The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
A genius immortalised her. A French king paid a fortune for her. An emperor coveted her. Every year more than 9 million visitors trek to view her portrait in the Louvre. Yet while everyone recognizes her smile, hardly anyone knows her story.
Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered - a blend of biography, history, and memoir - truly is a book of discovery about the world's most recognised face, most revered artist, and most praised and parodied painting.
Who was she, this ordinary woman who rose to such extraordinary fame? Why did the most
renowned painter of her time choose her as his model? What became of her? And why does her smile enchant us still?
The author, Dianne Hales, is a prize-winning, widely published journalist and author. The President of Italy awarded her an honorary knighthood in recognition of her internationally bestselling book, La Bella Lingua.
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
'Are you straining tired eyes towards the future and saying, what next'? - A time capsule put together in 1921 as a memorial to those who died in the war is finally opened and the results are astonishing.
Presented by Eddie Mair and Jennifer Tracey. Email iPM@bbc.co.uk.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Revered by fly fishermen, Helen Mark visits the famous chalk streams of Hampshire and Wiltshire to find out about their particular ecology. With their trademark gravel beds and gin-clear waters, chalk streams are one of the very few habitats that are almost entirely exclusive to England.
Helen begins at Salisbury's Harnham Water Meadows, close to the city's cathedral, with its well known limestone spire, from the spot where Constable painted his view of the scene. She hears that the meadows act like a sponge, and without them absorbing the heavy rainfall last winter, flooding in the Salisbury area would have been considerably worse.
She meets Jan Fitzjohn and Tim Tatton-Brown, Trustees of the water meadows, who tell her about the winter 'drownings' of this low-lying land, which gave a distinct economic advantage to southern England's once vital sheep and wool industry. The irrigation of the water meadows achieved this by encouraging the early growth of spring grass, known as the 'first bite'. We also meet grazier Rob Hawke, whose sheep today feed on the pastures, in the shadow of Salisbury's spire.
Then, in the Hampshire village of Nether Wallop (the Wallop being a tributary of the celebrated trout stream, the Test) Helen finds out about the patient art of fly fishing from writer Simon Cooper.
In the UK, the starting principle of land ownership is that "freehold land entitles the owner to rights at the surface and down to the centre of the earth".
In this subterranean edition of Farming Today This Week, Sybil Ruscoe heads to a Cotswold stone quarry near Cheltenham to explore who owns what underground. From gas to gold, coal to buried treasure - what can a landowner actually lay claim to?
Gold, silver, gas, oil and coal belongs to the Crown and unless you own the mineral rights, other assets beneath the soil may well end up in someone else's pocket. Sybil meets Gary Pountain from Cotswold Stone Quarries who explains how their relationship works with the landowner, and what they manufacture on site.
Featuring interviews with the British Geological Survey, National Trust, UK Coal and the farmer whose land surrendered the Staffordshire Hoard.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Thought for the Day and Weather.
Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are joined by the award-winning singer and composer Laura Mvula, poet Josephine Dickinson who has just regained her hearing after being deaf since she was six, and 'Educating Yorkshire' English teacher Matthew Burton. Plus Carl-Magnus Helgegren who took his two sons, aged ten and eleven, to visit a war zone after they asked to play the computer game 'Call of Duty', Clive and Jane Green who set out on a short sailing trip in 1998 and returned 51,000 nautical miles and 16 years later, and three folk musicians travelling from London to Bristol researching and playing the music of the canals on their way. And the former England cricket captain Andrew Strauss shares his Inheritance Tracks.
JP Devlin will read your tweets (#saturdaylive), texts (84844) and emails (saturdaylive@bbc.co.uk).
Laura Mvula will perform at the Proms on Tuesday August 19th - #Prom 45: Late Night with ... Laura Mvula'.
"Educating Yorkshire - One Year On" will be broadcast at 2100 on Channel 4 on August 21st.
The folk-trio The Dead Rat Orchestra are performing at The Arnolfini in Bristol on Saturday August 16th.
Andrew Strauss inherits Boney M's 'Rivers of Babylon', and he passes on Hootie & The Blowfish's 'Hold My Hand.' Andrew Strauss' autobiography 'Driving Ambition' is available now.
Jay Rayner and his panel are in Cowes, Isle of Wight, taking questions from the audience on eating and drinking.
This week the team explore the science behind some surprising flavour pairings and marvel over the emulsifying magic of an ultra sonic mixer. They discuss the intriguing history of garlic on the island and the many ways to cook with rabbit and tomatoes.
On the panel are DIY food expert Tim Hayward, restaurateur Henry Dimbleby, Catalan inspired Scottish cook Rachel McCormack and food scientist Professor Peter Barham.
Do you crave being on your own, having time to take stock and think things through? Or do you loathe being alone and always try to be around other people? Joining Bridget Kendall to explore solitude are New Zealand novelist Eleanor Catton, New York educator Diana Senechal and Chinese-American writer Yiyun Li.
Despatches from correspondents: Why should the west intervene with aid or arms? It's a question asked by our reporter in northern Iraq. The six-year-olds in Gaza who've already lived through three wars. Awesome sights and stressful moments as the Panama Canal celebrates its centenary. Why did she pack an orange bottle of cleaning fluid along with the tennis shoes? Our correspondent talks of a frantic shopping run before her return to Cuba. And the militants of al-Shabaab use film and social media to get their message across - in this programme we also hear they like to telephone a certain BBC editor.
In this programme, Michael Robinson gets to the bottom of the UK rental market.
He meets the buy-to-letters who've bought up council homes to rent out as private landlords - not to be confused with the let-to-buyers who are renting out their old home so they can buy a new one for themselves. He discovers the impact of changes to the housing benefit system and asks whether the current relationship between tenants and landlords is just a way of transferring wealth from young people to their baby boomer parents.
Uh-oh - Marcus Brigstocke has been put in charge of a thing! Each week, Marcus finds he's volunteered to be in charge of a big old thing and each week he starts out by thinking "Well, it can't be that difficult, surely?" and ends up with "Oh - turns out it's utterly difficult and complicated. Who knew...?"
This week, Marcus has Broken Bad and become a drug dealer. He'll also go on a long personal journey and, along the way, he'll examine the complex inter-relationship between legalisation, culture, hypocrisy and cheese.
Helping him to cook up a storm will be Rufus Jones (W1A, Holy Flying Circus), William Andrews (Sorry I've Got No Head) and Margaret Cabourn-Smith (Miranda)
The show is produced by Marcus's long-standing accomplice David Tyler, who also produces Marcus appearances as the inimitable as Giles Wemmbley Hogg. David's other radio credits include Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation, Cabin Pressure, Thanks A Lot, Milton Jones!, Kevin Eldon Will See You Now, Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive, The Castle, The 3rd Degree, The 99p Challenge, My First Planet, Radio Active and Bigipedia.
Written by Marcus Brigstocke, Jeremy Salsby, Toby Davies, Nick Doody, Steve Punt and Dan Tetsell.
Shaun Ley presents political debate from Broadcasting House Radio Theatre in London with the Deputy President of the NFU Minette Batters, crime writer Val McDermid, the Director General of the CBI John Cridland and Sir Robert Francis QC the President of the Patients Association who also led the inquiry into poor care at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust.
There's been a lot of media coverage of the police raid on Cliff Richard's house, does such publicity encourage potential victims to come forward, or does it undermine the concept of innocent until proven guilty?
In 1692 soldiers billeted in the homes of the MacDonald clan in Glencoe rose up and killed their hosts. Was this Highland massacre the inevitable outcome of a long-standing clan feud? Or were there other factors behind this infamous betrayal? Adrian Bean's play - based on the contemporary parliamentary Commission Of Enquiry into the massacre and on historian John Prebble's seminal book, Glencoe - dramatises these tragic 17th century events.
It's 'ere we go, ere we go, ere we go' for the last in the current series of Tales from the Stave, Frances Fyfield's exploration of the handwritten manscripts of our greatest composers. However, rather than a football stadium Frances is in the Library of Congress, Washington DC along with two US Marine Bandsmen Michael Ressler and Ryan Nowlin. They've come to see the marches of John Philip Sousa and most importantly The national march of the United States - The Stars and Stripes Forever.
Sousa's neat scores and his sketch books are far more than just interesting research fodder for these men who have marched to Sousa's beat for a lifetime.
There's fascination in his working methods, many of them explained by a third bandsman and member of the Library staff, Loras Schissel. Sousa never wrote at the piano and rarely put pen to paper before working much of his material out in his head. Melody, harmony, rhythms; these were all in place before he started sharing his composition.
And while his music is full of boisterous confidence, Sousa himself was a modest figure. A violinist and son of imigrant parents he always gave the impression that fortune was kind to him, belying the sheer effort and labour which saw him create his own touring band who were on the road for the majority of the year.
The programme tells the story of how he came to write 'The Stars and Stripes for Ever', the impact it had and Sousa's place in US musical history.
The musical highlight is the moment that our three bandsmens, immitating piccolo, trombone and cornet, perform Sousa's famous trio tune (borrowed by football fans all over the world) in glorious three part harmony.
Women and body size. Baroness Ruth Rendell. The quest for the perfect jeans
If you are a woman with a fuller figure you'll receive harsher criticism than men. So how can we talk about a healthy approach to body size without demonising and shaming women's body image?
In the UK in any one year more than 20% of employed women take time off work because of domestic abuse. So how can women safely raise their problems at work and what are the consequences if they don't.
The stand up comedian Deborah Frances White talks about her life changing experience of tracing her birth family and her roots in Australia.
It's 19 years since the British climber Alison Hargreaves died attempting to climb K2. What is Alison's mountaineering legacy?
Should women arm themselves with self defence skills or will they face blame if they are attacked and can't successfully fight their attacker off?
It's 50 years since Inspector Wexford first appeared in the pages of a Ruth Rendell crime thriller. She joins Jenni to discuss her latest book.
In 1934 the first jeans designed for women where produced by Levi Strauss. But is there really a jean shape out there for everyone?
Rick Wakeman, June Whitfield, Michael Mosley, Dominic Wilcox, Danny Wallace, Tricky
Nikki talks to the Absolutely Fabulous legend of British comedy, June Whitfield, who's graced our screens since the 1960s appearing in a huge variety of shows - from 'Terry and June' to 'Steptoe and Son'. Now June stars in 'Boomers' - a new comedy which follows the ups and downs of three couples coming at retirement from very different directions.
Journalist and presenter Dr. Michael Mosley is best known for his "selfexperimentation" trials, which include hosting a tapeworm in his own gut and subjecting himself to quirky diets and exercises - all in the name of research. He talks to Nikki about his new series for 'Horizon', investigating the truth about meat. Is it good or bad for us?
Artist, designer and inventor Dominic Wilcox has shown his odd, surprising and thought-provoking designs at galleries around the world. Dominic talks to Danny Wallace about his book 'Variations on Normal' and his unexpected inventions, including the world's first fully-functional GPS Shoes and Wrist Nets for the Butterfingered.
Nikki Journeys to the Centre of the Earth with keyboardist and composer Rick Wakeman, who's produced over 100 solo albums and sold more than 50 million records - as a solo artist and with prog rock band 'Yes'. He talks to Nikki about being a Grumpy Old Man and performs 'Eleanor Rigby' on the Loose Ends piano.
As Iraq's divisive Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki steps down, hopes are now pinned on his likely successor, Haider al-Abadi to restore trust with the Kurdish and Sunni communities and fight off the advance of the self-styled Islamic State's jihadist fighters. But what do we know about him?
Mary Ann Sieghart charts the rise of the doctor's son from Baghdad, who gained a doctorate in electrical engineering in the UK, leading to him forming a company servicing lifts for clients including the BBC. She talks to fellow Shiite Dawa Party members, a member of the Sunni opposition and a former US diplomat to ask whether Dr al-Abadi has the qualities to fix his country's problems.
Joseph O'Neill, Robin Wright, Jezebel, Match of the Day at 50 and Andrew Marr's Great Scots
Joseph O'Neill's previous novel Netherland received rapturous attention. His new book The Dog is a story of a New York Lawyer who accepts a job working for a rich college friend in Dubai, but he realises it's a very complicated role he's expected to play.
Robin Wright plays a version of herself in The Congress; a live action/cartoon crossover movie directed by Ari Folman (Waltz With Bashir). But where does the fantasy end and reality begin?
Jezebel is a comedy by the Dublin-based Rough Magic Theatre Company in which a couple try to spice up their sex-lives with an awkward threesome which has unforeseen consequences.
Match Of The Day is celebrating its 50th birthday and we've been watching a TV programme marking this anniversary.
Andrew Marr's Great Scots - Writers Who Shaped a Nation is his tribute to three writers who helped to create the modern Scottish identity through their work and lives.
Hypnosis has BMA and BMJ approval, NHS support for helping with the likes of depression, anxiety, burns and childbirth, and a pedigree of being used to alleviate physical and mental pain for thousands of men in the Great War. Yet in the popular imagination, hypnosis is associated much more with quick-fix quacks and dodgy stage shows.
Perhaps that's not surprising when considering the likes of the 19th-century scientist Mesmer and his bogus animal magnetism theories. More recently, the misunderstanding of what hypnotism can and cannot do has created a slew of False Memory Syndrome incidents, with families destroyed by erroneous accusations of childhood sexual abuse. And then, under hypnosis, there have been claims of living former lives - with so-called 'regressive parties' inviting guests to 'come as they were'!
But as well as the charlatans and fakers, there have also been pioneers in genuine medical hypnosis, whose stories are less often told, but whose extraordinary dedication and impressive willingness to challenge the medical establishment, often at great personal cost, led to the clinical understanding of hypnosis that we have today.
In this Archive on 4, interviewees include psychiatrist Dr John Butler, illusionist Derren Brown, hypnotherapist and hypnotist Chris Green, hypno-birthing expert Tamara Ciafini, and Associate Professor of History at the University of Chicago, Alison Winter.
And there is archive not only of the ground-breakers, but also of the bogus and the mystical, and variations both serious and hilarious of 'happiness sought through radical personal transformation'.
Charting the early life of Charles II, as a young boy in the court of his father and during the Civil War, his life in exile during the interregnum, and later his failed attempts to regain the crown. When news finally reaches him of Oliver Cromwell's death, Charles plots his return once more.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
James Naughtie invites an Edinburgh Festival audience to discuss their hopes and fears for Scotland's future, as the vote on independence nears.
Radio 4's popular quotations programme 'Quote ... Unquote' returns for its 50th series.
In almost forty years, Nigel Rees has been joined by writers, actors, musicians, scientists and various comedy types. Kenneth Williams, Judi Dench, PD James, Larry Adler, Ian KcKellen, Peter Cook, Kingsley Amis, Peter Ustinov... have all graced the Quote Unquote stage.
Join Nigel as he quizzes a host of celebrity guests on the origins of sayings and well-known quotes, and gets the famous panel to share their favourite anecdotes.
Presenter ... Nigel Rees
Producer ... Carl Cooper.
Novelist Ed Docx grew up with John Donne's love poems and found them useful billets doux with his early girlfriends. Now not so young he has been surprised by how as he has grown up so the poetry of Donne has kept him company. Talking to three scholars - a young reader of Donne, a middle aged one and an elderly one, and armed with a stack of Bob Dylan records (another artist good for all ages) Ed Docx discovers how Donne batters the heart of us all through life.
SUNDAY 17 AUGUST 2014
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b04dh17k)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SUN 00:30 Sussex Scandals (b01c6tzz)
A Yard in Crawley
Written by John Peacock.
A young woman falls in love with her parent's lodger, the charming John George Haigh, twenty years older than herself. Eventually she will have to find a way of dealing with his appalling crimes.
These are three short stories narrated by characters involved in notorious scandals that originated in Sussex: Uppark (Lady Hamilton), Crawley (John George Haigh's girl friend) and Brighton (Katie O' Shea's son, Gerard), ranging from 1815 to 1953. The fall of a woman who revelled in her scandals; another who was forced to face the truth that her lover was a murderer; and the son of Katie O' Shea, defending his father during his mother's notorious affair with Charles Stewart Parnell.
Read by Anna Madeley.
Director: Celia de Wolff
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04dh17m)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04dh17p)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
5.20am.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04dh17r)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b04dh17t)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b04dh2gr)
St Peter's Church, Ropley, Hampshire
The bells of St Peter's Church in Ropley, Hampshire.
SUN 05:45 Profile (b04dh0rl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b04dh17w)
The latest national and international news.
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b04dh2gt)
Ignorance
Mark Tully invites us to accept our own ignorance as a first step on a voyage of discovery, taking his lead from Socrates' well known thought that, "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."
He also quotes from Nobel Prize winning theoretical physicist David Gross, who says that "there is no evidence that we are running out of our most important resource – ignorance." Mark discusses this importance of ignorance to science with Stuart Firestein, Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, who feels that knowledge is followed by ignorance, rather than vice versa, and that facts are not always the most reliable part of scientific advances.
