The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The story of a city's transformation through its music, taking in the wave of Commonwealth immigration in the '40s right up to the present day.
In the final episode, jungle and garage pave the way for grime, a style which has crossed over into the mainstream.
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Revd Dr Michael Ford.
'ADHD has its benefits' - an iPM listener tells us why she won't be taking her medication. Presented by Eddie Mair and Jennifer Tracey. Email iPM@bbc.co.uk.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Helen Mark visits Longshaw Estate in Derbyshire to meet some very special ants...
The northern hairy wood ant has an international, near-threatened conservation status with England's two main populations found in the Peak District (including Longshaw) and in the North York Moors. In a cutting edge experiment in communication and conservation, Samuel Ellis, a biologist from the University of York, will be attaching a one millimetre radio receiver to each ant in a bid to understand how the ants communicate and commute between the vast network of nests. 'The way the ants use this network has important implications for how they interact with their environment. And the way information is passed through the network may even have implications for our information and telecommunications networks.' The findings will also influence how the landscape is managed and how the habitat can be improved for the ants.
Longshaw Estate is home to more than a thousand nests containing 50 million worker ants. Helen hears from Chris Millner, National Trust Area Ranger at Longshaw who has worked alongside these industrious creatures for many years and from the other non-ant residents of the estate who regularly find themselves surrounded by ants as big as your thumb nail.
What happens when the harvest gets rained off? Caz Graham heads to Overbury Farms on the Gloucestershire-Worcestershire border and discovers there's no time to stand around kicking your heels. Farm manager Jake Freestone takes her on the tour of the 1,500 hectare farm and reveals what goes on when the combine is out of action.
She gets a look inside the grain store where the whirring grain dryer has been fired up to reduce moisture levels in the wheat and barley. In an ideal world the sunshine would do that job, but after a week of scattered showers, many farmers are spending money on drying out their grain.
They also look at this year's crop of straw - an essential by-product of arable farming which benefits the livestock. Jake explains how their straw is used as bedding for the sheep over winter.
Susan Twining from agricultural consultants ADAS joins Caz on the farm to discuss their latest UK harvest report, and progress nationwide. And despite the rainy weather, Caz isn't disappointed. She still gets to sit in the cab of a combine harvester...and turn the key.
Presented by Caz Graham. Produced by Anna Jones.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Richard Coles and Suzy Klein entertain musician and broadcaster, Tom Robinson, hear the Inheritance Tracks of Django Bates, meet Simon Hood who cycled to every York City Football Club match over a whole season and Nina Wilson who cycled to every town and village in Norfolk, examine the allure of beer with beer sommelier Jane Peyton, talk to the last surviving British 'Dam Buster' George 'Johnny' Johnson and immerse themselves in the genteel atmosphere of Morecambe as JP Devlin meets people from the town for a Saturday Live 'Crowdscape'
Another perplexing case for our best loved, though slightly unusual PI, Steve Punt.
His methods may be unconventional but this time Steve is hot on the trail of two gun makers, William Cantelo and Hirum Maxim, and the story begins in Southampton.
Late in the 19th century strange noises could be heard from a cellar beneath a pub near the Southampton docks. It was rumoured that gun maker William Cantelo was inventing a rapid firing gun, capable of destroying the enemy and certain to make its inventor very rich.
Eventually William Cantelo emerged from his cellar with the news that his invention was complete and that he was going to take a much needed holiday, which he did, taking his new invention with him. But that was the last his family saw of him, "he simply vanished into the void."
Eventually his two sons began a search to find out what had happened to their father. When they saw a picture of the American inventor Hirum Maxim in a national paper with his new invention, a rapid firing machine gun, they were shocked; he was the spitting image of their own father William Cantelo. The sons both tried in vain to talk to Maxim, on one occasion at Victoria station as Maxim was catching a train, but to no avail. They were convinced that this Maxim was their father and that gun was the same gun that Cantelo had invented but they were never able to prove it.
Maxim died a very rich man having made millions from the invention which slaughtered millions in the Great War. Cantelo's last movements were traced to America, how and where he died is a mystery.
Clearly this story throws up more questions than answers: What happened to William Cantelo? Was Cantelo impersonating Maxim, if so why? Did Maxim steal Cantelo's invention and pay Cantelo to go away? Did one man murder the other, if so who murdered who?
NASA astronaut and asteroid-hunter Edward Lu explains why we urgently need to map all sizeable Near-Earth orbit asteroids if we want to avoid becoming 'dinosaur toast'. Lisa Randall, a theoretical physicist at Harvard, explores the mysteries of dark matter, the invisible, seemingly inert stuff which is thought to account for over a quarter of all mass-energy in the universe. And Fermilab's Craig Hogan is behind a new experiment to probe the fabric of space itself, by seeing if it's possible to detect the very tiniest units in the universe. Photos © All rights reserved by aspeninstitute-internal
Correspondents' stories. Today: Hugh Sykes is in Cairo where the mood, at the end of a troubled week, is bleak and the outlook, apparently bleaker. Syrians caught in the cross hairs - Hannah Lucinda Smith on the real story of Aleppo's war: one of people trying to carry on with their lives amidst a conflict they never chose; Petroc Trelawny is on a bridge in Hanoi. The Vietnamese city, once the capital of French Indochina, is growing fast and economic forecasts are optimistic. Celeste Hicks suffers a head injury in Chad. It gives her a chance to see whether any of the country's extensive oil wealth has trickled down as far as the local hospital emergency room and David Stern has been in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where he walked in the footsteps of the man accused of killing President John F Kennedy and ended up facing something of a quandary.
Critics have long claimed that the financial services sector has become too bloated and complex. But with complexity comes profit. In the third part of this series, David Grossman looks at the byzantine worlds of derivatives and high-frequency trading.
Derivatives began as a way of protecting businesses against unexpected developments like a bad harvest. But this practice, known as 'hedging', now represents just a small fraction of the total market. Derivatives are now the product of choice for speculators looking to place vast bets on everything from the price of gold to pork bellies. But the market has become so complex and tangled that it led one of the world's most successful investors to dub them 'financial weapons of mass destruction'. They have been at the heart of scandals from Enron to the sub-prime mortgage bubble that precipitated the crash of 2008. But they remain hugely lucrative for the banks. David Grossman finds out why and hears from the small businesses who were mis-sold products designed to protect them against fluctuations in interest rates but which turned out to be costly bets that they lost and the banks won.
The programme also assesses the growth of high-frequency trading, where computers compete to beat the market and where trades are performed automatically at breakneck speed. But if the computers are winning, who is losing? David Grossman investigates and talks to former industry insiders about how high-frequency traders seek an edge over the rest of the market.
Rory Bremner returns to Radio 4 with a new weekly comedy show that takes one big contemporary question each week and attempts to answer it as satirically as possible.
Regular panellists Nick Doody and Andy Zaltzman are joined by comedian and impressionist Mel Hudson and this week's guest experts are author, comedian and politician, John O'Farrell, and the British correspondent for Die Zeit, John Jungclaussen, as Rory asks "What is Britishness?".
Rory's mantra is that it's as important to make sense out of things as it is to make fun of them - only then will people laugh at the truth. So this deconstructed "quiz" has only one question each week, because that question is so big, there's no time for anything else. Expect a mix of stand-up and sketch combined with investigative satire and incisive interviews with a diverse range of characters who really know what they're talking about.
Martha Kearney presents political debate and discussion from the Richmix Cultural Foundation in London with former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and Alex Deane former Chief of Staff to David Cameron who's now the Head of Public Affairs at PR firm Weber Shandwick. They'll be joined by Ken Olisa the Chairman of Restoration Partners, a technology merchant bank, and businessman John Mills who founded JML which specialises in on line and TV home shopping. He's also a Labour Party donor.
As violence escalates on the streets of Cairo what should and could the West do to intervene?
Is it time to call the action of the army a coup, with all the diplomatic ramifications that comes with that label? Would our reaction be different if an Islamist party had not won Egypt's election? Also, after being pelted with eggs, Ed Miliband is facing questions on the direction of the Labour party. Are you a Labour supporter? Is the party being clear enough about its policies? What do you want to hear from him? All that and party funding. They need cash from somewhere, but where should it come from?
The presenter is Anita Anand.
The Year of Obama should be an opportunity for Kwaku's black policy think tank to florish. But Kwaku is still grieving for his father and his latest misjudged proposal is about to explode. A second chance to hear this provocative play first produced by the National Theatre in 2007 and first broadcast in 2009.
Hayley Atwell on her stage roles in Pride and changing attitudes to sexuality. Kirstie Allsopp's personal journey to find out why women don't always get the birth they want. The UK's second most senior female judge Lady Justice Arden questions why there aren't more women at the top of the judiciary. Campaigner Caroline Criado Perez discusses what motivates cyber bullies. Women's place in Japanese society. Camping: would you prefer it mild or wild? Poet and rapper Kate Tempest performs her work Brand New Ancients in the Woman's Hour studio.
Omid Djalili, Liz Lochhead, Beardyman, Kieran Hurley, Arthur Smith, Young Fathers
This week Clive is in Edinburgh to bring you a smorgasbord of delights from all aspects of the festival. Better known as a comedian, Omid Djalili joins Clive to talk about his starring role in The Shawshank Redemption and his solo comedy show 'Omid Djalili Live'.
"Funny, feisty, female, full of feeling" is how Carol Ann Duffy describes Liz Lochhead. Liz is a poet, dramatist and current Scots Makar - or national poet who makes her debut appearance on Loose Ends but has hardly missed a year at the Edinburgh International Book Festival since 1983.
Clive meets Kieran Hurley and Julia Taudevin who are fast becoming something of a power couple in their generation of young theatre makers. Their play Chalk Farm was inspired by the 2011 riots and stars Julia as a single mother who is caught up in the drama.
An Edinburgh star himself, Arthur Smith joins forces with one of the UKs best loved beatboxers, Beardyman, to find out about and have a tinker with his machinery - the Beardytron.
We have more music from Edinburgh's Young Fathers who are known as the best Scottish rap group in the world ... ever! The group members hail originally from Liberia, Nigeria, America and Scotland and have been making music together since their teens.
This week he became the first British man - and only second man ever - to hold the Olympic and World 10,000m and 5,000m titles.
He was born in Somalia and moved to Britain as a young boy, where his athletic journey began. But it was an unusual one for such a successful athlete - he needed cajoling, ran the wrong way in cross-country races and enjoyed playing to the crowd.
Mo Farah was born to run. But he wasn't destined to win.
2 Guns, Baltasar Kormakur's new film, stars Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg as a DEA agent and a naval intelligence officer who find themselves on the run after a botched attempt to infiltrate a drug cartel. While fleeing, they learn the secret of their shaky alliance: neither knew that the other was an undercover agent.
Lucy Kirkwood's latest play Chimerica was sparked by the Tiananmen square protests in China 1989. As tanks roll through Beijing and soldiers hammer on his hotel door, Joe Moore, a young American photojournalist, captures a piece of history. When a cryptic message is left in a Beijing newspaper more than 20 years later, Joe is driven to discover the truth behind the unknown hero he captured on film.
In What Remains, a major BBC1 drama series, a young couple move into a flat and discover a leak in the loft, which leads them to the remains of Melissa Young hidden in the eaves. She has not been seen for over two years. No one has raised an alarm or even noticed that she was gone. D.I. Len Harper played by David Threlfall investigates.
The Interestings, Meg Wolitzer's latest novel, is set during the summer that President Nixon resigns. Six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable. Decades later the bond remains powerful, but much has changed. Wolitzer follows these characters from the height of youth through middle age, as their talents, fortunes, and degrees of satisfaction diverge.
And all this month we focus on some of the treasures available in Britain all year round and free of charge. We asked our guests - this week it's Natalie Haynes, Giles Fraser and Cahal Dallat - to select a favourite object from The V&A's permanent collection of art and design.
The Egg: Hailed as a wonder food; condemned as dangerous; it's fattening; it's slimming; it's ethical; it's unethical. It's been a luxury and dirt cheap. Times change, the egg doesn't. In 1955 they cost the equivalent of £
a dozen but then came the battery farms. The "Go to work on an Egg" campaign is a classic of TV advertising. In 1965 consumption peaked at five eggs per person per week and then fell as doctors warned of cholesterol. The press exposed battery farm conditions and a government minister said they were deadly. In the 00's the egg bounced back. Delia hailed it; the NHS said they were good for you after all- eat as many as you like! Scrambled is not a history of the egg rather it is about how the egg may be seen as symbolic of our attitude to food in general in the past half century as medical science, diet fads, changing lifestyle habits, and animal welfare issues have impacted on how we perceive and consume what on the face of it is as close to a perfect and unchanging food as we have.
Elinor and Marianne are invited to stay at Mrs Jennings' house in London. But Marianne has a surprising encounter with Willoughby and complications arise for Elinor and Edward. Will the Dashwood sisters find happiness and love?
Elinor ...... Amanda Hale
Marianne ...... Olivia Hallinan
Mrs Dashwood ...... Deborah McAndrew
Colonel Brandon ...... Blake Ritson
Willoughby ...... Ben Lamb
Edward ...... Henry Devas
Sir John ...... Conrad Nelson
Lady Middleton ...... Rosina Carbone
Mrs Jennings ...... Brigit Forsyth
Nancy ...... Victoria Brazier
Lucy ...... Caitlin Thorburn
John Dashwood ...... Andonis James Anthony
Fanny ...... Lisa Brookes
Mrs Ferrars ...... Alexandra Mathie
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
Mr Khan is brought into A&E with a cardiac arrest and has emergency surgery to clear a blockage in his coronary artery. He's transferred to intensive care with multi-organ failure, his lungs, heart and kidneys supported by machines and medication.
Mr Khan is seventy five and his doctors expect him to need intensive care for about ten days. But he is slow to improve and, over the coming weeks, he has repeated lung infections and needs almost constant support for his organs.
The anticipated brief stay in intensive care turns to weeks, then months. As time goes by, it becomes clear to the team that Mr Khan is unable to survive without intensive care - removing even small amounts of support for his organs leaves him unable to cope.
After six months, the medical team are convinced that Mr Khan has little chance of recovery. He is severely wasted and all the procedures they have to put him through, to keep him alive, are causing him considerable suffering. The team feel they should now limit his treatment and enable him to have a dignified death.
Mr Khan is now so weak and confused that he is not able to communicate, so the team discuss this with the family. They find the idea of limiting treatment very difficult. Like Mr Khan, they are devout Muslim and believe that everything should be done to preserve life. They reason that if there are treatments and machines that might help Mr Khan the team should use them, and then leave it in God's hands to see if they succeed or fail.
As Mr Khan's life hangs in the balance, should the team keep treating him, so prolonging his suffering, or limit his treatment and enable him to have a comfortable and dignified death?
As ever, a host of celebrities will be joining Nigel as he quizzes them on the sources of a range of quotations and asks them for the amusing sayings or citations that they have personally collected on a variety of subjects, including their favourite four line humorous poems and quotes from the most quotable people they have ever met.
This week Nigel is joined by Actress and Singer - Janie Dee, former editor of Private Eye and current editor of The Oldie - Richard Ingrams, science writer and broadcaster Vivienne Parry and comedian and writer Robin Ince.
In The Sonnet and the Sword, Peggy Reynolds explores the world of the Elizabethan Court, through the poetry written by its courtiers. This is a unique exploration of the Elizabethan age, as the poetry written by the elite at the time, evokes a world where rivalry between courtiers was common, and flattering the Queen often involved much spectacle.
Poetry during the reign of Elizabeth I developed into a national literature, with courtiers as the elite consumers judging literary developments, and often being at the forefront of innovations themselves. Professor Steven May discusses the merits of this output, which often influenced those outside the court, such as Shakespeare. Dr Susan Doran also joins Peggy Reynolds, to examine the bigger picture, including religious intolerance, the war with Spain, and concern over the royal succession. These national themes are very present in the poetry of the court.
Throughout the program there'll be examples of the poetry from this period, and insights from other experts regarding this literature, and the reign of Elizabeth I.
SUNDAY 18 AUGUST 2013
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b038909c)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SUN 00:30 Under the Skin (b01c6s87)
Correspondence
Under the Skin is a celebration of the second ever South Asian Literature Festival, which was staged in London and across the United Kingdom in October. The relationship between the English language, its literary tradition and writers from South Asia has become an exciting and enduring part of British literary life.
The Festival celebrated writers from South Asia and British Asian writing, equally, reflecting the diversity of themes, subjects and literary forms that constitute South Asian writing in 2011.
Under the Skin features two original stories and one adapted from the collection Too Asian, Not Asian Enough which was published to coincide with the festival. NSR Khan's story Correspondence is a touching and witty account of a Pakistani father coming to terms with the life of his British Asian daughter.
