SATURDAY 22 FEBRUARY 2014

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b03vgryd)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (b03vh0c2)
Barbara Taylor - The Last Asylum

Episode 5

The Last Asylum begins with Barbara Taylor's visit to the innocuously named Princess Park Manor in Friern Barnet, North London - a place of luxury flats and careful landscaping. But this is the former site of one of England's most infamous lunatic asylums, the Middlesex County Pauper Lunatic Aslyum at Colney Hatch. At its peak, this asylum housed nearly 3,000 patients - including, in the late 1980s, Barbara Taylor herself.

Writing about The Last Asylum, Booker prize winner and memoirist, Hilary Mantel said, ''We believe our response to mental illness is more enlightened, kinder and effective than that of the Victorians who built the asylums. Can we be sure? Barbara Taylor challenges complacency, exposes shallow thinking, and points out the flaws and dangers of treatment on the cheap. It is a wise, considered and timely book'.

Darian Leader has described it as 'Superb, Riveting, insightful and relentlessly honest'.

Episode 5:
Gradually perspective returns, 'something inside me shifts'. The author recalls the return of hope but she also wonders if today's mental health system would offer the same space for recovery that she was able to find.

Reader: Maggie Steed

Abridged and produced by Jill Waters
A Jill Waters production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b03vgryg)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b03vgryj)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b03vgryl)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b03vgryn)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b03vh239)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day presented by the Rev Bob Fyffe of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.


SAT 05:45 iPM (b03vh23c)
The programme that starts with its listeners.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b03vgryq)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SAT 06:04 Weather (b03vgrys)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (b03vgq25)
Series 26

Rachael Kiddey, Avon Estuary

This series is themed 'Ramblings Revisited' as Clare Balding walks again with some of her favourite and most memorable guests.

In March of 2006 Clare Balding went rambling with Rosie Barrett and her two children, Rachael and Rob. They took her on their local walk around the Avon Estuary in south Devon. It had always been part of their lives, as a route for venting teenage tantrums or simply as a ramble to the pub, but after Rosie's other son, Hugh, died of cancer at the age of 19 the walk took on a deeper significance. The family, and a hundred others, planted trees in Hugh's memory on a nearby hillside and a new section of the walk was created through dense woodland.

For this programme Clare revisits Rachael and Rosie and follows the same route. Rob can't make it this time, but in his place is Jonno, Rosie's husband. It's now 11 years since Hugh died and of course the trees have grown; meanwhile Rachael now works in academia where her speciality is - appropriately enough - memory, landscape and therapeutic heritage.

Producer: Karen Gregor.


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b03vtcwd)
Farming Today This Week: Rural planning; Building and the countryside

The mission is on to get Britain building. The government wants to see nearly a quarter of a million new homes built each year by 2016. This week, we're looking at what a building boom could mean for our rural communities.

Charlotte Smith visits Kemble, a village of around 300 houses in Gloucestershire. Kemble is on a rail mainline to London and has a shop, a school and a pub.

However, Kemble is set to grow, planning permission has recently been granted for 50 new houses on farmland. Charlotte speaks to the chairman of Kemble and Ewen Parish council who originally opposed the plans, but are now set to welcome the new development into the village.

With land prices holding strong, and each local authority having its own targets for housebuilding, finding new places to build on can be tricky for developers, but could prove lucrative for farmers. Charlotte visits the farm in Kemble which is selling its land for the new housing development. She also stops off at the village pub to see how the new homes could benefit local trade.

We also hear from the Country Land and Business Association who are calling for more affordable homes and the Campaign to Protect Rural England who want to see appropriate development in the countryside.

Sarah Falkingham visits the Yorkshire Dales to find out how proposed changes to rules on barn conversion to for domestic use have caused controversy on both sides. We also hear how locating industry and business in the countryside could provide a boost to the rural economy.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Jules Benham.


