & Johnny ...... Kevin Eldon
Colin ..... Johnny Vegas
Diane ..... Suranne Jones
Dave ..... Shaun Dooley
Eleanor ..... Ronni Ancona
Maureen ..... Emma Fryer
William ..... Adrian Manfredi
Carly ..... Jessica Knappett
Father Michael ..... James Quinn
Wes ...... Warren Brown
Narrator ..... Maxine Peake
Music ..... Paul Heaton
Created by Tony Pitts. Directed by Jim Poyser
Producer: Sally Harrison
A Woolyback Production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:00 Budget 2012 (b01dvyjc)
Special programme presented by Martha Kearney of The World at One and Winifred Robinson of You & Yours. Live coverage of the Chancellor's Budget speech with analysis and reaction.
WED 13:57 Weather (b01dc913)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b01dhs11)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b01dht27)
Series 4
The Old Lost Road
By Nick Warburton. Trevor Peacock stars as inspirational chef Warwick Hedges who runs an upmarket restaurant in the Cambridgeshire Fens with his son Jack. An invitation turns up for "Mr Hedges" to read a poem at a large charity do in the cathedral on Christmas Eve. Both Jack and Warwick begin to practice using the heavily pregnant Zofia as a sounding board.
Warwick Hedges...Trevor Peacock
Jack Hedges...Sam Dale
Marcia Hedges...Kate Buffery
Zofia...Helen Longworth
Samuel...John Rowe
Directed by Claire Grove.
WED 15:00 Money Box Live (b01dht29)
Financial phone-in.
WED 15:30 Inside Health (b01dhs1c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b01dht2c)
Home at RIBA
What does the idea of home mean to us in Britain? How is that changing, and are those new needs being met? A new economic landscape and an irresistible pressure on housing are changing the way we live. For the first time since the 1980s home ownership is decreasing, more people are renting longer and people are starting to club together in bigger groups.
In a special edition recorded at the Royal Institute of British Architects, Thinking Allowed examines the concept of home and its relationship to housing. Laurie Taylor is joined by an audience of the public and an expert panel: Angela Brady, President of RIBA; the housing economist Susan Smith, Mistress of Gurton College Cambridge; sociologist Esther Dermott from Bristol University and the architectural writer Jonathan Glancey.
The event draws on a series of investigations of listeners' homes in which Laurie Taylor and a team of sociologists have explored the future of private life. It will also reflect on the RIBA exhibition on the history of the British Home, 'A Place to Call Home'.
Producer: Charlie Taylor.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (b01dht2f)
The Controller of BBC 1, Danny Cohen speaks to Steve Hewlett about The Voice UK. As headhunters draw up the job spec for the Director General vacancy, what issues can the next DG expect to face? The Times has won a libel ruling from the Supreme Court, what are the ramifications for the press generally? And we hear from editors at this years Press Awards.
The producer is Simon Tillotson.
WED 17:00 PM (b01djty2)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b01dc915)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Life: An Idiot's Guide (b01dht2h)
Series 1
Raising Children
Stephen K Amos and his pick of the circuit's best stand-ups build an idiot's guide to life.
Ava Vidal, Howard Read, Andy Wilkinson and Lucy Porter join Stephen to offer a guide to raising children.
Miss London, Jess Fostekew and Craig Campbell join Stephen to offer an idiot's guide to first impressions.
Producer: Colin Anderson.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2012.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b01dht2k)
Vicky tells Eddie to make a good job of fitting her expensive water feature. Eddie insists it wasn't a scam. It was clear that only the fitting was free, and that shouldn't take long. But Vicky gets her own back by deciding to site the feature a long way from the house. It's going to take Eddie hours just to dig the trench. When he's finally done, Vicky admits it looks gorgeous.
Helen meets Sharon. She explains what the family have been through. Sharon agrees it's been awful but points out that it's nothing to do with her. Helen tries to make her realise how important Rich is but Sharon insists she can't help how they feel. Rich doesn't need his life turned upside down and she can't help it if Tony dies without ever seeing him again. Helen tries one last shot, and asks Sharon to do it for John. At this, Sharon becomes emotional and tells Helen to leave.
Back home, Helen breaks down as she tells Tom it was a disaster. She's blown the one chance they had. She's let Tony and Pat down. Tom tries to console her. They didn't know about Helen's attempt, so they're none the wiser. Tom's really proud of her. She couldn't have done any more.
WED 19:15 Front Row (b01dht2m)
Luther creator Neil Cross; re-imagining Ballets Russes
With Mark Lawson.
Writer Neil Cross created Luther, the tormented detective played by Idris Elba on TV, and also wrote for the acclaimed spy series Spooks. He discusses why he hopes Luther will move from the small screen to the cinema.
A century after Diaghilev's Ballets Russes caused a sensation in Paris, two major British ballet companies are re-imagining the Ballets Russes' most famous works. Mark talks to the 21 year-old choreographer George Williamson who has re-worked Stravinsky's Firebird for English National Ballet, and Mark Baldwin from the Rambert Dance Company, who has created a contemporary take on Debussy's L'Apres-midi d'un faune.
Novelist Naomi Alderman reviews Journey, the acclaimed new video game in which players find themselves in a vast and empty desert.
This week Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner announced he would change a piece of music in the first episode of the new series, set in 1965, after canny preview audiences spotted the song hadn't been written yet. Music writer David Hepworth considers what happens when writers get their musical references wrong.
Producer Ellie Bury.
WED 19:45 Pink Mist (b01dht2p)
Taff's Story
A new dramatic poem by Owen Sheers about a soldier struggling to return home. Commissioned for the Radio 4 More than Words festival in Bristol and set and recorded there.
There are three comrades: Arthur is back in Bristol and wants to tell the story of his war and that of his friends, Hads and Taff.. Taff is a dubstep 'soundhead', Hads is trapped in a job in a shopping centre; they join up too Arthur's girlfriend and Had's mother and Geraint's wife also appear.