Under the Skin starts with Deni Francis, Lyndam Gregory and Najma Khan reading a story in letters between a father and daughter.
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b038909v)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b03890b0)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
5.20am.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b03890b7)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b03890bl)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b038bhz9)
The bells of St Peter and St Paul, Shiplake, Oxfordshire.
SUN 05:45 Profile (b038bbvm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b03890c1)
The latest national and international news.
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b038bhzc)
Why do we have to get richer?
Mark Tully questions the pursuit of economic growth at all costs. Many countries and millions of people around the world need to get richer, but what is the right way out of poverty? And why are those of us living in affluent countries, and far from poor, still in thrall to growth.
He tries to answer these questions with the help of Gandhian economist, Devaki Jain who defends the desirability of ever-increasing GDP, as long as it serves the needs of communities rather than encouraging unbridled consumerism for its own sake.
On the global scale Mark searches for models of growth with morality at their heart. And on the personal level, he draws on thoughts from the Dalai Lama and Ogden Nash to Daniel Defoe among others, and music from Ethiopia, Bhutan, America and Europe, as he compares the power of giving to our obsession with gaining.
The presenter is Mark Tully, the producer is Adam Fowler and it is a Unique production for BBC Radio 4.
Producer: Adam Fowler
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 06:35 Living World (b038h4w7)
Native Lime
This week's Living World sees presenter Chris Sperring heading to Hampshire where with native lime tree specialist Hugh Milner they embark on a journey into the remarkable life of the UK's native lime trees. Most people's association with lime is a sticky mess on car windscreens from street planted non-native common lime. This is a hybrid of the 2 native species of lime tree in Britain, the small leaved lime and the large leaved lime.
Small leaved limes were one of the 40 or so tree species which recolonised the country after the last Ice Age, before the land bridge between Europe and England disappeared under the sea. For millennia these two species have been something of a relic species in Britain as they were unable to produce viable fertile seed following a change in the climate which cooled dramatically around 3000BC. From then until now they were lost from the pollen records. In recent years however lime trees have begun to occasionally produce seed again and Hugh Milner takes Chris to see small leaved lime saplings in possibly the only woodland in Britain where lime seedlings are being established.
As a woodland species, small leaved lime has been used for centuries as a coppicing tree, not just for wood, but primarily for bast, a thick fibrous bark layer that was prized by rope makers. The bark, or more importantly the sap from the bark is also a great delicacy for great spotted woodpeckers, who it is now believed, after drilling their holes, wait until insects become trapped in the sap to take back to their young in the nest. More surprisingly lime trees can walk across a landscape, as they have the ability to regenerate from fallen timber or if branches make contact with the ground. This vegetative regeneration means that some of our oldest British trees may be lime, such as one in Westonbirt Arboretum which may be 3000 years old.
Producer: Andrew Dawes.
SUN 06:57 Weather (b03890cg)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b03890cs)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (b038bhzh)
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has announced the launch of an independent Inquiry into the Church's handling of reports of alleged sexual abuse by the late Robert Waddington, formerly Dean of Manchester. Anne Lawrence who speaks for the Campaign to stop Church Child Abuse gives her reaction to our Presenter Edward Stourton.
Bob Walker continues his three hundred mile journey across Turkey, following in the footsteps of St.Paul.
Zoroastrianism, one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions was founded in Iran around 3,500 years ago. It now has 6,000 followers in the UK and this Sunday they celebrate their New Year. Edward talks to Lord Karan Bilimoria CBE, the first Zoroastrian Parsi to sit in the House of Lords, about his campaign to gain more recognition for the contribution this small community makes to society.
Phil Mercer reports from Australia on plans by the new Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Glenn Davies, to use his role to lobby against tough new legislative proposals aimed at asylum seekers.
As the campaign for the canonisation of GK Chesterton, gathers momentum, Professor Alison Milbank, author of 'Chesterton and Tolkien as Theologians' talks about the qualities of this prolific writer and Catholic convert.
Can Egypt ever be reconciled with itself ? It's a question Edward discusses with His Grace Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, BBC's Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen and Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University.
Credits
Series Producer: Amanda Hancox
Producers: Jill Collins, Zaffar Iqbal
Contributors:
Anne Lawrence
Lord Karan Bilimoria CBE
Professor Alison Milbank
HG Bishop Angaelos
Jeremy Bowen
Tariq Ramadan.
SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal (b038bhzk)
Practical Action
Charlotte Green presents the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity Practical Action.
Reg Charity: 247257
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope Practical Action.
Give Online www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/appeal.
SUN 07:57 Weather (b03890d5)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b03890dg)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b038bmlc)
A Place to Be
When St Cedd arrived in Essex in the 7th century, he built a little church on the coast overlooking the North Sea. The area had originally been the home of a Roman garrison and Cedd built the chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, Bradwell-on-Sea on the foundations of the old fort. Over time it fell into disuse but was restored again for worship in 1920. Since 1946 this has been a place of peace, friendship and renewal. Along with the Othona Community, belief and faith are integrated with community living. Bishop Stephen Oliver makes his own pilgrimage there to meet members of the Community and to pray and reflect alongside them with Chaplain, the Rev'd Brigid Main. He spends time among the visitors as they relax and explore big questions in an atmosphere of openness and hospitality.
Producer: Clair Jaquiss.
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (b0385n2p)
Of the People, By the People 2/4
Roger Scruton continues his series of talks on the nature and limits of democracy. Roger Scruton argues that democracy works only if we are prepared to be ruled by our opponents, however much we may dislike them. We need to accept politics as a process of compromise and conciliation. And for that, he says, the state must be secular.
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378wy3)
Common Redstart
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Michaela Strachan presents the common redstart. Redstarts are summer visitors from sub-Saharan Africa. The males are very handsome birds, robin-sized, but with a black mask, white forehead and an orange tail. John Buxton gave us a fascinating insight into their lives when, as a prisoner of war in Germany, he made a study of them.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b038bmlg)
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b038bmlj)
Oliver comes up with a solution, and Kathy can't put work behind her.
SUN 11:15 The Reunion (b038bmll)
Goodness Gracious Me
In this episode of The Reunion, Sue MacGregor brings together the creators of the British Asian sketch show Goodness Gracious Me.
The comedy show debuted on BBC Radio 4 in the summer of 1996. It was the first venture conceived, written and performed by British Asians. The title 'Goodness Gracious Me' was inspired by the Peter Sellers song from the film The Millionairess, in which he plays an Indian doctor.
The series poked fun at British and Indian stereotypes and at the tensions between Asian culture and modern British life. One of the most iconic sketches - 'Going for an English' - featured a group of Asians going out for an English meal and mispronouncing everything on the menu. This reversing of experiences was a hallmark of the show.
There was a growing confidence amongst a new generation of British Asians in the 1990s. Asian culture was at the forefront of the youth scene and there was a feeling amongst many in broadcasting that it was time the Asian community had their own TV series. At the BBC, multi-cultural programming was becoming integral to the schedule and yet doubts remained about whether mainstream audiences would tap into something which focussed on one ethnicity.
However after an award winning run on the radio, Goodness Gracious Me moved to BBC 2 where it continued to attract huge audiences for three more series, giving birth to a new genre - "Asian Comedy".
Sue is joined around the table by: Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar, who wrote and starred in the series; Anil Gupta, the producer who first pitched the idea to the BBC; Jon Plowman, then the BBC's head of comedy and entertainment and Richard Pinto the comedy writer who helped develop the idea.
Producer: Sarah Cuddon
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:00 Just a Minute (b0383mgf)
Series 67
Episode 1
Can Nicholas Parsons keep order over Tony Hawks, Alun Cochrane, Patrick Kielty and Gyles Brandreth as they attempt to talk for 60 seconds without hesitation, repetition or deviation on subjects from Moving House to Summer Loving.
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b038bmln)
Feeding the Detectives
Dan Saladino looks at how food has increasingly become a big ingredient in crime fiction.
SUN 12:57 Weather (b03890fh)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b038bmlq)
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 It's My Story (b0367slj)
Living in the Memory Room
Kim Normanton presents a personal programme about memory and dementia, inspired by her mother's illness. She explores a new approach to treatment: recreating the past. As her mother's memory of recent events was destroyed, Kim discovered that she could only reach her by entering the past. She began sharing memories of her mother's childhood with theatrical props: "She can't reach where I'm living anymore, so it's up to me to go back to happier days in the past and reach her."
This approach to dementia is tried on a much larger scale in Hogewey Dementia Village in Holland. The village recreates the surroundings of the residents' youth, with old-fashioned furnishings, even a supermarket selling old-fashioned sweets. Kim talks to the director about ethical issues: is it right to deceive people with this 'Truman-Show' theatrical illusion?
In Britain she finds care homes increasingly using 'reminiscence objects' to stimulate dementia sufferers to share memories. Kim visits a Cornwall home where Janet Brown, known locally as 'the Memory Lady', organizes group memory sessions using old toys and kitchen utensils plucked from a memory box. "It's a horrible disease and there's no cure, but there are moments which we can make more pleasurable for those living with it, and their carers."
Kim explores the latest memory science with Dr Catherine Loveday of the University of Westminster: "The biggest problem with dementia is a lack of narrative: being suspended in space without the context of memories to support you. But I've seen people with dementia who are very happy - when you're reminiscing, you really are in that world and enjoying that moment."
There are 800,000 dementia sufferers in the UK.
Producers: Kim Normanton and Elizabeth Burke.
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b0385kp3)
Ulster - County Antrim
Eric Robson takes the panel to Ulster for this week's episode. Gardening experts Matthew Wilson, Pippa Greenwood and Bob Flowerdew attempt to solve the audience's horticultural concerns.
Produced by Howard Shannon
A Somethin' Else Production for BBC Radio 4.
This week's questions:
Q. Would continual use of a general purpose fertiliser on a lawn cause a problematic build-up of potash and phosphate in the long-term?
A. It depends on the quantity applied. Potash washes out very quickly, nitrogen will be taken up by the grass and - depending on the soil type - phosphate can become 'locked up' and unavailable. In very large amounts too much growth will be encouraged which, at the back end of the year, would be 'soft' growth and prone to turf diseases and more easily damaged. Different feeds are formulated for different times of year to encourage the right kind of growth.
Q. Could the panel recommend a climbing rose which would grow in a wet and windy climate, which is disease resistant and would require no spraying?
A. The variety 'Summer Wine' is recommended which has a single dark pink flower, strong fragrance and will repeat flower from June to September. 'Kiftsgate' and 'Rambling Rector' are also suggested because of their vigour.
Q. What are the advantages of hardwood cuttings?
A. Hardwood cuttings are simple because they are taken in the autumn when pruning. Unlike softwood cuttings they do not require a propagator or cloche and require much less work. The advantage of hardwood cuttings for the commercial grower is that they extend the propagation season. However, some plants will respond in different ways and will do better with semi-ripe cuttings.
Q. When should Nasturtium seeds be gathered? What is the best way to dry them for storage?
A. As soon as the seed head starts to look as if it's drying, not green but beige. Spread on paper and leave in a well-ventilated spot with a little natural warmth.
Q. How can I increase the number of bees visiting the garden?
A. Take up bee keeping! To increase natural bee numbers, more flowers over more season with more shelter is recommended. Bee-friendly plants tend to be open-scented plants with easily accessible nectar. Ivy is very useful as a nectar source out of season.
Q. My 11-year old Beschorneria Yuccoides has flowered for the first time this year. Will it flower again?
A. Absolutely. It should flower every year now it has reached flowering age. Beschorneria Yuccoides is not 100% hardy - areas susceptible to hard, sustained or damp frosts would not be suitable for growing this plant.
Q. What is the best way to prune a very large, vigorous Wisteria?
A. Immediately after flowering, the long tendril-like growth should be removed. The plant invests a lot of energy into the production of these shoots, so removing them will improve the chances of flowering the following year. Spur pruning should then be done in winter.
Q. Could the panel suggest plants to suit a windy site (approx. 7ft, or 2m, wide) between a wall and a high hedge, with heavy clay soil?
A. Rubus Cockburnianus, a relative of the bramble, is recommended. Buddleia are also suggested, particularly the variety 'Globosa', which has round, orange flowers and is semi-evergreen.
SUN 14:45 Witness (b038bmls)
The Nepali Royal Massacre
In 2001, the Crown Prince of Nepal killed nine people and then turned the gun on himself in a shooting at the royal palace. His cousin, Ketaki Chester, was injured in the massacre. She tells Witness about the events of that day and why she thinks the Prince murdered his own relatives.
SUN 15:00 Classic Serial (b038bmlv)
The Aeneid
Episode 1
1/2. Aeneas is a faithful husband, a loving father, and a devoted son. He's a good soldier too, and when the city of Troy is threatened, all he wants to do is to defend his home. For ten long years he fights against the invading Greeks. Then one day the ghost of a long-dead comrade appears to him on the battlefield, telling him to stop fighting and run. The future of the Trojan people lies elsewhere, and if Aeneas is to lead them, he must survive. So, with his frail father on his back, and his son in his arms, Aeneas abandons Troy and sets out on his quest. Caught between love, duty and fate, he'll travel across storm-tossed oceans, have a passionate but doomed affair, and suffer terrible personal loss, as he ventures to the very depths of Hell to discover his glorious destiny.
This brand new adaptation of Virgil's epic poem, by award-winning writer Hattie Naylor, uses Robert Fagles' translation.
The music was composed by Will Gregory, arranged by Ian Gardiner, and performed by the BBC Singers, conducted by Matthew Hamilton. The soloist is Cherith Milburn-Fryer. Percussion by Joby Burgess.
Production Coordinator: Scott Handcock
Sound design: Nigel Lewis
A BBC/Cymru Wales production, produced and directed by Kate McAll.
SUN 16:00 Open Book (b038bpn6)
Literary Landscapes - Cornwall with Patrick Gale
Literary Landscapes - Cornwall
Open Book's summer series on Literary Landscapes continues at the furthest Western edge of the United Kingdom, Land's End in Cornwall. With the Atlantic waves encroaching on both sides, it's one of wildest and most exposed areas in the country and has inspired many of our great writers including Daphne Du Maurier.
Open Book's literary guide to this beautifully powerful and rugged terrain is Patrick Gale, one of the county's foremost and prolific contemporary novelists. Born in the Isle of Wight, Patrick has been based in Cornwall since the late 1980s and lives on a working farm in Land's End, with unparalleled views of the outer edge of the landscape he's so often chosen as his setting.
Producer: Hilary Dunn.
SUN 16:30 Poetry of Gold and Angels (b038bpn8)
San Francisco
San Francisco is a place where a thousand stories meet - a port city where many cultures and races mix, the birthplace of counterculture and political ideologies, and now home to the high-tech revolution. Kim Shuck, poet, educator and weaver was born in the city and has Tsalagi, Sauk and Fox and Polish ancester's. She takes us on a tour of her San Francisco including North Beach and China Town and discusses how poets have been inspired by the city. We hear so much about The Beat poets in San Francisco, but the city's poetry scene is so much more than the Beats. This is a chance to hear some of the other poems coming out of the city.
During the programme we talk to poets such as Devorah Major who was Poet Laureate of San Francisco and who takes us to Marcus Books, the oldest Black book shop in America. We also hear from Jack Hirschman, part of the Beat generation and social activist, about how music and jazz have influenced the city's poetic voice. Other poets in the programme include Genny Lim, David Brazil, Micah Ballard and David Buuck.
Producer: Laura Parfitt
A White Pebble Media production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 17:00 The Lending Game (b0383zh5)
As Wonga moves into the mainstream with its sponsorship of Newcastle United, is the so-called payday lender responding to, or shaping, changing attitudes on money and morality? Chris Bowlby goes back to his teenage home on the Tyne to look at the rise of Wonga through the lives of the Toon Army.
SUN 17:40 Profile (b038bbvm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b03890fr)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 17:57 Weather (b03890ft)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b03890fw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b038bpnb)
Simon Cox's Pick of the Week.
This week's programme goes on a sensory journey, finding out how touch can improve the health of premature babies and hears from the "fumeheads" trying to shake up perfumes. There are a number of firsts; the collaboration between Radio 3 and 6 Music at the Proms and the quiz that persuades royalty to perform. There is the tale of a gritty Scouse football legend and the Caribbean cricket diplomats. And there is plenty of advice on faking - from copying a famous building to being a celebrity - or even a person as we hear about Roxxy the pleasure bot.