SAT 06:57 Weather (b03vgryv)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 07:00 Today (b03vtcwg)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Thought for the Day and Weather.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b03vtcwj)
Chef Yotam Ottolenghi

Richard Coles and Andrea Catherwood meet chef and cookery writer Yotam Ottolenghi who talks about his life and work, JP Devlin meets a quilting group, travel writer Rory MacLean celebrates the volatile and extraordinary city of Berlin, the step sister of Anne Frank, Eva Schloss, shares her Inheritance Tracks, Alison Maguire talks about the loss of her young daughter to the rare and devastating disorder Mitochondrial Disease, Anne Olivier Bell, a 'Monuments Woman', talks about her work in 1945 trying to save art stolen or under threat of destruction by the Nazis- and meeting George Clooney, three listeners say 'thank you' for a past kindness large or small and Jamie Hunter talks about realising his childhood dream: flying as a specialist aerial photographer.

Produced by Chris Wilson.


SAT 10:30 When Garry Met Tony (b03vtcwl)
BBC Radio 4's "Today" sports presenter Garry Richardson has a secret passion - Big Band. An even greater secret passion is to sing with one.

But Big Band is a dying art whose future depends on a few old timers determined to keep the art alive. Garry meets one of them, Tony Douglas, the charismatic 84-year-old leader of a legendary amateur band who invites Garry to train for the headline vocal spot at their next big booking.

We join Garry as he explores the future of Big Band while on the bumpy road towards vocal stardom. Garry issued a challenge on Radio 4's Saturday Live: "Find me a Big Band for me to sing Frank Sinatra with". Responding to that challenge was Tony Douglas, who now runs the amateur Big Band at the celebrated London adult education institute Morley College - a college whose past staff members include Gustav Holst, Michael Tippett and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Garry rehearses a Frank Sinatra hit with the Morley Big Band. Along the way, he takes tips from singer Kurt Ellings, big band devotee Michael Parkinson and the legendary big band musician and singer Buddy Greco.

Garry also discovers more about the origins of big band music as dance music, sustaining Second World War morale before declining in the wake of rock and roll. But, as he finds out, the genre has not disappeared but morphed into a diverse and chameleon-like form whose future, while not certain, is fiercely defended by devotees.

The climax of the programme is when Garry finally performs at the Spice of Life jazz club in Soho. Is the man whose only claim to musical ability is playing the vibes with both hands, a second Sinatra?

Producer: Kati Whitaker

A Kati Whitaker production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2014.


SAT 11:00 The Forum (b03vtcwn)
Modern Alchemy

We look at some of the most ingenious ways in which entrepreneurs and scientists are turning useless junk into precious gold, or at least extracting the elements we can go on using.

Joining Bridget Kendall are:

South African Professor of Chemical Engineering Alison Lewis, who's developed a new technique which can freeze contaminated water, and recover both pure water and the so-called 'toxins' as usable products.

Dr Angela Murray's project Roads to Riches retrieves microscopic amounts of platinum group metals - lost from cars' catalytic converters - from road dust, then uses bacteria to convert them back into catalyst, for example for hydrogen fuel cells.

Journalist Adam Minter's book Junkyard Planet reveals how the billion-dollar global recycling trade works. From his vantage point in China, he says that even the worst, dirtiest recycling is still better than the very best mining.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b03vtg9y)
The Hyenas Come to Town

London may be infested by urban foxes and Delhi beseiged by urban monkeys but Addis Ababa, as Martin Fletcher's been seeing for himself, is plagued by urban hyenas -- and they're ugly-looking creatures! David Stern's been living in Kiev, Ukraine, for five years -- and has had to get used to living with a revolution on his doorstep. A quarter of a million people, some estimate, have been detained in Syria by either the authorities or the rebels; Lyse Doucet's been talking to two men who know a lot about detainees. The long-serving leader of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, is ninety years old and Kim Chakanetsa has been finding out what people there think of their president, who's been in power nearly 34-years. And Neal Razzell's been making a programme with two reporters, one from China, the other from Japan. The programme's about the strained relationship between those two countries. But how did the reporting team get on?