On a more personal level, the programme considers how we might be more tolerant of the world views and beliefs of others, by understanding the limits of our knowledge and realising that we, too, will always be ignorant.
Producer: Adam Fowler
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 Living World (b04dh2gw)
Guillemots of Skomer
The Living World is a natural history strand that revels in rich encounter, immersion in the natural world and warm, enthusiastic story telling.
Skomer Island lies off the south east coast of Wales and is home to thousands of seabirds.
There are 25,000 guillemots packed together on the cliffs, no other bird breeds in such close proximity to its neighbours. Fights and squabbles constantly break out, but friendships and pair-bonding are very strong. They keep the same mate for life and produce one chick a year. The fledgling has to leap from the sheer cliff face into the sea below to find its dad, surrounded by thousands of others, and try to avoid being eaten by predatory gulls. Each year each guillemot pair comes back to exactly the same place on the cliff ledge and they defend it vigorously.
In the early decades of the 20th Century there were 100,000 guillemots on Skomer but numbers plummeted to just 2000 after the second world war, probably due to oil pollution in the sea. Now numbers are slowly recovering but the increase in storms may be a problem for them in the future. Professor Tim Birkhead from Sheffield University has led a 42 year study of the birds and reveals some of their secrets to Mary Colwell in this week's Living World.
SUN 06:57 Weather (b04dh17y)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b04dh180)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (b04dh2gy)
Pope in South Korea, Bahá'ís, Vicky Beeching
The UN has declared its highest level of emergency in Iraq as a humanitarian crisis follows the rapid advance by ISIS militants in the north of the country. Correspondent Caroline Wyatt reports on the situation facing tens of thousands of Christians taking refuge in Irbil.
We also hear the British Muslim response to the crisis as well as assessing the impact of the displacement of ancient religious groups in the region with Gerard Russell, former British and United Nations diplomat.
There are concerns about the destruction of a cemetery in Iran which has a particular importance for Bahá'í's. Dr Nazila Ghanea has relatives buried in the cemetery and she tells William Crawley about the situation there.
Pope Francis has made it clear that the Vatican regards Asia as a priority, as it seeks to offset dwindling Catholic numbers in Europe. David Willey reports from South Korea as the Pontiff continues his five day visit to the country.
A new theatre show set in the world of women's boxing is being staged at the Edinburgh Festival. 'No Guts, No Heart, No Glory' is based on the experiences of female Muslim boxers. We hear from the young women taking part and speak to the show's writer and producer Aisha Zia.
The Christian musician and religious commentator Vicky Beeching joins William Crawley to discuss her decision to declare her sexuality. Susie Leafe, director of the Anglican evangelical campaigning network Reform, joins the discussion to debate the church's pastoral responsibility for people who decide to 'come out'.
Producers:
David Cook
Peter Everett
Editor:
Christine Morgan
Contributors:
Caroline Wyatt
Mustafa Field MBE
Dr Nazila Ghanea
Aisha Zia
Gerard Russell
Vicky Beeching
Susie Leafe.
SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal (b04dh2h0)
Pan Intercultural Arts
Juliet Stevenson presents The Radio 4 Appeal for Pan Intercultural Arts (PAN), empowering vulnerable, hard-to-reach young people to change their lives using the arts.
Registered Charity no 295324
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope ' Pan Intercultural Arts '.
SUN 07:57 Weather (b04dh183)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b04dh185)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b04dh2h2)
A Sabbath-Rest
At the height of the holiday period, The Very Revd Stephen Lake (Dean), The Revd Canon Neil Heavisides (Precentor), and The Revd Canon Celia Thomson (Canon Pastor) consider the importance of rest and relaxation in the context of scripture and the Church's own traditions. Live from Gloucester Cathedral with the Royal School of Church Music's Millennium Youth Choir directed by David Ogden.
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (b04d4w67)
The Affliction of Consumption
Will Self reflects on the power of modern day consumption and the effect it is having on us.
Producer: Caroline Bayley.
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b038qj2c)
Roseate Tern
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Brett Westwood presents the Roseate Tern. One of the rarest of the UK's breeding seabirds, the Roseate Tern is exquisitely graceful. Roseate means flushed with pink and seen close this bird does have a faint pinkish wash on its chest in summer, but from a distance, it's the brilliant-white freshly-laundered look of its back and wings that distinguishes a Roseate Tern from its greyer relatives, the Common and Arctic Terns.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b04dh2jn)
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 (b04dh2jq)
Writer ..... Adrian Flynn
Director ..... Sean O'Connor
Editor ..... Sean O'Connor.
SUN 11:15 The Reunion (b042cs5t)
The Berlin Airlift
At the end of WWII, a defeated Germany was divided amongst the victors - the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France. The capital city Berlin, sitting deep in the Soviet zone, was also divided into four parts.
By 1948 it was apparent that the Western Powers' plans to rebuild Germany differed from those of the Soviet Union. Tensions came to a head on 24th June when, following a series of diplomatic spats, the Soviets closed all roads, railways and waterways into West Berlin. It seemed likely that two and a half million Berliners would starve to death or be forced to accept Soviet domination. It was one of the first incidents of the Cold War.
The Western Allies immediately took to the air, creating what Berliners called a Luftbrucke, an air-bridge, carrying food, coal, medicines and raw materials into the beleaguered city. The operation, which lasted for fifteen months was the largest humanitarian mission in Air Force history.
At the height of the operation, hundreds of planes were in the air around the clock. Their omnipresent roar became a part of daily life. Thousands of workers - Allied and German - supported the airlift effort on the ground. When two airports proved inadequate, Berliners of all walks of life came forward to speed construction of a third.
Sue MacGregor reunites British personnel involved in the operation - including RAF Dakota pilot Dick Arscott, air traffic controller Joyce Hargrave-Wright, flight engineer Alec Chambers, Fred Danckwardt who was head of security at the British airbase Gatow, and Freddie Montgomery who worked in British military intelligence in Berlin.
Producer: Emily Williams
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:00 News Summary (b04fc38m)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 Just a Minute (b04d1mrf)
Series 70
Episode 1
Just how hard can it be to talk for 60 seconds without hesitation, repetition or deviation? Paul Merton, Alun Cochrane, Jonathan Ross and Liza Tarbuck find out. With the legendary Nicholas Parsons keeping the score.
Producer: Katie Tyrrell.
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b04dh397)
Eat for Victory
Eat for Victory - Sheila Dillon meets the people who are using the techniques of WWII rationing to improve their diet today. Clare Millar likes to dress as a land girl, and eat like one too. She isn't interested in eating Woolton Pie but she finds that the mantras from the time of rationing such as Grow Your Own Food, Don't Take More Than You Can Eat and Don't Waste Good Food are still useful today.
60 years after the end of rationing Sheila and Clare find that there is still a lot to learn from that period. They meet women in their 80s and 90s to hear the cooking techniques that they learnt during rationing.
Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Emma Weatherill in Bristol.
SUN 12:57 Weather (b04dh187)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b04dh399)
Shaun Ley presents national and international news, including an in-depth look at events around the world. Email: wato@bbc.co.uk; twitter: #theworldthisweekend.
SUN 13:30 Soul Music (b0418kfw)
Series 18
Myfanwy
The hauntingly beautiful Welsh song Myfanwy 'is in the air in Wales' according to singer Cerys Matthews. She along with others discuss what the melodic tale of unrequited love means to them. They include a Welsh woman living in Sicily for whom the song represents 'hiraeth', a longing or homesickness for Wales and another who believes it expresses the 'wounded soul of the Welsh'. A man remembers how his late brother and he used to sing it in pubs in North Wales and how the song symbolises the unrequited love he felt for him. Members of the Ynysowen choir, started after the mining disaster in Aberfan as a way of dealing with the emotion, talk about the song's power, and an ex soldier recalls digging for survivors with lines from it playing in his head "Give me your hand, my sweet Myfanwy".
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b04d4q0c)
Sandringham
Eric Robson hosts the horticultural panel programme from the Sandringham Estate. Bob Flowerdew, Pippa Greenwood and Anne Swithinbank join the panel to answer the local audience's questions.
Produced by Darby Dorras.
Assistant Producer: Hannah Newton.
A Somethin' Else Production for BBC Radio 4.
1.Q. I have a Cobnut bush that is about fifteen years old. It usually produces a good crop but last year each nut collected had a small hole in it and nothing inside. What has happened?
A. This sounds like a weevil. There is not much you can do but hope this year is weevil free.
2. Q. Can the panel outline the advantages and disadvantages of grafting different species of Apple onto one rootstock?
A. It's a brilliant idea but quite often one species will be more vigorous than the other. The advantage is that if it did work, you would have a varied crop of apples without taking up too much space. The disadvantage is that different species require different pruning routines and this can get complicated. There are ways of training apple trees to allow you to have a range of varieties without taking up too much room and without the hassle of grafting.
3. Q. What mix of planting medium would the panel recommend for wooden planting tubs? We want to grow Roses, Clematis, annuals and bulbs. Also, would the panel recommended complete replenishment or a regular top-up dressing?
A. Use a mixture; half of your own good compost and half a proprietary mix. But if you don't have your own compost, you could use a soil conditioner and good topsoil. Make a mix; one third John Innes number two, one third soilless potting compost and one third grit. Periodically dig half of it up and replace it with new compost and churn it through. Completely replace the soil every five or ten years. Be wary of plating a Clematis there, it might not do so well.
4. Q. What can I plant that will give me colour all year round? I have heavy soil that gets waterlogged easily and the area in question is small and shady.
A. Drymis Aramatica 'Suzette' has lots of different leaf colours and red shoots. Variegated Pieris is also colourful and you can under plant it with bulbs.
5. Q. How should I feed Alstroemerias and should large clumps be divided?
A. Just mulch them (with rotted garden compost) and give them a couple of liquid feeds but if they look as if they need more you could give them a slow release fertiliser in the spring. You could use a high-potash liquid feed to encourage flowering. Don't worry about splitting the clumps until they get bigger. Check the plants for viruses as they are particularly prone.
6. Q. Is it okay to keep taking runners to replace old strawberry plants or is it better to buy new plants that have been grown from seed?
A. It is good to replace the strawberries, and make sure to buy certified plants and put them into fresh soil to avoid viruses.
7. Q. Why are my Agapanthus stems curly?
A. This could be a virus and if that is the case you will see flecks of cream in the leaves. Otherwise, this might be due to pest damage.
SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (b04dh39c)
Sunday Omnibus
Fi Glover introduces conversations between mothers who have both lost sons, a mother-in-law and her son's civil partner, and a retired couple who regularly ride roller coasters. These conversations from Northern Ireland, London and Devon prove once again that it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
SUN 15:00 The Stuarts (b04dh39f)
Charles II, Part Two: The Long Lease of Pleasant Days
By Mike Walker
Charles II fathered over a dozen illegitimate children, yet his wife Queen Catherine was unable to produce an heir. Mike Walker's sweeping epic sees Charles fending off the claims of his eldest son Monmouth and the plots against his increasingly unpopular Catholic wife and brother. All this while juggling an often tempestuous love life.
Directors: Sasha Yevtushenko & Marc Beeby.
SUN 16:00 Open Book (b04dh39h)
Literary Landscape: Ross Raisin and Yorkshire
Mariella Frostrup takes a literal and literary ramble up Haworth Moor, in the Yorkshire Pennines, to discover the wild, dark and changeable landscape which inspired writers from the Bronte sisters to Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. Joined by John Bowen, Professor of 19th Century Literature at the University of York and Will Atkins, author of 'the Moor', she journeys to Top Withens, the supposed site upon which Wuthering Heights was based.
John Bowen talks about the sense of liberty that the moors provided for the Bronte sisters, whose personification of the landscape in their literary characters is crucial in their work. Will Atkins has travelled through most of the moorland in England and discusses the particular brooding quality of these northern moors, and their impact on authors who have passed through them. Author Ross Raisin tells Open Book why he chose his home territory, the North Yorkshire Moors, as the setting for his 2008 debut novel 'God's Own County', the book which won him the Times Young Writer of the Year Award and discusses the impact that growing up within an isolated landscape has had on his work.
Presenter Mariella Frostrup.
Producer Ruth Sanderson.
SUN 16:30 Stories in Sound (b04dh39k)
Piers the Plowman Revisited
It's one of the strangest, most complex and frustrating works in Middle English, so when writer Ian Sansom is tasked with coming up with a radio adaptation of William Langland's medieval dream poem 'Piers the Plowman', it presents a bit of a challenge.
His producer's solution? To lock Ian away in a Curfew Tower in the Glens of Antrim and challenge him to come up with his adaptation over the course of a weekend, after which time he'll be expected to put on a performance.
The 14th century poem - part theological allegory, part social satire - may have eluded scholars for centuries but Ian has help at hand. Aside from three poetry students from Queen's University, renowned medievalist Dr Stephen Kelly will be there to guide him on his quest for salvation.
As Ian grapples with the text written in alliterative long lines and framed in a series of dream visions, adaptation expert Brian Sibley will be just a phone call away. Then there's the members of Belfast outfit The Wireless Mystery Theatre who'll be dropping by to bring music and their own distinctive style to Ian's performance.
Who knows, it could turn out to be a dream...or it could be a nightmare.
Producer: Conor Garrett
Sound Design: Jason Martin.
SUN 17:00 The Tories and the Police: The End of the Affair (b04d4n8l)
The Tories and the Police: Robin Aitken examines the apparent close relationship between the Conservative Party and the police force. A relationship which was cemented with an unprecedented pay rise in the 1970s by Margaret Thatcher. A relationship which has soured over recent years culminating in a damning speech by Theresa May to the Police Federation conference earlier this year. Robin Aitken talks to Conservative politicians who have been key players in the story of this marriage of law and order over the last four decades including former Home Secretaries Ken Clarke and Michael Howard.
Presenter: Robin Aitken
Producer: Emma Rippon.
SUN 17:40 Profile (b04dh0rl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b04dh189)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 17:57 Weather (b04dh18c)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04dh18f)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b04dh3xf)
On Sunday's programme; smugglers and saxophones, chalk streams and a talking drum. Sinead O'Connor's tiny, yawning son and the devastating ways in which the wild promises of poetry, music and movies have seeped in and blown our minds as a species on the subject of love. Roger Moore feels sad about Trevor Howard and Frank Sinatra and an instrument maker seeks out alpine spruce to provide the best material for vibrations. Also the ascending lark and the descending prime-minister, and how to just put your lips together and blow.
A Law Unto Themselves (Radio 4, 12 August)
The Birth of Love (Radio 4, 13 August)
The Art of Artists (Radio 2, 11 August)
Woman's Hour (Radio 4, All-Week)
Great Lives (Radio 4, 12 August)
Radcliffe and Maconie (6Music, All-Week)
Today (Radio 4, All-Week)
The Listeners (Radio 4, 12 August)
Proms 2014 (Radio 3, 18 July-13 September)
Open Country (Radio 4, 14 August)
Recycled Radio (Radio 4, 11 August)
Voices from the Old Bailey (Radio 4, 14 August)
15 Minute Drama: To the Lighthouse (Radio 4, All-Week)
Witness (World Service, 13 August).
SUN 19:00 The Archers (b04dh3xh)
Encouraged by insistent Carol Tregorran, newly determined Peggy is taking charge of organising Jack's headstone. And she doesn't care what Jack's daughter Hazel thinks about the wording. Lilian's worried that Hazel should be warned, but Peggy won't give Hazel the opportunity to change it back. After all, Peggy will be the one visiting the grave.
Lilian's anxious to hear news from Leonie, who's slightly overdue to give birth.
Hayley has made a special family lunch before Roy heads off to stay at Lower Loxley for the duration of Loxfest. She's disappointed that he seems keen to leave, but he says he wants to settle in properly before it kicks off.
Over lunch, tense Mike holds Vicky back from revealing their plans to move away to Birmingham, for Bethany's education. Mike steers the conversation towards lighter topics, including Susan's ridiculous new hairdo.
Hayley opens up to Vicky about all the stress caused by Loxfest hanging over them.
Roy eventually says his goodbyes. Vicky can tell that Hayley's down. Hayley's just glad that she'll have Mike and Vicky for company. She doesn't know what she'd do without them.
SUN 19:15 A Charles Paris Mystery (b00w77k5)
Murder in the Title
Episode 2
By Jeremy Front
Based on the novel by Simon Brett
Charles has been the victim of an attempted stabbing. Can he find the murderer before he strikes again or will Charles be fired from the cast first?
Directed by Sally Avens
As ever, Charles is his own worst enemy, a louche lush who can resist anything except temptation especially in the form of women and alcohol. His intentions may be good but somehow the results always go wrong.
He's been out of work so long now he feels he may never get a job and he's driving Frances his semi-ex-wife mad. So when he's offered a small role in an awful play up in Rugland she nearly pushes him out the door.
The production is as creaky as anything Charles has ever appeared in but the next play the theatre is scheduled to do is much more controversial. Soon a protest group has formed calling for a 'Porn Free Rugland'. And nasty accidents begin to befall members of the cast and crew.