Princess Di's Handshake - Radio 4
Word of Mouth - Radio 4
With Great Pleasure - Radio 4
Book at Bedtime - Red or Dead - Radio 4
Windies Wonders - Radio 4
One Question Quiz - Radio 4
Simpson in China - Radio 5Live
PM - Wednesday - Radio 4
The Prophets - Monday - Radio 4
6Music Prom - Monday - Radio 3
The Slow Coach - Radio 4
Wow! How did they do that? - Radio 4
Business Daily - Monday - World Service
The Why Factor - Celebrity - World Service
Produced by Louise Clarke.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (b038bpnd)
David and Pip are busy with block calving at Brookfield and the pens are filling up. Pip's enthusiastic about expanding the herd, but David is more reluctant to start planning ahead before the current season has finished. While Pip is optimistic with milk prices currently high, David thinks they might have seen the peak.
David and Ruth would love Pip, Josh and Ben to be able to make a living from the family farm, but they're not in Brian's league. They take comfort in the fact that at least they are doing what they know to be right, and who knows what the future may hold.
As St Stephens empties, Ruth is apprehended by Lynda who is curious what species of rose Ruth is entering for the flower and produce show. Meanwhile, Alan recruits Shula as a volunteer for The Elms homeless shelter.
Lynda wonders if Shula knows what Caroline is planning for Grey Gables while she is on holiday. Unfortunately for Lynda, Shula keeps her counsel, so Lynda pops round to Kathy's for a chat. Lynda doesn't think it necessary to recruit a manager as she managed while Caroline was ill. Perhaps they will hand her the reins. After all, who else would they ask?
SUN 19:15 Jo Caulfield's Speakeasy (b038bpz9)
Episode 3
Comedian Jo Caulfield invites authors, comedians and actors to tell true stories from their lives. The results are revealing, hilarious and hugely entertaining. The performers are all recorded live at the historic Scottish Story Telling centre in Edinburgh.
Among the stories this week Owen O'Neill remembers an embarrassing trip to the confessional booth, Sanjeev Kohli has a festive poem, young comedian Gareth Waugh shares his attempt at finding love and Lucy Porter explains how hard it is to make friends.
Producer: Richard Melvin
A Dabster Production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 19:45 Cries of London (b038brrm)
The Tyburn Jig
A pair of historical tales set in the heart of the capital.
The Tyburn Jig
Sarah Middleton witnesses her husband's final journey from Newgate to the gallows at Tyburn Tree, but the sight provokes some surprising emotions.
Katy Darby studied English Literature at Somerville College, Oxford and took her MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where she won the David Higham Award. Her first novel, 'The Unpierced Heart'was published in 2012. She teaches creative writing at City University and co-runs the monthly live fiction event Liars' League. 'Cries Of London' are her first stories for BBC Radio 4. Katy lives in London.
Reader: Hattie Morahan
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 20:00 Feedback (b0385kp9)
On Monday evening, just as England bowler Stuart Broad was reaching the peak of a devastating spell, listeners to Radio 4 Long Wave were ripped from the action. They were plunged into the seven o'clock news followed by The Archers. Radio 4 Network Manager Denis Nowlan explains what went wrong.
Last week we announced that The Archers is to have a new editor - Sean O'Connor will take over in September. But this week some Archers' fans were turned off by a scene involving reunited lovers Helen and Rob.
And is the rest of Radio 4 over-sexed during the school holidays? Listeners have objected to sexual content in programmes such as The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Sketchorama, and How to Have a Perfect Marriage, especially when children are more likely to be at home. Roger Bolton talks sex on the radio with Roger Mahony, Radio 4's Editor of Editorial Standards.
Over the course of this series of Feedback, we've heard from many listeners who still lament the loss of Radio 4 science programme Material World. Its replacement, Inside Science, has its fans, but the majority of Feedback listeners have not warmed to the programme during its first two months. We hear your opinions so far. And we'll be speaking the Editor of the BBC Radio Science Unit, Deborah Cohen, about Inside Science in the autumn.
Feedback listeners are extremely keen eyed and eared. We're sure you've checked this web text thoroughly for mistakes. And we certainly hope it adheres to the BBC's Style Guide, because this week Roger speaks to Ian Jolly, Style Editor for the BBC Newsroom in London. Listeners frequently write to us to note a perceived increase in Americanisms but what's the 'big deal'?
Email: feedback@bbc.co.uk.
Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 20:30 Last Word (b0385kp7)
A Holocaust activist, a Hollywood actress, a jazz keyboardist, a stuntman and a tugboat hero
Aasmah Mir on
Betty Maxwell, the widow of the late publisher Robert Maxwell
The stuntman who parachuted in to the opening ceremony of the London Olympics, Mark Sutton
Karen Black, star of Five Easy Pieces, Easy Rider and Airport 75
Kenneth Dancy, the tugboat hero who attempted to save the stricken freighter Flying Enterprise in 1952
And innovative and flamboyant jazz keyboardist George Duke.
SUN 21:00 Face the Facts (b0384815)
NHS 111 - A Bad Call?
Face the Facts investigates the new NHS 111 helpline service which opened this spring to a chorus of criticism. Allegations include that the service is too cheap, offering too little medical expertise. We hear from people who have used the service and found it wanting, and to professional medical bodies who say they warned it would not be an adequate replacement for NHS Direct.
Presenter: John Waite
Producers: Richard Hooper, Louise Corley
Editor: Andrew Smith.
SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b038bhzk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 today]
SUN 21:30 In Business (b03859nh)
Regenerating Margate
Towns and cities all over the world are looking to culture to help them rejuvenate. Two years ago Margate in Kent joined the trend when it opened the £17 million Turner Contemporary gallery. Can art improve the fortunes of a struggling community? Peter Day finds out.
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b038bq34)
Preview of the week's political agenda at Westminster with MPs, experts and commentators. Discussion of the issues politicians are grappling with in the corridors of power.
SUN 22:45 What the Papers Say (b038bq36)
A look at how the newspapers are covering the biggest stories.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b03859n3)
Film festivals, Lotte Reiniger, DVD recommendations
With the autumn film festival circuit about to get underway, Robbie Collin talks to Notting Hill director Roger Michell about who really benefits from the peripatetic circus. And why this director said 'non' to Cannes. And the critic Jason Solomons gives the reviewer's perspective of the scene, from the thrill of the first glimpse of a masterpiece to fisticuffs at dawn.
Marina Warner and Nick Bradshaw explore the work of the influential German animator Lotte Reiniger as The Adventures of Prince Achmed, once thought destroyed in World War II, is restored and released. The 1920s groundbreaking shadow film, handcut and manipulated, draws on the Arabian Nights for its tale of exotic lands, kidnapped princesses and flying horses.
Terri Hooley the Belfast DJ and record label entrepreneur gives his reaction to Good Vibrations, a film based on his life during the 1970s punk scene. As the man who gave The Undertones their first big break, he reflects on why it was important that this story was told by local screenwriters and cast.
And with summer blockbusters squeezing out more modest releases at the multiplexes, Jason Solomons picks out the best DVD and Blu Ray releases for the films you may have missed on the big screen.
Producer: Elaine Lester.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b038bhzc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 19 AUGUST 2013
MON 00:00 Midnight News (b03890nc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b0384brx)
Drug users and enforcement; 'Militant' Liverpool
Drug enforcement - does it change the drugs market? Laurie Taylor talks to Neil McKeganey about his research into police crackdowns on illegal drugs in 3 different areas of the UK. The researchers interviewed local heroin users to establish their views and experience of police activity. Although most had found raids to be shocking and distressing, this had little impact on the price or availability of illegal drugs locally. Also, the sociologist, Diana Frost, explores Militant Tendency's domination of Liverpool politics in the 1980s. Interviewing key protagonists of the time, she uncovers mixed memories of a 'city on the edge'.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b038bhz9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b03890nr)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b03890p1)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b03890p7)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (b03890pd)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b038bwsf)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Revd Dr Michael Ford.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (b038bwsh)
An international research project involving Scottish scientists has found a gene which could make the manufacture of fuel from crops more efficient. Professor Claire Halpin from the University of Dundee explains how the gene, if switched off, allows more sugar to be extracted from woody non-food crops like willow and poplar.
Sybil Ruscoe meets a farmer who rears Japanese Wagyu cattle in Wales, keeping up the tradition of feeding them beer!
And how effectively are farm tourism businesses capitalising on interest in local food and 'staycations'?
Presented by Caz Graham. Produced by Sarah Swadling.
MON 05:56 Weather (b03890pt)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378xcd)
Icterine Warbler
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Michaela Strachan presents the icterine warbler. Icterine Warblers are fluent mimics and include phrases of other species in their song. Their name, icterine, is derived from ikteros, the ancient Greek word for jaundice and describes the bird's spring plumage...yellowish beneath and olive brown on top.
MON 06:00 Today (b038bwsk)
Morning news and current affairs with James Naughtie and Evan Davis. Including:
0750
David Miranda, the partner of the journalist who has been prominent in reporting on the surveillance activities of the American National Security Agency was held for nine hours at Heathrow on Sunday for questioning under the Terrorism Act, before being released. The BBC's John Andrew outlines the case.
0810
The prime minister has said that "compromise on all sides" is needed if Egypt is to emerge from the violence of the last week and begin a transition to political stability. The BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen gives his analysis and Foreign Secretary William Hague outlines the government's stance on the conflict.
0820
In 1928 a community-minded soul left £500,000 (now worth £350m) as a bequest to the British government, that would be given to them as soon as the national debt was paid off. Dr D'Maris Coffman, from Newnham College Oxford, and David De Koning, head of communications at Funding Circle, discuss whether crowd funding would be a viable way of clearing national debt.
MON 09:00 The Sins of Literature (b038bxfd)
Thou Shalt Not Steal
In The Sins of Literature Robert McCrum casts a seasoned eye over the literary codes of our time.
Malcolm Gladwell, Will Self, Sarah Waters and Howard Jacobson help him compile a list of literary sins and commandments.
The third commandment is Thou Shalt not Steal. Plagiarism is perhaps the gravest of literary sins and yet writers steal all the time and sweat away their lives under the anxiety of influence. This program looks at the shifting sands of plagiarism, theft, influence and borrowing. The Romantics may have worshipped the original genius of Shakespeare but he merrily lifted whole sections of Anthony and Cleopatra from Holinshed's chronicles. In the internet age true creativity appears to reside not in what you write yourself but in the ways you can remix, mash up, parody and generally mess around with the work of others. Robert examines the extent to which ideas of originality are being remixed.
MON 09:30 Wow! How Did They Do That? (b038c0dk)
Episode 2
Roger Law goes in search of the entrepreneurs who are behind some of the Britain's best designs and inventions.
In a converted garage in rural Cambridgeshire, Wesley West has been busy creating real objects out of almost anything he can find. His garden is full of robots made of cartons and iron creatures of various shapes and sizes, and he has worked in advertising for many years making finely crafted objects for his clients. All Wesley's ingenious solutions are made by hand then filmed or photographed, and no computer is involved. Roger steps into an intriguing world where everything is, in its own way, real.
Tim Webber on the other hand does all his effects on the computer. He works at Framestore, a post-production house in London, and he is the magician behind the Harry Potter films. Roger joins him in Soho to find out how these visual effects are created, and what it is that British artists can offer the film industry.
Two contrasting creators, both of whom have plenty to offer in ingenuity and skill, either with or without the aid of a computer.
Producer Mark Rickards.
MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b038hr2n)
Operation Massacre
Episode 1
A Latin American true crime classic set in Argentina.
On the evening of the 9th June 1956 in an apartment in Buenos Aires, between twelve and fourteen men were arrested on suspicion of involvement in a rebellion against the Argentine government. A few hours later, the local police chief received orders to execute them. Almost all were innocent. In compelling prose, Rodolfo Walsh recreates the events of that night and its aftermath.
Pre-dating Capote's IN COLD BLOOD by over a decade, OPERATION MASSACRE is regarded throughout Latin America as the original work of modern 'true crime.' This classic of reportage has been admired by writers a diverse as Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It has just been translated into English for the first time.
Read by Nigel Anthony
Abridged and produced by Jane Marshall
A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b038c0dp)
Women in Publishing
Author Kate Mosse interviews Woman's Hour Power Lister Ursula Mackensie on her role as Chief Executive of Little, Brown and Lennie Goodings, Publisher at Virago. Are fewer women reaching the top in publishing in the digital age? Former publisher, now agent, Clare Alexander; author and chair of the Society of Authors Anne Sebba and Philip Jones, editor of the Bookseller join Kate to discuss. Peter Stothard, editor of the Times Literary Supplement and journalist and reviewer Alex Clark debate why books by men, reviewed by men, dominate the pages of newspapers and journals.
MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b038c0dr)
The One About the Social Worker
Episode 1
by Martin Jameson
It's an irony of child protection, that if you've been a social worker long enough to remove two children from a woman at birth, that means you may be the one constant in her life she can trust.
So when Tamsin tracks down her old social worker Liz for help, she doesn't care that Liz is on suspension and forbidden from talking to her. Or that Liz is the current hate figure of the national press, after the violent death of a child on her caseload.
Tamsin just wants help.
Should Liz ignore her? Or is time to break the rules?
Claire Skinner is best known to TV viewers as harassed mum Sue in Outnumbered, but her wide-ranging career includes long associations with Mike Leigh, Alan Ayckbourn, and Sam Mendes.
Lacey Turner won a fistful of awards for her portrayal of Eastenders' Stacey Slater over 6 years, and recent TV work includes starring in True Love and Our Girl.
Martin Jameson is a prolific screenwriter, director and playwright whose recent work on Radio 4 includes Can You Tell Me The Name Of The Prime Minister?, The Night They Tried To Kidnap The Prime Minister and Stone.
1/5 Until five months ago, Liz was a hard-nosed child-protection social worker. Today she doesn't know who she is, except that she's on suspension, hiding from the press, dosed up on SSRIs ... and that there's someone shouting her name in Tesco's.
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.
MON 11:00 The Slow Coach (b038c0dt)
Episode 2
Liz Barclay follows three busy people as they continue an experiment to slow down their lives. Their 'slow coach' is Carl Honoré, spokesperson for a growing 'Slow Movement'. He argues that the 'virus of hurry' has infected every corner of our lives. 'Slow' has become a dirty word - a byword for lazy and unproductive. But can we actually be more productive, as well as happier and healthier, if we connect with our 'inner tortoise'?
Three volunteers put Carl's theories to the test by following his advice over the course of a month.
In programme 1, Carl gave them each a bespoke recipe for slowing down, with tips to follow each day. Now, in programme 2, he asks them to step back from the daily grind to reflect on the bigger picture. What are the pressures keeping them speedy? Can they slow down in a way that will last?
Lizzie works part-time as a health visitor, and has three young children. She's found it challenging to put Carl's suggestions into practice. She visits a conference on families and relationships to ask if it's inevitable that life as a working parent is a constant race against the clock.
Steve runs a business, and is overwhelmed by his workload. He's been following Carl's tips on switching off technology and reducing distraction. Now he tries the practice of mindfulness to develop his focus and find a sense of calm.
Scott is on jobseeker's allowance but lives a hectic life running local activities like a Carnival. He's been learning to say 'no', and pace himself instead of panicking. Now he wants to find out if slowing down can help him to take control of his life and its direction.
Liz follows their successes and struggles, and asks if it's really possible to slow down in a fast-forward world.
Producer: Tessa Watt
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 11:30 Births, Deaths and Marriages (b038c0dw)
Series 2
Team Bonding
Births, Deaths and Marriages is the sitcom set in a Local Authority Register Office where the staff deal with the three greatest events in anybody's life.
Written by David Schneider (The Day Today, I'm Alan Partridge), he stars as chief registrar Malcolm Fox who is a stickler for rules and would be willing to interrupt any wedding service if the width of the bride infringes health and safety. He's single but why does he need to be married? He's married thousands of women.
Alongside him are rival and divorcee Lorna who has been parachuted in from Car Parks to drag the office (and Malcolm) into the 21st century. To her, marriage isn't just about love and romance, it's got to be about making a profit in our new age of austerity.
There's also the ever spiky Mary, geeky Luke who's worried he'll end up like Malcolm one day, and ditzy Anita who may get her words and names mixed up occasionally but, as the only parent in the office, is a mother to them all.
In the final episode of the series, the office is reluctantly taking part in a team bonding exercise in the grounds of a country house. Lorna is doing the celebrity wedding of the Honourable Sebastian Foster at the same venue but Sebastian wants to have a hymn - which Malcolm says is strictly not allowed in a civil ceremony.
Producer: Simon Jacobs
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:00 You and Yours (b038c0dy)
Corporate degrees, circus animals and Commonwealth Games tickets 19 August 2013
How does a degree from Harrods sound? Or KFC, ASDA or McDonald's? We examine the rise of the 'corporate degree' and take a tour of the hamburger university.
We examine the credit and debit cards that pay you every time you spend - what's in it for the banks and are they always a good deal?
And is it time to ban animals from travelling circuses?