SAT 12:00 Money Box (b03vtgb0)
Aviva data breach

AVIVA BELIEVA
'I believe you're with Aviva...' so begins a sales spiel from a claims chaser received by many Aviva customers after one of its employees stole details of people who had recently had accidents and passed them on to claims companies. The insurer is writing to tens of thousands of customers warning what might happen.

MONEY ON THE VERIZON
Vodafone sold its US subsidiary Verizon for £84bn and is giving about £52bn of that money back to its shareholders. They will get about 30p cash and 72p worth of Verizon shares for each Vodafone share they own. For the 130,000 individual shareholders that will mean an average pay out of about £1000 cash and £2465 worth of Verizon shares. What should you do with this windfall? And will HMRC or the IRS want a bite out of it?

AS CLEAR AS MIFID
The Markets In Financial Instruments Directive II (the II stands for 2!) will usher in a new era of honesty and openness about the true cost of investing. So say its supporters. But with nearly three years to go before it actually begins will the financial services industry find ways to continue to hide the true cost of investing? Already we are being told some popular investments may not be covered.

BRANCHING IN
Barclays, Santander and Cooperative Bank are planning to close hundreds of branches over the next year or so. Others may follow. But more and more of us never visit a branch - some banks are purely online. So does it matter? Two experts debate the future of the bank branch.


SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (b03vh0cv)
Series 83

Episode 2

A satirical review of the week's news, chaired by Sandi Toksvig, with regular panellist Jeremy Hardy and guest panellists including Bob Mills.

Produced by Lyndsay Fenner.


SAT 12:57 Weather (b03vgryx)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 13:00 News (b03vgryz)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (b03vh0d1)
Alistair Carmichael MP, Laurie Penny, Frank Field, Nadhim Zahawi MP

Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from Blundells School in Tiverton, Devon, with Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Carmichael, Conservative backbench MP Nadhim Zahawi MP, New Statesman columnist Laurie Penny and Labour backbench MP Frank Field.


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b03vtgb2)
Food banks and Ukraine

Your views on the Church's concern about the increasing numbers of people using food banks. Is the government right to make accessing welfare tougher? Or should we be doing more to cater for those caught in 'hunger crisis'? And Ukraine: is EU involvement a good thing?

Anita Anand hears your reaction to the subjects discussed in Any Questions? by the Secretary of State for Scotland, Alistair Carmichael, Nadhim Zahawi - MP for Stratford-on-Avon, Frank Field - MP for Birkenhead and journalist and author, Laurie Penny.

You can have your say on any of the subjects discussed on Any Answers? just after the news at 2pm on Saturday. Call 03700 100 444 from 12.30, e-mail anyanswers@bbc.co.uk, tweet using #BBCAQ, or text 84844.

Presenter: Anita Anand.
Producer: Alex Lewis.


SAT 14:30 Saturday Drama (b00yddnm)
Classic Chandler

The Lady in the Lake

Derace Kingsley, a wealthy businessman, hires Marlowe to find his estranged wife Crystal. Kingsley fears that rich, reckless Crystal may have got herself into a scandal and the last place she was known to have been was a resort called Little Fawn Lake. Toby Stephens plays Philip Marlowe in a landmark series bringing all Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels to Radio 4.

Dramatised by Stephen Wyatt
Directed by Claire Grove

In 1939 Raymond Chandler created a different kind of detective, the fast-talking, trouble seeking Californian private eye Philip Marlowe, for his great novel The Big Sleep. This series brings all the Philip Marlowe novels to Radio 4's Saturday Play. The Big Sleep 1939, Farewell My Lovely 1940, The High Window 1942, The Lady in the Lake 1943, The Little Sister 1949 and The Long Goodbye 1953, and two lesser known novels, Playback 1958 and Poodle Springs, unfinished at the time of his death in 1959.

Toby Stephens is best known for playing megavillain Gustav Graves in the James Bond film Die Another Day (2002) and Edward Fairfax Rochester in the BBC television adaptation of Jane Eyre (2006). In autumn 2010 Toby starred as a detective in Vexed, a three-part comedic television series for BBC Two. He also made his debut at the National Theatre as George Danton in Danton's Death.