SUN 19:45 Comic Fringes (b04dh3xk)
Series 10
Love and Orangutans by Romesh Ranganathan
A comic tale from Romesh Ranganathan, Best Newcomer nominee at 2014's Edinburgh Comedy Awards.
Short story series featuring new writing by leading comedians, recorded live in front of an audience at 2014's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
SUN 20:00 More or Less (b04d4v85)
Student Loans
A recent report suggests that the cost of the government's new student loan system is rising. Tim Harford investigates whether they should they have foreseen the rising costs, and whether the new system will end up costing more than the old one.
We also examine whether it's true that one tonne of ore produces one gram of gold, but one tonne of mobile phones contains 300 grams of gold and ask whether it means we're all walking around with tiny goldmines in our pockets.
The Pope sparked a global debate recently when he reportedly said that 2% of priests are paedophiles. We ask whether that claim is true. How would we know? What does it mean to say that someone is a paedophile? And is two per cent higher or lower than the population at large?
And machine learning is a buzzword of the moment, part of the technology behind things like Google translate and Microsoft's Kinect. Anthony Goldbloom from the website Kaggle explains how machine learning works, and talks about the next step - deep learning.
(Image: Education Costs - Mortar Board Graduation Cap Full of Coins. Credit: Thinkstock).
SUN 20:30 Last Word (b04d4v83)
Lauren Bacall, Prof Sir Alan Peacock, Robin Williams, Peter Sculthorpe
Andrea Catherwood on
Oscar-winning actor and stand up comedy genius Robin Williams famed for films such as Good Morning Vietnam and Dead Poets' Society.
Hollywood movie legend Lauren Bacall who shot to stardom in the 1940's starring alongside Humphrey Bogart who she married, creating one of Hollywood's most high profile partnerships on and off screen.
Peter Sculthorpe, credited as being the first truly Australian composer who created music with a distinct identity drawing on the Australian landscape and Aboriginal music for his inspiration.
Professor Sir Alan Peacock, a leading free market economist with expertise in cultural economics who chaired the Peacock Committee into funding of the BBC in the mid eighties.
Producer: Paula McGinley.
SUN 21:00 Bricks and Bubbles (b04dh08x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b04dh2h0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 today]
SUN 21:30 In Business (b04d4v76)
Inside Silicon Valley
Can Silicon Valley's enormous success as the global centre of innovation continue indefinitely? With new challengers popping up all over the world - from Boston to Tel Aviv - will Silicon Valley keep ahead of the game and what seeds need to be sown now to ensure future creativity? Peter Day explores the Valley - past, present and future - with start-ups, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.
Producer: Ruth Alexander.
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b04dh3xm)
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.
SUN 22:45 What the Papers Say (b04dh3xp)
Dennis Sewell of The Spectator analyses how the newspapers are covering the biggest stories.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b04d4tzm)
Robin Wright; David Michod; Crisis in the VFX industry
With Francine Stock
Actress Robin Wright reveals which director told her that there would be no need for actors in 20 years time, thanks to digital technology which can scan their every expression.
Director David Michod answers his critics who said there was no plot in his revenge drama The Rover.
With several Oscars for Gravity, 2014 seemed like a good year for the visual effects industry in this country, but in fact, many British companies are facing a crisis, as The Film Programme explains.
We hear from a listener who inadvertently stopped the staff of a cinema enjoying the day off to celebrate a royal wedding.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b04dh2gt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 18 AUGUST 2014
MON 00:00 Midnight News (b04dh19d)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
MON 00:15 The Educators (b04d4nvv)
Sir Ken Robinson
A talk for the online lecture series TED in 2006 launched Sir Ken Robinson's ideas to a global audience. He spoke about creativity in schools for 20 minutes, and the video has been watched more than any other TED Talk, with 27 million views so far.
In conversation with Sarah Montague, he argues that modern teaching is a product of industrialisation, putting children through a factory model that prepares them for working life. But if we truly value innovation and creativity, why isn't it taught?
For the programme, Sir Ken returns to the former Margaret Beavan Special School in Liverpool, where he spent his primary school years in the 1950s, after contracting polio at four years old.
He's since advised governments and businesses around the world on how to harness creativity, and believes if schools were radically different, giving creative subjects equal status, children would find their true talents.
Presenter: Sarah Montague
Producer: Joel Moors.
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b04dh2gr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04dh19g)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04dh19j)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04dh19l)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (b04dh19n)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04dk84f)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day, with Canon Edwin Counsell.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (b04dk84h)
Dog Thefts, Peat Bogs, Rural Tourism
Dog theft is on the rise. Numbers of stolen animals rose by 15% between 2012 and 2013, and experts predict that this year the numbers will be even higher. More than 300 labradors, springer spaniels and cocker spaniels have gone missing this year already, and thieves are also targeting border collies.
Sybil Ruscoe hears from the Country Land and Business Association, and asks what owners can do to protect their dogs.
Caz Graham reveals how sphagnum moss is saving our boglands. In the First World War it was used for dressing wounds. Now it's involved in a different type of healing: helping to restore Britain's peat bogs. Caz visits in the North Pennines to see how a trial project is getting on.
And Farming Today begins a week looking at rural tourism. With the last bank holiday of the summer just a week away, many rural areas and business are hoping to cash in on the tourist pound.
Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Emma Campbell.
MON 05:56 Weather (b04dh19s)
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 (b04dk84k)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Fry's English Delight (b04dk84m)
Series 7
Reading Aloud
Stephen Fry looks at the history and practice of reading aloud.
Silent reading is a relatively new accomplishment for man. In Greek and Roman times, reading silently to oneself was frowned on - libraries resonated with the rumble of individuals reading aloud to themselves. Skill in the art was much respected and it was fashionable to hold soirees at which one read aloud to one's friends.
Pliny the Younger was so ashamed of his lack of skill in this area that he recruited a talented slave to conceal himself behind a curtain and read aloud a manuscript while Pliny mimed delivery of the content to the audience seated in front - the first recorded example of the art of lip-syncing.
Later, monks started putting spaces between the words of a manuscript so it was easier to make silent sense of the content and, over the centuries as populations became more literate, so reading silently became the norm.
But reading aloud didn't go away. Stephen's studio guest is Professor John Mullan of University College, London, who provides fascinating insight into the greats of literature and their skills in this area - Austen, Dickens, Stevenson. He points out that contemporary authors are having to hone these skills in order to satisfy the demands of attendees at the ever growing number of literary festivals, eager to hear text delivered in the authorial voice.
We hear also from Jane Davis and members of her Reader Organisation in Liverpool, a charity working to connect people with great literature through shared reading aloud. Damien who is bi-polar, and Louise who has Asperger Syndrome, are witnesses to the change the simple art of reading aloud can bring to troubled lives.
Producer: Merilyn Harris
A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 09:30 The Ideas That Make Us (b03b0kfh)
Series 1
Ideas
The Ideas That Make Us is a Radio 4 series which reveals the history of the most influential ideas in the story of civilisation, ideas which continue to affect us all today.
In this 'archaeology of philosophy', the award-winning historian and broadcaster Bettany Hughes begins each programme with the first, extant evidence of a single word-idea in Ancient Greek culture and travels both forwards and backwards in time, investigating how these ideas have been moulded by history and have impacted on history and the human experience. In this, the first programme of the series, Bettany investigates the idea of 'idea' with neuroscientist Professor Faraneh Vargha-Khadem, classicist Professor Paul Cartledge, historian Dr. Stephen Pigney and specialist in intellectual property law, Professor Tanya Aplin.
Other ideas examined in The Ideas that Make Us are desire, agony, fame, justice, wisdom, comedy, liberty, hospitality and peace.
Producer: Dixi Stewart.
MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b04dk84p)
On Silbury Hill
Episode 1
Silbury Hill in Wiltshire - together with Stonehenge, Avebury and the remains of numerous barrows - forms part of a Neolithic landscape about which very little is known or understood.
Adam Thorpe describes his book as '"a marble cake of different soils. Memoir, data, theory, streaks of poetry, swirls of fiction" - but he is not alone in having been drawn to explore the meaning of the largest prehistoric mound in Europe. Artists and archaeologists as well as various cults and neo-pagan traditions have focussed on the blank canvas that the hill presents as a way of exploring our complicated relationship with the past and the people who lived there.
"An estimated million hours spent on construction rather than herding or cooking or stitching must have had a point, but we don't get it. Is conjecture a species of fiction? To muddy the difference further, Silbury insisted on being called 'she'. I obeyed, not out of New Age winsomeness but from the influence of country dialect, in which neuter pronouns are as alien as robot leaf blowers."
This chalkland memoir told in fragments and snapshots, takes a circular route around the hill, a monument which we can no longer climb, and celebrates the urge to stand and wonder.
Episode 1:The base of Silbury Hill covers five acres of Wiltshire turf which have not seen sunlight for 4,300 years. Adam Thorpe has known her since he was 13 years old.
Abridged, directed and produced by Jill Waters.
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04dk862)
Female TV directors; Giving up sugar
Why are there so few female TV and film directors? Why is 'The Awakening', this week's drama, celebrated as an early feminist work? Giving up sugar- should we? And why are low paid women still struggling in the economic recovery?
MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04dk864)
The Awakening
Episode 1
by Kate Chopin, dramatised by Janice Okoh
Holidaying on Grand Isle in 1899, Edna Pontellier feels she is living in a dream, so the attentions of the dashing young Robert Lebrun serve merely to amuse her.
Edna Pontellier ..... Pippa Bennett-Warner
Leonce Pontellier ..... Guy Paul
Celestine ..... Petra Letang
Robert Lebrun ..... PJ Brennan
Adele Ratignolle ..... Sasha Pick
Madame LeBrun ..... Adjoa Andoh
Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow
When it was published in 1899, Kate Chopin's novel shocked society and divided critics. Respectable, married Edna Pontellier, 28, is away from her home in New Orleans, holidaying on Grand Isle in the Gulf of Mexico with her husband and children. Teaching her to swim is the debonair young Robert Lebrun, known for forming an attachment with a different woman every summer. Despite warnings from her more conventional friend, Adele, Edna falls incontrovertibly for Robert. When he leaves Louisana for Mexico, Edna realises she's been "awakened" and questions everything: her marriage, her position, the society she lives in. But what is left for her? The novel is regarded by many as the first in a new wave of modern American literature.
MON 11:00 Recycled Radio (b04dk868)
Series 2
Art
Welcome to the chopped up, looped up, sped up world of Recycled Radio, introduced by cartoonist Gerald Scarfe. This week's programme : Art.
"I've been fascinated by this subject ever since art college, where a young David Hockney recognised early on the advantages of dying his hair and wearing a gold lamé suit. A metaphor for life ? You'll find out in this exploration of good art, bad art - the over-priced and the over-hyped."
Expect contributions from a dream line up including Bridget Kendall, Tony Hart, AL Kennedy and Kenneth Clarke; plus the Matthews Parris, Lucas and D'Ancona; Christopher Biggins, John Prescott and Linda Snell from "The Archers".
The programme is produced in Bristol by Miles Warde.
MON 11:30 The Cold Swedish Winter (b04dk87p)
Series 1
Spring
A sitcom from Danny Robins, writer of the Lenny Henry comedy Rudy's Rare Records. This series is set and recorded in Sweden and stars Adam Riches, Danny Robins and some of Sweden's most popular TV comedy actors.
Geoff, a marginally successful stand-up comic from London, is moving to the tiny, cold and unpronounceable village of Yxsjö in northern Sweden - a culture shock forced on him by his Swedish girlfriend Linda's decision to move home to raise their child.
Geoff has to contend with snow, moose, pickled herring, unemployment, snow, Maypole dancing, snowmobiles, snow, meatball rolling, saunas, social democracy, snow, the weirdest pizzas in Europe, bears, deep forests, death metal, illegal alcohol, snow.
Above all, he has a new family to contend with. The Andersson's bewilder him - from father Sten who has a worrying tendency to growl like a bear and threaten him with any blunt instrument to hand, to Gunilla who threatens him with naked folk-dancing.
It's worth it all for Linda, of course - apart from her new found urge to conform with everything and except for her brother, a Goth with a propensity to set fire to things.
Episode 2: Spring
In which Geoff attempts to bond with his new family and embarks on a potentially hazardous fishing trip with the two most taciturn men in Sweden. Will he survive the alcohol? Or the fish?
Writer: Danny Robins
Director: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:00 News Summary (b04fc3n7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 Home Front (b04dk87r)
18 August 1914 - Hilary Pearce
Where there's war, there's brass, and Hilary Pearce has the makings of a real operator.
Written by: Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Music: Matthew Strachan
Directed by Editor: Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
MON 12:15 You and Yours (b04dk87t)
The people with learning disabilities still stranded in special hospitals miles from home.
The start of evening peak-time rail fares in parts of the North of England.
The Section 106 website that has been set up to help developers avoid having to build affordable homes.
On the 50th anniversary of Neighbourhood watch, have we forgotten how to be good neighbours?
And if you've ever tried to unlock your phone, you know what a long-winded process it can be. We'll find out why.
MON 12:57 Weather (b04dh19v)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 13:00 World at One (b04dk87w)
James Robbins presents national and international news.
MON 13:45 Plants: From Roots to Riches (b04dk87y)
A Blooming Tree of Life
The new science of DNA sequencing during the 1990's would not only lead to the mapping of complete human and plant genomes but it was to also revolutionise the classification for flowering plants. For the first time, rather than the 200 year old tradition of classifying plants just on their shape and structures, scientists could begin to infer how closely plants were related by examining the differences in DNA between different families and species.
Kathy Willis examines the story of how new connections between plants were uncovered that appearance alone could never have suggested. She talks to Kew's Mark Chase, leader of the Angiosperm Plant Phylogeny Group - an international group of scientists who pioneered this work, and hears how this molecular analysis was to rewrite some of the many assumptions that we've made about close relationships within and between plant families.
Kathy also hears from plant morphologist Paula Rudell on how detailed pollen analysis was to back up some of the controversial findings that this work was suggesting The practical implications of this new way of classifying are huge and could open the way to identifying new plants for medicinal use, and help accurately determine the ability of plants to withstand future environmental change.
With additional contributions from Kew taxonomist Gwil Lewis and historian Jim Endersby
Producer Adrian Washbourne.
MON 14:00 The Archers (b04dh3xh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 The Vicar, the Automaton and the Talking Dog (b04dk880)
Using a mixture of fact and fantasy, this is an extraordinary day in the life of Alexander Graham Bell as a child.
We discover the roots of his genius, and how his mother's impending deafness helped lead him to his invention of the telephone. Aleck, with the help of his friend and brother, made an automaton that could say 'Mama' and further, he manipulated his dog's throat and mouth so he indeed had a talking dog.
Written by Lavinia Murray.
Aleck....... John Bell
Ben ..... Keir Beckwith
Reverend McReady ...... Stuart Mcquarrie
Father, Voice of the Automaton, and Trouve ...... Seamus O'Neill
Mother ..... Morag Siller
Melville ..... Stephen Fletcher
Director: Pauline Harris
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
Further info:
We begin with a symphony of various telephone rings through the ages brought to us on a light Scottish breeze, and then we cut to answer machine. We see the stark difference between Bell's world of sound and his mother's world into silence. This is a drama not without humour, fascinating, illuminating and enchanting; providing a real, dramatic insight into the roots of a scientific genius, told with imagination and originality, and created especially for radio.
MON 15:00 Quote... Unquote (b04dk882)
Quote ... Unquote, the popular quotations quiz, returns for its 50th series.
In almost forty years, Nigel Rees has been joined by writers, actors, musicians, scientists and various comedy types. Kenneth Williams, Judi Dench, PD James, Larry Adler, Ian KcKellen, Peter Cook, Kingsley Amis, Peter Ustinov... have all graced the Quote Unquote stage.
Join Nigel as he quizzes a host of celebrity guests on the origins of sayings and well-known quotes, and gets the famous panel to share their favourite anecdotes.
Episode 2
Comedian and writer Dave Gorman
Novelist and journalist Philip Hensher
Presenter, critic and author Libby Purves
Writer, poet and former Children's Laureate Michael Rosen
Presenter ... Nigel Rees
Producer ... Carl Cooper.
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (b04dh397)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Ansel Adams on Tape (b04dk88v)
Miles Warde explores the life of the great American photographer Ansel Adams on tape.
Using extensive archive, the programme builds a compelling picture of the man responsible for some of the most expensive photographic prints in history. He is probably most famous for dramatic black and white images of Yosemite, while a 1948 print of Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico sold for $609,000 in 2006.
With contributions from Ansel Adams, the photographer Greg Bartley, and Hiag Akmakjian, whose recordings of Adams speaking in Carmel, California in the 1980s have never previously been heard.
Producer: Miles Warde
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2014.