Plus how to get tickets to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games
Presenter: Julian Worricker
Producer: Joe Kent.
MON 12:57 Weather (b03890qw)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 13:00 World at One (b038c0f0)
National and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
MON 13:45 A View Through a Lens (b0150mlg)
Series 3
Taking the Plunge
Wildlife cameraman John Aitchison often finds himself in isolated and even dangerous locations across the globe filming wildlife, and in this series he reflects on the uniqueness of human experience, the beauty of nature, the fragility of life and the connections which unite society and nature across the globe.
1/5 Taking the Plunge:
John travelled with a team whilst making the BBC series, Frozen Planet, to Dream Island a remote, cold, hostile island despite its name, whose only inhabitants are elephant seals and Adelie penguins. Over fifteen years ago, another team from the BBC came here to film what happens when young penguins go to sea. There were thousands of chicks in the colonies then, and when they reached the water, several hundred leopard seals were waiting for them. But John discovers the colony is less than a fifth of its original size, and there are far fewer leopard seals so he travels further south where the breeding season is shorter and later. On the Fish Islands, he finds what he's looking for; a larger colony of Adelie adults and chicks. The young penguins head down the rocky shore to the water's edge for their first swim, flapping their wings up and down before they take their first plunge. They are like nervous ducks, waiting for someone to make the first move. Eventually a young penguin dives into the water. Others follow. John watches anxiously; the penguins seem unaware of the dangers of diving into water with leopard seals nearby. What follows next is a tense game of 'cat and mouse' as a leopard seal hunts the young swimmers.
Producer Sarah Blunt.
MON 14:00 The Archers (b038bpnd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Drama (b00z5zxx)
A Sleepwalk on the Severn
Award- winning poet, Alice Oswald's extraordinary evocation of the experience of moonrise over the Severn Estuary. Set to original music by Roger Goula, its subject is moonrise which happens five times in different forms: new moon, half moon, full moon, no moon and moon reborn. Various characters, some living some dead, all based on real people from the Severn catchment, talk towards the moment of moonrise and are changed by it.
Performed by Ron Cook, Sam Dale, Emma Fielding, Tom Goodman-Hill, James Laurenson and Helen Longworth.
Music composed by Roger Goula and performed by the Raven Quartet and Rowland Sutherland.
Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.
MON 15:00 Quote... Unquote (b038c0f2)
The quotations quiz hosted by Nigel Rees.
As ever, a host of celebrities will be joining Nigel as he quizzes them on the sources of a range of quotations and asks them for the amusing sayings or citations that they have personally collected on a variety of subjects, including quotations they wish they'd said and family sayings they have grown up with.
This week Nigel is joined by Woman's Hour's Jenni Murray, News presenter Matt Barbet, Children's Playwright David Wood and Journalist and writer Katharine Whitehorn.
Reader ..... Peter Jefferson.
Produced by Carl Cooper.
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (b038bmln)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down (b038c0f4)
Every comedian, however famous or successful, has memories of stand-up shows which didn't go to plan.
Many comics will agree that 'dying' on stage is a rite of passage from which a lot can be learned - and swapping stories of on-stage humiliation can bind comedians together. Rich Morton has performed with most of Britain's best loved stand-ups down the years, and in this programme he gets some of them to confess their memories of the nightmare gigs they'd rather forget.
Realising too late that your material is completely inappropriate for the audience, finding the crowd was expecting someone else, having to deal with the heckler from hell - whatever the situation, most comics have been there, and have emerged from the experience with some hilarious stories to tell.
Jo Brand, Tim Clark, Jack Dee, Mike Gunn, Milton Jones, Lucy Porter and Ian Stone share their recollections.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (b038c0f6)
Buddhism and Violence
Beyond Belief debates the place of religion and faith in today's complex world. Ernie Rea is joined by a panel to discuss how religious beliefs and traditions affect our values and perspectives.
Buddhism is generally portrayed in the West as a religion of peace and non-violence. The first of Buddhism's 'Five Moral Precepts' states that it is wrong to take the lives of others. But recent clashes between native Buddhists and minority Muslims in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) have left over 200 people dead, and more than 150,000 people homeless. So what is Buddhism's teaching about the use of violence? Is it permitted or prohibited?
Joining Ernie Rea to discuss Buddhism and violence are Michael Jerryson, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Youngstown State University, Ohio, who co-edited the book 'Buddhist Warfare'; Rupert Gethin, Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Bristol, and Soe Win Than, a journalist who was born in Myanmar and who works for the BBC's Burmese Service.
MON 17:00 PM (b038c0f8)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b03890rr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (b038c0fb)
Series 67
Episode 2
Paul Merton, Greg Proops, Joe Lycett and Sue Perkins play the devious linguistic game at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
MON 19:00 The Archers (b038c0fd)
Caroline receives only a skeleton reference from Ray's previous employee, but Oliver isn't worried. They know him, and that's better than a reference.
Lynda is miffed when she discovers they've recruited an outsider for the temporary manger position. Caroline explains she thinks promoting from within would put staff under undue pressure. Later, Caroline makes it clear how much she appreciates Lynda and gives her a bonus. She also wonders if Lynda will help Ray find his feet. Lynda is sure she can whip him into shape.
Helen gives Tom a message from Kirsty. She wants to confirm whether he'll show some Wildlife Trust visitors how sustainability works on the farm. Tom is eager to call Kirsty himself.
Tom has news from Bellingham's. Sales have gone up. Tom thinks they'll soon extend their order and is increasing production to meet potential demand. Helen agrees and suggests it's reassuring to know Rob thinks he's doing the right thing. Pat and Tony aren't pleased, though. Tom should know the risk of holding onto too much stock.
Tony and Pat discuss Rob. He's only ever worked on industrial-scale farms and has been brought up in privilege, so what does he know about Tom's business? Helen thinks they have misjudged Rob and wonders if they can babysit Henry while she 'visits a friend in need'.
MON 19:15 Front Row (b038c0fg)
Tom Stoppard, Elysium review, Charlaine Harris
With Mark Lawson
Sir Tom Stoppard has written Darkside, a new radio play starring Bill Nighy and Rufus Sewell, to mark the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon. In discussing the play Stoppard talks about thought experiments, moral philosophers, and Mamma Mia.
Elysium is a science fiction thriller set in a future where privileged elite live on the space station Elysium while the rest of the population remains on a damaged earth. Directed by Neill Blomkamp, who is best known for his politically charged 2009 film District 9, the sci-fi blockbuster stars Jodie Foster as the ruler of Elysium and Matt Damon as the man trying to break across the divide. Naomi Alderman reviews.
Charlaine Harris is best known for her Sookie Stackhouse series which inspired the True Blood TV drama. Harris discusses her distinct Southern gothic style, books which fell short of her aspirations and how fans reacted angrily to the conclusion of her famous vampire series.
Producer Claire Bartleet.
MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b038c0dr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 Monogamy and the Rules of Love (b038c0fj)
Does monogamy still have a place in a society where choice is everything? Jo Fidgen asks why people are still so wedded to the ideal, if not always the practice. Does true love really demand sexual fidelity and what happens when people choose to open up their relationships?
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b03859mq)
Kazakhstan's Living Gulags
The Kazakh steppe was once home to the infamous Soviet forced labour camps which formed part of the Gulag. Today, the Gulag system is said to live on in Kazakhstan's jails where a growing prison population faces daily torture, humiliation and lawlessness. Despite its poor human rights record, many developed nations, including Britain, are rapidly strengthening relations with Kazakhstan. BBC Central Asia Correspondent Rayhan Demeytrie investigates why the Gulag violence persists and asks why the international community stays silent.
Producer: Nina Robinson.
MON 21:00 Bragg on the Braggs (b0383vb0)
Melvyn Bragg looks back at the extraordinary achievements of two other famous Braggs, the father and son scientists William and Lawrence. In 1913 the Braggs discovered a method of investigating the structure of crystals using X-ray radiation. They soon proved the significance of this breakthrough by determining the internal structure of diamond. Two years later they shared a Nobel Prize for their work, which founded the discipline of X-ray crystallography. Melvyn Bragg, a distant cousin of William and Lawrence, tells the story of their groundbreaking work. He visits the laboratories in Cambridge and Leeds where the two Braggs made important discoveries, and the Royal Institution, where they lectured and conducted research. And he learns how the Braggs' technique of X-ray crystallography revolutionised chemistry and biology, from the determination of the structure of DNA to the design of new pharmaceutical drugs.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
MON 21:30 The Sins of Literature (b038bxfd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:58 Weather (b03890s0)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b038c0fl)
The US government has said British officials gave it a 'heads up' about the detention of the partner of a journalist who published information from US whistleblower Edward Snowden. Ten years ago today the UN's headquarters in Baghdad, housed in the Canal Hotel, was bombed. 22 people died, mainly aid workers and among them, the UN's chief of mission Sergio Vieira de Mello. Over the past few days, almost 30,000 Syrian refugees have crossed a metal pontoon bridge over the Tigris and into Iraqi Kurdistan, according to the UN. Plus, the art of the political soundbite. With Ritula Shah.
MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b038c159)
Red or Dead
Episode 6
By David Peace.
One hundred years ago on 2nd September 1913, in a small Scottish mining village in East Ayrshire, Bill Shankly was born.
Shankly's passion was football. It was his job and it was his life, both as a player and then as a manager. He transformed the fortunes of Liverpool Football Club, turning the team into a world class side, and he has been immortalised as a hero. From the very beginning, he was as committed to the fans as they were to him.
David Peace, acclaimed author of the 'Red Riding' series and 'The Damned United', now turns his attentions to Bill Shankly. 'Red or Dead' pulls Bill Shankly out of the football world and into the mainstream and tells us the story of the man, not just the manager. Peace describes Shankly as "not just a great football manager. Bill Shankly was one of the greatest men who ever lived."
David Peace's astonishing book takes us into Bill Shankly's home and his heart, beyond Anfield. For Bill, his wife Ness had always been his security. There was only Ness and football, football and Ness. But now, his wife's sudden serious illness shakes him deeply.
Read by Gary Lewis
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Producer: Allegra McIlroy.
MON 23:00 Summer Nights (b038c3bn)
Series 1
Does Sport Matter?
Britain has become an elite sporting nation. The triumph of Team GB and Paralympics GB at London 2012 has been followed by British winners of the Tour de France, Wimbledon, the US Open and a first Lions series win for 16 years. England has recently retained the Ashes and we have the most commercially successful football league in the world. But some of us still have a problem with athletic excellence, be it through disliking competitive sport or preferring the amateur ethos. So why, Jane Garvey asks, do we still get sniffy about sport?
Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Ruth Watts
Interviewed guest: Katherine Grainger
Interviewed guest: John Amaechi
Interviewed guest: Emma John
Interviewed guest: Matthew Syed
Interviewed guest: Jonathan Overend
Interviewed guest: Carrie Dunn.
TUESDAY 20 AUGUST 2013
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b03890t2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b038hr2n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b03890t4)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b03890t6)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b03890t8)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b03890tb)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b038c5cj)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Revd Dr Michael Ford.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b038c5cl)
Catering staff in the House of Commons and Lords have stopped using fresh eggs in omelettes and scrambled egg, switching to the pasteurised liquid variety instead. Dave Howard hears how MPs are angry about the ban which Labour MP Thomas Docherty describes as "ludicrous overkill" and wants to see overturned.
Dave checks out a glamping site in Hay-on-Wye and, as well as relaxing in a 'yome' (that's a cross between a yurt and a dome), finds out from farmer Ros Garrett how diversifying into rural tourism has benefited her and the farm.
And as activists continue their 48 hours of direct action against fracking in the West Sussex village of Balcombe, we hear from Richard Ponsford who farms the field that has been taken over as a campsite by the activists.
Presented by Dave Howard and produced in Bristol by Anna Jones.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378xj7)
Northern Wheatear
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Michaela Strachan presents the northern wheatear. With their black masks, white bellies, apricot chests and grey backs, male wheatears are colourful companions on a hill walk. The birds you see in autumn may have come from as far as Greenland or Arctic Canada. They pass through the British Isles and twice a year many of them travel over 11,000 kilometres between Africa and the Arctic. It's one of the longest regular journeys made by any perching bird.
TUE 06:00 Today (b038c5cn)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (b038c5qj)
Russell Foster
Russell Foster, Professor of Circadian Neuroscience at Oxford University, is obsessed with biological clocks. He talks to Jim al-Khalili about how light controls our wellbeing from jet lag to serious mental health problems. Professor Foster explains how moved from being a poor student at school to the scientist who discovered a new way in which animals detect light.
TUE 09:30 One to One (b038c5ql)
Frank Gardner talks to Dr Stuart Butchart
In 2004 , the BBC's Security Correspondent Frank Gardner was shot several times by terrorists while reporting in Saudi Arabia, some of those bullets hit the core of his body and damaged his spinal nerve which means that he can no longer use his legs and is in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. This was for him a catastrophic life changing injury. But while he was in hospital he received an email from someone who too had been shot in the back and said- 'I've got some advice and tips on how to cope'. In this first of three programmes for the series 'One to One' Frank Gardner explores how one copes with a life changing injury and begins by talking to Dr Stuart Butchart who gave Frank hope.
Presenter : Frank Gardner
Producer : Perminder Khatkar.
TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b038jcc6)
Operation Massacre
Episode 2
Episode 2
Florida was an unremarkable suburb of the Vicente Lopez district of Buenos Aires in the Summer of 1956, when a group of neighbours assembled in the back apartment of a house to play cards and listen to a boxing match on the radio. In the front apartment the owner of the house listened to the same fight with an acquaintance, whilst his wife got ready for bed.
Meanwhile across the city General Valle and General Tanco were planning an uprising against the government, which set in train a macabre chain of events for the unsuspecting men in Florida.
Read by Nigel Anthony.
Abridged and produced by Jane Marshall
A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b038c7b5)
Bonus Pay Gap; Samantha Shannon; Mania Akbari
What role do annual bonuses play in exaggerating the gender pay gap? Petra Wilton, Director of Policy at the Chartered Management Institute and Roger Barker, Director of Corporate Governance at the Institute of Directors discuss.
Samantha Shannon on her debut novel The Bone Season. Iranian film director Mania Akbari. Should boys be vaccinated against the HP virus? And, the Annual Holiday Row. Sue Eliot Nicholls takes a look at holiday arguments.
TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b038c7b7)
The One About the Social Worker
Episode 2
by Martin Jameson
It's an irony of child protection, that if you've been a social worker long enough to remove two children from a woman at birth, that means you may be the one constant in her life she can trust.
So when Tamsin tracks down her old social worker Liz for help, she doesn't care that Liz is on suspension and forbidden from talking to her. Or that Liz is the current hate figure of the national press, after the violent death of a child on her caseload.
Tamsin just wants help.
Should Liz ignore her? Or is time to break the rules?
Claire Skinner is best known to TV viewers as harassed mum Sue in Outnumbered, but her wide-ranging career includes long associations with Mike Leigh, Alan Ayckbourn, and Sam Mendes.
Lacey Turner won a fistful of awards for her portrayal of Eastenders' Stacey Slater over 6 years, and recent TV work includes starring in True Love and Our Girl.
Martin Jameson is a prolific screenwriter, director and playwright whose recent work on Radio 4 includes Can You Tell Me The Name Of The Prime Minister?, The Night They Tried To Kidnap The Prime Minister and Stone.
2/5 Liz has been offered a settlement by the Council, if she'll sign a gagging order.
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.
TUE 11:00 Raising Allosaurus: The Dream of Jurassic Park (b038c7b9)
In the 20 years since the release of the film Jurassic Park, DNA cloning technologies have advanced dramatically. Professor Adam Hart asks whether we could and should start bringing extinct animals back from the dead.
The fossilised remains of dinosaurs are too degraded to hold any viable DNA, so Jurassic Park is unlikely to be a reality. But what about Pleistocene Park? Deep frozen remains of Arctic animals like the woolly mammoth or the Irish elk, have been shown to contain DNA - but is it in good enough condition to rebuild the genome and attempt cloning these animals which went extinct nearly 4000 years ago?
Some people think it could work. But should we even be considering it? With so many plants and animals threatened with extinction now, should we be wasting time and resources on bringing back animals that didn't make the cut?
Adam Hart asks experts in ancient DNA whether the code for life could be resurrected in animals like the mammoth, the passenger pigeon, the dodo, the marsupial tiger, or thylacine? And he asks conservationists whether we should be doing it.
Jurassic Park audio - Courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing LLC
TUE 11:30 Letting the Walls Speak (b038c7bc)
2013 saw the 400th anniversary of the building of the city walls in Londonderry. Constructed in 1613 by the City of London and its wealthy guild companies to "plant" the region, the Catholic population was displaced to outside the walls and the Irish Derrie was given the prefix London.
