The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
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.
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
'I donate sperm, but not for the money' - one listener tells his story. The wife of Steinway's former Senior Concert Technician, plays us some treasured PM archive. Presented by Eddie Mair and Jennifer Tracey. Email iPM@bbc.co.uk.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
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.
Culling badgers - Sybil Ruscoe hears from farmers and protesters preparing for the pilot badger cull in Somerset and Gloucestershire. This week the National Farmer's Union won a wide-ranging injunction aimed at protecting farmers and landowners from intimidation and unlawful protest. However, protestors say that this will not deter them from demonstrating.
And on this Bank Holiday weekend Sybil discusses the importance of tourism to the rural economy.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Richard Coles and Anita Anand talk to actress Anna Chancellor, sample the delights of Georgian Pleasures with Professor Elaine Chalus, savour the bucolic, car-free life on Sark with restaurateur Elizabeth Perrée, hear the Inheritance Tracks of singer-songwriter Judie Tzuke, discover how glove-makers to the Queen, Andrew and Genevieve James, practice their craft, find out what the thing is about the "real" Paddy O'Connell from Skibbereen, County Cork and that other irrepressible Irishman, JP Devlin fields your phone calls and emails and hears your stories.
Steve Punt turns private investigator to reopen a mysterious case of collapsing children.
One summer's day in 1980, at a junior jazz band festival in Nottinghamshire, hundreds of children were suddenly taken ill and fainted. They fell like dominoes; the showground was littered with bodies, the arena like a battlefield.
Many of the children feel they never got answers as to what really happened that morning.
Steve investigates, to find out if it was food poisoning or something a little more sinister.
Why are some materials and ecosystems easier to break than others? And what gives others better resilience? Joining Bridget Kendall are the celebrated American novelist Barbara Kingsolver, whose latest novel contemplates vulnerability in butterflies and humans; one of world's leading experts on bumblebees, professor David Goulson, who explains why artificially rearing bumblebee nests can paradoxically lead to mass extinction; and Markus Buehler, bio-engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who studies the molecular basis of strength and weakness in natural materials such as human bones and spider's webs.
Correspondents' despatches: the wealthy principality of Liechtenstein is forced to face up to the idea of belt-tightening, Alex Marshall; Alastair Newton Brown strolls through the streets of the Iranian capital, Tehran where he finds people keen to engage with the West; Rajini Vaidyanathan in Washington considers the implications of the jail sentence handed down to secrets leaker Bradley Manning; Justin Rowlatt may have struggled to appreciate traditional Vietnamese music but more and more Vietnamese, he says, are keen to learn it. And Kevin Connolly is in Cairo where he's been hearing members of the Muslim Brotherhood explain why they believe they're a force that's not about to go away.
In the final part of the series, David Grossman assesses the impact of Government interventions like Quantitative Easing and Funding for Lending. He looks at their impact on savers and pensioners and asks whether the City has disproportionately benefited from their effects.
The programme also investigates the growth of speculation on the price of commodities like oil, a practice that's been fuelled by fears of inflation as a result of QE. Has the rise in the price of consumables in recent years been driven by demand or by the effects of increased speculation? And who ultimately pays for it?
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.
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.
'A big event of grave concern' - that's how President Obama has described what was almost certainly an attack using chemical weapons in Syria. As a result of it, do you think there is the appetite here for another military adventure in the Middle East...that was the question posed to our Any Questions guests, what do you think? You might want to comment on this week's GCSE results too, and how much school league tables are affecting the outcomes. We also want your views on whether holding state secrets is an act of terrorism? Plus the age children should be allowed a mobile phone...and if those same children tell you they fancy a career in politics, how would you react? 03700 100 444 is the phone number, email anyanswers@bbc.co.uk, tweet using the hashtag BBCAQ or text 84844.
The presenter is Julian Worricker. The producer is Katy Takatsuki.
Ten guests are separately invited to an island by a person none of them knows very well, if at-all. When they arrive, it seems they have all been invited for different reasons. Nothing quite adds up.
An anonymous voice accuses each of them of having murdered someone. By the end of the first night, one of the guests is dead. Stranded by a violent storm and tormented by the nursery rhyme 'Ten Little Soldier Boys', the ten guests fear for their lives. Who is the killer? Is it one of them?
Agatha Christie's famous detective story without a detective. First published in 1939.
Vera Claythorne ...... Lyndsey Marshal
Cyril ...... Harry Child
Captain Lombard ...... Alex Wyndham
Emily Brent ...... Joanna Monro
Dr Armstrong ...... Sean Baker
Mr Justice Wargrave ...... Geoffrey Whitehead
Anthony Marston ...... Lloyd Thomas
Mr Blore ...... Sam Dale
Narracott ...... Adeel Akhtar
General MacArthur ...... John Rowe
Mr Rogers ...... Wayne Foskett
Mrs Rogers ...... Sally Orrock
Hugo ...... Henry Devas
Gramophone Voice ...... Jude Akuwudike
'And Then There Were None' was named the world's favourite Agatha Christie novel in a poll in September 2015.
Fidan Hajiyeva - the youngest protégée of BBC Radio 3's World Routes Academy talks about how her father encouraged her interest in Azeri music. Is writing about books a matter of jobs for the boys? What's the matter with the f-word? Marks and Spencer's' marketing chief describes its new high profile women's wear campaign as womanist as opposed to feminist - why? The campaign to include boys in the HPV vaccination programme. Plus it's festival season and those with something to celebrate after GCSE will be hoping for a wild time this Bank Holiday Weekend - are they old enough to go alone? Plus the power of female friendships and just what should you really store in your fridge.
Danny Wallace, Will Young, Paul Daniels, Laura Wilson, Miranda Sawyer, Nadine Shah, Jeffrey Lewis and The Rain
Danny talks All That Jazz with singer, actor and Pop Idol Will Young, who's about to make his West End debut and tour the UK as the Emcee in hit musical 'Cabaret'. Set in Berlin's seedy Kit Kat Klub in 1931, nineteen year old cabaret performer Sally Bowles romances two men while the Nazi Party rises to power around them. 'Cabaret' is on tour from 28th August to Sunday 8th December.
Miranda Sawyer talks to alt-folk chanteuse Nadine Shah, who, following the release of her debut album 'Love Your Dum And Mad', has been described as the imagined union of PJ Harvey and Nick Cave. Nadine performs 'Runaway' in the studio.
Danny tells A Thousand Lies to crime-writer Laura Wilson, whose new book 'The Riot' is set in 1958 in London's Notting Hill, where DI Stratton has just been posted. Stratton's new manor is dirt poor and rife with racial tension and is soon to be the scene of the worst racial violence England has ever known. 'The Riot' is published by Quercus on 29th August.
Miranda also talks to anti-folk singer songwriter and comic book artist Jeffrey Lewis. He tells her about his music, art and an illustration he did for the book 'Let's Start A Pussy Riot'. Jeffrey and his band The Rain perform 'WWPRD' from their EP of the same name.
Danny pulls a rabbit out of a hat with Paul Daniels, who's packing up his box of tricks for his magically mammoth national 'first farewell' tour. Paul's new show is full of his old favourite magic tricks and a number of new tricks never performed in public before. Abracadabra! 'Paul Daniels: The First Farewell Tour - From Legend To Leg End!' starts on 6th September until 23rd December.
Edward Stourton profiles the Commander of Egypt's Armed Forces, General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, now the most powerful man in Egypt.
General al-Sisi was appointed Defence Minister and Head of the Army by President Morsi in August 2012, and he was thought by many to be sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood.
But he was instrumental in Morsi's downfall in July and oversaw the subsequent violent suppression of Muslim Brotherhood supporters.
His former teacher from the US Army War College is among those who tell us more about this elusive former military intelligence chief.
Theatre: Leaving Planet Earth. Old Earth has nothing left for us, so it's time for a new beginning. The audience is transported to a New Earth for this site-specific 'out of this world' theatre production by the award winning theatre company Grid Iron. Following the story of humanities first migration into space, it asks questions about our connection to this planet. Should we leave this world, and if so, who will endure and at what cost?
The film Elysium also explores humans leaving planet Earth, this time the rich, who leave for the luxurious Elysium, a vast space station orbiting the planet, with technology to treat all diseases, while the rest are left behind to fend for themselves against a harsh and unjust regime in an over populated society and can only dream of a new life amongst the stars. Matt Damon is Max, a man determined to be cured on the satellite and Jodie Foster is Elysium's Secretary Delacourt, the hard-line protector of the mega wealthy colony.
The internationally renowned artist Peter Doig is known for his inventive style and huge vibrant canvases. For the first time, the Scottish National Gallery is mounting a major exhibition of his work in the country of his birth. Called No Foreign Land, it showcases works created since 2000, a time Doig has spent in Trinidad, and shows how this tropical island has inspired his work.
The Tragedy of Coriolanus tells the story of General Caius Martius who returns to Rome a hero. Having conquered the city of Corioles he is named Coriolanus and runs for Consul. But too proud, and rejected by the people, he seeks revenge on the city. Director Lin Zhaohua's production for the Beijing People's Art Theatre includes two heavy metal bands and Pu Cunxin, one of China's most famous actors.
And guests David Schneider, Gail Tolley and Peggy Hughes discuss the favourite moments from the Edinburgh Fringe.
In 1963, the legendary American broadcaster, Studs Terkel, presented a radio programme, 'This Train,' in which he followed African Americans travelling on a train from Chicago to Washington. They were part of the March on Washington, which culminated in Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. The thousands who took part wanted to achieve jobs and freedom for black Americans. One woman on the train spoke of her hopes for a better future for her relatives, "after I am gone."
Afro Caribbean dramatist Kwame Kwei-Armah revisits the original broadcast speaking to some of those who made that journey including the 95 year old organiser of the march, himself a descendant of a slave and the civil rights activist the Reverend Jess Jackson. He hears about the hopes with which they set out fifty years ago, and whether they feel that King's Dream has been realised in today's United States. He recreates Studs' journey riding a modern day train from Chicago to Washington meeting passengers and staff including the colourful character Lou, a sleeping car porter, to discover how present day dreams and aspirations compare with 50 years ago.
He discovers many people have not only forgotten the March on Washington but those who do tend wrongly to assume it was only about racial integration. He hears how the job aspect of the march has been overlooked and how economic opportunities are still unequal.
On arrival in Washington he meets the only surviving March on Washington speaker John Lewis and others involved in the organisation of the actual day. The programme combines these contemporary interviews with extracts from Studs Terkel's programme. In this rich soundscape of modern America and its railroad we tell the story of the legacy of Martin Luther King and his words.
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.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
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.
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.
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.
SUNDAY 25 AUGUST 2013
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b038ngsr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SUN 00:30 Under the Skin (b01cj384)
Another Life, by Resma Ruia
Under the Skin is a celebration of the second ever South Asian Literature Festival, which is staged in London and across the United Kingdom. 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 celebrates writers from South Asia and British Asian writing, equally, reflecting the diversity of themes, subjects and literary forms that constitute South Asian writing in 2012.
Under the Skin features three stories by British Asian writers. Resma Ruia's Another Life focuses on the restlessness of an Asian businessman who visited Manchester as a young man on his way to America - but never left.
Lyndam Gregory, Deni Francis and Najma Khan are the readers.
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b038ngst)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b038ngsw)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
5.20am.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b038ngsy)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b038ngt0)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b038x32n)
The bells of St Bartholomew's Church, Sutton cum Lound, Nottinghamshire.
SUN 05:45 Profile (b038x1lx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b038ngt2)
The latest national and international news.
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b038x32q)
Anger
Classicist Llewellyn Morgan confesses that he is what Aristotle called an 'orgilos', a naturally irascible man!
In this edition of Something Understood, he draws upon the reflections and experiences of writers including James Lasdun, Dorianne Laux and Timothy Steele to explore an emotion that isn't always as negative as it might at first appear. With music by Elvis Costello, Monteverdi and Arvo Part.
Produced by Alan Hall.
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (b038x32s)
Bovine TB led to the slaughter of more than 28,000 cows in England last year. It costs the taxpayer £100 million a year and it's the reason for the Government's decision to carry out two controversial pilot culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset. But what is it like to be the one who has to carry out the tests on cattle, and deliver the bad news to the farmer if their animals are found to be infected? For this week's On Your Farm, we look at this disease through a vet's eyes. The South West is one of the worst hit regions in the country for Bovine TB. Sybil Ruscoe visits the South Hams in Devon to follow vet, Richard Walters, on his rounds for the day, as he deals with bovine TB and meets the farmers affected by it.
SUN 06:57 Weather (b038ngt4)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b038ngt6)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (b038x32v)
In an exclusive interview Edward talks to Lord Sacks as he steps down as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth after 22 years in the post. Fifty years ago, on August 28 1963, some half a million black and white people from all over the United States gathered for a gigantic civil rights demonstration in the nation's capital. The march however was also, arguably, one of the most important events in recent American faith history signalling a new direction for the black Church. Kati Whitaker reports. Kevin Bocquet takes a closer look at the proposed Lobby Bill and the impact it may have on Faith based charities. Plus an interview with Daniel Trilling the soon to be Editor of the New Humanist, who calls for a new approach to religion. Author Tracy Borman talks about her new book 'Witches: A tale of Sorcery, Scandal and Seduction' which tells the story of one particular case of three "flower" women who were accused and found guilty of witchcraft in the seventeenth century and we reflect on events in the past week in Syria
Credits
Carmel Lonergan - Producer
Jill Collins - Producer
Christine Morgan - Series Producer
Contributors
Lord Sacks The Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth
Daniel Trilling
Tracy Borman.
SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal (b038x32x)
Tree Aid
Zoë Wanamaker presents the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity Tree Aid.
Reg Charity:1135156.
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope Tree Aid.
Give Online www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/appeal.
SUN 07:57 Weather (b038ngt8)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b038ngtb)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b038x32z)
I Have a Dream
Live from Edington Priory, Wiltshire during the 2013 Edington Festival of Music within the Liturgy.
50 years after Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' civil rights speech and 150 years after President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the emancipation of slaves in the United States of America, the Revd Dr Cally Hammond and hymn-writer John Barnard lead a service reflecting on the cry for freedom exclaimed by God's people from the earliest Biblical time.
Music Directors: Matthew Martin, Peter Stevens and Jeremy Summerly.
Organist: Peter Stevens.
Producer: Simon Vivian.
SUN 08:48 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.
SUN 08:58 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.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b038x331)
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 (b038x333)
For detailed synopsis, please see daily episodes.
SUN 11:15 The Reunion (b038x4wv)
Lib Lab Pact
The 1970s are still remembered as a tremendously difficult time for Britain - rocketing inflation, crippling industrial unrest, record unemployment, IRA bombings and fuel shortages.
In 1976, Harold Wilson's shock resignation put Jim Callaghan at the helm of a Labour Government doggedly holding on to power with a tiny majority. Deaths, defections and disappearances quickly turned that thin majority into a minority.
The Government was on the brink of being uprooted by a Vote of No Confidence, tabled by an eager leader of the opposition, Margaret Thatcher. The equally eager and ambitious new leader of the Liberals was David Steel. When he offered the Government the support of his tiny band, Callaghan was forced to accept.