With music by Jon Nicholls.
Episode 3 Taff's Story
Arthur: Carl Prekopp; Hads: Osi Okerafor; Taff: Jordan Bernarde; Gwen: Devon Black; Lisa: Alex Tregear; Sarah: Leona Walker.
Producer Tim Dee.
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (b01dht2r)
Tax Avoidance
It's budget week and as usual the papers are dominated by stories of people who, depending on your perspective, are being taxed too much, or those who are not being taxed enough. How and who we tax and how we spend the proceeds is a profoundly moral equation. The current debate over tax avoidance is a perfect example. Tax avoidance (unlike evasion) is perfectly legal, but, according to many politicians and campaigners, it's immoral - a case of the very rich not paying their fair share because they can afford to hire creative tax accountants, while the rest of us good citizens struggle to make ends meet. The rich are different from you and me but why should we require some people to live by a different moral standard just because of the size of their bank balance and where will it lead if we start saying that people who obey the law are acting immorally none the less? At the root of these arguments is our attitude to wealth and with it strong undercurrents of envious wealth-bashing on one side, and contempt for benefit-scrounging underclass idleness on the other. Is wealth moral good, or morally negative? Are our taxes the legitimate price we pay for living in a civilised society that cares for the less well off or an unfair levy on hard work - a form of state sponsored altruism in the name of an artificially constructed version of social solidarity? Is the moral imperative of taxation to be compassionate through the ways in which the state disperses wealth by giving it to the less than productive, or to create as much wealth as possible in the first place without which no-one benefits?
Witnesses: Dr Jamie Whyte - former Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, now works in the financial services sector; Paul Morrison - Public Issues Policy Advisor for the Methodist Church in England; Philip Booth - Editorial & Programme Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs and Professor of Insurance & Risk Management at Cass Business School; Richard Murphy - Tax Research UK.
Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk with Matthew Taylor, Melanie Phillips, Claire Fox and Clifford Longley.
WED 20:45 Lent Talks (b01dht2t)
Martin Wroe
Writer and journalist, Martin Wroe, Martin Wroe explores the ethics of virtue where the individual is at its most divine when working in community.
In the wake of political and social reactions to the financial crisis, austerity measures and the riots of 2011, debate continues to determine the role of the individual and society. The 2012 Lent Talks consider the relationship between the individual and the collective. Is each person one alone or one of many? Is it the human condition to be self-contained or to belong to the family, the tribe, the congregation, the nation? We live in groups but our most intense experiences are incommunicable. Jesus shared a communal last supper but he died an outcast, abandoned and rejected by his people, his disciples and (apparently) his Father.
Speakers of this year's talks include Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University, examines the philosophy of the individual and how this is neglected in many areas of Islam; Dr Gemma Simmonds CJ, explores the agony of the individual in society.
The Christian season of Lent is traditionally a time for self-examination and reflection on universal human conditions such as temptation, betrayal, abandonment, greed, forgiveness and love.
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (b01dhrmz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 Midweek (b01dht1v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 21:58 Weather (b01dc917)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b01dht2w)
George Osborne cuts the 50p rate for the wealthy and raises the tax free allowance for millions.But pensioners stand to lose some of their tax breaks.We assess who has won and lost in the 2012 budget.
Mohammed Merah is under siege in Toulouse on suspicion of carrying out murders at a Jewish school.
Marine Le Pen says France has underestimated the threat from militant Islam.
with Ritula Shah.
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b01dq4w7)
Stonemouth
Episode 3
The story, now, focuses on Stewart's teenage life in Stonemouth, his first meeting with Ellie's grandfather Joe Murston and his deepening relationship with the daughter of the town's boss - Don Murston.
Stewart Gilmour is back in Stonemouth. After five years in exile his presence is required at the funeral of patriarch Joe Murston, and even though the last time Stu saw the Murstons he was running for his life, staying away might be even more dangerous than turning up. An estuary town north of Aberdeen, Stonemouth, with its five mile beach, can be beautiful on a sunny day.
On a bleak one, it can seem to offer little more than seafog, gangsters, cheap drugs and a suspension bridge irresistible to suicides. And although there's supposed to be a temporary truce between Stewart and the town's biggest crime family, it's soon clear that only Stewart is taking this promise of peace seriously. Before long a quick drop into the cold grey Stoun begins to look like the soft option. As he steps back into the minefield of his past to confront his guilt and all that it has lost him, Stu uncovers ever darker stories, and his homecoming takes a more lethal turn than even he had anticipated.
Read by David Tennant
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:00 Tim Key's Late Night Poetry Programme (b01dht2y)
Series 1
Egypt
Tim Key is on a cultural pilgrimage to Cairo, as he grapples with the meaning of 'Egypt'.
Tom Basden plays guitar, while wearing a fez.
Written and presented by Tim Key
With Tom Basden
Producer: James Robinson
First broadcast on BBC Radio in March 2012.
WED 23:15 Can't Tell Nathan Caton Nothing (b01dht5l)
Series 1
About Proud Mums
Nathan's TV appearance make his family re-think. Finally, they're proud of him and are full of encouragement which does wonders for Nathan and his ego.
This is the story of young, up-and-coming comedian Nathan Caton, who becomes the first in his family to graduate from University - only to opt for a career in comedy - much to his family's annoyance who want him to get a 'proper job' using his architecture degree.
Each episode shows the criticism, interference and rollercoaster ride that Nathan endures from his family as he pursues his career against their wishes.
A mix of Nathan's stand-up intercut with scenes from his family life.
Written by: Nathan Caton. Additional material by: Ola and Maff Brown.
Nathan ..... Nathan Caton
Mum ..... Adjoa Andoh
Dad ..... Curtis Walker
Grandma ..... Mona Hammond
Script Editor: James Kettle
Producer: Katie Tyrrell
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2012.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b01dht5n)
Susan Hulme with the day's top news stories from Westminster. The Chancellor presents his budget to the House of Commons, cutting the top rate of income tax from 50p to 45p. He'll also raise the threshold at which
people start paying income tax to 9,200 pounds. Labour says millions will pay more while millionaires pay less.