Today the walls mean different things to different people. For one section of the community they are glorious reminders of a proud heritage. To others, the walls represent a forced displacement from their own land.
The composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and the poet Paul Muldoon were commissioned to write a cantata to mark 400 years of the walls. Arts broadcaster Marie-Louise Muir, who grew up in Derry, followed their journey.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.
TUE 12:00 You and Yours (b038c7bf)
Call You and Yours: Green Shoots?
On Call You and Yours, we want to find out how you're feeling about your finances. There are signs of improvement in the economy and we want to know whether the better news is reaching you. Do you feel more secure at work? Have you been able to take more people on if you're running a business? Or perhaps your disposable income is as tight as ever, and that the green shoots - if that's what they are - aren't touching your life at all.
The Confederation of British Industry has raised its forecasts for economic growth for this year and next. High street sales improved in July too, according to the British Retail Consortium. With better news about manufacturing coming in from the Eurozone and reports that GDP is up; how confident do you feel?
Call Julian Worricker on 03700 100 444 or you can e-mail via the Radio 4 website or text on 84844.
TUE 12:57 Weather (b03890td)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b038c7bh)
National and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
TUE 13:45 A View Through a Lens (b0150p92)
Series 3
Funky Chickens
Wildlife cameraman John Aitchison often finds himself in isolated and even dangerous locations across the globe filming wildlife, and in this series he reflects on the uniqueness of human experience, the beauty of nature, the fragility of life and the connections which unite society and nature across the globe.
2/5 Funky Chickens:
Wildlife cameraman John Aitchison travels to Kansas, land of the prairies, the wild west and, as John discovers, some funky chickens. Under the cover of darkness, and after checking for rattle snakes, John crawls into his hide and waits. A strange sound, rather like that produced when you blow across the top of a bottle, begins to fill the air. The chickens are coming! Prairie chickens are a type of grouse, short-legged and dumpy. Their bodies are striped pale yellow brown and black, so they are well camouflaged in the long grass. Male birds gather in groups called leks and compete with one another to attract a female by engaging in an elaborate display; a kind of dance. First, long feathers rise up from the neck, revealing orange patches of skin on either side of the throat. Combs of orange inflate above their eyes. They drop their wings to the ground, shake their heads and inflate their orange throat patches. And then the birds begin to boom, and drum their feet. From his hide John watches this bizarre and hilarious performance. And then a bird flies up and lands on the roof of his hide, and begins to drum his feet! Now John feels he is really part of the crowd!
Producer Sarah Blunt.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b038c0fd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b038c7bk)
Encounter
In 1971, Yves Saint Laurent stripped naked for a revolutionary photograph.
In 2002, he retired from fashion, declaring that after a lifetime of international fame, he'd learned that the greatest encounter in life is with oneself.
In 2013, Christopher Green took his pants off in Wembley to recreate that famous shot, at the start of a very personal encounter with fashion, fame, love, loss and legacy.
Expect songs, laughs, some of your actual French, a sizeable amount of nudity, a few tears, and the story of three missing men.
Written, narrated and composed by Christopher Green.
In conversation with Tom Lewis Russell, Alicia Drake, Kerry Taylor and Gabrielle Drake.
Music played by Duncan Walsh Atkins and Anders Rye
Photograph by Tom Lewis Russell, after an original by Jean Loup Sieff.
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting
Olivier-award winning entertainer Christopher Green is best known in his multiple personas as Country and Western Icon Tina C. (Tina C's Global Depression Tour), OAP Rap Artist Ida Barr (Artificial Hip Hop), and as The Singing Hypnotist. His many original projects for Radio 4 include Like An Angel Passing Through My Room (about his meeting with Anni-Frid Lyngstad, aka Frida from Abba), Generation Electric, The Second Best Bed, and None of The Above. He's just completed a year as The British Library's first artist in residence and is currently on attachment to the National Theatre.
TUE 15:00 Making History (b038c7bn)
Tom Holland is joined by archaeologist and historian Professor Francis Pryor and Professor Alex Walsham, the author of The Reformation of the Landscape.
Tom talks to Professor Lisa Brady from Biose State University in the USA to find out what we mean by environmental history and why it seems to be more popular across the Atlantic than it is in Europe. Professor Ian Rotherham takes us on a journey into England's lost fens and Helen Castor is in the wetlands of Somerset with Professor Ronald Hutton to hear Making History listener Steve Pole's theories on why religion and landscape made Bridgwater such a rebellious town.
Contact the programme: making.history@bbc.co.uk
Produced by Nick Patrick
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:30 The Philosopher's Arms (b038c7bq)
Series 3
Moral Blame
Pints and philosophical puzzles with Matthew Sweet. Each week Matthew goes to the pub to discuss a knotty conundrum with an audience and a panel of experts. Free will, exploitation, sex, sexism, blame and shame are just some of the topics to be mulled over in this series of The Philosopher's Arms.
Tonight we look at historic wrongs. Can we blame people in the past who held views that we now regard as abhorrent, but which were then widely accepted? The programme features philosopher Miranda Fricker.
Producer: David Edmonds.
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b038c7bs)
Language Games
From Ancient Greece, to Saturday nights watching TV, word puzzles have fascinated people for thousands of years. Chris Ledgard takes us on a journey through the language of puzzles, from anagrams to Call My Bluff, and visits the International Linguistics Olympiad to meet to some of the sharpest puzzle-solving minds in the business.
Puzzle setter for The Guardian, Chris Maslanka, explains the secrets of puzzle setting; Marcel Danesi from the University of Toronto explains the Riddle of the Sphinx; and scientist Katherine Friedlander explains how you can improve your puzzle solving.
Producer: Melvin Rickarby.
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b038c7bv)
Series 31
Tanika Gupta on Rabindranath Tagore
Playwright Tanika Gupta chooses as her Great Life, a man who is a hero to Bengali speakers across the World, Rabindranath Tagore.
Born in 1861, to a wealthy family in Calcutta, Tagore would be the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, his work spanning every genre. He was also a humanist, philanthropist, and thinker, whose friends included Yeats and Gandhi.
Tagore began writing in his boyhood, and his work reflects a deep feeling for the landscape of Bengal. His plays, essays, stories and poetry quickly found a ready audience in Bengali speakers. And in 1913, when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his poetry collection ‘Gitanjali', or ‘Song Offerings', his reputation was established world-wide.
Tagore's brand of humanism, his anti-imperial politics, and his literature, took him around the World. It also convinced him of the dangers of European aggression and the need for Indian Independence. He died just six years before it was achieved.
Playwright Tanika Gupta joins Matthew Parris to share her deep love of Tagore's work and her early experiences of performing it. She is joined by Tagore's translator, Ketaki Kushari Dyson, to discuss Tagore's vast legacy to Bengali speakers and beyond.
Produced by Lizz Pearson.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.
TUE 17:00 PM (b038c82c)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b03890tg)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 It's Not What You Know (b038c82f)
Series 2
Edinburgh Special
Miles Jupp hosts the panel show that tests how well panellists know those closest to them, in a special show from the Edinburgh Fringe.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b038c82h)
Feeling the effects of a late night with wine, Rob pops into the village shop for pain killers. He wants to encourage the new dairy staff to use local businesses and discusses establishing a delivery system with Susan. Jennifer reminds him he has an appointment with Brian.
Jennifer needs help as her regular gardener Simon will be off for at least another month. Susan suggests giving one of the pickers some extra work until Simon's back gets better.
Adam accompanies Brian to his final inspection of the dairy staff's apartments. He's impressed by their luxury He thinks he might have to spruce up his pickers' caravans. Apologetic Rob joins them late. He'd forgotten to charge his phone last night...
Over lunch, Brian relays his meeting with the Borchester Land board. It looks like he's taken all the credit for the deal he struck with the milk processors. Although he assures Rob he'd been given an honourable mention.
Shula attempts to sell some tickets for the fundraiser concert, but Rob might have to go back to Hampshire that Friday.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b038c8s2)
Naughty Boy; Lovelace; Elmore Leonard
John Wilson meets Naughty Boy, the British-born Pakistani songwriter, musician and producer, who has worked with Emeli Sande and Britney Spears and is now releasing his debut album Hotel Cabana.
Zoe Williams reviews the film Lovelace, starring Amanda Seyfried as Deep Throat actress Linda Lovelace.
An extract from John's 2002 interview with the American crime writer Elmore Leonard, whose death was announced today.
And Harry Nilsson's biographer Alyn Shipton discusses the life and career of the singer whose hits included Everybody's Talking, Without You, and Coconut.
Producer Timothy Prosser.
TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b038c7b7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 Patently Absurd (b038c8s4)
The patent system in the USA is so distorted it's now more lucrative for companies known as 'patent trolls' to sue manufacturers rather than actually make anything. The problem's so serious that President Obama has got involved -- and British companies are targeted if they do business in the US. Rory Cellan-Jones investigates and finds one of the world's biggest trolls in his lair in Dallas.
For centuries patents have helped stimulate innovation by rewarding inventors. But in recent years millions of US patents have gone to minor developments often in terms so general they seem to cover whole technologies like podcasting or wi-fi.
Major corporations are amassing huge 'war-chests' of patents to defend and sue each other. Around 250,000 patents affect smartphones alone; such 'patent thickets' make it almost impossible for new companies to compete without risking ruinous lawsuits.
But worst of all are 'trolls' - companies that buy up patents simply to extract 'license fees' from businesses that actually make products. Faced with defending a lawsuit at a cost of at least $1 million, or settling for a smaller license fee, most pay up even if they're not infringing any patents.
Last year the majority of US patent cases were filed by 'troll' companies at an estimated cost to technology businesses of $29 billion a year. But it's all legal and the companies say they're simply monetising a 'property right' and raising money for small inventors.
Strangely many of these cases are filed in a small town in rural Texas. Cellan-Jones reports from Marshall, once the home of 'boogie-woogie' but now more famous for 'the rocket docket' - patent cases that go to trial in a fraction of the time they take elsewhere in the US.
The programme is a Square Dog Radio production for Radio 4
Producer: Mike Hally
A Square Dog Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b038c8s8)
Peter White is joined by broadcaster and singer Georgia Collins who talks about her career to date. Peter also talks to the 3 young apprentices on Action's work experience scheme.
Performer Frankie Armstrong also offers advice to Georgia about her musical career.
TUE 21:00 Seven Ages of Science (b038c8sb)
Age of Opportunity
Lisa Jardine explores how the advent of mass manufacture in the Midlands changed scientific endeavour from a gentlemanly pursuit into a gritty, profitable, factory-based industry; and helped to forge a new scientific discipline, chemistry.
Many early industrialists in Britain were vigorously interested in the material world. Josiah Wedgwood carried out thousands of experiments to achieve his unique Portland Blue: methodically changing the precise composition of the clay and adding different chemical elements to create new colours. He gave us fine bone china. He also gave us systematic and relentless testing on an industrial scale and the notion of quality control.
Through patiently experimenting with different methods, apparatus and techniques, James Keir worked out how to mass-produce soap. His factory at Tipton turned soap making from a craft into a science. It revolutionised hygiene, made Keir's fortune and paved the way for modern industrial chemistry.
In this Age of Opportunity, as the demand for little luxuries like soap and fine bone china grew, scientific endeavour was no longer solely a gentlemanly pursuit. It was a gritty, profitable, factory-based business. Science proved itself to be hugely profitable. And, at the turn of the century, Humphry Davy made it highly fashionable and respectable. His dazzling chemical performances in London were a sell- out. And, in 1833, Davy's friend, Samuel Coleridge suggested that men who were neither literary men nor philosophers, might be given the name, "scientist".
TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (b038c5qj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:58 Weather (b03890tj)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b038c8sd)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b038c8sg)
Red or Dead
Episode 7
By David Peace.
One hundred years ago this September, in a small Scottish mining village in East Ayrshire, Bill Shankly was born. Shankly's passion was football. It was his job and it was his life, both as a player and then as a manager. He transformed the fortunes of Liverpool Football Club, turning the team into a world class side, and he has been immortalised as a hero. From the very beginning, he was as committed to the fans as they were to him.
David Peace, acclaimed author of the 'Red Riding' series and 'The Damned United', now turns his attentions to Bill Shankly. 'Red or Dead' pulls Bill Shankly out of the football world and into the mainstream and tells us the story of the man, not just the manager. Peace describes Shankly as "not just a great football manager. Bill Shankly was one of the greatest men who ever lived."
David Peace's astonishing book takes us into Bill Shankly's home and his heart, beyond Anfield. A tender and intimate side to Bill is revealed.
Bill's resignation sent shockwaves across football and the news left the Liverpool fans reeling. And Bill Shankly himself, the man who said, 'You retire when they put the coffin lid down with your name on top. Until then nobody can retire', found retirement a deeply personal challenge.
Read by Gary Lewis
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Producer: Allegra McIlroy.
TUE 23:00 Summer Nights (b038c8sj)
Series 1
A Sense of Belonging
How important are the groups that we belong to and how free are we to choose between them? Race, class, gender, nationality and religion are all powerful labels - but how important are they really? And in the age of all-consuming social media, is deciding where we belong now something we do on our own? Hardeep Singh Kohli asks his guests what challenges our sense of identity in Britain today.
Presenter: Hardeep Singh Kohli
Producer: Ruth Watts
Interviewed guest: Maajid Nawaz
Interviewed guest: Lynsey Hanley
Interviewed guest: Tim Stanley
Interviewed guest: Hugh Muir
Interviewed guest: Paris Lees
Interviewed guest: Zoah Hedges-Stocks.
WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2013
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b03890vc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b038jcc6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b03890vf)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b03890vh)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b03890vk)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b03890vm)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b038hf8c)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Revd Dr Michael Ford.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b038hf8f)
Dave Howard looks at the consultation on the government's strategy to eradicate bovine TB that is now halfway through. Over the next month, a series of workshops will be held across the country for farmers, vets and other stakeholders before it ends on the 26th of September. The pilot culls of badgers in two sites in the South West of England could start any day, while vaccinations are already underway in Wales. Experts say every measure, including new research on an oral vaccination for badgers, is needed to tackle the disease.
Also, the flax crop used to be a common sight in Northern Ireland in the 1800s and 1900s where it was once part of the vast linen industry. It disappeared mainly because of foreign competition - but now there could be the beginnings of a revival thanks to a new project...
Produced in Bristol by Anna Varle.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378xjw)
White Stork
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Michaela Strachan presents the white stork. White Storks are annual visitors in small numbers to the UK, mainly in spring and summer when migrating birds overshoot their Continental nesting areas and wander around our countryside. They used to breed here, most famously documented on St Giles's cathedral in Edinburgh in 1415 and who knows, they may well breed here in the future.
WED 06:00 Today (b038hf8h)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Midweek (b038hfdc)
Roy Hudd, David Harris-Gershon, Baroness Newlove, Rev Colin Still
Libby Purves meets actor and comedian Roy Hudd; writer David Harris-Gershon; community reform campaigner Baroness Helen Newlove and cruise ship chaplain Reverend Colin Still.
Roy Hudd OBE is an actor, comedian and president of the British Music Hall Society. He narrates a film, Variety of Memories, about Brinsworth House - a nursing home for retired variety performers. Variety of Memories will be screened at Wilton's Music Hall in London as part of celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the British Music Hall Society.
Helen Newlove, now Baroness Newlove of Warrington, is a community reform campaigner. Her late husband Garry Newlove was attacked and killed outside their home in Warrington by a gang of youths in 2007. Since his death, she has fought against anti-social behaviour and for the rights of victims and witnesses. In 2010 she took her seat in the House of Lords and later she was appointed Victims Commissioner by Prime Minister David Cameron. Her book, It Could Happen to You, is published by Mainstream Publishing.
David Harris-Gershon is a columnist and writer. In the summer of 2002, during historic ceasefire negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, a bomb was detonated in a cafeteria at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The blast left David's wife with severe injuries and killed two of the friends who were with her. The experience sent David on a psychological journey which eventually led him to the family home of the man responsible. What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist who Tried to Kill Your Wife is published by One World Publications.
Reverend Colin Still is a retired Anglican vicar who travels the world as a cruise ship chaplain with the Mission to Seafarers charity. He was recently the focus of a BBC documentary series, The Cruise, in which he travelled on the Balmoral on a 112-day world cruise with 1,700 passengers and crew, taking ninety-two services along the way.
Producer: Paula McGinley.
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b038kv9v)
Operation Massacre
Episode 3
Episode 3
A police raid on a house in Buenos Aires has astounded the unsuspecting residents. But as they are bundled onto a truck most of them think they have nothing to fear.
Little do they know that they are suspected of conspiring in a rebellion against the government.