The result was the Lib Lab Pact which, its architects and supporters claimed, helped stabilise the Government and the country. But critics say the deal split both parties. Close aids of Steel were shocked at how he had capitulated to Callaghan's lack of commitment on key issues like electoral reform. And Tony Benn was instructed to resign after whipping up dissent among disgruntled Labour colleagues.
Sue MacGregor reunites some of the key people involved in the deal: David Steel then the new leader of a Liberal Party still reeling from the Jeremy Thorpe scandal; Tom McNally, one of Callaghan's closest aids; Michael White, now deputy editor of The Guardian, then a political sketch writer; Roy Hattersley, then a Labour Cabinet minister; and Alan Beith, then a Liberal Party whip.
Producer: Karen Pirie
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:00 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.
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b038x4wx)
In Praise of Bacon
An Ode To The Bacon Butty. Hardeep Singh Kohli's personal plea to the nation to reflect on a food of wonder: bacon. Hardeep goes on a roadtrip around Scotland meeting bacon eaters, makers, regalers and producers.
Producer: Emma Weatherill.
SUN 12:57 Weather (b038ngtd)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b038x4wz)
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 Playing Ping Pong with Henry Miller (b037706h)
"Henry Miller, Norman Mailer and Charles Manson, the three pillars of misogyny," according to Gore Vidal - yet many women writers today cite Miller as an influence.
Using his time in California as a prism, acclaimed poet Kim Addonizio explores how, despite his reputation as a pornographic, unredeemed misogynist, Miller's time in Big Sur, California, transformed him into a family man and ping pong fanatic.
With an exclusive interview with his son Tony Miller, a visit to the Henry Miller Memorial Library, in Big Sur, Addonizio hears great stories of epic table tennis tournaments during the long winters, struggles to make ends meet, as she meets those who remember Miller's time in the woods during his 18 year stay.
She explores the roots of the personal growth movement that flourished on the Californian coast, at the time, of which Miller became an unexpected exponent of, at the world famous Esalen Institute, and tries to find out why he appeals to young women readers today.
Producer: Sara Jane Hall.
SUN 14:00 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.
SUN 14:45 Witness (b038x4x1)
The Ballerina and the Coup
In 1959, Dame Margot Fonteyn became involved in a bizarre plot to overthrow the government of Panama. The Royal Ballet's prima ballerina was briefly arrested and then deported from the Central American country, after the intervention of British officials. Mike Lanchin speaks to Judy Tatham, a former friend of Dame Margot's, who took part in the failed conspiracy.
SUN 15:00 Classic Serial (b038x4x3)
The Aeneid
Episode 2
Episode 2 of Hattie Naylor's adaptation of Virgil, from the translation by Robert Fagles.
Unaware that Dido is dead, Aeneas leaves Carthage and sails to Sicily, where he meets the Cumaean Sibyl. She leads him down to the Underworld, where he sees the terrible punishments meted out to the wicked, has a shocking encounter in the Fields of Mourning, and learns more about the future from his father's ghost.
The music was composed by Will Gregory, arranged by Ian Gardiner, and performed by the BBC Singers, conducted by Matthew Hamilton. The soloist was Cherith Milburn-Fryer. Percussion was 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 (b038x4x5)
Literary Landscapes - Belfast with Glenn Patterson
Literary Landscapes - Belfast
Open Book's summer series on Literary Landscapes concludes with one of the most documented yet little understood cities in the United Kingdom - Belfast. A byword for sectarian violence, Belfast is sandwiched between encroaching mountains and the sea;the city is built on mud-flats and has inspired countless poets and authors.
Open Book's literary guide to this multi faced and complicated city is author Glenn Patterson, described as Northern Ireland's prose laureate. Born in Belfast, Glenn has been writing about the city since the 1980s. His first novel 'Burning Your Own' won the Betty Trask prize. He still lives in Belfast and his work reflects its ever changing nature.
Glenn takes Mariella around his city - to the setting of his latest novel, to where the old Belfast docks began in the footsteps of Anthony Trollope, to the foot of the surrounding hills which inspired Jonathan Swift and to the last independent bookshop in the city.
Producer: Ruth Sanderson.
SUN 16:30 Poetry of Gold and Angels (b038x4x7)
Los Angeles
Poet and Lyricist Stephen J. Kalinich takes us on a poetic tour of Los Angeles for this 2 part series on Californian poetry.
Los Angeles poet and lyricist Stephen J. Kalinich looks to find the real poetic voice of the city - a voice he believes is to be found in the poetry of the streets.
Stephen worked with the Beach Boys as a lyricist in the '60s and also recorded a poetry album with Brian Wilson, 'A World of Peace Must Come' inspired by Vietnam. Indeed peace has been his major theme as a writer. He recently recited poetry at a concert of 'Sugarman' Sixto Rodrigez. As well as reciting some of his own work, Stephen is on a quest to discover the true poetry of LA.
On his journey round the city, he encounters poets such as S.A. Griffin, from the poetry group Carma Bums who talks about his work also to promote peace with his tour of a 'poetry bomb' - a real bomb filled with poems. He also talks about the harshness of living in a town dominated by the movie industry and a desire to be famous from his experience of working as an actor.
We also visit acclaimed song writer P.F. Sloan who talks about his latest work on a musical and the difference between writing lyrics and poetry. He also explains how living in L.A. can sometimes seem like being at a party, being really hungry and the fruit in the fruit bowl is plastic.
Other poets we meet include Gingee, a poet and DJ from the Filipino community who talks about the issues she has encountered and why she needs to represent her community in her work.
Producer: Laura Parfitt
A White Pebble Media production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 17:00 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.
SUN 17:40 Profile (b038x1lx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b039hk62)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 17:57 Weather (b038ngtj)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b038ngtl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b038x4x9)
Liz Barclay's Pick of the Week.
Pick of the Week this week comes to you via the Rainforests of Borneo, the UK's first city of culture and the Edinburgh Festival. Political heavyweights of the 1970s Lib Lab pact recall their battles, comedians recall their dying moments and Ken Livingstone recalls a bout of dysentery.... So join Liz Barclay for a feast of music, comedy and drama.
Programme choices:
My Teenage Diary - Ken Livingstone - Radio 4
The Reunion - Lib Lab Pact - Radio 4
When Greed Becomes Hunger - part 1 - Radio 4
The I T Girls - Radio 4
Four Thought - Yasmin Hai - Radio 4
The Story of Naughty Boy - 1Xtra/Asian Network
Great Lives - Rabindranath Tagore - Radio 4
World Routes - Rainforest World Festival 2013 - Radio 3
One to One - Frank Gardner and Dr Stuart Butchart - Radio 4
Letting the Walls Speak - Radio 4
Comic Fringes - Radio 4
I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down - Radio 4
If there's something you'd like to suggest for next week's programme, please e-mail potw@bbc.co.uk.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (b038x4xf)
Kathy's feeling the strain of having Martyn at the helm although Leigh, the director of golf, seems to think he's ok. Given the cuts in her department, Kathy's not pleased to hear that Martyn has agreed to take on a second trainee greenkeeper. Or that he is planning a luxury buffet for the divot repair night volunteers. Leigh thinks the club could do with a shake-up. It might not make Martyn popular, but so what?
Jolene and Kenton attempt to finalise their guest lists and start writing invitations for the ceremony, but they can't agree on who to invite. Fallon tries to help but gets fed up with Jolene and Kenton's back and forth.
Shula is nearing the end of her shift at The Elms homeless shelter when she spots Darrell. She initially mistakes him for a volunteer until he shamefacedly explains he's there for a hot meal. Unfortunately lunch has finished. Shula advises him to come back later and arranges him a bed after hearing he's kipping in the park.
Though not on shift, Shula pops back later to check Darrell is ok. He's grateful for Shula's help and just needs to get back on his feet.
SUN 19:15 Jo Caulfield's Speakeasy (b038x4xh)
Episode 4
Comedian Jo Caulfield invites authors, comedians and producers 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 Phil Jupitus remembers a time he was on tour with Madness, Richard Melvin tells us about a works night our that went a bit wrong, there's hip hop from Dave Hook and Josie Long shares an encounter on a bus.
Richard Melvin
A Dabster production Ltd.
SUN 19:45 Cries of London (b038x4xk)
On Apollonion Shores
A pair of historical tales set in the heart of the capital.
On Apollonian Shores
London in the 1830s. Matthew Hathersedge first attempt to drown himself was an embarrassing failure. This time - following some very, very bad reviews for his latest volume of poetry - he is determined to leave nothing to chance.
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: David Bamber
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 20:00 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.
SUN 20:30 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.
SUN 21:00 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.
SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b038x32x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 today]
SUN 21:30 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.
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b038x5t2)
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 (b038x5tc)
A look at how the newspapers are covering the biggest stories.
SUN 23:00 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.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b038x32q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 26 AUGUST 2013
MON 00:00 Midnight News (b038prgd)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
MON 00:15 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
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b038x32n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b038prgg)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b038prgj)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b038prgl)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (b038prgn)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b039sp3w)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Bishop Joe Aldred.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (b038xmbk)
Following speculation that the pilot badger cull will start tonight, we hear from both sides of the debate. Produced by Sarah Swadling, and presented by Sybil Ruscoe.
MON 05:56 Weather (b038prgq)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378xsn)
Common Gull
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 gull. In spite of their name Common Gulls aren't as common or widespread as some of our other gulls. Most of the breeding colonies in the UK are in Scotland. In North America their alternative name is Mew gull because of their mewing cat-like cries.
MON 06:00 Today (b038xmbz)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Fry's English Delight (b038xmc5)
Series 6
Rhetoric Rehabilitated
It's a 2500 year old system of public speaking, a system of spoken language designed to persuade. It was the bedrock of democracy, widely admired and studied until fairly recently. Now though, "rhetoric" is usually considered the language of wily politicians and overblown dictators - it's not to be trusted, it's misleading, it's a posh word for spin.
In this programme, the first of a new series of Fry's English Delight, Stephen Fry outlines the history of rhetoric, and argues that we should try and restore its original noble meaning.
He's helped by Professor Jennifer Richards and Sam Leith, both rhetoric fans, who use rhetoric to dismember three speeches: a backslapping post-Olympic one by Boris Johnson; a chillingly explicit one by Colonel Tim Collins to his battalion at the beginning of the 2003 Iraq war, and a moving one by US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. She was the victim of an attempted assassination, yet two years later she overcame her injuries to deliver an impassioned speech to the US Senate. It was simple and to the point, yet our experts conclude she was still using rhetorical devices.
Stephen Fry and Sam Leith concede there's an element of "geekery" in rhetoric. They enjoy a bout of "figure spotting" - revelling in terms like "antanaclasis" and "dialysis".
What emerges is that patterns of public speech (the power of three, for example) may have been set down in ancient times - but they still work. Speechwriting trainer Alan Barker and members of the Cambridge Union Debating Society demonstrate how standards of oratory and debate are key to our civilisation.
Producer: Nick Baker
A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 09:30 Wow! How Did They Do That? (b038xmcc)
Episode 3
Roger Law goes in search of the entrepreneurs who are behind some of the Britain's best designs and inventions.
Chris Wise is one of the most outstanding engineers of his generation. Responsible for the Stockton-on-Tees Infinity Bridge and the revamp of the Barcelona bullring, these were complicated projects resolved by Wise in a cool and stylish way. His best known work is the Velodrome for the London Olympics, a place where Roger's second guest also made his mark. Piers Shepperd is the man who made sure the opening ceremony went with a bang. As chimneys reached for the sky whilst the world held its breath, Shepperd was behind the scenes making sure the technology performed with his stopwatch.
Roger Law meets these two hugely talented backroom boys to find out how it was all done.
MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b038xmch)
Alyn Shipton - Nilsson: The Life of a Singer-Songwriter
Episode 1
Paul McCartney and John Lennon described him as the Beatles' "favorite group," and yet no figure in popular music is as much of a paradox as Harry Nilsson. A major celebrity at a time when stadium rock was in its infancy and huge concerts and festivals were becoming the norm, Nilsson's instrument was the studio, his stage the dubbing booth, his greatest technical triumphs were masterful examples of studio craft, and he studiously avoided live performance.
He was a gifted composer of songs for a wide variety of performers, having created vivid flights of imagination for the Ronettes, the Yardbirds and the Monkees, yet Nilsson's own biggest hits were almost all written, ironically, by other composers and lyricists. He won two Grammies, had two top ten singles, and numerous album successes. Once described by his producer Richard Perry as "the finest white male singer on the planet," near the end of his life, his career was marked by voice-damaging substance abuse.
Kerry Shale reads extracts from this first ever full-length biography of Nilsson, in which author Alyn Shipton traces Nilsson's life from his Brooklyn childhood to his Los Angeles adolescence, and charts his gradual move into the spotlight as a talented songwriter. With interviews from Nilsson's friends, family and associates, and material drawn from an unfinished draft autobiography Nilsson was writing prior to his death, Shipton probes beneath the enigma and the paradox to discover the real Harry Nilsson, and reveals one of the most creative talents in 20th century popular music.
Credits:
NILSSON: THE LIFE OF A SINGER-SONGWRITER
BY ALYN SHIPTON
Read by Kerry Shale
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Producer: JOANNA GREEN
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b038xmct)
Internet Dating
How has today's online dating changed the way we live and love? How does the experience of dating online differ for men and women? Today, in a special broadcast, Woman's Hour and Men's Hour have made a date to look at the world of online dating. Online dating novice Jane Garvey is joined by Tim Samuels who says while he's had plenty of dates, he's ready-to-embrace-commitment. We discuss the sexual politics and different experiences of online dating with listeners, dating advisors, experts and serial dating bloggers.
MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b038xmcz)
The True Story of Bonnie Parker
Episode 1
by Beatrice Colin
A new look at the story of Bonnie and Clyde. The True Story of Bonnie Parker uses historical sources to illustrate how a series of often disastrous decisions led the former waitress from Cement City to end up as one of America's most wanted criminals. It reveals how the press first celebrated and then reviled Bonnie Parker as her notoriety grew. Even during their lifetimes, the depiction of the couple in the press was at considerable odds with the reality of their life on the road. But most of all, this is about a doomed love affair, a twentieth century Romeo and Juliet, with guns.
Having dropped out of high school and married at 16, the young Bonnie Parker is working as a waitress. Her life is about to change-when she meets Clyde Barrow.
Other parts played by Liam Brennan, James Anthony Pearson and Rosalind Sydney.
Produced and directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.
MON 11:00 Lives in a Landscape (b038xmd1)
Series 14
The Longest Walk
It's rambling, but not as we know it. Every year the Long Distance Walkers' Association organises a 100 mile walk. It has to be completed in 48 hours, which for most people means walking through two nights with no sleep. By the end, hallucination is common, and many of the 500 who started out drop out or by the time they finish can barely walk any more.
Lives in a Landscape follows two participants in this year's walk, from Wadebridge in Cornwall to Teignmouth in Devon. One, George Foot, is 76, and has done 24 100-mile walks already. The other, Josh Wainwright, is 18. This is his first 100. Will either of them complete the walk, or will they have to "retire" early?
As George walks, he talks to presenter Alan Dein about his long-dead father - a distinguished public school headmaster. It becomes clear that George has spent much of his life in his father's shadow, feeling that he was a permanent disappointment to him. As a child, George was told by his father that he was "a bad walker". Now, completing the 100 mile walk is a way of redeeming himself in his father's eyes.