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (b04dk88x)
Seven Deadly Sins
Envy, Pride, Anger, Gluttony and Lust are some of the misdemeanours considered so serious by the Church that they could have a fatal effect on an individual's spiritual health. Early British wall paintings stressed the connection between committing these so called "deadly sins" and ending up in Hell. But who decided what the seven deadly sins should be? Why was sadness replaced by sloth? Ernie Rea discussed the Seven Deadly Sins, their history and relevance today with John Cornwall, Catholic writer and Visiting Professor for Advanced Religious and Theological Studies at the University of Cambridge; Akhandadi Das, Vishnau Hindu teacher and theologian; and Father Andrew Louth, Archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church and Emeritus Professor of Patristic Studies at Durham University.
Producer: Amanda Hancox.
MON 17:00 PM (b04dk88z)
Eddie Mair presents coverage and analysis of the day's news.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04dh19x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (b04dk891)
Series 70
Episode 2
Hosted by the legendary Nicholas Parsons and recorded at the Edinburgh Festival - how hard can it be to talk for 60 seconds without hesitation, repetition or deviation? Gyles Brandreth, Paul Merton and Sue Perkins find out.
MON 19:00 The Archers (b04dk89r)
As the Loxfest security fences go up, Roy gives Freddie his security pass and gets him to run an errand. Elizabeth's worried about poor ticket sales and the recent negative publicity surrounding Quantaince Smith. Roy makes the point that, despite Loxfest being his idea, Elizabeth is doing it for the children - and for Nigel. Elizabeth doesn't like hearing this. She feels she has let Nigel down.
Radio Borsetshire want another interview. Elizabeth tells Roy to do it but Freddie says she should, to shout about Loxfest like Nigel would have done. After all, Elizabeth has worked so hard for this.
Fallon's glad to have Emma helping her make cakes for Loxfest. They've taken over Susan's kitchen. Ed can barely move as Emma teases Fallon about last Friday's 'date' with PC Burns (set up by Jazzer).
Fallon listens in on a tense band rehearsal with Jolene and Harrison. It seems there's no spark. Fallon insists they need to call her dad, Wayne, for help.
Chuffed Ed is keen to make the most of his cultivation work for Adam. But Emma's concerned that she's also busy and they're relying too much on her parents to look after the children. Ed reminds Emma that if they make the most of this opportunity they could start thinking about renting their own place again. She's touched.
MON 19:15 Front Row (b04dk89t)
Howard Jacobson; Helen Lederer; Bob and Roberta Smith
Howard Jacobson, who won the 2010 Man Booker prize with The Finkler Question, has been nominated again for his new novel, called J, which is set in a dystopian future where people are afraid to talk about the past.
Helen Lederer meets John Wilson at Dick Whittington's cat statue in London. Helen's brought the statue to life as part of a Talking Statues initiative, where 35 statues in London and Manchester will tell their own stories.
The artist Bob & Roberta Smith talks about Art Party, his documentary advocating the importance of art and its place in education. It's being released in cinemas this Thursday - the same day as this year's GCSE results - and Bob & Roberta explains why.
The Scottish Poetry Library has published "Tools of the Trade" a collection of poems for new doctors. One of the editors of the collection, Dr Lesley Morrison, and a newly qualified doctor, Dr Jude Fleming, discuss the place of poetry in contemporary Medicine.
Image: Howard Jacobson
Photo Credit: Keke Keukelaar
Presenter: John Wilson
Producer: Claire Bartleet.
MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04dk864)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 Don't Mention the Referendum (b04dk89w)
Friends are falling out and the atmosphere is tense around the family dinner table, as the temperature rises over the issue of Scottish independence. Husbands and wives may agree in general on politics but disagree, vehemently, on the idea of Scotland 'being a 'nation again'.
It's the heat of the debate, and the passions of those who have decided, that have marked much of this referendum, which centres on a particular vision for Scotland that goes beyond the party politics of general elections.
In her dying words Scottish politician Margo Macdonald spoke about the importance of soothing these divides and called for Scots to seek a common purpose, whatever the political landscape.
This programme captures these divisions in the run up to the referendum vote on September 18th, illustrating the strongly defined splits that exist on an individual basis as a means of reflecting a moment in time, when Scotland will need to find a path forward, no matter what the result of the vote.
James Naughtie talks to the husbands and wives, children and parents and friends who disagree over Scottish independence.
Producer: Caitlin Smith.
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b04d4sbz)
Chasing China's Doomsday Cult
Almighty God vs the Red Dragon: It sounds like a fantasy action film but it is in fact a real and disturbing struggle in China. The most vivid case involves a group of people who beat a stranger to death in a fast food restaurant. They said they had no choice because the victim was a 'demon'. The killers are fanatical followers of the Church of the Almighty God, a Christian doomsday cult which claims millions of members across China and pledges to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party - which it calls the 'Great Red Dragon'. Gracie uses her fluent Chinese to gain access to families of those caught up in the cult, including a man who infiltrated it to save his wife.
MON 21:00 The Listeners (b04d4hpt)
Series 2
Episode 2
Listening is about more than hearing as we discover with people who listen for a living, and have learned to interpret meaning in the sounds they hear. In this, the second of three programmes, the four listeners all listen to sounds which are indicators of health and quality. In the mid-1960's Bernie Krause became involved with early analogue synthesisers and when he and his musician friend Paul Beaver decided to make an album which incorporated natural sounds, Bernie was the one who went out on location to record natural sounds. The experience changed his life, and began to record and archive natural soundscapes. During the past 45 years he has spent listening and recording Bernie has become increasingly aware of how sound is an indicator of the health of a landscape or environment. "Of the 4,500 hours of marine and terrestrial habitats that I have recorded, 50% of those habitats come from now what I call extinct habitats ... the habitats are altogether silent or can no longer be heard in their original form". Sound is also an indicator of health when it comes to the human lungs as Dr Nabil Jarad demonstrates when he listens with a stethoscope, and simply tapping a piece of wood provides early stringed musical instrument maker, Roger Rose with the information he needs when choosing and shaping wood for an instrument "Everything about the instrument really affects the sound ...from when we start to choose the wood.." Finally, Valentin Amrhein describes what he and his colleagues have learned about the quality of an individual Nightingale by listening to their songs. It appears the nature and number of trills in a song is used by other males and females to determine the fitness and health of the singer.
MON 21:30 Fry's English Delight (b04dk84m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:58 Weather (b04dh19z)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b04dk8b8)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04dk8bb)
A Song for Issy Bradley
Episode 6
This is the story of what happens when Issy Bradley dies.
It is the story of Ian - husband, father, maths teacher and Mormon bishop - and his unshakeable belief that everything will turn out all right if he can only endure to the end, like the pioneers did. It is the story of his wife Claire's lonely wait for a sign from God and her desperate need for life to pause while she comes to terms with what's happened.
It is the story of the agony and hope of Zippy Bradley's first love, the story of Alma Bradley's cynicism and reluctant bravery, and it is the story of seven-year-old Jacob. But mostly it's the story of a family trying to work out how to carry on when their world has fallen apart.
Incredibly moving, unexpectedly funny and sharply observed, A Song for Issy Bradley, explores the outer reaches of doubt and faith. Author Carys Bray was brought up in a devout Mormon family. In her early thirties she left the church and replaced religion with writing. She was awarded the Scott prize for her debut short story collection Sweet Home. A Song for Issy Bradley is her first novel.
Written by Carys Bray
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Read by Emma Fielding
Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (b04d4jy3)
The Online Me
Radio 1 presenter Gemma Cairney asks are we different online than in real life? Breakfast presenter Nick Grimshaw says he's cooler, funnier and more 'street' on twitter, while ultra-hip fashion blogger Bip Ling has made up her own language and a character called Mooch on instagram... Laura Dockrill performs a specially commissioned poem on the subject and explains why being called 'saffron' is the highest accolade around.
Dr Aleks Krotoski describes how we use language to create multiple personalities online across different social media platforms and the psychological effect of this. Forensic linguist Dr Claire Hardaker explains how communities rapidly develop their own unique lexicons as a way of establishing who's in and who's out.
Producer Milly Chowles.
MON 23:30 Shared Experience (b03nt8j5)
Series 2
Falling Off the Wagon
"That first drink and it was like woohoo, a party going off in my head" Three people with different addictions talk frankly to Fi Glover about falling off the wagon. In Lisa's case, one cocktail was all it took to get her back on hard drugs and alcohol. For Richard, it was putting a one pound coin into a slot machine and winning the jackpot, while Simon was in such denial about his addiction that he used drugs as a way of abstaining from alcohol, so that technically he could say he wasn't relapsing.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
TUESDAY 19 AUGUST 2014
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b04dh1bq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b04dk84p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04dh1bs)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04dh1bv)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04dh1bx)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b04dh1bz)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04dm0pk)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day, with Canon Edwin Counsell.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b04dm0pm)
Modern slavery, Young vets, New trees
It's estimated that 20,000 people may be working as slaves in the UK today. A new TV advert aims to tackle the problem, and agriculture is one of the industries it focuses on. Sybil Ruscoe asks what farmers and food producers can do to make sure they don't inadvertently collude in employing people who are being exploited.
Giant redwoods could be planted beside the oak, spruce and pine in Britain's forests. Trees that grow in hotter and drier climates could protect the forest economy from drought and climate change in the future. New research from the Forestry Commission says wood production could fall by 42 per cent in the next sixty years, unless action is taken.
And a Scottish cowgirl? Nancy Nicolson travels to Perthshire to meet the farm which has diversified in a rather unusual way.
Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Emma Campbell.
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 (b04dm114)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 A Law Unto Themselves (b04dm116)
Eva Joly
Helena Kennedy talks to the internationally renowned investigative judge Eva Joly who has devoted much of her life to fighting corruption in the upper echelons of French business and political life - relentlessly investigating and prosecuting people whom she believes consider themselves above the law.
The Norwegian-born judge talks about her seven year long investigation into a multi-billion euro fraud involving the state-owned Elf oil company. Thirty people were eventually convicted and senior members of former President Francois Mitterand's government implicated after Eva Joly revealed that company directors had siphoned off billions of francs to pay for bribes and luxurious lifestyles.
She tells Helena Kennedy about how she received death threats and was placed under 24 hour police protection, placing intolerable pressure on her family - eventually resulting in the break-up of her marriage.
The pressures of the investigation only re-enforced her determination to continue with the case, and bring the guilty to justice. She believes the conviction sent out a sign that power and wealth does not bring impunity from the law.
More recently she has switched careers and entered politics, becoming an MEP for the Green Party....but the fight against corruption, not just in France but throughout the world, remains her driving cause. She believes the crimes she has uncovered are merely the tip of an iceberg.
Producer: Matt Willis
An Above The Title production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 09:30 Witness (b04dm118)
The Crime That Shocked Argentina
The brutal kidnap and murder of Axel Blumberg, a 23-year-old student, provoked a wave of protests in Argentina in 2004. The demonstrators demanded a tough government response to rising crime. The protests were led by Axel's father, Juan Carlos.
TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b04fc169)
On Silbury Hill
Episode 2
Silbury Hill in Wiltshire - together with Stonehenge, Avebury and the remains of numerous barrows - forms part of a Neolithic landscape about which very little is known or understood.
Adam Thorpe describes his book as '"a marble cake of different soils. Memoir, data, theory, streaks of poetry, swirls of fiction" - but he is not alone in having been drawn to explore the meaning of the largest prehistoric mound in Europe. Artists and archaeologists as well as various cults and neo-pagan traditions have focussed on the blank canvas that the hill presents as a way of exploring our complicated relationship with the past and the people who lived there.
"An estimated million hours spent on construction rather than herding or cooking or stitching must have had a point, but we don't get it. Is conjecture a species of fiction? To muddy the difference further, Silbury insisted on being called 'she'. I obeyed, not out of New Age winsomeness but from the influence of country dialect, in which neuter pronouns are as alien as robot leaf blowers."
This chalkland memoir told in fragments and snapshots, takes a circular route around the hill, a monument which we can no longer climb, and celebrates the urge to stand and wonder.
Episode 2:
The author's boarding school was three miles up the road from Silbury Hill. The target of vicious bullying, he was grateful for the soothing mysteries of the landscape.
Abridged, directed and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04dm11b)
Rose of Tralee; Eating disorders over 30; Why so many female vets?
Austin Mitchell, MP on the 'feminisation' of politics with Isabel Hardman and Ivana Bartoletti.
The Rose of Tralee International Festival is one of Ireland most loved pageants but there are no bikinis in sight and the women are judge by personality and achievements. So, is it just an outmoded beauty parade or a harmless TV show that promotes the brightest young women from Ireland? Jane finds out from journalist Katy Harrington, a 'Rose' critic, and broadcaster Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin who won the competition in 2005.
Last year the actress Briony McRoberts took her own life, she was 56. Her husband, the Downton Abbey actor David Robb, has more recently attributed her death to her eating disorder, which she had battled with since she was a teenager. So why, even in the wake of cases like Briony's, do we still see eating disorders as a young women's disease? Jane is joined by two women over 40 with first hand experience and Dr Paul Robinson, consultant psychiatrist at the Eating Disorders Unit at St Ann's Hospital in London.
Almost 80 percent of veterinary students are women. So what does it take to be a young vet? A new BBC2 series Young Vets has followed 10 students of the Royal Veterinary College at work in veterinary practices, farms, and animal hospitals. We discuss the reality of the work and the qualities that it takes to make it as a female vet. Jane is joined by new vets Elli Berry and Judi Puddifoot - who qualified as a mature student - and Louise Allum, Head Veterinary Surgeon of the Royal Veterinary College's Beaumont Sainsbury Animal Hospital in London.
And, Jane meets Isabelle Legeron, the only French female Master of Wine, for a cheeky glass of something fruity.
TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04dm5qd)
The Awakening
Episode 2
by Kate Chopin, dramatised for radio by Janice Okoh
Edna is still holidaying on Grand Isle and, after a disagreement with her husband, plans a trip alone with Robert.
Edna Pontellier ..... Pippa Bennett-Warner
Leonce Pontellier ..... Guy Paul
Celestine ..... Petra Letang
Madame LeBrun ..... Adjoa Andoh
Robert Lebrun ..... P J Brennan
Adele Ratignolle ..... Sasha Pick
Mlle Reisz ..... Lucy Newman-Williams
Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow
TUE 11:00 The Listeners (b04dm5qg)
Series 2
Episode 3
Listening is about more than hearing as we discover with four individuals for whom listening is very much the focus of their lives; indeed motivates their working lives. Hildegard Westerkamp is a composer whose compositions are concerned with acoustic ecology and soundscape listening. One of her earliest memories of consciously listening was when her piano teacher " would literally stop me and say listen to what you just played ... listen to your touch with the piano". Then when she was a student she attended a lecture by Murray Schafer who founded the World Soundscape project and "literally felt my ears had been opened ". Today Hildegard is part of the Vancouver Soundwalk Collective - a group of people who meet to take part in soundwalks; walks during which participants are asked not to talk but to listen. Acoustic ecologist Phil Morton runs similar walks in Liverpool. The focused listening which happens in these walks can become meditative. Participants not only become more aware of the sounds outside them but also start to listen to the sounds within themselves.
"What drew me was a life centred on listening to God and listening to other people so I'd then be able to devote my life to serving God and to serving the needs of other people" explains Fr. Christopher Jamison on why he become a Benedictine Monk and "listening lies at the foundations of the work of any priest and listening lies at the foundation of the whole monastic way of life ". Listening is also very much the focus of forensic speech analyst Peter French " I'm not listening so much as to what is being said but to how its being said" and in some cases it's what being said in the background behind the speech that is of interest and provides clues as to where a recording is made, as we discover.
TUE 11:30 Langley School Music Project (b04dm5qj)
Pete Paphides tells the story of a very special Canadian school recording that inspired the film School of Rock.
Hans Fenger was a rock 'n roll musician who got his first job as a teacher in the bible belt area of Langley, Canada, in the 1970s. He didn't follow the normal teaching methods, never had a lesson plan, didn't use a curriculum and instead taught the children the pop songs of the days - the Beach Boys, Wings, David Bowie, The Eagles. Together they made a record of these songs which each of the pupils took home.
Years later, Brian Linds, a radio presenter and actor, found the LP in a charity shop and took it home. He sent it to another radio presenter and producer, Irwin Chusid, who began playing the mystery recording of Space Oddity. It was a massive hit and Irwin secured a re-release of the songs on CD to massive critical acclaim. David Bowie was among those who praised the record.
Here, Pete Paphides speaks to those involved to hear how the record was made and why it had such an enormous emotional and musical impact.
Producer: Laura Parfitt
A White Pebble Media production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (b04fc3nc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 Home Front (b04dm5ql)
19 August 1914 - Victor Lumley
Lt Lumley is devastated that he can't go to war, not least because life at home is so complicated.
Written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Music: Matthew Strachan
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b04dm5qn)
Call You and Yours: What's It Like Being Self-Employed?