Read by Nigel Anthony
Aridged and produced by Jane Marshall
A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b038hfdf)
Fidan Hajiyeva; Is feminism racist?
Azeri singer Fidan Hajiyeva: born in Baku, Azerbaijan and raised in Hackney, the 17 year old will be performing at the World Prom on 22nd August alongside her mentor Gochaq Askarov. Is feminism racist? Mikki Kendall, creator of #solidarityisforwhitewomen, Nimko Ali and Daisy Martey discuss. Katie Waldegrave on her book The Poets' Daughters about Dora Wordsworth and Sara Coleridge. Director Yael Farber on her new play Nirbhaya about violence against women in India. And, what should you keep in your fridge? Not cucumbers, strawberries or eggs. Jenni Murray presents.
WED 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b038hffy)
The One About the Social Worker
Episode 3
by Martin Jameson
It's an irony of child protection, that if you've been a social worker long enough to remove two children from a woman at birth, that means you may be the one constant in her life she can trust.
So when Tamsin tracks down her old social worker Liz for help, she doesn't care that Liz is on suspension and forbidden from talking to her. Or that Liz is the current hate figure of the national press, after the violent death of a child on her caseload.
Tamsin just wants help.
Should Liz ignore her? Or is time to break the rules?
Claire Skinner is best known to TV viewers as harrassed mum Sue in Outnumbered, but her wide-ranging career includes long associations with Mike Leigh, Alan Ayckbourn, and Sam Mendes.
Lacey Turner won a fistful of awards for her portrayal of Eastenders' Stacey Slater over 6 years, and recent TV work includes starring in True Love and Our Girl.
Martin Jameson is a prolific screenwriter, director and playwright whose recent work on Radio 4 includes Can You Tell Me The Name Of The Prime Minister?, The Night They Tried To Kidnap The Prime Minister and Stone.
3/5 When Tamsin presents her with an emergency, Liz tries to play it by the book.
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.
WED 11:00 The I.T. Girls (b038hfkx)
From the 1950s to the mid-1970s in Britain, many of the pioneers of early computing were women. This was a highly skilled new world of work providing opportunities that were often in sharp contrast to the established norms of post-war British life, with new technology helping drive social change.
Mary Coombs was the first woman to program the world's first commercially available business computer: the Lyons LEO. She tells us what it was like to work on this machine - which was the size of a room.
In 1962 Dame Stephanie Shirley founded a programming company, Freelance Programmers, which only employed women. She became a very successful figure in the industry.
Ann Moffat started her career at Kodak in 1959. She programmed the black box flight recorders for Concorde and wrote missile programmes for Polaris.
The Science Museum's Keeper of Technologies and Engineering, Dr Tilly Blyth, explains the significance of her museum's collection of machines that changed these women's lives.
Martha Lane Fox presents the programme. In 1998 she co-founded Lastminute.com, and become one of the pioneers of the dot com era.
Producer: Oliver Woods.
WED 11:30 Paul Temple (b038hfpt)
Paul Temple and the Gregory Affair
News of Mr Gregory
Part 8 of a new production of a vintage serial from 1946.
From 1938 to 1968, Francis Durbridge's incomparably suave amateur detective Paul Temple and his glamorous wife Steve solved case after baffling case in one of BBC radio's most popular series. Sadly, only half of Temple's adventures survive in the archives.
In 2006 BBC Radio 4 brought one of the lost serials back to life with Crawford Logan and Gerda Stevenson as Paul and Steve. Using the original scripts and incidental music, and recorded using vintage microphones and sound effects, the production of Paul Temple and the Sullivan Mystery aimed to sound as much as possible like the 1947 original might have done if its recording had survived. The serial proved so popular that it was soon followed by three more revivals, Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery, Paul Temple and Steve, and A Case for Paul Temple.
Now, from 1946, it's the turn of Paul Temple and the Gregory Affair, in which Paul and Steve go on the trail of the mysterious and murderous Mr Gregory.
Episode 8: News of Mr Gregory
Steve goes in search of a trumpeter at the Hammersford Palais.
Producer Patrick Rayner
Francis Durbridge, the creator of Paul Temple, was born in Hull in 1912 and died in 1998. He was one of the most successful novelists, playwrights and scriptwriters of his day.
WED 12:00 You and Yours (b038hfr2)
Green Homes, Broadband, Coconut Water
On You and Yours we're visiting an award-winning housing development praised for its space, natural light and how quickly it was built. We're unpicking the complicated ad competitive world of broadband. And we're tasting coconut water and finding out how good it is for you. That's You and Yours with Stuart Flinders.
WED 12:30 Face the Facts (b038hfr4)
The Defiance of Science
Face the Facts investigates a commonly used medicine, licensed for use since the 1980s, that may have caused thousands of unnecessary deaths in UK hospitals until its suspension 2 months ago. It's one of the most common sights in a hospital - a drip hanging from a stand by a patient's bed. We hear from doctors who have been calling for a ban on one type of starch-based drip since the late nineties and how their concerns were drowned out by supporters of the drug including a German doctor, who, we now know, falsified scientific research to support the use of the drug.
WED 12:57 Weather (b03890vp)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b038hftl)
National and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
WED 13:45 A View Through a Lens (b0151pyd)
Series 3
Patience
Wildlife cameraman John Aitchison often finds himself in isolated and even dangerous locations across the globe filming wildlife, and in this series he reflects on the uniqueness of human experience, the beauty of nature, the fragility of life and the connections which unite society and nature across the globe.
3/5 Patience. Its summer and wildlife cameraman John Aitchison travelled to Svalbard as part of a team making the BBC series Frozen Planet to film polar bears hunting for food. In summer, when there is no ice from which to hunt, the polar bears on land resort to hunting sea birds. This is what John has come here to film. But it proves far harder than he expects, as the bears are in no hurry to hunt, and John is left watching and waiting for a bear which does little else but sleep, day after day after day. Whilst he waits, John's attention turns to other things; like the sounds of the kittiwakes, the sounds of gas escaping from the ice and the dives and breaths of white beluga whales in a nearby fjord. As he listens, watches and waits, John reflects on what it means to be patient.
Producer Sarah Blunt.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b038c82h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b038hg46)
DJ Britton - When Greed Becomes Hunger
The Pit
By DJ Britton
The first in a two-part drama about global food security.
British trader Phil Ward has just moved to the US with his wife Sian to start work at the Chicago Board of Trade. When the grain market is thrown into turmoil, Phil's boss - Joel Bosco - calls him in to make sense of the numbers. Phil uncovers a global trend in food scarcity that represents a huge financial opportunity for the company. But what if the market fails?
World food security is a hot topic. Internationally, after record growth, global wheat exports have fallen by 10 per cent in the last year. Prices are rising inexorably. According to Oxfam, 800 million people are currently malnourished - a greater figure than ever before. As cereal production falls, world population numbers continue to rise, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation predicts food demand will double by 2030. Meanwhile world food security remains left to the volatility of the global free market.
When Greed Becomes Hunger asks whether the world can afford to trust the free market with its food supply.
Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.
WED 15:00 How You Pay for the City (b038bbv9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:00 on Saturday]
WED 15:30 Seven Ages of Science (b038c8sb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b038hg73)
Michel Foucault - a special programme on his work and influence.
Michel Foucault - Laurie Taylor presents a special programme on the life and work of the iconoclastic French philosopher and theorist. He's joined by Professor Stephen Shapiro, Professor Vikki Bell and Professor Lois McNay. Revised repeat.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
WED 16:30 The Media Show (b038hg75)
Guardian editor on press freedom; 100 years of the New Statesman
As the story over the detention of David Miranda continues to unfold, Steve Hewlett gets the latest from the editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, and discusses how the Guardian, and other publications, have covered the story. In the year of its centenary, we ask the editor of the New Statesman how it's adapting in the digital world. And, as the International Herald Tribune embarks on a rebranding, we ask, what's really in a name change?
Producer: Katy Takatsuki.
WED 17:00 PM (b038hgh9)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b03890vr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 My Teenage Diary (b038hghc)
Series 5
Ken Livingstone
Another brave celebrity revisits their formative years by opening up their intimate teenage diaries, and reading them out in public for the very first time.
Comedian Rufus Hound is joined by former London Mayor Ken Livingstone. Ken reads from his 1966 diary, when he hitched across the Sahara, adopted an incontinent ostrich called Horace, and ate a venomous snake.
Producer: Harriet Jaine
A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b038hghf)
It's Caroline's morning off, but Oliver finds her at Grey Gables. Both he and Kathy think she should make the most of her time off after being ill.
Jolene and Fallon are in Felpersham looking for something untraditional for Jolene's wedding dress. They look in a bridal shop and department store for inspiration, but Jolene isn't convinced by anything. When Caroline and Oliver spot them, Caroline can't hide her doubts about the ball gown Jolene is trying on.
Jolene's had enough but she and Fallon pop into a vintage shop before they leave Unexpectedly, Jolene finds her perfect dress and moves her daughter to tears.
The golf club wastage report appears normal but Martyn wants Kathy to explain her calculations as he believes the figures don't tally with what he witnessed last week. Kathy takes him through the figures, but Martyn mutters her report is only accurate if the last stock take was correct. Fed up Kathy challenges him. He can go through the cellar, check every barrel and even count the lemons behind the bar if he likes. Martyn may be surprised but figures don't lie.
WED 19:15 Front Row (b038hghh)
Vince Gilligan, What Maisie Knew, Nadifa Mohamed
With Mark Lawson.
Mark meets Vince Gilligan, the creator of hit American TV series Breaking Bad, about a chemistry teacher who becomes a drugs overload after being diagnosed with cancer.
Meg Rosoff reviews the film What Maisie Knew. Based on the 1897 novel by Henry James, the film is set in modern day New York and stars Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan as parents going through an acrimonious custody battle, in which their young daughter Maisie has become a pawn.
Nadifa Mohamed, the award winning author of Black Mamba Boy, discusses her second novel The Orchard of Lost Souls. Set in her birthplace of Somalia, the novel tells the stories of two women and a young girl who are living through the destruction of the 1988 civil war. Mohamed talks about the difficulties of writing the book, her relationship with Somalia and the experience of moving to London.
A London theatre has had to cancel some performances of one of its productions as a cast member is indisposed and there are no understudies. Actor Michael Simkins discusses the balancing act between cancelling a performance, carrying on with the show despite illness or injury and calling in an understudy at the last minute.
Producer: Olivia Skinner.
WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b038hffy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
WED 20:00 Four Thought (b038hghk)
Best of Four Thought
Original Thinkers
David Baddiel presents the best of the series which mixes new ideas and personal stories. In this edition we meet three speakers who challenge received wisdom.
Georgie Fienberg argues that charities should be putting themselves out of business. Matthew Syed, the journalist and former English table tennis international, says we have over-stated the importance of talent in relation to effort. Ben Dyson, from the campaign group Positive Money, wants the entire global financial system to change the way it does business.
Producer: Arlene Gregorius.
WED 20:45 Four Thought (b038hghm)
Series 4
Yasmin Hai
Yasmin Hai says it's not Western foreign policy that is radicalising British Muslims but more pedestrian psychological factors closer to home. Four Thought is a series of talks which combine new ideas and personal stories. Speakers explain their thinking on the trends and ideas in culture and society in front of a live audience.
Producer: Sheila Cook.
WED 21:00 Finding a Way: The Future of Navigation (b038yq98)
We all rely on GPS - the Global Positioning System network of satellites - whether we want to or not.
From shipping to taxis to mobile phones, the goods we consume and the technology with which we run our lives depend upon a low-power, weak and vulnerable signal beamed from a few tonnes of electronics orbiting above our heads.
This dependence is a new Achilles' heel for the world's financial, commercial and military establishments. From North Korea's concerted disruption of the South's maritime and airborne fleet, to white van drivers' evading the boss's scrutiny over lunch, this signal is easy to jam, with disastrous consequences.
Some people are looking at alternatives. Quentin Cooper meets the scientists and engineers developing alternative, resilient, navigation systems.
WED 21:30 Midweek (b038hfdc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 21:58 Weather (b03890vt)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b038hgqf)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b038hgqq)
Red or Dead
Episode 8
By David Peace.
One hundred years ago this September, in a small Scottish mining village in East Ayrshire, Bill Shankly was born.
Shankly's passion was football. It was his job and it was his life, both as a player and then as a manager. He transformed the fortunes of Liverpool Football Club, turning the team into a world class side, and he has been immortalised as a hero. From the very beginning, he was as committed to the fans as they were to him.
Acclaimed novelist David Peace describes Shankly as "not just a great football manager. Bill Shankly was one of the greatest men who ever lived". David Peace's astonishing book takes us into Bill Shankly's home and his heart, beyond Anfield.
Now, facing the deeply personal challenge of retirement, Bill Shankly finds himself lost.
Read by Gary Lewis
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Producer: Allegra McIlroy.
WED 23:00 Summer Nights (b038hgr0)
Series 1
What's the Point of an Elite?
'They caused this' was the common cry against the bankers and the politicians who presided over the crisis of 2008. So have we let our political, financial and cultural elites off the hook? And can we trust those who apparently let us down again. Evan Davis asks who the elite are, how they operate and what, if anything, should be done to check the behaviour of those who continue to enjoy the greatest share of wealth and power in society.
Presenter: Evan Davis
Producer: Ruth Watts
Interviewed guest: Maurice Glasman
Interviewed guest: Fraser Nelson
Interviewed guest: Anthony Seldon
Interviewed guest: Zoe Williams
Interviewed guest: Stacy Hilliard.
THURSDAY 22 AUGUST 2013
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b03890zr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b038kv9v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b03890zt)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b03890zw)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b03890zy)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b0389100)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b038hhf6)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Revd Dr Michael Ford.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b038hhfk)
The National Farmers Union is due to be in the High Court today, seeking an injunction against anti badger cull activists 'to protect farmers and landowners'. The NFU says there have been 'various incidents of harassment and intimidation'. Sybil Ruscoe asks the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gloucestershire how such an injunction would affect policing.
Meanwhile, we meet a group of peaceful protesters intent on picking up wounded badger badgers, once the pilot culls begin.
And, as the August bank holiday approaches, we continue our exploration of how farmers are earning their share of the tourist pound.
Produced by Sarah Swadling, and Presented by Sybil Ruscoe.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378xkr)
Honey Buzzard
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Michaela Strachan presents the honey buzzard. The Honey Buzzard is more closely related to the Kite than it is to our common Buzzard. It gets its name for its fondness, not for honey, but for the grubs of bees and wasps. The bird locates their nests by watching where the insects go from a branch. It then digs out the honeycomb with its powerful feet and breaks into the cells.
THU 06:00 Today (b038hhs5)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 Inside the Ethics Committee (b038hhs7)
Series 9
Genetic Testing in Children
Alan is in his late thirties when he is diagnosed with lung cancer. A genetic test reveals that he has Li Fraumeni Syndrome, a fault in a gene which predisposes him to cancer.
Alan starts chemotherapy but the treatment takes its toll. He and his wife Rachel try to resume family life - they have three children and Rachel is pregnant. But over the coming months Alan's health deteriorates further and eventually Alan dies.
Soon after his death, Rachel gives birth to their baby. Over the next eighteen months she's increasingly unnerved by the pattern that's now emerging in Alan's extended family. Two of his siblings have died from cancer and there are tumours developing in other siblings, and in some of their children. Rachel is extremely worried that some of her own children, aged 2 to 12 years, may also carry the genetic fault.
Rachel visits a genetics service and asks them to test her four children for Li Fraumeni Syndrome. The genetic counsellor explains that children are not usually tested for this condition as there is little benefit in knowing - while there's a high risk of cancers developing in affected children, there is no reliable way of detecting these cancers early. Rachel remains committed - she wants to know if any of her children carry the faulty gene.
Should the genetic team allow her to have her children tested?
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b038c0dm)
Operation Massacre
Episode 4
The men arrested from a house in Buenos Aires have been questioned by police and then put on a truck, understanding that they are being transferred to La Plata.
However, the truck doesn't drive to La Plata but to a deserted wasteland where the men are forced out onto the road at gun point. And they still have no idea what is happening to them or why.
Read by Nigel Anthony
Abridged and produced by Jane Marshall
A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b038hj3p)
Hope Powell; Women's football; Marks and Spencer
Hope Powell's 15-year reign as head coach of the England women's football team has come to an end as the Football Association decides the time is right 'for a fresh outlook'. What's the future hold for the women's game and what can it learn from its past. As she celebrates her 90th Birthday Author Emma Smith talks about her memoir As Green As Grass and why her books have become popular again.
Marks and Spencer embraces a 'Womanist' message by featuring Helen Mirren, Tracey Emin and Katie Piper in its latest campaign but what's wrong with saying feminism?