THURSDAY 22 MARCH 2012
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b01dc91t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b01dnmr1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b01dc91w)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b01dc91y)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b01dc920)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b01dc922)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b01dhqc8)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Rev Dr Bert Tosh.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b01dhqcb)
As parts of England experience their driest 18 months on record, scientists are exploring how much stress plants can take, as a means of helping farmers save water. East Malling Research in Kent believes that strawberry plants can endure more severe thirst than farmers previously thought. Following the Welsh Government's decision not to call a badger cull, farmers in West Wales are now considering legal action to recoup the costs of extra cattle TB testing from the administration. 26 years after contamination from the Chernobyl disaster rained down on the UK, restrictions imposed on Welsh and Cumbrian sheep farms are finally to be lifted. And, Bradley Cora 289, the cow Farming Today is following through a year, gets her first taste of spring grass.
Presenter: Charlotte Smith
Producer: Sarah Swadling.
THU 06:00 Today (b01dhqfb)
Presented by Evan Davis and Justin Webb. Including Sports Desk; Yesterday in Parliament; Weather; Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (b01djnxx)
Moses Mendelssohn
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work and influence of the eighteenth-century philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. A prominent figure at the court of Frederick the Great, Mendelssohn was one of the most significant thinkers of his age. He came from a humble, but culturally rich background and his obvious intelligence was recognised from a young age and nurtured by the local rabbi where he lived in the town of Dessau in Prussia. Moses's learning earned him the sobriquet of the 'German Socrates' and he is considered to be one of the principal architects of the Haskala, the Jewish Enlightenment, and widely regarded as having helped bring Judaism into the mainstream of European culture. Mendelssohn is perhaps best remembered today for his efforts to bring Jewish and German culture closer together and for his plea for religious toleration.With:Christopher ClarkProfessor of Modern European History at the University of CambridgeAbigail GreenTutor and Fellow in History at the University of OxfordAdam SutcliffeSenior Lecturer in European History at King's College, London Producer: Natalia Fernandez.
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b01dnmzv)
Tim Winton: Land's Edge - A Coastal Memoir
Episode 4
by Tim Winton.
The acclaimed Australian author discovers that his relationship with the sea is echoed in his children and their delight in beachcombing: "Gifts and signs wash ashore here on the hard white beach, and I stoop with my kids, some days, and pick them up and hold them to the light."
Read by Stephen Dillane
Abridged and produced by Gaynor Macfarlane.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b01djnxz)
Shelina Permalloo Masterchef Winner
Why are some people always late - is it all down to our personality? Shelina Permalloo on what it means to be crowned winner of Winner of Master Chef. Why depression amongst men needs to be taken more seriously. And how Sport Relief is helping a project that supports trafficked women.
Presented by Jenni Murray.
Producer Jane Thurlow.
THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b01dq51g)
Craven: Series 2
Episode 4
Series 2 of Amelia Bullmore's retuning Police Drama 'Craven' starring Maxine Peake as Sue Craven continues on Radio 4.
Craven is determined to prove that the dog bite murder of a homeless man, is part of a new wave of organised crime and the 'legal' drugs on sale at the Pet Shop is somehow linked. Her Boss DI Price has other plans.
When one of Adams mates dies of a 'legal' drugs overdose it is clear that the problem is wide spread and a local Pet Shop selling pond cleaner is not all it seems.
Craven's 'regular irregular' lover, Macca (Jack Deam) helps out.
As Watende Robinson's wife goes into labour with their first baby, a break, takes the team to a farm in Denshaw where shocking activities and an abandoned child hint at a much bigger crime.
Producer: Justine Potter
A Red production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (b01djny1)
Boybandmania in New York! Matt Wells is with One Direction as they go to number one.
Arrest warrant issued for a former premier in the West Indies: Trish Flanagan on the troubled Turks and Caicos Islands.
The Cambodian Americans being deported from the US: Max Shapira is in Phnom Penh.
Damien McGuinness meets a woman in Baku who says the Eurovision Song Contest will always remind her of losing her home.
And it's a port -- 900 miles from the sea. Sarah Grainger travels to Brazil's booming Amazon river city, Manaus.
THU 11:30 The Topping Tooters of the Town (b01djny3)
'These are the topping tooters of the town, who play "Lilliburlero" to my Lord Mayor's horse through the city.'
In an exhilarating programme, William Lyons (musician and specialist in performance and Renaissance music) celebrates the music of the Waits - a professional band of musicians who played for civic and ceremonial occasions in major towns across the country until 1835.
That skirl of the waits band blasting their way down broad thoroughfares and narrow alleys stirs the blood even amidst the cacophony of modern life. The music of the waits was external and non-exclusive - for the people on the street, not confined within the tapestried walls of the royal court. It could be heard somewhere, every day, within earshot.
We trace the broad repertoire of the Waits, exploring their exceptional place in the culture and life of 16th century England.
They received an annual wage and were granted livery, raising their status above the mistrusted common minstrel.
They were famed in London for their artistry and skill, rivalled only by the Waits in Norwich and occasionally the royal court, although Elizabeth I regularly called upon the waits to play over her own musicians.
Thomas Morley dedicated his 'First Booke of Consort Lessons' [1599] to the London Waits, praising their skill and 'my love towards them'.
They were mostly wind players: shawms, curtals, cornetts, sackbuts, dulcian, recorders and bagpipes.
After their civic duties, Waits were free to solicit work; in London, they increasingly found parts in the new theatres that were springing up through the City and along the Thames. Stage directions in the plays of Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson call for 'hoboys', 'recorders', 'cornetts' and 'shawms'.
Bring on the Waits!