Self employment is booming. In fact research published last week showed that we are becoming the work-for-yourself capital of Western Europe - more people are their own boss here than in France, Germany or any of the Nordic or Baltic states.
Are you one of them? Do you run one of those box-office businesses and imagine yourself on Dragon's Den? Or are you more of an everyday entrepreneur? Or maybe you've been forced into self-employment and are struggling without the structure of traditional employment. We want to hear the stories behind the statistics. Email YouandYours@bbc.co.uk.
TUE 12:57 Weather (b04dh1c1)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b04dm6v1)
Shaun Ley presents national and international news.
TUE 13:45 Plants: From Roots to Riches (b04dm6v3)
Dynamic Rainforest
Palms provide many basic necessities and are collectively one of the most important plants families after grasses and legumes. In 2007 and extraordinary new find came to light when a French plantation manager in Madagascar, came across a new species of palm tree 18metres high and with a 5m leaf span - visible from Google Earth. The palm family continues to grow at a rapid rate As new species make themselves known to science it's becoming vital to appreciate their potential uses. Discoveries are also helping to shed light on the "palm tree of life".
Professor Kathy Willis meets Head of Palms at Kew, Bill Baker, to examine how new technology such as DNA sequencing has come to provide an amazing evolutionary record of palms over timescales greater than the fossil record can offer. Crucially, it's beginning to show when the diversification of palms began. In doing so, the genetic analysis is beginning to rewrite our understanding of the origins of the rainforest and looking to favour Alfred Russel Wallace's overlooked "museum model " of the evolution of ancient rainforests.
With additional contributions from head of the Kew Palm House Scott Taylor, and former Head of Palms at Kew, John Dransfield
Producer Adrian Washbourne.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b04dk89r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b010dp0v)
The Sensitive
A Casualty of War
A woman missing since 1945 is seen in a deserted guest house. Glasgow's psychic detective investigates.
Atmospheric thriller by Alastair Jessiman.
A Casualty Of War is the latest in an occasional series of psychic investigations by the "Sensitive" - Thomas Soutar.
Thomas's mother has been forced to close her guest house due to emergency building work. An old friend, retired hotelier Jack Cameron, offers her the use of his guest house, now lying empty. Reluctant to allow his mother to stay in the house alone Thomas persuades his girlfriend Kat to stay with them.
Soon tensions become evident between Kat, Thomas and his mother. The house sits on a hill, isolated, cold and gloomy. Thomas senses a malignant presence - and he hears an old woman calling out for help. Even Kat detects a strange atmosphere, and one night Thomas's mother is sure she sees a face in her bedroom mirror.
Thomas confesses to Kat that he's been fascinated by the "house on the hill" and its owner - ever since he discovered that Jack's mother had disappeared from here without a trace in 1945.
Producer/director: Bruce Young.
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (b04dh08q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 Heal Thyself: A History of Self-Help (b04dm87h)
Richer
Book publishing in the 20th century has largely been the story of Self-Help. In the last two decades, the industry has expanded continues to grow at an accelerating rate. In many publishing houses, it is the money from the self-help division that allows other genres even to exist.
In the last episode of the series, Robin Ince looks at the trends in self-help that took it away from soulful wellbeing towards business and the arts of making money.
Dale Carnegie wrote "How to Make Friends and Influence people" in 1936. In the Carnegie model, the book is just one part of a wider programme of courses and seminars, all aimed at giving participants the tools they need to succeed in corporate and commercial life. It all costs money.
As Oliver Burkeman points out, this has become the business model for the modern Self-Help guru. The book acts like a calling-card, establishes the author's credentials; the weekend conference puts the reader in contact with the author, and the people with clip-boards waiting outside the auditorium will gladly take your credit card number to ensure you get the insights you then know you need.
Jessica Lamb-Shapiro even found herself at a motivational conference for those interested in writing their own self-help books.
Many of the biggest selling books of the century have something in common: "Positive Thinking". Even worse for the sceptically inclined, they invoke something referred to as the "law of attraction".
As the Self-Help market - described as a by-product of really advanced capitalism by Micki McGee - continues to expand into newer and bigger markets, a way of sorting useful Self-Help literature from the less useful, even harmful, magic-thinking is arguably more important than ever.
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b04dm87k)
Talking About Cancer
The writer Graham Joyce (pictured above left) presents a personal exploration of the language around cancer, and the ways in which we try to make sense of it for ourselves. With contributions from Consultant Haematologist Dr Ben Kennedy and fellow writer Peter Crowther (pictured above right).
Producer Beth O'Dea.
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b04dm9d2)
Series 34
Baroness Oona King on Ida B Wells
Matthew Parris leads a discussion on Ida B. Wells the African American civil rights and women's rights activist who was a political trailblazer. She is the great life chosen by Baroness Oona King.
Throughout her life, Wells was militant in her demands for equality and justice for black Americans and she encouraged the African American community to fight for positive change through their own efforts. She was an investigative journalist who highlighted the practice of lynching in the United States, showing how it was used as a way to control or punish blacks , often under the guise of trumped up rape charges. Ida was also active in women's rights and the women's suffrage movement, establishing several notable women's organizations. She was a skilled and inspiring rhetorician, and travelled internationally on lecture tours.
With Madge Dresser.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
TUE 17:00 PM (b04dm9d4)
Eddie Mair presents coverage and analysis of the day's news.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04dh1c3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Meet David Sedaris (b03lnprh)
Series 4
#2 to Go; Innocents Abroad
One of the world's funniest storytellers is back on BBC Radio 4 doing what he does best.
This week, in "#2 to Go", a trip to China does not work out well for David - especially on the food front.
The second story is called "Innocents Abroad" and tackles the tricky tightrope of "going native" when learning a foreign language.
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b04dmbkb)
Shula enjoys telling Jill all about Dan's Army progress. He has taken up boxing and has been debating the Middle East conflict with Jim. He'll also be camping at Loxfest with Jamie.
Adam's due to start cultivating at Brookfield and Ed's pleased to be given the work. David senses that Ed's taking on too much for one day. But that's what Adam wants, so Ed cracks on. Jill notices that David looks tired, and reminisces about Phil.
Ruth's been looking into the compensation entitlement for Brookfield if Route B goes ahead. There's no guarantee they'll get a much needed bridge across the new road, but Shula's optimistic. Jill suggests Ruth and David think about a more niche operation, like Ed's, but David's resistant and snaps at Jill.
Oliver's going to help Ed with milking. Eddie keeps an eye on Patsy, who is about to calve.
Ed finishes work very late. He joins Eddie for a late snack, before helping Eddie deliver the calf. Eddie persuades exhausted Ed to stay over. No one back at Ambridge View will notice if he's not home tonight.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b04dmbkd)
Lisa Dwan; Lucy; Mark Ravenhill on Alan Turing; Richard Osman on TV quiz formats
With John Wilson, who reviews Luc Bresson's new action thriller Lucy, which stars Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman.
John talks to Irish actor Lisa Dwan about performing Beckett's play Not I with just her mouth visible, and discusses creating new tv quiz shows with BBC's Richard Osman and Channel 4's Justin Gorman.
Plus Mark Ravenhill on taking the voice of Alan Turing as part of Talking Statues initiative, where 35 statues in London and Manchester will tell their own stories.
Presenter : John Wilson
Producer : Dymphna Flynn.
TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04dm5qd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 Taking the Edge Off (b04dmbkg)
Sixty years after the publication of The Doors of Perception, Francine Stock reviews Aldous Huxley's experiments with mescaline and asks why evolution has failed to select out our need for escape.
Since earliest times we have contrived ways to alter our natural conscious state by trance or stupor or frenzy. Francine Stock asks whether the settings are just 'off' in human consciousness and explores what could be lacking in our brains, that life sometimes seems unbearable without the 'edge' taken off.
With Huxley's biographer, Nicholas Murray, she discovers the author's association with the 1960s counterculture was not one he sought. Sixty years on from the afternoon in Los Angeles when he took mescaline, later described in The Doors of Perception (1954), neuroscience has advanced. Huxley's father, Thomas Henry known as 'Darwin's bulldog' was the biologist who popularised Darwin's theories. Huxley reckoned mind-expanding substances were needed to free ourselves from the limitations of our nervous system since our capacity for perception of anything beyond the strictly utilitarian had atrophied as we evolved. Drugs and other hallucinogens provided the portals to a mystic experience.
There is, however, the alternative possibility that our enduring craving for various kinds of artificial stimulus and escape is an attempt to correct and/or enhance our neural responses.
Francine explores the evolutionary possibilities associated with our use of mind-altering substances in the company of psychologist and neuroscientist Professor Marc Lewis, ethnobotanist and environmental anthropologist Dr Miguel Alexiades, and psychiatrist Dr Tammy Saah. Neuroscientist Dr Valerie Voon shows her what can be seen in brain activity when substances are consumed, and she discusses society's changing acceptance of different substances - from opium in the 19th century to alcohol today - with Professor Virginia Berridge, and visits a health food store to examine the substances available for purchase.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b04dmbwq)
Blind world land-speed record; Giving up driving
As Mike Newman, who's been blind since birth breaks his own land-speed record and exceeds 200mph, Tom Walker talks to him about his achievement.
Peter White is joined by former drivers Richard de Costobadie and Jane Taylor about the difficulties they faced and solutions they found after giving up.
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (b04dmbws)
Conflicted Medicine: Specialists and GPs
Dr Mark Porter examines the hidden conflicts of interest that may affect how your GP or specialist treats you. He discovers that the advice patient groups give you is also not immune to the influences of organisations such as pharmaceutical companies.
TUE 21:30 A Law Unto Themselves (b04dm116)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:58 Weather (b04gbyd2)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b04dmbwv)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04dmg9y)
A Song for Issy Bradley
Episode 7
This is the story of what happens when Issy Bradley dies.
It is the story of Ian - husband, father, maths teacher and Mormon bishop - and his unshakeable belief that everything will turn out all right if he can only endure to the end, like the pioneers did. It is the story of his wife Claire's lonely wait for a sign from God and her desperate need for life to pause while she comes to terms with what's happened.
It is the story of the agony and hope of Zippy Bradley's first love, the story of Alma Bradley's cynicism and reluctant bravery, and it is the story of seven-year-old Jacob. But mostly it's the story of a family trying to work out how to carry on when their world has fallen apart.
Incredibly moving, unexpectedly funny and sharply observed, A Song for Issy Bradley, explores the outer reaches of doubt and faith. Author Carys Bray was brought up in a devout Mormon family. In her early thirties she left the church and replaced religion with writing. She was awarded the Scott prize for her debut short story collection Sweet Home. A Song for Issy Bradley is her first novel.
Written by Carys Bray
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Read by Emma Fielding
Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 23:00 The Guns of Adam Riches (b04dmgb0)
Series 2
Bean's Odyssey
Comedian Adam Riches introduces a series of one-off comic adventure stories. In this opening episode, we are taken on "Bean's Odyssey": an epic journey which follows Sean Bean's attempts to save his castle, his wife and his O2 contract from the ever-growing threat of...the McGann brothers.
As usual Adam is joined by Cariad Lloyd, Jim Johnson and a host of unwitting and occasionally unwilling audience shaped co-stars to create a cavalcade of mayhem that explodes deep into your ear flaps.
Written by Adam Riches
Produced by Simon Mayhew-Archer.
TUE 23:30 Shared Experience (b045bqsy)
Series 2
Surviving deadly events
Four survivors of deadly events tell their stories to Fi Glover and how they dealt with the aftermath. Stories include being attacked by a Great White shark, surviving a plane crash, being in Japan when the earthquake struck and surviving an IRA bomb attack on a coach.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
WEDNESDAY 20 AUGUST 2014
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b04dh1cv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b04fc169)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04dh1cx)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04dh1cz)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04dh1d1)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b04dh1d3)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04dmxvr)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day, with Canon Edwin Counsell.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b04dmxvt)
UN aid, Russia import ban, Bog snorkelling
With animals such as sheep and goats almost starving and in desperate need of water, the UN is helping farmers affected by the conflict in Gaza. UN officials say 42,000 acres of farm land has been damaged along with farm buildings, irrigation systems and greenhouses. Sybil Ruscoe speaks to Ciro Fiorillo from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Farmers in Europe will receive 125 million Euros of compensation after Russia bans food imports from the EU. The ban is causing a glut of perishable produce such as fruit, vegetables and milk. This in turn is having an impact on market prices.
And Farming Today continues to look at the rural tourism industry. From bog snorkelling to stiletto racing, Chris Eldon Lee visits the smallest town in Britain to find out the extremes they've gone to to boost tourism.
Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Lucy Bickerton.
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 (b04dmxvw)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Reflections with Peter Hennessy (b04dmxvy)
Series 2
Roy Hattersley
In this series, Peter Hennessy, the historian of modern Britain, asks senior politicians to reflect on their life and times. Each week, he invites his guest to explore their early influences, their experiences of events and their impressions of people they've known.
In this second episode, Roy Hattersley, the former Labour Deputy Leader, tells how a teacher inspired his belief in equality and recalls what he learned about attitudes to poverty while delivering milk on a vacation job.
Roy Hattersley's vivid recollections of an eventful career at the heart of the Labour Party are spiced with insights into its leading characters and also into its setbacks and triumphs. His commitment to comprehensive education remains undimmed and he regrets never having been Education Secretary.
The first episode in this series featured Sir John Major, the former Prime Minister.
Peter's other guests in the current series are: Lord Steel of Aikwood (David Steel), the former Liberal Party Leader, and Dame Margaret Beckett MP, the only woman to have been Foreign Secretary and to have led the Labour Party (in 1994), and former Deputy Leader of her party.
The producer is Rob Shepherd.
WED 09:30 Publishing Lives (b03xf0g5)
Series 2
Victor Gollancz
Robert McCrum explores the stories of five great British publishers.
Victor Gollancz was a giant of 20th century British publishing. The firm he founded published works by Ford Madox Ford, George Orwell, Elizabeth Bowen, Daphne du Maurier, Franz Kafka, Kingsley Amis and John le Carre.
Gollancz used the profits from these bestselling authors to fund his political mission. He created the pioneering Left Book Club to campaign against the rise of fascism in Europe. It gained 45,000 members in its first year and, at its peak, was distributing nearly 60,000 books a month. The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell was its most famous title.
Victor Gollancz was a rare breed - a publisher with a social conscience. He was a great literary man who devoted his life to contemporary causes. In the process, he helped to change the world.
The Observer's Robert McCrum talks to publishing insiders including bestselling author, John le Carré, and Victor Gollancz's daughter Livia Gollancz.
Producer: Melissa FitzGerald
A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b04fc21r)
On Silbury Hill
Episode 3
Silbury Hill in Wiltshire - together with Stonehenge, Avebury and the remains of numerous barrows - forms part of a Neolithic landscape about which very little is known or understood.
Adam Thorpe describes his book as '"a marble cake of different soils. Memoir, data, theory, streaks of poetry, swirls of fiction" - but he is not alone in having been drawn to explore the meaning of the largest prehistoric mound in Europe. Artists and archaeologists as well as various cults and neo-pagan traditions have focussed on the blank canvas that the hill presents as a way of exploring our complicated relationship with the past and the people who lived there.
"An estimated million hours spent on construction rather than herding or cooking or stitching must have had a point, but we don't get it. Is conjecture a species of fiction? To muddy the difference further, Silbury insisted on being called 'she'. I obeyed, not out of New Age winsomeness but from the influence of country dialect, in which neuter pronouns are as alien as robot leaf blowers."
This chalkland memoir told in fragments and snapshots, takes a circular route around the hill, a monument which we can no longer climb, and celebrates the urge to stand and wonder.
Episode 3:
What can archaeology really tell us? Face-to-face with Neolithic man.
Abridged, directed and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04dmxw0)
Jo Pavey; Helen McCrory
Athlete Jo Pavey has become the oldest female European Athletics Champion after winning gold in the 10,000 metres - she joins Jenni Murray to talk about victory at the age of 40 and combining running with motherhood. Thursday is GCSE results day in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and youngsters will be thinking about their future career options. So how do we encourage young women to consider the vocational training which could lead to traditionally male-dominated careers like IT and engineering? Helen McCrory talks about her latest role as the ultimate anti-heroine, Medea, in a new National Theatre production. Dr Ruth Jones on pelvic floor dysfunction in men and what can be done about it. The story of Rudyard Kipling's sister, Trix. She was determined to be a writer and published a novel when she was just 22, but family disapproval led to her voice being stifled. Mary Hamer, from the Kipling Society, has been inspired to write a novel based around what is known of Trix's life.
Presenter Jenni Murray
Producer Louise Adamson.
WED 10:41 15 Minute Drama (b04dmxw2)
The Awakening
Episode 3
by Kate Chopin, dramatised for radio by Janice Okoh
Edna continues to be enraptured by Robert's company, but there is a shock in store for her.