Marlowe is a character we think we know, but do we? He is a moral man in an amoral world. This is California in the '40's and 50's, as beautiful as a ripe fruit and rotten to the core, reflecting all the tarnished glitter of the American Dream. The police are corrupt. The businessmen are well-heeled racketeers with politicians in their pockets and their daughters have gone to the bad. It is the taxi-drivers, maids and bartenders who restore Marlowe's faith in human nature. They scratch out a living at the bottom of the pile and Marlowe is there with them, in his shabby office with its cracked sign and no air-con, waiting for the next client to walk through the door.

Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago, but spent most of his boyhood and youth in England, where he attended Dulwich College. In 1919 he returned to the United States, settling in California, where he eventually became director of a number of independent oil companies. The Depression put an end to his business career, and in 1933, at the age of forty-five, he turned to writing, publishing his first stories in Black Mask. By the time he published his first novel, The Big Sleep (1939), featuring the iconic private eye Philip Marlowe, it was clear that he had not only mastered a genre but had set a standard to which others could only aspire. He died in 1959.

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


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b03vtgb4)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Vicki Wickham; Shopping with mum; Prince

As Prince causes quite a stir in London and Manchester, we look at the appeal he holds for his female fans. Does he empower women, or just use his feminine image and female collaborators just to further his success?

The National Childbirth Trust wants the government to improve the diagnosis and treatment of tongue-tie in the UK. The parenting charity says detection is patchy and means affected babies are left unable to feed properly for weeks or even months. So should professionals routinely check for and treat tongue-tie?

Vicki Wickham, music pioneer and editor of the iconic British music television show 'Ready, Steady, Go' has recieved an OBE for services to music. She talks about booking the Beatles, working with Dusty Springfield and bringing Motown to Britain.

Seven members of the Oxford grooming ring were jailed for a total of 95 years in June 2013 after an 18-week trial at the Old Bailey. They groomed, raped and prostituted girls as young as 11 in Oxford between 2004 and 2012. We hear from 'Lara', one of the young girls who survived that abuse and her mother, 'Elizabeth'.

And why a photo of the female defence ministers of Sweden, Norway caused such a fuss. Is it so controversial for a woman to be put in charge of her country's defence? The highs and lows of a shopping trip with your mother.

Presenter Jenni Murray
Producer Katie Langton.
Programme Editor Beverley Purcell.


SAT 17:00 PM (b03vtgb6)
Saturday PM

Full coverage of the day's news.


SAT 17:30 The Bottom Line (b03vgr6z)
Life After CEO

Business leaders spend their lives climbing the corporate ladder, so what happens when it is time to step off? Evan Davis and guests discuss life after CEO.

Guests:
Lord Browne of Madingley, former Chief Executive of BP
Kate Wilson, former MD of Scholastic UK, Managing Director of Nosy Crow
Robert Polet, former CEO of Gucci Group

Producer: Kent DePinto.


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b03vgrz1)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 17:57 Weather (b03vgrz3)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b03vgrz5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b03vtgb8)
Ray Davies, Lucy Kirkwood, Heydon Prowse, Tom Wrigglesworth, Nikki Bedi, Mariam the Believer, John Harle and Marc Almond

Clive is Face to Face with Kinks founder Ray Davies who discusses his book "Americana: The Kinks, the Road and the Perfect Riff", about travelling and performing across the USA during some of the most unsettling years in American history.

British playwright Lucy Kirkwood, whose writing credits include the award winning Chimerica and TV series Skins, speaks to Clive about her latest work 'The Smoke' which airs on Sky 1 this month.

Award winning comedian Tom Wrigglesworth talks to Clive about his new show 'Utterly at Odds with the Universe', which takes him on an emotional journey from childhood to adulthood, exploring the poignant and profound relationship with his granddad.

Nikki Bedi interviews actor turned TV prankster Heydon Prowse, one half of Bafta winning comedy team behind 'The Revolution Will Be Televised', more recently writing and directing the short piece 'Bonus Street' in response to the Channel 4 series Benefits Street.