Producer: Kate Bland
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:00 You and Yours (b01djny5)
Rail Networks in the North and the community that wants a supermarket
Presented by Winifred Robinson
Following the Chancellor's budget speech - Ed Cox, Director of the IPPR - the Institute for Public Policy Research joins the programme to discuss whether the Coalition are really doing more than any previous government to improve the rail networks outside of London and the South East.
Residents in a suburb in Bristol are petitioning for a new supermarket. Claire Milne from the 'No to Tesco' campaign and James Walton the Chief Economist from the food and grocery research organisation - the Institute of Grocery Distribution join the programme to look at whether the views of people in Knowle reflect the national feeling towards supermarkets.
Restrictions imposed on sheep farmers in Wales and Cumbria following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster are being lifted - after 26 years. Caz Graham reports.
And, Starbucks has just announced that it will produce a coffee machine to rival Nespresso. Jeffrey Young who produces the London Coffee Guide joins the programme to assess the importance of Starbucks in the coffee wars.
Producer Helen Roberts.
THU 12:30 Budget Call (b01fm541)
Budget Call: The 50p tax rate is cut, personal tax allowances are increased, but pensioners will lose out after their tax-free income is frozen. There are changes to Child Benefit, cigarettes and beer will cost more and fuel will rise by 3p a litre from August as previously announced. So how will Budget 2012 affect you and your family? Will you be better or worse off? Paul Lewis and a panel of experts will be here to answer your questions. Email moneybox@bbc.co.uk or call 03 700 100 444. Lines open at 10
30am.
THU 12:57 Weather (b01dc924)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b01djny7)
On today's programme, as the so-called granny tax makes the top of the political agenda, the Treasury Minister David Gauke tells us changes to personal allowances for senior citizens will simplify the tax system. Plus, Ann Widdecombe discusses if pensioners should take their share of austerity measures.
An independent watchdog says there's a risk government aid to Afghanistan is lost to corruption -- Andrew Mitchell, the International Development Secretary responds.
And Mayor of New York - Michael Bloomberg - talks of his fight against tobacco products and President Obama's golf game.
To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
THU 13:45 Blind Man's Bete Noire (b012qq7n)
Being Introduced to Other Blind People
Peter White is joined by author Sue Townsend who is also blind, to discuss their pet hate of being introduced to other blind people. Peter says that often sighted people will suggest that he meets someone, not because they may have anything in common, but purely because they are both blind. Visually-impaired BBC News correspondent Gary O' Donoghue also comments.
But Peter then meets Irene, June and Kathleen who disagree with his sentiments and point out what they consider to be the benefits of meeting other people who are also visually-impaired.
Producer : Cheryl Gabriel.
THU 14:00 The Archers (b01dht2k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b01djr4p)
Jailbird Lover
Mid-Wales: and a lonely bachelor avoids personal contact as much as humanly possible, despite the best efforts of his well-meaning but nosey next door neighbours.
Gwilym Lloyd whiles away his time, pottering in the garden, learning the harmonica and writing letters to women serving long-term prison sentences in various jails around the world. Women that he knows he'll never have to meet.
When South Londoner Layla O'Dowd is released on early parole and suddenly shows up on the the doorstep of Gwilym's rural Welsh cottage out of the blue, his whole world is turned upside down. In the modern social media jungle of internet profiles and identity theft, the art of letter writing may seem quaintly old fashioned, but that doesn't mean that it's not fraught with the very same dangers.
Craig Hawes is a new Welsh writer. Jailbird Lover is his first Afternoon Drama. He takes a dark subject and shines a comedic light on crime, nosey neighbours, waterfalls, fate and true romance.
The music was played by harmonica virtuoso Julian Jackson.
A BBC Cymru/Wales Production, directed by Emma Bodger.
THU 15:00 Open Country (b01djr4r)
To celebrate the bicentenary of Charles Dickens, Helen Mark visits the Medway towns to find out how important a part the Kent landscape played in Dickens' life and works. Except London - no part of the British Isles features more prominently in Dickens' life than Kent. "Kent Sir - Everybody knows Kent - apples, cherries, hops and women" Mr Jingle, Pickwick Papers. Anyone who's ever thumbed through the likes of Oliver Twist, David Copperfield or The Pickwick Papers will know that the landscape and people of 19th Century Kent provided rich pickings for Dickens. In particular, the clutch of towns around the River Medway including Chatham and Rochester are referenced frequently in Dickens' works. It was growing up here that the author was at his happiest, stockpiling memories he would recycle in later years. Presented by Helen Mark and Produced by Anna Varle.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b01f8r1f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (b01dhdd9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b01djr4t)
Francine Stock meets with Jennifer Lawrence to discuss her lead role in The Hunger Games.
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne discuss their new film, The Kid with a Bike.
Director Andrew Haigh on his indie breakthrough hit, Weekend, about an intimate relationship between two men in Nottingham.
Actor Brian Cox does his best impression of Orson Welles and explains why he'll be performing the entire script of 'the greatest film never made', Welles's adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
Producer: Craig Smith.
THU 16:30 Material World (b01djr4w)
This week's programme features another finalist from 'So You Want to Be a Scientist' - Material World's search for the BBC's Amateur Scientist of the Year. Izzy Thomlinson, aged 18 from Shropshire, tests people's reactions to horrible sounds at the Big Bang Fair in Birmingham. From scraping fingernails down a blackboard to squeaky polystyrene, what is the most annoying sound in the world and do the sounds that make us wince change with age? Presented by Quentin Cooper.
Producer: Julian Siddle.
THU 17:00 PM (b01djr4y)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b01dc926)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Chris Ramsey: Offermation (b01djr50)
South Shields comedian Chris Ramsey brings his Edinburgh Comedy Award nominated show to Radio 4 via the Manchester Comedy store; exploring the notion of 'Offermation' (not very interesting personal information that we haven't asked) and what stuff really makes life meaningful.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b01djr52)
As Usha and Alan look forward to a nice meal with Amy, she asks if he noticed how Amy's friend Carl cropped up a few times in conversation.