And we take a look at the power and ups and downs of female friendships some of which can last a lifetime.
THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b038hj3r)
The One About the Social Worker
Episode 4
by Martin Jameson
It's an irony of child protection, that if you've been a social worker long enough to remove two children from a woman at birth, that means you may be the one constant in her life she can trust.
So when Tamsin tracks down her old social worker Liz for help, she doesn't care that Liz is on suspension and forbidden from talking to her. Or that Liz is the current hate figure of the national press, after the violent death of a child on her caseload.
Tamsin just wants help.
Should Liz ignore her? Or is time to break the rules?
Claire Skinner is best known to TV viewers as harrassed mum Sue in Outnumbered, but her wide-ranging career includes long associations with Mike Leigh, Alan Ayckbourn, and Sam Mendes.
Lacey Turner won a fistful of awards for her portrayal of Eastenders' Stacey Slater over 6 years, and recent TV work includes starring in True Love and Our Girl.
Martin Jameson is a prolific screenwriter, director and playwright whose recent work on Radio 4 includes Can You Tell Me The Name Of The Prime Minister?, The Night They Tried To Kidnap The Prime Minister and Stone.
4/5 Liz changes her mind - and her appearance.
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b038hj3t)
Turkey's New Opposition
Change is in the air in Turkey following anti-government protests centred on a park in Istanbul - but where will it end? Emre Azizlerli of the BBC Turkish Service explores the strange new alliances forged in Turkey's anti-government protests, and asks if this diverse movement can hold together. He meets the anti-capitalist Islamists who have made common cause with environmentalists and secularists as well as gay and lesbian groups. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan refers to the protesters as "piteous rodents". The government has reacted by clamping down and sending in the riot police. Can the very different groups which oppose Erdogan really make common cause?
Producer: Mark Savage.
THU 11:30 The Gambaccini Years (b038hj7d)
Episode 3
Paul Gambaccini is the only broadcaster who has presented regular programmes on BBC Radios 1, 2, 3 and 4.
2013 marked his 40th anniversary in British broadcasting, since his arrival at Radio 1 in 1973 from American college radio and Rolling Stone magazine.
In the third part of his look back, Paul recalls the 1980s campaign to make the public aware of the threat posed by AIDS. Chief Executive of the Terence Higgins Trust, Sir Nick Partridge helps recalls the work they did together to raise funds for AIDS related causes.
Paul also reminisces about his favourite moments from Radio 4’s Kaleidoscope, with fellow presenter Tim Marlow; and about his time as a broadcaster at Classic FM, with former colleague Nick Bailey.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.
THU 12:00 You and Yours (b038hjd9)
Caravan MOT plans, mobile phone costs
Stuart Flinders with news of a possible MOT for caravans and the man who's successfully battled against the rising price of his mobile phone contract. Plus the problem of falling victim to criminals in the pub.
THU 12:57 Weather (b0389102)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b038hjdc)
National and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
THU 13:45 A View Through a Lens (b0151t3w)
Series 3
Fur Seals
Wildlife cameraman John Aitchison often finds himself in isolated and even dangerous locations across the globe filming wildlife, and in this series he reflects on the uniqueness of human experience, the beauty of nature, the fragility of life and the connections which unite society and nature across the globe.
4/5 Fur Seals. Wildlife cameraman John Aitchison travelled with a team filming the BBC series Frozen Planet to Bird Island, a small island at the western tip of South Georgia in the South Atlantic to film fur seals giving birth. But fur seals are extremely aggressive seals and trying to walk, let alone film, amongst them is both difficult and frightening. A colleague of John's makes him a metal barrel which acts as protective shield from which he can film. From inside this hide, John looks out across a colony of thousands of fur seals; the males engage in fierce and bloody fights, whilst the females run the gauntlet from the beach to their natal site to give birth. John finds it hard to feel empathy with animals which seem intent on doing him harm, but when amidst the noise and aggression of the battlefield, something beautiful and tender happens, John soon changes his mind.
Producer Sarah Blunt.
THU 14:00 The Archers (b038hghf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b038hk0k)
DJ Britton - When Greed Becomes Hunger
The Pen
The second in a two part drama about global food security.
It's three years after the events of part one and a new world order is dominated by global food protectionism, an unpredictable climate and, most of all, hunger.
Phil and Sian have used the money they made to buy a farm in mid-Wales. But as an international enquiry is launched into the causes of the crash, the couple's country idyll provides little shelter from an angry world, hungry for answers.
World food security is a hot topic. Internationally, after record growth, global wheat exports have fallen by 10 per cent (2012/13 figs). Prices are rising inexorably. According to Oxfam, 800 million people are currently malnourished - a greater figure than ever before. As cereal production falls, world population numbers continue to rise, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation predicts food demand will double by 2030. Meanwhile world food security remains left to the volatility of the global free market.
When Greed Becomes Hunger asks whether the world can afford to trust the free market with its food supply.
Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.
THU 15:00 Open Country (b038hk3d)
Skiffs on Loch Broom
The skiff - a four-person, coxed rowing boat - was traditionally a common sight in the seas off Scotland's coastal communities. Changes in the populations of these towns and villages, many losing their traditional links with the sea altogether, has meant, though, that the racing of skiffs was becoming less common - until, that is, the advent of the self-build kit skiff.
Named the St. Ayles skiff (in honour of the Scottish Fisheries Museum, where the idea was born and which is built on the site of St. Ayles Chapel in Anstruther), the huge popularity of the kit skiff has taken the coastal rowing world by surprise. Communities up and down the coastline have banded together to buy, build and then share their own skiff, with some villages buying more than one and women particularly well-represented in the sport.
Helen Mark visits Ullapool for a trip out on Loch Broom in the Ulla with the village's over-forty women's crew, enjoying the calm before attending the opening of the inaugural St. Ayles Skiff World Championships. Crews from around the world, linked only by the fact that they have all bought and built their own St. Ayles skiff, have come together for a week's racing and a celebration of coastal rowing. All agree that the skiff has brought unexpected bonuses to their communities, uniting people in fundraising, in boatbuilding and then, finally, in getting out onto the water together.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b038bhzk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (b038bpn6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b038hk3g)
Matt Damon on Hollywood ageism; Can Lovelace take porn mainstream?
Hollywood heavyweight talks to Francine Stock about his new sci-fi film Elysium and laments that 'grown up' movies are no longer properly funded or made for the over 35's.
Physics professor James Kakalios is an unlikely star but consults big budget superhero adventures on the science of being superhuman. He explains how his love of comic books led him down this unlikely path.
With the biopic of 70's porn star Linda Lovelace released this week, Julian Petley and Anna Smith discuss the pitfalls of trying to bring the story of porn to a mainstream audience.
Author and film buff Scott Jordan Harris discusses the importance of iconic objects on the big screen and how they have seeped in to every moviegoer's consciousness.
Producer: Ruth Sanderson.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b038hk5t)
Artificial reefs; Scanning beehives; Ape feet; NMR
Prof Alice Roberts goes Inside Science this week to discuss the science behind artificial reefs. The 70 concrete blocks around Gibraltar are currently causing a diplomatic controversy as the Spanish government claim they restrict commercial fishing. We look at how artificial reefs are made and what effect they have on the marine environment.
Bees have faced multiple dangers in recent years, from pesticides to parasites. Reporter Roland Pease visits a team at the University of Bath who are putting beehives into a CAT scanner to discover whether they can help breed bees that are more resistant to disease.
Humans are special; our uniquely evolved feet testify to that, allowing us to walk upright. At least, that's what anatomy students have been taught for the past 70 years. Research published his week by a team at the University of Liverpool shows that our feet are much more ape-like than we thought. And some of us may have more 'apey' feet than others.
Finally, this week Prof Andrea Sella from University College London shows us his instrument - an NMR spectrometer. This magnetic beast determines not only the chemical composition of molecules, but also their 3D structure.
THU 17:00 PM (b038hk5w)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b0389104)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Meet David Sedaris (b01nkt53)
Series 3
Easy Tiger; Possession
The multi-award winning American essayist brings more of his wit and charm to BBC Radio 4 with a series of audience readings. This week the perils of learning a foreign language by audio tape in "Easy Tiger" and when crossing the line in property desire in "Possession".
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Boom Pictures Cymru production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b038hkjq)
Pip is upset about how much she will miss Spencer while she is in Yorkshire. Ruth consoles her. She and David went through something similar while Ruth was at college. Though it will be tough, if they make it through the year, they will be even stronger.
Jennifer has recruited a fruit picker, Krystian, as stand-in gardener. But he mistakenly sprayed her roses with weed killer. She is frantically washing them, hoping they'll still be OK to enter into the flower and produce show.
Lilian has been in touch, claiming that she and Matt are having a fabulous time in London.
Rob wants Helen to go over for dinner, and he's not taking no for an answer. Helen's worried that Pat will realise something is going on, as she has already babysat twice this week. But Helen soon thinks of a convenient fib. She claims to have been contacted by a lady who runs a jewellery making group. Helen suggests she'll be attending twice-weekly sessions, and recruits Pat as a regular babysitter. Pat wouldn't mind going herself, but supposes she will stay behind if Helen really needs her to look after Henry.
Later, Rob and Helen share an intimate evening, delaying dinner to have a bath together.
THU 19:15 Front Row (b038hkjs)
Fran Healey from Travis; Simon Bird and Jonny Sweet on Chickens; Identity theft in crime fiction
With Mark Lawson.
Fran Healy, lead singer of the band Travis, discusses their first new album for six years, and reflects on a career which includes the hits Why Does it Always Rain on Me, Driftwood and Sing.
At the recent Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, Mark talked to three writers about how new technology makes it more difficult for characters to disappear without trace, or to hide or change their identities. With Lottie Moggach, Colette McBeth and Michael Robotham.
Simon Bird, one of the stars of The Inbetweeners, and Jonny Sweet discuss their TV comedy series Chickens, which they co-wrote with Joe Thomas. It focuses on three young men who have avoided active service in the First World War.
Producer Timothy Prosser.
THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b038hj3r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Report (b038hkl5)
Gibraltar
Phil Kemp travels to Gibraltar to investigate what's really happening on The Rock.
THU 20:30 In Business (b038hkl7)
Design Thinking
There's a certain magic when a product you've bought just simply works, when a company's customer service satisfies instead of frustrates, or when a website gives you exactly the right information you need, exactly when you need it. But these seemingly serendipitous moments might actually be the result of exact planning and customer research. The technical term is 'design thinking' and with the help of designers eager to break out of the lab and into the real world, it's a movement that's catching on in all sorts of unlikely places.
This week Peter Day talks to the people behind an award-winning government website, agencies that are creating whole companies from scratch, and finds out about other ways that innovative designers are intruding into the real world like never before.
Producer: Mike Wendling.
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b038hk5t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 Zeitgeisters (b0366wms)
Series 1
YouTube
As part of Radio 4's Year of Culture initiative, the BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz meets the cultural entrepreneurs who are shaping our lives and defining the very spirit of our age.
These are not Turner Prize winners or the recipients of grants from the Arts Council or the Lottery Fund. These are the people behind the scenes, pulling the strings and plotting a path of consumer-driven success. They are the designers of the latest 'must have' piece of technology or clothing, the brains behind an artist's development, and the tastemakers that know what will work at the box office and what will sell on the high street. Their impact goes beyond mere commerce, it shapes contemporary culture. They are the Zeitgeisters and it's about time we met them.
Programme 3. YouTube - For a platform that was launched in 2005 as a means of sharing personal videos on the internet (the very first YouTube video was called 'Me At The Zoo' and was uploaded by co-founder Jawed Karim), it has become a major player in how we consume video content and increasingly in how we make it. Today 100 hours of video are uploaded onto YouTube every minute... six billion hours of video are watched every month. And by the time you finish reading this description, those figures may already be out of date.
The BBC Arts Editor, Will Gompertz, in searching for the next generation of cultural Zeitgeisters, meets the people who are moving YouTube up to the next level: 'YouTubers' like Benjamin Cook, who posts regular episodes of 'Becoming YouTube' on his channel Nine Brass Monkeys; Andy Taylor, who's 'Little Dot Studios' aims to bridge the gap between television and YouTube; and Ben McOwen Wilson who is Director of Content Partnerships for YouTube in Europe.
Producer: Paul Kobrak.
THU 21:58 Weather (b0389106)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b038hky7)
Pressure on Syria to allow UN inspectors to investigate suspected chemical weapon attack. Egypt's ex-president Hosni Mubarak released from prison and flown to military hospital. Disgraced former Chinese leader Bo Xilai mounts strong defence in corruption trial. Presented by David Eades.
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b038hky9)
Red or Dead
Episode 9
By David Peace.
One hundred years ago this September, in a small Scottish mining village in East Ayrshire, Bill Shankly was born.
Shankly's passion was football. It was his job and it was his life, both as a player and then as a manager. He transformed the fortunes of Liverpool Football Club, turning the team into a world class side, and he has been immortalised as a hero. From the very beginning, he was as committed to the fans as they were to him.
Acclaimed author of 'The Damned United' David Peace describes Shankly as "not just a great football manager. Bill Shankly was one of the greatest men who ever lived". David Peace's astonishing book takes us into Bill Shankly's home and his heart, beyond Anfield. A very gentle side to Bill is revealed.
Now, in retirement, and missing his involvement at the club that was such a central part of his life, Bill remains committed to the Liverpool community. Bill Shankly goes to visit an under-16s player at the children's hospital who has been told his injury could mean he will never play football again.
Read by Gary Lewis
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Producer: Allegra McIlroy.
THU 23:00 Summer Nights (b038hkyc)
Series 1
Is Privacy Overrated?
Just how attached are we to our privacy? We're often told that social media is eroding our private lives, but many of us are happy to share our lives online, from photos to personal confessions. Today we are unwilling to let the law stop short of our front doors and the abuse that occurs in private homes is now open to scrutiny. Mariella Frostrup explores how we have set the boundaries between intimate and public spaces.
Presenter: Mariella Frostrup
Producer: Andrea Kennedy
Interviewed guest: Joan Smith
Interviewed guest: Gavin Phillipson
Interviewed guest: Simon Davies
Interviewed guest: Philip Dodd
Interviewed guest: Christian Payne.
FRIDAY 23 AUGUST 2013
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b0389116)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b038c0dm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b0389118)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b038911b)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b038911d)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b038911g)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b038hr3p)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Revd Dr Michael Ford.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b038hr3r)
The NFU has won a wide-ranging injunction against activists opposed to the pilot badger culls which are about to take place in Somerset and Gloucestershire. Around 5000 badgers are expected to be shot in an attempt to control bovine TB. The ruling means activists will not be allowed to protest within 100m of the homes, and within 25m of the businesses, of anyone involved in the cull.
It also outlaws excessive noise, bans the use of more than one megaphone during protests and flashing lights which could disturb badgers. It limits photography and filming; and prohibits the use of remote control devices.
The injunction does not outlaw peaceful protest and the Badger Trust says that's a victory for common sense. However one of the activists named in the injunction, Jay Tiernan, spokesman for Stop The Cull, says the legal action will make no difference.
Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced in Bristol by Anna Varle.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378xmn)
Common Tern
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Michaela Strachan presents the common tern. The Common Tern is the most widespread of our breeding terns and is very graceful. It has long slender wings and a deeply forked tail with the outer feathers extended into long streamers. These features give the bird its other name, sea swallow, by which terns are often called.
FRI 06:00 Today (b038hr4d)
Morning news and current affairs with Sarah Montague and James Naughtie. Including:
0750
The Office for Fair Trading has announced it is investigating six high street furniture and carpet retailers for how they use so-called "reference pricing". Cavendish Elithorn, senior director at the Office for Fair Trading, and Sarah Pennels, founder of the finance website SavvyWoman, debate whether retailers have been misleading customers.
0810
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the Syrian government to allow a UN team to swiftly investigate an alleged chemical weapons attack. We're joined by Professor Sergei Markov of Moscow State University, and head of the National Civic Council of International Affairs.
0822
If you were arrested, how would you feel if the interview was done not by an officer but by another member of the public who had done a four-week training course on how to conduct in interview? Sussex Police are considering the idea. Phil Butler, former Detective Inspector with Northumbria Police, and the crime novelist Peter Robinson, debate the proposals.
FRI 09:00 The Reunion (b038bmll)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b038kqlw)
Operation Massacre
Episode 5
Seven of the condemned men arrested in a house in Buenos Aires have escaped a botched execution.
Seriously injured, Livraga has been found wandering down a road and rushed to a clinic by an unsuspecting policeman. Here the nurses bravely try to prevent further harm befalling him.