Josh, on the other hand, is walking the 100 miles with his father, Dave, a 21st century parent. Will Dave be more forgiving of failure, and more willing to praise success? An exploration not just of the challenges of walking and endurance, but of the changing nature of fatherhood.
Producer: Jolyon Jenkins
Presenter: Alan Dein.
MON 11:30 Just William - Live! (b01pfrrc)
Series 3
William Holds the Stage
Last May, as part of Winchester's Best of British Festival in celebration of the Jubilee, Martin Jarvis performed the first of two of Richmal Crompton's comic classics, live on-stage.
In William Holds the Stage, when an old boy of the school gives a lecture on Hamlet, William gets a somewhat confused idea that Shakespeare's plays were written by a man called Ham, and that Shakespeare poisoned Ham, and stole the plays and pretended he had written them. Then a man called Bacon got involved and possibly someone called Eggs as well.
When it's announced that the class will perform a scene from Hamlet in front of a live audience, William decides that, despite being cast as an attendant, he'd prefer to play the leading role himself. But things don't go entirely to plan.
A packed house at the Theatre Royal rocks with laughter as Jarvis performs William's hilariously inventive version of Shakespeare's masterpiece. Just William as 'stand-up'.
Performed by Martin Jarvis
Director: Rosalind Ayres.
A Jarvis and Ayres Production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:00 You and Yours (b038xmd3)
Cashback, loyalty bonuses, golden 'hello' payments
Cashback, loyalty bonuses and golden 'hello' payments. If you've noticed that banks are desperate to get your custom at the moment, it might have something to do with new rules making it easier than ever to leave them. We'll assess what it means for you and take a look at the bast deals. We're looking at the future of personal banking and the increasing pressure to do away with cash,
We're using less energy at home than in recent years, but paying more for it. The energy companies explain why. Plus, the average CD costs eight pounds. Who gets a share of it and how much to they get? Musicians, producers, songwriters and managers are just a few. It goes in lots of directions. We'll trace them with, among others, Pink Floyd's Nick Mason and Robbie Williams' manager.
Presenter: Julian Worricker.
Producer: John Neal.
MON 12:57 Weather (b038prgs)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 13:00 World at One (b038xmd5)
The United Nations says a car carrying weapons inspectors to the site of an alleged chemical attack in Damascus was forced to turn back after it was shot at. We hear from the UN and assess the options open to the government.
The bodies of three of the oil workers who died when their helicopter ditched into the North Sea have been brought back to the mainland. Local MP - Frank Doran - tells us confidence has been lost in the Superpuma helicopter fleet.
As BT announces it will close its dial up internet service - we ask Communications Minister Ed Vaizey what the impact will be for rural internet users.
In anticipation of new arrival at Edinburgh Zoo, we discuss what a panda cub will mean for the city's economy.
MON 13:45 The Five Ages of Brandreth (b00y28tm)
The Five Ages of Brandreth
1950s
Gyles Brandreth recalls Five Ages from his life from his extensive diaries. This first programme is on the 1950s and early 60s. In 1959 he stood as a Liberal in his school's mock General Election. He lost badly. In the real election, Harold Macmillan was returned to Number Ten with a big majority. Gyles ordered a copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover -- his housemaster confiscated it. It was the time of the first satellite, Sputnik, President John F Kennedy, and the Cuban missile crisis. Gyles records them all.
MON 14:00 The Archers (b038x4xf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Drama (b038xmd7)
His Father's Wife
His Father's Wife by Mike Harris, based on an idea by Robert Louis Stevenson
In 1892, Robert Louis Stevenson claimed that his stories came to him fully formed in dreams. He wrote down the outline of one such story from memory. This drama is based on that outline, and is therefore the world premiere of a story that Robert Louis Stevenson never wrote. It is a dark tale of love and filial hate set in nineteenth century Scotland.
Director/Producer Gary Brown.
MON 15:00 Quote... Unquote (b038xmd9)
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. We find out their least favourite quotes, and discover the most quotable people they have ever met.
This week Nigel is joined by veteran broadcast war reporter and former independent politician - Martin Bell; arts journalist - Viv Groskop; actor, writer and artist - Edward Petherbridge and actor, comedian and writer David Schneider.
Reader ..... Peter Jefferson.
Produced by Carl Cooper.
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (b038x4wx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Queer Tangier (b038xmdl)
During much of the first part of the twentieth century, Tangier was an International Zone, controlled not by Morocco but instead by a number of foreign powers. During that period - and for some years afterwards - it became a magnet to scores of writers and artists, many of whom were gay.
Paul Bowles arrived in the nineteen thirties, leading the way for some of the biggest names in literature of the time, including William Burroughs, Truman Capote, Andre Gide, Patricia Highsmith and Tennessee Williams.
In Tangier they enjoyed a much greater degree of freedom, whether that be to take drugs or simply to conduct homosexual relationships, than would have been possible in their home countries at the time.
The place also provided Professor Andrew Hussey with his first encounter with the Arab world, and set him on a course of exploration and intellectual discovery over the last thirty years, during which time he's been back many times.
Now he returns again to not only tell the story of 'Queer Tangier' as it became known, including the dark side of that period in the form of sex tourism, but also witness how the city has by now become a confident, bustling Moroccan city in its own right.
Producer: Geoff Bird.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (b038xmds)
Martin Luther King
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.
Its fifty years since Martin Luther King addressed an immense crowd in Washington and told the world that "I have a dream." His words galvanised black people across America and paved the way for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Out of deep Christian conviction King wanted to fight against ingrained injustice using exclusively non-violent means. In this programme Ernie Rea explores the religious influences and ideas of Martin Luther King and asks, half a century on, whether we have sanitised the tough message of that speech.
To discuss the life and work of Martin Luther King Ernie Rea is joined by Rev Dr Cheryl Sanders, Professor of Christian Ethics at the Howard University School of Divinity in Washington D.C.;
Israel Dresner, Emeritus Rabbi of Temple Beth Tikvah synagogue in New Jersey who worked closely with King and was present when he delivered the "I have a dream" speech and Richard Reddie, author of the book Martin Luther King Junior, History Maker.
Producer: Catherine Earlam.
MON 17:00 PM (b038xmf0)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b038prgv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (b038xmf6)
Series 67
Episode 3
Just how hard can it be to talk for 60 seconds with no hesitation, repetition or deviation? Join Sue Perkins, Russell Kane, Paul Merton and new player Henry Blofeld find out. Recorded at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
MON 19:00 The Archers (b038xmfd)
Ruth's busy with calving when Usha stops by. She's decided to enter her Royal Blush roses at the flower and produce show. Neither friend was aware of the other's plans to enter their roses and a healthy rivalry ensues. Ruth's also creating a care box for Pip. They joke about how many biscuits Ruth has packed.
Caroline introduces Ray to Lynda and asks her to give him a tour of Grey Gables. He'll be taking over the reins from Saturday. Caroline flatters Lynda. There's not much she doesn't know about running the place. Personable Ray is grateful..
Ray takes it upon himself to sample as much of the hotel's hospitability he can, saying he likes to experience quality before he recommends it. He has lunch in the restaurant and insists nervous Lynda joins him. Lynda's worried she should have cleared it with Caroline first, but Ray puts her at ease.
Caroline is pleased that her idea to have Lynda give Ray a tour was a success. She tells Oliver that Lynda now seems rather proprietorial about Ray.
Rob thanks Oliver for putting the grocery boxes together for new dairy staff. He hopes Oliver will continue with the scheme. Big day tomorrow - the first cows arrive.
MON 19:15 Front Row (b038xmfl)
Harrogate Crime Writing Festival
With Mark Lawson, who reports from this year's Harrogate Crime Writing Festival.
Ruth Rendell and Jeanette Winterson discuss their friendship, which began when Winterson was a house-sitter for Rendell in 1986. The writers also discuss crime plots, exercise regimes and mammoth book signing sessions.
Kate Atkinson turned to crime-writing with Case Histories, which has become a TV series with Jason Isaacs playing private investigator Jackson Brodie. Atkinson reveals her reluctance to call herself a crime-writer and why she often comes up with titles before stories.
For the second year running Denise Mina received the Novel of the Year award. But there were times when she feared her winning book wouldn't be published. Mina discusses rewriting her book in a weekend.
Val McDermid, Erin Kelly, David Mark, Steve Mosby and Nicci French - husband and wife duo Nicci Gerrard and Sean French - discuss debut writers and JK Rowling's The Cuckoo's Calling, writers' block and tweeting, pure evil and taking inspiration from real life events.
In front of an audience, Stuart MacBride, Catriona McPherson, Manda Scott and Cathi Unsworth reflect on how crime novels of the future could change, in the light of new technology and online developments.
Producer Claire Bartleet.
MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b038xmcz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 God's Trombone: Remembering King's Dream (b038xmfr)
On August 28th, 1963, at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Martin Luther King stepped to the podium in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Around 10 minutes into his speech, King sounded as though he were wrapping up when Mahalia Jackson, the gospel singer and King's friend, shouted: "Tell them about the dream Martin". He ignored her at first. Then she shouted again. He put the text to the left of the lectern, grabbed the podium and, after a pause more pregnant than most, started to riff.
King's adviser Clarence Jones turned to the person next to him and said: "Those people don't know it, but they're about to go to church."
It's 50 years since Martin Luther King gave the speech that stands as one of the nation's favourite addresses delivered by one of its most beloved figures. But "I have a dream" wasn't in the text of the speech and its mainstream popularity only grew after King was assassinated.
Gary Younge looks behind the scenes of the speech and explores what made it both timely and timeless. Why do we remember it? How do we remember it? Does the way we remember it say as much about us today as it does about those events 50 years ago?
We'll hear from King's colleagues and friends including his speechwriter Clarence Jones; King's aide, later US ambassador to the United Nations and Andrew Young. Young explores how King was influenced by African-American preachers: he was firmly rooted in a tradition of orators described by influential Harlem Renaissance poet and intellectual James Weldon Johnson as "God's Trombones".
The speeches and images of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been licensed by Intellectual Properties Management, Inc. (IPM) manager for the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr. This license is in no way an endorsement of the views, policies, opinions, statements, and actions of the featured participants.
Producer: Peggy Sutton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 20:30 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.
MON 21:00 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
MON 21:30 Fry's English Delight (b038xmc5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:58 Weather (b038prgx)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b038xmft)
John Kerry says little doubt Syrian govt used chemical weapons.
Are posthumous novels any good when they are published?
Brits behaving better abroad?
With Roger Hearing.
MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b038xmfw)
Secrecy
Episode 1
"Some see you as a master craftsman. Others say you're a sorcerer. You're mysterious, obsessive. Controversial."
Zummo - a 17th-century sculptor - makes things out of wax, figures so lifelike they look as if they might move and breathe. He has journeyed throughout Italy over the years in an attempt to flee his past. Now, in 1691, he has been summoned to the Medici court by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He arrives in Florence, a city in which "everything was forbidden [and] anything was possible." But what does the Grand Duke have in mind for him?
Ten years later, Zummo visits a convent in France and tells the whole story to Marguerite-Louise of Orléans, long-estranged wife of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Secrecy is a tale of love, art, murder and concealment, enacted within a beautifully-realised 17th century Florentine and Tuscan setting.
Some of the 'plague pieces' by Gaetano Zummo (1656-1701) can be found in La Specola, Florence.
Rupert Thomson is the author of eight highly-acclaimed novels including Death of a Murderer, which was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Novel Award. His memoir This Party's Got to Stop won the Writer's Guild Non-Fiction Award.
Episode One
In 1701, a frail, dying Zummo arrives at a French convent. He has a story to tell. His audience? Marguerite-Louise of Orléans, former wife of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Readers: Greta Scacchi and Owen Teale
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 23:00 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.
MON 23:30 The New North (b01slrj5)
Episode 1
In the last decade the north of England has discovered a new public face. A boom in new landmark cultural public buildings, many built with Lottery funding, has created a distinctive, contemporary image for the region's towns and cities.
Martin Goodman, professor of creative writing at Hull University presents this two part journey in search of the 'New North'. He visits the iconic new public buildings and asks how they reflect the changing region, how it differs from the traditional industrialised imagery of the north, and considers the economic challenges these new buildings face in today's austere times.
He starts at The Sage in Gateshead and then moves on to MIMA, Middlesbrough's modern art gallery, before going to Hull to visit The Deep aquarium. He speaks to its architect, Sir Terry Farrell, about that building as well as his work in the North East. He also asks author David Almond what these new buildings mean for the culture of Gateshead and Newcastle.
So, is there a 'New North' emerging - and if there is, how does it differ from what has gone before? And can these new institutions survive in economically testing times.
In part two, Martin will visit the striking new Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield and speak to the architect David Chipperfield about its design. He'll talk to the writer Alan Garner about the historic qualities of the North and find out about regeneration in Manchester and Salford, visiting the new Museum of Liverpool and meeting TV writer Phil Redmond. And he'll hear how the economic squeeze can leave some of those who run new developments feeling like 'paupers in palaces'.
Producer: Philip Reevell
A City Broadcasting production for BBC Radio 4.
TUESDAY 27 AUGUST 2013
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b038prhy)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b038xmch)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b038prj0)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b038prj2)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b038prj4)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b038prj6)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b039sp5y)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Bishop Joe Aldred.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b038xrj1)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Produced by Emma Campbell, and Presented by Sybil Ruscoe.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378xwb)
Spotted Redshank
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Michaela Strachan presents the spotted redshank. Spotted Redshanks are elegant long-legged waders which don't breed in the UK but pass through in spring and autumn on journeys between their summer home in Scandinavia and their wintering grounds in southern Europe and Africa.
TUE 06:00 Today (b038xrj3)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (b038xrj5)
Joanna Haigh
Joanna Haigh, Professor of Atmospheric Physics at Imperial College, London, studies the influence of the sun on the earth's climate using data collected by satellites. She talks to Jim al-Khalili about how she got started on her career in climate physics: she can trace her interest in it back to her childhood when she built herself a home weather station.
Jo Haigh explains why we need to know how the sun affects the climate: it's so scientists can work out what contribution to warming is the result of greenhouse gases that humans produce, and what is down to changes in the energy coming from the sun.
She has sat on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and discusses with Jim how it delivers its reports. And as a prominent scientist who speaks out about the dangers of increasing man made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, she explains how she responds to climate change deniers.
TUE 09:30 One to One (b038xrj7)
Frank Gardner talks to Tim Rushby-Smith
After a life changing injury or incident one of the things that makes a huge difference on how you then move on with the rest of your life is what you can still do and can't do.
The BBC's Security Correspondent Frank Gardner regards himself lucky that he was able to carry on doing journalism after being shot 9 years ago in Saudi Arabia by terrorists. Some of those bullets hit the core of his body and damaged his spinal nerve - he can no longer use his legs and is in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. However, being able to return to work and continue with his profession has been one of the biggest factors in his own recovery.
In this second programme for the series 'One to One', Frank meets Tim Rushby-Smith who fell from a tree and had to face the fact he would no longer be able to carry on with his profession and livelihood.
Producer : Perminder Khatkar.
TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b03966zs)
Alyn Shipton - Nilsson: The Life of a Singer-Songwriter
Episode 2
Paul McCartney and John Lennon described him as the Beatles' "favorite group," and yet no figure in popular music is as much of a paradox as Harry Nilsson. A major celebrity at a time when stadium rock was in its infancy and huge concerts and festivals were becoming the norm, Nilsson's instrument was the studio, his stage the dubbing booth, his greatest technical triumphs were masterful examples of studio craft, and he studiously avoided live performance.
He was a gifted composer of songs for a wide variety of performers, having created vivid flights of imagination for the Ronettes, the Yardbirds and the Monkees, yet Nilsson's own biggest hits were almost all written, ironically, by other composers and lyricists. He won two Grammies, had two top ten singles, and numerous album successes. Once described by his producer Richard Perry as "the finest white male singer on the planet," near the end of his life, his career was marked by voice-damaging substance abuse.
Kerry Shale reads extracts from this first ever full-length biography of Nilsson, in which author Alyn Shipton traces Nilsson's life from his Brooklyn childhood to his Los Angeles adolescence, and charts his gradual move into the spotlight as a talented songwriter. With interviews from Nilsson's friends, family and associates, and material drawn from an unfinished draft autobiography Nilsson was writing prior to his death, Shipton probes beneath the enigma and the paradox to discover the real Harry Nilsson, and reveals one of the most creative talents in 20th century popular music.
Read by Kerry Shale
NILSSON: THE LIFE OF A SINGER-SONGWRITER
BY ALYN SHIPTON
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
PRODUCER: JOANNA GREEN
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b038xrj9)
Teacher-pupil relationship; Storme Toolis in New Tricks
Emma Barnett presents.
The relationship between a teacher and pupil is inevitably a strong one, so what's being done to stop it crossing the line and becoming abuse?
If your parents divorce when you're grown up and no longer living at home does it hurt more or less?
Making tiles from concrete and linen, a modern way to unite Northern Ireland's manufacturing industries.
And actress Storme Toolis talks about her new part in New Tricks and how as a wheelchair user, she sidesteps the inevitable role of hospital patient.
TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b038xrjc)
The True Story of Bonnie Parker
Episode 2
by Beatrice Colin
A new look at the story of Bonnie and Clyde. The True Story of Bonnie Parker uses historical sources to illustrate how a series of often disastrous decisions led the former waitress from Cement City to end up as one of America's most wanted criminals. It reveals how the press first celebrated and then reviled Bonnie Parker as her notoriety grew. Even during their lifetimes, the depiction of the couple in the press was at considerable odds with the reality of their life on the road. But most of all, this is about a doomed love affair, a twentieth century Romeo and Juliet, with guns.
Bonnie has made a choice to embark on a life on the road with Clyde Barrow. But things start to go badly wrong and soon they are on the run from the law.
Other parts played by Liam Brennan and James Anthony Pearson.
Produced and directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.
TUE 11:00 Deep Down Inside (b038xrjf)
Deep Brain stimulation is a brain surgery technique involving electrodes being inserted to reach targets deep inside the brain. Those targets are then stimulated via the electrodes which are connected to a battery powered pacemaker surgically placed under the person's collar bone.
Geoff Watts finds out how the technique has been used successfully for treating the movement disorders of Parkinson's disease, in patients with severe, intractable depression, in chronic pain and how it's also being trialled to see if it can also be successful in treating Obsessive Compulsive disorder, Tourette's syndrome and other disorders.
Geoff meets patients who have had their lives changed by having Deep brain stimulation. He also meets the surgeons at the operating table to find out how it works. At the moment no one has all the answers but one psychiatrist he meets says the success of Deep Brain stimulation means we should radically change the way we understand how the brain works. That the brain is governed by electrical circuitry rather than a chemical soup of neurotransmitters.
TUE 11:30 How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love My Albatross (b038xrjh)
Music writer Pete Paphides runs through the 5 stages of grief following a huge hit record with stories from some of those who know including Mike Batt, Ralph McTell, Colin Vearncombe, Ivan Doroschuk and Sandie Shaw.
Many artists are best known for doing something - be it a hit, or an album or for having an intense, sustained period of success that is hard to maintain in the long-run. In the case of Ralph McTell it's the song 'Streets of London', for Ivan Doroschuk from Men Without Hats it's 'The Safety Dance', for Mike Batt, a prolific songwriter and producer, his Womble years are often remembered first, Sandie Shaw has never been able to forget 'Puppet on a String' and Colin Vearncombe's band Black's albatross track was Wonderful Life.
The five stages a musician goes through of dealing with their albatross are uncannily similar to the five stages of grief that follow bereavement or news of a terminal illness. These were identified by psychiatrist Elizabeth Kübler-Ross in her 1969 book On Death & Dying (they also form the narrative arc of Bill Murray's character in Groundhog Day). They include denial, bargaining, anger, depression and finally acceptance.
How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love My Albatross walks through these five stages, with lots of testimony from people who have been through all the different points in the curve of self-realisation - punctuated, of course, with lots of clips of all their great songs.
Producer: Laura Parfitt
A White Pebble Media production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:00 You and Yours (b038xrjk)
Call You and Yours: HS2
We're talking about HS2 on Call You And Yours. The aim is to have 225mph trains between London and Birmingham by 2026, and then a second phase of development for high speed trains to Manchester and Leeds. The government says it will cost £50 billion but today business leaders called it a "grand folly". So do you think the whole thing should be called off or do you think it will transform rail travel in Britain? We want to hear your opinion if it will have an impact on you or if you have views about it. Perhaps you've been affected by previous rail projects and so have some experience to draw on? One way or another, for or against, call or email us and join in the debate.
Call You And Yours on 03700 100 444 or you can e-mail via the Radio 4 website or text on 84844.
TUE 12:57 Weather (b038prj8)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b038xrjm)
National and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
TUE 13:45 The Five Ages of Brandreth (b00y8x02)
The Five Ages of Brandreth
1960s
Gyles Brandreth recounts more diary instalments in the Five Ages of his life. This time it's the early 60s. Gyles is still at school but he's fascinated by all that's going on -- the Beatles, the Profumo scandal, Macmillan's decline and the death of President Kennedy.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b038xmfd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b038xrjp)
Bad Elvis
Bad Elvis by Katie Hims. Aidan, Deaf, checks into the hotel he used to stay in with his mother and father as a child. During the evening an Elvis impersonator starts to sing at the wedding downstairs, interrupting his rest.
The third in a series of plays commissioned for Deaf actor David Bower and developed with Signdance Collective
Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts.
TUE 15:00 Making History (b038xtd4)
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (b038xrjr)
Electric Cars Recharged
It has been the Next Big Thing for longer than most people can remember but there are signs that the much-derided electric car may finally be poised for its moment in the sun.
For Costing the Earth, Tom Heap visits the factory where a major European car maker's latest electric supermini takes its place on the same production line as its petrol and diesel cousins.
And he discovers that experts believe that success will come this time thanks to a combination of improved technology, commercial imperatives and a hefty dose of EU legislation.
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b038xtd6)
Language Laws
What are we allowed to say to each other? Chris Ledgard looks at the laws surrounding language use, from libel to blasphemy.
Barristers Nicola Cain and Christina Michalos explain defamation law. Professor Laura Gowing from King's College London takes us back to a time when seditious language could land you in the pillory. And barrister Diane Chanteau explains how critical the use of exact language is in court.
Producer: Melvin Rickarby.
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b038xtd8)
Series 31
Julie Burchill on Ava Gardner
The writer Julie Burchill talks to Matthew Parris about the Hollywood star Ava Gardner. They're joined by Ava's biographer Lee Server.
Often described as ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’, Ava Gardner made sixty-five movies, ranging from ‘Mogambo' (for which she won an Oscar nomination) to ‘Maisie Goes To Reno' (for which she didn't). She had three husbands - Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra - and many lovers including Howard Hughes, David Niven, Robert Mitchum and John F. Kennedy as well as numerous playboys, beach-boys and bullfighters.
Ava Gardner was, says Matthew Parris, “a hard-drinking, wisecracking, libidinous vamp – a liberated woman before the phrase was invented.”
Presented by Matthew Parris.
Produced by Peter Everett.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.
TUE 17:00 PM (b038xtdb)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b038prjb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Clare in the Community (b038xtdd)
Edinburgh Special: In Treatment
Clare and Brian's relationship has always been fraught but with communication at an all time low the couple try relationship counselling. A one-off episode recorded in Edinburgh at the Festival.
Sally Phillips is Clare Barker the social worker who has all the right jargon but never a practical solution. A control freak, Clare likes nothing better than interfering in other people's lives on both a professional and personal basis. Clare is in her thirties, white, middle class and heterosexual, all of which are occasional causes of discomfort to her.
Clare struggles to control both her professional and private life and in this special one-off episode recorded at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival - Clare's professional life is impacting on her personal life as she and Brian seek help with their relationship. After all, Clare gives of herself everyday at work - is it her fault there's little left for Brian's dreary problems at the end of the day?
In Treatment - Cast
Written by Harry Venning
Producer: Katie Tyrrell.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b038xtdg)
Brian and Rob chat while preparing for their first cows to arrive. Their vet Ken Derwitt has offered to take on six veterinary students to help when calving's at full pelt. Apart from notional expenses, it won't cost Borchester Land a penny.
Brian thinks it ironic that the village has been set against them from the start, but now is reaping the rewards through Rob encouraging the staff to use local businesses. Jennifer's rose bush is now dead, so she's pulled out of the flower and produce show. They are interrupted with some bad news. One of the trucks transporting the in-calf heifers has broken down in Germany.
Pat isn't available to babysit as she's hoping to go swimming with Kathy but Helen says it's ok as the 'jewellery group' isn't meeting tonight. Pat wonders when she can see what Helen's made. Then Rob calls Helen with the silver lining to the bad news. Because the cows are delayed, he's free to see her tonight. So Helen asks Tony to babysit.
Pat helps fed-up Kathy with the buffet for the divot repair volunteers.
Rob and Helen go for a pub supper in Felpersham. Rob wonders if anyone has noticed their relationship. Helen feels that anyone would know if they saw her with him. She isn't convinced that Pat believes her cover story, so has brought a necklace from a craft shop to substantiate her claims. Rob suggests they forget about ordering food and go back to his.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b038xtdj)
One Direction film; John Byrne; director Nic Roeg; the comedy 'straight man'
With Mark Lawson.
Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock's latest film is a 3D documentary about the boy band One Direction. The film promises a behind-the-scenes look at the famous five-piece who were brought together on The X Factor in 2010. Rosie Swash gives her verdict.
Scottish playwright and artist John Byrne has added his distinctive visual style to the King's Theatre in Edinburgh, where he has created a new mural for the auditorium's dome. He explains how the commission emerged from a visit to the theatre to watch a production of The Ladykillers.
Nic Roeg, the acclaimed director of classic films such as Walkabout and Don't Look Now, discusses his career, sex scenes and much more besides, in the light of his newly-published memoir.
With the announcement of the death of comedian Mike Winters, half of a double-act with his brother Bernie, comedy performer and writer Steve Punt considers the role of the 'straight man' in comedy.
Producer Kate Bullivant.
TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b038xrjc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 Before the Mugshot (b038xtdl)
In 2008 a grainy CCTV image appeared in south London newspapers of a young man robbing a cash and carry. Sarah O'Connell tells the story behind the photo.
Everyone has seen similar pictures - of a surly young man who has committed a serious criminal offence. Yet as a society we have not been very successful at stopping them from doing so.
Sarah takes that CCTV picture, and one of Aaron as a baby, and explores what went wrong with Aaron's life in the gap between the two pictures which resulted in him committing a serious, violent criminal offence before he had yet turned 18.
In the programme Aaron himself discusses his life with candour - from his family background to his motivation for committing criminal offences. Sarah also speaks to members of his family, teachers and mentors to give a rich picture of how a life can fall apart - and perhaps what we might do better in the future.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b038xw3h)
Peter White is joined by Damon Rose, David Williams and Hetal Bapodra to talk about weddings, from a blind or partially-sighted person's perspective.
Bride-to-be Emma Tracey also contributed, as did former bridesmaid Lee Kumutat.
Producer: Cheryl Gabriel.
TUE 21:00 Seven Ages of Science (b038xw3k)
Age of Inspiration
Lisa Jardine explores an Age in which scientists took leaps of faith.
At the start of the 19th century, fossils were a mystery. Mary Anning excavated the remains of huge and extraordinary creatures from the cliff face at Lyme Regis. Most men of science assumed she'd found a crocodile: she insisted her creature was entirely unknown. As other such mysterious monsters were unearthed, they represented a puzzle for established theology, but theology coped.
Electricity, "that imponderable fluid", was another mystery; as was magnetism, another weird and invisible force. Maxwell's Laws of electro-magnetism, lavishly praised by Einstein decades later, explained them both, and light as well. His four simple equations reduced mystery by unifying apparently disparate phenomena. A notion that pervades and drives much of physics to this day.
The way in which telegraph networks deliver messages might as well have been magic. And several well respected Victorian physicists believed that if voices can travel invisibly over hundreds of miles, then perhaps the laws of physics could help us communicate in séances with dead souls.
Perhaps the biggest mystery of all concerned the origin of life itself. We tend to imagine a great clash between science and religion in the middle of the 19th century but for most of the century there was little conflict. Theology was able to accommodate the fossil evidence, or not worry too much about it; and evolutionary ideas had been around since Charles Darwin's grandfather published his scientific poem, Zoonomia. And, when Darwin published On the Origin of Species many in the chattering classes remained light-hearted, with one notable woman of letters remarking that she didn't believe her grandfather was an oyster.
TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (b038xrj5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:58 Weather (b038prjd)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b038xw3m)
Syria: is Western military action imminent?
Yosemite fires continue to burn;
Australia prepares for its election.
With Ritula Shah.
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b038zlqk)
Secrecy
Episode 2
"Some see you as a master craftsman. Others say you're a sorcerer. You're mysterious, obsessive. Controversial."
Zummo - a 17th-century sculptor - makes things out of wax, figures so lifelike they look as if they might move and breathe. He has journeyed throughout Italy over the years in an attempt to flee his past. Now, in 1691, he has been summoned to the Medici court by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He arrives in Florence, a city in which "everything was forbidden [and] anything was possible." But what does the Grand Duke have in mind for him?
Ten years later, Zummo visits a convent in France and tells the whole story to Marguerite-Louise of Orléans, long-estranged wife of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Secrecy is a tale of love, art, murder and concealment, enacted within a beautifully-realised 17th century Florentine and Tuscan setting.
Some of the 'plague pieces' by Gaetano Zummo (1656-1701) can be found in La Specola, Florence.
Rupert Thomson is the author of eight highly-acclaimed novels including Death of a Murderer, which was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Novel Award. His memoir This Party's Got to Stop won the Writer's Guild Non-Fiction Award.
Episode Two
Florence 1691. After settling in to his new surroundings Zummo is summoned to meet Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Reader: Owen Teale
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 23:00 Alex Horne Presents The Horne Section (b01m9qkz)
Alex Horne Presents the Horne Section: Edinburgh 2012
A one-off Edinburgh special of music and comedy from Alex Horne and his 5 piece band. With special guests Al Murray and poet Tim Key.
Alex Horne .... Host
Joe Auckland .... Trumpet and Banjo
Mark Brown .... Saxophone and guitar
Will Collier .... Bass
Ben Reynolds .... Drums
Joe Stilgoe .... Keyboards
Al Murray .... Guest
Tim Key .... Guest
Producer .... Julia McKenzie.