Tony's looked through the farm finances and agrees they should ask for a further six months grace on the mortgage repayments. Tom's figures for the polytunnel look healthy but Tony wants to run it past Lilian before Tom asks for a bank loan. She might want them to repay her loan first. Lilian thinks Tom's idea makes perfect business sense, and insists she's in no hurry for her money back.
David admits he's heard that some farmers are talking of moving to another market because of the demonstrations but he doesn't think it'll come to anything. Lilian's heard the rumours too, and is worried about her investment. She tells Brian to get it under control.
Debbie thinks she's come up with a solution - a large-scale pig unit instead of the dairy. She insists the perception with pigs is different. Brian agrees she might be on to something but needs more information, to prepare properly for next week's board meeting. He needs all the "get out of jail" cards he can lay his hands on.
THU 19:15 Front Row (b01djr54)
Greg Doran; Molly Dineen on Werner Herzog
With Mark Lawson.
Greg Doran discusses his appointment as the next Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, which was announced today, and reflects on his priorities in his new role.
Award-winning documentary maker Molly Dineen reviews Werner Herzog's new television series based on interviews with inmates on Death Row in the United States.
The renowned Complicite theatre company's new production is a staging of The Master And Margarita, based on Bulgakov's novel. Sarah Churchwell gives her first-night verdict.
Singer and bass player Esperanza Spalding reflects on her unexpected success at last year's Grammy Awards, and discusses her approach to song-writing.
Producer Stephen Hughes.
THU 19:45 Pink Mist (b01djr56)
Arthur's Story
A new dramatic poem by Owen Sheers about a soldier struggling to return home. Commissioned for the Radio 4 More than Words festival in Bristol and set and recorded there.
There are three comrades: Arthur is back in Bristol and wants to tell the story of his war and that of his friends, Hads and Taff.. Taff is a dubstep 'soundhead', Hads is trapped in a job in a shopping centre; they join up too Arthur's girlfriend and Had's mother and Geraint's wife also appear.
With music by Jon Nicholls.
Episode 4. Arthur's Story
Arthur: Carl Prekopp; Hads: Osi Okerafor; Taff: Jordan Bernarde; Gwen: Devon Black; Lisa: Alex Tregear; Sarah: Leona Walker.
Producer Tim Dee.
THU 20:00 The Report (b01djr58)
NHS Reform
Why are plans to reform the NHS in England so controversial? Simon Cox investigates the tortuous path of the Health and Social Care Bill and asks how the proposed changes may work.
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (b01djr5b)
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. The programme is broadcast first on BBC Radio 4 and later on BBC World Service Radio, BBC World News TV and BBC News Channel TV.
Evan's executive panel talk about decision making using examples from their professional life. A chance to see what their jobs consist of and a chance too to think about how we all make choices, for better or worse. They also swap thoughts on stress - their own and that of their employees.
Joining Evan are Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of advertising and media company WPP; David Jones, global chief executive of France-based advertising group Havas; Nicola Horlick, chairman of investment fund Rockpool Investments.
Producer: Ben Crighton
Editor: Richard Vadon.
THU 21:00 Scott's Legacy (b01dhrmj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Tuesday]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (b01djnxx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 21:58 Weather (b01dc928)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b01djr5d)
Philippa Thomas presents national and international news and analysis.
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b01dq51j)
Stonemouth
Episode 4
A game of pool in the present and a teenage game of paintball start harmlessly but turn violent and deadly in today's episode of Iain Banks' novel.
Stewart Gilmour is back in Stonemouth. After five years in exile his presence is required at the funeral of patriarch Joe Murston, and even though the last time Stu saw the Murstons he was running for his life, staying away might be even more dangerous than turning up. An estuary town north of Aberdeen, Stonemouth, with its five mile beach, can be beautiful on a sunny day.
On a bleak one, it can seem to offer little more than seafog, gangsters, cheap drugs and a suspension bridge irresistible to suicides. And although there's supposed to be a temporary truce between Stewart and the town's biggest crime family, it's soon clear that only Stewart is taking this promise of peace seriously. Before long a quick drop into the cold grey Stoun begins to look like the soft option. As he steps back into the minefield of his past to confront his guilt and all that it has lost him, Stu uncovers ever darker stories, and his homecoming takes a more lethal turn than even he had anticipated.
Read by David Tennant
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 23:00 News Quiz USA (b019rlp1)
The News Quiz gets a US makeover with an all-American panel.
With the US election this year, turmoil in the Middle East, financial insecurity all around - not to mention a recent visit from the British Prime Minister - a team of US comedians dissect the headlines as the News Quiz format crosses the Atlantic.
The Daily Show's Lewis Black hosts. The panel are: top comic commentator (and TIME magazine's top Twitterer) Andy Borowitz; comic headliner and actor Todd Barry; ex-journalist-turned top stand-up Kathleen Madigan; and topical comedian Ted Alexandro.
Producer: Sam Bryant.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b01djr5g)
The Business Secretary and the Shadow Chancellor clash over George Osborne's decision to cut the 50 pence top rate of tax.
Labour calls for an inquiry into how many of the Chancellor's plans found their way into the media before they were delivered to Parliament.
The House of Lords also debates the economy in the wake of the Budget.
And MPs question police chiefs about plans to let private companies take on some of the duties currently carried out by uniformed officers.
David Cornock and team report on today's events in Parliament.
FRIDAY 23 MARCH 2012
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b01dc92v)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b01dnmzv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b01dc92x)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b01dc92z)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b01dc931)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b01dc933)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b01dhqcd)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Rev Dr Bert Tosh.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b01dhqcg)
The strict rules on selling unpasteurised milk in England are to be reviewed. At the moment it can only be bought direct from the farmer, and it has been banned in Scotland. The Food Standards Agency is concerned about raw milk being sold via the internet and vending machines. The Association of Unpasteurised Milk Producers and Consumers thinks a review isn't needed. And, Charlotte Smith finds out how pears can be grown with less water in Kent. She also discusses a new research project to breed drought resistant peas, at the Food and Environment Research Agency in York.