PLUS there's music from Swedish outfit Mariam The Believer who perform 'Above The World' from their latest album 'Blood Donation', out now via Moshi Moshi.

More music from Marc Almond and John Harle who perform 'Black Widow' from their forthcoming album 'The Tyburn Tree', released Monday 24th February via Sospiro.

Producer: Sukey Firth.


SAT 19:00 From Fact to Fiction (b03vtgbb)
Series 15

The Lonely Passion of Judith McCrudden

The award-winning series in which writers create a fictional response to the week's news. In a week which has seen debate around a possible 'fair innings approach' to the allocation of drugs to patients dependent on criteria of 'wider social benefit', and in which scientists warned that loneliness in old age is twice as bad for your health as obesity, Lucy Caldwell takes a look at the things we value most in life and how we in turn are valued.

The Lonely Passion of Judith McCrudden
By Lucy Caldwell

An elderly woman finds herself considering what her life is really worth.

Novelist and dramatist, Lucy Caldwell is the author of three novels, 'Where They Were Missed' (2006), 'The Meeting Point' (2011), which was awarded the Dylan Thomas Prize, and 'All the Beggars Riding' (2013), chosen for Belfast's and Derry's One City One Book initiative. Lucy's stage plays ('Leaves', 'Guardians', 'Notes to Future Self') and radio dramas ('Girl From Mars', 'Avenues of Eternal Peace', 'Witch Week', 'The Watcher on the Wall') have won awards including the George Devine Award and the Imison Award. In 2011 she was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for her body of work to date.


SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b03vtgbd)
Nymphomaniac; True Detective; A Taste of Honey

Will Gompertz is joined by this week's reviewers Ekow Eshun, Viv Groskop and Gillian Slovo. They've watched both parts, some four hours in total, of Lars von Trier's controversial film, Nymphomaniac. We hear what they make of the provocative director's latest offering which focuses on the sexual adventures of Joe, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg and Stacy Martin.

True Detective is the latest TV series from HBO, the US network behind The Sopranos, The Wire and, most recently, Game of Throne. Does the new eight part drama starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson live up to form?

The British Library's Beautiful Science exhibition explores how scientists visualise their discoveries, from diagrams to graphs and maps. The curators have raided the Nation's greatest collection of scientific texts for illustration, but how will their choices inspire visitors?

Gary Shteyngart's Little Failure is his memoir about emigrating from the USSR as a small child and growing up in New York. It's a story about family, the immigrant experience and writing - territory he's explored before in his novels. Does his memoir allow for something more honest?

And we review the National Theatre's revival of the kitchen sink classic, A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney which stars Lesley Sharp as a resilient single mother. How well does the gritty, social realism translate to the modern stage?

Presenter: Will Gompertz
Producer: Ruth Watts.


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b03vthkv)
The Death of the Spiv

The poet Paul Henry traces the slippery movements of "The Spiv" through the archives. When Paul was a young man he was captivated by the slick, smooth-talking Private Joe Walker in the TV sitcom 'Dad's Army'. A few years later, on his first trip to London, he was soon parted from his money by a man selling dodgy cutlery from a suitcase in Petticoat Lane. Ever since then, he's been fascinated by this tricksy stereotype, and so he has gone through the archives to find out where the factual and the fictional Spiv has gone.

One of the spiv's earliest incarnations was a real life conman from the turn of the 20th century called Henry the Spiv Bagster, but the etymology of the word itself is nearly as evasive as a spiv.
It's the protean quality of the spiv, the imagined and the real, that is really appealing. Paul follows him as he dips in between light and shade - from the comic representations in the form of his beloved Private Walker and Arthur English to the far murkier and occasionally psychotic characters in films like 'They Made Me a Fugitive'.

Paul looks at the specific social and economic conditions of post-war Britain that arguably made a spiv of everyone, and tries to find out where he may have disappeared to now, in these days of relative plenty.

With contributions from actor Alan Ford, crime historian Clive Emsley, critic Robert Hanks, columnist Owen Jones and amateur historian Rob Baker who tells Paul about the horrific murder of a real life spiv. Rich archive includes 'Hancock's Half Hour' where Sid hosts a celebration of the return of rationing, first hand testimony from a self-confessed former spiv, and an interview with George Cole.