TUE 23:30 The New North (b02116zh)
Episode 2
Professor Martin Goodman explores the new, iconic cultural buildings that have emerged in the North of England over the last decade and asks if they represent a 'New North'.
In the second part of his journey, he visits the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield and talks to its architect, Sir David Chipperfield about the design. In Manchester he gets a panoramic view of the city from the 47th floor penthouse of the architect Ian Simpson, who designed the tower.
He talks to Maria Balshaw, the director of the Manchester Art Gallery to find out about the historic relevance of that gallery today, and meets the director of a new cultural building, where work has just begun.
Martin also hears from Professor Peter Barrett about the regeneration of Salford Quays, home of the Imperial War Museum and the recently opened MediacityUK. Professor Barrett has studied the economics of Lottery funded arts and cultural buildings.
In Cheshire, at the Jodrell Bank telescope, Martin explores a longer-term view of the North's history with the writer Alan Garner.
In Liverpool, he visits the new Museum of Liverpool on the banks for the Mersey, meeting its director Janet Dugdale to find out about its perspective on Liverpool's history, and also talks about that city's culture and place in the world with the writer Phil Redmond. Finally Martin hears from Liverpool's Mayor about the challenges of economic austerity and public funding for the arts, and his hopes of attracting investment from China into a huge redevelopment of the city's derelict Docks.
Producer: Philip Reevell
A City Broadcasting production for BBC Radio 4.
WEDNESDAY 28 AUGUST 2013
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b038prk8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b03966zs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b038prkb)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b038prkd)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b038prkg)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b038prkj)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b039sp6f)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Bishop Joe Aldred.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b038xx70)
With the pilot badger cull underway in Somerset - and Gloucestershire expected to follow suit imminently -Anna Hill asks whether the Government will achieve its three key aims. Can it be carried out humanely, safely and effectively? Farming Minister David Heath discusses Defra's panel of independent experts, who will be monitoring the cull's progress and reporting back at the end of the six week pilot. Anna also speaks to a qualified marksman, an expert in game shooting, and discusses the practicalities of shooting badgers on such a large scale. And the executive director of Humane Society International shares his concerns about the cull - mainly that thousands of wounded badgers will suffer as a result.
And it's a bumper blackcurrant harvest! Like many fruits, they've benefited from the combination of a cold winter, a heatwave and warm showers of the summer. Beatrice Fenton has been to Herefordshire, where Anthony Snell is bringing in the last of his berries.
Presented by Anna Hill. Produced in Bristol by Anna Jones.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378xxk)
Golden Eagle
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Michaela Strachan presents the golden eagle. Golden Eagles are magisterial birds. With a wingspan of over two metres their displays are dramatic affairs involving spectacular aerobatics. They can dive upon their quarry at speeds of more than 240 kilometres per hour, using their sharp talons to snatch up their prey.
WED 06:00 Today (b038xx72)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 I Have a Dream (b0395qvq)
In this unique tribute programme, global figures celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King by reading the words of "I Have a Dream."
It is Introduced by Professor Clayborne Carson, editor of the Martin Luther King papers.
Dr Martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington D.C. on 28th August 1963.
The readers are:
Congressman John Lewis, who spoke at the 1963 March.
Dr Maya Angelou, American author and Civil Rights activist.
Prof Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Laureate and economist.
Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered British teenager Stephen Lawrence.
Wei Jingsheng, Chinese democracy campaigner.
Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, first female President of Ireland.
John Hume, jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to the peace process in Northern Ireland.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Albie Sachs, anti-apartheid campaigner, judge on South Africa's Constitutional Court.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, first female Head of State in Africa.
Raja Shedadeh, Palestinian lawyer, author and human rights activist.
Ndileka Mandela, granddaughter of Nelson Mandela.
Ariel Dorfman, Chilean-American author and human rights activist.
David Grossman, Israeli author and peace campaigner.
Dr Shirin Ebadi, Iran's first female judge, Nobel Peace Laureate.
Malala Yousafzai, sixteen-year-old student from Swat in Pakistan, shot by the Taliban.
Satish Kumar, Indian peace campaigner and environmentalist.
Maestro José Antonio Abreu, Venezuelan educator and musician.
Joan Baez, American musician and activist, performer at the 1963 March on Washington.
Stevie Wonder, American musician, singer and songwriter. Campaigner for Martin Luther King's birthday to become a national holiday in the United States.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2013.
WED 09:30 Just So Science (b01ptzmp)
Series 1
The Beginning of the Armadillos
Part mammal, part reptile, part just plain weird. Why the story of the Armadillo is stranger than fiction, according to Richard Dawkins and Mariella Superina.
Vivienne Parry presents the science behind some of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, with wondrous tales of how things really came to be.
Rudyard Kipling tells us how the leopard got his spots, the camel his hump, the whale his throat and so forth. But what does science make of these lyrical tales? For the most part, just-so stories are to be dismissed as the antithesis of scientific reasoning. They're ad hoc fallacies, designed to explain-away a biological or behavioural trait, more akin to folklore than the laws of science. But on closer inspection, might Kipling's fantasies contain a grain of truth? And might the "truth" as science understands it, be even more fantastic than fiction?
Vivienne meets researchers whose work on some of Kipling's 'best beloved' creatures is helping us to answer a rather inconvenient question: how do traits evolve? Why are some animals the way they are?
Excerpts from five of the Just So Stories are read by Samuel West.
Producer: Rami Tzabar
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2013.
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b0395qvs)
Alyn Shipton - Nilsson: The Life of a Singer-Songwriter
Episode 3
Paul McCartney and John Lennon described him as the Beatles' "favorite group," and yet no figure in popular music is as much of a paradox as Harry Nilsson. A major celebrity at a time when stadium rock was in its infancy and huge concerts and festivals were becoming the norm, Nilsson's instrument was the studio, his stage the dubbing booth, his greatest technical triumphs were masterful examples of studio craft, and he studiously avoided live performance.
He was a gifted composer of songs for a wide variety of performers, having created vivid flights of imagination for the Ronettes, the Yardbirds and the Monkees, yet Nilsson's own biggest hits were almost all written, ironically, by other composers and lyricists. He won two Grammies, had two top ten singles, and numerous album successes. Once described by his producer Richard Perry as "the finest white male singer on the planet," near the end of his life, his career was marked by voice-damaging substance abuse.
Kerry Shale reads extracts from this first ever full-length biography of Nilsson, in which author Alyn Shipton traces Nilsson's life from his Brooklyn childhood to his Los Angeles adolescence, and charts his gradual move into the spotlight as a talented songwriter. With interviews from Nilsson's friends, family and associates, and material drawn from an unfinished draft autobiography Nilsson was writing prior to his death, Shipton probes beneath the enigma and the paradox to discover the real Harry Nilsson, and reveals one of the most creative talents in 20th century popular music.
Reader: Kerry Shale
NILSSON: THE LIFE OF A SINGER-SONGWRITER
BY ALYN SHIPTON
ABRIDGED BY LIBBY SPURRIER
PRODUCER: JOANNA GREEN
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b038xx76)
Bridget Christie; Midori Goto; Midwife shortages
Bridget Christie talks about receiving the Foster's Comedy Award for best show at the Edinburgh Festival. She becomes only the third female solo comedian in the award's 33-year history.
There will be a shortage of midwives in England for at least another decade according to the Royal College of Midwives, who estimate a shortfall of 5,000 trained staff. So how will this affect government policy and patient care?
Violinist Midori Goto on her music, her teaching and her role as a UN peace Ambassador.
Harper's Bazaar magazine last printed Virginia Woolf's short story 'Lappin and Lapinova' more than 80 years ago, so why are they re-printing it now?
Author Katherine Quarmby on the impact the Dale Farm eviction had on travelling communities. We also talk to Candy Sheridan, an Irish traveller and campaigner and Janie Codona, an English Romani Gypsy.
WED 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b038xx78)
The True Story of Bonnie Parker
Episode 3
by Beatrice Colin
A new look at the story of Bonnie and Clyde. The True Story of Bonnie Parker uses historical sources to illustrate how a series of often disastrous decisions led the former waitress from Cement City to end up as one of America's most wanted criminals. It reveals how the press first celebrated and then reviled Bonnie Parker as her notoriety grew. Even during their lifetimes, the depiction of the couple in the press was at considerable odds with the reality of their life on the road. But most of all, this is about a doomed love affair, a twentieth century Romeo and Juliet, with guns.
The photographs of Bonnie and Clyde posing with guns have been widely published in the press. The Barrow Gang is now wanted - Dead or Alive.
Other parts played by Liam Brennan and James Anthony Pearson.
Produced and directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.
WED 11:00 Midweek (b038xx74)
Mark Ravenhill, Eleanor Stewart, Barnaby Carder, Stuart Griffiths
Libby Purves meets playwright Mark Ravenhill; former nun turned midwife Eleanor Stewart; spoon maker Barnaby Carder and photographer Stuart Griffiths
Playwright and writer in residence at the RSC, Mark Ravenhill has written a new version of Voltaire's classic novel Candide. Ravenhill describes his new play as a response to Voltaire's tale rather than a straight adaptation. Featuring a character called the Dramatist, based on himself, Ravenhill asks the question: Is it possible to be an optimist in today's world? Candide is at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.
Eleanor Stewart is a former novice nun who became a midwife. At 18 she began her religious training in France in the early 1960s, leaving behind family and friends in the grip of Beatlemania. After a brief stint as a teacher, she found her vocation in nursing, eventually leaving the convent to become a midwife. She tells her story in Kicking the Habit - From Convent to Casualty in 1960s Liverpool, published by Lion Hudson.
Barnaby Carder, known as Barn The Spoon, makes wooden spoons which he sells in his East London shop. After being apprenticed to a furniture maker, he spent three years travelling around forests - sleeping among the trees and carving spoons from their wood. A passionate advocate for the beauty of spoons and the craft of wood carving, he named his shop after himself - Barn the Spoon.
Stuart Griffiths is a photographer, writer and lecturer. He began using a camera while serving in the Parachute Regiment in Northern Ireland during the late 80s and early 90s. With his instamatic camera, he documented the everyday reality of the war he experienced - violent riots, the aftermath of bombings and shootings and the gallows humour among soldiers. His book Pigs' Disco is published by Ditto Press.
Producer: Paula McGinley.
WED 11:45 Witness (b038x4x1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:45 on Sunday]
WED 12:00 You and Yours (b038xx7g)
Making cold callers pay, late-night drinking, and shops in phone boxes
Councils in England and Wales now have the power to charge pubs and clubs that stay open after midnight. What are the arguments for and against them doing so?
We examine why some brands get paid to appear in computer games and others pay for the chance to appear.
We visit the phone boxes being brought back into use, not as places to make calls but as libraries and shops.
We'll have advice on how to save on those back-to-school costs.
And talk to the man who's found a way of making money every time he's cold called.
Plus why not receiving an energy bill isn't always such a good thing.
Producer: Joe Kent
Presenter: Peter White.
WED 12:57 Weather (b038prkl)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b038xx8h)
National and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
WED 13:45 The Five Ages of Brandreth (b00y8x4j)
The Five Ages of Brandreth
1970s
Gyles Brandreth continues his Five Ages series with a look at the early 1970s. He's asked, with Cliff Richard, to bring a youthful voice to Lord Longford's anti-porn inquiry. He goes to see "blue" films in London and accompanies Longford on his infamous trip to "sin-city" -- Copenhagen, sex clubs and all. But in the end, he's sacked from the inquiry because he can't take it seriously enough.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b038xtdg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b038yk6s)
Series 6
Mardle End, part 1
By Nick Warburton. Trevor Peacock is back as eccentric chef Warwick Hedges. In the sixth and final series of this comedy drama, set in the Cambridgeshire Fens, Warwick goes in search of a magical, golden paradise...somewhere on Mardle Fen.
Directed by Claire Grove
Two new dramas from master-storyteller Nick Warburton take this popular comedy drama series out on a high. Trevor Peacock is back as inspirational chef Warwick Hedges - Mr Toad meets King Lear - who runs an up market restaurant in the Cambridgeshire Fens. His son Jack, played by Sam Dale, works alongside his father, which makes him permanently anxious. They are assisted by Samuel, played by John Rowe, an earthy odd-job man "who crawled out of the slime with the eels" and Zofia, a Polish waitress, now a single parent with a baby called Dillie. The mixture of food, family relationships and Fenland legend is handled with Nick Warburton's characteristic deft comic touch.
Trevor Peacock is a brilliant character actor best known as the bumbling Jim Trott in The Vicar of Dibley. At 82 he is still at the top of his game, appearing earlier this year alongside Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly, Pauline Collins and Michael Gambon in Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut film Quartet.
Nick Warburton has written over 30 plays for BBC Radios 3, 4, 5, 7 and BBC World Service. He was joint winner of the BBC/Radio Times Drama award for Conversations From the Engine Room and winner of the Tinniswood Award for best radio play of 2005, Beast. He's a regular writer for BBC TV's medical series, Holby City and Doctors, and has also written for Eastenders and Born & Bred. His numerous stage plays include a recent double-bill at Alan Ayckbourn's Stephen Joseph Theatre. He is author of seven novels for children and young adults.
WED 15:00 How You Pay for the City (b038x1ll)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:00 on Saturday]
WED 15:30 Seven Ages of Science (b038xw3k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b038yk6v)
Walter Benjamin - a special programme on his work and influence
What is the value of forgotten histories, of possibilities not realised? What can a quite amble down a backstreet tell us about the nature of modernity? How has technology affected the nature and purpose of art? In the mid-twentieth century Walter Benjamin explored all these questions and brought Marxist thinking to high culture, exploring people's relationship to objects and art. His influence is probably felt now more than ever. Laurie Taylor presents a special programme on the work of this pioneering German intellectual and theorist. He's joined by the philosopher Jonathan Ree and the professor of political aesthetics, Esther Leslie. Revised repeat
Producer: Charlie Taylor
WED 16:30 The Media Show (b038yk6x)
Women on Breakfast
The BBC's director general has said he would like to see more women hosting or co-hosting breakfast shows on the corporation's English local radio stations. He has set a new target of 50 per cent by the end of 2014; currently, just 2 breakfast programmes out of 41 have sole female presenters. Steve Hewlett speaks to the BBC's creative director Alan Yentob about the decision and asks former managing editor of BBC local radio John Ryan about the practicalities of getting more women on air. Also joining him in the discussion is media and communications consultant Lisa Kerr who considers whether quotas are the best way to achieve this. Also on today's programme; as the Co-op supermarket prepares to pull a number of lads' mags from its shelves, we ask the launch editor of Front magazine what this might mean for an already struggling magazine sector. And Stewart Purvis will be in the studio discussing his new book, which examines the lengths reporters on the front line of war and famine go to in order to get a story.
Producer: Katy Takatsuki.
WED 17:00 PM (b038yk6z)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b038prkq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 My Teenage Diary (b038yk71)
Series 5
Vanessa Feltz
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 broadcaster Vanessa Feltz, who revisits her teenage years in North London. She spent her holidays packing knickers for her father's lingerie firm, and a lot of the rest of the time daydreaming about being married to her teenage boyfriend.