Presenter: Charlotte Smith
Producer: Sarah Swadling.
FRI 06:00 Today (b01dhqfd)
Presented by John Humphrys and James Naughtie. Including Sports Desk; Yesterday in Parliament; Weather; Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b01dh7cb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b01dnn41)
Tim Winton: Land's Edge - A Coastal Memoir
Episode 5
by Tim Winton.
In a specially-commissioned coda, the acclaimed author describes how the increasingly threatened and fragile marine ecology has turned him into an environmental campaigner in Western Australia.
Read by Stephen Dillane
Abridged and produced by Gaynor Macfarlane.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b01djrp5)
Kay Mellor and the Lottery, Childcare Manuals, Working Class Feminism and New Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood
Childcare manuals can leave women feeling inadequate and confused. So are they a help or a hindrance? Angela Davis and Penelope Leach discuss. Leanne Wood has been described as radical, feminist, republican and pro-independence. And The new leader of Plaid Cyrmu talks about her new role. As a group of bus drivers from Corby celebrate their lottery win, Kay Mellor talks about her new drama about five workers at a cut-price supermarket in Leeds whose lives are turned upside down after their lottery win She is joined by lottery winner Elaine Thompson.
FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b01dq55j)
Craven: Series 2
Episode 5
Series 2 of Amelia Bullmore's retuning Police Drama 'Craven' starring Maxine Peake as Sue Craven concludes on Radio 4.
Craven is determined to prove that the dog bite murder of a homeless man, is part of a new wave of organised crime and the 'legal' drugs on sale at the Pet Shop is somehow linked. Her Boss DI Price has other plans.
When one of Adams mates dies of a 'legal' drugs overdose it is clear that the problem is wide spread and a local Pet Shop selling pond cleaner is not all it seems. Craven's 'regular irregular' lover, Macca (Jack Deam) helps out.
As Watende Robinson's wife goes into labour with their first baby, a break, takes the team to a farm in Denshaw where shocking activities and an abandoned child hint at a much bigger crime with big fish Tony Lau at its heart.
But it is the pack mentality of the women on the drug addled estate that brings the investigation to an end. We finish series two as the axe falls on the job of one member of the team.
Producer: Justine Potter
A Red production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 11:00 The I Love You Bridge (b01302s4)
A quest for the original lovers of the 'I Love You Bridge' - a fabulously incongruous message painted on a footbridge on a hollowed-out housing estate in Sheffield.
Presented by feature film maker, opera director and screenwriter, Penny Woolcock, in her first radio documentary.
Perhaps you quietly ask yourself "How do they live like this." / Then out of nowhere the answer / "I love you"/ scrawled on the highest bridge." (Rowan Blair Colver). Funny how graffiti can transform cement. How a simple love message scrawled on a bridge between two empty flanks of Brutalist flats can lift our hearts. That's what happened when somebody, somehow, leaned over the perilous edge of this narrow footbridge on Norwich Row at Park Hill flats, high above Sheffield's train station, and painted:
Clare Middleton I love you will u marry me
We call it The I Love You Bridge. It's visible for miles, from town. When we set off on this journey we don't know who wrote it or when, or even if it all went up at once. We don't know whether she said 'Yes' or what happened next. Nobody knows, not even the people who've worked on the Estate for years - caretaker, needle exchange worker, decorator, or the few (like writer, Rowan, above) who still live there; not even the local builders who are regenerating the first flank that the bridge links.
In this programme we follow up all kinds of rumours in the hope of sourcing the graffiti and its lovers.
Producer: Frances Byrnes
A Rockethouse Production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 11:30 A Charles Paris Mystery (b01djrp9)
A Reconstructed Corpse
Episode 4
by Jeremy Front.
Based on the Novel by Simon Brett
Charles finds the final piece in the macabre
jigsaw puzzle of murder but not before his own life
comes under attack.
Charles ..... Bill Nighy
Frances ..... Suzanne Burden
Maurice ..... Jon Glover
Chloe Earnshaw ..... Francine Chamberlain
Superintendent Sorsby ..... Gerard McDermott
Sam Noakes ..... Adjoa Andoh
Martin Earnshaw ..... James Lailey
Directed by Sally Avens
Bill Nighy returns as the irrepressible Charles Paris: unsuccessful actor, bad husband and dypsomaniac. Charles is once again in need of work and to make things worse he's been kicked out by Frances after inadvertently starting a riot outside her house. Any job will do so when he is offered work in a crime reconstruction programme playing a missing property developer he leaps at the chance. But a missing person case soon turns to murder when severed body parts begin to appear. Television ratings soar as the public tune in to discover every gory detail of the case. The raging egos and jealous manoeuvrings of the producers, presenters and the police soon provide a long list of suspects for Charles to investigate as he pieces together a macabre jigsaw puzzle of murder.
Simon Brett has written numerous Charles Paris novels, which have been used as the basis for the Radio 4 series by Jeremy Front.
FRI 12:00 You and Yours (b01djrpc)
Fired headteachers, not-for-profit petrol station & railway retailers
The union claiming that school head teachers are being "fired like football managers"
We visit the village where, fed up with travelling miles for fuel, members of the local community have rallied around to launch their own not-for-profit petrol station.
And the changing face of the modern railway station that's more about the shopping than train tickets or transport.
Presented by Peter White
Produced by Jon Douglas.
FRI 12:57 Weather (b01dc935)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b01djrpf)
The government has announced that the cost of a unit of alcohol in England and Wales should be at least 40 pence. With Scotland already legislating along those lines, we ask what's the evidence it'll reduce how much we drink?
The human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson gives his opinion on the move to ban President Assad's wife Asma from travelling to the European Union.
We look ahead to this weekend's elections in Hong Kong.