Edna Pontellier ..... Pippa Bennett-Warner
Leonce Pontellier ..... Guy Paul
Celestine ..... Petra Letang
Adele Ratignolle ..... Sasha Pick
Mme LeBrun ..... Adjoa Andoh
Mlle Reisz ..... Lucy Newman-Williams
Dr Mandalet ..... Peter Marinker
Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow
WED 10:55 The Listening Project (b04dmxw4)
Lesley and Ruth - The Perfect Daughter
Fi Glover introduces a conversation between a mother and daughter who ponder whether the daughter's anorexia was the result of her father's death.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
WED 11:00 The Waiting (b04dmxw6)
Waiting is an inescapable fact of life - it invades so much of our daily activity. We barely notice that we are waiting, unless the wait is accompanied by frustration, impatience, boredom, restlessness and helplessness. The pleasurable acts of waiting often pass us by.
The physician and writer Raymond Tallis examines the nature of waiting - how it operates and how it causes both pleasure and anguish.
He considers the ways in which waiting plays with our sense of time. He looks at how waiting invades the workplace and is frequently used as a way of exerting power. He describes the various ways in which waiting is used in music and literature and how it appears in the language of love. He talks to a prisoner about the life of waiting and considers the role of waiting within spiritual life.
Why do we wait? And how best should we be waiting?
Producer: Anthony Denselow
A Kati Whitaker production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
WED 11:30 The Gobetweenies (b01l8qxl)
Series 2
Sex, Guns and Frida Kahlo
Mimi and Joe are in a state of conflicted liberal anguish because Lucy is growing up too fast. She wants a sexy Halloween costume to dazzle her boyfriend, but Joe talks her into going to a party dressed as Frida Kahlo. Meanwhile Joe's wily mother sorts out her son's vindictive and most recent ex-wife, the radical rug designer.
Written by Marcella Evaristi
Director: Marilyn Imrie
Producer: Gordon Kennedy
An Absolutely Production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:00 News Summary (b04fc3nf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 Home Front (b04dmxw8)
20 August 1914 - Ralph Winwood
The Belgian refugees, escaping the atrocities at home, pour into Folkestone and present a new challenge for the townsfolk.
Written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Music: Matthew Strachan
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
WED 12:15 You and Yours (b04dmxwb)
Cavity wall insulation; Wine research; Good Housekeeping
Questions about how effective cavity wall insulation is for some of the millions of homes that have had it retrofitted. Research questions whether wine connoisseurs really know what they are talking about. Plus, we go behind the scenes on the Good Housekeeping Magazine christmas food shoot.
WED 12:57 Weather (b04f2r85)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b04dmxwd)
Shaun Ley presents national and international news.
WED 13:45 Plants: From Roots to Riches (b04dmxwg)
Capture and Drawdown
In 2005 a landmark study was published which changed the political landscape for conservation, probably for ever. Rather than viewing biodiversity as something to be conserved for conservation's sake, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment started to assess the contributions that biodiversity makes to human livelihoods and well-being. These include regulating services ( such as modulating climate), cultural services (the spiritual, educational and recreational value) and provisioning services (the biodiversity that provides food, fresh water, and fuel).
Professor Kathy Willis examines the first of these new approaches to biodiversity conservation by firstly assessing the role plants play in regulating our atmospheric carbon dioxide. She talks to Yadvinder Mahli on the importance of trees in drawing down and capturing carbon and on new understandings in where the effect is most apparent on our planet.
But how we view ecosystems at the landscape scale is equally important if plants are to flourish in this capacity and recent reduction in vital plant pollination services are proving to be poorly understood .
But as Kathy Willis hears from chemistry ecologist Phil Stevenson, one of several approaches in improving the memory of bees that account for 30% of plant pollination could have a dramatic and significant effect in securing this vital function.
Producer: Adrian Washbourne.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b04dmbkb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b04dmxwj)
The Chemistry Between Them
By Adam Ganz. It's 1983 and Margaret Thatcher is awaiting her former college tutor, Nobel Prize winner Dorothy Hodgkin. However the visit will put their friendship to the test as Dorothy has a request that challenges Thatcher's political policies.
Director: Nandita Ghose
The Writer
ADAM GANZ is Senior Lecturer in Screenwriting at Royal Holloway University of London. After leaving university Adam worked in a hostel for ex-prisoners before researching Oral History documentaries for Channel 4. He then studied Radio, Film & TV at Bristol University (winning a Fuji Film award) followed by the National Film & TV School directing course. He went on to combine writing and directing for film and TV with teaching and researching narrative and new media as well as working as a consultant for Working Title and Theatre de Complicite.
His first radio drama, Listening to the Generals, was 'pick of the day' in several national newspapers and was the basis for a successful application to the Heritage Lottery Fund. His second, Nuclear Reactions, about the German scientists held at Farm Hall was repeated in September 2012. His last radio play, The Gestapo Minutes, was based on personal family history and was short-listed for an Audio Drama Award in 2013 (produced by Catherine Bailey Productions for Radio 4).
WED 15:00 Bricks and Bubbles (b04dh08x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
WED 15:30 Inside Health (b04dmbws)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 The Educators (b04dmxwl)
John Hattie
What really works in schools and classrooms? How much difference can homework and class size make to a child's ability?
Sarah Montague interviews John Hattie, Professor of Education at the University of Melbourne and Chair of the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership.
Over 20 years, he carried out one of the biggest pieces of education research, compiling studies from previous decades and comparing the effect they have on attainment and ability.
His work is ongoing, but the results show a league table of effectiveness. It reinforces things you might expect, such as the importance of teachers, but also offers some surprises that might have parents and teachers questioning their priorities.
Presenter: Sarah Montague
Producer: Joel Moors.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (b04dmxwn)
BBC on Sir Cliff; Covering the Missouri riots; Sky diversity targets
The BBC has come under criticism for the way it covered a police raid on Sir Cliff Richard's home. BBC News decided to film and broadcast a search of the singer's home last week, using a helicopter flying over his home in Berkshire. Since then, the organisation has been accused of breaking editorial guidelines, and will now face questions by the Home Affairs Select Committee. Steve Hewlett talks to Professor Stewart Purvis, former Editor-in-Chief of ITN, about the decision making taken in newsrooms, and crime correspondent for the Times, Fiona Hamilton, about the relationship between crime reporters and the police, especially in a post-Leveson age.
Sky TV has announced plans to improve the representation of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people across its entertainment channels, including Sky1 and drama-focused Sky Atlantic. It's pledged that by the end of 2015, all new shows on Sky entertainment channels will have people from BAME backgrounds in at least 20% of significant on-screen roles, while all original programming will have someone with a BAME background in at least one senior production role. Steve talks to Stuart Murphy, Sky's director of entertainment, about how they'll go about sourcing the talent, and to Simone Pennant who is the founder of the TV Collective, a membership organisation which works to improve diversity on and off screen.
A press freedom group says journalists attempting to report on the protests in Ferguson in Missouri are being restricted by police. We speak to Gregg Leslie from The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in the US, and Channel 4 reporter Kylie Morris, on her experience of having an officer pointing a gun at her whilst reporting from the protests.
Producer: Katy Takatsuki.
WED 17:00 PM (b04dmxwq)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04dh1d5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Dead Ringers (b04dn1ry)
Series 12
Episode 4
After a rest of 7 years, the classic, award winning impressions show is back with a new cast of characters.
No one will be safe from the merciless parodies, as the show takes down every programme, institution and politician you hold dear.
Starring Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Duncan Wisbey, Lewis MacLeod, Debra Stevenson.
Producer: Bill Dare.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b04dn1s0)
Elizabeth and Jolene are both looking forward to Loxfest starting. But as she learns about the size and scale of the festival - and the stages - Jolene becomes anxious about performing.
Fallon and Emma have gone to pick up Fallon's new vintage van. Meanwhile Wayne arrives to help Jolene and the Midnight Walkers get their groove back. Wayne reminisces about the good old days, and the chemistry the two of them had together, which needs to rub off onto Harrison Burns.
Susan's annoyed with Ed for staying out last night and not saying anything. She'd made him dinner. She also frets about her hair, ruing the hairnets she has to wear at Bridge Farm.
Elizabeth endures a terrible radio interview, attempting to promote Loxfest. Host Rhiannon grills Elizabeth over the inclusion of Quaintance Smith and controversial lead singer Troy Sturn, who has met scandal amid accusations of beating his girlfriend. Rhiannon gets personal - would Elizabeth let her own daughter listen to the bad? Rhiannon's clearly after her big scoop.
Wayne hears the interview and tells Jolene not to worry. All eyes will be on Elizabeth now.
Off air, Rhiannon admits to liking Quaintance Smith, and is looking forward to covering Loxfest. Angry Elizabeth plans to speak to Roy very soon.
WED 19:15 Front Row (b04dn1s2)
Sin City 2, Tom Conti on Abraham Lincoln, Erasure
With John Wilson
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is reviewed, actor Tom Conti on finding a voice for an Abraham Lincoln statue, Andy Bell and Vince Clarke from Erasure on their new album, and unscripted TV crime drama with a new series of Suspects starring Fay Ripley.
Produced by Ella-mai Robey.
WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04dmxw2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:41 today]
WED 20:00 Agree to Differ (b04dn662)
Series 1
Fracking
Most discussion formats set out to define opposing points of view and offer the listener a choice between them - maximum disagreement, minimum consensus. Agree to Differ is Radio 4's new discussion programme where the aim is to give listeners a completely new way to understand a controversial issue and to decide where they stand. Often when it comes to debates in these contested areas the protagonists spend more time attacking and caricaturing each other than they do addressing the heart of the issue. Agree to Differ will use techniques from mediation and conflict resolution to discover what really divides them - and just as important - if there's anything they can agree on. The mediator is Matthew Taylor the chief executive of the RSA and subjects for this first series will be fracking, vivisection and the future of Jerusalem.
WED 20:45 Four Thought (b04dn664)
Series 4
A New Currency of Commitment
Comedian Rosie Wilby proposes the end of monogamy. She first discussed the idea in a show at last year's Edinburgh festival, since when it has taken an unexpectedly serious turn. That show prompted many people to get in touch with Rosie to share their stories, and it has even had knock-on effects in her own life. Now she shares her thinking on how it might affect ours, too.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
WED 21:00 Heal Thyself: A History of Self-Help (b04dm87h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 Reflections with Peter Hennessy (b04dmxvy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 21:58 Weather (b04dh1d7)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b04dn666)
President Obama condemns the beheading of the US journalist - we talk to a friend of Jim Foley and debate what attracts young Muslim men to join the jihadists in Iraq and Syria. More figthing and more civilian deaths in eastern Ukraine - we talk to a Dutch reporter in Donetsk, one of the few foreign journalists remaining in the city. And the case of a woman forced to have a baby reignites the abortion debate in Ireland - we talk to the pro-life and pro-choice campaigners there.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective with Ritula Shah.
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04dn668)
A Song for Issy Bradley
Episode 8
This is the story of what happens when Issy Bradley dies.
It is the story of Ian - husband, father, maths teacher and Mormon bishop - and his unshakeable belief that everything will turn out all right if he can only endure to the end, like the pioneers did. It is the story of his wife Claire's lonely wait for a sign from God and her desperate need for life to pause while she comes to terms with what's happened.
It is the story of the agony and hope of Zippy Bradley's first love, the story of Alma Bradley's cynicism and reluctant bravery, and it is the story of seven-year-old Jacob. But mostly it's the story of a family trying to work out how to carry on when their world has fallen apart.
Incredibly moving, unexpectedly funny and sharply observed, A Song for Issy Bradley, explores the outer reaches of doubt and faith. Author Carys Bray was brought up in a devout Mormon family. In her early thirties she left the church and replaced religion with writing. She was awarded the Scott prize for her debut short story collection Sweet Home. A Song for Issy Bradley is her first novel.
Written by Carys Bray
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Read by Emma Fielding
Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:00 The Future of Radio (b04dqf02)
Series 1
Good Vibrations
What is the future of radio? In a world of digital overload can the public be expected to just listen to something without any pictures? Is the radio era over? The Institute of Radiophonic Evolution (IRE), based in South Mimms, is working hard to give radio a bright future.
Their secret work is revealed in these programmes which draw on conference calls, voice notes and life-logs, to tell a compelling and strange story of the technological lengths to which the researchers will go to keep radio relevant.
Instead of just adding pictures, the lab is working on ways to transmit smells, vibrations, and 3D images, as well as a way of putting radio into listeners' very brains!
It sounds impossible, but the IRE boffins believe in making the impossible audible. And that's their motto.
Each week a jiffy bag of sound files arrives at BBC Radio 4. We listen to the contents to discover what backroom boffins Luke Mourne and Professor Trish Baldock (ably assisted by Shelley – on work experience) have been up to.
In this week's episode, Luke discovers that certain low frequencies add a whole new dimension to Book At Bedtime.
Cast:
Luke...................................William Beck
Trish...................................Emma Kilbey
Shelley...............................Lizzy Watts
Felix...................................David Brett
Bella /Lola..........................Joan Walker
Des Redmond.....................Ben Crowe
Peter Kent.........................Chris Stanton
Pianist: Mike Woolley
Written by Jerome Vincent and Stephen Dinsdale
Producer: David Blount
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:15 Little Lifetimes by Jenny Eclair (b04dqf04)
Series 1
George's Cake
by Jenny Eclair.
Bea can tell you how to peel an onion without crying or how to make the perfect pavlova. In her Shaker style kitchen she prepares a very special Birthday cake for her husband and reflects on a lifetime of culinary success and marital woe.
Produced by Sally Avens.
WED 23:30 Shared Experience (b045z93v)
Series 2
Estranged
'I love my son but I just don't like him anymore.' explains one woman in this programme that deals with the subject of family estrangement. Three people share their stories with Fi Glover of how they came to the decision to cut ties with either parents or children.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
THURSDAY 21 AUGUST 2014
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b04dh1f4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b04fc21r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04dh1f6)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04dh1f8)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04dh1fb)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b04dh1fd)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04dqhgl)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day, with Canon Edwin Counsell.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b04dqhgn)
Fishing ban, Russian imports, Rural tourism
Fishermen in the Lincolnshire Wash have reacted angrily to legal action banning them from part of the North Sea. The High Court injunction has been taken out by Dong Energy which wants to carry out survey work for a new wind farm in local fishing grounds. The company says it's offered compensation for loss of earnings, but fishermen say it's not enough. The UK body representing fishermen says it's an issue that's bound to resurface as marine energy grows to cope as the demand for renewable energy grows.
The Germans export more food and agricultural produce to Russia than any other EU country, and as the ban continues to bite, we hear about the impact on farmers in Germany.
And six months after the terrible floods on the Somerset Levels, how is tourism recovering? We've been back to a campsite which says bookings are well down on last year.
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 (b04dqlbs)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 Voices from the Old Bailey (b04dqlbv)
Series 3
Murder
For all its elegance and politeness, one of the most striking features of Georgian society is its violence. Murder cases abounded at the Old Bailey. Some were cold premeditated crimes, a tiny minority were committed by women, but the vast majority were the outcome of drunken brawls.
Professor Amanda Vickery uses three Old Bailey murder cases to expose the honour code that governed male aggression - looking at duels, boxing matches and the defence of manly honour.
She begins with a poignant case in which two teenagers fight to the death over a mere piece of cake. The second case involves two builders working on Marylebone Road, whose brawl gathers a huge crowd so that they're unable to stop until one of them dies. And the final case is a duel, in which the man who wins the fight is a blind clergyman.
Listening with Amanda to the Voices from the Old Bailey are Professor Peter King from Leicester University, a leading historian of crime; Karen Harvey, Reader in Cultural History at Reading University; and Robert Shoemaker, Professor of History at Sheffield University and the co-founder of the Old Bailey Online.
The programme is recorded on location in the Wallace Collection, Manchester Square, which has a world-beating collection of 18th century swords and guns, demonstrated by Curator Tobias Capwell. It features readings by Charlotte Stockley, Ewan Bailey, Oliver Soden, David Holt, Damien Bouvier and Steven Webb; and specially arranged music, from singer Guy Hughes and pianist David Owen Norris.
Produced by Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b04fc29d)
On Silbury Hill
Episode 4
Silbury Hill in Wiltshire - together with Stonehenge, Avebury and the remains of numerous barrows - forms part of a Neolithic landscape about which very little is known or understood.
Adam Thorpe describes his book as '"a marble cake of different soils. Memoir, data, theory, streaks of poetry, swirls of fiction" - but he is not alone in having been drawn to explore the meaning of the largest prehistoric mound in Europe. Artists and archaeologists as well as various cults and neo-pagan traditions have focussed on the blank canvas that the hill presents as a way of exploring our complicated relationship with the past and the people who lived there.
"An estimated million hours spent on construction rather than herding or cooking or stitching must have had a point, but we don't get it. Is conjecture a species of fiction? To muddy the difference further, Silbury insisted on being called 'she'. I obeyed, not out of New Age winsomeness but from the influence of country dialect, in which neuter pronouns are as alien as robot leaf blowers."