Producer: Harriet Jaine
A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b038yl1b)
Pat's delighted with the necklace that Helen supposedly made at jewellery club. She thinks Helen could have a second career ahead of her. Helen confesses to disapproving Kirsty that the supposed jewellery class is only a cover for meeting Rob.
Pip tells David there was a discussion about the badger cull at Young Farmers last night. Spencer's family are against it. David can't wait for the badger cull to happen in Borsetshire, and hopes Pip put Spencer right.
Pip thinks Brookfield could grow the herd faster. David disagrees; she can't base Brookfield business on her conversation with Rob's assistant manager. Pip feels patronised but when David apologises she fondly jokes that she'll have no-one to argue with in Yorkshire.
The Wildlife Trust's tour of Bridge Farm goes well but Tom confides in Kirsty that Bellingham's are ending the ready meals promotional offer, without warning. He's disappointed as the meals need time to establish themselves. Bellingham's are unaware he's increased production but they won't give him a straight answer about increasing their order. He won't tell Pat and Tony either. He doesn't need the grief.
Kirsty reassures him the Twitter campaign's going great. Tom just needs to hang in there. He's achieved so much and can go much further.
WED 19:15 Front Row (b038yl1d)
Conductor Marin Alsop, Philip French, Jean Seberg, returning TV series
With Mark Lawson.
American conductor Marin Alsop discusses becoming the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms. She also reflects on toying with the idea of conducting with one hand after injuring her wrist, and falling in love with Leonard Bernstein at the age of nine.
As Philip French puts away his pen after being The Observer's film critic for 50 years, coinciding with his 80th birthday today, he discusses the 2,500 films he has watched and the changes he has seen in cinema in that time.
As Bonjour Tristesse is re-released in cinemas, the tragic life of actress Jean Seberg is re-assessed by her biographer Garry McGee. The star of A Bout De Souffle and Saint Joan was a political activist and supporter of the Black Panther movement and became the subject of an investigation by the FBI. She committed suicide in 1979, after her film career had faded away amid bad press and conspiracy theories.
American drama series The Newsroom, created by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, The Social Network), returns to our TV screens this week for a second series, and Bad Education, a comedy written by and starring Jack Whitehall, also begins its second run. TV critic Chris Dunkley considers different ways to approach the potentially tricky second series.
Producer Jerome Weatherald.
WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b038xx78)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
WED 20:00 Four Thought (b038yl1g)
Best of Four Thought
Hidden Benefits
For the third episode in our series of the 'Best of Four Thought' talks that combine new ideas with personal experience, David Baddiel selects three speakers who all strike an optimistic note as they find hidden benefits in surprising places.
Emma Byrne, a science writer, says swearing can be good for us. Amber Dermont explains the advantages of an unhappy childhood. And Kamin Mohammadi thinks oppression by totalitarian regimes can spur extraordinary creativity.
Producer: Arlene Gregorius.
WED 20:45 Four Thought (b038yl1j)
Series 4
Greg Votolato
Greg Votolato confesses his addiction to cars while arguing for more sustainable designs to meet our desire for status and private space. 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 Costing the Earth (b038xrjr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 Midweek (b038xx74)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 today]
WED 21:58 Weather (b038prkv)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b038yl1l)
MPs to vote twice before UK military action in Syria. Obama marks 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream speech". Scientist operates colleague's brain from across campus. Presented by Ritula Shah.
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b038zm1s)
Secrecy
Episode 3
"Some see you as a master craftsman. Others say you're a sorcerer. You're mysterious, obsessive. Controversial."
Zummo - a 17th-century sculptor - makes things out of wax, figures so lifelike they look as if they might move and breathe. He has journeyed throughout Italy over the years in an attempt to flee his past. Now, in 1691, he has been summoned to the Medici court by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He arrives in Florence, a city in which "everything was forbidden [and] anything was possible." But what does the Grand Duke have in mind for him?
Ten years later, Zummo visits a convent in France and tells the whole story to Marguerite-Louise of Orléans, long-estranged wife of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Secrecy is a tale of love, art, murder and concealment, enacted within a beautifully-realised 17th century Florentine and Tuscan setting.
Some of the 'plague pieces' by Gaetano Zummo (1656-1701) can be found in La Specola, Florence.
Rupert Thomson is the author of eight highly-acclaimed novels including Death of a Murderer, which was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Novel Award. His memoir This Party's Got to Stop won the Writer's Guild Non-Fiction Award.
Episode Three
The Grand Duke holds a 'Sicilian' banquet in honour of Zummo: events there change the sculptor's life forever.
Reader: Owen Teale
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:00 James Acaster's Findings (b01rg23c)
Pilot Episode: Bread
Stand-up comedian James Acaster presents the results of his in-depth research into the subject of 'bread', assisted by his trusty sidekick Nathaniel Metcalfe, in this brand new comedy show for BBC Radio 4.
We'll find out why the French struggle to come up with a snappy slogan to advertise Brioche, learn why the Bagel is so trendy, and discover the hidden anti-bread propaganda pushed at children through the medium of fairytales.
Produced by Lyndsay Fenner.
WED 23:30 iPM (b03968jp)
iPM Archives: Mothers and Daughters
Eddie Mair and Jennifer Tracey delve into the archives of iPM - the programme devoted to the ideas, experiences and expertise of Radio 4 listeners - to explore the topic of mother and daughter relationships.
THURSDAY 29 AUGUST 2013
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b038prlr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b0395qvs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b038prlt)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b038prlw)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b038prly)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b038prm0)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b039sp94)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Bishop Joe Aldred.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b038ylhl)
The Farmers Union of Wales says it will renew its lobbying for a badger cull in Wales, following the start of the English pilot. But Caz Graham also hears from an anti-cull campaigner who thinks that TB testing in cattle is leaving behind infected animals. The Chief Veterinary Officer for Wales, Christianne Glossop, says that cattle testing is effective and that the badger vaccination trial in Wales is the right course to take, despite its benefits to cattle being unknown.
Also in the programme: a time-warp harvest. Bringing in wheat straw, or reed, for thatching in Devon.
Presented by Caz Graham. Produced by Sarah Swadling.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378xyd)
White-tailed Eagle
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-tailed eagle. These magnificent birds, sometimes called the sea eagle, are our largest breeding bird of prey and in flight have been described as looking like a "flying barn-door". The adults have white tail feathers, a bulky yellow bill and long parallel-sided wings: they really do deserve that barn door description.
THU 06:00 Today (b038ym0k)
Morning news and current affairs with John Humphrys and James Naughtie.
Including:
0752
Super Puma helicopters have been grounded as a result of the latest crash in the North Sea, in which four oil workers died. John Winchester, a rig administrator working north of Bergen for the Italian oil and gas company Saipem, recounts his experience of working conditions.
0810
MPs are set to debate military action in Syria in principle only, after the government dropped plans for a speedy vote on British intervention. John Baron, Conservative MP, and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, discuss intervention, and the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson gives his analysis.
0823
British tennis player Dan Evans was the story of day one at the US Open after he brushed aside 11th seed Kei Nishikori in his first Grand Slam main draw match outside of Wimbledon. Barry Cowan, who was ranked 248th in the world after an extraordinary run at Wimbledon in 2001, reflects on life as an underdog.
THU 09:00 Inside the Ethics Committee (b038ym0m)
Series 9
Lung Transplant Teenager
At the age of 11 John was diagnosed with a condition called pulmonary hypertension. He suffers from shortness of breath, coughing up blood and swelling in the legs. He's seriously ill and is referred to a specialist hospital where he is advised that he needs a lung transplant.
John recovers well from the operation. He goes back home and lives like a normal teenager, albeit one who has to take medication every day to stop his body rejecting the new lungs. John passes his GCSEs and gets a place to study art and design at college.
But at a regular check up John and his family receive bad news. His body is rejecting the lungs and he is becoming ill again. The doctors suggest he needs a second transplant.
Joan Bakewell and her guests discuss the issues around whether John should be given a second transplant and be put through another long and complicated operation. How much should John at 17 years old be told about his condition and its long term prognosis?
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b0395r30)
Alyn Shipton - Nilsson: The Life of a Singer-Songwriter
Episode 4
Paul McCartney and John Lennon described him as the Beatles' "favorite group," and yet no figure in popular music is as much of a paradox as Harry Nilsson. A major celebrity at a time when stadium rock was in its infancy and huge concerts and festivals were becoming the norm, Nilsson's instrument was the studio, his stage the dubbing booth, his greatest technical triumphs were masterful examples of studio craft, and he studiously avoided live performance.
He was a gifted composer of songs for a wide variety of performers, having created vivid flights of imagination for the Ronettes, the Yardbirds and the Monkees, yet Nilsson's own biggest hits were almost all written, ironically, by other composers and lyricists. He won two Grammies, had two top ten singles, and numerous album successes. Once described by his producer Richard Perry as "the finest white male singer on the planet," near the end of his life, his career was marked by voice-damaging substance abuse.
Kerry Shale reads from this first ever full-length biography of Nilsson, in which author Alyn Shipton traces Nilsson's life from his Brooklyn childhood to his Los Angeles adolescence, and charts his gradual move into the spotlight as a talented songwriter. With interviews from Nilsson's friends, family and associates, and material drawn from an unfinished draft autobiography Nilsson was writing prior to his death, Shipton probes beneath the enigma and the paradox to discover the real Harry Nilsson, and reveals one of the most creative talents in 20th century popular music.
Credits:
NILSSON: THE LIFE OF A SINGER-SONGWRITER
BY ALYN SHIPTON
ABRIDGED BY LIBBY SPURRIER
READER: KERRY SHALE
PRODUCER: JOANNA GREEN.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b038ym0p)
Women in Science; Jessica Swale; Vatican PR
Only 13% of all jobs in Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) in the UK are occupied by women. As many students across the country take in their exam results and head to university we talk to Shaleem Grant, soon-to-be student and Anne-Marie Imafidon founder of 'Stemettes' an organisation trying to encourage women to pursue careers in the sciences.
With international, military intervention into Syria looking more and more likely by the hour Jenni speaks to Alison Phillips, editor of the Sunday Mirror, currently in Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, home to 130,000 Syrian refugees, half of them under 18 years old.
We look at how throughout our cultural history, women's sexual organs have often been demonised and rendered obscene. So what does this mean for women's identities and how is this issue addressed in literature and culture?
Why the appointment of a 30 year old woman PR consultant to a high profile Vatican commission is causing quite a stir in Rome. So how significant is her appointment and are attitudes to women changing under Pope Francis?
And Jessica Swale makes her play-writing debut at the Globe with Blue Stockings. Set in and around Girton College, Cambridge in the 1890s - it's the story of four young women fighting to be allowed to graduate along with their male counterparts. She joins Jenni to discuss her inspiration for the play and why she thinks the issues it raises are as relevant today as they were when it was first produced.
THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b038ym0r)
The True Story of Bonnie Parker
Episode 4
by Beatrice Colin
A new look at the story of Bonnie and Clyde. The True Story of Bonnie Parker uses historical sources to illustrate how a series of often disastrous decisions led the former waitress from Cement City to end up as one of America's most wanted criminals. It reveals how the press first celebrated and then reviled Bonnie Parker as her notoriety grew. Even during their lifetimes, the depiction of the couple in the press was at considerable odds with the reality of their life on the road. But most of all, this is about a doomed love affair, a twentieth century Romeo and Juliet, with guns.
Bonnie is recovering after the car accident. The Barrow Gang run to Oklahoma and hole up at the Red Crown Tavern. But the law is closing in on them.
Other parts played by Liam Brennan and James Anthony Pearson.
Produced and directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b038ynyx)
Inside Gay Pakistan
Mobeen Azhar investigates gay life in urban Pakistan and despite the country's religious conservatism and homosexuality being a crime there, he finds a vibrant gay scene, all aided by social media. He meets gay people at underground parties, shrines and hotels and finds out what it's really like to be gay in Pakistan.
As one man tells him, "The best thing about being gay in Pakistan is you can easily hook up with guys over here. You just need to know the right moves and with a click you can get any guy you want."
At a gay party he meets an NGO worker who then takes him to one of Karachi's prime cruising locations - a shrine to a 9th Century Muslim saint. Mobeen meets a "masseur", who works on the street advertising his services. The masseur's real job is selling sexual services to men - with the full knowledge of his wife.
And with great difficulty, Mobeen speaks to a lesbian couple, who conceal their relationship from their own parents. One of them argues that it is too soon for gay Pakistanis to fight openly for political rights and that they must find happiness in the personal sphere. Mobeen discovers that while urban Pakistanis may easily be able to find sex, being in a relationship is far more difficult.
Reporter: Mobeen Azhar
Producer: Helena Merriman.
THU 11:30 The Gambaccini Years (b038ynyz)
Episode 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 a series of special shows, recorded with an audience, Paul and invited guests look back, with extracts from some of his all-time favourite interviews. The programmes cover interviews with his pop music heroes, as well as with major figures from the world of theatre, cinema and comedy, conducted during his time as a presenter and interviewer on arts programmes such as Kaleidoscope.
Guests in this edition include Jude Kelly of London's South Bank Centre and Tim Marlow of The White Cube Gallery. Paul recalls favourite interviews he has conducted with personal heroes such as Dave Brubeck, Stephen Sondheim and Bob Newhart.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.
THU 12:00 You and Yours (b038ynz1)
Smart meters, 5G, caps on mobile bills
As O2 and Vodafone join EE and launch their 4G networks in parts of the UK Peter speaks to the experts about what we can expect from the next generation - 5G. We'll look at the installation of smart meters and find out what you need to do if you want to opt out. We discuss whether mobile phone should be capped like credit cards or bank accounts if unusually high bills are run up. Plus, how buying silver bullion can you leave you open to fraudsters.
THU 12:57 Weather (b038prm2)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b038ynz3)
As the Houses of Parliament are recalled to discuss the situation in Syria, we ask if the Government is likely to be successful in getting agreement on what action to take. Former Defence minister - Peter Luff tells us he's yet to be convinced by the government's case. Member of the Intelligence and Security Committee - Julian Lewis - says he needs to see more facts. Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt makes the government's case.
Plus in the final instalment of our series on domestic violence, the Home Secretary - Theresa May - tells us police forces need to improve their approach to the issue.
THU 13:45 The Five Ages of Brandreth (b00y8x73)
The Five Ages of Brandreth
1980s
Gyles Brandreth continues his Five Ages with a look back at the 80s. Breakfast television was just starting and Gyles became a regular on TV-am. It was also the time of a great electoral triumph for Mrs Thatcher and a scandal involving Cecil Parkinson.
THU 14:00 The Archers (b038yl1b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b038ynz5)
Series 6
Mardle End, part 2
By Nick Warburton. Eccentric chef Warwick Hedges goes in search of a magical, golden paradise, somewhere on Mardle Fen. But up a tree at dusk, disguised as a badger, he is shot at. Could this be poachers or something more sinister?
Directed by Claire Grove.
THU 15:00 Open Country (b038ynz7)
Beer Quarry Caves
The history of Britain's cathedrals is celebrated but much less so that of the quarries and quarrymen, who hewed the stone they're built of. On this week's Open Country, Helen Mark rectifies that. With her hard hat to hand she goes underground in the South West.
She explores Devon's Beer Quarry Caves which supplied Exeter cathedral with the highest quality limestone, reserved for some of the finest carvings in this and many other medieval churches.