Producer: Sarah Langan.


SAT 21:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b03vd163)
Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers

Games at Ullathorne

3/3
Games at Ullathorne
by Anthony Trollope, dramatised by Nick Warburton

Miss Thorne brings the whole of Barchester together for a summer Fete - and unwittingly introduces the two adversaries, Mr Arabin and Mr Slope. But now their rivalry is at a height, each having realised their love for the widow, Eleanor Bold.

Music composed by David Tobin, Jeff Meegan and Julian Gallant

Director: Marion Nancarrow

Barchester Towers is the sequel to The Warden. Starting 4 years later, it follows Mr Harding, his daughter Eleanor and his son-in-law, Archdeacon Grantly. Eleanor has returned home after Archdeacon Grantly has accused her of wanting to marry Obidiah Slope. Her disappointment in Francis Arabin has increased, as he seems to be more interested in the tantalising Madeline Neroni. Unknown to Eleanor, Madeline is encouraging her brother, Bertie, to pursue Eleanor too. And on top of all this, there are still two unanswered questions: who will be Warden of Hiram's Hospital and who will replace the old Dean if he dies?

The Barchester Chronicles is Anthony Trollope's much-loved series of witty, gently satirical stories of provincial life set within the fictional cathedral town of Barchester and the surrounding county of Barsetshire. With a focus on the lives, loves and tribulations of the local clergy and rural gentry, the canvas is broad and colourful, with a wonderful set of iconic characters whose lives we become intimately involved in as they grow up, grow old and fall in or out of love and friendship across the years.

And the Barchester Chronicles return with "Dr Thorne" in May.


SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b03vgrz7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.


SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (b03vgnjs)
Science and Morality

As the flood waters rise and gales rip through the country the debate about climate change has erupted with new energy, with both sides claiming the scientific and moral high ground. So where does that leave us? Whether it's climate change, GM crops or the latest IVF technique - how should we make moral decisions when the facts are in dispute? Environmentalists accuse the sceptics of being climate change "deniers" with all the emotional charge that comes with that word "denier"; while the sceptics accuse the environmentalists of following a quasi-religious cult that is more about controlling people's freedoms than it is about anything to do with the weather. Both claim the science backs up their position and accuse the other side of ignoring and twisting the evidence. Do we rely too much on science being the only reliable and neutral source of knowledge? How often have you heard politicians fall back on the phrase "the science shows that..." when they're promoting their own values and policies? Is science filling in the moral vacuum left by our increasing scepticism of traditional forms of authority? Or is the scientific method the only thing that's saving us from dressing up our own prejudices as moral, right and just? Increasingly we live in an age when we want answers and we want them now. But arguably, we also live in an age when our scientific illiteracy is matched only by our philosophical ignorance. Thankfully the Moral Maze is here to help. Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk with Claire Fox, Michael Portillo, Giles Fraser and Anne McElvoy.

Witnesses are James Panton, Canon Dr Alan Billings, Angie Hobbs and Dr Evan Harris.

Produced by Phil Pegum.


SAT 23:00 Brain of Britain (b03vdfyc)
(11/17)

How often would a hebdomadal meeting take place? And in which town do the football team St Mirren play their home games? Russell Davies puts these and many other general knowledge questions to today's competitors, who come from Leeds, Accrington, Grimsby and York.

Today's winner will become the eleventh person to go through automatically to the semi-finals - but with just two weeks to go before the semi-finals begin, they'll all be trying to score as many points as they can, in the hope of securing one of the sought-after places for the highest-scoring runners-up.

As always, a Brain of Britain listener gets the chance to win a prize by outwitting the contestants with quiz questions of his or her own devising.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.


SAT 23:30 Poetry Please (b03vd167)
Roger McGough presents a selection of listeners poetry requests, from Lewis Carroll to Billy Collins via Kipling and Rossetti. There's also a close look at the poetry of Raymond Carver. With readers Harriet Walter and Guy Paul.