We visit Salzburg to hear a recently re-discovered work by Mozart. And Falcon Scott -- grandson of the polar explorer -- tells us why the achievements of the Terra Nova expedition still endure.
To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
FRI 13:45 Blind Man's Bete Noire (b012wdjk)
Going Slowly
In the final programme of the series, Peter White explores his bete noire of Going Slowly with record-breaking Steve Cunningham ("the fastest blind man on the planet") about why sighted people try to slow him down.
Comedian Nick Hancock explains to Peter the joys of fishing but he remains unconvinced about the benefits of sitting still for a long time, doing apparently nothing.
Visually-impaired BBC News correspondent Gary O' Donoghue also comments.
Peter finally experiences ultimate freedom by running full pelt along a Northumbrian beach.
Producer: Cheryl Gabriel.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b01djr52)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b01djrpk)
Ben Musgrave - The British Club
Sub-Inspector Mondol is a Bangladeshi detective with a few problems: a body in a pool, a tight, ex-pat British community and a Superintendent who doesn't want to rock the boat. All too swiftly, Mondol finds himself in the murky world of unregulated property development, heroin addiction and bribery. What choices will he make? A compelling detective story by award winning writer Ben Musgrave.
Pianist.....Dave Morecroft
Cultural Consultant.....Sabir Mustafa
Language Advisor.....Manoshi Barua
Produced and directed by Sarah Bradshaw
Notes
Ben Musgrave grew up in Bangladesh, India and Britain. An experienced theatre writer, Ben won first prize in the 2007 inaugural Bruntwood playwriting competition at the Manchester Royal Exchange. Ben's most recent stage play 'His Teeth' was described by The Manchester Guardian as 'entirely gripping'. This is Ben's first play for radio and he emerged through the BBC Writers Room "Sparks" scheme.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b01djrpm)
Muckhart, Clackmannanshire
Eric Robson chairs a programme with guest panellist Carole Baxter.
Practical March continues with an in-depth guide to 'Sowing and Planting' ; germination, soil preparation, bare-root planting -all explained.
In addition, will the violet ground beetle help me tackle the New Zealand flatworms in my garden? How can I make use of my moss?
Questions answered in the programme:
Can I combat the New Zealand flatworm problem in my garden with violet ground beetles? How can I encourage them in my garden?
How do I best use my farmyard manure on the veg.bed, fruit trees & flowerbed: Do I dig it in or mulch? At what point do I plant?
Should I prune my Saskatoon bush otherwise known as Amelanchier?
What variety of apple tree might survive the unfavourable conditions in this part of Scotland, with gravely and shallow soil?
Suggestions included: Discovery, Sunset & Fiesta.
Why won't my Skimmia produce berries?
Can you move a well-established Edgeworthia and when?
What is the best way to cultivate an indoor Azalea?
I've a pair of standard roses. One has 5 shoots and the other has 2. Would you graft extra shoots on?
Can you compost moss? How can I keep my border moss-free?
Produced by Howard Shannon
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:45 Original Shorts (b01djrpp)
Series 5
Judgement
The jurors in this case plainly disapprove of aging defence barrister Harry Fox as he shambles into court in his torn gown. He believes 'better a hundred guilty men go free, than one innocent man be convicted.' But this case may be different.
As Fox defends his client, he can see the jurors' hearts going out to the fragile-looking victim in the case. They stare at Fox as if to say - how can you defend a rapist? Have you no conscience? But then, something curious come to light in the courtroom. Will old Harry have to exercise his own 'judgement'? The denouement is unexpected and rather shocking. Successful barrister and novelist Olly Jarvis has written this brand-new story especially for Original Shorts. It's given a masterly performance by Tim Pigott-Smith.
Director: Martin Jarvis
A Jarvis & Ayres Production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b01djsfl)
Matthew Bannister on:
His holiness Pope Shenouda the third, leader of the Coptic church who had to defend his flock in Egypt from violence and persecution.
His Majesty King George Tupou the fifth - the colourful king of Tonga who trained at Sandhurst and introduced democracy to his island people.
Maurice Andre, the virtuoso French trumpeter.
Iran's first successful female novelist Simin Daneshvar
And Chaleo Yoovidhya - the Thai entrepreneur who made billions from the Red Bull energy drink.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (b01djsfn)
Who are all those people laughing on Count Arthur Strong's Radio 4 comedy show? Not Feedback listeners who want to know why he's still on air after seven series.
Listeners find all the spin and speculation ahead of Wednesday's budget a turn-off. Can't we just wait until we actually know what the Chancellor is going to say they wonder?
Paddy O'Connell opens the doors of Broadcasting House during a special recording of the programme at the More Than Words Festival in Bristol. But does anyone want to come in?
And are the pauses in The Archers getting longer and what could you fill them with?
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producers: Karen Pirie and Kate Taylor
A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 17:00 PM (b01djsfq)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news. Including Weather.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b01dc937)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The Now Show (b01djsfs)
Series 36
Episode 6
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis with topical, comical sketches and stand up with Jon Holmes, Nathan Caton, Mitch Benn and Laura Shavin.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b01djsfv)
Helen receives a surprise call from Kylie. Something good has come out of Helen's visit. Kylie and Eamon have talked to Sharon about everything. Sharon has agreed that Eamon can bring Rich down to Bridge Farm on Sunday. She's spoken to Rich and explained the situation.
Annabelle isn't keen on Debbie's new proposal. Brian takes her through the figures and explains that with European producers set to move out of pork, and new welfare regulations coming in, this is exactly the right time to invest. Annabelle's not convinced the plan would stop the protestors and feels the board will believe Brian has lost confidence in the whole scheme. This could result in Brian being edged out. If he believes in the dairy unit, he should fight for it and convince the board he's right.
Pat and Tony and mystified when Tom and Helen sit them down. Helen explains about her visit to Sharon, who has now told Rich that the people he met at the Christmas market are his grandparents. Pat and Tony are blown away, especially when they learn Rich could be visiting on Sunday if they want it. Of course they do. They can't thank Helen enough.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b01djsfx)
Jonny Greenwood and composer Krzysztof Penderecki; Brains - the exhibition.