Helen meets John Scott who fought hard to make sure that the Beer Quarry Caves weren't demolished in the 1980s. John is a master storyteller who conjures the underground world of generations of anonymous masons and quarrymen at the caves, which are open to the public. They're joined by master mason Peter Dare.At Exeter cathedral the archaeologist John Allan shows Helen the tracery windows and high ribbed ceilings, all carved from the characteristic creamy white Beer stone.
Producer: Mark Smalley.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b038x32x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (b038x4x5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b038ynz9)
Shane Carruth, Gravity, film schools
Francine Stock talks to Shane Carruth about his new, complex film Upstream Colour which explores the theme of interconnectedness involving an organism that mutates via various hosts from a nematode worm to a vivid orchid. The director Shane Carruth was already known for an earlier experimental film, Primer, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance back in 2004.
Whilst Shane Carruth did NOT go to film school, but learnt his craft by doing, the Director of the National Film and Television School Nik Powell, and film maker Asif Kapadia - director of features including The Warrior and Far North and the documentary Senna - discuss how film schools prepare aspiring film makers for a career in the film industry. Thousands of students go to more than 1200 film schools each year around the world and CILECT, which represents the top 160 schools across 90 countries, has judged the UK's National Film and Television School as the winning school across three award categories; fiction, animation and documentary.
This announcement comes just a few days before the BFI names the film schools, universities and independent cinemas that will be partners for its new training schemes for aspiring young filmmakers. So how do film students best learn their craft: and is funding allocated fairly across the diverse film education institutions within the UK?
As the Venice film festival opens this week, Times film critic Kate Muir discusses the film which opened the festival - Gravity starring George Cluney and Sandra Bullock - and provides a round up of the best British films being screened.
And nearly half a century since Patricia Highsmith's novel, The Talented Mr Ripley, was adapted for the screen by French film maker Rene Clement - called Plein Soleil and starring Alain Delon - Sandra Hebron discusses how the representation of the psychopath has changed over time, referencing Anthony Mingella's 1999 version starring Matt Damon and Jude Law.
Producer: Hilary Dunn.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b038ynzc)
Research bias; Sniffer dogs; Lasers; Roadkill
Science is supposed to be objective. Research by Professor John Ioannidis suggests the reality is falling short of the ideal. He talks to Alice Roberts about bias in softer science disciplines, and how having an American on the team leads to more exaggerated claims for the results. Is this due to the extra pressures they face to come up with new and exciting findings?
Bomb-detection dogs are currently taught each new explosive, one at a time. It's time consuming, A team at Lincoln University are investigating a new approach, categorisation. It's known that dogs can visually recognise groups of items, but can they do this with a different sense, smell? Reporter Marnie Chesterton went to Lincoln to see the team at work.
This week's Show Us Your Instrument comes from The Rutherford Appleton Lab. Dr Ceri Brenner shows us the high energy Gemini laser. It can be used to research the conditions inside stars.
A team at Cardiff University are harnessing the power of social media to measure, for the first time, the kinds of wildlife being killed on Britain's roads. Gruesome, yes, but assessing the problem is the first step towards conservation solutions. Seen a roadkill blackspot near you? Become a splatter spotter and do your bit for science.
THU 17:00 PM (b038ynzf)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b038prm4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Meet David Sedaris (b01npb83)
Series 3
Rubbish; Jesus Shaves
The multi-award winning American essayist brings more of his wit and charm to BBC Radio 4 with the final edition in a series of audience readings. This week moving to the British countryside has its downsides exposed in "Rubbish" and the eye-opening experience of learning French at a Paris language school is considered in "Jesus Shaves".
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Boom Pictures Cymru production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b038ynzh)
Rob and Brian admire their hard work as the new cows and heifers are guided into the dairy. Brian wonders where the nay-sayers are now.
Martyn wonders how much the cows' delay has cost them. Brian suggests a two day hiccup will soon count as nothing. They couldn't have got into milk at a better time. Rob has to explain to Martyn that the heifers won't provide any milk until they've had their first calving. Brian quietly observes that the board don't know one end of a cow from the other.
Shula has brought some biscuits for Darrell, and batteries for his radio. Darrell doesn't want his children to see him in this state. He's lost so much and all through his own stupidity. Shula reveals the man who shot Neil has pleaded guilty to GBH. Darrell thinks the sentence of eight years is not enough.
Alan's getting supplies for his anniversary meal but Shula says he shouldn't get Usha a bouquet from the village shop. It's only one step up from garage flowers.
Alan cooks a lovely meal for Usha. But it's spoiled when he presents her with the roses she was planning to enter in the flower and produce show. Alan thought she was entering her rudbekias as usual. Usha says she will be now!
THU 19:15 Front Row (b038ynzk)
Simon Schama, Big Data art, Night of the Demon
With Kirsty Lang
Historian Simon Schama discusses the challenge of bringing his latest project The Story of the Jews to television, the importance of story-telling to the Jewish experience, and how his former professor inspired him to focus on bringing history to popular audiences.
The vast and ever-growing amount of information now stored on computer servers around the world has become a ready source of inspiration for artists. With an estimated 90 per cent of the world's data having been created in the last two years, there is plenty to call on. Artists Stanza and R Luke Dubois explain how they mine so-called "Big Data" to create images and music, and curator Hannah Redler describes how data has been used to make art since the early days of the internet.
The British Film Institute kicks off its Gothic Season with a restored print of cult classic Night Of The Demon. This 1957 horror, by Cat People director Jacques Tourneur, stars Dana Andrews as a psychologist who enters a battle of wills against a psychic and cult leader called Karswell. The film partly owes its cult status to its monster, one of the most famous in British film history, and Matthew Sweet goes on its trail.
Producer Ella-mai Robey.
THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b038ym0r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Report (b038ynzm)
Private Investigators
Private investigators are coming under increasing scrutiny themselves - with the latest controversy surrounding the work they carry out for companies.
Adam Fleming investigates how PIs take advantage of cameras, GPS tracking devices and legal grey areas to carry out surveillance on individuals for insurers and other clients.
He also meets the people who accuse the industry of dirty tricks, as the government announces the introduction of licences for investigators.
THU 20:30 In Business (b038ynzp)
Kit of Life
Simon Berry wondered why crates of soft drinks can be found in some of the most remote places in the world, but simple medicines to treat childhood diseases have for decades failed to reach the people who need them. The social enterprise he set up, ColaLife, designed an ingenious package that can slot in between soda bottles, piggybacking on Coca-Cola's supply chain and potentially getting anywhere Coca-Cola does.
Called 'Kit Yamoyo' - roughly translated as 'kit of life' in a number of African languages - it includes oral rehydration salts and zinc to treat diarrhoea, plus a bar of soap. The outer shell also functions as a measure and drinking cup for the medicine. The idea caught the attention of the design world and won Cola Life a top prize in the London Design Awards show earlier this year.
But Simon Berry was already realising that a clever design was not enough, and that the real lesson from Coca-Cola was devising a 'value chain' - and making sure everyone involved in the distribution gets paid.
In this programme (in London and Zambia), he explains to Peter Day how he applied the profit-driven ideas of multinational companies to tackle a disease that kills more African children than HIV, malaria and measles combined.
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b038ynzc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 Zeitgeisters (b036j3qc)
Series 1
Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng
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 4. In the final programme of the series, Will meets Daphne Koller & Andrew Ng, co-founders of Coursera, the company that is revolutionising education much in the same way that Amazon and iTunes turned publishing and music on their heads. Daphne and Andrew have together created a platform which allows anyone from anywhere in the world (who has internet access) to attend lectures and classes given by the best teachers in the world - for free. Universities as we know them may soon be a thing of the past.
Producer: Paul Kobrak.
THU 21:58 Weather (b038prm6)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b038ynzr)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b038zm8k)
Secrecy
Episode 4
"Some see you as a master craftsman. Others say you're a sorcerer. You're mysterious, obsessive. Controversial."
Zummo - a 17th-century sculptor - makes things out of wax, figures so lifelike they look as if they might move and breathe. He has journeyed throughout Italy over the years in an attempt to flee his past. Now, in 1691, he has been summoned to the Medici court by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He arrives in Florence, a city in which "everything was forbidden [and] anything was possible." But what does the Grand Duke have in mind for him?
Ten years later, Zummo visits a convent in France and tells the whole story to Marguerite-Louise of Orléans, long-estranged wife of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Secrecy is a tale of love, art, murder and concealment, enacted within a beautifully-realised 17th century Florentine and Tuscan setting.
Some of the 'plague pieces' by Gaetano Zummo (1656-1701) can be found in La Specola, Florence.
Rupert Thomson is the author of eight highly-acclaimed novels including Death of a Murderer, which was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Novel Award. His memoir This Party's Got to Stop won the Writer's Guild Non-Fiction Award.
Episode Four
Zummo is weighing up the Grand Duke's secret commission when, after months of searching, he meets the girl from the apothecary.
Reader: Owen Teale
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 23:00 North by Northamptonshire (b00sxj24)
Series 1
Episode 4
Sheila Hancock heads a stunning cast including Mackenzie Crook, Penelope Wilton, Felicity Montagu and Kevin Eldon. This is a clever, funny and touching series about a small town in the middle of Northamptonshire as it prepares for a talent night.
Written by and also starring Katherine Jakeways.
It's Town Talent Night at last and Ken and Keith are busy fine-tuning their pet whippets' dance routine.
Everyone nervously awaits the arrival of the celebrity judge Lady Ballantyne who is unfortunately in the spotlight for being the most recent Royal racist.
Jan does her last minute preparations for her trip to Australia. Will she be going alone or could she possibly dare to dream that Jonathan might join her at the last minute?
And finally supermarket manager Rod (Mackenzie Crook) gets to take Tanya from till 4 on a date. The true measure of success will be how many packets of scampi fries they consume. Will it be just the one? Or perhaps too many to count?
Narrator ...... Sheila Hancock
Rod ...... Mackenzie Crook
Mary ...... Penelope Wilton
Jan ...... Felicity Montagu
Jonathan ...... Kevin Eldon
Esther ...... Katherine Jakeways
Keith ...... John Biggins
Frank ...... Rufus Wright
Taxi Driver ...... Rufus Wright
Lady Ballantyne ...... Lizzie Roper
Angela Lizzie Roper
Producer: Claire Jones.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2010.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b01s4gbr)
Sean Curran reports on events at Westminster.
FRIDAY 30 AUGUST 2013
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b038prn1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b0395r30)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b038prn3)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b038prn5)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b038prn7)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b038prn9)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b039spfw)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Bishop Joe Aldred.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b038z86g)
Why we can't just vaccinate cattle against TB - Glyn Hewinson from the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency explains what steps have to be taken before this can happen. Farming Today also finds out how Ireland's tackling Bovine TB.
Plus we hear why things are looking up for the black grouse, and Sarah Swadling finds out about the growing revival in British charcoal making.
Presented by Caz Graham, and produced by Toby Field.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378y3z)
Barred 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 barred warbler. With its glaring yellow eyes, banded chest and long white-tipped tail, the Barred Warbler is always an exciting find. Look out for them in late summer and autumn, when young Barred Warblers turn up here regularly as they migrate south.
FRI 06:00 Today (b038z8pl)
Morning news and current affairs with Sarah Montague and John Humphrys, including:
0810
David Cameron recalled parliament to get its approval for military action against Syria and MPs refused to give it to him. The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson, Crispin Blunt, a Conservative MP and former minister who voted against the government and the Chancellor, George Osborne, give their analysis.
0822
People who live in the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean have been using aerial cameras attached to kites to monitor the island's volcano. Jonathan Stone, a volcanologist at the University of East Anglia, and Dr Hilary Geoghegan, who is a research fellow in citizen science projects at UCL, discuss the efficacy of the research technique.
0834
MPs have rejected possible UK military action against Syria's government to deter the use of chemical weapons. The Today programme hears from a focus group in Slough to gauge public opinion on intervention in Syria.
FRI 09:00 The Reunion (b038x4wv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b0395rgg)
Alyn Shipton - Nilsson: The Life of a Singer-Songwriter
Episode 5
Paul McCartney and John Lennon described him as the Beatles' "favorite group," and yet no figure in popular music is as much of a paradox as Harry Nilsson. A major celebrity at a time when stadium rock was in its infancy and huge concerts and festivals were becoming the norm, Nilsson's instrument was the studio, his stage the dubbing booth, his greatest technical triumphs were masterful examples of studio craft, and he studiously avoided live performance.
He was a gifted composer of songs for a wide variety of performers, having created vivid flights of imagination for the Ronettes, the Yardbirds and the Monkees, yet Nilsson's own biggest hits were almost all written, ironically, by other composers and lyricists. He won two Grammies, had two top ten singles, and numerous album successes. Once described by his producer Richard Perry as "the finest white male singer on the planet," near the end of his life, his career was marked by voice-damaging substance abuse.
Kerry Shale reads extracts from this first ever full-length biography of Nilsson, in which author Alyn Shipton traces Nilsson's life from his Brooklyn childhood to his Los Angeles adolescence, and charts his gradual move into the spotlight as a talented songwriter. With interviews from Nilsson's friends, family and associates, and material drawn from an unfinished draft autobiography Nilsson was writing prior to his death, Shipton probes beneath the enigma and the paradox to discover the real Harry Nilsson, and reveals one of the most creative talents in 20th century popular music.
Credits:
NILSSON: THE LIFE OF A SINGER-SONGWRITER
BY ALYN SHIPTON
ABRIDGED BY LIBBY SPURRIER
Reader: Kerry Shale
PRODUCER: JOANNA GREEN
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b038z8pn)
Apps for women; Planning your funeral; Twins; Armenian Threads
A search for apps for women instantly points you in the direction of apps that help you 'lose the belly', 'track your period' or turn your phone in to a mirror. In a very male-dominated industry, we speak to app designer Jenny Griffith and to Belinda Parmar, founder of Lady Geek which is campaigning to inspire girls to change the world through technology.
Fiona Hendry is a listener whose husband has recently died. She sent us an email suggesting that we should be able to discuss more freely what we would want our funerals to be like before we become ill. We have Wedding Fairs, so why not funeral fairs? Jenni speaks to Fiona and to Dominic Maguire, from the National Association of Funeral Directors, and to Sue Barsky Reid who runs 'Death Cafes'.
Armenian Threads is a new exhibition in Manchester by artist Sarah Greaves. It showcases a number of embroidered wooden sculptures which have been influenced by figures found in old Armenian manuscripts. On the back wall of the gallery, strips of silk fall to the floor covered with prints of Armenian lace. Also on the wall are dried pomegranates [a symbol of Armenia] and members of the Armenian community in Manchester have decorated them with Marash embroidery [which is unique to their homeland]. Jenni is joined by Sarah Greaves and by Penny Evenson, Chairman of the Armenian Ladies Association in Manchester, to talk about the new exhibition and how Armenian lace and embroidery have played their part in its creation.
The Twins by Saskia Sarginson was published on the 29th August. It has been described as a gripping, emotionally engaging psychological thriller looking at the secrets we carry with us and the bonds between twins that can never be broken...even when the unthinkable happens. Saskia is an ex-magazine journalist and has twins (fashion students who are 22 years old). Saskia and her daughters Hannah and Olivia discuss how twins have a 'gloves-off' approach with each other and how the twin bond is as strong as that between a mother and child.
FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b038z9fy)
The True Story of Bonnie Parker
Episode 5
by Beatrice Colin
A new look at the story of Bonnie and Clyde. The True Story of Bonnie Parker uses historical sources to illustrate how a series of often disastrous decisions led the former waitress from Cement City to end up as one of America's most wanted criminals. It reveals how the press first celebrated and then reviled Bonnie Parker as her notoriety grew. Even during their lifetimes, the depiction of the couple in the press was at considerable odds with the reality of their life on the road. But most of all, this is about a doomed love affair, a twentieth century Romeo and Juliet, with guns.
Bonnie and Clyde spring a young convict from jail and commit ever more desperate crimes. Clyde remains optimistic but Bonnie knows that time is running out.
Produced and directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.
FRI 11:00 The Italian Freedom Trail (b038zcqh)
Episode 1
On September 8th 1943 around 50,000 Allied prisoners broke out of their POW camps in Italy. On the 70th anniversary Edward Stourton presents The Italian Freedom Trails, the incredible story of the biggest mass breakout in history. In the recounting of the history of World War II it's often forgotten that Italy surrendered to the Allies and the Italians threw open the doors of their POW camps. For the prisoners in Italy this was a golden opportunity that amazingly they were ordered to ignore. While their Italian guards put down their rifles and in many cases left the prison camps completely, the order from London was for soldiers to wait for Allied troops to arrive so they could quickly be integrated back in to fighting units - any serviceman making a run for it would be regarded as a deserter. The vast majority of men though didn't hesitate and headed for freedom. All of those who obeyed orders were transported to Germany. Edward Stourton joins an Anglo-Italian memorial walk in the Apennines, along the routes taken by escapers, to tell their extraordinary stories and the stories of those who helped them; stories of bravery, endurance, sacrifice and love, as Eric Newby told in his classic "Love and War in the Apennines." The series includes interviews with Wanda Newby, the woman who helped Newby while he was on the run and who eventually married him, with veterans who escaped and with Italian families who helped them. These are moving stories of individuals and of a mass escape which helped changed the course of the war and subsequent history of Italy.
FRI 11:30 Just William - Live! (b01ph83g)
Series 3
Aunt Arabelle in Charge
In 2012, as part of Winchester's Best of British Festival in celebration of the Jubilee, Martin Jarvis performed the second of two of Richmal Crompton's comic classics, live on-stage.
In Aunt Arabelle in Charge, William and his faithful Outlaws (Ginger, Douglas and Henry) encounter a strangely complacent six year old who is staying in the village. This odious child turns out to be the hugely famous Anthony Martin, subject of his mother's best-selling books and poems.
The Outlaws need to redeem themselves in the admittedly short-sighted eyes of Ginger's journalist aunt. She, equally, is desperate to secure an exclusive interview with the child star. It's soon clear that this wonderfully constructed story is a brilliant parody of - who else - A.A. Milne's Christopher Robin.
The packed Winchester audience understood this at once. In Jarvis' inhabitation of both the smug infant and Ginger's aunt, the comedy is unremitting.
Can William sort this out and, incidentally, give the horrific child his just deserts? Blackmail is the answer, of course.
Performed by Martin Jarvis
Director: Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis & Ayres production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:00 You and Yours (b038zh9s)
Paying for internships; Is duty free good value?
If you've been on holiday and bought from the duty free this summer - did you really get better value than on the high street? Trading standards officers object to a government proposal to give two days' notice before inspections.
When should you renew your cycling helmet? The energy customers complaining they've not received their gas bills.
Graduates paying thousands of pounds for internships in the city. Film reviewers being replaced by tweets from the public.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Simon Browning.
FRI 12:57 Weather (b038prnc)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b038zh9x)
National and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
FRI 13:45 The Five Ages of Brandreth (b00y8x99)
The Five Ages of Brandreth
1990s
Gyles Brandreth completes his Five Ages with a look back to the 1990s with Mrs Thatcher's downfall, John Major's election victory and Brandreth's own time as a Conservative MP and government whip.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b038ynzh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b038zh9z)
Red and Blue
Ransomware
By Philip Palmer
Under constant threat from hackers, financial institutions take cyber-security very seriously. A City hedge fund has hired war-gaming expert Bradley Shoreham to test its networks in a planned exercise. Although barely computer literate himself, Shoreham has prepared a whole box of cyber tricks to do battle with the firm's IT experts. And he's prepared to play dirty in order to demonstrate how a multi-million pound business can be brought to its knees.
Written by Philip Palmer
Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan
The second series of Red and Blue from 2013; Philip Palmer's trilogy that focuses on 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 are paying for training they expect a high return for their money.
In 'Sacrifice', Bradley tries to convince an eminent scientist to take part in a war-game exercise that explores a major pandemic outbreak in the UK.
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 (b038zhb1)
The Roof Gardens, Kensington
GQT reaches new heights with a programme at The Roof Gardens in Kensington, London. Eric Robson is in the chair with panellists Anne Swithinbank, Matthew Wilson and Bunny Guinness taking the questions.
Bunny explores the history and structure of The Roof Gardens, Kensington and Matthew visits a project at London's Southbank Centre where roof gardening is being used as ecotherapy for people who have suffered from homelessness.
Produced by Victoria Shepherd
A Somethin' Else Production for BBC Radio 4.
Q: I'm going to leave London in the next ten years. If I could choose to move anywhere in the UK on the basis of soil quality and local climate, with an aim to grow a wide range of species, where would be best to move to?
A: The Roseland Peninsula in Cornwall is very mild and sheltered and can grow huge oak trees. It has an acid soil and can grow a large variety of plants including Camellias and palms. However, you will never really satisfy all species so you would be best to choose a smaller selection of plants that would grow well together and find a climate and soil that suits them best.
Q: I was told when I planted a prairie garden that it would be three years weeding, then sit back and enjoy. It is now the fourth year and no sign of the weeding stopping. What can I do to get the grasses and perennials to spread and bulk up?
A: You can do it in less than three years. The main thing is to get the soil right before you put the plants in, so if you planted into a huge seed bank of weeds it will be hard to eliminate them. The best way to do it is to plant from seed at a really high-density, which will stop weeds being able to grow and you can remove the few that do get through. After four years you should have lots of material that you can divide, so you should be bulking up. As we're moving into the autumn it's the ideal time for dividing flowering perennials, but leave the grasses until spring. You could also give the weeds competition with a cover crop of direct-sown annuals sown in the autumn such as Aquilegia, Nigella, Eschscholzia and even some of the cornfield weeds like Agrostemma.
Q: Does the panel have any tips to mitigate obtrusive traffic noise from the road by our back garden? We already have a 6ft (1.8m) wooden fence and a 10ft (3m) conifer hedge.
A: To be honest the conifer hedge won't do a lot. You can buy soundproof fencing that has a high insulation factor, but you need to make sure you place it correctly and it can be worth contacting a sound engineer to help with this. Running water works by deflecting the sound. A compact hedge on a bank can also help. Using plants to try and baffle the noise of large roads is generally unsuccessful because you need the plants to be very dense and most people have not got space. Creating something like a water feature in the foreground is a good way to distract your attention!
Q: My daughter wanted to grow and apple tree. People said she wouldn't get any apples unless it was grafted. After about 20 years we got lots of apples, but it is now too tall to reach the apples. If it could be cut down to about 6ft (1.8m), would we kill it? If not, how long will it live for? It's about 45 years old.
A: Apple trees will produce apples if grown from seed and it will also grow upwards very quickly. If you cut it down to 6ft (1.8m) it is likely to be too brutal and you won't get healthy growth, but just lots of thin water shoots. You could do a prune in January/February when the worst of the weather's gone, then follow up by pruning in early summer to remove growth tips. You could then summer prune it heavily to reduce the vigor and it should grow back. You may have a few years without apples but they should return. Finally, you could ask someone to create a dwarfing stock for you from a graft.
Q: Can you tell me why every houseplant I have dies on me?
A: Positioning is key. Most houseplants like good but not direct light, so finding somewhere not in harsh sunlight but not in a dark corner is the first step. You need to make sure you analyze where is best for each plant individually. You also need to make sure you get the watering right. Most of them need to feel as though they're almost drying out at the surface of the compost before you water again. You can water from the top, but be careful not to over water. Houses that are hot and dry with central heating generally don't help houseplants.
FRI 15:45 Comic Fringes (b038zhb3)
Series 9
Kill Dilly
Story series featuring new writing by leading comedians, recorded live in front of an audience at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Larry has been (mostly) happily married to Dilly for forty-five years. Things have deteriorated, however, since his retirement and now Larry is contemplating murder. Ludicrous and funny tale by award-winning Irish comedian Aisling Bea, whose debut Fringe show sold out within days at this year's Edinburgh Festival.
Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b038zhb5)
An Irish poet, a woman stockbroker, a Roma King and a Welsh rugby player
Matthew Bannister on:
Seamus Heaney - the Nobel prize winning poet who combined critical acclaim with popularity
Muriel Siebert - the first woman to buy a seat on the New York stock exchange
Florin Cioaba - the Romanian who was self-proclaimed king of the Roma people
And Cliff Morgan - the Welsh rugby international turned commentator and broadcaster.
FRI 16:30 More or Less (b038zhb7)
What price the life of a badger?
Has the government taken into account the worth of a badger's life in any cost-benefit analysis of the controversial badger cull, which is taking place to tackle the spread of tuberculosis among cattle? Tim Harford considers the problem. And the government aims to kill 70% of badgers in the two cull zones, but Tim discovers that such precision might be tricky. It's terribly difficult to count badgers, you see.
Plus, have blundering doctors and nurses really killed 13,000 people? This was widely reported alongside the publication of the Keogh Report into standards of care at 14 NHS hospital trusts in England. Tim Harford finds out how so-called 'excess' deaths are calculated, and whether they're the best measure of hospital standards.
The shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant has warned that climate change is going to create 200 million more migrants. But More or Less discovers that migration experts disagree.
And, always down with the cool kids, Tim discovers more about this buzz phrase, "big data". Companies and governments are releasing large datasets about us, with our identities obscured, for the purposes of marketing - or even, occasionally, for the purposes of public understanding. But might those apparently anonymous datasets be telling the world our darkest secrets?
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Ruth Alexander.
FRI 17:00 PM (b038zhb9)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news. Including Weather at
5.57pm.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b038prnf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 Bremner's One Question Quiz (b038zhbc)
Is Our Democracy Working?
Rory Bremner's new weekly satirical comedy takes one big contemporary question each week and attempts to answer it.
Regular panellists Andy Zaltzman and Nick Doody are joined this week by guests Debra Stephenson and political historian Dr David Runciman, as Rory asks "Is Our Democracy Working"?
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.
Presenter: Rory Bremner
Producers: Simon Jacobs & Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b038zhbf)
Oliver and Caroline fly to Italy tonight. Caroline needs to finish up at the hotel as she wants to pass Ray the baton without a hitch. She thinks it best Oliver collects her from work and they go straight to the airport. Oliver will be there at
6.45 sharp. Caroline better be ready. He's not missing their flight due to her obsession with work.
Kathy's feeling the strain so Pat books her a massage. Swimming is what's kept Kathy sane lately, with Martyn's unworkable solutions to the club's problems. But Caroline has unfortunate news. Because of a staff mix-up, Kathy is unable to have her massage today. Pat and Kathy decide to have a few drinks instead. Pat thinks Kathy should give Martyn a few ideas. If they generate income, he might reverse her cuts.
Ruth, David and Spencer say an emotional goodbye to Pip as she leaves for her work placement year. Softy David's packed three bags of marshmallows so Pip can keep up the family tradition of fitting as many in your mouth as you can. It's a way of breaking the ice with her new housemates.
It hasn't done Oliver's blood pressure any good waiting for Caroline, but they set off on time and leave their troubles behind.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b038zhbh)
Seamus Heaney tribute
Mark Lawson reflects on the life and work of the Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney, whose death was announced today.
Writers including Edna O'Brien, Colm Toibin, Michael Longley and Hermione Lee consider Seamus Heaney's long writing career, and there's another chance to hear part of a special Front Row interview, recorded before an audience on the occasion of his 70th birthday.
Producer Stephen Hughes.
FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b038z9fy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b038zl3q)
Nick Boles, Diane Abbott, Shirley Williams, Nigel Farage
Nick Robinson presents political debate and discussion from Broadcasting House, London with Labour MP Diane Abbott who's shadow Public Health Minister, Planning Minister Nick Boles MP, Nigel Farage leader of the UK Independence Party and Liberal Democrat Peer Baroness Shirley Williams.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b038zl3v)
Of the People, By the People 4/4
Roger Scruton concludes his series of talks on the nature and limits of democracy. "We in Europe are moving not towards democracy but away from it," he says.
"There is no first-person plural of which the European Institutions are the political expression," he argues. "The Union is founded in a treaty, and treaties derive their authority from the entities that sign them. Those entities are the nation states of Europe, from which the loyalties of the European people derive. The Union, which has set out to transcend those loyalties, therefore suffers from a permanent crisis of legitimacy.".
FRI 21:00 Saturday Drama (b01l5klf)
A Special Kind of Dark
A year ago Caspar was locked up and declared criminally insane. Finally he breaks his silence to reveal a deadly tale of love and politics. But is he telling the truth? A psychological thriller by Adrian Penketh.
Directed by Toby Swift
*****
Adrian Penketh has written a number of plays for Radio 4, including THE WATERBUCKS, which was shortlisted for the Imison Award, and an adaptation of Balzac's THE WILD ASSES SKIN which was runner-up for the Prix Italia in 2011.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b038prnh)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b038zl3z)
Obama "looking at limited action" in Syria, "not open-ended commitment". India facing marked economic slowdown. Tributes paid to Nobel Laureate poet, Seamus Heaney. Presented by David Eades.
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b038zl41)
Secrecy
Episode 5
"Some see you as a master craftsman. Others say you're a sorcerer. You're mysterious, obsessive. Controversial."
Zummo - a 17th-century sculptor - makes things out of wax, figures so lifelike they look as if they might move and breathe. He has journeyed throughout Italy over the years in an attempt to flee his past. Now, in 1691, he has been summoned to the Medici court by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He arrives in Florence, a city in which "everything was forbidden [and] anything was possible." But what does the Grand Duke have in mind for him?
Ten years later, Zummo visits a convent in France and tells the whole story to Marguerite-Louise of Orléans, long-estranged wife of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Secrecy is a tale of love, art, murder and concealment, enacted within a beautifully-realised 17th century Florentine and Tuscan setting.
Some of the 'plague pieces' by Gaetano Zummo (1656-1701) can be found in La Specola, Florence.
Rupert Thomson is the author of eight highly-acclaimed novels including Death of a Murderer, which was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Novel Award. His memoir This Party's Got to Stop won the Writer's Guild Non-Fiction Award.
Episode Five
A late night visit to Dr Pampolini reminds Zummo that Florence can be a dark and dangerous place.
Reader: Owen Teale
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 23:00 Great Lives (b038xtd8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 iPM (b03968jw)
iPM Archives: Father and Son Relationships
Eddie Mair and Jennifer Tracey delve into the archives of iPM - the programme devoted to the ideas, experiences and expertise of Radio 4 listeners - to explore the relationships of fathers and sons.