This chalkland memoir told in fragments and snapshots, takes a circular route around the hill, a monument which we can no longer climb, and celebrates the urge to stand and wonder.
Episode 4:The author meets a pair of enthusiastic Wiccan drummers.
Abridged, directed and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04dqlbx)
Hundreds of Yazidi women have been captured by Islamic State fighters across northern Iraq. Liz Sly, Beirut Bureau Chief for the Washington Post explains what the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIS) plans for them.
Film maker Nia Reynolds tells the story of Claudia Jones, civil rights activist, who established the first festival of Caribbean culture in 1959, and who fought tirelessly for the rights of black people.
Perfect picnic food for children, by the food writer Bea Wilson.
White Crocodile - How whispers about a mythical beast which brings death to all who meet it and six million landmines still to clear in Cambodia led K.T Medina to write her first novel, set in Battambang.
Girls and Hard Rock.
Presented by: Jenni Murray
Produced by: Rebecca Myatt.
THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04dqlbz)
The Awakening
Episode 4
by Kate Chopin, dramatised for radio by Janice Okoh
Leonce hopes a visit from her father will stop Edna's unconventional behaviour, but very soon the notorious Alcee Arobin has begun to visit....
Edna Pontellier ..... Pippa Bennett-Warner
Leonce Pontellier ..... Guy Paul
Celestine ..... Petra Letang
Alcee Arobin ..... Richard Laing
Adele Ratignolle ..... Sasha Pick
Mlle Reisz ..... Lucy Williams
The Colonel ..... David Cann
Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b04dqlc1)
Goodbye Ireland; Goodbye Gaelic Football
Gaelic Football is Ireland's most popular sport - there are clubs in every parish of the country. The game is very much part of the Irish identity. But it is losing its lifeblood. And all because of emigration. John Murphy goes to the far west of Ireland, to learn about this uniquely Irish game and hear how clubs are struggling to keep going as more and more young people leave the country, to find jobs abroad.
Helen Grady producing.
THU 11:30 Still Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo? (b04dqlc3)
Allan Little returns to Sarajevo to explore the role of the arts in restoring the city's identity, twenty years after the siege which saw its cultural life flourish against the odds.
When Sarajevo's multicultural identity was targeted by Serbian nationalists - firing from positions only 200 yards from the city's treasured National Musuem - it fought back by maintaining an artistic life worthy of a European capital city confident of its cultural heritage. Allan Little finds out how these values are faring in a peace which allowed for no State Ministry of Culture and fragmented the multi-cultural society the city once symbolised.
Allan takes internationally acclaimed theatre director Haris Pasovic back to the Youth Theatre in Sarajevo where he invited Susan Sontag to stage her now legendary production of Waiting for Godot. Lit by candles, under constant mortar fire, and with actors so hungry they had to lie down when not performing, each of its twenty performances was a sell-out. Both audience and actors risked their lives to be there. Why?
Pasovic, who also founded the Sarajevo Film Festival during the siege with ten VHS tapes and a TV set, says, "In war it is not the most important thing to survive, the most important thing is to remain human... you are human when you let the child in you speak. When we do that we are not aggressive, we are creative. That is why art is a primary need like food, sex and water."
How are the citizens of Sarajevo fulfilling that basic human need for art in a transformed cultural landscape? Allan talks to National Theatre actors Vedrana and Aleksandar Seksan, Mirsad Purivatra (now director of the Sarajevo Film Festival) and artist Sejla Kameric.
Produced by Hilary Dunn
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:00 News Summary (b04fc3nh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 Home Front (b04dqlc5)
21 August 1914 - Florrie Wilson
A button falls off. A letter is discovered. A boy's hat is found on the beach.
Written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Music: Matthew Strachan
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
THU 12:15 You and Yours (b04dqngg)
Horse racing, Energy firms, Trains, Divorce costs
Labour tells us its plans for the Big 6 energy firms.
We go to a race meeting in York to see how the sport is trying to attract the next generation of followers - we'll talk to the head of the British Horse Racing Association.
Wayne Hemingway joins a You and Yours panel to see how train carriages could be improved.
We ask why two thirds of people DON'T have a power of attorney - and what it could mean to you if you don't.
More on the disappearing emails written by TalkTalk customers.
And how the most amicable of divorces can still leave people out of pocket.
THU 12:57 Weather (b04dh1fg)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b04dqngk)
Shaun Ley presents national and international news.
THU 13:45 Plants: From Roots to Riches (b04dqngm)
Green and Pleasant Lands
Prof. Kathy Willis examines the different kinds of spiritual, physical and intellectual links that we have with the landscape and their diverse ecosystems and the extent to which they contribute to our health and well being.
As well as providing a source of inspiration and recreation there's plenty of anecdotal evidence suggesting that green spaces can make a positive contribution to our health, but what kinds of landscapes are of greatest benefit?
Kathy Willis assesses the some of the latest research assessing physiological and psychological benefits that ecosystems can provide from manicured botanical gardens to wild open countryside
With contributions from Richard Barley, director of horticulture Kew Gardens; Rachel Bragg researcher in Green Care at Essex University, Shonil Bhagwat environmental geographer at the OU, and historian Jim Endersby
Producer Adrian Washbourne.
THU 14:00 The Archers (b04dn1s0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b04dqngp)
The Man Inside the Radio Is My Dad
Charlie Brooks stars in Louise Monaghan's second radio play.
Is Mum telling Chloe the truth about the absence of her Dad or is she holding something back?
Chloe's classmates played by Year 3 children from Pickhurst Junior Academy School.
Directed by Tracey Neale
The Story:
Seven year old Chloe is missing her Dad. Chloe's Mum, Debra, tells her that her Dad's away on a trip and won't be home for a long time. Chloe knows she's lying and fears the worst, but when she tells her teacher and her classmates that her Dad's dead, Debra knows she has to tell Chloe the truth. Chloe's Dad, Steve, is in prison. Chloe has nightmares about her Dad in jail but when he sends her a CD of him reading stories, hearing his voice inside the radio makes her glad that he's still her Dad.
The play was inspired by the Storybook Dads reading scheme which is run in over 100 prisons across the UK. Storybook Dads enables children to keep in contact with parents in prison and helps offenders to maintain meaningful relationships with their families at home. The skills and training the scheme provides increases the chances of prisoners finding employment when they are released thereby reducing the risk of re-offending.
The Writer:
Louise Monaghan has written one play for radio: Alone In The Garden With You. She won the Papatango Award in 2012 for her play Pack, and was a finalist for the Bruntwood Prize in the same year.
THU 15:00 Open Country (b04dqngr)
Cheshire Salt
Look at any map of the district around Northwich in Cheshire and you'll see that it's dotted with numerous lakes, called flashes. What have these got to do with salt? Felicity Evans is astonished to learn that they've been created by the unregulated extraction of rock salt, which has been exploited for industrial as well as culinary purposes since the 1700s.
We'll hear that salt crystals were evaporated from brine in huge pans at numerous salt works across the county, the firewood for which saw the loss of the county's forests. Meanwhile, the rock salt was hewn deep underground then, just as it is today. In fact, Felicity goes underground at Winsford when she visits the Salt Union's massive caverns, so vast they have a similar volume to that of fifty St Pauls cathedrals.
Felicity meets salt historian and archaeologist Andrew Fielding, as well as Kelly Fletcher, Heritage Officer with Middlewich Town Council. Industrial archaeologist Chris Hewitson shows Felicity around the Lion Salt Works, which open to the public next year, while at Winsford rock salt mine, Felicity goes underground with mine manager, Gary Sinclair.
Producer: Mark Smalley.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b04dh2h0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (b04dh39h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b04dqpxf)
Luc Besson on Lucy; Dardenne Brothers; Kelly Reichardt boxset
With Francine Stock.
Luc Besson discusses the neuro-science behind his latest thriller, Lucy, in which Scarlett Johansson's brain capacity increases to dangerous levels.
The Dardenne Brothers discuss their latest award winning drama Two Days, One Night, with Marion Cotillard.
Palaeontologist Jack Horner explains how he tried to make Jurassic Park as scientifically accurate as possible.
Catherine Bray reviews a box-set of the films of Kelly Reichardt, whose movies defy conventions such as conclusive endings and coherent dialogue.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b04dqpxh)
TB in the New World; Trusting Wikipedia; Shipwreck of the London; @LegoAcademics
TB in the New World
Brand new work in comparative genetics is shedding light on the spread of TB. Scientists have shown that the initial spread of the deadly bacterial disease tuberculosis to the Americas didn't come with the European explorers and invaders. Skeletons of pre-Columbian Peruvians have shown signs of TB. So where did it come from? DNA samples collected from the ancient bacteria show they're closely related to the TB strain that infects seals and sea lions. So did the disease pass from humans in Africa to seals on the coast which then crossed the ocean and infected the Peruvians, 1000 years ago?
Truth, Trust and the internet
A recent YouGov poll revealed that the British public trusts the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia more than it trusts the BBC. The internet has revolutionised how we receive information and check references. But how much should we trust online facts? Adam talks to Carl Miller, from the Centre for Analysis of Social Media at think-tank Demos, about how Wikipedia entries are created and regulated. And he asks him whether the democratisation of facts - created by crowd-sourced opinion rather than individual experts - is something we should welcome?
Shipwreck of the London
The London was a 64-gun second-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, launched in June 1656 and commanded by Captain John Lawson. The ship was accidentally blown up in 1665 and sank in the Thames Estuary. The wreck was rediscovered in 2008, and is considered important partly for its historical references and partly for its insight into an important period in British naval history. English Heritage and Cotswold Archaeology are examining the remains in the murky Thames estuary before they decide what to do next. Although the wreck could be at risk from increasingly acidified water and invasive shipworm, it's thought unlikely that they will raise the ship, due to a lack of museum space.
Lego Academics
Campaigns for better female scientist role-models are not new. But what is new and welcome is when industry and society listens. Plastic toy brick manufacturer, Lego, has recently come up with a new set called the 'Research Institute' and it consists of lab kit and three female scientists - a palaeontologist, an astronomer and a chemist. Real life scientist and archaeologist Donna Yates, from the University of Glasgow, has gained thousands of Twitter followers after posting photographs reflecting the daily frustrations of academic life using the Lego figures. She arranges them in academic scenarios and posts her pics to the @LegoAcademics account. It's fun and full of in-jokes, but it gives great insight into some of the real issues scientists, and in particular, female scientists face. A Lego version of Adam Rutherford conducts the interview.
Producer: Fiona Roberts.
THU 17:00 PM (b04dqpxk)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04dh1fj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Susan Calman Is Convicted (b01qjb1y)
Series 1
Equal Marriage
Susan Calman explores issues on which she has strong opinions - starting with the hot political topic of Equal Marriage from a personal perspective.
When Susan was younger, she thought marriage was silly. A patriarchal institution which she would never buy into. That was until she grew up, fell in love and wanted more than anything to get married - except she couldn't.
Susan relates her own personal experiences on this matter; including the minutiae of the legislation governing her recent civil partnership ceremony, as well as examining the well-trodden arguments against the issue.
Producer: Lyndsay Fenner.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013 - before new legislation was passed.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b04dqrsx)
Freddie tries to exploit his backstage access to get some freebies for his friends. He's impressed by Fallon's painted up 'Ambridge Tea Service' van. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's annoyed at Roy for not doing the radio interview himself.
Josh has got his GCSE results and did pretty well, although David's slightly disappointed in his biology result. Josh will need a science A level to go to agricultural college.
Lynda has bad news regarding the new road. The opposition has received a large donation. David worries it's not just money the anti route B brigade are lacking but also time.
Ruth learns that her mum Heather is not well, suffering with a bad leg. Pip has been in touch and thinks David and Ruth should get out of milk altogether. Ruth's horrified.
Leonie finally goes into labour, to Lynda's relief.
Elizabeth's aghast to discover that Roy's on the Lower Loxley roof getting site photos. He slips and cuts himself. Elizabeth sees to his wound and offers Roy a clean shirt - one of Nigel's. As she carefully tends to Roy, there's a pregnant moment. But they divert themselves with small talk. Phoebe got some brilliant GCSE results.
Elizabeth asks Roy for his advice about Quaintance Smith. They have to make a decision. As a team, they agree it's time to ditch the band.
THU 19:15 Front Row (b04dqrsz)
Two Days, One Night; Timothy West on being Barbirolli; Alan Warner; Ilan Volkov
With Razia Iqbal
Two Days, One Night starring Marion Cotillard is reviewed; Timothy West on lending his voice to a statue of Sir John Barbirolli ; Scottish novelist Alan Warner discusses his new novel Their Lips Talk of Mischief; and as the Iceland Symphony Orchestra makes its debut at the BBC Proms, conductor Ilan Volkov and critic Hilary Finch discuss the influence of Iceland's dramatic landscape on its classical music.
THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04dqlbz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Report (b04dqrt1)
Surrogacy
Surrogacy in the UK is based on trust rather than a legally enforceable contract between surrogate and intended parents. Catrin Nye asks if the system is sustainable.
THU 20:30 In Business (b04dqrt5)
Health Technology
Peter Day reports from Silicon Valley on the cutting-edge innovation that's promising to transform healthcare. From apps which monitor your fitness to phone attachments that diagnose ear infections, the boom in high-tech gadgets is attracting millions of pounds of venture capital money. But can the technology companies really come up with the goods which will make us live longer, healthier lives?
Contributors, in order of appearance:
Ashwin Raut, Samsung
Young Sohn, Samsung
Sam De Brouwer, Scanadu
Eric Douglas, Cellscope
Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures
Daniel Kraft, Singularity University
Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos
Esther Dyson, HICCup
Producer: Ruth Alexander.
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b04dqpxh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 Voices from the Old Bailey (b04dqlbv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 21:58 Weather (b04dh1fl)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b04dqrt8)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04dqrtb)
A Song for Issy Bradley
Episode 9
This is the story of what happens when Issy Bradley dies.
It is the story of Ian - husband, father, maths teacher and Mormon bishop - and his unshakeable belief that everything will turn out all right if he can only endure to the end, like the pioneers did. It is the story of his wife Claire's lonely wait for a sign from God and her desperate need for life to pause while she comes to terms with what's happened.
It is the story of the agony and hope of Zippy Bradley's first love, the story of Alma Bradley's cynicism and reluctant bravery, and it is the story of seven-year-old Jacob. But mostly it's the story of a family trying to work out how to carry on when their world has fallen apart.
Incredibly moving, unexpectedly funny and sharply observed, A Song for Issy Bradley, explores the outer reaches of doubt and faith. Author Carys Bray was brought up in a devout Mormon family. In her early thirties she left the church and replaced religion with writing. She was awarded the Scott prize for her debut short story collection Sweet Home. A Song for Issy Bradley is her first novel.
Written by Carys Bray
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Read by Emma Fielding
Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:00 The Show What You Wrote (b04dqrtd)
Series 2
Geography
Second series of Radio 4's themed sketch show made entirely from contributions sent in by the public.
The best ideas have been chosen from thousands of submissions from new writers resulting in a show like no other.
Recorded in Manchester.
Episode 2 - Geography
Written by:
The Public
Producers:
Alexandra Smith
Carl Cooper.
THU 23:30 Shared Experience (b046kwvq)
Series 2
Mental Breakdown
Three very different people come together to discuss the experience of mental breakdown, starting with the moment they realised what was happening.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
FRIDAY 22 AUGUST 2014
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b04dh1gf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b04fc29d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04dh1gh)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04dh1gk)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04dh1gm)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b04dh1gp)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04dqwy3)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day, with Canon Edwin Counsell.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b04dqwy5)
The second phase of the Government's controversial badger culling policy is fast-approaching. Operations in Somerset and Gloucestershire aimed at finding out whether free-shooting is an effective and humane way of culling badgers could start any day. It's one of the ways Defra is tackling the spread of Bovine TB, a disease transmitted between badgers and cattle.
But 40 years ago the then Ministry of Agriculture was experimenting with a different method - using cyanide gas.
Thornbury in South Gloucestershire was at the centre of a badger clearance exercise that's largely disappeared from public memory. Anna Jones has a special report.
The British opium poppy harvest is nearing an end this week. More commonly grown in warmer countries such as India and Tasmania, the UK harvest this year has flourished. The crop is grown by the pharmaceutical company MacFarlan Smith and provides half of all morphine used in the UK.
Sybil Ruscoe goes on a journey to find out how the dried poppy heads from a field in Dorset to medicine cabinets in hospitals and pharmacies.
And introducing our new feature - the Friday Morning Farming Funny!
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Anna Jones.
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 (b04dqwy7)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 The Reunion (b042cs5t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b04fc2k9)
On Silbury Hill
Episode 5
Silbury Hill in Wiltshire - together with Stonehenge, Avebury and the remains of numerous barrows - forms part of a Neolithic landscape about which very little is known or understood.