With John Wilson.
The new TV drama series The Syndicate, written by Kay Mellor, is the tale of a group of supermarket workers who win the lottery. It stars Joanna Page and Timothy Spall. Heat TV Editor Boyd Hilton reviews.
Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki discuss how their music appears side by side on a new recording. Penderecki inspired a new orchestral work by Greenwood, and they reflect on their approaches to composition.
A major new exhibition focuses on the brain, both in the name of science and culture, with exhibits ranging from a specimen of Einstein's brain to paintings by Descartes. John looks at the brains with neuroscientist Tali Sharot and cultural historian Marius Kwint.
This week Disney announced that their film John Carter, which is set on Mars, is likely to lose $200m. Adam Smith examines why so many films about Mars and Martians flop at the box office.
Producer Tim Prosser.
FRI 19:45 Pink Mist (b01djsfz)
Home to Roost
A new dramatic poem by Owen Sheers about a soldier struggling to return home. Commissioned for the Radio 4 More than Words festival in Bristol and set and recorded there.
There are three comrades: Arthur is back in Bristol and wants to tell the story of his war and that of his friends, Hads and Taff.. Taff is a dubstep 'soundhead', Hads is trapped in a job in a shopping centre; they join up too Arthur's girlfriend and Had's mother and Geraint's wife also appear.
With music by Jon Nicholls.
Episode 5 Home to Roost
Arthur: Carl Prekopp; Hads: Osi Okerafor; Taff: Jordan Bernarde; Gwen: Devon Black; Lisa: Alex Tregear; Sarah: Leona Walker.
Producer Tim Dee.
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b01djsg1)
High Wycombe
Jonathan Dimbleby chairs a discussion of news and politics from Buckinghamshire New University, High Wycombe with Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Rachel Reeves; Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude; Editor of The New Statesman, Jason Cowley; and Editor of Conservative Home, Tim Montgomerie.
Producer: Victoria Wakely.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b01djsg3)
The Fashion for Westerns
David Cannadine recalls the heyday of cinema and television Westerns and wonders if the makers of a big screen adaptation of the Lone Ranger will capture a new audience when the film is released next year. Despite the decline in popularity of the Western, "the appeal of the mythical West has remained a powerful force in American political life."
Producer: Sheila Cook.
FRI 21:00 Inside the Bermuda Triangle: The Mysteries Solved (b01dljk3)
Episode 1
In this first of two omnibus editions of his series from 2009, Tom Mangold begins an epic quest to uncover the truth behind one of the world's most famous mysteries.
The Bermuda Triangle is one of the great iconic stories of our time. Within its half million square mile borders between Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico some 1000 people are said to have perished in the sixty or so ships and planes that have vanished without trace since 1854.
The stories are legend.
From the USS Cyclops en route from Barbados to Baltimore with 300 people which vanished in 1918 and has never been found - to the most recent Triangle event in 2002 - the disappearance of a small Piper Pawnee airplane over the Bahamas - the mystery persists.
Tom Mangold turns his journalistic skills to the myth of the Bermuda Triangle - and separates fact from fiction, speculation from recorded history, and barefaced lies from long forgotten truths. He discovers just was the genesis of the story, how it grew, and why it persists to this day.
In the process he'll be speaking to the authors who first spun the tales of inexplicable events in the area, investigating some of the supposed mysteries in the light of new evidence, and travelling around the Triangle itself to find out if there really is anything out there.
Think you know the truth behind the mystery? Think again. And join Tom Mangold as he travels - Inside The Bermuda Triangle.
Producer: Adam Fowler
A Ladbroke production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b01dc939)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b01djsg5)
A young man in the Syrian city of Homs tells us there's been heavy bombardment today and people are no long afraid of dying, while Kofi Annan's spokesman says that international diplomacy has reached a critical moment.
We'll hear from Canada about how they've used minimum alcohol pricing
And we have a reporter in the French city of Nimes as the country tries to come to terms with the shootings in Toulouse and Montauban.
The World Tonight with Philippa Thomas.
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b01dq55x)
Stonemouth
Episode 5
Stewart's return to Stonemouth causes tensions to rise with the Murston family. These reach a peak with Ellie's brothers kidnapping Stewart and threatening him high above the churning waters flowing beneath the suspension bridge.
Stewart Gilmour is back in Stonemouth. After five years in exile his presence is required at the funeral of patriarch Joe Murston, and even though the last time Stu saw the Murstons he was running for his life, staying away might be even more dangerous than turning up. An estuary town north of Aberdeen, Stonemouth, with its five mile beach, can be beautiful on a sunny day.
On a bleak one, it can seem to offer little more than seafog, gangsters, cheap drugs and a suspension bridge irresistible to suicides. And although there's supposed to be a temporary truce between Stewart and the town's biggest crime family, it's soon clear that only Stewart is taking this promise of peace seriously. Before long a quick drop into the cold grey Stoun begins to look like the soft option. As he steps back into the minefield of his past to confront his guilt and all that it has lost him, Stu uncovers ever darker stories, and his homecoming takes a more lethal turn than even he had anticipated.
Read by David Tennant
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 23:00 A Good Read (b01dhrn3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b01djsg7)
Mark D'Arcy reports on the latest effort to crackdown on binge drinking. The Home Secretary, Theresa May, made a statement in the Commons to announce plans for a a minimum price per unit of alcohol in England and Wales. Ministers hope a price hike could change the behaviour of the people who currently cause the most problems for hospitals and the police.
And MPs carry on debating the Budget. Today they concentrated on transport policy. The Transport Secretary, Justine Greening, told MPs the UK would keep its status as an international aviation hub in the face of "tough challenges",
Mark looks ahead to next week in the Commons and a debate on assisted dying. And he hears about the plight of people who've fallen victim to rogue owners of mobile home parks.