Read by Nigel Anthony
Abridged and produced by Jane Marshall
A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b038hr4l)
Teenagers at festivals; Sexism on the football terraces; Celibacy
How safe are unaccompanied teenagers at festivals? Choosing to be celibate - French fashion journalist - Sophie Fontanel talks about her 12 years of celibacy. Sexist language on the football terrraces - can you prevent it? Presented by Jenni Murray.
FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b038jg0w)
The One About the Social Worker
Episode 5
by Martin Jameson
It's an irony of child protection, that if you've been a social worker long enough to remove two children from a woman at birth, that means you may be the one constant in her life she can trust.
So when Tamsin tracks down her old social worker Liz for help, she doesn't care that Liz is on suspension and forbidden from talking to her. Or that Liz is the current hate figure of the national press, after the violent death of a child on her caseload.
Tamsin just wants help.
Should Liz ignore her? Or is time to break the rules?
Claire Skinner is best known to TV viewers as harrassed mum Sue in Outnumbered, but her wide-ranging career includes long associations with Mike Leigh, Alan Ayckbourn, and Sam Mendes.
Lacey Turner won a fistful of awards for her portrayal of Eastenders' Stacey Slater over 6 years, and recent TV work includes starring in True Love and Our Girl.
Martin Jameson is a prolific screenwriter, director and playwright whose recent work on Radio 4 includes Can You Tell Me The Name Of The Prime Minister?, The Night They Tried To Kidnap The Prime Minister and Stone.
5/5 Liz makes a full confession. But it's harder than she expected.
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.
FRI 11:00 The Fleadh Goes North (b038jg0y)
The all-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil, the biggest traditional music festival in the world and the embodiment of Irish cultural identity, heads to Northern Ireland for the first time ever.
FRI 11:30 With Nobbs On (b01jggl4)
The Fall and Reprise of Reggie Perrin
With Nobbs On sees David Nobbs, the comic genius behind Reggie Perrin, The Two Ronnies, Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howerd and Radio 4's The Maltby Collection, presenting a three-part series of entertaining, joke-laden, insider observations on his comedy career to a studio audience along with guest readings, archive material and unpredictable delights.
David Nobbs describes life after he creates one of the most memorable of British characters, Reginald Iolanthe Perrin and how Reggie keeps on rising.
Written and presented by David Nobbs
Featuring Martin Trenaman and Mia Soteriou
Produced by Andrew McGibbon
A Curtains For Radio Production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:00 You and Yours (b038jk3d)
Weekend welfare tribunals, e-cigs and not the Battle of Hastings
Consumer news with Peter White.
FRI 12:57 Weather (b038911j)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b038jk3g)
National and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
FRI 13:45 A View Through a Lens (b0151xst)
Series 3
Shearwater Hurricane
Wildlife cameraman John Aitchison often finds himself in isolated and even dangerous locations across the globe filming wildlife, and in this series he reflects on the uniqueness of human experience, the beauty of nature, the fragility of life and the connections which unite society and nature across the globe.
5/5 Shearwater Hurricane. Wildlife cameraman John Aitchison travelled with a team filming the BBC series Frozen Planet to the Aleutian islands, a chain of islands which stretches more than a thousand miles in the far west of Alaska. The Aleutians are famous for their strong fickle tides, for their fog and for their storms. The currents rushing between the islands pump nutrients between the Pacific and Bering Sea and where there are nutrients, there are plankton. Plankton are food for krill, and krill are food for Humpback whales. But its not only whales that gather here, so too do herring, and the herring attract birds; Short-tailed shearwaters which fly thousands of miles here from the south of Australia to feed on the herring. These waters are transformed into the scene of an extraordinary banquet; and one of Nature's greatest feeding spectacles.
Producer Sarah Blunt.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b038hkjq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b038jk3j)
Red and Blue
Sacrifice
Philip Palmer's series following wargame exercise writer Bradley Shoreham. Shoreham's challenging training scenario places Yorkshire at the centre of a global pandemic alert. Its credibility rests on the successful recruitment of the formidable Dr. Hoffman.
Written by Philip Palmer
Directed by Toby Swift
The second series of Red and Blue from 2013, Philip Palmer's drama series focusing on the work of Lieutenant Colonel Bradley Shoreham (Tim Woodward). After leaving the British Army, Shoreham became a Consultant Subject Matter Expert. He spends his working life creating war games for training purposes. Fictional they may be but the higher the level of authenticity the greater their value to the participants. And when governments and major corporations are paying for training they expect a high return for their money.
The other episodes:
In 'Ransomware', he's been hired by a City hedge fund to test its cyber-security in a planned exercise.
In 'Shadow', Shoreham finds himself on an oil rig in the North Sea, testing the safety protocols and the rig's security.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b038jk71)
Norfolk
Peter Gibbs chairs this week's episode of Gardeners' Question Time in Norfolk. Joining him to tackle the audience's gardening concerns are panellists Bob Flowerdew, Matthew Wilson and Chris Beardshaw.
Produced by Howard Shannon
A Somethin' Else Production for BBC Radio 4.
Overflow and notes:
Q. What is the best way to level out an uneven lawn to make it easier to mow?
A. Invest in a roller, or a mower with a roller attached to it. Be diligent in mowing in various different directions and regularly. For a deeply divotted lawn, scatter some compost with sharp sand into the area and flick into the sunken areas with a besom, or 'witch's broom'. Alternatively try using a trulute to level the soil before seeding.
Q. Can leek or onion seeds be kept from one year to the next?
A. If the foil packet has been opened, and the air and humidity have got to the seeds, then there is a chance they'll go off. Leeks and onions should be started off in a tray very early in the growing year, so it is still worth trying the seeds - if they don't germinate, there should still be time to have another go! However, if the packets haven't be opened or stored anywhere hot, they should be absolutely fine.
Q. Can a 25cm (10in) Black Boy peach plant, grown from seed, be planted outside?
A. If it is hardy in New Zealand, where the variety originates, it should be hardy here. However, try to keep the worst of the winter winds off the plant. Frost may take off the blossoms early in the year.
Q. Our cherry tree has been infested by a black bug, which curls the leaves and makes everything sticky. What is this and can it be cured?
A. This is almost certainly a black aphid, which cherries are particularly prone to. Although it looks unpleasant and is inconvenient, it will not have much effect upon the crop. In order to prevent further infestations, when the first attack of aphids happens, spray the tree with a powerful jet of water to knock them off the tree.
Q. Which plants should seaweed extract be used on?
A. Watered down seaweed extract can be good for lawns or vegetables.
Q. How can rampaging Comfrey be controlled in an organic vegetable garden?
A. Cut off all the top growth about once a fortnight. Keep doing that methodically from the start of the season and it will be gone. Persistence and vigilance are essential!
Q. Which method of storing Dahlia tubers in vermiculite does the panel prefer?
A. At the end of the season, extract the Dahlias from the ground, wash them in lukewarm water, remove any soil, soil organisms or withered or dead material, prune the stem down to around 10cm (4in) above the top tuber, allow to dry on newspaper and then place into dry sand or a vermiculite. Most Dahlias are quite tough and resilient and can be left in the ground, especially hardy varieties such as the LLandaff forms. Alternatively, store the plants in compost, turning the pot on its side and easing off watering until February or March.
Q. Should an indoor Maidenhair Fern be cut down to the base and if so, when?
A. Old fronds can be removed with secateurs or scissors, just a little way away from the rhizome. Cutting too close to the rhizome will damage the fern, so leave 1cm (1/2in) of the stipe in tact. Give the fern a feed after pruning, but dilute any houseplant feed to a quarter of the recommended dose for ferns, which do not like too much feed.
Q. What should be done to prepare the soil for a new 4.5m (15ft) square rose bed on sandy, rough soil?
A. Roses like rich soils, but it is possible to select roses which will do slightly better in poorer soil. Varieties such as Rosa Gallica 'Complicata', Rosa Glauca are recommended, whereas hybrid Tea Roses and Floribundas should be avoided for this soil type. If it is possible to add clay to the soil, do so, along with well-rotted manure and a good mulch on top.
Q. What advice would the panel give to newcomers to an allotment site, and what tips for established hands to welcome those newcomers?
A. Share crops, share knowledge and share enthusiasm.
FRI 15:45 Comic Fringes (b038jkr9)
Series 9
The Understudy
Story series featuring new writing by leading comedians, recorded live in front of an audience at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Crammed into her tiny dressing room, an actress looks back on the highs and lows - mainly lows - of her life and career. A poignant and funny monologue written and performed by Jenny Éclair.
Completing the line-up, and coming up over the next two Sundays, will be witty tales by award-winning Irish comic Aisling Bea and Scottish master of droll Sanjeev Kohli.
Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b038jkrc)
A writer, a lawyer, a motor racing team owner, an actress and an entrepreneur
Aasmah Mir on
Crime writer Elmore Leonard, whose pulp fiction inspired films like Get Shorty, Out of Sight and Jackie Brown.
Rosalia Mera, co-founder of the Zara clothing chain and the richest self-made woman in the world.
Controversial French lawyer Jacques Vergès, who famously defended Carlos the Jackal and Klaus Barbie.
John Coombs - the last of the gentlemen racecar owners and the man who nurtured future champions like Sir Jackie Stewart.
And actor Margaret Pellegrini who played a Munchkin in Wizard Of Oz.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (b038jktq)
In the last programme in this series of Feedback, we bring you a special edition devoted to one of the most divisive radio subjects - comedy.
Recorded in front of an audience at the Edinburgh Fringe, Roger Bolton puts questions from listeners in the room and at home to a panel of comedy movers and shakers.
Roger is joined on stage by Radio 4 Commissioning Editor Caroline Raphael - the woman who decides what's funny enough for Radio 4 and by comedian Marcus Brigstocke, who can be heard across BBC radio in programmes like the Now Show and The Brig Society, as well as radio producer Colin Anderson and the Head of Radio for BBC Scotland, Jeff Zycinski.
There will also be some fringe talent in the form of performance poet Mark Niel and hotly-tipped newcomer Michael Fabbri.
Producer: Kevin Dawson
A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4.
So email: feedback@bbc.co.uk.
FRI 17:00 PM (b038jkts)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news. Including Weather at
5.57pm.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b038911l)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 Bremner's One Question Quiz (b038jkx6)
Where Did All the Money Go?
Rory Bremner's new weekly satirical comedy takes one big contemporary question each week and attempts to answer it. Regular panellists Nick Doody, Andy Zaltzman and Kate O'Sullivan are joined this week by Gillian Tett, of the Financial Times and the financial journalist Max Keiser.
Rory's mantra is that it's as important to make sense out of things as it is to make fun of them. He believes only then will people laugh at the truth. This deconstructed "quiz" has only one question each week, because that question is so big, there's no time for anything else: expect a mix of stand-up and sketch combined with investigative satire and incisive interviews with a diverse range of characters who really know what they're talking about.
This week's question: Where Did All The Money Go?
Presenter: Rory Bremner
Producers: Simon Jacobs & Frank Stirling
A Unique Production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b038jkx8)
Lilian calls Jolene. Though she can't disclose exactly what happened in Russia, she can say that Matt has made some really bad decisions and is looking terribly thin. The couple are spending a lot of time together, though whenever Lilian tries to get close, Matt pushes her away. Jolene is encouraging. Whatever has happened, as long as Lilian is there proving how much she loves him, then hopefully he'll begin to see that.
After Kathy saw him off over the wastage figures, Martyn returns with a vengeance. He wants to cut the number of waiting staff at each service. They aren't working to their full efficiency. Kathy disagrees but offers an alternative: to shorten the shifts instead. That would ensure a full staff at the busiest time, so standards won't slip and morale won't suffer.
But Martyn won't budge and deals the blow that there won't be any more hiring until the department improves, which means no bar manager. When Kathy asks about the vacant general manager position, she's astounded when Martyn says not to worry her little head about it.
Kathy de-stresses with a swim and shares her frustration with Lynda. Martyn has absolutely no idea how hospitality works, yet he's the one that's in charge. It's as though he's deliberately trying to grind her down.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b038jl14)
We're the Millers; Terry Gilliam; Franz Ferdinand; Bob Dylan portraits
With John Wilson.
Film director and former Python Terry Gilliam discusses the re-mastering of his classic film Time Bandits, for a new DVD release, as his new film The Zero Theorem heads for the Venice Film Festival.
Jennifer Aniston stars as a stripper turned pretend suburban wife and mother in the film We're The Millers. She becomes involved in the plans of a small-time drug dealer, played by Jason Sudekis, who enlists a fake family to help him smuggle marijuana across the Mexican border. Mark Eccleston reviews.
The Scottish band Franz Ferdinand, who won the Mercury Music Prize in 2004, are back with a new album, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, their first release for four years. Alex Kapranos and Bob Hardy discuss creating a live sound on a studio album and how a line on a vintage postcard discovered in a London market led to the opening lyric of the title track.
As an exhibition of pastel portraits by Bob Dylan opens at the National Portrait Gallery in London, music journalist Kate Mossman discusses Dylan's art and the portraits in his lyrics.
Producer Ellie Bury.
FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b038jg0w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b038jl16)
Mark Miodownik, Iain Dale, Peter Kendall, Alison Wolf
Ritula Shah presents political debate and discussion from Broadcasting House in London, with scientist Mark Miodownik, economist Alison Wolf, broadcaster and blogger Iain Dale and NFU president Peter Kendall.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b038jl18)
Of the People, By the People 3/4
Roger Scruton continues his series of talks on the nature and limits of democracy. This week he argues that nations should be defined by language and territory rather than by party or faith. And, looking at examples across the Middle East and in particular in Egypt, he explains why - in his view - a modern state cannot be governed by Islamic law.
Producer: Adele Armstrong.
FRI 21:00 Saturday Drama (b01hw3zk)
David Spicer - Kind Hearts and Coronets: Like Father, Like Daughter
Natalie Walter is pursuing a title and Alistair McGowan plays the seven members of a family standing in her way in a sequel to the famous Edwardian comedy by Roy Horniman.
The action of this new radio sequel to a classic comedy takes place some years after the death of the 10th Earl of Chalfont, a man who has systematically murdered his family in order to inherit his title. The twentieth century rolls on and even against a backdrop of international conflict and revolution,an Earldom is still not to be sniffed at apparently. It is rather to be fought for by fair means and foul. There are at least eight claimants to the Chalfont title, all of them ruthless. The Gascoyne family is a big one, its sense of entitlement enormous, its appetite for violence impressive and the family resemblance at times uncanny. A fresh modern take on a great comic plot, this Saturday Play draws both on the Edwardian novel 'Israel Rank' by Roy Horniman for inspiration. David Spicer's entirely new version of this brilliantly simple story has something to offer both those who know the original and those who come to it for the first time.
Written by David Spicer
Producer: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b038911n)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b038jl6h)
US President Barack Obama has said the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria in an attack on Wednesday is a "big event of grave concern", at least 42 people have been killed and more than 400 others wounded in two huge explosions in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli, health officials say. In the sixties and seventies, North Korea held thousands of people in brutal prison camps, subjecting them to torture and abuse on a scale to match any other detention camp in the world. Now, former inmates of those camps have been testifying before UN investigators this week in South Korea's capital, Seoul, with David Eades.
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b038jl6k)
Red or Dead
Episode 10
By David Peace.
One hundred years ago this September, in a small Scottish mining village in East Ayrshire, Bill Shankly was born. Shankly's passion was football. It was his job and it was his life, both as a player and then as a manager. He transformed the fortunes of Liverpool Football Club, turning the team into a world class side, and he has been immortalised as a hero. From the very beginning, he was as committed to the fans as they were to him.
Acclaimed novelist David Peace describes Shankly as "not just a great football manager. Bill Shankly was one of the greatest men who ever lived". David Peace's astonishing book takes us into Bill Shankly's home and his heart, not just his second home, Anfield. A fragile side to Bill is revealed.
In retirement, Bill has felt isolated from the club that was so central to his life. Now they invite him as part of the official party to watch the team in the European Cup final in Rome. As a manager, it was the title that eluded him, and now he hopes to see them bring it home.
Read by Gary Lewis
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Producer: Allegra McIlroy.
FRI 23:00 Summer Nights (b038jl6m)
Series 1
Do We Fear Boredom?
What lies behind our urge to fill our days with activity, noise and excitement? We seem to flee from boredom: from parents who constantly seek to keep their children occupied to TV executives who over-stimulate their audiences so they don't switch channels. So why do we stay busy rather than spend more time alone with our thoughts? Giles Fraser wonders why we're so scared of being bored.
Presenter: Giles Fraser
Producer: Ruth Watts
Interviewed guest: Raymond Tallis
Interviewed guest: Naomi Alderman
Interviewed guest: Camila Batmanghelidjh
Interviewed guest:Julian Baggini
Interviewed guest: Lars Svendsen