Adam Thorpe describes his book as '"a marble cake of different soils. Memoir, data, theory, streaks of poetry, swirls of fiction" - but he is not alone in having been drawn to explore the meaning of the largest prehistoric mound in Europe. Artists and archaeologists as well as various cults and neo-pagan traditions have focussed on the blank canvas that the hill presents as a way of exploring our complicated relationship with the past and the people who lived there.
"An estimated million hours spent on construction rather than herding or cooking or stitching must have had a point, but we don't get it. Is conjecture a species of fiction? To muddy the difference further, Silbury insisted on being called 'she'. I obeyed, not out of New Age winsomeness but from the influence of country dialect, in which neuter pronouns are as alien as robot leaf blowers."
This chalkland memoir told in fragments and snapshots, takes a circular route around the hill, a monument which we can no longer climb, and celebrates the urge to stand and wonder.
Episode 5:All Hallow's Eve 2013 – Silbury and the stone circle at Avebury, shadows and rituals.
Abridged, directed and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04dqy3j)
Ursula Le Guin; Holiday hunger; Meeting Dora Black; Women Mormons
We re-examine The left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula Le Guin, in our series on classic feminist literature.
Foodbanks say they've seen a rise in the number of families asking for help to feed their children during the school holidays. During term time hard-up families have access to free school lunches - which is often the main meal of the day for some children, but the summer break means many parents are having to rely on foodbanks and lunch clubs to provide a decent meal. The Trussell Trust, which runs the country's largest network of food banks, says this is the busiest summer it's ever experienced. Alison Inglis-Jones from the Trust explains what needs to be done to help struggling parents.
Dora Black was a feminist, sex radical, progressive educator, peace activist, and second wife of the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell. In 1979 the writer Don Shaw met, the then 86 year old Dora, at her cliff top home in Cornwall. What resulted was a far more personal meeting for Don himself. Thirty five years later, using a mixture of fact and fiction, Don has re-created that meeting, in a play for Radio 4: 'A Meeting With Dora'. Jenni Murray is joined by Don Shaw, and the actor Eleanor Bron, who plays Dora, to discuss the play and the remarkable woman behind it.
The women campaigning for their right to be ordained to the priesthood in the Mormon Church.
Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Cecile Wright.
FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04dqwy9)
The Awakening
Episode 5
by Kate Chopin, dramatised for radio by Janice Okoh
Edna thinks Robert's return will make her happy, but events are to overtake them both.
Edna Pontellier ..... Pippa Bennett-Warner
Celestine ..... Petra Letang
Robert Lebrun ..... PJ Brennan
Alcee Arobin ..... Richard Laing
Adele Ratignolle ..... Sasha Pick
Mme Lebrun ..... Adjoa Andoh
Catiche ..... Adjoa Andoh
Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow
FRI 11:00 Lives in a Landscape (b04dqwyc)
Series 17
The Roman Way
Alan Dein follows the fast-moving story of a squatter who takes over a pub in Luton - he says for the benefit of the local community.
The Roman Way is a sprawling 1960s pub at the centre of the Lewsey Farm housing estate.
The landlord of fourteen years, Declan, made the decision earlier this year to give up the business and return to Ireland to start a new life.
But, just as Declan is leaving, on his very last morning in the pub, Biggs turns up; a larger-than-life local character determined to take over the pub on behalf of the newly formed Lewsey Farm Community Action Group.
Dressed in a hoodie and bandana and carrying a heavy chain, he negotiates his way past police and a representative from the pub's owners, and - in his terminology - 'legally occupies' the building.
Over the next few weeks the story takes many unexpected twists and turns, and draws in bailiffs, security guards, police and the local community.
Alan Dein watches as the story comes to a conclusive end.
Producer: Karen Gregor.
FRI 11:30 My Teenage Diary (b03b2j7f)
Series 5
Janet Ellis
Another brave celebrity revisits their formative years by opening up their intimate teenage diaries.
Comedian Rufus Hound is joined by actress and presenter Janet Ellis, whose teenage diaries show that her love of arts and crafts started long before she got the job on Blue Peter.
Producer: Harriet Jaine
A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (b04fc3nk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Home Front (b04dqwyf)
22 August 1914 - Jessie Moore
An eclipse brings tourists, soldiers, refugees and townsfolk flocking to the seafront.
Written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Music: Matthew Strachan
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b04dqy3l)
Mobile phone fraud; Airport charges; Ebooks; Safe to drive?
Police investigate a suspected mobile phone fraud that's affected over 350 students.
The airports charging motorists for pulling up outside their terminal buildings.
We go behind-the-scenes at an assessment centre where they help you decide if you're no longer fit to drive
And when ebooks first took off they were billed as replacing the printed word. How likely does that seem now?
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Jon Douglas.
FRI 12:57 Weather (b04dh1gr)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b04dqy3n)
James Robbins presents national and international news.
FRI 13:45 Plants: From Roots to Riches (b04dqwyh)
The Great Providers
Prof Kathy Willis concludes her major new history series by asking how much plant biodiversity is worth, and examines new research into securing the future of our staple crops.
Understanding the distribution, diversity and potential of plants for food, lay at the heart of the 18th century botanical impresario Joseph Banks' vision to "improve Britain's estates of the world". To secure future resilience of crops in today's world there's a growing need to conserve the closest wild relatives of our staple crops.
Kathy Willis discovers, given climatic threats to some of our most substantial crops such as coffee - for which the industry currently depends on a single species, the economic value of wild relatives of today's domestic crops is considerable.
And as we hear, some important future crops are still to be found from previously overlooked plants.
With contributions from Richard Thompson, Business valuations partner at Price-Waterhouse Cooper; historian Jim Endersby; head of coffee research at Kew, Aaron Davis; Kew's head of yams Paul Wilkin.
Producer Adrian Washbourne
Music for the series was composed by Mark Russell.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b04dqrsx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Brief Lives (b04dqwyk)
Series 7
Episode 2
Brief Lives by Nuala O'Sullivan. Ep 2 of 6
More tales from the team of Manchester paralegals. Sarah is called in to defend a man accused of arson. And Cheryl helps Frank with his rehabilitation.
Director/Producer.........Gary Brown.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b04dqwym)
Cheshire
Eric Robson chairs the panel programme from Chester. Joining him to answer audience questions are Matt Biggs, Anne Swithinbank and Christine Walkden.
Produced by Howard Shannon.
Assistant Producer: Darby Dorras.
A Somethin' Else Production for BBC Radio 4.
This programme features the Woodland Trust's 'Nature's Calendar' volunteering scheme. To find out more, visit their website
www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/learn/recording-trees-and-nature/natures-calendar/natures-calendar/
1.Q. Could the panel recommend some plants or shrubs that could be cut for long-lasting indoor display?
A. Pinus Mugo, Phormium, Penstemon, Cornflowers, Cotinus Grace (Smoke Bush), Pittosporum, Mexican Sunflowers, Lilies, Daffodils, Antirrinum, Molucella, Zinnias, Hesperanthas, Allium (Globemaster), Alstroemeria and Zantedeschia (Arum Lily) will all work well but the secret is really in the technique. Try to cut the plants early in the morning and as soon as you have cut the plants put them in a bucket filled with very cold water and let them soak for several hours (alternatively, put them in the fridge for a couple of hours) then trim the stems diagonally, bunch and put them in a vase. You could also put ice cubes in the water and change the water regularly. Place the vase where it will get bright but not scorching sunshine and the flowers will last longer.
2. Q. My four-year-old Cox tree suffers every year from dieback on the shoots and also has very mottled, brown leaves. What is wrong?
A. The Cox is prone to disease so if you like the flavor of the apple try growing Red Devil or Ribston Pippin instead.
3. Q. Is it safe to grow Fig trees close the foundations of a house?
A. If you grow a Fig tree near the foundations of a house you could line the growing pit with paving flagstones to restrict the growth. Also prune the tree regularly.
4.Q. What would be the best way to move my eighteen-year-old, four-foot (1.2 Metre) high hybrid Tea Rose to my new garden around the corner?
A. It won't like being moved so take cuttings instead. But if you do want to move it, cut it right back and try moving it in the autumn or winter.
5. Q. Our patio Cherry Tree (Dwarf Prunus Avium) has produced lots of foliage but no flowers or fruit.
A. It could be being baked or waterlogged in the winter. It might also be due to the soil composition. In the future when planting in containers, try mixing a John Innes number two with the same quantity of a general multi purpose. Use a slow-release fertiliser once a year in the spring. Give the tree a bit more time because it's still young.
6. Q. Could the panel suggest flowers that would appeal to the senses?
A. Sensitive Plant, Pulsatillas, Lambs' Ears, Peonies, Lemon Balm and Mint, Pennisetums, Agastache, Thyme, Dill, Fennel, Bamboos and Fuschias, Platycodon Grandiflorus (Balloon Flowers).
7. Q. How can we get rid of the many Poplar saplings that are appearing in our garden? They are growing up from the roots of a tree that was cut down from the railway embankment near our house.
A. You'll continue to get regrowth so ask the railway to treat the tree stump with herbicide. You can also treat the cut surface of the suckers with brushwood killer.
FRI 15:45 If I Only Had... (b04dqwyp)
If I Only Had the Nerve, by Colin Carberry
Stories inspired by the iconic MGM film adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s classic novel The Wizard of Oz.
Inspired by the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion's quest to find Brains, Heart and Courage, Ian Sansom, Morwenna Banks and Colin Carberry bring us a series of three stories about people who find themselves in unexpected situations, which challenge them to display qualities they never realised they had all along, or which find them looking at their lives in a new light in their own personal quests for a brain, a heart, and the nerve.
If I Only Had the Nerve
Colin Carberry introduces us to Brendon, a serial Recruitment Agency temp, who finally discovers the courage to make some important changes in his life.
Read by Ben Peel.
Producer: Gemma McMullan
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2014.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b04dqy3q)
Albert Reynolds, Ronnie Stonham, Norman Cornish, Gerry Anderson, Licia Albanese
Matthew Bannister on
The former Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds, who advanced the peace process in Northern Ireland, signing the Downing Street Declaration of 1993.
Brigadier Ronnie Stonham, who was the link between the BBC and the intelligence services and wound down the practice of vetting Corporation staff.
Norman Cornish, the Northumberland miner who became an artist.
The broadcaster Gerry Anderson - loved by his radio audience in Northern Ireland, but not by all listeners to Radio 4.
And the Italian American soprano Licia Albanese, known for her interpretations of Puccini and Verdi.
FRI 16:30 More or Less (b04dqyh4)
Troubled families?
"Revealed: half a million problem families" reported The Sunday Times. The government's expanding its Troubled Families programme - two years after More or Less found it statistically wanting. Tim Harford discusses the new numbers with BBC Newsnight's Chris Cook.
Chief executive pay: a new survey from the High Pay Centre highlights how much higher CEO remuneration is compared to that of their workers. But Ben Carter discovers the figures aren't quite what they seem.
As the Gaza conflict continues, the fact that there are estimated to be nearly three times as many men as women among the Palestinian civilian casualties has been an issue in the spotlight. Tim Harford and Ruth Alexander look at why men are often over-represented in civilian death tolls, and how the statistics in this conflict are being gathered.
And, further adventures in the audio presentation of data with BBC Radio 4's Daily Service presenter, Andrew Graystone.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Ruth Alexander.
FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b04dqyh6)
Lesley and Ruth - Shared Memories
Fi Glover with a conversation between a mother and daughter, where the mother admits her guilt that she did not let her children know that their father was terminally ill.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
FRI 17:00 PM (b04dqwyr)
Eddie Mair presents coverage and analysis of the day's news.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04dh1gt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The Brig Society (b04dqwyt)
Series 2
Farmer
Uh-oh - Marcus Brigstocke has been put in charge of a thing! Each week, Marcus finds he's volunteered to be in charge of a big old thing and each week he starts out by thinking "Well, it can't be that difficult, surely?" and ends up with "Oh - turns out it's utterly difficult and complicated. Who knew...?"
This week, Marcus has grasped the bull by the horns and become a farmer. After all, what could go wrong? As he himself puts it, "Dairy, livestock, cattle - it's all grist to my mill."
Helping him to plough the fields and scatter will be Rufus Jones (W1A, Holy Flying Circus), William Andrews (Sorry I've Got No Head) and Margaret Cabourn-Smith (Miranda).
The show is produced by Marcus's long-standing accomplice, David Tyler who also produces Marcus appearances as the inimitable as Giles Wemmbley Hogg. David's other radio credits include Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation, Cabin Pressure, Thanks A Lot, Milton Jones!, Kevin Eldon Will See You Now, Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive, The Castle, The 3rd Degree, The 99p Challenge, My First Planet, Radio Active and Bigipedia.
Written by Marcus Brigstocke, Jeremy Salsby, Toby Davies, Nick Doody, Steve Punt and Dan Tetsell.
Produced by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b04dqwyw)
Jamie and Dan pull in to Loxfest and are greeted by the sight of several anti Quaintance Smith protesters getting into a tussle with Roy.
Harrison Burns buys Fallon a beanie hat and enjoys taking credit for her inspired idea of a vintage van. He's nervous about singing, but bucks up beyond recognition following a good luck/ thank you kiss.
Roy and Elizabeth await news of a new headline band. Elizabeth worries, having staked everything on this event.
Dan and Jamie set up camp. Dan is Mr Practical, using his army training with survival and organisational tips for Jamie. Jamie teases Dan about Dan's punishment for falling asleep on sentry duty. Dan takes his new role seriously though.
As they enjoy the festival, Dan finds childish Freddie rather tiresome, and disapproves of Freddie smoking.
Jolene's still nervous about performing, but Kenton's full of support as he notices she's wearing the waistcoat he bought her. Jolene finally goes on, as Roy excitedly announces to Elizabeth that the new headline act is confirmed. They've got the Pet Shop Boys!
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b04dqwyy)
Jon Hamm, Crimes of Passion, Ed Stoppard
Razia Iqbal talks to Mad Men actor Jon Hamm, whose new film - Million Dollar Arm - tells the extraordinary story of two Indian baseball pitchers who were discovered after winning a reality show competition.
Dreda Say Mitchell reviews BBC Four's Crimes of Passion, a new Swedish crime series set in the 1950s.
Ed Stoppard gives voice to the statue of Sherlock Holmes, as part of the Talking Statues project.
And Razia explores the rise of Digital Art.
FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04dqwy9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b04dqwz0)
Anthony Seldon, Elaine C Smith, Hugh Pennington, Tony Banks
Shaun Ley presents political debate from the Corn Exchange in Melrose, Scotland with historian and commentator Sir Anthony Seldon, microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington actress and comedienne Elaine C Smith and the businessman Tony Banks.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b04dqwz2)
What's Funny?
Will Self reflects on comedy, asking why we laugh and whether there's too much of the wrong type of humour in our culture.
Producer: Caroline Bayley.
FRI 21:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b04dqwz4)
18-22 August 1914
The week that Folkestone welcomed the first wave of Belgian refugees, fleeing the war.
Written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Consultant Historian: Professor Maggie Andrews
Music: Matthew Strachan
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b04dh1gw)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b04dqyh8)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04dqwz6)
A Song for Issy Bradley
Episode 10
This is the story of what happens when Issy Bradley dies.
It is the story of Ian - husband, father, maths teacher and Mormon bishop - and his unshakeable belief that everything will turn out all right if he can only endure to the end, like the pioneers did. It is the story of his wife Claire's lonely wait for a sign from God and her desperate need for life to pause while she comes to terms with what's happened.
It is the story of the agony and hope of Zippy Bradley's first love, the story of Alma Bradley's cynicism and reluctant bravery, and it is the story of seven-year-old Jacob. But mostly it's the story of a family trying to work out how to carry on when their world has fallen apart.
Incredibly moving, unexpectedly funny and sharply observed, A Song for Issy Bradley, explores the outer reaches of doubt and faith. Author Carys Bray was brought up in a devout Mormon family. In her early thirties she left the church and replaced religion with writing. She was awarded the Scott prize for her debut short story collection Sweet Home. A Song for Issy Bradley is her first novel.
Written by Carys Bray
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Read by Emma Fielding
Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 23:00 Summer Nights (b04dqwz8)
Series 2
Does size matter?
Once again this week, Britain is considering its response to an international crisis - the growing threat of the Islamic State. So, why is it that we so often feel a moral obligation to act in the world, even when our national capacity to do so, may be stretched? Evan Davis asks whether it is better to be a big country or a small country in the world today, how far it is possible to choose - and, if we know which we are.
Presenter: Evan Davis
Producer: Ruth Watts
Interviewed guest: David Aaronovitch
Interviewed guest: Gisela Stuart
Interviewed guest: Adrian Wooldridge
Interviewed guest: Sir Ronald Sanders
Interviewed guest: Joe Queenan
Interviewed guest: Espen Aas.
FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b04dqyhb)
Lesley and Ruth - Life Without Dad
Fi Glover introduces a conversation between a mother and daughter who have different views of how the mother coped as a parent after the death of her husband.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.